Christmas Pictures

With our third Christmas coming up, we decided to get our bums in gear and make our first Christmas card! Well actually, his family was going to take pictures over Thanksgiving, and my family was too, so we figured between the two families we would find a picture we could use...then his family cancelled, and my family's photographer was going to be out of town, so that plan backfired majorly. But we still wanted our card, so we decided we were cool enough to take our own Christmas pictures!

We wanted to take pictures at a Christmas tree farm, so we could take some pictures while getting our tree and all that...but funny story, Rexburg doesn't have any Christmas tree farms! But we didn't know that until we pulled up at this "farm" that sells the pine trees for landscaping...so we might have done a little trespassing, but it's worth it right? I'll tell you the whole story about the tree a little later...

I am so so lucky to have talented friends like Ella to take such wonderful pictures for us!

See if you can guess which picture we used for our card...

Well...did you guess right?? Here is the card...

Merry Christmas to you all! I hope it comes with love, laughter, health and hapiness!

Thanksgiving Break

Who wants to hear about our adventure of a break? No one? Well too bad, because here it comes...

So our disaster of a car lately has gotten in the way of traveling, luckily Keegan is a sweetheart and allowed us to drive his car to Spokane to spend the break with my family!

So my husband, my sisters, and I packed ourselves up and headed out on the seemingly clear road... yeah, that only lasted about 20 minutes. Then the snow started, and literally didn't stop. We were lucky to be going over 40 mph and the entire time the car was trying very hard to slip off the road. By the time we reached Missoula, Montana (a trip that should have been 4 hours but ended up twice as long) it was getting very late, and the snow had NOT STOPPED once! We stopped for some quick food and gas, when we ran into 3 different cars of people coming from the direction we were headed that all said they had barely made it through an even worse storm and urged us to avoid finishing that night.

We called my dad for some advise...and he (as well as we) felt they were right and it would be best to wait to storm out and head home in the day light. Luckily my dad had a lot of hotel points saved up from work and got us a room at a nearby hotel. We got as much sleep as we could, took advantage of the hot breakfast, then hit the road. There was a LOT of slush on the roads through the passes, which was kind of slick, but not nearly as bad as the constant downfall of snow we had experienced the night before. So, long story short, we made it!

The weekend was magical. It involved a lot baked goods, even more fancy cheese, and a Harry Potter marathon. And of course...the Thanksgiving feast. What is more important than taking time to reflect on all we have to be grateful for?? I for one am thankful for my family, the time we spent together, and the yummy food we had to eat!

Now, my family is not a huge fan of Black Friday shopping, like at all. We had planned to go cut down my parents' tree on Black Friday and go to a movie on Saturday, but it started raining on Friday so we ended up at the theater...in the mall...downtown...Black Friday...it kind of set itself up. So we figured we might as well hit a few sales since we were already there ;) It was a fun, unexpected twist that helped make a small dent in the Christmas shopping!

Early the next morning Kirby and I were able to attend a session at the temple with my parents. This was the first time that we have been able to go to this particular temple since our wedding, it holds such a special place in my heart. So after the temple, the sunny day made our trip to the tree farm perfect...and we definitely found them the perfect tree! Tree hunting is my favorite part of the Christmas prep.

Once we brought the tree home it was time for Christmas crafting and Christmas movies!

Talk about the perfect weekend. I sure have a wonderful family!

Anniversary No. 2

You all know by now that I definitely have the best human ever made to call my husband. Why? He is cute (duh), sweet (obviously), and unconditionally selfless (plainly). Want to know more? Read just about every other post I have ever written. I can't get enough of my man, or bragging about him for that matter. There is no other person on this planet (or any other) that I would have rather spent these past two years with, as they have definitely been a wild ride. 

This last year of our marriage has been a journey. We have moved from Idaho, to Texas, then back and into a house that has proved to be an exciting project. We both dived straight into our hardest round of classes and have days where we hardly see each other. We have experienced miracles unlike anything I had ever expected to happen in this life, which naturally have also brought us trials to shake everything we stand on. But we have grown closer together as we strengthen and stand by each other through it all.

This year our anniversary kind of came at a very inconvenient time. First of all it came on a Monday, second of all we both had a couple huge tests to take, third of all we were trying to prep for driving to Washington the next day, and lastly, we have had our fair share of car troubles lately and the majority of our rainy day/holiday funds have been required elsewhere...but that's what makes the first years of marriage fun right?

So our celebrations might not have been as extravagant as last year's,  but I promise you they were just as full of love, laughter, butterflies, and happy reminiscing as the day we tied the knot. 

After a long day of classes, school work, studying, and test taking, we were ready to relax and celebrate our day of love! 

First Stop: Sushi, because it is delicious and we love it.

Second stop:We took a collection of our favorite treats (each carrying a special memory) to the movie theater to watch the Mocking Jay Part 1! (We just had to, considering last year we went to Catching Fire) But before the movie started we had to get in some arcade games where I whooped him at Iceball, then he got me back by destroying me at basketball...but together we earned enough tickets to win a couple wooden tops and candies!

Third Stop: Home! We set up a cozy bed in the living room where we finished off our snacks, popped the sparkling white grape juice open, and toasted to a wonderful year of happy memories.

Fourth Stop: Our Anniversary Temple Tradition was put on hold for a couple of days...but when the day came to uphold the tradition it was extra special to be able to go through the same temple we were sealed in two years ago.

Happy Anniversary to my darling little husband who never fails to make me smile. I love Kirby Lee Muir!!!

Playing Catch-up

 Well you can tell life has been busy if I am this late on so many important things! 

1st - Kirby's brother came home from his mission...yay! We are oh so happy to have Kelton home and so thankful for his example and the time he spent serving the church.

2nd - Kirby's grandfather would have celebrated his 100th birthday with us on Halloween (the day after Kelton got home) so the family got together to celebrate for him. We planted a tree in a park, another one next to his grave, spent the morning doing sealings in the temple, and had a wonderful dinner/game nights at the church. I love being a part of this family!

 
3rd - Miss Madelyn Frame came home from her mission exactly one week after Kelton! My two favorite missionaries! I drove to Boise by myself (a big step for me) to spend one night soaking up the stories and laughter she had to share. It was so incredible to be able to have all my favorite friends together again, even if it was only for a short while. Time at the Frame's is always a time well spent.

 3rd - Halloween! It was wonderful, great, fun, sweet, spooky, a little sketch, and everything in between.

The Monday before Halloween we had a couple of our most attractive friends over for a little pumpkin carving FHE extravaganza! It was a definite success...as you can tell.

And we finally have room in our living space to have a little party! Yay! So we had quite a few people over for some games and treats...and costume showing off of course! This year has been our favorite costume yet! I wish we had a better picture for you, but what can you do right?

After the party had died out and it was just us and a few close friends the husbands decided that they wanted to go exploring in the woods to find the infamous chupacabra...and the girls wanted to go on another adventure of sorts...aka another party. So we went our separate ways had a little too much fun, then said goodnight to the ghostly holiday.

Well as you can tell, the last couple weeks of October were a little crazy, and November has proven to be just as exciting. But it looks like that is it for now ladies and gents, thanks for stopping by!

Pumpkin Pickin

Fall is the most wonderful season. The trees are the prettiest, the treats are the yummiest, the air smells the best, and the clothes are the cutest. But Fall is such a tease. It seems that as soon as we truly start to appreciate it's glory it disappears into whirl of snow.

Even though we are in school and busy with the regular hum of student life, I didn't want our dear Fall to go unnoticed...and my favorite Fall tradition just happens to be a trip to the pumpkin patch.

Growing up "the pumpkin patch" meant Greenbluff: A collection of all the best treats and activities that personify fall. We would ride a big tractor through miles and miles of the roundest and orangest pumpkins, find the harvest pumpkin that called to us the strongest, then wait for a ride back to the gathering place. Here we would run through corn mazes, sip on freshly pressed apple cider, and twirl around on the tire swing while mom and dad checked out the fresh produce that was for sale. After all this and a quick ride on the kiddy train our smiles were literally stuck on our faces (seriously, caramel apples will do that to you). Then we would all pile in the car with our boots covered in dust, and drips of caramel and other delightfully sticky treats down our sweaters and jackets, completely satisfied and full of the Fall-time spirit...

I might have had a mini breakdown this year at the thought of missing out on another trip to Greenbluff. The thought of buying our pumpkins at Broulims or another grocery-store/parking lot kind of killed the magic of the whole experience.

So, my lovely and sweet man of a husband gave up his tiling day in our bathroom to make a special trip to pick some pumpkins at a local farm...and because this was always a family outing for me, we invited my little sisters and his little brother.

We pulled up to the tiny farm with fresh doughnuts in our bellies and ready to step out into the wonderfully crisp, yet warm, October air. It might not have had all the Fall glam I was used to but it was the perfect Idaho Fall outing. We seriously could have spent hours (well we actually did) just roaming up and down the rows grabbing pumpkin after pumpkin... we seriously had arms full

In the end we had purchased 7 pumpkins, just between the two of us! Our house is ready for harvest season after all... And some veggies straight from the farm. I couldn't have planned a more wonderful day. 

 So obviously we had a blast (Mandy was there...she just had to ditch us early so she is absent from our plethora of pictures). And I would like to mention that Jessica is my favorite little iphone photographer, she never leaves us wishing we had more.

Aaaaaand we have something special planned for our pumpkin carving night...so stay tuned! Happy Fall...y'all.

PS: I would like to give a shout out to my parents and lone sister still at home who still practice our fav fall tradition!

 You guys, my dad is a pumpkin-head too!

What could be better than my family, beautiful pine trees, mountains, AND pumpkins all in one place?

THE END