santa surprises and a new year

(temple square lights 2011) 

(christmas eve 2011)

did you all have yourself a merry little christmas?

santa spoiled us from head to toe.

we both will be burning some extra cals while playing with the kinect. 

husband will be looking handsome as ever in his ski gear and new clothes galore.

and i will be snapping photos left and right of him with our new camera.

can’t even tell you how thrilled we both are, it was a fun surprise for both of us. 

(anxious to learn how to use it, classes in the next few weeks)

anyways, blogging hiatus because of the holidays.

we are having too much fun with a break from both school and work.

much to catch up on from our christmas festivities. it was a busy one this year!

we will be venturing off to sun valley this weekend after ringing in the new year.

2012 can you believe it?

i've got a good feeling about this year. 

what are your new years resolutions?

i’ll share some of mine as well as another recap like last year when i get the time!

enjoy your last friday of 2011. 

be merry

this and that

ladies and gentlemen we've just about hit christmas chaos around our little home. 

our week will be filled with a little bit of this:

last minute christmas gifts to be purchased, wrapped, and placed under the tree.

round two of our little traditions we started last year. 

(our first christmas as mr. and mrs.) 

prepping for parties to be done.

friends around the country coming home for visits. 

family party here, family party there. 

(we really have the best families, they make the holidays all the merrier.)

christmas gift exchanges.

zoo lights. 

temple square lights.

gingerbread houses and the annual grinch viewing.

breakfast with grandy. 

 

when in reality should be doing a little bit of: 

cleaning and organizing my home. 

purchasing my final items for the mr. 

delivering our final christmas cards.

wrapping neighbor gifts. 

and fitting in a little work here and there. 

to better sum it up: that.

but it's the holidays and somehow extra time is found for that.   

oh and i have a little secret to share. 

shhh.

we went on a little visit to a favorite camera store of mine tonight. 

did a little hunting and found a winner. 

hopefully santa is reading this because i would be oh so happy to see that little something under the christmas tree. 

and just in case he's checkin it twice...

i've been awfully nice this year. 

with a wink and a smile. 

glitter galore

glitter 101

how to make your house pour glitter from every nook and cranny 

(ok not really, but it kind of happens when you do any glitter craft.) 

i'm absolutely obsessed with how these turned out.

cheap and easy too. 

can't ask for any better then that right? 

you will need: 

all a dollar fruit

glitter (the really fine glitter)

spray glue 

steps:

step 1. spray fruit with glue

(make sure you put newspaper underneath it is so sticky)

step 2. pour glitter evenly over fruit

(repeat if needed)

step 3. lay to dry for 3-4 hours 

ribbon, bows, and puppy tails

that's what our week has been made of.

 while the mr. has been studying his brains out. 

(so proud of him)

i have been running around the valley delivering goodies for work. 

let me tell you, we spoiled them. 

v's chocolates and grandma's caramels galore. 

(it's ok if you are jealous because i sure am)

it was also our crazy puppy lucy's birthday. 

so we took her out to celebrate, petco it was. 

she devoured her bone in one night.

we love her much. 

(even when she is kind of crazy)

we kind of can't believe that it's almost christmas. 

only a few more cards to get sent, 

but lots of christmas shopping to go.

hope your festivities are merry! 

tis the season

once thanksgiving and jake's birthday pass, we officially begin holiday festivities. 

we had a lovely weekend. 

(more on that later)

i love the holidays. 

we've decked the halls here.

tree is up. 

garlands hung. 

crafts completed. 

glitter galore. 

candy jars filled. 

wreaths hung. 

santa's displayed. 

nutcrackers presented.

it's feeling so cozy. 

i don't know what we will ever do when we have to take them down. 

if you are still looking for ideas try:

these they turned out beautiful. these, so cost friendly. 

or this, still in the process. 

anxiously anticipating:

time with family and loved ones.

get togethers with friends.

advents. 

giving. 

spending time with husband, 

with no school. 

snow. 

skiing. 

sledding. 

the list is endless. 

traditions started from last year to continue: 

gingerbread decorating. 

first presidency devotional. 

(it was so wonderful, find here)

attending the nutcracker. 

a new nutcracker for our collection. 

christmas eve skiing. 

christmas street. 

temple square lights. 

and more to add! 

for last years holidays check out this, and this. 

what do you love?

what are you anxiously anticipating? 

and what traditions do you have? 

christmas tree: check

last night we ventured down the robinson's tree farm to get ourselves a christmas tree.

i have to say that it was much different then hunting for one in the mountains...

i wast feeling too hopeful until we came across the "fresh cut" trees not the farm trees. 

after some searching and discussing we found the perfect tree. 

i absolutely love it and it smells so stinkin good

who doesn't love the smells of christmas? 

we loaded the tree on the good ol' mustang.

(ok well we watched as they did the work for us)  

and after almost losing it on the way home, we got it up and it looks so wonderful.

(that's what happens when you tie a xmas tree to a convertible) 

we spent the rest of the night putting up some of our decorations but still have some work to go. 

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas in our home! 

 

so behind

i'm very behind, and when i say behind i mean a month behind. we were fortunate enough to go to las vegas just days before christmas for the bowl game with the football team, and to the caribbean with jakes family right after christmas. i also need to post just a few pictures from christmas just for our record. with all the havoc of christmas and our vacations we were able to fit in a few additional traditions that we are sure to keep for years to come. one of them is gingerbread house decorating which we started the christmas jake left on his mission. we had the best night with some of jakes best friends and our siblings here are the pictures to show.

our attempts for one decent photo:


so the race begins...






finished product:

traditions

tra·di·tion
[truh-dish-uhn
the handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, information, etc., from generation to generation, esp. by word of mouth or by practice: a story that has come down to us by popular tradition.

Creating our own traditions this holiday season and one of them is decorating the humble abode. it's tradition for us to cut down our tree every year and this is the tree picked for this year. we love it. thanks to my sweet mother who came and helped us "spice" it up as husband would say. We (meaning me) decided to go with gold, silver, and tiffany blue for our holiday decor colors and I'm pleasantly surprised with the turn out. hope all of your homes are looking festive and cozy this Christmas season.




notice the darling wedding cake ornament to represent our first christmas married.

dear: christmas parties

we were lucky and got to go to two Christmas parties this weekend, and Santa happened to make a visit at both. this is the only picture i have for now. both were lovely spent evenings with family and friends.