A Christmas Novel

It is time to recap on our awesome Christmas vacation! For us Christmas started on Thursday. Dalan and I did our own Christmas and opened presents together. We ate waffles, bacon and eggs. It is so much fun to spoil Dalan, but he spoiled & surprised me as well. He bought us a new laptop! And for me the prettiest shirt and cardigan, earmuffs to survive Logan's cold air and the book & movie The Help. Which he may have regretted when I was a super boring passenger as I read & finished The Help on our way to Idaho on Friday :) I tried to be fun, it just kept pulling me back. We got to Idaho in pretty good time and it was so great to see my family! I met up with some of my friends at Moxie Java to reconnect and I realized how long it had been since I had seen them. It was so much fun to chat and catch up on each others lives. Those girls are friends that will last a life-time. P.s. If you want to try a great winter drink at Moxie, try the hot cholocolate with the roated marshmellows in it MMmmmm. So good. but I can't remember its official name . . . .

Christmas Eve we had a huge shopping day. The boys went one way and my mom and I in another. It was so much fun to go shopping with my mom and find great presents for my brothers and sisters.

That may have been one of my favorite days! That night we had a great Christmas Eve dinner with my Grandma Gayle. Wrapped some presents and we all ran around excited for Santa to visit.

Christmas day was so great. I got up super early to beat my brothers and sisters up, got ready for church and Dalan and I went to the house to wake them up. It was so fun being there as they first woke up Christmas Day. Everyone was so excited that Santa had come. My family's Christmas tradition is that we had to sing Christmas songs to wake up my parents before we could leave our room. It is hilarious. Singing is more shouting and it is so fun. Santa bought me some dang cute boots and a new pair of jeans! and brought Dalan a nice wool coat he had his eye on.

We went to church and they had a great Christmas presentation. Came home and played with our new toys and left for Mountain Home for an amazing Christmas dinner and more present opening! And a dance competition with the new Just Dance 3! My awesome sister Grace got me a cute scentsy with Blueberry Cheesecake aroma. I love it! It has been going all day :) I also got tickets to Lady Antebellum!! Ah! I can't wait!

Monday we went Bowling! It was so much fun to be with everyone cheering and laughing. My Mom is the champion bowler followed by Dalan and my Dad. I am somewhere farther down the line . . . . It was so much fun.

Tuesday was our last day and it made me sad. We packed up our stuff and after lunch we headed back to Utah. It was so much fun being with my family. They are the best ever. I can't wait to go back up to visit for Grace's baptism! We are so excited for her.

Our Weekend.

This past weekend is worth blogging about. I got to spend the entire weekend with Dalan and it was so great. Friday we were a tiny bit spontaneous and we bought a car that Dalan had his eye on! It was a little crazy. Now, realize that I say spontaneous, but it wasn't that spontaneous. It was just that I never imagined buying a car. We had been looking and preparing for a while but it seemed a little surreal to me. Neither of us had ever gone through the "car buying process" before. But we love our new purchase. It is a 2007 Nissan Altima, and I am fast forwarding 14 years into the future with all of its fancy gadgets :) It is so nice to have something with good gas milage. This picture below is what our car looks like . . . but is not our car. Our car is sitting outside in the cold and in the wind. Yes. I am that lazy right now, and nice and warm in our house. I figured google image search would do.

I am loving it!

Saturday we were able to drive our new car to Twin Falls, Idaho for one of my best friends wedding! It was so beautiful. I was also lucky enough to take pictures of the newlyweds! It was so fun and I was so glad I was able to steal Dalan away from work for a second day in a row :)

I have known the lovely bride since Kindergarten. We have literally grown up together.

The pictures turned out great and I can't wait to hand over the copies to her.

I love this picture! She looks gorgeous.

I hadn't been to the Twin Falls Temple since its open house and it is so beautiful.

Now, we are about to have our own Christmas and start packing for Idaho! I can't wait or a Christmas in Kuna :) Merry Christmas Everyone!

Thinking Christmas

Now that I can think stop thinking about the human ear and voice I can focus a little more on Christmas! I made myself refrain from wrapping presents all weekend, until each final was over and then came home to wrap all the gifts in the beautiful paper I found the second it was over. I also refrained from blogging, and yes that actually applied to almost the whole semester. There are just too many distractions. But I am free now to live a normal life for a few weeks and I have to share pictures of our gorgeous tree :)

I bought these pinecones for a Thanksgiving day centerpiece and then wrapped some twine around it to re-purpose it to our amazing tree.

I love how it turned out, very simplistic, country and very much our style.

This star is my favorite. I spotted it online and I could not find anything around that was like it. It seems like the style is leaning away from a Christmas Tree Topper, but I feel like the star is a very important part of Christmas and the true meaning that it brings. Plus it is just so darn cute and rustic.

I also made these sweet stars for the tree. They are made out of applesauce and cinnamon. They were so easy and I loved how they turned out.

And this is how I see our master piece of a tree as I sit on the couch watching the pretty lights. And, yes. I am in love with this tree. I think it is the best ever.

And I cant leave out our stockings. Of course I couldn't help but add some sparkle to my stocking. Now it is easy to tell which one is mine & which is Dalan's.

Here is an up close view of my jean design. Wrangler might want to hire me. ha ha

Anyways. Thanks for being so patient as I go on & on about our tree and our stockings. Christmas is just so much fun. And I love decorating for the holidays.
May your days be Merry & Bright.

She believed.

Alright! Finals are finally over. So far, I have gotten great scores back and I am super happy. I love this quote that I found on lovely pinterest. (isn't it the best?) It was great motivation for this week and for life in general.

Have I mentioned that I am so happy to be done with this semester? This Christmas break will be the longest break from school I have had in a very long time and I am going to capitalize on every second of it! So far I have cleaned the kitchen, done laundry, cleaned the living room, wrapped presents and all sorts of great stuff.
This semester although a little crazy and super busy has been fun. I took, Assessment and Treatment of Communicative Disorders in the Pediatric Population - it was a pretty good class. A lot of what we learned I had learned through working in ABA therapy already and a lot was expansions from it.
Audiology, a very informative class. I learned a lot about audiology and a lot of testing. Speech Science it followed Auidiology a little bit, but I learned a lot about the voice, how it works, pathologies and other great things. Space Exploration, long and boring but I passed and if I ever go to space I will know a few things. & lastly, Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in Communicative Disorder. This was probably my favorite class. It was very interesting to learn about different cultures and their views.

So even though I sometimes complain about school, I really love it and I have learned a lot & I have met a lot of great people and great professors.

My Brag Session.

Well. Blogging has been put on the back burner, as well as many, many, many other things this semester. It has been so busy! However, after all of the studying and reading and lectures it all paid off last week when I got my test score back from an entire test of True/False questions from my Basic Audiology class. I feel a little weird posting this, but seriously, this will never happen again, and it has never happened before! So since this is my blog I figured I would think of it less of bragging and more as documenting. Proof that maybe I am learning something from these classes :)

Above is the email I recieved back from my test with a score of 98%. And as great as that is, the best part is that I ranked #1 out of the 36 smartie pants girls in my class, and the one boy who is also smart. Awesome right! I was so excited. Dalan took me out to dinner at El Parral to celebrate and we had a great time chatting and being together. He is so great!

Moving on from school, we have set up our adorable Christmas tree and pulled out our Christmas decorations too. It makes me so happy to sit on our coach cuddling under a blanket sipping hot chocolate and looking at our tree sparkle. I just love this Christmas season. I will have to blog about the cute ornaments I made and our new tree topper one of these days :)

Happy Sunday! Good Luck on finals fellow college kids!

the boy.

I haven't blogged in forever! but while the husband is away the wife will blog . . . .

Here is a little bit about my amazing husband, Dalan Rees as part of the Marriage Series. (finally) Dalan is such a great husband. He is always there to make me laugh and to tell me everything will be ok. I love sitting in the middle of his truck, singing old country songs with him & enjoying each others company. Have I said Dalan is great? He really is.

Here is Dalan on his mission to Honduras. I love this picture! And I love hearing all of his mission stories. They are so fun. I am crossing my fingers that when the temple is finished there we will make a special trip :) He has a great testimony that has strengthened mine many times.

Here are a couple pictures of Dalan in Nebraska. We loved working in Nebraska & we made such great friends there. Dalan is trailing the bulls out in this picture. Dalan is such a hard worker and that is probably why I am able to write about him right now because he is still out working. But that is one of the reasons I married him. When we were dating he would take off work from one job to go to work with his dad. I think he would go crazy without work.

Here is Dalan roping. The brandings in Nebraska were a blast, it was a huge party. Dalan is so patient and a great teacher. He has tried to teach me to do lots of things and I have succeeded in some of them ;)

Dalan with his sweet puppy. She loves him so much & always cuddles when she can. It is so fun to have Pepper in our little family. Dalan has taught her a lot, and she is great with the cattle.

And lastly Dalan at graduation! I am so proud of him! He is just the smartest guy. Dalan is so great at solving problems, let them be at work, on my sewing machine, school, me in general, cooking whatever :) I have every bit of confidence that Dalan can do everything. (another reason why I married him)

Rhinestone Cowgirl ;)

Due to broken legs & broken tractors I was chosen to go up to Idaho to help move cattle. Although I didn't help at all, mostly because I don't like going fast on top of a horse, it was a lot of fun. I got to spend 100% of the day with Dalan and that hasn't happened in a long time, and I loved it!

Here are some pictures of the pastures. I wish I could have snagged more of us moving cattle but it rained a ton! & I didn't want to ruin my camera or have lasting proof of me looking like a drowned rat. not cute.

The rain made it cold, and the wind made it a little colder. My jeans didn't dry until we got home & I was so very very sore. BUT the rain did prevent my allergies from going crazy and making me miserable. It also made for these great bright pictures S.O.C.

starting early

I am so excited this year to decorate for Halloween. Last year by the time I had thought about decorating for Halloween it was like the 20th of October & when trick-or-treaters came to our door we raided our cabinets and handed out bags of microwave popcorn. This year I have been looking for things to make and decorate & the door was first. Between studying I let myself take a break to make this.

I like how it turned out. Simple but still fun. It was originally going to be poofy all the way around . . . until I found out that would take 12 yards of tulle. That's when I decided to reinvent it a little.
Happy Fall & Halloween everyone :)

More Blogs :)

So, here is the new blog that I have created for Celebrate Autism! http://celebrateautism.blogspot.com/

I think it turned out well, soon, someday it will be more busy than it is and things will be full speed ahead :)

Our Meet Cute.

The first stop through "The Marriage Series."
I feel like this is such a big topic for one post! I have literally written this post over and over again, trying to make sure it is portrayed just right. I also don't want to overstep my bounds as I write, and write too much for this big blog world. Something that I know my hubby will appreciate.

Where we met: The short story is we met Country Dancing. The longer but more accurate story is that we met at a Poncho Party. Something that I love is that I had always said we met country dancing but Dalan has always stuck with the fact that we met at that party. Even though we didn't talk to each other there, the impression had been made ;) I love when he tells me his point of view from that party. The party itself was not great, but I am so glad that I went. And because we had met before it made it all the more exciting when I saw him at the Fun Park on country swing night. He was the cutest cowboy I'd ever seen. This is where the flirting began. Where I made him dance with me & also the last time we would ever go country dancing. Which is when my friends knew I was gone, since I went religiously twice a week.

From there we dated for a love struck six months before Dalan completely surprised me with the big question. . . .
but you'll have to wait a little longer for that story :)

motivation

Such great advice for exactly what I needed this week. I am playing with this idea to start blogging my progress with Service Learning. It is a group I joined last January at Utah State, it requires that I do 400 hours of service and also a capstone project before I graduate. Plus looks GREAT on grad school applications or job applications. You have read a little bit about my volunteering at Legacy House Assisted Living but that is about it. This week I have had a couple meetings about my capstone project and I have found that there are too many things to do, too many ideas. Today I decided which one to do, such a relief, kinda. It is called Celebrate Autism! and is a group designed for the siblings of autism. It will provide them with some time to get attention, learn a tiny bit about autism (since I personally think they are the ones who would know the most about their sibs) and have a ton of fun. We will plan activities, play games and let them make friends with some other kids who completely understand. But as we plan this I am getting super nervous. Cross your fingers for me that people come. . . . and so many other things that could go wrong go at least semi-smoothly. So maybe I'll start reporting more about service maybe I won't . . . ha ha we'll see how things go. I do know that I am super excited to start this project and I really really hope that it all goes well.

Double King Size Reeses Peices

Everyone loves Reeses Pieces & when I found out how to make them I had to try it!

It was so much fun & super easy. & also super delicious.

Plus, these are some massive Reeses Pieces. And although my taste buds are loving it my tummy is wishing I would have spent a dollar on 2 smaller ones instead of having a dozen jumbo pieces of greatness. I better start sharing . . . volunteers?

The Marriage Series

I have been reading "The Marriage Series" from a couple of my friends blogs & it is getting addicting. I love reading about their stories. When I read their stories I think of mine & Dalan's story and I just love it. So, I think I am going to jump aboard & as you read our story you can have fun remembering the details of your own. These are the things it will include . . .

1. The Big Picture (When did you meet? Start dating? Get engaged? etc...)
2. The Boy (Who is he? Where did he grow up? What does he like to do?)
3. The Girl (Tell us a little about yourself.)
4. The Love Story (How it all began: how you met, first date, first kiss, how long did you date? etc..)
5. The Moment You Knew He Was the One (How and when did you know?)
6. The Proposal (How did it happen? Was it a surprise? Do you have any pictures?)
7.The Announcements/Invitations (What did they look like? What pictures did you include?)
8. The Rings (Tell us about it! did you pick it out? did he? pictures! tell us about his ring too.)
9. The engagement/bridal pictures (Let's see em! Which are your favorites?)
10. The colors (What color scheme did you use? Why did you choose those colors?)
11. The dress (Was it what you always imagined? What was your favorite part? White or ivory?)
12. The tux (What did he wear?)
13. The bridesmaids (What did your bridesmaids wear? Did they choose or you choose?)
14. The ceremony (Where did you get married? What was your favorite part?
15. The reception (Where was it located? Show us some pictures! )
16. The cake/food (What did your cake look like? What food did you serve? Did you get to eat it?)
17. The best and worst (What was your favorite and least favorite part of the day: can be anything.)
18. The honeymoon (Where did you go? )
19. The marriage (The wedding was great, but it doesn't end there. What are your thoughts on marriage? Include the most recent picture of you and your significant other and any other thoughts)

Start looking for these posts! I'm excited to have a new prompt, and I hope you will have fun reading our love story.

Dalan's Birthday!!

Happy Birthday Dalan!! Yesterday was Dalan's 26th birthday! I let him open his first present that morning, Ice Road Truckers Most Dangerous Episodes. Yeah, we are cool like that. And he was able to watch it at lunch, since school has stolen our lunch times together.

When I got home I started baking his awesome birthday cake, and making my mom's famous meatballs and rice. Dalan opened his presents, the handsome shirt and vest, a list of 101 things that I love about Dalan & an ipod adapter for the tractors sealed with a Taylor Swift card (I want to be her when I grow up)! We grabbed Unstoppable at Redbox and watched it as we waited to change water and I did homework. It was a lot of fun to spend the day spoiling Dalan. He is definitely deserving of it. Dalan is the best husband ever. He does so much for me and is so sweet and selfless. He can always make me laugh and feel better about my day. I love you Dalan!

Best. Trick. Ever.

Source: craftylittlegnome.blogspot.com via Timari on Pinterest

The microwave has always been one of my least favorite chores, until I learned this trick from Pinterest. I seriously had so much fun cleaning my microwave today. So here is what you do. And P.S. maybe everyone else in the world knows this, you can just skip all this and laugh at my ignorance. But also, if you did know this, shame on you for not sharing this with me! Ok. What you do is get a bowl. Put water and vinegar in & heat in the microwave for 5 minutes. Then wipe everything off. Easiest thing ever. Try it.

*update. my mom totally knew this.

Wow!

First off I am so surprised at how many people voted! Thanks so much for the help! Today I printed off all three of the pictures in 8x10 form and I love seeing my photos in print! It is something that I should do more often. So the polls say that I should use the Dragonfly & the Turtle Taxi but I printed the Baby Swallows anyway . . . this is bad. I know that I should just trust everyone, right. but I just love love the Swallows. Something about the composition and the shadow above and that little fuzzy head have me trapped. ha ha I think I'll try to convince them to let me do three instead of two . . . or maybe I'll have Dalan enter one, is that lying? Ok. Just kidding. I know I'll have to leave one behind. I feel guilty though. Kinda like when you watch Toy Story & suddenly you want to go and find your old toys or things and make sure you give them more attention. It's like that.

Second. Our Vacation was perfect. It was so nice to be with Dalan & to get away for a while. Wednesday we walked around the little expensive shops and laughed at the variety of tourists. I wish I had taken pictures. Some of my favorites that we saw were the "Jackson Hole Snooki" & a big bad biker man carrying his lap dog in his fanny pack.

Thursday morning we explored further and went to the Teton Village & then to through the national park where we saw the Tetons.

That night we saw the Bar J Wranglers. It may have been the most fun thing that we did. They fed us a great dinner and they are hilarious as well as very talented musicians! I would recommend them to anyone!

Friday we were able to Raft the Snake River being guided by Dalan's old roommate, Marc. It was a ton of fun! Scary & Cold. But so so much fun!

After the rafting trip we were headed home back to nice beds and our own pillows & a warm shower. It's good to be back but it was great to leave.

Time for you to Vote!

I need to choose the best two photos out of these three. I just can't do it, I love them all. So, I need your help! I created a little poll over to the right. Pick your top 2 favorite & it will help me a bunch :)

I used to always enter my favorite pictures from the year into our county fair in Idaho & this year I am moving that tradition to Box Elder County!

I love walking through & looking at the pictures, it always made it so much fun to see a few of mine in the mix.

I can't wait to make prints & see these live! Wish me luck!

Vacation Eve

Today our vacation eve & the butterflies are here. I cannot wait to get on the road. Before that can happen though I have made today all about checking things off my list. I am refusing to come home to anything but a sparkley clean house. I think a clean house to come home to makes it not so scary or as disappointing to come back from a fun, relaxing vaca. That's the goal anyways, I already know I won't want to come back, but I guess I'll deal with that as it comes.

So here is what I have accomplished so far . . .

• cleaned out Dalan's truck
• dishes
• laundry & laundry & more laundry
  
• some packing
• ran a mile
  
• got my new phone in the mail :)
  

What I have left . . . .

• finish packing
• shower
• go to Dalan's championship softball game!
  
• vacuum
  
• mow the lawn
• find something for lunch
• buy snacks for the road
• buy a disposable water proof camera :)
  
• activate my new phone

Busy Bees

Well, I have finished my Anatomy & English class, bunko at my house went successfully (& I plan on posting about that eventually . . . but no time now). We are pretty busy here lately. Yesterday I helped Dalan move straw bales. Today he finished it up while I was at work (also another post to be made) and burned the field and I couldn't drag him in the house to eat if I wanted to.

So we are going to have a picnic in the tractor & I'm getting excited. I am going to pre-apologize though. I have been waiting for Dalan to be ready for lunch and have been running around helping him on and off since noon & I am so excited for lunch.

Which is my excuse for having a mini photo shoot of our food. Our simple and easy lunch. Really there is no reason to take pictures of sandwiches and chips & snacks. It's embarrassing really.

But when you are this hungry it's just how it goes. It's the only thing I can do to keep from snacking on chips, and eating all of the grapes I bought today.

yummy. I can't wait to eat this. Happy August everyone!

Bunko!

Bunko is being hosted by yours truly this month. I am totally psyched. I love having people over & I love parties. Plus, only a hand full of lovelies have seen our cute little house.

The plans are starting to come together. The prizes are completely ready, the desserts are simple & delicious.

The house will be cleaned & hopefully our little friend the mouse will be captured by then.

I will definitely have an after-party blog post to ensure you know exactly how it goes.

I shouldn't post this yet, because I may or may not have given a sneak peak to some prizes. but I think I will anyways.

This bowl is filled with a piece of a prize. Can you tell what it is? At first glance Dalan thought they were cigarettes. I assure you, although this week has been rather stressful, the only bad habit I have indulged in is eating too many cookies :)

* I will show you the other 8 prizes later :) *

A Stressful Story

As we turned off the lights to go to bed a rather large spider raced across the floor. Dalan tried to get it, but it was dark and the little, but scary guy was fast. I knew that I would find that spider again in the morning when Dalan was in Idaho & too far away to come home & smoosh it. I took a deep breath & tried to forget about it as I drifted off into my dreams. The next morning I had basically forgot about the spider. Little did I know I had much bigger problems up ahead. As I worked on some more craft projects (more about those later!) I came face to face . . . ok fine. I came toes to nose with a mouse! Ah! it was everything a mouse is supposed to be, creepy & small & with beady little eyes except for instead of scampering in the fields it was in my house! I tried to make it escape out the back door, but it was all in vain as it ran behind the washer & dryer. Now there are traps galore & I wear my snow boots to do laundry. Does anyone have any tricks up their sleeves that you could share? I am going crazy. I am very hopeful that the little rodent came through the door & not through a wall . . . .

Pepper's new friend.

This is where it all started. Once upon a time when Pepper was just a little ball of soft fuzz there lived a cat. This cat was rather mean and territorial (to Pepper, not really to people, I don't think) She wouldn't let Pepper sit on the porch & she would scratch Pepper's poor little black nose.

Because of this experience, when Pepper first caught sight of Heather's new kitten she was equally scared of it as he was of her. Actually, she was more scared.

After many encounters & shy awkward moments, they are now good friends. They love to play and chase each other.

Such a cute pair, who would have thought they would be besties.

It makes us laugh to watch them play and many nights are spent on the front porch watching them.

Sweet Pepper just loves everyone.