Happy Christmas 2015

Christmas has come and gone just like it goes by so quickly each year. 

Our Christmas week was jam packed. 

We made a gingerbread house with Madi and Gavin aka the blueprint for our cabin one day....

Notice the big deck, hot tub, waterslide and pond. 

I saw Star Wars again at our company showing here in Utah. It was still just as good the second time. 

My whole family was in town. We did our traditional name drawing for stockings. It's one of our newer traditions that I love. Every Christmas Eve, we help Santa and draw names out of a hat. We all go to Target with $20 and buy small gifts and treats for that person as their Secret Santa and give it to them Christmas morning. 

It's safe to say my family is obsessed with Cafe Rio.... especially since there are no Rio's in the South. So after stocking shopping we had to stop at Rio. 

We spent Christmas Eve at my Grandma Jack's where we have our traditional Christmas program- which is basically just a talent show, dinner, and $5 gift name drawing. 

Christmas morning was spent at Aaron and I's house. 

Don't mind Spence's sleepy hair-do

There were presents galore... especially when Mr. and Mrs. Santa showed up. 

A messy house always means Christmas was successful... and I am still cleaning up!

We all got new luggage for our upcoming spring trip to Peru, as well as plenty of clothing, giftcards, shoes, treats and many other things. 

Aaron pretty much recorded every single present being opened... I'm sure we'll love to watch it one day. In the meantime please enjoy how excited this boy gets when he sees he got Gatorade and Doritos. My parents love to spoil us, and especially Aaron since his childhood was different.

Since Christmas, we've been to Spitz, Waffle Luv, Rio(again) and have lots of dinners at Grandma's. 

Aar love love loves sledding... growing up in Hurricane where there's no snow probably does that to you. 

So over the weekend we went sledding at Murray Park. 4 out of the 5 sleds broke. Haha we sure had fun.... and surprisingly no one got hurt. 

Last night we went to go visit one of Aaron's converts from his mission in Chile. 

Safe to say I don't think I will be going to any more mission things with him in the future. I'm happy for him to connect with people from his mish, but she didn't speak english, and even when Aaron translated, it was all about people and places I didn't know and have never been to. Oh well... now I know. 

Great break so far and more to come with New Year's! 

SLC>Denver>St. G

I've had one of the most exhausting weekends ever. 

It started with Aaron's work party at Rice Eccles Thursday night. 

 They had yummy appetizers and funny entertainment. And our fave virgin strawberry daqs.

But then the night dragged on and on and onnnnnn....

All 5 partners basically gave a 20 minute speech.

Which is actually really rude in my opinion. Half the people there are spouses who really don't care. 

The other half have babysitters watching their kiddos. 

So really nobody's got time for that. 

But of course we had to wait because you have to be present to win the items in the raffle right after. And of course we didn't win anything. 

And I was in an ornery mood because I had to wake up at 3:30 am to catch a flight to Denver for a work trip. 

Off to Denver I was where we met with our clients, and drove to Boulder for the new Star Wars showing we hosted. We got back to the Denver Airport Westin, where I had just enough time to sleep for 3 hours before I had to wake up to catch my flight to St. George. 

But nothing made me happier then walking out of the gate to my best buds like this.... Don't mind Aaron. 

We headed over to Hurricane to join the family Christmas party. 

8 of the 10 Pugh kids were there, it was a better turn out then our wedding! Haha

We made pizza's in my in-laws pizza ovens. 

We watched football, visited and opened presents. 

Mary and I finished the night learning self defense moves from our black belt Father-in-law. 

Merry Pughmas! 

Snow Day!

As a kid snow days were something you dreamed of.

No school, and loads and loads of snow to play in.

The closest I got to that as a kid was a late start my senior year of high school.

With all the crazy snow we've had, today my work has declared a snow day.

This is from my front porch!

Except snow days really mean work from home, so they aren't half as fun.

But at least I don't have to answer phones.

And I don't have to drive in the yucky snow.

There's plenty of food and hot chocolate to keep me company.


So I can't complain.


Over the weekend Spence and Lexi found a good deal on an already lit tree, and decided we had to have it.

I love love love real trees, but I figured the practicality of a fake tree would ease Aaron a bit more into getting a tree.

I bought a pine scented candle to make up for the fake tree, it counts right?

Last night I finished decorating the tree while Aaron shoveled the driveway and walks.

And then went for a pedicure since I haven't gotten one in a while. They are heavenly.

Can't believe Christmas is right around the corner!

Thanks 2015

2015 was good to us.

We celebrated 1 year of marriage.

Bought a house.

Learned a lot about each other.

Went with Aaron to Florida for his first time.

Visited Europe.

Watched lots of Real, Utes and Jazz games.

Snow Snow Snow NO

People who like snow are crazy. 

Sure it's pretty. 

And I'll agree that everyone likes a white Christmas. 

But then there's this:

Cleaning off your windshield.

Freezing your hand off cleaning off the windshield.

Driving in horrible traffic.

Wet clothes everywhere.

It's basically the worst.

Besides the fact that it took me 2.5 hours to get to work on a normally 15 minute commute.

Christmas Inspiration

Last week on our way to see the Christmas music house in Draper, we took a detour. 

The picture is fuzzy. 

Aaaand we weren't prepared with warm clothes. 

But it was a pretty cool sight to see literally every twig on this tree wrapped in lights. 

 Christmassy events have started to fill in our schedules.

My office has a tradition of volunteering at Candy Cane Corner each year.

 It's a small store full of donated items like clothing, toys, shoes, socks, gloves, books and the list goes on.

All seems right in the world when I look at the piles and piles of donations that people drop off to help others who may not have a Christmas otherwise.


We spent the afternoon organizing the donations throughout the store so people can easily pick and choose gifts for their families as they browse the store.

It was a little kick in the butt to remind me that Aar and I have so much.....

And that we need to take time to help others.

Sure we pay our tithing.

And Fast offering.

But there are other ways we can help too.



Yesterday the sweetest lady bore her testimony in Sacrament Meeting.

I don't know much about her, except for what she had shared.

She is from Africa, has 4 small children, and is trying to save up money for her husband to join them here in Utah.

I have seen here working as a clerk and Walmart, and she said they changed her shift to the graveyard. She's been having a hard time paying for everything, and just when she saved enough money for her husband to come to America, her sister stole the money and used it on herself.


She mentioned she has a hard time getting out of bed and moving on. But she trusts that God has a plan for her and will keep moving forward.

There weren't many dry eyes in the congregation.

She is such an inspiration and reminds me that I can do hard things.

Christmas Skating

 Nothing is better than Christmas in the city. 

Trees are l-i-t everywhere. 


Decorations line the street windows. 

And hot chocolate is always welcome. 

Oh and the Gallivan Center ice rink! 

I love this cute little rink in the heart of downtown. 

We spent last night skating in the cold. 

Of course this Southern Utah boy stillllll does not own a coat. 


....Wondering if he ever will. 

A Bama thanksgiving

There's nothing like enjoying 70 degrees Thanksgiving weekend. 

We had such a fun Thanksgiving... minus the flights. 

It took Aar and I 12 hours to get to Birmingham, not fun. 

We flew from SLC>Phoenix>Charlotte>Birmingham through the night and into the morning. I was pretty ornery by the time we made it to Charlotte. And by the time my parents picked us up in the morning, they decided it was best not to talk to a seat full of sleep deprived grumpy kids haha. 

Luckily we perked back up pretty quickly and Aaron, Spence and our friend Jake played at the ward Turkey Bowl for hours. 

We made it home and my dad made crepes for us all. 

Swiss cheese, ham, nutella, raspberries and more.... so good. 

Showers, naps and games continued until we were off to dinner at our traditional place: Ross Bridge. 

Peppermint shakes and red velvet cheesecake was some of our favorites.

But the turkey, stuff and potatoes was pretty great too!

It's so hard to get him to take a picture, let alone with a normal smile....

After dinner we played Scum for a few hours before Spence and my Dad went Black Friday shopping.

I love the way we do it- leave at 11 or midnight, after all the crazies have hit. We always go to the outlets, and this year, the weather was perfectly warm. We hit JCrew, Charming Charlie, Tommy Hilfiger, Banana Republic and more. It's so hard not to get carried away.

We woke in the morning and the day seemed so long. It was still Friday! We did so more shopping, ate some BBQ and saw Mockingjay.

Saturday we were off to Atlanta to watch David's team the Bulldogs.

Perfect weather and great seats.

And they won!

Also, my Dad noticed Georgetown Cupcakes opened in Atlanta. We trekked all the way across town just to get cupcakes. They are the absolute best cupcakes we've ever head, and so worth the trip!

We wrapped the night up with the best snow cones- juicy fruit and strawberry daq, psych!(a new game on your app, similar to balderdash, so funny!), more scum, cookies and pie.

It was such a great trip. 

Now back to life of trying to sell the house, budgeting, cleaning and all that fun stuff.

Weekends to Remember

Aaron's parents were in town over the weekend. They are always so sweet and want to take us to dinner. They always let us choose, so this time we choose to go to the Garden- on top of the Joseph Smith Memorial building. 

The view was perfect and dinner was delish. 

They also bought us all 6 Star Wars, since Aar hasn't seen them and we are going to the premiere pretty soon. Needless to say Aaron wasn't too interested, and I don't remember the movies being so slow.... I guess that's the millennial in me eh? 

Long story short on Saturday I accidentally locked myself out of the house. No one was going to be home in at least 4 hours... and I was stuck in the small hallway downstairs doing laundry. Of course my phone was locked inside. So I had to walk over to the neighbors and borrow their phone to call the locksmith. $150, and a half hour later I was in the house.... It was thee worst. 

On the bright side, we are going to Alabama this week. We got the crappiest flights, ever, but we'll get their eventually haha. 

I pulled out the Christmas decorations a bit early. I got tired of the fall decor, and Aaron was watching football all night so it gave me something to do. 

Also check out this sunset. Amazing! 

Pazookies

Spence and Lexi may have introduced me to the greatest thing on the planet... pazookies! or cazookies... or whatever you wanna call it. 

We went to The Chocolate in West Jordan, where they half bake cookie dough, pull it fresh out of the oven and top it with vanilla ice cream. 

It's amazing. 

Well last week they came over with cookie dough and ice cream and we made our own pazookie/cazookie. 

And it was just as good. 

We scarfed it down. 

So now I'm obsessed with the idea. I bought some cookie dough and made 2 batches over the week(don't worry I shared).

I made it for Jake and Mary Saturday night. 

They loved it... obvi. 

And Spence, Lexi and I devoured the leftovers Sunday night. 

This poor boy was sick, so we didn't want to risk his germs spreading on our beloved pazookie... 

Poor thing has had a fever for 3 days. 

He'll get hot, and then cold, and then hot, and then cold. 

So finally we went to the doc. 

He's still miserable but hopefully the medicine will start kicking in. 

I sure hope so because he tosses and turns all night long. 

And I end up on the couch, and we all know couches are not good for backs when you sleep! 

Life in November

Our nights are free these days and we are so confused how to use the extra time. 

So we started back at the gym..... and I am SORE. 
I haven't been consistently for a long long time so basically any movement is kicking my butt. 

We had an offer on our Provo house, but sadly it fell through. So we are praying someone will be interested quickly. 

I feel like summer was just last month. But the snow says otherwise. Winter is here
...along with leaves heaping up on our lawn and snow in the mountains. 

Europe video is done, but FB and Youtube won't let me post it because of the songs I used. Still trying to find away around that. And it's too big to post on Blogger. 

Continuing to travel frequently for work and occasionally fun. This month it's Denver next week and Alabama/Georgia the following week for Thanksgiving. 

Please enjoy this picture of Aaron in my new hat. Basically how he feels when I spend money haha. 

Goodbye October

Goodbye October.

Hello November. 

Our Halloween wasn't very Halloween-y at all. 

But we still had fun. 

We mini golfed at Mulligan's. 

Ate at the OG... aka Olive Garden. 

Sipped some Fiiz. 

Shopped at City Creek. 

And had zero tricker or treaters at our house. 

Paris

The city of lights was our final stop on our Europe trip.

Paris did not disappoint.

Although it was a little rough finding our cute little Airbnb apartment.

I think that's the worst part about traveling- the chase to finding your hotel.

I booked the location because it was a 10 minute walk to the Eiffel! So our first stop was the tower of course.

It was gorgeous!

It was the coolest thing to actually BE there!

We opted to take the stairs up the tower since the elevator line was way wayyy long, plus it's about half the price to walk, and it wasn't too bad.

We made it too the second tier, since you have to pay more to go to the tippy top... although I wish we would have. I ate one of the best macaroons on top(so much better in France), we walked around and took in all the views and soon made our way back down.

It was hard to do Paris in a day and a half, so we tried our best to visit all the landmarks.

Champs Elysees & Arc de Triomphe was next on the list.

Luckily everything in Paris is pretty close together. So we walked and walked and walked.

I didn't mind it though since Aar and I caught glimpses of city life, stopped by small candy shops and relaxed in the cutest cafes.

No, that is not a parking lot behind me, those are crazy Parisian drivers.

The Champs Elysees leads right up to the arc. The street was beautiful, wide and full of cafes and shopping. Wish Aaron could have lasted a bit longer, but we did make a stop at Gap. Poor kid absolutely hates shopping and would actually wait outside the shops for me.

At night we checked our iPhones and every day we were in Paris, we walked 10 miles! 

It didn't even phase me though since I loved it so much. 

So I dragged Aaron out to see the Eiffel Tower at night. 

And am so glad I did. 

Every hour on the hour, the tower sparkles for 5 minutes straight. 

I think it stops everyone in their tracks. 

We slept soundly and even slept in a bit before we went to visit the France Stock Exchange in the morning. 

Since it was Saturday, it wasn't open, but this was the next best thing.

We cabbed up to Sacre Couer afterwards.

The weather was sunny and cool.

We visited on the perfect afternoon, a big street festival was going on that only happens once a year.

All sorts of cheese, candy, meat and drink stands were stationed around the Cathedral.

Speaking of Cathedrals....

We visited so many throughout our trip. 

They all had tall stone pillars, pretty paintings and colorful stain glass windows. 

Each was unique and pretty. 

However.... in none of them I felt the spirit.  

I am so grateful for dedicated buildings of worship in our church. 

I am so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

The Louvre was next on the list. We nixed going inside, but had to snap a few pics of the famous glass pyramid. 

And then ate at the cutest cafe on a little side street. 

With the best bread. 

The best crepes were street crepes! We got a nutella crepe just outside of the Eiffel Tower. It was warm and sugary.

I have decided everything is better in France.

Thank you Paris! We loved you!