Grandma Urry

On February 24, 2015 Mark and I got calls and texts from our family that Grandma Urry was not doing well.  We had heard this before, but this time it seemed much more real.  We quickly jumped in the car and headed to South Ogden where she was staying.  Almost the entire Urry family (which is huge) had gathered around Grandma to sit with her during her last few hours.  It was a sweet experience as we told stories, read scriptures, laughed, and held her hand.  She was an extremely loved woman.  At 5:22 pm she passed. It was simple and peaceful.  She was surrounded by those that loved her.  We all felt a sadness that we had lost her, but were so grateful that she would be reunited with her husband who had died 35 + years before.  She was almost 91 and truly an amazing daughter of God.  

 In the short time that I knew Grandma Urry I was able to listen to many stories. Me being the newest member of the family meant that I was excited by the stories and hadn't heard them before.  She talked about her sweet husband and when they first met, about Mark when he was younger, being a mother, about my father in law, about everything.  I am so grateful I was able to hear those stories from her point of view and be able to laugh through them all with her.

 One of my favorite stories is when she won a blue ribbon award for a prize winning cake...which she made from a box!

I am so grateful for the gospel.  Grandma was able to be with Mark and I in the temple when we were sealed for time and all eternity.  I loved seeing her sweet face smiling for us that day.

Although I'm so sad that Grandma won't hold our babies and tell my children stories of their Dad and Grandpa, I am extremely grateful to have another angel in Heaven looking out for them.

Valentine's Day 2015

We are still enjoying married life! Our day to day lives are pretty simple, but always entertaining. We enjoy spending our free time together.  Weekends are my favorite more than ever these days.  

Valentine's Day this year was wonderful.  Mark took off on Friday and came to class with me. He brought in Lorenzo to show off to the class. They were in heaven. They asked questions for almost an hour.  My room Mom put on a wonderful party.  Waffle bar, games, photo booth. She is amazing. It was nice to share the day with Mark.  

On Saturday we didn't really have any set plans. We had a lazy morning, a drive to Silver Lake, lunch at Lonestar Taqueria, movie, sushi for dinner, and were home to snuggle by 6. It was a great all day date which ended in flowers and my new favor ice cream treat. I couldn't ask for a better Valentine!

New Year's Eve

Mark was born on New Year's Eve! I think that's why he loves to have so much fun! We had a great time celebrating this year! We both woke up super early and I was so excited to give him his gifts. He got some movies, shorts, and he gets to drive an exotic car around a race track. Now to some people that wouldn't be a big deal, but we are talking about Mark here! He was THRILLED! I was so glad that I found something to surprise him with. 

My sister surprised Mark with a terrarium for Christmas. He has been talking about wanting a snake for the longest time, and I finally decided to surprise him with one! She got the supplies and Mark spent the morning picking a snake out. 

Meet LORENZO!

Later we had a wonderful family dinner and then a little New Year's Eve party with some extended family. We sat around and laughed, ate, talked, and played with the kids. It was a long day, but a great one. As you can see Mark and I showed up in our finest!

The next day we kept the fun going by going to the gun range! Mark's aunt, uncle, and cousin were in town so we had some fun with them. It was nice to go out and do something, even if guns aren't always my first choice. The picture of the target and gun are what I did. They played with a lot more guns and way bigger ones. I'm not quite ready for that just yet!

The year finally came to a conclusion...2014 was AMAZING! It brought so many wonderful surprises for both Mark and I. We have loved the ups and downs and have had so much fun doing it all together. We look forward to 2015!

Christmas Break

It was our year to spend Christmas break in California! It was so nice to be able to share some of our silly traditions and craziness with Mark. We love Christmas at our house!

Buffalo Wild Wings with the family! 1 year of free wings is now up :(

 These two don't take pictures seriously anymore!

 All my babies!

 Look who stole my phone!

 Allison and I got Mark this shirt for Christmas. He wore it to our BFF lunch!

 Christmas Morning...yes we look tired

 Mark spoiled me! He did such a good job!

 Before we left Petaluma we had to stop in for some chocolate dipped cones!

 My parents decided that since Mark loves brownies that he should have a brownie cake for his birthday. We had fun doing an early celebration. Mark got the new pan he has been wanting and a Chicago Cubs toaster!

 Once we got back to Utah we were surprised to see that Santa had visited our house!! We are so spoiled!

I was spoiled and Santa and Mark worked together! Mark took a beautiful and HUGE picture of the Draper Temple (where we were married) and Santa helped him frame it for me! I also got a ton of cool sewing things! 

We had a great Christmas in California!

Of course I was a total slacker and didn't take any pictures of our Urry Christmas! We had the whole gang over to our house on Sunday so we could exchange our presents. It was fun to see everyone. I knew it would be hard for Mark to be away from his family on Christmas, but I didn't realize how much I would miss seeing them on Christmas. I got a little teary eyed as we talked to them on the phone and I realized we were the only ones not there :(. We will love our Urry Christmas in Utah next year!

12 Dates of Christmas

Mark and I were very excited to celebrate our first Christmas together! Mark came up with the idea of doing 12 DATES of Christmas this year and I ran with the idea. I married a man who loves presents so I had fun giving him a present for each of our dates.

I really didn't want to turn this into a huge money sucker, but more fun activities we could do every day to celebrate the season and more importantly spend quality time together.

I decided to have a kick off party to our date nights! We made snowmen pizzas, had a sleepover in the living room, and watched movies.

Date #1- Temple Square Lights

We did this last year and it was the highlight of my Christmas season. When I was singled I always hoped that someday I could come see the lights with my hubby. Lucky for me, he is willing to go see the lights with me!

Date #2- A Christmas Story

Mark had really been wanting to watch this movie and I had never seen it all the way through! Since our mattress was still in our living room from our sleep over it was the perfect snuggle date.

Date #3- Gingerbread Houses

I decided to go homemade on this one! It was my first time and I was surprised with how well they turned out. We had fun decorating and eating candy together.

Date #4- Elf Scavenger Hunt

Gardner Village decorates for the season and they have elves (scary ones) everywhere. They have a handout that asks you to look for different elves around the property. It was freezing, but we searched for them all and window shopped.

Date #5- Delivering Cookies

I baked and decorated cookies and then we dropped them off to some friends and family together that night. It was a nice chance for us to see a few people before the holidays.

Date #6- Road Trip and Christmas Music

We headed to California this day, so our day/night was filled with chatting, snacks, and even a few Christmas songs.

Date #7- Family Party

Every year my Aunt throws an awesome Christmas party with the help of all her daughters. We love getting to see our extended family. Last year Mark took a pie to the face because he was the new guy. Luckily this year he just got to eat food and play with the kids.

Date #8- Hot Chocolate and Family

Now that we were in California our dates included family sometimes. Since we had been traveling and were exhausted that night was just a relaxing night hanging out with family and sipping hot chocolate. 

Date #9- San Francisco

Last year when Mark came to meet my family we had a wonderful day in the city. This year we enjoyed another warm day in the city. I'm not sure how we have lucked out with such good weather both years. We explored Union Square this year.

We were also greeted by a sweet monk who spoke little English. He gave Mark a bracelet, then me, told us to write our names in his book and pick something to pray for. Then he told us that would be $20??!!! What? You are wanting me to pay $20 for a prayer?? How about $10. So we kept the bracelets and hopefully have some prayers for love and hope coming our way!

Date #10-Christmas

Since some of my family had to work on Christmas we did an early Christmas together. We celebrated on the 23rd and opened all of our presents! 

Date #11- Christmas Lights

We went with my parents and my sister's family to go see some Christmas lights. There is one neighborhood not far from us that know what they are doing with lights! The one house actually was on ABC and won $50,000 for being so awesome!

Date #12- CHRISTMAS MORNING!!!!

Christmas finally came! Mark and I spent the morning opening our presents to one another. I was spoiled rotten! Then my sister and her family came over to have breakfast and open our Santa presents! We spent all morning in our PJs lounging. It was a very low key Christmas day!

We had so much fun celebrating our FIRST Christmas together! I think this might become a new tradition for us. I seriously recommend it to everyone. Even if you have kids, I think you can make it family dates with 1 or 2 special husband and wife dates too!

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.