here we come!

i hope you all had a great christmas holiday! tomorrow morning we will be headed to utah to visit our loved ones and we couldn't be more excited!

i will make sure to update the blog as soon as i get a chance. i have been going going going for the last few weeks and i am tired! i am looking forward to some rest and relaxation... and some serious snow ball fights!

happy new year to you!!!

all i want for christmas

i love jimmy fallon. i've decided that if i had some sort of make a wish foundation situation, i would want to hang out with jimmy. he just makes me smile. so happy. so genuine.

plus he teamed up with mariah and made my all time favorite christmas song like 100 times better. thank you jimmy fallon. i sincerely thank you.

merry christmas to you and yours! 

dinner and lights

every year we get together with lauren and hyrum and have a lovely meal together and drive around town looking at christmas lights. this year was great fun as always, complete with "lauren" chocolate chip cookies. that girl has a special touch i tell you, no one comes close.

usually we go to a neighborhood in brea. this year they had police patrolling the neighborhood and helping with the flow of traffic. word of advice... don't try to turn around by pulling into someone's driveway. if you do so, a motorcycle cop with a power trip with turn on his lights and sirens and make you turn right back around.

merry christmas to you too mr. policeman.

we didn't let our run in with the law stop us, we just decided to hit up candy cane lane in fullerton. it was so cute. they had a house with lights set to music on a certain radio station. it was really beautiful. we also went up into the hills and found a house with giant candy canes and fake snow machines! it was so very magical. i have a feeling my house might just look like that someday. i've gotta give clark griswald a run for his money.

i really love these people and i am so happy that we have kept up our tradition.

 

oh, and we saw a couple get engaged... he was playing the ukelele and serenading her while his friends played the maraca and the accordion. how sweet!

balboa boat show

balboa island is the cutest during the holidays. the houses are decked out and so are the boats. we headed down with the robinson's and had a blast. it was such a fun (and FREE) thing to do to get into the holiday spirit! we will be going back every year i'm sure. i loved it!

my heavy heart

today i have many things that weigh heavy on my heart.

sometimes something happens and it makes you stop dead in your tracks. sometimes life lets you down, or maybe it lets someone you love down. the many tragedies that happened last week. the phone call from a friend that made my heart fall into my stomach and wish there was a way i could take all the bad stuff away. the risk of my father's business having to close it's doors because of an ex-partner with a vendetta. these things are real. they come without warning. without a plan. you never see them coming. but what do you do to recover?

i'm still trying to figure that out.

it's hard to know that someone is suffering and that you can't take it away. all you can do is pray. hope. and love them through their trial. all the while trying not to be angry at the cause of it all. it's all out of our control anyway. which seems like a good thing and a bad thing all at the same time. but suffer we must, that is what makes us stronger. and somehow, when it seems like all is lost and you are the weakest you have ever been, you can feel the love of God more than ever before. life is funny like that. without sorrow, we would not know the sweet feeling of joy. we are broken down and given the opportunity to build ourselves back up again. but hopefully this time, we are better than we were before.

this morning as i put in that mixed cd, i had no recollection of what songs i had compiled all those years ago. i'm just so glad that it was tom petty that came through my speakers. as soon as i heard the strum of that guitar i was off in another place. i wasn't on my way to work. i was thinking about a very special friend of mine and her family. thinking about how much i love her and how grateful i am for her in my life. wishing i had a magic wand & could make people, heartaches or ailments disappear.

 thinking about how much i'd like to leave the cares of this world for a while.

my life in instagram

 

just a few photos from instagram of life lately. 

there is a lot going on. every morning i wake up feeling anxious about the days or weeks ahead. a lot is uncertain. there is a lot of fun things though, too. it's very strange. i guess i am just having a hard time adjusting to the upcoming changes, the demands on my time and the possibility of new opportunities coming our way. but i really want to want to be more excited as opposed to nervous. 

the planner in me is sick of being disappointed. the hippie in me is getting sick of the planner always bringing us down when things don't go according to plan. i think that life as of late has been teaching me to let go and just let life take me where it wants me to go. there is no use in getting all fussy about things that i really cannot control anyhow. but i also need to take control of things that are dependent upon me. instead of waiting for things to happen, i just want to make things happen for myself. oh, this tug of war inside my head.

this month has been really fun though. lots of memories made and fun times had with friends and family. we are so blessed to have such great people in our lives. we have kind of slacked on our advent calendar, so planner amy is feeling guilty, but hippie amy is just fine. i think hippie wins this round. christmas time isn't about how many holiday activities i do. it's about spending time on things and people that matter most. so that is what i am doing. something's gotta give.

my instagram username: @amyrexphoto

5 christmas trees

this year marks our 5th christmas tree as a married couple! i can hardly believe that it has been that long. sometimes i wonder where the time went or why we haven't accomplished more, but 5 christmas trees and a lot of love later, we are still here. going strong.

i could get caught up in shoulda woulda coulda, but what good would that do? instead i am choosing to focus on how far we have come. getting married in a time where the world puts little focus on marriage and family.  putting ourselves through college and finishing successfully. building up our savings. learning more about each other and how to be better spouses. traveling together. setting goals and accomplishing (most of) them.

5 years ago (come january) i married the man of my dreams. the type of man i had always wanted to marry. seriously. he. is. it. and i can't even begin to tell you how much i love that man. life without him would be so empty. so strange. so terrible. 

it's no secret that this last year has been rough for us. it's been a "why aren't things turning out better when we are trying SO hard" sort of time for us. but i wouldn't want anyone else by my side helping me through it all... i hope he feels the same about me. and i know that someday we will look back on this time in our lives and wonder why we were so worried. i know that we will be stronger and more faithful because of the trials we face. i am so happy that i have that knowledge and that i have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. we would be lost without it! 

here's to another 5 years that are even happier than the last!

feels like christmas

 the decorations are up my friends. finally everything is complete. we don't have that much stuff, but it took a couple weeks to get everything set up, cleaned up and boxes put back in storage. but now we can enjoy. walking out the door in the morning is like torture. i just want to lay on the couch all day and gaze up at that beautiful tree! oh and it smells so delicious. by the way, does the in n out fry ornament make you hungry too? i got that at an ornament exchange last year and we love love love it.

there are a few new additions to our decor this year. the vintage candy dish with stars etched in the glass from my late great grandmother, the fun colored yarn garland from anthro, the other vintage candy dish from my other late grandmother - yes you do need two candy dishes per every 1 apartment, the advent calender crafted by yours truly and the christmas prints i found for free online! the only thing that cost anything was the garland from anthro, but that was on sale so i don't really feel bad about it.

i think my favorite thing is the advent calender. i just cut up left over paper from a past project, taped 24 squares on the wall and each day we add an activity to the calender. we came up with 24 christmas-ey things to do throughout the month and we pick one each day and put it on the calender. that way we aren't sitting around wishing we could have done more holiday fun during the month! we are loving this so far and i think it will be a tradition in our house!