Family Photos

I promised to do another post with some of our recent family photos. Here they are below. We took them around Westport and really like how they turned out. :) Once again, thank you, Leah!

That's all for now, folks!

One Year Older and Wiser Too

New Year

It is a new year. Per tradition I took some time to think about some things I would like to work on this year. One of them is meal-planning. I started off on a good note and then quickly got swept away doing other stuff. Luckily I can recommit any second of any minute of any hour of any week of any month... so hopefully I will be able to get back on that shortly. I am trying to do something different this year so I can be successful. I am using an app called Pepper Plate. I am still trying to enter a bunch of recipes so I can have everything in one place. I am actually pretty excited about it. Here's my chalkboard for the month of January:

New Calling

I was called to serve as the Relief Society secretary. I did not see that one coming. It was fun to be in primary, but it is also nice to be able to be more involved in relief society and get to know sisters I haven't had a chance to get to know. I am also excited to grown and learn new things. So far it has been very busy and we have had a lot of meetings, but I guess that is to be expected, especially with a whole new presidency. 

Birthday

I had a birthday and now I am a quarter of a century old. James got me a sweater because I am always cold. I also got a very nice hand-me-down sewing machine for a birthday gift. Yay, projects!

Restaurant Week

To celebrate my birthday, we went out to eat at the Majestic, a cool old Jazz club. The food was okay, but the Jazz was fabulous and we had a grand old time. It happened to be restaurant week, so the following Monday we had to go eat at the Capitol Grill. The food was phenomenal. I seriously loved everything!

Girls' Camp Meetings

And so it begins. We have started having Girls' camp meetings. I have to admit that I am feeling a little bit stressed about it because it turns out I have a lot more responsibilities and things I have to plan than I originally thought. I am sure everything will work out.

Mormon Con

We chaperoned a youth activity/dance - "Mormon Con." James went as Orin Porter Rockwell and I went as Delilah. We had a great time, but I have realized that I am not as young as I used to be. I used to be able to dance all night and now I feel beat much earlier and the next morning I woke up and my body just ached. 

Family pictures

We took family pictures! I won a bid for family photos at a RS service auction we had a few months back. Leah Barnhart did a fabulous job! I am going to do a separate post with just the family photos since this post is already got so much stuff in it. 

Hand Lettering

I am really trying to work on my hand lettering when I have time. I am not good, but I enjoy the process and hope to get better. Here are some cards/envelopes I made recently.

 

February Chalkboard

This is my chalkboard for Feb. This one was inspired by one I spotted on Pinterest. I am having a lot of fun making these.

Mid-Winter Break

James' family came to visit for mid-winter break. We had a lot of fun. If only we could have taken more time off. We went to Jack Stack with them the night they got in.

The next day we went to Navoo (and Carthage Jail) for 2 days, which was super awesome. It was cold, but I think that made it a little more real to think about the Saints walking across the frozen Mississippi River in -13º weather, saying goodbye to their homes and temple. We got to see a ton of stuff there and even got to do Baptisms for the dead in the temple. We stayed in the Willard Richard's house bed and breakfast, which was pretty neat. It was a really lovely trip.

James' birthday happened. He got new scriptures for his Birthday. They are really nice and he was long past due for a new set. He's pretty much an old man these days. He has white hairs and everything. We also celebrated Papa Low's birthday while he was here. We had a triple-layer chocolate cake (please don't judge my terrible frosting job), lemon merengue pie (made by mom Low), and ice-cream to celebrate the birthday boys.

We also went to Oklahoma Joe's', I mean Joe's KC... and the WWI museum with them, but besides that they did a ton of stuff while James and I were working. It was so fun to see them. 

Thanksgiving and Beyond

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a blast. While it would have been fun to share it with family, we had a good time and shared it with friends. James did the turkey, we also made waldorf salad and pie. I only made 4 pies this year—Apple, Raspberry, and 2 pumpkin.

Branson

We like our car a lot so far. Almost every day James comes to me, telling me about some article he read about how well rated our car is or about how he watched some video that showed how Subarus handle icy conditions compared to other vehicles. He may be a little obsessed. You know they say... "Love. It's what makes a Subaru a Subaru." This is definitely the case with James. I think it's great too. Speaking of cars—gas prices are fantastically low! I never thought I would see the day that it dropped back down below $2 again, let alone $1.80/gallon....I think it actually got down to $1.68, but I didn't get a picture. 

Christmas Tree Farm 

This year we got our first real (or even real-sized) Christmas tree as a married couple. We went to a Christmas tree farm, hoping to cut down our own since that is what James always did growing up. They only had one variety of you-cut trees and we didn't really care for them...a little too poofy for our taste. Luckily they also had some pre-cut trees they had brought in from Michigan or something that we liked better. Even though we didn't get to cut our tree down, going to the farm was was still more charming than going to Home Depot to pick out a tree. After picking out a tree with friends, we headed to Woodyard Bar-B-Q. It was tasty and fun to try a new place. The place is very eclectic. It almost looks like it started out of someone's house and then they just kept adding additions to it to accommodate the restaurant. 

Decorations

I had so much fun decorating our Christmas tree. I modified some cheap ball ornaments, made some ornaments out of wood slices, and bought some felt ornaments from West Elm (so obsessed). I put up a few other decorations as well. Something really funny happened to our tree—it started growing! Just around Christmas it started shooting out all of these new little green parts. 

 

New Calling

James called to be young men's president in our ward. It was a little stressful at first because he immediately had to take charge of planning the annual Christmas tree drive (the big fundraiser for the scouts. He did get a lot of help from people who had done it in the past and everything worked out in the end. He has settled into things pretty well now.

Christmas Store

We had a nice opportunity to volunteer as helpers at a local Lutheran church that puts on a "Christmas store" where people who are having a tough time can come and "shop" for Christmas gifts for free. It was really nice and humbling to be able to do that. One of these years  I really want to skip out on doing Christmas gifts for ourselves and do something with the money we save to help someone who needs it more than we do. We shall see if I can ever convince James. I just feel like it would make Christmas even more meaningful. 

Ward Christmas Party

We had a sort of different ward Christmas party this year. It was a pot-luck brunch and service project where we teamed up with some local charities/organizations to put together different kits and needed supplies.

Sick

About a a week and a half before Christmas I got sick and was sick for about a week. It was not the best because it didn't feel so christmas-y and then all the sudden it was there.

Christmas Treats

A couple of days before Christmas, when I was feeling better, we made Christmas cookies and I made caramels, chocolate covered caramels, caramel/chocolate pretzel rods and truffles. I definitely did the best job dipping the chocolates that I have done.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we played scrabble, ate crackers and cheese and summer sausage and drank Martinelli's. Then went to a little get together with friends who stuck around for the holidays at the Oakdens. It was a lot of fun. When we got home we read the Christmas story from Luke 2.

Christmas Day

Christmas morning James and I opened gifts together. We had the missionaries over for breakfast and for a few hours after. They Skyped with their families from our apartment. We Skyped with our families and with Elder Riley Low. It was a lot of fun to see him and chat with them. That night we had a nice Christmas dinner with the Folkmans, Wongs, and Hurrens. I am so grateful for the Savior and for the hope his life brought to everyone.

Ice skating

Sometime over the time off around Christmas we went ice skating. It was my first time skating on an outdoor rink, so that was pretty charming.

New Year's Eve

For New Year's Eve we were in charge of chaperoning the youth party that really ended up being a young men's party.

2014

And that's a wrap on 2014. It was a good year, full of adventures. It was a big growth year for us and we are so glad it happened. James graduated from BYU, we moved to Missouri for James' job, made new friends, missed old friends, struggled through trials, found strength, hope and healing through the atonement, ate a lot of good food, gave and received service, and tried a lot of new things. Cheers to 2014. Hello, 2015.