love day

dawson goes on a snowmobiling trip every presidents day weekend, and most years this also falls on valentines day.  to be honest -GASP- i don't mind at all!

i know i sound like a holiday hater, but i'm not.  we always celebrate before he goes and it's even better because restaurants aren't crowded and we can go wherever we want.

plus dawson always sends me some sort of present in the mail AND diana took me and jen to grand america to get massages and facials.  now i just sound obnoxious because i'm really getting more spoiled than i would if dawson was actually in town, so i'll just stop here.

anyway, our valentines day celebration (aka love day) was fabulous.  we spent the day together and went to mazza for dinner where we dipped our fries in so much garlic aoili sauce you could smell the garlic on our breath from a mile away.

i love my valentine and am so grateful that he is mine forever.  and that he'll still kiss me even when i have garlic breath.  now that is true love.

all hallow's eve

being the hard-working, money-making woman that i am, i have worked night shifts the past 2 halloweens.  

ok i admit, it wasn't necessarily by choice. but i wasn't missing out on much, so i wasn't too disappointed.

this year however, we had a PARTY to go to, and i was lucky enough to only work a day shift.  

elise was the hostess with mostest, and threw the party at her dad's mortuary.  very fitting for halloween, right?

us and the millers have been working out like fiends lately, so it was only fitting that we were the biggest losers.

everyone else put together fabulous costumes, as you can see from the picture above.

and just in case you wanted more pictures from our married people party (i know you do...), here you go:

us wives are very adorable and festive, as you can see from our amazing halloween themed treats ^

seriously though, i wish that really was my butt. ^ i need a little more junk in the trunk.

much thanks to these old farts for throwing such a wicked partay ^

^ kayley and i really embraced the costume and ate enough sugar to actually give us diabetes.

happy halloween 2013!!!

hey punkin

we decided we just HAD to get our pumpkins from a legit pumpkin patch this year.

i mean, how else could we be expected to carve legit pumpkins?

never mind the fact that we were the only people there without little kids.  nbd.

because we are now officially in full out halloween spirit!

4th of july

even though i had to work in the day, ash and i celebrated the best we knew how:

eating as many calories as possible and wearing our red, white and blue.

the 4th of july is especially dear to our hearts, ever since we were in europe together

and cried with each other when we heard a song playing about america.

we went to sugarhouse park with steve and kayley and the rest of salt lake city.

it's debatable whether we had more fun people watching or firework watching,

but either way it was a perfect 4th of july evening with great friends.

love love love

as you can see from above, i am trying to type with a sleeping couch hog pup and a husband by my side.  but let me just tell you, i couldn't be happier.  dawson got back in town today after being gone for FOUR nights (annual snowmobiling trip, boo).  i worked night shifts while he was gone so that i wouldn't have to sleep home alone at night.  since i didn't want poor dash to feel abandoned, he spent the long weekend at my parents house.  it was a good idea in theory, right?

i have come to find out that i am not meant to live alone.  after just 4 days of working all night and sleeping most the day, then being alone for the few hours i had before work, i had borderline fallen into a depression.  and by borderline i mean completely.  i had to call dawson before work for pep talks so i didn't turn my car around and drive to my parents house.  am i making myself sound mentally weak? so be it.

anyway, bottom line.  it made me realize how grateful i am for my boys.  even if we're just hanging out at the house watching 4 hours straight of downton abbey (not that we just did that or anything...), i am perfectly content.

so now that i have made this a mushy love post, i am going to finish up with our valentines day celebration.  we faked like valentines was monday since dawson was going to be gone on actual valentines day, and we celebrated all day long.  does it seem like all of our celebrations involve lots of unhealthy food?  don't judge us.

surprise breakfast of homemade german pancakes // shirtless husband // beautiful roses // 

dinner at marketstreet (thanks to a gift card) // fondue at melting pot // the movie side effects // 

episodes of dexter in bed // early bedtime since i worked the next day // perfect fake valentines day

NYE

hello 2013!  

we were able to say goodbye to 2012 in style.  what's a more appropriate NYE dinner than chinese food?  asian Star with our favorite couples.  the host must not have realized that america is not as crowded as china, because he found it necessary to jam all 14 of us into a tiny round table.  dawson and i decided it was good preparation for our china trip (which is only 8 days away!).

then we headed to my parents basement, because none of us have places big enough to accommodate this large of a group. #newlywedproblems.  it was a little reminiscent of a high school party, but we are obviously MUCH more mature now than we were back then... maybe.  at least we all knew who we were kissing at midnight.  

we played the "newlywed (or newly engaged) game" and it was hilarious.  i was very impressed because there were less fights than i anticipated (maybe because there was a little bit of cheating along the way).  the two engaged couples were the winners, and i'm not quite sure what that means for the rest of us married folk?  

it was a very successful, home and asleep by 2am, married NYE party.  dawson and i still need to make our new years resolutions, so i'll write about those as soon as we think of them (i will probably have to see what everyone else's resolutions are and steal theirs).    

now to finish things off, here is some very good looking PDA:

a kent christmas

the christmas celebration never stops!

we were so happy to be able to watch our nieces and nephew open presents this year.

there is nothing more magical about christmas than a little kid opening a present from santa.

and it doesn't hurt that we have the absolute cutest nieces and nephew around!

it was so funny watching them open all their presents.

presley opened them all as fast as she could so she could,

while maybelle had to open and play with each present before she could move on to the next.

baby merida, barbie cruise ship (that i loved almost as much as presley), and the dress ups 

were the big hits this year and rightfully so.

the toys they have for kids these days are amazing!

i wish i could play with them all without having to feel a little embarrassed.

then came time for the adult presents!!!

diana and blair spoiled us all rotten.

ipads, snowmobiling gear, clothes, traveling gear, etc. were showered upon us.

but the real highlight of my christmas presents was this:

don't mind the blurriness, just focus on the joy

you know you are a grown up when you get excited about getting a blender!

dawson and i look up "will it blend" videos on youtube all the time,

and i have been dreaming of the time that i would one day own a blendtec.

well the time has come, and you can bet i have been blending away on a daily basis!

another great idea by diana this year was christmas bingo!

it was similar to the white elephant game where you can either open or steal someone's present.

the battle was intense and things might have gotten a little competitive...

but luckily all the gifts were amazing so we all ended up with something awesome.

it was a lot of fun and hopefully the start of a new tradition!

now christmas festivities and christmas music are over for a whole year.

boo.

but at least we will have lots of healthy blended smoothies to look forward too!

a whittingham christmas

(we were so crazy busy this christmas that i decided to divide it up into two posts)

we spent christmas eve with the whittingham side,

enjoying a christmas eve dinner at the ever classy el rancherito.

then we decided that to keep our yearly nativity reenactment to ourselves was just selfish.

so we headed over to the beehive house (and assisted living home) to put on a christmas eve show.

we've visited the beehive house on christmas eve before, but not for a very long time.

i'm pretty sure the last time we went i had braces on and baby jesus was an real baby cousin.

at first it was a little embarrassing, seeing as how we are all so grown up now...

(dawson was shocked that we keep this tradition up when most of us are 16+)
and the fact that our "costumes" are from grandma nancy's collection over the past 40 years,

but the audience loved it and i think it helped all of us remember the true meaning of christmas.

and even though mary and joseph look good with a baby, don't be expecting a real kent baby anytime soon.

we went over to grandmas nancy's after for a little cousin time

and a "practical" white elephant party which included toilet paper as one of the gifts.

(don't worry, it was unused)

and of course a few impromptu dance performances.

if you thought julie's dance skills were limited to the running man, you were sorely mistaken.

we spent the night at my parents house,

and then first thing in the morning we headed over to the kents 

so we could watch presley and maybelle open presents!

which could possibly have been the highlight of the day.

then it was BACK to my parents (we're lucky our parents live 5 minutes apart)

to open presents with the princess of the family, kylie,

who was a little upset that we had to wait til afternoon to open her presents,

but we appreciate her being so patient with us.

then the other best part of christmas (you can never have too many best parts of christmas)

was talking to elder whittingham on the phone!

unfortunately his mission president won't let them skype,

but it was wonderful to at least talk to him for a solid two hours.

he is doing great over there in new zealand,

but we are very grateful that we will be able to have him home for next christmas.

we had an amazing christmas this year,
and are so blessed that we are able to live so close to family.

and this was only half of it!!!

get ready to hear about "a kent christmas" soon...