2013 in a Nutshell

Wow. What a year it's been.  Every year my dear grandmother puts together what's called, "Cousin Pages." All of us cousins write a page or two on the fun events that happened in the previous year.  We send those to her, along with some pictures, and she prints them out and gives them to all of us to stick in our binders.  I LOVE this tradition.  One of my favorites for sure.  And it's not cheap- so thank you grandma!! So...I just want to do a final shabang and highlight our fantastic year of 2013!

-February we found out we were pregnant, had a miscarriage in March.  Not necessarily a fun experience, but we learned a lot from it and are grateful for it.
-LAKE POWELL! such a highlight of our year
-BUGSY the bunny. yes that's right. We got a bunny and it was actually a really fun month of our life. She was hilarious and was fun to play with.
-Getting a moped for my birthday.  I have always wanted a moped- they have always looked so fun to me.  Someone stole it in September....
-Celebrating my 21st birthday. Now I can drink. hahaha.
-A last minute T.I.M.E. reunion at Jax and Meg's house. SO FUN!
-"Paul Bunyan Days....." the weekend that all the Stevens boys get together and chop wood for their dad for the winter while the women craft inside.
-Celebrating our marriage of 2 years.  Time has flown by! It has been the best 2 years of my life.
-Playing in a Folk Opera/band.  I had so much fun and I even got payed :)
-Deciding on a career path for myself- DENTAL ASSISTING! It took me like 6 months to FINALLY make the decision but I love it so far, and will be trained by my dentist starting January 2014.
-Thanksgiving!  Always a holiday that leaves me more grateful for all my blessings.
-Christmas!  This Christmas was awesome-I don't think any Christmas will get better than this one.  Brett and Aub came up on the 26th and surprised my parents! So fun- they were here for about a week, and Ash and Eth were here for about a week too!


-There are many more fun things that happened in our year, but these were just a few highlights.  Bring it on 2014!

A funny for the day

So....I think I've watched this a thousand times by now.  Not only does it sound like me, but how can you NOT laugh at this? bahahaha definitely gives me a little pick me up when i need it. Hope it puts a smile on your face like it does mine!

short but sweet

I am very grateful.  It's just kind of struck me the past while.  I don't know if it's because the holidays bring families together, or that Tanner and I are just super blessed. probably both. but MAN! life is good. I watched these 2 videos the other day and I just  HAVE to share them because they brought me to tears.

http://mashable.com/2013/12/09/westjet-christmas-miracle-ad/#:eyJzIjoiZiIsImkiOiJfYnR6ZndmNWdtZmZyM2g3cyJ9

-I decided this year for Christmas that I wanted to take $30 or so out of Tanners spending money for me and find a family in our ward or anywhere in Rexburg that just can't afford to get any gifts.  I  mean can you imagine that?  Not that Christmas is all about gifts but think of children that don't get presents...it's devastating! And I really feel like it would not only bless their lives, but more importantly ours.  To give is better than to receive in my book. So...after watching this it really made me want to do it even more.  :)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugV6QGcafEE

-There aren't enough words for this one. I hope we can all strive to remember Christ at this time of year!

I am grateful for these videos that I came across the other day.  It's always nice to have a daily pick me up.

Tea Light Santas

Why is crafting so fun? I love doing crafts around christmas time- it's my favorite! Well, I saw these adorable things on pinterest and I just had to make them.  They took a total of 30 minutes too! score!

Here's how you make them:

What you need:
-Tea lights (however many you want or have)
-A piece of felt
-Red ribbon
-Hot glue gun

Instructions:
1. cut out 6 equal circles for the eyes.
2. cut out 9 equal smaller circles for the mouth
3. glue those on, and then glue on a strip of ribbon around the tea lights.
4. To make the hats: cut out 3 equal circles for the bottom of the hat.  Then cut 3 equal strips and roll them up to make the hat. glue together.
5. glue ribbon around the hats, and then cut 3 equal strips of ribbon to make them ornaments.

WALAH! cute as a button. I think so anyway. plus they only took about a half hour. wooot!

One of the joys of Christmas

I love crafting.  My dream someday would be to open up my own shop with crafts I've made.  We'll see if that ever happens :)  I saw these cute gems at porters and i fell in love.  They were super easy and were a total of $20.

SCORE!

The best part about them is the strobelight lights at the bottom of the tallest one :) I love christmas- it is so fun to decorate!!!

So...how do you make them?
1. Buy or make 3 cones out of cardboard
2. buy the colors of yarn you want.
3. get any cute decorations you want for the trees (stars, boa, garland)
4. either a hot glue gun, E3000, or glue dots.  I actually used all 3 haha

*put hot glue, E3000, or glue dots on the entire cone, or in parts if you want.  I started from the top to the bottom.  Wrap your chosen color of yarn however you want. the trick here is to sort of pull the yarn and twist while you set it in place so that you don't find holes later.
*Leave space at the bottom if you like the Boa idea, and put a whole circle of got glue to keep them in place.
*After you've wrapped them all, it's time to decorate! (like a tree!) haha. I've always enjoyed the light up necklaces, so I wrapped one of those on the bottom of the red white and green one, then on the red one I just found a cute beaded garland, and the green one I left plain.
*Last step, glue on the stars! And you're done! So cute.  I currenty have them sitting on the backdrop where our oven is.

This took me a total of 1.5 hours! not bad!
ENJOY!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving this year was wonderful, as always.  We spent thanksgiving day with my brother jaxon and his family, my brother tanner, and my mom and dad.  Thanksgiving day was super relaxing.  We just hung out and watched football until dinner at about 3.  We devoured 8 delicious pies....hahahaha.  They were so yummy! I went black friday shopping with my brothers, and man after this years experience I'm not so sure if I'll go again...haha.  I stood in line all by myself for 2 HOURS! And I was wearing sandals, and a light jacket.  Yeah not a good idea, but I was not planning on doing black friday shopping.  Anyway, I guess it was worth it driving home in a hot car.  We played games all night long- probably my most favorite thing to do with my family.  

On Friday Jax and I took my nieces to the arcade, and guess who won the jackpot...yep...me.  It was hilarious.  The girls loved it.  We had so much fun that Me, Tanner, Jaxon, Megan, and Tanner went back and played arcade...yes we did and it was SO fun.  I secretely love arcade games.  Then us 4 went to Captain phillips which was SOO good...I would recommend it to anyone. And then we went to Costa Vida for dinner.   We came home and played more games...till 1 am.  Yeah tanner and I were worthless Sat morning. :)

Saturday we went out to Ashton to be with Tanner's family. We just relaxed out there, watched Despicable Me 2, and played lots of games.  Today we had ALL of his siblings together- that's always so fun.  We took famly pictures, and had a feast for a meal. I'm very thankful for the 2 families that I have- they are the best!!

Unfortunately, this is the only pictures I got.  But it's awesome right?!