Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree (not really)

Greg and I decorated our apartment for Christmas for FHE the other night. His mom lent us some lights, decorations, and a christmas tree (can I just say that I love her and she is amazing?) It was pretty fun! It's so nice to come home after a long day and turn on the lights to see a beautiful tree with wonderful lights glowing in our living room. We took a few pictures too!

The beginnings of the process

Love

Finishing up

Our masterpiece

Gobble Gobble

What a weekend! Thanksgiving was so much fun! We had lots and lots of food and had great company. It was Greg's grandma's wedding this weekend, so most of his mom's side was in town. It was fun sledding and eating and going to the wedding reception and dancing and being with people we loved. Here are some pictures!

Greg and I made a cool sledding hill slide that all the little cousins and us sledded down. Fun!

What a cutie

Here's Aunt Crysti and one of her kids

Here are some of the kids having fun on the hill

We got to go to temple square after Grandma Sisco's (well now Harvey) wedding. It was beautiful!

On we went to the wedding reception at the Little America hotel in Salt Lake. It was so much fun dancing and spending time with family.

First Dance

Just a cute couple at the reception

Daddy-daughter dance

Lauren dancing with Jake

Bouquet Toss!

Greg and I love being with the people we love! Happy Thanksgiving!

Cinnamon Rolls

Greg and I decided to make some cinnamon rolls last night. We were so excited, especially Greg. We have a bread-maker, so we made the dough, rolled it out after it was finished, spread butter all over it and poured cinnamon and brown sugar onto the dough, rolled it up, cut it into little rolls, and started baking the 17 cinnamon rolls we had created (it sounds more complicated than it really was).

Somebody was a little anxious for the cinnamon rolls to finish baking...

They turned out perfectly! And they are so tasty, and pretty cheap! I love baking with my wonderful husband!

Here's the recipe:

Best Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients
• 1 cup warm milk (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1/3 cup margarine, melted
• 4 1/2 cups bread flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast
•
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
•
• 1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
Directions
1. Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select dough cycle; press Start.
2. After the dough has doubled in size turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.
3. Roll dough into a 16x21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
4. Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract and salt. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Carving

Well, Greg and I decided it was time to do our pumpkin carving for Halloween (I have been so excited about this ever since the pumpkins started being sold at the store). It was a lot of fun! We both were trying to conceal what we were carving so we couldn't see what the other person was doing. I wanted to carve the Cat in the Hat, but as I was doing it, it was wayyyy too hard, and I ended up ruining one side of the pumpkin! We were using steak knives, so that's my excuse.

I ended up carving a simple pumpkin face on the other side of my pumpkin. That didn't work out so well either, let me just say. Those dang knives were so tricky to use! When I was finished, I decided to see how Greg's was coming along. Of course, his was turning out perfectly despite the horrible knives we were using to carve.

Of course we had to make some pumpkin seeds!

We just had so much fun!

Here are the finished products:
Left side-Greg: He carved Lord Voldemort which looked perfect.
Right side-Sam: I carved a normal pumpkin face with the failed Cat in the Hat on the other side, but you can't see it.

Happy Halloween!

Guess What My Smokin' Husband is Doing

Well, we've got some good news! Greg is going to get his Associate's degree by the end of this semester. Can you believe it? I am going to be married to an Associate's degree holder. Haha Greg said this to me today actually. He just cracks me up. But honestly, it really feels like we are getting things done. We both have our graduation plans figured out, like which classes we are going to take for the rest of our Bachelor's degrees.

The reason why this is so exciting about Greg's Associate's degree is because now it might be a little easier for him to make it into BYU. It will look better to the school that he now has his Associate's. So, we don't have an official plan as to what we are going to do yet, but we will soon.

I'm realizing that there are big decisions that need to be made as new things enter into our lives. It's a lot different than being single because now there's two of us. We act as one. I love it, but it's not very easy at times. I am learning that I have to compromise, and I know that as I do this, I will be happier, and our marriage will run smoothly.

So long BYU

I made it into BYU.

Well, now that they want me, they can't have me!

Greg didn't make it in, unfortunately. I feel bad because I know he really wanted to get into the Marriot School. But hey, he can always try again and maybe he has more important things to do. Who knows?

As for me, yes, I'm bummed that I can't attend the school of my dreams. I've waited all of my life to get into that school, and now that I am finally admitted, I cannot attend. But I know that I have something better than BYU. I have my husband. He is the most important thing in my life, and I wouldn't trade marrying him for anything if I had the choice, not even BYU. True, I have to make sacrifices now to not go to this amazing place to gain an education, and yes, I now have to make decisions that I wouldn't have made before I was married. But I have no regrets. I have no reason to be sad or angry or upset. Because I've got what I need.

So I say, so long BYU. At least for now.

My Wisdom Is Gone!

ALERT! My wisdom has been removed from my mouth. Yep, that's right. My teeth were pulled last week. Can I just say that it is the weirdest feeling to wake up from an oral surgery like that? Let me start from the beginning:

It all started because one of my stupid wisdom teeth started to break through my gums at an extremely rapid rate. My gums swelled up, and my tooth was trying to grow through a very thick piece of my mouth. So, to say the least, it was very painful. I went to the oral surgeon, had an x-ray, and made the date for two days later to get my teeth removed. I was terrified. I kept asking Greg all of these random questions about if it hurt or not, if I was going to wake up or not, if I was going to feel anything during the surgery, etc. I'm sure he thought I was crazy. Anyways, I went and got them out and when I woke up, I felt really drowsy, obviously. In fact, the nurse couldn't understand what I was saying. I also couldn't walk properly. The worst part was that I could feel where they cut into me and it HURT. I told Greg about 8 times on our 20 minute ride to the pharmacy that it really hurt. Needless to say, I got the medicine (painkillers that make me really drowsy and nauseous) and I'm still taking them because it still hurts! When will the pain end? I have no idea.

Wedding Pictures!

We said yes!

Well, life is finally starting to slow down. It has been a crazy past couple of months with the wedding planning, school, travelling arrangements, housing situations, and the fact that Greg and I just wanted to be married already! I am here to say that it finally happened! Greg and I got hitched! We were happily married in the Newport Beach California temple on August 26, 2011. Let's just start out with how I was feeling:

I was extremely nervous. To put it bluntly. I kept asking myself, "Self, am I really ready for this? Am I even mature enough to be doing this? How are we going to pay for the things we need? How can we figure this out?" You know, all of the dumb little things that you think about when something huge is about to happen in your life. I have always known, since I've known Greg, that I wanted to spend eternity with him. I have always had a good feeling about him and us together. So, even though I was so nervous about what I was doing, I remembered that I had someone who would do anything for me, anything at all. I knew I was going to marry someone who was going to take care of me and support me during our lives together. I knew he would always comfort me when I felt down or sad, and would celebrate with me when happy things were happening.

The morning of our wedding, the nervousness was as strong as ever. As I hurried to get my hair and makeup done, it really hit me what was about to take place in a couple of hours. I was making the biggest decision of my life by getting married. I got in the car with my parents, and as we left the house to get to the temple, I got a call from Greg who was already at the temple, asking me if I was almost there. I suddenly felt overwhelmed and told him that we just left. As soon as we hung up, I felt the tears enter my eyes, my face heated up, and I started crying. Mom kept telling me that I was going to ruin my makeup, and honestly, that was a huge reason as to why I held back the tears as much as I could. My parents assured me that everything was going to be all right. As we entered the temple grounds, I caught glimpse of my sweetheart. There he was, just standing there, anxiously awaiting my arrival. As soon as I got out of the car, he gave me the biggest hug he could manage. It made me feel loads better. We entered the holy house of the Lord, filled out paperwork, got changed into our temple clothes, and got to just sit in the temple for a little while by ourselves before our actual ceremony started. The feeling of peace swept over me like a blanket, encompassing me and making me feel comforted and reassured that everything really was all right. I was sitting in the best place on earth with the man of my dreams, ready to be married. We finally went into the sealing room for our ceremony. It was so beautiful. The ceremony itself was amazing, and Greg and I cried throughout the whole thing. I could never imagine myself with anyone else or getting married anywhere else. I loved it. And I love being married!

Engagement Pictures

Greg just cracks me up. Here's why:

Yesterday we were doing homework, actually, let me correct that. HE was doing homework. I was just sitting there because I was done with my homework. We were in the lounge and he was working on his CIT 140 online class. Let me just tell you, I've been with Greg when he's done homework for this class and it is BORING. But anyways, he had to watch a bunch of these videos that were not entertaining. So I decided I wanted to lay down, so I started leaning over on the couch and Greg goes, "No Sam, watch this with me! Please!" I'm pretty sure he didn't want to have to suffer through the videos alone. The entire time he was supposed to be watching the videos, he was preoccupied with trying to get me to watch the dang things with him, but I wouldn't have it. Eventually, I think he just gave up and figured out how to do things on his own for the class. But, it was funny that he kept trying to get me to watch the videos with him.

We've also been trying to coordinate our classes for next Fall as we register so that we will have classes that start and end around the same time. It's not as easy as you might think. But we are getting it done, and have been trying to work on wedding stuff through all of this home/school work, work, and of course, our social time. It does get a little stressful at times, but I know we have a lot of help and support in our decision to get married. It's the best decision we've ever made, and we know we will be blessed for getting married in the temple. I am so happy that we are getting married there. That is the most important thing. It's sad to see others who haven't received those blessings; I just want them to know that I know they can be so much happier and that they will be able to live with their families FOREVER if they just humble themselves and go to the temple. It blesses everyone's lives immensely.

We're Engaged!

So, I have had a lot of people ask me about how Greg proposed, so here it is:

I had been planning a surprise birthday party for him for about two weeks prior to all of this that was supposed to happen on the same day that we got engaged. I had his roommates all in on it and helping me out with planning and what we were going to do and who we were inviting. It was going to be awesome. So, Saturday, May 28, 2011, Greg was at work (he works at a flower nursery) so I went over to his house at about noon and had his roommates go to the store with me to get a bunch of stuff for the party that night. We came home and I made a cake for him and we had ice cream, chips, sodas, and decorations all ready for that night. Well, Greg got off work at about 3 pm and called me. He told me that he wanted to go to the sand dunes (which were about 20 minutes away from Rexburg) and have a picnic and a bonfire. I, of course, told him we should just stay in Rexburg and do something there. He was very persistent in trying to get us to go out to the dunes, but then again, so was I about staying in town. Finally, I realized that he really was not giving this whole thing up, and I decided that there was no way I could pull this surprise party off. So I called everyone who was coming and told them we'd have to postpone it. The weird thing was that when I called a couple of his roommates, they just wouldn't answer. I was getting pretty frustrated because they needed to know what was going on, yet they just wouldn't answer! Finally, I got ahold of one of them, told him the details, and everything was okay. Well, of course my first thought was that Greg was going to propose to me out there at the dunes, but I was trying not to get my hopes up (I was still really excited). Greg came and got me from my apartment at about 5:30 pm and we drove to the store to get some picnic food. On our way out to the dunes, Greg informed me that all of his roommates were on their way as well, we were meeting them out there because they had to go pick up their dates. Well, let me just tell you, that was the worst news I had heard all night because now I KNEW he wasn't going to propose to me because all of his friends would be out there too. Needless to say, I kind of had a little bit of an attitude (ok maybe a lot) because 1. I didn't get to do the surprise party for him and 2. He wasn't really going to propose to me. We got to the dunes and were surrounded by a huge wall of sand. I noticed that on the right side, it was not very steep, but on the left side it was very steep. I told Greg we should go up the right side, but he insisted we go up the left side because he said it "looked cooler over there." Yeah right. In my mind I was thinking, No it doesn't. But I didn't argue and we climbed to the top. Once we were up there, Greg was kind of standing in front of me and I wasn't really paying attention to anything but the ground, but when I looked up, Greg had kind of turned and I could see what was out in front of us. The sand dunes sort of dipped down a little bit again and a couple hundred feet away there was another sand dune. On the side of that sand dune, I saw a message. In red flowers (remember, Greg works at a flower nursery so he had the hookups) there was a message spelled out that said, "MARRY ME SAM?" My heart totally skipped a beat, and I started freaking out a little bit. Was this really for me? I kept asking Greg "Who did this? Who did this!" I was smiling and so surprised, and Greg was like, "Sam, I did this. Duh." It was kind of funny. I told him I wanted to go see it closer, so we ran down the hill and once we were close enough, Greg got down on his knee, pulled out the ring, and asked me to marry him. And I said yes! His roommates were already there, standing on the other sand dune, waiting for us to get there so they could take pictures of us. It was so exciting! Apparently they had known about this whole proposal the entire day, thanks to Greg obviously, but couldn't tell me about it, so they let me just do my thing and get stuff from the store for the party. It was pretty funny. I am so excited, and I know Greg is too!

We are getting married on August 26th, 2011 in the Newport Beach Temple. We are very much looking forward to it!

College, Life, Etc.

Man, I have not written on this blog for a VERY long time. A lot has happened since I last wrote, that's for sure.

First off, it is not the Spring Semester up here at BYU Idaho. The weather has not been very good, it has been extremely windy almost every single day. At least there's no snow! (Actually, it did snow a few weeks ago for a few hours.) But it has rained a little bit. Greg and I go and play soccer a lot, either with his roommates Cameron and Jon, or just messing around with our inter-mural team. It's a lot of fun. Currently, I am taking 16 credits this semester. It has definitely been keeping me busy, but I really need a job. That is going to be very high on my list of things to do.

I definitely miss California a lot. Going back this past break, in April, made me really wish I was there. I was dreading coming back up here, but I do have Greg, and that is making it a lot of fun. I love being with him. We spend a lot of time together. He's pretty much the only reason I wanted to come back up here for this semester, in all honesty. We spent Easter at his house in Park City. It was a lot of fun. The Friday before Easter, we drove down to Utah together, barely made it to my brother Greg's college graduation. After that, we went to Greg's cousin's graduation party (she graduated from BYU as well) and I got to meet a bunch of his aunts and uncles and cousins, as well as both of his grandparents. It was fun. Then, we went to Red Robin to meet up with my family and cousins. The next day, my parents came up to Park City, met Greg's mom, and we all went out to eat at Cafe Rio. We walked around Main Street for a little while, and then they had to leave to go back to California (I was a little jealous, and sad at the same time). Later that night, we dyed Easter eggs and then we watched Harry Potter 7 (secretly I was excited to watch it). Then Sunday, we had the Easter egg/basket hunt and for Easter dinner, a bunch of Greg's family came up to his house and we all ate a delicious meal. It was way nice. I really enjoyed being there.

Other than that, all I've been up to is homework, homework, homework. And hanging out with Greg. And playing soccer. The first couple days back up here were really weird... I had a really hard time without Leah and Sara. Basically, I only knew Greg up here at first. My friends were all gone, with the exception of a few. It was just strange getting new roommates and meeting new people. But it's been nice being with Greg, that's for sure!

Idaho Falls Weekend

So, Leah, Sara, and I went to Idaho Falls this past weekend for just a getaway from Rexburg. It was so fun! We stayed at a hotel called Shilo Inn for two nights, Friday and Saturday. It was just so nice to sit around, relax, swim, sit in the super warm jacuzzi, and hang out with each other. I think both nights we fell asleep at like 3:30 AM. Which isn't too bad, I think it could've been worse. Friday, we went shopping at the I.F. mall; I got some new cute clothes :] I think my favorites were the new brown boots and white sundress I got. I think I'm gonna look like a country girl with that outfit on. I love it. Saturday, we went to the Bodies Exhibit, with all the cadavers that show the insides of the bodies. It was extremely interesting. My favorite parts were the exhibit that showed the blood vessels only in your body, and also the exhibit that showed the fetus at different stages during a pregnancy. It all was just way cool. Later that night, we went to Red Robin for Leah's birthday basically, and then saw Tangled. Cutest movie ever! It was so adorable; I had never seen it before, and I was so glad to have gone! Basically, the rest of the trip was just hanging out at the hotel and going in the jacuzzi, which was just fine for all three of us. We absolutely loved that jacuzzi. Overall, it was a way fun weekend, and I'll always have those memories with my girls!

As for this week: I'm going down to Utah on Wednesday night! Sean Lisenby (Leah's cousin) and Pedro Mendoza (Leah's boyfriend) are both coming up to Idaho to pick Leah and me up and we are going back down to Utah. I will get to see Greg all weekend! I am so excited! We are actually going down for one of our old FHE brother's wedding on Friday. But other than that, I will be in Park City! I think we are also gonna go to the Festival of Colors in Spanish Fork, and maybe go to some hot springs down there too, oh and maybe go skiing! It's gonna be AWESOME!