2011 wrap up

There is so much that 2011 has brought. Good, bad, happy, and sad... and I am very glad that this year is on its way out the door. It wasn't a horrible year, but it wasn't my best. I am ready to bring in a new year with new hopes and new dreams, all to hopefully be fulfilled in 365 days. I thought I would talk about the good (and the bad) that 2011 has brought me.

January:
Although I feel asleep on new years eve at an early 10:00 I did wake up 30 minutes past midnight to kiss my lover farewell to another year and hello to a new year that lies ahead. By mid-January my year wasn't looking so bright as I spent a full week off work with a common cold... or so I thought, until I went to the doctor and found out it was the cold flu virus. But I hadn't thrown up.. until 45 minutes after I got home and spend the next 3 days doing just that with a stuffed nose, sore throat, and killer body aches. January wasn't much of anything for me :(

February:
When I wasn't down in January I was trying really hard to make my own creation. I know that it had been a couple months in coming but I finally completed the purple room. I love my purple room! I spent many night hanging out in there letting my creative juices flow.

March:
March was brought on by yet another photo shoot. I love Laine Images! March also brings the sense of summer coming in to our future... it starts off by the yearly world dutch oven competition. This has been a family tradition for years. This year was a first of not only 3 generations competing but of siblings, parents and grandparents competing against each other. My mom was on one team. My brother and his wife was on another, and my sister was my brothers son (nephew) were on another. Not to mention my brothers other son and my dad were runner and helpers in the competition. It was a fun time to see them all competing against each other.

April:
Hello Hollywood!!! Has that caught on yet? I had my 15 minutes of fame and that is what my dad now says to me. We had some amazing creatures at my work for 2 whole weeks. 'My what big eyes you have!'....

May:
With April bringing in good references to my work, May brought it a whole slew of bad! This month was one of my hardest months. One Saturday brought on a devastation to many in my company. It is still hard hearing bad words about the one person... even if is a small jab. Either way 2 families are hurting very very much. I was glad to see this month go!

June:
Ah! The summer months are here! Camping season began... although the farthest we took our trailer camping was to the back yard, our baby made her way down to the Paiute trail with us. This is the first time we went down there but it was we had an amazing time that I am for sure will be in our schedule for years to come. It was cold, warm, wet, snowey, and sunny while we were down there, We got all sorts of weather but it was still fun! Thanks Paiute!

July:
We had more riding... some new, some old. Mona Pole Trail was awesome.... soapstone was bug infested but if you kept on the move you did have a problem.... we also spent the first holiday with my family in a long time. Maybe because there was only a few there I was able to handle it. The 24th was fun, especially with kids. We cant forget to mention Red Butte gardens were a hit for my birthday!

August:
August lead us back to the Paiute with some family and friends. We had so much fun with lots of riding and some pretty amazing views in the morning. August I also started Wednesday wonders... I think they are a hit!

September:
This year for labor day we stayed back since both Bryce and I worked... but I decided to head out for some sister time that I hadn't had in a while. Our original plan was to take the kids swimming but we had a little accident and my niece broke her arm so we went to plan B - The zoo! I think the kids enjoyed themselves and I finally found my raspberry honey butter (the best!) that same day... YUM. 2 weeks after the zoo we had a new addition to my family. Welcome #17...

October:
October brought on a new store to me that is currently my favorite place. If you haven't checked this place out, I think you should... oh and make sure you have lots of money to spend! They rob me blind!!!! ok, I willingly give it to them.


November:
November brought me to Nablopomo... I failed miserably.... but at least I tried!

December:
December always brings me great happiness. I love this month and everything about it. December happens to be the month of Bryce's birthday. This year he turned 30 and thanks to some amazing friends and family I was able to pull of a surprise party for him. He really enjoyed himself.

Thanks to all of the people who are part of our lives. I don't think our year would be half as great without you. Now I better get going so I can say goodbye to this year and hello to a new one! Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas!

 I figured since I haven't really blogged lately that I would do a blog post on my house before I tear it all down next week.. and pack it away for another 11 months. I will start with my living room. I will tell you when and where I got it and around how much it cost. :)

This is on one of my end tables. I love how this turned out. I got this from the wood connections (all raw wood) and painted it myself.

I added this believe to it. I bought it last year at tai pan the day after Christmas for 50 cents or something. It is actually a tree ordiment. I took off the wire and used the wire for the bells on the shoes. The ends of the wire were already curled. I think they turned out so cute!

These I made just this year...

This joy I bought last year at Tai Pan. You cant see but it has a transparent glitter on it. I wanna say I paid 8.95 for this. I saw them again this year.

This year I bought this at Tai Pan. I bought it thinking that is came apart and was individual letters. I think it is really cute and was looking forward to stacking it in my purple room but to my surprise it is all connected! You can twist it to make it all funky looking. It was still cute and I wanted to keep it. I think it works perfect in front of the TV, even for the steep price of $12.99

This train Bryce has had since he was little. His grandma bought it for him when he was really little. There are lights that go with it but last year they broke, but I think it still looks cute in front of our TV

This sled I got raw - from wood connections. The total cost of it was $35... with the bell, ribbon and extras. I love it!

Here is the set up of our living room (kind of) with the TV, sled, train, believe and tree!

This Grinch I got this year from wood connections. I cant remember the exact price but I think it was around $17 plus $2 for the wire that I used on it.

 Now on to the kitchen!

The manager I also got from the wood connections. With the star and everything it came to $15.95. You can see the brown runner in the pic but I picked that up at hobby lobby this year for $10. It has some pretty snow flakes stitched into it :)

Here is above one of our cabinets in our kitchen. I have had this present for a couple of years. I got it from hobby lobby for $5 It also opens up so it can hold all of your holiday cards. I just like it for decoration.

The blue bulb I got last year at Target the day after Christmas. It cost me a whole 50 cents!!! The Ho Ho Ho I have had for a few years. I got that from Tai Pan for $15

My candy canes (next to the HO Ho Ho). I big candy cane is HUGE. It stands about 3 feet tall. I saw this last year at Tai pan and I could not get over that thing! I kept thinking about it for over a week before I finally caved and went to get it. I think it cost me $10 which I had a hard time spending on a candy cane. I obviously wanted it that bad. The smaller one I got from Tai pan also. Cant just have one!

 I have had this for a few years.. I got that from Tai pan too!

I got these from wood connections. I paid $10 for the set of 3. I bought these this year

The sled I got from Roberts 2 years ago. I got it for $7. RIP Roberts (sniff sniff)

These stars I picked up at Tai Pan. I got them last year and the big one was $7 and the smaller ones were $5. They had them again this year in all sorts of colors and sizes.

I had to show our stocking. I couldn't get our longer railing in the picture that has Bryce's dads, grandmas and grandpas stockings hanging up. Bryce's grandma made their stockings when he was little. I got mine from hobby lobby this year for $7! Can you see Bryce messing around in the picture?????

 On to the purple room:

Here is my entire shelf!

I got this from hobby lobby this year! It was $5

Wood connections. I believe it was around $12 for the set of 3

I have had this since I was 16. My mom bought it for me. I find it really fun to bring things out from when I was younger.

I got this last year as a gift for Christmas from my SIL A.

I bought these for Bryce a couple of years ago from Kohl's. They say "You really jingle my bell! Merry Kiss mas!" and his tail jingles with the bell on it.

Here is the top of my shelf. All of these bulbs are different sizes. The giant ones (not picture but identical to the blue) I got at target last year. The red ones I got at albertsons for $3. The silver ones I got at smith's market place this year for $3 (they came with all sorts of colors, I just pulled out the silver ones, the rest are one our tree)

I got this Noel from wood connections. I paid around $10 for it... give or take, I cant remember one this one.

Well I hope you enjoyed the tour of my house at Christmas time. I wish everyone a fun, safe, great Christmas!

WW

OK I have to set this up. I have noticed recently.. Ok mayb not notice just more irritated.. That I have people at work who are nosey. I normally don't mind people knowing about my life but this goes beyond that. I have a few people that reguardless if I an up front or in the back at work that 'snoop'. If I have anything on my desk they will go searching through it to see what daily goodies I have. If I got prep my breakfast or lunch to eat at my desk, I will always put a paper towel over it to prevent someone from sneezing or coughing all over my food. It is like they have radar and will hunt me down just to poke under the paper towel and get thiscose to my food that I no longer want to eat anymore because my lasagna met their nose. When I say everything I mean everything including my purse. I wonder why people feel it is their right to snoop through my lunch sacks, purse, food, and even unopened Christmas presents that I would like to open... They do have my name on it after all ...

What a weekend!

I cannot believe we are into December. I am ready for the snow! If it is going to be cold, it might as well be pretty not ugly. This past weekend I had a surprise birthday party for Bryce! I cant believe I pulled it off. There is always a little bit of drama surrounding stuff like this but I pulled through and kept it a surprise. On Saturday I told him that we had reservations for dinner. When we got to dinner, I thought he was far enough away when I told him I didn't have reservations but he wasn't! He seemed a bit irritated so I told him I did have reservation but I didn't say where... so again I quickly lied and told him I reservation for dessert. Whew! only he didn't eat very much because he thought we were going out for dessert. Oops! After dinner we headed over to Keys on Main to meet up with a few friends and his family. We had a blast! He was surprised! We didn't get home until 2 am. He kept saying 'thank you' and 'I cant believe you did this for me!' I am glad I was able to pull off this one thing and that he had a great '30th' bday party (even though his bday isn't until tomorrow). Sunday we woke up around 9 and decided we were going to lounge around. We stayed in our pj's and only left to go get junk food and movies. We took naps and watched movies all day yesterday. My house was a complete disaster when I left for work this morning but I didn't care... It was one of the greatest weekends for us! I was so sad to see it come to end, but it had to. This weekend goes down in the history books for us.