Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas cards, Merry Christmas everybody, and thank you to anyone who helped us or gave gifts we are so thankful for all your love and support!

This is our regular Christmas card

and our "Thank You" Christmas cards. 

I Finish What I Start

Does this look familiar?

Well I finished it... quite a while ago. 

The top of the blanket says Merry Christmas and I tried to take a picture of it but you can't see it.

This is the pattern I came up with and the lady who quilted the blanket said she had to learn how to do my design because she had never done anything like it before. 

I used minky (the SOFTEST fabric ever) on the back and I chose a red 3D polk-a-dot. 

Imagine this on the other side and not backwards.

We've been snuggling with it all month!

This is the finished footstool 

This corner right here is my only irritation, but the fabric is really dark so you can't really see the seams too much. 

Initially I was going to try and staple the fabric on, let's just say that didn't work very well (at all). Instead I ended up hot glueing the new fabric on and it worked great! I was so surprised, who'da thunk?

I have finally set up our little china cabinet to look cute.

This is my "special shelf" it has some of my great grandmas china and a picture of her with finger waves. I like that picture because in beauty school finger waves were my specialty! I really struggled with them at first and then suddenly something just clicked then I became the master haha. I even taught many of the new girls how to do them.

These are the mirrors that came with our house. Not that I don't like bright red and palm trees.... but I didn't.

So we painted them .....

and then I picked at one of them so we are going to have to paint it again, go me!

Pictures Pictures Everywhere

David and I have managed to de-junk, organize and put all but 2 or 3(+?) boxes away. Our second bedroom is still a disaster zone and so is the desk but they have improved so much that I'm confident we will be fully organized by the end of January! The other night I decided to finally start hanging pictures. This is one of the last things, I think, that really make me feel like my house is mine. It's the equivalent to the cherry on top in my book.

Bulletin board! I am so excited about this because it means we can pin coupons and mail on it and then it doesn't end up on my desk, the counter, the table, in my purse, etc etc the list goes on and on.

This is our big mirror. It came with the house and I recently painted it dark brown so it would match. I figure $3.47 spent on a can of spray paint was worth it. Do you like all those papers on the desk? Ya I thought you would. I have been trying to sort through them for weeks. There is just so much "stuff" I can't even describe it but it all has to be sorted through and it all needs a better place than my desk. One thing I have realized recently that makes me feel better is that our house isn't really dirty, we just get lots of clutter everytime we open a new box. Since I had this revelation my opinion of our house has been much better. After all a stack of papers is nothing when you figure the bathroom is clean and the dishes are done, I'm letting go of that stress, byebye.

The kitchen

Cutest little picture frame ever! I love it, it fits three 4x6's and I got it at Family Dollar for $3. I have really come to like that store bunches and bunches.

Our wedding picture! I really like how this turned out, and the frame is from BIG Lots, it was only like $15.

Close up, aren't we cute? Haha, yes we are.

This is what David was doing on Monday when he should have been studying. Also this is kind of a random thing but I am so glad so many of you finally updated your blogs, haha I have been dying to read some new posts lately!

25 day of Christmas... More or Less

Ok so I have a confession, my plan hasn't exactly turned out the way I was hoping. Between David's school and me working we haven't really had time to do much besides watch lots if Christmas shows/ movies and listen to Christmas music. It's a little frustrating but my main goal was to "feel" the Christmas spirit more and I have, so I'm not going to say it's failed. Not only that but after this Friday David will no longer have a HUGE anatomy test hanging over his head so that will free up lots of time.

I wanted to go to the Nutcracker, but I had to work and David was in school at 2pm and 5pm  which was the only two times they showed it here in Toledo... well kinda they had a show on Sunday too but we all know why I that doesn't work. On the radio commercial for it I found out that Toledo has one of the longest running shows in the US something like 70+ year, I thought that was cool but it would have been even cooler if I could have seen it. I haven't been to the Nutcracker in YEARS so next year we WILL be going. I'm planning it ahead of time. Oh yea, and did I mention the tickets I looked up were $47.50 EACH, ouch! That was the TIPPY TOP of my price range for *bOtH* of our tickets, haha needless to say I just totally struck out on this activity.

Another activity we were supposed to do was the interfaith nativity done by our stake. David got to go and do it, he was a shepherd or a king or something like that for the live nativity they had. I bet you can guess where I was :) if you guessed work give yourself a gold star! I'll admit I finished in time to go still but seriously when I'm done with work I'm basically done with the day haha it's sad!

BUT we did go to our ward party, haha and that TOTALLY counts!

See here is a picture of David with our friend's chillens (children) at the party, haha they were afraid of Santa so they sat in David's lap instead. Ahhh, so cute.

I keep trying to tell myself we still have a week and a half to do fun stuff, and we will be heading to Washington D.C. next week to have  Christmas with David's Aunt and Uncle! I've never been to D.C. and I'm sure there will be some fun Christmas things we can do there. Something that I am proud of myself for doing is our decorations! Here are some pictures of our decorations for Christmas.

Twinkling snowflake lights

Our nativity scene

Our pretty colored lights

Jing-a-ling-a-ling Christmas bells

Lights in our house from the outside

This is our Christmas tree before David's parents sent our presents.

This is after, Thanks Mom and Dad Warden!

Anyways these are some activities we will do once his test is over-
1. Make sugar cookies and ice them
2. Read the Christmas story
3. Hopefully we can find an ice rink to go to, I'm still working on that one.
4. Go and see some lights! There is a show being put on by a local church that has lights set up to the Transiberian (I'm pretty sure I spelled that wrong) orchestra.
5. Go to the Toledo zoo and see their lights.

I have some other ideas but we are leaving to go to D.C. towards the begining of next week, so I don't want to plan too much more than that. I'm sure our plans will change once we are in DC and at some one else house. This is me being flexible, go me!

Something to Do

This isn't reall a new concept for me but I decided to tell you guys something else that is true. Whenever I have something I should be doing, laundry, cooking, cleaning and really just about any other chore you can think of I find myself on here blogging. Haha basically anytime you read a blog that seems a bit more scatter brained or unfocused ( not that they are very far between... ) it's probably because I'm trying to write it quickly so I can finish my chores :) Like now, I should be making or starting dinner so that when I go pick up David from school it will be ready.... and I'm blogging.

Here I am un-using my time wisely so you guys can have something to read, because I have so many fans that I wouldn't want to dissapoint and I'm such a giving caring person. ANYWAYS this is the point of this blog. Look how cute our tree is not that we put it all together!

He is the best tree ever! I know you think your tree is great but this year you are wrong, don't worry though because there is always next year for you to have the best tree. I am just so excited to have a REAL tree. Also the other day I did our Christmas cards, that meant David had to help my by posing while I positioned our tripod. He just LOVES (sarcasm) getting pretty for the camera and getting his picture taken! Not only that but he's so willing to do it (more sarcasm :)

David helping with the tripod, it's a stubborn little bugger.

A cheesy little smile.

I don't know what I asked him to do in this one but I'm sure this face wasn't it, haha!

A little more cheese

This next part is his blackmail for giving me so much trouble, haha I'm already scared for when we have to try to add a baby to the picture and it's only our first Christmas... help! In the end we did get our one good picture though so I guess that's all that counts. And here are the pictures that almost made the card. I'm not going to lie there were MANY but some were a little scary, apparently David's idea of a silly face and mine are VERY different, hah!

Kissy face

Now David really does look like Kiss

This is David's"uuuhhgg are we done yet?" face, and yes, I was done.