O Christmas Tree!

I've been nagging my boss for this since after Halloween. 
WE NEED A CHRISTMAS TREE IN THE LOBBY PLEASE! 
Yesterday he surprised me with a $500 allotment to go buy a Christmas Tree and decorations and to decorate before I left work.
He didn't have to twist my leg much.  I practically jumped out of my chair!
I found everything I needed at Tai Pan Trading and I think I did a pretty good job!  It was so much fun to decorate and now it really feels like Christmas!
Oh and pre-lit trees? Unbelievable.  Never had the pleasure of having a pre-lit tree before and I was in awe of it.  Takes about 3 hours less to decorate too.  LOVE that.

 I love it.....

Last night we went and saw Giselle's ballroom performance at UVU.  It was so fun and entertaining!  She did a brilliant job and it was so great to see her from the audience since we are usually always dancing in it together!  Great job Giselle!

A little snapshot of Giselle and her boyfriend (as well as her dance partner) Mike after the show.

So now that I have my work decorations up I need to get my apartment all decorated!  We won't have as much time to enjoy it since we are leaving for Cancun in two weeks (AHHHH!!!!!) so we must put it all together soon!

Have you put up all of your Christmas decorations yet?

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!  Happy Holidays!

xoxo                                  

                                

Have I become a Directioner?

image via

I have recently been educated on this current boy band sensation by my very enthusiastic-about-1D sisters.  We watched a bunch of youtube videos of their auditions, and their parody's on their own songs (never knew bands did that??), listened to their current albums, and looked up a bunch of pictures.  I guess I couldn't help myself.  Maybe it was my sisters excitement that drew me in or their apparent love for Harry Styles.   Either way....
I have a few songs memorized now but I haven't quite learned the dance moves that go with each one that my sisters have choreographed.  They are DEFINITELY directioners.  But am I next???? If I do I am not ashamed!  Went through all my confidence changes when I admitted to liking the twilight movies.... it is what it is.

Well those boys all are really quite dashing now aren't they. hahaha

Are YOU a directioner?  Or even a closet directioner?  Curious.....

Have a fabulous Thursday!

xoxo                                  

                                

Red Lobster Girls Night!

A little over a year ago I left my best friends to start a new job.  Isn't it funny how I absolutely hated working at Red Lobster as a server but that is where I met most of the greatest people ever.  I've really missed them.  So last night we had a girls night and over 20 of us RLob girls went to The Cheesecake Factory at the new City Creek Center in Salt Lake to catch up and of course, vent about all of our Red Lobster tales.  Sure do miss these ladies.

I had one of their flatbreads.  Tomato, basil and mozzarella.  It was fantastic!

 I am pretty sure Hot Chocolate is the best drink. EVER.  I've already had my weight in hot chocolate this season for sure.

 Happy Happy Birthday Carolee!!! We were all so glad we could celebrate with you!

So, my RLob girls...... when is the next get-together????  Because I seriously cannot even wait.

xoxo                                  

                                

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

November is an incredibly busy month for us! Other than Thanksgiving we have lots and lots of birthdays including my mom and dad's.  For mom's birthday we went shopping at the new Traverse Mountain outlets, watched Breaking Dawn pt. 2, opened presents, and had an absolutely delicious meal!  Celebrating mom's birthday is always a great day and we sure love spoiling her! Happy Happy Birthday mom!  You don't look a day over 30 and you know it!

Remember how great of a photobomber Ariel was during my dad's bday here?
She didn't fail us for mom's either.

She will probably want to shoot me down for posting this but.... oh, what are sisters for. :)
Love you mom!  Hope you enjoyed your birthday!

xoxo                                  

                                

We are grateful

So grateful for family, good food, fun activities, friends, and each other.

 Look at this amazing spread!  It's beautiful!  A creation of my moms of course. She is a genius.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

We sure did!

xoxo                                  

                                

Weekend of Rainbows

So many beautiful rainbows over the weekend.  

No filters on these photos. 

Could get enough photos and was starting to become a little reckless by taking pictures while driving! 

Do as I say not as I do.

ALSO,

Last Friday I went to my parents to help my little sis Kalinja do her hair and makeup for her ballet gala.

She looked absolutely beautiful.  

I had to share.

 

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

xoxo                                  

                                

Look what I found!

I had completely forgotten about this little book of mine and found it in my desk last week!

Which one is your favorite?

 Hope you had such a wonderful weekend?  What did you do?  What are your plans for Thanksgiving?  So excited for this short work week!

xoxo                                  

                                

TGIF

Woke up today with the WORST migraine.

Excedrin isn't even cutting it.

TGIF people.

 Posting this old pic of Justin and I to make me feel a little better.

We make a great team.

Have an absolutely fabulous weekend.

p.s.  Secretly, I REALLY wanna see twilight.  No judging.... I think it looks kinda cool. haha.

xoxo                                  

                                

I'm makin' waffles

Some days are breakfast-for-dinner days.

Last night was one of them.

Waffles with homemade buttermilk caramel syrup.

YUM

HOMEMADE BUTTERMILK CARAMEL SYRUP

• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk (If you don't have butter milk in stock like me, just 1 1/2 cups skim milk and 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice and let it sit for about 5 minutes for a good substitute.)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla

In a LARGE (make sure it is large) saucepan, bring buttermilk, sugars, and butter to a boil over medium heat.  Remove from heat and whisk together baking soda and vanilla.  It will bubble up quite a bit.  Hence the need for a large saucepan.  The bubbles will go down as it cools.  Pour over your favorite waffles, pancakes, German pancakes or vanilla ice cream and enjoy!

xoxo                                  

                                

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

My dad turned "35" last Saturday and it was such a great day!  We all got together for a delicious homemade dinner and spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and ice cream.  After dinner it's tradition to go to a movie on birthdays.  Quite frankly, it's tradition to go to the movies for any sort of celebration..... we love them.  I love my dad so much and was so glad to be able to enjoy this special day with him. xoxoxo Dad!

  Ariel is a super photobomber....

 

  

 

I'm dying over Justin's face in this photo!! 

 

 

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

The snow here in Utah was RIDICULOUS!  It just kept coming and coming!  Luckily the roads haven't been too bad so it makes it a lot easier to appreciate the beauty!  Saturday morning I had to go to the school for the CLEP test. yay. I took one look outside and decided that I didn't care one bit how I looked at the testing center.  I wanted to be super cozy in my jammies with all of this snow!  

Best idea ever.

 Hope you all had such a wonderful weekend!  Happy hump day.

P.S.  HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSIE!  We all miss you down here!

xoxo