Holiday Fun

We had a pretty busy holiday season this year. Steven finished out his last full semester!!! He now only has 3 more credits worth of stuff left to do which only includes 1 class and his senior project!! WE ARE SO EXCITED FOR HIM TO BE FINISHED!!! Especially after this last semester... It was probably one of the roughest ones for him--not because the classes were so hard but between school and work he was pretty busy and being so close to the end of his schooling career it was a huge struggle. He made it through though and now things are starting to look up!!

We did a few things here to celebrate Christmas before we took off to see my family for the holidays.  We put up our tree of course, and decorated the rest of the house to make it feel more festive.  We also made and decorated sugar cookies together and had LOTS of fun doing something different together (as well as eating all the yummy cookies).




We took our Christmas card photos over Thanksgiving break while we were visiting Steven's family.  I was really please with how they turned out and even printed off a few to frame around the house! 

This one is totally my favorite of the bunch!

My sister had also given me her wedding dress earlier this fall to take apart and remake it into a baptism dress for her eldest daughter.  It was a little intimidating of a task to take on at first (and I will admit I put it off for a loooong time) but after I decided what to do with it it came together really quickly and I am so proud of the outcome!  My niece loved it and I am excited to see her wear it on her big day!  I thought I would share some of the pictures I took during that whole process...

My niece in her dress! I took some pretty pictures of her in it as well
(but I need to edit them still... on the to-do list for tonight)

The adventures continue with my family for the holiday festivities at home for Christmas!  We saw the new Peanuts movie and Steven and I doubled with my sister and her husband to see the new Star Wars movie as well! Both were very good!  We decorated "gingerbread houses" together, went Christmas caroling, and had a wonderful holiday dinner on Christmas Eve.  We even went to the pool at my parent's motel and got to swim with some mermaid tails I brought from work! I think all the kids enjoyed it and it was fun to show off some of the things I have been working on/with at my new job!  

Steven and I also took a night to ourselves and went to town to attend an open mic night dedicated to one of our friends whom passed away last December.  We had some time to burn before the event began so we stopped by one of my old hangout places in Selah when I was in high school and grabbed some treats and played an epic game of Jenga.  We had a really great time together and it was super nice to have a quiet evening together without having any stresses of normal life to wear on us!

We had such a blast with my family! It was a crazy time having all 18 of us together in one house but I am so grateful for the time I get to spend with my family!

For Christmas this year we used the gift money our parents gave us and (finally) bought a painting of Christ to put in the frame Steven's cousin made for us for our wedding (...that was 2 1/2 years ago now... But beside the point...)  It is a super unique painting and we love it!  We are excited to take it down to his cousin's so he can put it all together for us!



We had a great holiday break and are trying to fall back into our normal work routine. Work has been pretty busy for me getting things put together to be ready for the summer and Steven's work has been slowing down because this is kind of their off season.  Thankfully he has kept busy enough to get his hours in this winter!  We are so thankful for both of our jobs and feel so blessed to have them and to be able to be independent!!

*PHEW* That was a lot of updating and a lot of pictures... 

Until next time!!

Fall Festivities

This fall has been pretty normal for us. Steven is still trying to hang in there with school and work, and constantly reminds himself he just has to make it until December 16th. He has already registered for his last semester (which only includes 2 classes that equal 3 credits..YAY!) I have been working full time and diving in headfirst into this new job! It's been so much fun and I have learned so much! I am excited to see what the future holds with this job!!

For Halloween Steven and I actually (sorta) dressed up this year! We spent the night with some of our best friends! I somehow missed getting a picture of us all dressed up but I have a picture of what our costumes were!

We decorated the office at work for Halloween!

Our costumes I whipped up

Partying it up with one of our new additions to our circle of friends (and our honorary nephew!! SO CUTE!)

Glen also came up for a quick visit over a weekend in the beginning of November. He secretly just came to pick up his guns that we had been holding on to for him, but the visit was nice too.

For our birthdays this year we kept things pretty relaxed. I realized that this is the first time our birthdays were not on a Saturday or Sunday since we got married. So we actually had work and school on our birthdays this year. For Steven's birthday I made him breakfast in bed before I left for work and then brought home some of his favorites from Panda Express for dinner. After dinner we went to G's Dairy for some delicious ice cream. He got a new coat this year for his birthday. For my birthday, the office manager at work put up a super cute "Happy Birthday" banner by my desk. Everyone at the office was really nice and wished me a happy birthday as well. After I got home from work, Steven took me out to dinner (at my beloved Hickory restaurant) and after we went and played some mini golf together! It was such a fun date for my birthday and I hope we can do more fun things like that in the future! The Saturday in between our birthdays we celebrated with friends by having dinner all together and I tried my hand at this new cupcake recipe--cookies and cream! They were delicious, if I say so myself!!!! 

Birthday banner at work

Mini golfing with my one and only!

WE LOVE ICE CREAM!

We are getting excited for the holidays this year and can't wait to see our family and enjoy that special time together!!

Until next time!