The Good Life

Here are a few photos from the last couple of months!

 Mark designed an awesome new nozzle for Lowe's! I was so excited for him that I made him take and show me it on the shelves!

Lorenzo likes to play Mario with us!

Trip to the aquarium!

We celebrated our 1 year anniversary of being engaged! We bowled our little hearts out and just enjoyed laughing with each other all day.

We had an FHE date downtown to go see Meet the Mormons. I really enjoyed it and it made me want to be a little better and do a little more to share the gospel with those around me.

One of Mark's Christmas presents was a sushi making class! We finally used it and it was so much fun! He is way better at it than me, but we had a blast.  So much sushi too!

I'm a Groupon lover! I found an awesome Groupon for $5 for 2 to go to Scales and Tails. It's a small shop that has different reptiles.  They do parties, classroom visits, and mini activities at their shop.  We spent 2 hours holding, learning, and being totally in awe of those creatures.  

Temple date nights are one of our favorites.  We were lucky to get to visit the Jordan River Temple one night.  At one point we had the Celestial Room all to ourselves.  We do our best learning and thinking in there together!

Sew, Sew, Sew

I have truly learned to love sewing! I spend most of my alone free time sewing.  I love shopping for fabric, deciding on designs, mapping it out, and then sewing.  Right now I'm just practice a few new techniques so my quilts aren't too difficult. I try to change it up with each one in some way so that hopefully I can find the perfect or my favorite way of doing quilts.  It's been challenging at times, but overall I really enjoy it.  I'm lucky I have a Mom on speed dial that will listen to my questions and even sometimes help me figure out how much fabric I need.  I also have a very supportive husband that doesn't get mad when he comes home from work and there is material, scraps, patterns, pins, etc. EVERYWHERE and dinner is half cooked in the kitchen. I hope that I can continue to learn and try a few new ideas out! 

Here are a few of my latest projects:

 I couldn't resist this cute elephant fabric.

 Then I had enough to make an elephant toy to go with it!

 My friend is having a little boy in a couple of weeks. She mentioned navy blue, green, and grey to me and I just knew I needed to make him something! I love the color combo on this one.

 My nephew Ki is a superhero fan so for his birthday he got a Superman quilt! This was my first striped quilt that I came up with the layout myself.  I was really excited it turned out well and fit together nicely.

 My niece, Tensley, turned 2! She is a firecracker and full of energy and personality. I felt that the best thing for her was a bright quilt. I had seen this material and love it. I tried a new pattern and although it turned out cute, I will NEVER make this one again. It was HARD! I almost cried...

 This is probably my favorite so far. A friend of mine is having her first and it's going to be an adorable girl. I saw this pattern on Pinterest and loved it. It looked easy enough that I could try it and not get too overwhelmed. I loved the fabric too. I was even brave and used heat and bond to do her name on the back. It took much longer than my normal stripe quilts, but this will be a go to for me for sure!

My neighbor had a little girl and I wanted to try out a receiving blanket tutorial I had seen on Pinterest.  I did it! I used the same tutorial for the elephant blanket above!

I have lots more ideas!!! Can't wait to get started!

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!