Banner of Love

Weitzeil Christmas Party

I always look forward to the annual Weitzeil Christmas party at Grandpa Weitzeil's house in Mt. Green, UT. It's always a party with the Weitzeil's! We ate an amazing dinner and exchanged gifts. It a great night with the cousins!

Merry Christmas

Growing up, I could never sleep on Christmas Eve. I was always so excited for Christmas morning that I would toss and turn the entire night. I thought that would change once I got married, but I was wrong. I think I was even more excited this year since it was our first Christmas together. I feel like I didn't even sleep. I was up at the crack of dawn and so was Chad, not by his choice. I couldn't help but jump on him and yell, "Merry Christmas!!" He wasn't too excited about getting up at 7 am :)

We spoiled each other... probably a little too much. I got Chad a Remington 12 gauge shotgun (with a case and ammo), shoes, multiple shirts and pants, a water pik, "Crazy, Stupid Love" (one of our favorite movies), a pretzel maker (Chad looooves pretzels!) and basketball shorts. Chad got me a Michael Kors watch and wallet (I am obsessed!!!), a curling iron, a nail gel set, pearl earrings & necklace, perfume, iphone charger and a nice facial cleanser. I love everything he got me, it was amazing!

I made pancakes and eggs for breakfast. We spent the morning playing with our new gadgets. At 3 pm, we went to Chad's parents house for a family party. We had an amazing meal and spent the night talking with each other. Julie and John gave us Scrabble and cards, which we are so excited for... we have hardly any games, so it will be fun to start our collection. We got multiple gift cards to restaurants and stores and a gift basket full of stuff from Chad's parents. They are so sweet!

We went over to my parents after the party. We gave my parents each a book and they gave us multiple gift cards to restaurants so we could have "date nights", my favorite! We are so excited to use them!! It has been such an amazing Christmas. I can't believe how fast the day always flies by. I am so excited to spend many more with Chad!!

Ruger, the family dog :)

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is one of my favorite days during the holidays. I love the excitement and anticipation for Christmas. Normally we go to Magleby's for breakfast as a family, but since they've recently closed, we went to Magleby's Fresh instead. My parents, Sean, Mike & Somre and their family met us there. I had buttermilk pancakes and bacon, it was delightful!

Every year we do a white elephant gift exchange. We usually do it at the restaurant, but the restaurant was packed so we decided to go back to mine and Chad's house since we were already in Provo. Sadly, we locked our keys in the car, which had our house keys on them. We had to call our land lord to come unlock the door. What an adventure!

It was fun to have the family come to our little home. We don't have company that often, so when we do, it's a big deal :) The white elephant exchange was a success. I won a nice water bottle and some candy. Chad won a cool basketball hoop that we hung on a door in our living room. We love a little one vs. one :)

Later in the afternoon, we went up to my parents house and played in the snow. My Dad got out the four wheeler and connected a big sled to the back. Me, Lidi and Bella jumped in the back and enjoyed a few rides around the neighborhood. It was fun except for my frozen bum (I guess thats what I get for wearing leggings and no snow pants) and achy back. I must be getting old.

We played games and warmed up by the fire. Chad and I went to dinner with his brother, Stephen & Sarah and their kids, at Cafe Rio. That was our best option, we tried 5 other restaurants but they were all closed. It's a good thing Cafe Rio is one of our favorite restaurants :) It was a great night with them!

We went back to our house to enjoy the night together. We decided to start a tradition that we open one gift from each other before bed. Chad gave me a set of 5 different polka dot iPhone 5 cases. They are soo cute! I gave him a card game :)

My mom told me about their first Christmas when my parents were first married, and she said how they slept in their living room under the tree. That sounded like a fun idea, so we set up a little bed in our living room and watched Elf until we fell asleep. It was a great Christmas Eve!

Holiday Spirit

Christmas spirit has been ringing throughout the DeVore house today. From the various "Christmas scented" candles lit throughout the house, last minute purchases at the mall, "Deck the Halls" by Frank Sinatra playing on FM 100, all the presents neatly wrapped, placed and positioned under the tree, and most importantly, my fresh holiday painted nails (just kidding, of course) I can say we are ready for Christmas. Let the holidays officially begin!

Chad's mom made this cute decoration for us. It matches our living room perfectly. I love it!

When we went to Disneyworld in November, we decided to pick out our first ornament (since it's our first Christmas together) for our souvenir. This is what we came home with :)

I haven't had a real Christmas tree since I was a little kid. Growing up, my family always had a fake tree that we rolled up and put in the storage room. Chad and I decided to get a real tree since we don't have a lot of storage. When we got the tree, we were really diligent about taking care of it. We cut a few inches off the stem to allow the tree to soak up water and we made sure it always had plenty of water. A few days had passed, and we realized we completely forgot about watering the tree. By that time, the bottom of the tree had already closed up and so there was no hope for the tree. It has slowly died, and now it is completely dead. I turned on the lights for the picture, but other than that, we never turn on the lights because we are afraid it will start a fire. It's hard to tell in the picture, but we are lucky it's still standing :)

Temple Square

Since Christmas is just around the corner, we decided to head up to Salt Lake to check out the lights on Temple Square.

We stopped at The Pie Pizzeria in South Jordan for dinner. We sat by the fire and enjoyed live music from a local musician while we devoured our pizza.... which was amazing :)

It was a chilly night! We got our cup of cocoa and weaved through the crowds of people to see the lights at Temple Square. There were so many people there that we didn't stay long. We eventually made our way to the City Creek mall and did some shopping... my favorite!

My parents took Sean and some friends to the cabin for his birthday. Chad and I are staying at their house to watch Ruger (the family dog). It has been a great night, I always love date night :)

Skidmore Christmas Party

I feel like it has been forever since I last posted. Life has been crazy the last few weeks. After a week with a cough and raspy voice, I finally went to the urgent care and looks like I have bronchitis.... yahoo! Amongst the cough drops, steroids, antibiotics, and cough syrup, I think it is finally starting to go away. Hopefully all the meds will kick in before the holidays! Wish me luck :)

(Doing the breathing test at the urgent care :)

Last weekend we had our annual Skidmore (my mom's side of the family) Christmas party. This year it was held at Ryan and Jen's house. They just moved into a beautiful house up in Morgan, UT. We gathered at 5 pm and had a wonderful dinner which consisted of ham, cheesy funeral potatoes, rolls, salads, and tons of desserts.

The best part of the party is the white elephant exchange. Every adult brings a $10 white elephant. Chad brought a handyman (knife, flashlight, etc.) kit and I brought a set of nail polishes that came with 5 different colors. The game is always so intense. There were so many great gifts to choose from, but I had my mind set on the Saver's special... an old sewing machine from Savers, along with a $10 gift card to Target (brought by my brother Michael). There were 4 steals left in the game, and me and my cousin were stealing the silly sewing machine back and forth. With just my luck, the game ended and I got the sewing machine! Who knows if it even works (I still haven't tried it out), but at least I still get the gift card and a pretty cool suitcase that it came in ;)

It was a great night with the family. It gets me so excited for Christmas to come so we can spend more time with them!

Jazz vs. Spurs

Chad surprised me with tickets to the Jazz game tonight. We left our house at 6:30 and went to the Gateway to do a little shopping before the game.

The game started at 8:30 pm. We stocked up on hot dogs and soda and found our seats in the upper bowl. We had pretty good seats at center court. It was pretty intense the entire game. The people sitting behind us were guzzling down beer after beer. Lets just say they we're a little drunk, it was entertaining :)

With 5 seconds left of the game, they were tied at 96. At the last second, Mo Williams shot a 3-pointer and won the game! It was such a great game and a fun night with Chad!

A Decade of Journals

My first journal entry was in 2002, I was ten years old. Ever since then, I have had a hobby of writing in my journal. I felt like it was almost an addiction to me, I HAD to write every day, even if nothing exciting happened. It was a way to express my feelings, especially when I felt like I couldn't tell anyone else. I wrote everyday until I started dating Chad... then my time became more occupied :)

I had a neat experience last week. My day was super stressful and I had a lot on my mind. Sadly, I wasn't in the best mood, and I wasn't being the best wife... Chad can probably second that :) I had a thought to pull out my journals and skim through them. I have 10 journals that are in 3-ring binders, which equals to 100+ pages. The first post I turned to was from October 2011. It was an entry from my institute class. There was one phrase that particularly stuck out to me. This is what it said, "Anger is of the devil". I instantly felt bad for my the way I was acting. I quickly apologized and changed my behavior. I am so grateful for the inspiration I had at the moment to open to that specific page. Out of the hundreds of pages, why did I turn to that one? It was a testimony to me that God works in simple, but powerful ways.

Fainting Spells

Yesterday was an interesting day. I am in the process of being trained as a tech at work, so I shadowed Lauren with the first patient. During the first part of the screening, I started feeling nauseous, so I sat on the chair until we moved into another room. 15 minutes later, I noticed my vision started to get blurry and I knew I was going to pass out (I have fainted before so I recognized the symptoms). I told Lauren, and she said that I could leave the room, but I decided to wait until Dr. Myers was done talking with the patient so I wouldn't interrupt. My hands started going numb, and I knew it was too late.

Luckily, Lauren noticed that I had passed out and she grabbed me so I didn't fall onto the ground and she called for help. Kailyn and Kellie came in the room and helped me onto the ground. Luckily, the patient had gone with Dr. Myers to try out the glasses, so she didn't see me pass out. About a minute later I woke up and couldn't remember what had happened. I felt so shaky and weak so I laid on the ground for 5 minutes.

Usually when I don't eat and I get really hungry, I get the fainting symptoms. I wasn't sure why I passed out because I had eaten breakfast 20 minutes before, so I wasn't even hungry. After talking with the ladies in the office about throwing up 3 times on our vacation in Florida (even though I didn't feel sick) and after the incident today, I decided that I should probably go see my family Dr.

At my appointment, I explained my symptoms to the Doctor. I had previous blood work done a couple months ago, and he assured to me that I don't have diabetes or hypoglycemia. He wasn't able to diagnose the problem without doing another blood test. He mentioned that they were going to test my blood for thyroid problems and a pregnancy test (I can't remember the other tests he said he was going to test for). I had 3 tablespoons of blood drawn and I headed up to my parents house for lunch.

As I was driving, I started feeling nauseous and weak again. I sped to my parents house before it started getting worse. Right when I pulled up, I ran up the stairs and laid on the couch. I was feeling miserable. I felt the urge to throw up, but I just held it in because I absolutely hate throwing up. My mom came home just a few minutes after. I explained the story to her and my emotions were just so strong, I couldn't stop crying. I just hate feeling sick!!

As I would get off the couch to go to the bathroom, I felt so nauseous, that I would just lay back down. I called in sick at work. Chad was so sweet and brought me chicken noodle soup and a smoothie from Kneaders for lunch. Once he left back to work, I slept for 3 hours.

I am so anxious to get the results back from my blood work. Hopefully I will hear from the Dr. soon!

Preston's Baby Blessing

Stephanie & Taylor's church started at 8 am.... can you believe that?! That's earlier than I have to get up for work! We went to bed pretty late the night before which made it even harder to get up at 6:30 am. Our hotel had a really nice continental breakfast. We stuffed our faces and headed to their church. Mike & Somre came up as well as my parents and Sean. The blessing was really nice. Taylor did a great job with the prayer. I felt bad because I was so tired that I couldn't stay awake during Sacrament meeting. I haven't been this tired in a long time!

After the meeting, we went back to their house. We ate cinnamon rolls and a breakfast casserole since it was only 9 am. I played with the girls, I love spending time with them. They are my absolute favorite. It was a great day at their house.

We got on the road at 3 pm. Chad and I slept almost the entire ride home. We were so grateful that Ryan & Christine drove. It was nice to sit in the back seat and sleep. It was such a great weekend with family, I am so grateful for such amazing examples in my life.

Road Trip

Saturday morning, at the last minute, we decided to go up to Idaho for Preston's baby blessing with Ryan & Christine. We met them at Mimi's Cafe for breakfast at 11 am. We enjoyed a nice breakfast together.

After breakfast, we got in the car with them and headed towards Idaho. We stopped at City Creek in Salt Lake to break up the drive time. I wasn't complaining, I will shop whenever I have the opportunity! We walked around for about an hour and then headed on our way. It's a 3 1/2 hour drive to Twin Falls. Chad and I slept for part of the way, we couldn't get too comfortable in their car. We arrived around 5 pm.

Stephanie and Taylor just moved into a new house earlier this week. My parents, Taylor's parents and siblings were staying at the house for the weekend. We decided to stay at a hotel to avoid the stress and craziness. We checked in to La Quinta and relaxed for a minute. Our hotel room was really nice! I was really impressed. 

We went to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. None of us had eaten there except for Chad. It was really good!
After dinner we went to Stephanie's house out in Kimberly, ID. Their house is so cute! They are still in the process of moving in, but it is looking good. I am so happy for them.

The hotel had a pretty nice pool and hot tub. We headed back to our hotel to take a swim. It was a great night together as a family. I am so excited to be up here and to be with everyone tomorrow.

BYU vs.Montana

We have season tickets for the BYU Men's basketball team. We have loved having them because it gives us something to do at least once a week. The home games are at the Marriott center in Provo, but this week it was a the Energy Solutions arena in SLC. We were excited to get out of Provo and venture up to Salt Lake.

The game started at 7 pm. One of our favorite parts of going to the games is the food. We loooove getting hotdogs, ice cream and other treats to watch the game. I know it's not the healthiest or cheapest thing for dinner, but we like to think it as part of the experience :)

BYU slaughtered the the other team. They were ahead by at least 10 points the entire game. It was such a fun night together!! I sure do love Chad, he is the best decision I have made in my life!

NBA vs. Craft Night

My husband is glued to the Jazz game on TV.... what am I left to do? Craft!

Christmas is just around the corner, which means time to replace the fall banner with a festive Christmas one. I love my fireplace. It completes my living room. I feel like it's the only spot in the room where I can hang my crafts. It has been my goal, while we living in this house, to make a banner for each holiday. As long as there are still sports on TV, I'm sure I'll have plenty of time :)

Supplies:

8 ft yarn

stapler

16 medium doilies

red paper

cardstock

tape

glue

It took me an hour to complete this project. I probably would've done it quicker if the Jazz game wasn't so intense. I kept getting distracted :)

Black Friday

I love shopping, always have, always will. It brings me joy. What brings me even greater joy, are great deals while I'm shopping. Which is why I LOVE Black Friday. Some people may call me crazy to shop all night (10 pm to 5:30 am) but I call it pure bliss. This year, I found some killer deals. I would announce my findings, but I don't want to reveal my secrets to Chaddy boy. All I can say is it was a success :)

A Grateful Heart

I know I'm a little late, but this is one post I couldn't forget...Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Family time, a grateful heart and incredible food (of course)... what could be better than that?

This year for Thanksgiving we went to my grandma Skidmore's house in Delta. She lives on a farm with 160 acres. After an hour and 15 minutes (it would've been 2 hours, but Chad likes to race family members ;) we arrived at the farm. I have many fond memories from my childhood at the farm so I always love going back. I was even more excited because this was Chad's first time to experience the Delta life.

The big meal was at one o'clock sharp! This year was a little different than other years. Since we got home from Florida the day before, I was sick of eating because we ate so crappy the entire trip. So, stuffing my face with turkey and mashed potatoes didn't sound the most appetizing to me. I decided to control myself and only eat a small meal. I didn't even eat pie, that says a lot!

A tradition in the the Skidmore family is to go shooting on Thanksgiving. Every guy brings his guns and stack of ammo. Chad was pretty excited to bring his Mosin Nagant, a gun used in WW1 and also the war in Afghanistan, so in other words, it's a powerful gun! It feels like it's going to blow your ear drum if you're not wearing ear plugs. It's a fun gun to shoot.

Three hours later, they were still firing away at the targets. Since I'm not a hard core shooter, I decided to stay inside with the girls. While I was browsing through my phone, I pulled up the "Notes" app on my phone and titled it "A Grateful Heart". Here it is...

1. I am grateful for my wonderful husband and best friend, Chad

2. I am grateful for my parents, who raised such a strong family

3. I am grateful to have an amazing job and great people to work with

4. I am grateful that Chad has a job that can support both of us

5. I am grateful for our little house

6. I am grateful for my testimony in the Church

7. I am grateful that I was married in the temple and sealed to my best friend and that I will be able to live with him forever

8. I am grateful for a husband that treats me like a princess everyday. I seriously am so lucky to have him.

9. I am grateful for the opportunity Chad and I have to go to school to get our education

10. I am grateful for a Prophet on the earth to lead and guide us

Goble until you wobble! Happy Thanksgiving :)