A stuffed Thanksgiving week

Monday evening we went to an Arabic dinner, hosted by the Arabic Club at school, that we were invited to by one of Kellan's friends who is the president or vice president of the group. We'd never experienced any Arabic culture before so we were pretty excited. It ended up being fun and informative and though I didn't love the falafels, we did both really like the pastries they had.

Tuesday was our last day of school for the week but unfortunately none of our classes were canceled so we spent the day on campus dreaming about our upcoming vacation and all the relaxation we would have, but boy were we wrong.

Wednesday Kellan spent the whole day holed up in our room working on a paper for Genomics, and only came out once for a quick lunch. It was crazy, but I didn't have too much time to think about it because my sister and I were busy in the kitchen prepping for Thanksgiving dinner. True to form, we cooked way too much and my older brother Hiram showed up Wednesday with enough strawberry creme filling for 8 pies! We're habitual over cookers, it just runs in the family.

But after Kellan finished his paper we got ready and headed down to the Strip to pick up some cookies for Sarah Elaine. It was Kellan's first time so we decided to make a date out of it and wandered around the Venetian watching the gondolas row by and tried out some of the shortbread cookies from the Honolulu Cookie Company. We weren't terribly impressed and the pineapple ones reminded me a lot of the Taiwanese pineapple cakes I'd made on my trip to the factory years ago.

Then we wandered out onto Las Vegas Boulevard and headed down towards the Mirage. I didn't even know they had a street attraction so we were both surprised by the erupting volcano and stuck around to watch the show.

Then we continued on our mile long trek to the Bellagio to see the fountains and I remembered just how much I disliked the strip and why I never really came down there. But after a million guys with disgusting cards and a thousand asians, we found ourselves at the lake front just in time for Celine Dion to belt out her Titanic love song.

It was magical.

Like straight out of Ocean's 11.

I even had my own Brad Pitt with me. 

After that we stopped by Serendipity's for a quick rest and some light refreshments where we basically acted like little hoodlums. 

& that did it for our Vegas Strip adventures. We returned home tired and smelly and vowed never to go back. 

Thursday was the big day. We woke bright and early and started on our final preparations for dinner. Then we feasted with our family, and extended family, and new random people I'd never met, and celebrated our many blessings and Jim's 82nd birthday!!

Some of Jim's children and grandkids came over later that night for cake and ice cream and we ended up playing Just Dance together. It was lots of fun. & we went to bed full and happy. 

Friday morning the boys woke early to go dirt biking & I found out a good family friend, and Micah's best man, was getting baptized the next day! So after a little talking, we decided we would plan and throw a little reception after the baptism to celebrate this big occasion. They boys also decked out mom's house with some Christmas lights and Kellan was ecstatic that Christmas could finally begin. 

Saturday the boys again woke early and went skeet shooting with Hiram where Kellan & John hit two clay pigeons with one shot! Unfortunately this was before they pulled out the camera and after they did no one shot as well. Then they came back and proceeded to go out paint balling! Yeah they just kept moving on from one thing to another. But it was fine because it gave us girls some time to go and do a little Christmas shopping. 

Then we came back home and headed out to Kevin's baptism which was absolutely perfect and such a happy moment. 

The drive back was also very eventful in the fact that it lasted forever! Everyone was trying to get back to Utah and the roads were so busy. 

It was so much fun to be surrounded with family for the holiday, but we are so grateful to be home. 

Brain Dead

This week has been beyond crazy. Like eating out 6 times this week crazy and exams for every single class crazy. But amidst all the insanity we still had some fun together.

Honestly though it's been so busy the whole week has gone by in a blur and I don't even know what's happened except for a few small highlights, so apologies if this post is super jumpy and spastic but that's why. My brain is just straight up fried.

Monday when we woke up Kellan said he wasn't feeling very good and his back was causing him a lot of pain so being the good wife that I am, I volunteered to stay home with him and nurse him back to health. We used the time to watch a little Arrow and catch up on school work and studying for exams. We've seriously had exams up the wazoo lately and projects galore so taking a little break Monday morning was just what we needed to survive this crazy week.

Last week when we were out shopping with Paige I'd spotted a fantastic pair of boots I fell in love with, hard, but trying to be frugal I declined when Kellan suggested getting them; a selfless gesture I regretted almost as soon as we left the store. But my sweet husband knows me all too well and got them anyways [at an even better deal I might add] & I've been giddy about them ever since they showed up so I had to snap a pic of them while crunching around in the leaves. Crispy leaves really are the best.

Our surprise guest

This week was pretty busy but amid all the bustle I found time to finish sewing up a vest I'd been dying to make. I really wanted a faux fur vest & found quite a few I liked but thought I could make one myself fairly easily without spending as much too, so I picked up some fabric from Joann's and fashioned my own pattern out of a vest I had. It would have been super straight forward except that I really wanted a lined vest so I looked up tutorials online and busted out this bad boy in two days.

It almost didn't happen though. I'm taking a sewing class on campus and asked my TA's if they had any tips for me before I started and one of them said I shouldn't do it and it would be way too hard for me to work with as a beginning sewer, sewist, seamstress, anyways; so I got really nervous about it and almost didn't start. But then I decided I didn't care what she said and I was going to try it anyways. It's not perfect and I definitely did learn a few things while sewing but it really wasn't as bad as she made it out to be. In fact the worst part was just cutting it out because it shed like crazy! But overall I'm really happy with the results and have to stop myself from wearing it everyday. [Also another sewing TA complimented me on it and said I did a great job, so in your face mean TA!]

Friday Kellan left me all alone to go on a planning campout with theYM group & I got hunkered down to spend a really boring evening by my lonesome. I even tried to go on campus to get some work done in the labs but they were all closed, & I mean honestly what was I expecting, it's a Friday night in Provo, no one's gonna be on campus. So I headed back home to eat ice cream by myself and watch some shows on Netflix, until I got a super random text from Paige telling me to guess where she was!

Car Troubles

This past week was a blur and we didn't get a lot of time together so we planned a whole lovely weekend but our prefect plans went a bit awry.

I skipped school Friday and ran a bunch of errands instead. As I went to pick Kellan up for school I noticed the battery light in our car was on so Kellan took charge and we limped our way to Sam's where the car promptly died as we pulled into the parking spot. Perfect timing.

We hurried inside & bought a new battery thinking that was the end of our worries but after changing out the batteries the light was still on and we feared our alternator was going out. So we hustled on over to AutoZone where Kellan spent over an hour trying to take the car apart to get to the alternator so we could have it tested. We nearly missed our movie but Kellan busted it out like a champ and put in the new alternator in a flash. So we were out 200 bucks but I got to watch my handsome man in action.

Then we booked it to the theater in our now perfectly working car for a double date with some of Kellan's friends to see Big Hero 6. I can honestly say it was the cutest thing I think I've seen all year. It may be my new favorite right on up there with Up. Then to top off the evening we grabbed some delicious liège waffles downtown at Bruges. It just opened up in October but it's quickly become my favorite little spot for a sweet treat. 

Growing Old Together

Kellan & I just celebrated our two year anniversary and while it seems crazy that it's been two years it also feels like we've been together so much longer than that. It's a little strange to look back at pictures of us and see, well one, how fat we've both gotten [yikes] & two, how young and baby faced we were! & while I would definitely love to get back to a size where I can fit into my wedding dress, there are also some things I'm especially glad I grew out of.

Some of those include:
Braces. yup, I had braces when we first met!
Wearing heels daily. Ain't nobody got time for that.
The rustic party scene. I no longer feel the need to chalkboard every surface & throw burlap on it just because Pinterest said so [a big thank goodness for that!]

I could go on and on, but I'll spare you and myself the embarrassment. The point is, I feel like we've both changed so much in the last three years but there's still no one else I'd rather be with.

Our first photo together (& the night I almost dumped him). Yikes we both look terrible. 

"Oh, I thought you said smile pretty."