on the 17th day of Christmas....

My hard working hubby came home to his wife dancing around in the kitchen, singing to old school music and cooking up a storm. Yesterday was just one of those days when cooking was so much more than preparation for a meal, it was a way to relax and exercise my creative skills in the kitchen.

Here was our menu:

creamy mashed potatoes

buttered mixed veggies

ground turkey chipotle meatballs

mushroom onion gravy

on the 16th day of Christmas....

After helping out some of our friends {and new home owners} with their redecorating projects, my hubby and I took a little drive to look at the twinkle lights. It really is a magical time of year!!

on the 15th day of Christmas....

It's one of the classics, a feel good cozy movie that makes you feel at home the second you hear the music. This season I have been without my seasonal normality since all of my other Christmas holidays have been spent with my family. This year I have been without my traditional Christmas movies until the other night when White Christmas graced us with it's presence. I was so overly excited I even put a sticky note on the TV to remind myself.

Since Brian and I have been so busy this year, we haven't done too much Christmas shipping together. Mostly our version of Christmas shopping has included lounging on the couch with a glass of wine, scrolling through amazon.com.

Most of the shopping we have done has been done apart {me going to the mall & B stopping by a few stores between his appointments}. It seems like the ideal time to go Christmas shopping is on the weekend, and who wants to leave their warm apartment, go out into the cold with about a jillion {it's a real work guys} other people, drive at least 30 minutes, and try to battle the crowds. So for that reason I have been doing a few DIY projects for Christmas pressents. There will be much more on that in a later post.

Happy Christmas shopping!

on the 14th day of Christmas....

As I hinted to before, Brian & I went on a mini-Christmas-birthday-getaway to downtown Minneapolis with a group of 10 of our friends. We were celebrating 3 lovely ladies birthdays with a dinner out and Christmas comedy show. I unfortunately didn't snap any pictures last night but happened to grab a few today. It was such a fun way to relax and treat ourselves to a weekend getaway.

You know you are on vacation when you can enjoy champagne with breakfast.

on the 13th day of Christmas....

We have been in the midst of some pretty crazy days around here so, sad to say our advent calendar has become a little delayed. We will catch up I promise, but right now we are in the midst of buying a new car, going on all sorts of interviews, taking a mini-Christmas-birthday-getaway, snow storms, driving all over the cities, Christmas shopping...

If you took one peek into our hall closet you would instantly see that I have a love obsession for candles.

I love how they remind you of the crisp holiday weather.
I love how they fill your home with an aroma of blended smells.
I love how they illuminate your home with a romantic feel.

This candle {Fresh Balsam} is an invigorating aroma of fresh balsam trees on a clear winter morning that features crisp eucalyptus, fir needles & ceder wood musk notes.

winter wonderland

This is the type of weekend that you remember, because we had the type of snow storm that you never forget. While it wasn't the biggest snow storm I have experienced, it was the first storm of the season and the 1st of our married lives. We had no choice but to be hermits for the day, bundle up with a few tv episodes, enjoy a few football games, make Christmas cookies, and sip on our homemade chicken tortellini soup.

This is the snow storm that blocks out your windows with snow drifts. It's the day where your normal commute to work takes 1 1/2 hours instead of 40 minutes.

It's the type of day when you can't help but look outside every chance you get and be filled with Christmas joy.

It's the type of storm you take a ruler out to measure it. Well, I happened to remember that once I stepped into the snow drifts and didn't fancy traipsing back upstairs to measure it. I thought of another way to measure it by tracking the wet marks on my boots.

This is the type of storm that makes your go out and get a new shovel because they ice scraper for your car just won't cut it to dig your car out of the snow.

This is the type of weather that makes me thankful I live in a state with 4 ever changing seasons.

on the 10th day of Christmas....

Life hasn't really allowed us to just sit back and relax with a book since our honeymoon. It seems like there are always more important things to get done, and even though I am currently unemployed it seems like job searching is a full time job. So, while there hasn't really been time to read a good book, Brian and I still manage to find time in his busy day to cuddle on our bed and read our Christmas devotion for the day with a cup of steamy tea.

on the 9th day of Christmas....

Today was the perfect day for baking some Christmas joy. We made cream cheese sugar cookies and decorated them with some necessarily Christmas sprinkles. Another reason why I love the holidays, everything has a theme and I don't even feel guilty for delighting in these wonderful treats.

It was also the perfect afternoon to send an e-mail to each of our grandparents and see how they are spending their Sunday afternoon.

I know at least for my grandparents out in California, they certainly aren't having the crazy weather that we are having here. So far we have 10 inches of snow, but it is still falling. I can't wait to slip on my boots, bundle up in a scarf and mittens and capture some pictures of our snow covered atmosphere tomorrow. It makes this time of year oh so much more magical.

on the 8th day of Christmas....

Yesterday Brian and I spent the day with 2 adorable little kiddos. I have been babysitting them ever since little Emma was only 3 months old and now she is 6, and Ethan almost 4. Wow that makes me feel old. I even got called mom a few times by other parents or even the kiddos themselves by accident.

We spent the day at the Mall of America loosing our stomachs on rides, picking out a little treat to take home, playing at lego land, walking through the crowded shops, giggling at the arcade games. Even in the craziness we still were able to complete our activity for the day. Brian & I tried a new restaurant in the mall and while it was considered "fast food" it tasted far from that.

We had some yummy Mexican tacos, chips & salsa, and chicken quesadilla from Baja Sol. So while this picture doesn't show our food, I figured a picture of "our kids for the day" would be much more fun to see.

Two things we did realized from yesterday 1) the mall of america is a crazy place to visit a few weeks before Christmas especially with kids and 2) while we were exhausted by the end of the day, having kids will be an amazing adventure.

fill in the blank friday {Christmas version}

Last Friday was a crazy one and I was unable to get to fill in the blanks on Friday. Doubly sad since it was a Christmas version. I always feel silly doing them a day late or doing them the next Friday when there is a new batch of blanks, but this week Lauren over on the little things we do has a sick little lady {her adorable daughter Fern}so there are no new fill in the blanks from her this week. So it just happens to work out that I will be able to do last weeks Christmasy blanks after all!

1.  The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear. I tried to think of something else but Elf's voice just kept running over and over in my head and nothing else would do.

2.  The holiday season is my favorite time of year. I hear so many people talking about getting stressed but 

3.  When is comes to holiday decorating I start as early as possible. I know for a fact that it we didn't have Thanksgiving I would go out and buy a Christmas as soon as Halloween was over! I tend to stick to classy more muted versions of the Christmas colors instead of the crazy bright colors.

4.  The thing I look forward to most about the holidays is our time as a family. There is nothing better than coming home after the Christmas Eve concert to run upstairs and change into the new set of PJs my mom bought us, opening up presents with all sorts of yummy treats, waking up on Christmas morning to the smell of cinnamon buns baking, opening out stockings with family.... In the end it all adds up to spending time with family. Being surrounded by family around the holidays is the best place to be.

5.  My favorite holiday tradition is opening our Christmas present in our PJs, eating lots of really unhealthy snacks, {and for those of you in my family} throwing the wrapping paper all over the room and modeling our new present just like Grandpa does ;)

6.  This year my Christmas plans include having an early celebration with my parents before they jet off to California. We are spending Christmas Eve with B's family after the Christmas Eve childrens concert. Christmas morning will consist of Brian & I along with my parents pup and kitty. My sister will join us for opening stockings and cinnamon buns, still in our PJs of course. We will get to spend the rest of the day with B's family in celebration.

7.  My favorite holiday food is homemade Christmas cookies. They come in so many varieties, and while they are not good for the figure and I secretly hope I won't get any as gifts, I think they are one of the most thoughtful gifts. It takes so much time and effort to make a "simple" platter of 1/2 a dozen types of cookies. Plus they just look so cute and festive!

P.S. We won't be able to accomplish today's Christmas activity, but don't worry we will do it another day.

on the 6th day of Christmas....

Today as you know is December 6th, also known as St. Nicholas Day. We all know of our version of St. Nick as the chubby grandpa man in a fuzzy red suite squeezing down the chimney to deliver presents to little boys & girls.

The activity for today is read the true story of St. Nicholas. So tonight while my hubby made dinner {which is rare around here since he is always working so hard, but today he had the day off} I read while he cooked. I found the 'true' story of St. Nicholas here along with the picture above. I will share with you my favorite excerpt of the story.

"One story tells of a poor man with three daughters. In those days a young woman's father had to offer prospective husbands something of value, a dowry. The larger the dowry, the better the chance that a young woman would find a good husband. Without a dowry, a woman was unlikely to marry. This poor man's daughters, without dowries, were therefore destined to be sold into slavery. Mysteriously, on three different occasions, a bag of gold appeared in their home-providing the needed dowries. The bags of gold, tossed through an open window, are said to have landed in stockings or shoes left before the fire to dry.

This led to the custom of children hanging stockings or putting out shoes, eagerly awaiting gifts from Saint Nicholas. Sometimes the story is told with gold balls instead of bags of gold. That is why three gold balls, sometimes represented as oranges, are one of the symbols for St. Nicholas. And so St. Nicholas is a gift-giver."

And suddenly the picture of oranges in stockings all makes sense!

on the 5th day of Christmas....

photo credit: here

When it comes to Christmas music I will listen to just about anything. I start my Christmas music listening a little early, and listen to it whenever I can. Brian is probably getting a little tired of my music preference and he's only home for a few hours a day, but tis the season.

As of late I have been obsessed with an artist named Charity Vance. She isn't a huge star {yet} but has one of the most amazing voices I have heard in a long time. So far she has only done 1 Christmas song and you can find that here.

It's one of my all time favorite Christmas songs, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.

on the 4th day of Christmas....

My hard working hubby got home last night to a candle lit dinner of salad with grape tomatoes, sliced red onion, and shredded sharp cheese. I also made 3 cheese spinach ravioli in a garlic tomato cream sauce.

We turned on a little music and had a relaxing candle lit evening after his exhausting day. 

on the 3rd day of Christmas....

Christmas cards are made and with a few wedding pictures they will be off in the mail. It's so exciting to be sending off our first {very small} batch of homemade married Christmas cards.

Hope the start to your Christmas season has been as holly jolly as ours has been!

on the 2nd day of Christmas....

Nothing says Christmas spirit like sipping a on a hot cup of jo to start out your day. My hubby and I headed to Starbucks after church and enjoyed a wonderful start to our day. I had a gingerbread latte and Brian a vanilla latte.

Just a suggestion for those who don't like coffee, try the peppermint hot chocolate or hot chocolate with a shot of hazelnut. It's like Christmas in a cup!!

on the 1st day of Christmas....

I have been searching on one of my favorite websites {etsy.com} for weeks, looking at Christmas gifts, inspiration for Christmas decor, birthday gifts, craft ideas and found something totally inspiring. Christmas decor is all over the place on this site and I really wanted to make something for Brian and my mom as a early Christmas gift/thank you for all of their help with our wedding. I love making decor that is not only cute but practical, so I decided on an advent calendar made with a cupcake tin . How fun is that?

So after a festive trip to the craft store, I got to work on the calendars and came up with these. I snapped a quick shot of the one I made for my mom, which is below, and good thing I did. Just to keep it real I will let you know that in 2 attempts to finish Brian and my advent calendar, I bought the wrote magnets to adhere to the paper...twice.

How does that even happen?

You might ask, why didn't I just run back out to the store, well the store is now 35 minutes away from our house so I couldn't just run back out and waist the gas. So ours will have to wait to be completed till tomorrow.

Every day leading up to Christmas I will be sharing with you what is in our advent calendar. For each day there is a slip of paper with an activity we will do to get more in the Christmas spirit! Now if we are not able to complete the activity for that day, I will put the slip of paper in a little Christmas tin and we will do it on a different day, but mark my words, we will do every one!! So there might be a day when I don't share what the activity was, but I will share it eventually.

On the 1st day of Christmas the activity was....

it's Christmas tree time

And just like that, it's Christmas time already. It feels like it was just yesterday that fall was creeping up on us, and now there is snow on the ground. Granted the snow only lasts a few days, but while it sticks we enjoy it. Lets just say that there probably won't be any snowmen made any time soon.

On Sunday we took a trip to a local tree farm to pick out our very own Christmas tree. This adorable tree farm also included a visit from Mr. & Mrs. Clause, hot apple cider, a wagon ride to the different types of trees, and help to trim & tie your tree. After a quick time-consuming but fun trip to target, we picked out some Christmas decor, lights, tree topper, tree stand, stockings and a matching tree skirt.

We can't wait to fill the bottom of the tree with presents, but as you can see I already got a jump on that! I just couldn't resist!

wedding advice

Here is some advice from me and my new hubby:

-listen to other people's advice {I know that's a funny one to put first, but at times the advice that others gave me really helped}

-get as many projects done before the last week or two before the wedding because there will be plenty to do the last 2 weeks

-write down specific pictures that you want taken for your photographer, because when the day comes you will not remember any of them

-have fun {hence the picture above} because the day flies by

-take lots of time to spend with your fiance before the wedding because when the day comes, it's a whirl wind

-make sure you inform everyone who is close to you what is going on the week of the wedding

-delegate projects even if it feels strange to, I was overwhelmed with the amount of people who truly wanted to help out

-even though I certainly did this, don't stress about the little things because when it comes to your wedding day, those little details won't matter

-plan a honeymoon, you need the break with your new husband/wife

-make sure you focus on your relationship with your soon-to-be husband, not just the wedding details

-check your attitude at the door**

-think about opening your gifts after you get back from your honeymoon. Brian and I left our gifts at my parents house and we were so excited to come back and open them with just our immediate family. If we would have done it the day after with 2 dozen people watching, it would have been waaay to overwhelming!!

-don't procrastinate when you can do something earlier because your wedding day will come a lot sooner than you might think

-ask your bridesmaids what they would like to wear. I stayed in contact with my girls and we chose a dress that was comfortable, they could wear a regular bra, they were flattering on everyone, and they could dance the night away with no "technical problems" {if you know what I mean}

-pray about everything, no matter how small it is God wants to hear it

-make sure you have people in charge of the little things on the day of the wedding, like: who will clean up the church, who will drive the wedding party around on the day of the wedding, who will be at the reception hall before everyone arrives to make sure everything is in order

-everyone says the day goes by sooo fast {and you will hear that a million + 1 times} so don't sweat it if you are a little off schedule or your dress gets a little dirty, just enjoy every moment you can!!

**When Brian and I got engaged, I made one promise to myself, family, and Brian: I will not become a bridezilla. While most everyone said that I didn't really freak out or get too stressed, there was one person who did take the brunt of my stress. Brian and I weren't in the same town as we went through the planning of our wedding, so I worked closely with my mom and there were a few times quite a few times when I lost my cool and let the stress overcome me. She was such a great help to our wedding and was such an amazing mom the whole way. I only wish that I can be as patient when my daughter gets married {disclaimer, I don't have a daughter and am not even pregnant but I hope to have a girl one day and would love to help her plan the wedding of her dreams}

I'm sure I will think of other advice, so don't be surprised if this list grows over the next few months. I have lots of advice so feel free to shoot me an email or a text. I love talking to future brides about their weddings now that we have been happily married for over a month!

the rant

So do you remember that rant that I was talking about last post? The ranting paragraph that I wrote and then deleted? Well, I thought changing your name took a little more effort than I thought, but after yesterday...it was lots more than I even imagined.

I awoke yesterday morning to my 4:45 alarm clock and proceeded with a normal morning around here making coffee, breakfast, and sending B off with lunch. I headed out the door at 10am to run a few errands and head over to babysit Brian's nieces, now my nieces, yey! I headed to the social security office to apply for a new card with my new last name on it, but their office had moved. I was directed to the new office and sat for about 15 minutes waiting for my name to be called. I was again called and informed that I now needed to go to their office downtown. This was the office that I had planned on going to in the first place, but when I told my very protective husband about it he protested with "That is not a safe neighborhood!" and "Please don't go to that office, I don't feel comfortable about that!"

I now had no choice but to go to the so called "unsafe" office. How bad could it be? I mean really?

After waiting for over an hour and not getting my paperwork done, I came to the conclusion that if I waited any longer I would be late to babysit the girls. So I headed back to my car parked just outside the parking lot because all of the spaces were filled. As I came closer to my car I knew that there was something wrong. I even thought  for split second that it wasn't my car, but there it was damaged and violated, just how I felt.

Panic instantly overwhelmed me and my mind began racing. What did I leave in my car that was valuable? I had everything that was really important on me....purse, keys, wallet, phone. Then it hit me, my GPS...and I was right, it was gone.

I ran back into the building to consult with the police officers who were doing security and they advised me to call 911. After a 40 second conversation with the operator was over I realized that I never told him where I was located and my phone cut out just after he informed me that "we will send someone right out". I gave a call back and they transferred me to the non emergency line 311, they informed me that it could take anywhere from 1-3 hours for a police officer to get to me.

I waited and waited, paced back and forth not wanting to leave my car exposed and unprotected even though I was chilled to the bone.

Over an hour has passed and in the mean time I got a hold of my parents & husband {who was at work} and found out that our insurance won't even cover glass damage. So, the damage report from the officer wouldn't even do good, but I couldn't just leave. After 20 minutes and another call to 311 I found out that my 911 call had been canceled and there was no police coming. They were currently out on a shooting. I counted my blessings, thanked the Lord that my situation was not so tragic, and told the operator to cancel my request.

After bursting into tears for what seemed like the 10th time, one of the police officers took my paperwork an personally processed it so that I could take my damaged car and be on my way home.

But I couldn't even get home, the thief stole my GPS. After break down #11 happened I called my mom and she guided me back to 94, but not before I got lost, ran out of gas and vacuumed out the glass that covered my car's floor.

All I wanted at that point was to be in the safe arms of my protective husband, because it always feels like nothing will ever go wrong there.

What did I take away from this? There are so many people that are less fortunate than I am. I am very blessed to have an amazing family and support system. It's sad that people have to resort to theft, but I am hopeful that he/she will feel remorseful.

It could have been much worse and I thank the Lord that I didn't suffer any bodily harm. Let me just say once and for all "my husband was right!!"

1st week {at home} as a wife

I still have to pinch myself most days. It has been a whole week of being a stay-at-home wife and life is totally changing around here. This place has gone from a bachelor pad, to a slightly less bachelor pad when I moved a few things in, to a full fledged 'home of a married couple.' It smells a little bit better, is much more filled, has at least 1 person {meaning me} in it almost all the time, and is a little more organized but then again a little more chaotic with all of my crafting supplies.

Before my husband and I got married he worried that I would feel confined and claustrophobic because the square footage of our apartment is about the size of my bedroom, bathroom, and craft room at my parents house. In fact isn't quite the contrary. Our apartment is the perfect size. It is still plenty spacious to clean and I love being able to check in 2 seconds if all the lights are off, or in the summer we can air out our place with the opening of 2 windows. I love that I don't have to search across the house to see what my husband is doing, I just have to peak around the corner.

Now this doesn't mean that I don't miss where I lived before. I don't really think it quite hit me until today. I had been holding off the Christmas music {which is very unlike me} because I wasn't really in the Christmas mood. Again very strange for me, I'm normally getting into the holiday spirit before kids decide on their Halloween costume. Anyway, I have seen commercials on TV with Santa and have seen red & green creep into most department stores, but I wasn't feeling festive. All the memories I have of Christmas are tied to the house with my parents & sister, and I no longer live there.

So this holiday season will be the start of new traditions, creating new memories, making lots of Christmas gifts, sending our own Christmas cards....it will be a year of firsts.

So back to my first weeks as a wife, I have had lots to accomplish but haven't made it too far on my to-do list. It turns out that the "simple" task of changing your name & address, takes much longer than it sounds. Anyone who has recently changed their name will understand what I mean. You think it would be as simple as hopping on the internet, and typing in your new name & address but it's much more than that. I just went into a paragraph rant but then realized that nobody really needs to hear me rant about that, so in short...changing your name & address takes much more effort than I had anticipated.

I am also learning how to be a better wife. I made a lengthy trip to the grocery store to stock up. It really is nice to have filled cupboards instead of running to the store for each meal. After a little practice I can now wake up with Brian at 4:45, snuggle for a few minutes, make coffee to-go, pack his lunch, and send him off with breakfast for the car ride, all before 5:15.

Our apartment is coming together piece by piece, so stay tuned and I will show it to you corner by corner.

fill in the blanks

1.  I like anything pumpkin. Pumpkin coffee creamer, pumpkin waffles {yes I found them yesterday} pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pie, pumpkin breads...you get the picture.

2.  A life goal of mine is to be an amazing mom. I so can't wait to have a little bun in the oven, even though we will be waiting a while fore that.

3.  The last thing you would ever expect me to like {even though I secretly do} is jamming out to hard core rock & roll/punk music in my family room, just not when anyone else is home.

4.  Some wise words that I love are from 1 John 4:18 "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love." That was one of our wedding passages, and it couldn't be more true. Love casts out evil.

5.  Most mornings you will find me waking up early at around 5 am to make coffee, breakfast, and lunch for my new husband. Then I cuddle back up in bed with coffee and flip on the tv to Charmed. Don't judge, I used to watch Charmed as a little girl so watching it now reminds me of the good old days.

6.  Right now I am super into any sort of home improvement/DIY/renting or buying your first home type of show. HGTV is pretty constant around here.

7.  Right now I am super over politics. For better or worse the people have spoken and we have to live with the decision.

Check out Lauren over at the little things we do to see the source of the 'fill in the blanks.'

our honeymoon in paradise

My mom says I look like I'm 12 in this picture and Brian looks 15,
well maybe that's what a honeymoon does to you

Sometimes I close my eyes and I can still hear the white ocean waves crashing up on the beach outside our honeymoon suite. We have been back to the cold weather of Minnesota for a few days and we already want to go back to the safe haven of our honeymoon. It was 8 days of weather in the 80s, room service {even at 1:30am, which we did one night}, 3 pools to choose from, maid service, swim-up-to bars in the pools, being disconnected from the rest of the world in our own little bubble of relaxation.

Before I started planning a wedding I always thought it would just be a bonus to get away for a honeymoon. I never really understood the importance of getting away from everything. And by going to Mexico, my new husband and I really did get away from everything. We didn't have internet {for more than 5 minutes in the cafe} our phones, our regular TV shows, we didn't know a soul there, and it was wonderful! We were totally disconnected from our regular lives and it was amazing. As a new husband & wife we really needed that time to spend together.

We didn't live together before we got married, and while that may surprise a few people it was never an option for us. Living together is very intimate and that was something we wanted to save for marriage. God intended us for 1 person and I am very happy to say that my husband is my 1st and only. The relationship that we now share is stronger than I even thought possible, and with our honeymoon we were able to see our relationship grow even more.

We squished our toes in the sand, sailed with dolphins, enjoyed the warm rays of sunshine, I coached Brian as he swam in the ocean for the first time {seeing as I am a California girl}, got some pretty funny tan lines that I will NOT share online, captured amazing photos, most days accomplished nothing but relaxing {which we havn't done in months}, went to bed whenever we wanted and slept-in till whenever we wanted, enjoyed amazing food including more guacamole than I have had in years,

So my advice for future brides: make sure you plan a honeymoon. By the time your wedding comes you will be so thankful you did. Even though wedding planning is an amazing experience, it is pretty stressful, totally exhausting and the most amazing party you will ever have.

As far as other bridal advice, that is coming up soon. I have a whole lot of advice that I wish I would have known before I started planning our wedding.

Our Love Story

 5.20.11     he saw her in that purple skirt

  6.8.11      they met at “Arise & Shine”

 6.10.11     he kissed her

 6.15.11     the Italian food was delicious

  8.6.11      he stole her heart

 8.13.11     “I love you so much”

  2.9.12      he popped the question…

  2.9.12      ...and she said yes

 3.10.12     their engagement celebration

10.19.12    she stole his last name 

back at last

It's been 2 long months that I have been without the blogging world, and I have missed it tremendously. To make a very long story short, my computer crashed due to what we think was a lightning storm. After many attempts to fix it, we found out that it would take another at least $200-$300 to fix and more months of sponging off my sisters outdated laptop.

Well, last week a pretty brown package arrived and in it was my new lap top. I took the plunge and am now am a proud owner of my first lap top. Yes I know some of you will laugh at my excitement, but I have always had a desktop computer. I love being able to take my wedding planning/work/bogging with my wherever I go. There are just so many things to update you on, I feel like I am having coffee with a friend whom I haven't seen in weeks.

Here are a few highlights from the past few weeks:

Family vacation:

B's surprise birthday party:

Family trip to Lambeau field:

Brian & I take a trip to the Minnesota State Fair for my birthday:

It's good to be back. Next...a major wedding update. Hard to believe that it's only a couple of weeks away!!