What's Christmas season without the Temple lights?!

...The answer is "Not nearly as good"

The lights downtown SLC around Christmastime are so beautiful. I went with the fam a few weeks ago to check them out!!

There were 12 of us this time! (Me, Kass, AK, Auntie Tammy, Uncle David, Alexis, Daniel, Katie, Megan, Jo, Her Mom (Sorry!), and Sam!)

Besides the freezing factor, it was fun! We stopped on the walk back to the car and got some hot cocoa, compliments of AK. SWEET!!

Megan came prepared with hand (nose) warmers, and Kassi came prepared to pose.

It was a lovely adventure during the greatest season out there!!

PS..if you're keeping track, that just about completes my Holiday pictures. Next up, *vacation pics!!!!* I've been so excited to go through and edit and post and remember and wish I was still there and document this trip!! Coming to a blog near you very, soon!! (Keep in mind though...I was able to document close to 1000 memories during that trip. Lucky me!)

The pink dots on the D are my favorite.

Update:
Since they're my favorite, and it's kind of hard to see them on the picture below, here are the pink dots! A. dor. a. ble. Right?

I've mentioned this recently, but I'll mention it again. I was a busy. busy. busy. lady around the holidays. My cousin Megan hinted a few times that she wanted the letters "Dance" for her room. I knew the first time that she'd mentioned it that that's what I was going to be making for her for Christmas.

To clarify...She told me starting in Septemberish about the dance letters.

To admit something that totally shows who I am...Her letters were finished on Christmas Eve. Whew. I don't like to cut things close, do I!

I had a couple of other requests, and ended up making hand made gifts for a good chunk of the fam. I had a great time doing it, and loved the way they turned out! It's so nice to watch someone's face light up over something you made with your own two hands.

I was able to post these examples in my Etsy shop, and guess what?! I got my first sale!!! I've had my Etsy shop open for awhile now, so makes me all sorts of giddy.

Oh, and speaking of Etsy, I made this really cute (I think) collage of pictures (mostly from my vaca to Alabama) to use as my default Etsy pic. Maybe the picture of my flip flops with beach sand on them triggered my first sale. Sweet!!

While we're on the Etsy topic...I was fixing up my blog a little the other day and accidentally deleted my etsy shop button!! Boo! That will be coming back shortly. Hopefully.

In the meantime, if you want to check out my shop it's definebliss.etsy.com.

Love you all!! Have a great Hump Day! (How is it not Friday yet?!) Be back soon!

Christmas 2010

We started Christmas a little early this year. Trav, Trey, and I did our Christmas on Christmas Eve (Mainly because the suspense was killing me..) Also, because it was hard to keep Trey's treats from him any longer! He enjoyed his new toys, and still has his bones. I don't know what it is with him. One bone lasts a few months, lol...

Christmas Morning Kass and I woke up early and started at Mom's house. Levi got a bike, and a 360!! Lucky duck! Next, we went to Dad's, and finally to Grandpa Wootens.

It's still a very hard adjustment (and still hard to believe) to not have Grandma there. She would have been proud of us though, we did it. Everything was great. The food, the family time, giving presents, the games. Everything. We love and miss her sooo much, and wish she was still with us. We are however, extremely thankful that we did have the time we had with her. The memories are something that each one of us have. She was a special lady, and has a special place in the heart of every person she ever met.

Catch Phrase was one of the games we played this year. It's a must each time we sit down to play games!! Some of the others this year were Scattegories, Pit, WhoWhatWhy, and Last Word. We love our fair share of games!!

There was plenty of help needed this year. Christmas came sooo quickly, and I was about 7 states away from Utah (with my Aunt--Pictures coming very soon!) just a couple short weeks before Christmas!! That meant when we got back, there was lots of shopping, and wrapping to do!!
Kassi even did her part, wrapping until she was blue (red) in the face!!

We managed to get everything all done, and as always everything turned out wonderfully!

I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas this year!!

But the prettiest sight to see is the holly that will be on your own front door!

It (was) beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!
Everywhere you (went)

Soon the bells (did) start
And the thing that (made) them ring is the carol that we (sang)

Right within our hearts
A little late, but better late than never right?! More to come about our Christmas this year, but this is what it (looked) like at our house this year. We (I) had everything out and setup the day after Thanksgiving! I went out of town the week after and came home to outside lights! Trav was nice enough to hang them while I was gone. ..Now, if only he'd be nice enough to *un-hang* them this weekend.

We had a little more room this year so I was able to set up a village. Most people (I think) don't do villages as much anymore, but this is something that has been passed down as a tradition from generation to generation. In fact, most of my *village* this year was provided by my Grandma throughout the years. I know she'd be proud, and I can't wait to keep adding to it each year!

We had a real tree this year (same as always). I took it down New Years Day, and woah. Now I know why Trav is not so much a fan of real trees. (I'm not going to tell him it was a pain, though. Definitely not telling.) I didn't want to take precious vaccuuming time away and use it for counting pine needles, but I bet there were a million spread out on my carpet/rug...so.glad.that's.cleaned.up.

I'll be going through Christmas Day pictures this week so stay tuned!!

Love. Hate.

I love that I had Friday off. (If you're keeping track, that's a three day weekend for me! WOOT!)
Hate that I had a Dr. appointment on Friday, and that they drew blood. :( (I don't know how I'll ever manage when I'm prego. I had to ask the blood drawing lady to please stop because I was about to pass out. Sweaty, numb, Nauseous, Chills, Dizzy...the whole bit.)
Love that I was so productive on Friday! (Ended up going to about 9 different places. Gotta love day off errands!)
Hate that I had to make a Dr. appointment for Mrs. Lappy. Turns out she was really sick, and I had to leave her with Dr. Mac over night! :( it was my first night without her, and I found out that I have serious attachment issues. Plus, it was sort of a strain to get comfy while I was holding my iPhone, watching Housewives.
Love that I was able to pick Mrs. Lappy up today, and now she's all better!!
Hate that I had to drive in a really scary snow storm!
Love the snow storm now that I'm home!
Love that I set up the house for our Christmas tree!! Can't wait!
Love that AK hung out at the house for awhile.
Love The Price is Right on Wii.
Love staying in on this wintery night!

Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend!!

PS- Things to come:
Halloween cubicle decorating contest pictures! (Hopefully before Thanksgiving!)
Remember when I did something really exciting a couple Fridays ago? Well...I finally got what I was waiting for in the mail, and I'll be blogging about that very shortly!
Christmas/House pictures!

5 years down, many more to go!

We met 12 years ago.
I thought he was a show-off at first.
He thought I only liked "Mexicans" (I remember the day I told him that. Seriously? I had to have been the coolest 13 year old ever..or so I thought.)
He moved to Idaho with his dad.
We hung out.
A lot.
I lied to friends to hang out with him.
I never told him I liked him.
After a couple of years, he moved away from Idaho.
We didn't talk for 3 years.
That sucked.
I went to a family reunion with his dad and he was there.
We picked up from there like we'd never stopped talking.
He moved to California for work.
He suprised me one day, and said he'd come back for me.
Five years ago today, he asked me to be with him.
Finally.
We love each other more than anything.
We love to fish together.
He loves Call of Duty.
I love Mario.
I love that he compromises, and plays Mario with me all of the time.
He probably loves that I compromise and let his dinner get cold while he finishes up his Call of Duty.
We love camping.
I love how he fits right in with my family.
I love how they love him.
We love our little doggie. (All 60 lbs of him)
We love our little home.
And our garden.
We love football, and can't wait for this season to begin.
We love music.
He loves my enchiladas.
I love making him laugh.
One of my favorite things about him is how he calls me every day, during his lunch break. We have the same conversation almost every time, but I look forward to those calls every single day.
He called me this morning while I was getting ready for work, and I was in a hurry (like usual) so I had to cut it short.
I feel bad.
At least he knows me by now, so I'm sure he didn't take it to heart.
Plus I'll talk to him at lunch :)
But still.

I love my Trav so very much.

Happy five years babe.

The Fourth at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

On July 5th, we all went over to Grandma and Grandpa's for a delicious BBQ and fireworks. Unfortunately, this is the first year (since we were all younger) that we were all able to be there for fireworks. Trav and I usually do our own thing, and my cousin Alexis is usually doing her own thing, and Kassi (sister) as well. I'm so glad Grandpa kept pushing for and asking when we were all going to come over and do fireworks. I love getting together with the family and reminiscing. We have always been so close as a family and really have a great time when we all get together. Tonight was no exception!!

We started the night off with a BBQ! Everything was home-made and so, so yummy!! I tried BBQ'd french bread for the first time ever (Auntie Tammy, you're a genius!) and loved it!

After we cleaned everything up, we were going to start playing games but it started to get pretty dark, so we went out for some firework fun instead!

We used sparklers in a way we'd *never* thought of as kids, and actually fought over boxes, lol.

After a few practices...we perfected letters! :)

Then Auntie Tammy gave us an amazing, Utah bought firework show! (They mostly look the same, and don't get all crazy, but the quality family time was totally worth it.)

We picked out some parachute fireworks where the little parachute shoots into the sky and slowly falls down. I think that was definitely the majority favorite!

Towards the end of our firework fun, Kassi got home from work!! We were all so excited to see her! Ever since she started working her second job, this is pretty much what we see out of her:

We showed her our new found love for sparklers, and she joined in for a few minutes..

(I wonder if she'd still be as excited if she knew her hair was on fire.)

I'm *so* glad we had this Fourth of July together. Grandma and Grandpa sat outside on chairs and just enjoyed everyone being there so much. It's so ironic that this is the year that everyone decided to be at Grandma and Grandpa's. We found out about Grandma the very next day.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth.

Fourth of July -- 2010

This year for the fourth, we stuck with tradition. Luckily Sugarhouse Park was able to raise enough money to keep the show going. Who knows what next year will bring, but I'm hoping they're still able to keep the show going. I love going and watching the fireworks!

We got there around 8, so we had a little time to kill before the show started. We met our friends Devan and Kelly at the park, and Trav's mom, and sister came with us this year. The weather seemed SO much cooler than last year, so that was awesome! As soon as we got there, Trav was determined to get a "Snowie". That's the first thing we did last year because it was so hot! So, we were off to find a sticky Snowie, and it was a success. Stickyness and all. After that, Janet, Laci, and I decided we were hungry so we walked up to A&W. The sunset was too much to turn down, so I documented it.

Lots of times.

The firework show was okay. We generally like the Liberty Park (24th of July) show better, because the grand finale is like 30 minutes long, and there's booths and stuff to look at while you're waiting for the show to begin, but as always, it was nice to get out, relax, and watch the pretty show!

Fishing, Crafting, Visiting, BBQing, Wanting, and Loving.

Love this!! Trey and Kassi, sharing a pillow. So adorable.

Ok, I'm going to have to blog a lot this week because if I see these cute puppy wrinkles every time I open my blog, I will give in and bring home another one, and Travis will not be happy. Must. Blog. More.
*Also, while we're admiring the beautifulness that is this puppy, if you can't tell he was trying so hard to get under our gate. Our neighbor's daughter was visiting and brought her two dogs (one of them being this puppy). The second the puppy came to visit, he darted to the gate and wanted to play with Trey, who was on the other side...doing the same exact thing. It was the most precious thing I've ever seen. If there weren't 42 dogs in our front yard, I would have let Trey out. He gets a little hump crazy, so instead, I brought wrinkles around to the back and they met. I really, really want another puppy.

Thanks to the long weekend, I was able to get a few crafts done and I absolutely LOVE how they turned out. This one is a shadowbox frame with real objects inside (actual block letters, real (fake) flowers, etc..)

And this is just wood block letters. The first of many to come. I'm officially in love.

We were able to do some fishing, which was nice because I was pretty bummed about having to cancel our camping trip/ :( (See: Weather,yousuck!)

That just about sums up our Memorial Day weekend!!

St. Paddy's Day

For St. Patricks this year, we (Auntie Kristine, Kass, Auntie Tammy, and Myself) all went to Piper Down!! Little did we know, being as it's an Irish Pub, we would only be able to stand in one place and take pictures. There was basically NO moving around space! We still had a blast though! We met lots of people and listened to some live music :)

Auntie Tammy displayed her photogenic side pulling out a whopping 9/9 on good pictures. Unfortunately I can't say the same for the rest of us. Well, at least for myself anyway. It's not very nice to tell someone else they didn't take a good picture...

So, kudos to Auntie Tammy who represented well and enjoy the pics!!

Valentine's Day--2010

*Woke up to a HUGE card, and the Ugly Stik (fishing pole)that I've wanted for a really, really long time-laying next to me. (If you read my last post, you now know that I was right. :) If not, go read it, and then you'll know that I was right!)

*Went into the living room and said "Told you"
*Laughed at Trav's adorable smile and blushed cheeks.
*Decided we were hungry, so I made pork chops and eggs for breakfast.
*Played a little Call of Duty.
*Discovered that we can listen to Pandora through the PS3, and fell even more in love.

*Talked about what we wanted to do later on.
*Watched the new Office--Valentine's Day episode.
*Made him watch last week's American Idol with me.
*Scrubbed the bathroom from top to bottom while he played Call of Duty. (That's love)
*Got ready.
*Went to dinner at our favorite little Mexican restaurant.
*Went to see Avatar 3D at the IMAX (huge screen)
*Played some more Call of Duty.

*It was the perfect day.