1ST TOP 5 TUESDAY

I hope you all had a great Christmas. Mine was great, minus the fact that I had to work at 7am, but whatever, it wasn't too bad. Chris spoiled me, he got me everything that I asked for. EVERYTHING. I think he got everything that he wanted, too! It was so nice to be with the family and Christopher on Christmas.

Christmas afternoon. The family waited for me to get home from work to open their presents, that was realllllly nice of them.

Then for lunch, we were able to eat with my brother, Ryan, who is serving in the Salt Lake City South Mission! My parents couldn't be there, just the siblings, mission rule. It was so fun to see him, he seems to be doing really well. We sure miss him.

All the boys and Elder Park

For dinner, we had the missionaries in our area come eat with us. They eat with us at LEAST once, if not twice, a week. My mom LOVES them, this is my theory why: if she is good to these missionaries, other people will be good to HER missionary. 

Everyone eating Christmas dinner

We took Christmas Eve and Christmas off of our "bet", so we ate whatever we wanted on those 2 days...BLAH bad choice, Chris and I got SO sick. We couldn't even go to church the next day. It was nice to go back to "no sugar".

I have decided that I want to do a little TOP 5 once a week. I want to know everyones! So I will tell you mine, then you all tell me yours! Maybe it will encourage me to branch out of my routine and try something new. This week, I'm starting with PERFUME.

My top 5 favorite perfumes:

(in no particular order)

Dolce & Gabbana

Light Blue

This is such a classic smell. It's fresh and clean. Everyone LOVES it.

Victoria's Secret

Sexy Little Things

I didn't start liking this one until recently, but OHHH I am obsessed now, it really does smell sexy.

Jessica Simpson

Fancy

If you're looking for a signature smell, this is a good one to go with. It's really unique and has a really pretty smell. Chris got it for me for Christmas!

Escada

Magnetism

This reminds me of high school, not very many people wear it. It's amazing. It makes me sneeze every time I spray it on, which is a major bonus!

Ralph Lauren

Rocks

This is a fun and fruity smell. I will always love it!

Like I said before, I like to stick to what I know and like, I'm trying to branch out and try new things! Plus, I just really like to know random stuff like this about people!

What are YOUR top 5 favorite perfumes and why? 

Christmas Eve

Happy Christmas Eve! I'm blogging right now for several reasons:

1. I wanna say CONGRATS to Chris for GRADUATING with his bachelor's degree
2. Also, CONGRATS to Chris for getting a 4.0...AGAIN, he's so smart and motivated
3. I'm just waiting for Tyler and Chris to get home from their late night, post-Christmas Story watching, Beto's-run... gross. 

Tomorrow is SO great. Christmas (our 1st together!), birthday, AND 1 month until our wedding. Happy Christmas to everyone! XO!

There's an app for that

Tomorrow, I'm going to go to the temple to do baptisms. I'll be able to tell all of the cute old people that in  just over a month I'll be able to finally go upstairs.

I'm so happy to be marrying Chris in the temple. Just the THOUGHT of not being with him forever makes my heart want to break. I'm so glad that we have the opportunity to spend our lives together on Earth AND for eternity after that. It wasn't until I met Chris that I realized how important FOREVER is.

Yesterday, we had my birthday dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. It's by far my favorite place to eat. My dad is getting old and had to get out his flashlight app on his phone, he used it all through dinner. It IS pretty dark in there, it's almost as bad as Hollister. Chris bought me a Nike running hoodie and a Nike iPod sensor. You put it on your shoelace and it's synced with your iPod. It tells you how fast/far you've run. Also, when you start slowing down, it starts playing faster music to pump you up! I love my sweet boy, thanks Christopher.

My parent's gift to me is 17 days away...I'm getting a bit nervous about Lasik. I have tried to not think about it too much. Normal Lasik takes about 12 seconds per eye and the recovery time is a little over 1 day. MY Lasik will be different. I am legally blind, so it will take about 45 seconds per eye, with a recovery time of 10 DAYS! Yikes, that's a lot of recovery. It will surely be a small miracle when I can see without glasses or contacts. I got glasses in 1st grade and contact in 3rd. I DON'T know what it's like to just SEE. 

218 days down, 34 to go! Never have a long engagement.

I sure love this boy.

Thanks for reading. XO.

STRESS!

We are 42 days away and the STRESS is starting to hit.

My biggest stress: HAIR

I want it to be perfect, which makes me SO NERVOUS! Please, everyone, calm me with your comforting words (jk jk).


I'm not much of an up-do person, I'm thinking that I want curly to the side...but not a side ponytail. Also, I don't want a part. Here are a few pictures of IDEAS, I just don't LOVE anything yet. AHHHH!

So, I'm thinking....the front like picture number one, and the side/back like picture number two (minus the flowers). Then, once I know what I want, WHO IS GOING TO MAKE MY HAIR LOOK LIKE THIS??? Deep breaths. Also, how is it going to stay pretty all day long. Oh boy.

Second stress: CENTERPIECES

Why are we not finished with these suckers yet?! Oh, probably because they take about an hour PER flower and we have to make 90 of them (not including the bridesmaid's and niece's hair things).

But they are SO worth the time, they are gorgeous. I guess I'll give you a sneak peek of them...

I got the idea from etsy.com. I instantly fell in love with the bouquets but NOT the price of them. That was when I decided I needed to become CRAFTY and i figured out how to make them from scratch. All together (all 100 or however many we've made) we have spent about $35. WHICH IS AMAZING BECAUSE TO BUY 1 BOUQUET ON ETSY IT IS $110 PLUS SHIPPING! We made 12 bouquets for $35. It has taken a ridiculous amount of time though.

This is the picture that inspired it all.

To see more pictures of where I got the idea, click HERE!!!!!

Third stress: EVERYTHING COMING TOGETHER What if it doesn't, what if it is a huge disaster? I know it won't be, but I always think of ALL the 'what if's in the world.

Ok, that's all. I'm sorry to vent via blog. I'm just getting nervous. We have had SO long to plan all of this - "Oh we have time" - "No rush, we have all the time in the world" - and now it's becoming a reality VERY quickly!

I had my family shower on Saturday, it was amazing! I couldn't believe how many people came, it made me feel so happy and grateful that people were willing to come just for me. So, if you came (and you're reading this) THANK YOU, you will be getting a thank you card...sometime haha!

One more thing. Chris, Ty, and I started a bet: who can eat the healthiest for the longest. CLEARLY I'm going to win. The person who goes the longest gets $15 from the 2 losers. We have 3 days off: Christmas, Christmas Eve, and my birthday dinner. It's SO much easier to do a diet when other people do it with you.

WOW, long blog, thanks for reading! XO!

PS: I'm so proud of my sweet Chris, he will officially be finished with his bachelors degree TOMORROW at 2pm. I have a surprise date planned all out for him to celebrate. GREAT JOB CHRISTOPHER!

Oh Christmas tree

Ok, as promised, here is a picture of our cute Christmas tree. Please ignore the fact that it is kind of sparse.

Chris moved into our new home! It's SO nice having him live 40 minutes closer to me. Driving home is bareable barable bearable...is that even a word? Why do all these spellings seem so wrong, whatever. I can't wait until I get to finally live there with him. It's in my grandparent's basement apartment, so it's decorated like we're back in 1968...in Africa. But it's ok, we're just happy to have a great place to live until we head off to law school.

I had my first ever bridal shower on Saturday. It was SOOO fun! My friends did an AMAZING job at putting it together! It was a perfect night, I loved getting to see everyone. I'm having another one this Saturday, it's a shower for my family, I can't wait to get everyone together!

I have an important question for everyone... WHAT DID YOUR PARENTS PUT IN YOUR STOCKING? My mama always put these types of things:

• An orange
• Underwear
• Candy
• Make up
• Toothbrush
• Deodorant
• Socks
• Etc.

I asked Chris what his mom put in theirs and they did completely different things than us! I had never once thought that people do different things than our family (I know, kind of dumb of me). So what are some different things that you get in YOUR stockings? I'm trying to get Chris's together and I need a few more ideas.

Here is one thing that I made for his stocking. It's a jar of candy and nice thoughts about him. So, every time he takes out a candy, he has to take out a little thought. It was cheap and easy to make, hopefully he'll like it!

We went and saw Tangled on Friday. SOOO GOOD! There have been so many AMAZING movies lately. Chris and I decided it sucks because we want to BUY all of them when they come out haha! But really Tangled is SO good, GO SEE IT! NOW!

Well better go study for my anthropology final, it's tonight. One more week and then it's ADIOS UVU! Thanks for reading. XO. 

Baby it's cold outside

It's officially DECEMBER, which means...WE ARE GETTING MARRIED NEXT MONTH!!!

Everyone has been asking to see our engagement pictures, but I want to keep them a surprise until our invitations go out (hence, they won't be going up on facebook anytime soon), I hope everyone understands. BUT I will put a couple pictures on here, so that my 8 lovely blog followers will be ahead of everyone else. Sorry strictly facebookers!

Our invitations are designed and ready to go. They are super cute! Jaime Colemere designed them, a lot of people have been using her lately. We have been gathering addresses. If you want an invite, email your address to camipark88@yahoo.com.

We are doing a "love story" for our wedding video. Does anyone have any suggestions of where we should do it. All of the people in the samples were in the mountains or at the lake. Most people get married in the warmer months (aka all other months of the year), we have 12 inches of snow on the ground, I'm thinking that outdoors may not be the greatest idea. I dunno, maybe we'll just have to freeze for an hour (get us prepared for the wedding).

We went and saw Harry Potter at midnight, we loved it! It went by so fast, there is NO way they could have done the whole book in only 1 movie. We can't WAIT for the next one to come out, it's going to be AMAZING! All the hype and controversy about the "nudity" in the movie was blown way out of proportion. In the 4th movie, Harry is naked in the prefect's tub when he listens to the egg under water. It wasn't a big deal back then. Oh well.

If you don't understand our shirts, go to Youtube and watch the Harry Potter Puppet Pals videos. WARNING: may cause crying and sore abs due to excessive laughter....or maybe that's just us?

Chris and I read the whole Hunger Games series together. We started reading Hunger Games on like December 30th, we were finished with that AND Catching Fire within 3 weeks. We were SO excited for August to come because the 3rd and final book, Mockingjay, was coming out. We bought it and starting reading it on that very first day. After a couple days and few chapters we weren't feeling it. We quit reading it. Then 3 weeks ago we started up again and FINALLY finished it after 4 months. We didn't love it. It was our least favorite out of the 3 books. It was dark and depressing. We felt that Suzanne Collins put all the details in all the wrong places. I won't say anything more.

One of my favorite parts of this month was "STORMAGEDDON"! It was supposed to be the biggest blizzard in years and years. Everyone was so afraid. People were buying batteries, flashlights, canned goods, etc. (nothing wrong with updating our emergency kits, though, right?). Schools were cancelled, people were sent home early from work. Chris and I got in comfy clothes, turned on Elf, and then....it snowed. Just an ordinary Utah snow storm. We thought it was way funny, made for a good city scare/memory. Then a few days later, we really got dumped on. We have SO MUCH SNOW! Ok, enough SNOW talk.

I did my very first Zumba class yesterday. Funnest thing of my life! I will be going weekly from now on. Please feel free to join me if you don't work Tuesdays at 10:15am. I'm pretty sore today, good feeling.

Next week is our LAST WEEK OF CLASS! I'm SO ready for it to be over! No more 2 hour commute every day of my life. For the past year and a half, I have driven to Utah County almost every single day. The end of that is near!

I should probably blog more than once every 3 weeks, I always have way too much to say every time I do it. Thanks so much for reading (if you actually even made it this far). Remember to send me your addresses if I don't have them yet. XO happy December!