Christmas Baking

It all started with fruitcake, Duke loves fruitcake, surprisingly. My grandma has a fruitcake recipe that everyone that i know loves. I can't remember trying it but my mom and dad and aunt and anyone else who has tried it likes it. But man that stuff is a pain to make. the recipe she had make 4 loaves of it. we had to split it into two large bowls to mix it. It managed to conquer the hand mixer that David used to mix his bowl. RIP mixer. so the baking started out with some frustration but after we got the fruitcake out of the way it was all better.

Ever since i have lived in Utah i have done Christmas baking with my grandma. So after church yesterday we drove down to Provo, picked her up and headed to Carolyn's for Christmas baking. It was pretty fun. I felt like i bored my grandma to death because i was just cooking the whole time but she enjoyed playing with Alice and just watching us. We made three different kinds of cookies. Sugar, Gingersnaps, and Pecan Sandies. There were a lot of cookies. it's a good thing there were three of us to split them up between.

Carolyn and i and all the cookies.



Me, Carolyn and Alice. Oh that adorable dress Alice is wearing is the one i got her for her Christmas dress this year. It has a cute little jacket that goes over it too. I have gotten her one every year (which doesn't seem like a lot when she's just almost 2) and i plan on getting her a cute Christmas dress until she thinks my taste in clothing is lame. LOL.

Naughty or Nice?

Yesterday i was driving to get my H1N1 vaccine and i passed a car wash with a little statement on their sign that stated.

"Satan's coming to town, don't forget to get your car washed."

It cracked me up. I'm sure they meant Santa but that was just a classic one. Wanted to share.

Festive Weekend

Friday came this week and i decided that i needed a festive weekend. I haven't been enjoying my job much so i needed something to brighten life. So we decided to go see the lights at temple square for our date night. We drove to salt lake and parked a few blocks from the temple. We stopped to get hot chocolate on the way there. Then we enjoyed the lights. It's so great that the church decorates every year. It's fun to go see the lights and reflect on the season. We had a wonderful time taking in the views and talking and holding hands and just unwinding from the week. It was a great date! Enjoy some of the picures i took...

Then saturday we continued the festivities. We went to the festival of trees with sukie and wudan. I guess they do this every year. People decorate and donate trees and then they auction them off and the proceeds go to the primary children's hospital. They also keep the trees up for a week and the public can go enjoy them. In addition to the trees they had wreaths, quilts and ginger bread houses. It was super fun to go look at all the trees and talk about creative ideas of our own. I look forward to going to the festival of trees every year. It was fun. Here are some of our favorite trees.

This one is for you Susie :)

Star Wars

Ginger bread "UP" house. We watched that movie for the first time last weekend and it is one of the cutest movies i've seen. I love that movie.

Castle gingerbread house.

We also decorated our house yesterday. We bought a real christmas tree for this year. David made that wreath with the branches we had to trim off of it. We are both so excited about the wreath. I think it's something we'll try to do every year even if it's an artificial one. Isn't my husband crafty? :)

Our christmas tree. It's very simple and we love it. I love christmas and i was so excited to get a real tree this year and decorate it and enjoy it. Yay for christmas!

On a side note this morning our toilet was leaking a little and of course we noticed it right as we were about to walk out the door for church. so we turned off the water to the house during church and left. When we got home it was fine and it seems like maybe it was just sweating from the steam of our showers so that's good. The funniest thing about this though was after church David told me that he wore his older suit just in case the toilet exploded or something and he didn't have time to change it before he rushed in to the bathroom. Cracked me up! He is so cute.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. I hope they are treating you all as well as they are treating us!

The house...TA DA

My favorite room of the house. Our family room. This is where we spend most of our time. It's very cozy and fun. Our new TV fits in nicely. Oh and we do have a fireplace, it's behind the TV box. And that's David and his sister Bridget. His family came out here for thanksgiving and we hosted it. Despite my minor stressing things turned out very nice. The turkey cooked all the way but not too much. We had lots of friends and family including, old roommates, parents, grandparents, siblings, and friends. It was a great feast with great food provided by all. Thanks for a great thanksgiving to all our wonderful family and friends.

Old TV. New TV.

We did our black Friday deal shopping on thanksgiving. David's dad got a paper and read all the deals to us. We (mostly David) have been shopping around a little for a fancy TV. There were great deals yesterday so David stopped at the store on the way down to Provo to get my grandma. He got his baby. LOL. It is very pretty and the picture quality is nice.

We had a house warming party on Halloween. This is the only picture i have of it. Cute baby Alice the cowgirl. She's a doll. Oh we were crazy to host a party a week after we moved in. I was stressed to the max trying to get everything ready. Boxes unpacked, rooms put together. It was horrible. But at least it got us to get the house put together quickly. Man was i tired after that day was over though.

Living room.

Finished product. It's kind of shadowed here but the walls are beige and the bay window is a mossy green (same as the next picture). I love color and we opted for several accent walls instead of lots of color through the whole house. I think it turned out great :)



Dining area.



Our bedroom.

Kitchen. I really like the kitchen. It's a great size and very functional. I eventually want to put up a nice tile back splash. That should give the kitchen a little more character.

Our backyard. It's very nice and big. We love all of the trees we have. We have 5 total. It made for a lot of leaves (30 bags front and back) but I'm sure it will be so nice to have the shade in the summer. We love our house.

We have a couple extra bedrooms too and a half basement that is unfinished. But those are boring for now. We'll liven those up when we have kids in a while. Finishing the basement will start next summer. I also want to put hardwood down on the main level and tile in the entryway, kitchen and bathrooms. We're working at it slowly.

Welcome to our home.

Easing my way back into this...

I have tons of pictures of the new house to post. Lots to say about the move and the transition to being homeowners. Lots to tell about our new jobs. But my camera batteries are dead and i need them to be charged, also i can't find the cord to upload photos. so that will have to wait.

Just wanted to share this funny little tidbit. We have had leftover candy from Halloween because we didn't have many trick or treators because Church trunk or treats have killed real Halloween. but so we've been bringing candy to work for dessert with our lunches.

today after work David said to me, "I've been waiting to ask you this all day. I ate nerds today. Does that mean I'm a cannibal?" Lol so funny. he's such a dork. I love him.

That's all for now.

Hiatus

Will be on Hiatus for the next month because we still don't have internet at home (and won't until we get settled in our house in a month) and my new job is busy :) and they blocked gmail and blogspot. Sad. So if you don't hear from me through email or the blog i'm ok; i will resurface in a month.

PS. I'll try to post more pictures of the house on the weekend when i can get to the real internet.

Teacher Ed for life!!!

Today is my last day at work. Surprisingly I'm finding it very bittersweet. I'm so excited to leave the job. It's pretty tedious work a lot of the time and some of the professors we work with can be challenging. I'm so happy to not have to deal with students everyday. I'm excited that i don't have to come up on campus everyday because I'm done with school and I've earned the right not to.

However, i came to the realization last night that not only am i losing the bad stuff about the job but I'm also losing all the good stuff. (Duh! but it was a realization for me) Not only am i losing obnoxious professors but I'm also losing all the great ones who are so appreciative and are more like friends than professors. I'm probably losing a lot of free time, although I'm happy to see that go, i think.

The saddest thing I'm losing are my co-workers, my friends. I've really made some great friendships the 2+ years I've worked here. We've laughed so much. We all get frustrated over the same problems and work together to get things done. But the thing I'll miss the most is the friendship. Breakfast club. The talking about the weekend/boys/school/whatever. Taking ridiculous pictures. Learning presidents. Going on rafting trips together. People have left the office here before and it's hard to see them go but there's always a new friend to be had when they get replaced. I think it's harder to leave because not only am i going to a job where i don't much about the job, but I'm also going to a job where i don't know anyone and don't have the support I've grown accustom to from the friends i have here at work.

I'm sure that I'll learn the jobs and I'll make friends but I'll still miss the Teacher Ed gang. Thanks for being great guys! I'll miss you. "This too shall pass!" LOL Teacher Ed for life!!!