"It's... that... Time of Year!"

from the "The Christmas Waltz"

Christmas music is fantastic.

i just LOVE it. i have been listening to the Nat King Cole (Holiday) station on pandora.com at work all day today (if you don't know what pandora is... you are missing out!). it has been making work delightful... yes, delightful. Nat King Cole is the BOMB.com. i occasionally break out into song, Christmas song, (usually singing the title of this post in my deepest voice) and i must appear to be insane... but i am having a great day. i switched my alarm clock to play Christmas music the other day and i love it! change yours asap, it will transform your life... ok maybe not, but it really is easier to wake up in the morning when the Christmas classics are dancing in my little ears, even when i am waking up for my 6 am workouts and i have to go scrap the ice off of the car (or just sit in the freezing car and let the defrosters take care of the ice). our car radio is even on the constant Christmas music station and it will stay there until January, i hate listening to anything else in December. i may be a little overboard on Christmas music... but "It's... that... Time of Year!!" and it just puts me in the best mood. i love the holiday season. Christmas music is amazing!

thanksgiving!

we headed to park city for thanksgiving this year... it's cold up there.

we met my family there and our good friends from our years in wyoming (missed you chris and sammy!). we had a GREAT time! we had our traditional pumpkin waffles with homemade syrup on thanksgiving morning. they are so delicious!


then us girls made some ribbon wreaths while the boys were out skiing in the cold. we love easy crafts!


then we made our traditional thankful tree.


and we had our thanksgiving dinner at the tackiest cafe we could find open on thanksgiving night (another tradition we have for thanksgiving every other year). we have a good time together! three of the nine had the turkey dinner... i had chili and a grilled ham and cheese. oh and i tried some butternut squash from jeremy's plate... NOT good.

we went back to the condo for dessert, the pumpkin deliciousness, and played games late into the night.

friday we did LOTS of shopping, went out to dinner, played some fun games, and i finished knitting my hat! here is the pattern so you can make one too.

this morning we went out to breakfast with everyone, gave lots of hugs, and then we moseyed on home visiting family along the way. now we are home and all unpacked. what a great thanksgiving!

give thanks!

happy thanksgiving!

{my thanksgiving banner}

100 things i'm grateful for...

jeremy. my cute parents. jeremy's great family. the gospel. honey chex cereal. felt. our dishwasher. my camera. the color orange. blankets. disney movies. my computer. my job (sometimes... i kid, i kid). knitting. my cell phone. yellow rain boots. sharpies. bright colored sticky notes. ice cream. homemade cookies. felt tip flair pens. zippered hoodies. cardigans. our car. a warm apartment. oven. microwave. cocomotion. hot chocolate. whipped cream. cinnamon. friends. books. socks. my moccasins. mittens. scarves. my glass heads. my rubik's cube. sewing machine. our couch. music. my ipod. pandora.com. flower earrings. watercolor paintings. carpet. cozy pajama pants. nail polish. target. gap. old navy. joann's. bright colored sports bras. sneakers. highlighters. beanies. pencil skirts. painting pottery. symphony bars with toffee and almond bits. honey graham oh's cereal. camping. campfires. s'mores with peanut butter cups. coloring books. president monson. my grandparents. temples. vacations. airplanes. the beach. law and order svu. water bottles. ice water. photo booth pictures. tennis. soccer. working out. boots. snow days. wedding pictures. fancy coats. crazy tights. sequined anything. date nights. love. laughter. smiles. lazy mornings. holidays. my education. sociology. sundays. letters in the mail. my health. childhood memories. my awesome brothers. the scooter. peanut butter m&ms. & surprises.

there is so much to be grateful for! have a lovely day!

MONSTERS

finally finished these little guys last night as we were
waiting for the blizzard that never came... typical.


inspiration for the monsters came from my friend olivia. these were fun
to make. i'm hoping one of my SILs doesn't read my blog, these monsters
are heading her way for her kiddos this christmas. don't want to spoil
the surprise. the orange one for the cute girl, the blue one for the smiley
boy. i hope they like them!

blizzard warning

a huge storm is heading our way!

jeremy has dubbed it "THE STORM OF THE CENTURY."

we are all sorts of excited. jeremy has been non-stop watching the news; we are STOKED! it better come... work is canceled for the rest of the day today and also tomorrow. that's what i'm talking about.

well, i'm out. i'm going home to sip hot coco and pack for our thanksgiving weekend. hopefully we will get all the way to park city sometime soon. be safe! be grateful! and have a BLAST!

peace!

post edit: well, that was a bust. we only got a skiff of snow. jeremy is thoroughly disappointed. i don't think he will trust a meteorologist again... EVER.

entertaining paper

have you been to knockknockstuff.com?

well, they have some real treasures (be careful, some of it isn't exactly appropriate). i love fun notebooks and i could spend hours searching through these. they have FUNNY stuff.
here are some of my favorites:

and they even have practical notepads.

bijou market

going to the bijou market tonight!

i can't wait!

check out all of these vendors... yeah its going to be amazing!

come and support the local artists!
you can get all your christmas shopping done in one place. hollah!

hey babe...

i think our love fern is dying.


good thing our actual love is not reflected
in this little plant.

remember when i gave it to you for valentine's day back
in '08 when we had only been dating for four months. you gave
me a gold fish and i loved it. oh fun times.

i knew then that i was going to marry you... my journal says so.

and 364 days later... i did. i couldn't be happier.

i'm so glad i married you, cute boy!

some thoughts

i feel busy... but i don't think i really am that busy. work is busy, which it usually isn't... so that is weird. i don't think i am a big fan of it. i have been working at work all day (no time for blogging). imagine that. since i have been so busy working at work, i feel like i have no time. i can't imagine having a job where i have to work this much all the time. exhausting!

i am applying to grad schools right now. yay. it's fun thinking of the possibilities, but also a little mind boggling trying to keep track of the different deadlines and requirements for each school, the whole time wondering where jeremy will get in to dental school. i really hope i get in and he gets in and it all works out. did you know that grad school (and dental school) are expensive?? like really expensive. not sure how that will play out, but we are going for it anyway. just dreaming big.

i am becoming obsessed with christmas presents. i already made my "gift giving guides for katie's christmas" (a guide sounds much better than a wish list i think) for the parentals, and now i am just brainstorming away on what to get for our family members. this is so fun. i LOVE it. i love thinking of the perfect gift... i have a lot of stuff to do.

i love that thanksgiving is next week and that i get to see my family, shop at the outlets, do some crafting, eat good food, and not go to work. (that is a really good combo!) only four more days of work until the holiday! woot woot! it will be great.

well, i'm going to get back to dreaming up great christmas gifts and stressing about grad school applications. over and out.

little brother #2

a round of senior pictures

he's a fun kid. more here.

our night in...

with good buddies, dessert, and games. perfect.

pumpkin fever

don't you just love fall.
ok, the really cold mornings aren't all that great, but at least i have fun scarves
i can get out. well, in celebration of this full out fall-ness we are having, i have a
recipe to share. well, a link to a recipe, but it's all the same. here it is -from
cousin megan. make it... you will love it. this pumpkin deliciousness is one of my
favorite fall treats. i just made it today!

(right before it went into the oven)

delicious.

a rough start

so i had this interesting dream.

everyone had a special song that would play on their alarm clock specifically for them. the song was magical. it woke up every part of the body and mind while it was playing so that when it was over, the person would be perfectly awake and ready for the day; they just had to listen to the whole song.

cue my actual alarm going off at 5:31 am.

the radio was suddenly blasting and i left it playing because i was still in my dream. i thought that i had to listen to the whole song in order for it to wake me up properly. well, about 30 seconds into that... my tired, slightly grumpy -but still hot- husband rolls over, "could you hit snooze or something??"

ooops! yes. yes i can. what? you didn't want to wake up at 5:30 jeremy?? c'mon.

girl's party!

it was quite the weekend. we originally were just going to make some birthday banners, but when we had practically an unlimited supply of felt (52 yards in 26 colors!!!), we just couldn't stop ourselves. we each made one for pretty much every month of the year. our collaboration and teamwork skills are now top notch!

we had a lovely time together. love you girls!!

skipping town

today i'm heading south to the red land of st. george for a GIRLs PARTY!

woot woot!

my cousins and aunts are coming and we will have a grand ole' time. there will be baking, cooking, shopping, cutting, gluing, knitting, crocheting, eating, hiking, chatting, and laughing.....lots of laughing- all sponsored by my sweet grandpa. he's quite the guy!

my bags are packed and sitting here in my office... yeah, i'm ready to go. i'm hoping that 4:45 will be here any minute.

so, i'm out for the weekend... (as of 4:45 mountain standard time)

peace.

i need to paint my nails

today we got an l.l. bean catalog in the mail. i was flipping through it as i made
my way back home and i stumbled upon these beauties:

that's right- onesie sleepers for adults.

i think i need one... yeah- i'm pretty sure. we have cold, snowy winters in these parts. imagine: being curled up on the couch, hot coco in hand (topped with whip cream and a dash of cinnamon), sporting these comfy pj's. loving it! they come in red and pink. should i go for the pink? or buy the red and get one for jeremy? we could match on christmas morning!! :) he's going to love this!