Mushy Gushy. don't say i didn't warn you.

I love this picture. I don't really know why. But I just love it. I love how Mike and I are just in our own little world while everyone else is doing who knows what. 

This has been a quite wonderful 8 1/2 months. La la newly wed land is quite nice.

And, you know what's happening right now? Mike banished me to the bedroom to relax (you know, pinterest, blogs, fb, instagram, my new love for sudoku thanks to the app store...all that stuff) while he is cooking a surprise dinner. How's that for sweet?

Happy weekend! I made it to Friday!

LeAp Day TweNty TweLVe

I was so excited for leap day. I mean, this is a  w h o l e  e x t r a  d a y  that exists only once every four years. Seriously, this was only my SEVENTH leap day in my whole life. Honestly, this is big! Christmas comes every 365 days, and that is big...leap day only comes every 1460 (or so) days! Huge! (ok, well i'm not really so sure about the awesomness of leap day. but isn't it always a good thing to have a reason to celebrate during gloomy february???)

I was pretty disappointed when I realized that Leap Day fell on a WEDNESDAY. Wednesdays mean Mike has late class. I was gonna have to spend leap day alone. :(  That just would not do.  So I told Mike that if he would skip class, I would come up with some super awesome leap day celebration.

With the help of my very creative sister T, we had a very successful and fun Leap Day.

We started out with a Leap Dinner, going to Firehouse for some delicious focaccia bread for an appetizer, then we came home to a candle-lit dinner of chicken parmesan, and then adventured to Charlie's for some dessert.

And then we took some wannabe sweet leaping pictures,

And then we wrote some leap letters...sealed up with an official wax seal only to be read on the next leap day. We each wrote one letter for each other, and one letter for ourselves to read in 4 years

We finished off the night by watching the classic, cheesy Leap Year. Who doesn't love Amy Adams?

It turned out to be a pretty great extra day.

Two Thousand and Twelve

So it is the new year. And it has been for 23 days already. Yeah, I'm a little behind. And hey, I just got my Christmas tree out last week.  So I'd say it is definitely not too late to do a bit of a post-year recap! As I think back on all of the things that happened in two thousand and eleven I can't help but wonder how this year can be as good as the last. (This is a long one. Brace yerself.)


 Two Thousand and Eleven

Top Ten. In absolutely no particular order at all, whatsoever.


UnO:
I got to live with Katie and Nate.  I got to pretend to be a kid again, I got to color, take silly pictures, play lots of wii, participate in family nights, hang out in my sweatpants, and welcome little Stelly into the Stokes family. And I have never felt so at home. Katie and Nate were so good to me and I will always treasure the time I got to not only  live with them, but feel like a member of their family. It was just what I needed, having just returned from my mission and feeling pretty out of sorts.
Katie took such good care of me.  She bought me my favorite groceries, like I was one of the kids, she encouraged me in my awkward post mission stage, and always made me dinner :)

DoS:
I graduated!
I had a hard time getting back into school after having left for 2 years, but I met some great girls and really enjoyed my last year at Utah State. I will always remember and love my time at USU--the Library, the Marv n' Joe's at the Hub, the Asiago Cheese bagels and diet coke in the libe cafe, the fall leaves, the bookstore, the naps, the steep walk up to campus, the longboarding, the goofing off with Mike and watching youtube and facebook stalking instead of homework, the late nights and early mornings. College is so fun.

TrEs:
Mike PROPOSED!
I remember one time way before my mission, Mike and I were at the mall.  He thought it would be HILARIOUS to drag me into a ring store and "pretend" shop for a ring. He dragged me in there, and of course one of those suited up ring sellin vultures ran over to us and immediately said, "This must be the lucky lady! What kind of rings do you prefer?"
I looked at him, freaked out, looked at Mike, and squeaked, "We have to get out of here!" And with a death grip on his arm, I dragged him right back out.  And I didn't look back. I wonder if the vulture got that very often. I definitely wasn't ready for marriage.

This pic was taken right after it happened... giddiness!!!

The next time Mike took me ring shopping (much, much later--I think he was sure to give me plenty of time to get over the mall incident), he did not have to drag me, and I was oh, so confident that he was the one I wanted a ring from, and oh, so excited and giddy over the idea of being Mike's wife.  It felt so right. I was so ready.

Cuatro:
I married my best friend and changed my life forever.
I've already said it was the best and most fun day of my life. You can read about that 
in this cheesy post here.  
During our wedding luncheon, 6 year old Miles came over to the table where Mike and I were sitting and tapped my shoulder. Here's how our convo went down:
Miles: Hey, Lise, do you know what I ordered?
Me: No, what did you get?!
Miles: A quesadilla. It was really cheesy. You know what is more cheesy though?
Me: What?
Miles: You and Mike!!
But hey, a girl's allowed to be cheesy and kissy and crazy on her day, right?!  And I'm pretty sure either T or Nate put him up to the cheese joke.

CinCo:
Asher arrived! Chels became a mother, and such an adorable mother she is! She was born to care for this little guy. He is such a special addition to the family. I am just sad I'm not a little closer to see the little guy more.

(And I stole these adorable pics straight off of Chel's blog.)


SeIs:
Ran my first half marathon--and definitely not my last! 

Siete:
Visited paradise/hawaii with loverboy.  Absolute bliss.

OchO:
The same day I got married, one other thing was floating around in my crazy brain--it was my one year anniversary of being home from my mission.  Not a day goes by that I don't think of Argentina and the experiences there. I will always have a special part of my heart reserved for my mission experiences. I'm so grateful for the opportunity the Lord gave me to learn and grow and love so much.

Each of these pictures hold such special memories, each one a story, a life, and such a future. I love each one of these people, plus so many more.  I will never forget them! Someday soon I will begin blogging more of each of these people so close to my heart, because I know that memories fade. that's one of my resolutions, but now I'm getting ahead of myself :)
NuEve:
Mike and I decided that the Air Force is not for us (for now at least!). Mike's given it up, so that he can graduate all the faster. He can always go back if he wants to after he graduate, but for now, no more military.

Our very last Military Ball :)

diEz:
We grew up! Our very own apartment.  I remember the day in the summer that we knew our apartment was OURS! Mike picked me up from work for my lunch break, we went and got jamba juices to celebrate, and we sat in the middle of our empty apartment, giddy with anticipation of our new home. 

I have such a happy life.
Happy TwoThousandAndTwelve. Isn't life exciting?

This One Time,

We had a girls camping trip.

Back when it was warm, of course.

Tierra headed it up.

Kate and nate kindly reserved the campling spot, and set up the tent nice.

T brought plenty of firewood and stuff for a delicious pancake and egg breakfast,

Katie made DeLiCiOuS tin foil dinners

AND brough s'more fixins.

Lola was even in charge of loading the car.

You all may be wondering...well what did I contribute?

in the words of T,

"well, elise is the little sister..."

I like to think that it isn't cuz I'm not willing, it is just cuz my sistas are so on top of things :)

 And we had a great time

Roughin' it, chick style.

  

 We tried real hard to get a pic of all of us and our s'mores,

But kinda just ended up looking doofy (mostly me),

 And Lo loved falling asleep in her mom's arms right next to the warm fire,

as us sisters gabbed away half the night.

 Doesn't Lola look beautiful in these pictures, by the way?!

We had so much fun on our little weekend getaway--

We sure missed Mom and Chel, and Stell--maybe next year though!

(And next time, I swear I'll help a little more!)

Thanks to T for putting it together!

Christmas!

Christmas was fabulous.

Mike and I wanted to exchange gifts between each other alone, so we had our Christmas on Wednesday night. We had decided to go low-budget this year, but we still managed to have so much fun. It was so fun to open presents under our little tree, listening to Christmas tunes and giggling like kids as we tore open the gifts (well, maybe that was just me doing the giggling). :)

And yes, Mike totally got me this ADORABLE penguin. Maybe it is a little childish to get excited over a stuffed animal, but I think he's so cute. I saw him at Pier 1 and said to Mike, "Aww, I wish we had a baby so I'd have an excuse to buy this!"

Thanks to Mike, I don't need a baby to justify it :) 

Mike got me the adorable penguin, an ornament for our tree, some comfy and warm pj pants, and a dvd that I've been dying to have

I got mike a tie, a goofy dvd, Nanodots, and some of his favorite treats

We then headed down to my parents for the craziness of Christmas down in Centerville. We had so much fun playing with nieces and nephews, staying up way too late, playing Ticket to Ride, eating delicious treats, waiting for Santa to come, and just loving being together. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family that we love to be around.


On Christmas Eve we of course had to do the Christmas story, complete with random costumes and a fabulous baby Asher as Jesus. Here's the vid (I won't be offended if you get bored):



Untitled from Elise Fackrell on Vimeo.


I couldn't help but be so in love with little miss Lola the angel, as she giggled her lines:


"Don't be afraid! I have some wonderful news! The Savior is born in Bethlehem and you'll find him in a manger, and his name is JESUS CHRIST!"


And I thought of the truthfulness of her words. That the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ truly is wonderful news.  I'm so grateful for Christmas time-the glittering lights, the festive treats, shopping like crazies and finding perfect gifts for everyone, the parties, the decorating, but mostly for the chance to think about the birth of Christ and the life He lived and the love He has for us.


Hope you all had a great Christmas!

Gingerbread House

I've never actually made a gingerbread house, other than the kind you try to make out of graham crackers, that always end up breaking or falling down. 

Although maybe a little childish, we had so much fun with this "WonKa CottaGe"

Watch our progress!

Gingerbread from Elise Fackrell on Vimeo.

If you watch closely you can even see me sneaking the candy here and there, and sneaking an occasional kiss from the Mr.

Christmas Time

This Holiday Season

has been SO MUCH FUN.

It is a Christmas of Firsts

First Christmas married

First Christmas having an apartment to decorate

First Christmas tree

First Christmas I haven't been distracted by the stress of finals (Not for Mike, but now he's DONE!)

First time making Gingerbread cookies without Mom's help *Sidenote: Mike was so totally into helping with the cookies--it was so cute. I love how he loves to be in the kitchen, and we have FINALLY learned to get along while cooking (most days). We fought over whose turn it was to roll out the dough :)

Oh, and this post just wouldn't be complete without including these friends, who were there through it all, the gift wrapping, the cookie making, and the decorating.

Thank you Barney, Robin, Ted, Lily, and Marshall.

I'll admit, we're a little bit obsessed with 

How I Met Your Mother

I think I've seen Seventeen-Million episodes in the past 3 days.

Because it is just that awesome.