We took pictures with my family while we were in Colorado. All I have to say is, I LOVE MY FAMILY!!!!

So Christmas is my favorite time of the year. These are just some reasons why:

1. Christmas Decorations.
(And yes we have a really pretty wood-paneled wall, that makes our apartment look slightly ghetto.)

We have nowhere to put our stockings. So the wall it is.

Yes I might have gotten a mini tree for my desk at work. And I might have made mini presents for it:)

2. Christmas Music.
I have a hard time waiting until after Thanksgiving. There needs to be more time in between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

These are some of my favorites this season.

3. We finally have an apartment where we can kind of put lights up.
(The snow is not one of my favorite things, FYI. Not until Christmas morning.)

4. Delicious Treats.

Ice cream cake. That we demolished.

Anything flavored Eggnog.

Puppy Chow

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hot Chocolate. I love candy cane and mint truffle the best.

5. The scent of Pumpkin Spice.


6. Buying presents for those you love.

I am having a hard time keeping what I got for Brandon a secret. I can't wait to see his reaction(s) on Christmas morning.

7. I get to wear my furry boot slippers. Every. Single. Day.
What are some of your favorite things?!

...people in Price, Utah look at you like you are way ghetto.

(This deserved its own post, separate from the Thanksgiving post.)

Once again, Brandon and I had a little issue while driving to Colorado. We were 45 minutes West of Price and all of a sudden, the driver side window shattered. No glass was left in the window afterward. We have no idea what caused it to shatter, but I will tell you it was scary! I was driving, again. So I am officially done driving when we drive to Colorado. I feel like all the bad things happen to us when I am driving and when we are near Price.

Brandon cleaned me off and cleaned out the car. It was FREEZING. We drove for 45 minutes to Price with the window down in the shady, winding mountains.


No one in Price could fix our window within a week, so we decided to make our own window. We went to K-Mart and bought some tape. We then drove around and found some cardboard behind K-Mart. I spent the time picking the glass out of my hands from the explosion while Brandon created this.



With some plastic from a bag that was covering a new purse for my Mom, we created a window in our window.

The ride was longer than expected, we had to blow out our ear drums in order to hear the music since the plastic made so much noise, and we had to blast the heat. But at least it made us laugh.

Long story short, it would have been a LOT cheaper to fly.

The end.

Thanksgiving this year was awesome. We drove to Colorado to celebrate it with my family again this year. The best part about the holiday was that my Dad was able to join us. Last year at this time he was in the hospital because he had a stroke, so it was nice to have the whole family there.

So Thanksgiving was more like TONS-GAINING!! Haha. We couldn't seem to understand that you should stop eating when you are extremely full. We kept going and going!

We usually serve at the Salvation Army on Thanksgiving, but since we were all there for the big day, we decided to go to the Salvation Army the night before.
My friend April got to join us. She is a vegetarian so she was having a hard time with the clean up!!


On Thanksgiving Day it is a tradition to go see a movie. We saw the Blind Side. All I can say is wow. I thought this movie was amazing. I definitely recommend it. We were all so full after dinner, but Brandon wasn't of course. He downed an extra large popcorn all by himself.

We went to Cinzzetti's while we were in town. It is all you can eat Italian food and it is amazing!

Brandon and I got to go to the temple with my parents. This was super fun. It was our first time to the Denver temple and first time to a session with both of my parents.

We also did all our Christmas shopping for my family while we were there. This will be my first year away from home for the Holidays. Tear. But at least I have amazing in-laws that I can't wait to spend my first Christmas with!

November has been so fun, so it has gone by really fast.

My sister Lindsey came out to Utah with her girlfriends to visit for the weekend. We went on a hike...

We ate lots of food and of course had to get Sub Zero...

And then we went to the So You Think You Can Dance Concert! It was my birthday present from my sister and it was the best!! I wish it never ended.

Chris and Julia moved to Utah! They live less than a mile away from us! Chris is an amazing chef so I asked him to teach us how to make sushi!!

The preparation...

The rolling...

The aftermath! I am so proud.

I told my friend Kenna that I learned how to make sushi and she asked me if I could teach her. She put me to the test, but we did it!

We threw a baby shower for my friend Courtney who is having a baby boy in December!


We went to Idaho for Cameron and Kasey's wedding...

The newlyweds in the family...

Pretty cake...

The Marcum family sure knows how to get down when the music starts!

Here is a video for all you family members. I think they all are adorable. I didn't edit it, so it may be long, but it's worth it (I have more but I can't get them to download, so as soon as I figure that out I will add those here)...



We visited my Grandparents while we were in Idaho. Brandon found some awesome pants to wear four-wheeling...

I like this picture for some reason...

So I want to learn how to play the piano... AGAIN. I wish I never quit. I told my Grandma this, and a few months ago my Grandma gave me some "teach yourself how to play the piano" books. Well I discovered an amazing keyboard at her house and got this awesome idea. I went to her and asked, "Grandma, you know that keyboard you have in the basement?" And without hesitation, she went on about how this keyboard ended up at her house, and before I knew it, she had asked me to take the keyboard from her house. It was perfect! So this is now a picture of me during my spare time. It makes me so happy!

It was my birthday on the 18th :)

I worked all day (10 hours). But when I came to work in the morning, I discovered balloons and a nice card that everyone signed!

They also got me ice cream since I am not a cake fan. YUM! (cute napkins huh?!)

My family wanted to make sure that everyone at my work knew it was my birthday so they had flowers delivered bright and early!! And when I got home, I discovered flowers from my Hubby as well!
Brandon spoiled me and made me feel so special on my big day.

He filled my car with 24 balloons. Inside each balloon was a reason why he loved me, and attached to each balloon was a present.

:)

It is a tradition in my family to take a picture on your birthday with all your presents surrounding you...

We went to dinner at Carrabbas... compliments to my parents and their gift card:)

We were very full. And then dessert came, and we licked the plate...

Brandon was sneaky and went to Dairy Queen and got me an ice cream cake! And he also got trick candles! Some how there was room for this...

One of my presents from my parents was 24 of my favorite chapsticks! Call me lame or whatever, but I have used the same chapstick/lip gloss since I was in middle school. It is my favorite. It is seriously the only thing with somewhat color that I can wear and Brandon will still kiss me with it on. This flavor is now discontinued, so my Mom helped me stalk up for a few centuries:)

So if you go to Tucano's website and sign up, they send you a coupon for your birthday for a free meal. So maybe we went and celebrated my birthday again:)

And Brandon loved the meat of course!


My boss owns part of a gym here in Utah called Throwdown, so he gave us tickets for the fights last weekend. We decided to take Matt for his first live fighting experience since he loves UFC and all.
The last fight of the night was Josh Burkman, who knocked out his opponent within 1 minute of the first round. It was sweet!!


I went and saw New Moon! I didn't drag Brandon to it this time. He seemed pretty miserable last year when I made him go to Twilight with me. So I went with 2 girlfriends on Saturday morning in our PJ's!! That way we didn't have to deal with all the 14 year olds on their cell phones:)
So I am DEFINITELY an Edward fan in the book. But this movie made me a Jacob fan for sure. Edward is so nasty in this movie. And Jacob is just so sweet and will do anything for Bella. Edward looks like he wears lipstick, has a hairy chest, and he is disgustingly skinny. Jacob is hairless, buff, and tan. However, the scenes of Jacob ripping off his shirt were way over the top. The movie made the book seem so much more for sex appeal than it really was in the book.
Overall, I loved it. I will for sure see it again. But I wish that Hollywood didn't have to mess with the movie so much.

Now on to Colorado for Thanksgiving!!!