All Dressed up and Places To Go...

We have been fortunate enough to have so many opportunities to get dressed up this month and attend a lot of fun events. I love to be able to wear fun dresses and get all glammed up to have some fun. The first thing we went to was the Kadiza Christmas Party. What a Blast.

We attended a friend's wedding this past weekend and got to dress up for that also. It was a lot of fun and we danced all night long!

This is us on Christmas day all ready to go to my Grandmother's house!

I LOVE the Holidays! They bring so many fun events!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night...

Christmas has finally come and passed. All the festivities, parties and family gatherings are over. It was such a wonderful time and so great to see all of our family and spend time with them. I look around me and realize how blessed we are. We had wonderful food and good company and so many presents. My very favorite thing about Christmas is getting to give gifts to people. I love that feeling to be able to make someone's day brighter. I LOVE seeing the little kids opening their presents and presents from Santa. I just want to take this time to say thank you to everyone for making this such a great holiday season and thank you to our Lord and Saviour for all the blessings we have and for letting us be here on this earth. Also thank you to my wonderful fiance for such a special first official Christmas morning just the two of us! I Love you!

Christmas Candy

I got in the mood to make some Christmas Candy after going to all the holiday parties and seeing all the delicious goodies. I went on Saturday night and got all my supplies. I decided to make 5 different recipes. I started baking around 1 AM which is just insane I know. I am such a night owl and knew I would be up late. I didn't stop until 4 AM. Whew! I was tired. Then I was back at it this morning around 10 AM and I think I am finally finished. I might need one more batch of peanut brittle because the first batch I made turned out great but was pretty small, so the second batch I decided to double the recipe but something went wrong and it never got crunchy. It just stayed chewy so I had to throw it away. Natalie had made a really good chocolate peanut crunch candy with a special ingredient that you wouldn't expect so I asked her for that recipe then looked on the internet and through my mom's recipes for some more. Here are the 5 I decided on...

1) Cinnamon Hard Candy

2) Chocolate Peanut Crunch

3) Peanut Brittle

4) Peppermint Bark

5) Candy Cane Blossom Cookies

All my goodies in Christmas Tins and ready to eat. Hopefully they will all be finished at the different get togethers we are having. I don't need this extra laying around the house.

Let me know if you want any of the recipes. They are all pretty simple and were so much fun to make!

Kadiza Christmas Party

We had our annual Kadiza Christmas Party this past Saturday. We had such a great time. Natalie hosted the party at her and Nick's beautiful house. She cooked us dinner : pecan crusted chicken, a pasta dish, grilled veggies, and bread. It was delicious! After dinner we did a Chinese Christmas Exchange and we all got into the game. We were stealing from eachother, and plotting with one another to get the gift we wanted. I got a Starbucks gift card (my favorite place) and Joseph stole back a wood sign that read "Blessed" that he knew I really wanted. After the gift exchange we played scattegories which I love! It was such a great time to all get together and I had so much fun. We also got some really great pictures!

Joseph and I

Jessica, Natalie, Me, and Lindsey



Kasey . Jessica . Natalie . Lindsey . Me

Christmas Photo Session

Joseph's parents wanted a picture frame for Christmas with some family pictures in it, so we grabbed the tripod and went to his brother's house to snap some photos.

Joseph, Zues, Me, & Gina Our Happy Little Family

This is Cowboy and his holiday pose!

Gina hated wearing her dress, but she did really good posing in it. This is a good picture to give Grandma and Grandpa for Christmas!

All of us: Cecilia, Homer, Cowboy, Joseph, Me, and Gina




Homer, Cecilia, & Cowboy's family photo.



Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Love,

Joseph, Holly, Zues & Gina

I'm So Ready!

Christmas is right around the corner and I am ready! The house is decorated, the tree is up, the stockings are hung, and the presents are wrapped. I have been listening to Christmas music since Thanksgiving (not always by choice) but I have really enjoyed it this year. I was so excited when I finally decided what to get everyone this year. I wish everyone a Happy and Safe Holiday season!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Im going to be HOMELESS!

Today I recieved a text from my roommate... It reads as follows. "Our lease is up on Jan. 31st not the the end of Feb." I really thought I had more time. AHHHHH!!!

I was under the impression that we would have to move out of ou rent house the very end of February. That is why I planned me wedding for the first weekend in March, that is why I planned on having a garage sale Feb 28th, that is why I have been procrastinatig about packing my things and start moving them to the house Joseph and I will share together when we marry in March. Now I'm freaking out a little at this point. I thought I would only have to move back home with the parents for a week before the wedding, NOT a WHOLE MONTH! It's not that I wouldn't love being back at the house I spent my whole childhood, it's just that I am used to a 6 minute drive to work, and being back home would mean a 25 minute drive. I really enjoy my sleep and I'm not sure if I could sacrifice that extra 30 minutes.

My sister has offered me a room at their house, and Jessica said I could have Chloie's Crib since she doesn't use it. The weekly rental hotel has crossed my mind, or I could live in my car. That would save me a ton of money. HA HA! I am a little excited about the fact that I will be saving a ton of money for the month of February. No rent, no dish bill, LPNL no more, and no more internet payments. Maybe I can live with the fact that I am going to be either homeless or a giant mooch for a month and just think about all the money I can save.

So if you see me on the street pushing a shopping cart or looking a little like this

just politely wave, or say hello. Hey, it's only temporary right!

HELP!

I was on the verge of doing a HELP ME post, but decided to help myself instead. I have been wanting to have a list of my favorite blogs and the ones I go to every day onto my blog, and low and behold I figured it out all by my lonesome. I know what all of you sophisticated, seasoned bloggers are saying, that you had that part figured out years ago. Well I am not the best blogger in the world. I'm still trying to figure out which is better to do, add your pictures or your words to your post first because never fail, I get my wording exactly how I want then in comes the picture to destroy all the pretty set up I have. Well anyway... enough with the rambling I can just hardly contain my excitement for discovering something new into the blogging world before I got down on my virtual hands and knees to beg someone out there to tell me how to do it!

Brace Face No More...

Today I got my braces off and what a GREAT feeling! The process was not very enjoyable but it's awesome to finally have the smile I want. Thank you St. Clair Orthodontics. Everyone there is so nice and friendly. So here it is... with the braces and then the final look!