Cocoa and Cookies

HAHA. So, my friend Leah moved to Utah and I was like, "Hey! We should all go for a date night up the canyon and make smores and cocoa!" Well, then it was supposed to snow so we decided not to. But, I am a snow baby so I still wanted to go up there with Jake and picnic in the car. On the way up, there was like a foot of snow on everything! Haha! So, it would have been pretty much impossible to have a bonfire anyway lol. 

It was so fun though! We brought Trixie thinking she would be able to get out and explore, but the snow was too deep for her so she just snoozed in the back seat. I am still super obsessed with these cute mugs we got for Christmas. We used one of those waterbottles that keep things warm forever. It was awesome! I had my doubts but our cocoa stayed warm the whole time haha.

Anyway. Go to Tibble Fork right now because it's beautiful.

XOXO

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MY PAPER GOT PUBLISHED IS THIS REAL LIFE

You guys! A paper I wrote in college got published in my college academic journal! It took almost 2 years after I wrote it and I had to make so many edits... but it got published so yay! To celebrate, we went to Slab. (This is the best pizza place in Utah, by the way. Take note.) We both ordered our pizzas. Me: The Meikel. Jake: The Thai Chicken. 

Then they bring us our pizzas and they were the same hahahahaha. Mine was just the veggie version lol. #greatmindsthinkalike

Afterward, we went to Kneader's to satisfy my sweet tooth. (Another Utah must visit. Chocolate croissant, mint brownie, french toast, veggie avocado sandwich on focaccia, ugh. It's all good.) 

That was pretty much our celebration. Am I the only person who celerates with food? Haha. I love what Tiina Fey says about food rewards in this Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee. Watch it. It's good.

XOXO

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E

P.S. I'm working on a comprehensive list of all the best places in Utah. Stay tuned :)

A Happy List: 101

Don't forget to go enter my giveaway from last week! By the way, holy shiz. I was expecting like 4 people to enter at best lol.

Eating bell pepper filling I made last week, and IT WAS STILL GOOD.

Discovering that my favorite curry sauce company makes more flavors.

Discovering Mounika on Soundcloud. Get Up is my favorite so far.

Getting a round of appluase as I was leaving work on Thursday.

Jake's waterbottle that keeps things warm for like, ever haha.

Discovering a dog rescue specifically for big, fluffy dogs.

When Jake says, "Carl!!!" like Rick.

Catcing up on The Walking Dead.

Ordering new sheets!

Martinelli's.

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Funny things that happened this week:

Me to my director: "...when you get a sex." "SEC!!!! AH!!!!"

Me to a coworker in a different department: "When you wanna lunch?

Coworker: "I think you meant that for someone else."

ALSO WE HAVE OFFICIALLY BOOKED OUR PLANE TICKETS TO NYC. APRIL 25TH BABY.

XOXO

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P.S. I always struggle with what photos to pair with these happy lists. I just had an idea about doing a self portrait each week? Is that going to come off as me posting a selfie a week or do you think the artist challenge will come through? Lol. 

Chewy!!

Haha I love that Trixie is sponsored. Like, how does your dog get sponsored ya know?! (Probably because she is the cutest dog ever, and everyone knows it.) These Blue Buffalo Sizzlers were her treats for this month. She lovesssss Beggin' Strips and Pup-eroni, so she loved these haha. She is old old old, so I have been trying to pick softer treats for her each month. I'm pretty sure she has like, not very many teeth left haha. I want to get her soft dog food too, but I hate the cans where you have to scoop it out. Ugh the smell is the worst haha. 

Anyway. Safe to say Trix is a fan of these treats! Thanks Chewy! :) Also, safe to say I am a fan of taking pictures of my dog. Sorry for all the non-dog people, but I am obsessed. I'm getting so sad to leave her when we move :( She'll be happier here than in New York though, so I guess that can help me feel better.

XOXO

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E

P.S. I'm supposed to say legal things I guess (I obivously know nothing about this stuff haha) so: We got the treats in exchange for our honest review and no other compensation was received. 

Ramen Success

We tried this ramen recipe the other day and loved it! It's veg friendly too :) Oh, but definitely do 4oz noodles per person haha. If you have any good ramen recipes, let me know! We're in the market for them!

XOXO

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E

A Happy List: 100 + GIVEAWAY

GUY IT IS MY 100TH HAPPY LIST. I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT FOR SO LONG. SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM TO SEE GIVEAWAY DETAILS.

When I was stretching my arm and my coworker thought I was raising my hand and called on me ha!

The hand gesture the girl at Starbuck's did when she was complimenting my bangs.

Going to IKEA and picking things out for our New York apartment!!!

My favorite female under the age of 40 returning from her mission.

Having 2 out of the 3 recipes I tried this week be delicious.

When we find Trixie in her bed all the way on her back.

Creating a vision board for our future apartment.

When the boy at Starbuck's winked at me lol. 

Not wearing pants pretty much all weekend.

The Lindt "hello" candy bars. All good.

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Here are some funny things people said this week:

Jake: "Would you be so happy if you could somehow know that in Trixie's mind she calls you bb?"

Jake looking at my papers: "I won't snoop."

Me: "I don't care."

Jake: "In that case..." *snoops*

Jake referring to a computer mouse: "I don't think they have mice there."

Jake referring to an apron: "Do we have a cooking bib?"

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GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

Ok, so I'm basically just really happy I've done 100 happy list. #accomplishments. So, I want to send someone a package with all the things that make me happy! This may or may not include beauty products, candy, music, and other cute things. I don't really know yet, I haven't gone shopping for all of it. Anyway, enter below! The giveaway will run for 2 weeks. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

XOXO
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Errands R Us

Isn't this the cutest planner?

CHIPOTLE IS COMING TO AMERICAN FORK. I AM SO EXCITED.

As much as I died of boredom over Christmas break, it was pretty nice to get ish done. One day we went to Target to return my planner. (It had a misprint of all the months under the wrong tab, ha!) I am obssed with this planner... well, actually with all of Target's planners right now. They are so cute. Run, don't walk, and get one of your own!!

We couldn't be in The Meadows without going to Five Guys. I am seriously obsessed with it lately. If you're veg, here's what you should get: grilled cheese - add tomatoes, pickles, lettuce, and onions. You're welcome. We also tried their Oreo shake. It was pretty good! My favorite shake is still at Shake Shack. I had never had a shake I liked until I tried theirs <3 #truelovewaits. 

Anyway! I'm trying to photograph more every day things so I have more pictures to edit and post. I think it will help a lot with feeling depressed and anxious if I can come home almost every day and edit some photos :). So, that's why there are going to be some more random posts haha.

XOXO

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E

P.S. Do Five Guys outside of Utah have fry sauce at the them? Please tell me yes.

P.P.S. If you go to Utah Guide under the "Categories" you can see all the local (and some not local) places we've been to :). I'm planning on making a more offical guide once we move, but for now that's all I have.

Kneader's Gingerbread Men Recipe

At one point, this gingerbread cookie recipe was posted on a new's site (I think KUTV or something. They were for the mummies Kneader's sells during Halloween.), but the page has since expired and it is NO WHERE else on the internet. These are literally the best gingerbread cookies you'll ever eat, so it needs to be shared.

I'm new to this whole bake-food-and-photograph-it-beautifully-thing, so you'll have to excuse my sub par photos :).

ONTO THE RECIPE!

 

I, of course, had to make a ginger family haha. Trixie looks like a dinosaur, but what can you do lol. 

Here's the recipe! You can print this image and add it to your recipe book. (Which I recommend because everyone will love you and your clan of ginger people.)

XOXO

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E

P.S. If you make these let me know how you like them!

A Happy List: 99

(My feelings toward 2015 haha.)

I ONLY HAVE ONE MORE HAPPY LIST UNTIL I'M AT 100!!! I'm so excited, you guys. I think I am going to do a giveaway with all my favorite things that make me happy next week :) :) :) So stay tuned!

Going through boxes and figuring out what to sell, what to take, and what to put in storage.

All of Jake's back rubs and hair combs when I'm feeling sad. He's so sweet.

Watching lots and lots of Zoella vlogs. (Thank you, Beverly.)

My mom's obsession with boxes and Christmas bags.

Finally some-what catching up on blogs.

Five Guys fries and veggie burger.

Ron Swanson without eyebrows.

This chocolate bar. Holy cow.

Wearing a crown.

Jake's sass.

XOXO

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E

P.S. What do you all think of the new blog design? Yay or nay? (I'm keeping it either way, but just curious haha.)

Download: Primary Crown

I usually don't post stuff like this, but I was trying to prepare my first lesson of the year "I am a child of God." I obviously wanted my kiddos to have crowns haha. But I couldn't find a downloadable crown that said "I am a child of God." literally ANYWHERE. So, I made one in Photoshop :)

In case anyone else teaches primary, here you go! I used this crown for lesson 1, but you could use it for whatever :)

Click here to download it.

XOXO

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New Year's Festivities

(This is what the majority of our "Let me get my focus." pictures look like hahahahaha.)

I love Jake's face in this photo haha.

Yup. This was our New Year hahahahaha. I always complain about the lack of activities for married adults. There are dance parties for single people and fun things if you have kids. But, if you're married without kids it's always kind of boring. At least for us haha. One of these years I'm going to throw a party, but my vision for that requires mucho moneys that we don't have yet hahahah.

Anyway! We ate some Digornio's pizza, tried to buy Martinelli's (It was sold out at two different stores so we settled for Welch's sparkling cider. NOT as good, by the way.), watched Where The Wild Things Are, and were king and queen of the world :)

I'm not one for yearly reflection posts or New Year's resolutions, so we'll just say that 2016 is going to be kick A. Mainly because we'll finally move to New York and have great adventures! 

Thanks to everyone who follows this little blog of mine :) I truly enjoy reading and responding to all your comments and emails! #ilovecyberfriends

XOXO

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January Playlist

I've just decided to do a monthly playlist. I love finding new music! When I was in high school, I had a friend who I would exchange mixed CDs with every Monday. It was so fun to have some new tunes to listen to.

What you can expect from these monthly playlists:
- No country. Sorry, I'm not the biggest fan. No pop/radio music either.
- Lots of beats/electric-type music. It's what I'm most into at the moment.
- Alternative - always my favorite as well.
- Maybe some slow jams. Sometimes I just can't help myself.

Also, I'm updating them every month, so if you come back to this post any time after February 1st these songs won't be here! Never fear, my sweet children, I'm making a mastery blog playlist that I'll add each month's songs to. Happy listening!

XOXO
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Caputo's Deli

We did sort of a delayed Christmas dinner last week. We wanted to go to Slice's, but it was closed :/ So we tried Caputo's instead. It was a fun little market (expensive though!) to browse through. We got sandwiches and a kouign-amann. I actually really liked my sandwich (mozarella, tomatoes, and balsamic). Jake got The Caputo and wasn't the biggest fan.

We decided that if you're in the area it's worth a try, but it's not worth a 45 minute drive haha.

XOXO

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