Christmas

Well, I'm finally getting around to posting about Christmas! We had a great one! It was so fun to get our apartment all cute and decorated, shop for each other and our family members, and spend all of the Christmas season together.

We decided to open our stockings from each other on Christmas Eve morning, before we headed up to Alpine for the family Christmas festivities. Here they are...aren't they cute! We picked them out with Willie's mom as part of a 12 days of Christmas gift. She gave us a lot of super cute stuff to get us started with our Christmas decorations etc. Thanks, Jamie!

That afternoon we headed up to Alpine for a Christmas Eve program that Willie's family's ward does every year. It was really cute and a nice way to remember what Christmas is about. I really liked it a lot.

After that, we had a delicious dinner and had our own Christmas Eve program. Willie's family has a tradition of acting out the nativity every year. Since there were no grandkids visiting this year we did something different. Everyone picked a character from the nativity story and kind of researched them and shared what they learned. It was really nice! Then all of the kids opened a group gift, a game called Bang, and played. Games with the Matthews are some of my favorite times!

I couldn't get this picture to move up. This is a picture of Willie and I visiting with Grandpa Matthews earlier in the evening. It was so nice to be able to have him and Grandma Claire there with us! The next morning we woke up and opened our presents. I chose this picture so that you can't see me in all of my just-woken-up glory :)

We had a relaxing day lounging around, and then went and saw Gulliver's Travel's later that night. My family has a tradition of going to a movie on holidays, and it always makes me so happy to do that! It was super fun.

All in all, a great Christmas!

Here is a picture of our first Christmas tree!!!!! I love it so much. It made me so happy to have our own tree! One of my favorite things about Christmas is the lights glowing from the tree...it feels so cozy.

And, I ventured into advanced crafting and made these!! Haha I had told my friend Jenna that I loved these types of blocks but didn't know if I could do them. She assured me if wasn't hard at all, and I could. Then Kelli and I went to a crafting Relief Society activity and a girl had hers on display. We asked how she did them, and decided to do our own. It was so fun, and not hard at all! I was super happy with how they came out.

Anyway, hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, too!

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!!