I Dont Know Why You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello!

One of the many reasons I love this time of year is because with each ending comes an exciting new beginning; like with halloweens end, comes thanksgiving; with thanksgivings end comes the best-Christmas.

Our thanksgiving was not how we expected it-but i think it was perfect. We had originally thought that we were going to go home, but the cards didnt fall there. We enjoyed Hillary's visit, but even after she left we still enjoyed it. It was like a little second honeymoon. We just enjoyed our time to be us, watching movies, reading books, going on walks and talking. On thanksgiving day we made our very own feast; Lester did the turkey and I did well-everything else, with his help of course. Then our friends Catherine and Josh called us and they said that the roads were to bad and they were wondering if they could join us. It was great! She helped me finish the apple pie and also brought a delicious chocolate walnut tart. After dinner, our husbands vegged on the floor in food comas, while Catherine and I just talked, laughed and watched elf.

So overall, this break was a dream come true. It reminds us to stop and be grateful for the love we have in our lives, and the many blessing we have in life. So goodbye thanksgiving, hello christmas!

lester 'preparing' the turkey

making a practice chocolate pie haha!

my man carving the turkey!
our christmas tree
josh and catherine
beautiful rexburg sunset..this our complex before it got TO snowy.

the finished product!
apple pie
about to sit down to feast [i didnt have time to put makeup on so dont judge me!]
our meal...haha we are still eating leftovers, since there were only 4 of us!

BIG NEWS FLASH

um WHAT THE HECK? I have just discovered something insane. I think we have all seen the wonderful christmas movie Elf. One of my favorite parts is when buddy is leaving the north pole for the first time, and the arctic creatures are saying goodbye. Then Mr. Narwhal joins them; remember, he says 'bye buddy...i hope you find your daaaddd.' WELL GUESS WHAT?

NARWHAL's ARE REAL!

We were sitting here watching it with josh and catherine having a grand old time and then he drops that bomb on me that they are real creatures, not just will ferrell movie ones. At first I didn't believe him. And then, just to prove I was right, I googled it...and there is all this information! National Geographic even did a spot on them!

I think this just proves that God is perfect in EVERY way-he has perfect love, kindness, compassion, mercy, justice, forgiveness, and even a perfect sense of humor! He would have to in order to create such a hilarious animal that brings joy and laughter to so many people-well. at least to me! HAHAHAHAHA! MERRY ALMOST BEGINNING OF THE CHRISTMAS SEASON!

Breaky Break

It has been a little while, but I suppose that is the result of school and what not. These last few weeks have been CRAZY. We have just been so bombarded with stress, tests, life and everything that by the time break was here we were so burnt out. BUT. with hard work and endurance comes blessings. We are now just enjoying our time to recharge, go on walks, hang out with our friends josh and catherine, watch movies and other good stuff. and even better-hillary is here to visit for a few days! she got here yesterday, and after she helped me study, we immediately went to main street to look at porters crafts and get her a bridesmaid dress for our cousin natalie's wedding next weekend. then we went to great harvest which was delicious and i took my LAST juvenile deliquency test. then lester and i showed her the school and met up with lauren, and then we all came home for chimichurri for dinner. Then catherine and josh joined us and we played phase ten, watched modern family and ended the night with pizookies and bed.

This morning we woke up to an absolute winter wonderland. It had snowed here a few weeks ago, but this was insane. Beautiful, but intimidating bc we dont have a car. After listening to some christmas music and eating some french toast Lester made, we walked up to the temple. I dont think my feet have ever been more soaked! this was the slushy kinda snow, not the dry packable kind. It was a great experience and we all felt the spirit so strong. When we left the nice temple worker actually gave us some new socks bc she was worried about us getting frostbite since our socks were still soaked! After that, we went to five buck pizza, porters again for decorations and then cocoa bean. We sang as loud as we could and danced on the black ice while walking back-it was great. Theres nothing like having my two best friends here to bring out the good times! When we got back we decorated and danced some more, then made dinner and now were watching madagascar 2.

So basically. Life is just good. We miss home, and wish we are there but we are making the best of things and enjoying our first holiday together. Wonderful.

Grateful

I love my husband. He is sweet, strong, supportive, helpful, spiritual and funny. Since late high school, where our relationship began becoming somewhat serious we have always said that we were good balance for each other, just like my parents. I am loud, and crazy and fun loving and I say everything and hold back hardly anything-which is good and bad at times. Lester is more on the reserved, organized and responsible side-he doesn’t say much because he doesn’t feel like he articulates himself well, but when he does it is well thought out and important. He brings out the more reflective, thoughtful and kind side in me, and I bring out the more outgoing, spontaneous fun in him.

So that’s why this Sunday when he got up to bear his testimony I was slightly surprised. It was a simple testimony, but a beautiful one-he didn’t share a story or make any funny jokes like most of the people before him. He just stated what he believed-what he knew and what he was grateful for. As I sat in the congregation, I thought to myself how blessed I am to call this man my husband and to spend my life with him loving, living and learning with him-sure, there were difficulties in getting their and cynics-and there are still now, but we are living out our happily ever after and it is wonderful. Shortly after Lester sat down, our good friend Tyler got up and bore his testimony. He referred back to Lester’s testimony for a moment, and I felt grateful that others get to see him the way I do, and also that we have such great, fun and spiritual friends. His testimony was also very heartfelt and inspiring.
We are so blessed. So even though our Christmas decorations are already up and we are more excited for that season then the rest, I am grateful for thanksgiving which give me another excuse to just stop and marvel at how blessed I am and give thanks to my Heavenly Father for my wonderful husband, family, friends, religion and of course food!

PS: I should mention that when Lester got up to bear his testimony, our friends Josh & Catherine who are Philly’s fans passed us this note:

Hard Water

Question: What is hard water? And why is it even called hard water? b/c I'm sure that no matter what it is, it cannot be ACTUALLY hard...b/c water cant be hard or soft can it? I just don't understand...

The reason I ask is Lester keeps telling me not to use hard water on certain things, and lately I've been teasing him alot about things he doesn't know or understand..so rather then asking him, and getting a huge load of payback coming my way, I thought I'd just ask you guys!

Let me know [if any of you do know...] Other then this burning question, everything here is just fine and dandy! Thanks!