All the updates you never really wanted

blah blah blah 

i'm the worst blogger

blah blah

for all of you who have been DYING for an update of sorts,

(since it's been nearly a year since my last post)

here is what we've been up to in the year of Dragon

(if you're in to the Chinese Zodiac)

JANUARY

My BEAUTIFUL little sister got 

MARRIED!!!!

Aren't they precious?! 

Karl is from Idaho Falls so that's where they will probably live forever 

It's still crazy to me, and hard to think of her as married since I dont' get to see them often,

But we LOVE Karl and couldn't be happier for them!!

Also in January, my FAVORITE, cutest, sweetest, best little brother

GOT HIS MISSION CALL!! 

He was called to the Germany, Frankfurt Mission!

Of all the places in the world he could have gone, this was his DREAM!!!

February

I just asked Joey what we did in February, and he said

"we celebrated Valentine's Day and Black History Month"

haha thanks captain obvious

according to facebook :

we had good food for the superbowl

and i made mini german pancakes

exciting right? haha moving on......

MARCH

we had SUCH a fun time in March, we were able to go to 

DISNEYLAND 

one more time with my little brother before he left one his mission

we also hit up all of our favorite beaches, 

and stumbled across an awesome car show and farmer's market

in Huntington Beach

we also had the joy of visiting with our dear Metcalfs.

we went to dinner and sat in the hot tub

we failed to get a pictures of ryan and joey reuniting.

forgive me.

we rounded out our month watching the Jazz play the KINGS,

really we just cared about Jimmer :)

APRIL

we spent the month trying to fit in all the things Nater wanted to do before he left

(most of which i failed to take pictures of)

We went to Lagoon, The Hogle Zoo, watched a TON of movies. 

isn't he the CUTEST?!

This picture makes me cry every time i see it!!

we also went to the drive in movie in

welcomed Amanda home from her mission

and upgraded from my very first car

to this little beauty

MAY

joey and i celebrated our 2 YEAR wedding anniversary

he surprised me with a weekend getaway in 

St. George. It was just what we needed. 

we went shopping, had too much yummy food, went to 

a farmer's market, saw a movie, and got some much-needed sun!!

JUNE

well in june i apparently sucked at taking pictures, but it was

SUCH a fun month!! We went to the drive in twice, we had the Hamilton family reunion at the cabin,

Celebrated my 23rd birthday with an outdoor movie

(man i wish i had some pictures!!!)

Maybe taken after my birthday dinner?

and the drive in movie with Cali!!

JULY

july is one of my favorite months.

We celebrated the 4th with the BEST cake in the world!!

FLAG CAKE

it's life-changing

fresh blackberries from the garden

We went camping at Starvation Reservoir.

it was BEAUTIFUL.

This was the view from our tent!!

for the 24th we went to Heber with our friends Jay and Jess,

had some DELICIOUS mexican food at Tony's Tacos,

shakes at Granny's  and watched the fireworks over Deer Creek.

AUGUST

this is the time i stopped taking pictures altogether. whoops. 

but there were some highlights this month!

We got to see Steph for about a day.

We ate a lot of really good food, including too many of these:

we went on lots of drives, and stumbled upon this gem

We went up to SLC for one day, and finally got to go to City Creek.

We also went and visited the Magleby Family who i used to Nanny. 

we also went back to Starvation for one last campout. 

we rented jet skis, and were able to have some fun before we 

were struck by not one, but TWO HUGE

rainstorms!!

SEPTEMBER

we started out September with our annual trip to 

Midway for Swiss Days and dinner at Dairy Keen in Heber.

Labor day we woke and went to breakfast at Magleby's,

and spent the afternoon with Jay and Jess at 7 peaks, getting snow cones,

and watching Bachelor pad! haha 

Joey started in a flag football league....

of course the first games i went to it rained the whole time! haha

i found a FANTASTIC pumpkin cake recipe

if you're into that sort of thing i highly recommend going here for the recipe

 (i left out the pudding mix because i didn't have any on hand and it was still divine!!)

we got to watch our niece and nephews one night,

and got to go to cy's last soccer game of the season

they won 2-0!

we also got to go the the Brigham City Temple 

open house. It was so beautiful!

my dear friend Karlee got married this month too!

We are so excited for her and Jordan!

Joey's highlight of the month:

Getting all this sweet stuff signed by his man-crush

JIMMER FREDETTE

This picture may or may not be by the side of his bed. 

(it's not)

other things of note:

Joey has been taking real estate classes and should be a licensed agent by the end of October

Nater has officially been gone for 5 months, which means only 3 more months until i get to 

skype with him on Christmas!!

oh and since when did blogger finally update? 

adding pictures was a dream. 

the end

....3 days left!

People, people.

Are you aware that there are only 3 days until Christmas?!

I started my christmas shopping this year on Black Friday, and basically finished on Dec. 1.

(although Joey and I have done some shopping together since) so there has been nothing for me to do but to wait for these past

3 WEEKS!

Anyone who knows me will tell you I am not the most patient person. One thing to helpease my anxiety in waiting for the big day is doing "25 days of Christmas" for Joey. Which basically means I have been giving him a small presesnt in a little silver box every day of December.

However, that has not stopped me from asking him almost daily if we can just have Christmas already, "since, ya know, we're grown-ups and can do whatever we want."

We have done some fun things this month though, all of which have to happen before Christmas so i guess the waiting game hasn't been all bad :)

we of course got our 2nd Christmas tree and decorated while we watched a movie and ate pizza

I decorated my office for Christmas too, and have had to refill this once or twice....

We went to the Spanish Fork Festival of Lights again this year, followed by a visit to the Salem Pond to see the floating trees

Sunday I made some sugar cookies, and have plans to make more tonight :)

I made these with my cricut (which i LOVE) to remember which order I want Joey to open in his presents in haha.

And last night, we went and bought some awesome sweaters to turn into our new STOCKINGS!

I just love how they turned out, and that they are exactly what we wanted.

We have a couple more things planned to celebrate, especially since this is when we met and started dating two years ago, and I can't wait. But I swear I am like a kid, and am just so excited for Christmas morning!!