Merry Christmas

The Forgotten Carols

*Warning-this post is mushy and I'm going to brag about my fiance :) *

Last night Jake and I had the opportunity to go to the Forgotten Carols, this was my 5th time going, and Jake's first. I have been talking about this since September I have been so excited. Going to the Forgotten Carols is what kicks off the Christmas season for me! I always go the first week of December so it's perfect timing. But I have been so excited this year to go with my *sweetheart*, and he loved it! I am officially convinced him that it can be our Christmas tradition every year. Some people might say, don't you get sick of going to the same play every year. The story never changed (although he did say a few different things this year I noticed, a coupld swine flu jokes, etc...) But anyone who has frequented this play knows that you cannot get sick of it. It is the Christmas CD that I listen to the most too. I listen to it all the time. The thing that I love most about this play is the music, and the lyrics to the music. My very favorite songs being, "I cannot find my way" and "Arise and Shine Forth" (seehere) I have a few others that I love love love, one being Let Him In, He Was Here, and Handels Dream. I love Let Him In. The words of this song are perfect for not only Christmas time, but that we need to remember to let Christ into our lives during the rest of the year as well. We get so wrapped up in our busy lives that we forget to take time to stop and think, what this season is all about and why we are here. Micheal Mclean emphasizes this a lot during the whole play. There were a few songs that kind of hit my hard during this whole play, one of them called What I Need. The lyrics were:

All I ever wanted, all I ever dreamed of, everything
I hoped and all I ever prayed for, couldn’t hold
a candle to what I’ve been given, I’ve been
given what I need.

Jake is perfect for me. He is exactly what I have always wanted and I am so grateful for him. He is so wonderful to me and I think the world of him! He exceeds any expectation that I ever had in who my husband was going to be. The song goes on:

And even when I didn’t understand, when I thought
you had no heart, thank you for rejecting my demands,
and always giving me the better part.

This part made me think a lot about where my life was a year ago and where it is now. I always got so frustrated with dating and frustrated with my life. I was confused about where I was supposed to be going and what I was supposed to be doing with my life. I had my life planned out with how I thought it should be and what I thought I should be doing, but nothing seemed to work out, everything would fall through, and I'd be back where I started. To see how frustrated I was then and to see how wonderful my life is now.

At the end of the play Micheal Mclean comes out and they sing the Arise and Shine Forth song and then he has everyone link arms and he sings a song and has everyone join in and sing at the end when you sing "We can be together forever someday" and you sing it over and over, I have done this in the 4 times previous to this time with whoever I was with, once an awkward first date, in Rexburg twice with roommates, last year with my good friends from High School, Brandon and Jason, but this time it meant a lot more to me, because I was with Jake. And we are going to be together forever. I am so grateful for him and the wonderful example that he is to me. He always makes me want to be a better person, to do better. I love him so much and am SOOO excited for May 8th when we get to go to the Salt Lake Temple, and kneel across the alter from each other and be sealed together for time and all eternity. I couldn't think of any other person in the world that I would rather be marrying. I love you so much Jake!!!

Engagement Pictures

Our Engagements are done! Yay! Here is a sneak peak of a few of our favorites :) And can I just say that we LOVE our photographer...anyone in Northern Utah looking for a photographer, Shanda Photography is the way to go! GREAT prices and GREAT pictures! And she is so sweet!

Thanksgiving and such....

Jake and I had such a fun {first} Thanksgiving together! It started out Thursday in Manti, I had to work that morning but I got off as soon as I could and we headed down there to meet up with the rest of the family. We met everyone at the field where we always go shooting and joined in! Jake was so happy to be shooting his gun, it has been a few months since he is so busy with school and work! He had a blast! After shooting we headed home to finish up dinner and to eat...

Jake shooting skeet with Colton and Justin

Trying out Colton's pistol

After shooting we headed home to finish up dinner....

But the boys all went outside and shot airsoft guns....

Grandma cooking :) She is so cute!

Grandpa gathered the whole family in the dining room for some important family announcements....Tyler got his mission call to the Wisconsin Milwaukee Spanish Speaking Mission, and Jake and I are getting married! yay! Congrats everyone!

The girls, except for Amber and I

Amber and I after dinner

Later that night Jake and I went on a walk up to the Manti temple, it's only about 2-3 blocks from my Grandparents house so even though it was *freezing* it was fun!

Manti Temple

Bright and Early (3:30 am) Friday morning Jake and I got up and headed to Wal-Mart for some crazy shopping!!

We were like 5th in line for the TV, we got a ticket! yay!

Jake with our purchases...yes those are DVDs and there are 27 of them :) They were all 2 and 5 dollars!

Me with our purchases

When we got back to Provo on Friday Jake's brothers called and wanted to go shooting! haha, so we did! We had a lot of fun shooting targets and some more skeet. I even have the bruises to prove I shot Matt's shotgun...one of the most painful guns I have ever shot in my life, but had fun! This picture is of Jake's brother Matt and my cute *future* sister-in-law Chantel.

Jake shooting a car mirror we found with Matt's shotgun.

All the guns...yes these belong to only 3 boys....and this isn't even all of the ones they own!

The brothers having competitions.

Then Saturday we headed to the Stadium for the big game! We were so excited!!

During halftime the BYU and UTAH marching bands played a song together, it was awesome!

Shot of the scoreboard...up by 4...still scary though...

GO COUGARS!!!

Up by a little bit more...but still nerve racking because Utah is playing very well!!!

Row 8 seats, loving it!

At this point we were starting to feel a little bit safe...but it didn't last long! Utah was not giving up that easy!

It was sooo cold! I was wishing I had this guys hat....

AHHH of course they won't go down without a fight!! Sitting on the edge of our seats at this point!

AND they pulled through!! YAY COUGARS!!!!!!! We were soooo excited! But glad that Utah played soooo well, the game wouldn't be near as exciting or fun if they didn't have such a good team to put up a good fight. With a game this close you can't necessarily say one team is better than the other per say. But I am a very PROUD COUGAR FAN!!!!

Rushing the field!

Jake and I in the pandemonium of the field after the game, it was crazy but exciting!

Good game Cougars! And Utes!

Overall we had such a fun Thanksgiving, it was so crazy and busy constantly that today we are takin it easy. Jake said "We should upload our pictures on the computer" I got out my computer and before I even had the pictures uploaded he was asleep on the couch, and still is....we are exhausted though after such a long, fun week! Thanks family for hanging out with us so much, it was so fun to see you all!!

{Wedding Colors}

I have officially decided on wedding colors! Well I actually decided on some already but I have changed now! I am thinking Red and Aqua (I'm actually not sure what the color is called...it's like teal, turquoise, tiffany blue...something along those lines) I know it probably sounds scary, but I love it :) And I'm SO excited!