Christmas in Review

I am still in shock that Christmas has come and gone already! I loved being with my family this Christmas. We opened our Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve, then opened the rest of our gifts on Christmas morning. My grandparents, aunt and uncle and my older sister and her husband came over for a delicious breakfast complete with my grandpa's famous buttermilk pancakes, biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, sausage and yummy hot cocoa from my aunt mimi's new hot cocoa maker. Since Geoff's family was opening their gifts around the same time we were having breakfast, he came over a couple of hours later for us to exchange our gifts to each other.

We all went out to my Grandma Key's in the afternoon to open gifts and have Christmas dinner. Geoff and I were excited to open our first gift as a couple... a new electric skillet! He kept telling me all the food I could make him in that skillet. I think he's excited about the idea of coming home to a yummy dinner once we're married!

All in all, it was a wonderful day. Who knows if Geoff and I will be able to come home next year for Christmas. I'm sure we will, but you just never know once you start working full-time, which I will be starting in January and hopefully Geoff is able to as well. I made sure to treasure this Christmas just in case we're by ourselves next year!

I hope you all are having a great holiday with your family and loved ones!

The Key Family on Christmas 2013

A Gloomy Week Turned Bright

I planned on blogging a couple of times this week, but I got sick with a viral infection over the weekend and was miserable basically all week! It started out with a swollen and painful lymph gland, then a sore throat was added onto that. A couple of days passed and my lymph gland only got bigger and more painful. After going to a doctor who said nothing was wrong with me other than having a huge buildup of hard earwax in my ears (he did irrigate them out... who knew so much hard wax could buildup like that!), I went to another one who took one look at my swollen lymph glands and knew I was actually as miserable as I claimed to be. He prescribed me an antibiotic and now I'm actually feeling myself again! I also think I may have had a minor case of pneumonia, because a couple of days after going to the doctor I was having problems breathing and didn't want to eat because it hurt. And as if I wasn't already dealing with enough, I had the biggest and nastiest cold sore I have ever had which I needed a prescription medicine to get rid of. But now that my breathing is fine and my cold sore is basically gone, I can now continue living my life as a normal human being!

Yesterday was my 24th birthday. I have no idea where the last few years have gone! But it was one of the best birthdays I have had in a long time. I was with Geoff, my parents, my grandparents, my aunt, Geoff's aunt and uncle, my soon-to-be sister-in-law and even my very best friend Holly. The last time I was with Holly and Geoff on my birthday was probably in 2008 or 2009. And who knows when it will ever happen again! So I really treasured this birthday, and took advantage of it by going though the temple for the first time with these loved ones. It was a great experience. A little scary at first, but worth it. I hope to feel the feelings I felt there yesterday for years to come as I continue to go to the temple.

Geoff, myself and Holly at dinner after the temple.

A week that started out being the worst week ever ended by being one of the best ever. I know I'll always remember my 24th birthday!

The Proposal

Since I'm wanting to document Geoff and I's life on this blog from now on, I figure I must talk about the day he proposed to me before it becomes old news!

Two weeks ago from today, my mind was in Thanksgiving mode. Maybe that's because it was Thanksgiving! I was looking forward to enjoying some delicious turkey, my grandma's homemade rolls that are to die for, and watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. And I may or may not have also been watching the National Dog Show even though I was getting made fun of by Geoff and my sister, Chelsey. Can you blame a dog lover?

Anyways, the food was all placed on the table and it was time to eat. I was already sitting in the living room talking with my family when my mom starts going around in a circle asking what each of us are thankful for. I didn't think doing this was anything out of the ordinary, I thought it was just a way for my mom to express her gratitude for all of us being together on Thanksgiving. But each of us said what we were thankful for, one by one. Last but not least was Geoff. I wasn't really paying too much attention to what he was saying (shame on me!), because I figured he would just say something simple like the rest of us had. But out of the blue... He gets down on one knee and proposes to me! I was so surprised and didn't even know what to do at that point. But of course I said yes and now I will always remember which Thanksgiving has been the best one so far!

After the shock was over with, I started looking back and realized all the red flags I had missed that I could have easily seen to know Geoff was going to propose at the moment he did:

- Geoff comes over to my house and has the biggest smile on his face and he can't sit still. Obviously someone was a little antsy! Maybe I was too into the National Dog Show to notice at first.... Don't judge me.

- Chelsey is video recording during the whole time we are going around saying what we are thankful for. I didn't even think anything of it and thought she was texting. She has mad video-recording skills for sure.

- While we were going around saying what we were thankful for, Geoff leaves and comes back with his jacket, which had the ring in it. I noticed him leaving but didn't really pay attention to him coming back. That was the biggest red flag right there! Geoff had talked to my mom about his idea earlier... the whole going-around-saying-what-we-were-grateful-for was all his idea... but didn't really expect my mom to start his idea right there and then. So since he was taken off-guard, he had to go grab the ring which he left downstairs.

I'm glad I didn't see those red flags. It made for the best surprise ever. I'll always cherish that day when Geoff was able to keep a secret from me, since it's nearly impossible for him to do so! I'm also grateful that Geoff proposed to me in front of my family. That took a lot of guts for him to be put on the spot like that. It was special for me for my grandparents to be there to witness me being proposed to and were just as surprised as I was. My Grammie always has the best reactions!

Enjoy the photos and the video if you haven't already seen them! Is it strange that I haven't even watched the video myself yet? I had no idea I was so video shy until now. I don't mind being in photos, but when it comes to videos, well that's a whole different ball game!

Our Facebook announcement photo.

The ring that Geoff picked out all by himself. He did good!

'Tis the Season to Make Some Christmas Printables!

Now that it's officially December, it's time to bring out the Christmas decorations as well! I've designed a few simple yet cute printables to place on my Etsy site for you to download and enjoy. To view them, click on the button below on your right or click here if you're on your cell phone. There's a total of 12 different ones you can look at, but here are a few of my favorites:

A New Beginning

Say hello to my new and improved blog! Hopefully for the rest of my days, I will stay with this one blog and continue to blog as frequently as I can.

So, here's the deal. I have been an avid blogger for quite some time now, a little over three years now. My previous blog, Simple Pleasures, got me into the blogging hobby and became the solution for me to release all my thoughts through something I love doing most: writing. Plus, my life was and continues to be so interestingly awesome and everyone was and continues to be eager to know what was and what continues to be going on with me! Just kidding. I apologize for the repetition and huge exaggeration in that last sentence. To simply put it, my blog was a way for me to write about fun times during my college days as well as the fun, changing times after I graduated. 

I have now been a college graduate for almost a year and a half now... Don't ask me where the time has gone because I feel like I should still be in college! I miss my good ol' college social life but definitely don't and will never miss the loads of homework, tests, studying and the stress that resulted from all the piles of never-ending homework, tests and studying.

If you kept up with my previous blog, then you know I have been living the grown-up life in Salt Lake for over a year now. I have been blessed with some pretty amazing opportunities here, such as being an intern at Deseret News and writing over 90 stories that can all be viewed online and many were printed in the local newspaper. One was even printed in the national edition! I felt like somebody important when I worked there and loved every minute of working with the most talented group of people. Thanks to the opportunities I had from Deseret News, I was able to land my current job. I'm a marketing assistant at a software development agency known as Digital Trike. I've learned so much from working at this company for the last nine months. I love that I'm able to use my creativity to design, write and blog frequently. Plus I feel pretty special by being in charge of Digital Trike's social media platforms as well as the website. It's been pretty great!

"Kylie! What's all this babbling for? We get it... you have such an awesome life! Why did you start this new blog, anyways?"

Hold your horses. I'm getting there, I promise. But first, I must mention that I am so extremely happy, perhaps the happiest I have ever been in a really long, long time! And it's all because of this boy named Geoffrey. Now Geoffrey isn't your typical, ordinary guy. No siree. He happens to be my best friend, the love of my life and now, after almost seven years of dating off and on, I can officially call him MY FIANCE! I have been waiting a while to be not just engaged, but engaged to this boy. My wedding plans can now actually be planned and executed for real! Geoff and I are pretty giddy to start our life together finally and see where our journey together takes us.

Now that I have released all my energy and excitement from typing that last paragraph (because it's just so, so, SO exciting), I feel like I can now talk about why I am starting this new blog. I'm starting it for two main reasons. The first reason, as you can probably guess, is that now that I am engaged, I'm in a new stage in my life. Once I'm married, I won't just be blogging about "my" life, but about "our" life. Therefore, I feel like a new stage in life deserves a new and improved blog. The second reason is I am wanting to focus more on what I enjoy most, which not only is blogging about fun events but also about designing, recipes, photography and whatever else I decide is interesting to me. This blog will be a perfect and convenient place to store all of my interests.

Also, I am renaming my little Etsy shop "Simply Sweet As Can Be" to match this blog, and am also going to eventually start up a Facebook page as well to post my Etsy printables and advertise them. I think I've filled this one blog post with a little too much excitement, but I love it!

The name for this blog, "Simply Sweet As Can Be," is because similar to my previous blog, I believe life is full of little yet remarkable things we take for granted. The littlest things that can make us the happiest. I mean who hasn't become happy after seeing a baby smiling and laughing, or succeeding at a goal you have been working towards for a while, or biting into a scrumptious, mouth-watering warm cookie fresh from your grandma's oven?

... Side note: If you said to yourself "No, that doesn't make me happy" to to any of those items I just listed, you are banned from reading the rest of this blog post. I'm serious! Scram! Unless you have nothing else to do with your time, then I guess I give you permission to keep reading.

What I'm saying is that the little things are simply sweet as can be. Life can be wonderful if we want it to be. It's all about our attitude and how we view things. Life is also full of surprises and unexpected turns that can make life a little sweeter if we view them with a positive outlook.

I'm a constant planner, a perfectionist and someone who can't fall asleep at night until all my multiple alarms are set so I don't forget anything even though I have them all written down and hardly forget anything anyways. I dare you to say that 5 times fast! But sometimes it's nice to get out of our normal routines and enjoy life's simple and sweet little moments. All we have to do is have faith and hang on to life's crazy ride and remember that wherever we end up, there's a reason for it.

Have you seen the Mormon Message "Moments That Matter Most" by President Uchtdorf? It's been one of my favorite Mormon Messages ever since it came out over two years ago. The talk it came from has a quote that continues to impact me: "We would do well to slow down a little, focus on the significant, lift up our eyes, and truly see the things that matter most." That's the goal I'm going to try to accomplish with the blog.

I hope all my words and reasoning not only made sense, but was worth your time! I also hope you have just as much fun reading my new blog as I'm going to have writing it. I love and appreciate all of my close family and friends that would read my sometimes pointless blog posts about random ramblings and would leave sincere and meaningful comments that just put a smile on my face! Like I said, it's all about the simple and sweet little things :)