Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree!

So I have finished getting most of our Christmas decorations up and I’m LOVING it! I absolutely love our home and it just feels so cozy and we love being there. I get so sad when it’s time for bed and I know I won’t be able to be home again until the next night! I have been crazily working on crafts and decorating so I just feel like I don’t have enough time! I wish I didn’t have to work and I could just enjoy my house and decorate it and have enough money to buy all the things I want for it!!! Ahahahahhhaaaaa! We can all dream right?

So here are some pictures of the holiday decor I have been putting up around the house! I still have a few projects in the works but for the most part it’s done and we can enjoy it!

I saw this on another blog but I hung glittery NOEL ornaments on our lamps on our end tables. The wreath on the right I made! That’s right, I made it myself! I am so proud and I just got a cheap garlandy wreath on Black Friday for $2 and a bunch of poinsettas, berries, pinecones and other stuff and I stuck it all in and it looks great! It’s hanging on our door to the backyard.

Here is our family room with the tree and entertainment center and my pretty nativity that I got last year! The red wall looks a lot brighter than it actually is. I like it with the Christmas stuff, but it’s really not that bright red I promise! And I have a sweet picture I got on sale that matches all the colors really well. I forgot to take a pic :).

The tree is on a box and I covered the box with burlap, sparkly red and gold fabric and a garland (to hide the stem).

The Christmas tree has been a work in progress. It is just a cheap little guy we got last year, but I think I was able to dress it up. I looked everywhere but couldn’t find about half of my ornaments after we moved! It drove me nuts, but I ended up doing some other things that I liked better. Then I found the ornaments at my parents house and added some of them and now it looks perfect! I love the classic red and gold. I want to get more trees and do different themes in the future!

With and without the flash on :)

My willow tree nativity from my mom last year!

These are some more crafts I’ve done. The JOY is just hanging on our front door for now but I made it out of pizza boxes mod podged in Christmas paper! Pretty cute and basically free!

These ornament wreaths are all over the crafty blogs I read and I made them and LOVE them! You just have to get a lot of shatterproof ornaments (hobby lobby, dollar stores, walmart) and hot glue the tops of the ornaments on. Then string them around a coat hanger! Read Eddie Ross’s tutorial for more info. These are hanging on our french doors to the living room.

Here is our staircase in the entry way. The paint looks awesome by the way! We have a darker wall on the left entry way and one wall upstairs and one wall in the family room. It’s hard to explain but I love it and love Brighton for helping me do it! I had to hang some mistletoe from the staircase and I think it’s so cute! I have garland with gold ribbon and red bows on the staircase.

And finally my cutie cute cute nieces on Sunday for Sunday dinner. They just love to cuddle with me and talk to me and I can’t get enough of it! I hope I love my own kids as much as I love these sweethearts! They make my day every time I see them!

Happenings

Well I finally got some pictures from the past few weeks. We've just been getting the house ready to move into and we got moved in and now we're finishing unpacking, then the fun can begin! I will start decorating! Woo hoo! Mike was at the top of a super tall ladder painting the tip top of our super tall walls in the entry way!

Everyone helped out and we got the entire main floor and upstairs hallway painted!

Me cleaning the laundry room and the spanking clean microwave! It was pretty sick before.

Dan cleaning out the garage! We LOVE our garage!

After another long night getting the house ready.

Painting is my nemesis! I suck at getting edges and I'm so impatient! I have started going around all my edges and corners where different colors touch with a really tiny brush to try to make them look good! It's a never ending battle!

Here are the mouse pictures I promised....brace yourself haha. We found out we have a mouse problem but I think we've figured it out! We caught about 8 or so mice in just a few days! The first one dan killed while we were cleaning the house and the rest have been caught in the good old fashioned traps. Dan sealed up a bunch of holes outside the house and under cabinets and behind the stove. We think that's where they were coming from and we haven't had any for the past few days so cross your fingers!

Yucka. I just had to take a pic and post it! :) On a totally different note, I made my first official craft. I've become completely obsessed with all these great thrifty and crafty blogs! There are so many cool ideas and I can't wait to start working on things! Before we moved, I started small and I just made this! I think it's really cute and I have a few other ideas for something similar for Christmas. It's just a fleur de lis cut out (really carefully) on scrapbook paper, modge podged to a painted canvas and hung with a ribbon! Cuties!

Dan finally cut his hair! It was really out of control and even though I absolutely loved his curls, he was way overdue for a trim! So his mom chopped it all up and cleaned him up beautifully. He now looks like the man I married, what a hunk. See the pic of Dan and the mouse above for the after shots.

Painting, painting, and more painting....

Isn't he cute? Hahahahahaha I love that afro.

Thankfulness & Tragedy

Well this another post without pics (sorry). But we got all moved in and somewhat settled thanks to our GREAT family! They are awesome and helped get us moved quickly. Now we just have unpacking to do! But so far we love our house except for the mice...more to come on that later. Hopefully we got it figured out but we'll see! Eeek!

The tragedy that has struck is that my little ford focus has reached the end of its life. This is tragic for many reasons. Most of all because we have to buy a new car (unless someone has one to donate?? :) We just bought a house, and this is extremely unfortunate timing for us, but oh well....you just gotta roll with the punches. And there are a lot of blessings to come from this difficulty. Dan just got a new job with Backyards Inc. so no more 5 buck pizza yay! I love him for working pizza when he hated it, but I'm so glad he found something better and now he will work more and get paid more so that is a great blessing!

My awesome parents are letting us borrow their trusty old accord (that I drove in high school) for now and I love them for that. We wouldn't know what to do if we didn't have that car right now! So for now we're still debating our options and reviewing our finances (not a whole lot to review but ya know...). We knew this would happen soon enough, so I'm sure things will work out and everything will be fine. We are grateful for the support of our friends and family and I'm especially grateful for our wonderful families right now. They have done so much to help and I love having them close and being able to see family all the time. It's a great blessing and I'm so grateful for them!

The best part about dealing with something like this is that I don't have to do it alone. I've thought that many times over the time that Dan and I have been together and I am so thankful for him in my life. It's such a great feeling to know that he is by my side and we're in this together. I love him and I have so many things to be thankful for in my life right now!

We're moving!

So things are super duper busy right now! Our apartment looks like a tornado blew through. It is a disaster because we have been so busy getting the house ready to move in to! On top of everything, I have been battling a yucky cold! I'm finally better (1 week later), but luckily it wasn't the swine flu! Friday Dan and Mike worked on prepping the house for paint, then they painted all the ceilings. I came over later Friday and helped sand. I basically had to sand every single wall that we were going to paint because the old owners had used some crappy paint and there were bumps everywhere! It was nuts.

Saturday we got up bright and early and Dan's great family came over and helped us paint ALL DAY LONG! I didn't realize what a huge task that was, but we got so much done with their help! I had chosen 4 different colors so that definitely made things harder, but everyone was a trooper and helped a ton. We have really super tall ceilings in the entry way and stairs so Mike was balancing precariously on a ladder trying to paint! I have pictures, but I haven't had time to upload them yet.

We worked all day and all evening Saturday and were able to get all the walls painted. Dan and I went to our new ward Sunday and we're really excited about it! I think it's going to be GREAT! This week Dan and I have been going to the house every night to finish painting trim, doors, and CLEAN! We're getting the carpets cleaned today and our our fridge and new furniture delivered on Friday! Then Saturday is the big moving day! Woo hoo!

Story: So while Dan and Mike were at the house Friday, they saw 2 mice! Or maybe the same one twice! So we got mouse traps, but so far we've seen nothing. Then last night I was vacuuming the stairs and I saw something our of the corner of my eye move at the top of the stairs! I looked around the stairs and the mouse was running up the stairs! AHHH! I screamed and Dan came running with a painting bar in his hand! He cornered the mouse in the linen closet, but then it ran into a bedroom. Since there is no furniture or anywhere to hide, Dan was able to corner it and then as it tried to run by him, he used the bar to let loose his best golf swing and I saw the mouse go flying! I screamed again and ran into the next bedroom while still screaming and jumping around and letting loose a few choice words. (I don't know why I act like such a girl!) Dan quickly covered the mouse with the sticky mouse trap and that was the end of that! Very entertaining, but I'm just praying it was a one time thing and that we don't have a mouse problem! I'll post the triumphant pictures later.

We still have a lot of work to do to get the house ready but some things will just take time and they will come as we move! Thanks to everyone who helped paint the house-you guys are amazing and we really appreciate you all jumping to come help us out! We couldn't have done it without you!

SYTYCD

Dan and I got tickets to go to the So You Think You Can Dance Tour several months ago. I have been able to go to the concert the last 3 years and I love it every year! We went with Dustin and Kaley and we had a blast.
At the show. For some reason I didn't take any pictures of the actual dancers. Probably because I was enjoying it so much! They did all or most of my favorite dances and I loved it!

This is yet another one of Dan's cute little hair styles he busts out for me every night. I helped me with the pony tail, but I was laughing so hard I thought I would lose it. He hasn't cut his hair forever, and even though I love his cute curls, I'm definitely ready for him to get a trim! Hopefully soon!
Last but not least, we closed on the house last night! Woo hoo! We get the keys tomorrow and then the real fun begins! This whole home buying process has been so stressful and crazy and the last few weeks have especially been hard. But it will all be worth it I'm sure, and we can't wait to move into our new house! We're going to paint Friday and Saturday then move in throughout the week and be all settled by next weekend! We can't wait!!

Fun Fall Festivities

So this fall has been really great. I've loved not being in school and having more time to do things I enjoy and not stress over school so much. Dan has been working really hard to do well in school and we have been having a good time. I love the fall weather and we have a great park right by our apartment that we walk and run at a lot. We went over there on a Sunday afternoon a few weeks ago and had lunch and enjoyed the gorgeous weather and colors.Dan is really funny and this was after our walk, on the way home.

Pretty leaves!

I love fall so much I'm leaping with joy!

This is a little weird...I was walking at the park one day awhile ago and I saw this big group of people dressed up in medieval-type clothes and they were battling each other with padded swords, shields and bow and arrows! It was so crazy, but I didn't have my camera! When we had lunch at the park awhile later, I saw this poster! Sweeeeet.

I went with Shelley and her sister Haley and her girls to the Witches Night Out at Gardner Village. It was the first time for all of us and we had tons of fun. We didn't really go all out, but we definitely want to next year! So many women were there and the atmosphere was just really fun. Afterards, we went and made caramel apples with heath bars! So yummy!

Me and Laney.

We also went up to Logan to visit Shell and Brian and Thad! I love this sweet little boy!