Taylor Swift AND the Hunger Games

This is a beautiful song performed by Taylor Swift and The Civil Wars.

It is called Safe and Sound and will be in the upcoming film The Hunger Games!

I know, right?

Isn't it the greatest...Taylor Swift and the Hunger Games?

I hope you like this song as much as I do because I instantly fell in love!

Hope ya'll are having an awesome break!

xoxo

Christmas break...finally.

Ok ok ok...

I know.

I haven't blogged again for like a week.

But the excitement has sorta worn off.

Nothing new. Nothing to write about.

Another semester has come and gone and I am so thrilled for it to be over.

We are here in San Diego visiting my family and it is just lovely.

We went to church yesterday, and baked most of the morning today.

And tonight, we are having a little Hawaiian Christmas party with some of our friends and family.

I love it and am so excited to be hanging out and doing nothing but celebrating the Christmas season!!

For now, enjoy this new Jimmy Kimmel clip:

xoxo

Alex is 25!

This is late. I apologize.

But, I've been busy with school...ya know, the important stuff in life. HA!

We did have time to celebrate Alex's 25th birthday last weekend though.

During the day, we watched the BYU vs. Oregon basketball game at the Jazz stadium in SLC

and then we went out to dinner with some friends at the Cheesecake Factory.

I don't care what people say, I love that place.

Can you say peppermint bark cheesecake? So good.

I've said this already countless times, Alex, but happy birthday!

You're the bestest! ;)

xoxo

SANTAAAAAA!!!! -Elf

A few days ago, we put up our Christmas tree.

I love Christmas.

It's my favorite.

Anything remotely related to Christmas is my favorite actually--

the lights, the music, the stockings, the trees, the presents ;)

Hope you all are getting into the spirit, as well!

Have a good Saturday everyone!

xoxo

my favorites

This is why she is my FAVORITE:

This is why she is my second FAVORITE:

Amazing, right?

I wish I was Jessie J.

Have a good one, y'all!

xoxo

Families Rock!

Here is our week with my family in pictures:

xoxo

I am thankful...

I know that Thanksgiving has already come and gone,

but that is no reason to not express our gratitude.

In church today, the speaker read us a mother's thankful list of "100 things" and told us to do the same, so here we go:

I am thankful for:

1) A husband that loves me.

2) My family who drove all the way out here from San Diego

3) The sunshine

4) Babies and young children

5) Beaches

6) Chocolate Milk

7) The gospel of Jesus Christ

8) Diet Coke

9) Cell phones

10) Internet

11) Smelly candles

12) Showers and Baths

13) Hardwood floors

14) In laws at I LOVE!

15) Baby animals

16) Funny youtube videos

17) Halloween candy

18) Hunter Boots

19) Pictures/Cameras

20) Perogies--they taste so good!!

21) Airplanes

22) Sleeping in

23) Missionaries

24) Cars--even if they're ghetto

25) Microscopes

26) Hair

27) Kitchen Aids

28) Chocolate Chip Cookies

29) Smiles

30) Birthday Parties

31) Christmas decorations

32) My sight and hearing

33) The Prophet

34) Singing

35) Surfing

36) My childhood in Hawaii

37) Hot chocolate

38) A warm home to come to

39) Summer time

40) Fall leaves

41) Conversation

42) Boots, boots, boots!

43) Freedom and free agency

44) The Holy Ghost

45) Scary movies

46) Pizza

47) Smell of coffee

48) Sales/Bargains

49) Paintings/Art

50) The support from my family and friends

51) Doctors without Borders

52) Electricity

53) Fireplaces

54) Friday Night Lights--the TV show

55) Laptops

56) School/Education

57) My brain

58) Other people's brains...

59) Research

60) Exercise

61) My study Abroad Experience

62) Diversity in this world

63) My wedding ring

64) Banana Grams

65) The scriptures

66) Chocolate milk

67) Repentance and Forgiveness

68) Nordstrom

69) History

70) Musicals/plays

71) My parents and the sacrifices they have made

72) Clean laundry

73) Friends that treat me like family

74) Hummus

75) The Dollar Theatre

76) Mea Girls, the movie

77) Makeup and perfume

78) The month of October

79) Scary movies

80) "Alone time" with Alex ;)

81) Fashion Bloggers

82) The leaders of our church--Bishops, counselors, teachers, etc

83) Temple Sealings

84) Music on the radio

85) Seminary

86) The feeling of security/safety

87) The primary program

88) Elf

89) Colored tights

90) Parenthood, the show

91) Pianists

92) Cinnamon Toast Crunch

93) God's mercy

94) Scarves

95) The Atonement

96) My dad's help

97) My mom's friendship

98) Christmas trees

99) Nail polish

100) My Lord, and Savior Jesus Christ

There you have it folks!

We all have so much to be grateful for

and I recommend you all do this--it tells a lot about you and your life!

Happy Thanksgiving you guys and good luck on Monday morning with getting back to reality.

I will be right there with ya!

xoxo

family

My family comes in tonight from San Diego!

I'm. so. excited.

We haven't seen them since the open house in Oregon so it has definitely been too long!

I know they're not too excited about the drive, but hopefully they will have a smooth, safe drive up here with no accidents and no snow, please.

I cant wait to see you guys!!

xoxo

the modern day beehive updo

This is how the girls of my grandmother's day wore their hair--the Beehive.

This is how girls are wearing their hair today...

I call it the modern day beehive or the BIG bun.

(it looks even bigger in real life)

To get this "beehive" look, all you gotta do is:

1) Put your hair in a high ponytail

2)Tease your hair by taking strands of it and back-combing it with a brush or comb...this makes it nice and big, and full of knots! ;)

3) Take your teased hair and swoop it around in a counter clockwise fashion

4) Pin it down and secure it with bobby pins.

And that's it! Have a go! It's super easy and very cute!

xoxo

Winter Wonderland

Last night Alex and I, on a friday night, stayed in our bed from 5 pm to about 9 pm

watching Friday Night Lights on Netflix.

Boring, right? Wrong!!

That show is so good...we love it.

Then we decided to go out and get slurpees from 7/11.

When we walked outside, it was a straight up blizzard!

It was snowing so hard and it was absolutely beautiful!

Today I woke up to this:

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!!

xoxo

A J Biebs Cover

So if you guys have watched The X Factor at all,

you have probably noticed the incredibly talented Drew Ryniewicz

(or however you spell her last name).

Anyway, for her first audition on the show she idd a cover of Justin Bieber's Baby, but messed around with it and made it her own.

I did a cover of her version and here it is!!

I hope you guys like it!

(ps notice the homemade capo I made out of a pencil? haha)

Happy Wednesday everyone!!

xoxo

fall cookies= pumpkin cookies

I am so behind, but last week I made chocolate-chip pumpkin cookies

and they were soooo delicious!!

...and healthy?

Do you see the orange? Mmmm... pumpkin!!

Add the flour...

Chocolate chips and cinnamon? Yes please.

Kitchen Aids are great.

You should make some because they will make you oh so happy.

xoxo

red robin...yuuuuuuum!

I don't know if it's because I grew up in Hawaii with tons of good food and few chain restaurants,

or if my dad--a midwestern by birth, a food snob at heart--never liked chain restaurants,

so we never went to them, but I have never really liked chain restaurants.

I guess when I was a kid I liked 'em, but every kid just likes to go out to eat--it doesn't matter where.

Restaurants like Applebees, Chilis, Dennys, etc etc etc have never really been my thang, if you know what I mean?

Im more or a sushi- curry-lettuce wraps- gyro-kind of girl.

I guess you could say I'm a food snob in some sense.

(I blame my dad.)

So what's my point?

My point is, when Alex asked me if I had ever been to Red Robin and my response was no,

he was astonished.

"Everyone has been to Red Robin!" he said.

Well, not me, and I wasn't ecstatic about trying it on Saturday night.

I wasn't mad we were going there, just a little bit skeptical.

But, we sat down with our friends at a table, ordered our food, and then ate our food.

Funny huh? At a restaurant...who would have thought?

I got the Boneless Buffalo Wings with Ranch dressing...

and it turns out, they're one of my favorite foods.

I just LOVE the spicy, distinct flavor they have...they're just so good!

Really bad for you, but very tasty.

I guess I'm trying to say that not all chain restaurants are gross. :)

I would still choose sushi 100 times over wings, but I'm more of a fan now.

Well, keep on enjoying those high-caloric, greasy, I'm- gonna- barf- as- soon- as- I-get- up- from- this- table- because- I- ate- that, food you all eat at one time or another!

I have got to hit the gym!!

xoxo

halloween is over (cue the sad face)

...and I dont even have any candy to get me through the month of November!

Sucks being an adult and not getting to go trick or treating, right?

While I don't have any candy,

I do have this hilarious video about parents telling their kids that they ate all of their Halloween candy.

Take a look!!

The last kids are priceless huh?

Alex and I are totally doing this to our kids one day...

xoxo

A freakin' night to remember!

Last night Alex and I went to the Halloween party of the year...no ever!

Literally, this will probably be the biggest thing we have ever gone to!

People fly in from out of state to come to this party!

It was at a film producer's house--aka the biggest house I have ever seen in real life!

Think four stories with a home theatre, dance studio, "play room" with a stage and real performance lighting, flat screens in multiple rooms, balconies, a pool and pool house...yeah!

I would like to live there, thankyouverymuch!

So this is a private (guest list and all!), pirate-themed party and, man do they go all out!

Our friends that we went with said it takes about a month to set up everything!

First you walk in and there is all this stuff--projectors (the same ones they use at Disnleyland!) with ships and seas on them that look amazingly real, a ship with a talking stone girl at the head of it, a mausoleum with a ghost in it--I don't know how they did it, but it was sick!

There was also amazing decorations inside including a ghost head in a crystal ball that talked to you, a skeleton that played the piano, and not to mention they had actors, like Jack Sparrow, walking around and entertaining.

So funny story, we were walking by the pool and we see someone swimming and I said, "Is that someone swimming or do they have a freaking mermaid in their pool too?" I said it jokingly of course and the next thing I knew a mermaid swam up to us and started talking with us. So cool!

They also had a live "pirate band" that walked around playing and a professional photographer that would take your picture, edit it, and print it out for you! So fun! ...oh yeah, the food was catered, of course!

Here are some of our pictures:

Oh yeah, did I mention that besides all the scantily-clad middle-aged women--welcome to the Real Housewives of Utah-- flava flav, the "hid yo wife, hide yo kids", and Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite were there? What!?

I mean they are D-list celebrities, but nevertheless it was sick and they were really nice!

Everyone was!

Well I hope you Friday night was as fun as ours! Have a Happy Halloween!

xoxo