happy birthday to me

+ i'm declaring this my official birthday "theme song." i'd be dancing to it all day if i wasn't at work.

+ thank you husband for the big, tasty  breakfast you made me at 5:30 am

+ for warming up the car and waiting for the bus with me

+ the love letter was nice too

+ thank you BYU-I for sending me a birthday email, even though i don't plan on joining your alumni association

+ thank you new version of ldsjobs.org for launching successfully today

+ thank you office friends for bringing me birthday cookies and singing to me

+ thank you unknown person for bringing the hummus, greek yogurt dip, and pitas to the office today. i probably ate about half of it.

+ thank you for all the birthday wishes from friends and family

+ thank you husband for having secret birthday activities planned for tonight. i can't wait to see what you've got up your sleeves.


my birthday is a pretty nice day.


DON'T STOP! DON'T STOP! DON'T STOP!

christmas cookies

These are the christmas sugar cookies that Jacob made for our sunbeams class at church. Yeah, Jacob made them, not me--but i helped frost! Sometimes i really think he is more domestic than i am.

The cookies turned out so cute and so tasty. 

our little sunbeams loved them.

christmas time

friends + gingerbread houses + holiday music + Elf = christmas time is here

llama caroling

llama likes a lil' scratch behind his ear

we went caroling for canned food with llamas, just like last year. this time our group got two very grumpy llamas, but they still warmed everyone's hearts. I really thought the 90-year old woman we visited was going to explode with happiness when she saw them on her doorstep.

though our llamas didn't really seem to have the true Christmas spirit (and who can blame them? I mean, they're hindu, right?), they were real troopers going door-to-door caroling with us on a cold, cold night. and they certainly helped us collect a lot of canned food for the needy. i guess even grumpy llamas are cute.

xmas lights

the xmas lights at our house are a bit modest, but we wanted our neighborhood to know that we have christmas spirit too.

best idea

Instead of watching movies/tv last night (which is our usual default activity), Jacob had the idea to take turns singing and playing the guitar for each other. best idea EVER. Consequently, it turned out to be a funny/entertaining/lovely night altogether.

Even after dating for a year + being married for a few months, we are both still shy to sing in front of the other—but that just made it more sweet. Jacob is always especially embarrassed to sing for me (not that he should be—i love it!), so it was a rare treat to hear him bashfully sing a sweet lil' tune with the guitar. So much better than any movie we could've watched.

why don't we do this more often?

p.s.

turn off your TVs, guys!

gettin' tikka wit it

Upon eating our indian food leftovers on sunday afternoon, we soon broke out into this song:

(to the tune of Will Smith's "gettin' jiggy wit it")

"Naan-naan-naan-naan-naan-naan-naan! Naan-naan-naan-naan-naan-naan! 

Gettin' tikka wit it!"

chicken tikka masala + naan

I often find myself breaking into song over things that make me happy.

and indian food certainly makes me happy.

straight

for the first time in forever (probably over a year), I straightened my hair. I kinda look like me in high school. I kinda hate it. Jacob even took up calling me "cheerleader" because of my resemblance to this picture:

(it makes me happy when people have a hard time believing this is me. because i  often feel that way too. Why didn't someone throw away my flat iron and tell me to stop over-plucking my eye brows?)

Without the volume, frizz and curl-city--it's like I don't know who I am anymore. 5 years of college and growing up and finding my identity just disappeared. Is it a little absurd how much my hairstyle can send me into existential crisis?

Still, the ability to slide my fingers through my hair is pretty fantastic. On a normal day, that is almost impossible.

the help

Jacob and I saw this movie at the dollar theater last weekend, and it was like WHOA good.



I laughed. I cried. I didn't fall asleep (which often happens in long movies). I never wanted it to end. Probably the best movie I have seen in a long time--along with Lion King in 3D, of course. If you haven't seen it yet, you know what you need to do. Get on over to your dollar theater. don't walk. RUN.

p.s.

there's some quality about this trailer that makes it look like it might be a chick flick (maybe the music, sassy women, hugging?)--but it's not. Jacob loved it too.

homemade FAIL

With an adventurous heart, I attempted to make delicious homemade flan the other night. And let's just say that Holli's homemade flan = homemade FAIL. Hearts broken. Dreams crushed.

(the perfect flan I was imagining)

Jacob was still nice enough to eat some and tell me it was kinda good. However, I knew it really tasted like spongy eggs covered in cinnamon and goop. *Huff!* I think next time I have my sweet-Mexican-custard craving, I'll opt for this fool-proof method...

Unless there is a Flansmith out there who is willing to apprentice me,

I am pretty sure this is my one shot at flan redemption.

spirit of thanksgiving

Despite the lovely holiday that it was, I have to admit I was feeling pretty homesick on Thanksgiving. The most homesick I have felt in a long, long time. It was the only time I had not been home for Thanksgiving (besides the time I was in London--when I was going to tea in Kensington Gardens, singing "God Bless the USA" with my london gals, seeing Lion King the Musical in the West End, and having so much fun that it should've been illegal). Needless to say, I was missing my fam, the warm weather, all the nieces and nephews, the traditions, and the memories I felt I was missing out on.

Jacob could sense my odd mix of nostalgia and gloom as I laid and told him all the things I would be doing if I were in Mesa for Thanksgiving. Not long after, he told me he had something that would cheer me up and disappeared to fetch it. I didn't believe him; however, he returned with my macbook to show me this:

On Thanksgiving night, they turn on the Christmas lights at the Mesa Temple, and my family often goes to see them. As we watched this silly little video of the lights, temple, and cheesey christmas music, I could feel my gloom begin to fade. It warmed my heart to revisit the memories via youtube, but even more that Jacob had been so sweet and thoughtful. Then the spirit of Thanksgiving slapped me in the face. . .

I am so thankful for my husband, for our "little family," and the memories we are making together.

fall leftovers

 sassy lost n found sale

 not your average circus bear

 tiger + vader

 a pic that didn't turn out, but still like

 "i touch you once, i touch you twice, i won't let go at any price"--my love song to pizza

newlywedders

christmas claymation

how would we get into the christmas spirit without those classic claymation movies?
I like to think that these lil' characters flew straight to my mailbox in their little hot air balloon.

thanks netflix!