December 19, 2011

Today was my day off of work, so I got to go ice skating with my family! The pond freezes over more than 5 inches thick! My dad has pretty much mastered making the pond incredibly smooth and then he plows it with the four-wheeler. Seriously. We had a great time ice skating!

December 18, 2011

Today was a lot of fun. My family and Macy's boyfriend Brad came up to have dinner with us in our tiny little apartment. They still haven't seen it since we've had everything moved in and put away, plus, it was their turn for Sunday dinner. So instead of going down to their house, we invited them up to our house and packed 9 people into our living room. Haha. Eric and I made shrimp scampi and we all had a lovely dinner together. Then we played games, watched 'It's a Wonderful Life', and made cookie monsters... all in our tiny little house. Haha. We even had seating for everyone! It was a wonderful evening!

December 17, 2011

We make herbal tea fairly often in our fancy red tea kettle. On more than one occasion, Eric has gone to make himself a cup of tea and asked me if I want some. I said no, he made the tea, and then for whatever reason I changed me mind and decided I want some. And what had Eric done? He had already boiled extra water because he knew I'd change my mind. That's love. ;)

December 16, 2011

Family Night! Mom (Chris) bought us this pre-built gingerbread house to decorate! Pre-built. I've never heard of such a thing in my life. Well, we decorated it pretty cute! Eric did that whole tree... which was NOT pre-built. Very skilled, very skilled.

December 15, 2011

Tonight we went to see my dear friend Angela in her play 'Lil Abner'. She was by far the best actress up there. It was a hoot!

December 14, 2011

This handsome hunk of a man works at the Garden Restaurant on the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Ask anyone; he's the most attractive, funniest, most helpful waiter anyone's ever seen on this side of the rocky mountains. And man, look at those guns!!!

December 13, 2011

Family prayer. And have I ever mentioned how much I love it when Eric holds my hand?

December 12, 2011

Our washing machine is... special to say the least. It will wash the load, drain it, fill it with rinse water, slosh it around for a while... and then quit. So the end result is clean clothes in a tank of water. Luckily, Eric figured out early on that if you switch it to another cycle at that point, it will continue on through the spin cycle and most of the time the clothes don't come out dripping wet. But you know what, I'm just really grateful we have a washing machine for free. It came with the apartment and we get to use it until it falls apart. That's pretty great, special washer or normal washer.

December 11, 2011

Aside from 'Hook' these are two of Eric's most quoted movies. They've been favorites since he was little. So of course we watched them since it's Christmas time... and I was cracking up listening to Eric laugh throughout the movie and quote his favorite lines. What a kid. :)

December 10, 2011

My family took Eric and I to 'The Forgotten Carols' play!! I have loved this play since I was young. We had a tradition for many years of my dad reading the book to our family on Christmas Eve. Then we started watching the play on DVD, and this year we got to see the play live! It was wonderful! It was such a wonderful way to bring in the true spirit of Christmas and focus on the Savior. I laughed and cried... and cried a little more. I will always treasure that play with its message and music!

December 9, 2011

Still sick. But armed with daytime and nighttime cold medicine along with a good bag of cough drops, I'm ready to take on the world without sneezing every 3 minutes!

December 8, 2011

Totally sick. Last thing I knew it was just a sore throat. Then when Eric and I went to the temple today, my nose turned into Niagara Falls in the middle of the endowment session. It was so embarassing. I soaked the 4 tissued I had brought with me and then had to accept more tissues from the ladies on either side of me. I wanted to say to them, "I swear it wasn't this bad 30 minutes ago. If i had known I'd be a waterfall I wouldn't have come!" Somehow I survived as it continually got worse and when we got home Eric put me in bed, made me tomato soup and his hot lemon honey water remedy. What a sweetheart.

December 7, 2011

Funny story: last night I sat up in my sleep in the middle of the night, which woke Eric up. He asked what I was doing. I turned to him and moaned "I can't make her smile!!" I wonder if Eric had to try not to laugh as he convinced me I was dreaming and tried to get me to lie down. "It's okay it's just a dream." I laid back down and said, "I know but in my dream I can't get her to smile and I can't stop dreaming it!" Haha. I live, breathe, and dream FotoFly. For those of you who are still confused, I work at a portrait studio called FotoFly down in Draper where I chase kids around and make them laugh all day. Apparently this one was a tough customer. ;)

December 6, 2011

This is our lovely first Christmas setup! So much fun! Only 19 days till CHRISTMAS!!

December 5, 2011

New month. Time to update the budget! I know pride is not a good thing, but man, Eric and I are AMAZING budgeters! We laugh all the time about how fun it is to be poor together, but we're saving so much money and we still let ourselves have a lot of fun. Yay budget! (and I'm telling you... if you haven't heard of 'Rich on Any Income' and you're interested in budgeting... it's the smartest, coolest thing ever. I'll tell you all about it if you want.)

December 4, 2011

Drove home from Rexburg today. I've got to admit, I was a little sad to leave ol' Rexy... until I remembered how the winters are up there... then I wasn't so sad after all. Besides, Macy is moving back to Utah in like 2 weeks!

December 3, 2011

While we were in Rexburg we took a little trip down memory lane by going to the ice caves outside of town! The first time I went to the ice caves was in October... the weekend Eric and I met. So here we are back again with our friends: climbing, sliding, and crawling through the coolest set of ice caves ever. There are amazing crystal ice formations, smooth ice covers almost the entire floor of the cave, and there's a big ice waterfall back at the end of the cave! Awesome adventure!

December 2, 2011

This weekend finds us back in Rexburg, Idaho where Eric and I first met almost 14 months ago! We're up here this weekend with Macy's boyfriend Brad Rhees and our friend Zack Markarian. It's a special occasion! We came to see Macy in BYU-Idaho's production of 'The Drowsy Chaperone'! Macy was FABULOUS. We laughed and laughed and loved watching the talented cast! My sister was the best!! :)

December 1, 2011

There was an INSANE windstorm today. When Eric drove to school this morning there were semi trucks turned on their sides and we learned later that winds were hurricane strength and homes and businesses were torn to shreds. Gigantic trees were uprooted and most of Bountiful was without power for most of the day and into the night. Eric and I decided this would be an excellent opportunity to have an 'emergency preparedness' family home evening. So we broke out our new Coleman stove and made shrimp scampi.
WARNING: Do not try this at home. The now deseased Merrill family was not smart enough to know that you can't use a propane stove indoors. They both died of carbon monoxide poisoning and will never make that mistake again. waste of a perfectly good marriage. oops.