Gingerbread House of Epic Proportions

This Christmas my sister Tori and I decided while admiring all the gingerbread houses on display in Midway for a children's benefit, that we were going to make an epic gingerbread house this Christmas. We really wanted to make one of those Victorian style gingerbread houses that just leave people in awe. So we started with some pictures online and just started designing, and eventually it took shape. Though we decided that next year we will definitely plan ahead. 

I love this picture because it shows everyone in the family working on the gingerbread house. You can't see Eric because he's taking the picture, you only see my arm, and Aleksa is hidden, but it was a true family effort. I think we may have started a family tradition. In the past our gingerbread house attempts consisted of    of small cardboard milk cartons covered in 5 graham crackers, and eating more candy than was actually used for the house, I think we definitely took our gingerbread house making to a whole new level.

You can see the many, different sides of our gingerbread house, and you can see the lack of conformity. The problem was that even though my mom bought hoards of candy, we didn't have enough of any one thing, so each side ended having it's own theme. We think that next year (at Thanksgiving because my parents have Thanksgiving next year) we will make a village of houses that are about a third of this size and come prepared with our house design and candy decoration plan. It was a huge task to build it from cardboard, cover it in graham crackers, and decorate it. The whole project took us 2 days.

A Cornucopia of Thanksgiving

One of my worries about getting married and becoming our own separate family unit was how to appease both families as we split up the holidays. Since Eric was gone all last year in Iraq, naturally his family wanted him home for Christmas, but since this is Heather & Cam's year for Christmas with my family, Eric and I agreed that it would be best to be on the same rotation. So that meant that Eric's family got us for Thanksgiving.

It was my first break from work since the Honeymoon, and it was MUCH needed. I always looked forward to the weekend and holidays before we got married, but not nearly as much as I do now! I just want to spend all my time with Eric, so I count the hours everyday until I get to see Eric again. 

I got work off Thursday and Friday, so we headed to Nampa, Idaho on Wednesday afternoon. We left early so I could get my military spouse ID card in Pocatello. But just our luck, their machine had broken so they left early. I was so mad that I left work early and not get my ID card. Oh well, at least Pocatello was on our way and we got a head start. We got such a good head start that we were hopeful of getting to Nampa in good time. But alas we had quite the frustrating hour, when we got stuck in stop and go traffic a 1/2 hour out of Boise, all because of a lane change... At long last, we made it Nampa.

That evening, we just chatted and hung out with the fam, Grandma Andrus, Tiffany, and Kim and her kids who were also there. 

The next day we slept in :) and got ready for a day of delicious food! Sadly, we didn't think to take any pictures of Thanksgiving day! The food was awesome, and later that night more of Eric's aunts, uncles cousins, and Grandma Rose came over for pie. 

The next day, Black Friday, Eric and slept in and then decided to hit the stores. Surprisingly there was a lot left, and it wasn't that crazy. But then, we didn't really want anything that was a high profile item... thank goodness! We spent a few hours shopping and finally found a down duvet at a good price. The duvet cover I wanted was online, but we wanted to get a good price on the duvet. (I'll post pictures when we the get the duvet cover and the rest of the bedroom looking good.)

We finally made it out of the stores in time to go shooting with Eric's dad, Ben, Andrew, one of Eric's uncles and some cousins. Though we were quickly running out of daylight, we had fun, and Eric and I both got to wear our capotes!

Andrew, fired off his rounds pretty quickly! We were all pretty surprised because he's only 14. Though I suppose no one should be that surprised, there is a reason everyone calls Andrew, Little Eric. But for myself, I can only shoot 3 or 4 shots before I'm done, though I'm getting better at not freaking out when the gun kicks. 

Later that night we had been told that if we wanted we could have the air mattress over the futon. Eric and I jumped at the chance, but we had to take it up with Annie, who had slept on it the night before. Annie said she would wrestle Eric for it, well we all know who won ;) Here's proof.

On Saturday we went bowling. Surprisingly, it was our first time bowling together, though we definitely know who is the bowler in our family, NOT me! Eric scored above 100 in both games, and nearly doubled my score! Oh well, I never aspired to be a good bowler. 

Later that night we decorated the gingerbread house, always one of my favorite activities, though tiring after awhile. (Though I'll have to get more endurance for it because Tori and I are endeavoring to decorate an intense victorianish gingerbread house this Christmas.) It was really fun because it was a real gingerbread house, which I've never had. 

Eric's dad saved the turkey wish bone for us to pull on our "first" Thanksgiving together. We pulled hard, and the top broke off and spun into the air, so no one got their wish, though Eric aptly replied, "No, this means we both get our wishes." How appropriate :)

It was a great Thanksgiving, it's fun getting to know my "new" family members, I know have 4 sisters and 6 brothers, whereas before I had 2 sisters and 1 brother (in-law).

White Christmas

About a month ago I found out that the Playmill Theatre company was playing Irving Berlin's White Christmas at the Colonial Theatre in Idaho Falls. I've seen the movie several times and has been a favorite but I'd never seen it on stage, so Eric and I decided to go see it. Monday night was the only night we could make it because of Thanksgiving in Nampa and Yellow Ribbon in Park City next weekend.

We made a date night out of it and went to dinner to Olive Garden with some gift cards and stuffed ourselves silly with broschetta, breadsticks, salad, beef gorgonzala, and white chocolate raspberry cheesecake. Yum it was delicious, then we somehow managed to roll ourselves over to the Colonial Theatre.

I was quite impressed with Playmill's company, for being a small company from West Yellowstone they were quite good. And funnily enough the four main characters looked a lot like the actors from the movie, especially the girl who played Judy Haynes, it was almost uncanny.

The show was a little cheesy, more so than the movie, I think Eric had a hard time swallowing it, and truthfully even I did.

My favorite part of the whole show was at the very end when it starts to "snow", it actually started to snow foam bubbles that looked a lot like snowflakes from the ceiling. At that moment I wished I was sitting smack dab in the middle of the theatre and could be covered in foam bubbles from head to foot. With the "snowflakes" floating down it looked truly magical.

But the funniest part of the whole evening happened when we were walking out of the theatre. An older woman had walked out of the theatre ahead of her husband, while he stayed behind to hold the door open for us. Well, this woman didn't realize that her husband had stayed behind to hold the door open, and when Eric walked by her, so reached her hand out to him and almost grabbed his hand before she realized that Eric was already holding hands with me and was definitely not her husband. Eric then heard the woman tell the story to her husband and laugh, while all this time I was completely oblivious to what was going on. Once we were well past them, Eric recounted what happened and we chuckled pretty hard.

Though it was a late night, it was a great night.

Here's a little clip from the movie version:

Oh Christmas Tree

So, in the spirit of trying to create our own traditions as our own family unit, and doing things that we've always wanted to do, we decided to drive out into the mountains and chop down our first Christmas tree. Yes, we did this all the weekend before Thanksgiving, but in our defense between Thanksgiving and an army mandatory yellow ribbon weekend, this was our only chance before halfway through December, and we wanted to enjoy our Christmas tree for longer than 2 weeks.

So during the week we went to Cal Ranch and bought our Christmas tree permit and hand saw and Saturday morning we woke up and got ready for our trip up to the Mesa Falls area to find our "perfect" Christmas tree. We packed our coats, snow/hiking boots, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cameras and hit the road. The drive there was pretty and quite uneventful, though we had no idea that Ashton has seen so much snow already.

We parked because I said I thought I saw a few good trees, and hiking up the bank to check out the trees. The ones I saw actually turned out to be pretty thin and sparse, not great for decorating, so we wandered a bit farther and bam, there it was, our Christmas tree. At first we were afraid that it would be over the 12 feet limit (our permit only was good for up to 12 feet), but after comparing it to Eric's height, we decided that we were good.

Here are some pictures and a video of how it went down.

Shaking the extra snow off the tree so he wouldn't get doused when he cut it down.

Glad I didn't have to help with this part, I'm too short :)

Look Eric's capote and the wool blanket we used to cover the tree match!

Eric wrapping lights around our tree.

It was a great day so much fun cutting down our own tree and decorating it, and we only got the car stuck in the snow three times :) We were grateful that Eric decided to buy that shovel you see in the first picture, and for 4-wheel drive.

Our Perfect Day

Well, nearly a month after the fact, I figure it's probably about time to blog about the wedding, even though I don't have the professional photos yet. I'll post those as soon as I get them, these will just have to give a little taste of our perfect day.

The day started really for me since I had to get up at 5:15 to be ready for my hairdresser/makeup artist to show up at 5:30, never mind that she didn't show up until 6:15! I was a little frustrated because I knew it would be an amazing, yet long day and I had already lost unnecessary sleep. But she did eventually show up, and though it was a long process.

We walked to the temple, while the Marriott is only a block away from the temple, it ended being a rather long walk, or maybe that was just because we were so anxious :)

Once we got in the temple I felt a little more calm, I guess all those horror stories of arriving late to the temple were getting to me. We signed the marriage certificate and went our separate ways to get dressed. Then we found each other again and went to the celestial room to wait. We waited, and waited, and waited. All the other couples waiting with us had left, and more had come, and some of those had left. At that moment I made Eric go ask what was going on because I was freaking out and was convinced that they had forgotten all about us. Well, apparently the couple who was in our room before us was 15 minutes late! Though late, it was eventually our turn. The sealing was just beautiful and amazing. Something we'll never forget.

Then we took nearly 2 hours of pictures. It was fun, but I was tired of pictures after all that. We got some awesome shots, I can't wait to get them back. There was one moment during the picture taking that I thought was really funny. We were standing on the steps in between pictures and Savannah, my 4 year-old cousin asked her dad, who was standing right behind us, "When is Shelley going to have a baby?" Oh goodness, Eric and I laughed so hard we could barely contain ourselves.

After the pictures we changed and went to find the car so we could head down to Midway for the luncheon, which we were already way late for. My friend brought the car down for us, and parked it. She told us the car was parked at the Joseph Smith Memorial third floor parking lot. We searched and searched and searched, well Eric searched while I sat on a barrier and rested my poor feet, but the car wasn't anywhere.

I called my friend again and asked her if there was a mistake. And low and behold, it turns out that the car was parked at the Conference Center! The Conference Center happens to be on the other side of Temple Square. I couldn't walk very fast in my heels, so I stayed and sat on the edge of a flower planter and waited for Eric to come back with the car. Luckily he rolled up just as I was getting really cold.

We raced up the canyon to make it to our luncheon. When we walked in everyone clapped, cheered and laughed. It appeared that in our absence everyone decided to share their favorite stories about the two of us. A lot of them were embarrassing as you can imagine.

There was a ton of food at the luncheon, for which we were both grateful, we were starving. Eric's parents had the luncheon catered by Panda Express... yum, it was the perfect thing!

Then what did we do? We went and took MORE pictures! These were our "bridals and groomals". We took them at the Wasatch Mountain State Park. The leaves were at just the perfect stage. I can't wait to see the pictures, though after all that picture-taking we were quite spent.

We made it back to the reception just in time to enjoy a caramel apple together before we needed to get ready for the reception. I wish we had lingered at the buffet table and enjoyed more of the food before we were swept away, that caramel apple was the only bit of our reception food that we tasted, well besides the cake.

I was a little frustrated that my flowers were completely off, apparently the flower supplier froze my lilies, but I decided to not let it bother me--there had to be a few hiccups along the way. But besides that the reception was absolutely beautiful, we were just astounded with how many people made it, and how well everything went. There were some people who really went out of their way to come, and it really meant a lot to us.

One of my favorite pictures!

My niece Aleksa was a darling holding my skirt all evening.

Heather and Cam showing their true selves at the reception.

Annie and Ben standing around while we took TONS of pictures.

My friend Missy, had spent the whole day Friday making us the perfect chocolate cake! It was absolutely delicious, I ate several pieces

I really wanted to have a first dance, but there really wasn't much dancing room, my dress was so huge and cumbersome that our dance we had practiced wasn't possible, and I hate being the center of attention, so we almost didn't do it, but I decided what the heck, at least I won't regret not doing it. So we had our first dance, Eric knew how self conscious I felt about the whole thing and he really made it fun and not awkward. Luckily other people started dancing too, so it felt more natural. Then I danced with my dad, and Eric danced with his mom. I threw my bouquet, and I threw it too far, so no one caught it! Haha! I ran down the steps and we ran out the door!

But here was my favorite part of the whole reception. Eric and I had spent days making little packets of lavender for guests to throw in lieu of rice or bubbles (it is a French tradition that I feel in love with). We waited for everyone to line up outside the reception hall, and once they were all ready we ran in between the two lines of guests and were showered with sweet smelling bits of lavender. Honestly, both Eric and I commented about how it felt like something, not to be cliche or anything, out of a movie or fairy tale. It was magical!

I wish I had more pictures, I promise the professional ones are coming VERY soon. And Eric's aunt Becky just posted a ton on Facebook as well.

How Eric Saved My Wedding Shoes

Who would ever thought that finding the right wedding shoes would be so much harder than finding the right wedding dress? Well such was the case with me. I didn't think that what I wanted: chocolate brown, 3 inch high heels with a peep toe would be such a tall order to fill... but it turned out to be near impossible. I soon learned that I would have to be somewhat flexible. After looking in a few bridal stores and being dismally disappointed with their tacky, strappy, 2 inch heel options I turned to the Internet. I was worried that finding the exact size would be difficult online, but when I started looking I had a few months of breathing room to find the right shoes.

I first ordered these babies, and boy were they gorgeous! Even though I really wanted chocolate brown shoes to match one of my wedding colors, I fell in love with the ruffle (which really matches my dress) and decided I could go with ivory. The smallest size they had was a 6, but I was hopeful that it wouldn't be too big, and I could put in some of those heel pads.

But sadly, the 6 was way too big, and I would have been falling out of them the whole day, so I regrettably had to return them.

So after searching online for a few more hours, I narrowed it down to 5 shoes, and after more diliberation I bought these shoes. Thankfully I read the reviews before I bought the shoes and found out that they run big, so I bought a size 5 rather than a 5.5.

I waited and waited for the shoes to arrive, and then finally after contacting the seller I realized that I had accidentally messed up my address when filling out the shipping information, so it took an extra week and $10 to get them delivered! And when they finally arrived, they fit amazing, and were so beautiful, and they were dyable so I could have them dyed chocolate brown like I originally wanted. I had called around Idaho Falls already to find a place that would dye them. After several "Nos", I found the Royal Shoe Shop who said they could. So one day during lunch I walked the few blocks over to drop them off... turns out they don't dye shoes anymore. But I explained that I had called a few weeks earlier and was told that they could do it, and the owner reluctantly said, "yes." I'm glad he agreed, because then I would have had to find some place in Salt Lake at the last minute. For all the thousands of brides out there that dye their shoes, I'm surprised how many places won't dye shoes!


But he finally agreed to do it, and I thought that was that. I came back the following week and this is what they looked like:

Maybe you can't tell, but they were a light brown, almost pukey purple color. I thanked the man, left, and cried all the way to Rexburg where I was coming to pick up Eric to go down to Utah for the weekend. I was upset because they were hideous, but also because they were ruined and I would have to once again find new shoes, and this time with only 3 weeks until the wedding.

While in Utah I made a stop at David's Bridal, hoping that they would have some shoes in stock that I would like. I looked through their whole collection and found a few that I liked, but I would have to have them shipped asap to have them in time, so they could dye them. While I was talking with the sales associate, she mentioned that their dye was for sale for only $4. I decided that I would buy some dye, try to redye my shoes the right color before spending another chunk of change on shoes.

When we got back home, I gave Eric the task of redying my shoes, I was too terrified it wouldn't work. And I watched as my shoes slowly darkened to a nice chocolate brown.

I was surprised and delighted that it worked! For the price of only $4, my shoes had been saved. Eric was my hero, well he is always my hero, but that night he was showered with praise, kisses and hugs for saving my shoes :)

He was quite proud himself of the job well done, and can you blame him? See them for yourselves.

My husband (then fiance), the hero.

Shelley's First Half-Marathon

When I signed up for the Mesa Falls half-marathon I had just finished my 2nd year of running the ragnar. I'm always on a high after a race, and tend to sign up for my next one during this high, and realize my insanity later. Such was the case with the Mesa Falls half-marathon, my 1st half-marathon. When I actually started to take my training for seriously (about 2.5 weeks ago) I realized that I was cutting it short and probably wouldn't be as ready for my first half as I had planned. The longest run I had time to get in before the big day was 8.15 miles last Saturday. I felt really good after it, even though I drank too much water, but I was hopeful.

My dad let me borrow his garmin for the week, it was good to run with it a few time before the half to get used to it. But it saved my life, I loved knowing my pace and my distance at all times, it helped me stay on track.

So this morning arrived, and the first thing that could go wrong, does. I slept in! I don't understand, I set my alarm. Oh well, I jumped out of bed, got ready super fast, grabbed my bag (which luckily I'd set aside last night), my aunt Camille grabbed some breakfast for me, which I ended up not having the appetite for, and we ran out the door. My Uncle Brady and Aunt Camille are runners too and they've done several half-marathons, so it was nice to run with some seasoned half marathon runners.

Despite out mad dash, we were early, and had time to catch some of the breakfast (I had just a handful of grapes), stretch, and catch the bus that would take us up into the mountains to the start line.

The first little bit was downhill, so I took advantage of it and sped down the hill. It quickly leveled off into a slow decline on a hiking trail. This part was fast, fun and beautiful. I did the first 5k (3.1 miles) in 27 minutes, this really helped me get off to a good start. Just before the trail started climbing the 3-mile hill, I had to use the bathroom. I figured better now, than in 2 miles without a port-a-potty and I'm dying, but that only slowed me down for about 45 seconds.

I kept a good pace even with the hill and finished the first 10k (6.2 miles) in about the same time I did the 10k two weeks ago in Ucon. At this point, I was almost half-way, and I was still feeling good, passing people and going strong. Then I did a stupid thing. At one of the water stations, I dumped a cup of water on my head and down my shirt and straight onto my ipod! It immediately stopped working! I tried turning it back on to no avail, but I didn't have time to mess with it, so I just stuck it back down my bra (yes, I keep my ipod there, the arm band drives me nuts) and kept running... without music :(

At 8.5 miles I was still feeling good. But soon after that I must have started to reach my limit, because my pace decreased dramatically, and my muscles started to give. By the time I reached the 11th mile, I was so ready to just stop and walk the rest of the way, but I really wanted to run the race in 2:20, so I kept at it.

Then at 11.6 miles, I had to stop and walk a ways. I was still going good on my schedule for my goal, but knew I needed to start running again or I wouldn't reach it. So at 12.2 I managed to pick it up again, and run to the end. I finished in 2:20:04, so I was pretty happy. They handed me some water, my medal, and I walked 20 yards before collapsing on the grass, my muscles were shaking so bad. But, I know that if I hadn't of crapped out at the end I could have gotten 2:15 or better. Oh well, there's always the next half-marathon, right?

After lying there for a few minutes, I ate some orange slices and went to go watch for Kim (Eric's aunt who was also running it) Camille, and Brady. First Kim came, then Camille, then Brady. Everyone finished in good time, without injury and relatively good spirits.Oh and good news, after the race was over my ipod started working again, and we got free huckleberry shakes, yum!

We were too tired to think about pictures, so I had my grandma take some later once I got home. The medal is pretty cool, it's wood and engraved with the Mesa Falls Marathon logo.

Safe and sound at home with my medal.

Um, so gotta love Idaho. The traditional complimentary bag of goodies you get from every race was an authentic Idaho potato bag. Sack race anyone?

And here is a picture of last years medal. Mine looks the same except it says 2011 and Half Marathon instead of Marathon. I tried to take a picture with my camera but it kept showing up as a ball of light, idk, I'm not a photographer, so I found this one online.

All in all, it went pretty well, and now I know where I'm at and can set a new goal for the Just Cuz Marathon in Pocatello in November. And this time Eric will run it with me!

"Working" in Iraq

So everyone is always asking how Eric is, and what he's doing in Iraq... well I'll tell you. Currently... absolutely nothing. He was actually supposed to be on his way home by now, but the unit that is replacing them thought they needed extra time to be trained on how to do practically nothing (the predecessor to doing absolutely nothing). Well, they don't actually need more time to be trained, so Eric and his unit are stuck over there with nothing to do. Thankfully there happens to be a pool where he's at, though it is a long dusty walk to the pool, at least it is something to do, and they sure seemed to have fun!

It also looks like they've all spent a lot of their free time at the gym too!

Now his whole sojourn in Iraq hasn't been filled with doing next-to-nothing, but he has had a far amount of time to himself at home, and at work. So we always make jokes about his "work", because he usually ends up chatting with the other guys, watching movies, chatting with me :), playing his harmonica, surfing the Web and working on his independent study class. 

We can't wait for him to get out of Iraq, back on American soil, and most especially home! So this last little while he is still there, seems to really drag out, more so than the past 11 months because we know it is so close and yet not here yet. But most importantly he is safe and will be home soon!

Wedding Preview

{EAV_BLOG_VER:ed71d41621f4f5d3}

So, I'm enjoying this blogging thing immensely, more than I ever thought I would have -- or I would have started one a long time ago.

Well I thought I'd post pictures of things we are doing for the wedding/reception, to give everyone a teaser.

Here are the flower girl dresses. Eric's amazing aunt is a professional dress maker and is making them just like the picture, and I can't wait.

Eric's aunt is also making the bridesmaids dresses from a dress from Shabbyapple. I had one from shabby sent to Beth (Eric's aunt) and it turns out it was very "shabby"ly made, so I'm even more glad that Beth is making them instead.

I haven't ordered the tuxes yet because Eric needs to be here, but this is what I have in mind, and I love it. It solves all my problems. I originally wanted brown tuxes, but that would look weird next to anyone wearing a black one, but then I found this, and I like it much, much better.

I have a friend from back in the day from theatre who now owns his own flower shop Five Penny Floral, and he is AMAZING! And I'm not kidding, he is so singularly talented, and I'm just thrilled. The real thing will look better than this with a more autumnal feel, but this was my inspiration. The bridesmaids bouquets will have only one flower in them (i.e. dahlias, french tulips, gerbers, or roses), and all of them will be combined into my bouquet.

Below is kind of what my bouquet will look like.

And to make it even better Josh is going to recreate this for me for the center pieces, but of course with his own touch.

And the banister and chandeliers will look something like this.

The cake is being made by my old mission companion/roommate/friend. She is super talented, and such a great friend, I'm so glad she just happens to be boulanger :) I LOVE chocolate, and HATE fondant. So this is what I'm having for my wedding cake -- nothing but absolute chocolaty goodness.

Now, as to the rest of the food. When my sister suggested caramel apples, there was no going back, and so caramel apples it is!

And when my mom suggested a bread bar, there was no relinquishing that either. But I want more than just a few loaves! I want about 20 plus kinds of breads: pumpernickel, pumpkin, lemon, sourdough, wheat, rye, white, french baguette, olive bread, cinnamon, zucchini, banana... do you see where I am going with this? And then I want an equally astounding amount of spreads, jellies and cheeses. All to spread onto the slices of bread at will... and risk -- you may accidentally get Roquefort! But your imagination must suffice until October 8th, because the following is the only picture I've found, and even then it doesn't do justice.

And for the drinks we will have citrus water, and... apple cider with cinnamon sticks! I am way excited about this. Nothing explains the glories of autumn and harvest time than warm apply tanginess.

And the venue couldn't have been better, and it was the best price too! This place is the epitome of european loveliness. The styling of this place is perfect, we hardly have to do anything to it, it is already perfect. The lovely Edelweiss Center in Midway, UT.

And of course, we are getting married in the Salt Lake Temple, couldn't get married anywhere else!

 And we can't forget the happy couple! We were delighted with our engagement pictures, taken by Elizabeth Kate Photography. Kate was a gem to work with.

Well, there you have it, our wedding in a nutshell. Of course there are some things that you will just have to come to the wedding to see.