Gingerbread housing

Our Monday nights are pretty great. Late last night, once everyone was home, we had our family home evening. It was Zach and my turn to plan the lesson and activity. Zach wanted to continue with the Christmas theme and do a lesson on service. So we did that, and we also made a chain for each couple with little acts of service to do everyday until Christmas. Some are fun and simple, other days we will have to put time aside to complete them. It's just another simple way for us to remember the true meaning of this holiday season.

After our lesson and spiritual thought we brought out peppermint bark that I made just before, and our activity was to build a gingerbread house together. So we got the fire going (aka turned the TV fire on), played some Christmas jingles, snacked on some bark, and tried over and over again to build our house.

 Such a peaceful evening we had.

Until...

At one point the whole thing collapsed on us, and that was the start of a disaster. Another time the Christmas tree cookie disappeared (Zach). I came up with the idea to hot glue gun the thing together, that was a bust. And then when we were planning to reconstruct the property with the icing and patience, we looked up and watched the top of the house be bitten off (Hector). It was a wild night as the boys decided to get sugared out.

Exhibit A:


The mess.


Hot glue gun attempt..


The top of our house gone..

Worst idea EVER.


At the end of all our fails we handed the house, or more like what was left of the pieces, to Hector to put it properly back together. Which he did, and he also fixed our angry little gingerbread man...I bit his leg off earlier in the night...

Zach made that thing ^ out of fondant. I'm not sure what it is.

We pulled it all together in the end and here is the masterpiece!

It was the best we could do. You can barely see them, but on the roof there is a "R" on one side and a "W" on the other. Precious. I'm just happy we got it to stand.

Lauren sang to us before bed. Totally in the zone. Thanks for that sis!

burnin' down the house

Last night we lit our #2 on our advent! Where did the week go?

Lauren and Hector lit theirs as well...



...and then some. You guys, your're only supposed to light the CANDLE. Take it easy.

After that happened Zach and I went to bed and I asked him about twenty times if he blew out our advent...He did and he told me so over and over again, but I had to go check for myself. I was so paranoid.

With the season and especially with the cold, we all light candles and get the fire going in the fireplace. Please be careful, and don't forget to blow them out or put them out before going to bed. Happy Monday everyone!

Daily Dose

LAUREN AND HECTOR

It was a quiet Sunday afternoon, so we decided to get out 

of the house and take a few pictures of the two. 

They were so patient in the freezing cold snow.
We were only there for about twenty-five minutes because we were frozen.

I just love these two, they celebrate their four year wedding anniversary

this month. Alongside their anniversary of when they first started dating, it's been a 

big NINE years since Hector has been apart of our family. 

I wouldn't have it any other way.

sNOw more SNOW!

I didn't know how to react when I opened my front door early Tuesday morning and our lawn was covered in white. Maybe this will make you a bit sad, but I don't care for the snow. It makes everything just that more difficult. My car takes ten minutes to uncover, the streets are slippery and leave us swerving down the hills, traffic just upped an hour, it's freezing cold, and there are accidents everywhere = terrified.

  

Every drive we are going 30 in a 50mph, poor Zach couldn't see the lines on the road.

  

If I turn a page to optimism--- it is beautiful. It is light out all night long from the reflection of the white. Also there are icicles lining the roof of our house, some are even two feet. We like to play in it and run around in it, but that's mostly when we are running towards the door for warmth. This is our first Winter together, and it will be special to have a white Christmas. Everything looks more beautiful in the snow. When we are inside Zach makes me hot chocolate and we get to snuggle up on the sofa with corn bags and blankets. 

And this reminds me of Denmark...

This morning we went to our church Christmas party just across the street for breakfast. Our ward has the nicest families. While we were there each family was able to get their photo taken with a backdrop and props. Last week I was asked to take the pictures for the party, and it was a lot of fun!  

Afterwards we headed back to our bungalow as it poured snow outside. I put together something special for Zach, a tradition my family has always done. Every year growing up my mom put together an advent calendar for Lauren and I with a small gift for each day. She had made our fabric calendars when we were very very young, and we got one every December 1st. This year I made Zach his first advent calendar. He was so excited! We hung our stockings, then I finished his advent (with help from the sis), we hung the advent and I showed him his little surprise. I had to start it today, so it's the 7th-25th, because our reality is that we are still newlyweds on a budget and that budget called for me to start it a week late. It makes it even more special to know that our first Christmas wasn't the easiest but our favorite thus far.

Here is his very modern advent....haha.

His first gift was an Ironman Ornament.

Tonight we also bought our first Christmas tree!! It was snowing like crazy, but we still got our little green fur. It smells fantastic and is just so dang small. We are ready to start our traditions here in Utah for the holidays. My mom is sending me our traditional danish candles to put on the tree, and on Christmas Eve we will light them in our living room. Something I'm really looking forward to.

We found the perfect tree!

And then we remembered it was snowing :(

...snowing...

Isn't that tree so dang cute? And isn't he so handsome?

I love you, but I don't think so!

And here is Chichi playing in the snow for the first time today! She loved it. Hector would run down the street and she would chase after him, then she'd turn around and book it home. It was so cute to watch her jump around in it.

We are making the most of it! It is a sight to see and definitely a cold winter out there.

Stay safe and warm everyone!

Family Night

It definitely felt like a Monday.

Work was grand, but bowling was better. My team at work took the last two hours of our shift to go bowling. I hadn't bowled in years, and I got a 140. Not too bad. I headed home after returning the smelly borrowed shoes and was satisfied with my day at work. Since then I have been doing very little. Gluten free brownies were baked for family home evening tonight. Once my sister got home the four of us gathered in our living room to share how each others day went. Afterwards we started to talk about Christmas, about our Savior and we had family prayer. Followed with dessert to end the night.

Two weeks ago we started having Family Home Evening in our home. Lauren and I got home from a long day at work and our husbands surprised us with homemade vegetarian and gluten free lasagna made in Hector's dutch oven, they talked to us about the importance of taking quality time to be together at least once a week. We then played a game that turned into lots of yelling and laughter, and pumpkin pie with ice cream was served for dessert. They expressed their gratitude towards us for all that we do. Lauren and I were shocked and very pleased with them. They pulled off a great first Family Home Evening for us. Tonight Lauren and I took our turn.

We shared this message as well:

Here was our romantic dinner two weeks ago...

We expect snow tomorrow. A few weeks ago I took Chichi on a walk, it was the perfect day to be outside. I'm sure going to miss the sun!

And here's Zach and I last week at the City Creek Mall... precious. 

I love him so much.

Daily Dose

Is this normal?

This is something that happens to me every single day...

These aren't even half of them. I'm obsessed, it's weird. And most the time I don't even make a wish.

A new cousin, nephew, and future sister-in-law

Our little home was filled up with the Walton's for the past week and a half. My in-laws, as well as my bro-in-law Christian and his girlfriend Mary stayed with us for a visit. It was my first time meeting Christian and getting to see him and Zach together. They are so great. It was great to meet my bro-in-law, it felt like I've always known him. Knowing his family so well I only assumed he'd be just as great as the bunch. We went back and forth to Provo visiting family, playing games, eating food, and having a good time. We were busy. With activities involving, Ikea for the heck of it, out to lunch with the whole family in American Fork, going to Salt Lake City, and then the movies for Catching Fire. We enjoyed the company and taking little day trips.

Other notable events happened as well.
Tuesday night the Walton family went to the Marriott at City Creek for the night. We spent the time together before we welcomed one more member to our family the next day. Tuesday night when we arrived to the hotel we all went up to my in-laws room where there was a beautiful set up on the balcony over looking the city. We were up on the fifteenth floor and on the balcony were lights stringed along the railing, candles set on a table for two, sparkling cider, a dozen pink roses, dipped strawberries, and a big diamond ring. Just minutes later the very-much-in-love couple walked into the room and out to the balcony where Christian got down on his knee and proposed to Mary. It was such a great moment for them. Now Mary and Christian are engaged and planning their wedding for March! We are so excited for the two and I'm looking forward to gaining another sister! We all went out to eat and got rest for the following day to come.

My beautiful sister-in-law, Alisha, had a baby Wednesday afternoon. They welcomed Preston Michael to the family. We are so happy for her, Mike, and Savvy. Their baby boy is healthy and perfect, and he is going to be loved everyday of his life. Congrats again Gregson family!

We loved having Savannah over for the few nights while her mom and dad were with her brother in the hospital. She kept us laughing and up late having dance parties and lots of fun. One morning she helped us make pancakes and played with Lauren's play dough, she's always easy to entertain.

Our new nephew wasn't the only baby we welcomed into our family this past week..let me tell you, our family has been so blessed. Just about two weeks ago we received very happy news from mine and Lauren's aunt and uncle. Sarah and Klaus adopted a six month old little boy named Joshua Dale. He is so smiley and so dang adorable. We were able to see pictures of him and Skype with his happy self. After a very long time of our aunt and uncle waiting patiently for their child, they were blessed with the perfect little boy to make their family complete. We are waiting for the day to come to get to hold our new cousin! We already love him so much. Congratulations to my Aunt and Uncle!

We were filled with lots of joy and good food on Thanksgiving day. I hope you were able to be with your loved ones and give them big hugs. We were not able to make it home for this holiday, but we have family and loved ones all around us. We were thankful the Walton's were here and that we were all able to visit with our aunt and cousins in American Fork for our Thanksgiving feast. We enjoyed movies and dessert as well. Zach and I have the best families.

And these two napped during the movie, so Zach fed them bread.


We had over an hour to kill before we went to see Delivery Man so we headed over to Walmart to see what the Thursday commotion was all about, it was terrible.


These past two weeks have been so great. My dad got into SLC airport Friday night and has been kicking with us since. Mom made us a headband and scarf and we got our candles we ordered awhile back. That night us five went out to eat at The Pie, a pizza place in town, there was a musician playing out on the patio so we sat out by the fire for some entertainment and dinner.





After The Pie we walked over to Menchie's for dessert where my dad, of course, got a hold of chalk and wrote this...



Dad leaves for Reno tomorrow to work, we were lucky to have him visit with us.

My husband continues to study hard and I continue to do my best at work. I quit Five Guys about two weeks ago, one of the best decisions I could make at this time. Working those long hours takes a toll on the mind and body. I'm thankful for the opportunity I was given to start work right away when we first moved out here, but I'm also thankful for a stable job at Marriott. Zach goes back to school tomorrow as do I with work. We love the holiday season! Christmas is just around the corner, the snow is too I'm sure. Happy December 1st, tonight we will light our advent candle for the first Sunday of the month. Grandma makes us candles every year, it's a tradition we keep going in our home.

Also tonight we will go to our Stake Nativity. I'm looking forward to starting off our Christmas the right way with the holiday spirit in the air. I know back in Rancho they will be having their own Nativity, it's beautifully done every year. It's for everyone to go and see the reenactment of Christ's birth. If you are in Rancho go and see it, it's so worth it.

Enjoy your Sunday evening.