What do giraffes eat? PIE!!

It's been a while since we've posted. 

We don't have a really good excuse other then by the time Sunday comes around all we want to do is sleep and eat. They call this the college finals funk. .  More just  lazyness on my part. oops. Actually we've meant to post the past few weeks and have even slowly added stuff to this post.

 I am now determined to finish it or we'll have an outrageously long post trying to catch up on everything. We're doing pretty good. We're almost done with this semester and the Christmas Season has begun!!! I LOVE this time of year and anytime it has snowed the past few weeks my Christmas cheer has become just that much brighter. Jay is a sweet heart and "puts up" with all the Christmas music, baking, snowflakes, etc. Ive been "putting up" with it for about 4 months now lol.

 The following is an update on the past few weeks since our last post.

Timmie has officially become comfortable with us as her humans. She has adopted the cat tendencies of sitting on our homework, keyboards, and books. Its cute until your homework needs to be done and she gives you the look of death if you go to move her. I should also mention the passing of Skittles, our beta fish. S/he took a trip down the toilet express. We did have a wonderful funeral and ceremony AKA Sharyti told me the fish was dead, then a couple minutes later I hear a splashing sound and the toilet flush. Goodbye Skittles.

As a young married couple each Holiday we try to establish fun traditions we can have for our family. Well it was a no brainer when Jay wanted to get the bow out to practice since it had been awhile, to shoot pumpkins. New family tradition - Pumpkin Archery. In this case we started late and had to use a spot light to be able to  see the pumpkin. Definitely added a whole new element to the game. Only broke 2 arrows, so I'd say it was a success :) 

Every Thanksgiving the local choir chorals gather together and have a Thanksgiving concert. My Grandma Lu sings in the Orem Choral so we went and watched her sing and all the other fun performances. It was really beautiful and a great way to start the Thanksgiving Holiday week. 

Thanksgiving was a full day. We had Thanksgiving dinner at my families and then went down to Mona to celebrate with Jay's family.

Note - We didn't make these pies. . I wanted a Thanksgiving picture with Jay and so what is more Thanksgiving then a live Turkey. . well we didn't happen to have one so pies had to do. These were actually my moms pies and they were amazing! Can you see the temptation in my eyes? Oh how I wanted to give Sharyti a taste of my pie haha.

The food was soooo good. Many thanks to Sharyti's family!

It looks sparce of people but that's because the kids were all downstairs playing and the adults somehow managed to never be in the same room all at once. 

I love that my brother and sister in law know that if they need someone to hold their little girl they can always give her to me. Her smile melts my heart and I love making her laugh (Which is super easy). One of the many many "favorite" nieces. :)

Jay's family scheduled a cultural hall for their Thanksgiving Celebration because his parents house is too small. . The crazy thing is not all of his siblings and their families were able to make it and it was still a big/huuuge party. Super fun and the pies . . oh the pies!

 Williams Boy's Thanksgiving Shootout. No one got shot!! It was good times and the kids really enjoyed it!

Christmas decor is up and a plenty.

This is our life right now. School, work, eat, study, sleep, repeat. Jay's and my finals are all this week. By Thursday night this week we'll be extremely happy and our brains will be fried. We're not just excited for the end of this week because it means finals are over, we may or may not be going to Salt Lake for our 1st YEAR ANNIVERSARY too. One whole year!!! It's gone by so fast and sooo much has happened. But I am so grateful I got to spend it with my stud muffin of a husband ;) (que your inward groaning) A wonderful year it has been! We've been very blessed and are grateful for all we have. Looking forward to another amazing year with my sweetheart :)

Glacier National Park. . who knew?!

So 2 weeks ago we went on a really awesome road trip with Sharytis parents. We left Wednesday the 19th for Yellowstone. We only spent a couple hours there but what we saw was AMAZING! We left the park that night and stayed in a cabin just outside of it. The next day we went to Glacier National Park. I didn't really know what to expect at Glacier, and I was extremely surprised by how amazing it was. It was so green and there was a huge lake and rivers everywhere. We went in the off season so a lot of the park was closed, but we did do one hike called the Avalanche trail. 4 miles round trip to another lake with an amazing backdrop. It was overcast and wet our whole stay but that just made it even more beautiful! We passed a couple houses on our way to the park that were for sale and we kept joking that we should buy one and move to Montana. I think we were only partly joking to be honest. Northern Montana is absolutely breathtaking. Don't be too surprised if you hear we opened up a bed and breakfast on one of the lakes up there. Just saying. 

Me and Shar owe many thanks to Bruce and Debany for planning and inviting us on their vacation! Many many thanks! On the way back we stopped at a Cathedral in Montana that was really cool. Huge paintings and lots of sculptures everywhere.

Other then the trip not too much has really been going on for us. We are really happy at our jobs, trying to stay afloat with school, and just living it up as newly weds while we can still be called that (almost one year!). I'm definitely excited that the Holidays are here (Thanksgiving is included in this) and i think Jason may be too, he just might not admit it to you ;) So a happy late Halloween and a Happy Thanksgiving! 

Love, 

The Williams

Pictures of our crazy adventure can be found below. Some of them are ones that Jason took with his "special" camera. They're the ones that look really good! 

Yellowstone National Park

Montana (our future house can be found below)

Glacier National Park (aka one of mine and Jason's favorite places on earth)

(wolf prints found by my dad)

I have to admit, I squealed when i saw snow. I'm definitely feeling the need for some chiller weather to help bring about the Holiday spirit. Driving through this definitely added to my excitement for the Holidays.

We went as Shaggy and Velma from Scooby Doo for halloween :) Sharyti looks pretty amazing in glasses and soccer socks :)

DI for the win!!

It's definitely October and we love it!

We didn't post last week and I am having a hard time thinking of what happened haha. All well. Something I do know is Sharyti got a new job. YAY!!!! After being jobless for only a week and a half, she got a job at where I work. She is now a seamstress for Audrey's Bear. The irony of that sentence will only mean something to a few (I am not much of a seamstress). She will tell you she isn't very good at sewing, but she is doing a fantastic job! Check out what we do at work. https://www.audreysbear.com

The Sunday before last we took a little drive around the Alpine Loop. It was crazy busy and a little terrifying as we were passing cars on a very narrow road lol. This is why Jason was driving and I enjoyed the passenger seat. It was beautiful though, and definitely worth it. It was absolutely AMAZING! God paints the mountains in such a remarkable way during the fall. ;)

Then last Sunday we were able to get tickets to the Sunday afternoon session of General Conference. We were on the far right side and somewhat close to the front. Not to bad! We got to temple square early and had a picnic, then enjoyed hearing Gods messengers speak their messages. Then we headed back to the Henriksen household for a family dinner. It was a great day!

This week was a difficult week for school. At least for me it was. I had 2 big projects due on Thursday and I was soooo stressed out. Poor Sharyti had to deal with me all week. I wouldn't say deal, more like try to keep my head above water like you. Pretty much Jay's a champ. We survived, and actually had a bit of free time Saturday night to spend with each other. We went to DI and started working on our halloween costumes. They're going to be epic! Saturday morning we got to hang out with my side of the family at Kyle's baptism. It was good to see everyone and also to see Kyle enter the waters of baptism.

I think that will do it for this time around. I'll hand the computer over and Shar can leave some commentary on my thoughts as well as add some of her own :) Toodles

Recipe for the week: Monterey Chicken

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 c. bar-b-que sauce ( I use Bull's Eye)
1/4 c. real bacon bits
1 c. colby and jack cheese, shredded
1 14 oz. can Rotel tomatoes, drained (canned with green chilies added)
sliced green onions
pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Pound out chicken breasts to flatten. Season with pepper. Grill chicken until no long pink (we used our George Foreman grill) and place on baking sheet covered with foil. Top each chicken breast with one tablespoon bar-b-que sauce, 1/4 c. cheese, 1/4 c. tomatoes, green onions and one tablespoon of bacon bits. Place in oven and bake until cheese is melted (about 5 minutes).

It turned out amazing! Definitely a new favorite of mine and Jasons.