'Tis the Season

So tonight was Taylor's last night class for the semester and he was very excited! He only went to class for about 5 minutes and then got to leave! And this is how he celebrates...


Haha! More studying! I feel like I have posted this picture a few times already, but it just goes to show that this is probably what you will see when you walk into our apartment.

And since it is officially the Christmas season, I decided to put up a few of my holiday decorations today when I was home for lunch. I know it's not that cute at the moment, but I'm still rearranging and I need to get our stockings!


I got the candle stands when were in Tulsa last weekend at Pier 1 and I just love them! I feel like they are kind of "Christmasy" but will look good on the mantle the rest of the year since they match the living room. And I'm sure you are wondering, "Where are the candles?". Well last Christmas I bought these really pretty red, cinnamon candles from Pier 1 that had ribbon on them. But sadly, when I got them out of the box this afternoon they had melted and were all deformed :( I guess I will just have to go get some new ones.

I think we are planning on putting up our tree sometime this week so I will be sure and post some pictures! Taylor wants to make homemade donuts while we put up the tree so I am really excited about that. Hope you all are having a good week! We love y'all!

Happy Thanksgiving

Yes, we are still alive. Sorry we have been MIA for awhile! We have just been so busy and tired that I haven't taken the time to post. I'll try not to let it happen again!

We hope you all have had a very Happy Thanksgiving and are enjoying spending time with family and friends. Yesterday we headed to Oklahoma to spend Thanksgiving with my family, but due to EXTREMELY strong rain we ended up staying the night in Springfield to be safe. Taylor and I had never seen rain so strong! At one point we were going 15 or 20 mph on I44 with our hazards lights flashing and not sure if we were still on the road. But we found a hotel quickly everything turned out fine. We got up early this morning, finished the drive, then turned right around and headed to my grandma's house. It was nice to spend the afternoon with family and eat very delicious, and way too much, food!

This wasn't our first thanksgiving meal this year though! Last week we decided to have a thanksgiving meal with our "Illinois family". Laine and I split up the dishes and here are some pictures of the evening.

Taylor carving the Turkey!


After the turkey was carved... We had it smoked at a local deli and it was delicious!

Here is the whole "family" after enjoying a yummy meal and watching The Santa Clause!

The boys taking a break from discussing physics...

My new favorite sweet potato casserole recipe!

Stuffing is one of my favorite Thanksgiving meals. This is my friend Stephanie's grandma's recipe.

This is our friend Can. He is a Grad student and is from China! He is really funny and wanted me to take his picture with the turkey. Ha!

We also got to go to the U of I vs. Yale basketball game this week! It was a lot of fun but since the game started late, we ended up leaving with about 9 minutes left since the Illini were most likely going to win :) We cheered loud for you Daniella!

Well we hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week! I will try and keep you all updated on our trip!

Weekend Fun

Hope you all have had a wonderful weekend! Friday night we had poker night over at Laine and Andrew's house and had a lot of fun! Taylor and I haven't played much poker but we both really love card games. We had a lot of fun and Taylor actually ended up winning :) We played until about 1:30 in the morning and by the end of it I was exhausted! I just don't understand how poker players can play for hours and hours and stay focused. So we went to sleep pretty late (early?) that night and had to get up early to go to the stations last tailgate! Woohoo! Let's give 3 cheers for the last tailgate of the season. Haha! They are a lot of fun but it will nice to be able to sleep in on Saturdays now.

After we got back from the tailgate we picked up the house and did some laundry before my family got here! I have been really excited all week for them to come visit since they haven't been here since we moved in July. Even though it was a short visit, we had a really fun time! Lastnight we went and took a tour of the station and then got Olive Garden to go and watched the OK State game at the house. During halftime my dad helped us hang up a bunch of stuff we have needed to hang up for a while!

We got this mantel at Hobby Lobby and I really like it! Now we can hang stocking for Christmas :)

This is a cross I have had for a long time. Eventually we want to get another chair to put in the open space!

And Hobby Lobby has all their decorative crosses on sale so I picked up a few the other day to add to the ones we already had! We don't really want to hang up a lot of stuff since we're not sure how long we will be here, but it just feels homier (not sure if that's a word! ha) with a little on the walls!

My family left about 11:30 this morning and now I am just finishing laundry while Taylor works on homework. We just caught the end of Stepmom and I need to go buy a new box of tissues! That movie makes me cry every time. This evening we are planning on going to a Newcomer's Dessert at the church we have been attending. Laine and Andrew are going as well so it will be nice to meet some people in the church and get to know the pastor and his wife.

We hope you all have a relaxing Sunday! Tomorrow night we are having Thanksgiving dinner with Laine, Andrew, Keith, and our friend Can so I will be sure and post recipes and pictures soon!

U-Rock

The commercial we filmed for the stations new U-Rock 107.9 is done!

So here it is... our big TV debut!! :)

Haha! Taylor was to the right of me, just in case you couldn't tell.

Hope y'all are having a great weekend!

Family, Halloween, and Pie

Hello! We had a really nice weekend visiting with Taylor's family in St. Louis. This was also the Monster Mash Dash race I have mentioned before and it was a lot of fun :) I ended up just running the 5k since we hadn't trained for very long, but everyone else did the 10k. I am happy now that all I did was the 5k because my calves were STILL tight when I woke up this morning! Susan placed 3rd in her division which was awesome! We headed back home Sunday after breakfast and I didn't realized how close St. Louis was to us until this past weekend. Taylor and I both really enjoy St. Louis so I hope that we have more reasons to visit in the future!

So this was our first Halloween married and I have been really excited about setting out a bowl of candy for the kids in our apartment complex! I set out our pumpkin with candy and a cute sign about 4pm just in case any kids came by early. When I went to bring the pumpkin back in the house at 10pm guess how much candy was gone?? NONE! What in the world? I have seen tons of kids in the area and I was so shocked when none of the candy was gone. Oh well, I guess. Taylor said he would be happy to eat the candy! Haha :)

Finally, I wanted to share this grasshopper mint pie recipe with y'all! My roommate Steph made it once our senior year and I loved it. I have been craving it lately so when we went to Walmart Sunday I decided to pickup the stuff to make it! Taylor isn't big on desserts, but he had a piece Sunday night and took a piece for lunch today so I think he likes it!

Grasshopper Mint Pie

• 1(8 oz) pkg cream cheese
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 1 (8 oz.) cool whip
• 1 c. chopped keebler fudge shoppe grasshopper cookies
• 3 drops green food coloring
• 1 (6 oz.) chocolate Pie crust

Directions: Mix cream cheese and sugar with electric mixer. Fold in cool whip, chopped cookies and green food colors. Spoon into crust. Refrigerate at least 3 hrs. Garnish w/ extra cookies!