A Simple Request.

-31 degrees? holyidaho.
Someone please take me to this place.

ABC's

A. Thanksmas (Thanksgiving AND Christmas all in one DAY) was perfectly perfect, and by that I mean my goal to gain 10 pounds this holiday season is going right along! Oh wait, was that my goal? Whatever, ILOVEFOOD. My sisters and wonderful mother do all the cooking while I pretend that I still can't boil a pot of water so that I can relax and enjoy the Thanksmas spirit... let's keep that on the DL, k?

B. BOY. BABY BOY. No, not me people! Baby Stevenson showed his manly self QUITE proudly. Yay for more babies!

C. I received my mom's favorite child, her sewing machine named "Baby." I vow to treat my machinechild with tender love and care for the rest of eternity. Oh, and I also hope to learn how to sew. That might be useful eventually... Jess got an iMac desktop (Hallelujer) his laptop is a dinosaur and his work relies on a nice computer so, again, hallelujer!

Merry Thanksmas! 

Confession

Confession: My "grateful post everyday" thing was really just a plan I made for myself so that I would slow down and remember that its November and that Thanksgiving is the next holiday, NOT CHRISTMAS.

But then I remembered I love Christmas and I want to celebrate it all year long and NOBODYS GOING TO STOP ME.
So anyway, now that it's off my chest I'm in full Christmas mode. I've warned Jesse that I like my decorations sparkly, glittery, lit up, glorious, and that they will be everywhere! And also I listen to Christmas music like 24/7. Get over it, people! If I could, I would move to Whoville, with my whohusband and whodog of course.

In the meantime, I'm grateful for Christmas.

Two & Three

2. I'm grateful for this guy:

He makes me laugh when all I want to do is be grumpy. He never forgets to tell me the reasons why he loves me. He encourages me to do the things I love and supports me in every decision. He makes me feel like a Queen. Whenever I feel down he'll ask "What's your favorite thing about _____ " (insert some sort of weird animal) and it can always make me laugh. If I'm feeling negative he'll make up some sort of game or bet where we both have to positive for a certain amount of time. He cares about how I feel and how each day went. He never hesitates to help me out. I love the man to eternity ;)

3.  I'm grateful for our home. We are so blessed to have a place that fits all of our(my) stuff and a beautiful place to come home to each day. 

 (we've repainted since this pic ^^^)

Grateful

So I'm doing the whole thankful November thing and I missed the first day, so here it is! (I planned on doing two as well, needless to say this one got a little long. Tomorrow!) I'm not doing it on Facebook because, really, not everybody wants to know about my detailed cheesy love for everything in this world. Those who want to be a part of my cheesefest can visit my bloggityblog which is totally adorbs and filled with cuteness.

I am unbelievably grateful for my parents. They. Are. Awesome. Seriously people, have you met them?! Anyway, I love them to death. I wouldn't have the charming personality I have now if it weren't for them. But in all seriousness they guided me, loved me (even through my grumpy rebellious teenage years), supported me, disciplined me, taught/forced me to clean (heaven forbid! I learned some parents didn't teach their children how to clean when I got roommates. eek.) taught me responsibility, let me make my own decisions, let me learn from my own terrible decisions, gave me awesome genes, taught me what to look for in a man, taught me how to (eventually) be an awesome mom, taught me how to be patient and kind, and sosososososososo much more. I could go on and on. I've always gotten along with my parents and I'm so grateful for that. I know a lot of kids don't have that kind of relationship.

 I'm so grateful for my dad who works and has worked so hard to support us. My dad is the most patient guy I have and probably ever will meet. He is such an example to me because patience is not my strength, crazy I know. He would spend HOURS helping me with homework. I definitely have a lot of my dad in me and I'm proud of it! He's so understanding and I would hate to go a day without him teasing me.

My mom, oh boy, my mother. She is HI-LAR-I-OUS. I like to pretend that I'm just as funny as her, but she's hard to beat! She's been my best friend forevs, and not just in the "she's my mother so I have to be nice since I'm stuck with her for life" kind of way. Jesse says I act like her ALL the time and I take that as a compliment! When she's old I totally call dibs on having her live with me at our home (you heard me siblings!).

Going to the gym for the rest of my life because I ate so much on Halloween.

Can you guess who we are? If not, you obviously didn't have a freakishly artistic slightly terrifying childhood.

We had a crazy wild party where we ate cocktail weenies and gorged ourselves on candy, puppy chow, and anything chocolate and fattening. 

 This was the crew for the most part. Scary right? We woke up all our neighbors babies, oops?

Winner of best costume? This guy. If you don't see it, look harder. HILARIOUS. 

Happy Go to The Gym Because Yesterday We Ate Our Body Weight Twice in Junk Food Day! 

Cruisin'

All this snow and winter crap has brutally slapped me in the face and reminded me of the wonderfully NOT COLD winter we had last year in Florida/Jamaica/Cayman Islands.

We left on the cruise a week after Jesse proposed and also a week before Christmas. We BARELY made it back for Christmas in Idaho with the wonderful Cooke fam. Not only did our flight get so full that Jess and I had to stay behind in Atlanta, Georgia as our family flew back to Utah,  but also our bus back to Rexburg caught on fire. Lucky for us, things worked out and we got two $400 dollar plane tickets and two free shuttle bus rides to Salt Lake. We win. 

The lovely Nielsen side. 

 Jamaican waterfall hike! Sosososo fun.

 Jess was planning on proposing here, but he couldn't wait. I'm SO glad he did it when he did because this night I was feeling extra sea sick. 

 We're really attractive. And also really humble.

 Our guide took us to this crazy awesome restaurant with true Jamaican jerk (I may be saying that wrong) but it was Deeeeelish!

Jess didn't know that the pools were filled with salt water, opening his eyes under water is still probably the worst decision that he's ever made.

Just a reminder. 

 Our stretch limo to the cruise, my first time riding in a limo! 

 The cayman islands were uh-mazing. We were supposed to go snorkeling but we were too busy soaking up the warmth that we wouldn't be getting for a long, long, loong time in Idaho.

I would give my left pinky toe to go back right about now, but as long as I'm with my unusually warm hubby I'm as happy as can be and sometimes I can maybe imagine that I'm in some exotic place where snow and ice only come on Christmas and on nights when I'm craving hot chocolate and comfy clothes, or when I want to build a snow man.