A gift for him...a gift for me.

Colin and I have made a lot of changes around our household! 2 days after Christmas Colin bought a new truck. It's a '05 Sierra Denali. It's SO incredibly nice to have a truck and not just 2 small cars. We're actually able to go to the hardware store without having to borrow his parents or Granny/Gramp's truck! AND, the most important part of the truck: It has heated seats. My next car will definitely have those!



Colin and I got completely spoiled for Christmas. We got a lot of stuff for the house. It's funny how you get gifts and you know it'll be useful, but then you don't realize how you ever lived without them after you've used them. For example, our Food Saver and Shop Vac from my parents. Who knew you could actually freeze dinners and not have them be freezer burnt a few months later? And that dust in the garage? GONE! Amazing. And the Cuisine Art mini chopper from Colin's parents, you don't actually have to get out a cutting board and knife. Genius!

Of course the most surprising gift I personally got was my new Nikon DSLR Camera. I really wanted one for a long time but never really thought I'd get one. Well, Colin and his parents got me one for Christmas and I absolutely love it! I may not have kids to take pictures of but I have 3 pretty cute fur-babies I love to take pics of! Colin's not a very willing model :( I really want to take a basic photography class but the one I found down here is conflicting with my work schedule. So maybe Spring time!

Speaking of my babies...here are a few cute pics I've taken of them. Doesn't Rissy just have the prettiest coat? I love it!

Christmas Henna

This year's Christmas was a little different from the past. Of course we did our family thing all day but this year after dinner we went to Laura's future mother in law's house to have bodiskis (I have NO idea how to spell that but they are a kind of sweet cinnamony rolls). There were many nieces and nephews there who got to open gifts and Justin's sister is hosting a foreign exchange student, Huma, who also got to join in on the festivities. This was her first Christmas since she's from India and Muslim. She really enjoyed herself and we really enjoyed her! She was so kind to do henna on my mom, Laura's future sister in law Dani and me! We'd never had it done before and it was such a cool experience!

Mom, me & Dani's henna

Huma working on my mom's hand.

Huma, mom & baby Evie

All done!

Huma working on my henna!

How beautiful is this! It stays on for a month or so. :)

Close up! So detailed!

Mom, Dani, Huma & Me
Thanks Huma! We love it! We can't wait for you to do it again at Laura's wedding!

Snowball

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Puppies Galore!

This week has been full of dogs. We're officially out numbered! Of course we have Rissy & Duke, and we've added Colin's parents dog Bella for the week. She's visiting to play with our dogs and she came with us to get our Christmas tree last Saturday.

Colin, the dogs and I went up to the mountain/hills to find a tree for Christmas. There weren't many to choose from but we did find one that looked okay. We brought it home and, well, it's a little Charlie Brownish. Okay, a lot Charlie Brownish. But it does the job and is actually kind of cute. Rissy has only damaged one of the ornaments, at least that we know of. I'm sure there are more hiding somewhere.

This week has been bitterly cold. It dropped down into the teens and even to 9 degrees one morning on my way to work. It's supposed to have a little frozen rain/snow today then rain the next several days. I'm thankful it will be heating up at least into the 40's because the 20's everyday is WAY too cold!

Hope everyone stays warm!

Miss Riss being spoiled.

Duke laying by the wood fireplace. His favorite spot when it's cold out!

Bella being the model for our tree. (She's a chocolate lab just like Rissy)