it's beginning to smell and look like christmas

today i got home from teaching my class, turned on sufjan steven's christmas album, and peeled a clementine. the clementine smelled so strong, it was the first time it really felt like christmas to me even though we decorated our christmas tree and house for christmas last weekend.  looking through some of my pictures i've taken recently, it's beginning to look like christmas around our house too.

christmas kiss cookies - check

decorating christmas trees - check

favorite ornaments - check

snow - check (well sort of...)

christmas lights - check

clementines - check check check!

now if i could only get through the rest of this week (it's the absolute worst to be a student this time of year) and i will be feeling full-blown in the christmas spirit!  

oh and did i mention we got another nephew last week? steven ramsey facer. we love you already. that's the 4th capua baby this year - 4th!  it's a good thing there are so many babies around for us to hold and hang out with otherwise we might start wanting one of our own.

saturdays at our house

most of our saturdays are spent like this - even though it was perfectly perfect weather outside today, we could barely move from the couch.

and even though we love our lazy saturdays, we were excited erica & alex gave us something to do in the evening and a reason to get off the couch.  

we saw this idea at smith's to make a nose out of the stem and couldn't resist.  and good job tanner for making it turn out so well!  and of course, no pumpkin carving event can pass without me mentioning the time my brother threw up inside his pumpkin while wearing gloves only meant for snow using a big stirring spoon to dig out the pumpkin guts.  that will probably be my favorite halloween memory for a long time.  

i'm so excited the holiday season is upon us!

happy love day

photobooth is so much more convenient for blogging than taking a photo with an actual camera. think about it.  after i take the picture i have to search for my usb cord, plug it into my computer, wait for everything to upload and then wait for it to post to my blog.  whereas with photobooth, two clicks away and voila! posted!  do i sound lazy?  well someday i promise i will upload my pictures from my camera that i believe still have {christmas} photos and share them with you.  for now, enjoy photobooth!  

anyway, here's to a very relaxing valentine's in bed wearing a spider man shirt and doing homework with the husband.  oh yeah, not to mention homemade meatballs and sauce, garlic bread + pasta, roses, and watching arrested development on netflix for hours on the couch.

nothing better than another good excuse to spend time with those you love.

and speaking of love, how cute is my little sister and her boyfriend?? ADORABLE.

happy v-day everyone!

thanksgiving and the beginning of the holidays

For Thanksgiving we went to Iowa and had a relaxing time with my family.  We ate lots of treats, went out to all my favorite restaurants as usual (does my vacation seem like it revolves entirely around food?), learned how to fold fancy napkins, went thrifting, saw Harry Potter, slept in late, did not do homework, were freezing, and most importantly spent time with family.  Shea was there, which was especially fun, considering this was the first time I had seen her in over two years.  I was happy to start the holiday season off with my family and am looking forward to spending the rest with Tanner's.  We are so lucky to both have such great families.

attempting to take a family photo via self-timer, turned out pretty cute

The only thing between me and Christmas break is two ten page papers, one four page paper, and five finals.  I can do it!! I think...

A Christmas Miracle

Our house is at least a century old and probably older.  We love it, but it definitely has its challenges...for instance how there are no closets, how there is no central heating or ac, how we don't have a dish washer or washing machine, how there is no shelving space, how most of the outlets only have two sockets instead of three, and oh yeah how those outlets seem to appear in random spots so you have millions of cords weaving around the entire house...but all of these seemingly inconveniences make me love this house so much more because they usually become puzzles to solve or creative projects.  Plus, a lot of the things I listed really aren't that big of a deal anyway.  The heating system seems to work pretty well so far, we haven't dealt with the ac issue yet, we do our laundry once a week at Tanner's parents, having to actually wash our dishes by hand has made us cleaner overall, and no closets or shelving space has made us actually sort through all of our random stuff, making our house more organized.  But the outlet problem never ceases to be an annoyance, especially in the kitchen and living room.  I feel like we have SO many extension cords and power strips.  We even have to plug the toaster oven into an extension cord across the kitchen to use it.

Last night we were setting up our Christmas tree and as you can now imagine, I was thinking about which extension cord and outlet we should use - or if we were going to have to buy another extension cord - just to plug in the Christmas tree lights.  That's when the miracle happened.  We moved the armoire we keep in the living room a little to the right to make room for the tree and voila! there was an outlet I've never seen before.  No need for an extension cord at all.  Picture evidence to follow.  

example A: toaster oven connected to two
socket extension cord.

example B: giant power strip connected to
hundreds of cords.

final product/a christmas miracle - no

extension cord needed!

tired&sleepy husband on a snowy sunday

Happy (early) Christmas season to all!