A Moment I Want to Remember.

I was reading a post of Ashley's from The Shine Project, and I don't know

how I came across it, because it was from the end of last year. But she really

 made me think about how important it is to write down the little moments because

 they mean so much. And to actually document it instead of saying

 "Aw, that was cute.. I'll remember that." So that is exactly

 what I'm going to do right now.

And this is most likely not going to be as cute to you as it is to me, and it might 

be a "you-had-to-be-there" kind of a thing. Oh well. I'm 

writing this for me, not for you (;

First "Date" - July 23, 2011

Today has just been great since Cody got home from work. He normally doesn't 

work on Saturday's, but they were really behind on their schedule 

so he went in to help. Anyways, we ate some yummy dinner and had 

Karson and Dallin over to play Killer Bunnies, and they are just a hoot 

(haha.. my Mom would say something like that) and it was so much fun! 

We love that game.. it's so dumb and weird, but awesome.

Anyways, once they left, Cody and I were trying to decide how to rearrange 

our front room because with our tree gone, we have a HUGE empty space. 

Well, we had moved the couches so they were facing each other with 

the coffee table in-between, but we moved the coffee table back into 

the other room, so now we just had the two couches right across

 from each other. So we're sitting there talking about our front room and 

then I thought about what to do for our primary class since it's our last 

week of being their teacher. When all of a sudden, Cody starts moving his legs

really fast, so I tried, and I couldn't do it as fast. Then he started moving his 

arms really fast, and was just being awfully goofy. Which I love, because he usually

comes home really exhausted from work and we don't get in goofy

moods as much lately, so it was just fun to see him like that

again (: He was saying really random and funny things too, but I can't

remember them, but I do remember that I was crying because I was 

laughing so much.

On our honeymoon in Mexico - January 26, 2012

After a while of not moving our furniture around, it was really late and I wanted 

to make PINK chocolate chip cookies for our primary class, so I finally got up, went 

into the kitchen and turned on my Rascal Flatts Pandora station and started 

getting the ingredients for cookies. Well the first song that came on was

"I'm Movin On" by Rascal Flatts, and if you don't listen to the words, 

it's a perfect slow dancing song. 

Cody was walking into the kitchen after he fell asleep on the couch, but I 

snatched him and started slow dancing. Which that in itself is a big/cute deal, 

because Cody doesn't dance. (Although he does a mean "Gangnam Style" ;)

It wasn't until the end that we listened to the lyrics, and heard the

"I'm Movin On" part of the song, which we just laughed about, and when the 

song was over, he took Dexter out to the bathroom. Right as he 

walked outside, our wedding song came on. So I paused it, waited

for him to come back inside, and we slow danced in our kitchen for the whole song 

while I was still in my apron with cookie dough all over me.

First dance as Man and Wife - Brad Paisley's THEN - January 21, 2012

And it was one of the happiest, tiny moments of our married life. 

Of course there have been a TON of other happy tiny moments while we've

been together, but I didn't write very many of them down. 

I want to remember this day. I want to remember how
in love with this man I am right now.

We're less than a month away from our 1 year anniversary, and 

I've never been so happy with anyone in my life. I don't know why

people say the first year of marriage is the hardest, because it has been

so wonderful! Of course we haven't had any others to compare it to, but if

this is supposed to be the hardest year, BRING ON THE REST!

He makes me smile when I'm sad, still gives me butterflies every time he
touches me, or kisses me, or even looks at me (: He holds me tightly when I'm crying, 

gives THEE most thoughtful gifts, does ANYTHING he possibly can to make me happy, 

puts up with my moody-ness/ emotional needs, and he loves me no matter what.

He deserves a big reward because honestly, I can be a pain in the butt. But he keeps

telling me how happy he is with me, so I guess we've got a good thing goin' for us (:

We bought a car! And the story of our awful drive home.

Warning! This post is long. Read at your own risk.

So Washington was great! We had lots of fun with my family, had a cool baby shower for Kaylee and held an adorable little baby, and we also bought a car!!! Pretty exciting, huh? We bought one way flights to get there and we're just planning on renting a car to drive back (because I got Cody a punching bag for Christmas, and that probably wouldn't fit too well in our luggage) but we decided to look at a few dealerships to see what we found. We almost bought a grandma looking car because it was a really good deal, but thank goodness we didn't! It's actually a long and boring story so I'm not going to tell it. But it's a Ford Fusion 2007, manual transmission (and no, I didn't know how to drive a manual when we decided to buy it). And we love it! It's definitely the fanciest car either of us have ever had! Cody taught me how to drive that night (Monday) and I actually caught on pretty quickly! We love love love it!

As far as the driving on this trip... not so great. We left my Mom's house around 7:30am, but we stopped at Fred Meyer for a few essentials on the road and we were off.

Holy fog!

We turned on the GPS on Cody's phone and started heading up to Snoqualmie Pass.. so we thought. But apparently the GPS had another plan in mind. We ended up driving all the way to Crystal Mountain and ending up in a ski resort parking lot (Because the pass that it wanted us to go through closes every winter...) WHAT THE HECK, GPS?! So we tried finding our way out, which was easier said than done. We got stuck about 4 or 5 times, being able to get out of them 3 times just by reversing, but the last two we needed people to push us. We finally get help from one parking lot worker who tells us how to get back to where we needed to be (thank goodness for him! We got back on track by his directions alone! Thanks for your act of kindness, sir!) and it turns out that by taking this route of going up the mountain, we were about an hour out of our way. So with the getting stuck and everything, we were about 2 and a half hours off track. We finally get back on our way and decide to download a better GPS because the other one clearly sucked. But because we were up in the mountains, we had close to no service, so the new GPS took about 2 hours to download.

While waiting for the new GPS to load, the old one managed to get us lost AGAIN! It told us to take this random, out in the middle of no where exit and was seriously taking us to no-mans land. So after about half an hour of that, we were back on the freeway, and our new GPS was CLOSE to downloading.. But it completely drained Cody's phone battery and we didn't have a car charger with us. So we had to look for a well known store that would have a car phone charger. Making that stop took longer than we thought because we had to take Dexter out to go to the bathroom, go back into another store to get towels to dry Dex off, and then we finally left.

He was so cuddly after I dried him off! He slept like this for about an hour (:

 So now we're on the road, with a working GPS, charged phone, and it starts getting dark. Which is fine, but we were in Oregon on that long stretch of curvey road in the mountains, and it started getting icy. And I mean REALLY icy. We were sliding all over the place, so we had to go 35-40mph on the FREEWAY! It was about 8pm at this point, and Cody had been driving all day because he didn't want me to drive in that kind of weather. So he's stressing his brains out trying to keep us on the road without dying, and he later told me it was thee most scary and stressful driving experience he's EVER had in his life. Finally after a little while of this, we decided to stay the night at a hotel instead of trying to get back to Orem that night. (Cody was supposed to go to work the next day at 9am, but we decided staying alive and sane was a much better idea than getting him to work on time). But the nearest hotel was 100 miles away, so Cody was stuck driving in this weather for another 100 miles. I felt awful, knowing there wasn't anything I could do to help. Oh, and the chains we had for our tires were too small.

We finally got to the Best Western, checked in, and brought all of our luggage inside.

Yes, we had Dexter. No we didn't tell them. But don't worry, he's hypo-allergenic and didn't make any kind of mess. You couldn't even tell he was there when we left. Anyways, we were still stressed knowing we'd have to wake up and drive on those kinds of roads again in the morning (most likely). But we prayed and prayed and prayed even more that we would have decent weather conditions to drive in the next day, and let me tell you, God loves us. All of the roads were completely dry and it was even sunny for most of the day!! Complete opposite of what it was the night before.

He's so silly.. sits in the weirdest positions/places!

The center console (which we didn't have in our other car) is Dexter's official seat, apparently. He was either sitting here, or sleeping on my lap for the entire drive!

He was falling asleep sitting up on the center console, kept leaning a ton and bobbing his head, and ended up with his butt still on the center console and his head on my leg. What a cutie!

Until we got to a part of the freeway in Idaho where they decided to completely block off the entire freeway. We ended up taking about an hour and a half detour (when we could have driven that stretch of the freeway in 15 minutes) and those roads were in the middle of no where, 100 miles long (at least that's how it felt, because we were going 2 FREAKING MILES PER HOUR!) and they were icy. So bring on the anxiety attack again, thinking we're going to die. After FINALLY getting back on the freeway, it was clear roads all the way to Cody's parent's house, which is where we went to open more presents and get our old car. I can't even tell you how nice it felt to be off the roads and in a familiar place!!

I was eating twizzlers, and I was curious to see if they could be crocheted! They can!

 After staying there for a while, we headed down to Holly and Jordan's for cake and ice cream for Holly's birthday! (Happy birthday again, Holly!) We finally headed home at 11, unpacked our cars, and were finally home! Dexter was so excited to be home, he was running around the entire house, practically skipping with joy. And what kind of a welcome home to Utah would it be without at least a foot and a half of snow?!? I had fun shoveling the driveway, a walk way to the back door, a walk way to our front gate, and a race track in the front yard for Dexter to run around in go to the bathroom without getting caked in snow.

Before I shoveled

And after

I've been taking down Christmas decorations all day today as well as unpacking, and tomorrow I'll take the car to a car wash and get it registered! Hope you are having a good weekend after Christmas!

Bad news first, good news last.

The bad news is stuff that bugs me. So it's not happy. But when I'm done ranting, there are happy things!

I already started on Facebook, but that was dumb. It's much better to rant about stupid things on a blog... (;

I will repeat the first thing that I mentioned on Facebook. WHAT THE FREAK is up with everyone trying to look like they grew up in the 70's again? IT WAS HIDEOUS!! No offense to those that actually grew up then.

But really? Making your house look like it too?

I do admit though, they had very colorful homes, which isn't a problem. But the puke green, yellow and browns they have going on.. not so hot.

Smushing your pillows down in the middle so it looks like a butt.. What? When did that start looking good?

The color Brown.

The fact that I'm working on a present for my Mom and Kevin and it's just not working! I cannot tell what it is, but after they have it, I'll share. Unless I go with something else, which might happen.. But hopefully not.


Happy thoughts:

I've sold 18 scarves already, 2 of which were today! I feel so happy about that. SO DANG HAPPY! Also, I had a whole slew of girls wanting a scarf yesterday when I hosted Bunco at my house; it was probably because of this sweet setup that I have in my house! (Thank you ancient pump organ for being more than just a waste of space!)

5 days, and we'll be in Washington!!

My sister is growing a baby boy in her belly!

(Sorry if you wanted to share this somewhere first, Kay.. or not show it at all. But you sent it to me, therefore I can do whatever I want with it!)

I'm finally LOVING almost everything about the front two rooms of our house! I may be bragging, but I feel as though I've done a dang good job with everything (:

Anyways, happy Friday! I'm going to pick up my wonderful husband and keep him all to myself this whole weekend!!

Here are my thoughts, on a nice little platter (:

It's a good thing I took pictures of the tree yesterday, because sometime last night it fell over! Half of the ornaments are down now.. So stupid.. So we have to do the whole thing all over again. I have enough on my plate!! Haha, kidding. But I have 4 finals done, and I have 2 more to go! One today at 3 and another tomorrow at 1 and then I'M SO FREAKING DONE! I must say though, it's been a pretty dang good semester! I had awesome teachers and I should be getting all (or mostly) A's!

I'm hosting bunco at my house tomorrow night, and I'm so excited! It might be a tight squeeze, but it's going to be so fun!!

Okay, I don't know if any of you have been watching Pretty Little Liars, and I don't know why I ever started, but I got hooked and I can't stop watching it. Anyways, it's so freaking intense!! You really should start watching it, especially since it's most likely winter break for you! (Or you don't have school to worry about at all anyways, so it's even better!) It's super cheesy and drama-y for the first little bit.. well I guess for all of it, but you'll probably get hooked and that won't matter anymore.

Anyways, I'm going to Washington in one week from today!! We'll fly in at 10:25am and then Kaylee and Sean will be there at noon, and we'll be on our way to our house!

What else.. I'm thinking about expanding my works in my etsy shop.. maybe some headwraps.. leg warmers.. boot cuffs..? I guess we'll see! Here was my first attempt at a head wrap.. it's huge, and comfy, and I love it. And it has a bow, so how can you go wrong with that?

We got Dexter these little bells that we hang down from the doorknobs so that he can tell us when he needs to go outside because he usually just sits there without making any noise, and he learned after like the second time that we showed him how to do it! We're so proud of him! Anyways, if the screen door is closed when he's ready to come back inside, he just jumps up so we can see him, and it's one of the cutest sights I've ever seen (:

 We also got him this little jacket, and IT is one of the cutest things I've ever seen (Haha, how many things can I say that about?) I'll try to get better pictures another day.. he wasn't having it this day.

Haha, he's such a gangster!

Anyways, HAPPY WEDNESDAY! It's 12-12-12, so that's cool. Make it a good one!

For those who asked if we had a tree;

Yes we do. And we've had it the whole time that I've been decorating our house for Christmas, but up until today, there were only half of the lights on the tree because we ran out of lights. And I didn't want to show it until it was finished, with all of the ornaments and tree topper on it! So, here it is!

Our star is two colors, hence this moving picture thing.
 It was one of the main reasons why we ended up
 with this star over the others we saw (:

And don't worry about the ghetto section on the middle left.. we used different color of lights thinking you wouldn't be able to tell a difference. And you can't, until you turn all the lights off. So anyways, we love it. It's a beast of a tree, super quirky and a wimp (every time we put an ornament on a branch, it'd fall about 6 inches!) but so perfect for us and our little house (:

 I don't know if you've seen those things on Pinterest where you cut out a circle the size of your lens, and then cut out a shape in the middle of it to make a certain shape? Well I tried that with my camera, and I cut out a cute little tree!

 

 Clearly, it didn't work. So that stunk. Oh well, it's still a super awesome tree!

Christmas season rocks!

I seriously love this time of year! I love the decorations, the trees, the lights, the feeling, AND ESPECIALLY the lack of snow right now!! It's December 7th, and there's not a glimpse of snow down here (:

Seeing as how it's been the last few weeks of school lately, the house has completely gone to pots. I don't even remember the last time I've had a few seconds that I could clean.. it is nasty. But luckily, Cody needed the computer to finish a HUGE paper for his classes last night, meaning I had to take a break and do something else. I FINALLY cleaned the front two rooms, and my GOODNESS! I should have taken a before and after.. Except I would have been really embarrassed and I might not have put it up anyways. But it looks so much better! (Don't ask about the kitchen.. we currently have no clean silverware, plates, bowls, and I think we have 2 clean cups? So that's fun.)

This is our first Christmas together being married! And we have hardly any decorations, but I've gotten creative, and.. gone shopping a little bit.. because I NEEDED to have my house feel Christmasy. I decided to only decorate one room of the house, in order to save myself from spending all of the money in our bank account. My first item of business was to switch the pictures/sayings that were hanging up all over my house. I found some awesome Christmas themed ones online, printed them out and up they are! Such a big difference they made right away!

I went to Michael's the first week of December, and they had TONS of Christmas stuff like 50% off! Heck yeah! I didn't get much, but I found this little tree thing (on the right.. obviously) (which I think is just adorable)

We found those little stockings on sale at.. I don't remember where. The temple was a wedding gift, and the Santa is Cody's! Trina, Cody's Mom painted one for all of her kids!!

We were given a nativity set for our wedding I think? Or maybe it was a Christmas gift. Either way, it's beautiful! I know how expensive they can be, so I'm super grateful for it!

And of course, the beautiful stockings! My mom made the outside ones.. ISN'T SHE AMAZING?! She blows me away with everything that she does. The middle one is Cody's from growing up, which Trina made also!! Not only do I have to try to live up to my Mom, but now Cody's Mom too!! They're both so crafty! I knew I married into the right family (:

One of the biggest things I decided that needed to be done was to move the couches into opposite rooms. We've had the blue couches in the first room you see when you walk in, and the red couches in the craft room, but since I decided to have the first room be the Christmas room, red couches needed to move! Anyways, I guess I don't need to give a play-by-play of how I decorated my house.. So here are just more pictures.

Zoey the pig(gy bank) needed a scarf (:

Added tinsel around the door! It's so simple, but makes a big difference!

I love Christmas, and can't wait for school to be done!! I have at least one final everyday Monday-Thursday, and then I'll be done! Cody will be done on Tuesday, and then we have about a week until we fly to Washington in 12 days!! Can't wait!!