Saturday, December 14, 2013

Christmas Preparations and Cabin Fever

Feliz Navidad Everyone!

Can you believe it is only 11 days til Christmas!? Holy freakin amaze bats! Am I the only one that thinks just yesterday felt like Thanksgiving?! I guess staying busy has really made us lose track of time.

After our trip to Utah for Thanksgiving, we were able to finally get some Christmas decorations up! This is definitely one of my favorite parts of December. It pretty much is the intro to the season.
I may or may not have had this image flashing in my mind while humming the tune while decorating the Christmas tree....


And don't pretend you aren't humming it right now yourself....

I talked Ian into getting a real tree. Let's be honest here.... to me, Christmas is not the same without a REAL tree! The smell, forgetting to water it, the dropping needles, the worry that your dog might pee on it. I mean, what else spells Christmas more than that!?
But anyway, we got the tree home with no problem. The only minor detail was that neither of us had put a tree in a tree stand before. (My dad always did it and Ian never had a real tree before.)
Let's just say, there were frustrations, arm scratches, piles of needles, and a few cuss words, but in the end, it looked great! A bit of a lean to it, but we decided it gave it character and didn't want to risk our lives again by trying to get it any straighter. It was totally worth it!














(Oh, don't worry, these are branches that came off the tree while we tried putting the stand on...we improvised.)


We switched out the pic in Frank's stocking.


Not only did we decorate the inside, I recruited the boys into putting up the outdoor lights as well. 




Notice the white lights in the windows? We had alot of extra light strand, so....


We decorated Ian's office desk with them.
Genius.

Ian had a few days off this week, so we also got some Christmas shopping done...


We may have procrastinated a bit on gift purchasing online, so for those of you who don't get a gift on Christmas, hold on to your boots, cause Santa always comes through.... on January 7th, to be exact.

Frank also got to enjoy his first experience with snow!


It's really hilarious to watch him prance around. Ever seen Bambi?


Yeah, that's Frank. 
They don't really plow the roads here in Boise, so the roads can get really slick and icy. Let's just say, my new favorite past time is taking Frank on walks since he is an ice skating freak. 
Watch out Michelle Kwan!

He loves the snow so much, that this is where he sat most of the first day it came down.


"If I put my snow pants and gloves on, can I please go out to play?"
Too bad he is a wuss, and can only last 10 minutes outside anyway.


And SINCE he is a big baby because of the cold (me too), the doggy park, and walks have drastically dwindled. 

Thus, he has come down with a case of DCF.

"What is DCF?" You ask?

Doggy Cabin Fever. 


Lint Roller


Train set signs and Ian's iPad stylus


His own toy

Let's continue with the list shall we?

*A Burt's Bee's Chapstick (this is the 2nd)
*HDMI remote
*TV remote
*Apple TV remote
*Nail Clippers
*Lint from the dryer (he pulls out of the garbage)
*Used Dryer sheets (he pulls out of the garbage)
*My work out pants (which now have nice little holes in the crotch)
*and let's not forget Ian and My unmentionables that he pulls from the laundry hamper.


We now have a check list of things to do when we leave, so that his DCF doesn't flare up.

*Both bathroom doors are closed
*Guest bedroom door is closed
*T.V. is on
*Ottoman has been cleared of anything to chew on
*Hamper lid is down
*He has gone out to potty

Oh the joys of puppyhood. Luckily we have received some good advice to keep this from happening again. 
My angry "I'm asking Santa for a new dog." whisperings to him haven't worked.

So far, we haven't had anymore issues. Let's just hope it stays that way. *Knock on wood*

But when Frank isn't terrorizing the house. He can be kinda cute. 
Notice most of these pics are of him sleeping.




His front paws on the floor, his back legs on the couch, and his head on the ottoman. Freaking weirdo.






Well that's about it for us! We will be down in Utah next Wednesday. We hope to see you all! We love you! Merry Christmas!

"No, no! We're all in this together. This is a full-blown, four-alarm holiday emergency here! We're gonna press on, and we're gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny freaking Kaye! And when Santa squeezes his fat white bum down that chimney tonight, he's gonna find the jolliest bunch of idiots this side of the nuthouse!"

-Clark Griswold
(National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation)
*Slightly edited*




















Wednesday, December 4, 2013

A Utah Thanksgiving

Happy December everyone!

Is it just me, or has this year gone by cray cray fast!? Ian and I have been married 6 months in a few days... wow... time flies when you are happily married I guess. :)

We got to head down to Utah for Thanksgiving. Oh, and don't worry, we starved ourselves for a few days before hand because we had 2 Thanksgiving dinners. My parents and Ian's parents. Ok, we didn't really starve ourselves, but we probably should have. Talk about a food baby!

We stayed at Ian's parents this trip and Ian's grandma got to make it up from Fairview. We were excited to be able to have Thanksgiving with her. We don't get to see her very often due to the distance, but we promised her a few more frequent phone calls.



Thanksgiving day travels



Thanksgiving day relaxation


Grandma's dog likes Ian



Franklin's favorite chair at Ian's parents... he barely fits anymore.


Ian caught a nasty cold right before we headed down to Utah so the poor guy was miserable the entire trip. But you can bet we still made it to the U of U game...





We also got to hit up Italian Village for pizza benders with Ian's family... Holy Yum! If you have never been, please proceed to investigate... it will rock your world.





We also had my dad take our family Christmas card pics at Gardner Village. 


My sister had my dad do their family pictures as well, so we got to hang with this little babe...



If you were to ask me what I missed most about Utah, I would say family and friends (Obvi) but I would also say, "This view."


We don't really have "Mountains" here in Boise. They call them mountains, but they really look more like high rolling hills. They aren't the REAL thing.



Well we got home with lots of Nyquil, cough drops, and lemon tea for Ian and Christmas music for me. Ian still had to recover from his cold, so Frank took it upon himself to help out by cuddling....


Then he got bashful.....

(He honestly does this to himself...someday I am going to give him a cover wagon.)

But in reality, the guy is pretty photogenic.


Well that's our recap from the last couple weeks. We will be making it back down to Utah the weekend before Christmas. Hurray for Christmas! We love you all and in case we don't see you this month.....




"Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough."

-Oprah Winfrey