so far so good

the Christmas season of 09 has treated us wonderfully. at first brett and i were planning on junking out and staying in bed all Christmas day. but lately all of our holidays have been planned at the LAST MINUTE. 2 days before Christmas we found out my cousin scott and his wife katy from back east were down in Utah visiting katy's family and they invited us over for dinner on Christmas! it was convenient to go there anyways since we were going to SLC for my nieces' sealing. but i was thrilled. getting to spend Christmas with family (even though i didn't really know katy's fam) and have Christmas dinner. we ended up driving most of Christmas day to Alpine, UT. it was so nice seeing my cousins scott and katy again. it was a small taste of my huge family that i miss from out east. since brett and i were out and about in ut for Christmas day we did our "presents exchange" pretty much when we went shopping and didn't bother wrapping them. brett got some doc. marten shoes that'll count for his future 10 Christmases. and all i asked for were knee high socks from the gap. it was a great Christmas.

after Christmas we got to hang out with some of brett's side of the family. brett's brother darren and his wife, cyndi, just adopted 2 cute girls and had their sealing to the family in the Salt Lake Temple. it was such a neat experience. i absolutely love my in laws. i thank my lucky stars that i have such awesome in laws. seriously, before i even met brett i watched the movie monster in law and that horrified me. i was SO scared to be related to some crazies. but they all turned out to be quite the opposite. they are truly wonderful and i'm so grateful for them.

so the following pics are pretty much the only pics taken of our vacay so far. my 9yr old niece, ieshia, and i played dress up with all the jewlelry i brought.

ieshia, her sister nicole, and i are the only brownies in the family.

its awesome

when she asked me where i had gotten all my jewelry i told her brett bought most of them for me, and she's like, do you know that he's just wasting your money too? ohhhhh the young innocence of children

love her!

i never believed

in SANTA that is....

i never trusted that old fat man in red. eh it didn't help when my dad would go around the house singing, "here comes fat fake here comes fat fake!" my dad just didn't want us believin in santa claus but hey i turned out all right? right?

lately i've been a bit grinchy about Christmas. i am absolutely SICK of Christmas music. the Christmas fun has died because i'm sure i've heard 20 variations to every Christmas song while working at jamba. at the beginning of the month i was super excited for the festivities, especially cuz jamba was AMAZINGLY decorated. i was SO excited to go to work everyday! our apartment, however, was not amazingly decorated. there was a moment when i was really excited to decorate the apt but that quickly evaporated. we don't even have a Christmas tree. we were gonna get a real one with our friends, the kelloggs, but i thought it would be silly to get one when we'll be leaving right on Christmas day. i was actually really heartbroken we weren't gonna have a Christmas tree this year. i've never had a Christmas without one. so this is one of the main reasons why i've been a grinch. yeah we could've gotten a fake one but we don't wanna have another clunkin thing to haul when we move...blah blah blah. there's always next year huh? but i am excited about spending Christmas with Brett doing nothing! we will be junking out and watching delightful Christmas movies. those i can't get sick of. we're also planning on going to SLC after Christmas for the sealing of my nieces to my bro-in-law and his wife. we're way excited for that.

this delish delight are the white chocolate cranberry blondies i made for our friends, brandon and rachel's white elephant party. the blondies turned out a bit doughy on the bottom but they were still RICH and lethal. SOOO good!

brett and i hope you have a MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS and an awesome NEW YEARS!

♥

shakin it and lighting it up!

such an eventful week last week. its weird how i'm done with school yet i still have SO much going on! mostly because i've been doing the polynesian club thang this whole semester, and i hope to continue with it until brett and i leave rexburg once and for all. so up on campus we had a culture night consisting of our poly club, the indian association, the african association, and the latino association, and i believe thats it... but it was a blast. it was pretty much our last "major performance" for the semester. so thats why it was a little stressful for me last week. i got to do this way cute tahitian dance with my 2 good friends katie and alena.

i've been in the PCA for about 3 semesters now, i started 2 summer semesters ago and have gained such great friendships, a greater appreciation for different cultures, and learned some sweet polynesian dances.


and then it was PARTY TIME!!!!
brett turned 24! i can't believe it, he's getting old yet 24 is def really young.

we decided to have an asian invasion dinner night for brett's birthday bash! we had the party at the cougar court lounge so that we could have more room for our close friends that came...i fried my famous filipino lumpia (which i didn't burn, they just give off a lot of smoke) for the festive occasion and in so doing this is what happened...
i set ALLLLLLL the fire alarms off in the whole cougar court complex.... i was mortified. especially when the cops and the firemen showed up. but after the whole incident i couldn't stop laughing about it. our manager looked really pissed though. brett had to go to the church and grab him from his ward Christmas party so that he could turn off the alarms...sorry manager dude but next time how about adding a vent over the stove?
the shi-fu! katie made this delightful beverage for the party.

i surprised brett with a DQ birthday cake and i wasn't gonna light the candles after what just happened, but katie and gwen convinced me so i lit them up. but being afraid of setting the place on fire again i pretty much just ran to brett with the cake and half the candles blew out by themselves. sorry brett (i REALLY don't think he cared)

happy birthday boy! hopefully next year the cops and firemen won't come to your birthday party.

hey mom

happy birthday m♥mmy!

thanks for being my best friend (next to brett) and for always having your phone on hand in case i need to call you for ANYTHING. its always fun to call you with any random questions i have especially when it comes to cooking. i love the fact that we can share our passion for cooking now that i'm married. i never truly appreciated how hard you slave in the kitchen to cook our family delicious meals everyday. thanks so much for that. and i know i'll be slaving away too when i have a family in the future. you are the master chef and i hope to be as good as you one day.

i know you and i have had our ups and downs...but i ALWAYS treasure the ups! sorry i was such a piste han before and you know, i'll probably be a piste han in the future too...so i'll just apologize now. i like making fun of tootsie with you and reviewing movies. i miss watching movies with you all the time.

thanks so much for the wedding of my dreams! that was such a fun and magical day. thanks.
i can't wait to share even more memories with you!

peace out girl scout. i seriously hope i look as good as you when i'm your age.

I LOVE YOU!

rollin with the homies

i attempted my dad's world famous rolls for our ward Christmas party tonight.

it took me all morning and stressed the crap out of me. i wish i really paid attention to how my dad made them.

during the long and difficult process of kneading the dough my bowl of flour fell off the table and onto the carpet.

i screamed.

our table is completely dumb. mainly cuz we bought it from wal-mart.

i thought i had no hope in finishing these freakin rolls.

but with brett's help with rolling out the dough they turned out AMAZING!! i think i got an ab workout from all the kneading, so thats a plus too.

most definitely the rolls weren't as good as my dad's but i know one day they will be!

also this is the same recipe used to make my dad's ultimate world famous cinnamon rolls. so now i'm a little more confident to attempt his cinnamon rolls now!

its the Harry Potter weekend on abc family.

awesome.

the only thing keeping me alive

a few weeks ago brett and i bought a hot chocolate mixer. it was a NECESSITY. i seriously suck trying to make it myself using the microwave. the magical ingredients never gets completely mixed, that is, when i make it. our mixer gets the job done and PERFECT in just a few minutes. it's been one of the best investments i've ever made in my life. why the heck didn't i buy one when i was single and even lazier to make some delicioso hot cocoa during the cruel and torturing months of rexburg winters?

a cutie snowman filled with warm goodness makes a horrible cold day a heck of a lot better.

oh yeah, brett def helps with that too.

p.s. rexburg was 0 degrees this morning. sux. brett, get me out of here and lets go to texas please? thanks, love you!

p.s.s. brett kindly reminded me that it was actually -2 degrees this morning and that tomorrow it'll be -6/-7 degrees.

gee thanks ya poop

hatred

it snowed.

and i screamed when i looked out the window.

i'm not ready at all.
i'm not ready to swerve all over the road when i drive.

yes i admit the snow can be pretty but not pretty at all when i have to go outside and get the bottom of my jeans all wet and my hair all up in my face and frizzy...

i would rather cuddle up INSIDE drinking hot chocolate and watching movies with the snow wreaking havok OUTSIDE.

n00b. he likes the snow.

itchin

i'm hungry.

dinner for 2 please

apple-stuffed chicken breasts.

looks quite scary...

but absolutely delicious!

you can find it here!

i've been so bored lately trying to figure out what to cook for dinner. i've been in a bit of a rut i guess and i never feel like cooking after work so we'd been eating out too much and have been feeling like fatties. so i've been trying really hard to get over myself and cook something! i love trying out new and crazy recipes and haven't had TOO many disasters so far....on the Taste of Home website i've been finding some really good recipes that fit us like recipes for 2 and healthy stuff. its been helpful in the fact that it makes just enough for both of us and it prevents us from eating like pigs when there's a lot of leftovers....

current obsessions:

1. SCENTSY.

my friend ailinh, who is a scentsy consultant, has gotten me SO addicted! i swear i never wanna buy another dumb candle again. i need more scents though....but one of my favorite things to do is to come home, turn it on and RELAX! ahhhhhhh. its so wonderful and so easy to clean up. i'm planning on having a scentsy party sometime soon, let me know if you'd like an invite! and every season they come out with new cute warmers and scents for the spring/summers and fall/winters. i love it l♥ve it love it! here is the scentsy website. i can't wait to have a bigger house so i could put one in every level and have my WHOLE HOUSE smelling beautiful.

2. CRAFTIN.

here is the glass cube thing (i don't even know what the heck its called) i made for my sis kyla and travis' late wedding present...i love doing vinyl lettering

this was my favorite to make! i was so excited that i actually bought a wood board, i painted it and rubbed on the vinyl lettering! i seriously went to porters (the rexburg craft store) about everyday one week. i felt like my mom at the craft stores getting all excited about the possibilities that could be created.

yes yes thats pretty much it. and i haven't really done a lot since i started working but i was quite proud of myself when i made these, its not like they were horribly time consuming but its a start. also i can't start junking up my apt with a bunch of random projects cuz we just don't have room.
i really hope to be one craftin cookin mama one day.

3. LADY GAGA-PAPARAZZI

just cuz.

she's kool and krazy

october's over

dinner tonight: ORANGE CHICKEN

thats right. i made chinese orange chicken and it was glorious.

here's how our halloween weekend went down.....

brett and i went to the ward's halloween party as gun slinging cowboy bandits from texas.

going as cowboys wasn't exactly my top choice but due to not even knowing what we're doing for halloween until the week of and the lack of money for maybe some awesome costume materials we went with some clothes we had already and bought our bandanas and tuff guns....brett had to give me some tough love when i was really frustrated we couldn't buy any COOL costume stuff. well, next year, we'll plan better....

for the activity we decorated cakes with our family home evening groups...

here's our butt-ugly spider that actually looks like a butt-ugly ant....
then on the actual halloween day we went to a brasilian halloween party! pretty random huh? but our friends carmelo and autumn invited us and i wanted to go to some kind of party on halloween and get all dressed up. even if it means going to a brasilian party where in brasil they don't even celebrate halloween.....
yeahhhhh not too eventful for halloween festivities. its so hard to figure out what to do for a holiday like this when you're married with no kids, but i'm sure when we start havin some i think it'll be WAY fun!

tonight brett and i got to watch President Uchtdorf's CES fireside talk and it was awesome. i felt like he was speaking directly to me when he said something like, "don't let your sorrows get you down and depressed but instead think of the things in your life that brings you light." ohhh man i've seriously been a bit of a whiner lately. i truly believe that the cold makes me depressed....but i really do need to think of better things that me me super happy.
like:
BRETT!
thanks brett for putting up with my grumpiness.
i love you very much!
♥

mo' money, mo' problems

just got done with an 8 1/2 hr (2-10pm) shift at jamba.

before you call me a whiner, it was an 8 1/2 hr shift on a saturday at a place where there are no breaks, no lunch, you're on your feet almost 100% of the time and the usual shifts are about 4-6 hrs. i needed to cover someone else's shift after mine so i was dreading the day going into work. but today turned out to be one of my best days at work! it wasn't as busy and we closed the store within a decent time after closing time...my hands are just really RAW. but now i got a little ka-ching ka-ching in my paycheck!

which is never a bad thing.

p.s. brett quit his job at wal-mart and is now working on campus as an assistant to the business advisor. which means he gets weekends off and we have sundays together to go to church and RELAX!

hay hay hay!

yesterday was such a GOOD DAY.

working at jamba so far has been great. its just been killer on my hands cuz of the sanitizer. but i'm getting a lot faster in making smoothies, i just haven't memorized as many of them as i would like. but all in all its fun and getting a free jamba everyday i work is the best thing of all!! yesterday i worked, like, 4 hours and it was pretty chill. no huge rushes and it was steady my whole shift. i freak out when there are huge rushes like there has been last week. just not used to them yet....

after work brett and i went to the straw maze with our friends from the polynesian cultural association (pca). i'm actually the secretary for the pca this semester and its been hard trying to figure out what to do for meetings b/c the fall semester is just not eventful with shows and performances we would usually do during the summer. so we decided to do a delightful fall tradition and go to a straw maze!

brett and i didn't know where the heck we were going!

and brett had his HUGE flashlight that was blinding everyone coming towards us.

i can't wait to have cute kiddies and take em to pumpkin patches and corn mazes and have them run around! in the meantime brett and i will do the runnin around.
and here's me and my girls with some delicious hot chocolate after accomplishing the maze under 30mins when it takes the average peeps 45mins...
we rocked it.


i'm just starting to appreciate the dreaded cold. last night's brisk and crisp weather is about as cold as i can stand it. i love hot chocolate and wearing cute layers. but not having to wear tons and tons of layers suffocating me. please rexburg, hold off the blizzards and the negative degree weather till the first of never?!?! PLEASE?!
kthanks.

SLC, UT II

brett and i went to salt lake city this weekend. i know, we just went last weekend too. last weekend, as you see 2 posts earlier, was for brett's mission reunion and general conference. this time it was for 2 weddings and to see my sister whom i haven't seen in almost a year...

and it was awesome.

so we started out our day waking up at 3 am just so we can make it for chick-fil-a breakfast all the way down in sandy, ut and then for ryan and susan's sealing in the Salt Lake Temple at 10am.

seriously has anyone tried the chicken biscuit? brett got me addicted. i guess its sort of a southern thing so its funny when we go to a chick-fil-a in the morning down in utah or west virginia and it is deserted. but brett says down in texas it is PACKED!

i DROOL for this.

anyways you should try it. it does sound bizarre, chicken for breakfast?!?!? just try it, if you don't like it, you can send your leftovers to me, i will gladly take it off your hands (since we don't have a freakin chick-fil-a in rexburg!) i seriously want one just talking about it. but yeah, its worth getting up at 3 in the morning...

okok enough with the delicious chicken talk and back to the main event...

so ryan is my best friend charlene's brother and susan is my friend from back home in WV. so this wedding was pretty much a harpers ferry reunion. ryan and susan looked so wonderful on their wedding day. and ryan wore his marine uniform making him look super sharp.

this is my cute sis kyla and her hubby travis.

story here is that she was one of susan's bridesmaids so my other reason for coming down to utah was to see her. i haven't seen her in almost a year and she just got married back in july and brett and i were unfortunately unable to go.....so i told everyone to NOT tell her i was coming down for the wedding. she didn't think we would come all the way down to ut, especially with our work schedules. so when she saw me she FREAKED OUT. pretty sure she pooped herself...jkjkjk...but she cried and i cried. it was wonderful....i love her and i wish i could see her more often. she lives in ephraim, which is like, 5 1/2 hrs from here.

this is my best friend charlene. i love and miss her SOOOO much! her family just recently moved to ut from wv so i hope we get to hang out more often...she was my first friend in high school and my first roommate in college. bffs!


and here's me and my BESTEST BEST FRIEND IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD! my best friend for ETERNITY. ♥ him!

after ryan and susan's wedding and reception we then went to one of brett's friend's reception. we didn't stay long at all cuz we were SO exhausted.

and that was the end of our 2nd utah adventure.

i can die now.

cuz JIM and PAM ARE MARRIED!!!!!!!

i just got done watching what i believe to be the office's most important episode EVER.

i am a hardcore addicted office fan. i have all the seasons and i have never been into a tv show like this. this is my SOAP OPERA.

i cried.

i screamed when jim kissed pam at the end of casino night.

i cried when jim proposed.

and i cried again at the wedding.

well, i didn't bawl my eyes out, but got quite emotional. brett has been at work, so he didn't get to watch it with me and tell me to hold it together cuz its just a tv show. but still. i love them.

the wedding episode was nothing like i had imagined. i don't wanna spoil it for anybody but it was crazy, had the usual moments of intense awkwardness, and beautiful tender moments. ♥

i thought pam looked so beautiful
(in a dress not attempting to conceal that she's preggo)

i wish they were married in real life. but its ok, i like the girl john krasinski is marrying.

but still.

SLC,UT

brett and i got the chance to go to his mission reunion and general conference this past weekend in salt lake city. we had so much fun getting the heck out of rexburg and seeing friends. brett's mission president, Bro. Bradford, holds the mission reunions around general conference time so we thought it would be fun to go to one of them. (fyi, brett served in the brazil, sao paulo interlagos mission, portuguese speaking) also the reunion was catered by braza grill...BONUS!.... there weren't as many people that brett knew from his mission but there were just a few that he did know...it was just a little weird for me not knowing anybody there tho it was a lot of fun seeing brett catch up with old friends and talk about old mission stories.

here's brett at the reunion with his scrapbook page the mission president's wife made.

and here's my cutie from when he was on his mission!

love!

the prayers were done in portuguese and after dinner everybody gathered in the chapel and the mission president and his wife gave talks about mission stuff (thankfully in english) and at the end of the reunion everybody made a circle around the chapel and sang their mission song in portuguese. it was amazing, even though it was in another language i felt the spirit so strong. i sorta felt like i was back at efy in a circle singing the efy medley....but this time i wasn't singing but listening. i myself never having gone on a mission or know anything about the sacrifices made to serve one but i am TRULY grateful to those who have served a mission. and i am even more grateful to have married a guy who served a mission too. our plans are to teach our kids portuguese but first i need to learn it! i'm excited.

the next day, saturday, we went to general conference for the sat. morning session. we were able to get tickets from brett's parents down in texas. it was my first time and it was super exciting for me!

it was really crazy seeing how much people they could pack into the conference center! this picture looks like japan! haha

the session was really good. we were up on the balcony so the apostles looked this big! it was seriously awesome to be in the same room as the prophet. and the mormon tabernacle choir sounded a whole lot better in person. going to conference was such a great experience.

this is one of my best friends, katie, and me on the top of the conference center

the weekend was AWESOME.

and i l♥ved spending every moment of it with brett

p.s. i don't have a she-wolf in my closet,

but a she-cheetah.

JAMBA!

JUICE!!

i FINALLY have a JOB!!!!!!!! my cute friend rach is the assistant manager there and she knows how i have been desperately looking for a job so she hooked me up! today was my first day and it was awesome. i just washed dishes or poured out the smoothies most of the time and got to make my own smoothie...i have to learn a buttload of combinations and still need to get the hang of the place otherwise i think i'm gonna have fun working here. it feels so good to be working again, even if its a cute smoothie shop, i don't care...when i was washing tons of blenders i was like, this is SOOOO much better than rotting at home. i am VERY grateful for rachel getting me this job. the only con about working again is having to wear shoes and socks. ugh. even here at byu-i you're not supposed to wear flip flops but i've been getting away with wearing "sandals" but since i'm done with school and spending the summer at the beach and under the sun i have been donning bright, comfy flip flops or just going barefoot. yes my heels are really chapped but yet my feet are really tan. :) i love the freedom for my toes and wearing socks is prison. but i'll suck it up to help pay the rent and buy groceries...i guess...jk. anywhoz.....

so i have been thinking, every job i've had so far (which is 4) i have gotten through someone i know..case in point.......starting with my first job after high school...

1. Jersey Mike's Subs-got the job through my best friend charlene's mom
2. Northrop Grumman (fav. job)-my dad
3. Walmart (worst job)-brett, don't blame him though! but seriously, i was thankful to have the job but could not stand it anymore!
4. Jamba Juice!-rach bec hep...old roomie, and also rach and her hubby are the reason brett and i are together!! soooo i am super blessed to have her as my friend!