Dec, Jan, & Feb Crafts

So...... One of my New Year's goals is to make at least one craft project a month. I recently discovered how much I love making crafts. In December I decided to start off a little easy and just make a hat for my sister-in-law Amber for Christmas. I made one for myself first to make sure I remembered how to still make hats from a loom. I bought some cute flowers to go with them. I think they turned out great!

I made Amber the one with the white flower

For my craft project for January I decided I wanted to make a Valentine's Day decoration. I found the cutest topiary HERE. It literally took me the entire day. But it was so worth it! I love this topiary with all my heart. I found the pot at Hobby Lobby. I did a few things a little different. Instead of buying a ball of the green foam and buying foam for the pot, I found topiary ones already made! I also didn't paint the dowel. I liked it unpainted.

The foam for the pot fit a little funny in the actual pot. So I put ribbon around the top and it worked out just fine! Isn't this the cutest thing you have ever seen?!?

Amber came over and made a craft as well. She made a really cute wreath.

My favorite are the doves. So adorable!

I love the Valentine's crafts so much I wanted to keep this going in February as well. I also wanted to make a wreath. There were so many options I had a hard time figuring out what type of wreath I wanted to do. I went with this... The tutorial is found HERE.

I had trouble with this one. I honestly could not find a Styrofoam heart wreath ANYWHERE! Even after various trips to multiple craft stores. So I had to improvise. I ended up purchasing a big rectangle of Styrofoam and cutting out my own heart. I do not recommend this. Once all the glue dried, it was very fragile and ended up breaking into 3 different pieces. I was super mad. I had spent a good amount of time on this wreath and I have to admit, a tear or two came rolling down my cheek. But with the hot glue gun and a little finishing spray used from my last project, I was able to fix it. It now hangs proudly on my front door. I am 75% confident it will not break again. But next time I'm going with the real stuff.

I hope I get around to making something good next month. It'll be difficult, but I can do it (I hope). And since Cory bought me a sewing machine for Christmas, the possibilities are endless! So look for my next project next month :)

Free Time!

I've always loved watching movies. When I was younger I absolutely loved going to blockbuster to pick out a movie. I got lucky if I could convince my mom to rent more than one. I had tons and tons I wanted to see. I even love collecting movies. Gray Whale is my greatest weakness. If I go in there, I almost ALWAYS have a movie in my hand if not three on the way out. The very thought of cuddling up in a blanket to watch a movie makes me happy.

It seems as though Cory has found a love similar to mine. Video games. Don't get me wrong, he's not addicted. But he loves playing his new racing game just as much as I love watching movies. This has been working out great. Of course we have our time together when we get home from work. We love each other very much. But once it hits 8 or 9 o'clock.... we gradually start doing the other things we love. So we both take our seats on our separate couches. He plays GT. And I watch Netflix. PERFECT. We set our limits. But we love it!

This week I started a new series. Desparate Housewives. My guilty pleasure. I love it. I don't know why I didn't start watching it until now. It's great.

I honestly love this time in our lives. Neither one of us are in school at the moment, so we don't have homework. Once work is through, we can just play. It's been SO fun. So for now, we are going to take advantage of every moment we have. Because this won't last long...

December Reminiscence

Over the past few weeks, I have had to say goodbye to a few things.

1.

I will never again walk these halls.

Wednesday December 15 was my last day.



2



I will never again run up and down these stairs.

The Provo Tabernacle caught fire and burned down December 17, 2010. I have many many memories here that I will cherous for a lifetime.

3.



And I will never again see him swim around.

And our dear Captain Barbossa passed away December 27, 2010. Cory gave his usual burrial words and set him in the dumpster. We are now down to two fish. 



But, we had a great Christmas. Cory got me a real tree.



We loved our tree!

It was so nice to have Christmas with just us. We started some traditions and grew closer to each other. Every day we feel more and more like a family even though it is just us two.
We had Christmas dinner with Amber and Warren. Everything turned out excellent!

New Year's was stellar. We played games with neighbors and family. We had a Meet the Parents marathon. We saw Little Fockers. We ate Rubio's and CPK. We stayed up until almost 4:00 am playing video games. We made some goals. And we snacked. A lot.

Amber made some great crab cakes.

Cheers Warren!

Bring on 2011!

Elves

We got bored. So we did this......

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/ShT7cmfayDC1lcCRXyc2

Then we did this....

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/Y2i4coznbYBEBW966yuo

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we headed down to Arizona to spend time with Momma, Tyler, Ashley, Baby Andrew, Amber, Warren, and Carissa. We had a lot of fun!

Since Andrew's birthday was two days before Thanksgiving, we had party for him.

Happy 1st Birthday Andrew!

We had lots of yummy food on Thanksgiving.

Cory and I made our delicious apple surprises

We went to the park.

Ashley got this cool shot. Isn't it awesome?!?

We got a ton of DVD's at Wal-Mart for Black Friday. We also got  amazing deals on our Christmas gifts. After Wal-Mart we went to Kohl's, Target, Old Navy, and Sports Authority. We were so tired that day!

Warren's birthday was on Black Friday so we had yummy Mexican for Warren's birthday dinner.
Saturday we had a party for Warren!

Happy Birthday Warren!

We had lots of playing with baby Andrew...

We stopped at Hoover Dam

Minus driving in the snow we had a GREAT trip. We LOVE being with our family.
On the way down we had a minor accident. So for now, we are driving this.....

It's Official!!!

As of November 2, 2010 Cory is officially accepted to Palmer College of Chiropractic!!! Hooray! We are so thrilled. We cannot wait to get started and head out to Iowa. :)     Last week, Palmer mailed Cory a hat. (as pictured) It was so random. We were not expecting it. It came in a little box with no note or letter. We had a good laugh with that.

I am so proud of Cory. He has worked hard. And pretty soon we'll be moving on to the next stage in our lives. We can't wait!  Congratulations Cory!!!

Lately...

I love fall. The smells, leaves, weather, everything. This is my favorite time of the year. I am also reminded of when Cory and I started dating. We did lots of Fall time activities. And..... Tomorrow we will have been married for a year and a half!! So, congrats to us!

So I know my birthday was over a month ago. But I got a birthday card from Benihana. So we went a few weeks ago. I have always loved Tepanyaki but Cory had never been. So we went and it rocked. Cory loved it. Unfortunately, I was getting over an infection when we went. So I couldn't enjoy this dinner as much as I would have liked to. But it was still magnificent. They took our picture! I think ALL restaurants should do this.

I look like a poor cancer patient. Cory looks like he is doing his ill friend a favor by taking them out for dinner.

 So... I checked out one of my old YW leaders blogs. Her name is Chelsea and she is super cute. She made the cutest earrings out of buttons and I just absolutely had to try it. So I did. But somehow my little craft project turned into Cory's little craft project. He told me we had to get a saw from Home Depot so he could complete this craft project. When we got home, he immediately went to work. He loved it. And I loved that he wanted to make me earrings. They turned out great! Thanks Chelsea for this fabulous idea!!!

Because I love Fall so much, I wanted to make a lot of Fall time treats. Last weekend I made these pumpkin cheesecake things with a ginger snap crust. I thought they were delicious. But Cory did not. We ended up having a small Halloweeny party last night. Me and Cory and Amber and Warren made some great stuff....

A & W's Monster Claws. (Chicken Fingers)

Cory's Halloween eyeballs ( deviled eggs)

A & W's pumpkin cake!!!

My homemade wassail. It smelled SOOO good!

And my pizza mummies. Don't laugh. They tasted good at least.

Trevor and his girlfriend Karin stopped by and made us muddy buddies! Delicious! We watched the Halloween Charlie Brown. Classic. Me and Trevor used to watch it all the time! Cory bought me a 3-pack of Charlie Browns. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. All-in-all we have had a great month. We are excited for the holidays. And we can't wait for Black Friday.