Kick-Off to 2015

January, already the year is off to a great start! I'm loving this "winter!" (I feel a little bad when I get pictures sent from my sister-in-laws about how the snow goes up to the trampoline in Boston and my brother in New York is having to put two jackets on to go take the garbage out, when yesterday I went on a bike ride, wore capris and sandals, got a pedicure and just basked in the high-50's temperatures). I am looking forward to what 2015 is going to bring!

 When I went and got my headlights done in January I did it at the Mazda dealership in Orem, of course I had to look at the beautiful new cars...look at all of those gorgeous Mazda6's!

 This beautiful Mazda3 was staring at me the whole time in the lobby. 

I love in the mornings when I am making lunch at work I open the blinds and windows and the sun just streams in and lights up the whole kitchen.  

January had lots of silly moments and cuddles with my kids. 

Waffle Love was around the corner from work one day. My boss had never tried them before so I sent her over to get us some, delicious!

I got some fun new socks from dollar tree and wore them to work one day, all good except I didn't really plan well for when I was going to the gym afterwards. I hope that everyone at the gym appreciated my happy socks :)

One of the fun things that always happens in January and has become our tradition is going to the Auto Expo. Lots of shiny new cars to admire. 

The girls love it when I allow them to do my hair. I always come out with very interesting styles :)

One night Kayla was babysitting her nephew, we took him out for dinner and fun at the arcades. 

My first time putting my rack and bike on my car without anyone else being there to help me!

One of the girls documented me coloring.

Sometimes you just got to take selfies ;D

More hairstyles.

I had an adventure with my bike when we tried riding more north on the Jordan River Trail (I would not recommend it...terrible!). My first flat tire. Lucky for me Derek and Kayla know what they are doing and Kayla had an extra tube/CO2 container so we were able to change my tube and head back. 

Despite getting a flat tire that ended up being my longest ride I've ever done at 30.49 (Kayla and Derek were nice to go extra on the trail with me just so I could break the 30 miles).

The one bad thing about all of this warm weather this year is that Ice Castles weren't able to be open very long, they only ended up being open 3 days, one weekend which kind of stunk for them because they moved locations this year and made it bigger and better. We were lucky though and it worked out that we were able to get up there on Monday, the last day that they were open. Just as last year it was amazing, I can't believe all of the work that goes into it. These pictures don't even begin to do it justice. 

 Derek and I went and did a bike ride up North and on our way back we stopped at RC Willey to look at different appliances for an condo that Derek was looking at. This place was huge, I could quite easily get lost in there (I feel like we walked in several circles) and it was fun to daydream, I realized that I have quite expensive tastes if allowed. I've always said that my kitchen would be where I would spend the most money on if I were designing it. (There was a side by side fridge and freezer with each unit being separate and about the size of a regular fridge. I could just imagine myself standing in front of it with both doors open)

One night we didn't know what to do and we somehow ended up at the nicklecade, we got these 3 snails as our prizes, we had some entertaining races across the tables with them and they now sit on the counter looking cute as ever :)

January doesn't seem to have been as full or at least I didn't take as many pictures but I know that it was a good month full of bike rides, movies, lots of laughter at work and outside of work, time spent with family and friends, making fun plans for the year.

The Feast of November

I feel like this year has gone by faster and faster. Derek, Kayla and I discussed it last night we said that you always feel like that at the end of the year but I have felt like this year (even as it was happening) has gone by fast, we also considered that it could be that we are getting older and that could be why it is feeling like it has been going faster. Example in point: I am just barely getting to putting up my November post and December will be over in just a few days! Can you believe that the year is almost over?!

 We did lots of fun different projects at work but this was one of my favorite, it was a little messy but can it really be much fun if it isn't a little messy :)? What you do is you put a little bit of paint on paper and then plastic wrap it, then the kids can smear it around and mix the colors to their hearts delight. Once they are finished you just remove the plastic wrap and let it dry (I would suggest using the thickest paper you have if you try doing it). The kids really enjoyed it and I liked the different results that we ended up with. 

Libbey was out of town for my birthday and Mom was sort of otherwise occupied so when everything was a bit calmer and back to normal at the beginning of November they took me to get pedicures and then out to dinner. Can you believe that I was still wearing sandals in November and that it was warm and beautiful!

Again I work with some talented people, I love the different things she comes up with for the doors!

I decided it was again time to do my hair and I wanted to go with something WILD!

 I went with dark, dark brown and a purplish/pink, I loved it! Sadly the color part has already faded a bunch so I am trying to decide what to do next :)

 This is how intense it was right after she pulled out the foils! 

I used to not be such a bonfire kind of person but this year they have become such a nice thing, we got our last one in of the season the first weekend or so in November, they are so nice and relaxing :) 

One of the things that came in our goody bag from doing the Million Miles at Miller bike ride was tickets to a Jazz game, I had never been to one before. Sadly we lost but it was lots of fun. Kayla/I caught this basketball and I was sending it to Kyle, it was afterwards that I noticed the awesome photobomb :) 

At the end of October I switched from Iphone and got a new phone! I got the LG G3, I know I'm weird and I don't absolutely love one and hate the other like most people, I just get used to like whatever I have. Part of getting a new phone meant getting new cases, I was super happy when these finally came. 

 As usual I tried several new recipes this month, two of them were a pumpkin snickerdoodle and a creamy cauliflower tomato basil soup (which both recipes are on my food blog).

 My lovely little basil plant that I purchased to make the soup (because it was cheaper to buy a plant then just a bunch). 

 Probably one of the most exciting things for us that happened in November was that the sod was FINALLY delivered and it has been put in our backyard! It seems like we have been waiting FOREVER for it to happen. We can't wait until next summer now to enjoy it :)

 My Mom and Dad's anniversary is in November and they always had a tradition of going to Dairy Queen to share a peanut buster parfait. So this year, Derek, Kayla and I joined mom in going there. Afterwards when we got home mom got out this stuff and told us to draw pictures on the windows, the first picture is Moms, the second Kaylas, third Dereks (which it says "Derek is the favorite!" if you can't tell) and the fourth is mine. I love just seeing our different personalities and interpretations of what to do in this. 

 I don't remember when but we decided to go on a bikeride one Sunday afternoon and it was 38 degrees! I thought it was going to be the last ride of the year (which I have since been proven wrong because we have gone on 2 or 3 others since). It was quite a new thing to me to go riding with earmuffs and lots and lots of layers. It was fun though, even more exhilarating than a normal ride :) 

It was my first time driving solo with my bike on my bike rack so I was a little nervous especially since what happened last time I had the bike rack on my car so I drove very slowly and watched the bike the whole time (I think Derek must have thought I was crazy because he was driving in front of me and I was driving way slower than I normally do). 

We had parent teacher conferences at work for those who are in preschool (so not my age group) and the other teachers had wanted some kind of treat to have for the parents but had forgotten, luckily for them I keep bags of cookie dough in the freezer and my Mom was so nice to bring the dough on her way to lunch. The building smelled SOOOO good!

November was a fun movie month. We went and saw Big Hero 6 in 3D (we hadn't planned on it but the time we were going to watch was sold out and we found out that 3D was going to be 30 minutes later and cost the same amount so we were like why not!). I've only watched one other movie before in 3D and that was like 6 years ago in Taiwan and it made me super sick, I think they've improved their technology because it didn't make me as sick this time. 

I thought this was funny, I received a notice about a job being filled nearly 3 months after I had applied. I'm glad they still respond but I'm also glad that I wasn't depending on that job. 

I have one little boy that loves having me take pictures and videos of him and send them to my friends/family. One day we just took a picture and sent it, it just said that "Trevor says hi!" and these are the responses I got back on snapchat :)

I love, love, love living somewhere that actually has a fall! The colors on the trees changing were so gorgeous and the leaves falling all over the ground provided 4-5 days of good entertainment. We made some HUGE leave piles for running and jumping in!

Derek's dad had purchased tickets to the Salty Dinner Theater and invited us to come. I had no clue what to expect but we went and saw Cinderella at the Spaghetti Factory in Orem. It was hilarious and awkward all rolled into one. I would definitely recommend it but don't go expecting a normal dinner theater (example: the stepsisters were both played by men). 

 Like I mentioned November was a BIG movie month, especially because Mockingjay came out!!! We had originally planned on going opening night but we were a little slow in getting tickets and Kayla was not willing to pay to sit in the front row so we decided on Saturday after opening instead. That morning Kayla and I had a marathon, watching the first two before we went and watched the third. 

 The first one was at her house. 

 Second one at mine so I could finish a project for Church. 

 And finally the third at the movie theater!! 

It has been awesome because we've gone twice and between us we have only had to pay $7ish for all of us to go!

 Another yummy recipe that I've tried and made numerous times already was a eggnog mousse!

 At work the Wednesday before Thanksgiving we had our own Thanksgiving lunch with turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, beans, apple juice, and even pumpkin pie (which I've discovered that I now like pumpkin pie...don't know what is happening in the universe!)

 The cute decorations that Mom and I made for our Thanksgiving table. 

Katrina and I went Black Friday shopping, it was fun to be out with her but I think I'm discovering that I'm not in love with it as I used to be. I didn't go as crazy in buying stuff as I have in the past. Mom and I did go back out shopping Friday afternoon and my big purchase (that I hadn't really planned on) was a new mattress. I've had it for a year, Leah had had it for 4 years before that and she had bought it used. I've been having a lot of back problems lately and hope that this will help. Sleep has been wonderful with it so far :)

 The Saturday after Thanksgiving I got to take Ben and Sonia's family pictures, it was a lot of fun I like getting to add to my collection of photography families. 

We went on another bike ride and I just thought the sky looked beautiful!

Don't these just look yum!? More of that egg nog mousse popping up!