Easter Sunday

We slept in until 9:45 AM when we awoke by the phone ringing.  It was Stephen, my younger brother, he had just woken up also and in his morning voice told me he would be here soon.  I jumped up and started a hot shower.  I had full intention of being lazy all day, but that didn't mean I wanted to be too grungy.  I got out of the shower and dressed just in time for the LDS General Conference session. 

General Conference is a semi-annual even where the Prophet and apostles of the LDS church speak to the entire church membership around the world.  It can be attended in person at Salt Lake Temple Square's conference center, of viewed as it's broadcast through TV, radio, and internet.  The prophet Thomas S. Monson and the other apostles spoke mostly of Jesus Christ, His life, His atonement, and especially His resurrection.  They delivered wonderful messages that touched my heart, it was the perfect thing to help us celebrate the true spirit of Easter.

While watching conference I made our family's famous waffle recipe and syrup.  It was yummy, they are the kind of waffles that are more like dessert and so sweet you can't have more than two.  In between the morning and afternoon sessions of General Conference we dyed Easter eggs!  Kory and Stephen were NOT excited about this, but I kindly required them to participate anyway :)

Later in the early evening we had Easter dinner, courtesy of Honey Ham.  Fortunately, Kory had a gift certificate that was waiting for a special occasion to be used.  We had the most wonderful ham dinner, with garlic mashed potatoes, cinnamon glazed apples, and rolls.

Easter was the most perfect lazy/celebratory/uplifting family day and I loved every minute of it!

Easter Traditions

I really want to start some Easter traditions this year with our fun little family of two.  Does anyone have any great ideas?  Please tell me them!

Thanksgiving! Christmas!

Over Thanksgiving we went to Boise to see my family. We had so much fun! We played lots of Settlers of Catan with our family friends, the Ellsworths. We also went to the Botanical Garden's night aglow (or something like that) which was really pretty. It was so fun to see all of the beautiful lights and walk around with the family. On Thanksgiving day we went to Gooding to spend the day with my cousins, it was so fun to see their newly remodeled home and be able to visit. I love my extended family! When we got back to Boise later that night Kory, Stephen and I started out Black Friday shopping at midnight getting the boys some great things from the outlet mall. We did a little shopping on Friday day too, not the 6 AM type shopping but it was still fun.  We were supposed to head back to Utah on Saturday morning, but I was incredibly home sick so I was going to stay behind and ride back with Stephen.  Then the thought of my husband leaving me made me incredibly home sick for him!  He was feeling the same way, he came in the room and I told him I was going to go back with him only to have him say we could stay.  I seriously love my husband!

I loved Christmas this year. I totally got in the Christmas spirit right before Thanksgiving and started decorating. We added some red and green ornaments to our tree this year and I just fell in love with it!

After Kory survived finals he was able to open his gift from Mom and Dad, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2! He was so happy to be able to open it early so that he could enjoy his free time by playing it.  I love these pictures of him opening it, he is so fun.

We FINALLY took the "Just Married" decal my friend made us off Kory's back window, haha.  It's only been over a year.  At first we were going to take it off on a special day...like 1 month married, or 2 months, or maybe 6 months?  Then it just became a huge inside joke, until finally even our 1 year anniversary had passed and it had gone way too far to wait for a "special day."  Needless to say, we still took pictures and think it was pretty funny.

 We made a quick trip to Boise for Christmas before our holiday cruise with the Hjelm family.  Mom decorated the tree and it was beautiful.  We got to relax, and enjoy playing more Settlers of Catan (we love that game thank you Pearsons for the wonderful Christmas gift!).  Kory and Stephen took the big screen TV up to Stephen's room and played lots of Modern Warfare 2, haha.  We watched Home Alone 1 and 2.  We ate dinner at my favorite restaurant (which is always a must when we go to Boise).  We saw Avatar 3D, which was awesome!  Mom and I made a quilted baby blanket, it was so fun thanks for teaching me Mom!  We saw the Christmas lights on this amazing house.  We made cinnamon pull-aparts, and some special recipe to-die-for waffles Christmas morning.  Then we opened gifts, took some family pictures, and headed back to Utah.  Kory got the quilt Mom made for him, the surprise was the super soft material on the back.  I gave Kory some new pairs of jeans and stylish sunglasses.  He gave me some great winter boots, a sexy pencil skirt, and an iTunes gift card!  We feel incredibly blessed to have had such an amazing Christmas season.  We love out family and friends, I absolutely LOVED Christmas this year!!

Happy Halloween!

FYI This is the second post I have written today, read Kory's Birthday post below!

We had a blast celebrating Halloween!  Our dear friends did an amazing job planning the Halloween party, and we had a ball hosting is at our place!  I borrowed some great decorations from my Aunt Laura.  We put a spider web with a spider in the entrance.  We had purple lights strung across our family room and some orange light on the table.  We had spiders, a ghost, a skeleton, a witch, and pumpkins on display.  Then some super cute orange vases, and paper plates to really set the Halloween spirit.  I wish I had better pictures to demonstrate the atmosphere, but you'll just have to trust that it was awesome!  There were over 25 people in attendance, and everyone brought something yummy to share.  Cafe Rio style sweet pork salads/burritos were served, along with some amazing desserts!  We spent most of the time socializing and eating.  Then we got the whole group together to play a game.  Kory and I are always down for a good party, and we are so glad that we celebrated Halloween this way!  We can't wait until we live in a bigger place and can host even bigger parties with ALL of our friends!

Dinner was fabulous, and so were the desserts.  But, I was just so impressed with Stephanie's festive treats.  She's never done this before, look how cute they turned out!

We had a really great surprise, Kelli came over with the two cutest trick-or-treaters ever!  Hayden decided to eat his Halloween cupcake under the table since all of the people around made it kind of chaotic.  Some of the boys that were at our party had fun playing around with Hayden and Roman, and stuck them up on the fridge to be silly, haha.

The rest of our pics are random guest shots.  I know a some people were missed in the pics, but I'm glad to have what I do!  We had such a blast.

Valentine's Day...Sorry So Delayed

I haven't been updating (1)Our Valentine's Day was SOOOOO great! We slept in, yay! When we woke up I made heart shaped pancakes and cheesy eggs for breakfast, yummy! Then we just cuddled on the couch and watched a movie, which we never have time to do anymore so it was SO NICE!

Later in the afternoon we showered and got ready. Then we went to the Provo temple and did a session. It's the first time we have gone to the temple and haven't really felt rushed, it was just so peaceful and relaxing. The best way to celebrate our love and eternal marriage. When we went in to the temple it was freezing cold and snowing. Then when we came out it the sky was clear and crisp. The sun was setting and the snow was fresh. The temple fountains were going. It was so beautiful!

After the temple we went to Tucano's Brazillian Grill. It was so good. They had red table clothes, amazing food, and they gave us a bunch of chocolate covered strawberries and me a flower at the end of our meal! Yeah!

This was the best Valentine's Day I have ever had. It was THE BEST!