Birthday Post

My birthday was perfect. Not as planned but perfect.  I've always been told that your first birthday married is a special one and I didn't know how Luke could top my last birthday he spent with me, but in its own special way it was magical.  I woke up to Luke having already gone to Kneaders (my favorite little bakery in Utah) and bringing me back breakfast-in-bed. We both don't trust him to actually make me breakfast out of the kitchen, so this was a simple way for him to still bring me breakfast in bed.  I opened presents and go to talk to lots of family as they called in. Luke is in the middle of all his final engineering projects and so it's a SUPER busy time for him, but he worked extra hard (I'm talking like 3 hours of sleep some nights, poor guy) so that he could spend the day with my on my day.  That itself was probably the best part about my birthday. Also that day, it snowed, and when I mean snow, I mean snow a LOT.  We got around 6 inches of snow I'd say, and there was already about 5 on the ground.  At first I was not at all excited for the snow, but in the end it was MAGICAL. Luke and I put on our snow boots and went for a nice walk in the snow for about two hours.  We were tosty warm with our snow gear on, and hearing Provo suddenly silent was astonishing.  And along the way we stopped by my favorite little sandwhich shop in Downtown Provo. 

We planned on getting together with friends for ice cream, but cancelled because of the snow storm.  I really didn't want someone dying on the way to just watch all of us gorge ourselves on ice cream.  So it was sad that we cancelled, but it meant that I got to stay cozied up next to the tree longer.  Since we didn't want to drive anywhere, lucky for us our house is right across the street from a great sit-down restaurant in Provo called "Brick Oven".  So we walked the few feet in the storm and got all warm again in the restaurant and enjoyed a nice dinner together.  When we got back, we continued to sit by the Christmas tree and watch Christmas movies.  The best part of my birthday really is that I get to always have a Christmas tree on my birthday.  

All-in-all, it was a magical birthday.  My first white birthday actually.  I loved that it was a Saturday and we could just enjoy the day instead of having to be in work and classes.  So grateful for the friends and family that I heard from that day that also made my day so special.  Oh and in case you're wondering, yes Luke and I did dance and sing to Taylor Swift's song "22".  

'Tis the Season! Thanksgiving and Christmas decorating

This Thanksgiving we did something different.  My parents flew out to spend the holiday with us instead of us going out to them.  Luke has so many projects going on, including his big one with Boeing, so it was nice to be able to stay home, but still be surrounded by family. And it worked well that we have a spare room for them to stay in. I was excited to be in charge of all the food and I think that the food all came around nicely. This was my first Thanksgiving in years not being in California at my grandparents with all my extended family, but trying new things is good and it ended up being a perfect Thanksgiving.  

I was excited to present my first home made apple pie!

We were lucky to have Chelsea Sue with us too! 

Dinner in our college home 

Candid shot :) 

I went with my parents to Salt Lake City with the train

After my parents flew back home, Luke and I headed off to get our Christmas tree! We picked a great one and were so excited to get it.  However... I definitely bought too small of a stand for it and so it didn't fit, and we weren't about to take it back.  Luckily, I married an engineer who has access to some pretty powerful tools in the BYU lab.  So we drove our tree to the lab, hauled it in and went to work.  It's a lot harder than you'd think to make the diameter of a trunk smaller.  But we finally got it done! Took it back, decorated and lit it up and it is beautiful!

We spotted a great one!