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to talk to real winners like rob here. the fun never stops!

nice december happenings

via

phone photos

 

do you remember our dear friend we met in this post?

well we tried to visit him and were so happy to finally find his apartment door but sadly he didn't answer. my smile is deceiving, we were bummed.

what would christmas be without an ugly sweater party?

(or a sweater that has "i heart kevin" on the back or a jackson hole trap club hat?)

i'm glad savers pulled through with another winner this year. santa in a stocking! who would have thought.

we didn't really have set plans one night so we decided to go just check out some toys. we loved finding all the toys we would play with when we were little and the books that we would have loved to receive. and you can't forget that classy cat vest i wanted so badly to buy for ryan's dog. 

afterwards ryan was really nice to let me get a personal pan pizza. i don't know why i love those things so much and i know eating them at 11 at night is the grossest but i'm fairly certain i'm addicted.

bnotd = zane gray was home and let us come in and visit! we had a lovely time watching tv with him and trying to fit in a question or two about his life. I don't really know if he remembered us or even if he liked our visit but i was happy to see him again and had to refrain from shouting "we love you zane!" as we walked out the door.

the picture above and below would be us appreciating the decor at the courtyard at jamestown assisted living center, where zane resides.

this pretty lady got married and had her reception at the gallivan center stage. who knew that was even possible? she looked gorgeous and it was so nice to see her and be around so many chinese speaking people! (her mother-in-law is taiwanese and her now husband served a chinese speaking mission as well)

we wanted to stick around and see the lights but temple square was being nuts so instead we headed over to the grand america hotel. ever since my interior design teacher raved about the fabrics, furniture, and overall style of the building i've wanted to check it out and i'm so happy we did!

i don't know how i've never made it to that place but i was glad because it was fun to experience something new. everything was just so nice and fancy! and everyone there just loved looking so nice and fancy, i felt like i was in a movie of some sort and kind of felt slightly under dressed.

buuuut i didn't even care because i was too busy loving everything about it and taking pictures of that GREAT jou jou toy store, self portraits (together portraits? what would you call that with two people?) in every fancy mirror i could find, and being obsessed with the window displays and finding the star with maurice the penguin.

aaand being with this ryan fellow who i'm almost certain loved it as much as i did and who was such good company.

my brother bought a puppy!!! i'm not a big dog fan but i loooove puppies.  his name is kato and we are in love.

we decided to give temple square another go and went last friday. might i say it was perfect!

usually it is freezing so being there for a long period of time is painful but it wasn't very cold so we ended up spending hours enjoying everything about it. we loved going to the visitor center to see the Christus, the short film about Christ's birth, and to check out the fairly new "families are forever" interactive movie. then we headed over to the other visitor center and stared at the miniature replica of the temple and talked about how badly we wanted to go to all the rooms that we will never have access to.

then we checked out the family search area and i was excited to show ryan the fake ellis island i had discovered while doing some bridals around there a few days earlier. free picture taken by cute little senior missionaries in fake ellis island? yes please.

we decided to dine at the nauvoo cafe and got the best view of the temple! i just wanted to sit there and stare at it all night. it was all so lovely, even if we did have to wait an hour in line to get our food and make up a christmas a to z game to pass the time. and let's talk about that guy playing the piano in the joseph smith memorial building! i wish i had the time to just sit in that building the entire month of december and listen to all the free concerts and enjoy all the other nice things happening on temple square. we (and by we i mean those of us who live in utah) are so lucky to live so close to such a wonderful place! it really helped me feel like Christmas inside and reminded me what Christmas is all about.

and just when i thought the night couldn't get any better we headed over to a festivus celebration! i was a liiiittle disappointed that no one was really there but we did arrive at ten pm so perhaps we missed the crowd? with that being said it was still so fun to catch up with mike and ryan (aka clay..still can't bring myself to call him that), enjoy the chocolate fountain, and die over the best russian dolls i've ever seen. all in all it was a wonderful night.

christmas eve with the margetts was a delight. wendy got a brand new table which fit us all so nicely, dinner was delicious, the re-creation of luke 2 was a hit, and everyone's christmas dreams were fulfilled through wendy's impeccable shopping skills. i really love that family.

and i really love that yesterday russ had to fix some things at their cabin and invited us to come along!

i had not been there foreverrrr so i was happy to go for a little bit.

we enjoyed watching the rise of the planet of the apes in our pj's which is weird because a. i really did enjoy it! i thought for sure i would hate it and b. it was like 4 in the afternoon and we were still wearing pajamas.

 then, sadly, we had to actually finish the movie in the car because we needed to get back in time for game night with the becks. but even just the short amount of time we spent there was so nice!

aaaaand there was even a little snow! which made me very happy.

everyone should be friends on facebook with ryan's cousin tucker

because not only does he make mormon messages and directs other cool things but he finds great things like this:

which has probably already gone mormon viral but still!!!

seriously. his status updates never disappoint.

here. be his friend.



last week

or the week before? these things happened. 

zupas date with lil j and her sister. i love how i can sit in that place recognize at least 20% of the people that walk in..and then not actually say hi to any of them. i'm a bad friend.

(anyone mhs alumni recognize that girl in the background? i did.) 

ryan's family was so nice to let me tag along with them to see white Christmas at byu and might i say i LOVED it. like really really loved it. they did such a good job! i loved their simplistic approach to the set and those moving stairs. whoever had that idea is the smartest. 

niece lilly is so funny. when she wakes up from her nap she just shoves herself in the corner of her crib so she can see the door and just stays like that until someone comes and gets her

we had a great mission temple night! sad news bears = most of our mission forgot to show up but we still had a lovely session and being with president and sister hoer is always a delight. 

another sad thing though is that people don't ever know how to use cameras. 

exhibit a

exhibit b

(some people are not just cut off but completely out of the picture)

and finally after asking someone else a picture that kind of worked but is still struggling. 

we couldn't pass up an opportunity to take one or two self-timed toddlers in tiaras pictures

and then went back to a sister's house to have treats and just chit chat with the hoers. and after many attempts we finally got a nice photo together! i love them. 

next up = mindy gledhill house concert! 

(did krista do a fabulous job decorating or what?)

put on by none other than the amazing krista maurer

(who took these photos last year) 

it was a little cramped but we liked it. this would be spencer and libby i think? i don't really remember their names but they sounded nice

then the lady of the hour sang nice songs 

this was my view

and then i got bored waiting for her to take care of her baby so i took creepy pictures of things

then everyone's mindy dreams came true. 

honestly i was just happy to see those green gable gals!

 and eat homemade treats and stare at that christmas tree. 

this post was weird. 

so. many. trees.

oh hey festival of trees blog post in my drafts! i guess i forgot you were in there! 

so when i was little i would always perform at the festival of trees but hadn't been back in yeeeears so this year i was very adamant about making it happen. 

sometimes people try really hard to be creative

which sometimes worked out great and other times not

i loved this wooden nativity art

and of course brynn's tree. 

when we walked in that tree caught my eye from across the room and i  knew that it had to be hers! it just stood out from the others.

when we finally go to it i was so happy to see it really was her tree! it was definitely my favorite and the quotes on the Christmas packages were the perfect touch.

i don't think i'm the only one that felt that way either.

if you can see from the picture above everyone on the one side is stopped at her tree (you can't see her tree in the picture but just trust me) because there was just something about it. we stood and watched people for a little bit looking at it and i think they could feel the special-ness of it as well. 

 leave it to brynn to continue inspiring people! 

we ran into so many nice friends! one of them being this gal!

what we like to call the "over achiever" tree/display

ryan's favorite!

std bear's girlfriend?

yes i think this gingerbread extravaganza is great but what I really want you to look at is the background and how the people are just shoved everywhere!

and what is not to love about madagascar and up?

we made a goal of seeing every single tree and after four and a half hours we can successfully say we did it! we both kind of wanted to die by the end there but i'm still proud of our accomplishment. big thanks goes out to ry guy for being a trooper and for everyone who did such a nice job! those trees just warmed my heart.