Jon's Projects

While I was in Utah Jon spent a lot of time working on things around the house to keep him busy! This is what he did!

He decorated the guest bathroom.

He put up some Christmas decorations and finished decorating the house!

He put up the snowflakes on the sidewalk, the red lighted wreath on the door, and he made the big star on the side of the house!! :)

He also finished decorating our bedroom!

He painted the bed frame black and green.  (The colors for our room are black, gray, red, and green.) And he put the painted frame around the design behind the bed.  He also put up the mirrors on the side.

Then he painted my cedar chest so that it would match.

And he painted this!!! It stands for Senatus Populusque Romanus ("The Senate and People of Rome") and it is something that we saw all over Rome! He has never painted before! Didn't he do great!

He also did tons of organizing everywhere and a few other little things that were just awesome!! He did something in almost every room in the house!! What a great husband I have!! :) I just love him so much!!

2010 In Review

As I was thinking back on all that we have done this year I realized that it's been a REALLY big year for us!! We've done so much and a lot of really important things too!!

Click on any of the photos to make them bigger!

In January we finished up our Italy trip in Assisi, Umbria, Cagliari, Naples, and Rome, ate lots of pizza, and spent a few days in New York on our way home.

In February we made Valentine's Day dinner with my family, visited some friends in Rexburg, ID, went shooting, got our pictures taken, visited some more friends in Pagosa Springs, CO, and drove to AZ to meet some new people.

In March we went to VEGAS, Jon's best friend Josh married his love Jamie, we moved to Nashville, TN,  and Jon's brother Ben came to visit us there!

In April Jon's family came to visit us and we went to Mammoth Caves, we hung out and played games with friends, and we survived the Nashville floods!

In May we went to an awesome Cinqo De Mayo party thrown by our awesome friends Miles and Chelsey, we met our new friends Mac and Jess, we celebrated Jon's big 25th birthday, and we went clubbing for our first time!

In June we moved to Grand Prairie, TX, spent tons of time at the pool and at the mall, my sister Amber came and stayed with us for a few weeks, we enjoyed more rain and thunderstorms, and I got a job!

 In July we went bowling, caught a bunch of lizards and a frog, Jon went diving in the pool for money, and we moved to Ann Arbor, MI.

In August Jon got his white coat, we went canoeing, we went camping, we went to Mackinaw Island, we did lots of biking, and we celebrated my 22nd birthday!

In September we went to the cider mills, watched lots of football, and Jon had fun mowing the lawn!

In October we went to Hell, carved lots of pumpkins, went to Fall Ball, Kevin and Rochele's baby Connor was born, and we watched lots of scary movies.

In November Jon fixed the car, we put Christmas lights up for the first time, we went and saw Harry Potter 7, we celebrated our 3rd anniversary and drove to Ohio, we flew to Utah for Thanksgiving, my brother Skyler proposed to his girlfriend Shantell, and Jon's brother Ben left on his mission.

In December I spent lots of time with my family, I went to Rexburg, ID to visit the Fillmores, Jon did lots of projects to make the house look awesome, we celebrated Christmas just the two of us, and we celebrated New Years Eve by eating at Red Lobster and going to see Tron: Legacy!!

It's been a great year and we are both nervous and excited to see what 2011 brings.  Hopefully we'll still have fun even with no plans of moving this year!  :)  P.S. In 2010 we were in 2 countries, and visited 11 states!!

Christmas Day Bliss

He HADN’T stopped Christmas from coming! IT CAME! Not even the Grinch could stop Christmas from coming this year!!


We had a wonderful Christmas this year!! It was really fun to spend it together, just the two of us!! We loved it!!


Christmas Eve has always been my favorite day of the year!! It feels so much more Christmas-y than Christmas day and the excitement is at it's very peak!! 


On Christmas Eve we pulled the mattress into the front room and watched a Christmas movie! We watched Home Alone (my fave!) and Jon even took the time to make sure the VCR worked because I only have it on VHS!! Haha.  It seemed so OLD to watch it on VHS! Not good quality! Pretty funny!  When it was over we played a card game on the mattress and drank sparkling cider.  Then we read 'Twas the night before Christmas' before we went to bed.  We slept in the front room in front of the tree.  It was wonderful!  

On Christmas morning we got up and decided it would be a fun tradition to open up stockings before breakfast.  So we opened our stockings.  Jon got a health bar and I got a bag of M&Ms and Jon had snuck in a pair of jewelry into my stocking too! So sweet! Then he wanted to open a specific present because he said we could use it to make breakfast!  So we opened it up and we each got a pair of Michigan slippers!! Yay!! So we got up to make breakfast. 

We were going to make pancakes and put them on the plate to look like snowmen but come to find out that of all the different kinds of flour we have (at least 5 or 6) we were out of all purpose flour!! We tried to make it with a different kind but it didn't work out at all so we ended up making French toast.  Oh well, maybe snowmen next year! :)


After breakfast we read the Christmas story out of the scriptures and then went to take a shower and get dressed and all that stuff.  After that we were finally ready to open presents.  But first we gave our kitties their stockings.  They got new collars (their old ones were really worn out!) Asrielle got a yellow one and Zephyr got a blue one! Michigan colors!! (And yes, I have to admit that I purposely put a blue collar on an orange cat and a yellow collar on a gray cat just because I like those color combinations. :) )  They also got some new mice toys, which they love!! And some treats! They are a little spoiled, yes.  

Then we set to open our presents!! My parents gave us filled stockings!! Such a great idea!!! They filled them up much better than we did our own!! It was awesome!! We got chocolate, coal (the chocolate kind of course), hot peanuts (for Jon), hot sunflower seeds (for me), chocolate oranges (every year! :) ), and 2 gift cards so we can eat out!! They pretty much rock!! It was awesome!!  And the gold stockings got glitter EVERYWHERE!! Amber also send us a present that got to us late that was the movie 'The Uninvited', which is so special, it means a lot to the two of us because we saw it together and both really loved it! :)
p.s.  When I called my parents later they said that we need to send our stockings back and they are going to refill them every year!! How cool are they?! Very!


From Jon's family, I got pretty pearl jewelry and Jon got hot sauce from Angela, we got chocolates from Dad, and Mom painted us a picture, which she will send to us soon.  She was nice to send us a picture of what it looks like! She did great, it's beautiful!! From Sarah and Adam, I got a jacket (that Sarah made!! She did great!) and Jon got a kitchen thermometer and timer! So AWESOME!! We also got a letter from Ben! Yay!


Things we got each other- I got Jon a tool set, which he loves and is really anxious to use! And he got me Andes (YUM!), a new jewelry box, which I really needed and is so awesome!!, and some perfume, the kind that I used to wear when were dating! It was so sweet!!

I am also currently doing the 12 days of Christmas for Jon! I found out that it's actually traditionally supposed to be the 12 days after Christmas instead of the 12 days before and I liked that better so I'm doing it that way.  So far he has got a book, cookies, Reeses, and Ferrero Roche (or however you spell it).  


We got lots of cards from people too, which was totally awesome!! 


We spent the rest of the day doing puzzles, working (me), eating tortellini soup, and enjoying the time we got to spend together.  Christmas is the best!

Skyler and Shantell's Engagement Photo Session

So when my brother got engaged he asked me to take his engagement photos.  I am NOT a professional in any way, shape, or form.  But I have a nice camera and I like to take pictures.  So I got some tips from my friend Chelsey and spent tons of time online coming up with ideas and here are my favorites of my brother and his fiancee that day! (P.S.  It was them that decided not to smile, they just aren't smilers.. silly kids)

HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A FANTASTIC CHRISTMAS TOMORROW!!

I LOVE THE HOLIDAYS

So, it's coming up on a month since I've posted but I've been pretty busy this Holiday season, as I'm sure all of you have been as well!

After our anniversary we headed to Utah to spend Thanksgiving with our families!! The first week there was super busy!! We ate 2 Thanksgiving dinners on Thanksgiving day, my brother proposed to his girlfriend (on Thanksgiving) and I took their engagement pictures (to be posted soon), we visited lots of friends, we went to my brother-in-law's farewell and he left for the MTC (he is doing awesome there!!), we went out on date, spent tons of time with our families, and we went Black Friday shopping!!

I know I could go into detail about pretty much everything but I don't want to take the time to do that, so I'll just say that is was super awesome!! It was great to see everybody! We had a blast!!  Then on Sunday Jonathan flew home and I didn't.  I spent the next 2 weeks working from my parents house, trying to spend as much time with my family as possible, visiting more friends, seeing Harry Potter again, and went to a wedding, which was the reason why I stayed for so long!! The wedding was amazing!! I love Josh and Taleya and I know they are going to be so happy together!! See there pictures HERE!! It was great to spend the entire day with them, and they day before!! It made the fact that I had to be away from my husband for 2 weeks worth it!

Then I got to fly home, alone (yuck!), and got to Michigan just in time to be apart of the first snow storm of the season!! Which was really bad and it took us forever to get home because the roads were so icey but it was so fun anyway!! Awesome storm!!

I am so happy to be home! Jon and I are closer than ever, being apart does that to a couple! :) And then on Monday we had our traditional yearly Italian dinner!! We invited 4 couples.  2 from church and 2 from school and they are all so awesome!! It felt good to really feel like we were making great friends out here!! And after 3 days straight of cooking, the dinner was AMAZING!! Everyone really enjoyed it!!

So now I am here with my husband, who is done with school for the break, and enjoying every Christmas-y moment we can get!! I can't wait for Christmas (even if I do still have to work that day :P)