House in the winter

Over President's Day weekend, Joe and I headed up to our house. It was a busy, busy weekend of painting and putting together our bedroom. It's not done yet. We are adding a chair and a small bookcase and a few other things, but it is starting to feel more complete.

We had picked out a paint color and even bought a sample of it, but when we opened the big cans, it looked slightly different. The color ended up being slightly lighter than the sample had been, more of a caramel latte than the coffee color we had picked, but we really like it. It makes the room warm.

Here are a couple of before pictures. It is not possible to get a picture of the whole room because of the way it is arranged:



The walls were the same color as the closet doors and the trim:



Here is my attempt of showing the new paint color:



Curtains- Both of them will be tied back with these tassels, but somehow we only bought one hook so we'll fix that next time:



Headboard, bedspread, and picture. We're not sure if that table will stay there or not (the bedspread looks a little funny because it is a queen on a full. We'll get a queen someday though!):



Picture close up:



Snowy winter house:

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day this year was wonderfully lovely. It started out with french toast and sausage for breakfast. After breakfast, Joe and I exchanged gifts. Joe got me a beautiful watch- a Bulova with diamonds and hearts and an awesome "skeleton" part that shows the inside of the watch working. And, it doesn't use a battery so I can't break it with my weird electricity. I got Joe a video game he had been wanting. Joe came home from school with roses and we both got chocolates.

For dinner, we headed to Thaifoon at Gateway. Traffic was terrible and it took us 40 minutes to make a 10 minute drive. Luckily, we had called in earlier and they saved a table for us so we were able to get right in. They had a drink special for Valentine's Day that was vodka, strawberries, and ginger. It was so yummy. (I had to get 2!) We had some appetizers and excellent entrees and creme brulee for dessert. Creme brulee is my very favorite. We watched a movie when we got home. I love Valentine's Day.


gifts


dressed for dinner


my watch :)

Go fast!

Graduation Trip

I posted a while ago that Joe and I were planning a Mexican cruise to celebrate both of our May graduations. Now that we're both into our last semesters, I have been spending a lot of time planning our vacation. This trip is going to be big- 10 days, which will make it my longest vacation so far. The plan is to leave early on a Friday morning and drive all the way to California. We will sleep and spend the whole next day in.......Disneyland! Disneyland was a later addition to the trip, but since we are driving and will be in the area, we decided Disneyland would make the trip even better. I haven't been there since I was 9 and I'm really excited to go with Joe.

The next day, we'll board our cruise! We'll spend time exploring the ship, eating, and lounging by the pool. They always have a "deck party" and special drink while the cruise leaves port. We haven't 100% decided on excursions, but we'll probably do a snorkel one in Cabo and do a sunset horseback ride/bbq in Puerto Vallarta.

And then we'll come home and move. It's going to be a busy few weeks!

Swimming!

A few days after Christmas, Joe and I met my mom, Ethan, Jessica, and James at an awesome swimming pool. Ethan suggested that we bring one of the waterproof cameras that we got on Black Friday. It was a great idea because we got to test out the camera before our cruise in May and it was a lot of fun taking pictures at the pool. I have a whole bunch, but here are a few of my favorites:










I couldn't open my eyes because of my contacts

Christmas Day

On Christmas Day, we woke up at 7:30. The kids got their stockings/gifts first. The cats got a laser pointer, toy mice, a feather toy, some snacks, and a couple other little things. The dog got a "lobster dinner" of chew toys and some treats.



Then Joe and I opened our stockings from each other. I got Joe a bunch of fun little things like play doh, legos, and a 20 questions game. He got me a movie I wanted, U earrings, a stuffed hamster, and an UNO game.



On to the gifts under the tree! Our midnight presents had been a U hoodie for Joe and an adorable woolen doll for me. Christmas morning, Joe opened his Mets watch and I got a sapphire bracelet, a back massager, and an aromatherapy pillow.


Our tree


Lit up


Christmas morning chaos

After Christmas morning at our house, we headed to my parents house. We walked in to a huge pile of gifts under the tree and full stockings. Ethan, Jessica, and James came over and opened stockings and gifts before having our annual breakfast of Christmas casserole, fruit, and croissants.

I got many wonderful gifts. I got a foot spa, a gift certificate for a pedicure, nail polish (see the theme?), perfume, some Harry Potter cookbooks, the AG snowcone stand, Glee karaoke revolution for wii, a red toaster, cookie cutters (from Joe's mom) and some other fun things.



Joe got a really nice acoustic guitar, a sweater, and some Nightmare before Christmas figures.



We also got a date night from Ethan and Jessica which included a gift card for dinner at a great restaurant, a gift card for dessert, and a gorgeous lantern for our new house.

We lounged for the rest of the day playing with our new things and then Ethan, Jessica, and James came back over for Christmas dinner of ham, salads, and rolls. I tried to make my eggnog cheesecake again, but it didn't work out as well.

Great Christmases this year. I was sad to have them all end.

Christmas 1 and Christmas Eve

This year Christmas was extra special because Joe and I got to have two complete Christmas days. Joe's family came to visit Utah the week before Christmas and we had a lot of fun. Joe's sister, mom, and I had luxurious pedicures and I got a silver gel manicure on my fingernails. We had a tasty "Christmas Eve" dinner of Osso Buco and eggnog for dessert. The next morning, Joe's brother and his wife had arrived and Christmas 1 began. I wish I had remembered my camera that morning because the tree and the presents were so wonderful and I didn't get any pictures of present opening.

Joe and I got very spoiled. I got the Keurig coffee maker I had been wanting, some beautiful gloves, socks, a scarf, 2 cookbooks, and more. Joe got an electric razor, a new TV, and lots of books. There were also some really fun stocking stuffers.

We had breakfast of eggs, waffles, and orange juice. The rest of the day was spent playing games and lounging around watching football. Dinner was squash soup, lamb, salmon, sweet potatoes, asparagus. We drank champagne and opened a Hanukkah gift: Joe's mom had donated in all of our names to help kids get medical care. It was so thoughtful :) For dessert, Joe and I made eggnog cheesecake. It was a wonderful day.


Christmas Tree


Joe's sister and her dog, Edward


Joe's brother and sister-in-law


Eggnog Cheesecake

On Christmas Eve, Joe and I stuck with our tradition of a fancy fish dinner. We had Crab stuffed mushrooms, squash salad with spinach and pine nuts, pasta salad with crab and peas in a sour cream sauce, lobster pot pie, and cherry cobbler. We watched It's a Wonderful Life and each opened one gift at midnight. I love our Christmas Eve traditions.


This was so good!


Yummy dinner