Letter box!

     I have a nice photo box that I keep all my letters in and it had Winnie the Pooh on the lid. I wanted to mod podge some cute paper on it to make it more age appropriate (haha.. Shout out to my older sister who bought the box). Well, yesterday I finally decided I would give the box a makeover. My friend came over and had a brilliant idea (most of my brilliant ideas come from her brilliance) to mod podge newspaper on my box. Sooo that is exactly what I did! I love it and here is my lovely new and improved letter box :)

     Yes, the man in the corner is the man with the yellow hat from Curious George :) 

December!

     So, obviously I haven't posted very much for December. This month went by crazy fast, but it was great! I finished my 3rd semester of college! Yay! I finally have a few weeks to relax before I do it all again. :) Good thing I enjoy what I am learning. 

     I also got to spend a weekend with all of my family on my moms side of the family for the weekend of my Grandpa's funeral which made a wonderful weekend, despite the sadness of it all. 

     I have had a wonderful break with my family. My mom and I have watched lots of Christmas movies together and made lots of treats. My mom and sister and I made candy cane cookies which are a tradition at my house. My grandparents found the recipe on the package of flour (if I remember right) when they were first married and have made those every year with their kids and I am glad my mom carried that tradition to our family.

     I had a wonderful Christmas with my family. Christmas Eve I was in the kitchen all day cooking yummy treats. We had dinner Christmas Eve with my family and sang Christmas songs by the piano and then my sister and brother in law came over and we played a few rounds of Uno.

     Christmas day was beautiful. We didn't wake up super early to open presents because my sister and brother in law weren't going to come over until later that afternoon. It was a little strange being able to sleep in on Christmas. We started off our day at church together. Going to church on Christmas made it easier to remember the Savior and the true meaning of Christmas. After church I went over to my best friends house to see his family and be there when he called from Yakima Washington. He is serving a mission there and he asked me to be there when he called his family on Christmas day. It was so good to talk to him. He was able to Skype with us and it was great to see his face. :) That was probably the highlight of my Christmas. After that, I went home and opened presents with my family and ate dinner. It was a really good day. :)

     Yesterday, Tiffany and I decided to have an adventurous day. We started out at Jimmy Johns where we picked up delicious sandwiches for us to devour on our picnic at Town Square. It was a really nice day to have a picnic. After that, we went to the dollar store because she threw her trash can away and has been needing a trash can for her room. Luckily, we found a perfect trash can for her room at Dollar Tree. She is thrilled! After that, we went to the mall and she found some dashing sunglasses and both of us found some earrings that we have been wanting. Later that night we decided to build a fire, watch a movie, eat pizza, drink hot chocolate and snuggle up in fuzzy blankets. We decided to rent The Help from red box. After lots of trouble with the movie being out of stock and my cards not cooperating with the machine, we got our movie of choice and our pizza (thanks to the change my brother gave me for Christmas) and went home to enjoy our night. Here are some lovely pictures of our movie night. :) 

Beautiful life.

Life is so beautiful. 

     First of all, it is incredible to me that we are born into a family unit and sometimes adopted (officially or not officially) into families. Whether they are blood family or not, they are a blessing. I have an incredible family and other families I have adopted as my own. I love them very much. The family unit is an incredible creation and it blows my mind how many people are linked together in families. 

     Second of all, Christmas is a beautiful time of the year. The love of God is apparent. He sent His son to us and this is the time of year to celebrate his birth and life. 

     Third, I got my homework done and I don't know how. But I am so happy. This week is going to be great, and I am going to make it a great week because after all, we all have the power to choose our attitude in every situation. :) Choose to be happy in all that you do. 

Carousel with the Family :)

So on Saturday morning we went to the Carousel with my Woodbury cousins and then I went to the Santa's Workshop with my Fenstermaker cousins and later that day we took them to the Carousel. :) Lovely fun day. 

Thanksgiving and Black Friday

Thanksgiving was really great this year. My cousins came into town and stayed at my parents house and it has been fun having them stay here. I love having thanksgiving at my moms house because this is only our second year doing it at my moms. Usually we have thanksgiving with the Woodbury side and then later spend time with my moms side, the Taylors, but this year we just had a small lovely dinner with the 13 of us on the Taylor side. :) It was a very yummy meal but my favorite part was spending time together preparing the food. It was a great thanksgiving and I am so blessed to have an incredible family.
     This year I really wanted to go shopping on black Friday so I told Tiff we should go and that is exactly what we did. I went to her house at about 9 and was so tired already and didn't know how we would be able to stay awake all night. Eventually we were being funny and had plenty of energy to last the night. Kohl's doors opened at midnight so we went to stand in line at 11. It was cold but we were happy and excited for our adventure. Tiffany's sister-in-law that we love decided to come with us and we were happy to have her accompany us. :) So, midnight finally came and we made it to the doors of Kohl's. Just as we were approaching the doors, we saw a bunch of people standing in the parking lot hoping to cut in line. The people near us in the line were upset. I didn't really care much because I just was there for fun. I kinda was curious about how crazy it would get and was kind of hoping I would see some crazy shoppers fight over something just to have a story to tell. :) But I did not wish anyone to get hurt. So this lady tried to cut in line in front of the lady behind us. She got a little upset and just politely asked her not to cut and this made the other lady really upset so she shoved her and was yelling at her. The lady who was trying to cut in line had the most angry face and I was slightly scared for the lady behind us haha. But then a worker told them to calm down and it was all over. That is the only crazy shoppers story I have this year. Long story short, Tiff and I found the stuff we wanted and we waited for 2 solid hours in line that wrapped around the entire store. After our adventure at Kohl's, we went to McD's and got a bite to eat at 3am and headed off to Target. We found stuff at Target and headed for home. My mom and cousins wanted to go shopping at the mall at 7 that morning so I went home and cleaned my house until it was time to do some more shopping. We finally made it home and I was able to take a nap. I slept for 6 hours! I didn't think I would sleep that long but it was a lovely slumber. Once I woke up, my cousins and I went to the Santa's Workshop, which is one of my favorite traditions each Thanksgiving weekend. This has been a perfect relaxing weekend which is exactly what I have been needing this semester. :) I am so blessed. :) 

Happy Black Friday Shopping! :)  Tiffany has great taste in hats haha. :)