'Tis the Season to be Jolly!

I am SO excited for Christmas this year! It isn't our first Christmas together, but it is our first Christmas in our house so I had tons of fun decorating! I have actually been really on the ball this year with presents and things. I had the tree up before Thanksgiving and all my presents have already been gotten and wrapped! For a girl who is rarely only 15 minutes late, let alone on time, this is a major accomplishment! :)

One of my favorite things to put out is my little nativity scene. I got it at a white elephant exchange in college and think it is just perfect. This year I noticed that the cow was missing a leg. In a true Christmas miracle, it would still stand up, unlike it's sheep friend who I just tell everyone is very tired; even though he has four legs, he still can stand up. Well, one day when I came home, Cory said "Look" and held up the cow for me to see. He had made it a prosthetic leg from a bobby pin! He is just so sweet and you can't even really tell! Keep in mind that he has lots of practice from making toys out of twist ties when he was a kid. Whenever a limb was lost, it was no problem. Dr. Cory was right to the rescue with a new twist tie replacement.

Our little Christmas tree! I love adding ornaments to our tree that mean something. This year we got three new ones, all gifts. One is a pretty pink shoe from my cousin, the another is an ornament with my initial from "the only girl" in my primary class and the other is a little snow globe with Cory's name on it from our sister in laws mom. She is super thoughtful and bought it just because it had his name on it. I am a little sad that I can't find one of my boxes with all the ornaments from last year that we bought for our first mini tree together. It is the price you pay for having your things stored all over the place. Maybe next year we will have a real tree and all of our ornaments.

I had this little snowman to go on top of the tree, but I thought he looked a little sad. I tried to make a bow to replace him with but it turns out that I am not so good at that. So now they are sharing the glory at the top of the tree in a sort of sad tribute to my lack of skills.

And finally, our christmas picture!

We hope everyone has a very safe and happy Christmas and New Year!

Hot Dog!

Last Sunday I was teaching my 5 year olds at church a lesson about being kind to animals. Sometimes lessons have things in them that I don't really know how to teach to five year old. The fact that Noah brought 7 of each clean animals so they could eat them makes sense to me at 24, but I'm not sure how my 5 year old self would have felt about that. Regardless, I charge forward and explain to children that sometimes killing animals is necessary for food and that is okay, but we should never kill an animal we won't eat. For some reason, I decide to ask the kids "What animals do you eat for food?" thinking they may say things like "cows" "chicken" "fish" ect. Well the first one to answer says excitedly "Dogs! We eat dogs!" I was literally speechless at this point. I just looked at the other teacher in the room in shock until he says "You know, corn dogs!" and then the boy beside him says "And hot dogs!" At this point I just want to burst out laughing. They were both so excited to answer the question and were doing so with absolute sincerity. It is called a corn dog so it must be made of dog, right?? I did my best to explain to them that we only call them that without going into detail of what hot dogs are actually made of because I don't think any of us really want to know. Kids sure know how to keep things interesting!

Looks Like We Made It!

Who would have thought these two crazy kids would now be celebrating their first wedding anniversary?? I'll tell you who: definitely not me! While I may not have expected it all those years ago, I am so grateful for it now. Cory is definitely my EC in every way! He loves me for my goofiness and calls me out when I'm being rediculous (traits I have decided are essential for husbands). It has basically been the best year ever.

This is one of my absolute favorite pictures from the wedding. People always say it is the happiest day of your life but for me that isn't true. It is the day that made all the other happiest days possible. We've definitely had a lot since then!

And they have all taught me a lot. For examples: Men do not know how to put clothes in a hamper. What sometimes seems very sensible to me seems crazy to my husband. No one can make me laugh like the guy beside me. My favorite memories aren't the ones I have pictures of or write about on my blog; they're the ones that are written on my heart. I am way spoiled by a wonderful man who will do pretty much anything to make me happy...And is also super excited to celebrate our anniversary.

So here we are. An entire year of marriage under our belts. It seems sort of crazy and it has definitely been an adventure! And definitely one I can't wait to continue!