It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas....

I never decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving. I like to enjoy all holidays to the fullest. You better believe that the day after Thanksgiving Mark and I were talking about Christmas though.

We were very excited to get a tree put up in our living room. Saturday we went out hunting for our tree. The first place we went to there was a caribou that was seriously adorable! I think I could someday own one of those and be perfectly content. 

We had no luck with a tree there, but kept running Christmas errands and looking while we were out.  We did come across another tree lot and found our perfect tree. Mark can take the credit for officially deciding, but we both agreed that it was a great fit for our house.  

While Mark worked on the lights I started decorating the house.  I love getting out all of my cute Christmas decorations and rearranging them to look different each year. I was pretty pleased with how everything turned out.

Since I have SO many decorations I decided to surprise Mark and decorate our bedroom also.  It has been fun to lay in bed at night and talk with the little Christmas tree all lit up.

 After a couple of trips to the store to return lights.... (UGH!) we finally got our tree decorated! I really enjoy wrapping presents and I had been wrapping for weeks so finally all of those were able to go under the tree as well. No, they are not all for us! We have 11 nieces and nephews, parents, and siblings we bought for! 

We are ready to celebrate!

Thanksgiving

I'm loving our year of FIRSTS! 

It's so fun to look forward to the holidays and creating our own traditions.  This year we stayed in Utah for Thanksgiving. Since my family all had made plans already we had my parents fly out and stay with us for a few days.  I always love having them around and it was fun to get to spend some time with them.

On Thanksgiving we went to the Urry's house. Mark's parents hosted siblings, grandparents, aunts, and cousins. We had a great time and everyone was kind to my parents as well. Who doesn't love Thanksgiving?? The food alone is reason to love the holiday.

On Wednesday night we decided to head downtown. We walked around City Creek and then headed over to the temple. It wasn't lit yet, but it was beautiful as always. 

Since my mom was coming I decided to wait and get her expertise on a few Christmas sewing projects. I'm getting better, but sometimes I have a hard time figuring out directions simply because I don't have the experience. Plus I always want everything to look perfect. 

I grew up with homemade stockings and so did Mark. Now that I have started sewing, I knew that I really wanted to make our stockings. I found super cute material and was able to make these (with the help of my mom).

Mark's is with stripes and mine has mini Christmas trees. I still think I might put our initials on them, but for now I really love them.

 

I made a Christmas table runner a few weeks back with some awesome fabric I had found. I had a bunch of extra material because of course I calculated wrong. Lucky for me though, I had just enough to make two pillow slip covers!!! I love them and they add just the right touch to our couch.

My mom and I also did a little bit of shopping, but really nothing too crazy. Mark and I my Dad went and hit a bucket of balls and had guy time while we sewed. 

It was a wonderful holiday week. I loved being able to spend time with some of my most favorite people! Very grateful for all that I have in my life.

10/30

It's funny how as we get older we can't remember birthdays, holidays, appointments, etc. but we do remember the little things that make us happy. A year ago today, Mark showed up on my porch. He charmed me via text and I was excited to meet this guy. I was surprised that with just 3 days of texting I already felt so comfortable with him. We had dinner and at dinner he was brave enough to tell me I was pretty. I remember thinking, "WOW!" Did he really just say that? Guys aren't that brave right? It really impressed me. We talked, ate, watched baseball, and went to a movie. I immediately knew I wanted a second date. Thank goodness he did too! 

I'm a sap. I love the sentimental stuff. That date was huge for me. It was the start of a wonderful year with my very best friend. I didn't know at the time that he would become my husband, but it was soon after that I realized how happy that would make me. I'm grateful every day that the Lord put him in my life at the right time. We were both in a good place and ready to be together.

Pretty sure we make a good match!

Blessings

I have been blessed with AMAZING friends. Amazing probably isn't even the best word to use. I have friends from birth, Jr. High, high school, college, my time in Provo, work, etc. I am one lucky lady. The best part about all of these amazing friends is their families. This includes parents, siblings, and kids. I am Aunt Ashlee to many children and I love it. 

All of this brings me to one special family that I couldn't love any more even if I tried... The Scotts. They are incredible. I met Matt and Megan and Matt in Provo. We were all in the same ward. I was Megan's visiting teacher and I played volleyball sometimes with Matt. They fell in love and got married. They have two little boys who I adore. Liam and Nate are the greatest. Liam is polite and silly all at the same time. He will talk your ear off and call you Miss Ashlee. He is my buddy. Nate is the miracle baby. We didn't know if he was going to make it here, but we all hoped and prayed he would. Now I know why. That boy can giggle and smile like no other little guy. He is a joy to be around. 

Since it was a miracle that Nate made it to the Scott family, they decided that birthday #1 should be a big one! Megan did a great job with doing a circus theme and including yummy treats and games. I was so glad Mark and I were able to stop by for a little bit to celebrate. Megan sent me these pictures and I couldn't help, but smile at how happy this kid makes me.

We love you Nate and the whole Scott Family!

A Family That Runs Together, Stays Together

I'm NOT a runner. Never have been, never will be. My sister in law, Nicole, talked the whole family into running a 5k last weekend. Mark and I originally said no way, but changed our mind when we realized the weather was nice and we needed to exercise more. 

We started with 1 mile, added a few more laps around the track. Then we hit 2 miles. We were doing well, so we kept going. Soon we were up to 3, 4, and even 5 miles. It felt good to hit our goals, but I still don't love running.

I even got new running shoes for my birthday!

Well, the day came.... 5k time! We were ready!

Did I mention we dressed up? Oh yea...this happened!

Mark kept saying our goal should be 35 minutes. I told him if I did it under 45 minutes I would be happy. I knew I would based on our times from practicing, but I really wanted to make sure I hit my goal. Mark helped me keep my pace, and even kept me running up an extremely steep hill. My knees were hurting from running down the hill and now my whole body hurt from running up the hill, but I kept running!  We crossed the finish line and I was just so happy to finish that I didn't even look at our time. Mark was so excited to tell me we did it in 34 minutes!!!! He was so proud of me for doing it. I married a good man. 

Afterwards they had food and games for everyone. 

It was so fun to do this as a family. I hope we make it a new tradition!

Since the whole family was together already, we thought we should do a small Halloween party at Nicole's house. We had food, games, crafts, and lots of kids running around. 

I really do love this new family of mine!

Road Trips

Now that Mark and I have made two road trips together to California I can tell you that we have figured out to enjoy a large portion of them... COMEDY! Mark has a few stand ups downloaded and it makes such a difference to just laugh for a couple of hours. Sometimes I turn them on while Mark naps because it really keeps me awake. We have also listened to these same stand ups multiple times and still laugh at them. 

If you need a few recommendations....

I hope you laugh and seriously try this on your next road trip!

We LOVE to laugh!

Mark and I have a similar sense of humor. We spend our nights laughing at Jimmy Fallon, Jim Gaffigan, Jerry Seinfeld, and random YouTube videos. I'm so grateful for this because it helps to just relax at the end of the day and giggle. 

Jim Gaffigan is my favorite. I've wanted to see him for years now, but he never came into town. I saw a couple of friends post about him coming to Salt Lake and started looking it up. We decided to make it a double date with Scott and Kasana and all get tickets. I told Mark we could count it as my birthday present, but of course he had already been planning what to get me. 

We had dinner and enjoyed being kid free (them) and laughing. Afterwards we went to the show. JIM DID NOT DISAPPOINT! I laughed for an hour straight. I could listen to him all the time. It happened to be General Conference that weekend also and of course he had to throw in some Mormon jokes and this big General meeting happening down the street. I can't wait for his tour to end so I can listen to it all over again. 

We will be seeing you again Jim!