Merry Christmas

Ho ho ho...

The only thing our Christmas could have used, was some mistletoe ;) Brady and I had a fun time with our first married Christmas!We decorated our tree, made snowflakes, and slept out by the tree Christmas Eve night. It is so much fun giving gifts to loved ones and seeing their excitement! Brady loved his new earbuds and office toy! He also surprised me big time by getting me a step stool haha and I love it! I'm too short to reach my closet shelves...or pretty much any shelves in our apartment...so that was genius.

We spent a lot of time with our family. The Maynes got us adult-sized footie pajamas for Christmas Eve, and they are awesome!! Brady's is Batman with a cape, and mine has owls on it. I will be posting pictures soon :) My brother and I played in the snow, and instead of making our traditional snowman, we made a little snow cave. The Nielsens were excited to talk with Elder Nielsen this week too! It was sweet to hear his stories and his Russian! Kate made us a fabulous Christmas card!! Seriously, check out grey square designs!

So grateful for our family to really make Christmas worthwhile! My parents took us to the Christmas Carol at the Hale Center Theater, a tradition that we have each year. Every time I see that play, I always feel inspired to change my life and work harder to become a Christlike person. Two traditions Brady and I have started is watching the Christmas video from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. It truly testifies of our Savior, Jesus Christ. After watching it, we think about what we would want to give to our Savior this next year, and write it down and keep it in an envelope to open next year. That's what Christmas is really about - remembering and becoming like Jesus Christ. And I hope we can learn to share the love we feel strongly at Christmas with each other always.

WE SURVIVED!!!

After many hours of studying and late nights, Brady and I made it through finals week!! The last day, we had five total tests to take, and we did very well. I love how being married helps you work harder and focus better. Now our break can begin! WOOOOOHOOOOO!!! :D

The Big 21

It's official, I'm legal! This year made for another awesome birthday. So grateful to spend another birthday with Brady :) The fam spoiled me big time this year! I am so lucky! Some of the spoils included boots, a cute outfit, and our first nativity set!

Every year, Brady and I make it a tradition to take each other on surprise birthday dates. It's one of my favorite traditions we have - what better way to spend a birthday than with my man? So a few months ago, my parents took Brady and I out to dinner at this place in Provo called The Old Town Grill (yummy!!!). Since half of the restaurant is a bar, waiters check your ID card at the door to know how old you are, so they know if you can sit in the bar area or not. My parents were already seated and eating their appetizer, when Brady and I got to the restaurant. Since I was only 20 at the time, the waitress moved my parents to sit with us in some dark corner on the opposite side of the restaurant. It was super embarrassing, and Brady and my parents teased me to no end :)

Back to today...Brady thought it would be hilarious to take me to eat at the Old Town Grill for my 21st birthday so we could sit wherever we wanted! He had been planning this for a while, and unfortunately, I kind of ruined the surprise. Let me explain... Brady's parents take everyone to eat for family birthdays. We were going to eat with them the night after my birthday, and I had to pick where. So...of course...since we have the worst luck at giving gifts to each other....I ended up picking the Old Town Grill. Brady, kind of bummed that his surprise wasn't going to be as funny as he planned, was a good sport and took me there for our birthday date night anyway. I think it's times like this where the phrase "it's the thought that counts" applies. Seriously though...super great food! We would definitely recommend it :)

After eating, we walked up and down center street and looked at all the shops. Brady remembered that I had wanted to do this for a while, so he made that apart of our date night. The shops are super cute! I ended up buying a cute ring. For the last part of our date night, we took the Provo River Christmas Cruise with a deal we got off Groupon. It wasn't what we expected, but we loved looking at the lights and just making it fun :) Here's some pictures to document the day!