Thanksgiving

I'm taking a break from studying for my finals to blog about Thanksgiving before I start my Christmas posts. Our Thanksgiving started with traditional Tuesday night Thanksgiving. We made a turkey breast, potatoes and gravy, stuffing stuffed acorn squash, and green beans and mushrooms. We had rolls and a nice bordeaux. This meal is almost exactly the same every year, we just change up the veggies. I love it. I love cooking the turkey. This year, everything was timed perfectly and all the food was ready and hot at the same time. It only took 3 years of practice!







On Thanksgiving day, we went to my parent's house early so that Joe could watch football. My mom cooked a huge turkey that got done a little sooner than expected. Ethan, Jessica, and James (who turned 2 on Thanksgiving) arrived and we sat down to a delicious feast of traditional food: turkey, potatoes and gravy, stuffing, candied yams, cranberry sauce, cheese stuffed celery, corn and warm rolls. We had E and J's famous bourbon pecan pies for dessert. After dinner, Joe and my dad watched some more football while my mom, David, and I looked through the Black Friday ads.

Around 9:00, Joe, David, and I left to stand in line at Old Navy: they were giving out a very limited number of waterproof digital cameras. We got in line at about 9:30 and waited outside in the cold until midnight, but we got 3 of the 40 cameras! We also picked up some pj pants, shirts, and David got a new coat. It was a really fun day.


Mom's table with the beautiful centerpiece that Joe's family sent










James blowing out his birthday candle

Birthday Party!

I turned 25 on the 23rd, but the Sunday before, my wonderful husband threw me a birthday party. It was princess themed (lots of pink and I wore a tiara). Joe was so sweet. He planned the whole thing and made all of the yummy food. At 3:00, guests started to arrive and we had a great time chatting, joking around, and eating. We ate: raspberry tartlets, smoked salmon pasta salad, caprese, white bean chicken chili, raspberry duet salad, butterfly cookies with chocolate cherry ice cream, and birthday cake from Granite Bakery (James helped me blow out the candles). It was such a great day :)


Some of the yummy food


My hubband


Birthday cake! White with strawberry filling

Halloween 11

Joe and I really like to do couple costumes for Halloween and I really loved what we did this year. I dressed up as a raccoon and Joe put together an animal control costume. The Saturday before Halloween, our neighbors hosted their annual Halloween party which is always fun. On Halloween, we did our normal thing: pumpkin pizza from Papa Murphy's, ghost pumpkins (citrus vodka, orange juice, and sierra mist), and handing out candy to cute trick or treaters. I also played around with some baking stuff and made some fun cupcakes. They were "blood" filled chocolate and I topped them with orange frosting (using my "gun" that I got at our wedding shower to make them look pretty). Then, Joe and I settled in with some Vampire wine and watched Paranormal Activity 2. I love Halloween! :)




My tail


I didn't wear my mask, but I had fun with fake eyelashes


The host of the Halloween party gave all the adults candy cigarettes




Close up of Joe's awesome castle






The "blood" is cherry pie filling

House in the fall

Joe and I are on fall break at our school. We decided to spend some of it at our house and some of it in St. George. We headed up to our house on Friday afternoon and it was so pretty! All the leaves have changed. We bought a pumpkin for our stairs and some Halloween clings for the windows.

When we got there, we noticed that the furnace wasn't working, but it was too late to call anyone. It was really cold that night and we didn't want to leave so we made a little nest next to the fireplace and slept on the floor (we turned the fire off before we went to sleep). The next day, we spent a lot of time trying to fix the furnace before finally figuring out that we just needed to turn on the gas! Oops! The rest of the weekend was much more pleasant and we cooked a nice dinner of salmon, mushroom ravioli, green beans, and wine- the first real dinner in our house.


Can you see our little pumpkin?


The leaves outside our bedroom- pretty reds and golds


Spiders and skulls


Dinner on our new dining room table!

Boys

Last week, Joe and I met my mom, David, Jessica, and James at the zoo. I got this picture of Joe helping James "climb" a tree. I love the way James is looking at his uncle. Joe is going to be a great dad. :) (Nope, not pregnant!)

Our House :)

I wanted to post some pictures of our cute townhome. We aren't officially moving in until May or June (after graduation), but we are planning to spend a lot of time between now and then on little projects to get the house exactly how we want it.

The house is about an hourish away from where we are now and it will kind of change our "goals" a little because neither of us want to commute to SL. But, I think things are actually going to work out really well. Maybe even better! We are both really, really excited. :)


Super cute outside


Living room/dining room area


Love the big, bright windows


Kitchen (with a dishwasher!)


The guest bathroom. There is also a full master bath and a small bathroom on the main floor. I am so excited for the bathtubs!


The view out of our office


We would like this room to be our future nursery


Back patio- the gate opens up to a big, grassy field shared by the community.

I don't have any good pictures of the master bedroom, but it's big and bright and has a huge double closet! There is also a laundry room and some good closets for coats and linens. We also have access to a club house, indoor pool, and hot tub!

It's pretty much all Joe and I talk about these days. Can't wait to move in!

Then and now

I am borrowing the idea of then and now from Jessica. The first picture is from April 25, 2009- the day we got engaged. This was our dinner at Fresco. The second picture is from August 14, 2011- the day we went on our wonderful river dinner cruise in Paris. The pictures look similar and are both from special and delicious dinners with my Joe.





I'll get back to Paris day by day soon. I just got the pictures on my new computer!