Wanna know a secret?`

We never put up our Christmas tree.

Seriously.

We kept meaning to but, we would have had to move furniture and take the tree out of the attic and you know, decorate it. In the beginning, I was able to justify it because of finals and all but... yeah, even after finals were over, it never happened.

Anyway, the other day one of my friends asked me to post pictures of my Christmas decorations. ...Yeah. About that... I guess now is the time to shamefully admit that the tree never even got put up. (We're using Mitch's parents' tree tomorrow!)

So-- here are some of the decorations I do have...




Yes, there are other decorations too but, I thought this was at least an okay sample.

And, when I made these angels, I made an extra set. So now, I offer my first giveaway. I know, I should have done it weeks ago so that you could enjoy them all month but, instead, you'll have a whole year to forget about them and then when you pull them out next year, you'll re-love them all over again!

Comment on this post by Sunday night (December 28th) and you'll be entered to win the set of two angels. And, lucky for you, not that many people read our blog so you have a good chance! (Besides, I don't know how many people will be checking blogs between now and Sunday. Lots of people are out of town.) The winner will be chosen at random on Monday morning (so that if I need to mail them, I'll have time before we leave for California).

Christmas Eve -- A Non-cat Post!

We started our Christmas Eve with breakfast and some last minute wrapping, then went up to South Jordan to see Emily and Jeff (and Paley).

We originally got Mitch's camera out because Brent (Brett?), Em's fiance's brother, was balancing an icicle on his chin.


And then we decided we needed a picture of Em and I.


We probably look cold here. It's because we are.

After playing with Em and Jeff, we met up with Mitch's family for dinner. One of his family's traditions is going out to dinner on Christmas Eve (since my mother-in-law doesn't like cooking/cleaning on Christmas Eve).

Here are Mitch's parents with our niece and nephews.


I got Mitch to take a picture of his brother, Travis, for us. See, Travis has this girlfriend and well, we don't see him as often anymore. This way, I can remember what he looks like.


Here's our nephew, Kaiden, being a dinosaur...


and my father-in-law with Maddox...


And now we're home, watching a Christmas movie and relaxing before we go back for more tomorrow.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Christmas Party!

A couple weeks ago we went to our married ward Christmas party. Since we don't get to see them as often as we used to, it was fun to catch up.

And, Santa was there!!!


Also, in one room, they had a photographer taking pictures so, here's our nice little Christmas picture and proof that our married ward still loves us.

IT'S BACK!!!

MY LITTLE COMPUTER IS BACK!!!

I know that was kind of anti-climactic for some of you. I just blogged yesterday about my computer being gone and now it's back today.

I LOVE HP.

So. My computer met its untimely demise Wednesday night. We called HP that night. HP overnighted a box and label for my poor little computer and we got it Friday. I mailed it Saturday afternoon. They got it Monday. And I got it Tuesday!!!

Actually, it was kind of funny. We have so many packages coming this time of year, we honestly can't keep track of what we have received and what we have yet to receive. So, there was a FedEx door tag on our door when I got home from work yesterday. Mitch and I figured it was just another Christmas present one of us had ordered. Rather than letting FedEx try again today (when we'd both be gone again), I went to FedEx to pick it up.

When I got there, the FedEx people were frazzled. While I was waiting, one lady noticed there was a package sitting on top of the trash. "What is this doing here?" she called. "It's my fault," another lady answered from the back room. "I put it there." The first lady looked at me and joked, "We throw away laptops all the time." I smiled. "Glad I'm not getting a laptop." And then, next thing I know, out comes the person that was getting my package with an HP box! "Thought you weren't getting a laptop?" the lady asked. I didn't think I was!!! At first I thought maybe I'd shipped it to us by mistake when I'd sent it Saturday. No, I remembered checking the label. And I'd tracked it and I knew it was in Texas. So then I called M. I thought maybe he'd just bought a new one since he'd known how sad I was that it was broken and we weren't sure if HP would even cover the damage. Nope, he hadn't. That meant it had to be HP sending it back! Sure enough, they had! That quickly! It's MY laptop, it's FIXED, and it's BACK!!! I'm impressed.

And, since M loves his camera and all he really can take pictures of are the cats, here is another cat picture.


(Actually, did you know I don't really like posting cat pictures? It kind of makes me feel like all we care about are our cats. And that's weird. But the only other pictures I have to post right now are pictures of Christmas presents that people haven't opened yet and a surprise thing we did to our house but haven't finished yet.)

Updates coming...

I have a plethora of things to post but, I'll try to post them gradually so that it's not overwhelming. First, more pictures from Mitch's new camera. (Again, this is about the camera, not the cats.)



Also, it should be noted that it's not that I haven't wanted to blog lately, it's that my poor little computer had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day last week and it is now in Texas (hopefully) being repaired.

December Crafting! and Mitch's New Camera.

Item #1: Winter blocks.


Hooray for making my last set of blocks! (Except, now that I've got a better system down for making them, I'm tempted to redo my Summer ones. We'll see how I like them when I pull them out again.)

I also finished this Christmas star thing I was painting.


Item #2: Mitch's new camera.

And then, Mitch came home from his guys night and opened his new, fancy camera. He didn't even take of his jacket before he opened the box and started putting it together. He was really excited. He took the picture of my blocks first and then proceeded to take about nine hundred shots of the cats. They were pretty good sports on the beginning but, eventually Alley kind of got tired of being told where to look.


My, what attractive felines! (But this post is not about our cats, it's about Mitch's new camera that he's so excited about.) Black cats are harder to photograph, by the way.

And I'm sure we'll have a million more pictures of everything now. We'll try to slip in a few pictures from our camera phones every now and then though so that you know it's still us.

Jessica gets up even earlier than last time.

There's only one store that I would wake up early for...

And only one thing there that would convince me to brave Black Friday.


(And while I was there I figured I might as well get some other stuff...)

I'm never really sure what time the other crazy women are going to get to Roberts so, I always make sure I get there even earlier. This morning I was up at 3:30 and outside Roberts by 4:00. I was the first person there. {beams} But, other people consistently showed up after I did. We all stayed in our cars (thannnk you) until about 5:00 when some lady dropped her husband off. Once one person was waiting outside, other people decided we should all wait outside. {sigh} At least I was prepared for the cold.

And, I got my Cricut.


(And, instead of paying the Robert's price, I got them to match Jo-Ann's price and saved even more. I'm good.)

Crafting is going to get so much better.

(Also, I would like to let everyone know, for someone that has been up since 3:30 this morning and didn't go back to bed, I have gotten so much done today.)

(Also, I've been debating for a solid three months over whether to get the little Cricut or the Expression. Back and forth, back and forth. Finally, I decided to just go with the little one. And even then, I wasn't sure of my decision--I was just out of time to decide. But I ended up being really happy with my decision. Well, until my sister, Tracy, text me to say that she had just bought the Expression. Heyyyyy... And I was semi-irritated. I know, I made my decision before she even bought hers. And I could have bought the Expression. I chose. But heyyyyy... And then I realized, Wait a second. I might need the Expression once or twice but most of the time I'll be good with the little Cricut. That's why I bought it. So, by her buying the Expression, I can get her to cut the big things I need, if I need, and I was the one that saved $100+. Great. And it was a fantastic buy, Tracy.)

Mitch and Jessica celebrate their first House-iversary!

One year ago today, Mitch and I bought our house. It's so weird to think that we've lived in this house for an entire year. (And that we still haven't painted the downstairs bathroom. Hmmm...)

I meant to get pictures but, we just posted pictures of our house on Veteran's Day and it's the same since then. And then I meant to get pictures of us celebrating but, well, I forgot. I can tell about our celebrating though. The day we moved in, we went to EZ Take Out Burger while we were moving (just because). And so, since they're out of business and In-N-Out is in business, we went to In-N-Out.

Mitch and Jessica do not relax on Saturday.

Instead, Mitch and Jessica are busy all day long. Just like every other day, actually.

We went to the Clark Planetarium for a project of mine today. Before we even went in, I had the "we don't need to enjoy this, we just need to take pictures" talk with Mitch. Then, not even 15 minutes into it he was enjoying it and forgetting to take pictures. Mitch likes museums. A lot.


Later we went grocery shopping. Some lady at the grocery store told me that I had the neatest list she had ever seen. I beamed. And we bought our turkey! (I affectionately named him Max.) (Ah, yes. And that brings up the fact that we decided not to go to California for Thanksgiving. We're stickin' around here.)

And yeah. Then we did more things.

P.S. We're actually going to go look at new cameras tonight.

Cafe Rio!

We're on week three of field this semester and so far, we're all surviving. We even managed to sneak away from our homework for a few minutes last night to get together (with all the husbands too!) at Cafe Rio.


It was like therapy being able to talk and laugh with people that are just as stressed as I am right now. We had a great time telling stories about kids crying during our (okay, my) lessons, professors that don't know what they want, and where we're going on vacation after next semester's field.

*This picture was taken by the Cafe Rio employee and Mitch's Blackberry. This is quality work right here, my friends.
**By the way, this doesn't deserve it's own post but, I noticed the other day that I have three unread months of the one magazine I subscribe to. October, November, and December--ever since school started. September's came mid-August, before school started. I couldn't help but laugh.