Bringing in the New Year


With 2012 right around the corner I thought I would share some of my goals for the coming year with you.
1- Having a closer relationship with my Heavenly Father. This includes more diligent scripture study, temple attendance, and more meaningful prayers.
2- Be healthier! I hate to say my specific resolution because I'm pretty sure I'll break it, but my goal is to work out 3 times a week. I also want to eat more fresh food, less processed foods and fast food. Wish me luck!
3- Budget! I've never kept a budget before, I've just tired to keep my spending low, but next year I plan to have a specific budget that I stick to so Jensen and I can build up more of a savings.
4- Sew and craft more. I feel like I've done a good job this past year with this, but I want to learn how to really sew, not just make little crafty projects with my sewing machine. Part of this is to learn how to read a pattern. I have a ton of patterns that I've started, but can't seem to get past the first few steps. A specific goal I have for this is to make a dress from start to finish, and to make a small quilt.
5- Read more books. I've gotten into the bad habit of watching lots of Netflix while I'm relaxing. I used to love to read and I would read tons of books, but I haven't read many at all since I graduated. To help me accomplish this goal I want to make a list of specific books I plan to read in the coming year. Any suggestions?
6- Be more organized. Those of you who know me well know that my craft room can get out of control with it's messiness. I want to be more organized with all of my belongings and pick up after myself more (that one is for my husband :) ) I hope by doing that I will appreciate what I have more and want less.



Hope you all have a happy new year!

More of Christmas

Jensen and I got a Kinect for Christmas! It's really fun and suprisingly tiring (or maybe I'm just really out of shape). It's almost as fun watching other people play as it is to play yourself.

Year in Review

As the year is ending I just wanted to share some of my favorite things I was able to do this past year. It was a pretty exciting one I'd say. I graduated! and I was able to take a lot of fun trips and had a lot of fun while at home!

January- Jensen and I went skiing quite a few times last winter. I think we had the best luck when we went. Almost every night before we went skiing and the day of we got tons of fresh snow!
February- Valentine's date with Jensen
March- Spring picnic in our front yard
April- I graduated!!! Yay! Jensen's family made a stop on their way down from Canada to California and my dad and Omi came for a visit from Idaho to celebrate with us.
May- My sister and I went to visit my Mama and Rick in Cape Cod. My mom moved there my freshman year at BYU and this was my first time being able to go out there to visit her. We also took a little trip down to New York while I was there, also my first time there!
June- Jensen and I went to visit Dena and Andrew and her cute kids in California. While we were there we took a trip to San Francisco. I had never been to California before either (In case you're wondering I went to 5 new states this summer! - also Rode Island and Connecticut as we drove from MA to NY). Another fun trip Jensen and I took in June was to Moab to go camping for the weekend.
July- In July Jensen and I went to the hot air balloon festival together with Suzanne and Jordan. A little later in the month my mom and Rick stopped by for a visit as they moved from Massachusetts to California.
August- In August we took our final trip of the summer to Canada for a family reunion then to visit my dad in Coeur d'Alene. Jensen's brother Morley came home from his mission in August, so all of Jensen's siblings and their spouses went for a visit. After a week in California we drove to Idaho for a week of boating, biking, and four wheeling with my dad and Lisa. This was one of the best summers I've ever had!
September- Jensen and I took an afternoon walk around a pumpkin patch and an apple orchard a nice fall afternoon.
October- Jensen and I dressed as Mary Poppins and Burt for Halloween! I loved our costumes. We also ate yummy chocolate cake to celebrate Jensen's birthday before an evening in Park City.
November- Suzanne got married in November! Which also meant another visit from my family. I loved having them here. I hadn't seen Nicole or my grandma since I got married a year and a half ago.
December- CHRISTMAS!!!! I love Christmas so much! Decorations, lights, cookies, making presents, Christmas music, Christmas movies, spending time with family.
Something else that I have really enjoyed this year is having more time to craft and learn how to sew now that I don't have homework to do when I'm done with work. And being able to take nice pictures with my new camera Jensen got me when I graduated. It's been great! Here's a few things I've been able to make this year.

Christmas Wrap-Up


Nativity, Joy to to the World print via Angela Hardison
Christmas wreaths
Christmas Eve jammies. Thanks Mama!
Opening presents.
Lost of yummy treats.
Jensen's Christmas shirt and tie.
Jensen and I had a nice quiet Christmas at home with just the two of us. I only had Saturday and Sunday off and Jensen only had Sunday so we stayed home for our short break. On Christmas eve we had a big dinner together and Christmas day was spent opening presents, resting, and going to Church for our Christmas program.

Reindeer Ornaments

I'll be off work soon and get to start non stop Christmas celebrating! I'm so excited!! At work we convinced our boss to let us all go home 3 hours early. Merry Christmas to us! I'm really glad because only getting Saturday and Sunday off is not long enough. :) I plan on going home and gaining approximately 10 pounds by eating nothing but Christmas cookies.

Here's Jensen and my Christmas ornaments for this year. A little reindeer husband and wife.

It's Christmas Eve Eve Eve!

I'm so excited... Christmas is almost here!!! Usually about a week or 2 before Christmas I get a little sad thinking about how close Christmas is, and how it's almost already over. I saw some Valentines things at the store the other day and I did not like that at all. A few days before I'm just really excited for Christmas to come! Last night Jensen and I went up to Salt Lake to see that lights at temple square. This is our third year going together, and I think it's my favorite tradition of ours.

Snowboarding

Jensen and I went snowboarding last week at Snowbird for our first time this season. My goal this year is to be less afraid so I can get better! The first time Jensen and I went together I was better than him, now three years later he is much better than me. I feel like my snowboarding skills have been stunted because I'm to afraid to try anything new. Wish me luck!

I love Christmas mix

There are many things I love about Christmas and one of them is Christmas music. My favorites are mostly what I grew up listening to with my mom, most of it not so traditional. Here's a mix I made of some old and some new favorite Christmas songs. I got this idea from Angela Hardison who posted a great Christmas mix last year.

Go here to listen to mine!

Christmas Wrapping


I love wrapping Christmas presents! And I love this song! I tried to learn all of the lyrics this year, and even though I know them better than before it's just too fast for me to sing the entire thing.

Bows!

I love having excuses to dress up a little or wear something sparkly and Christmas is a great time to do that! Jensen and I went to our ward's Christmas party on Friday and I wanted to wear something a little Christmas-ey, so I made myself some red velvet bow shoe clips! There will be a tutorial later this week on how to make these.

Easy Ornament Tutorial

Happy December 1st. Only 25 days until Christmas!!!! Doesn't it feel like Halloween was just a few days ago!?
Jensen and I decorated Christmas ornaments together on Monday night. They were really easy to make and really fun. You can put almost anything you can think of inside them including glitter, fake snow, and tinsel. I even put pearl beads in the snowman ornament I made.

Supplies:
Clear glass ornaments
Christmas stickers
Glitter
Tinsel (or foil shreds)
fake snow
anything else you want inside your ornament (such as pom poms, beads, small bells...)
Step 1- Fill your ornament with tinsel/ fake snow. For the tinsel I used the end of a paint brush to push it all inside. For the snow I made a funnel out of a sheet of paper to get it in the ornament easier.
Step 2-If your using glitter, pour it in! To get the glitter to stick to the sides of the ornament gently shake it around. I made the mistake of not-so-gently shaking an ornament that had beads inside and it broke :(
Step 3- Decorate the outside. You can paint something on it or just use stickers. For this tutorial I used some Christmas stickers I got at Michaels.
That's it! You can be as creative or make them as simple as you want!