Some House Happenings

I haven't mentioned our house lately. Nathanael just finished putting a door in the doorway between the mudroom and the kitchen. Remember this door from waaaay back that I just had to have? It was a a local scrap yard. 

Well, here it is! In our house. Sorry for all the super low quality pictures. 

I plan on putting either a chalkboard or a decorative piece of metal grate on top of some wood. It won't happen today, but it WILL happen. I also plan to clean it. :) 

We also switched stoves with Nathanael's sister, Ruth. HUGE blessing and thanks! That tiny wood stove wasn't cutting it, but now we stay super warm. Nathanael discovered that it is really a coal burning stove, so we want to buy some coal just to test it out.

I started painting our dining room table (finally) and it will hopefully be finished on Saturday. Be on the look out!

Oh, and have a happy, safe, responsible New Year's Eve! ;)

A New Year a New Me

Two-thousand twelve, make way for the new girl, two-thousand thirteen! I haven't made New's Years resolutions for years...I haven't really thought about why until now. I suppose it is the fear of failure and my ever becoming acceptance of mediocrity. 

This New Year is a new year. Literally. 

No more fear. 

No more indifference. 

Leave me breathless. 

Carry me on the Wind

To a place I've never been. 

Hold me in your arms,

Whisper in my ear, 

Tell me I have nothing to lose, 

But the loss of life unloved. 

Be daring; 

Brave and unafraid, 

Love a life so satisfied

That you'd live to love again. 

Oh, hey, sometimes I write poems off the top of my head. 

Basically, this year I'm going to live like it's the last one I'll ever have. No fear! I do have a list of 25 things to accomplish before I turn 26 in November. If you haven't read the list yet you can read it here. 

Here are my inspirational thoughts for this year of 2013: 

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Now, to set some real life goals! One for every month of the year in no particular order or importance:

1. Discover (and rediscover) my talents.
2. Be kinder than I feel. Err day. 
3. For every negative think two positives
4. Go someplace new. 
5. Make friends.
6. Meet my neighbors. This terrifies me because I already met one of my neighbors...she got mad at me for taking pictures of her horses. We will try again!
7. Host a party at our house. 
8. Get a stationary exercise bike. I miss biking and I'm too terrified to bike on the roads here because I'm pretty sure I would get run over by a truck. Kind of like Blue. 
9. Remember to be me. 
10. Break down walls. The ones inside me. 
11. Think pretty thoughts. 
12. Develop a genuine love for all people. Basically, this is me now: 

For real. Two-thousand thirteen, you are mine! 

Provo Isn't a Real City

Guys, I don't have anything against Provo. So relax. This isn't a hate post. I said it. I believe it. If you've lived there, you might agree. Provo isn't a real city. Even though it has a population hovering around 115,000 it still never seemed "real". 

When I think of a city I see this in my mind: 

Although, this is really a Sin City. Not really a real city either. 

When I see Provo, I see this: 

It's totally beautiful right? That's Brigham Young University. I'm pretty sure they have the tallest buildings in Provo. The thing is, Provo just seems like a fantasy land. It's too "perfect" to be true!

Here are four Reasons Provo is not a real city. 

1. So many students. It's a college town. Totally not real! Does this picture look like real life to you?!

They are everywhere! I don't have anything against BYU. My sister went to BYU. My best friend went there. I even had a sleepover in her dorm. When she rolled over at two in the morning and whispered, "I can't sleep...my tummy huuuurts!" we walked to a pizza place had ourselves some fetching pizza. 

2. So. Many. White. People. 

That's kind of a joke, but really. There are SO MANY WHITE PEOPLE! 

Side note: BYU's soccer team is Awesome!

You should probably just watch this video. It actually kind of explains number one as well.  

I don't have anything against white people. I am white! but according to everyone else I look mostly Mexican (but I'm not Mexican. I'm Polynesian+White=Awesome). Apparently I also look French, Indian, Native American, Iranian, Pakistani, Grecian, and supposedly talk like I'm from Minnesota. 

3. So many Mormons.

I don't have anything against Mormons either, in fact, I am one. Surprise! I always wondered what it would be like to live in a place where the dominant religion wasn't Mormon. According to this link, in 2008 88% of persons in Provo were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints [Mormons].

4. It's full of hipsters. I won't even go into that. Just read it here on this blog. She's hilarious. 

Are there any other reasons Provo isn't like a real city? After the New Year, I'm going to talk about the place I live now. It's called "Kidder". For real. I can't wait to show you my new town! 

Christmas: Happened.

I hope you had a Merry Christmas! We sure did. We are still working on our Christmas traditions. This year we thought it would be fun to have our pictures taken as a family on the bridge where we had our engagement pictures taken in 2011. 

This was our engagement photo taken by my mama

These are our Christmas photos: 

{photos taken by Wade Christensen}

But it was a whopping 19 degrees Fahrenheit. Not so much fun. It hurt my teeth to smile! I think we will start doing our family picture in the Spring (like my mom suggested) and maybe we won't freeze to death.  

It was our first Christmas with Caeden. This is how he felt about it and most of his presents: 

He seemed to enjoy his little finger puppets: 

 I know I enjoyed them! 

My mother-in-law gave us a super cute gift that would be an easy "homemade" gift:

She called it our "Winter Picnic Basket". So adorable! Just get a basket and fill it with winter-y stuff! 

Also, I've been blogging about our house since we bought it in June 2011. Today, I joined that blog with this one. It's just easier to manage two blogs instead of three, although I'm not sure if all of the posts made it over. I'll have to do some checking later. I also have a furniture blog that I'm thinking about joining to this one, but I haven't decided yet. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this super long post! 

Post Christmas Project Time

I hope you all had a very lovely Christmas! 

I've been a slacker over the holidays. That's just how it goes! Just as a heads up, I may be combining this blog and a new blog I have started...but I haven't decided for sure though. 

Anyway, I've had this dining table since the fall, and haven't done anything with it yet. 

I started working on it today. You will see more next week! 

Winter Wonderland

It SNOWED! Remember the Winter Weather Advisory? It snowed!!! My jeep rocks the snow and ice, but we found out the 4-wheel drive on Nathanael's truck doesn't work. He's less of a man now. Just kidding. He's totally embarrassed about it though. He got stuck trying to get up our driveway when he came home. I wanted to get a picture, but he got up early and dug it out before I woke up. Here are some pics of the snow and stuff:

 I was going to shovel the whole driveway for Nathanael, but then I looked at it and was all, "meh."

My most awesome boots. Except the snow kept building up on them. 

Who else wears tights underneath their pants when it's cold?!

Blizzard face!

The snow also brought out all of the little winter birdies. I need like, a real bird lens to take pics of them. They are so lovely!

Also, the knocking in our attic turned out to be none other than a....

Nathanael was right! It was a woodpecker. On the outside of our house. We still must have mice though. Whatev. Enjoy the snow!