Just a few of the reasons why I loved Christmas break

(click on pictures to enlarge)

 Lots of cute boys !

 Traditions: My family has been making gingerbread houses for as long I can remember.  Doug's family has been parading through neighbors houses with pots and pans on New Years for as long as he can remember.  And of course the traditional stair case line up that we both grew up with. 

 More wonderful cousin memories were made:  Some of the highlights include a Polar Express ride to the 'North Pole' and a trip to the snow. 

Some serious love was in the air:  It was so fun to participate in the wedding celebrations!  

  The highs and lows of fashion

We celebrated our 5th anniversary! (We were more than happy to share it with these guys!)

Even nearly 9 month pregger ladies were allowed out on the dance floor. 

 So many laughs!

...and oh so many many more reasons that my 400+ pictures tried to capture. 

I looked out the window

and guess what I see...

We enjoyed our 1 day of a Houston White Christmas!

What is it about snow that is so magical to look at! We spent the entire morning mesmerized, just looking out the windows. 

Doug came home extra early from school to play in the snow and drink hot chocolate with us! 

Family Fun

Doug and I are family people.  I think we are pretty lucky that we both come from such wonderful families that we love to spend time with.  I can't think of anything else I look forward to more than getting to spend time with my favorite people.  I love crazy houses full of kids.  It was so fun to host part of the party this Thanksgiving! (And much less stressful to cook Thanksgiving when you have 2 seasoned cooks in the kitchen helping!)  We are looking forward to our pilgrimage home in 17 days! (Although I think Cal may be most looking forward to see Grandma's dog Goldie and Grammie's dog Zoey.) 

We missed you Josh!

We had a great time at NASA, The Aquarium, The Natural Science Museum, Ice skating, parks, movies, eating out, etc.!

(And yes, my goal was to keep the chubby girl out of as many pictures as possible.)

Aunt Di

We kicked off the Thanksgiving week with a special visit from Cal's very own Princess Diana. Cal got lots of good fashion advice. 

They look like a pretty happy family don't they.  Although they all look a little too much alike. 

We all graciously helped Diana eat her delicious birthday cake. 

Diana was such a good sport!  She put up with Callin bossing her around all day telling her exactly how they were going to play.  This was the part he insisted on blowing on her belly over and over and over.  He probably likes to hear her laugh/snort as much as everyone else does.  It takes a long time to wear a two year old out of a good thing. 

We're so glad you came.  Come back soon!

The sum of my free time

The past 5 weeks or so, I have enjoyed working on our guest/baby room. It has been a process to kick Doug out of here, but come January, the desk, the mystery man who sits at it, and his hundreds of books full of gross pictures will be gone and a crib will come in its place.

A look behind the scenes...

Curtains: Did you know you can get very cute and cheap fabric from Ikea? Of course it was vertical stripes and I wanted horizontal, but after reading this blog post- the problem was easily fixed with a little sewing together. Can you tell? Say no.

Paint: I found this baby room and have been crushing on it ever since. I love the 1 dark blue/ 3 white walls. A great change from the full baby blue look it was.

Bed: Brand new from Craigslist.  (Great deal.)

Lamps: $7 from Ikea.

Headboard:  This was my first project for the room and it gave me the "crafty high" I needed to continue. It was so easy.  If you are interested here is a good tutorial on how to do it.  I found a large piece of plywood  in our garage (hopefully we won't be having anymore hurricanes anytime soon) and traced a pattern on to it.  The Douger was nice enough to stop studying for a second to cut it for me.

Next, pad it with 2 inch foam (I bought it at Hobby Lobby- 40% off coupon of course).  It looks like a little foam mattress you would take camping to sleep on.  Cut it to fit the board and use a spray adhesive to make it stick. Next, cover it in quilters batting, pull it tight around the back and staple gun it. 

(No skill involved whatsoever.)

Lastly, repeat with your fabric (1 1/2 yards, 40% off as well): lay it flat, pull it around the back, and staple gun.  And whala! A really cute headboard.     

We were given this great armoire this month.  With a little primer, gray paint, and some silver spray paint for the hardware, it fits in nicely and will make a perfect storage for the baby clothes.  I really wasn't looking forward to pulling out all the baby clothes, washing, and organizing them, but I can hardly wait now to get some bins and get to work. 

 That is about it for now.  There is nothing on the walls yet, but someday these cute pictures will hang above the crib.

Who could ask for anything more than...

a best friend reunion! It was 4 perfect days filled with play, good food, pedicures, sewing, uncontrollable laughter, deep conversations, very little sleep, and a tear or two.

Tara teaching us the art of eating Australia's famous Tim Tams

(complete with lots of hot chocolate and lots of ice cream.)
Of course this was just after tasting Erin's favorite cheese and peanut butter combo.

Thai food and Broadway's Mary Poppins.
(You can click on the pictures for a bigger look if you need a better look at the wigs!)

Yoga/photo shoot in the park. Both pure comedy.

Hours in the worlds best fabric store.

Late night/many mistakes on the sewing machines.

But how cute are our aprons! 

Visting our 4th grade teacher- Mrs. Peterson.

Houston Temple.

And a great pedicure where they tried to serve us wine the entire time. 

Now all I am left with is a quiet house and dreams of 2011! 

Happy Halloween

I wish every weekend could be filled with this much fun and dress up.

We loved our little horse!