Home for the Holidays

The best part of this Christmas was definitely being home with our families. since the Wood's and the Jensen's live so close to each other its possible to spend Christmas with both of them instead of having to choose.
On Thursday we went to temple square with the Jensen's. Jared made the car trip really fun by starting the alphabet game and getting everyone involved. our heads were bobbing up and down and side to side scanning for letters on billboards. It looked kinda funny. Mom J had prepared lots of hot water and cookies to eat when we got cold. I especially liked seeing the lights in all the trees and getting pictures with everyone near where i proposed to Kylee last year.
On Christmas Day we went to see Grandpa and Grandma Burnett. Grandpa told stories of growing up and famous people he knows. the climax was sitting next to Andrea as she pulled her tooth out (stuck to the taffy she just bit into).
Earlier that morning we woke up to find that Santa had left us a whole shelf of food storage. Its amazing how old you can be and still believe in Santa. of course faith at this age comes with responsibility. If you are past twenty and you still believe, you get to help the younger generations believe too. trust me I do my part.
We Had a fantastic Christmas breakfast at the Jensen's. It's astounding what they can pull out of that kitchen early in the morning. Jeremy made a delicious butterscotch syrup that i was tempted to just drink straight (it was that good!). I didn't have my camera ready for most of the week but for cross reference look up Kylee's pics, Jeremy's facebook, Teresa's blog, and Heather's blog.
Sunday was a blast because Corry showed up in the morning after a nine hour drive from AZ. Family is definitely the best part of the Holidays!

Our First Christmas

This post is a bit late but I wanted to share our beautiful Christmas decorations with you!

Our Families gave us the Cutest Ornaments for our tree and we were able to get some ornaments in our colors for our tree! I love sales!

 This beautiful bird came from my Grandma {my mom's mom}. It's very old and GORGEOUS!!!

Our beautiful tree!

{More pictures to come! We got some more decorations from the after-christmas-sales and we couldn't wait till next year to put them up!}

{merry CHRISTmas}

I love this picture, it shows what Christmas truly is about......

Our Saviour's Birth!

its a SQUASH!!!

It has come to my attention that some person in my home does not approve of the sweet and filling food that comes from squash. I am not naming names but since there are only two of us I'm leaving it up to the reader to guess who. It takes a great deal of creativity and planning to come up with a menu of foods that everyone at home will eat and I tip my hat to those wonderful mothers who pull it off.
I admit as a child i did not want to eat my squash for dinner and some times even for dessert. But come on. Is there really that big of a difference between a sweet meat squash and a Pumpkin? I dare say there isn't! In fact i find it is impossible to tell the two apart after making them into a pie.
I think it is a outrage that pumpkins have had the corner on the market when it come to preferred pies. It all starts on Halloween that children become accustomed to their pumpkins and get all buddy buddy with them leaving the squash out in the cold to wait for November to come. I mean really people it comes off the same garden plot. Down with the Oppression! Down with the Selecting! And Down with the snubbing food I've slaved over a hot stove to put on the table for you!
... I love you dear.

Jake, the veggi activist

One year ago...

I got engaged to the most wonderful man :)

He surprised me by doing it earlier then I thought he would. Jake was able to get tickets to the Christmas Devotional at Temple Square. I had the most amazing time listening to the First Presidency in person and then walking around Temple Square looking at the lights.  He then led me to the 'perfect picture spot' where he got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife.

I thought he was joking and didn't realize he was serious. I think I said "no" more than I said yes but I am glad that he asked in such a special and wonderful way. I wouldn't change anything about that day (except maybe my being totally clueless).

I love Jake so very much! He is the sweetest and kindest guy I know. 

{a special thank you to Jessica & Donnie Howell who took these pictures of us and

 recorded the proposal for us! today is their engagement anniversary too!}

When green thunbs turn wilted brown

My recent employment at Anderson's Seed and Garden has got me pretty excited about a few things. First there's all the Christmas decorations that I've been putting up for the last three months. Then there's all the seeds they will have in stock next year for a small garden. But mostly its for the cool and effortless plant I most recently bought. Its called a Paperwhite Narcissus!
You buy them as a little bulb about the size of a ping pong ball and you stick it in a glass bowl or pot about half way buried in dirt. I like having it in a glass bowl so you can see the roots as they spread out. I think the greatest part about the Paperwhite is that it grows so fast. Me and Kylee have watched it stretch at least an inch a day. It is supposed to get to 12 inches tall, with our dim apartment it has reached 13 inches already and the flowers are still a while away.
So even though its 30* outside I can still grow things(lets just hope it doesn't die on me). You've got to try it for yourself now. Go to D.I. get a $2.00 vase/bowl and fill it with soil and top it with colored marbles. Now just sit back and watch them go!

{favorite friday}

sorry that i'm a day late with these :)

1 Jake is AMAZING! I don't think i would make it through this semester alive if it weren't for him :)
2 Brown Suede Boots! They are super cute and I can't wait to get them :)
3 Garlic Toast is amazing. Whenever I'm feeling down i know this will cheer me up.
4 Our super cute Nativity set from my family :) thanks guys!
5 I desperately want a yellow wool coat....someday I shall have one
6 My amazing Tiny House! I am SO glad that it is done (well except for the construction documents)
7 I love Christmas Trees's! Our tree is adorable! Pictures are coming soon!
8 I love this shirt! Best part is....you can make it for pretty cheap :)
9 These Earrings are absolutely fantastic! I'm obsessed with fabric flower earrings at the moment.
10 Tatortots and Jello is one of my most favorite blogs! I get my craft and decorating fix everyday from them

sorry for my absence....

but I have a good excuse.  :)

You see in the Interior Design program at USU (sophomore year) you get put through this ordeal called Tiny House Heck. (they didn't say heck but you get the point). anyway, I didn't see why they called it that until a few weeks ago when this monster project came crashing down on me. 

At the beginning of the semester I was able to keep up on all my classes plus everything else pretty easily but then the workload for my ID classes kept getting heavier and as its my major and I love it ..... Interior Design became my first priority.

For my Tiny House project we have to come up with a house that is modern and around 1000 square feet total. We then get to dive in and build it in Auto Cad (2D, we get to learn 3D next semester). We do the floor plans, elevations and the site plan. Our teacher then goes through the red-lining process with us so that our line weights and everything is just right. It takes forever and can get very frustrating having someone cover your hard work with red lines. But in the end your project looks amazing so its worth it.

My Elevations on the Presentation Boards plus Me and some Classmates at the reception they held for us!

My Floor Plans and Site Plan

These are my Axonometrics. They are hand drawn and are hard until you get the hang of it :)

After those items are perfected you get to print them out and do your presentation boards and come up with a name for your house and logo. I chose 'Versprei' it means spread-out in Afrikaans.

After the Presentation Boards come the model. You have a choice to have it laser-cut and made out of wood or build it with foam-core. I chose the cheaper option which was the foam core. We had two weeks to build our model, including Thanksgiving. oh joy! we spent about 4 days building my model when Jake discovered that one of my walls was majorly crooked. Not good at all. This one wall threw everything else off and because foam-core doesn't look good when you tear it apart we had to start all over again with some new foam core. Realizing this initiated a breakdown on my part. We called it quits for the night and decided to start again the next morning (which was the day before Thanksgiving).

That next day we basically lived at the ID studio, after 15 hours of hard work my model was built! YAY! We went down to Orem Thanksgiving day and then on to Price with my family after that. Because of the snowstorm on its way and my hillside that needed to be built we came home early on Saturday night. 

We spent Sunday night and Monday morning putting the finishing touches on the house and got it done just in time to be put on display. It felt so good to finally have all the craziness of Tiny House out of the way! Plus its way cool to see your hard work on display for anyone to see. So.....if you happen to be up in Logan, stop by the USU student center on the 2nd floor and you'll see my Tiny House plus 17 others :) They are all amazing, everyone did a fantastic job!

That pretty much summarizes things :)

I have to add that if it weren't for Jake i might possibly be dead. He was the one who kept me sane, fed and made me go to bed. He also helped me organize my thoughts and made my vision of the

 house actually happen how I wanted it too. He is such a wonderful guy and 

I'm so glad he tolerates me, helps me and loves me :) 

here are some pictures of my model......

An inside look on my house, Jake did an excellent job on the furniture!

If you do end up seeing my model please be careful with it :) its my baby and I might have to

 hunt you down if it is harmed in any way. 

just sayin'

{favorite friday}

1.Wonderful friends! Jessica and Donnie Howell are such awesome friends! {check out their blog here}
2. Cake stands!!!! They are the most adorable things! Someday I shall find the perfect cake stand :)
3. This chair.... Louis Ghost Chair. It pretty much rocks. I would LOVE to have one someday.
4. These outdoor lamps are GREAT! When we have our house I would LOVE to have these on our deck.
5. My current quote of the day, "You can do anything, but not everything"
6.LOVE this dress. First because its YELLOW! and second because it is absolutely GORGEOUS!
7. Jake is of course a favorite, but i also love this picture! Plus the program that allowed for a nice and easy way to create a yellow background.
8. These pumpkins, i'm in the process of re-creating these and i'll be sure to post when they're finished.
9. I love birds and this locket is SO CUTE!
10. Doesn't this sofa look so comfortable? Plus its YELLOW :)

How to Choose a Life

It has come to my knowledge that this world doesn't look kindly on the indecisive at heart. This hasn't been just a sudden revelation. Actually I think it all began back in Junior High. I distinctly remember being handed a career catalog by my parents and being told i was free to go when i had decided on a career to work towards. I must have chosen something because i was back to playing the computer only hours later.
My first years in college have been great and my only goal was to my Associate's degree and get married. Kylee is quite lucky, having known exactly what she wanted to do since High School. But it turns out an Associate's doesn't mean a thing to the working class these days and in order to get into any classes at a University one must tell them exactly what you want as your job for the rest of your life, how much money you want to make, where you want to live, how many kids you will have, what your favorite color will be in twenty years, what brand of cereal you like... Some things are just impossible to predict. so what is an indecisive to do?
As a masterful procrastinator and proficient choice-avoider I pride myself on knowing how to beat the selective system and i think i have found the solution.
Every University has a Psychology Program. No one knows why, it's just part of the curriculum. The big secret is that psychology is a multipurpose discipline that can be applied in many fields of work and business. So... if one were to enroll in the psych major and promise to master in business or the sort, not only would they learn how to better work with people they would also postpone the actual career choice till much later! Bwa Ha Ha Ha!!!

Jake, where there's a will there's a way

so excited!!!

As you may know i love to decorate, but because we are newlyweds and low on funds decorating has been put on the back burner. I personally hate not decorating. What fun is Halloween or fall or Christmas without decorations? I've held out for the major sales that go on after each holiday. Unfortunately the items i was looking forward to having did not decrease in price as much as I'd hoped they would. 

Some of you might be in this same situation. 

Fortunately for the both of us there are some awesome cheap options. 

to find out how to make these awesome pumpkins go here.

enjoy!

{favorite friday}

I've decided to start some traditions on our blog. first up is Favorite Friday
I'll share my 10 favorite things from that week, be it pictures, events or whatever :)

1. cheesy smiles and fun times. we both love to be cheesy and just have fun! 

2. isn't this picture just amazing!?! i love how whimsy and free spirited it is :)

3. my ring is one of my favorite things! it was lost for a bit today and i'm so glad we found it, isn't it gorgeous?

4.i love, love, love this pillow! i would love to have it someday when we have an outdoor space (its meant for   outdoors! great huh?)

5. this room is a fav, i love the yellow chairs, the wood board on the wall with the clock and bulletin board inset into it! 

6. birds! especially my salt and pepper shakers, they make me happy :)

7. Jake, my hubby, is most definitely a favorite of mine, in fact i'd say he's probably at the top of the list. he is the most sweet and loving guy. i am so lucky to have ended up with a guy so amazing!

8. yellow! and of course the yellow rose Jake surprised me with this week.

9. Olivia, the pig. she's from a picture book. if you haven't read these books you need to hightail it to the library and check them out right away! she is awesome.

10. and of course Audrey Hepburn. love her, her movies, her style, her quotes. she is one amazing lady :)

Ward Choir Memoires

I guess it's just fate or something... maybe a fetish, but i always find my way to enroll in choir. As a kid my parents and I realized I'm not quite fit to be a jock and so I was promptly put in a children's choir where i did quite well. Funny though how kids will give up on things that they get bored of. As I arrived in high school I noticed how amazing my friends sounded in their choirs and wished i could sing like that(girls love a guy who can sing).
After graduation Institute grabbed me as i was walking around on UVU campus. My high school buddies were there in choir and sounding wonderful. the great thing about institute choir is that it is an infectious society that recruits in the most dastardly of fashions. They promise the girls there are guys there that can sing( which of course is what girls want) and they promise guys that there are girls there(which is what boys want, not that it matters if the girls can sing). It's quite sly but i think it works(that's how i met Kylee :D). Turns out after a few rehearsals i found i actually could sing like my friends. but of course after the mission and meeting Kylee i had less time for choir and the only one i could attend was a ward choir, which by the way are always a good idea.
Funny story though, during the Christmas meeting when I had a solo starting the song "Oh Come Emanuel" surprised everyone in my family who didn't know I had it in me.
In our new ward Kylee and I were ambushed by Sister Fisk the ward choir director and I'm telling you the lady should be a missionary. She caught us and before we knew it we were members of the choir. She even has us on a roll she passes around every Sunday in practice. Choir with Sister Fisk is very... unique. For some reason it is inconveniently right in the middle of my Sunday nap. We always have new music to read. being the only tenor in a choir of maybe ten members means that i can't hide behind the guy next to me when I hit a wrong note. Sister Fisk quite enjoys pointing those notes out, of course I always look at the empty chair behind me where the true offender must be sitting. I don't think I could stand any more of ward choir, but then we go and sing in church and you can't help but marvel how great a gift and talent we all are given. I guess I'm just addicted to being in choir, and I don't think there is a cure.

Jake, the tenacious tenor

something awesome...

hello!
i was blog stalking today and found some pretty cool things that i wanted to share :)

first up is the blog guidebook

so so cool! you can find any blog you desire on there. they have

tutorials on how to do things and so much more!

you should totally check them out.

lately i have been obsessed with yellow (as you can probably tell)

a blog that gives me my daily yellow dose each day is{black white and yellow}

here are some images that i have LOVED from them...

cute!

isn't this alphabet bookshelf THE coolest thing!?!

Black, White and Yellow also has some way sweet design and home pics which i love!

another blog that you should totally check out is the dating divas

they have some cute craft ideas as well as some cute things to do for dates and such.

they recently showed how to make this cute headband...

enjoy and have a

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

!!!

apartment sweet apartment {bathroom pics}

here are some more sweet pic's of our apartment! 

 isn't this jewelry stand the cutest!?!

 this is one of my favorite things in this apartment. i love how everything on this shelf works together perfectly!

apartment sweet apartment {kitchen pics}

 Its KITCHEN time! here are some pic's of how our kitchen has turned out....

 I am in LOVE with birds! These salt and pepper shakers from Tai Pan Trading are my FAVORITE! 

Tai Pan is the BEST store EVER!  btw, if you haven't been go!

Jake LOVES disco balls, so for his birthday i got him this mini one that has a home right above our stove.

It's always a party in the Wood house!

When we were registering for items (for our wedding) I was hoping that someone would get us this tiered server plate thing....sadly no one did. BUT! we got many gift cards so we were able to get it after all! whoohoo!  

 I hate peppers, but i love the way they look :)

That bean clock is awesome, it goes perfectly in the kitchen and matches ALL our colors!

 Aren't these scrubbies amazingly cute!?! My grandma made them for us...they are way too cute to use 

and so they become decoration.

What do you think of our little apartment so far? 

apartment sweet apartment {front room pics}

 We have Finally gotten everything totally clean and organized in our apartment. whoohoo! anyways here are some pic's of how it all looks, this first post is our Front Room....

We have a totally amazing tiger rug. It keeps things interesting and is always a conversation starter. 

Our cute key holder by the door!

The entertainment set

Our Halloween decorations!!!