Thanksgiving! Christmas!

Over Thanksgiving we went to Boise to see my family. We had so much fun! We played lots of Settlers of Catan with our family friends, the Ellsworths. We also went to the Botanical Garden's night aglow (or something like that) which was really pretty. It was so fun to see all of the beautiful lights and walk around with the family. On Thanksgiving day we went to Gooding to spend the day with my cousins, it was so fun to see their newly remodeled home and be able to visit. I love my extended family! When we got back to Boise later that night Kory, Stephen and I started out Black Friday shopping at midnight getting the boys some great things from the outlet mall. We did a little shopping on Friday day too, not the 6 AM type shopping but it was still fun.  We were supposed to head back to Utah on Saturday morning, but I was incredibly home sick so I was going to stay behind and ride back with Stephen.  Then the thought of my husband leaving me made me incredibly home sick for him!  He was feeling the same way, he came in the room and I told him I was going to go back with him only to have him say we could stay.  I seriously love my husband!

I loved Christmas this year. I totally got in the Christmas spirit right before Thanksgiving and started decorating. We added some red and green ornaments to our tree this year and I just fell in love with it!

After Kory survived finals he was able to open his gift from Mom and Dad, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2! He was so happy to be able to open it early so that he could enjoy his free time by playing it.  I love these pictures of him opening it, he is so fun.

We FINALLY took the "Just Married" decal my friend made us off Kory's back window, haha.  It's only been over a year.  At first we were going to take it off on a special day...like 1 month married, or 2 months, or maybe 6 months?  Then it just became a huge inside joke, until finally even our 1 year anniversary had passed and it had gone way too far to wait for a "special day."  Needless to say, we still took pictures and think it was pretty funny.

 We made a quick trip to Boise for Christmas before our holiday cruise with the Hjelm family.  Mom decorated the tree and it was beautiful.  We got to relax, and enjoy playing more Settlers of Catan (we love that game thank you Pearsons for the wonderful Christmas gift!).  Kory and Stephen took the big screen TV up to Stephen's room and played lots of Modern Warfare 2, haha.  We watched Home Alone 1 and 2.  We ate dinner at my favorite restaurant (which is always a must when we go to Boise).  We saw Avatar 3D, which was awesome!  Mom and I made a quilted baby blanket, it was so fun thanks for teaching me Mom!  We saw the Christmas lights on this amazing house.  We made cinnamon pull-aparts, and some special recipe to-die-for waffles Christmas morning.  Then we opened gifts, took some family pictures, and headed back to Utah.  Kory got the quilt Mom made for him, the surprise was the super soft material on the back.  I gave Kory some new pairs of jeans and stylish sunglasses.  He gave me some great winter boots, a sexy pencil skirt, and an iTunes gift card!  We feel incredibly blessed to have had such an amazing Christmas season.  We love out family and friends, I absolutely LOVED Christmas this year!!

First Day of School! (Totally Belated ha!)

I know, I know, school has been in session for 3 weeks now. So I am a total slacker. I apologize to all of you who have felt completely deprived of an update from me. I'm also sorry that I have not been following up on your blog as well as I usually do, either.

We flew home from Washington on the Saturday before school started. One day I will update you on the rest of the summer happenings, haha. But for now, I'll just try to catch you up with September. Anyway, Kelli was sweet enough to come pick us up from the airport. Thanks Kelli! I sat in the back seat with Aubrey, and she was not sure how she felt about me. Not joking, she stared me down the entire drive home. If I looked back at her for too long she would start to cry. I guess she wasn't too freaked out by me as long as (1) she had her eye on me, and (2) I didn't have my eye on her. I'm scary Aunt Ana Lee! Actually, she liked me a lot better now that we have been over to their house several times in the last month.

Cute little Aubrey.

When we arrived at our apartment my mom was there to greet us. She had come to town to help Stephen get moved in and ready for school to start up. While she was here she totally re-vamped our family room by adding a super cute cover to our couch, making us the cutest pillow, and adding other pillows plus a throw! We love it! Thank you so much Mom! If you add that to the great things we found at Tai Pan Trading Co. when we went shopping with Lynda, I think it looks fabulous! I'm very excited about it all. I have the most amazing mothers! :) We love having people over, and so far our company has really loved the change. We think our apartment feels more and more like our home everyday.




Just two days later, on Monday, Kory and Stephen had their first day back at school again. Being the memory catcher that I am, of course I snapped some pictures. One of the things I love about Kory is his open mind towards being fashion forward.

I just love having my brother here! We had so much fun when he was here before his mission, and it's so great having him back!

Christmas is Here!

Last week Kory and I got a Christmas tree and decorated it. It was so cheap at Big Lots! Even our ornaments were really cheap, but they look great! We have been listening to Christmas music and drinking hot chocolate made from our amazing Cocoa-Latte almost every night, haha. We are loving the Christmas season! Here are some pictures of our tree! We don't have anything to put on top so I just tied a bow, haha. We got our ribbon at Costco for cheap too! I exchanged it from wedding ribbon I didn't use. I LOVE our tree. I am pretty excited about it.






We are also starting to get things more and more put together and decorated. We got a lot done when we first moved in, but somehow there is always more and more to do. We got some really great things for wedding gifts and we love finding ways to incorporate them into our home and our lives. It is fun to be doing something or see something and think, "hey so-and-so got this for us!" It is very precious. We sure love everyone who has extended their love and support to us as we've started our new life together. I thought I might share some pictures of our apartment because I know many of you--well most of you--haven't had the chance to see it yet!

This is what it's like when you walk in.





Then when you walk in right on the left you see the first French board of our engagements on it. Then the other frame is across the room in the corner. The fireplace is on the right side of the living room. The end table is in the corner right next to the fireplace.





This is the overview pics of the room.



Then you have the kitchen table (all set for dinner one night), the bed, and the bathroom decorations.





There you go! I hope you enjoyed the picture tour. Especially the Christmas tree!

BTW I know the the red/purplish colors totally clash...but hey you work with what you have right?