Christmas Spirit.

First of all, can you believe Christmas is in 4 days? Seriously, it creeped up on me this year. I just got all me shopping done yesterday so I am a little more relaxed today. I offically hate holiday shopping. Parking a mile from Best Buy last night solidified my hatred. Shopping for Brennon made me feel like I don't even know him because I had no clue what to get him. He just so simple, sports crap or clothes is pretty much all he asked for. Anyways, I have been wanting to post pictures of my little decorations for a while because I LOVE them and wish I could keep them up all year. When I walk in the house, our tree automatically makes me just a little bit happier. It looks a lot prettier lit up but I literally tried every setting on my camara and they were all blurry with the lights on. And I mean every setting.

I dont know why the one bulb is so freakin white. Isn't it pretty? I am freakishly proud of it. Probably because of my lack of craftiness.

My lovely centerpiece. And yes our table needs some work. Thats our project for after Christmas.

My cute little mini wreath thing I got from Deseret Book for 3 bucks. Why do little things like this make me so excited that I post them and bore you all? I do not know.

This however is worth posting. My mother got me this adorable little wooden nativity scene that I love. And its very Danica-friendly because there is no way I could break it. Unless I took a match to it. The snowman in the background is from Kirtlands also for 3 dollars. Again, very excited.

This is also a post that is WAY overdue but I will post anyways. On Dec. 2nd, the night of the Christmas devotional, at the temple lights, Evan and Cara first held hands and decided they were dating. I'm sure there is much more to the story, but thats the jist of it. So, to celebrate this anniversary, and to just get together and start the holiday season, we go to the temple every year and then go have hot chocolate. This is the 2nd annual tradition and it was a blast.

That big growth on Bethany is actually her adorable baby Haylee. In case you were wondering.

And last, but not least, the Hatch Family christmas party/gift exchange. I'de like to document what everybody was doing during this glorious party.

The children+uncle: tricks on the tramp.

The women: preparing the meal and gifts, as they should be.

Bethany: being very social.

The cute 10 year olds reconnecting with nature while playing video games in the shade of an orange tree.

The crazy 3 year olds looking innocent.

Then came the gist exchange and white elephant exchange. The children got inpatient so they started wrestling.

This is how it started:

And this is what it became:

The highlight of the white elephant... a very family appropriate statue.

Sam looks a lettle too happy.

And I will end with this somewhat disturbing picture of who stole the fertility statue. Like father, like son I suppose. :)

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season!

Catching up...

I finally done with school! I'm SO glad its over for a couple weeks. Now I can catch up on my blogging that I have been falling behind in. We'll start with Thanksgiving....

We went up north and had alot of fun hanging with our families. First we went to the Fish's and had a delicious Thanksgiving breakfast of pumpkin waffles and homeade buttermilk syrup with the whole Fish side... seriously. So good. Played a little Guitar Hero with the cousins, hung out, and then on to the next meal. Thanksgiving was at Grandma Doris and Witt's house and I stuffed myself with all the yummy food including noodle gravy, which I had never heard of. Then the boys watched football for like a kagillion hours while I continued to stuff myself with pumkin pie and this awesome bananna dessert Trevor made....mmmm... wow im fat.

Then that afternoon we left and went to the Hatch house in Jo town. This is where i remembered I had a camara so I have a few pics.

We had the 1st annual Hatch family talent show where everyone must participate. Some of the highlights...


Breea and Kristals clogging number,



Kayla's singing,


Kamryn and Tessa's cheering,

Not pictured: my dad whistling without moving his lips, Bethany and Jamison singing and playing guitar, Mckenna and her dance moves, Aunt Paula and my mother doing thier high school cheer (you gotta check this out, scroll down to Nov. 26th), Uncle Traci nameing 20 tools in 10 sec, and many others.

Brennon and I's talent will not be discussed.

Then we went to the Guttery's and hung out with the cousins, had grandma stuff us with more food and watched more football.





Words to sum up our weekend: eating, playing cards, eating, watching football, eating, and hanging out with our awesome families! (Did i mention eating?)

Double tagged.

Ok, so I know I haven't posted about Thanksgiving yet or anything really but I've been tagged twice in the past little bit so I thought I would do them, for the future kids of course. So other slightly more exciting posts will come when I'm done with school....

4 Jobs I've Had:


1. Grocery bagger at Bashas

2. Smoothie maker at Jamba Juice

3. Nanny(2 times)

4. Assistant Pre K teacher


4 Places I've Lived:


1. Auburn, WA

2. Fridley, MN

3. Fargo, ND

4. Gilbert, Chandler, Tempe, Mesa AZ


4 Movies I Love:

1. Newsies (Well, anything with Christian Bale...im in love.)

2. Little Women

3. Return to me (cheesy, i know)

4. Any musical basically like Guys and Dolls, Hairspray, Fiddler on the Roof, ect.


4 of My Favorite Foods:

1. peppermint hot chocolate (does that count?)

2. any pasta, mmmm

3. chicken enchiladas, mmmm

4. watermelon, this is making me hungry


4 Weird Things About Me:

1. Ive broken my arms 4 times, 2 times on each arm. So now my arm is really funky and I get ALOT of crap for it.

2. I hate shoes! I have the bare minimum, 1 white 1 brown and 2 black heels, like 4 pairs of flip flops and 1 pair of tennis shoes. I'de much rather have a shirt and a pair of earings than cute shoes anyday.

3. Wow this is sad I can't think of anything... Well brennon and I have already lived in 4 different apartments and we've only been married 6 months... thats a little weird, right?

4. I have mad dancing skills.


4 Places I'd Rather Be:

1. Scotland with Brennon (thats where he served his mission, for those of you that don't know)

2. Disneyland and the beach with my whole family!

3. In next week when I'm done with my finals!!

4. Oh, New York, Europe, Australia, anywhere fun like that. With Bren-Bren of course.


4 People I tag:

1. Ummm, i think everyone has done this....

2. Breea

3. Kayla

4. Mom


Next one..... sorry for those of you that have heard this 5 bazillion times.


1. Where did you meet your husband? We met at a YSA event. Yes, its true. I don't like to admit it but must confess. I randomly went to this dance party thing with some people from my ward, which was weird because all of my good friends were going somewhere else. Anyways, I saw an old friend there and she was there with a group including Brennon! I had heard about him because he grew up in the same tiny hometown as my mom and grandparents and my grandma always wanted to set me up with him! So we were introduced and rest is history!

2. What was the first thing you said to your husband? I don't really remember the very first thing but I remember it being a little akward just because it was really loud and both of us really wanted to talk but we kept having to say 'What?'. I also remember him asking me for my number at the last possible minute! I kept kind of stalling so he could have some time to get the gutts!

3. Where was your first date? Well, our first "official" date started at Tempe town lake. We went paddle boating at night. It was so pretty with all the lights on the water... ah, the romance. Then we went and got ice cream on Mill, went to Nacho Libre at the dollar theatre (I was actually impressed by his thriftiness, we were made for eachother in that way.) This is where he held my hand for the first time! Then we went back and chilled at his house, well apartment, til about 2 in the morning.....oops. We just didn't want it to end!

4. Where was your first kiss? Ummm... that same night. I know what your all thinking, what a hoochie mama, kissin on the first date. Well sorry. It happened. So sue me.

We were watching another movie, i think. Maybe just TV. I dont remember, probably because all I could think about was "Is he going to kiss me or what?" He did and there was hair in my mouth....akward. haha it was actually kind of funny and we still joke about it.

5. Did you have a long or short engagement/courtship? Well we dated for about 8 months married in about 3, pretty short but I wouldn't have had it any other way!


6. Where did you get engaged? We got engaged at Saguaro Lake. I kind of knew it was coming, sort of. Well we did go ring shopping but he kind of tricked me and told me it wouldn't be in til a week later. Anyways, we had been out there before just to "star gaze" so it wasn't too unusual to go there. We got out of the car and it was freezing! Up by the lake I could see something but then he put a blindfold on me and went to try to light the candles, unsuccessfully... oh well. There by the lake was a blanket laid out with a huge vase of yellow and pink tulips (my favorite), candles, cheesecake(another favorite), sparkling cider, and a boom box. It was the sweetest thing ever. His brother and sister in law Evan and Cara and his mom had come and set it all up for us! He turned on a CD he had made with all our favorite songs, we danced, he got down on one knee, and maybe we kissed a little bit :) Too much info?


7. Where did you get married? Mesa, AZ temple baby.

8. How did your reception go? Well, I'm only going by the pictures, but it went great! We stood in line THE ENTIRE TIME. One thing we would definatly change. But it was so beautiful and so many people came. We had it in my parents beautiful backyard. And so many people worked so hard on it all day while we relaxed at our hotel! Thanks again for that, by the way. Poor Brennon was so sick though. It was so sad. In all the pics from that night he looks absoultly miserable. haha poor guy. But we also had an open house up in Joseph City where Bren is from. That was much more relaxed and alot less people but beautiful as well.


9. The Honeymoon! Well, we haven't really had a real one yet. We went to a cabin up north for 2 days which was really nice, except for the fact that Brennon was sick half the time. And he NEVER gets sick! What the heck... Anyways, then we went and lived in Minnesota and North Dakota for a couple months so that was kinda like a honeymoon. I'm hoping for something tropical in the future...


10. Who's turn is it next? Oh, how about...whoever hasn't done it!