Christmas 2011

I guess I'm a little past due with blogging, since my sisters got on my case. I think they just want to see pictures of their beautiful faces and posts describing how absolutely wonderful they are...which wouldn't be far from the truth.

Holidays can be fun...when you're not stressed about the food you're going to cook or the gifts you have left to buy or make. This year was our first Christmas as a married couple. This year was also my first "handmade" Christmas...which caused a little bit of worry, stress, and extra time. But I think everyone liked their gifts, which is a payday for all the frantic effort given to make sure things didn't look like a kindergartener had put them together. (Nothing against Kindergarteners, by the way.)

Here are some highlights of our Christmas extravaganza:

Christmas Eve was spent with the Johnson's. We went out to dinner at Olive Garden and then came home to open some gifts. Take note of the lovely BYU Cougar santa hats given to us by Lori and Carl. They are the bomb! We also got a new BYU flag to hang on our car on game day. Lori was playing the piano for a special Christmas Eve song devotional for their ward, so we went to that afterwards. The night ended with a rousing game of "It Came To PASS". This is the game we played on the first day I met the Johnsons. Have you ever played it? It is so fun, so I bought it for our family for Christmas and the Shaw's absolutely love it and ask us to bring it at every gathering.

Christmas morning, we opened our gifts to each other and headed over to the Shaw's for some Christmas breakfast. I opted to help out with the breakfast and make some breakfast taquitos. Dad cooked sourdough pancakes and, of course, traditional cinnamon rolls. In the midst of getting breakfast ready, we opened gifts. I decided to go handmade on W's gift, which you can see above. I was pretty pleased with myself. We also got her a fleece throw, just in case the necklaces were a complete disaster. I think she enjoyed both...although I haven't seen here wear my creations yet. She will. I know she will. In the meantime, Tay will steal them and wear them instead. 

After breakfast, we headed home to get ready for church. We got there a couple of minutes late and we had to walk up to the choir seats in front of the whole packed congregation, while my pantyhose kept falling down and I had to grab them from behind...trying to be nonchalant. Let's just say, by the end of the meeting, my nylons were down by my knees. Total. Disaster. Oh well.

I didn't grab any pictures of the rest of the day, unfortunately, but we had lunch/dinner with the Birch family and played some monopoly. It was a holiday full of FAMILY, which is the way it should be.  We love our family.

Giving thanks never tasted so good!

This year, we spent Thanksgiving at G&G Shaw's. I think this might be the last year Grandma hosts this at her house. Everyone was there, except W. She gave thanks in the beautiful states of Connecticut and New York with her J man. We missed her TERRIBLY.

A couple of things to take notice of:

A) All my GORGEOUS cousins. Love them.
B) The delicious-looking pie on the left. I made it. Yep, believe it. Grandma taught me the day before. Yummy.
C) Can you tell people have a little "turkey coma" in the bottom picture? It even took over little baby Boston.

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It's Christmastime!!!!

B had 4 DAYS OFF from work over Thanksgiving holiday!!!! 4 DAYS. We had Parker do our Black Friday shopping for us. He picked us up a little christmas tree and we decorated it that night. 

It makes me so happy inside. 

Don't pay attention to the bare walls or the lame tree skirt. I am going to make THIS. In the meantime, a plain sheet will have to do. 

Fun with Family and Surgery

Wednesday was spent at Same Day Surgery with momma. You can imagine that she was ultra excited to be there.  Well, not really. But, we went there together and I waited in the waiting room and ate a weird salad at the hospital cafeteria and bought a Martha magazine and talked to the surgeon and sat in post op while the little nurse with a strong spanish accent repeated and repeated instructions to me for momma.

"Come here. I want to show you her bress. See her bress. Eez blue because dat is where they marked her bress. Okay, she can not take more pain pill until she eat some breafus. You make sure she eat some breafus before she take pills. We want her to keep breathing...no sleeper pills because we want her to keep breathing." speak in a strong Spanish accent


So, we celebrated another surgical adventure for our mother with:

That's been the highlight of my week. Also, I have 2 more piano students. It rocks.

A Beautiful Life

It's Sunday morning. I'm looking out my window at the clear blue sky and the rays of sunshine that reflect off the white snow, thinking how beautiful snow can be when it's not touching me. This leads me to thoughts of yesterday...our snow day. We spent the morning cleaning. B never complains about helping me. In his words, it's more time to spend time with his love. In his words, spending time with his love is the best thing in the world. I thought about this as he stood bent over, scrubbing our toilet. I thought about this again when he was willing to strip down and rinse out the disinfectant I lathered over our shower. I thought about it again, and again, and again throughout the day. I made a mental note of all the tiny moments he's thoughtful, considerate, and loving towards me. I lost count. I woke up this morning to beautiful blue eyes watching me and snuggling me. I thought about the conversation we had last night about our future children. He's certain our children will be amazing. I love it when he talks about our family. I am grateful for his faith. Sometimes, all I need is to hear his reassurance to be comforted and at peace.

I decided to get out my camera this morning, because I liked the light. I took pictures of him. Because I'm totally loving this new hair-do he's rocking. The past couple of days, I've thought about my Beautiful Life. I know I spend too much time worrying about what I don't have, what could be better, or wasting so much energy on picking myself apart and focusing on my weaknesses. But, what's the point? Spending this weekend opening up to the beauty in my life has led to pure happiness, fulfillment, and never-ending love. I like this. I love this. I want this. And I have this. November is the month of Thanksgiving. I am Thankful for my Beautiful Life...and all it entails (trials, triumphs, ups, and downs). I am Thankful for the Gift of love, because it is a Gift. I am Thankful for Brandon. I love him...and I know he loves me.

A day inside.

No grocery shopping + cold, snowy weather =

May you keep all your toes, as the weather gets cold.
And may you do your grocery shopping early, so there is food to feed your family.

Halloween Happenings.

I love Halloween. So, it's no surprise that this weekend was spent doing festive, fun Halloween-y things. Such as:

1. Trunk-or-Treat with our ward. We won 3rd place in the costume contest. Yeah baby.

2. Eating candy. Lot's of candy. Lot's and lot's of candy. And in case we didn't have enough candy, W made home-made Twix bars. They were awesome. She also made Halloween croutons for a salad. So festive. Looooove it!

3. When we were little, our parents would have us "trade in" our bag of candy for a surprise gift from the Great Pumpkin. We thought it would be so funny if all 4 kids told them we had made a decision to "pool" our gifts this year, so T could get Just Dance 3. To our surprise, they got the game. Hilarious. So, last night we spent the last hour dancing it up in my parent's living room.

4. Breakfast with my family Saturday morning. Dinner with B's family tonight. We played games, laughed, talked, and....of course, ate candy.

(B's parents celebrated their 28th wedding anniversary.)

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May you eat lot's of candy. And run 100 miles to burn off the extra calories.

That's what I plan on doing.

What? You don't think I will?

That's it. I'm doing it. 

Just let me finish this Snickers first. 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

Date Night Out

Today, my new shoes came in the mail. I was really excited, because I got to wear them tonight on our DATE NIGHT. I love date nights. I support them with all my heart. I don't know what it is about getting out with the love of your life, but it makes me giddy and I find myself crushing on my husband like the days we were two dating kids.

Big News: I started teaching piano today. I have 2 students. I absolutely loved it!