Happy Christmas!!!!!

While we're all out partying with Santa and co, 

I leave you with this uplifting and fulfilling video footage.

Happy Christmas (circa 2007)!

Turtlenog 2012

Camaron's cousin and his friends started a tradition a few years back.

It has been deemed Turtlenog.

Turtlenecks + eggnog = turtlenog

It is a very classy soiree where all boys must sport mustaches and be dressed in the classiest of fashions. Girls are not encouraged to have mustaches, but must also be class-ily dressed.

Basically, classy is the main factor here.

This year's Turtlenog was celebrated at a friend's cozy cottage in Vivian Park.

There were pints upon pints of eggnog to share, necks were warmly covered, not a male's upper lip was bare ...and someone even brought a turtle!!!

All of these amazing turtlenog details basically covered up the possible awkwardness of being the only married couple in our mid-twenties at a party full of 18-year-olds who just graduated high school. Seriously. It was a blast. 

And since very few people knew us, I so could have been the party skank again.

For old time's sake. (maybe I was?)

Here is the official Turtlenog turtle  -delighting in some nog, of course (yes, he's wearing a scarf)

Our cute cuzzies. Taylor, the distinguished young man on the left, was the mastermind behind the party

The happy couple and their child

p.s. want to have holiday nightmares??

...

HELLO!!!!!!!!!

what are my eyes doing? No one knows. But I kinda hope they do it again.

Merry Christmas!!!!!

Can you believe it's the day after tomorrow?? I sure can't.

Yippeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!

Vegas, Baby!

As our first anniversary was approaching this month, Camaron and I began to deliberate on how we wanted to celebrate. Where would we go? What would we do? How much should we spend?

In the end, Camaron and I decided there were 4 things needed 

that would help us to determine what we would do to celebrate:

1. Lots of yummy food

2. Late, late nights

3. A themed hotel

4. Plenty of Michael Jackson impersonators (sha-mon)

The answer to our destination became all too obvious

...then once we were done visiting Costco on free sample day and watching fake-MJ youtube vids at 2am in the lobby of the Provo Beach Resort, we decided to hit up Vegas* just for kicks.

Warmer weather, sweet fancy hotel deal, sleeping in until lunch, buffet for 2 hours (why rush?), 

Vegas temple, oxygen bar, free massages for becoming chums with the guy giving us oxygen, 

white elephant gift purchasing, as much creme brule as we want, spending an hour trying to decide where to eat and ending up at Panda Express (the obvious choice), 

A crazy variety show with crazy-talented, skanky rollerskaters, 

breakfast in Paris, finding secret passageways while trying to find the bathroom,

and Camaron wearing women's mittens.

What a wonderful first anniversary weekend it was:)

And next weekend is Christmas:))) (triple chin. aka: me after Christmas)

...and not surprising to anyone, the only pictures we have are from when we 

were gorging on desserts at the buffet. Classy.

Camaron couldn't stop making this face the whole time he was eating

I couldn't stop making this face the whole time I was eating

*To those of you keeping tabs, yes we have been to Vegas 4 times this year. Don't judge us.

Our First Anniversary

This Sunday, Camaron and I celebrate our very first wedding anniversary.

We were married December 18, 2010

It was the best and easiest decision of my life.

Thank you for such an amazing, fun, funny, exciting, lovey year, Camaron!

One year down, the rest of eternity to go.

I can't wait.

Best Christmas Album.

At work, Christmas music has been blastin constantly ever since November 25.

There are a few Pandora stations they tend to stick to; Most popular being:

Taylor Swift Christmas

Colbie Caillat Christmas

and N'Sync Christmas

I don't know how Pandora works exactly, but just between those three stations, I've heard about every Christmas song you can think of (and every cover of each of those songs).

Through this, I have realized how some artists just have Christmas down.

Seriously, some artists have made recording a Christmas album into an art.

Exhibit A

Mariah Carey

Merry Christmas

All I want for Christmas is to hear this album every December for the rest of my life

Exhibit B

Aly & AJ

Acoustic Hearts of Christmas

I don't care how you feel about Disney channel stars turned musicians, this is such a good Christmas album. Love these girls. Probably the only Disney-ers to play their own instruments 

(besides Jo Bros, of course).

Exhibit C

Sufjan Stevens

Songs For Christmas

Six words for you: Come. Thou. Font. Of. Every. Blessing.

(it's on disc 2. Yes, there are 5 discs in this set)

Exhibit D

Glee

The Christmas Album

As much as I dislike this show and most all of their covers, I can't not like this Christmas album. Some of the songs give me chills. Chills, people.

Any disputes? What are your favorite Christmas albums?

p.s. that huge space between Mariah Carey and the other albums is symbolic. That is where I believe her album belongs. It stands alone ...way above all others.

Family Pictures

Ok, before you try to find Camaron and me in these family pics,

 I guess I should let you know this is not my family.

This is my friend, Natalli's family.

Seriously, beautiful family.

I had the opportunity last month to take some family pics for them and it was so much fun.

Confession: I've never done a family portrait session before.

Another confession: I can't wait for the chance to do it again.

I'm mostly excited to photograph a family again because I feel like I now know a ton more than I did going into this photography session. Although I am proud of my work with Natalli's family, I can't wait to try out all of the new things I have learned.

Some of which incude:

capturing more candid moments

taking shots from more creative angles

learning EVERYBODY's names

using more varied poses

taking a TON more shots

Any other tips for me?

Want to give me more photography practice? (email me)

Give Some Get Some ...and link up

One of my favorite things about the holidays is celebrating with friends. I love a good holiday party. We were happy to have been able to attend 2 holiday soirees this weekend! 

Loves me some eggnog:)

We had a church party Thursday night -we mainly just went for the free dinner. We stayed longer than anticipated though, because they had gingerbread house supplies and tables set up. Camaron and I love love a good house-o-candy, so we grabbed some graham crackers and began constructing our sweet abode. Sadly, the frosting we were provided with was not meant for constructing houses and ours collapsed ...like 6 times. In the end, we threw cuteness out the window and simply made a structure that could hold as much candy as we could stuff in it as possible. Now that's my kind of gingerbread/graham cracker house.

Later on that night, one of my friends from work was throwing a Christmas party at her house. 

It was called "Give Some, Get Some." 

Basically, they invited everyone to bring canned food for donating to those in need 

...and they had hung mistletoe all around the house:)

They had delicious stew, hot chocolate, a photobooth with Justin Bieber, and Christmas karaoke 

(all key elements in a successful Christmas party)

Camaron and I were watching a spectacular rendition of "Last Christmas" on karaoke, when my attention was diverted to a group of girls who were pointing above us and trying to get us to look up. They were referring to the mistletoe dangling right above us. Well, there's not much I enjoy more than givin my hubby a fatty smooch ...so with zero hesitation, I grabbed that man's handsome face and laid one on him. Little did I know, no one knew we were married, let alone even knew each other. 

It rocked to be a fake party skank.

Have you been partying this season? Any other fake (or real) party skanks out there? 

Link up your party posts below yo

p.s. karaoke fail = not being able to find an adequate version of your song (we quit before even the second line of "Baby It's Cold Outside")

the numbers

This is just a funny observation I just made.

In 2009, I posted on this blog 9 times.

In 2010, I posted 25 times

 ...and in 2011, I posted 183 times (so far).

Wow.

Cutie Owl Ornament DIY

One of my favorite parts of Pinterest is all of the amazing DIY pins available. 

But it's always a super bummer when I click on a DIY image, only to find no instructions/tutorials.

Anyone else run into this?

Well, when I found this pin, I decided to make these cutie owls (instructions or not)

...and just because you're so stinkin cool, I've included instructions in this post:) 

Here we go!

1. Begin with a cut-up paper towel tube, or toilet paper tubes (I'm classy, so I used TP tubes). Bend/fold in top of tube.

2. Paint entire tube desired color (I used acrylic paints).

3. Using a permanent marker, begin by drawing a pair of circle for eyes. Then add patterns, designs, embellishments.

4. Create as many as you'd like and place throughout your Christmas tree:)

stay tuned next week for more ornament DIYs

S'mores Crispy Treats

Rice Crispy Treats + chocolate - Rice Crispys + Golden Grahams = Put these in my mouth right now.

One of the best parts of college was learning this recipe.

So yummy.

So easy.

melt 1/4 cup of butter in a large pot at low/med heat

add 4 cups of mini marshmallows (10oz bag of mallows)

stir the mallows until melted

Turn off heat

add 6 cups of Golden Grahams cereal

stir until grahams are well covered in mallow

Break apart a king-size Hershey bar and toss the pieces in the pot and stir until mixed in a lil bit

spread whole pot of goodness into a 9x11 pan and let cool

cut up and serve to people who you want to be best friends with

For added fun, eat whilst watching Wayne's World 2.

Chyaa!

p.s. Garth has the best quotes in this movie.


"I'm going to be frank."
"Ok. Can I still be Garth?"


"So, would you like to have dinner one night?"
"Oh, I like to have dinner every night."


"It's just that people have started to talk, you know. They're saying things like, 'Hey, there goes Garth and his friend Wayne... the psychopath.' "

Blog Design

Have you checked out the auction at Jenna's blog yet? It ends Dec 11th

Ok, news:
I really enjoy changing up my blog here and there. Designing new headers, buttons, layouts...

I apparently have a problem with letting things stay the same for too long

  (seriously, if you've been following my blog for a while, you know I change it up often)

Through messing around with my blog, I've learned a lot.

Most of all, I've learned that I love creating new designs.

Have you been thinking of changing up your blog, but don't know where to start?

I'd love to offer my help:)

Click here for details and pricing

Pillow For A Cause

My bloggy friend, Jenna, is one amazing woman.

She put together an AMAZING auction to help out a friend in need and I was given the opportunity to help out by donating one of my pillow covers.

If you're still scrapped for Christmas presents, this is a great opportunity for you, too.

There are so many amazing products and services that you can bid on and win at an amazing price 

(and you would be helping out someone in need at the same time)

Head on over and check it out!

p.s. if you've been eyeing the red poppy pillow cover, it's only at $8 right now! A steal!

*Other possible names for this post included: Pillows for Peace, Bid for a Cure, pics-o-you-can-do-it!

Any other name ideas?

First December Weekend

Happy first full week of December!!!

I don't know why, but I'm just loving December and want to celebrate everyday!

Ok, maybe I do know why -We get to go home to Arizona and celebrate

 Christmas in just a few short weeks!!!!!!!!!!

This weekend was such a fun one. We watched a ton of Parks & Rec; It's basically our favorite. 

On Saturday, we doubled with Candace and her bf. We got ourselves some deliciousness at Jimmy Johns and then got all competitive at Laser Assault (the local laser tag arena).

Oh. My. Goodness.

It had been much too long since I'd laser tagged it up. It was a blast!

Pretty sure everyone in there knew who I was 

(the girl who would scream every time she turned a corner and ran into someone ...and then would laugh her face off) 

But hey, look where all that screaming and laughing got me:

5th place, boi!

Don't know when the last time was that I placed in the single digits at laser tag (4th grade)

Sunday was marvelous -as it usually it. Even though Camaron was sick and I had to attend church alone, the day was awesome because     ...wait for it      ...it snowed!!!

Sure it didn't even stick, but for an Arizona native, this was a HUGE deal! It was so beautiful:)

The rest of the day was spent snacking and watching old Disney movies (The Sword in the Stone)

I loved this weekend.

 Oh, just trying out bokeh effects with the Christmas tree. nbd.

p.s. the other day I went to the library to pick up a book I had put on hold. I looked though the "holds"shelf with the letter of my last name. I scanned over all of the books with the holdee name papers sticking out of them, but for the life of me, couldn't find the book with my name sticking out! ...Then I realized I had forgotten my last name. I was looking on the shelf that would have held my old last name.  In 16 days, I will have been married for one full year:) ...and I still sometimes forget my married name