Our First Thanksgiving

Our first Thanksgiving together was a blast! First, we ate a truly fantastic dinner with the Sorensens (& company). Highlights included my first-ever deep fried turkey, AND a brined turkey using the Pioneer Woman's recipe. Yum!! Later, we stopped by the Jacobsens for some dessert. I tried a sliver of all 5 pie flavors (and gained 5 lbs to prove it), and D ate way more than his fair share of my cousin Kimber's pumpkin roll.

It was a great day.

Just some photos of our day. Most of them taken by Daniel.

(He's kind of an awesome photog, huh?)

p.s. D has been so into classical music lately. Right now he's plugged into his laptop [with his big Skull Candy headphones, mind you] jamming to some symphony video he's watching on YouTube. I really hope it's for his music class...do you think they require you to learn to lead the music with a pencil?

*update* I must apologize for speaking prematurely. I have just been informed that it is not just some symphony, it is Beethoven's Sympony No. 7 in A Major. Go ahead, see what I'm dealing with right now.

give thanks.

(Daniel took this photo of one of his mom's cute decorations.)

I love this time of year. It gives me a chance to slow down and appreciate the little miracles I take for granted every day.

I have so much to be grateful for.

family

friends

a job

technology

our apartment

love

good food

health

faith

freedom

my husband

& so much more...

Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!

blizzard?

Just wanted to let you all know that D and I survived the "blizzard" that hit SLC last night. It may have been just a little over-hyped, but I've never loved snow so much in my life! We both got off of work early, and all of our classes at the U got cancelled. I was beyond excited. They told everyone to stay inside because of the storm but we went shopping anyway. We might have also done a few donuts in the parking lot. Just sayin'.

p.s. if you're feeling bummed about winter, I may have discovered a cure:

Starbucks Peppermint Hot Chocolate.

I'm serious. Go get some. Now.

(the caramel flavor is also recommended).

weekend fun.

D and I had a lot of fun this weekend. We both got off work on Friday and decided we needed to have a mini date night. We took a little road trip out to Draper to grab some In-N-Out burger (romantic, huh?) and it was so yummy! It's one of the few places I order a hamburger instead of chicken strips. Come to think of it, I don't think they even have chicken strips there...

After In-N-Out, we decided to pay a visit to IKEA while we were out that way. We saw online that they carry these cute red pillowcases that measure 26 x 26". You see, D and I bought these awesome euro-style square pillows for our bed when we first got married, and our vision was to have them covered in red pillowcases. You'd think they'd be easy to find, right? WRONG!! It's been 3 months, and we've turned up nothing that costs below $50.00. For. Each. Pillowcase. *sigh*

Well, our visit to IKEA just led to more disappointment. We saw the perfect pillowcases on a display bed, and the tag said $11.99. We were thrilled!! When we got down to the textiles area, we couldn't find them anywhere. Finally, D noticed a comforter in the same fabric so we went to check it out. It turns out, the pillowcases are only sold in a set with the comforter! And it was far above $11.99. We figured out that the tag we saw was the price for the actual pillow inside the case. It was a sad day. We had to buy one of the IKEA chocolate bars on the way out to cheer us up. It kind of worked.

What really helped to cheer us up was our quick stop at FYE on the way home where we purchased Napoleon Dynamite. We watched it when we got back to our apartment, and got some good laughs.

Although our date night was fabulous, we both kind of wished we had gone to see Highland High School play in the State Championship football game at Rice Eccles Stadium (D and I are both Highland Grads). Highland ended up winning in double overtime!! It would have been an exciting game. We're proud of our Rams!

Hope you all had a great weekend too!

sometimes class gets cancelled

And sometimes you have to cancel class yourself. Which is exactly what I did today. Oh...and last week too. (Shh - don't tell D!) In my defense, I was extremely productive without class distracting me.

Oh, and is it wrong that D and I have this song on full blast? Because we may or may not have just had a small dance party in our apartment.

[blank]

i've found myself saying something a lot lately, and that something is this:

"we should totally save up our money for [blank]."

nothing wrong with that, right? well, except for it's a different word in the blank every time i say it.

a few things i've put in that blank in the past little while:

1. invisalign (is that weird?)

2. touring europe

3. a mediterranean cruise

4. a nice house

5. a rainy day

6. a new wardrobe from anthropologie

7. christmas

8. a new (bigger) car for D

9. next semester when i can't work as much

10. a smart phone

i know, i know...it's going to be a while before any of that cool stuff gets to happen. i should probably at least graduate before i fill in that blank with anything other than a rainy day.

a girl can dream, though!

it's all in the details

i can't believe it's already been 3 months since our wedding!! it honestly feels like it was just yesterday. if you've gotten married, you know how fast that day goes by. we spend months and months stressing and planning, and everything has to be perfect. yet when the day actually comes, it's over all too quickly in a rush of emotion. that's why i'm so glad we had a wonderful photographer who captured all the little details that made our wedding special. here are some of my favorites.

it really was the perfect day from start to finish.

happy 3 months, D! i love you more than anything.

happy sunday

i can't begin to describe how wonderful it is to have the prophet in our ward.

we had the primary program today (which was wonderful all by itself) but the prophet's personal testimony at the end of it made it that much more special. he's a man of God, and he radiates the spirit every time he speaks. i don't think i breathe or blink the entire time he's standing at the pulpit.

our entire ward is silent when he speaks. it's as if even the smallest children know that he is an important man, and that he talks with God. and President Monson loves the children. in fact, he even sat on the stand with them during the program! right in the middle of his closing remarks, he completely turned away from the microphone to face all the kids sitting behind him, and talked directly to them. he told one girl he liked her shoes, and another boy that he looked like he'd be a great missionary. he told all of them how well they did in the program, and that we'd all be squirmy if we had to sit on the stand for the whole meeting. it was darling.

some of the things President Monson says are really quite hilarious. although his house on carter street (which is literally one street above our apartment complex) may be empty because he was "forced" to move downtown, he still keeps chickens there. i love that. i also love the cute things he says about Frances - how she's a "homebody" and begs him to let her stay home when he travels, and how she loves to go to swiss days. I also found out from the ward newsletter that I share a birthday with her!

today when President Monson spoke, he shared a story that really inspired me. Once when he and Frances were visiting members in a particularly poor area, he said the both left wearing levis and t-shirts since they had given every last pair of nice clothing they owned away to the members there. on a funny note, President Monson said he later returned to visit the members there and complimented a man on his suit, only to find out it had once belonged to him!

i love those personal stories, but i absolutely hang on to every word of advice he gives. he told the members of our ward to remember to be merciful, kind, and scatter good deeds everywhere we go. he told us to visit the weak and weary, and the less active. he said if they don't open the door to us the first time, try again.

probably my favorite thing he said today was this:

"people ask me what my motto is, and i say that i am quick to forgive, for the Savior was."

it reminded me to be a little kinder, do a little more, and forgive a little easier. i think our world in general could use that reminder, so i thought i'd share it.

love.

only thing i ever could need

only one good thing worth trying to be

and it's love.

- sara barellis

you know school is drowning you when...

...the coolest thing you can think of to blog about is your new printer.

(although it is kind of awesome.)

=)

ever felt like this?

i sure have.

I was feeling like this today in fact, when I placed my backpack on the passenger's seat to drive to school.

Apparently it weighs as much as a small child.

It set off the seatbelt sensor.

cabin continued

We had so much fun at Daniel's cabin this past weekend. We went up there on Friday and Saturday to celebrate mine and Emma's birthdays! That reminds me - I think I forgot to mention that I turned 21 on October 27th! Wahoo!

Anyway. The cabin is up on Pine Mountain, which is just past Oakley. Pine mountain has this darling "community" of cabins. I loved looking at all the different shapes and sizes. My family has never had a cabin, so it's always a novelty for me to go up there.

We did the classic cabin stuff. There was a lot of snacking, chatting, movie-watching, sleeping, and guitar playing. I always forget how good John and Daniel are at playing the guitar.

Oh, and we also cooked!! We made spaghetti, chicken, peas, and rolls for dinner, and breakfast the next morning was bacon, eggs, oatmeal, and toast. Yum yum!

This trip to the cabin also marked my very first four-wheeling adventure! It was so much fun!!

We drove on the trails winding around the cabins until we'd pretty much gone around them all. We ran into a really steep trail that led up to a ridge above all of the cabins, and of course Daniel and John had to drive up it. I was pretty sure that the ATVs were going to tip over backward, but I think I was just being paranoid. But I did have a reason to fret when we ran into the pine tree that had fallen right across our trail.

Let me set this up for you. So the trail was pretty narrow - wide enough for one ATV but not two. This made it so we couldn't turn around at all. On the left was pretty much a mountain, and on the right was one of those terrifying death-drops that you see in the movies. (Okay, maybe not that bad, but it was definitely something I didn't want to fall off of). When we first saw the tree, my fabulous husband decided he was going to drive OVER it. Not his best thought, and I'm sure I told him so. Next, John and Daniel decided they were going to pick the tree up and move it. This did not actually go so well. The final plan was to pull off the branches on the skinniest part of the tree (the top) and pile snow over it so we could drive across. Emma and I were not so convinced that this was a good idea. Why, you ask? Well, because the skinny part of the tree happened to be perilously close to the movie-style death drop!!

dun dun dun...

We love our husbands to death, but Emma and I were not about to be on the ATVs when the guys drove over the tree, so we walked across first. Watching the ATVs tip as the wheels went over the trunk was about all I could take. I thought for sure one of them was going to roll down the mountain. Luckily, we were all just fine. That is, until we ran into ANOTHER fallen pine tree not 30 feet down the same trail.

*sigh*

After we got over the second hurdle, there wasn't much more excitement except for Emma losing her glasses in a giant mud puddle. The ride was really relaxing. I couldn't believe how beautiful the mountains were. We saw some gorgeous views, but we all agreed that pictures just couldn't do it justice.