new year. new me.

well.
i didn't do any blogging in december.
so i have a lot to catch you up on.

lets start with the lights at temple square.
we went with our friends colby and dani.
it was a super nice night. and the lights were beautiful as usual.

next up.
m. played at open mic night at velour. he played some of his christmas music which is always a delight.

the week before christmas we went on a cruise to cabo and ensenada mexico. 

it was glorious. 

we got a handicap room. it was huge!

the entertainment on the ship was the best! 

here we are on our way to the shore. 

lands end. the most southern point of the baja peninsula. 

m & l. cabo 2011. 

on our glass bottom boat ride. 

lovers arch.  

here we are on december 22nd. jealous?

loving the beach. 

m. heading into the ocean.

doing what lovers do on lovers beach. 

terrible picture. and the only one from ensenada. 

this is our idea of fancy. 

there was a bird in the long beach airport on our way home. 

i didn't take a single good picture on christmas. we were running around like crazy, but know that it was a wonderful day. we are both lucky enough to have wonderful families that always spoil us.
we picked out all our presents so there weren't many surprises, but it was wonderful.  i love m.

new years came in a hurry this year.
we went to lava hot springs (two years in a row!) with a few of our friends. it was awesome. we had so much fun partying all day and all night. we even stayed in our jimmy jams for a whole day and didn't even feel bad about it.

the beautiful lava lodge.

it was so cozy and rustic.

we chopped some wood. (not the whole pile, come on.)

love you, lava. 

happy new year. 

we saw some fabulous local bands play some beautiful music the first weekend of the year.

the moth & the flame with book on tape worm. 

the moth & the flame. 

m. started in the PR program at byu. 

he looked so cute on his first day. and he got a new backpack! 

and. last but not least, i am now a red head.

it's true.

well. that is a very brief overview of the past month. we have been very blessed and are so grateful that we were able to spend so much time with our family and friends over the holidays. i am so glad that my WHOLE family got together for christmas. it was pure bliss. 

i hope you all had a wonderful christmas and new years. and that your january is going well. i will be back sooner than later. until then, break some resolutions and set some new goals. 

xo. 

linds. 

days 23 to 30.

 day twenty-three.   baking. 

 my thanksgiving pie. 

i am so grateful for my kitchen and that i can bake in it. our old apartment wasn't really baking/cooking friendly. i feared i would burn the house down every time i turned the phone on, so now that i have a glorious kitchen i am totally taking advantage of baking and cooking. i am so grateful that i am able to make delicious meals for my husband and that i am able to keep him happy. cause as you all know, the stomach is the way to a mans heart. 

day twenty-four.    sleep.

m. taking a pre-thanksgiving dinner snooze. 

i am so grateful for sleep. honestly, it is one of my favorite things in the world. i am almost excited to go to bed every night. i live for the weekends when i am able to wake up without an alarm. grated, i still wake up around 8am, but to not hear my alarm in the morning is my favorite thing. i am also grateful that i am able to take lunchtime naps at work. they make my day. haha. that sounds pathetic, but when i am able to shut my eyes are 10-20 minutes at lunchtime, my day is a hundred times better. it boggles my mind why kids don't want to go to bed. i practically jump into bed every night. 

kids are freakin nuts! (obviously i'm not ready to be a mom)

day twenty-five.   my job. 

this is my work desk. 

sometimes i don't have the best attitude about work. this makes me feel bad cause i know some of my coworkers read my blog and probably think that i am crazy. but i am really grateful for my job. i am grateful that i have a stable job, that i work with great people and that i am good at what i do. somedays are long, which are the worst. but some days fly by, and i am beyond grateful. but mostly i am grateful that i have place to go and work and do something that makes a difference. i am also grateful for m.'s job. he loves it. we have been blessed with great jobs. 

day twenty-six.   birthdays. 

m. blowing out his birthday candles. 

i am so grateful for birthdays. i am grateful that each year, we are able to celebrate the life of someone and make that person feel so special all day. i love birthdays. they are just such happy days! i love making people happy and feel good on their birthday cause they deserve it. everyone deserves to be happy about their life and have someone tell them that they are awesome for just being them. way to go everyone! we all have birthdays! so that means that you are awesome! good job!

day twenty-seven.  family. 

this little doll is the newest member of my family. 

i am absolutely in love with this little girl. i am by no means baby hungry, but holding babies is one of my favorite things in the world. i love my family. i love my nieces and nephews. my sisters and brothers. and of course my parents. i love that most of us live so close to each other and that we are able to spend time together. i love m.'s family too. i have been hanging around their house for so long and i am grateful that they never got sick of me. they are the best in-laws a girl could ask for. and the best cooks too! way to be awesome, fam. 

day twenty-eight.   salads. 

chicken cesar salad. 

i was not always the biggest fan of salad, but lately, they are one of my most favorite things. they are so tasty and you can put pretty much anything on them and they are good. i love that i feel more healthy when i am eating them and i am glad that m. is on a diet right now, so he doesn't even mind when we have salad for dinner every night. i am especially grateful for cafe rio and their amazing pork salad that i get every time i go there. that bad boy is the king of salads. FREE MEAL! 

day twenty-nine.  music.

 

m. playing practicing before his show. 

i am so grateful for music and for the role that it plays in my life. i will be honest, the reason i love music is because of m.. he LOVES music. good music. beautiful music. he appreciates talented artists and i am grateful that he is always willing to support local artists since he has had so much support himself. i am grateful for all the people that support him and his music. i am so grateful that m. can write beautiful music for people to enjoy. i am so proud of all that hard work he puts into his music. and i am so grateful that he shares music with me. my itunes library thanks him also. 

     day thirty.   you.

today is my last grateful day and i don't have a picture, but i just want you all to know that i am thankful for you. i am grateful that you all keep coming back and reading my silly blog. i am grateful for those of you that laugh at my silly comments and that you don't {hopefully} think that i am crazy. i am grateful to be alive. and i hope that you all are too. i hope you all know that you are special to someone, even if you don't feel like you are. bless you all. and thank you. for being so great. 

xo.
linds.

day 22.

day twenty-two.  clothing

this is our closet.

yes, it is kind of a mess. but that is how it goes. it is clean one day and a mess the next. i am so grateful for clothes. for all the clothes that i have that never get warn, but take up room in my closet and make me feel like i have SO MANY CLOTHES! i am grateful for the clothes that i do wear and that they are slowly wearing out. cause you know what that means...i get new clothes! i am grateful that i am able to wear clean clothes everyday and that i have a place to put them when i take the off at night.  if anyone reading this wants to send me on a shopping spree, i would be all for it. no questions asked. 

days 17,18,19,20 and 21

i have a lot of catching up to do.

day seventeen.  memories.

m. and i at snow college homecoming. 

m. was an ambassador at snow before and after his mission so he had to go to the dance. and he asked me to go with him. the day of the dance was a very memorable day. and not really in a good way, but the night was much better. the dance was lame, i made my dress, m. looked awesome and had a sweet stache, my hair was real short and my feet hurt by the end of the night {naturally}. this was a very good day and i am grateful for the memory that i have of m. telling me that he loved me. not for the first time. and not for the last. but from his heart. he loved {loves} me. 

day eighteen.  something new.

this is my husband. age 12ish. 

i found this picture at my in-laws today and laughed my head off. it is so fun to me to find new pictures of my husband that i haven't seen before. i met him after he had lost all his baby fat and grew into his ears so to see these pictures is a whole new experience for me. i love finding new things. especially funny pictures. i am grateful that this silly little boy {who still loves basketball} is my husband. forever. oh how i love those ears! 

day nineteen.  best friend {s}.

these two gals are the best of the best. 

i have been friends with these girls for about 7 years and we have yet to fight, bicker or argue. i love these girls. i am so grateful that i can call them my friends. they are each so special in their own way. they make me laugh harder than almost anyone can. they both have hearts of gold and have been lucky enough to have found their soul mates {both of which are going to be dentists!}. i cannot thank the lord enough for blessing me with these two beauties. {i need a new picture of the 3 of us. this was the only one i had on hand.}

day twenty.  seasonal.

it snowed this weekend. 

as you can see, it didn't snow very much. i was expecting more, but it hasn't come yet. i am not one to jump for joy at the first sight of snow. i love when the seasons change. i love wearing coats and gloves and scarves and being cuddly warm, but the cold is what i am never prepared for. with that being said, i am grateful that i am able to experience the cold so that i am appreciate the warmth even more. i am so grateful for each beautiful season and that i live in the heart of the rockies and in the middle of a desert at the same time. how does that work? i don't really know. 

day twenty-one.  where you sleep.

this is our bed. 

yes, our comforter is very girly. a new one is the works. i am so grateful for our bed. it is so cozy. i am grateful that my parents got it for us when we got married and even moved it into our {old} apartment for us. we had to move it out, but that was way easier than getting it in. i am grateful that at the end of each day i have a place to rest my head. that i am able to be warm when i sleep and have a nice warm blanket on top of me. oh how i love my {our} bed. 

days 15 and 16.

day fifteen.   technology.

yes, that's the x factor on tv. 

i'm not huge fan. there're just nothing else on and m. is gone. i am so grateful for technology. i am grateful for my phone, for my computer, for my tv, for my camera, for the radio, for the fancy electronic instruments that allow m. to make his sweet, sweet music and for all the technology out there that is yet to be discovered that is going to change the world as we know it. can you imagine the world our children are going to grow up in? i am grateful that i am fortunate enough to have so much technology at my fingertips. sometimes i would like to get rid of all of it, but then i think about it and i think thats a really dumb idea. i love technology...but not as much as you, you see. 

day sixteen.  animals. 

 

this is an insect. 

let me be honest, i am not the biggest fan of animals. correction, i am not the biggest fan of pets. i think animals are great, but i don't want to have one. i am grateful that there are animals on the earth (and in space? who knows!) and that they bring so much joy to so many people. i am grateful that animals help make the world go round. it kinda freaks me out that there are animals that we don't know very much about. i guess it's kinda the same with humans. way to be cool animals. if i could, i would give you all high fives. but only if you promised not to eat me. 

day 14.

day fourteen.  movement.

temple of heaven. beijing china.  

i am grateful for this adorable chinese woman who was perfectly content twirling her long streamers in the courtyard of the temple of heaven. i am so grateful for movement. i am grateful that there are so many ways to interpret movement whether it be dancing, running, leaping, hunching, jumping, twirling, etc. i am grateful that most of us are capable of getting from one place to another just by placing one foot in front of the other. and for those of us that can't quite get around by ourselves, i am grateful that there are people in this world that help others move from place to place. i am grateful that the world is busy, moving, changing, evolving. 

i love movement. but i hate moving. (good thing we aren't going anywhere for a while.)

day 13.

day thirteen.   hands.

our hands. 

i am grateful for hands. i am grateful that i have all my fingers (and toes too). i am grateful for hand holding and thumb wars. i am grateful that m. has such strong guitar callused hands that make such beautiful music. i am grateful that our hands allow us to serve others. i am grateful for the many hands that have fed me throughout my life. i am grateful that i have a mallet finger (permanently bent) because that mallet brought me to my best han-ba-nan. i am grateful that there are so many things that we can do with out hands. give a wave, an i love you, and maybe if you're angry...that middle guy will creep up. oops. 

i am grateful for my "bird" hands.