Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

ok, so I didn't intend to make this all one post, but I am a bad blogger, I know..lol I have been MIA for awhile...so here we go...

We made it to Iowa on Christmas eve safely. The roads were patchy in places, and I was glad to be out of the car and not freaking out every time we hit a patch on the road. We went straight to my grandma's house getting into town because thats where my Aunt and Uncle and family were staying(they were in town from CO) at and my parents were there as well. Christmas day was fun and pretty quiet because one grandma was at home w/my aunt and uncle, and my brother and his wife were in CO for Christmas, so it was just another grandma, my parents and tom and I...anyways we spent a lot of time staying up late playing Nintendo Wii, which was Austin and Katy's and our Christmas present to my parents. We played it so much, I gained pro bowler status, and then lost it the morning we left! grr lol :) Anyways we also got to catch up w/my cousin, and meet his new wife, which was so much fun. I wish they lived closer, but yeah, so thats about it, and one of the best parts was we had a pretty uneventful and safe drive home! :)

So Gunner was at the kennel here in Rockford, while we were gone for Christmas...needless to say he is sick now, I am pretty sure its kennel cough, even though he had the vaccination already, but he got it last year too, so here is a picture of my poor baby...the vet basically says just to let it run its course, unless it gets out of hand of course. 

Not much new otherwise really, we aren't doing anything for New Years Eve, just us 2, on the couch...which equals kind of boring but its ok :) too cold to do anything anyways...oh but in other news...we are going to be an aunt and uncle again! Tom's sister Liz is expecting again, so our little Boogie and Miguel will have a new sibling...! :) very excited, can't wait for another new baby in the family! 

Well I hope you all have a safe and happy new year's eve, and a blessed and happy upcoming year! Happy New Year!!!

Bummed

Well, we were suppose to leave for Iowa for Christmas this morning...and well, we actually did...and turned right back around right outside of town...the roads were horrible, it took us almost an hour to get about 20 miles or so...saw a truck in the ditch in that short distance, as well as the back of the car decided to go its own way, and slid at least 3 times that were noticable...so now we are back home. We are suppose to get 3-6 inches more of snow today, an inch over night and another 2-4 inches tomorrow...sheesh! does this stuff ever stop?! we already have a lot of snow on the ground and its snowing now...anyways, so we are hoping to head to Iowa on Christmas morning(which should be a blast, because we all would love the privledge of being in a car on Christmas morning)(I hope you know I am being sarcastic w/that...lol ) Anyways...if we can't get to Iowa, then I guess we will be staying here and spending Christmas with Tom's family at his sister's house...so we will see how this Christmas pans out...oh and my brother and Katy are suppose to be traveling out of state as well, and I don't know if they will end up going or not...so this is going to be an eventful Christmas, one way or another...I pray you and your families have a wonderful Christmas!!

Wow...long time

Wow...I knew I hadn't blogged in awhile, but I didn't realize it had been so long! It's only because, it has been super crazy busy around here! Trying to get our Christmas cards made, and Tom has been working on finishing some more remodeling projects, or at least getting them closer to being done...He took off Thursday and Friday to use up the rest of his vacation, and used it to work on the house. On Friday I was gone shopping for Saturday, with my in laws...because on Saturday, my mother in law and sister in law and I made Christmas cookies ALL day...I have SOO many cookies I don't know what to do with them all lol...actually they will be going to Iowa with us over our Christmas vacation...so Tom and I are both sore and exhausted from this weekend, but its been fun and pretty productive, but we both agree its hard to believe this weekend is over, because it never felt like it ever really started, because we have been so busy...but this next upcoming weekend, we will be going to Tom's work Christmas party which includes a road trip, a party, and an overnight stay out of town, which I am really looking forward to...then that night we get back, having Christmas with Boogie and Miguel, and then we leave for Iowa on Tuesday...so yea, CRAZINESS!!! anyways, sorry this is so boring, but its at least something, we are still alive, and kicking lol 

Christmas decorations

Yesterday, I started putting up Christmas decorations, which started out ok, I put on some Christmas music, there is snow on the ground, and I was ready to go...but I ended up getting very frustrated and emotional about halfway through, for several reasons, one of being which I thought I needed a few more things this year to add to my Christmas decoration collection, which a lot of it has come from garage sales over the years( I love garage sales!) anyways, so Tom suggested we go shopping to get a few extra things, which I really appreciated, because today was a lot better, because the extra things were the finishing touch, as well as emotionally I was a lot more stable lol...not going to delve into it here, but mostly just the whole "holiday" season, no children, thing...you know, just the same thing it always is...moving on, this is a happy post :)  So...here are the pictures...

The first 3 pictures or so are of the centerpiece on our coffee table in our living room...I already had the wreath, but had something else to hang on the door, so thought of this idea, but needed the pillar candles and the ribbon, and then saw the table runner at a store called Old Time Pottery, and I just loved it, not for Christmas decorations, but it worked out that way, and get this...it was only A DOLLAR!! I know...anyways...moving on :)

(please excuse the dust on the shelf, its a black table, and with construction in our house, nothing stays clean lol )
This is our Nativity set, we had a tiny ceramic one, but we found this at a garage sale, I think for $3 or so, and we like it a lot. :)
This is another garage sale find($2)-Christmas carolers that are hinged together
This is our dining room table, and to some it might not look like much, but this is the first table cloth I have ever owned, we got it last night and i had the rest of the stuff, oh we did replace the pinecones with some new ones that have the wonderful "Christmas" scent to them :)
Our Christmas tree all decorated...
The pearl letters I have metioned before, T and A for Tom and Ashley of course...
2 B's for both babies we have lost...
And how could we forget Gunner... :)
This is our new tree skirt...before we had a white felt one with a Christmas train that went around and played music, but decided to change it up a little this year...
This is a welcome sign for outside, that will go out, but it has been snowing like crazy all day..lol
These next 2 things are in our main floor bathroom, firstly is a snowman kleenex box(another garage sale find)
and just a cute Christmas tree(garage sale find...for 25 cents, crazy i know) lol :)
The cute angel snowman(50 cent garage sale find) with a picture of our cutie pie Gunner :) 
Ok, thats all for now, Tomorrow I will be off to making Christmas cards, hopefully it will go smoothly... hope you all have a great week!

Thanksgiving

We were in Iowa for 5 days or so for Thanksgiving to spend the time with my family. I made some cute cookies but all the pictures I took of them were fuzzy, and not fixable, so here are a couple pictures from the internet of the same thing. Also, for various reasons, that I don't know if I am at liberty to discuss here because I am not sure if things are suppose to be surprises or not, BUT, we gave my parents their Christmas present early this year(so we could play with it as well) but we(Austin, Katy, Tom and I) all went in together and got my parents a Wii, and then we bought an extra bundle thing along with it instead of us siblings exchanging gifts...so that was SO FUN! we all had a great time playing with that for MANY hours...we also spent quite a bit of time shopping on Friday, and well just over the weekend in general...but got most all our Christmas shopping done which was nice, but also we didn't have a lot of gifts to get this year, so it wasn't that hard. then the ugh part was when we left on Sunday...it took us longer to get home because we were stopped several times because of traffic but mostly the weather with it snowing, and accidents, etc...but we made it home safely without any problems...ok, now to the fun Christmas decorations post...oh but first the cookie pictures...

Oreo Turkeys

Pilgrim Hats