oh christmas tree, oh christmas tree....

SO one thing I love most about this season is getting myself a tree.
Today we are at our Aunt and Uncles, where we actually are lucky enough to spend a lot of time with their dog Ossa, and our wonderful cousin Kyle, whom I adore. He is away playing basketball, and we are here, thus I have no pictures of past trees, but they will be added shortly, as they do enhance my explanation. They will have to be added tomorrow.
Freshman year, my roomate Jana and I opted for a mini fake tree in our dorm window( it's really the only way to go in the dorms.)
Sophomore year, Jana, Chanel and myself went up to some forest in the canyon searching for a tree. Good thing the canyons of Provo have no Christmas tree looking trees AT ALL. We found one somewhere and shouldn't have cut it down but we did. That is all I will say about that. And we had a live tree that year that was beautiful.
Next year, Chanel and I, on a whim, got a tree on our way home from Salt Lake I think. Real again. Lovely.
The following two years I have used my freshman mini faker tree since we have been in real homes for Christmas and otherwise impoverished newlyweds.
So the question becomes: Do we get a real tree this year, or a fake one?
I know, it sounds trivial, but this is a big deal to me. I am voting real. We will even be here on Christmas and put all of our presents under it and everything. Greg says fake because a real one is messy and it will detract attention away from more important things I don't do already like cleaning the kitchen and making dinner j/k but he thinks they are unnecessarily messy.....needless to say, it is quite the family debate right now. If anyone has any wisdom on this subject, do share. Maybe I'll just go get a real tree tomorrow regardless...until then, I hope everyone else's tree hunting is and/or has been successful.

tis the season, yes indeed.

Every year since I was 17 I have done a Christmas countdown from somewhere around 70 days til Christmas.
I am obsessed.
In years passed, I have sent my phone bill soaring sending a countdown text to all I love, or have kept everyone I have ever known up to date on just how many days there are.
As everyone should know at this point there are 23, and I could not be happier about it. I plan on every year from here on out, doing a daily entry in the month leading up to Christmas about love and Christmas. What that means, I am not sure, but I am hoping to enhance my Christmas season this year and beyond (thank you buzz lightyear?....)
A quick catch up. We were in Colorado for Thanksgiving. It was a good time had by all, really too short to do much but eat Thanksgiving dinner and then fly home, but lovely. It was good to see family and the snow. We celebrated Halloween (wow I am bad at updating this.) We have just been living our fabulous lives and enjoying our friends and loved ones. How's that for a vague update.
I'll post some pictures in my days of Christmas update tomorrow.
joyeux noel.

lily jane

My college experience began with opening up an envelope on a wall in front of our house in Connecticut to see that my roommate was going to be Jana Brink. We talked once, and when I got to BYU I discovered that without trying, we had completely coordinated our room. Matching everything. We went on to have far too many late night conversations that often turned into early mornings, breakfasts together that sometimes turned into lunches, went through dating different people together, had crazy adventures, road trips, and I even got to spend a couple weeks at home with her while my family lived in Africa. Then, we both got married within the same year. Just in the past couple of months we are now living within an hour again, since Joe and Jana moved back to this blessed area and live in the city.
Recently, my dear Jana had a new addition, the lovely Lily Jane Eliason, and she is so, so precious.
My friend Diana, (who I also met my freshman year at BYU, and who is now neighbors with Jana) and I threw Jana and Lily a shower on Saturday, and it was so wonderful to see Jana (who looks like she just competed in a swimsuit competition might I add) and beautiful Lily!
Here are some pictures of the event.
(It must be noted that Diana is a creative genius. She made beautiful invitations, and did just about everything crafty you see below. Seriously, if you ever need invitations to anything, you should use her she is so talented!)

Jana, Diana and myself with lovely lily

Jana with some of her goods :)
The spread

Lily. I can't get over how little and adorable she is!
The adorable flower headbands/hair clips we made.

I'm so glad Lily is here.

and then it was fall

I love fall. Love it. I love the leaves changing, I love the crisp air and I love sweater weather and pumpkins....I could keep going here for a while.
I have been anxiously awaiting this most wonderful time of year. I am pleased to say thanks to a cold front a week or so ago I have been happily rewarded with lovely fall weather. I'm in heaven!
In other news, I am a bad blogger. Turns out my iphoto has issues, won't upload my pictures and I just keep waiting for it to magically work one night.
I have been very reflective lately and have realized that while I think our lives right now are super boring, almost embarrassingly mundane (we have jobs, no pets, no kids.....) they are actually very entertaining in retrospect. We were talking about everything that has happened the past two years and I thought all these events were so hilarious, and I was so sad that I had not recorded them somewhere.
So, from now on I am going to actually blog. About our boring lives. And everyone is going to love. it.

Here are some recent events:

Christian and Stephanie came to town. We got to see them a lot and it was very fun. Clearly should have taken more pictures with them :) (or not somehow deleted the ones we had while uploading the on my computer...i have issues.)

We went to a Giants game with Aubrey and Brett that the Hansen's and Ryan were also at and all ended up sneaking right up front to the third row, it was fun.








We celebrated Mary and Mike's birthdays, and have been able to hang out with little Matthew, the most handsome baby I ever did see.




I went home to celebrate my mom's birthday!! It was SO much fun, and my mom is one beautiful 30 year old!:) My mom is probably the most selfless, loving person in the world. She makes everything fun and is constantly doing everything for everyone. The entire day was filled with people stopping by with gifts and calling and I think she probably got 100 flower arrangements. It is so fun to be able to celebrate with her because anyone could spend their entire life doing things for my mom and still be in debt for everything she does. She is amazing!!!! I am SO lucky to be her daughter!!






While home I went to my brother, Lincoln's homecoming soccer game, where he scored three goals and was a star. He is a m a z i n g.






I finally dawned my beautiful asics again after taking them off the last time after finishing my marathon. seriously. And I have been running a lot. Yes, I am a crazy person, and I have decided to embark on yet another marathon, this one in Sacramento on Dec. 6th.

I realize this is mostly about me, Greg is fabulous. I guess I'm just more news worthy right now.
:)

thankful

This morning I woke up feeling very thankful.
I am very thankful to be living in a place that I have, over the past year and a half, really come to love.
I am thankful that now when I talk about "home" I mean here. It's been a while since I really knew what to say when I asked where home was, and I love that I finally feel at home here.
I am thankful for the wonderful friends we have here. They make the best and worst of times bearable and have really kept me sane the past year. I am so, so thankful for this.
I am very thankful for my husband. I am so thankful that he is so entertaining and keeps me laughing all. the. time. And he's super cute.
I am thankful for my new camera for my birthday. And that I got to go shopping. Shallow, I know, whatever, call me shallow. I love shopping.
I am just thankful for Saturday, for a long weekend, for getting to relax and hang out and not worry about a n y t h i n g.
thank you, thank you, thank you.

If I had one wish that wish would be....

Yesterday was my birthday. It was wonderful. We went to church, my fabulous frind Mary made me the most amazing birthday dinner ever, and Greg invited a bunch of our friends over that night. It was really fun and great to see everyone, a fantastic birthday. The sad part is my camera is broken so I have no pictures, I might just have to use some birthday gift cards to go get a new one :) Thank you to everyone for coming by, for the phone calls, and for remembering me on my birthday!!

So, let me just say that every year when my birthday rolls around, I am generally in a new place with new people. We moved a lot and my birthday was generally the first day of a new school or something. In college my birthday was always moving into a new apartment or starting a new year of school. This year, once again we have just moved, but everything in my life is generally the same...same area, same job, same friends, and knowing that we will probably be here again next year, and the year after that, and the year after that...you get the picture. I am very grateful for this unfamiliar sense of stability, however I woke up this morning with a terrible case of wanderlust.

I need to go somewhere, and soon. Preferably Europe.

here are my top choices:

Greece
Austria

France

There's always wishing right?

two years

yesterday we celebrated 2 years.
we have traveled to 4 different countries, 7 different states
we have lived in 2 states and 3 apartments
we graduated from college, started jobs, switched jobs....
we've had a lot of fun, and my handsome husband has kept me laughing through all of it.
so glad we finally decided to date each other after being friends for a long time, so glad we fell in love, and i'm so very glad we're married.