Christmas!

After our delicious Christmas Eve dinner of steak, twice baked potatoes and other yummy things, Phil let me open the present that he had been making for me. He was so excited that he just couldn't wait!

He had me wait in a separate room while he brought it in from the car. I also knew that he was waiting for his family to bring over another part of the gift. No one knows this but I was seriously so excited as I waited alone in the room. It was kind of ridiculous. I was like a little kid. Phil told his family to wait outside as I opened the first part of the gift. I opened it and found this. . . .

I remember seeing it, and immediately turning to the front door to see Phil's family walking up with this little cutie pie. . .

I was so excited and surprised. Phil knew that I wanted a little puppy, but I never asked for one (especially since we are living with his parents right now). The puppy kept us entertained for the rest of Christmas Eve as we cuddled with her and brainstormed names. Phil and I decided on Gracie!

For the first several days Gracie was such a cuddle bug. She loved to curl up around your neck and sleep and she loved being held. However, lately she wants to sleep in peace on her own. Gracie had this horrible habit of getting tired and falling asleep at like 8pm so she would sleep all evening and then she would be excited and want to play when Phil and I were ready to go to sleep. This made for a few nights with little sleep between the yapping and the potty breaks throughout the night. Phil and I then decided that the goal was to keep her awake between 7 and 10pm. Lets just say Gracie wasn't a fan of this plan. She was tired and just wanted to sleep. That's when she decided that she wasn't going to cuddle if she wanted to sleep. She figured out that she had a better chance of successfully sleeping is she was far away from human contact. Fortunately for us, sometimes she will still cuddle and we love it.

She has been such a good dog with potty training thus far. She has had a couple of accidents inside but she is good at trying to communicate when she has to go to the bathroom. For the past two nights she has gone about 6 hours without yapping to go potty. Phil and I have thoroughly enjoyed the sleep!

She seriously is the cutest little dog! We both just love her. How could you not love this face?!

Overall, Phil and I had a great Christmas. We slept at my parents on Christmas Eve and then got to go to church with both of our families on Christmas day! I loved having Christmas on Sunday this year. It was such a good opportunity to reflect on the Savior and the true meaning of Christmas. It allowed the focus of the day to be more on Christ and family, and less on presents. I loved it!

Homemade Christmas!

Phil and I have a tradition of giving each other a homemade gift as our main Christmas present to each other. This is something that Phil's family has always done and I love that we have also made it a tradition.

But here is the thing. . . I have this love/hate relationship with surprises. Especially when the surprised gets hyped up and everyone is telling me how much I'm going to love it!!! That just makes me want to know what it is even more! Phil has this habit of making me really incredible gifts. He also has a habit of telling me how excited he is and how he can't wait to give it to me, blah, blah, blah haha ;)

So it is six days until Christmas, and I'm wondering if I'm going to make it that long without knowing. I know that my gift is right on the other side of this make-shift barrier.

How easy would it be to go take a quick peek? I know right?! This is taking me a great deal of self-control. I keep telling myself, "I want it to be a surprise! I want it to be a surprise!" Hopefully this self hypnosis continues to work for the next 6 days. I make no promises ;)

Here are Phil's past gifts to me. . .

2008 Christmas dating: the biggest and comfiest blanket in the whole world.

We still use it on a daily basis!

2009--1st Christmas married: A beautiful case to hold my perfume!

2010 Christmas: It's not hanging in this picture but he carved this on his own!

I can't wait to see what Phil has in store this year.

No, but really. . . I CAN'T wait!!!!

Yep....

I finished my finals today!!!!

It was such a good feeling to check off all six of my finals in 4 days! I have now enjoyed approximately eight hours with absolutely no school hanging over my head. I love it! I also love thinking that I will NEVER again have to take finals before Christmas! Ok maybe I shouldn't say never. Getting a Masters degree someday is not out of the question ;) Ah but it's so nice!

On an unrelated note. . .we had an extended Lamoreaux family Christmas party last Sunday. Phil and I decided to give a little hamster as our white elephant gift. I told Phil we shouldn't name him because we would get attached. We named him anyways. . . And got attached.

He is so cute. His name is Pong because he is a Chinese hamster, plus the pet store sent him home in a Chinese food to-go box. Unfortunately, the game of white elephant means someone else takes him home. I miss Pong! haha

Thanksgiving Break!

Phil and I had such a great Thanksgiving break. We both just enjoyed time with family and did ZERO homework (that part proved to be a little stressful once classes started again).

The night before Thanksgiving, Phil and I made gingerbread houses with our friends Brandon and Melissa. We got a sweet gingerbread kit from Walmart, although the candy that came with it was disgraceful. We had a great time eating frosting and decorating our little village.

Phil and I set up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. Before we set our little fake tree up, we helped Phil's family set up their massive real tree!

Phil did a great job on the ladder!

It was so fun to turn Christmas music on and decorate our tree. It definitely made me feel ready for Christmas. Now I just need to get through finals next week for the Christmas season to truly kick in!

DragonVale

So for quite some time now, Phil has been playing this game called DragonVale on his iPhone and his iPad. Until recently, I had no idea what the game was about, but I knew that it looked/sounded stupid. I didn't understand why Phil enjoyed it so much.

Before Thanksgiving break, Phil downloaded the game on my phone and I finally let him explain it to me (knowing full well that I would probably just delete it the next day). Well...that's not exactly what happened. I've become ADDICTED!!!! I still think it's kind of a stupid game, but it is a stupidly addicting game. Let me briefly explain.

The whole point is to breed and raise dragons! There pure bred dragons that you can buy and breed together in order to make hybrid dragons. You grow food and feed your dragons in order to increase their level (higher level=more benefits).

Although this game is addicting, it is not a super time consuming game. For example: Lets say I want to breed a Seaweed dragon. A Seaweed dragon is a hybrid from breeding a Water dragon and a Plant dragon. I select Water and Plant and send them to the "Breeding Cave." The breeding process for a Seaweed dragon takes 5 hours. So in 5 hours I come back to a Seaweed dragon egg. Now that egg has to sit for another 5 hours before it will hatch. Different dragons have different time frames ranging from 2-48 hours. So with this game, it is really easy to pull it up for a few minutes and then not have to worry about it for several hours (even though I do worry about it. I want my dragons to breed and hatch faster!)

See...stupid, yet oddly addicting. Try it!!

The really funny thing is that over Thanksgiving break Phil and I got my mom really into DragonVale. She is now just as addicted as I am. I've gotten a few random texts from her saying things like "I need dragon advice. Please call when you can." It's so funny! I'm now trying to get my sisters to play ha. We'll see!

Halloween!

I realize Halloween was like two weeks ago, but better late than never. Phil and I are not big into Halloween. However, We have a feeling that Halloween will become more fun once we have kids. Drew and Natalie invited us over for a Halloween dinner party. Not knowing how to dress up, we took the easy way out and dressed up as babies using the cozies we got for Christmas last year. At least we got to be comfortable!

My sippy cup was impossible to drink out of. Who knows how babies do it...

Drew and Natalie dressed up as Superman and Lois Lane. They looked awesome, but that's to be expected.

The first Halloween we knew them (in 2009), Phil was at work and I was home alone being boring. Someone rang the door bell, I opened the door and this is what I saw....

I seriously laughed so hard and I wished Phil was home to see this. Until that point, we never realized Drew's true "girly" potential.

Natalie put together quite the menu for our dinner. She was so creative with the veggies, and she made an incredible spinach and artichoke dip Frankenstein! The main course was delicious soup in bread bowls with witch finger bread sticks.

After dinner we had a hanging doughnut eating contest (which my darling hubby won), and then watched "Wait Until Dark" starring the fabulous Audrey Hepburn! We had a really fun evening.

Gender Roles

Phil is taking a physchology of gender class at the U right now. For one of his assignments, he was supposed to do something against his gender role and write a paper about his experience.

After he found out about the assignment, I got a text from him saying, "I need to get a pedicure." Ummm......that is one thing I have never heard Phil say. He further explained the assignment and I was 100% on board. I thought it would be so fun to get pedicures together ha. Unfortunately we weren't about to spend $25/person for a school project. Phil's next idea was shaving his legs....I said NO! Then phil got the idea of doing a facial mask. So we went to Walmart and bought a fairly inexpensive tube of lemon scented clay mask.

I love that he even wanted the head band to keep his hair back!

We had fun cleansing our pores together while watching an episode of "Lie to Me." We have recently become hooked on this show via Netflix. It is so interesting! But don't worry, this isn't taking away from us staying up to date with Modern Family, The Office, or Psych!

This fun spa evening also included a lovely foot massage for me from my darling husband!

Elder Richard G. Scott

Last weekend was our stake conference. We were blessed to have Elder Scott preside at our meetings. Phil went to the priesthood leadership meeting Saturday afternoon where Elder Scott held a Q&A type meeting. Phil said it was really interesting. Oh, I think I forgot to mention on the blog, but Phil got a calling. He is the Young Men secretary and the assistant Priest quorum advisor. He is really enjoying his calling so far.

The Saturday adult session was incredible. Elder Scott asked a few questions and then turned to the congregation to raise their hands and answer them. He asked, "If you were to meet Joseph Smith, how would you prepare, and what would you ask him or thank him for?" His second question was, "If you were to meet Jesus Christ, how would you prepare and what would you thank him for?" These were good questions that invoked some thoughtful and spiritual responses.

My favorite part of the weekend was to hear an apostle of the Lord bear his heart felt testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ. The spirit was so strong and my testimony was definitely strengthened through his words and his presence. I am so blessed to live at a time with a living Prophet and apostles of the Lord on the earth.

Alphabet Dating--D (With a Twist)

Phil and I are slowly chugging along with our alphabet dating. It feels like we have been doing this for a long time, yet we are only on D. Last Friday we finally had a free night and I was excited for the D date that Phil planned. This was the plan...go to the DINOSAUR museum, then DINNER at DENNY'S. Throughout the date we were going to take pictures with a DISPOSABLE camera, DEVELOP the pictures, then make a poster DISPLAY of our DATE. Sounds fun right? I couldn't wait!

I usually only have class Fridays until noon, but last Friday I had to study for and take a test. I didn't leave Provo until about 5:30pm, little did I know that I was slightly throwing off Phil's surprise plans for the evening. I got home and hurried and got ready and we left. We started driving towards the DINOSAUR museum when Phil confessed that we actually weren't going to the museum or Denny's. Instead he took me to Texas Road House for dinner. That doesn't start with the letter D but we I love that place so I wasn't complaining. Before we were seated Phil snuck away to make a secret phone call...I knew the surprises were not over! After dinner he revealed the big surprise. He had booked us a room at the Little America hotel for the night. No, it wasn't our anniversary, my birthday, or any other special occasion. It was just a Friday night where my sweetheart decided to surprise me!

On the way to the hotel we had to make a Walmart run to buy toothbrushes. Background story... Shortly after Phil and I were married, he pulled a similar surprise where he took me to a hotel for the night. However, he didn't completely succeed with the surprise aspect because I noticed that several things from our bathroom were missing: both of our toothbrushes, my makeup bag, my brush, etc. I knew something was up. Phil didn't want to risk that happening again so he decided we would just buy new toothbrushes. Smart boy! And I truly was surprised this time. Phil covered his bases. He even bought a disposable camera, poster board, and glue sticks to go along with what he said we were doing. I would've never known.

We had such a fun evening relaxing and enjoying some time away from home, school, and work.

We slept in until 10 the next morning, which was so nice. Especially because Phil and I are both up by 5 or 5:30am during the weekdays. When we woke up, I asked Phil if he brought me a brush and/or a hair elastic. His response, "I didn't want you to notice they were gone. . ." Translation, no he did not haha. No worries, I just went home looking like a homeless woman.

On the way home we stopped at DENNY'S for breakfast. There's that D we have been waiting for.

It was such a fun weekend and we even came home with a little souvenir. . .

Forget Me Not

I loved listening to President Uchtdorf's talk during the General Relief Society meeting last Sunday. It was a talk that I definitely needed to hear at the time and it reminded me of several things I should never forget.

He centered his talk around 5 things we should never forget...one reminder for each petal on the small, yet beautiful Forget-Me-Not flower.

1. Forget not to be patient with yourself. God is fully aware that we are not perfect. We often spend too much time comparing the weaknesses we see in ourselves to the strengths we see in others. We all have strengths and weaknesses. The goal is to eventually turn all of our weaknesses into strengths. But this is a long term goal. We need to be thankful for all of the small successes in our home. Even though these successes may seem small and unnoticed by others, they are noticed by God and they are significant to Him.

2. Forget not the difference between a good sacrifice and a foolish sacrifice. An acceptable sacrifice is when we give up something good for something of far greater worth. For example, losing some sleep to help a child who is having a nightmare is a good sacrifice. However, staying up all night to make the perfect accessory for a daughter's Sunday outfit may not be a good sacrifice. We need to ask ourself if we are committing our time and energy to the things that matter most.

3. Forget not to be happy now! Many people are waiting around for their Golden Ticket that they believe holds the key to the happiness they have always dreamed about. It may be a perfect marriage or a perfect house. There is nothing wrong with righteous yearnings. The problem comes when we put our happiness on hold while we wait for a future event to happen (our Golden Ticket). If we wait around for fabulous roses, we might miss the beauty and wonder of the tiny forget-me-nots that are all around us. We want to strive for the best that is within us.

4. Forget not the WHY of the gospel. Sometimes we unintentionally overlook the vital aspects of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We sometimes look at all of the duties and responsibilities of the gospel as a long list of tasks that we must fit into our busy schedules. We focus on what the Lord wants us to do and how we might do it, but we sometimes forget the why. The gospel is not an obligation. It is a pathway marked by our father in heaven leading to happiness. The gospel is a light. When we understand why our Father has given us that pattern of living and why we have committed to making it a foundational aspect of our life, the gospel ceases to be a burden and instead becomes a joy and a delight. The why of obedience sanctifies our actions.

5. Forget not that the Lord loves you. We can sometimes feel small and very insignificant; just like the forget-me-not flower. We are NEVER forgotten by the Lord. Never. He loves us with an infinite love. We are the daughters of His kingdom. He loves us even though we make mistakes. The love of God and the power of the restored gospel are redemptive and saving. We are closer to heaven than we suppose.

I'm really thankful for this talk and I greatly look forward to the upcoming weekend of General Conference.

Home Sweet Home

Phil and I are finally starting to feel settled into our new home. Here is a little tour...

2 pics of our family room

(we turned a bedroom into our family room)

Our bedroom minus the dressers.

They didn't fit in the picture

Bathroom

This area connects our bedroom to our family room. The order of things goes our bedroom, a vanity, shower, toilet, another vanity, then our family room. It's a nice connection.

Dining area and kitchen

Closer view of kitchen

This is the view out of the window over my sink.

I love it because it makes me feel like I'm not in a basement anymore.

Plus sometimes the cats will curl up down there and hummingbirds feed from flowers growing to the right of this picture. I LOVE it!!!

A few things came with this move that I have not had in my two years of marriage....

AND

Isn't that a pretty sight?!