Cecil's in Houston

It has been a while since I have been on here and better give everyone an update on what we are up to. Eric got a job working as an analyst on the BNSF's marketing team. He is so excited and it was exactly what he wanted to do. That meant that we had to move to Houston, Texas. I was at first super nervous but we have only been here for 3 days. We are really enjoying it so far. The moving truck came on Monday and picked up our cars and all of our stuff. 

 After they left, it meant cleaning Grandpa and Grandma Warnick's home. We are so grateful that they let us live in their house for the past 8 months. We flew out on Tuesday night and arrived at our new home in Houston. We live about 40 minutes away from downtown Houston in The Woodlands and Conroe area. We were able to get into our new apartment on Wednesday morning and it is so great! Eric did such a good job picking it out. Our cars got here on Wednesday afternoon but our stuff won't be here until next Thursday. We bought a blow up mattress and have been sleeping on that until our stuff gets here next week. We went to Costco and got a Costco card and shopped for the house. Every time you walk into that place you walk out spending like $200. Thank goodness it is like 35 minutes away so I won't be going there too often. They are building a Costco 5 minutes away from us that will be done in about 4 months. We had a hay day in there!

Eric has to go to work everyday all day so I have been exploring around and getting a lot of homework done. I am getting ahead in school before all of our stuff shows up next week. I know it will take a while to get everything put away so I wanted to get ahead. Eric is working and I am going to be a wife and do the wife thing getting things settled and decorating our new place. I am doing school online through UVU so that will keep me busy as well. I may find a little part time job in a couple weeks to try and keep myself busy. You can only do the wife thing and do school so much. Eric and I are so excited for this adventure! It will be hard to be away from family all the way in Texas but we know this will be such a great opportunity for the both of us. We can't wait to meet friends out here that will be our friends for life and make memories here in Houston. It is a great part of town that we live in and we are excited to call this home!

Our First Christmas and New Years!

We could easily say that we had a blast over Christmas Break! From making chocolate covered pretzels with my sisters, Juanito Bandito, the Piano Guys, and the Musical Elf, the break started out very fun. We then enjoyed tubing on Christmas Eve, new jammies, doing the nativity, and then enjoyed a day filled with family on Christmas Day.

The picture where we are all in the matching shirts (2 pictures above), was to send to my grandparents. They are serving a mission in Arkansas and these were their mission shirts. 

The day after Christmas, Eric and I loaded up the car and drove to West Virginia. It was a very long drive but we made it in time to attend the funeral for Eric's Grandpa. We then got back in the car and drove back to Draper so we could enjoy the last couple of days with family before McCall heads back to Hawaii for school. My parents surprised us on Christmas with tickets to go Snowmobiling on New Years Day. We are all very sore and Eric and Morgan were going so fast that they got in a little crash but other than that it was a blast.

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and has a Happy New Year!!

Currently...

I feel like life lately has been totally crazy these past couple weeks! Eric and I got back from West Virginia for Thanksgiving and we came home to a viewing and funeral for Grandpa Neal. It was a very tough thing and is especially hard around the Holidays. We are grateful though for family and spending time together. It was a very nice funeral.

After the all of the funeral stuff was over, Eric and I worked, finished the rest of the Christmas shopping, and got all of the Christmas cards mailed and sent out. It was so fun to do them and everyday I love getting cards in the mail from other people. 

I finished finals on Wednesday and have another semester down. Yay! It is such a good feeling to be done for a couple weeks. Eric and I have been wrapping presents and just hanging out. McCall is in town and so we have been doing fun things as a family. My parents have tickets to a bunch of stuff this weekend so we are excited to be with family. 

Unfortunately, Eric and I got the dreaded phone call on Thursday morning that Eric's grandpa had passed away. He went into the hospital about a week ago and then he passed away at home. It was pretty fast which is a blessing. Eric and I will be going to West Virginia the day after Christmas for a funeral. We are so done with deaths. Eric and I have both lost our grandfathers in less than a month. We are hoping that we don't have to go through another one for a long time. Have a Merry Christmas with your families! 

Thanksgiving in West Virginia

This was the first holiday that I spent away from my family. I thought that I was going to be a total mess and way sad but it ended up being fine. It is probably because I love my in-laws and Eric's sister and I are the same age so we get along great. We had lots of fun getting ready for Thanksgiving, going to the mall Black Friday shopping, and going to the movie. 
This year, we spent Thanksgiving with Eric's family and we are going to be having Christmas with my family. We exchanged gifts with Eric's parents, grandpa, and sister while we were there so we didn't have to mail all of their gifts. It was a lot of fun!

On Thanksgiving, I was thinking about everything that I am so thankful for. I am so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for my family, friends, a house to live in, food to eat, and an incredible husband. There is so much more to add to this list but this Thanksgiving, I am so grateful for my Grandpa Savage who taught me the importance of always keeping the commandments, staying close to my family, and most importantly staying strong in the gospel. I was dead asleep and it was 1:20 am on Thursday morning West Virginia time. My phone rang and it was my dad. It totally startled me but I knew exactly what he was going to tell me when I saw he was calling. My Grandpa Savage passed away on Wednesday night at 11:15 Utah time to a loving Heavenly Father. I am so very grateful for the time I was able to spend with him before I came to West Virginia. I know that he was ready to go and am so grateful he is out of pain. I will miss him everyday but know that he is in a better place. The last words he said to me was that he loved me and was proud of me. I know that will bring me so much comfort as I go through this hard time with losing grandpa. How grateful I am that we had such an awesome relationship. I will love you forever and always Grandpa! 

Lately in the Cecil House...

I love that the holidays are right around the corner. Eric and I are leaving tomorrow to go to West Virginia to spend Thanksgiving with his family. This is my first holiday without my family but I think it will be okay. We will be here for Christmas which will be great. I have almost finished all of the Christmas shopping and even came up with something to get all of our friends. 

Lately, I have also been starting to collect Christmas books and movies so we can start our own collection and traditions. It has been fun to go over to my parents house and start to get out all of the Christmas stuff and I thought I better start doing it for myself. When we get back from Thanksgiving we are going to go buy a tree and put out a few decorations for Christmas. Also, I have a serious addiction to these pink sugar cookies. These are such yummy cookies! Fabulous Freddy's car wash sells them in their store. They have them brought up from St. George from Swig. There is a new Swig in Provo too. They are so yummy! 

With Thanksgiving this week, there are so many things that I am so grateful for. Today, I am especially grateful for my Grandpa Savage. He is not doing well and I am super sad to have to deal with such a hard time through the holidays. I don't know how much longer I will have him but consider each moment that I have with him a blessing. I am so grateful he was with me when I graduated seminary, high school, and my CNA program, when I went through the temple for the first time, and that he was able to be in the temple with me when I was sealed. He is such an awesome example of having humility, always helping others, and being strong in the gospel. I love you forever Grandpa Neal! 

Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone and enjoy spending time with your families!! 

Jazz Game and Fall Time Treats

This weekend Eric and I had tons of fun together before the busy week ahead of us both. On Saturday we went to the Zoo with some friends. I hadn't been to the Zoo since my 9th grade Field Trip so it was fun. That night we went to dinner at the Nordstrom Cafe at City Creek and then went to the Utah Jazz game. We had so much fun! We took my parents tickets and took Macie and Savannah with us. They were third row seats and the little girls even got on the jumbo tron. We had a blast. 

Tonight I also made a fun treat. It was super easy and they turned out cute. I just used normal Rice Krispie treats ingredients and then got some cute Fall Harvest pearl sprinkles from Target and put them on top. Easy and Yummy! 

Carving Pumpkins!

Tonight was the night for carving pumpkins and hot chocolate night. We missed McCall so much but sent her a picture of her little puppy in the pumpkin. Eric and I carved one together and had to do the "Y" for our BYU Cougars. We miss Provo but were able to go to the football game this weekend and had a nice win over Boise State so that was fun. Eric served his mission in Boise and was happy to see the Cougars beat them. 

Also, today marks our 6 month anniversary. I can't believe that we have been married for 6 months already. It feels like we got married yesterday! I love Eric so much and am so happy that we are married. Heres to an eternity more with my incredible hubby!

Fall Time!

I have always loved Fall! Even though I am not a fan of the cold, it has always been one of my favorite seasons. The leaves are so pretty that I decided that Eric and I needed to have our pictures taken up the canyon. I know we got married 6 months ago so recently we have done engagement, bridal, and wedding pictures but now it is time for Christmas card pictures. My cute little sister Morgan is super into photography so she took our pictures for us. They turned out super cute. I know people don't really do Christmas cards after they get married but I wanted to start early keeping in touch with family, friends, and the people that Eric served with in the mission field. 

Now the time comes to pick out the one for the Christmas card. I don't know why us as women get so worked up over the picture and the card. Especially this year I shouldn't worry so much. They are only going out to 100 people and a good portion of that is family but I guess it's a girl thing. 

The other reason I love Fall is all of the yummy soups. Eric loves soup when it is cold at night but I usually buy the packets that take like 20 minutes and then it is all made. I decided last week that I was going to make taco soup. I called my mother-in-law for her recipe and it was so yummy. It took forever to make but Eric and I ate it for 2 nights so it was worth it. It was a super easy recipe. You just dump cans of stuff in but letting it cook is what took forever. I bought some corn bread from Great Harvest. They have corn bread on Tuesdays. Eric would rather have homemade but Great Harvest was fast so that cut it this time. Oh and of course, styrofoam cups for our cherry sprite or diet coke so they stay cold longer and don't leak everywhere. It was a yummy dinner! 

Ann Romney's new cookbook is great! My mom bought it and my mom usually doesn't cook. She made awesome meat loaf though last Sunday and Eric and I were blown away by it. It was so good that Eric was asking if I could make it all week. Finally on Saturday, I made him meat loaf. He ate 3 loaves of it in 24 hours. I couldn't believe it! I ate one loaf in 2 days. I don't love it as much as he does but meat loaf is his favorite thing so I guess we will be having it quite often. It is super easy to make! Ann was on Jay Leno and made the meat loaf. Check it out.. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H965lduF518

I told Eric's mom that I wanted this cookbook for Christmas. I like the way that Ann thinks. Easy, fast, and yummy! That is my way of cooking. 

The last thing that was so great this week is that I found my pumpkin marshmallows and pumpkin spice hot chocolate for Fall time. Every year I look forward to this stuff coming out. Eric thinks it is disgusting and he likes the normal milk chocolate stuff but this stuff is yummy for a change. On cold nights or mornings this is the stuff to drink!