Hello Again

Well hey there! As you can probably tell I took a little break from the blogging world so I could enjoy Christmas and New Years with family and friends! You can follow me on Instagram to see some of the fun. In short, Christmas was awesome, we spent it with both of our families and had a great time. For New Years Eve we had a small gathering of friends come over, and I think it is safe to say we had too much fun!

Happy belated New Year to you all by the way!! Can you believe it is 2014? Is it just me, or do the years fly by faster the older you get? Some of you probably saw on Facebook that I was having a hard time picking a New Years Resolution this year, I finally came up with a few!

1. Get a planner and start using it again.

I used to bring my planner with me everywhere. It was my lifeline. Sometime in the past few years I stopped using one (smart phones perhaps) and I feel like my days are far less structured, a.k.a. less things are getting done. With multiple jobs, the blog, appointments, and life in general I decided it was time to bring back my old ways.

I am proud to announce, I purchased and filled out everything in my new planner today. I already feel so much more organized! I also filled out our family calendar for the year (you can download your own here), so Tom never has an excuse of forgetting peoples birthdays ;)

2. Organize my recipes into a recipe box.

This has really been an ongoing thing for whatever reason. I started working on it a few months ago but never finished the job. I decided I can't survive with my cluttered stack of recipes on random sheets of paper in different sizes (shocking). So I have been going through and organizing said random pieces of paper and putting them on recipe cards.

3. Make the apartment feel like home.

I realize this is a super broad resolution and can be taken many different ways. Here's my definition of the goal: I want to put up pictures around the house, decorate with knickknacks, organize the office, get a cleaning schedule set, start planning meals for the week. In a nutshell, get our apartment organized and functional, and get into a habit of keeping things clean and cooking more often!

There are three of my goals for the new year. I have a couple more, but I run the chance of boring you with those ;)

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

Christmas is less than one week away! Yikes! Can you believe it? I am not even close to having all of my Christmas shopping done.. I am a procrastinator this year. However, our apartment is looking very festive and we are all in the Christmas spirit! Here is a little peek into our winder wonderland. Enjoy! :)

The two of us decorating the tree.

Our ornaments from Disneyland last year :)

My favorite ornament of all time. 

Last year I made these Harry Potter ornaments. Love them!

And finally.. the star! 

A little photo opp.

Our animals even get into the Christmas spirit! Thomas loves his elf shirt. He is so cute! :)

Tifa wasn't sure about the hat..

Or the shirt.. 

Want to make your own snowflakes? Check out the tutorial {here}.

The bookshelves are even festive. 

Special "kids" section :)

I have always wanted to  make one of these over the dining room table, and I finally did this year! :)

Remember, this is a season to enjoy and be grateful for the people we have in our lives.. not a time to be stressed and depressed. Spend some quality time with your loved ones and snuggle up in front of your tree with some hot cocoa! I hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season as much as I am. I'm off to have a fun night out on the town with Tom! Have a great weekend everyone! 

Thanksgiving and New Home

Oh hey, December how are you?

Christmas is here!! Yay! So excited to get our decorations up and make some sugar cookies. Yummy. But first I would like to share a little snip bit of our life in our new home and our Thanksgiving festivities! 

I guess I should clarify that our new home is actually an apartment. I'm sure most of you know this already, but our move in date was actually supposed to be December 12th. However, a miracle happened and we were able to move in last week. Super exciting stuff. This is by far the nicest place we have ever lived (outside of our parents homes) and we could not be happier. It is a great size for the two of us and is in a good location for commuting to work and visiting family and friends. 

Unpacking is coming along quite nicely! The kitchen is done.. Hallelujah. I truly missed having my own kitchen. Our dining room and the living room are both done, they just have some boxes hanging out in them for now. Thanks to my stud muffin, our desks are put together in the office and we are planning on getting that unpacked and organized this week. Bathroom has the essentials out with the boxes tucked away and out of sight until I get some shelves for under the sink storage. As for our bedroom.. well it kind of looks like a war zone. That door definitely gets shut when guests are over right now. But with everything that has been going on I feel like we have done a lot of work around here, so I am pleased. 

Over the past couple of weeks Tom and I have both been fighting off colds. I also found out I have an eye infection in my left eye which is not only very painful but also requires eye drops that make my vision very blurry. With the fight to stay healthy, our move, and our new jobs we were both very tuckered out when Thanksgiving showed up on our front step, so we decide to stay home and celebrate Thanksgiving just the two of us. It was a bummer we didn't get to see his family, but we are planning a weekend to go out and see them before Christmas :) 

I braved the crowds on Wednesday night to grab the Thanksgiving essentials for our feast! I do not recommend going out the day before Thanksgiving for your food.. It was a total zoo at the grocery store. But I got everything we needed and drove home to start getting everything ready. 

As far as cooking goes, preparing our meal was a breeze compared to last year. I did have more utensils and tools this time which was really nice, but everything turned out perfectly and I had it ready around 4 o'clock (which according to Tom is apparently the right time to have Thanksgiving dinner). We started our meal with a salad, followed by turkey, garlic red pepper mashed potatoes, green beans with red onion, garlic, and bacon, dinner biscuits, and had pumpkin pie and cookies for dessert. Here are some pics of our yummy meal:

Sorry I didn't take any pictures of us on Thanksgiving.. But I did manage to get one of Tifa and Thomas! :)

My fur babies are so cute! I can not believe how big Tifa is getting, remember when she was smaller than Thomas? Anyway, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! 

Happy Day!

Free Printable via Me Making Do

Some good news finally came our way this past week. Our apartment that was originally going to be ready December 11th, will now be ready for us to move in next Friday! Obviously, we are super excited. It will be nice to have all of our stuff in one place again. I am most looking forward to having my closet with space to hang my clothes up, as well as my kitchen stuff (mostly my spice cabinet), and of course my crafting space. 

But as I have mentioned before, I can't wait to be able to decorate everything and get the place feeling homey! Maybe I will post some pictures of the new place when it is finally all done! :) We will see!

I hope everyone has had a relaxing weekend before all the crazy, holiday stuff starts sucking up your time. Be sure to stop by on Tuesday for the most delectable cookie recipe ever! 

A Little Late - Life Update

Happy Tuesday everyone! I hope everyone enjoyed the free printable that was on the blog yesterday! If you missed it, follow {this link} to check it out!

I wanted to take some time to write about things that have been happening in my life. It has been really great being back in Oregon with our family and friends. I didn't realize how much stuff we had missed out on! I am feeling really thankful to be back in Oregon, even if the weather does suck. ;)

I was hoping to split these up into separate post's, but of course I didn't get around to it in time. And now it's halfway into November so I figured I better just squeeze it into one post before it is to late to post at all!

The past couple of weeks have been very busy, but in a good way! The week of Halloween was really fun. Tom and I went to the pumpkin patch for the first time together. It was a great little date. We needed some time to ourselves to enjoy each other's company doing something fun and brainless together. Here are some pics from the trip.

Later in the week we carved our perfect pumpkins! I honestly have no idea what Tom was going for when he planned his design.. He had some bumps in the road, but in the end it turned out pretty awesome! I had been planning to do a kitty since September, so I had mine all planned out! In the end, our pumpkins turned out super cute, very happy with the results. 

Then of course we went trick or treating with Tom's family on Halloween. It was very cold, but we had lots of fun! Sorry for the poor iPhone picture quality.. 

One of my favorite things I have done since we got back is I got to see my bestie, Emily!! We had an evening full of gossip, food, and fun. I knew I had missed that girl, but didn't realize how much until I saw her again. Isn't she just the cutest? :)

Do I have you crying "Uncle" yet with all this information? There is more, but this is the best part I promise. Tom and I celebrated three years together last week! I can't believe I have been with him for three whole years. Wow! It is so crazy to think about.. Crazy in a good way :)

We didn't do anything too extravagant for each other. We went for a stroll downtown then out to our favorite restaurant after Tom was done with work. We were SUPPOSED to have a no present rule.. Which Tom broke. He made me look like a jerk. He got me a snowman stuffed animal and a snowman picture holder so we can put a picture from the evening in to remember forever. I love snowmen, so these gifts were awesome in my eyes! Again, I am going to apologize for the poor iPhone pictures!

Can I just say that I feel incredibly blessed to have this man in my life? Yes, of course I can it's my blog! ;) Tom is truly the best thing that has ever happened to me. He is such an amazing person who always pushes me to be the best person I can be. He is encouraging, honest, generous, and sincere.He can make me laugh at times when I don't think I can. He continues to amaze me even after three years. Honestly, I fall more in love with him everyday.

I better stop before I start crying :')

Well you made it down to the very end of this post! If you couldn't tell I am feeling very blessed right now. I still can't wait to move in to our apartment! I am hoping to get some sewing time in this week, my Mom has some things she needs fixed, mended, and created. Looking forward to getting behind her old Singer machine again! Have an awesome day you guys! :)

Final Moving Update

This will be the last Moving Update for a while (yay!). Yesterday we found out we were approved for the apartment we wanted and today we put our deposit down! Yippee! Unfortunately we will have to wait until the beginning of December to move in, but it's worth it considering this is the place we both really wanted to live. December seems like such a long ways away right now, but it will be here before we know it. 

I will say it feels really great knowing we now will have a place of our own again soon! I miss having our fridge.. But I am very grateful that we both have awesome parents who are letting us store our things (and ourselves) at their houses until our place is ready. Yay parents, we owe you! 

Our animals are adjusting really well. Thomas is super stoked to be back on his "turf", seeing as this is the house he spent almost all of his life in. It is adorable seeing him in such a happy mood because he is "home again". I'm sure it helps that he has his window perches back to watch the birdies :) Tifa is also adjusting well. She LOVES having our families and all the new animal friends around. 

Overall things are good. The first days back in Oregon were very stressful, but I think we are finally over that now.. Especially since we found a place to live! My only complaint is the weather, I miss the warm, 75 degree days! But who wouldn't right? 

Big Announcement!

Yesterday I announced on my Facebook page to keep your eyes peeled for a big announcement on the blog.. Well here it is! 

(again)

This is pretty BIG and exciting news for our little family, seeing as we have been wanting to move back to Oregon pretty much since we left. 

This past Friday we found out Tom was offered an engineering position with a company up in Oregon. I am over the moon happy and excited for him to start this next phase of his career! He is very smart, talented, and a complete professional; I know he is going to rock at this job. 

Thankfully, we have three weeks to move this time, as opposed to one! It feels so good to have the opportunity to try and sell or donate things we no loner need or use, as opposed to just throwing everything in boxes to get the heck out of dodge! 

Unfortunately this means I will probably be more scarce on the blog this month. I had every intent of having some Halloween tutorials up for you all, but moving comes first! Hopefully I can find some time to put something together, but I can't promise anything :( Lame I know...  I will however try to post little updates of our moving progress and adventures!

Until then readers! Have a great day! :) 

Birthday Adventures

In the weeks leading up to my birthday, I had no idea what I wanted to do to celebrate it. Of course Disneyland was on my list, but we really didn't want to spend that much money and plus we just went before Christmas. So that idea was out! Then I thought the beach. I have always wanted to visit a beach in California. I don't know why but it just seems so much better than an Oregon beach. But then I heard a commercial on the radio for the San Diego Zoo! I proposed the idea to Tom (if we are taking a trip I wanted to make sure he had fun too!) and he thought it was an awesome idea. So we started planning our zoo trip!

I was pretty much on the zoo's website everyday, all week long. I would watch the live cams of the animals and browse at everything they had to offer. Yeah, I was really excited! Since my birthday was on a weekday we really couldn't go then, so Tom took me out to my favorite restaurant. I basically just got to relax after work which was really nice! 

On Saturday we woke up early to head out, and still didn't make it out the door on time! ;) We are pretty much always late... BUT we are getting better! Only 10 minutes late that time! After a quick breakfast stop we were on our way!!

This trip was one of the most fun things we have ever done together. We got to see so many animals we had never seen before, and most importantly we got to feed the giraffes!! AHHH!! It was the PERFECT day! If you have never been to the San Diego Zoo before, you really need to go! :) 

Get ready for a picture explosion! Here are some of the pictures we took. I tried to pick the ones that documented our favorite things that happened! :)

Waiting in line for giraffe feeding tickets!!

Our turns next!

Most AMAZING experience EVER!!! 

His tongue wrapped around your hand!

We had never seen a koala bear before. 

It's safe to say we both love them now!

A kangaroo finally woke up and hopped around for us!

This is a honey badger. He was so playful and cute! 

He reminded us of a kitten. 

We were right next to this guy. So awesome.

AHHHH we were SO close to a polar bear!! I love polar bears! 

Tom found a polar bear book and was reading it to me. 

Pretty much my three favorite things: Reading, Polar Bears, and Tom <3 font="">

Right next to a sleeping hippo!!

The end of our trip!

A note to all future zoo-goers. Wear sunscreen! We were silly and didn't, and we payed the price! Still a great trip though with amazing memories! :) Thanks for reading!