Its begining to look alot like christmas!

I just love Christmas, I love when the air outside has this certain chill that brings friends closer together and helps us stay warm. one of my favorite things about Christmas is baking, cookies, fudge, Carmel's, chocolates, and other goodies. I love just getting together with my mom and sisters and we all crowd into the kitchen and throw our hands into something there. but this year as I was baking I realized its a lot of work when there is only you! Jace and I are going to California for Christmas so I didn't go home to Canada for all of the Christmas baking... luckily I have my best friend Adrienne's Aunt and Uncle here, Myron and JoAnn who are here to help and be family when we need them. this year I went over and JoAnn helped me make chocolates, we only did four flavours because there wasn't a lot of time, we did it all in only 3 hours though! we did peppermint, butterscotch, blackberry, and strawberry, Jace, and his sister Shae even came out and helped with the mixing, and dipping.

on my own so far I have made 2 kinds of cookies, lemon cookies, and chocolate crinkles. Jace cant stay out of the chocolate ones, they turned out really yummy, he is funny too when I want to give some away because he just wants to eat them all!

lately my apartment has just been all over the place, upside down and sideways... with Christmas baking and then all of my presents that I am trying to get finished before we leave on Thursday night. also we interviewed for the manager spot here and the owners I guess liked us, so we are moving when we get back! its exciting because the apartment will be quite a bit bigger with two bedrooms and a big kitchen, but we will be gone until the 31st, and the old managers are not moving out till then, and the people that are moving into our apartment will be moving in on the 2nd in the morning is what they said, so we will get back late the 31st and up early to move everything over, in between church. I'm hoping to have the deep cleaning stuff done like the stove and fridge and bathroom before we leave, I am excited, when I talked to my mom she said that I would be fine, "your good at that kind of stuff." is what she said, so i guess I will be fine, its not like i haven't moved before.
The sad thing is that I put up my Christmas decorations and now I have to take them down :(.

Well California bound am I!  hopes of sunny skies and warmer weather, but I keep telling Jace that its still going to snow on Christmas day! even though I kinda doubt it, I'm not telling him that!

Happy turkey day!

For Thanksgiving Jace and I stayed here in good old Rexburg, we both had to work the weekend. Since Jace is the Executive secretary in our ward he and the first councilor were put in charge of everyone that was staying here for thanksgiving. We had a great dinner on Thursday with 6 couples, it was great we ate and played games, bishop even came from Idaho falls for a little while just to start things off. It was different, not being with family, but being here just with my husband. it was interesting the thought that Bishop gave though, there was a couple there and they have a little baby girl, he said when you are first starting out you think 'this is my little family' and yes it is but one day she will grow up and get married and have her own little family... Bishop said that really (and he pointed at each couple) this is your family; yes we will have kids and they will have kids etc. etc. but in the end it just boils down to the two of us, and I am so greatful for my Jace :)  Bishop also read a poem it was about things to be greatful form it was things like;

I am greatful for my pile of dirty laundry because it means I have clothes to wear,

I am greatful for my dirty dishes becuase it means I have food to eat,

I am greatful that my clothes fit a little snug because it means i have enough food to eat,

the list went on and on... here are some things I am greatful for:

I am greatful that my house is sometimes chilly because I get to snuggle closer to Jace :)

i am greatful that my feet are sore because it means I can walk,

I am greatful for my alarm because it means I am alive,

I am greatful for carpet,

I am greatful for so much in my life and for everyone that is in it. One of my co-workers said that for thanksgiving him and his wife went to the soup kitchen in the morning to serve I thought that was a really cool oportunity to serve there. I think that I would like to do that sometime, it would be  cool thing to give back especially durring the holiday.

Here are some pictures from the holiday!

our thanksgiving table!

our group

table setting with martinelli's

Halloween

   I do love halloween and dressing up, I dont love all of the scary parts, like haunted things and scary movies, Jace took me to the haunted mill, and that was scary enough for me! also on halloween night we watched hocus pocus with some friends which was very fun, but i definately could not watch anything scarier.  for halloween at work we got to carve pumkins! (yes you should be jealous that you dont go to work and get to carve pumpkins. it was so much fun!) Me and another girl won a prize for having the best carved pumpkin, we were pretty dedicated to our pumpkins though, most people just used stencils, but we were quite dedicated. when I brought jace to work to show him my pumpkin, he picked it out right away, I guess he knows me pretty well!

My beautiful pumpkin!

the other winnning pumpkin

just another pumkin, but I thought it was cute so i put it up ;)

Our ward had a halloween party and jace and I dressed up as the flinstones! I found the perfect fabric at porters, and made my necklace with foam balls covered with fabric. at the party they had a pie contest, so I made a pie for it, the bishopbrick judged the pies, I didnt win anything, since Jace helped judge, but he said that everyone liked my pie crust the best, so I was pretty proud of that! Thanks to mom for the recipie!

the Flinstones!

me making pie, unfortunately i didnt get a picture of the finnished result so you just have to imagine.

  Now that halloween is over, I just can't wait for christmas! I guess that here in America thanksgiving comes first, but I can still get ready for christmas! Does anyone have some great ideas for presents? got to work on that too! but I think most of all I just love listening to christmas music and getting into the Christmas spirit, remembering why it is so important, and giving, just like Christ did for us.

A weekend away

I love taking a weekend just to be away, sometimes all the hustle and bustle of home, school, and work can become an overbearing task that haunts you day to day, but every once in a while  you take a weekend, and go...
this weekend there were four of us who piled into the black jeta, and sat together for a few hours till ariving at a destination. the first destination was anticipated by the driver Jace :) and Nervously anticipated by one passenger, me. It was Jace's mission reunion, the directions made it confusing to get to, but none the less, we made it in a disaray of clothes and things when we arrived. it was cool to meet all the people that Jace spent so many hours with on the mission, one of his buddiesfrom the mish, who is single seemed quite taken with Shae. he even took her to confernce the following day!
I always forget to take pictures, but going to utah is always fun, and it was so great to go to conferance.

Seasons

Isn't it awful how all summer long we enjoy the heat, but hide indoor not to get too hot, and not to burn, and then suddenly... its September, and its only 70F outside and its cold enough to wear a jaket again.
I always hate it when its so bitter cold outside, I have to bundle up so much and I look pretty much ridiculous, I always have to wear REAL shoes that cover my feet or my toes turn into mini sausages, most of the time all purple, and swollen. So, because that is what I get when it turns cold outside, I figure that I should probably move to California it is Warm ALL year round, even in January! (or at least it was warm in January when I was there.) That's the real reason why I married Jace, because he is from California, and its warm there. (just kidding hun, I love you ;)
That was my plan, When I finnish (or Jace Finishes) School, we will move somewhere that is warm year round. BUT this summer after Not having air conditioning, and enduring HOT days in Idaho... I don't know if I can handle the heat...
Although, I'm sure I will change my mind after I have to endure a bitter cold Idaho winter again I will change my mind...
I know, I just need to turn into some kind of hulagain and stop wearing clothes, then I can live somewhere that is warm and I won't be hot!
ok, ok... maybe the no clothes idea isn't such a good idea, the FBI might some track me down and throw me in prison for "indecent exposure."
well, so much for that plan... I guess I need to rethink my WHOLE life!            
Well... maybe not my WHOLE life, but, its either too HOT or its tooooooo ccc cold.
I guess I have a couple years to figure it out... because I can't move right now anyways. I'll just have to endure a few more Bitter Idaho winters and HOT days without air conditioning...

The Fam Jam :)

This week my parents and the four little ones came for a visit! it was so fun to have them all here, i have missed them so! the kids are all getting so big, colton is a little terror, but so sweet and cute, if he wasn`t so cute he would never get awy with half the things he does... ok he isnt that bad, but he sure is cute.

Unfortunatley while the family was here Amanda somehow got tonsillitis. Or at least thats what they supposed that it was. yesterday right before mom and dad left from idaho falls amanda burst her ear drum, she had been crying all day i guess that when there was blood comming out of her ear dad figured it was a good indication that her ear drum had burst. it was lucky however that her ear didnt burst the day before because we were at the lake, enjoying ourselves and having quite the time out there. I got crispified because I haven`t hardly been in the sun at all this summer, but everyone else was fine, and i still had quite a bit of fun.

 I love my mom and dad they are so great! it was so good to have them here!

 

They all wanted to ride in our car, after this picture they are trying on Jace's wells fargo name tags pretending to be Jace. :)

 The cliff behind us dropped staight off!

this is at mesa falls, they all have such ig smiles because they are laughing at me trying to get the falls into the picture... I was standing back on my tip toes and tryingg reallly hard, the best that i got was what you can see there.

Life as we know it

I know its been  while, but here is a quick little update:
Jace is working, liking the banking part of his internship, loving me and he even spoiled me with roses on our 3 month aniversary :)

I quit my job at parts service and will be taking up a place at the Pizza Pie Cafe after this week!
mom is starting to get ready for Brian and Elizabeth's wedding and wanted me to get some watter beads yellow or blue, but unfortunately there wasnt any yellow or blue... so i bought some clear ones and decided to die them tuquoize to see if the colour would stick for mom. Well, it did! but then I had three quarts of water beads and no idea what to do with them. well we have this tomato plant and jace suggested that we put the water beads in there, well it turned out soo cool!

our tomatoes are also getting so big they are now red, almost ready to eat! YUM!

 

 School is out for all the college students here in Idaho, this weekend here was crazy! there was so many people here for graduation, and just to come get students, etc. I was asked to givve a musical number in sacrament meeting today, because it is the 24th of July i decided that I would sing 'Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.'
  This morning as I went up to the church to practice on the grand piano i read over the words of that beautiful song, and realized that I had never acctually read over the words with the intent of understanding what the song was trying to portray.

 Come thou fount of ev'ry blessing, Tune my heart to sing thy grace;

Streams of mercy never ceasing call for songs of loudest praise.

Teach me some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tounges above.

Praise the mount I'm fixed upon it, mount of thy remdeeming love.

The version that I decided to sing is an arrangement by Sally DeFord. in her version the muscic begins and is moving kind of like a fountain, I thought. The words talk about a fount of blessings and as I pondered more on the words I discovered that this first verse is just all about someone realizing how blessed they are, and wanting to serve and learn songs that the angels sing. as the song goes on the person is ready to fight and stand. 

I love that song it is amazing and well wrtiten and one of my favorites. I loved being able to sing it. even though I didnt have a pianist so I ended up singing and playing, Jace, (my wonderful husband) held the mic for me. Well acctually I just lip sinced and he sang ;) lol just kidding I guess that I sounded good though, because everyone complimented me and seemed to have really enjoyed mine (and Jace's) performance.

I love my wife

I just wanted to get on here and play around. Talia says it is really fun and entertaining. In priesthood on sunday we talked about relationships with family, friends, God, and mostly spouse. The men all started a discussion about when we were dating our wives and how we would always find something to do so we could see our girlfirends at the time. It didnt matter how tired we were or how much homework we would figure out something fun to do so our girls would want to come see us.

Then we mentioned how now that we are married most of us come home and want to sleep or sit on the couch and relax. We decided that we need to go back to the way it was when we were still trying to get our wives to say yes lol. I am so lucky to have such  a wonderful wife who loves and supports me in all I do. It is ok to have fun and not take things so seriously. Our wives like to see the fun side of us. I want to show Talia how fun I can be. She means the world to me and I always want to see her smile.

Life is so great and married life is even better!!!!

Christina's Wedding

This past weekend we went to Canada and were able to go to my sister's wedding. Everything was beautiful, the decorations were stunning, and the bride was breath taking.

This is one of my favorite peices that was at Christina`s wedding, Christina Found these old indows in the garage. they were kind of a green colour or so I was told so she painted them white, and Jana scrapbooked the inside of the windows! She was smart and did it so that when the reception was done we could just take off the pages and stick them into an album.

Christina's and Patrick's John dere dinner attire, and silverware.

Jace and I put together this cute little stream that comes out from underneath the bridge, everyone loved it, and all the little kids for some reason loved playing in the decorations haha, kids will be kids, what more could be expected? But in the end nothing was broken, so that was a bonus!

these were the center pieces on each table, they fit so perfectly with everything in there! 

LIfe in The Burg

Well, here we are! we made it, Jace and I have our cute little appartment, and we are happy as happy can be here together. When at first we arrived at our little house we had nothing, we had our clothes, our wedding gifts, and for the first little while our apprtment just looked like a storage unit to put all of our stuff.
 The previous renters painted our walls the kitchen is white and the walls in the living room are a toupe colour except for the wall with the window which is painted red. when we first arived the first thing that you see as you walk in the door is the bright red wall and it looked like ketchup. I thought it was the ugliest colour in the world... Well, Jace is a sweetheart, and the very next day the first thing that he did was put up pictures on the walls to make it look more like a home. I was very pleased with the way it turned out, it still looked empty because we didnt really have any furniture we had one little chair, and thats all. Jace wanted so badly to make our house a home, so every night he got on and checked craigs list and the bulletin board to see if there was any furniture on sale for cheep. luckilly we found a couch online for $30 and it is a pull out couch as well, we bought it for $25 the people who were getting rid of it were moving and couldnt haul it so we got it for cheep, the only problem was trying to get it out of their appartment and then into ours.
 we got three big guys who were great and all thoes boys worked together and put their brains together to figure out how to get that couch out and in. Getting to couch into our appartment ended up being such a pain, we had to take off the door, and turn it up on one end angle  it slightly and twist it a little here and there, and finaly, we made it into the house. it fit so perfect into our little living room, right up against the wall. 
 We now have a sweet little table and four little chairs our house is definatley more of a home now that we are in it than it was when we were first here, its nice just to come home and know that I dont hae to deal with roommates who are messy, or loud, or any of that, I just have to worry about Jace, and he isnt that bad because he also likes to keep things pretty tidy.
 We are excited for this weekend, Christina is getting married to her sweet heart Patrick Foote. they are such a sweet couple, I am so excited for them, it will be fun to be back in Canada even if is just for the weekend, I am still excited and I think Jace is too, he is just dreading the eight hour drive, but it will be ok, we get to spend 16 hours in the car together, and keep eachother awake.

but thats all for now folks!
I guess you will have to wait till next time to hear more,
I will ttry and take some pictures of our little appartment so ya`ll can see our cute little place!

Today We went and got engagement photos done! this picture is actually from when we went to Provo with my roommate Karisa. She took some cute pictures of Jace and I and we had alot of fun!

We went to the Carl Bloch art Gallery that is in Provo right now until May, it was so cool to see them. most of my favorite pictures were the ones where there were little children looking out and inviting you into the scene which really made it seem like you were there in the scene.