November 23-29

Thanksgiving break is coming up and we are both so excited to have a break, take a trip together and see family who lives far away.

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We celebrated more of Mark's birthday on Sunday with a family dinner at our house. Some of his favorite things that I've made for him: French dip sandwiches and chicken  alfredo. Yum! Julia bright some fruit and we had Michelle and Jeremy, Lucy and Max there. After dinner I went visiting teaching and then returned home. I like seeing the girls I visit and my companion! I think visiting teaching is such an important and wonderful system in the church. Everyone in the Relief Society (women's group) is assigned a companion and a couple girls to visit each month and basically make sure they're doing ok, and reach out to them. It gives everyone a responsibility as well as a way to make sure no one will be forgotten. My girls are a blessing in my life and are becoming if not already friends. :) Then, Seth and I had tithing settlement at the church. It is cold now in Provo!

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I worked Monday and it was a challenging class. It's tough sometimes because I expect respect from them, even though obviously I haven't established a relationship with them. As a substitute, I'm just a stranger to them for a day. But I still expect them to be good for me. Some days I'm just really not pleased with how some of these kids act. Sethy had a take home test that he worked on over the weekend and a lot on Monday. Total it took him about 14 hours. Wow, I'm impressed with his work ethic and how dedicated he is to school. I'm so glad to have married a hardworking man. In my life, my dad has always been a role model for working hard and I'm so blessed that I found Seth whom I also look up to for that :)

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Having decided to not work Tuesday, I did some cleaning and other stuff. Seth got done much earlier than usual and we got to spend the afternoon and the rest of the day together. I zonked out on the couch lol but oh well. We finished packing for our trip, got some dinner and watched Revenge. Then did some baking!!! Chocolate chip cookies and banana bread!!!

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Driving

Driving

Driving

Driving

Driving

For 9 hours.

Even though I offered, Seth drove the whole entire time! I slept a bunch... Haha wow. I'm lazy. But I'm thankful for the opportunity to relax. Seth got pulled over. He didn't mean to speed, but the area was slower out of the canyon or something. Anyway, the cop was so nice! I'm so glad!!! I feel like I haven't talked to a cop that nice in forever. On the drive down, we saw a thousand cops. They were everywhere... 

We went down through Utah, in Colorado, and finally to New Mexico! Eli and Kelsey live in Albuquerque. We ended up getting there in the afternoon and went to their house, and hung out wih Kelsey for awhile. So glad to be out of the car! Eli was working for the night, but Joe and Morgan and kids showed up eventually and we had some Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner (Japaneze Sundaes in my family). Seth and I did some last-minute shopping for Thanksgiving stuff and came back, hung out and I went to bed. Seth played games with his brother.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Today was a pretty relaxing day. Preparing food, hanging out, blah blah blah. Seth and the men went and played at the park with the kids. I contributed to the day by making some appetizers- stuffed mushrooms and sausage stars. Then for the dinner I made a sweet potato casserole :) We ended up eating at about 5:30. Then went to Target at about 6 ;) Seth and I found a video game, Christmas presents and more :)

Here's what I'm thankful for the most right now.....

My job last year- for money that's saved for this year!

Being happy

Being married to Seth and how wonderful he is to me

Marriage and all the lovely things that comes with that

Children 

Laughing

Supportive and loving family

Forgiveness

Atonement

Friends

My home

Books

Delicious food!

Dates with Seth!

Our beautiful world that God made for us :)

Electricity

Plumbing

Heat

Easy access to anything we need- like from stores and the internet

Cars

Phones

Dishwasher

Washing machine/dryer

Vacuum (basically things that make our life easier)

Netflix!!! Tv shows, movies

Prayer

Temple

And here is Seth's list:

Taylor 

Parents

Brothers and sisters

Temples

Great dinners from my beautiful wife

Date night

Adventures

My work experience

Taylor's sense of humor

A working car 

A nice apartment that's decorated 

Playing with brothers

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Friday---

Black Friday! Ahhhh! We went to a movie- Madagascar 3 with everyone and then went shopping to an outdoor mall. We got a lot of christmas shopping done :) later that day, Seth and I got some Tbell and went home. He caught up on some sleep and then we hung out and relaxed that night. We talked for awhile after the kids went to bed. It was so fun! Hearing stories from the Harris childhood and Joe an Eli was so funny. Especially the ones about Seth. It makes me wonder what our children will be like. Hallie is so different than Joe and Morgan's kids, but they're all so cute! And Seth sounds like just the cutest funniest kid. He did so many funny things. I love hearing about it. We are having Seth join my family's plan, and we got a deal and got a phone for $1!

I think Seth is the cutest most adorable and sexy thing on the planet when he's sleeping!!! :)

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Saturday: we basically got ready, said our goodbyes and left!

Got back around 8.

Special things about the drive to and from New Mexico:

Seeing a lot of crosses on the side of he road--- and graves. So many.

People waking- hitchhikers or maybe drunks just walking home.

Teepees

Casinos

Trashy towns

Lots of laundromats

Dominos. 

Desert

Sage brush

Moab

We both drive home. Me first, Seth second.

Seth finishing up the drive- and becoming more and more delirious. It's pretty entertaining to watch him right now. Singing and talking and talking and talking.

Seth eating a million sunflower seeds, pickle flavor.

Seth was being so funny... lol yes that is him under the blanket.

So bored!!! Haha

We're very happy to be home. :)

-t&s

November 16-22

This week was a pretty good one. I started some christmas decorations and we did some fun things! It's gonna be Christmastime before we know it.

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Christmas trees! I copied most from a blog post from Pinterest. But not all of them. They are a little weird, but together they look alright. And I wish I had a better camera! Ahhh! ...and seth was really enjoying watching all of this crafting as well... As you can see.

Spraying little pinecones with holiday glitter spray...

...and the finished products! Excited to decorate for christmas!!

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Next up is the wreath. I got the supplies at Hobby Lobby. 

First, I puffed out all the little branches that were flattened out.

Next, hooked in these two flowers....

Cut apart a bunch of berries, and placed them around the wreath in places I wanted them...

And went around and glued the pieces in with a glue gun...

Did the same thing with gold sparkly berries....

.... And it's done!! Can't wait to hang it up for the Christmas season!

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Seth having some fun with the dishes :)

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And the process of making cinnamon rolls. Oh my gosh these are sooo good. This is after the dough is done mixing and rising. I roll it out flat, spread butter on it and sprinkle cinnamon on it.

Then roll up the dough...

Get some floss....(this happened to be cinnamon flavored... hehe)

And go underneath the dough, pulling it up and crossing the floss to slice the dough into 12 pieces.

Put them in the pan, rise again, and bake!...In the meantime make some cream cheese frosting :)

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Thank goodness for Fridays! This night we got to go to the Capital Theatre in Salt Lake to see "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." I bought tickets awhile ago for this and had it be a surprise for Sethy. He would guess and guess and it was so fun for awhile to just have it be a surprise.  But we had fun. We dressed nice and got some candy for the show. It was great and we had fun. I love going places with this guy... He just treats me like a princess and I'm so lucky. Seth, you really are a wonderful husband. You put my happiness first. I love falling in love with you deeper and deeper. I'm so grateful for you!!!

...and even broke out my christmas leggings :)

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Saturday was Mark's birthday. We all met at the mall to go to Red Robin. Seth and I got there early to reserve a table... And we had some extra time so we went shopping for a bit. It's fun buying seth clothes! He looks good in everything... Lol I may sound obsessed but he's my husband and I am so crazy about him :) we went around and saw... This HUGE Christmas tree!!! Wow!!! 

This is at dinner... Wish I took more pictures of seth tonight!

After dinner, Julia and I went shopping a little longer, and then a few of us met at Michelle's for cake and ice cream. Mark and Ashley make for a cute couple. I'm so thankful to have Mark as a brother-in-law!! What a genuine, kind, funny and humble guy. 

 (The last two pictures were Julia's)

Later on, we saw Mockingjay Part 1. Holy cow... What an awesome movie. Even though we went after ten which is sooo late for married couples, we both stayed awake. The movie was just so good. I hadn't read it in forever but Peeta really disturbed me. Ugh even thinking about it now, he was so freaky. They did a really good job. 

Thanksgiving is next week. Here's to being thankful for the little things, which turn out to be big things. like getting to wake up to your love every morning. :D

xoxo

t&s