6 Months

Willie and I had our six month anniversary last weekend! It feels like we've been married forever and like we just got married at the same time. It's been great, and I love it! :) We decided to celebrate by going out to lunch and to a movie. We ate at Cafe Rio, which was so delicious as always.

Us right before we headed out

After lunch we headed over to the Riverwoods to see The Chronicles of Narnia. Before our movie started, though, we walked around and browsed the stores. We found a really fun toy store called Blickenstaffs (I think...). They had the coolest toys! Willie and I had fun riding around in these cool contraptions.

For Willie's you just wiggled your feet and you started moving, and mine you wiggled that steering wheel thing with your hands. They were super fun!

We went into our movie, and it was so good. We have seen all of the Chronicles of Narnia movies together in the theaters. Little did we know when we came out that the Riverwoods would be transformed into a Winter Wonderland! They had lights everywhere, and a little gazebo in the middle with a band playing Christmas music. The best part was they had horse-drawn carriage rides going on. I was looking at them thinking ok, yes, that looks super fun, but we don't need to pay 20 dollars for one. And then I saw the sign and line of people and realized they were FREE!!! Oh I was so excited!! I think carriage rides are kind of magical. We went on a carriage ride the night we got engaged.

So we waited maybe 5 minutes and it was our turn!! The little girls sitting across from us busted into song singing Jingle Bells while we were riding. It was like we had our own personal carolers serenading us the whole time lol.

Us on our carriage ride

On our carriage ride we drove past something we just had to try when we got off. Recognize it?

This is the game the kid wishes on in Big. It was pretty fun, but they were out of fortune cards! After playing this game we went over and looked at this cute Christmas house they had.

Cute little fires they had everywhere

Willie and I in the Christmas house

After walking around a little bit more we headed home to warm up and play our new game with Robbie, Kelli, and Timmy. It was the perfect 6 month anniversary!

A Matthews & Petersen Christmas

We have a tradition with Emily and Joe to get together one night sometime before Christmas and have a Christmas celebration together. We get some food and have dinner, open presents, and then play games. Last year we had it at Emily's apartment.


This year we had it at our house. We got Chinese food, and I made these yummy brownie oreo cookies for dessert. Yes, I baked, and it turned out good!! I was so proud. We decided to exchange games this year for our gifts, and then play the new games.

We got Emily and Joe the game 10 Days in Asia, which is really fun. Emily and Joe got us a game called Truth Be Told, which was super fun too. Kind of like Balderdash but for questions about the people you are with instead of definitions. We had such a great time playing with them and it was so fun to see them!!!

Look What I Made!

I've been inspired by friends' blogs of their super cute creations, and have attempted a few crafty projects. It's pretty fun! This is what I've done:


A festive Lima Bean Wreath! The original was an acorn wreath spray painted to match the
season, but they said if you can't find acorns in your area (or in my case are not willing to scour the streets for them), you can use Lima Beans. And so I did!


My second crafty project was a faux apothecary jar. You make this by gluing a candle holder to the bottom of a vase. I think it makes a cute candy jar/vase/creation. This is the second round of candy. We went through an entire bag of cadbury eggs and mint m&ms already. I learned this time to not put in some of my favorite candies :)


I've also printed out some free subway art printables from craft blogs, which are super cute, easy, and cheap. Fun!

The Perfect Friday Night

Last night Willie and I had low-key and completely perfect Friday night. I know Fridays are supposed to be filled with fun and exciting weekend activities...but I am so tired by Friday that half of the time I end up napping away our night. I get up at what I consider an extremely early hour for work (between 6 and 6:30 a.m.) every day, and just can't make myself go to bed early enough. I'm working on it.

Last night we started our Friday night with dinner at one of my favorite places.

I love the Pizza Factory! It's so good, and not too expensive. It has a lot of sentimental value for me, too. My roommate Jenna worked there in college, and she would bring us back food all the time, and we would go eat there often and enjoy the sweet dicount she could get us. Even after she didn't work there anymore we still went a lot. Lots of good times and memories at this place!

After dinner, we went to the Cocoa Bean Cupcake Cafe and got me (yes, just me. Willie doesn't like sweets much so it's always me ordering fatty sweet desserts alone) a frappe.

Yummmm! I had been wanting to try one of these for a little while and oh my was it delicious. It's made with all chocolate, not coffee. I got the mint truffle one. I already can't wait to go back! I brought it (well, half of it) home to drink while we watched this show:

So funny! Willie and I borrowed it from his old roommate this week and have been watching it a lot. At first we both thought it was really funny, then it went through a 3 or 4 episode lull. They were duds. Not funny. But, it's picked up and I'm a big fan again. Willie says he likes it now. Maybe not to the degree I do though, he's a tougher critic than me. But like I've said before, it is a rare thing for us to find a TV show we both like to watch, so I am pretty happy about this. It's hard to find middle ground between Bill O'Reilly and Glee.

So that was our Friday night. A little bit of fun out, good food, and a good show at home. The best!

Emily and Joe's Wedding!!!

It finally came! Emily and Joe's wedding! It was just as good as expected. My parents, my sister Alli and her family, and my Nannie all flew out for it, and it was so fun to spend time with all of them. One of my favorite things was spending time with my niece and nephew, Micah and Claire. They are getting so big so fast!



The Saturday before their wedding, Alli took Emily and Joe's bridals. She needed help from the parents, so Willie and I offered to take this guy for the morning.


We came down to Provo to watch Willie play flag football. On the car ride down (our family rented a house in Thanksgiving Point), Willie and I were singing along to the radio, and Micah told us, "Don't sing, it makes me maaad!" Haha geez I didn't know we were that bad! It was pretty funny. We watched Willie play football, and cheered for him (mostly Micah). About halfway through the game, Micah and I left to go eat lunch at "Old MacDonalds" and play at the play place. After that we came home and popped in Lilo and Stitch while Willie and I took turns getting ready. Then, we headed up to Thanksgiving Point to meet the family to go up to Salt Lake to go through the Temple with Emily. It was a great afternoon!!


We also got to hang out at the house a lot with Claire, who is just the CUTEST! She is a super chill baby, but smiley and cute too. She was particularly fond of Willie. I would turn around and often find her climbing into his lap, or him holding her. So cute! One night I found her helping Willie study his finance chapter. I asked Willie if Claire was helping warm him up to little girls (he wants boys of course), and he said yeah, "she's been very nice to me." I thought that was so funny.

Look at that cute little look...Love that girl! (And guy too:) )

We had lots of good family times all week long, most of which I forgot to take any pictures of unfortunately. Then, it was finally time for Emily and Joe to get MARRIED! It was so neat to be able to go to their sealing, and think about when Willie and I got married, and enjoy the ceremony a little more this time because I wasn't so overwhelmed! It was beautiful, and they looked so happy :)

The happy couple right after they got married! Do they not look gorgeous?!

Emily and Joe were married in the Draper Temple. Very pretty. Very windy too.

Ah! My little sister is married!!!

After the sealing, the family all went back to the reception center and hung out until the reception. They had a huge brides room, which was so perfect. Lots of comfy places to sit and freshen up.

Me and my mom before the reception started.

Willie and I waiting for the par-tay to begin.

It was a beautiful wedding and reception. We are so happy for Emily and Joe! They are perfect for each other, and we are soo excited that Joe is officially part of the family!!

VA Trip

This year my parents flew us out to Virginia for Thanksgiving! They were already out here for Emily's wedding, so they flew straight from Utah to Virginia, and we joined them a couple of days later. All of my extended family on my mom's side is from Viriginia, and we used to have Thanksgiving with them every year when I was growing up. I haven't been back since I came out to BYU 7 years ago. It was such a treat to be able to spend it with them all this year. We had a great trip!

We flew in Tuesday night, and our plane was delayed for 5 hours!!! We finally arrived around 4 am, and got to the hotel around 5. We all slept until noon, then headed out for some sight seeing.

This is Willie and I in our hotel about to go out sightseeing!

Willie and I in the Metro station.

The first place that we went was the International Spy Museum. None of us had ever been there before. It was really fun!

After the Spy Museum, we all took the Metro to Union Station and had dinner. We ate at this little cafe and it was SO good. Then we went on a 3 hr bus tour of DC at night. It was so fun and did not even feel 3 hours long. Even though I grew up next to DC and have been on bunches of field trips there, of course I didn't pay attention when I lived there. It just seemed normal to me. So it was really fun to visit all of the sites and monuments and really appreciate them this time.

Willie and I in front of the White House!

All of us by the Lincoln memorial, in front of the Washington Monument.

I think the Lincoln Memorial was my favorite. We took a picture with me in front of it to show how huge it is! They had the Gettysburg address and another speech of his printed on the wall which were neat to read. Also, on the steps leading up to it there is a tile that says "I have a dream" honoring Martin Luther King where he gave his speech.

Thursday we headed out to my Uncle Walter's house to have Thanksgiving with everyone. We had lots of good food and visited. It was so fun to see all of my family, and for Willie to be able to meet them all!!!

After Thanksgiving we went to the Air and Space Museum and saw Harry Potter at the IMAX theater there with my Aunt Claire and Uncle Keith, and my cousin Josh. It was lots of fun, and I really liked the movie!

Friday morning our good friends Brienne and Ryan came to our hotel and had breakfast with us. Our hotel had the best breakfast ever. They had a hot buffet of pancakes, french toast, eggs, bacon, sausage, and potatos. They would also make you any omelet you wanted, and they had a cold section with cereal, muffins, bagels, donuts, etc. It was pretty much delicious. We had a great time with them. It was so nice to see them and we had so much fun visiting!

After breakfast, we headed over to my Grandaddy and Grandma Gloria's house and had lunch with them. It was delicious, and we had the best time visiting with them. I hadn't seen them since I left for BYU either. My Grandaddy has been teaching himself the guitar over the past few years, and he even gave us a little concert while we were there! It was so fun to spend time with them.

After our visit with them, my parents went to the airport to go back to Saudi Arabia. It's always sad to see them go, but I feel so lucky we've been able to see them so much this year! Willie and I went to our hotel for the night, and got up at 3:30 am to catch our flight the next day. It was the best trip. We had so much fun. Thanks Mom and Ron!!

My Birthday

I had a birthday last month. Yay! It was a good one. Something that made my birthday extra special was that it was the school that I work at's fall break, so I didn't have to work!! I slept in, and it was wonderful. When I woke up Willie made me breakfast in bed. He made me chocolate chip pancakes, and they were delicious!

After breakfast Willie had to go to class. I drove him there then relaxed for a little while. When he came home I opened my presents from him and my parents (they'd left them wrapped with us when they went back after their last visit). I got some really fun stuff I'd been wanting. After that, we went to see "Life As We Know It"...super good!! I loved it. After the movie, we went to dinner. I signed up for Benihana's birthday club and got a gift certificate, so we decided to go there. Emily and Joe and Robbie and Kelli and our friend Josh came, which was super fun. It was a lot of fun to go up to Salt Lake and eat at a different type of restaurant than we normally do.

The next morning I headed up to Alpine for a massage that Willie had set up for me. It was the best!!! And so cute of him to set it up for me secretly. So, that was my birthday. Thanks to all the family and friends that gave me nice birthday wishes and helped make it so fun. And, thanks Willie for making it so great! :) Love you!

Weekend Getaway

Willie and I went to Mesquite this last weekend. We had to go get some things for my Emily and Joe's wedding for my parents, so decided to stay and make a trip of it. It ended up being a really nice getaway for us! Willie was super busy with school last week and we didn't see each other as much as normal. So it was nice to have a whole weekend together.




We got in late Friday night and pretty much just went to bed. The next morning we got up and went to St. George to meet our friends Charlotte and Chayse. We had lunch with both of them, and then Chayse had to go to work and Charlotte came to the Temple with us. It was so much fun to see them! I had a great time catching up with Charlotte. I am so happy to have those guys relatively close. We like meeting up with them when we go to Mesquite.

Willie and I outside the St. George Temple.

Me and Charlotte! It was pretty funny when we both changed and came out of the bathroom at their house, we were matching!

After the temple, Willie and I headed back to Mesquite. We went to eat at a Casino buffet, which is always fun to do.

After dinner we went and saw the Wallstreet movie. It wasn't the best. I've been in this weird mood though lately where I've been wanting to see "boy" movies. Not sure what it is. Pretty uncharacteristic of me. But Willie is happy about it, and I think he'll take everything he can during this phase of mine. So, even though it wasn't a good movie I think Willie was just happy we were at it. After the movie we went back, watched some TV (it was nice to have a little more channel options than BYU cable), and went to bed. It was a fast but great trip!

Callings

Willie and I got our callings in our new ward. We are....nursery workers!! Yay!! This has been my secret dream calling. To me it is the perfect newlywed calling. We get to do it together, which will be great. It will make church go by fast, and I think it sounds like fun. It is also only every other week which is perfect. Hopefully we won't be completely segregated from the ward with this arrangement. I'm pretty excited (if you couldn't tell), Willie not so much. I think he will grow to love it though :) Wish us luck!

Chef Willie

A few days ago I came home from work to Willie cooking a delicious dinner! He went grocery shopping earlier this week and got some pork chops. Willie wanted to find a really good recipe and try it out. So, he googled and read up all about barbequeing pork chops and made THE BEST dinner ever!

It really tasted like it came from a restaurant. He brinned the pork chops and made a delicious marinade, and then cooked them in the barbeque behind our apartment building.

We had them with baked potatos and green beans. I didn't get a picture of the finished product, but it was really so good. By far the best homemade food we've had yet. Thanks Willie! :)

Our Honeymoon--Part 2

So, here is the rest of our honeymoon finally! Being on the ship on our cruise was really nice in a lot of ways. We loved being able to relax so much, and there were fun things to do. We both agree that the ports were the most fun part, though. We went to Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas.

This was in the taxi in our first port, Puerto Vallarta. We got completely ripped off with this taxi ride! Willie had gone somewhere, and this taxi driver came up to talk to me while I was waiting. We chatted while Willie was gone, and then when we got back we went to get in the taxi and he told us a price that was three times what the internet had told us to expect! I didn't feel comfortable negotiating with him though because he'd been so "nice" to me before. Willie told me this was probably just so he could rip us off, but I couldn't do it. It was our first port, too. I got better later. It's a shame Willie wasn't the one who spoke Spanish though, because I was no good at negotiating prices.

Something that I really wanted to do on our cruise was snorkel. We went snorkeling at Puerto Vallarta because that was the port we had the most time at. It was a little ghetto and they didn't even have flippers for us to use, but I was happy and it was so fun.

Our boat driver

After we went snorkeling, our boat driver showed us a good place to get tacos.

Willie watching the world cup while he ate

After lunch, we walked around Puerto Vallarta. There was this cool walkway along the coast with lots of different statues and art.

Our next port was Mazatlan. It was my favorite!! The water was wonderful and warm, and there was a lot of fun stuff to see. When we got off we caught a taxi (they were these golf cart open taxis, I loved them), and went to the beach and spent most of the day there. We swam and built sand castles, and it was so fun!!


After the beach, we headed over to diver's point. We would have had no idea about this place, but my mom had printed something off about all of the ports for us before we left...thanks Mom!! There was this high cliff thing that the divers would get on and dive in between these rocks. It was so nerve wracking and cool to watch! Check it out. Sorry it's sideways...is there a way to flip it around?

After we watched them dive, Willie hiked up to where they were diving from. It was so scary to watch! There were no railings, and it was really high up. I went to where they had railings, and then stopped. After that, we got a taxi to take us back to the ship. We asked the taxi driver if on the way he would give us a quick tour of Mazatlan. He was seriously the best. We paid him hardly anything extra and he took us all around. He spent so much time with us. He always offered to let us get out and have him take a picture of us, and explained what each place was. He even sang us a song at one place! Willie and I liked him so much that when we bought our souvenir from the cruise, our first Christmas ornament, we got a little Mexican guy that kinda looked like him haha.

Here are a couple pictures from our tour:

Our taxi driver insisted we get a picture pretending to drive his taxi

They had stars on the floor with famous people's names from Puerto Vallarta. This is where our driver sang us a song.

Our final port was Cabo San Lucas. We only had a little bit of time there, but it was Willie's favorite. It was beautiful, and I loved it. Not my favorite for swimming though. The water was a lot colder than the other ports, and the sand was kind of rough on my feet. Willie really liked the rocks though, and wanted to climb them. I think he wished he was there with his brothers and guy friends so they could hike them. I think this because he kept talking about coming back with them and their wives, so that all of us wives could stay on the beach (what I was wanting to do when he told me about this future trip), while the boys hiked :)

We went on a glass bottom boat ride around Cabo. At the end it dropped us off at Lover's Beach.

We saw Sea Lions on our boat ride!!

We had to take little boats back to our cruise ship. The driver let everyone sitting up front drive it for a bit. It was pretty fun!

After our cruise, on the way back to Mesquite, we drove right through San Bernadino, where Willie served his mission. Willie was able to show me around a bit, which was really cool. This was one of the apartments he lived in!

We stayed in Mesquite, rented another red box movie, had pizza, and drove back to Utah the next day. It was so hard to come back to real life. We loved our honeymoon!