One Month Recap

My goodness, time has gotten away for me!  I have had a life lately, I promise!  And it's worth talking about...I just have been distracted from me "me-time" so the blog has lost momentum.  

Here's a brief little recap of what's been going on since I last checked in:

Hannah and I went to the Holiday Pops concert.

Ashley, Mat, Ryan and I had a chance to catch up.

We got lights on the house!!

We celebrated Brad's birthday...

...things got competitive.

We put up a tree, AND decorated it!

We celebrated the holidays at my work party.

We made a shopping trip to Des Moines...

...visited friends and babies...

...and welcomed in the holidays :)

Ryan and I have been up to lots more, but I don't have pictures to prove it!  I'll be sure to update our holiday shenanigans.  Happy Monday!

Ugly

It's so strange that Christmas has already come and gone.  Is 2013 really tomorrow already?  I am a little delayed in sharing some Christmas photos, but I'm finally getting around to it!  Ryan and I had five Christmases this year, not too shabby.  Unfortunately, I did not take my camera out for all of them...but I definitely did not miss out on the opportunity to snap some pictures at my dad's side of the family's Ugly Christmas Sweater party :)

We had a lot of fun, but I don't think my sweater was ugly enough...I'll be on the hunt for a new one for next year!

In the following days, we had Christmas with our immediate families.  We scored some excellent gifts, ate some delicious food, and went to a wonderful Church service on Christmas Eve.  But before Church, we took our traditional family photos.

On Christmas day, we went up to Dubuque to celebrate with my mom's side of the family.  We enjoyed more good food (I was ready for that part to be over) and the whole family (minus Brad) was there, so that's always awesome!  A couple of my cousins and I sang Christmas carols and then we opened gifts.  Everyone is always so generous.  Later that evening, Ryan and I went to his Grandpa's house to visit with his Grandpa and his aunt and uncle.  All in all, it was a blessed Christmas day.

Our Christmas celebrations ended the day after Christmas when we had lunch with Andy, Ashley, and Tom at Thunder Bay Grill.  I love friend time...but alas, no pictures were taken.  We exchanged gifts and Ryan got some delicious beer and Ashley got me the Raygun shirt that they are no longer allowed to print that depicts a basketball player, intended to be Fred Hoiberg, with some other Iowa State-ish items and I love it! :)

I hope you all had wonderful Christmas celebrations and that you enjoyed time with family and friends.

Happy New Year!

The Best Gift Is Love

As you know, last weekend was Christmas, and it was a busy one!  Luckily, it was not nearly as crazy as last year.  We spent a lot of time with family, but did not have to travel too far to see everyone.  Even though we were busy with plans, it was pretty darn relaxing!  There won't be many personal photos in the post...as is the norm lately.  Why you ask? BECAUSE MY CAMERA IS BROKEN! :( Of course, I discovered this as I was heading to Christmas #1 of the year.  Waaahhhhh, I'm starting to have as much luck with cameras as my friend Ashley F (love you!).
So Christmas #1 was actually two weekends ago up in Dubuque with my Mom's side of the family.  I stole a couple of her pictures from Facebook.  It was day full of good food, good laughs, and great family memories!

Christmas #2 was Christmas Eve with my immediate family.  We spent the better part of the entire day with them.  It was nice to just chill, eat a great dinner (good job mom), open some lovely gifts, go to church, and come back to play video games. I think we were there until around 1am...I may or may not have been sleeping on the couch at that point.

Christmas #3 was actually on Christmas. We went to the in-laws' house for brunch where we were also met by his grandmother.  We had a fabulous and gigantic meal and then opened some presents.  It was so nice to just lounge around with nowhere else to go in the same day.  We probably spent about 6 hours there and were still able to mosey on back to our house around 4:30 and clean.  My friend Ashley L, who came to home to Ames from Pittsburgh for a couple weeks, was on her way to Davenport to visit me!  I have no pictures from this day :(
Christmas #4 was the day after Christmas.  Back to my parents house with my Dad's side of the family.  I'm pretty sure the picture says it all! =)

I had the most wonderful Christmas' and scored some great gifts.  This might sound cheesy and all, but the priest brought it up at service Saturday night.  The greatest gift anyone can receive is love, and my weekend was chock full of it!  From my extended family, to my husband, to my parents and siblings (that includes in-laws), and my friends, I feel so blessed and grateful to have them all in my life and of all of the things I got for Christmas, spending time with my loved ones was definitely all I could have ever truly wanted.

Blog Slacker

OK OK, I'll admit it...it has been over a week since I last posted!  I'm sorry guys!  Mostly, I'm sorry me :) This blog has been something that, as much as I appreciate those very few of you who read it, I have done for myself.  I wanted to start documenting my life as a newly wed, before we start a family, and hopefully after as well.  I want to keep track of all of our adventures, and even just our lovely nights in!  Unfortunately, not only have I been slacking on blogging, and tweeting...but I've been missing out on some great picture opportunities!  Two weekends ago, I visited Shae in Chicago...first time I've seen her in two years and I didn't take a single picture (though I think she has some she needs to email me!).  And Christmas was last weekend...my camera never made it out of my purse.  We had six, that's right, count them, SIX Christmases in three days, saw lots of people and didn't take any pictures.  Well, I am insistent on changing that, starting tonight! It is New Years Eve and we have some fun plans with Brooke and Ryan and I promise to take pictures! =)


To be honest, I've had posts in my head and just have been to busy to sit down and write it all out.  But one thing I definitely wanted to post about were some of my favorite Christmas gifts.  So, sorry for the lack of pictures, but here is my list of favorites this year:

1. A sewing machine

2. Brian Urlacher Jersey

3. Raygun shirt

4. Money for Vegas!!

5. Iced coffee tumbler (not the same one, but similar)

What were some of your favorite gifts?

What is your favorite Christmas song?

I have quite a few...here are my top three:

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas...

It started to snow yesterday while I was at work...huge, slowly falling, perfect snow flakes.  Luckily, Ryan and I had already planned an entire day in for today!  I woke up this morning to find a beautiful winter wonderland outside my window.

Our agenda for today:

1. Sleep in (already failed, but he still is)

2. Make brunch....yummmm

3. Watch Love Actually

4. Enjoy some wintery drinks (I might have to leave the apt to get some hot cocoa!)

5. Put up our Christmas tree (I'll post pics when it's done) while listening to Christmas music

6. Watch more movies (I think Uncle Buck is on the list!)

7. Enjoy chili that's been cooking in the crock pot

8. Enjoy some more drinks to get warm and toasty
9. Go to bed whenever we feel like it! :)

Not gonna lie, I'm pretty excited about today!  We finally get a whole weekend at home, to ourselves...we're going to enjoy it!  I do have to do some laundry, but that would have made the agenda look extra boring, haha.  What are your plans today/this weekend?  I hope you will enjoy it as much as I plan to enjoy mine. :)