Our First REAL Tree

I thought I should put some pictures up of our cute Christmas Decorations.

I am sad now that it is down, but switched immediately to decorating for Valentine's Day. Yay!

Here we go!

I made about 90% of the ornaments for our tree. These are some that I wood burned.

I LOVE the stockings we picked out. I found them at WALMART people!!

Also, I love Jared's German Pyramids from his mission.

I eventually added pine cones to that jar.

This is when we picked up our first tree!! It was so much fun. I don't think I'm ever going back to a fake tree until I'm 80 years old.

We listened to The Forgotten Carols while we decorated our first tree :)

My mom got this beautiful Nativity for us. Sorry about the bury photo.

The Finished Product!!

Blast Away The Pounds - Grand Prairie Gopher Girls Style

I was reminded today of the work out videos that Hermana Ostler and I used to do in the land of good ol' Grand Prairie Texas.

There were two of them that we rotated through. I think we spent more time laughing through these ridiculous videos. OOOoooooh, what a good time of my life this was. 

1. Denise Austin: Fat-Blasting Cardio Walking Workout

Some of my favorite encouraging phrases that Denise Austin says to you during your workout with her crazy eyes:

Bring in that energy!

Pump those arms!

Walk tall, walk proud!

The more you work those muscles, the more calories you burn.... yeah!

Pump it out!

Take a nice stroll - tread lightly!

Easy walk. Take a breather!

Trim and slim... while we burn calories!

We're burning butter now!

Okaaay, round the corner.....

aaannd, Shake it, baby, shake it!

Thanks, Denise.

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aaannnnnnd

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2. Yoga Booty Ballet (with Baby Spice)

My favorite part:

COWBOOOOY----now, English Style!

Trust me, you will not regret doing these workouts. 

Reception Pictures!

I have gotten about a million requests for more pictures.

I'm tellin' ya. VALORY JEAN PHOTOGRAPHY is where it's at.

Click on her name to see her amazing work.

Also, All of the decorations where done by my amazing sister, Erin with

Floral Design by Erin

She has some serious talent as well.

Kinda jealous that she got all of the creative genes.... (not sure whom from. Mom?? Auntie Fran, most likely.)

My delicious and beautiful cake was done by

Wedding Cakes by Dawna

(my best friend, Jammie's, mom)

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Annnnnd, here we go!

Such a fun night!

we got our WEDDING PHOTOS!!!!

I love these pictures so much. 

If anyone is getting married, they need to ask

Val Dahlin, with Valory Jean Photography

to take their pictures pictures. She is AMAZING. So nice, so fun to work with, and she takes amazing pictures.

Today was so fun to go through these photos, and to relive the best day of our lives so far.

I cried.

Tears of joy, of course.

Here are a few, to give you a taste of what I am talking about..

indulge....

I could not have asked for a better day.

It was perfect.

and I am going to treasure these pictures for the rest of my life.

Autumn Time

It's autumn time,

It's autumn time, 

The leaves are falling down!

I LOOOOVE this time of year.

Jared has to suffer with me telling him every fall about all of the things that I LOVE about this beautiful season.

just to name a few:

kneaders pumpkin bread

kneaders pumpkin steamers

General Conference

the leaves changing on the mountains

driving the alpine loop

smelling the air (this is a true one)

shopping at thrift stores for Halloween costumes

Halloween!

candy corn

(Jared hates candy corn... too bad.... more for me!)

stepping on crunchy leaves

Gilmore Girls

(for some reason, I only watch GG during the fall)

Oktoberfest!

Hot Chocolate

soups

watching Disney's Legend of Sleepy Hollow

and Hocus Pocus

my Mom's front porch

and all other fall decor 

My Halloween decor this year WINS!

Meet: The Ghost Family

from left to right: Boo Jr., Spirit, Casper, Donna, and Boo Sr.

Yep, those are dryer sheets that you see hanging over my living room. Why, might you ask, would you hang dryer sheets up?? They're GHOSTS, guys. C'mon! A whole family of ghosts!

Can you guess where we got Boo, and Boo Jr.'s names? Yep. I just barely learned that Jared's whole plan while naming our ghost family, was to name all of them Boo so he wouldn't have to remember which one was which...

 Booooooooooo, you whore! (name that movie!)

note my awesome throw on the back of my couch

my Great Grandma Coleman made it

my Beautiful Aunt Becky gave it to me as a wedding gift. I love her so much for giving that to me. She is such a sweet auntie.

Trick or Treat???

I hope that y'all have fun doing your favorite things of this beautiful time of year!

Happy Autumn Time!

Deutschland

Holy Guacamole.

I feel like I've dropped off the face of the planet earth for the last month...

September 3rd, we got married, then went on our honeymoon.. (Bow-chic-a-wow-wow!)

Then on September 15th through the 30th we went to Europe!

It has always been a dream of mine to go there, and it was everything I had hoped it would be.

And here is a little taste of our trip:

Day 1

• Flew to Frankfurt. Rented a giant black van/bus that I named, Georg. Drove to Rothenburg, Germany.
• Got to Rothenburg. Wandered around the Disney Fantasyland city. Went into a massive Christmas Store, and looked longingly at Black Forest Coo-Coo Clocks.
• Went to Dinner. We ate Sauerbraten, red cabbage, and bread. Lots, and LOTS of bread.
• Night Watchman's Tour!

Day 2

• Ate a hardy breakfast with more bread, meats, cheeses, nutella, jams, and hot chocolate.
• walked around the city a bit more
• drove to Neuschwanstein Castle (the Disneyland Castle) (side note--I made sure to make Disney references every day of our trip)
• checked into our hotel
• HIKED up to the castle, and took a tour of said castle. It was sick-nasty!
• spotted a frog on our way down.

can you see the frog?? 

Day 3

• drove to Salzburg, Austria. 
• left 10 minutes after arriving because of stressful traffic reasons :)
• decided to drive to Halstatt, Austria instead.
• arrived in Halstatt, walked around. This place is soooo pretty! It was probably one of my favorite cities of the whole trip.
• ate dünors.
• drove to Wald Im Pinzgau, Austria

Day 4

• Woke up in Wald Im Pinzgau
• drove up the mountain to Gretlholf
• took some Sound Of Music pics. see below..
• listened to the moo-cows and their cow bells
• walked to the church, went inside, and drank some trinkwasser from the fountain.
• drove to Venice, Italy
• rode the water taxi into Venice
• Explored Venice in the pouring rain
• ate margarita pizza -- Jared ate a whole fish..
• went to St Mark's Square and put on my glare face to all of the weirdos that hand you flowers, and then want 5 Euro. Stinkers.
• Went on top of our little apartment that we stayed in and watched the eeriness of Venice settle in. It was a pretty cool place to see.

Day 5

• Went to a Fresh Fish market in Venice--where I saw a massive Sword Fish. So nasty.
• I also saw nasty fish that were staring at me.
• walked to the water bus
• went to Burano, Italy
• Bought Linens :)
• Came home, took a nap
• Then we went out again that night, and wandered around eerie Venice.

Day 6

• Left Venice back through a water taxi
• found our car at the airport
• Drove to the Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera
• Layed out on the beach, and read/relxed
• Walked along the beach, Jared and I also had a rock skipping contest! (I won)
• Hung out in our little city that we stayed in that night--Moneglia, Italy
• Watched the people from the Catholic Church carry around the lit up altar around the streets.
• played Rook with Jared's parents

Day 7

• Explored the Cinque Terre
• went on a hike from Monterosso to Vernazza... It was so hot. And there were soooo many stairs. I thought I would die. Good news, I didn't die.
• Walked through Vernazza, and saw the neat shaped noodles.....(side note: it took me about a minute to figure out what the noodles on the right were... Jared was like, "I dunno.." oh, he knew EXACTLY what they were. We all had a good laugh about the male genitalia shaped noodles.)
• had the BEST GELATO EVER!!
• Rode the train to Manarola
• ate pesto lasagna
• took the train back
• napped
• got pizza from a local store, took it back to the hotel, and then we played Rook again.

Day 8

• Left bright and early and drove 7 hours back to Munich. The boys wanted to go to the Soccer game, and so Jared and I delivered a package to Elder Zach Huff, and went to the REAL Oktoberfest.
• Ate the best food ever.
• Went to a mall, but every place closed at 8, so then we rode to the airport thinking that from there we could catch a bus to our hotel. Turns out you couldn't. So we waited at the airport until the game was over for us to get picked up.
• Went and stayed at a Marriott.

Day 9

• Left Munich, and drove 
• Went to Dachau, Germany, and visited a concentration camp. It was really eerie. I walked into a gas chamber, and that is when I told Jared I wanted to leave. It was hard being there, but good at the same time. I am so grateful to all of those people who suffered there.
• drove back to Switzerland
• stopped in Appenzell, Switzerland
• ate crepes
• lost our passports (we didn't know we had left them at the restaurant at this point)
• drove to our hotel
• realized once we got to the hotel that our passports were missing..
• the nice hotel peeps still let us check in and go to sleep.

Day 10

• called the US Embassy to find our passports
• They told us to call Bürn US Embassy, but they don't open til 2, so we go about our day
• drove this beautiful pass in the Swiss Alps
• saw a Porche gang, as opposed to a motorcycle gang
• 2 o'clock came around, we call Bürn
• The lady says that her co-worker has been working on a case with 6 missing passports
• we talk to that person, they are at the Police Station in Appenzell.
• We drive immediately back to Appenzell
• RETRIEVE OUR PASSPORTS!
• tell the lady in the restaurant thank you.
• drive to Andermatt, Switzerland

Day 11

• Walk around Andermatt--to the church, and by the river that goes through the city
• drove to Lucerne, Switzerland
• ate more crepes
• drove to Aachen, Germany
• Go to Jared's old apartment building
• eat the ice cream he used to eat
• eat the dünors he used to eat
• went to his old ward's party
• came back to our hotel
• walked around Aachen -- just Jared and I walked to the old grocery store that he used to shop at. We got drinks for everyone, and then came back to the apartment, and played Rook again.

Day 12

• Went to church in Aachen. The sweet Elders translated for us. It was fun to sing the Hymns in German
• Drove to Heidlburg, Germany
• went to the Bishop's house for a visit
• ate his delicious ice cream -- ROSEMARY flavored. So good. I will probably crave it for the rest of my entire life.
• left the Bishops house
• Drove to the castle at night to see it lit up

Day 13

• Walked to the Castle--about 3 miles
• climbed 303ish stairs up to the castle
• explored the city
• Went to the Christmas store
• walked back to the hotel--another 3 miles
• took naps
• drove to Jared's favorite Italian restaurant in Manheim -- Vapiano
• walked to the grocery store and bought 12 years worth of chocolate.

Day 14

• Flew home

These are the highlights of our trip. It was definately a trip that I will never forget. I saw some amazingly beautiful places, and will probably wish to go back for the rest of my life.