Front Door Wreath

I FINALLY figured out what I want my front door to look like.  So this weekend I made the decoration for it.  I bought a wreath at Michaels for 4 bucks, made a templete for the letter B and Jared cut it out of wood for me because he won't let me near the saw is so thoughtful.

I sanded it down and then spray painted a few coats of flat black onto this little beauty.  Tied a ribbon around it and onto the wreath and DONE.  It only took a few hours and that was mostly just the time it took for the paint to dry.  This was super easy and now I've got a really cute front door! :)

Conversation Blocks

So there is this blog that I follow called

Brown Paper Packages,

and this girl has the cutest craft ideas EVER.  I had to steal her idea for Conversation Blocks and make my own for V-day. 

I started with 3 4x4 pieces of wood that my sweet husband cut for me.  I sanded them down and rounded the edges a bit to make them look like this. 

This is the first time I've ever used a sander and I don't think I did half bad!

Then I spray painted all of the blocks RED

When the paint dried, I put on another coat just for good measure.

I wanted to have a RED block, a PINK block, and a WHITE block because I think Kierste's looked so freakin' cute the way they were.  I just bought Rustoleum's spray paint from Home Depot.

I painted one pink and one white

The one that I wanted to be red I sanded down a bit, and then sprayed white paint on a paper towel and rubbed it all over the block.

When all the blocks were dry I sanded them all down a bit.  I used 220 grit sandpaper so that it didn't take off as much at a time.  The White and Pink block I sanded until some RED showed through and they had a nice aged look to them.

The Red block I sanded off most of the white that I had rubbed on.

Then I applied the vinyl letters and voilà!

This is the finished product!



Not too shabby for one of my first craft projects if I do say so myself.

Thanks for the inspiration

Brown Paper Packages!!

Christmas is over

Last year, Jared and his dad started this nice little way of saying goodbye to Christmas.  When they take the Christmas tree down, they bring it to the back yard and light it on fire.  Yesterday was that day.  Last year, they chopped the tree up before setting it ablaze, but this year they thought it would be a real good idea if they stood it up in the fire pit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AIxBat8lbU

The aftermath

Shortly after I stopped recording... as in about 5 seconds, we heard sirens. Lots and lots of sirens. Jared quickly doused the tree with a ton of water to cool it down and dragged it to the very back of the yard and we all ran inside... after I snapped this picture of the first to arrive on the scene, teehee

It was nice to learn that the fire dept. here has a pretty good response time. They were at our street within about 3 minutes.

In total, there were about 3 cop cars, 2 big fire engines, one little engine and a paramedic that showed up.  A fireman came up to our door and told us there had been reports of fire and smoke in this area and then asked if he could look in our backyard.  Jared played it cool and let him through the side gate so he could check it out (thank goodness he had the good sense to clean up the mess slash that it was dark slash that the tree was burned in his parents backyard).  I'm not gonna lie, my heart was pounding a million miles an hour because I'm pretty sure you get a hefty fine for doing something like this.  After a minute he came back out and everybody took off.

Guess what we're NOT doing next year...

We split up

Yep, that's what I said.  We split up.  A week ago we had a special sacrament meeting with 6 of the wards in our stake and it was announced that the El Monte 1st Ward (our ward) is going to be dissolved.  The ward boundaries of the 6 wards were all re-done and there was a huge shift in all of the wards.  Subsequently, Jared and I were released from our callings.  We now go to a building that is about 15 minutes from where we live which isn't bad at all... I mean, it's not the 4 minute drive that we used to have, but hey, it could be worse! 

Today in church we all met as a new ward for the first time and Jared and I recieved our new callings.  Jared was re-called as Scout Master and 2nd counselor in the Young Men's organization.  I was called as the Young Woman's President.  Yikes!  I'm not sure they have the right gal, but I'll do my best!

Christmas in St. Louis

Every year Jared and I go back to St. Louis and spend Christmas with my family.  This year was no exception and although it was the shortest trip we've had there so far, I think it was the most fun we've had.  The first night we were there my sister Kristin got engaged!!!  I like her fiance a lot and he picked out a gorgeous ring that is perfect for her.

They are super cute together and plan to get married sometime this summer.

The next few days were spent hanging out with family and just relaxing.

I went to work with my mom one day that we were there and I had so much.  I know it sounds nerdy but I love reconciling accounts and I got to help her do that.  And THEN my dad hired me to do his financial statements for him.  Woohoo!!!  And since I am now an employee of Dillan Plaza Family Medicine, I scored a sweet new computer compliments of Dr. Craig Pope so that I can do my work. :)  Thanks Padre!

We had all of our regular traditions on Christmas Eve and Day plus one new one.  I decided to make Christmas Dinner and suprise my mom.  So my baby sister Alyssa and I created the menu which consisted of

Strawberry Bisque

Green Holiday Salad

Roast with Mashed Potatoes and fresh Green Beans

Chocolate Cream Pie

Alyssa, Kristin and I all worked together on creating this magnificent feast and it seriously was one of the most delicious meals ever if I do say so myself.

Christmas was super duper fun.  Jared and I decided to have a small Christmas this year since we purchased two new four wheelers so I only gave Jared a few things.  One of which was a jacket that I have been trying to find for years, so he was stoked to get it.  BUT Jared decided that he wasn't going to go small since the 4 wheelers were more for him.  So he spoiled me. :)  Here's a couple that I got...

Tiffany & Co. recently came out with a line of charms by Paloma Picasso and I looooovveee them.  So he added these two to my collection. :)

This next gift is a craft that I found on a blog a while back and I've been wanting to make it ever since.  Jared suprised me and made this all by himself, what a guy!

This picture hardly does it justice.

The other big thing from our trip this year is that we had a beautiful white Christmas!

So Jared did what any 26 year old would do...

He built his first snowman.

That's right.  I said first.  I guess that's what happens when you're born and raised in So-Cal. 

By the time he was done this thing was 8 1/2 ft tall.  When Jared does something he does it the best it can be done.  It was kind of funny actually because a lot of people walked up the lawn to get a picture with the snowman.

As always the trip went way too fast and ended earlier than we would have liked for it to, but we had such a blast with my family!  And we can't wait to do it again in a year. :)