She Said YES!

I am trying to get myself out there more for practice and to hopefully build up some kind of foundation for when we start having babies and I have to work from home. This is my most recent venture for Minted.com. I don't just like... I LOVE, no...LUST for things on their website.

This is for a Save the Date contest they are having....go vote for me!!

Vote for my design on minted.™ see more from Sarah Nelson vote for me! Check out my competition in Christmas cards and Save the Date cards at Minted.

I'll Be Home For Christmas

So despite all efforts to remain put in Utah for Christmas and avoid the chaos of traveling, the pull of our family was just too strong. Especially when your dad offers to pick up the tab for your plane tickets (thanks Dad!). So we went back to Allen for the first time in a year to spend some time with the family. Unfortunately having a wedding and super long honeymoon doesn't bode well for having a lot of paid time off left over at the end of the year, so our trip was ridiculously short...okay it was 5 and a half days, but with BOTH of our families there that IS ridiculously short! But we had a ton of fun and it was really nice to be back home. The Nelson's house was like a non-stop party the entire time we were there. I don't know how Mom Nelson kept sanity having so many people at her house every night. Every day was like a buffet in the kitchen and playing games all day and night long. It was amazing....however I don't think my metabolism was very appreciative of the extra work it had to do that week. Of course my parents house was nice. There is something just bizarrely comforting about being at your childhood home. My mom LOVED the Christmas gift I made for her and my dad. It was portraits of each of the kids that are supposed to be hung right next to each other and it spells out our last name. Thanks to the always amazing Jared Cook for his help with this one.

While we were in Texas we also got to see Brandon and Shauna's new apartment, which was super cute. It makes me lust for the day when we live in a non-hobbit home. But all good things come with time...and LOTS of time if your husband wants to be an Optometrist ::wink::

One of the coolest things this Christmas though was getting to spend Christmas with little kids (Michael's youngest siblings are 8 and 4 years old) and re-experience the whole Santa part of Christmas. It's been a long time in our house since Santa hasn't had the presents pre-wrapped underneath the tree weeks beforehand for all of us non-believers. It also was a huge reassurance of what an amazing daddy Michael will be. Have you ever seen those Sing-A-Ma-Jigs? Well let's just say that Lorie is a much better mother than I will be because I would have never bought these semi-obnoxious toys for my children knowing I would have to listen to all day. When you squeeze this stuffed animals stomach it's mouth opens and it makes a noise. When squeezed really fast many times in a row the noises make a song. Michael was no less than infatuated with this toy for the first 5 minutes of it's unwrapping. His 4 year old sister EmmaJane had to ask her 24 year old brother if she could finally play with her new toy.

Another awesome part about being home was it gave me the chance to try out my new camera. Have I mentioned that I LOVE my new camera? Because I LOVE it. I think trying to tell everything would just be too hard, so I'll cap this off with some photos of all the happenings and Christmas-ness we experienced on our trip.

A Very Nelson Christmas

Christmas is hands down my favorite holiday and time of year. I love how wonderfully cheery everyone is. I love all the twinkling Christmas lights against the snow (or this year, the lack thereof). I love hot cocoa, Christmas carols, garland wreaths and the excitement of finding the perfect gifts.

Our apartment is tres petite, so this year we got a tree to match (a whopping 3 footer) and threw up a few strands of Christmas lights in our entryway. I also made a sparkly wreath for our front door (blog coming soon).

Here are a few pictures of the Christmas Spirit in our home and life this year.

December Visiting Teaching

With all the craziness of December and tons of holiday DIY projects I have going on, my visiting teaching handout unfortunately fell way on the back burner. So there is no cute matching treat or anything this month, just a quote from Elder Ballard that I really enjoyed from the message in a Christmas-themed handout. I have been so crazy this month that I actually took my paper cutter in the car and was using it to cut out the handouts on my way to my girls' houses. I guess over-committed is not a word in my dictionary....or safe driver...

Christmas Tags

A friend at work asked me to make her custom gift tags for her gifts this year. I could not have been more happy to get my burst of Christmasy design out and onto the screen. This is what I came up with...

Print double sided, cut, hole punch through red circle and string with red satin ribbon onto a gift wrapped in brown parchment paper and voila! Designer gift wrapping on a budget :)

To You & Yours

Beautiful Photography by Jared Cook

Beautiful Design by Sarah Nelson

Beautiful People as Ourselves

To all our friends and family that we love and who help make this time of year so special.

Take That Martha Stewart!

So I got this crazy idea in my head that for the holidays we would hand deliver a bunch of our cards with sugar cookies. The problem with this idea (that my husband was too kind to point out) is that we have SO much family in this area that this idea would mean 15 plates of cookies. In my head I knew this, but it seemed doable...and of course Michael would never tell me that it was a huge task/maybe I should rethink it. Primarily probably because he knows I'm as stubborn as not one, but TWO mules. So yesterday I baked just under 100 Christmas shaped sugar cookies and frosted them....and all in 2.5 hours! Take that Martha Stewart!!

This is 5 of the 15 plates

On the flip side though, I never want to see another sugar cookie as long as I live.

However, Michael and I had a great time singing and delivering them to our friends and family throughout Utah county. He is so supportive of my craziness and I love him so. We sang "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" when we delivered them and he was the echo part...every time what he said was different and hilarious.

Manti Temple

So my wonderful husband is so very patient with me and my little whims that I get. At the beginning of November we had Stake Conference, and in it they mentioned temple attendance and increasing your personal attendance to the temple. I immediately poked Michael's leg and whispered, "Hey! (poke) We need to go to the temple more! (poke) We are going this week! (poke)" So being the sweetheart he is he didn't even skip a beat before he said "okay, what day do you want to go?" We pulled up our schedule on his iCal and I immediately remembered why spontaneity is no longer a noun used in our lives. We had something every. single. day. But on Saturday, we had been on the fence about attending a wedding clear down in Manti...and that's when I exclaimed "That's it! That's when we are going to the temple! We will go to Ian and Mariah's sealing and stay for a session!" And once again, being the sweetheart he is he didn't say "I have tests and work and blah blah blah." he said "we can make that work."

So Michael was able to get off of work and set aside time so we could go clear down to Manti (an almost 2 hour drive!) and spend our day at the temple there...and boy was it worth it. For anyone who hasn't had the privilege of going to this temple and lives within a decent vicinity, you NEED to go. It was BEAUTIFUL. Michael kept telling me "You're going to love this temple...I can't wait to see YOU see this temple." I wasn't sure what he was talking about until we went inside and it was pink everywhere! Absolutely amazing! And if it wasn't pink, then it was teal! (Only my two favorite colors in the entire world) Plus the artwork was incredible. I couldn't stop gawking almost the entire time we were there.

But more than anything, it was so amazing to be able to attend a sealing with my dear hubby and listen again to the promises and blessings of our own temple marriage. There wasn't enough room in the sealing room for everyone to have a chair, so Michael and I opted to stand. It was so wonderful to be there with my eternal companion's arms wrapped around me and to know that I get to be with him for all eternity. We spent all day in the temple and even had lunch in the cafeteria with all the little old temple worker people.

Side Note: Nobody else in the entire Manti area that attend the temple must drink grape soda. I wanted a grape soda in the cafeteria and it was in this little fridge with two sliding doors that overlapped in the middle. And the grape sodas were SMACK in the middle. No matter which door you opened a door was still covering it!!! It was blasphemous and laughable. However, Michael managed to fenangle things around and pry one of them out for me.

Anyways, it was a wonderful day and such a strengthening experience for our relationship. I have never felt more close to anyone in the whole wide world than I felt with Michael that Saturday.

I love the temple and LOVE being able to go there to feel the Spirit. You can't help but get great clarity and perspective when you are there. I am so grateful to have a worthy Priesthood holder for a husband who takes me to the temple often. The Manti temple will now always hold a special little piece of my heart.

Me and My Michael.

My crazy, big kid of a husband, who saw these stairs and had to run to the top.

The beautiful Manti temple.