A Christmas Throwback

I realized that I never posted my pictures from Christmas last year, and still want to share them with all of you. Thus, a Christmas throwback! I was working retail during the holidays and was not able to leave Utah, so my family came up from So-Cal to spend Christmas with Ryan & I in our 'lil yellow brick house.

I went all out with a real tree, stockings for everyone, and lots of Christmas decorations to help them feel like they were at home. I absolutely love decorating for Christmas, it's so festive & fun! Our Christmas decor theme is a "winter candyland", so we have lots of candy ornaments on the tree and even a little light-up candy house. Plus I looove penguins, so they are all over our house! 

If you haven't noticed, Evan is a total ham when it comes to Christmas photos! After opening up presents, we made a turkey dinner topped off with Evan's homemade apple pie {yumm}. Then we hit up the theaters for our Christmas movie tradition, and finished off the night by a warm fire. I was so grateful that my family came up to be with Ryan & I for the holidays, it was fun hosting them for Christmas. This year we will be going down their way for the Christmas break, and I can't wait! :)

Christmas 2012 Family Pictures

Pretty much I have the bestest family EVER and here are our family pictures that we had taken in Provo, UT during Christmas break, when my family drove up from So-Cal to spend the holidays with Ryan & I :)

Photos were taken by: Clark Goldsberry

Be prepared for a complete photo dump seeing as how I'm about a month late on posting these!

*Check out the Valentine's Shabby Apple Giveaway!!!*

2012 in Review

January

+ The start of "The Story of Us" {I promise I'll finish it!!!}
+ Started my Crafting Just Bee-Cuzzzz craft club at a local elementary school

February

+ A memorable Valentines with a Valentine blogger swap & The Vow with Ryan

+ Thorroblot 2012, an Icelandic solstice feast

March

+ Zannie's, one of my favorite cousins, wedding in Las Vegas.

April

+ Easter with Ryan and my brother Evan

+ Our week long vacay/end of finals trip to California

May

+ Moved into our 'lil yellow brick house in Provo

+ Got my new job at Francesca's

June

+ Our one year anniversary

July

+ A Spanish Bridal Shower for Alexa

+ A Lingerie Bridal Shower for Nikole

August

+ My trip to Cali to visit family

+ Ben & Alexa's spanish style wedding in Phoenix

+ Taylor & Nikole's carnival style wedding in Provo

September

+ A "Let's Get Toasted" s'mores 21st birthday party!

October

+ Decorated like crazy for Halloween!

+ Ryan turned 26!

November 

+ A road trip gone bad as we traveled down to So-Cal for the USC v. UCLA football game at the Rose Bowl, and to see Evan's mission call to Villahermosa, Mexico.

December

+ Putting up our first real Christmas tree was not what I was expecting

+ A perfect ending to finals
+ My family coming to visit us in Provo for Christmas

Can't wait to see what 2013 has in store for us! :)

s'more of my 21st birthday

With all the ridiculous amount of posts about my birthday, I am just now getting around to posting about the actual party, and it turns out that I only got a few pictures of it!
{And since it was at night, the pictures are not the best quality, but who really cares.
It happened and that's all we really care about.}

The picture above is the set-up we had in our backyard.
We pulled our big comfy couch outside, put up some of those globe twinkle lights, set up the projector screen in front of the garage, watched Just Friends {with my fav Ryan Reynolds} and talked over a fire while making s'mores.

This birthday party was definitely in the top 5 of favoritest birthdays.
It was a small group of the people I care most about, and we had a BLAST.
{Plus I got to meet one of my favoritest bloggers, Kyla and her adorable family in real life.
Seriously SO AWESOME.}
We had my favorite funfetti cake, laughed our faces off, and finished the night off with more s'mores and hot chocolate :)

 And my beautiful Funfetti Birthday cake.
SO DELISH.

If any of you were wondering, I pretty much had an awesome birthday.
Don't you just love how the people make the party?
I have amazing family & friends.
Just sayin'.

Ready or Not!

Whew!

 Finally back from all the festivities. With lots of pictures!

I finally got all the pics uploaded and am looking around at all my family....asleep.

So. 

I've been left to thinking back on this year and how...well, difficult it's been.

Between funerals, surgeries, and poor newlywed/student-ness, it's been a rough year.

 But I now have a stronger testimony of the Lord's timing.

There is no way that I could have gotten through this year without Ryan, and vice versa, and for that I am so grateful to have him. 

To have met him when I did and had the opportunity to marry him when I did was not just coincidence. 

My goals for this upcoming year?

Pretty much just piece my life back together.

That may sound a little defeatist, but I'm actually very optimistic for this upcoming year.

Getting back to the gym {Zumba!}

 Keeping up the healthy eating {Find good recipes}

Sleeping a good 8 hours a night {zzzzzzz}

 Find a nice good paying job 

Keep up on the school work

Getting braces off and having perfect teeth again {4 months}

 Give more service

 Have a good savings tucked away,

 Be a better friend/sister/wife. 

Overall, just having a better schedule. 

Or just even a schedule in general. 

{Life gets hectic and a schedule just goes out the window!}

What's happening in 2012 for me you ask?

Evan {brother} going on his 2 year mission 

Zannie {cousin} getting married

Being almost done with school {Human Development major, music minor, communications minor}

Workin' a good hard summer to save up for a town house/Italy trip/school

Celebrating my 21st birthday {Sep.} and my 1 year anniversary {June}

Gettin' back into bikini shape for this next summer

Friends coming back from missions

Working on my crafts, home decor, and voice lessons

and finally,

Watching my blog grow!

Top: Loft. Skirt: Anthropologie. Jacket, Earrings: Forever 21. Shoes: Target.  Purse: Magic Step.

Onto other optimistic things...

we spent Wednesday-Saturday in San Diego celebrating my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary.

Crazy, huh?

You don't hear about that much nowadays with all the divorces and re-marrrying happening in the country.

It's fun to hear that long & loving marriages still exist!

As a gift, the family ordered a cake topper to be made that mirrored them on their wedding day.

Way cute!

We are ringing in the New Year with Martinelli's, Catch Phrase, Uno, brownies, Die Hard, and family.

What more could I ask for?

Ready or not 2012...I'm coming to rock your socks off.

<3 Bri