Not too late to post about Turkey Day I hope!

Not on top of my game!

But let's be honest.. When I posted about Halloween on Halloween

we all knew it was bound to go down hill from there.

Our Thanksgiving was wonderful!

We hosted for the first time and I was scared out of my mind. 

Honestly, I was probably overly OCD.

I wrote out a list of all the food and how long it would take to cook..

Then made a whole schedule for the night before & day of, so that I would 

know when to do everything. Crazy lady right?

First off.. the table! (done the day before.)

We only had cheapo plastic plates and I made Kevin let me

get glass ones and fancy (98 cent) glasses.

We are super classy right?

I went simple (translate: lazy) on my "center piece" and used pumpkins 

we got for Halloween but never carved.

The night before, I also did a bunch of prep. Like cutting stuff up, making dressing, etc.

But that is boring so it doesn't get a picture.

Thanksgiving morning I made a pie by myself for the first time!

I was probably a little too proud of it.

It tasted DAAANG good.

But it was kind of ugly.

So it also doesn't get a picture.

Meanwhile, Maylen plays with her pilgrim and indian paper dolls.

More cooking, more cooking, blah blah blah

Then I got May ready for the day...

Darn thing looked SO cute I had to forget about

my scheduled day for a sec and do an impromptu photo shoot.

I mean really...... my heart explodes on the daily!

Cooking, dishes, cooking, dishes.

The trend continues..

..but I got to stare at these precious works of art.

So I can't complain.

Maylen enjoyed a mid-day treat and ate a cornucopia "craft"

she made with our nanny buddy the day before.

(this was supposed to be done with pointy cones but we only had ones with a flat bottom. So it isn't beautiful. But May had a blast making it and picking out her snacks to go inside.. so who cares!)

A couple we became friends with through Kev's program came over.

We lounged, watched sports, chatted, and played games.

Although I was way too worried about the food to actually lounge

and was in and out of the kitchen the whole time.

(Luckily our apt is tiny so that is like two feet away.)

My crazy lady list might have been a little overboard..

BUT IT WORKED! Everything finished at the same time

and was PERFECT!

Finally it was time to eat.

Started out with this beautiful salad that was even yummier than it looks.

Yes, I am tooting my own horn. Not sorry about it either.

Kevin carved the bird. So manly.

Then we stuffed our faces with traditional Thanksgiving spoils.

It was such a great day to reflect on how richly blessed we are.

I have so much to be thankful for.

Moving across the country hasn't been easy.

There are lots of hard, homesick days.Especially around the holidays. 

But getting to be with Kevin & Maylen  is pure sunshine.

I love these two more than I can possibly say and am

the luckiest to be able to spend my days with them.

We hope your holiday season is as happy and magical as ours has been!

--Lots of love, the Holcombe's--

Fall in love.

Fall is fabulous. It's no secret.
I mean have you ever met anyone who doesn't like fall?

Anyway, we've been loving it.

Pumpkin patchin' our days away.

Painting pumpkins (slash acorn squash)

And... of course, HALLOWEEN!

(Toddlers know how to party.)

Maylen is obsessed with Peter Pan. For real OBSESSED.

While every other girl in the world is on their Frozen kick, May May

is sticking with the classics. And I'm just fine with that.

So... we really had no other option for costumes this year.

We just thought happy thoughts and they lifted us into the air.

(so candid guys. so candid.)

Why I believe

Washington DC temple- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Last week, we went to a special event at the Visitor's Center of the DC Temple. It was a fantastic night!

Before the event started, we browsed an art gallery they had there. The talent in this world is unreal. Like.. I can't even write straight if I don't have lined paper and then there are people who can do this.

Meet our friend Will! Kevin has been able to go out with the missionaries a couple times to get to know him and teach him more about what we believe in. Wonderful guy right there! Will I mean. Kev is wonderful too though. So I guess clarifying is a bit unnecessary. Anyway, he came with us and it was so fun to have him along for the ride.

So... I'm browsing the art gallery. Some religious works. Some not. Then BAM I run into this beauty..

...and for a second I got to pretend I was home. And I might have cried. (I did) I miss these gorgeous mountains so much. And the lovely people who live below them? Don't even get me started. So thanks Karl Thomas! (I couldn't help myself from snapping a picture so I could feel at home anytime I needed it. No copyright infringement intended Karl. PROMISE!)

Then we were spiritually fed! Like a spirit Thanksgiving dinner. There were a few speakers, who were recently baptized within the last month or so, telling us why they believe the gospel. Hearing their conversion stories and how they came to know the truth was so inspiring.

It was such a beautiful reminder to me that our Heavenly Father is so aware of each of His children. 

He knows the fears, worries, and desires of our hearts and 

He truly wants what is best for each and every one of us.

So.. Why do I believe?

I believe because I have felt the miraculous gift of the Atonement in my life. I believe because every time I hear our living prophet and apostles speak, I am filled with the most peaceful feeling of comfort and assurance that they are truly inspired by Heavenly Father. I believe because the earth and the human body are the most amazing creations that could NOT have occurred without a Master Creator. I believe because priesthood blessings remind me that God's power is still on the earth today. I believe because families are too important to be temporary. I believe because if I didn't, I would be lost.

Christ lives. He loves me. He loves you.

ps. can General Conference be my favorite holiday? Because I am stoked for this weekend.

Second chances.. or like fifth.

Hey people. Let's face the facts.

I'M A TERRIBLE BLOGGER! Like pretty sucky at it.

I have never blogged one wedding picture.

I have never even mentioned my darling off spring because

I haven't blogged ONCE since becoming a parent. What?!

I even tried starting a second blog since I was so terrible at updating my first one.

That logic was flawed. In hindsight I can see that.

For real though, what was I thinking....

I wrote on that blog even less than this one.
Why didn't someone stop me?

But here's the thing all 13 people that follow my blog:

I want to NOT be a terrible blogger.

Especially now that I live far away from my beloved people.

I'm not going to make any promises but I really am 

going to try to have an updated, interesting, and FUN blog.

So umm... I know. This one is ugly.
Don't spare my feelings, I know it is. I tried.
I failed.
I am seriously not technologically savvy.
At ALL.

So does anyone have tips or
know someone who makes blogs pretty and WON'T
charge me a small fortune to do so.
Cause people.. living on the East Coast is a lot of things.
But one thing it isn't is cheap.
We've never been so poor.
But enough about that.

I hope at least a handful of you are as excited as I am about
my blog overhaul. I think its going to be awesome.

Here's a picture of my family to prove to you guys that I'm serious.
It's like when Ariel signed Ursula's shining gold contract with her perfect signature.
Kind of.

It's been a while..

I haven't blogged in a while.. so here are some updates:

I get married next month.

I don't feel completely prepared. But I do feel completely ready. Does that make sense? What I mean is, there are still lots of things on my to do list but I have never felt more sure of a decision as I am about this one. I am SO ready to be sealed to my best friend. He is everything to me. Everything.

ps. all you unengaged or unmarried people: When you do get engaged... make it short. Seven months is a LOT longer than you think.

School is out!

I love not being in school... Graduating will be one of the highlights of my whole life. This last semester was a tough one. Chemistry? Not my best subject, which is really too bad considering that I have to take six Chem classes for my major. So I'm just going to have to suck it up. Also, I will admit I was not as focused on my studies as I should have been. Any one has been around me within the last 11 months can testify that I have typically one thing on my mind. Kevin. But anyway.. This is going to be the best break from school I have ever had because I get married and go on my honeymoon. Pure bliss. Then the day after we get back, school starts. Booo...

We have a home.

Kevin's brother and sister-in-law just bought their first house. It is darling!! They have decided to rent out their basement to a cute new married couple. You guessed it--Kevin and me! We are pretty anxious to move in. We've gotten a few peices of big furniture in there and will be moving more soon. I am thrilled. I am sort of lame.. I am almost 21 and have never moved out. So.. June 10th will be my first day out of my daddy's house. I am finally growing up. This makes me even more stoked to move into our darling new house, decorate it, and make it our home.

5 things I love about Kevin

1. He is super aware of people around him so is always looking for ways to make people happy.

2. He has the most beautiful eyes this world has ever seen. Truly. I love the color and his eye lashes are to die for. (I hope he passes his eyelash gene down to our kids.)

3. He'll spontaneously go limp like a wet noodle so I have to catch him and hold him up. It makes me laugh every time.

4. He cries a lot. Every cute movie makes him cry.

5. He hates 3D movies.

puff

This isn't a post about smoking or a magic dragon. It's about my puff. It's been my puff for a little over two years now. "Puff" is just a cuter way of saying muscular hernia.

Once, I got in a big sledding accident. Yes, sledding. It's more dangerous than people realize. I broke my tibia and fibula (this is just a side note-- but I get really bugged when people say fibia.) Both breaks were compound, which means they sliced through my skin and were sticking out. Gross I know.

Because of that, in a little area on my leg, the bottom layer of skin that holds everything in tight is gone. So... my muscle pushes forward and sort of bulges out. That is my puff.

It's annoying.

It's ugly.

It is painful.

It looks like an alien is going to pop out of my shin at any second.

It freaks people out.

It is tricky to shave over.

BUT

..it has one really good perk, which inspired this post.

It holds up my boot perfectly!

I have this pair of grey boots that are quite handy in the winter months. They are comfy and they are warm. They go a little passed mid-calf. They have cute buckles on the back that I love. The only problem is.. they fall down sometimes. Well only the left one does because my puff doesn't let the right one slip.

I do NOT want another puff on my left leg. But I am trying to think off how to get a puff equivelant for my boot. Any ideas that don't involve my bones??

3% in 25% = 97% in 75%

I am a very date oriented person. I like to count days and point out "marks."

For example--

-I like to celebrate my half birthday and other peoples half birthdays.

-I love to point out the month marks of how long Kev and I have been dating.

-I even remember my fourth grade teacher's birthday for Pete's sake.

-For no reason, I know that the day Kelso and I had our epic rain fest was June 11.

-I just don't forget birthdays or anniversaries of people who are important to me because the date sticks out to me!

Those are just a few examples of weird random dates that I notice. Unfortunately, this skill never kicked in when I took AP US history. But anyway... "Why is she telling us this?" you may be asking yourself. Well because in five days.. [I was going to blog this in five days, but I'm too bored today so I'm doing it now instead] ..marks January 11th. Which in and of itself is not an important day BUT it is the day my engagement is 1/4 of the way over.

25% of the time period that people say goes so slow. Yes, there are days it feels like a century. But overall this has been the fastest month and a half! And I say this because I probably have about 3% of my wedding planned and I just don't know where the time has gone....

Truly, I have hardly ANYTHING done. I gather ideas on Pinterest and stuff but I haven't actually done anything about it. It's crazy because I have been 'planning my wedding' since I was seven. But now that it is actually here, I have no idea where to start! I'm overwhelmed and I feel inadequate to plan something this big.

It's not that I don't have motivation.. hello, I'm marrying the love of my life. I just truly do not know how best to go about everything. I thought by having a long engagement I wouldn't be nearly as stressed in planning. But it actually just made me way too cavalier at the beginning because I had so much time. And now I am stressed.

So.. smart, efficient, grown up people-- help me know what to do..

Our proposal story

Kevin and I had been talking marriage for a while but due to school and family schedules we knew that we'd be getting married in the Summer of 2012. Not very close.. so although I was pretty anxious for some bling, Kevin was determined it would be better to wait until February or March to get engaged. (that's what he told me anyway...)

---Monday, October 24---

I had finished a long day of work and teaching dance. I was tired and looking forward to a nice, relaxing evening with my man, cuddled up and warm. He had other ideas.. he came to pick me up from dance and said "We're going on a date up the canyon tonight!" Mind you, it was already after nine o'clock at this point. I was hesitant but he was excited about it and pretty adamant. Kevin and I drove up to a beautiful spot in Provo Canyon, overlooking the valley. We wrote down goals, hopes, and dreams that we have for different points in our lives. 6 months, 1 year, and 5 years. We put our papers in a time capsule and buried it in the mountainside (with the plan to come back in 6 months and see how we were progressing on our goals.) We enjoyed hot chocolate, curled up in a blanket, and talked about everything under the sun. It turned out that the night was everything I wanted. Nice, relaxing, cuddly, warm, and most importantly spent with Kevin.

---Wednesday, November 23---

Kevin's mom, Sherri, texted us both telling us she had a school assignment that required her to see the exhibit at the Springville Art Museum. Her husband had planned to go with her but was stuck in Salt Lake so she wanted to know if we'd keep her company. We had "nothing planned" so decided to go. After looking around for a little while, Sherri left to go to the bathroom. Kev and I continued to wander around the musuem. Kevin was a little jumpy. He wanted to sit and wait for his mom, then decided he wanted to go look at stuff in a certain room, then got "tired" and wanted to sit again, then suddenly hopped up and wanted to go look in another room. We were walking throughout the room just enjoying the pieces when I stopped at a beautiful painting of two girls praying together. I loved it and was looking at it for a long time, reading the plaque about it and noticing every little detail, I was totally oblivious to the fact that Kevin was just waiting me to move onto the very next thing so that he could pop the question. Finally, he took matters into his hands as I heard him ask, "What do you think of this one?" I looked over and much to my surprise, found the paper I had buried in the mountain a month before, framed and hanging up in an art exhibit. In a state of confusion, I turned to Kevin who was getting on his knee. My confusion instantly turned to shock. 'Is this really happening?! I thought he was waiting until February!! Oh my gosh this is real!!' I had countless thoughts continuously running through my head. Kevin was saying darling and romantic things about making my goals and dreams come true but honestly I didn't process any of them. My brain was only waiting for four words. And then they came. "Will you marry me?"

And of course I said, "Yes!"

Little did I know:

-Tuesday, October 25-

Kevin's brother Robby took a trip up the canyon and dug up our time capsule.

-Some day between October 25 & November 22-

I surprised Kev with a note on his windshield while he was at work. Right before work he had picked up the framed paper. It was sitting in the passenger seat. I didn't notice.

-Wednesday, November 23-

Sherri did not have a school assignment at the museum and did not have to go to the bathroom.

Kevin was "jumpy" because there was a group of people around our frame reading it intensely and he was just waiting for the room to clear out.

I love our proposal story. I love that it is unique, personal, and surpising. I love that Kevin thought it out carefully and that the whole proposal took a month to execute. I love that I have the most romantic fiance and that I get to marry him this summer!

--The Many Adventures--

This is my boyfriend Kevin Holcombe..

And these are some of the adventures we've been on:

Human size chess (I won.)

We took a road trip to Colorado... Obviously we did not want to come home!











I am technologically challenged and could not figure out how to turn this picture....

But this is us at Stewart Falls. Yes we did hike in the middle of the night!












Timpanogos Storytelling Festival!!!!!
this has been a family tradition of mine for as far back as I can remember and it was so fun to have Kevin with us for his first time at the festival.

Camping at Little Deer Creek with the Holcombe family.

Can you tell I was FREEZING?

You may think by their attire that we are at a BYU event.. but we aren't. We are at the Scera for the Storytelling Festival. Kev and I came down from camping for this. And on our way back to the campsite that night.... got lost for a couple hours. Whoops!

Sundance lifts for Labor Day

Little Mermaid at Tuacahn
...I was like a little girl I was so excited.











After the Tuacahn show we went to Vegas to visit my sister, brother in law, and niece. Love them all!! After the tragic BYU game (we lost to Texas of all schools) we went out for crepes to soften the blow. They were divine!

GO COUGARS!!

So there is a little peak at how much fun we have. I wish I had a picture for every great event because trust me, there is a lot more where that came from!