Christmas Crafts and Such...

I know I have been a total blog slacker the last little while, but with good reasoning! I have been working like crazy and so has Marc. So, here is the update and some pictures to prove we are alive and well!

Marc and I really wanted to see the Christmas lights at the Mesa Temple before things got too busy. We went a few weeks ago with his brother Ben, his wife Danielle, and their son Tyler. We had so much fun! It was pretty busy, but it was fun to walk around and be reminded of the true meaning of Christmas. We didn't get a picture of us together, but here are the ones we got!



When Marc and I first started dating up at school before his mission, he told me he wasn't really a fan of christmas, more the commercialization of it, but he doesn't even get excited for it. Well, before we got married, I made it a goal to change that, now that it is our 3rd Christmas together, I think I am finally cracking the surface! I made a big deal about making Christmas cookies for the Chase family christmas party, and I actually put up decorations in our house, I never did since we weren't home to enjoy them. I really wanted to make our stockings since they can be really expensive to buy. I wanted to knit them, but couldn't find a knitting pattern. I ended up making them very similar to the way my mom made all of ours years ago, this is how they turned out, what do you think? I owe my sister in law Whitney a HUGE thanks for letting me use her sewing machine and making sure I knew what I was doing!

I am planning on going back and getting more of this fabric after christmas to make a matching tree skirt for next year! All of this got me really excited to decorate. Marcs brother Ryan and his wife Whitney let us borrow one of their fake trees that they aren't using this year, and we really didn't have ornaments. So, I made some! It cost me about $5 to make all 35 ornaments, and I think they turned out pretty cute! Here are pictures before they made it to the tree!


I am pretty happy with them, and they look really good on the tree, just take a look for yourself!

No, the printer is not a gift, we just need to put it on the desk. Anyway, I have done all of this in hopes of helping my wonderful husband like Christmas just a little and the other day he tells me he is "SO EXCITED"! I think I have begun to get through to him! I even started a little tradition for ourselves, this morning after we got up I made homemade cinnamon rolls! What made them even better is that I used my wheat mill and made Whole Wheat cinnamon rolls, and let me tell you, they are AMAZING! We also made one batch that had macadamia nuts and carmel in them, delicious! We decided that we will make them every Christmas Eve! We plan on taking the rest of the day easy and enjoying this quiet day alone, tomorrow will be a crazy one! We hope you all enjoy the day! Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving and a Little Update!

I promise we are alive and well! We have been super busy. I have been working as a part time temporary artist for Marcs dad's company for the last little bit, but it is slow time now so I have this week off. I have been putting in about 50+ hours a week, hence the lack of blogging! So, here we go!

Thanksgiving was great! There was a bit of miscommunication in our Thanksgiving plans, so we ended up eating Dinner with Marcs family, and went for dessert with my family. There was SO much food! We were in charge of sweet potatoes and rolls and somehow we managed to mess them both up! The roll recipe was one my mom uses, it is the same bread they bring you at outback. You are supposed to use bread flour. I didn't have any and looked like crazy online, everything said it was ok to use all purpose flour, well, not if half of the flour is wheat flour! I have a wheat grinder and made my own, lets just say we ended up with very dense rolls. We stopped by the store on the way to pick up a few more just in case. As for the sweet potatoes, while I was working on the rolls Marc took care of them. We boiled, peeled, and cut them the night before, so I had marc make the marinade. The recipe is one his mom hand wrote when she was about 16, it took me a bit but I was able to decipher it. Marc on the other hand had a little bit of a hard time. I went to give it a stir and realized the sugar was really grainy. Our brown sugar got really hard when we moved, but I was able to get it soft again so I didn't know why it wouldn't dissolve. When I asked Marc he said he put in white sugar, well we needed brown. So we added that, then balanced it out with more orange juice. They were VERY orangey! We put them in the oven the put a few marshmallows on them, we decided to finish baking them at his parents. The pan was too hot to put the lid on, so we set them very level and steady in the back, not luck, when we took them out the marinade and warm marshmallow goo showed us how tricky it was and spilled all over the back! They still tasted wonderful, and the car smelled festive too!

After eating and playing boche ball we went to my parents to eat dessert! Let me first say, my mom is AMAZING! There were about 4 or 5 homemade pies! Lets start the list, Apple, Pumpkin, Chocolate Cream, White Chocolate Blueberry, and I know I am forgetting one...anyway, they were WONDERFUL! We spent a little bit over there and then came home. We both had to be at work the next day and were really full and tired. It didn't help that it got to 80 degrees that day, then cool off really quick! But can you explain to me how Thanksgiving was 80 then two days later it was 60?! Gotta love AZ!

Our apartment is coming along wonderfully. We have had some not so good things, but we got a great deal and are only locked in for a 12 month lease, so we know we can make it! We have almost everything unpacked. This apartment is bigger than our last one but a couple hundred feet, but has SO much less storage, I have a box of food in my dining area! We have a few ideas on things to do to organize a bit, but we may have to wait until the holidays! I promise I will get some pictures of our place up! We need to decorate for Christmas too, so maybe we will have two in one pictures!

This weekend is going to be super busy! Hopefully I will get some pictures of that too! We have our nieces 1st birthday, and the Chase Family Christmas party with Marcs extended family. We will be baking lots of yummy cookies this week, I can't wait for it to smell like the holidays! I am also making our Christmas Stockings, once I finish them I will have to post a picture! And, I promise we will be more fun!

My little brother is turning 21 tomorrow! He is in Madagascar on his mission and should be coming home in February or March. I slacked on getting him out a birthday and Christmas package, but since it takes 2 months didn't think there was time. We too this picture on our computer, but it reflects the image, so we wrote backwards. Here is proof too that we are alive and well!


Also, if you are in Phoenix and want an AMAZING FREE haircut let me know! I found a coupon for a free shampoo, cut, and style at a new Paul Mitchell Salon in Scottsdale. My sister in law and I went the other day, and I want to go again, I just can't justify spending $45! They gave me coupons for a free cut to give away, and for every 3 people I refer I get another free cut! The lather lounge is a dark room with soft music playing and a tv playing the aquarium thing, the chairs have back massagers in them and they give you a wonderful hand and arm massage while washing your hair! I had water with cucumber brought to me too! The guy that did my hair was awesome! If you want a great stylist, I highly recommend him! Let me know if you want to try it out! Check back soon for more fun stuff!