Friday, January 9, 2015

Whew, you could say I've gotten a bit behind on updates.. so here we go.
Halloween, Thanksgiving, our anniversary, Christmas, New Years.. that's a lot of events that have passed.  Halloween was cool, nothing too crazy I worked (and possibly Adam also.. don't remember), but ya, so we did halloween pretty cheap this year. Let me just start by saying I'm not rascist. Our costume may make you think differently, but I promise I don't have any hatred toward mexicans.. or any race for that matter. Our halloween costume was a mexican & a pinata!  Definutely DIY, so don't judge the tackiness. If you would like to know how we did it, here ya go..

So for my costume, the pinata, All I did was use an old stretchy belt and buy a bunch of streamers and clue them together in long strings.. like 3-4 ft  per string.. alternating colors. The top peice was looped around the belt so that it could easily be slipped on or off so that I didn't ruin my belt. And then I just hot glued all the peices together and cut the ends so it looked more fring..ey. Haha So ya, then I just wore all black underneith and wore my hair in pigtails with streamer bows tied around them.  For Adams "mexican" costume.. All I did was go to Savers (or a thrift store) and find a peice of fabric that happend to look fitting. We already had a sombrero laying around the house.. not sure where it originally came froom, but ya, so that completed our look! All we did on Halloween was just hang out at our ward chili/fry bread thing and then came home and handed out candy for a while.. then walked with the neices & nephews around the neighborhood. Then we came home and went to bed. 
Thanksgiving was good. We had the usual family picture.

This year my hair isn't all brassy, so it was nice! Haha, no.. but It was a good day. We went to both of our families houses. So we got 2 dinners.. 2 THANKSGIVING dinners. That sounds like way too much, right? Well, we actually didn't go too crazy at either house.. so it was like just having 1 meal (for me at least) because I didn't go back for seconds at either house. So ya, good stuff.
Black friday.. we didn't go shopping anywhere. We did get a camera, but it was all online. It's been fun playing around with it. Our family has so many photographers in it. So it wasn't like I got the camera thinking I would be doing the same thing as them (although that would be fun). I got it mostly so that I didn't have to depend on other people to get nice pictures. I had a camera already that was a little Nikon coolpix point & shoot digital camera, but it wasn't anything too crazy. I wanted better quality pictures. So I chose the Canon Rebel SL1. I currently use the 50mm EF 1.4 lens. I had not realized how expensive these DSLR cameras are! The prices add up real quick! I didn't buy the camera with the stock lens, so I only have the 1 lens at the moment. So hopefully I will be able to get another here sometime soon so I can do some other fun stuff. A couple things that I want to try doing are makeup and hair tutorials on youtube. Also.. don't make fun of this idea.. cuz it's far fetched.. but I would love to do horse show/horse portraits. I think that would be so fun and it's an environment that I already know I love. The only thing about that is the demand for it is not very high... and I don't know how to even get involved. I'm sure it starts with a lot of volunteer work. The scottsdale arabian horse show happens every year in Scottsdale in February. That's a little soon.. I don't think I'll progress fast enough to make it this year, but I would LOVE to  be in the arena doing that. Maybe this year I will just walk around asking if I can take pictures of their horse and then give them a card or get their email so I can promote myself. So ya, there's a couple ideas that I have. We'll see if it ever launches though.
Our anniversary was pretty good. It was our 2nd year. TWO YEARS. So weird right? It still doesn't even feel like we're married since we're still at my parents house. Haha but it's been a great two years and I wouldn't take any of it back! To celebrate, we went to LA and went to Six Flags, Santa Monica Pierre, the Hollywood sign, and the LA temple. It was good. We didn't really plan anything out.

 We just knew we wanted to go to six flags (or at least Adam did) and see the ocean. I don't remember exactly when it was, but we went to the state fair not too long ago and when you first walk through the gate, there is a ski lift that you can ride that takes you to the other side of the fair. So we did that. When I got on that thing.. I have never been so scared and panicked in my life. Haha sounds so silly, but I was seriously scared for my life. The fact that the ski lift is just this dinky little bench that they only secure you in by this wobbly little bar across your lap.. on a fair that they take down and set up all the time.. did not make me feel at ease. I was freaking out. Adam was just laughing. He thought it was the funniest thing. Ya, thanks! So anyway, you can imagine how six flags makes me feel!
 It is a bit better since the rides are a lot more secure, but I'm still deathly afraid of heights. The ride that scared me the worst (& Adam ... which says a lot!) was the green lantern. You can see a video of the ride here. Let me just say that that video does not do it justice. When you are on the ride, it's super jerky and it makes you hang upside down for seconds at a time like you're just falling straight down. It wasn't even fun for me or Adam. Just terrifying. Haha but ya, so after screaming my head off and having a head and ear ache.. we moved on to other rides. Our favorite ride was the batman ride. It was the fastest ride we went on and it was a lot less freaky.. just fun. Haha  So ya... those are my thoughts on heights and roller coasters.

As for Santa Monica Pierre.. we just wanted to go there because it's a popular pierre and it is in a lot of movies so we wanted to see what the hype was about. It was cool. They had the bubba gumps shrimp co there which was cool. I would like to eat there some day just to say we have. Haha but ya so we just walked around and then went home. The temple was beautiful as always. It is the 2nd largest mormon temple in the world after Salt Lake City.
 The hollywood sign was so frustrating! Those hollywood hills are freaking ridiculus. There were some decent houses in there.. but that's not even what I'm talking about. The roads there are ridiculus.. it was like a maze and the roads are freaking narrow. We spent forever winding up the mountain planning on actually hiking to the sign, but we got as far up as we could only to find out that the road was closed a few miles back before the sign. So we didn't want to hike forever so we just looked at it in the car. Haha bummer. Some day.

Christmas was laid back for us. We didn't do a whole lot with the recent expenses we've had with our anniversary and the camera we got. So we just spent time with family basically.


We went to a couple Christmas parties this year. One was an ugly sweater party/white elephant gift exchange. The gift we received was the movie "My Sassy Girl" and by the sounds of it, it sounds pretty ridiculus.. but it wasn't THAT bad. Haha! For the gift we gave, we did "Fish & Chips" and gave a bag of chips and then also a beta fish. Karlie got a beard. That's the picture above that looks questionable. Haha it was fun.

And one being a gingerbread house making party... but we had to go with a gingerbread temple. I mean, come on, right?














New years.. we spent it at my brother Clint Jodi's house in Queen Creek. They have a breakfast at midnight thing every new years eve, so we went to that and played some games until new years rolled around... then went home around 2 I think. That's definitely better than last year.. I don't think we even stayed up for midnight. Haha But ya, it was fun and COLD, right?!

As for the little updates along the way... Adam has completed his first semester of his MBA. WAHOO!!! 1/4 of the way done! #cantwait. Haha but its been pleasantly easy so far. We'll see what the rest has in store. As for me, nothing really new going on. Just work.. which I will say.. I do like my job more now. I wanted to pull my hair out the first couple months... but we're good now! Haha it's a decent job for not having a degree. I don't think I'll be able to find better, so it'll have to do! A couple things I've realized lately that I'm grateful for..
1. Eternal Marriage.
    2 years went by so fast, I am so glad we have forever together because I don't want to blink and it's all over. So grateful for the gospel & that knowledge
2. Good Friends.
   Growing up, I think I dealt with my fair share of drama which made me learn real fast how I wanted to handle friendship. I had the friends that I needed and that I knew I could trust and I didn't care to make more. I still view it in that way. That could be partially because I'm shy and suck at making friends. It's just more work than it's worth sometimes. Don't get me wrong.. I don't shut everyone out if they are wanting to be my friend, but I don't seek new ones on my own. I am content with the quality of friendships that I have now. I would do anything for my friends.. and I think that's become more apparent the last few months with stupid girl drama from friends of friends. I don't think I realized until the past few years how lucky I am that I have such wonderful friends. Such strong, good hearted people. And it's not often that you keep the same group of friends.. well, forever. Haha it's been great & I love them to death.

 And we went quadding/shooting not too long ago also! Adams first time, so it was fun!

and life goes on.