January

Rifle paper is my favorite! 

Frosted Campus

got snowed in one weekend!

new work space!!


Looking back at the past month, I feel as though January has been lingering a lot longer than usual.

We have done so many things!

This past weekend we went down to Park City for the Sundance Film Festival.
We had a mini reunion with everyone, Kelsey even flew in from Laguna Beach.

A couple of years ago the same group came down to utah, and posed for the same picture.
I looked at the picture from 2012 and noticed we are all in the same order!

Funny how those things happen.
Friday we picked up Ari and Austin and headed for a night out at salt lake.
We spent a couple of hours at City Creek, then to Ikea for 3 hours. haha.

After our many adventures together we have noticed we are four slow pokes.

We left with a new desk, a rug and a car that looked like it was going to explode!

Sundance was every bit of fun that we hoped it would be, from, Chris Pine, to Kid Cudi, haha.

After that, all the girls headed to Salt Lake and stayed at the kimball, a little hotel a block from City Creek.

Such a perfect location!
We walked to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner and stayed up late being stereotypical girls, minus the pillow fights.

Isn't it true that the more we compare our lives to others, the less likely we are enjoying our own?

We think the grass is always greener on the other side. 

I find that I do this a lot. 

I think it's hard not to when there is so much exposure about everyone's lives. 

This is definitely going to be one of my goals for 2015.

The grass will be greener because I water it. 

I think if we worried about our lives like we worry about our neighbors, our lives would be much more enriched. 

I think social media is so wonderful, I love sharing snippets of my life. 

I feel that it also helps me remember the perfect moments of this imperfect life.

Social media becomes harmful the second we start wanting to one up everyone around us. 

There is a lack of gratitude on our part when we do that. 

I am going to do a lot better at being grateful, and at not comparing myself to snippets of everyone's perfect moments. Because a perfect moment doesn't mean it's a perfect life. 

A little bit of watercolor

          This semester I'm taking an Art 101 class. 

So yesterday afternoon, I texted mario saying " I really want to paint." As soon as I got out of class 

mario was totally on board, and i thought it was kinda cute how he didn't even question my latest interest (last month it was macrame/wall weavings). 

I have never watercolored before so it has been trial and error, so far. 

I was on pinterest for quite a while getting some inspiration. I love that there is so much creativity everywhere! 

I also got a calligraphy pen, I figured I should just learn to do these fun little things on my spare time.

Yesterday I thought about how funny it is that with all the credits I am taking, in the past week I have found time to read (for leisure) and take up painting. haha. 

This is just the second week so perhaps I am speaking too soon! 

School is back on

                                             well here we go again! I am back in school and really anxious to see how the next school year goes!

I am currently taking 17 credits, which is a lot more than I have ever taken! 

This semester, although very busy, I am taking some interesting classes. 

It is always exciting starting something new, even though, it's not completely new. I have been going to school for the past two years now, but every time the first week gets me feeling a little stressed.

We still managed to squeeze in watching movies just for fun, since I accidentally bought the fault in our stars, (oops) we might as well watch it haha.

As the week went on it got a lot better though, I got my classes figured out, have actually been trying to look presentable and have actually woken up on time for my classes. 

These are all great accomplishments, I know, but there truly is nothing more accomplishing than going to school. 

Some thing about it makes me feel so grown up and like I'm doing the right thing for my life right now.

Earlier today I got the sequel to Half the Sky, A Path Appears. I don't know how much time I will have for leisure reading, but I am excited to get a head start before things get too crazy! 

Gonna soak up the weekend before things get serious and we buckle down with school. 

Rexburg is bumpin right now, the dollar movie is showing Interstellar and it was sold out!

I'm sure the locals are all glad to have us back. 

Yurt trip 2015

for the past two years we have managed to start the year off with an adventure. I think we should just make it a tradition now at the Wade Haus (i'm just really into this word right now)

Several months ago the fam planned out a little yurt trip scheduled for the first day of the year. Snow covered trees have proved to be one of my favorite landscapes. The Yurt was right in between Idaho City and Stanley, Idaho. We all woke up early (9 am) to start our adventure and got some snow shoes for our 1.7 mile trek. It was so fun! I thought it would be a lot harder than what it was and i was completely enamored by the frosted trees.

Along the way Mario and I quoted Walter Mitty because, I mean, we were pretty much in the movie at this point. All geared up and walking up to a yurt?! so walter mitty like. A whole year later and we are still obsessed. I did fall about 10 times altogether but the snow was so soft it didn't even phase me.

We got to the yurt and played card games and hung out with the fam. We had to be ready to hike out by 4 a.m to make it for Ari's wisdom teeth appointment. That meant we had to wake up at 3:30 to clean up and get ready to hike out at the wee hours of the morning. My snow gear lived up to it's expectations and kept me soo warm throughout the whole 2 miles haha. I seriously was not one bit cold. That made adventuring so much more fun, not having to constantly think about how cold I was.

I guess I could thank my mj for that, since he packed my adventure gear since I have no idea what to pack for events like those. Especially since, I never ever did those things until I married him. Perks of marrying a mountain man, I guess.
                                                                     Here's to more adventures to come 2015!

A girl and a boy and a coffee shop

The other day we went on a cruise through downtown boise. Every time I am home I fall more in love with this place.

We strolled down Hyde park and grabbed a steamer at a local

Coffee house and it was probably the best one I've ever had. 

We then went to this cute little bookstore and home store with the snow falling outside. 

Earlier we had some Vietnamese food which I have grown to like (and sometimes crave). It was soo good. Definitely hit the spot. Love that there

Are so many different places to eat here. I'll miss it once we head back to the burg. 

It was all really simple but so quaint and magical all at the same time. Maybe it was that steamer, or maybe we just really love boise. 

Happy Christmas

Christmast just passed and it makes me a little sad it won't be coming around for a whole other year! Especially since it finally decided to snow, haha.

We started it right by hanging with the fam and taking a tour of Christmas lit houses, not the most successful thing. still, it was so fun to pretend to be super enthusiastic about the barely lit homes but it ended with hot chocolate and donuts.

I just love seeing our homes decorated for Christmas since we didn't even decorate one bit at our place!

There have been countless things we have done,
our families have spoiled us and we have been out and about which has been so fun for us.

1. watched unbroken
2. saw lots of happy babes opening their presents
3. ate so much food
4. and probably a million more things i wish i could remember

for now we are enjoying more family time and more food before school starts

My favorite part about christmas this year was doing our white envelope. A tradition that mario grew up with is a white envelope (i get confused and call white elephant.derp) hung in their christmas tree and his family reads the story in it every christmas. This white envelope contains the best part of their holiday season. Inside the envelope is a way they are going to serve those around them that year. Since this was our first christmas as a married couple, we decided to continue the tradition in our family.

About three years ago Mario and I did this when we were dating, we chose a family that needed some extra help with Christmas gifts and we bought their entire family gift. We went all out, which was so fun, and doorbell ditched their house Christmas eve.

This year we decided to serve someone by giving the gift of empowerment to someone. We did this through kiva.org, an organization that gives loans for people to start businesses and therefore become self reliant. I came across this organization through reading Half the Sky. In my opinion, allowing someone to become self reliant and hopefully passing that attitude down to their children is the best way to relieve poverty. We chose a man from Nigeria who needed help with his crops. All of the married kids did something and are continuing the legacy of the white envelope.

I am so excited to continue this tradition. So glad we have a family who has some deep and meaningful traditions.