A Crafty Christmas

This Christmas I decided to make use of Pinterest.  Most of my gifts were hand made by me.  This made it a very special Christmas.  Here's a look at some of the things I made.

I made these Christmas pillows for my mom.  Got the idea here: http://pinterest.com/pin/236509417900690400/

Made this necklace for Hannah from this Pinterest tutorial: http://pinterest.com/pin/236509417900617812/

 I also decorated some REALLY cute ceramic mugs for Hunter, Liz and the boys.  I couldn't find ceramic markers anywhere, but I did find this mug kit at Michael's that had markers with the white mug.  It said they don't wash off...well apparently they do.  And unfortunately I didn't take a picture of them.  They were cute though.

My family has begun a Christmas tradition of making some sort of Christmas craft.  This year I had so many to choose from on pinterest like this one: http://pinterest.com/pin/236509417900709415/

And here is mine.

I also made a Christmas wreath from Pinterest.  Idea here: http://pinterest.com/pin/236509417900757588/

I made earring frames for Megan and Holly.  I forgot to take a picture, but here's what I mean by earring frame:

My favorite project was Eric's T-Shirt quilt.  I worked on it the week before Christmas while he was at work.  I thought I was being sneaky, but Eric is the worst when it comes to gifts.  He guesses them all - little jerk.  Yep.  Even the quilt.  Oh well, he loved it anyways, and I was kinda proud of it too!

I love gifts like these.  You put so much love in them, and they mean so much more than something off of someones list.

Christmas Gifts

This was a great Christmas. I am so blessed. Christmas started out at Thanksgiving at Mom and Dad's. I got my WONDERFUL coffee maker, and now I drink coffee at home everyday. It's so yummy! It's the Cuisinart grind and brew. Very loud, but fresh ground coffee is definitely the best.

Today was the first day back to school, college shirt day, so I got to wear my awesome new Harding sweatshirt from Megan and Joel!! I LOVE it!

My gift from Eric was really Brinkley, but I also got to order a pair of Reebok Easytones! They won't come in for several weeks, and I can't wait! I customized them to my school shirt colors.

Other gifts included:

New Moon Soundtrack, which is amazing.

Jillian Michaels Wii game

Lots of clothes and Jewelry. My favorite is my clock necklace from urban outfitters. Super cute.

Probably my favorite gift was The Night Before Christmas recordable book from my mom. She recorded herself reading it, which is priceless, especially for when I was missing my family on Christmas. It's such a neat gift. Next Christmas will be with my family. first time since we got married. Can't wait.

Gingerbread Tradition

Why have I not blogged on my break about the holidays? There are so many things, I've decided to blog them separately.

This has been a relaxing Christmas break! Much needed. It started off with a little scare though. Eric and I were enjoying a relaxing day with Brinkley. I was loving taking him outside and letting him play around for as long as he wanted. This was also the day that the Ramirez/Kirksey girls build Gingerbread houses and watch Elf. I was just about to get ready for that, when I noticed Brinkley running around the apartment like crazy and rubbing his face on the carpet. I picked him up, and immediately noticed that his entire face was red and swollen. His eyes were almost swollen shut. I was so scared, I started pacing back and forth with him while Eric searched online for the closest Pet Emergency hospital. Somehow amidst the chaos, I remembered the Children's Benadryl and syringe that the Vet had given us a while back. We squirted that down his throat and Eric called the Vet. Apparently we did the right thing, and they told us to bring him in only if the swelling didn't go down.

It seemed like forever to me, but eventually it did. I was so worried the entire night though, and almost took him with me to Megan's for Gingerbread houses. I got the first taste of what it would feel like to be a mom - and I didn't like it.

Gingerbread house construction easily took my mind off of Brinkley. I love that this family has such a cool tradition between the girls! It was a blast, and our houses turned out much better than last year! I actually took mine home and left it up throughout the holidays! Here are a few pictures of the fun event!

Brinkley

“Joe Fox: Brinkley is my dog. He loves the streets of New York as much as I do. Although he likes to eat bits of pizza and bagels off the sidewalk and I prefer to buy them.”

I am disappointed in myself that I have not blogged at all about my sweet baby Brinkley. He has been such a great companion especially since Eric's been gone a lot lately. Brinkley is a White Mali-Poo, and is the sweetest, smartest puppy I've been around. In the beginning, Eric and I were a little frustrated not knowing how to train a puppy. We went out and bought training books, we researched everything he was doing online, and we really didn't have to wait long at all before our "training" kicked in. I read online that poodles are supposedly very smart, and well behaved. Brinkley must have gotten a lot of the poodle gene in him. At about 10 weeks Brinkley had learned to sit. Maybe a week later, he learned "stay". He was walking to the door to use the bathroom probably after being with us 3 weeks. Now he rarely goes inside, and he just recently started sleeping in the bed with me.

Eric was in Colorado the last 2 weeks, so I was so thankful to have my sweet buddy Brinkley - we often call him "Buddy"  now too, so I guess he has 2 names - Buddy when we're loving on him, and Brinkley when we're being serious. He answers to both. He's that cool. I let him sleep in the bed with me, and he did so well. He's so sweet. He would nuzzle up under my chin and cuddle with me.

When Eric came home he was so excited - he didn't know what to do! Eric left this morning to go take a test, and Brinkley was sleeping on the couch with me. The minute he heard Eric's keys, he jumped up and started going crazy - so crazy that he jumped off the couch - for the first time ever. We were shocked. Guess he was afraid Eric was gonna go and leave him again! :)

We went shopping later on today, and tried one more thing with him - leaving him alone in the apartment - not locked up in the bathroom. We came back 3 hours later and he was still just laying by the door - pretty sure he never moved. SUCH A GOOD PUPPY!! WE LOVE HIM SO MUCH. He's our baby. People make fun of us for letting him sleep with us, but he's our baby. How could we not?