One Year Down, Eternity to Go!

December was probably the busiest month of my whole life. Hence, no blog post.
So now I've got the awesome task of catching up.

In case you missed our Halloween costumes, here they are again.

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Also, in case you missed it, my mom wrote a book! Check it out here:

And So It Begins...

And her first picture book, 10 Little Nephite Missionaries, available for pre-order here:

10 Little Nephite Missionaries

I'm so proud of her!
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November was an eventful and busy month. On November 17, Christopher got into a car accident. He was hit from behind and it pushed him into the car in front of him, crushing our car. There were 5-6 cars total involved. I received a text message from him while I was in class that simply said, "I was in an accident." After some prodding and a phone call, I got a little more information out of him and rushed to the scene with the help of Ashleigh who drove me. Poor Christopher was really out of it and had me worried all day so I skipped my classes and got my work shift covered so I could stay home and watch him. The paramedics on the scene said he had a concussion but the doctor at Urgent Care said it was just whiplash. I wasn't taking any chances. He had bit a big chunk out of his tongue and had a huge bruise on his hip where the seat belt buckle was. The collision was enough that the air bags went off and our car was totaled.

 The fun part about this whole story is that for the two weeks between the accident and when we got back from our trip to VA, our car was in the tow lot. They charged us $40 for Every. Single. Day. Plus tow costs. We paid a ton of money to get the car out and tow it to our driveway so the insurance company of the guy who hit us could look at it. They barely called us yesterday to set up a time to see it. Sheesh.
However, we have been truly blessed despite this situation. Our friends have been so extremely helpful in driving us to places we need to go and family members have lent us money. My parents have even let us use their Honda Civic for this next school semester. And so very thankfully, we had our $1000 emergency fund to pay for all the towing costs. Thank goodness we had those savings in addition to our school savings!
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Things have been looking up since then.

We decorated our house for Christmas and really got into the Christmas spirit.

And we got to take our long anticipated trip to Virginia to see Christopher's family!

Much fun was had and McKell got her baby fix.... for now. I love these people to pieces and they never cease to make me laugh. I am so extremely lucky to have married into such a great family!

While in Virginia, the sister missionaries shared the "He Is The Gift" video with us (see it here: https://www.youtube.com/) After that, I really got into the Christmas Spirit. It was a lot easier to feel happy even though I was stressed out about work and school and all of our trials. I set aside time to make Christmas goody plates for the people around me. We also went to the "Tree of Life" in Draper and made Gingerbread Houses :)

More good news, I went to my court hearing for my small claims case at the beginning of December and it was dismissed, meaning I don't have to pay for all the damages to that kids car who crashed into my yard (not even into me!). Just as well, it wasn't even my fault. Even better, my insurance rates didn't go up either.

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For Christmas, we decided to surprise my mom and drove down to Arizona for two days. A short amount of time, but it was SO worth it. She screamed. Ha ha. It was also fun to see the whole family and all the changes they made to the house since I hadn't been home since last Christmas.

My dog is getting old...

Unfortunately, when we drove back to Utah it started to snow and made the 10 hour trip more like a 12 hour trip. Poor Christopher got home around 4am and had work a few hours later at 8:45am. He's a trooper though, and I definitely know he got some major mom points by driving me down for Christmas!

(P.S. we stopped at the Hoover Dam on the way

home because Christopher had never been.

Look how excited he is!)

For New Years we went to a Van Lady Love concert and had a blast. We got caricature drawings of our faces and then went back to my apartment for some dancing and Martinelli's. It was a great way to ring in the New Year, surrounded by great friends, making unforgettable memories.

Steele, the base player from Van Lady Love.

Finally, Christopher and I just got back from our 1st Year Anniversary trip to SLC. We had are awesome time pretending we were rich snobs in Salt Lake and spending lots of money (Christmas gift cards) on all our fancy mealtimes. I am so lucky to have married such a fantastic guy. He is hilarious and I have to say, we're pretty much the perfect couple! I love you Christopher!!

Freaking Fancy breakfast at $23/plate. NBD.

Anyways, that's all for now.
School starts tomorrow and
I am NOT excited.
Woop woop.