All I Want For Christmas Is You!!!

We planned, we plotted, we drew names and shopped. We baked, made phone calls, bundled up, and met for a testosterone-free night of Christmasing with each other. Dinner was full of the usual crazy conversation, outbursts of laughter and updating...

Then we moved to my place for sugar, presents, Christmas music, singing and dancing, a photography session (these are the non-embarrassing ones), and classic f-male bonding. 

Love these girls. 

Blah Blah Blah

What's new with us? Nothin. Nada. Cero. We've been busy with our favorite people, Christmas shopping, Steve parting out and selling bikes, etc.. We are BO-RING people right now. I feel like the winter is much less interesting now that we are stranded indoors. The weather hates us, we must have been evil and hateful to it in a previous life. Case in point:

 I never thought there would be such a difference between -2 degrees and 30 degrees. HUGE! Exponential most definitely. 

So again, we stay indoors, and our cute little ward rented out Seven Peaks, an indoor skating rink. Steve or I hadn't been in years (I'm talking like ten here), so of course I feel like a 1-year-old attempting her first experience across the ice. In 5-inch stilettos (a gorgeous pair). In my defense, I caught on after a few minutes :). And of course Steve takes off flying, pulling my little arm behind him. He's so adept at everything he does. Kinda makes me want to stick my finger down my throat. 

So we're just flying along, and then we witness our friend Kyle take a sharp turn, flip to his side and land on his hip, then whiplash his head back onto the ice. LIKE HARD. We both ran over, blood is gushing out, Mekelle is freaking out (understandably), and Kyle's having a concussion. Some of the girls help to console Mekelle while Steve, another friend and I help keep Kyle from scratching his wound open more and get him up and off the ice safely. Poor guy was disoriented and, well, talking kinda crazy for a bit there! We drove them to the ER and the night ended in 21 stitches, drugs, and chips and salsa and fajitas at Chili's

We've been to lunches with Steve's mom and sisters, said good-bye to his bro-in-law and sister Steve and Michelle and our little nephew :( Just as he's becoming more animated and interactive and hilarious...booo!!!!

And of course did the Temple Square Lights with Starbucks' Caramel Apple Cider mmmmmm. I always love being on Temple Square when the Mo-Tab Choir is practicing.  There's something amazing and awesome (literally) about hearing their harmonies and feeling the spirit there. We'll miss it.

Favorites

'Tis the season for staying indoors, being lazy, and watching a plethora of TV--yesssss....

Here are some of my recent favorites:

Disclaimer: I do not endorse Heineken Beer, but I most definitely and whole-heartedly endorse Gap and Lebron and Kobe. Thank you.

IHOP

We've been somewhat tame lately, my profuse apologies. 

Jazz games and late-night Starbucks caramel apple ciders, 

gorging on Pizza Factory and 14-layer cake for our friend Kyle's birthday, 

Steve attempting to become bike master and engineer his own wheels for his bike, seeing The Blind Side (Best.Movie. Ever. Steve calls me Sandra after Sandra Bullock's character...go see it, you'll know what I'm talking about), spent Thanksgiving at work with a rendezvous to IHOP for dinner after I got off (classy, I know! I can just hear the stories in 20 years we'll tell to our little twin girls about our first married Thanksgiving spent at IHOP haha, love it), 

and swimsuit shopping for the cruise my parents are taking us on during Christmas!!! We're SO excited to be spending Christmas on a beach in the Caribbean...How many people get to do that?! And of course the tree, nativity scene, lights, wreath, stockings, garland and red glittery bows all went up this weekend. Love Christmas.

Thanksgiving takes on a different meaning every year. Each year has it's own blessings, trials, joys, and lessons. This was our first married Thanksgiving, and though it was spent with a really sick patient and his shocked and broken wife and daughter then perfectly humbly at IHOP with Steve, the holiday still fulfilled it's purpose and induced a brief moment of the reality of my reality. I couldn't ask for more. I won't list all the things I have and am grateful for, I'd feel narcissistic, but I will say that I have everything I need and want and I love who and what I have in my life. And then some :)

Granola

This past week I had a few days off from work, and well, Steve doesn't go to school half the time as his motivation for learning and completing mundane, brainless busywork has drastically declined due to his acceptance into grad school, SOOOOO.............MOAB!!!! We made the drive down Wednesday afternoon, only got in about an hour of biking that evening before it got dark, camped that night, woke up and biked some more and left! 

While we were there, we did some shopping up and got an ornament that has the Delicate Arch on it (we figured it was rather appropriate) and some stickers for our bikes, kinda to help Steve become closer with his new bike and make it more his "own". OH! HE BOUGHT A NEW BIKE! I don't think I mentioned that. So after his was stolen, he spent a good week or two straight (I'm not kidding...he was glued to local ads on ksl.com and craigslist) watching ads and looking up specs on bikes. We sold my birthday camera :( (tear) and the next day went to go look at one. He loved it, we bought it, 3 days later went down to Moab to  break it in. I'll let the pictures tell the story:

Yes, it was 60 degrees and perfect (a.k.a. warmer than Provo! Woohoo!!!)

I think he likes his new toy :) 

We heart our bikes, mine is Lola, his is Roxy Jr. (in memory of Roxy). 

Stop making fun of us in your head right now. 

So we almost get to the top, and we had to both get off our bikes and hike them the rest of the way because of how windy it was....the wind was pushing us, which could have ended with us both down the mountain with our bikes on top of us in pieces, limbs detached scattered here and there, heads bouncing about, you get the picture...

My feeble attempts at starting the fire did not bode so well

So the man helped 

It was a 'team' effort...except we had these 3 HUGE logs (in addition to our other fuel) we got the day prior from someone cutting down a tree. Would they light after 3 hours of sitting in a fire? Nope. Did I wake up at 4am to smoke and a firepit full of burning logs? Yeeeeeeees. Not so cool. 

Needless to say, we heart Moab!

 Last week I cooked a chicken. Like a real, live, everything included chicken that grows up on a farm and is born purely to be killed, cooked, and eaten by me. OK, it wasn't alive per-say, but it might as well have been. Would I do it again? Probably not. The chicken was delish, but you can buy that goodness for $4.99 with 2 hours less the work and it'll last you two meals. That's what I call America. Thank you Obama.

And this is what Steve does with his spare time...what a man...

Bakerella and the Thief

Check this out. I'm at work. I get a shocking and disturbing text from Steve. Now imagine here with me what could have been one of the worst things stolen from Steve's life that he's the most emotionally attached to....yup...HIS BIKE WAS STOLEN! THIEVED! CEASED TO EXIST! 

I came home to this

All evening he moped around with a sad little pathetic look on his face. Attempts to comfort and console were refuted with the harsh reality of the situation. I felt for and still feel for the boy. If my bike had been stolen, I would die. He's had that bike for 6 years and was in love with it. The joy he got from riding Roxie (mine is Lola) to school, in Moab, up in the mountains was like none other. We were talking the other day about how I have 5 days off in a few weeks and I suggested a trip down to Moab for some biking...comPLETELY having forgotten  about the tragic incident that took place days prior. Oops! :-/ Plans are in progress though for means of replacement...we'll keep you faithful readers posted. Let's just say you will want to stay tuned.

Meanwhile I went kinda crazy for Halloween, I'm not gonna lie. The products of my madness?

Another rendezvous with Hay-Flo and Tay-Flo...we watched and gabbed while the boys went to work. They're so cute.

Then partied married-couple style. Don't hate.

Happy Halloween!

Mid-life Mid-life

I did it. I got old. One day out of the last 9,125 days that I have spent breathing, eating, laughing, crying (OK like one day), and sleeping....oh, the sleeping (I don't think Steve understood the love affair I entertain with sleeping until he married me) completely changed my life and made me old. I understand that I'm not quite yet 30, but 25 is mid-life mid-life. I feel like I should be going through a hemi-crisis and buying a jet, a dog, the Dallas Mavs, or a Bugatti Veyron or something (we've been watching youtube videos of cars...mmmmm.......). 

I got my presents early. Hehe. I asked. Several days in a row, and Steve succumbed. He loves me. We are the proud new parents of 

Ta-Da!!! It was a lovely surprise. Finances were unfortunately brought up, and this baby may be up for adoption. Don't you worry though, discussions are underway. And I'll have you know, I am an excellent "discussor".

Nevertheless, we still celebrated! Friday night we went out southern style at Texas Roadhouse to celebrate my and our friend Kory's birthday. The food was delish, the company was delightful, and the restaurant's personal birthday embarrassment was definitely Texas approved (no pics--sorry!).

After dinner, we went to the Thanksgiving Point Halloween/Fall Fest/cornmaze thingie. We blasted pumpkins out of a high-pressured blaster thing, played baseball and play-fought with cornstalks in the cornmaze, saw a Christmas tree arrangement of carved pumpkins, raced go-karts, and a bunch of other Halloweenie things.

The next day we went to dinner with my girlies and their dates at P.F. Chang's mmmmm delish. Steve surprised me with roses on the way out, and at dinner I got another beautiful arrangement, lots of candies, and a Nordstrom's gift card--let's just say I bought my way back into my early 20's there today :) 

My girls and their dates were more than I could have asked for. Steve was amazing as always (the whole week, it was "whatever you want baby, it's your birthday week"), and on top of all of this, I got to spend Sunday with Steve's family and my siblings  to have some good food, more gifts, and an awesome time. Thanks for helping me forget how old I am! Love you!!!