December Grad

By Aubrionna R - December 24, 2015

Our backyard is a jungle! I'm not sure what it is but at least once or twice a week we find something bizarre lurking in our house or yard. I feel like I need one of those bug catchers they make for children. Here's my virtual one, LOOK what I found MAHM!

Slug in our driveway

whatever THIS is on our screen (outside)

Spider. I'm used to grass spiders who look big, are fast but are also harmless. This spider? No clue what it was. But it died quickly and was fed to our shark:

I was crafty! ~~with help from my mom~~ I put together this advent calendar with scriptures and service ideas in it.

We went to Six Flags to view all their Holiday in the Park decorations. We got there right when it opened and the lines to get in were packed. Luckily once we got in we were able to ride a few rides quickly before the lines got super long. I mostly just wanted to see the decorations! We were going to buy a funnel cake there but they were too expensive and we realized we could just go to chick-fil-a and get a whole lot more food for the same price ha!

We flew home on Black Friday and still ended up going to a store late that night. How did we end up at Home Depot? Well they had awesome deals on trees! Last year we got a real tree but this year I was okay with a fake tree and it turned out beautiful! Plus I can't forget to water this one. The fireplace also makes our house look so Christmas-y I love it

I had to open at work for a week and one of the benefits is that I got to see the sun rise. So pretty!

Made so cookies and watched Elf for a date night in

I realized that fall actually does happen in Texas! It just comes in December! Did I tell you last Friday it was 80 degrees? I ain't complaining. I got my fill of snow when we went to Idaho for Thanksgiving.

This year we ran into a snag. Both of our work holiday parties fell on the same night at practically the same time. Neither of us wanted to go alone so we tried to do both and it worked! For DHG they held dinner for us at Bob's Steak & Chophouse (hello $$$) and it was some of the best food I've ever had. It was fancy. If you're interested in the food listen up! They served us southwest steak crostinis and fried calamari for appetizers. We had our choice of salads and fresh bread. For the main course Dan and I coordinated so we could try each others. I got the filet mignon and he got the NY Strip steak. Probably some the best steak I've ever had, in my top 5. Side sides of mashed potatoes and mac and cheese were my favorite. They also served roasted asparagus and carrots. For dessert for of us ordered the chocolate cake and everyone was split 50/50 on it. Half liked it, half did not like it. It was a dark chocolate cake and Dan's definitely a fan of milk. The whole meal was phenomenal and Dan's coworkers are nice and fun to be with. They each got a visa giftcard which was nice and then we were on our way to hop over to my work party. We missed a lot of it (but can you blame me... STEAK!). My work party was at Main Event. We missed the food, awards, bowling but made it in time to play lots of arcade games! We ended up getting a lot of tickets but the prizes were kind of lame so we gave them to one of my coworker for her kids. They had a goal of getting the nerf gun. After that we headed home wishing we had more steak.

I took a picture of this pork roast I made in the crockpot because it looked so good and made me feel very domestic. So here you go.

G R A D U A T I O N

I can't believe it's HERE. And that I finished in 4 years, definitely thought it was going to be longer. It took a lot of effort, flexibilty and encouragement from my wonderful husband to finish. I feel like I can finally get on with my life! I'm free! But don't get me wrong, I loved my time at BYU-I. It was my first time being away from home, making new friends, losing old ones, learning how to adult, dating, meeting Dan, getting engaged, figuring out marriage, Dan graduating.. I remember our last day there we started feeling kind of nostalgic and even when we visit too. It was a great time in our lives and I'm so excited that I officially have my Bachelors in Health Science with an emphasis in Public Health. Bring on the Pomp and Circumstance. Okay I cried when they started playing it!

Here's a photo from the last day at my internship and logging my completed hours. It felt so good!

This is what our doorsteps looked like shortly before Christmas. I think everyone who sent us gifts arrived on the same day.

I spent the day and made lots of treats! I felt especially inspired so I made another batch of peanut butter blossoms, some cranberry orange muffins, chocolate chip cookies and my mom's sugar cookies (which are the best!) In short I baked ALL the things with Christmas music blaring and it was glorious.

Accidental USA. We're so patriotic!

We took cookies to people.

Christmas Eve we had Jenny, Phill and the kiddos over. We had a awesome stake dinner, watched a Christmas movie, decorated cookies and opened 1 gift. Here's our lovely tree! We read the story of the Saviors birth then went to bed.

Dan and I opened gifts the next morning while watching the Christmas Story, relaxed then headed over to Jenny and Phill's to hang out. We got to help surprise their kids with one last gift and it was so fun to watch!