Its beginning to look alot like Christmas!

I know this snow is from a few weeks ago, but it fit my theme of beginning to look like Christmas. This was really the first big snow we have gotten, and I loved it! So pretty out!

My apartment has become Christmas central! Starting the day after Thanksgiving, I have been decorating quite a bit. But I love it! I kind of have alot put into my little apartment, but it makes it feel very cozy in here. Its great! This is my living room window. Twinkle lights, subway art with christmas song names, and a Nativity board.

 Here is a close-up of the nativity board. It was one of the new projects for this year, and I love how it turned out. Thanks for the inspiration, C and K!

 This is the top of my entertainment center. 

 This is garland and a fresh wreath on my water-heater doors. Love the smell!

 The kitchen has even gone Christmas! Little ball ornaments strung in the window

 My Christmas tree. You can't tell, but there are red and silver balls all over the tree.

 The other new project of the season: Mesh bubble wreath. Still need to tweak it a bit but its turning out kinda cute!

Tonight I was inspired out of nowhere to make cranberry banana bread. It looks really pretty! The taste is somewhat unusual...its really yummy but an interesting combination of 2 flavors! As much as I like this one, I think I will just stick with banana bread and cranberry bread seperatly. But it was fun to try out!! 

I am so ready for Christmas! I love this season, and the fact that I get to fill my apartment with tons of cute decorations! I am just waiting for more precipitation to make things white....

October/November

 October was pretty fun overall. Its starting to get cold, which means its soup weather! Love it! Here is my version of homemade chicken noodle soup. It was delish!

I had this craving for chocolate pudding one night, and decided to try making it from scratch just for fun. The end result: it looked really pretty, but I am not a fan of the taste of homemade chocolate pudding. What a shame....

 And also, here is a cute picture of J. I got to spend a few days with him, playing and being silly.

 Here is my attempt at a Halloween/Thanksgiving decoration. It actually doesn't look too bad in this picture....but in real life, it just looked white, and not crystal-y like it was supposed to. Too bad, such a cute idea!

 I got to go spend some time with K and J, and they took me to the zoo before it got too cold. It was a fun trip, I enjoyed seeing all the animals! Most of them were quite active while we were there! J loved them as well, I think his favorite was the tiger!

 They had a new little 2 month old baby giraffe. The baby was 6 ft tall! So cute!

Starting off September

 September has started off great....first with a flat tire. My car tire light came on, so I checked the pressure in my tires. One was WAY low, but didn't think much of it. Woke up the next morning to a completely FLAT tire. Yay! Luckily I had some great help from PJ and C, he put the spare on for me and we set out to the tire place to get it fixed. Obviously, it was Labor Day and noone was open then. So Tuesday I went and got it fixed. Now it works and everything is fixed and well again. Just thought my poor car looked so sad and pathetic with the donut on it!

Wore some of my new school clothes today, and am loving them! I got the brown sweater cover thingy with M, and the new necklace with C at the Woman's Expo last weekend. Altogether, I think I pulled off a pretty cute outfit!

 

Lately I have been getting a little tired of the decore in my house and decided it was kinda time for a change. So I got this framed piece from a store and have been trying to decide where to put it for quite a while. I finally found a good spot for it - in the kitchen! It looks alot smaller and higher in this picture than it really does....but I like where it is and how it fits in.

The second project of the re-decoration was this fun little piece. K found these mirrors at the Dollar store and put them together in this fun way. I decided I really liked it and tried it out. It was interesting trying to hang 9 different frames to make them all even and match up, but I am loving the look. Very much different but very fun!

End of summer

During the last part of July I got to go home for a few weeks before summer officially ended for me...it was a great trip. I love being home, and getting to see this every day....

   

While I was there, M and D had gotten two boxes of cherries. They were pretty done with them by the time I got there, but I jumped right in and ate away. The yellow/red ones are my favorite. I love cherries!

 One of the projects I took up while I was home was re-painting these whirly gigs. My grandpa made them years ago, and they had gotten kind of faded and rough. I sanded and re-painted them all, they look so much better now!







Another project I undertook: jam. Love making it. Along with the 2 boxes of cherries, they got a ton of apricots off their tree.  I decided to make two batches of apricot pineapple jam, and 2 batches of regular apricot. Turned out so pretty, and not to mention it tasted pretty great too!

 Here is the jam - all of it. I ended up making 5 batches total. 2 apricot pineapple, 2 regular apricot, and one raspberry peach. Yummy stuff!

 I managed to convince M and D to take a quick trip up to Tahoe for a day. It was so pretty there. We just spent the day sitting on the beach, reading, watching the boats and all the people. It was so relaxing. I love going there, and am so glad they let me convince them to go up there!!!

While at the lake, I was just sitting and reading for a couple hours. I wasn't in the sun THAT much, and it was not too hot, I thought I was fine without sunscreen. Like always. Turns out I came home with a little present.....a red back and shoulders.

 After a great trip, I made the long trek back home with M and D. On our way, we stopped at Burger King and saw an ad for a bacon sundae. I know, right? Decided we should try it. It was...interesting. Vanilla ice cream, chocolate and caramel syrup, and bacon. It was the salty/sweet combo that is pretty good, but I would have preferred the bacon to be in smaller pieces. As it was, they basically just laid 2 or 3 strips right on the ice cream. It was definitely interesting, not horrible, but not amazing. A fun treat for sure!




I found a recipe on Pinterest I decided to try. Apple pie bites. Basically you take pie crust, cut it into long strips, place a few apple slices in sugar and cinnamon on them, roll them up and bake them. Pretty tasty! We also tried a variation using cresent rolls instead of pie crust. I liked both versions! Mini apple pies. They looked pretty great too!

Before I left, I decided to put up m's bulletin board at work. This years inspiration was Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Turned out pretty cute, don't ya think?

 New school dress. Loving the purple color!

 M and D decided to stay up here for about a week before they went back home. While everyone was here, I got the grand idea to make a spectacular cake. It was an adventure.... J helped me mix the batter (and ate a little off the beaters....which he LOVED), it cooked (which I didn't cook it long enough, and had to end up re-cooking the middle layer), and then it looks like it is oozing and sliding everywhere. It actually tasted really good, after it took like 4 hours to make.....

 The inside was more impressive. This is the reason it took 4 hours to make! It wasn't just your normal 3 layer cake. This was a checkerboard cake. Turns out that the checkerboard actually looks better and cuts better when it has sat for a day. Still turned out pretty cool!!!

 On one of our trips out, J fell asleep in the car. We just transported him from the car seat to the basket where he continued to nap in the store. Love this picture of him....

For my birthday (as well as the girls too), we got a ticket to go see "Wicked" in Salt Lake. Loved the show! It was fun to get to see it with my sisters. Turns out that the show was on the first day of school....made for quite a long day but it was well worth it! They did a fantastic job, and it was a fun story. I love going and seeing plays and shows like this. It was great!!! Thanks M and D for the ticket, and C, P, K, and C for making it a great night!

Summer Fun

On my way to pick C and P up from the airport in the middle of July, this was the temp recorded by my car.  It started out being 99, then slowly rose as I got closer and closer to the airport. By the time I got there, this was the readout. Hot? Yes. Too hot? YES!

We took J to his favorite Bean Store (Bean Museum). He was so excited to see all the stuffed animals!

We got to play around alot this summer. This is his CHEEEEESE face. Cute!

K and I were testing projects for her Girls Camp activities. J decided to model some of them for us. The duct tape rings turned out fun. A little too big for me, but they were fun!

 We also tried making starburst bracelets. They were much easier than the rings, but did take a while. They look kinda fun, don't ya think?

 

I found a new hairstyle online somewhere that I decided to try out. Its basically a french braid across the front part of your head, and goes down around the side. Kinda fun!

 I undertook the job of making some PJ's for J. Simple task, right? Just some little pj pants. Right.....for whatever reason these two pants were almost the death of me. The pattern confused me to no end, and I had to get help to finish them. Luckily, the kid loved them. Almost made the frustration worth it :)

 (Just loved this material!!)

July 4th, 2012

 This year, for the 4th of July, I had a lot of things planned. I was really excited about everything that was going on, and the long day ahead! 

The Orem Owlz had a baseball game right before the 4th and they had fireworks after the game. Its always fun to go and see the game, and the fireworks after were pretty great! I love them!

The morning of the 4th, the city had hot air balloons that they let off early in the morning. It was fun to go and see them so up close!

 They flew right over my head! Awesome!

 The sunday before the 4th, I got to go to Music and the Spoken Word. They had the Choir, the Orchestra, and the Bells at Temple Square. They put on a great program and it was fun to get to see them in person.

 After the hot air balloons few over head, I got to hang out in this crowd for quite a while....

 ...for the 4th of July Parade downtown Provo. Had pretty good seats, got to see the parade which was really fun, and it got over before it got way too hot. It was great!

Later in the day, had a 4th BBQ. Homemade hamburgers, grilled corn, baked beans, and chips. Love it!

The best part of dinner? Homemade strawberry ice cream. Delish!

 This year I decided to have some fun and go patriotic with my nails. I pretty much love them!

 Somewhere in Alpine this fire got started in the hills. IT was crazy how quickly it grew and how close it was!

After the balloons, the parade, the bbq it was time for the big event - Stadium of Fire. I have never been before, and decided this year to give it a try. The Beach Boys were the big ticket of the show, and I was so excited to go see them in person! This is me before the show started. It was REALLY hot out waiting for the sun to go down. Definitely so worth it though!

 On stage before the Beach Boys was Scotty McCreery, winner of some season of American Idol. He was actually really good, I was impressed! They had a ton of teenage girl dancers out on the field dancing while he sang. (He is on stage in this picture...)

 Finally after a long wait, the Beach Boys came onstage and played. They were pretty darn good! It was so fun to hear all the songs I listened to over and over when I was littler (and still listen to sometimes!) They definitely put on a good concert!

 Singing one of the classics!

 After they preformed, the fireworks started! LOVED them! They were so close, shot off from the other side of the stadium! It was definitely the highlight of the show, and SO worth it!!!

The pictures don't do them justice at all. But it was an incredibly fun day! The day started way early and ended way late, but I had so much fun doing everything patriotic!