Our First Christmas

Mark and I just celebrated our first Christmas together. It was a very busy Christmas. Filled with lots of time with family and friends. We left the Saturday before Christmas, after Mark's work party to go spend time with his family. We spent a few relaxing days down south, where we exchanged Christmas presents with Mark's family. Koalton loved his Cars track
but I'm not to sure Chase enjoyed his Whoop Ass Peanuts. Judging by the face he made and the coughing and hacking. Sorry Chase.



We left Christmas eve evening to head back home to celebrate Christmas with my family too. We were welcomed in with a huge storm.
We drove through white out conditions, and saw a few accidents along the way. We were blessed to make it home safely.

We then celebrated Christmas Eve with all of my family, Grandpa Jack, and our friends the Macks. Mom and dad made their famous prime rib dinner and we played games and watched a movie. We introduced the new in-laws to the families favorite christmas tradition, the flour game. This is the game where you place a coin on top of some packed flour and then we take turns cutting it away and the person to make the coin fall, has to retrieve it from the flour with their teeth. Mark was the lucky winner this year.

that night Mark was kind enough to take part in one of my family traditions that I hope to carry on with my kids. Each year we get to open one gift on Christmas Eve, our Christmas PJ's. Mark was willing to play along but didn't really get why we needed to do it. I think I'll try this tradition again when we have our first child.

We were very blessed this Christmas. Both Mark and I received new cloths. Mark alos got a new movie and soem brain teasers. I thought for sure that these would stump him but he proved me wrong once again. He had the first one figured out within a few minutes of opening the gift. I guess his pajamas are right when they say, I am so smrt! Mark also received a new suit. This one was a black with a double pin stripe. I have never seen someone get so excited over a new suit.

Mark gave me a Family Home Evening board, a new frying pan,( I was so excited to get this. We only had a very small pan and every time i cooked hamburger I had more hamburger out of the pan then I did in the pan.) Mark also gave me a Kitchen Aid Mixer.
The perfect one too. It was red with a handle on the bowl. We used it that morning to make scones.

We enjoyed the time we were able to spend with family and friends this year. Although this Christmas was very busy. It was filled with a lot of joy and happiness. I am very blessed to be a part of both families and to be able to be close enough to spen christmas with both sides.

Mark and I also are thankful for the true reason why we clebrate this wonderful season, our Savior. What a miracle that took place so many years ago in a stable. We feel very lucky to be able to have this gospel in our lives and see the blessing that come from living it.

We hope everryone had a very Merry Christmas and we also hope that everyone has a Happy New Year.

Happy Early Birthday Mark

On Saturday I decided to take Mark out for his birthday. We did it early because I wanted to take him to one of our favorite places, Tucanos. We had to go on Saturday so we could get the lunch time special. So we invited some family and friends. Some being the key word. When I made the reservation it was for 15 adults 2 kids and one baby. This event was not little by any means. We had my parents, Mike and Becky, Amanda, Cameron, and their three boys, Cameron's parents, and sister who were here for Miles's blessing, Our friends, Shannan and Erica, and Erica's parents who were here for Christmas and to find out the sex of their new granddaughter. Congratulations Erica and Shannan on the anticipated arrival of baby Olivia!

After we stuffed ourselves with all the food we could handle we let Mark open an early birthday present. I have been keeping this present a secret since September and I was dieing to give it to him. I ordered Mark a new suit right after we were married and have had it hidden at my parents house for a while. I have also been telling Mark that Brother Hazen (the guy that sold me the suit) wasn't selling suits any more and if he could just wait till after Christmas we would go to the Mr. Mac sale (I don't even know if there is a sale after Christmas for Mr. Mac, but he bought it.)

Before we left for the restaurants I informed Mark that i needed a box to wrap his gift in. We decided to go to his shop to get a box. He asked me what size of box I would be needing. As I explained the size of box I would need the little light bulb over my head went off, (sometimes the light bulb has a slow reaction time) he was trying to figure out what I was giving him. So I stopped and called him on it. He informed me that it was okay because he already new what I was giving him because I gave it away earlier. I was surprised that I had. I asked him what he thought I was giving him. He said, "The lift supports for my car." (Mark's lift supports for his trunk went out back in October and we just haven't been willing to hand over the $80 dollars for new ones.) i just gave him a hurt face and asked if he would at least act surprised when I gave them to him. He agreed. (I never knew I could be could at giving a surprise.) I was so excited to give Mark his present even more then before.

Mark loved his suit. I hope just as much as he would have loved the lift supports. We had an enjoyable time with friends and family and I can't wait to give him the other birthday present tomorrow.

Movie Rating

Last night over dinner Mark and I were planning what we should do for entertainment. I'm officially done with finals and I was ready to do something rather exciting. We narrowed our options down to two things we could:
A: Try to take over the world. Or
B: Go see the new movie that just released, I Am Legend.
After weighing our options we decided that option B was more exciting and a lot easier.

We text our friend Jared to see what time he was going. The movie started in 40minutes. Jared said he would buy our tickets since he was already in line for them. Mark flew to the tub where he scrubbed with all his might. We dashed to the car and of we flew to the movie. (After a quick call to Jared to ask which movie theater he was at.)

When we got to the movie we were sure glad Jared bought our tickets in advance. The line was huge. I heard another lady exclaim as we ran through the line, "Look they were smart and got their tickets early." We then hurried to the theater to be blessed with the back row of the front floor seats, but we made it and we were ready to be entertained by a good movie.

Now the rating:
DON'T GO SEE THIS MOVIE!!!!! I repeat DON'T GO SEE THIS MOVIE! I don't think I can scream this statement loud enough. When we came out of the theater to see a line of people to go see the next showing of it, I wanted to go to each individual person and tell them not to see this film.
If i were to give this fill a thumbs up thumbs down rating I would have to not even give it the courtesy of even giving it a thumb. It was horrible. This movie was just a zombie movie.

Now I know what your thinking Amanda, "This is just Rosie and any movie that has the slightest bit of the boo factor will scare her, she's just a wimp." Even though the movie scared the crap out of me, the people we were with also agreed that it was a bad movie. There was no point to the movie and they took such an exciting hopeful scenario for millions of people and turned it into a dark and terrifying situation that leaves you hoping it will never happen. Overall the movie was very dark.

I have to admit there is a perk to this movie. I got to cuddle up with Mark during the movie. All Admit I needed a security blanket to save me from the zombies. Also Mark found a perk to the movie too. He will now be allowed to get the gun he wants for Christmas. Ha Ha Ha.

Now if we would have ended our night after the stupid show the night would have been a total failure and we should have chosen option A when planning our night. But we made a recovery. We went back to Jared's house after the movie to visit and say hello to his family, and there we were able to watch the end of one of my new favorite movies, It's A Wonderful Life. After that both Mark and I were a little hungry and so we headed to the most exciting place in Utah County at 11:30 at night, IHOP. i have to say If it wasn't for the delicious stuffed french toast and hot chocolate I would have thought the night was a total flop. Maybe next week will try to take over the world.

What's Your Holiday Mood?

Sorry I couldn't resist posting this quiz. I really liked the results we got.

Here's Rosie's


and here's Mark's

What Ice Cream Flavor Are You?

My Amazing Sister

I just wanted to add that I have the most amazing sister ever. I decided to change my blog to a Christmas background. Instead I totally messed up my entire blog. Luckily I was able to call the blogging Queen and say, "help!" Amanda was to the rescue. She created my background and put everything back in its proper place. She truly is amazing! Oh, by the way I have learned my lesson. I will never touch my blog, (other then to create a post)unless my sister is here to help and guide me through the process. I promise Amanda. Thanks for all your help!

Oh Christmas Tree

This year my Christmas has been turned upside down a little. Mark and I are preparing to spend our first Christmas together and combining family traditions has been an adventure in itself. It started with Thanksgiving. We stayed here for Thanksgiving. We spent Thanksgiving Day with my family and then we went down south for the rest of the weekend.
Mark had his first taste of Black Friday this year. He was a good sport and woke up at 3:00 am to wait in a line outside of Mervyns to open at 4. I think he was wondering what the heck he got himself into when I got him up and out the door by 3. It may seem a little crazy but if you ask Mark I'm pretty sure he'd tell you it was fun and definitely entertaining. Plus, we got some awesome deals! I'm sure he'll be the one next year waking me up to hit the Wal-Mart sales.
After we got our shopping done we headed home for a few more hours of sleep. Then we headed down to Aurora for the weekend. We spent the week visiting friends and family and picking out our first Christmas tree.
This was a bit of a struggle for me. I have grown up with an artificial tree most of my life. I love artificial trees. I love setting it up before Thanksgiving and sitting in the front room with all the Christmas lights on and listening to Christmas music. I love that I don't have to water my tree. I don't have to worry if it's getting to dry and if I want I can leave it up for a few weeks after Christmas and not worry about it dying.
So, when mark informed me that he wouldn't be having a fake Christmas tree in his house for Christmas I was a little upset. I only can remember one or two times growing up, where we had a real tree. Everything I tried wouldn't work there was no changing Marks mind. We were going to have a real tree or no tree at all. So I compromised and said that I would go along with it as long as we could go cut down our own.
While we were down south for Thanksgiving, we went with Chase, Nancy, and Chase’s family to cut down our first Christmas tree. Mike and Becky drove down to Aurora too, to cut down a tree also. What an adventure. When we started out on our trip they had me a little worried. Everywhere I looked, all I saw were Joshua Trees not pine trees. I was beginning to worry about the tree we were going to cut down. After my silly city girl comment they assured me that we would be cutting down a pine tree. Finally we reached the top of the mountain and all the beautiful pine trees.
When we got parked the boys began a fire and they also pulled out the Dutch ovens to make a delicious lunch. This was an event. The one time I remember cutting down our own tree. We went up into the mountains cut down a tree and headed home. We didn’t have lunch or a fire.
Mark and I wandered around after lunch looking for the perfect tree. We had are disagreements about what the tree should look like, but then we found it. It was sitting about 11 feet above us. It was the top of a bare tree. The bottom part was completely bare and the top was our perfect Christmas tree. We grabbed one of the guys who was with us and the two guys cut down are tree. After we cut it down Mark had to drag the tree back to where all the trucks were parked. All together I would say we cut down about 15 trees. It was like a min Christmas tree lot.
It was cold but a lot of fun. I'm glad we had the opportunity to cut down are own Christmas tree. The only thing that could have made it better was a little snow.

We came home Saturday night and on Sunday we trimmed the tree and began setting it up. Are good friends Shannan & Erica Came over on Sunday night and helped us set up our tree and all the decorations. It was such a blast. I can honestly say I have grown to love my real Christmas tree. I love how it smells and I like its distinct look. Mark tells me it has personality. What do you think?

I'm defiently excited to share our first Christmas together. We wish everyone a Merry Christmas too!