The Holidays are Coming!

I have discovered throughout the past two and a half years of being married to Collin that November and December are busy months for us Wheelers. Busy in a good way of course. :) We celebrated Collin's birthday in November. He turned the big 2-6 on the 20th. (We are now the same age, until I turn 27 in February.) For his birthday weekend, he got to borrow a 2015 Chevy Camero from his job at GM. It was a pretty sweet ride, not to mention, it was also a convertible. The engine sounded so amazing as it went faster down the road. He even let me drive it. It felt so cool, especially with the hood down. We almost wanted to keep it... Here's why.

Good-looking car with a good-looking driver. ;)

 Collin's overall birthday was pretty low key. He opened my present for him which was a popcorn maker and baster. He loves his popcorn so I figured he would like it. We were also very thankful for the many other gifts given by family and friends. Later, he decided to make shrimp etouffee for dinner. I even offered to cook for his birthday, but he insisted upon making dinner. I certainly didn't complain about that. ;) Dinner, as always, tasted amazing. Later, we had a friend stop by and wish him a happy birthday, cake and ice cream included. We also celebrated the next day by going to the temple. It was great way to spend time for Collin's birthday.

Singing happy birthday to Collin with yummy strawberry cake. You may notice that some of the candles aren't lit up. It's supposed to be in binary code. (It's an IT thing. ;) )

It was Thanksgiving day almost a week later. Our friends in our ward invited us to spend Thanksgiving with them along with a few of their family members. Collin made creamed corn and I made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for the occasion. He did a great job making the corn. It was definitely a big hit at the Thanksgiving gathering. Even though we didn't see our families this year for Thanksgiving, it was nice just spending it with good friends. We didn't take a picture of ourselves on Thanksgiving day, but I decided to share one of our photos from our previous photo shoot. We love the way they turned out. Our friends did a good job taking them.

 Apparently you see a lot more colorful leaves around November in Texas, and they are so beautiful!

 Foot-poppin' kiss.

 Under the bridge

 The picture we posted for Thanksgiving. I love the fall background.

 A fall/winter photo shoot is not complete without a blanket.

 LOVE him!

 The picture I posted for Collin's birthday.

 One more, because it's almost Christmas!

November flew by so quickly and now we are in December. I've mentioned it before, but Christmas is my favorite time of year. I probably got a little too excited and filled our apartment with Christmas decorations. It's fun to get festive, especially this time of year. I can't wait until we go down to California to see both my side and Collin's side of the family. It will be so great to see everyone again. Since we live so far away, it's hard to go down to see our families. But I am glad that we get to go down to celebrate with them the true meaning of the season, which is giving and the birth of our Savior. I am truly grateful for him and to know that he lives. I will end my blog with our Christmas decorations. My next blog will be about Christmas Vacation, so stay tuned. :)

My winter flower arrangement 

Our Front Door

My upgraded Christmas/winter centerpiece. 

 I even added two turtle doves, or maybe they're love birds? Either way, they work. :)

 Pine cones and berries... perfect for this time of year. :)

 Christmas is never complete without poinsettias. 

Red flowers and red ribbon

 We added a garland to our entertainment center, along with other various decorations.

 Nativity sculptures I got from our relief society brunch

 I love the berry/pine cone arrangement. No I did not make it. :)

Our small, but beautiful Christmas tree.

You can't see the writing very well, but our first Christmas will always hold a special place in our hearts.

Happy Holidays!!!

Happy Fall Y'all!

Ok. So.... clearly I need to be better about blogging. The last blog I wrote was about labor day weekend... Things have felt so busy lately, but I am finally getting back to blogging. 

November is here! We are getting so close to the holidays which makes me so excited! It's been a pretty nice fall in Texas. Although, we were in the 90's for a long time so I guess we had a longer summer. :) We also have encountered severe thunderstorms down in the Austin area recently. It even flooded in some areas! Yikes! Luckily, we didn't get flooded and were safe. With that being said, I'm glad that it's cooling down now and officially feeling like fall.

As you may know, I am passionate about fall... so much, that I decided to make fall crafts to decorate my home. I hope I didn't go too crazy with crafting this season, but I couldn't help myself! I put a fall flower arrangement on my patio door, made a fall centerpiece for my counter, and put a cornucopia to go on our entertainment center. When we get a house someday, I will find better places to put my decorations. For now, our counters and table tops will work. :) It was so much fun crafting for this season, especially with friends! 

The flower arrangement on our patio door

The fall centerpiece. With the help of some friends, it came together nicely. Someday, I will put this on our fire place when we get one. For now, this will do.

We used the lamp that Collin bought for our anniversary, as well as fake pumpkins, scented pine cones, leaves, and acorns.

I put glitter on some of the pine cones and pumpkins.

Modge podge works wonders. :)

The crystal skull that Collin had before we were married. I thought it looked appropriate for Halloween. :)

   

The cornucopia with pumpkins, pine cones, and berries inside it. The cornucopia itself was only $8 at Party City.

Before we knew it, October came around the bend. We, of course, started the month off with General Conference. Since we moved far away to Texas, we couldn't see conference in person, but we enjoyed watching it at home. I think one of the talks that stood out to me was Elder Durrant's talk about pondering over the scriptures. We have pondering over a scripture each week and it really does make all the difference. I also got excited when Kim B. Clark came up to give a talk. He used to be president at BYU Idaho where I went to college. He always gave such inspirational talks. 

 Taking a quick snap shot of Kim B. Clark. To think, I used to see him every week at devotional!

I love getting spiritually fed every six months for General Conference. Our president Thomas S. Monson is a true prophet. I love him and sustain him.

October is also a great month to make delicious treats. We decided to make caramel apples for an FHE activity with some friends from our ward. I had forgotten how fun it is to make caramel apples. I was pretty impressed by how they turned out. Not to mention, they tasted amazing. We had a good time just being goofy while taking pictures.

You have probably already seen these pictures on Facebook, but I thought I would show them again. :)

They turned out amazing!

Such a sweet fall treat. :)

We like to pretend we're singing sometimes...

Just like our wedding day.... except instead of a cake, it's caramel apples.

We were trying to get someone else in the picture...

Love these girls!

Velvet and I

Along side making carmel apples, I've also been using my camera a lot ever since we moved up to Austin. Recently, I went on a fall photo shoot with two of my friends in our ward. However, we discovered that there aren't very many changing leaves in the Austin area. Despite that, the pictures still turned out pretty good. I think you can tell that they are fall pictures. :) 

I have the most gorgeous friends. It was a beautiful, fun day for a photo shoot.

Another thing, who can ever forget Halloween?? The week before Halloween, we went to our ward Halloween activity. It was originally supposed to be a trunk or treat, but because of rain, we had to do trick or treating inside the church building. It was still fun and the little trick or treaters seemed to like it. :) I especially loved looking at all their costumes.This year, we dressed as Mary Poppins and Bert from a classic Disney movie. ;) We had fun putting our costume props together. I made my Mary Poppins hat and Collin made his chimney sweep. I unfortunately didn't get a picture of Collin's chimney sweep, but he used a broom stick, Styrofoam, broom bristles, and black spray paint to make it. We got a lot of clothes from Good Will that we used to put the rest of our costumes together. I always have a blast dressing up, especially with Collin. :) On the day of Halloween, we went to the San Antonio Temple, which was definitely needed. Afterwords, Collin went to the store to buy some candy for trick or treaters. There ended up not being any that showed up on our doorstep, so there was lots of leftover candy for us! Here are the pictures. I can't wait for next Halloween!

 The Mary Poppins hat that I put together. I used fake daisies and berries to decorate it. I got the hat from Good Will.

How our costumes came together. Collin used my make up for the "dirt" on his face. :)

 

 Just posing... it was perfect timing to be Mary Poppins, especially when it rained hard that day! Good thing she always carries an umbrella. The chimney sweep broke later on... Oh well.

 Our friends Mike and Hailey. Their costumes were the same as ours last year: Gaston and Belle. :)

 It's supercalifragilisticexpialidocious with just a spoonful of sugar! :)

 Feeling at peace after going in the temple on the day of Halloween.