1st Married Christmas! Oh and New Years Too.

You know this post is better late than never.

Can I just talk about how much I love Christmas? This year was especially wonderful because I got to take Johnny home for his first Arkansas Christmas. He loved it so much.

We got to spend tons of time with my family and we even hung out with a couple of my old MH friends. The weather was beautiful, so one day, Johnny and I decided to go for a walk around one of the lakes.

We had lunch with my good friend Terra and her boyfriend Jake, but I forgot to get a picture because I'm always on my toes. And the morning we left Arkansas we had breakfast with Erin and her husband Josh. Yay for old friends!

Boo for bad lighting.

We basically just loved spending time with my family and kept things pretty simple. My parents treated us to a nice dinner out and a movie (Sherlock Holmes 2). Because it's been so long since all of this took place, I think I'll just post lots of pictures to tell the rest of the story.

Johnny with his new BFF, Bailey, and Joseph & Clark. Love them all.

Breaking the gingerbread house! Yes, Clark is about 1 year younger than Tanner but 3 times larger.

Bailey loves Papa. Get prepared for lots of Bailey pics, it was my first time to meet her for crying out loud!

I've been waiting for this picture for four months!

Lots of pictures of Emily's kids because our camera died and we had to steal her pictures..

Emily helped me make pillows for part of my present from her. They go so well on our couch under our canvas wall art.

We played tons of ping pong on the table my parents bought on Black Friday. I won't say who generally won and who generally lost.

We sometimes enjoy posing with cute little santa hat cupcakes made my Emily.

My parents are spectacular.

Tanner is quite the budding photographer.

Tanner usually doesn't like me much, but once we put these fake mustaches on we really connected.

This is the best (and coincidentally the only) group shot we got this trip.

We flew back on Wednesday but it wasn't too sad of a farewell because my dad flew into Utah the very next day! He got to come out for Christian and Kim's wedding, which was absolutely perfect. We all love Kim and are so excited to have her as a new cousin! Dad bought himself an air mattress and a new pair of sheets (just more presents for us - they spoil us so much!) and stayed at our apartment as our very first house guest. We loved having him here. Johnny couldn't come to any of the wedding or reception because he was putting in 18 hour days at work (thank you, inventory), so it was so nice to have my dad around.

Super funny but also slightly sad that Johnny's suitcase arrived in Provo without wheels and with new gaping wholes in their place.

The morning Dad left - don't mind that I just woke up and am not wearing any makeup.

Dad left on Saturday just before Johnny finished inventory, so then we went up to Layton to spend New Year's with the Allreds. It was so fun. Claire made delicious sushi, games were played, and we stayed up so late.

Look how wild we are.

1 year ago from the night this picture was taken, we got engaged! We love our lives.

Okay okay, I'm officially headed to bed. It's five after 10 for goodness sake. Yay for responsibility!

Just Two Quick Things I'm Loving Right Now.

1.

the fact that my cute little sister considers my husband to be her big brother. bff's.

2.

the fact that my wonderful husband is a pro at making Christmas sugar cookies. who even knew?

Lights at Temple Square

Classes are officially over! All that's left is finals (no big deal, right?) and then it's Christmas break! So last night, we decided to celebrate. Johnny, Adam and I drove up to Salt Lake to see the lights at Temple Square. We met up with Daren and Margo at Crown Burger (they have delicious gyros!) and then we all headed over to see the lights! It's pretty funny because last year, Adam came with me and Johnny to see the lights, so it's basically tradition at this point.

We even ran into Scott at the lights. He was on a double date with his roommate and a couple of girls from Utah State. Of course Margo and Daren came prepared with hot chocolate and krispy kreme donuts, so we all got to enjoy that together. After our sweet treats, we headed back to Orem. It was such a fun trip. We are loving Christmas more than ever before!

we love this.

So far we are absolutely loving our first Christmas as a married couple. On Saturday, we were busy doing this:

We strung popcorn for basically the entire length of time that BYU dominated Hawaii on Saturday night. And we love having a real tree - it makes our house smell like Christmas all the time! Margo donated lights and ornaments, which really helped because we had absolutely nothing to start with.

After the game ended and we were finished cleaning up our popcorn mess, we watched Miracle on 34th Street and drank hot chocolate. It's basically full on Christmas in the Allred household. Last night we had Laura, Becca, Hannah, and Sarah Michelle Allred over for dinner. Then we ate treats and watched the Christmas devotional.

I hope everyone else is getting in the holiday spirit too!

Just Over 2 Months

Can you tell school and work have kept me busy for the past two months? It's been forever and a day since I last posted. I thought I might as well start again with Thanksgiving!

We spent most of the break up in Layton with the Allreds. It was such a fun visit! We had the whole family together, which is a pretty big deal considering the size of this family. Look how big we are!

Here's one of just me and Johnny.

I love that guy.

On Wednesday, we went on a fly fishing trip. It was my first time and I never even came close to catching anything except for a huge branch, which I felt pretty good about.

When we got back from the fishing trip, Claire and I got busy making pies. She made the most delicious coconut cream pie ever (my fave!) and a lemon meringue pie. I made chocolate cream, banana cream, and apple cream. And Margo made 3 pumpkin pies! We must love pies or something.

Thanksgiving dinner was absolutely delicious! I live for homemade rolls and dressing. It's kind of weird to me that I've been away from home for the last FOUR Thanksgivings. I definitely get homesick, but it is really nice to have been able to go to the Allred's for the past couple of them.

On Friday (when Johnny was back in Orem for work) I went to Aunt Jan and Uncle Don's house in Layton to watch the Arkansas-LSU game. I hate LSU, and I especially hate that they dominated us. But it was still so nice to be around the Lanoys again. I love my family!

On Saturday, Johnny had to work again, so we got up early and drove back to Orem. I got to hang out with Laura, which is always a treat. We went shopping (yay for getting her Christmas present taken care of!), had lunch with Johnny, then came back to my apartment and watched two chick flicks back to back before I had to pick Johnny up from work and head back up to Layton. I know I've probably said this before, but I absolutely love having Laura here with me at BYU! She has saved me so many times. Sometimes I swear she's my big sister and I'm the baby of the fam.

Now that it's officially Christmas time (and I don't have homework this weekend!), we're going to buy a Christmas tree and decorate tonight! I'm so excited. I've always been to cheap to buy decorations here at college, but now that I'm married I figured it's the domestic thing to do. Plus, we'll only be in Arkansas for a week over break, so we'll have lots of time in our house to see the tree. I'm so excited for our first Christmas together! I'll post pics when we get the tree up!