Since today we are celebrating our one year anniversary (I can't believe it!!) I thought it would be a great day to share our digital Christmas card for this year. We are so grateful for all of our blessings this year and most of all each other and our families.

Though this was a rare year where Thanksgiving and Hanukkah collided, we spent the day occupied as usual: with family, food, and fun. We spent this Thanksgiving with the Smith family again in Farmington. 

Here's Mike and Allison, Christi, and us. Check out David's beard. He wasn't planning on regrowing it this year but as he explains it started by accident. He missed shaving on a Friday, never shaves on Saturday, and it was too long to shave without it being irritating to his face on Sunday.  So suddenly he was growing a beard again- ha! We'll see how long it lasts. He says until Christmas.

We brought the mashed potatoes this year and we're so grateful for everyone else's delicious contributions. Grandma and Grandpa rocked the oven roasted veggies and David and I drooled over the candied yams again. I just bought yams on sale and am looking forward to recreating them soon. David didn't even have dessert last year because the yams were so good (and sugary!) 

We decided we have an extra lot to be grateful for this year. The least of which is not each other- we can't believe that this time last year we were engaged and I was going through the temple. It seems like this year has flown by!

David was in pie heaven :) 

I snapped a cute picture of Grandma here.

David and I spent the rest of the day hanging out with family and watching movies. We're glad we decided not travel this year so we could spend more time working on the house, which is coming along nicely. We think we are still on track to be finished sometime in January. We're so grateful for the fun times we had talking to and seeing family. 

This week was busy. Like extremely busy. And I'm not saying that like it's a badge of honor- I really do believe President Uchtdorf was right when he said,

"[The wise] resist the temptation to get caught up in the frantic rush of everyday life. They follow the advice "There is more to life than increasing its speed."'

-Of The things That Matter Most

This week we really weren't able to slow down until the weekend because it was the end of the month and David was trying to close a deal on a property and get quarterly reports out at work. He worked a few 10 to 12 hour days this week. I was trying not to sink under a couple tests, work, an interview and professional student committee obligations (in retrospect, I should not have committed for everything I did and focused on what mattered most).

But we did still manage to have a little Halloween spirit this year, even though we were late to our ward party Wednesday night. We were the 11th Doctor and the tardis from Doctor Who, a British tv show. Check out our costumes at the party:

We got a few compliments from some Doctor Who fans in our ward. One young women said she loved my shirt and asked David for the sonic screwdriver he had in his pocket.

Here's David modeling his costume at home. We had fun gathering all the components for the 11th Doctor's wardrobe. He wasn't a big fan the uncomfortable suspenders. David was too tall for the suspenders which kept pulling his pants up and giving him a wedgie. He said he didn't have a big enough gut to keep his pants down, like some of the older men at church do- haha!

Here's David's full outfit. I made that fez in 10 minutes right before the ward party with the red felt we bought a year ago for this purpose.

It sort of worked, thanks to the hot glue gun, a cereal box, and a pattern printed off the internet. I have enough felt that I'm planning on sewing him a nicer one for next year since David told me at the party he wants to re-wear this costume for the next few years.

Here's my costume, also thrown together in those crazy 10 minutes. I bought the shirt on Amazon and was not feeling very festive compared to David. Then I remembered my crazy bright blue tights and a tardis outfit was made! This was the first picture David took of me and he kept saying, "Why do you look so short?" 

Then he got on his knees and took this picture so I didn't look as short. I've realized he's got some inches on me, but looking at that first picture made me realize our height disparity again. {Tangent} Sometimes his height difference makes me laugh- like at our old apartment he would crouch in front of the sink and it blew my mind that he couldn't see himself in the mirror because he was too tall.

On actual Halloween day I took a test late and when I was done around 7:00 David still wasn't done at work. When we got home around 8:00 I rushed to turn on our porch light because what are we supposed to do with all that candy?!!

We got three cute little trick-or-treaters who happily took more when urged to... sadly we probably looked like the scrooge house on the block for most the evening and now have ten tons of candy. David is being helpful and says he'll hide it from me, haha.

So that's our Halloween week. It had it's ups and downs and now we are really moving into the holiday season, I just hope we don't have another week that is quite this crazy.

Just thought I would stop by and share what I'm grateful for lately. I love October for multiple reasons- conference, my birthday, fall leaves, and the approaching holiday season. My favorite part is the chance to really think about what matters most and what brings me peace. Here's my list as of late.

Happiness is:

hard work \\ fall \\ yummies \\ snuggles by the fire \\ perseverance \\ church \\ family time \\ goals \\ mountains \\ temples \\ love \\ hope \\

The water seeped in right under that door.

The area David dug up.

This is the view from that sliding glass door into the backyard.

Here's David after he dug out the hole and is putting the form in so we could pour cement.

We used 23 of those yellow cement bags to pave the sides of the hole. David would mix up each bag in the wheelbarrow and use the hose to get it wet.

Then he would pour the cement down the sides. I would stand in the hole and hit the wood with a hammer to get it to settle and I used the trowel to level the edges. One hard part was getting cement under the part of the form that created a lip for the grate to sit.

Here's a close up of where we poured the cement.

After (without the grate)

There is a walkway on the side of the house which leads to some stairs and the basement apartment doors. We didn't like the windy small steps. They were kind of dangerous even when it was daytime in the fall but they really looked like they would be a nightmare walking down during winter covered in snow.

David is so awesome and instead of shying away from this big project, decided to fix the problem now before we have to use the stair regularly. He also wanted to install drainage on this side of the backyard so water will never seep into either side of the basement.

Phase 1- Demolition

This is a picture from the balcony looking down as David takes out the old stairs. See how they get really narrow on the one side. And on the wide side they actually weren't that great either.

If you look at the top of this picture you can see this big bar- that's what David mostly used to unearth and detach the stairs.

Here's the pile of stairs afterwards next to the back door. We are currently making trips to the dump to get rid of all the rock debris we unearthed at each project.

Phase 2: Building the form

Here's the form in the middle of David constructing it. I knew David was awesome when I married him, but when he decided to redo the stairs I was amazed at how ingenious he was at figuring everything out. 

Phase 3: Pouring Cement

I didn't get any action shots of cement pouring because once again I was in the hole while David mixed and poured. I'm not sure how much cement we used for the stairs but it was a lot. The bottom step is a hole, as you can see, is going to have a grate on it for drainage. And we are eventually going to install railing as well for extra safety.

Before:

After:

I'm so grateful for my hard working man who goes straight to the basement every night after work. He does such a good job with each project. 

Right now he's already framed out the cement room under the garage, including two closets. He just bought all the drywall yesterday so that's what he will be working on next week. Well show you the before and after of each room David finishes in the basement :) 

Disclaimer: This took a lot more energy than these pictures depicted, these definitely weren't just day-long projects. Just in case you want to pour cement sometime, be prepared!

Me and probably every other girl on the planet are fans of spring or summer weddings. The colors, the weather. To prove my point- how often do you see perfect winter wedding vignettes on Pinterest? Just about never. 

The girls obviously wanted to be able to see the parade so they scooted to the front where a mean old lady kept moving her seat over to block them. I had the urge to go up to that lady put my hand on her shoulder and ask her why she was being mean to three little girls and was her being rude to them actually increasing her enjoyment of the parade?

But there were good things too- llama fest advertisements, missionaries marching by... it was classic cheese. Never change Provo.

Look at those cuties! David is pretending to scream because Gideon is keeping his balance by holding onto Davids hair- totes adorbs right?

Then on Saturday we went to the wedding at the gorgeous Salt Lake Temple to see these two lovebirds get hitched.

This picture is really grainy but I love their expressions. Happy, happy, happy!

And in all the excitement I forgot to take pictures at the reception, which was beautiful and fun. Complete with slow dances, crepes, and a sparkler send off.

Spencer + Kristin's Wedding

Their reception was the night before the wedding at a park in Bountiful. This is what happens when you get some Bryson cousins together:

I'm pretty sure Paige is either declaring she is going to catch the bouquet, or outlining our plan to ambush the happy couple with nerd glasses (think operation #hatchtag at our wedding).

These two obviously think Paige is hilarious.

Here's Brooke enjoying herself and telling us stories of her walking around campus with a bag on her head and munching on a delicious cookie.

Heidi and my mom.

Kristin DIY-ed the reception decorations and they turned out so cute. My favorite part was the wood blocks on the tables with pictures of them and descriptions they wrote about each other.

And the moment all the single ladies were waiting for:

Here's Kristen cautioning them against getting too excited- haha

And little girls for the win! Paige said she didn't want to mow the littles over so she let them have it. I think there should be an unofficial rule to let the big girls have it! No littles aloud until you can actually go on a date! Haha.

Mr. Hubby enjoying the pandemonium.

The wedding

They got married at the Bountiful Temple which is gorgeous. 

This is the temple I went through for the first time and I was excited to come back and see a sealing here. It has one of the most gorgeous brides rooms I have ever seen.

The happy couple- can I just say I loved the dresses on both of these girls. I'm a little biased since I went with the lacy myself.

This scene melted my heart- Claire bear is not forgotten by her brother, the groom. She was a little shy with all the big kids and attention but she still wanted to talk to Spence.

Sisters and the groom- looks like they are fans of this guy :)

I dropped the ball again and didn't take picture of the luncheon until the balloon send off. But the luncheon was fun and we (all the cousins and David and I) did mob them wearing nerd glasses while gangan style played. 

We are so happy for these two couples and (selfishly) excited for married couples our age to hang with while we all (except for graduated David) finish this year at BYU.