Our First Married Christmas!

I had a very different Christmas this year! The first major, yet best difference of all was that I am married! The second huge difference was that this was my first Christmas away from home. To start off our Christmas Taron and I decided to have our own little Christmas together before we traveled to Southern California to open up the gifts from my family. He had it the day before we left which just so happened to be on our four monthaversary! We watched A Christmas Story on "Christmas Eve." And on Christmas morning I woke up early but waited patiently for Taron because Sunday is his only day to sleep in. I think he could feel my restlessness because he finally rolled over and told me "Will you get out of bed already?" This was my cue to run to our living room and plant myself right in front of our tree and presents! Taron got to the living room first so he could plug in the tree for me before I came in (my parents always had the tree plugged in before we got into the living room which makes Christmas morning much more magical!)

After presents we made a very fancy Christmas morning breakfast of pancakes, bacon and little smokies! So Yummy! I've never had so much bacon and little smokies to myself before! I don't have to share as much when there are only two of us! We ended up leaving for Utah that night but not before we watched one of our new movies from Christmas.

Driving to Utah was uneventful. But the rest of the drive the next day was not so fortunate. To cut a long story short (because my blogs are always too long) we got in a three or four hour traffic jam and right when traffic finally started to pick back up we rear-ended a girl who rear ended someone else directly in front of us. We ended up getting towed to Barstow then Taron's brother's Thane and Tevan rescued us and drove us the rest of the way.

Christmas at Taron's house was wonderful! I was sad that to be away from home but I was happy to have so much time to spend with my new family and get to know them. I was so lazy it was wonderful! After such a crazy semester it was nice to sleep in, sit around and talk to everyone and play games. Christmas morning at six Taron and I heard mom and Tevan out in the living room. Taron poked me and I jumped out of bed ready to join them for Christmas! But instead of groggy pajamas sitting around the Christmas tree they were fully dressed and ready to head out the door. "We're having a baby!" Christmas morning was postponed till later that afternoon so Torri and Scott's baby Heath R. Ralston could be welcomed into the world! Heath is so tiny and adorable and I enjoyed every second I got to hold him! I wish I would have taken pictures of him...but I didn't. Torri you should post pics of him on your blog. =)

The Nativity and Logan as a wise man.


Christmas Morning!

Our mysteriously heavy gift from Tevan that didn't rattle in any way.

It was wrapped twice....and wrapped again...and again...and again...




Christmas morning Orange Bownots!

Taron helping Mom with Christmas dinner!

Happy New Year!

Puff Pastry Swans!

We have made a lot of fun things in my pastry class this semester like english muffins, puff pastries and danish pastries, tarts, tuile cookies, worked on plate presentation, and have done some chocolate work. This week we made cream puff swans! I just wanted to show off my amazing new skills! =)

And here is a picture of a chocolate tart with heath bar that I made earlier this semester. I took it on my phone and it was already half eaten so it doesn't look as pretty as it did before. =)

To go along with my last post. If you could answer these three questions that would be awesome and help me so much!

1. What are your simple joys in life/what makes you happy?

2. If you had anything to say about your simple joys what would it be? For example: "Dr. Pepper, BBQ Ribs, & Chocolate. If I could get that in one meal I can die happy." or "marshmellow mateys are the gse and since mac and cheese is the greatest thing since I took m and cheese is the greatest thing since I took my first steps I guess that means its a pretty good thing." ( Thanks Scott and Brent)

3. What do you secretly do that makes you happy inside?

I NEED YOUR HELP!!!

For my next Graphic Design Project we have to make a box and in our box is fifty cards which have a picture on one side and type on the other. It has to be a series of something that can be very creative or simple. For example: fifty different hairdos, fifty books you have to read before you die, fifty imaginary toys that little boys love ( like a picture of a flashlight on one side and on the other it says light saber). One Japanese girl did fifty things that North America does that is strange to the Japanese eye, or another guy took these really awesome/ beautiful photos of trash and title the whole thing "please litter "then wrote a haiku on the back about it of each picture. So its really broad, I can basically do whatever I want. I am having trouble thinking of ideas though. I was thinking of doing a series of the fifty different joys in life ore a series of fun personality quirks in people. So I need you to tell me what your simple joys in life are and your funny/ individual personality quirks are. For the simple joys in life I am trying to think of things that a lot of people will relate to but wouldn't think of it themselves right away if I asked them this question. So when they read it they might chuckle to themselves and think "oh ya that's true I do love that!" Or If you have any other good Ideas for the series that I could do would really really help! Thanks a bunch!

Happy Halloween!

Its that time of year again! All these fun holidays that come in a row during this time of year is the only reason that makes winter bearable! I'm so excited for all the holidays this year not only because I need some sort of break from school but also its our first holidays as a married couple! The only problem is that I am so excited so I want to decorate, make lots of yummy treats, and do lots of fun things...but I don't want to spend the money on it. hhmm...its kinda tricky. For Halloween we decided to make our own cheesecloth ghosts decorations. They didn't turn out so well but we had fun making them!

The End results: They were so floppy we had to support them with other things! haha!

We had a good Halloween weekend though we did not carve a pumpkin or dress up!!!! LAME I KNOW!!! I was actually very sad about this and Taron has had to hear quite a bit about it from me. lol. (we do have a really good idea for next year though!) But we did go to our ward Halloween party and make a Halloweenie Dinner!

They had lots of fun snacks to eat at the ward party!

Taron was ready to play all the fun games but not very many people would play because they were all boring married people. But eventually Taron got others excited and he got a game started and we won some cakes in the cake walk!!!

There was also a kid dressed up like Nacho Libre! It was hilarious!!!


Our Halloweenie dinner was my favorite part! We made mummy hotdogs, witches punch, green applesauce, bone breadsticks and cinnamon rolls! It was so fun to make and so yummy! We invited Todd and Kristen over for dinner because we had to show off our Halloween skills!

I thought it turned out pretty good. The applesauce looks really gross green because its homemade so its chunky! After dinner we went over to Jason and Angi's house and watched The Burbs. Ive never seen it before and so it was lots of fun! They also had lots of yummy treats for us to snack on.

We also got a new couch on Halloween day!!! Well we have a couch for a little bit I guess. We are couch sitting Todd and Kristen's couch while they are couch sitting for somebody else. So once Todd and Kristen have to give theirs back we do to. It takes up a lot of space in our living room but its so nice to have a couch!!!!! I just didn't know what I was missing until we got one! It is wonderful!

Full of Sunshine

6:25 AM- My alarm goes off but I slept in anyway, enjoying every little bit of my bed I could until the last possible second.
7:45 Am-While rushing out the door I was happy to discover all the snow had melted!
8:00 Am: Graphic Design- I'm in class...but where is the guest speaker?
8:10 AM: I have been thinking a lot lately about those people who just always make your day and I've been thinking about how maybe I might not get the chance to do all the things I want to do in life but I sure can make others days like they make mine. So I tried it out and discovered a surprise that was happy.

*This one particular girl is in two of my classes this semester and keeps sitting by me and talking to me. I've been thinking this was a little annoying but today I thought maybe there is a reason she always sits next to me and maybe I can make her day. So I tried to have a real conversation with her instead of just patiently listening before I could concentrate on my own thoughts. And I discovered I really like her! I think I made a new friend today. =)*

Which led me to a conclusion:

*Sam! Quit judging people! Its rude and you are never right about them.*

9:20 Am- Class ends at 10:45 but still no guest speaker so I headed home to take a shower before my next class at 11:00 which made my decision to sleep in this morning worth every little bit of it! Plus no regrets of not having time for make up, no breakfast, or forgetting to put on deodorant because I was heading home anyway!
11:30 AM- Showed off my ugly lopsided creation I call a bowl to my ceramics class and we all shared a good laugh about it, including the teacher. But I didn't care because thats the first time I've ever threw on a wheel and was a little proud I made something.
12:30- Got out of ceramics class early (it goes till 1:45) so I headed home again! I've noticed over the years while going to school that I walk unusually fast, passing people left and right! I don't know why-maybe the cold winters have trained me to walk to class faster. Whatever the reason I've discovered a happy thing!

*Making race car noises in my head while passing people makes my monotonous school days a lot more fun!*

Today while riding my bike home I had another happy discovery!

*Being a Nascar driver is ten times better on a bike! You pass way more people at much faster speeds!*

Because of this discovery I even raced a few bikes while speeding home. I'm glad I didn't tell them we were racing though because they all lost and I didn't want to ruin their day. Mine was going so good.
12:45-2:45- I got to spend extra time with my husband-free of homework- on our lunch break. We even got to watch this weeks episode of Heros which I always look forward to!
2:45-Heading back on campus to my Illustration class and another happy discovery!

*Not only did all the snow melt this morning but it was now considerably much much warmer and the sun was kinda shinning!*

3:00-6:00 PM:Illustration Class- Brother Carter complimented my art work! He told me I was a very talented designer and that any of my sketches will work very well for our project! I don't get compliments from my art teachers very often...almost never! And never this sincere of one! It felt good! This current project we are doing made me think a lot in class today about all the little things and people that make me happy...which made me feel happy inside. I also came up with a lot of good ideas for our final project at the end of the semester that also made me feel happy inside.
6:00 PM: Walking Home- My last discovery was the happiest of all!

*sixteen dollars deserted on the street-all alone-just waiting for a warm pocket to walk by and claim it! Well nobody else was around to do it-so I did!*

Now I'm home feeling full of sunshine because of all my happy discoveries today! Thanks for putting up with this odd and long post because it was my way of expressing my gratitude for my happy day!Did you make any happy discoveries today?