Happy New Year!

We are only hours away from celebrating a New Year - 2018. It's been a great 2017, mostly a year of travel for us! We didn't get a lot of house projects done this year, but we are hoping that next year we will get to some bigger projects that we've been wanting to do for a while.

This New Year's, we have several inches of snow outside, and temperatures in the negative digits. But we're ready to ring in the new year with Trent's family here in town!

I hope you all have a Happy New Year, wherever you are. Stay warm everyone!

Merry Christmas from our Family to Yours

Hello all and Merry Christmas! Our Christmases with family start today. Trent is working for a little while, then later this afternoon we go to Iowa City to celebrate with my mom's side of the family.

Look at all of these presents covering up our tree (and living room) this year!

This might be a record for number of presents, or size of them, either one. But the good news is, I am all done Christmas shopping and wrapping.

It's been a busy holiday season this year with working and shopping, but like I said in my last post, I've also had time to watch Hallmark Christmas movies and Friends and Boy Meets World on Netflix and Hulu, so it's all good. :) 

Hope you and yours have a merry holiday season! Off to celebrate!

Thanksgiving and Our Christmas Tree

It's been so long since I've blogged, and November's already coming to an end! I don't know where this month went, it seems like it's been a blur. Since we've gotten back from San Diego, I've been busy working, but have also had time to relax at home (watching Hulu, Netflix and Hallmark movies!), and spend time with friends and family.

We got together with our families for Thanksgiving. We ate a lot of food and had a good time with family. The day after, I got some pretty good deals shopping online for Christmas gifts, and I spent the afternoon putting the Christmas tree up and decorating the house while Trent was working, as is my tradition!

This is the eighth (!!) Christmas we've had this tree, and it's the first one we've ever had. We got it right after I moved into the house, on sale at Target for Black Friday. It looks almost the same every year, except we always seem to get a few new ornaments every year, and it's been in a different spot in the living room since we got our sectional a couple of years ago.

It's strange to think that it used to be in front of this window. Now the couch is there, of course, and all we see is the reflection of the tree in the window. :)

It's actually a prelit tree, but most of the original lights are now burnt out. Last year, we had to get a couple of new strands of lights, and some are brighter and "less golden" than the others - I think due to being LED, so you can actually tell if you really look closely, that the lights don't match!

I still like our tree, because it's small enough that I can haul it out of the closet myself and set it up without Trent's help. It's easy to set up and fits perfectly in our living room, but this might be the last year that we have it... We'll see! I haven't decided yet if we should go another year with the prelit lights not working. I guess it depends on whether we find another good deal on a tree we really like!

On another note, this month was our 7th Housiversary! November 21, 2010 is when I moved in with Trent into this house. Usually I do a whole "Housiversary" post, but this year, we can just consider this my housiversary post. Close enough, right? :)

Next Tuesday I leave for another work conference, in Columbus, Ohio again this time. I'll be gone until the following Saturday, so expect another small leave of absence. The busy-ness continues!

Valentine's Day 2017

So, I'm finally getting around to posting about our Valentine's Day this year! A few days late, I know. This year, instead of surprising each other with our gifts, we went shopping the weekend before and each picked out some things we wanted. I'll post about that a little later!

We both worked on Tuesday, but when I got home, Trent did surprise me with a beautiful bouquet of roses. That was really sweet!

Every Valentine's Day, Trent also cooks dinner and we eat it at the kitchen table. It's one of the very few days every year that we actually eat at the table! He always makes us a nice dinner. This year, he made pasta with vodka sauce, which is our favorite.

We had a nice meal complete with candles and my Valentine's Day roses for a centerpiece!

This is our ninth year together, and it's our second Valentine's Day since we got married in 2015. I decided to add a plate to our centerpiece as a nod to the centerpieces at our wedding.

After we ate dinner, we watched This Is Us together on the couch, and went to bed! And that was our Valentine's Day this year. Simple but sweet.

I love our little tradition of Trent cooking us dinner every year. Actually, I love it whenever he cooks dinner! Haha. Stay tuned for a second post today - what we did last weekend! Spoiler alert: It consists of a lot of shopping and eating.

Happy 2017

Happy New Year, everyone! It's 2017, a brand new year, and it's time to start fresh! Hope you all had a great time celebrating. We had pizza and a few drinks, then played Yahtzee and hung out across the street at Trent's aunt and uncle's last night. It was a nice low-key New Years staying in town.

So, what are your New Year's resolutions for 2017? I have a few personal goals for the New Year, including: draw more, read more books, and get more steps with my Fitbit!

We also want to travel somewhere else we've never been before. Where it will be, though, I'm not certain. We're thinking Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island, Michigan. I'm sure we will make more wonderful memories there, if we go!

Here's to a great 2017!

DIY Christmas Gift Baskets

Hello all, and hope you had a wonderful Christmas! We were pretty busy, with about 4 different Christmas celebrations over the weekend! And now that it's over, I can finally share what I gave our relatives for gifts this year.

The past couple of years were pretty easy when it came to deciding what to give. In 2014, I gave framed engagement photos to most of our relatives. And last year, 2015, I did the same with our wedding photos. 

Well, we didn't get professional photos taken this year, so I had to get a little more creative with my gifts. :) My decision was made, though, when I stopped into Target and saw these wire baskets in the dollar spot for $3 each:

I decided to put together my own "gift baskets" for everyone, by finding little items and filling each basket with them. I thought these would be pretty fun, since you can not only use the items inside, but you can use the baskets, too. Plus, they look pretty festive. :)

I put together a total of 13 baskets and filled them with things like candles, Christmas mugs and dish towels, chocolate, hot cocoa mix, and a few other random items I found like socks and blankets.

I tried to put about the same amount of items in each basket, but for larger families, I put maybe an item or two extra. Most items I just picked up at Target, Wal-Mart or the Dollar store. For a few, I put in $10 Starbucks gift cards, depending on who I thought might get some use out of them. 

If you wanted to make your own, I think a few other fun things to put in them would be copper moscow mule mugs, travel-size lotions, or Christmas ornaments.

I think they went over pretty well with everyone - at least I hope so! I had fun putting all of them together. Anyone else do something similar this year, or in the past?

Merry Christmas to All

So, it's almost Christmas again! Today's Christmas Eve, and our whole weekend is being spent with family...and many Hallmark Christmas movies, too.

I'm pretty sure by now our tree is overflowing with presents. We're gonna need a bigger living room. :)

Last night, we travelled out to Riverside Casino by Iowa City. We had dinner at the restaurant there and exchanged presents with Mom's side of the family. 

Here are most of us younger cousins! It's safe to say a good time was had by all.

Hope everyone's holidays are Merry and Bright! 

xo, 

Whitney and Trent

Cold Temps, and A Christmas Decor Update

Everyone keeping warm out there? We're in negative temps right now. It's COLD. Needless to say, I'm not stepping foot outside today if I don't have to!

This is the temp right now...feels like -25 degrees out there!

We were supposed to go to our friends' Ugly Christmas Sweater Party last night, but they decided to postpone it, because the weather was pretty bad. Blowing snow and ice on the roads. So, instead we went up town to the bar with Trent's brother for a little bit. Trent still donned his ugly Christmas sweater :) They're supposed to have the party on the 30th now instead, so hopefully we'll be able to go then, and take some fun pictures. :)

Now for a Christmas decor update! We never got any lights up outside this year. :( Trent's been working 6 days a week for the past month or two, so we've been too busy to put them up. Oh well - there's always next year.

I did get the front porch decorated with some of the usual decor items. I didn't get a picture yet, though...but maybe before Christmas I can still get one.

This weekend I've been home watching movies again. Today we're both home, and hope to get some cleaning done. Trent already vacuumed this morning. I'll be spending the afternoon washing dishes. Woo-hoo.

Most of the Christmas presents are done and under the tree. I think we're running out of space for them!

After Christmas, I'll share a little post about the gifts I put together. I did kind of a different theme this year.

Well, it's back to movies and the dishes. Have a good rest of the weekend, everyone! :)

Preparing for Christmas

It's that time of year again. That time when we only have a few short weeks left until Christmas. I feel like it creeped up so fast this year. Wasn't it just yesterday we were watching the Cubs play in the World Series?!

So, what do you do to prepare for the holidays? Decorate, buy gifts, wrap presents? It seems like there's always so much to do this time of year, and sometimes it's hard to find the time to do it all.

I always try to put the tree up around Thanksgiving, and that was no different this year. Decorating the inside of our house was the easy part for me. This year, we are a little late in decorating the outside, though. I was out of town most of last week, and then it suddenly got reaallllyyy cold, and snowed a few inches on us. So we're not exactly bursting at the seams to get out there!

This weekend is our town's Christmas walk, where they also have a light decorating contest - citizens get to vote on who we think has the best Christmas light display.

This year, sadly, we don't have any lights up yet outside. With Trent starting a new job and working a lot of hours, we are going to have to wait until Sunday to put our lights up. I think we're going to go a lot simpler this year, and maybe just focus on the front porch area. That's enough, right?!

On the plus side, with the gifts, I feel like I'm ahead of schedule. I have most of my gifts bought, with just a few more things to pick up and wrap or put together.

What about you? Are you ahead of schedule in some things but not others? Are you excited for Christmas this year, or in a 'Bah humbug' kind of mood?

Here's hoping we get the porch and outside of the house decorated over the weekend!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Hello all, did everyone have a good Thanksgiving? After a long holiday weekend, it's now Sunday, and we're spending the day at home today.

My weekend consisted of watching a lot of movies, amid getting together with family, and binge-watching Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life on Netflix. Anybody else finish the series already? AMAZING!

We had the usual Thanksgiving get-togethers with family on Thursday. And Friday was my Gilmore Girls watching day. Complete with coffee. What else?!

I also managed to take all of the fall decorations down, and put up the Christmas tree and some holiday decor. If you look closely at the tree though, the top lights are out. :( Trent thinks it's a fuse and is going to look at it. Hopefully he can get the lights working again.

We've been using this same tree since 2010, when I moved in. This is the first year the tree is in this corner of the room. Changing things up this year because of our new sectional sofa!

Of course I got my holiday pillows out again, too.

Today I'm hoping to finish up the front porch. Then this Tuesday I'm leaving for Omaha, Nebraska for work. Planning to be home again on Saturday. Have a great last day of your weekend, everyone!

Baseball Pumpkins (Go Cubs!)

Is there anything more exciting at the end of October than watching your team in the World Series, especially when it's the Cubs?! Trent and I have been watching every game, from the playoffs until now. Us Cubs fans are all hoping this is the YEAR!

That said, these are the pumpkins gracing our porch this October! Gotta cheer on our Cubbies.

I painted both last weekend. A slight change from my painted pumpkins of last year.

One thing's for sure - "We ain't afraid of No Goat!" (In the words of Bill Murray).

You know we all believe that we can win the World Series this year, but honestly, whether we win or lose in the end, this season has been nothing short of amazing for the Cubs!

P.S. - My blog was recently featured in the article, "25 Blogs, Resources and Tips for Remodeling a Fixer-Upper Home" from GarageCabinets.com. Check out the link and scroll down to the "Blogs" section to see a nice little blurb about This Little House of Mine! :)

Fourth of July Weekend, Part 2

Hello friends! It's time for the final installment of our Fourth of July weekend extravaganza. (See Part 1 here). 

After Saturday night's festivities, Sunday morning we woke up bright and early to head up to Haley and Dan's new house in Geneva. They recently moved from one Chicago burb to the next burb over. And they officially bought their first house! 

Since we were too busy in Missouri to help them move in last weekend, we went up on Sunday and helped decorate. A.K.A., we hung anything and everything on the walls! Hammering, screwdriver-ing, it was all a good time. And we even finished beautifying the living room with a new gallery wall.

We did take a few moments to have fun, though. Haley and Dan showed us a little around downtown Geneva, and we got to explore the town, which is super cute and charming. 

We walked along the Fox River, which was a gorgeous and scenic area. Looks picturesque - like it was out of a painting! There were tons of cool-looking restaurants and bars around the downtown area, so we hope to go back and try some of them.

We did try one new place, called Doughocracy. It was kind of a fast-food pizza restaurant, but the pizza was pretty awesome. You can either choose all of your toppings and make a completely customizable pizza, or choose from their pre-selected options.

My pizza is the green one - It might look scary, but it was delicious. Pesto, cheese, zucchini and eggplant. Delish!

It was fun visiting Haley and Dan and seeing their cute new home. We even got to catch some of the fireworks that night after the baseball game down the street ended - a nice little surprise! We headed home that night to get back to our pupper, but it was a fun day in the Chicago burbs.

The night of the Fourth, Trent and I hung out at his aunt and uncle's, grilled out there, then we all made our way over to the Galva fireworks. As always, they were purdy!

We always sit super close to where they set off the fireworks, so it feels like they are going to fall right on us! A perfect way to end the holiday weekend.

Now, please excuse me while I enjoy the little time I have left to sit around and do nothing, before it's off to the next adventure! This coming weekend, we are headed to Milwaukee for a little Summerfest fun. Another busy summer weekend, but hopefully another good one. Until next time...