Christmas Stockings

Sewing project #2 = DONE. On Thanksgiving I made Sam and I's Christmas stockings. My mother-in-law, LuAnn, has made all her kids, their spouses, and grandkids such cute stockings that I decided I wanted to make Sam and I's stockings. LuAnn went with me to pick out fabric and helped me throughout the entire process... and I must say that I am SO grateful because I definitely could not have done it without her! I am still a beginner with this whole sewing business. It was fun to make the stockings though. They were not all that difficult and they turned out great!! I LOVE the fabric... neither are traditional Christmas colors/fabrics but I think they are super cute!

My stocking is on the left and Sam's is on the right.

My next project? A Christmas tree skirt. We will see how that one goes. Wish me luck!

Our Christmas Tree

Sam and I went and got ourselves a Christmas tree Friday night. And I must admit, it is a fake one. I grew up having a real tree EVERY Christmas, so I was a little reluctant to get a fake tree. Of course, we couldn't just let the little guy stay in the box, so we put up the tree as soon as we got home. We don't have any decorations yet, just lights, but I am still so excited about it!

Isn't it so cute? Our ceilings aren't very tall so it isn't the biggest tree. But I love it! Christmas season is my favorite time of the year. And I can't even tell you how much I LOVE Christmas trees. Whenever there is a Christmas tree up in my house, I always find a reason to turn the lights on and sit by the tree.

I am sure after this Christmas we won't have very many decorations on the tree, but I am excited to see what ones we can come up with! Hooray for the holidays! And that includes Thanksgiving too :)

Weekends are the BEST!!

It is so hard to go back to school and work after each weekend. They are just so wonderful! We especially had a good one this last weekend. Friday night we went to a movie which was exciting because that is not a common occurrence for us anymore. We even made it more exciting by taking Trax down to Gateway to see the movie! I don't know why but it was really fun!

A little blurry but this is us on Trax :)

We saw Moneyball... SUCH a good movie! We highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it yet. Sam and I aren't huge baseball fans but we still really loved the movie.

We also went to the Utah vs. UCLA football game this weekend... in the SNOW! For the first quarter (at least) it was snowing quite significantly. Before we left I wasn't really looking forward to the game because of the snow and the cold but it actually turned out to be pretty fun! I bundled up really well so I wasn't even cold at all. Plus, we won the game so that was great :)

I wanted proof that it was snowing a lot.

Just as a side note, Sam found this at JCPenney when we were roaming around and I thought it was SO funny! Plus it just looked ridiculous on him. And would on anyone for that matter I'm pretty sure.

Isn't he just the cutest? His face is priceless.

Needless to say I am not loving being back to the grind today... but I am very thankful I had such a fun weekend and that I have the most wonderful husband in the world!!!

Fall Fun

It is crazy how fast this year has gone by! It is almost over... which means that the semester is almost over as well. Thank goodness! Sam and I have really been enjoying the fall. We love the colors of the changing leaves, football season, going on walks in the crisp cold air, and snuggling up on the couch to keep warm. Hopefully the lack of continual snow holds up for a few more weeks! I am not holding my breath though...

Sam and I have done a few exciting things lately! Things that most people would probably think are really not exciting at all. A couple of weeks ago we decided we didn't want to sit at home (like we usually do) on a Friday night, so we ventured to Macy's. We still had gift cards from the wedding so we decided we would go see what we could find to spend them on :). We got a meat grinder attachment for our KitchenAid which we think is pretty sweet... AND, while we were there, I found this little gem... don't worry, I didn't buy it. I just thought it was hilarious.

For Halloween we really didn't do anything special, considering I had class the night of Halloween. We did carve pumpkins though... which I LOVE to do! Last year I pretty much did all the pumpkin carving myself and Sam tried to take credit for it (even though he hardly did anything). This year though, Sam will have you know that he did pretty much everything. The only thing I did was come up with what the pumpkin would look like. Otherwise, Sam did everything else.

Isn't it so cute? We love the little Utah mouth with the lonely tooth in it.

Just last weekend we had our niece, Lucy, over Friday night to hang out. She kept telling her parents that she wanted to have a sleepover with us and we would definitely not turn down an offer like that (since we are the favorite aunt and uncle after all). While she did not end up sleeping over, we still had a good time playing with her. We built a fort in our living room, moved the TV into the fort, and watched "Tangled." I had already seen the movie a handful of times but I would never say no to watching it another time... it's just so cute!

Cute Lucy in the fort waiting so patiently for the movie to start.

Last thing... I had been SO bugged by the completely bare walls in our room (seriously, there was absolutely nothing hung up) that I decided it was time for me to take action. It took a while for the project to get completed, but it is finally done! It is nothing extravagant but it is better than nothing! I am very happy with the finished product!

This is up right above our bed. I love it!!

Projects...

Once again, I have failed at blogging. Life just gets so busy sometimes! I really have been meaning to update this thing but just have not gotten around to it.

Nothing terribly exciting has happened around here lately. Just the same old school, work, homework, and (unfortunately) watching really sad Utah football games. (Side note: it is not fun watching your football team lose pretty bad game after game. The Utes need to get their acts together pronto!). We have, however, done a couple fun projects lately.  

For one, Sam and his brother Jon put bead board up on the back of our kitchen counter so it looks much prettier now!

One thing I did a couple weeks ago was make a cute Halloween runner for our kitchen table! And the coolest thing about it? I sewed it all by myself!! For me this was a HUGE accomplishment. I literally had never really sewed anything my entire life. Very sad, I know. Luckily I have a mother-in-law who is great at sewing and she taught me how to do it! Well okay, she taught me the beginning steps. She was very patient while I made the runner (probably took me a million times longer than it would take her) and let me/made me do all the sewing myself. For those of you who know me know what a perfectionist I am. This does not help projects like these go fast AT ALL. But I persevered and finally did it!

Isn't it so cute?! I must say, I am pretty proud of this thing. Hopefully my first of many sewing projects. (I am determined to learn how to sew well).

I especially like it with my cute pumpkin candle holder :)

As a side note, I just have to tell about something cute Sam did for me last week. Mondays I get home late from class and Sam is kind enough to make us dinner those nights. So... last Monday night this is what I came home to:

The picture doesn't do it justice (camera is still dead) but he bought me flowers, had a candlelit dinner, had romantic music on, and made some delicious food! Isn't that SO cute?!?! Seriously I was so happy I could hardly contain myself. I know I am a little biased, but I think I have the best husband EVER!!!!!

Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day weekend seems like forever ago now but we did such fun things so I have to share! The night before Labor Day we went camping... in our front yard. Daniel (brother-in-law) thought it would be fun to set up tents and camp out in the yard. So we did. The front yard at our house isn't terribly big but we made it work.

Our tent is the cute little gray and orange one.

I really did not help much with putting up the tent... but Sam sure did a great job!

I played with little Whitters instead :)

We all had a good time chatting and hanging out together. 

We even made our own campfire and roasted s'mores in the driveway!

Sam with cute baby Matthew.

It was so fun to see Lucy enjoy "camping" so much. In the morning she came and cuddled with Sam and I in our tent and told us the cutest things (like that we are her "best friends"). She is a doll.

I also have to note that Sam and I slept on a blow up twin-size mattress in our tent. I was not too excited about our sleeping arrangements at first but it actually wasn't bad! Sam kept me nice and toasty and I actually had plenty of room to sleep. Camping in the front yard was a pretty good time.

On the actual holiday Sam and I did the usual chores, bike ride, etc. Later that evening, though, we decided to make grilled pizza for everyone... and boy did it turn out to be delicious! We were nervous because it was our first time making pizza on the grill but it turned out to be a huge success! We made all different kinds of pizza... hawaiian, pepperoni, bbq chicken, and a super veggie one. What a great ending to a long, fun, relaxing weekend!

Sam in one of his mom's aprons. He thought this one was pretty cool because it had a towel on the front to wipe his hands on. I personally just thought he looked so cute in it!

The delicious veggie pizzas. We had grilled zucchini too (which is so so good)!

Some of the other beautiful pizzas.

What a great weekend to spend with our family and enjoy one another's company! Can't wait for another long weekend!

Go Utes!

Fall is always a great time of year for us... it means FOOTBALL season is here!!! One game down, many more to go! Here's to hoping Utah has a great season and kicks some serious behind! GO UTES!!!