That's a Wrap, 2013!

Get ready for a lengthy, and boy do I mean LENGTHY, re-cap from Halloween to present!

 

 

 

This year was our first Halloween in our house so we actually had trick-or-treaters!

 

In early November, I did some photos for this gorgeous family!

They are friends of my sweet teacher friend, Andera and they were tons of fun!

 

 

I also had some business cards made!

 

 

Since we moved into our house I've been wanting a corner cabinet for the living room.

I looked high, I looked low. What I wanted was no where to be found.

So I decided to buy an antique one and refinish it myself!

 

Before and after!

I loved the vintage style of this one!

Matt took the glass out of the door for me and then I painted it white!

 

 

Then I distressed it a bit and waxed it and that was it!

 

 

(Ignore the frames with no pictures. I just haven't gotten to that yet!)
It was so, so easy and I love the way it turned out!!

If you ever decide to paint any furniture, don't even THINK of using anything except Annie Sloan Chalk Paint & Wax.   It. Is. Gold.

 

And then I did some maternity/family photos for my gorgeous friend DeVynna!

 

 

Sorry, not sorry for the picture overload there!
These sweeties are my favorite. :)
I'm OB.Sessed. with Miss Ava. She's perfection.
I can't wait to have DeVynna's baby shower in February and then meet baby Sophie in March!

 

Matt finished his first semester of clinicals the week before Thanksgiving!
Hip Hip Hooray!
I made some treats for him to take on his last day. :)

 

 

That same week we put up our Christmas lights!

 

 

We have this cute little dwarf evergreen tree in our front flower bed that I wrapped in red and green lights and Matt did the lights on the house.

 

 

We light right next to a street light so it was hard to get a good picture.
But he did good for a first timer, huh?! :)

 

The weekend before Thanksgiving, I did a super fun mini session at Coffee Slingers!

 

 

 

Again, a picture overload. I'm terrible at choosing. :)
I love shooting this little family! Christi was my first friend; we've known each other over 20 years!

 

The next evening we put up our Christmas tree! Complete with hot chocolate and watching Elf!

 

 

 

No Christmas season would be complete without Molly's elf collar!

 

 

This ornament was given to me by my sweet Samantha last year!

 

 

And there's our tiny little 4.5 foot tree without even so much as a tree skirt! Haha!
The day after Christmas we ordered a beautiful 9 foot tree for next year!
Can't wait to put it up!

 

 

It's a tall, skinny tree, just like I wanted!

 

That 2 day week before Thanksgiving break was glorious!
We did crafts, read Thanksgiving stories and counted down the hours till our 5 day break!

 

 

My little friend, Aiden is always brining me sweet gifts!
This was my Thanksgiving treat!

 

And that week I got this drawing from sweet Ethan!
It's a picture of Matt and me; I'm the red one, Matt is the black one.
And I think that's a balloon above us. :)

 

I give the kids free choice time at the end of each day and lots of them choose to draw.
I get piles, literally, of "love" made for me almost daily! It's very sweet!

 

Our Thanksgiving was uneventful really.
The day before, my mom came over and we did some cooking and then we went to my Grandma's the next day!

 

 

And can I just say how ridiculous Black Friday-ers are?? This was at Target at 8:15am the day before Thanksgiving. Seriously people?

 

The first day back at school after the break, put up our tree and the kids made ornaments to put on it!

 

We didn't have anything to put on the top of our tree but luckily, when we got to school the next day, our little elf friend, Oscar, had made us a star!

 

 

He also left his mess! :)
The kids thought it was so funny that he hadn't cleaned up after himself and said they he should move his clip down! Hahaha!

 

Boy, that week after Thanksgiving was rough! The week before had been a 2 day week and then the kids had 5 days away from school so they were pretty hyped up when we came back! But low and behold, Mother Nature came through for all us teachers and gave us snow day that Friday!..and Monday!...and Tuesday! Hallelujah! And God bless the sweet, sweet people at Edmond Public Schools for building in 9 snow days so we won't have to make any of them up!

 

 

 

They canceled Friday before we even dismissed Thursday!!
It was so nice to have an unexpected "non school night"!
We enjoyed some cider with a splash of Hot Damn and I rejoiced that I wouldn't have school the next day!

 

 

I treated Matt to homemade biscuits on our first snow day morning!
Just like little delicious balls of butter! :)

 

Molly's not so much a fan of snow or cold weather but Snuffy loved walking around in it!

 

The Wednesday we came back for our "snow break" my mom came to school with me to visit my sweeties! We had Snowman Soup (hot chocolate with marshmallows, candy cane and Hershey Kiss) and she made them peppermint swirl cookies!

 

 

 

I don't know why that picture won't turn the right way, but whatever.

She left at lunch time and when I picked the kids up from recess one of the asked where Miss Robin was. I said that she had gone home and another one said, "Aww, but we liked her!!"
The way to these kid's hearts is definitely through their stomach! Bring them sweets, and they'll love you! :)

 

A while back, I got a text from Samantha's (a student from last year) mom inviting me to her Christmas dance recital! She and Tate, another one of babies from last year, are BEST friends, so Tate and his mom were coming to the recital too! I was so excited to see everybody! A couple weeks before Christmas I went to the recital and got to see both my pumpkin pies!!

 

 

 

Love, love, love those kids!!
They definitely kept a piece of my heart when they left my class!

 

We had Grinch day at school on the day of our Christmas party!

 

 

Can you believe I actually went to school dressed like that??

 

And I made Grinch cookies for my class!
They thought it was so cool to eat a green cookie. :)

 

Christmas was rather uneventful too, although we both got some great gifts this year!!

 

 

I really think my Christmas morning cider tasted better in this, over-the-top cute cow mug.

 

 

Nothing says "family Christmas" like booze, eh?
There was also a bottle of champagne for our traditional mimosas but I didn't make it in the picture.

It looks bad, I know.
But don't worry, we don't need an intervention...the only thing we ended up opening was the Hot Damn for cider. Well and the champagne for mimosa's. :)

 

This was this year's birthday cake!
My family always has a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas. :)
Complete with 4 candles. Haha!

 

I made some verrrrry delicious cinnamon/sugar and white chocolate pretzels to take to Matt's family Christmases.

 

Since Christmas we've just been soaking up our Christmas break!
I've done some house stuff with my mom...looking at granite, picking out her appliances, etc.
But that's about as exciting as my break has been!
I love spending my days with these faces!

 

 

He likes to sit under our bed.
What a little weirdo.

 

 

13.5 years I've been loving that handsome man!
He simply must live forever!

 

 

He went to the groomer the day after Christmas and came back looking like a fluffy polar bear...

 

 

He's old and senile and sometimes forgets to keep his tongue in his mouth. :)

 

My beloved.

 

 

From looking at these photos, it looks like I only where pajama pants.
I swear I wear real clothes! I just seem to always take pictures of her in the evening or in the morning when I'm still in my jammies!

 

I love the crazed looked in her eye in this one! Matt got super close to her tummy (because he likes to give her a hard time!) and that's her "warning" face. You can see the sides of her mouth kinda curled...that means she's going to strike at any moment. Haha!

 

I'm not even sorry for all the pictures of my dogs. :)

 

 

Matt worked today; he should be getting off in just a little bit.
He's going to pick up some fattening dinner for us to enjoy as we ring in the new year on the couch in our jammies! Is that a wild New Year's Eve or is that a wild New Year's Eve?

 

He signed up for a weight loss contest at the hospital; each participant pays $25 dollars and the one who loses the highest percentage wins the pot! So, we're indulging tonight before his contest starts tomorrow! :)

 

Happy New Year!