Merry Christmas Everyone!

I want to know what everyone did and what their favorite Christmas gift was. :)
Our christmas was nice and casual. Since Jared had to work on christmas eve and the following monday, we couldn't travel to spend it with family. So the family came to us :) Jared's brother William is getting ready to leave for a mormon mission so this was his last christmas with everyone for the next two years. Jared's family (minus his dad) traveled to our house on the 23rd. Early that morning we woke up to go out to breakfast with our brother in law. Besides the extra early, it was nice to have breakfast before school. I usually choose sleep over eating lol. That night his mom took everyone out to eat at Applebee's and we had a pretend christmas that night for his sister. I took some great pictures of their daughter Kaelisa. It was great to have everyone together! It's been a long time since that has happened.
On Christmas eve Jared went to work while the rest of us spent time together. I gave Trevor (our brother in law) a hair cut in the morning, started a huge turkey dinner, and then highlighted Jessica's hair. It was so fun and busy! We ate dinner and then Jessica & Trevor left to spend christmas in Star Valley with his family. The rest of us played some intense rounds of pictionary and card games until about 11:30. What a great day it was.
Christmas morning we slept in a little and opened our gifts around 10. Jared got a waffle maker so we had that for breakfast. I gave him a Yoshi blade because he was wanting one for so long, and let me tell you, that bugger is SHARP! It looks like a toy blade but holy cow. I recommend it!  After breakfast we watched the Sorcerer's Apprentice and then mama Maud and Will left back to Star Valley around 3. The rest of the day Jared and I played Spyro on the wii and just hung out. I have been so busy since school started that having a long break has been super awesome.

On going battle..

It's been no secret to you readers, or anyone else that knows me, That I have been struggling with my weight since getting married 4 1/2 years ago. With the military stress I blew up like a balloon and getting it off has been hell/ non-existant. I wish I could say it was just 5 pounds or so...but it wasn't...it was 65 or more. At my heaviest I was a horrific 200 pounds. That's a 70 pound weight gain since the day I said "I Do". It showed so bad in pictures and I felt so helpless. Even when I was going to the gym every night for an hour it wasn't coming off and I was ready to give up. I still am using my shape up shoes every day at school and since I stand litterally 8 hours a day I think that has been helping.

WELL.....I AM PROUD TO SAY THAT I AM...

187!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have not seen the 180's in like 2 years so I am very proud. I still have forever to get to my goal but I was so excited that I had to share.

December Overview

Happy Happy Holidays everyone! Did everyone have a fantastic December season and Christmas? I for sure had mixed feelings about this year, up until a few days before christmas, it didn't feel like it was here or that it was that time of year at all.  Let me catch you all up on my December review...

My how busy I have been still, I feel like I don't have time for anything because I piled myself with side projects that I wanted to get done before the holiday. Despite feeling like I am slightly drowning, I have had so much fun with them.  I have officially finished my family vacation dvd that I started back in May. It was getting to the point where I was tweaking it to death and not getting the result I wanted so I had to let it go before I drove myself insane. It was mainly one certain video clip within the video that was giving me trouble. No matter what I did  the audio was slightly off in one part of the clip. After like 3 mock up dvd's I had to let it slide before I ran out of disc's and time. I didn't get the dvd in the mail before christmas but I think it will be a great gift for my family anyway. Here is a picture of the finished result :)

This was the mock up of the dvd case that I made. In the center it had a title bar though.

Since I got my professional camera last year I have been dabbling in photography as a hobby. On December 18th Jared and I drove to Island park to meet Jerri and her Fiance Matt at Aunt Sandra's cabin to take her engagement photo's. Wow! What a beautiful setting! Island Park Idaho had so much snow it was crazy. The way it dusted the tree's that surrounded the cabin though was such a magical sight so to speak. Each flake sparkled so bright. I think the pictures turned out great, and I am so happy for them. When we arrived to the cabin at midnight we had to dig our way in. It was a good 4 feet at least. I love their cabin and I appreciate them so much for letting us use it. Here are a few of the shots I took. The one's with Jared were taken with a cell phone through a windshield so they aren't the greatest.

Beginning the 1 hr 30 min dig into the cabin.

Still workin' on it.

Finally finished.

School has been busy too. There are a few days where we have been super slow, but for the most part I have been keeping busy. I am finally getting a request clientele. It's nice knowing that people like me enough that they want to come back to me. For the Christmas season we were able to wear red and green shirts at school. It was such a nice change from solid black, you have no idea! We also did Avant Garde type style hair aka: Cindy lou who kind of.  Here are some of the fun things I did.

My version of a christmas tree

I thought it turned out pretty good.

The only thing holding the hair is bobby pins and hair spray, and none of it was done with a curling iron. I just molded with my fingers. 

Check this post again soon...I have another fun Avant Garde style to share with you.  

 More to come....

Quietly gave Thanks, and more..

Seeing as it's December 12th, I figured I had better catch up on the end of Novemeber festivities.

Our Thanksgiving was extremely quiet...maybe because I spent almost the entire day alone while Jared was out hunting haha. We didn't even start a dinner until after 3:00 pm and we didn't eat until 7. We normally pull out all of the fancy trimmings and what nots even for just the two of us. This year we did not. In fact, I didn't even take a single photograph, you all know that is just not like me. But we gave thanks anyway and took some time to reflect on our blessings and how much we appreciate everything.

After thanksgiving I have still been very very busy with life. School is going well, I now only have 1000 hours left and have been attending for 5 months. I am starting to see improvements on my abilities and timing. It's a good feeling! I am still a little stressed though because I have less time to pick it up than the other girls in my class and I am starting to double up on testing so I make sure that I make it through. I made a decision when I came onto the floor that I would save all of my tips and then cash them in for something awesome when I graduate. So far I think my count is going fantastic, I am up to $130 since October. Not bad for a dollar here and there :)

I am still working on a christmas project that I started like 3 or 4 months ago. I am making our family vacation pictures/movies into a dvd set to music. It's been a LONG process but I am almost finished. It looked so good in my opinion :)

My super awesome adopted little sister also just told me that is getting married last week. So now I am taking on the project of being a bridesmaid, taking/editing her engagements & bridal photo's, and fixing the hair for the wedding. I am so excited for her and can't wait to do it all.

Jared is still scruffy as ever and is still enjoying working at Kenyon Noble as their delievery driver. He was gone every second he could during hunting season and came home with a few deer because of it. He was pretty proud :) We had to buy a freezer as his christmas present to put the meat in. It will come in handy and save us some money. Especially because we can stock up more at Costco because we will have the room.

well that is pretty much it so far I think, I will post a picture update later.