i can't believe christmas is already over. it came and went super fast this year, but we enjoyed every minute of it. (side note....when i uploaded these pictures they posted backwards to how they occurred, so here is a account of our christmas holiday in reverse!)

on monday after christmas dad took us all to the cheesecake factory in salt lake. it was way busy and we had to wait an hour, but it was totally worth it. the food was great! i'm so grateful for my family, they are fun to be with, we are truly blessed.

we have always spent christmas day traveling from one meal to the next. we start at pap, skip and clare's for pancakes, then off the nanny and pappy's for lunch and my parent's for dinner. it's a very filling and satisfying day!

below is my christmas gift from brenda and dave...they gave john and nerf gun for his birthday and then gave this to me to defend myself with. it's huge...automatic with 20 shots. quite impressive and painful! (john's is only one handed, pump action 6 shot...hee, hee, hee)

i don't know how she does it, but john's mom finds the funniest things for john. this is a magnetic paper clip toy thing!

we begin the christmas festivities on christmas eve with my family. after the service at church we gather around the fire place and open presents. this is jana, her boyfriend joe, john and i sporting our new duds.

i was very excited about this gift. it's cheesy, but extremely useful. i will definitely be getting one for myself! it's a camping egg carton...no more soggy egg cartons in the cooler.

grandma avant, my dad's mom, comes every year to celebrate with us.

again, i'm so thankful for all of our family!! they are great, so generous and loving!! we love everything we received and enjoyed giving things even more! merry christmas to all of you and have a happy new year!

new happenings

this week has brought about some changes for us. john is done with school for the holiday season and has taken on some more hours at work. (by the way...he did awesome this semester - 100% on two of his finals and probably got a 4.0...great job babe!) i started a new position with the credit union yesterday. as much as i enjoyed the call center, i am glad to be off the phone! i am now in the commercial real estate lending department as an admin assistant. they are fairly unorganized and scattered so it will take a little getting used to, but i'm excited for the change. plus, i don't have to work saturdays anymore!

the holiday festivities are just about in full force. grandma comes tomorrow, christmas parties, last minute shopping, concerts, church programs, sending christmas cards and family games! i love it!! i just have so much to get done :)

k.

happy birthday john!

it's john's birthday tomorrow, he is turning 27! i made him a carrot cake with cream cheese icing. it was quite a task, all from scratch, but turned out pretty good! i think we are going to try out a new indian restaurant tomorrow for dinner and then will settle in on the couch to watch a movie.

i just wanted to say publicly that i am so grateful for john's life. he means so much to me and the Lord has blessed me to have him as my husband. he is always striving to make our relationship better, provides for our family, takes care of me, cooks meals for me, makes make laugh, loves me when it proves hard, is a godly husband and so much more. i am very proud of him and am thankful the Lord gives him all the strength he needs to accomplish all these things.

i love you babe and hope you enjoy your birthday!

christmas decorations

we only have a few christmas decorations. the basics. over the years i'm sure we'll collect more and it won't be so hard to decorate, but i'm sure if you were a fly on the wall you would get a kick out of watching me try to stretch them as far as i can. i decorate, and redecorate, rearrange, use things that are meant to be for christmas and those that aren't :).

i'm very excited about our new tree. we haven't had our own for a couple years and john went and bought one for us on black friday. it has berries and pine cones on it, two different types of branches and it's prelit. our decorations are simple, but i love how it turned out!

fall pictures

i'm a little behind with these pictures but i really enjoyed taking them, so i thought i would share. these are pictures from the turkey bowl and then the backside of our apartment building. it was so neat to walk the dog back there in the fall, beautiful.