Our Merry "Big" Christmas

I went into this holiday season being sad and unsure of what Christmas was going to be like with  such a sadness.   I was reminded though of why we celebrate Christ, and why he truly is the reason for such a season.   Not only his birth is celebrated but his life and all the works of his life.  I'm reminded especially this season of him feeling all our pains when he suffered on the cross.  I'm also reminded of eternal families and the opportunity that awaits us to have a little family of our own.   We really did have an amazing Christmas, filled with so much love and service from others.  I'm so extremely grateful that we were overwhelmed with things to do so that we could move a little bit forward from our sadness.  Sure deep down the sadness is still there and may be for a while, but I still have reasons to feel joy.  
On our drive home last night from Christmas events we decided to take a back road and enjoy some Christmas lights.  It was so relaxing to do this and just think on the events of the last couple days.  We talked about what our favorite moments were for the day.   Of course we enjoyed time with family and our quiet Christmas morning enjoying each others gifts,  But we both commented that we enjoyed the peace and comfort that we were blessed with.  We both loved that we were able to smile, laugh, and just enjoy our days.  

Now on to our Christmas Eve and Christmas events

Christmas Eve
Daniel had a half day at work, which was fabulous.
We ate lunch and then went and handed out some last minute neighbor gifts.
We left for Daniel's parents house for dinner and a Christmas party.
The night was so much fun, we had a pinata and then opened presents.  I love watching the children open there gifts, there just so excited to open gifts.  We then were able to Skype with our sister missionary in the Philippines.  It was so great to see her and get to chat with her for a few minutes.  We went home and crashed from the night of fun.

Christmas Day
We woke up and opened some gifts (picture to follow)
We got ready and headed down to a little breakfast/brunch at one of our neighbors home.  This was going to be a breakfast for a new ward member that hadn't celebrated Christmas in awhile but ended up not being there so it was just us and our great neighbors.
Daniel's parents and brother came to see all our gifts and to visit.
We then headed back over to the Hepworth's to talk with Daniel's brother who is on a mission in Oregon.  It was also great to hear from him.
We then went to my parents for dinner and games. It was great that we all could get together again on Christmas night to celebrate.  
We went home and crashed again from the night of fun.

Daniel's Gifts

Juliann's Gifts 

And of course we got spoiled by our parents, drawn siblings, and neighbor friends.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Santa Claus is coming to town

I sure do love this time of year.  I especially love decorating for Christmas so here's a peek at our place.

The tree

I put this wreath on the door to help discourage robbers from entering 

We went Christmas shopping last night and I think we spent 10 min down the electronics isle for Daniel to try out every head phone haha.  So I took a picture.

Baby it's cold outside

I've probably mentioned before on here that I have a lot of shoes, well they all get abandoned when it starts getting cold.  I'm a wimp to even think about not wearing socks when it's winter.   So I decided to make myself some keyhole socks.  Oh you haven't heard of them, well let me tell you about these genius socks.  So I'm not gonna  wear socks and flats together unless my socks aren't going to show  (theirs exceptions so don't think you have to go throw out your way of dressing, it's just something I don't like.)
So these socks are cut a certain way so you can still keep your feet warm but also wear flats and your socks don't show.  So clever.
just so ya know my pants are rolled up, they would be put down if worn in public

 So I took a couple pairs of my socks and judged wear most flats fall on the foot and cut.   Then to help with the fraying I sewed around the edges.  Not to shabby


I also have been wanting to finally hang some things on the wall in Daniel and I's bedroom.  So I made this little sign to hang.  Haven't hung anything yet though haha maybe once the semester is over so my handy man can help me.

Halloween Fun

We had a few Halloween events to attend this year.   The first was our wards Chili cook off and trunk or treat. Daniel and I were asked to be the chairs or the activity and create a committee to help us.  The night was a huge success.  We had a lot of people come and we kept busy the whole night.  I'm pretty sure we could get jobs as waiters, we were filling up water pitchers non stop.  We didn't taste any of the chilis/soups because we were busy and there wasn't a lot left over, so we treated ourselves to some Chick fil a at 8:30 that night.  Here are some pictures of the activity before people started coming.

The next event was Carlile family Halloween party.   We dressed up as a sailor and nurse inspired by the famous picture of the sailor kissing the nurse after the war was declared over.  I love the family Halloween get together we do because everyone dresses up so fun.  Its always a surprise what everyone is going to be.

J & T were mr and mrs potato head 

Mom & Dad were the munsters 

M & C family were the little mermid characters 

Daniel knew how much I really wanted to go get a pumpkin so he took me to go get one.  A pumpkin patch was what we were hoping for but the weather was getting really bad so we went to Walmart.   We came home and Daniel did homework while I carved our pumpkin.  I'm reminded every year that carving is not that fun and pretty smelly so I don't know why I always want one.  Must be the attitude of wanting to be festive.  

I was going for a 3 eyed jack o lantern

Then our Halloween was spent at Daniels parents.   We weren't sure how many trick or treaters we'd get and Daniel was going to be doing homework so he didn't want to keep hearing a door bell ring  and ring with us not answering.  So we went to his parents and hung out with them for the night. 

Passport to Dinner

My sister in-law and I were talking and I was telling her how I'm just burnt out of ideas for dinner.   She told me that it helped her to have themed nights so when planning for certain nights it has to fall under the theme.  Ex: Mexican theme would be like tacos, Italian would be spaghetti.  I loved the idea and wanted to add a twist this week.   I found this Passport idea on pinterest that comes with a link to make your own passport and airline tickets.  So I pasted a picture of Daniel on his passport and came up with some destinations.  I included the things that would take place with that night.   The meal that would be served and the activity for that night.   The other night we had our Caribbean Cruise night.  Here's the fun that took place.

Daniel's Passport

not sure why this is upside down, but here's an airline ticket

inside of passport, look at my stud of a husband

thought I'd be fun and add a flower to the hair ( you know have to be authentic)

prep work 

the cute drink glasses

I took an orange ran it across the top of glass then dip in sugar

we drank apple juice of course

finished table set

Malibu chicken

take chicken breasts spread with bbq sauce let cook for 30 min at 350, take out and turn, add more bbq sauce if needed.   Add a pineapple slice to the top of each chicken breast.   When your chicken is cooked add a slice of provolone cheese until melted.

in true cruise nature a towel animal on the bed

don't know how they make these but I had to use a few elastics to make my elephant

I think it was a huge surprise when Daniel came home, I don't think he knew he was getting so many surprises when he married me but I love them. 

I had forgoten to post this but I saw this idea on pinterest and created the outline of where Daniel served his mission Brazil. 

I'm happy with how it turned out.  

Finger Painting Fun

I'm a Pinterest addict
I really love finding new ideas, and even more I love when I have the stuff to copy an idea.
I found this really cute fall tree idea as a thanksgiving decoration.   I really wanted to get Daniel's help to so it could be a craft we could do together.  I had fun and I'm pretty sure he did too.  How can ya not have fun when you get to paint with your fingers.

The original piece seen on Pinterest

Starting out, I drew a large tree and a small tree 

blending the colors on our fingers

Daniel was good with mixing

then you dab your paint on the tree to form leaves

Finished Large tree

Finished small tree

I sure love that husband of mine, and I love that he'll go for my crazy (fun) ideas.   He even did this activity with me after I hid in his closet and scared him.  He's a good sport :)

Confession of a Homemaker

This has been on my mind and I'm curious if anyone else does this.

I'll confess I hardly ever test my dinner before serving it to Daniel.   Is that terrible.   I guess I just like the fact that when I try what I just made we're trying it together.   The other reason is I would hate to try it like 5 min before serving to find out that its completely terrible.   I've come to find that usually when he doesn't like it I usually have already voiced my dislike so then we can figure out what to eat together haha.    pphheewww glad I got that out .   As I tell you this I'm hoping the broccoli cheddar soup I just made is okay (fingers crossed right)

All Dressed Up... And we had somewhere to go

Sometimes it's really fun to get all dressed up nice, especially when you're going on a date with your cute husband.   This last week Daniel had a dinner he was invited to by one of his works vendors Volcom.   It was held at the Energy solutions arena in Salt lake.  We got all dressed up in our business casual and headed out for dinner and entertainment.  It was pretty snazzy, we were on the court and everything.   You know it's nice when you have all 3 forks. (salad,main course, dessert)   We were served a delicious meal, the rolls being my favorite part.   They gave everyone a gift, for the men a speaker for there phones and the women got chocolates and a bath fizz ball.    After dinner they had a very talented comedian/performer.   He was more of a singer then anything but he was pretty funny too.   He sang many genres and performers and even put on costumes.  Daniel and I had a really fun night together.  After quite a few nights doing homework I think it was a great little break for him to get to go have fun.  

Us before we left  (bathroom selfies)

A view from above

the performer as Elton John  

He actually gets paid to play Elton John in Las Vegas 

Daniel must have taken this shot

A cute shot of us on the court

"Fall" is in the air

I sure do love this time of year.....Sweaters,scarves,boots,and being able to turn on the oven again.

I started decorating for fall like the last week of August so needless to say I was anxious for Fall.   I was on Pinterest and found a paper leaf wreath that I loved.  They used the colors blue, gray, white, and yellow.  I decided to use some fall colors instead.  I think it turned out pretty cute.  

I made the actual wreath with pipe cleaner and tape
cut out a variety of leaves, gently folded them down the middle
placed them in an arrangement that I liked
then glued them into place


I mentioned that we are now using the oven again so I thought I'd share a recipe fail.   I saw an idea to make breakfast pizza.   It sure looked pretty but I don;t think breakfast ingredients go on crust.  It was pretty dry and not flavorful at all.   If I was to attempt it again I would try to come up with an amazing sauce to put on it or over the top.

1 Year

This past week we celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary.  I really can't believe it's been a year. Sometimes it seems like it can't be a year, and other times it seems like we've been married for more then a year.  I sure do love that husband of mine and am so grateful that he chose me to be his wife.   I've decided that although wedding day is the happiest day of peoples lives the anniversaries are a little less stressful and not as nerve racking haha.   We had a wonderful weekend together.  Daniel took thurs. and fri. off of work, we didn't have a lot planned but ended up finding some things to do.   On Thurs. we went up town to the church art museum and  then he showed me the genealogy research building.   We then made our way over to city creek to walk around.    We ate dinner at Red Robin (YUM) and then ended the night with a red box movie,(42) in the comfort of our apartment.   The next morning we got up and got our grocery shopping done for the week then came home for some lunch.   We couldn't decide what to do, especially because it was pouring outside.  So we went and got an ice cream cone and headed out to Magna in hopes of getting on Backus(?) highway to go to Herriman.   We were just going to drive around Herriman.  We made it to Magna and it was just really pouring and we both were a little tired so we took a nap at Daniels parents house instead.  Then we stopped in to say hi to my parents then off to dinner we went.  We went to Wingers then went home and enjoyed the rest of the evening watching a favorite of ours (Dateline).  We did't go extravagant in our celebrating, but we had fun together.  

pictures from the museum 

Here's a picture of our Sunday dinner.  A Daniel creation Brazilian beef stroganoff.

My Man Can Cook

It's true to the title
Daniel can cook
He's a meat machine, I'm still pretty afraid to touch meat at times so he gets in there and does the dirty work haha

On Labor day I let him pick what we had for dinner, so a made up meal is what we did.  We had chicken seasoned with bread crumbs, garlic powder, and onion powder.   We also had cooked pinto beans on top of rice, and a salad.   It turned out really good.  We had a really good Labor day as well.   We started the day bright and early at RC Willey.   They had a really good sale on all of there furniture and the first 200 people got a 25 doller off your purchase.  We found us a super cute/comfy couch.   We sure do love holidays and the time we get to spend together all day long.  

 Daniel said, get a picture before and after

 Finished meal

Hope everyone had a good Labor Day!

Take Two

As most people have noticed my pictures didn't show up on the last post so I will now attempt again.   Sorry for any excitement I may have left with my lack of pictures haha just kidding.  So below are the pictures that go with my previous post.

 dress attemped, fitting fail

 mission accomplished skirt

 Daniel's school package

 little baby or if doesn't fit doll dress

 another baby dress