Weekly Catch Up

Well this week has been one wild ride. Zack and I were able to go camping for a little bit, get away and just have fun. I also branched out in my makeup comfort zone and tried an awesome blue eye shadow look.
Here are the pictures from this last week:

Wicked cause I forgot to post pictures last week about the play. These are the jeans I talked about in my plus size style post which you can find here.  I really do like them and they make my legs look extra long. This is also my motivating before picture as I start my workout and diet plan today! More on that of course later. 

All details about my wedding ring. The band is really the most special to me, it means a lot because Zack bought it for me when he had no money and he sacrificed a lot in order to get it for me. The ring itself is gorgeous and is a Green Amethyst. I love it. Its unique yet pretty at the same time, just like me. (That's what Zack told me anyway)

A photo of me and my blue eye shadow. How I achieved this look was I applied ELF smudge pot in "Hit the town" all over my lid. Then on the center part of the lid I added Mercury from Makeup Geek eye shadows. Then as my brow bone highlight and to brighten up the inner corner I added Shimma Shimma from Makeup Geek. For my gloss I used maybelline's color whisper in Bare to Be Bold as my lipstick and on top of that I used Nyx's butter Gloss in Creme Brule. Loved the combo and how it turned out, the blue actually worked out great for my hooded eyes and made my brown eyes really stand out. 

And finally some photos from our camping trip:

It was a fun week but I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend at home and we are finally going to go see Guardian's of the Galaxy. I seriously can not wait! I am so excited. 

XO 

Caitlin

Keeping Facebook out of your relationship

I have noticed that a lot of people post really intimate things on Facebook. Stuff that people really don't need to know about. I have seen it happen a lot between friends who are talking about their boyfriends, or husbands, or whatever else on Facebook. This seems so odd to me.

I just like to keep social media out of my relationship. Zack and I don't really post on social media that much (besides this blog) and when I do I am always rooting for Zack, writing about how awesome he is. I just don't see how posting something negative on Facebook is going to help your situation. In my experience it tends to make things a lot worse. Looking back I wish I had kept Facebook guessing as to what was happening with Zack and I. When I had my first pregnancy we announced it on Facebook, a week later I miscarried. That was the WORST experience I have ever had. I had to take back what I said on Facebook, realizing that the only way I could take that back was by saying I had lost the baby. Reliving that awful experience online, in social media, was just awful. 

I have learned my lesson. I am going to keep Facebook out of it. When I get pregnant (in the future) I probably wont even put it online (the blog or Facebook) until I know what gender the baby is. That first experience was so horrible I don't want to risk that happening again. If Zack and I argue I don't announce it on Facebook just to get validation that I think my opinion is right. I have seen people do this and I feel that is not the way to go about a discussion in your personal life. Zack travels a lot, and when he is gone I never put that on Facebook, I'm too afraid of people coming and robbing my house or something, I will usually post that he is home and how happy I am to have him with me, because I truly am happy. When he is traveling it is no fun, being home alone all the time, sleeping in an empty bed. Its just not enjoyable. 

So my advice for everyone, just leave Facebook out of everything. 

This is what its all about! I love that man of mine!

Have a great week. I have finally got my living room coming together so I will do a post on it soon. 

XO

Caitlin

Midterms

The middle of the semester is the worst! Seriously. I am dying over here. Midterms have just hit and luckily I am done for the time being. I still have three papers I have to write before the end of the semester, and a bunch of other things to do. It is busy. Which is why I haven't been blogging lately.
We went to Zions over the three day weekend and it was lovely. 75 degrees lovely to be exact. I wasn't looking forward to coming home, especially because I had to leave Zack down in St. George for the week. He is working on the LDS temple there for his job. I had a test this morning which I am almost positive I messed up on, so I have that score to look forward to now.
I am in the middle of decorating my apartment. I am trying really hard to make it look less newly wed and more us. Well more me. Zack really doesn't care what it looks like, as long as I am happy. He is awesome that way.
Well I am ditching my 1:00 class as I am writing this blog post so now you really know what kind of a week it has been.
Right now all I really want to do is drive down south somewhere and I find some Petroglyphs and take cool pictures. I can't wait for April to come.

Okay I know, I am a nerd when it comes to ancient Indians and not everyone is as into this stuff as I am. But check out the guy on the right in the picture right above us. Notice how they add a feature so us archaeologists can tell that it is a man? Ha ha ha, I think they had a sense of humor. Maybe? Who knows. 

All pictures come from Nine Mile Canyon near Price, Utah. Check it out sometime. They have lots of neat stuff down that way. 

I will post more about my living room decorating adventure when it is finished. I will be heading to IKEA today to pick up a few items to help it along the way. IKEA stresses me out sometimes so I only go when I have specific things in mind and can be in and out super quick. Hopefully I can do that today. Until next time. 

XO

Caitlin

Resolutions

It's that time... again. I have a really hard time with resolutions. I really stink at making them and I am even worse at keeping them. I love writing things down so of course I write them all down somewhere, I leave sticky notes, I post them on the fridge, etc. I do all the things the experts say we are supposed to do when it comes to goals. However, I only last about twenty minutes before I am onto the next thing.
The one resolution that I did complete last year: ride a ferris Wheel, check. Did that at Disneyland.
A goal on my list I almost completed: watch all three Lord of the Rings movies (I know I haven't seen all of them yet, some of you might be offended. Sorry.). I watched the first one, and the hobbit. Although the hobbit doesn't really count as part of the lord of the rings trilogy I enjoyed it.
My list wasn't super exciting, I just had a few things on there that I wanted to do that I have never experienced before. Loosing weight wasn't on the list at all and I liked it that way.
My new list for 2014 will be the same, only I think I will stick to 10 things and that is it. My 2013 list had 20 things, no wonder I didn't finish them all. Okay here we go:
1. Watch all three Lord of the Rings movies (yep back on the list for 2014, I will see them all this year)
2. Watch the second hobbit movie
3. Read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I have always wanted to read this book, maybe I should make it into a book club for the blog or something.
4. Visit Range Creek Canyon. It is this really cool Freemont Indian site that was found in Utah and has been undisturbed since the Indians left the site. Meaning it looks like they could have lived there only yesterday. This year I am going to go visit it.
5. Blog more. I really want to blog a lot more, and grow it into something grand. Since I started my blog on November 27 I have had 2,800 pageviews. That is a lot, and comes down to about 77 pageviews per day. I am in love with the fact that people are reading my blog and I am excited about that.
6. Open an etsy shop. I have mentioned this before a few times and I am hoping that I get it done this month.
7. Visit Zions National Park, again I have never been here before so I want to go see all the beauty of it.
8.  Read my scriptures every day,  I haven't been to good at this and I want to better my relationship with God.
9. Keep my fish alive. We got a Beta fish last month, and I have a bad track record with fish.
10. Graduate from college. This is happening folks, 2014. I can't wait.

I am excited to get started on my resolutions and enjoy the experience that comes with trying new things.
What are your resolutions?

XO
Caitlin

Merry & Bright > Christmas with the Holladay's

This year was so much fun. It all starts Christmas eve for Zack & I, and I feel like it will continue on into the new year. The partying and family time just keeps getting better.

My mom has claimed Christmas Eve will always be a celebration at my parents house. We went over there around 4:00 Christmas Eve and had a great time chatting with my parents and my 3 sisters. I have one sister who is in El Salvador this year (who we got to talk to-- more on that later) so it was just us four girls and my husband. The evening started out with some potatoes, peas, and white sauce (we have this meal EVERY Christmas eve, since I was little and it is so special because my mom only makes it once a year). We also had rolls, and party punch (a drink my family made up with cranberry sauce and sprite, really good). After dinner we moved onto the next event which was the talent show. Jenna and Rachel (my two youngest sisters) played a piano duet, then Cassidy showed off her self timer skills with the iphone camera for her talent My husband represented our family and juggled some apples he found in the kitchen. Cassidy took this picture of everyone during her "talent"

Next we put on the Natvitiy, there are a lot of boy roles in the Nativity story from the New Testament so we had to improvise:

Jenna played Mary. 

Rachel played the angels.

Cassidy played Joseph

I played the shepard and the sheep

Zack played the wise man

After the nativity my sisters unwrapped their Christmas pajamas and my dad read us the Polar Express (also a tradition we have done every Christmas Eve). 

Zack and I went home around 9:00 pm and opened our own Christmas pajamas up, then we went to bed. 

Christmas day we spent a few hours unwrapping gifts and enjoying our presents. I found this little beauty in my stocking:

It's a Green Amethyst stone accented with diamonds! I feel in love with it. My husband said he had a connection with Santa and knew that I would love it. He was right. 

After presents we went to my in-laws house for Omelets and to spend Christmas morning with them. 

John, Rose and Zack doing the "Sasquatch pose"... I have no idea what brought this on. 

My lovely husband, making me laugh right before the photo is taken. He always knows how to put a smile on my face. 

After breakfast with my in-laws we went to my aunts house to spend Christmas day with my family. 

My Grandma decided she wanted to have a dance party so they showed us all up with their amazing dancing skills. It was so cute to watch, my Grandpa was really a pretty good dancer. 

We played some white elephant bingo! My cousin Blake is wearing her present on her head. 

We talked to Tori on Skype. She is the one in El Salvador on her mission. It was so great, she looked even more beautiful then the day she left and she was so happy. She was just beaming from ear to ear and she couldn't remember how to say some words in English. It was fun to watch and see how much Spanish she knew after only living there for 4 months. 

Overall it was such a fun Christmas day and we were so blessed by everyone who gave us wonderful gifts. 

We are going to St. George tomorrow for a little family vacation with my in-laws, it should be a lot of fun. 

I am excited to get some warm weather and hopefully sunshine as well. Utah December's are not very good, not a lot of sun so the trip will be welcoming. 

Well I hope everyone's Christmas was wonderful. 

XO

Caitlin

Disneyland Trip Part 2: Tips and Tricks, + Food

I know I said I would do a three part post to our Disneyland trip but I decided to combine the food and tips and tricks into one post. This might be a little long but will be full of really helpful and useful information. Everyday of the trip Zack and I would get to the park within the first hour of it opening. If you want to be crazy you line up an hour before the park opens, go through bag check and then wait at the gates for them to scan your ticket. Security has brought it up a notch and they take your picture with your ticket now so you have to get there early your first day so you aren't held back trying to get your pictures taken for all of your party. What is really fun is they usually  choose a family to "open the park" every day. This family does the count down from 10 to 1 then yells "Let the magic begin". As soon as they say that the rest of the park is open and everybody gets to go line up inside the roped off section at the end of main street. Its really fun and if you have bright smiling kids and you look happy they usually choose you.
We got chosen our third day there and we loved it! They gave us Minnie Mouse Christmas ears to wear and the men got reindeer Christmas ears. It was so cute.

This was the day we opened the park. Its a really great opportunity because nobody else is in the park so you can take a picture with the mickey mouse that is made out of flowers and nobody will be in it. After that we went and got Zack a 1st visit button. At the town hall on main street they have buttons for all occasions, anniversary, just married, 1st visit, birthday, etc. The birthday ones are especially fun because they write your name on the button and then everyone will wish you happy birthday through out the day. My sisters and I did that and it always made people happy. Also the anniversary buttons are great because they will give you special treatment sometimes, like getting your own boat on Pirates of the Caribbean or Its a Small World, and sometimes they will put you at the front of the line if its a slow day. So if you are going for a special trip make sure and grab a button, everyone will love it. Plus other members of your party can get a "I'm Celebrating" button so everyone feels included. 

Don't be afraid to go in the rain. On Thursday when we were there the crowds were so small that we rode 20 rides in one day. My family rode 25 rides but Zack and I didn't hang out with them all day so we only got 20 rides in. That is a lot. We rode Radiator Springs Racers two times that day and it was great. So make sure you go to the park even if its rainy because the lines are so short and you can practically walk onto any ride you want to. The longest we waited that day was 20 minutes at Radiator Springs Racers in Cars Land. Cars Land has a lot of cool stuff. Mater's Junk Yard Jamboree is one of my favorite rides at Disneyland now, its so fun. You can get some great buttons at Flo's Cafe, Sarges store, Mater's Junk Yard Jamboree ride, and Red the fire truck. You have to answer some questions about the movie Cars but they give you the button after you answer the questions. That is a great collection to have. 

Also in Cars Land around 5:30 they light up the street which is so cute and fun, at Christmas time it was decorated with trees and garlands and Flos cafe looks so awesome at night so make sure you stop by Cars Land in the evening time at least once during your trip. 

Speaking of lighting, they have Christmas trees up in both DCA and Disneyland so make sure and take a cute picture by at least one of the trees. Above is the tree that is in DCA. Below is the tree in Disneyland. We took a picture in front of it sometime but I don't know where it is. 

Both are beautiful and look great at night. Another fun tip is that there are some fortune tellers in Disneyland that will tell your fortune for a quarter. There is Fortune Red, Esmeralda, and The shrunken head (I think his name is ted or ned but I'm not sure). Here is my fortune I got from Fortune Red who is located just across the walkway from Cafe Orleans: 

Pretty classy. It really makes a great souvenir. Speaking of Cafe Orleans lets talk about food! 

I love the food at Disneyland. It is so delicious. We ate at Cafe Orleans one day and it was so delicious. I ordered the Salmon Sandwich:

Can you say yum! It was so delicious. It had salmon, bacon and came with sweet potato fries. Best lunch ever. Zack got the Monte Cristo Sandwich, equally as yummy: 

Its a sandwich inside a scone, he really liked it. Cafe Orleans is a little pricey so save it for a date night with just you and your sweetheart if you don't think the kids will enjoy such a fancy place. We tried a new place this trip the Stage Door Cafe which is right next to the Golden Horseshoe. It was really good and they had chicken tenders there. It was only $10.00 a plate so this is a good stop for the entire family. We really like the Mexican restaurant outside of the Indiana Jones ride. Its pretty good, I forgot the name of it, but you can look it up when you get to Disneyland. I really enjoy eating there. We also ate at Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney. Downtown Disney has a lot of really good places to eat at and Rainforest is one of my fave. I ordered the fajitas and they were delicious. 

Another fun thing is that Disneyland has all sorts of shows, concerts, etc for you to enjoy. This worked out well as we rode most of the rides we wanted to on Thursday and Friday and then Monday and Tuesday we could check out the concerts. My husband really liked the Mad T. Party in DCA, which is a concert with Alice and the Mad Hatter. There was a Beatles tribute band that played on Monday night and they were so good. Zack and I could have listened to them all night, it was at the Tomorrowland Terrace in Disneyland. 

Make sure and get an itinerary from the front gate when you first get to the park. It has a list of all the fun concerts that will be playing that day and shows you can go see. I highly recommend seeing Aladdin at the Hyperion theater in DCA. It is a fun musical and only about 30 minutes long. Its a nice cool break from walking around all day. 

Well those are all my tips and tricks, maybe one day I will write more. Anyway, hope everyone had a great thanksgiving. 

XO 

Caitlin

New Blog, New Post! Disneyland 2013 Part 1 (and a free printable)

Hello friends!
I am loving my new blog design and that I have a fresh clean start for blogging. My old blog was great but after a while the links got messed up and my HTML/CSS was really confusing to navigate. Starting over new was just what I needed.
Today I am going to start off with sharing about our Disneyland trip! It was fabulous, and one of the best times I have had at Disneyland. I am going to do this story in three parts, the last part will be about some fun tips and tricks for you and your family to do the next time you go.
Zack and I packed up and left early Wednesday morning (6:00 am) for Anaheim, California. It's about a 10 hour drive from where we live so we settled in for the long road trip ahead of us. I had a lot of goodies to keep my entertained, my laptop with a car invertor so I could watch movies. My iPad which had my current books, some recent issues of the better homes and gardens special interest publications, my iPhone for pictures/video recording, and of course my CD case. I ended up sleeping a lot of the way and chatting with my husband about some fun old time memories. Those are the best moments about road trips, going down memory lane and laughing at awkward experiences.
We stopped in Las Vegas for some lunch at Smash Burger (so good you should try it) and then headed non-stop into California. We checked into our hotel, which is right across the street from Disneyland on Harbor Blvd. We always stay at Desert Inn Anaheim, its close and convenient and about half the price for staying on location at one of the themed hotels. The pool isn't so hot so if you have kids and you want a good pool I would check out the Sheraton or something along those lines. Once we checked into our hotel, we then went shopping at Downtown Disney. It was so fun this year, I love it when all the Christmas music is playing and the decorations are up. Zack even liked it as he said it wasn't too overdone so bonus for me. They had set up an ice skating rink down by the movie theater which was fun to see when it was so warm outside. The little kids loved it. After that we went up onto the roof and watched the Disneyland fireworks. They are always so magical and fun.

The next day we woke up early again and got in line over at Disneyland at 7:00 am. We had a magic morning entrance which allows you to enter the park an hour before it opens. This is really useful if you use it to your advantage and ride peter pan (because this line is always nuts) and other busy rides. We ended up riding about 20 rides that first day. It was raining and so many people left the park in the middle of the day. We walked onto a bunch of rides with no problem at all. It was so fun. 

I loved being at Disneyland with the love of my life. He is so great and awesome. We had such a blast. 

We met mickey mouse, minnie mouse, tinker bell and Thor! That was the best part of the whole trip for me, Thor is my favorite avenger so it was great meeting him. 

He made a joke right before we took this photo so I was laughing. I don't know how he pulled off such a serious face after being so hilarious. 

One thing that I found difficult about the trip was the budget. Luckily we came home with extra money. I over budgeted on a lot of items but it was nice having some flexibility and being able to purchase what we needed food wise and buy some fun souvenirs. I originally budgeted about $15 per person per meal. Breakfast was free at our hotel every day and we used that to our advantage. We brought a bunch of snacks with us and some days we ate so much snacking that we only needed one meal. Most of the meals I found were about $10.00 per person so I over budgeted in that aspect. I will talk in more detail about food in Part 2! 

Before we left for the trip I made a budget worksheet to help me organize what expenses had to be taken care of. I only had four categories, hotel, fuel, food, and souvenirs. This covered everything that we would buy during our trip. The final product looked like this:

(to get your free Disneyland Budget Worksheet click here)

It worked out great for our trip and was really nice to help me see what things worked and what didn't. At the end of the trip I filled out all the actual prices and discovered we had a few extra dollars in each category. This was great news, especially since Christmas is only a month away. 

Well folks that is it for my first blog post on the new blog. Oh and to kick things off I am going to offer the Disneyland Budget Worksheet as free printable until the new year so grab yours while you can! 

Thanks for reading and I hope you stick around for more. 

XO

Caitlin