husband turns 24!

Ah. It seems like just yesterday he was walking around his living room in that big ole Florida orange sweatshirt, rockin the soccer shorts with a bowl of cereal in his hand.

James is having a pretty big birthday this year. He & his friends decided to take a trip to Tennessee and stay in a cabin for a few days together. Do some manly stuff. But I'll save that whole thing for it's own post (it's going to need it I'm sure). So before he left, I wanted to make sure he had a little birthday fun.

I was told I was NOT allowed to spend money on getting him a gift this year because of his big trip. Pft. Yeah, like that's going to stop the person who is crazy for birthdays. But I tried not to go too overboard.

I got him a couple of games to take with him on his fun trip, because thank goodness I married someone who loves games just as much as I do. I also got him a gift card to one of his all time favorite stores: Home Depot...which is tied for first with Bass Pro Shop. 

He was super excited to go spend that card on some new tools. My little handyman. Since James isn't a dessert person (that part still gets to me) I didn't make him a cake or anything. But I tried to make sure everything else was good enough for my sweetie pie!

My favorite part of the whole day was when James complimented my card-picking skills. "Did you make this card? It's, like, perfect!" Don't think I'll ever forget that. What can I say? When you got it, you got it.

hook, line, & sinker.

So once again, I've been slacking. I know, I'm sorry about that.

But I was just talking to my friend in church this week about how I feel so lame in conversations these days. James & I are living a quiet, just-the-two-of-us little happy lifestyle right now. So there's never really anything SUPER exciting to talk about. BUT! Finally last week, some fun, more lively things happened.

First off, I went fishing for the first real time in my life! I know. My sister thinks I've turned into "a rootin tootin hillbilly." Haha...it's possible. We went once in Texas and I used a tiny pink Barbie fishing pole because the big kids were doing their thing. And we used live worms that time, which my stomach had quite a problem with.

This time, we used pieces of shrimp and those I could hook pretty well! We took Tyler's boat out to the river and were there for most of our Saturday! James is already a pro fishermen. He has like 3 poles and knows all the tricks. It was time for me to step up to the plate & show him what I got.

[Side note: These pictures are all very bright. Which is weird because it was overcast, but whatever. I'm definitely no photographer!]

I love love love being out on the water, especially when it's nice & cloudy like that. It's so beautiful and peaceful. In fact, so peaceful that there was more of this going on than I thought there'd be! Haha

At one point, the guys got out of the boat and went to explore the land. It was a small space, so when they came back, we all ate the sandwiches & chips we'd packed up in the cooler. It was like a fun little boat picnic.

Then it was off to find more fishing spots. Abby said she had a good feeling in a couple spots, and we were pretty sure she almost caught a couple fish, but they managed to get away every time. It was pretty fun for me to just sit and wait because I was so sure I was going to have beginner's luck and I'd catch dinner...so not the case.I ended up setting my fishing pole down next to James and waiting for it to move, but it didn't. It was still nice though! We all just sat on the boat, talking, relaxing. And Zach & Ana even caught a couple sticks! ;) Finally I can say that I've "gone fishin." Haha

The second thing was that James finally has passed his tests to get his insurance license and is now official!

He started his job on yesterday and was mostly just training. BUT! He worked for our bishop again last week (to get out of the house) and was telling a lady about how he got his license and she wanted to get a policy from him! Not only that, but that lady was talking to another lady on the phone and now SHE wants to buy a policy from him as well! It's a talent James has. He's very much a people person. After his first day, I brought him a balloon to show him how excited & happy I am for him. It's been a long hard road for him and I'm SO proud of all he's accomplished. All of that work has finally paid off and I'm glad he can start the job he's wanted for years now. YAY James!! Now we wait for the business cards...

And that's about it. That covers the highlights. Others include James's garden is growing & feeding us, I almost get to start working from home two days a week (WHOO!) and both of us are going to the gym every other day and we feel awesome! We're getting stronger! Now if we can just keep our healthier eating up, I'd say this family is on a roll!

green thumb.

Recently, and it feels like from out of nowhere, James became the next Master Gardener.

His green thumb has actually made quite a few tasty additions to our dinners. Well, mostly spices...for now...but let me tell ya, there actually is a huge difference between fresh herbs and packaged herbs. Mmmm! (In fact, he cut some up for our pasta just last night!)

It may have started way before, but I first noticed it after Halloween. I think with all of the talk about everyone else's gardens & the season and seeing how expensive fresh foods are getting, James decided to start a garden all on his own! I got him some gardening tools for Christmas and his parents got him this gardening book that he took everywhere until he finished it. [Side note: James is like a cute little kid. He started randomly stateing plant facts and telling me all these cool ideas he had for his garden & what he wanted to plant. It was adorable to see him so excited!]

*I know zero gardening terms, so I hope the rest of this post doesn't make you wince* He built two planters out of pallets that he got working construction and fixed them up nicely with fresh dirt. Then slowly, he's added more & more pallets & plants, and a few pots that were left at our house. He asked everyone for tips and has been working on it every single day!

Now they look like this...

I can't wait to keep eating all of his delicious results! I am loving seeing him so passionate about this and truly loving taking care of it! Way to go babe!!

our first anniversary.

One year.

I can’t believe it’s already been one whole year with my sweetheart. 

I know anniversaries are a big deal, and they should be, but this year (with us still feeling the effects of college tuition) we decided to go small and stay home. Well sort of.

Saturday night, or our “anniversary-eve” as I like to call it, we had to go down and help clean the church. Starting the night off with a dirty job wasn't ideal for me. I mean, I wasn't angry or sad, but trying to vacuum tight pants and pretty high heels was harder than I’m going to admit. But afterwards, James was saying how it was nice that we got to start our next year out by doing a little service for the church. And of course, my “eh” attitude melted away. I mean, who can argue with that?!

After that, James told me that he was taking me to Kumo, which is a Japanese restaurant that we had heard so much about, but never had been. I felt a little anxious about it since we were trying to be smart with our money, but he told me that is [super sweet] parents had given us their gift card so we could have a nice dinner. I know. I definitely married into the best family. It was definitely worth waiting for.

A little memory that was funny for us, but might not be funny for everyone else: they asked us if we wanted to be seated “at Hibachi or booth” and I immediately said “Oh no, we’ll take a booth.” 

Idiot. 

When we sat down and James showed me what the Hibachi actually was, I was ticked at myself. “I thought they were talking about the bar!!” That was my only regret of the night. But at least we sat neeear it so that we could kind of see. It was just like what I’ve always seen on tv. So awesome. James always makes me feel better about my regrets. “It would be kind of pointless to sit there and then order sushi. So we’ll come back again with a big group sometime and you can see it live then!” And I was fine with it after that because those rolls were sooooo good.

*Sorry about the pictures. Trying to take pictures in "romantic lighting" is WAY harder than I thought it would be!

My husband's hot. I'm just putting that out there.

Behold. The Monster Roll and the Kumo Roll. Mmmmm.

Then Sunday, our actual anniversary, we obviously went to church. But afterwards, Ana was sweet enough to take some anniversary pictures of us! I’m hoping it’s a tradition that we get to do every year because they turned out perfect. James had even MADE that number one for me before church! Talk about a great husband!

Our favorite. :) Love my little cowboy.

James had taken a nap right after church, before we were going over to Zach & Ana’s, so in the meantime, I baked a mini lemon cake (since James isn’t a huge dessert person. You know what they say, opposites attract! At least he likes lemon cake a LOT!) in a little empty can. [Side note: we did not keep our cake. It stayed in my parents’ freezer and became a rock while we finished college. Haha So we had to improvise] It was the perfect size. I actually baked a couple just in case (and thank goodness because I used an empty bean can-AND washed it-and it still had a slight bean flavor. Blech!) James woke up just as I was taking them out and I frosted them with whipped cream (we’re not huge frosting people) and we headed over to his parents’ house for dinner, just like every Sunday. [I always love that] But this time, Zach & Ana were able to come! Because Zach is a new leader in the singles ward, they usually have church at the time we have dinner. So it’s always awesome when we get to eat dinner with them. Anyway, right before dinner, just go ahead and guess what happened. JAMES STARTED TO FEEL SO SICK. I swear January 5th is cursed for him. It was so sad. But luckily he was still open to the cake.

So we went home and I stuck a sparkler right in the middle of it. Then I snapped a few pictures because it was COOL. It was still cool even when it was putting metal ashes on my cute cake. Haha But sadly, James was not doing too well so we went to go spend the rest of the night on our bed. After I scraped a lot of the topping off, I ate that whole cake. Poor husband.

Then we decided to start another tradition. We both write each other a letter every year on our anniversary. The next year, we will write a new one and open the letter from the year before. I think it will be such a neat thing to look forward to each year. I ended up wrapped cute black & white twine around it too, just to keep it extra safe, but here’s what our simple little envelope filled with love letters looked like.

I have to say, even though it was SUCH a simple anniversary, it was one I will never ever forget. It was so nice to just get to be together with no distractions. As I was writing my letter to James, all these memories came flooding about the past year. We had no money, and had to live so simply. But I won't forget coming home to our little apartment after a long day at school and making dinner together (or having dinner waiting for me!) and watching a movie on James's laptop because we had no tv. Or decorating the entire game room for James and having him let out a little giggle with a big smile when he opened the door for Valentines day and opening our gifts on the twin bed in there while we ate heart shaped gummies. Or camping for the first time and proving to James that I am NOT a city-slicker. Or filming the youth Trek on my birthday and having James sing me Happy Birthday when we were finally all alone. This was our newlywed year. The first one that people always look back on with such fondness, and we definitely felt that. It was the best, most wonderful year I could have asked us and I CANNOT believe how blessed we were. I almost cry every time I think about it. I can't believe how lucky I am to have James right by my side, all day, everyday. He's the perfect companion in every way and my absolute best friend in the world. I can't wait to grow old together and see what life has in store for us. If it's anything like this year, I can't imagine a better way to live a life!

bring on the bubbly and ban the bloating.

WHOOOO!!! Happy New Years everyone!! First post of the year. I guess that means it better be a good one.

I should start it out with how our New Years Eve went down, because I have to say, SO awesome.

So in James's family, they typically do fondue for dinner on NYE. I don't think I have ever actually had real fondue before. Chocolate fountains were always the tradition for us, and it was completely different. Even more, I have never tried cheese fondue. And it was definitely worth the wait!

Ok, sorry about the terrible lighting on all of these photos. My camera didn't adjust in time and I'd much rather have the photo than spend all my time trying to adjust the settings and missing it, am I right?

Anyway, what a spread! Along with the freaking delicious cheese fondue that Ana made (she is literally a real life Martha Stewart...without the criminal record), we had apples (yeah, you would think it would taste weird? But you'd be wrong. It was one of my favorite things to put the cheese on! I know, crazy!) and bread. In fact, my awesome chef of a husband made HOMEMADE wheat rosemary & olive oil bread and we could not stop eating it! He did an amazing job!!! It was definitely my favorite part. I could've eaten just that and been delighted. And there was some white bread from the store too, and also yummy! I'm telling you, we really hit the nail on the head with this one!

Then there was chicken & steak chunks and I've never seen what they do with it before. I had to ask James, which made me feel like a little toddler, but he was sweet about it. There was a pot of hot oil and you just stick the meat on a fondue stick (skewer?) and put it in the oil and then pull it out about a minute later. Totally cooked, totally yummy. Especially with the cheese. We were literally scraping the cheese out with bread by the end, AND Ana had to make a second batch! Crazy good.

They also had little dipping sauces for it so that you could basically have whatever you wanted with the meat. Teriyaki, honey mustard, spicy ginger...mmm!

I know, I'm rambling about the food, and I should stop because this post would go on forever! But it was a major highlight of the night...for me at least. One of the best dinners I had all year!! Oh! And James made the YUMMIEST punch too! Ginger ale, Kool-aid packet, sherbet, and ice. I think that was it...there was hardly any left at the end of the night, and we made a drink dispenser full, so that tells you right there that it count for something. It was sooo yummy delicious!! Sorry, the word "yummy" was starting to get weird...

Poor Ana. We ate the other one so fast that she really didn't get to eat until the end!

And for dessert, we had some dark chocolate fondue, pound cake chunks, bananas, strawberries, and pineapple. Endless combinations!

After being stuffed past the rafters, we had some other friends over to play games! That was the fun part. I don't think I have sweat so much from being so into games as...well, recently, as I did last night. The first game they played was Quelf, which is basically every game rolled into one. There's curses, charades, funny things you have to do...it's fun. But there weren't enough pieces so the girls sat out and watched all of the 8 guys play. It was pretty hilarious.

But then, we played Heads Up, which is a game that Ellen DeGeneres plays on her show. You basically try to get the person holding the ipad, or whatever has the app on it, to guess the word on the screen. You can say whatever, no rhyming or saying the word. It goes a little something like this...

And finally, it was time for the timeless classic, the ball drop!

A few weeks beforehand, when I was talking I had told James before that I really never had a real New Years Eve kiss at midnight. Sure, I kiss my friends' cheeks and everything, but not a real romantic one. So when the clock struck midnight, I just keep cheering (since it was what I was used to) but then, James came over to me and said "Don't you want your kiss?" and pulled me in for one. :) So cute he even remembered that.

I'm lucky to have such fun friends and a great husband by my side to ring in 2014! Here's to so many new adventures. I just can't wait!

"...and to all a good night."

Well, it's officially Christmas Eve and I am just now getting to take pictures of our Christmas decorations (for those of you that were asking) so...sorry about that. The good news is that Santa has already come! So now you can see all the goods! James is pooped so he's already asleep and I want to be too because it's REALLY late and we are getting up nice and early tomorrow...so this might be a little short.

First, I should tell you about the rest of our Christmas Eve. I flew home (well, I guess to the new home because home really is wherever James is, but whenever I say "home," it will always mean California) to Florida this morning and that was really hard emotionally. Christmas Eve is always such an amazing night in our house. Hot chocolate, Christmas movies, sleeping squished up next to my sisters in my bed (yes, they all sleep with me!) I didn't go to sleep last night since I was packing and trying to console my poor mama. But my dad woke up and took me early this morning. I hate rushed goodbyes, especially with my dad. I slept a huge chunk of the way to the airport and I was so mad at myself for it. It's the only time I get Ashley-dad talks and he was so tired that I should've been talking to him while I had the chance. Ugh!! And then when we got there, I was late because I had forgotten to take out cash the day before so I had to make a stop at the bank. So anyway, after many many tearful goodbyes--the worst part of my trip--I flew home to my sweetheart, which made it a little better.

I was also really scared because so many flights had been delayed from the crazy weather & it being Christmas Eve. I knew how much it meant to James that he spend Christmas Eve at the big get-together his family has every year (that he's missed for 3 years now-mission & college) so I was so scared I wasn't going to make it. But Heavenly Father answered my prayers and I arrived right on time!

So after that, we went straight to his parents' house. And I have to say, after you're really sad from leaving your family, it is the greatest thing ever to come back to your other family and be immediately surrounded with love & big hugs. BEST. FEELING. EVER. After that, I got back into the Christmas spirit. Their party was awesome!! I was so stuffed from all the delicious food and it was awesome to know almost every person that walked through the door! There was games, so much food & desserts, and of course chatting. It was a really nice Christmas Eve and we stayed pretty late because we enjoyed ourselves so much.

So now we're home and exhausted. But I couldn't resist showing off our holiday cheer. So here it is!

Please don't mind the ghetto hooks. We don't have a fireplace. Haha Mine is the left, James's is the right.

This is most of all we could do this year. But we'll be adding more & more decorations each year!

J-O-Y jars my Mom made us last year.
They change every holiday! How talented is she?!

This was supposed to be all on one big
serving tray, but we couldn't find one this year. Boo.

LOVE getting these!! I'm missing my other cute sister's because it got left at my parents. Kill me. So sorry sissy!

So there it is. We didn't go too crazy, and our house isn't even all the way set up yet, so for this year, it will have to do. I am so so excited for James to open his presents tomorrow. Stay tuned to see how I scored major wife points!! Merry Christmas everyone! We love you!......zzzzzz......

christmas cards & cones.

Alright. Fess up. You love the holidays like that camel loves Hump Day.

I won't even try to hide it - I looove the holidays!! I think it really is a pretty magical time of year. And I've been trying to make sure we were able to decorate and celebrate to the fullest, even with our meager budgets. Isn't that what all the most touching Christmas stories are created with?

The first thing on my to-do list was Christmas cards. It is a tradition I have always loved, (one that is sadly slowly dying off) and one that I plan on doing every year for the rest of our lives. We tried to get a little creative this year, since we're living in Florida now and let's be honest, there is no such thing as a "winter" here. [Our family thinks I'm a whiner I'm sure, but it's just not Christmas is you can't wear a big ole jacket!] So we had a little fun with our Christmas card pictures this year...

 

Thank goodness my sister-in-law is the puppet master of a camera. She is incredibly talented and we're always so so thankful when she says she will take a photo for us! [In fact, feel free to check out her amazing blog!] After that was crossed off, we had other things to focus on, like our tree, but I'll save that for it's own post because I'm pretty proud of how that little number came out.

I have also been called to serve in the Primary as the "Faith in God Activity Coordinator." Basically, I get to plan all the activities for the cutest, most fun girls in primary, the 8-11 year olds! So for our first activity, since it was so close to Christmas, I had the girls decorate Christmas trees out of ice cream cones & candy. They LOVED it!! They were so cute about how professional or how silly they wanted them to look and their eyes bulged out of their heads when they saw all the candy laid out to decorate with and snack on (sorry parents!) When I took these pictures, two of the girls had gone to the bathroom together and I didn't get a chance to take any more. :( But how awesome are they!?

Yes, that bottom left one is mine. Theirs were way more fun!!

Then I read them this story I found called "Teach The Children." I wasn't a HUGE fan of it for kids, because it's long and some parts are a little over their heads, but nevertheless, they participated! It's a story about how a child catches Santa on Christmas Eve and he's putting ornaments on the tree, and after each one, he says "Teach the children that [this] symbolizes [that]."  It is supposed to show children to teach other children that Christmas is more than presents & greed & fast-paced. I had the girls make bracelets and for every symbol read in the story, I told them to pick a bead out of this box of them (that a sweet lady in the Relief Society donated) that represented that symbol.

We used twine and tiiiiny beads, so the activity didn't work that well, but they tried and they got the point so that was all that mattered to me! I'd say a pretty successful first activity!

So just know that Christmas is slowly but surely starting to make its way into the Anderson home and we can't wait to show you everything else we have in store! YAY for the holidays!!