Cozy Cabin Christmas

Holidays in Hatch are my favorite. It's so fun to have no where in particular to go, and to be able to slow down and visit with all the family. 

Christmas is especially wonderful at the Cabin. There's a whistling kettle ready for hot cocoa and Pero, a cozy "smudge" in the wood-burning stove, big windows to watch the snowflakes through, and of course the meadow with plenty of cute trees to bring home for decorating.

This year there was more than enough snow for a white Christmas. Our trek to find a tree proved that really quick. ;) It was so beautiful though, I love having snow storms on Christmas. It feels so magical and cozy.

Our tree finding crew had lots of fun and giggles. Especially when I did a crazy dance and lost my *white* phone in the snow. ;) Adventurous for sure. 

After bringing the tree into the cabin, we took the December flowers to Grandpa's head stone. We miss Grandpa all year long, but it's especially prominent during Christmas Eve when his deep voice isn't there to read Luke 2. It is bitter sweet though, because we usually reminisce about our favorite 'classic Grandpa' stories. :) I can't wait for the day I get to hear his big voice sing "Shannon is a sweetie pie, I love her every day ay ay" and give him a big bear hug. :)

Uncle Ivor and his family always make the most delicious dipped chocolates. :) (They don't last around us very long haha.)

Jaden had a blast playing with cars and ramps, pretending to cook, and helping us decorate. (And being Pa's helper every chance he got.)

On Christmas Eve we let Jaden open one present- Christmas Pajamas. When I was little we always opened Grandma and Grandpa Barton's presents on Christmas eve, and they were always the best Christmas Jammies. :) I've been so excited to continue the tradition with my little family. 

 Christmas morning started out a little grumpily for some of us. (I won't name names.... we'll just call him J. Coffin. No no, Jaden C. ;) ) We maybe had a hard time going to sleep on Christmas Eve (of course) and Jaden didn't give in until 11ish. He also got up around 5:30-6... so ya know. Not a lot of sleep to help out with the toddler attitude.
Luckily, Santa brought Jaden dino fruit snacks, and oranges. Which perked him up in no time.
He got a sweet Thomas bath toy from Auntie Miss, and after that everything he opened he asked, "Where's Thoma?"

Lesson learned. We could have literally gotten him oranges and one Thomas toy and he'd be content. :)

 We're lucky to have so many awesome Aunties (and uncles) for Jaden. They keep him entertained, and he has withdrawals when we go home. :)

Just some thoughts

First of all, I'm in love with this weather. 

I absolutely love fall. Let me just tell you why. It's still warmish, but the air is crisp and it feels amazing. 

The lighting changes and everything seems like you're seeing it through a sunshine filter. All the colors seem more rich, and the days just seem more cozy. Nights are cooler, which means so is my apartment! Yay for being able to sleep under the covers again! I LOVE wearing fall colors and styles. Bring on the jackets and cardigans, and all the beautiful colors! I like the way fall smells. I don't even know how to explain the non cliche's about that one, but outside smells different in the fall. Of course there's also all the pumpkin and apple spice you could ever want!

Every time fall rolls around I feel super energized but restless at the same time. This is the first year I haven't been a student so fall seems weird just being stuck inside working. At Snow I took drives up Ephraim canyon or got to walk around campus during the gorgeous afternoons between classes. Now I legitimately stay inside from 8-6 every day except Sunday. (Kinda a bummer, right? I'd love the luxury of not having to work. Do you know how many more walks I'd take if I could go in the late morning? It's so perfect then. :) )

I get the urge to do a million holiday crafts that extend clear out to New Years as soon as September rolls around, but my budget usually keeps me reigned in. ;)

I also feel much more Betty Crocker in Autumn. (Not that I always act on those feelings... but ya know. My self image shifts or something.)

 

Today I was talking with Erin about other young married couples and Matt's and my marriage... I think I've thought we were just so really struggling. The more I look back on our first year as a married couple the more I realize we're doing pretty good. :) 

No, we didn't buy brand new cars, or get to rent a new house instead of an apartment with noisy neighbors ;) but we have a pretty sweet first apartment. It feels big because we have the vaulted ceilings, and we have 2 bedrooms and somewhere to put a washer and dryer instead of having to pay for a laundromat.

 We might live off of the meat my mom and dad give us from their freezer, but we do pretty well at meal planning and budgeting out groceries so we always have what we need and usually get to spend some money on date night too. 

We've been super blessed financially with all the scholarships and financial aid we were able to get. I don't get to drop out of working and stay home to get ready for baby, I'll probably work right up until I absolutely can't anymore because I'm in a hospital room, but I do have a job and it's a job with set hours and that's been so nice. 

Maybe we don't go on lots of spontaneous play dates and adventures, but we live close to my family and we were able to go visit Matt's family in Nebraska, and really Salt Lake isn't that far to visit more family. :) We've been able to be involved in a few different callings in our ward(s) since we moved here last year, and we've seen blessings from those. We live by good friends and have an added support system through them. We're not in unnecessary debt (like how I had to specify? Yay for my car loan and student loan. :p), and we're able to pay all our bills and still have money left to our name. We're doing pretty great for little poor starving college students, right? Plus we're in love and so what else do we need? 

(Taken when we just started dating in Ephraim. Who would have thought that almost a year and a half later we'd be Mr. and Mrs. and on our way to being Mama and Daddy?)

Today has just been one of those warm fuzzy days where life seems pretty much perfect.

And now I get to go for a drive up the mountain to look at some of the leaves for family home evening with my super handsome best friend. :) Guys... Mondays aren't supposed to be this great!

Summer at our house...

Can we just talk about how gorgeous the world is? I love Cedar City sunsets! And the moon. :) And my camera.

Spring break!

Well. It wasn't feeling very springy outside for the first part of it, but it's been so great! Friday we packed up and hit the road after Matt's classes to visit our family in Eagle Mountain before they move to Nebraska. And it rained. And rained and rained... and rained. :) Delightful drive up, really. ;)  However, when we got there, it was awesome! Mallorie had planned a surprise going away party for the family, and so when evening rolled around, we got them all loaded up in her car and their van and went on quite the wild goose chase through the neighborhood. (I should probably mention that they were blind folded, hence the crazy driving to throw them off :) )  I wish I had pictures of their reactions, it was priceless. :) It was really cool to see how many of their friends and family came out to support them and how much it meant to the family. I mostly sat at the 'family table' in the corner, because I didn't know most of the people, but let me tell you why that was the best choice. Matt H., my Matt, and Dan reverted back to... oh... middle school maybe ;) and had food throwing contests. Trying to make it in the hoop, trying to hit specific people... you name it.  You better believe there were innocent by standers harmed in the process. ;) President Buys got hit instead of Jennifer, and Enoch got beaned in the head with a baby carrot. Poor kid. :p I'm pretty sure Heather was one of the targets and had some close calls too. ;) After all that partying, we cleaned up and went over to Dan and Heather's to watch movies in their endearingly named, 'Redneck Theater'. :) I thought it was pretty innovative. ;) 
Saturday, we slept in, ate breakfast and took our time getting ready. Mal had planned family pictures at 4, so we kinda just hung out until then. Matt and Carson went rock climbing at Momentum, and so Mallorie, Miquelle, Shaun (one of Miquelle and Matt's friends from Snow), Braxten, Aunt Deb, and I went to Oz The Great and Powerful.  Good... but definitely cheesy. :) (Which is probably what made it so funny. That, and the fact that when Mallorie and I decided to move down to the row with all the others and I thought it'd be easy to climb over the seat discreetly but ended up stuck between the seat and back of the chair....) When we got home, Morgan and Jason came in with my cute new nephew! (background... when I was little, I was super upset when I realized that I wouldn't have nieces and nephews for a long time because I'm the oldest. Apparently I forgot that when you get married you get more siblings, and thus more nieces and nephews! I've been so stinkin excited to finally meet baby Christian!) So we snuggled the baby and visited until family pictures. :)

Seriously, Mike is the cutest grandpa. Well. Cutest with all
little kids, really. :) 

He got making the cutest little faces as soon as I
put the camera away. :p

Kenners volunteers to change diapers.
I told her she could come live with us when we have kids. :)

We got to Nolan park for the pictures, and it was FREEZING! And windy! So we either look like America's Next Top Models...     

or....

We're hoping for the first one. ;) 

Just kidding, I'm sure they turned out cute, just because it's our family! And we're pretty cute! :) 

Saturday night, Jennifer talked us out of being boring old  married people and staying home to go to bed early, and into going with the kids to Nickle City. I'll be honest, I didn't think I'd even like arcades... I was wrong. Minus the part where you kinda feel like you should take a shower and burn the contamination off your hands, it's really super fun! And we even got prizes out of the deal! One back scratcher, two small parachute men, and some more sugar. Because we so needed it. ;) (We hadn't been eating lots of treats all weekend, right?)

Sunday, bright and early we hopped in the car for Christian's baby blessing in North Salt Lake. It was a beautiful blessing, and so fun to snuggle him in church! (Poor baby, he got passed around like a REALLY cute hot potato. And shame on me, because I'm not sure  how much of the meeting I actually got. I was a wee bit distracted with Kenners and Christian. :p)

 Later, we went to a park in Saratoga Springsish, and played on 'the pyramid of death' (as Matt Harker called it), and all sorts of spinny toys. Bless our little nauseous hearts. It seriously was hilarious though. We have way too much fun sometimes. :p

Brax is in the purple, my Matt has his red
hoody on, and Matt H. is right above him. 

They made it to the top! Probably raced. :p

Kennedy

The Matts. Climing down on the outside. They're either
really brave, or really careless. I can't decide which haha

Left to right: Kennedy, Enoch, and Braxten

Matt and Mallorie :)

Mallorie, Matt H. and Matt C

Matt H, Braxten and Matt C

Enoch

Mallorie and Me

Matt and I

The boys thought it'd be a good idea to stand on the
swings... I think they both almost got launched.

Enoch :)

Kenners and I

Kennedy took this picture, and she's rather proud of
her mad skills :) It is pretty sweet. 

Matt helping Mallorie and I go higher :p

                                                     

Matt and Kennedy on one of many
spinny things of death.

Mal and Braxten

Matt, Matt and Enoch :)

Matt and Matt haha

Matt and Brax
(Ok, is anyone else dying over Matt's face??)

Kennedy

My husband... the... pole dancer?

Kennedy the gangster

Enoch

Matt and Kenners... seriously, I don't know
how their little brains didn't fly right out of their
heads after all this spinning. And yet they'd
keep getting back on for more!

                                         
                                               

Ok. So on Facebook, not too long ago, my cousin Maycee posted something about her sister (who is from Saratoga Springs) buying a cat harness. And I laughed and laughed... then Sunday when we were at the park... I found this:

                                   

And I just have to ask, what is wrong with these people? ;) Just kidding, but seriously. Since when has walking your cat been a normal outing?

 Back at the house waiting to go over to Dan and Heather's for dinner and March birthday celebrations

These two have way too much fun together. :) They're
ALWAYS laughing. :)

This is why I love kids. :) Enoch wrote 'I'm a Mormon
and I love it' earlier that day. If you're wondering why it's
scribbled and re-written, that's because Matt H
made it say 'I'm a murderer and I love it'. Which made
Enoch cry, so Mallorie fixed it for him. :) Haha poor kids
always being harrassed by the Matts.

Mallorie, Mike and Jennifer

Kennedy's photography skills #1

and #2 :p
This would be Foster. :) The funniest, but most expressionless
dog ever. :)

 At  Dan and Heather's:

Matt Harker and Brianna :)

These two are going to be cute/really really entertaining
dads someday. :) My favorite part about this is Matt H. always
tells Mallorie to put the kid down ('so she doesn't get any ideas')
whenever she's holding a cute child... and yet here he is. Being
wildly entertained by playing with children. :p

The super cute birthday cake Jen made for me :) 

Haha, I'm not sure I even have a caption for these. :p
Only that we all nearly died laughing when it was going
on. :)

Miquelle and Brianna :)

The cakes Jennifer made for Aunt Cindy

How cute is this one??

It was so stinkin funny to watch him be
'her other arm' and how she reacted to it. :p

We came home Monday night after another day of just hanging out with our family and helping with a few projects. :) It was such a great weekend!

Yesterday, we went to St. George for the extra sunshine, and a picnic at the park on Tabernacle road.

He sent our goldfish 'swimming'

This is why we're married. :p
(We were trying to take a picture and keep our eyes open,
but it was so bright!)

Oh! Did I mention Matt got a new iPhone? ;)

                                               

I love this little carrousel  

                                     

At Dixie Rock :)

 

Getting ready to throw our parachute men
(Yes, from Nickle City! Why do you think
we picked them? ;) )

That was the 'cliff' we threw them off of

Everybody was kung fu fighting?

...and I'm just sitting there thinking, "please don't break your
leg, please don't break your leg..."

Last night, we went to the LeFevres and visited for a little bit, while Aubree did hair. Then Aubs, Lee, Casey's little sister Kara (sorry if I spelled it wrong), and I went to the church to watch the guys play basketball. :) I should've brought my camera. They're pretty entertaining! ;)

Spring break is fantastic so far! I just wish it was longer than a week. :p