Home for the Holidays Part I

The best part of this Christmas was spending it in Utah with my family. It was so fun sharing all of our traditions with Blake this year.

We introduced my mom to Trader Joe's and had a blast shopping at City Creek for some last minute gifts. The candy windows are back! Although not quite as good as the ones from my childhood but I still loved them.

I chopped 9 inches off of my hair and then we ate Blake's faaaavorite meal at the Dodo. Anyone in SLC, go eat their turkey sandwiches NOW.

Blake has never been to a family Christmas party (no extended fam in Seattle) so the Siddoway party was quite the introduction! We ate the traditional meal of pulled pork sandwiches, salad, scalloped potatoes and jello :) This year we threw in a baked brie to be extra fancy.

 Then my 40+ family members played the notorious "Left Right game" in honor of Grandpa. You read a dumb story and everytime "left" or "right" is said, you pass a candy bar left or right. Sounds simple but we seem to mess it up every year. Grandpa always bought THE worst candy bars like Mounds, Look, 5th Avenue, Big Hunk or Necos so all the kids always fought over the few good candy bars. Then we sing Christmas carols and dance our hearts out to Calypso Christmas- a great 80s Christmas song my uncle produced.

 Our best cousins Cori and Nate who are expecting a baby boy this spring! yay! 

 On Saturday we drove up to Logan to kidnap my naughty 2 year old niece Anne because Sara had the flu and bad babies make everything more fun. First things first, a top knot of course.

 Every year we go caroling to a rest home that is a little run down... and... well, sad really. Old people just make me cry. But it felt nice to brighten their day and they all adored Anne- and Blake's singing of course.

Delivering their goody bags- bananas, tissues and candies!

This lady only spoke Spanish and was obsessed with Blake once he started speaking back to her.

I just smiled and nodded my head.

Part II up next!

O Christmas Tree

Blake had about a week off from school before we left for Utah. He performed all sorts of good hubby duties around the house and even came to work with me. I go into classrooms every week and do a little language theme based activity. Last week was Christmas tree themed and I got an idea from my friend Katie to dress up my tall hubby as a live Christmas tree. The kids were a little in awe to see a giant white male come through the door but they all instantly loved him :) We sang songs and put lights, ornaments and even a star on Blake. My favorite little girl even cried when Blake left. I think he was definitely a hit and all the teachers keep asking me when he'll be back. Hooray for bring your husband to work days!

#paris

I married the Points King of the World! Blake found an incredible deal on roundtrip flights to PARIS.  Normally a domestic flight is about 25,000 miles but we are flying to Paris for only 30,000 miles roundtrip!  Scccore. Even better, we had enough points leftover to pay for a hotel for our stay.
We are thrilled to have found such a great bargain and feel to blessed to be able to celebrate February 14, 2013 in the City of Love.

I've never been to France so I need some tips: good shoes, what to pack, etc. so comment away please!

DIY Headbands

It's no secret that I am in love obsessed with headbands. My collection continues to grow much to Blake's dismay. I think it's pretty fair that my headbands take up an entire shelf in our only storage closet though right??

I stumbled across some adorable ribbon headbands at Anthropologie and lucky for me (and unlucky for Blake) they were on sale! Away went 4 beautiful headbands tucked alongside their friends in my closet. 

After I wore these little suckers a couple of times though I realized they were honestly just ribbon. Adorable ribbon but still just ribbon all the same. Hmp. Anthropologie you got me again! 

Anthropologie. 4 for $15 (on sale for $6)

But wait! Don't be discouraged! My cute friend Chelsea showed me a website where you can buy the e.x.a.c.t same ribbon suuuper cheap. Like we're talking $.50 a yard.....so I just logged right onto that website and ordered 40 yards. That seemed like a reasonable number at the time.

The website is: http://www.sunshineshoppesupply.com/Fold_over_elastic_5_8th_inch_p/foeyard.htm

I bought the fold over elastic and the glitter 5/8th inch elastic. Just FYI one yard makes about 2 headbands or 4 hair ties.  
You simply measure out your ribbon, chop it and tie it! So simple. Tip: Paint the ends with clear nail polish to prevent fraying. 

Then I stored them in some tins from Pick Your Plum- another wonderful craft website.

I knew my sheep skin rug was the perfect back drop for these!
Don't worry they look cuter in person

I made about 20 for myself. Yep 20. And then I had about 20 left over for gifts.
All in all for $15 I made about 40 headbands.

Can't beat the math here. 40 > 4 so take that Anthropologie!

Consider this my gift to all of you- Merry Christmas! And a big thanks to Chelsea for showing me the website!

[P.S. If some of you get these for Christmas from me... just act surprised :) ]

T Give

To celebrate Thanksgiving, Blake and I headed up to Rochester, NY to see four little munchkins and my brother JR and sister in law Angie. We finally got to meet baby Everett and he is simply adorable.

Blake was a baby hog all weekend and mastered the "possum hold"- a very advanced baby hold.

BFFs

The real highlight of the weekend was mastering the baby top knot. 

I think we should all be a little more grateful for top knots in our lives. 

Awwww

 Sydney created a little salon for us girls and we had a nail polish party. It was pretty awesome.

Sydney dictated a book to JR all about horses. (She must be your soul mate Steph :)) 

It will probably be a best seller by next Thanksgiving. 

We continued the Faust tradition and made our annual ginger bread house. 

Every year we get more advanced, I mean check out those reindeer on the roof. Am I right?

There was a lot of playing dress up and reading books together

What little sweetie pies

It was Blake's first holiday as an uncle and it's safe 

to say he was a big hit and stole all of the attention.

Fine by me- I just hung out in the corner and ate all of the rolls, suckas!

A big thanks to Miss Angie for all of the yummy food and good times! We love you guys!

Blake and I have a lot to be grateful for this year including all of our newlywed adventures, my job, his school, oxfords, ruffles, instagram, twitter, our new families and looooove. Happy Thanksgiving!

Also JR performed surgery on both Blake's eye and my cheek on the living room floor. Scapel, gauze and magnified glasses and all! Goodbye cysts! So that was an exciting weekend wrap up. 

Thanks for the free medical care bro! 

Roosevelt Island

Before Blake starts ditching me for the library every night to study for finals, we are making the most of our weekends. We finally made it out to Roosevelt Island and it was beautiful! We went at dusk and the lighting was perfect. We walked around and enjoyed the last of the fall leaves. Although I am soooo excited for the holidays (yay Utah!) I am a little sad to see fall go. Nothing compares to DC in the fall.

her october happy list.

Pumpkin frozen custard. Just...wow.

Dark purple nail polish.

Modern Family just keeeeps getting better folks!

Newly discovered show- Homeland. Claire Danes is intense. 

Hot bubble baths.

Seeing my nieces and nephews in 18 days!

2 days off of work! For free!

Craft nights with the girls.

Anthro headbands on sale.

Halloween Oreos. Am I right?

Old roommate dinners.

Trick or treating with my adorable kiddos at work. 

Starbucks gift cards.

Discovering a new (and better!) Target.

Pitch Perfect.

Getting my Christmas vacation time approved. Utah here we come!

Buying a TV for our bedroom. (It was a need)

PUFFY VEST! After searching in vain for weeks, the sweetness of a puffy vest is mine!

Blake's birthday celebrations!

How to survive a hurricane

Cancel school and work for 2 days and proceed as follows:

We were quite pleased with how we fared during Hurricane Sandy. 

We were very fortunate to keep our power/water/sanity. 

We enjoyed our little hurri-cation together and are sending happy thoughts and prayers to those affected.

Too wet to blog

We are having a grand ole time trying to keep dry, eat all our snacks and cuddle up watching movies. Hooray for electricity and no work! Hurricane party for 2 please.

Happy Birthday Blake!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLAKE!

Being married to you has made me so happy.

Thanks for doing most all of the cooking and most all of the laundry.

You are so hardworking, loving and hilarious.

I'm lucky to be your Mrs!

 

 

Thanks for always making me the best diet cokes, singing along to the radio with me, letting me cry during Greys, supporting me in my new job and loving me for all my weirdness.

We have had so many adventures and I can't wait for more to come!

All my love,

your wifey

P.S. I expressed shipped your walker to come this week you ooooold man :)