Christmas Crafts

This year has been a very special Christmas because not only is it Daniel and my first Christmas together, but I've really strated to enjoy doing crafts. I got this idea for a Christmas Advent Calendar and just fell in love with it. I had someone do the vinyl lettering, I made the magnents myself and put it all together. It was so fun and Daniel and I have both enjoyed counting down the days 'til Christmas!

My sisters, mom, and I all got together and made some vinyl lettering boards. We did it as a family service project. We painted the boards and applied the vinyl lettering. The idea was that we would give these boards to people we thought needed a little extra love this Christmas season. It was such a fun project and they turned out so beautiful! It's fun to be with family!

A Festivus for the Restivus!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

This year was the second annual Christmas party at the Costelows. Daniel and I were thrilled to attend the family party! We had such a good time socializing, eating, singing, laughing at Santa Claus, and taking tons of pictures. It's interesting how much more important these events become and how much more enjoyable they are when you're married. I can only imagine the added joy children will bring to parties like these. All the cousins love each other and play so well with one another. It was so wonderful to watch them run around and create memories!

Here are some of the pictures I took from the party. Bridget, my sister who lives in Colorado, was able to fly in for the party with her son Ethan. It was SUCH a nice addition to the party! It's so wonderful to be together as sisters and family. It was nice to have Nana there also. She just had a ball when we sang Christmas songs. Erica snapped the BEST picture of her singing! It's the happiest we've seen Nana in a long time! I'm glad she can have this memory... Even if she doesn't remember it, it's still there inside her, and one day she'll be able to retrieve it!

Our First Christmas Tree

I have to start this blog with a little disclaimer. I'm really upset about this! I have envisioned this day for a long time and I was thinking of sleigh rides, hot chocolate, and jingle bells. It's our first Christmas together, after all. I wanted it to be perfect. So, we head out of the house. Monica: stomach ache, nausea, general malaise. Common to Monica right now... And NO, she's not pregnant! So, off we head to Helvetia Christmas Tree Farm, with coupon in tow for free hot apple cider! Mmmm, I can smell it now! Alas, we see the sign for the farm... followed by a CLOSED sign! What the? How does a tree farm run out of trees in the beginning of December? Oh well, let's try to find another. Just around the corner, to our surprise, another farm! Well, this was nothing like the other farm. It was a field of trees, with the man running it working out of a van... And it wasn't even down by the river! No cider. No sleigh rides. No jingle bells. Grrr... Monica: Not happy. Annoyed. We go on our sojourn to find the perfect tree. About a mile away from the car: where's the camera? In the car. Perfect! No pictures of our perfect tree before it was cut down. No pictures of Dan cutting it down! Could it get any worse? Then, we find this beautiful tree! It's full. It's lush. It's everything we want it to be... but it's very close together with four other trees. There was really only one place to cut this tree down. And as we look at the ground, we see a huge pile of poop! Some kid probably needed to poop and decided the perfect tree was the place to do it. Monica and Dan: moving on. We found our tree, and it is beautiful... but (frown) no pictures of Dan cutting it down!

So disclaimer said, here's our tree! Merry Christmas from Daniel and Monica Long! I put up the lights, and we both decorated the tree. It turned out looking really good, even though we were short supplies!

Putting the star on the tree

Daniel, so proud of his handy work

And it wouldn't be Dan if there weren't at least one funny picture or goofy moment! He really is quite funny. Makes me laugh... most of the time!

So, while it definitely didn't go as planned, it was still a memorable journey... Hey, that's kind of like our story! ;)

Happy Happy Birthday.... 3 Months Later

My birthday was September 26th and I realize it's a little late to be blogging about it. I've got out of the habit of blogging but it's time to do it again! So, about that birthday....

My birthday-day was particular hard this year. Not sure why, just was. Nonetheless, I went to the Relief Society General Broadcast with my mom and came home to a house decked out with all the corny party decorations known to man! My husband was so sweet to do this for me! It looked great! My cake... well that's another story. I don't recommend Costco cakes! GROSS. Way too much frosting! Barf... But cute, I might say.

This is part of the workings of my sweet husband. No detail was left out. He has such an eye for these things and this is when I really love his OCD because the details that most men overlook, Daniel will see.

We joke about the height contrast of Branden and Daniel. He makes Daniel look like the biggest shrimp!!!

My dad taking some picture of us. Unfortunately, my dad is probably the worst photographer known to man. While you might think I'm being rude, believe me, he knows it! Daniel was dipping me... But the picture looks like a throwdown!

A little better. What a fantastic husband I have! I love him.

And fantastic parents too I might add. They're so good to me and I love them so much. I'm so glad I could share my birthday with the ones who brought me into this world!