What my Christmas looked like...

Here's what our first married Christmas looked like:

A few years ago, my family started the tradition of drawing names for Christmas stockings. Everyone draws a name and is given $20 to shop for treats & small gifts for that person. We usually all go to Target on Christmas Eve, but this year, we were all spread out for Christmas so we did it a few days early. Since Aar and I were the only ones in SLC, we had each other.

 He didn't want any candy... crazy kid, so Santa got him chips and socks and fruit snacks... and I pretty much ate all his fruit snacks...

 Loved my stocking presents. Now I have weights instead of cans of food to use for my home workouts.

Every Christmas Eve for as long as I can remember we get together at my Grandma Jack's house. We have dinner and a Christmas "program" followed by presents. We used to get Christmas pj's (like 99% of the world), but apparently we've grown out of that. Now we draw names and get each other hilarious $5 gifts. I'm glad Aaron gets to join in on this tradition!

This year baby Eden even made it!

 Aaron and I slept over at my Grandma's Christmas Eve, we knew our neighbors upstairs would be up early with their little ones... and we like to sleep in :)

 Spoiled kids Christmas morning after a yummy breakfast and Facetiming my parents while opening gifts.

We had even more presents waiting for us at home!

I think this is my favorite picture of Aaron^ Apparently there is a difference between a deep sea fishing pole and a normal fishing pole.... my bad. Good thing my parents got him a normal fishing pole!

 If finally snowed Christmas day here in Salt Lake! Jake and Aaron were dying to go sledding, but we didn't have a sled, so they improvised with a storage bin. They crack me up, those two can get creative with anything!

 Downing the bottle like it's sparkling cider, oh wait, it is.

The day after Christmas we went and visited my Grandma at here care center. She was in a great mood!

She's the only grown up I know with smaller hands than me!

 Pumped about his new fishing pole, he was ready to go fishing that day in the snow!

We ended the Christmas weekend at the Jazz game. Aaron love love loves it when I get Jazz tickets from work, makes him a happy huzzy.

Not pictured:
Swig with Madi and Owen
Shopping at Scheels for fishing gear with Aar
Sleeping in until 11 am
Morning waffles
Watching North Korean Netflix documentaries all morning on Saturday

Merry Pughmas!

We took a quick trip to good ol' Hurricane Utah this past weekend. Aaron's family is GINORMOUS... like 10 kids and 25+ grand kids. It's super hard to get all the family- or a big majority together on the actual holiday, so they usually get together the weekend before a big holiday.

This weekend we had 6 out of 10 kids, it was a pretty good showing. We ate an early dinner and watched the little kiddos open presents from my mother and father in-law. One of the little guys absolutely hated his present, I am horrible for laughing at his reaction??

The view from Aaron's parents house. I forget how small Hurricane is. We went to Walmart and Aaron immediately recognized everyone in the store. Haha small town problems. 

It was a quick trip, but we will back down again this weekend!

Friday, Saturday & Sunday

I've been looking forward to the weekend since the workweek is stacked with projects. We finally made it to the weekend and all we've been doing is bumming around. Here's what our weekend looked like.

Friday
Christmas bowling for work

Watching basketball with Aaron all night long

Saturday
Waking up at 11:00, but not getting outta bed until approximately 1 pm
Quick run to IKEA while Aaron went to the gym... I may or may not have stopped by the new Draper Swig
Wedding reception at the state capital

Christmas shopping- we got a baby tree!

Hot chocolate and Netflix with Jake and Mary

Sunday
Quinn's homecoming talk
Visiting with Madi, Gavin & baby Owen
Visiting teaching
Lounging on the couch allllll day long

Also... we just bought another car a few months ago. Spence wanted to see a picture of it.

He said it "Looks like the most normal car ever". Haha so now we are in THAT category of our lives.

December lately's

This is what December looks like to me....

5:40 am work flights to Colorado.

Sleeping in until 11:30 on the weekends.

Working 10-12 hours days. 

Dr. Pep and Diet Coke first thing in the morning.

Online Christmas shopping.

Donuts and Swig cookies.

Lunch breaks at Chipotle to avoid a stress attack at work.

Babies, babies, babies. 

Hot tubbing.

No Snow. 

 We got to go to Temple Square with some of Aaron's friends.

Always pretty.

 And baby Eden came! She has so much hair, and is very calm and quiet!

We drove down to Am Fork to see Charlotte and Austin's new babe.

Unfortunately I got my first speeding ticket on the way home. Boo. 

Georgia

Not only did we go to Alabama for Thanksgiving, but we ventured on over to Georgia. My brothers both live in Athens. David works as an athletic trainer for the University of Georgia football team. Spence moved out there with him for the past couple of months. 

On our way to Athens we stopped by in Atlanta to go to the Georgia Aquarium.

Aaron has never been to an aquarium! So I'm so glad he could come to thee best! My parents love taking us and visitors to the Georgia Aquarium. It's HUGE! There is so much to see- dolphins, whales, tropical fish, sting rays, river fish.... he loved it. It was a little crowded since it was the day after Thanksgiving but it was still a lot of fun, especially being all together with my fam. 

 After the aquarium we drove over to Athens. David gave us a full tour of the football facility. Man it's something else, they don't joke around in the SEC. 

 Always wanted to try on a football helmet. #putmeincoach

 We had fun at the game, even though the Bulldogs lost in a heartbreaker OT. Aaaand my toes were numb. It's supposed to be warmer in the South! Spence got Aaron and I the most creative and sweet late birthday presents. At Sanford stadium all the seats are bleachers- no seat backs. So he got us both seat backs to sit on, and a refillable drink. It was a good surprise! 

See you soon Dixie!

Bama

We took the red eye to Birmingham last Tuesday night.

 ^^This is exactly how we felt after the flight.

We got in early Wednesday morning and headed straight to The Pancake House. We dropped my mom off at work and headed home to rest a bit. Aaron was so tired that we just left him to sleep while we went to pick my mom up that afternoon and grab some froyo from our favorite Yogurt Mountain. I surprisingly help up without hardly any sleep.

I hope one day Aaron will appreciate fun, different and good food. But for now he's just happy with food as calories and nothing more. I'm still holding onto that one day where he will be excited to try new food or go to a new restaurant.

My parents took him to Dreamland anyways. We had yummy ribs with the best BBQ sauce and the cheesiest macaroni and cheese and the famous banana pudding. Southern BBQ is always a treat.

Can you tell we had fun with the Dumb and Dumber photo opp? Haha I have about 5 more stored up. We ended up seeing Mockingjay, it's tradish to go to the movies after Thanksgiving dinner.

Southern Thanksgiving

I've been back to work for approximately 5 hours and I'm already over my head. Oh the struggle. Traveling and holidays always seem to make things busier.

Thanksgiving in Bama and Georgia was a lot of fun! No stressing about work, lotsa coke, food and fun and I found out my raise right before we left. Aaron was the sweetest and so patient all week.

Here's how the Jacks do Thanksgiving.

 Ross Bridge Country Club buffet for dinner, nothing better than stuffing your face with gourmet food and not having to clean up after!

froyo>snow cones>soda

If you don't know already, I have a pretty big sweet tooth. For a long long time I didn't eat sweets. I don't regret doing that, but life is a little bit more satisfying with dessert in my life. 

In the past few years I have gone through phases. 

For a long time I loved loved loved/had an obsessive relationship with frozen yogurt. I don't think a week went by where I didn't have froyo, and there were many weeks where my total was 5 per week. I still can't decide if it's something I should be proud of, or disgusted by. 

I know one thing though, I don't even wanna think of all the money I spent on yogurt. 

Slowly I got hooked on snow cones. But not just your typical snow cone... Island Flavor snow cones. Island Flavor has tons of unique flavors to choose from aaaand they mix in vanilla ice cream in with your smoothly shaved ice. It's heaven. Since they are only open during the summer, I go all out during those few months. 

 Now back in the present with my latest obsession- SWIG. Although I still enjoy froyo and snow cones, Swig is a dream in a cup. They have fruity and creamy mix ins for just about any soda. I thought it would be weird at first, but boy am I glad I tried it. And the sugar cookies..... to die for.

So here I am admitting I have a problem. I just love all the new trendy treat chains from waffles to drinks to snow cones to hot chocolate. I just can't help it. 

Business, babies and sports

Who knew I would ever be cheering for Hurricane Football? 

Aaron's high school made it to the semi finals for state football. Since We are so close to the U, he had to hop on over to Rice-Eccles with Jake to watch them play. Mary and I decided to hit up Swig and met them just at the end of the game. We showed up at just in time to see Hurricane pull off the win. They are headed to state this week. Go Tigers!

Speaking of tigers, is it just me and Mary or is this little guy hilarious? We chased him down twice, cause one pictures just wasn't enough. 

My best friend Madi had her baby! It's a boy! She had a tough C-section but so glad that momma and baby are healthy and happy. Oh and it's a boy. Little O is the cutest, can't wait to see more of him.

After the hospital Aaron was craving breakfast, so off to Denny's we went. Not sure how often I can handle Denny's, but it made him a happy boy. Can you tell by the way he cleans his plate he grew up a hungry kiddo? Haha it cracks me up!

Aaron's parents were in town for a quick trip so we hung out with them. It was good to see them since we don't see them too often because work is so busy!

I've been up since 3 am this morning- had a quick biz trip to Grand Junction Colorado for work. We spent more time in the plane then in Grand Junction. So it's been a long day, and I'm about to crash right now.

November updates

BIG news...... I got promoted! I am now second in command at my ad agency! My official title is Vice President of Operations. So now on top of my already busy schedule I get to figure out how to organize things better, minimize costs, maximize profits, keep tabs on all the staff members and help them do better at their jobs. My boss Jason said "If we die, you're in charge of the company". Yikes. So basically I have been working 10-12 hours a day this week. But hey... payrai$e coming soon.

Oops, getting back on diet cause I need it for long workdays!

I came home from work actually on time last night. When I walked in the door Aaron came running out telling me I needed to go back to work. He was cleaning up the house and making dinner for me, and it wasn't quite ready yet. He wanted it to be all ready for me after a long day. Sweet thing!

Even as busy as Aaron and I have both been, we've still been out and about. Last weekend Aar let me choose where to eat- and didn't try and sway me one bit. So I chose Spitz. It's a Greek place downtown. It was yummy but we waited for over a half hour for our food! We also had to sit outside, but I didn't mind, it was literally the last warm night of the year!

We had fun people watching outside. 

 Usually I am the one to take Aaron to the movies or sporting events since my work has great connections. Last week Aaron surprised me and took me to the Hale Theater to see Catch Me If You Can. Is it just me or do they sing too much in musicals?.....

 He woke up like this. Haha I laughed at this for a good few minutes. And he even went to the gym like this. 

 Can you believe I got this boy to come to City Creek with me? Obviously he wasn't having too much fun. I hadn't even it made it through one store when he was already done with it. But he did find the fish in the creek, it was the most excited he got all night. 

I've discovered a few things in the past week:

I've started buying Christmas decor. There were too many cute things at Target when Madi and I went last week. 

Pop Shop in Riverton is yummy!

I never want to own a business, too much stress.