I love the idea of fresh beginnings and clean pages. And I hope that’s what 2017 has in store. 2016 was a year full of lots of fun travels, time spent with family and friends celebrating milestones, and quiet nights with Randy and I just living our routine. It was a crunchy and complicated year, filled with big choices and changes, trials and moments of courage. It required more of me than most years have. But it’s one that I have learned to be grateful for, and it’s certainly one I won’t forget.

So here’s to a new year with new trials and exciting features. And here’s to my decision to face this year head on and love it like crazy, no matter what.

Christmas 2016 was a dream. So much a dream that I didn’t take pictures, of course. Cuz I’m the worst. I have a beautiful camera and was planning on filming the whole thing and whoops. It was out of battery. So I snapped a couple pictures, that’s it.

Our Christmas has consisted of:

Seeing Rogue One (which was INCREDIBLE. I love love love loved it.)
Spending SO MUCH time with family and loving it (especially our adorable niece. She’s SO cute.)
A bachelorette party for me (woot woot Sarrie!)
Work (blah)
A wonderful Christmas Eve filled with spending time with both of our families, delicious food, opening books (our family Christmas tradition) reading our family Christmas book, and getting an AWESOME game that is a card game OF OUR FAMILY. It was SO AWESOME.
Christmas day started early with the Stocking Exchange and lots of presents and candy, watching Candace open some presents which was SO cute to see! I got spoiled rotten with a KATE SPADE BAG, a new planner, clothes, shoes books, movies, a temple picture, a new bathroom rug, and more!
We then went over to Randy’s family and they spoiled us absolutely rotten! We loved eating breakfast and playing, then going to church with them. We spent more time with family and extended family that evening which is a blast.
Seeing La La Land (which was the best movie I have seen all year. No exaggeration.)
Playing so many games!
A crazy fun wedding (Yay Grey and Sarrie!)
Playing in the snow
Seeing the Layton lights with our cute niece
So much love for family and for each other
Remembering Jesus Christ

Christmas is my favorite holiday and it’s absolutely wonderful. I love everything about it and think it’s just the best time of year. Everyone is so loving and kind, and we get to spend time remembering Jesus Christ and why He came to earth, His life, and His death.

Merry Christmas to you all! I hope you had the best time, and I hope the New Year is wonderful!

 

I’m so excited for Christmas and I’ve already loved all the time I have gotten to spend with my amazing family! Happy Holidays everyone!

This weekend was a very fun, Christmasy weekend!

Friday night Randy and I watched Christmas With The Kranks with Grey and Sarrie and had Christmas cookies, we stayed up and talked super late and danced around our apartment, it was a blast!

Saturday we woke up to go do a photoshoot with one of my clients, and I love how the photos turned out! Here’s a little sneak peek:

We spent the day in Kaysville doing laundry and letting Randy study (finals week is coming friends!) We then jetted off to Bombay House to have dinner with my cousin and his girlfriend before the MoTab Christmas Concert!

The concert was AMAZING. So many beautiful Christmas songs performed by incredibly talented people. The dancers that came up and down the aisles were wonderful, the stories and the sets were incredible, and the music just took my breath away. There was a piece where three organists played at the same time which I loved, all of it was just amazing. We also were sitting really close to Mitt and Ann Romney, as well as Governor Herbert! It was so awesome to see them both there.

Sunday we had the laziest day ever so Randy could study study study, and I could watch the Holiday Baking Championships and catch up on some reading. All in all, it was an incredibly awesome weekend! But Christmas is COMING SO FAST. We gotta buckle up and get some presents purchased and get a move on!

It just occurred to me I needed to do a weekend update from LAST weekend! Oops.

Friday we went to City Creek and met one of my favorite vloggers! I love watching Ellie and Jared vlogs and meeting Jared was so awesome!

We went to sushi with Caleb and Nannette and had a reallly interesting experience. Really bad service and long story short, we were in the restaurant for roughly 2 hours.

Saturday we woke up bright and early to go to the Festival of Trees. This is one of my favorite Christmas traditions with my family! We get to see lots of gorgeous trees and eat treats and just have a blast. It was so much fun! Afterwards we went to Texas Roadhouse and laughed and chatted and had the best time. I just love my family!

Saturday night I threw Courtney a bachelorette party and it was so much fun!!! We had a blast, there were tons of treats and of course “The Husband” cake from The Chocolate (one of my favorite things EVER and Courtney’s favorite cake)

It’s an In N Out Tree so naturally we had to get a picture

So I have been dying for a very specific type of photo shoot, and we wanted to send out Christmas Cards this year. So I put two and two together, and we headed to the mountains with Amber Bird.

I can honestly say this was one of the most fun photo shoots I have ever done! We trekked through the snow and were laughing the entire time. Amber made everything so easy and relaxed, and we got the exact look I had been craving. I feel like Amber caught this very raw side of us, but made it look beautiful. It was basically perfection and you should hire her immediately. I can honestly say that I’ve worked with some incredibly photographers here in Utah, our wedding photographer Elisha, Dan Page Photography, Charissa Thatcher Photography, Megan Owen Horn, and now Amber. I would recommend each and every one of them to anyone!

Anyway enough of my blabbering, let the photos speak for themselves.

Password: Surprise

https://player.vimeo.com/video/115237909

I will forever be so grateful that Randy decided to go on a mission, for the experiences we both had while he was gone, and that 2 years ago, he came home to me.

A Fifty-Year Silence was one of those books that at first, intrigued me incredibly. I loved the story, the characters, but as the book wore on, I began to be wary of them. I stopped liking them the further into the book it went. I understand that this book is based on a true story, but there was just so little towards the end to keep my attention. Nothing is really solved, I didn’t feel a weight lifted off me at the end to have learned the truth, it just ended. And I guess that’s how life really is sometimes, but after pouring through page after page, it was just a little bit of a let down. A fantastic book for those who are historically inclined, but a bit of a disappointment story-wise. 

*I received this book from Blogging For Books, the opinions are my own.