Hello Holidays!

Whew!  What a weekend.  Does it count as a weekend if it's 5 days long?? 

We had a whirlwind weekend over Thanksgiving but it still felt too short.  My cousins and I managed to pull off another delicious feast! We made creamy mashed potatoes, 2 kinds of sweet potatoes, seven layer salad, green bean casserole, vegetable salad, stuffing, cranberry salad, fresh rolls, pumpkin pie and apple pie.  Of course, Grandma and Grandpa took care of the Turkey. YUM!


It's kind of hard to see the food in this pic but doesn't it make your mouth water??

Kurt made the rounds in WL while I was on the Shopping Trip in Des Moines. Let me tell you - there were some great deals. I am a total sucker for bargains so I was constantly tempted to purchase random things that we don't need, haha!  

The girls on our annual Shopping Trip!
Yep...those are matching scarfs. :)

We already have our Christmas tree up and decorated, too.  It looks beautiful and it was fun to decorate our house for the holiday season!  We even baked cookies and drank hot cocoa to fully enjoy the view.  I love having a Christmas tree -- the first thing I do in the morning is plug it in!!  It's a simple thing that makes us cheerful.

We hope you're all counting your blessings this holiday season!  We are. :)

Brace Yourself....

... I'm about to go directly into Christmas mode!!  I started listening to Christmas music this week at the office, I bought the first Christmas gift of the season and I've been stashing away all my black Friday coupons... it's almost time!! :)

We're looking forward to Thanksgiving though, too.  This week will be a nice short one ending with a feast and family, it's tough to top that!  I'll be heading to the Lake to help my Grandma pre-prepare the Thanksgiving meal on Wednesday along with the other girl grandchildren in my family.  This is one of my favorite traditions and I look forward to it every year.  The best part is that Grandma has everything totally organized when we all get there -- so we can complete each recipe and she voluntarily does the dishes to keep up with the mess.  Who does that? Doing dishes is hands-down my least favorite chore.  When I was growing up I would "trade chores" with my best friend/cousin Kelly so that she would do the dishes at my house and I could sweep the floor or vacuum at her house during the summer.  Genius huh?  ...It didn't stop there either.  In college I once paid my friend to do my dishes and I frequently threw dirty dishes away in loo of washing them.  HA!  Don't worry they were cheap plastic dorm-dishes.  So yeah, I think I've come quite a ways since then because I actually DO the dishes now.  Maybe not as often as my Mom thinks I should but I do what I can.  =)

Back to holiday chat... Another one of my favorite traditions is just around the corner and I'm really excited about it!  Each year all the women on my mom's side of the family take an Annual Shopping Trip together.  We go somewhere we don't usually get to shop and spend a whole weekend doing Christmas shopping.  This year we're heading to Des Moines and we're tackling the busiest weekend of the year -- wish us luck!

Now that I've blabbed about all the glamorous elements of the upcoming holiday season I think it's important that we take some time to actually take in the real stuff.  Thanksgiving seems to be a holiday that everyone understands -- I've never heard someone say they don't do Thanksgiving.  Probably because we all have things to be thankful for.  Here's what we're thankful for this year:

- Our amazing families that continually offer us support.  We love you guys!
- Not just shelter, but our very own house.
- Love. Not everyone is lucky enough to find "the one" this young.
- Faith.  We are continually trying to build our faith, we're blessed to have found a church that inspires us. 
- Steady income so we don't have to stress too much.
- Our pups, even though they can be a major pain they're fun to have around.
- Our health.  Knock on wood, we're healthy & happy!
- Our safety... 4 months in Waterloo and no problems yet! ha! j/k
- Kurt's handiness.  Not sure what we'd do if he wasn't a fix-it kind of guy!
- Friends.  We wish we could see more of you (you know who you are) - but we are grateful to have you as friends regardless. :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

No Report.

November has been uneventful so far so we really have nothing cool to report.  In the spirit of blogging I figured we ought to post something so here it goes!

Kurt has jumped on the "No Shave November" bandwagon....sort of.  Technically he didn't shave the last week in October either but evidently facial hair is handy when you work outside so I can't blame him. The other reason I say "sort of" is because he's still shaving his 'stash which results in this... 

Contrary to popular belief this man is NOT Amish.

Kurt is convinced that people treat him different now that he has an "Amish" beard.  It's pretty funny -- a lot of people actually comment on it.  Since he has no intentions of shaving this winter I guess we'll be dealing with a whole different monster next month!  Eww, long beards creep me out.  He'll be like Santa Claus by the time Christmas is here!! 

On another note, again pretty boring, Pita got a new T-Shirt.  You remember how he totally changes when he's clothed?  We proved that theory when we took off his Halloween sweater and he slowly regressed back to the weird-o dog that he was before... He seems to like his new shirt and I gotta say, we get a kick out of it too!  Check it out...

Hilarious, right?  Now he's a real man.

That's all for now!  Have a fabulous weekend!!

Happy Halloween!

So we made you wait to see our 2010 Halloween costumes and we're hoping that you're giddy with excitement for the big reveal.  Haha - ok, fine maybe you don't really give a darn but we still had fun and we hope the pictures make you smile!! :)

 Little Red Riding Hood & the Big Bad Wolf

Yes, that is Kurt under that oh-so-realistic wolf mask (in case the cowboy boots didn't give him away).  And yes, that is a real grandma nightgown that he is wearing!!  We always have tons of fun hunting for the perfect pieces to make our costumes come together and this year was no different.  We found that beauty at Goodwill and in my opinion it totally completed the Big Bad Wolf's look. :)

Not to brag or anything but we won the Couples Costume contest at the Simon Halloween party, too.  (Ok, we're bragging a little).  It was a chilly night to be outside the bonfire, yummy soup and awesome company made up for the cool weather!  It was a great way to celebrate Halloween!

Halloween Prep

Can you believe it's already almost Halloween!?!?  October has gone incredibly fast...just like all the other months.  BUT Halloween season is the kickoff to a whole run of holiday seasons so we can't really complain...except for the cold weather that comes along with it, I guarantee they'll be complaints on that one.

For now we'll focus on the positive side... like carving pumpkins!  Everyone loves carving pumpkins around Halloween and it was pretty cool to actually have somewhere to set them this year.  Check it out...

 Our jack-o-lanterns can't keep their eyes off each other.  =)
Don't they look cute on our front porch?! 

I definitely wouldn't consider Halloween my favorite holiday, but it's up there!  The one and only reason that it's even close to being in the running is the fact that it involves costumes.  If you know anything about me than you know that I reallllllllllly like theme parties, and since Halloween costumes are essentially an entire day of themed attired, I'm pumped.  =D  Naturally Kurt has also jumped on board with the costume fun and we've had some pretty awesome get-ups in the past few years....

 Toga Part & Kentucky Derby Party (above)

 Bank Robbers (this was a little scary roaming around like this)

 

My Favorite,  Fred & Wilma.

Hmmmm are you curious what we'll be this year?!?!? Wait and see! Muahhahhaha (evil Halloween laugh).

Oh yeah, Pita got some new swag too.  And the weird thing is that he seems to really like it!  Ever since we put the sweater on him he is way more "normal".  Even Emilee, my cousin that does her laundry at our house and periodically has to be the dog sitter when I'm unable to come home at lunch, noticed the difference in him!  All this time the poor little guy just wanted to put on some clothes.... LOL.

 

Lookin' good Pita!

Too young to act old

This past weekend was spent re-living our college days, and it was a dang good time!  Maggie & Lauren, two of my senior year roommates, came to town to stay with us on Friday/Saturday and we dove right back into UNI Homecoming festivities just like the good ol' days.  :)

Kurt shot up to Iowa Falls for the Ellsworth Wrestling reunion where he hit the mats with the current team and some fellow alumni.  Judging by how sore he complained to be on Sunday I think he had a good time!  Although I would have loved to watch him wrestle again I spent majority of the weekend on UNI's campus.

Of course, Friday night we had to cheer on the Alpha Phi ladies as they competed in the final round of the Pride Cry.... they placed 3rd (way to go girls!) and put on a hilarious show of panther spirit.  They know how to make us alumnae proud!  Saturday took some mental preparation because I haven't spent an entire day tailgating in a reallllll long time but I stepped it up and we proved that we've still got it!

Starting the day off at the OP on the Hill!

...Sign says it all. :)

LOVE having Emilee around as a fellow Panther

Kurt joined the fun after wrestling in I.F.

It got late and we got goofy.
This picture really catches a true glimpse of "us".  Haha!

Oh yeah, we also took a quick moment of silence for the sad Hawkeye loss but quickly re-cooperated when the Panthers completely dominated the Redbirds.   It was SO good to catch up with college friends that we hadn't seen in a while and I'm already looking forward to next year!!  Here's to another great homecoming weekend -- and many more to come! :)

In case you didn't know... this is PANTHER town!

Ahhhh as we get ready to kickoff another great UNI Homecoming, it's only fitting to give all you out-of-towners a little taste of what you're missing here in the Cedar Valley.....


GO PANTHERS!! :)