Christmas Decor Tour

Our apartment isn't THAT big but people have asked for a tour of apartment...so I thought I would kind of do it for Christmas DECOR. I LOOOOOOoooooOOOOOOOOOOve Christmas and preparing for the big day is just as much fun! My mom and I on Thanksgiving day went and got me a tree for a killer deal! I couldn't live without one! ANYWAY...here goes the tour!

My cute cousin, M*, is super creative and made this cute banner! I based my Christmas tree and this room off the banner...red and lime-ish green! My cousin has a cute blog..but is private SO you can go check out her photography blog here. 

Another view of the banner!

 Our Stockings. Mine is on the left and Matson's is the right! (We have no fireplace so the hooks worked out great).

 My mom made this ADORABLE quilt that is made out of only flannel fabric! So warm and I have used it all month! And the little pillow is homemade too. My grandma D* (my Dad's mom) gave me this petti-point before Matson and I were married. So I decided to make it into a pillow!

Our Christmas Tree! Love it! Red and Lime.

The Candy Jars or Red and White Candies!

 My Nutcracker Collection...Collected them as a child and now using them for decoration!!

 Yes, it does say "leon" but is suppose to say "noel". I told Matson about how my Grandma (my mom's mom) use to get so mad at all my uncles cause they would do this to her "noel". So OF COURSE now he does it!

 I added a little of Christmas everywhere with these glitter snowflakes and red ornaments!

 Our Microwave/KitchenAid/Snack table Kitchen Hutch thing. I threw some candy canes in a mug and my brother's fiance, N*, gave me the cute little "Merry Christmas" sign in a white elephant exchange (def cute and not a white elephant!). 

Our Kitchen table, the red ornaments again thrown in a cute platter with a fun holly table runner and another childhood collection of Mary Engelbreit things brought this Holiday Season Cookbook!

 Remember the stories about these snowflakes? Read here. Yes, I fixed them by hanging them from a ribbon instead of the cabinets. I have these hanging all over too!

I just thought I would show mine and Matson's Log Cabin Gingerbread house.

I had a blast preparing for Christmas! If you have any fun Christmas decoration tips or ideas! I would love to hear them! Have a very merry Christmas Eve. and Christmas!

fire burnin'

no this is not about the horribly sad tabernacle burning down. even though matson and i have been so sad about it and we hope that it gets rebuilt soon! But I thought it was amazing that the Provo Firemen found the painting below of Christ and that it was all burnt except our Savior. How incredibly is that? Although it is a tragic event, I do think it is a great symbol to remember Christ and put him at the center of this holiday season.

ANYWAY...now on to our fire burnin' events. 

EVENT NUMERO UNO

As you know almost every Saturday is waffle day here at the Tanner household. This past Saturday the 18th we had our fun friends T* and F* over for waffles and the BYU game. BUT Last Sunday the 12th we made waffles because on Saturday the 11th we were busy and did not make them. So we made waffles and then realized we had 20 minutes until church started. we had batter left over so we decided to finish making them while we got ready. we went to church. we returned and we smelled smoke. oh dang what happened now? did our furnace freak out? nope it's the darn waffles, i thought. i opened the waffle iron to see this...

a waffle cooked for a good three hours. yummy?

EVENT NUMERO TWO

Yesterday we were spending sunday with my family at their house. I am a little obsessed with heat packs (you know those homemade heat packs made out of fabric or a hand towel with rice or whatever in it?). Well i grabbed one of the many heat packs my mom has but this one i grabbed was made from a hand towel. i put it in the microwave for 2 minutes like i usually do. after 10 seconds my sister said why is the microwave smoking?  FIRE?! i opened the microwave to see that it was smoking the whole kitchen up and my heat pack was on fire. my brother grabbed hot pads and threw the heat pack outside. it was only in there fore 10 seconds? what happened? wellllllllll there was metal thread on the hand towel that was designed on the towel. not my bad. bad idea to whoever made it with metallic thread on it. anyway made for a fun sunday activity and a really smelly house. OOPS! 

end of stories. but i swear i am not retarded, i can cook and i do not burn things that often! 

Traditions

i love traditions. i am such a tradition keeper. ask matson. ask my mom. years past my parents have mentioned things like going out of town or to a warm place on christmas. and i just could not let that go down! i love christmas and the traditions that go with it. traditions bring tears to my eyes, not only tears of happiness and joy but also tears of GREAT sadness if we did not do them. my family has many that i am so exciting to share with matson this year for the first time like christmas pj's, games, and the big morning ordeal with a huge breakfast and hours of opening one gift at a time. and i am also excited to participate in matson's family traditions like mexican food on christmas and christmas carols (this is something new for me because if my family sang carols my dad would probably make that a horrible experience for my mother who does not enjoy my dad's voice that isn't too GREAT...no offense dad). matson and i have started a few of our own traditions and i am sure we will start more as time comes. but one tradition we started last year when we were dating is temple square.

matson and i went to temple square last year. and took a picture by this tree.

 and we went this year again. and took a picture by this tree again (well at least i did).

We love going to Temple Square and will make it a tradition forever for our family!

Merry Christmas! Have fun continuing your Christmas Traditions!

snowflakes falling.

snowflakes are falling. no not the real kind of snowflakes, i am talking about these cute sparkly decorative snowflakes i bought from target and sam's club this year. they are around our apartment hung up like this:

the cute snowflakes hanging above my kitchen sink. 

but one evil area of my kitchen is not so cute. well it is more like the scotch tape is not doing its job. i hung them up last tuesday, throughout the week one would fall down one day and i would just tape it up again. then the next day another one would fall down, and another. Then one day came when ALL five fell down. so i grabbed the duct tape and duct taped them on up there (yes it was a little ugs since you could see some silver tape), but i did it.

then matson and i were watching some mormon message videos (go watch them, i will post about them soon) and slowly we heard them each falling down. you know that tape ripping off sound? yeah we heard that...a couple of times. by the end of watching our videos we came in and saw this:

they had all fallen down except....

our little one was left hanging alone.

so i need some advice. anyone got some ideas on how to keep my cute snowflakes from falling? because obviously Mr. Scotch did not come up with good tape, nor did the ducks at the duct tape factory. so....any advice? opinions? comments? .....jokes?

we made a tent and i permed my hair

we had such a great thanksgiving break! we now look forward to life without school (which is in a couple years....DANGET). anywhooooo, we made a fort of the break. super fun. matson was in his little kid mode AGAIN (yet we see that kid side of him daily, so not too special). 

 and yes i permed my hair...but without the chemicals. kinda fun to have crazy perm afro hair for a day.

just ignore it though..kinda ugly but totally fun and reminds me of my hair as a child.

Happy 2 Days after Thanksgiving!

I would of posted my wonderful list of things I am thankful for on Thanksgiving but I was WAY TOO BUSY spending time with my family and watching my brother propose to his new fiance and decorating for Christmas. So I will try not to bore you with a long list. Matson & I are so blessed, I will try to keep it short. but i can't make any promises.

1. I am thankful for Matson. I have the bestest bestest friend, husband, partner, and life companion. Actually right now as I write this he is singing along (well half singing along/half mouthing along when he doesn't know the words) with some odd song I have never heard of. But that is why I love him. He brings so much joy to me and our home. I am thankful for his hard work; whether he is working hard to bring a smile to my face or working hard to support us or working hard to open a nail polish bottle for me or to get good grades at school--he always does his best work. I am thankful for his love, patience, and he finds happiness in the small things and he sacrifices and does so much for me. I am extremely thankful for him.

2.  I am super duper thankful for our family. I am sooo spoiled. seriously matson and i have the best family ever. I seriously would do a single number for each of them but that would really bore each of you and that means i would be typing for a long time. they are all such great examples to me in different ways! Our family consists of some of the best listeners, funniest comedians, and the ultimate advice givers. Seriously i don't know what I would do without my family's support and kindness. Our family members are our best friends. i sometimes even think matson has more fun with sista A than me. i often find them in their own world of conversation or hooked to some odd game or movie.

3. I am so thankful for our church, the gospel, my Savior, and just being taught the right things. I know that we are so blessed because we choose the right. I am so grateful for my knowledge of the gospel and I know that without it I would not be who I am today. The gospel is ultimately the reason that I am where I am and why I am so blessed and am so full of joy. 

4. I am so thankful for ROOKIE! She is the perfect dog. I will admit, as a child I was afraid of dogs. I actually was afraid of my old boyfriend's dog or even my cousins' dog so i guess you can say i have always kind of been afraid of dogs. BUT no longer is that true. Rookie has changed my dog opinions. Rookie is hilarious. I am thankful for the many smiles she brings me. I wish she could live at our apartment...but I am sure she would miss my Mom and her favorite window where she barks at birds, neighbors walking by, or even just cars turning around. I am afraid to ever get a new dog, because I know he/she would never live up to Rookie. She has the best personality. 

5.  This last one is just a little sum up. I am thankful for my health and the people around me that they are healthy too. I am thankful for our home, for our education, and even the little things like our toaster & my blow dryer even though it burns the edges of my bangs...so dumb & fuzzy socks (I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT THEM) & for hot cocoa & for the holidays & for just EVERYTHING. I will stop before you choose to stop and type in faceboook.com because I know where you are headed next. 

he was injured...injured bad.

This was the first day. It is much worse. Poor guy.

over a week ago, matson pulled/tore/ripped his HAMSTRING when playing flag football. it has been quite the hardship for him this past week because:
a. he can't go to the gym (he went a few times this week but just did arm work outs, this is a hardship for me is well...because he isn't there pushing me)
b. he can't go to Monday night basketball with the guys
c. he can't get comfortable to fall asleep
d. he walks super slower than everyone else (i think this is much more of a hardship for me than him as well, i freeze my bum off walking slow and waiting for him)
e. he can't bend down to put his own socks on

OVERALL: he is not doing the best, but it is getting better.

MORAL OF THE STORY: STRETCH!

THIS SATURDAY..Bello Accessories & Paper Flowers Boutique

The cutest things ever for holiday gifts(or if you are like me, just cute things for yourself...why am i so selfish?). I already purchased the cutest knit detailed headband and the scarves are ADORABLE.

who's visiting us this week?

this little goofball is visiting us all week while my parents are vacationing.

already we have had quite a fun weekend with her.

last night matson (who is deathly afraid of spiders) found a spider on the wall then it quickly got away so rookie and matson searched for five minutes to find the spider; matson's tool was a flashlight while rookie's was her loud sniffing nose. finally together they killed it. matson smashing it then rookie attacked and chewed it up, then spit it out (gross, i know).

great men...buy the same flotation device

who wore it better?

this brought a chuckle to me when i found this "Star Track" insert in People magazine while catching up on some magazine reading today. Robert Downey Jr. and Matson are sporting the same flotation device. we bought ours on our honeymoon at a Mexican Wal-Mart like store called Mega

the halloweekend report

thursday
long day of stressing about school and coming down with the worst sore throat resulting in a manly voice, followed by some pumpkin carving at the in laws

BEWARE! pumpkin with creepy eyes

matson's electrocuted pumpkin

friday
started with a little bit of a sleep in, horrible sore throat, boring school, then i came home just exhausted and not looking forward to work from 4-9pm, where i would not be able to speak on the phone very well and when a customer calls in he/she would be shocked when i tell them my name is erica when i sound more like an eric, and i was not looking forward to writing a paper for my history class. i called matson and told him i was going to call in a sick day. so i did, then matson went over to my department and told my manager for me. so nice of him. then my kind manager told matson he would get my saturday morning shift off for me too, so i could get feeling better. THANK YOU! i then wrote my history paper for the next 3 hours and was excited when matson came home. he surprised me with zupas soup and a jamba juice! what a sweetheart! THANK YOU! matson did homework too. then we both fell asleep until 7pm. i have not fallen asleep during the day in forever. if you're sick, i would recommend it. then still feeling sick we carved some of our own pumpkins!

i love matson's big pumpkins ticked off face.

my pumpkin is eating matson's pumpkin! oops!

saturday

slept in, went to the uvu library to study with matson, came home for a nice after study snack. so there i was cutting some cheddar cheeeeeese then VAVOOOOM! i cut my finger. very bad. on the side of my left pointer finger. it went right into my finger. matson looked at it and we did look to far because we didn't wanna see the bone. we wrapped it and tried to stop the bleeding. band aids did not work (someone should invent THICKER band aids). so we put cotton balls on it and wrapped it with medicine tape. too bad i wasn't something gooey/scary for halloween. the cut would of gone right along! anyway now i am sporting this sweet frankenstein-ish cut on my finger.

so we got ready and dressed, dyed matson's hair, put my wig on, and headed out for our Mormon/Utah Halloween night. What were we?? Take a look (no one got it, but we did and we had fun with our costumes.

we were heidi klum and tim gunn from project runway! matson and i have watched the past two seasons together and we love that show. matson quotes tim gunn all the time by saying "Thank You Moooood!" or "make it work" and all his famous lines. we had fun dressing up and we will do it every year. but maybe next year we will be something easier for people to recognize. we visited family, friends, and ended the night with a treat and Hocus Pocus. at the end of the night matson and i came home and he wanted to have his own little photo shoot. here are just a few of them:

sunday
church, we watched The Testaments, and then headed to my madre's house to help prepare for the Richards Donut (or is it doughnut) Party! We cut out donuts, ate dinner at the Tanner family's home, then cooked & ate MORE than our fair share of donuts. it was a fun weekend. and we look forward to the upcoming holidays even more!!

seperation anxiety

matson has had the same everyday belt since he was a junior in high school. 9 out of 10 days that was the belt keeping his pants up. he loved this belt. so you can imagine how it was quite the challenge to say goodbye...matson was excited about his new belt and i was even excited about this purchase because i wouldn't have to look at the very worn out old one. matson on the other hand, had a little seperation problem from this belt. but after a picture to document he was ok.

 so the belt and matson took their seperate paths. bye bye old belt!

costumes for couples=retarded

matson and i are finally starting to think about what to be for halloween. We have been struggling lately with what to dress up as. We have a few ideas and are just narrowing them down. I have been searching online and these same horrific costumes keep popping up on my google searches. they are really attractive. psshhh. Which one is your favorite? Let's see who wins your vote!

A Ball and Chain? No thank you. And is the balls seriously all what the costume is? And what is up with the guy being shirtless? Honestly, is that necessary?

This one would be pretty great. I wouldn't mind this except I am not one for huge head masks. 

Do you guys remember this little sexy ghostbuster from the movie? Uh...No.

Honestly? This is horrible. Not to mention how horrible this would look on me. That skin tone colored "skin" would not match my skin AT ALL. I am waaay too white. Plus I would not want everyone picturing me naked...

If you have an idea for us, something not like the costumes above, then let me know!

See you on Halloween everyone!