The holidays!

I really love this time of the year!  My mom and I wrote all about the holidays and traditions over here.

This year the day before Thanksgiving we had a pie making party at my parents' house.

My nephews were there, my mom and dad helped, then one brother and sister-in-law came over.  I make 2 pumpkin pies and my first ever pecan pie.  I need a little more practice making pie crusts, but overall it was a success!  I think that next year I'll try to make a strawberry rhubarb pie (Tanner's favorite).

We spend Thanksgiving over at my great aunt Pam's house.  It seems that after eating, we always tend to get a little crazy.  This year it was a three person tower.

The Sunday or Monday after Thanksgiving we get together to make gingerbread houses.  This is probably my favorite holiday tradition. 

This year we decided to decorate our house in red and white.  We added a little garden in our yard as well.  Our cute little gingerbread house is now sitting on our piano looking festive.

Last night we had an extended family Christmas party.  My little brother played Santa! We all thought it was so funny that we decided to join in on the fun.

A few weeks ago I went to a boutique.  I saw a lot of cute things and left feeling crafty! 

I painted this little sign to make my desk area feel more christmas-y.

I also saw some cute headbands at the botique.  I felt like I could make them for a lot less than they were selling for.  They have wire inside, so they bend and shape to your head.  I feel like I have a hard time wearing headbands because they always seem to fit weird of slip off.  These are perfect!  I made a couple and really like them.

And... We got a new car!  It's a 2004 Mini Cooper. 

Lately

It's been too ling since I have written and so I thought I's play catch up!

My husband sent me roses "just because".  I love that!  I know they are just flowers, but they make me feel so loved.  I just like knowing that Tanner is thinking about me and wants me to know it <3

I got a new laptop!  You may remember that our house was broken into and my laptop and ipod were stolen.  I am happy to report that I got a new one of each.  My new laptop's name is Gigi (or G.G. for Gregron's Ghost)  I am really loving it except that it's made of metal and glass and gets quite cold.

Tanner got these wretched shoes on his mission and wore them WAY LONGER than he should have.  I hated those things and he finally let me buy him a new pair and throw these old ones away!!!  Horray!

We have a family tradition of making gingerbread houses (that's where my mom and dad's story begins!) each year.  Here is the one Tanner and I made this year.  One of my favorite parts is that I gave the gingerbread people frosting hair.

Our mortgage company (lender, actually, but it's all the same to me) rented a theatre and invites us to see the movie Tangled for free!  We even got to bring 8 other people as well.  Santa was there so we got a picture to be festive.  I loved the movie by the way.

My sister-in-law made me pajama pants out of this amazing red and white fabric.  I love them!  I also got some pretty sweet Christmas presents (I made a list of what I wanted and Tanner got me everything on the list!)  i got an ipod dock, beautiful red Crock pot, boots, 5 shirts, Anne of Green Gables (1 and 2) on DVD, a lace skirt,

I thoroughly enjoyed my 2 weeks off from work!  They were much needed and to be honest I didn't do a whole lot.  I slept in, kept the house nice and tidy, cooked more, read, relaxed, hung out with my family, helped my brother and sister-in-law move, worked one day at the fabric store, and enjoyed having no commitments.   But now it's back to work and parent teacher conferences next week.

Just before Christmas break I straightened my hair on day and when a student saw me in the morning he said "Mrs. Layton!!!?  Is that really you?"  haha.

We are also teaching sunday school at church.  We taught 15/16 year olds for 4 weeks, then they rearranged for the new year and we are teaching 12/13 year olds.  It's been fun having a church calling with Tanner; we have always had separate callings.