Happy 1.1.11!

I can't believe that it is 2011. Time has flown by and so much has happened since January 1, 2010. David and I were still living in Logan, still going to Utah State, still working at our on campus jobs, still living basically the same life that we had been living for the past four years.  Two-thousand-eleven is already full of changes for us. A new town, a new apartment, a new car,  new jobs.
All that and it's only the first day of 2011. Whew! 

We will start out 2011 at our new apartment in Lehi, UT. After searching and searching for a decent apartment at an affordable price, we finally found the perfect place for us. It is about the same size as our last apartment, it has a little balcony, radiant-heated floors, and a jetted bath tub. We absolutely love it. We haven't been able to decide exactly where we want to hang things - so there is still nothing on the walls, but we have unpacked our bedroom, the bathroom, the living room and the kitchen. (The second bedroom/office is still fairly untouched.) Everything is organized for the most part. As soon as we get things on the walls it will really start feeling like home. 

David will be starting work at Hansen, Barnett, and Maxwell on Monday January 3rd. They are a public accounting firm and David will be working in their auditing department. He is really excited. HBM is an awesome firm and they are such a perfect fit for us. We went to the HBM Christmas dinner and I was overwhelmed with what a great company they are. We are definitely where we are supposed to be.

I will be teaching at Westlake High School in their Family and Consumer Science department. I will be starting as a long-term substitute but there is the possibility that it will turn into a permanent position. My friend Emily was the teacher, but she just had a beautiful baby girl and will be resigning her position after her maternity leave is over. I would love to be hired on for the permanent position, but I am excited for anything that may come my way. I will either keep teaching at Westlake, stay home and really focus on Red Ladder Design, or find another really great job somewhere else. I really can't wait to find out what the future holds. It's going to be great. 

Because we both got new jobs - we needed a new car. Unfortunately, It was something that kept getting pushed to the back burner. Our complete focus was on getting David graduated, surviving packing/moving, and celebrating Christmas. There was no way we could look for cars and do all of those things, so it just didn't happen. That is, it didn't happen until the Monday after Christmas when we decided we needed to bring that to the center of our focus. It was either get a car this week or borrow David's parents car and try to car shop in the evenings and on the weekends. We really wanted to get a car this week so that we didn't have to worry about it during our free time on evenings and weekends. We started looking on Monday morning, looked as loads of cars all day and finally found one that we really liked. By 2:00 pm the next day (Tuesday) we we the proud new owners of a 2007 Hyundai Accent. We love it and we got a great deal on it. (When I post pictures of the car, I will post the story. Just know that there was some pretty intense bargaining going on.) 

I am sure that there will be more changes that come our way throughout this year. We only hope that 2011 is as good to us as 2010 was. 

We are thankful for all of your love and support and we wish you a very Happy New Year!

{christmas cards}

David and I just finished up our Christmas cards and I am seriously in love with them.

No, really.

I love everything about them, but especially the envelope presentation. I realize that is a little odd, but I love it. You see, I had this vision of how I wanted them to turn out and they exceeded my expectations. You always take a risk when trying something like this, because sometimes things don't look half as good in reality as they do in the imagination - but these? These knocked my vision out of the water!

Here they are in all their festive red and green glory:

This is the front and back of the 4x9 envelopes. The top/front has the address and the bottom/back has our return address. I love this "envelope wrap" idea, and have wanted to do this on wedding announcements for a really long time. Our Christmas Cards were the perfect opportunity! 

 A closer look:

The front.

The back. Look, our return address is now Lehi!

This is what the labels looked like before we put them on the envelopes.

Oh, you wanted to see what the Christmas Cards actually looked like? 

(Click on them for larger images if you would like.)

Also, see my Christmas tree list on the post below. I realize that posting so close together means that many people will miss that post... but I may or may not be able to handle the music that automatically plays from this post when I open my blog. I just need one more post before it goes away.

{a list}

A

list of

the reasons

that I love this time

of the year: Reminder of 

the love of the savior 

Jesus Christ. Lots of time 

to spend with family members 

and friends. Delicious orange sticks 

in my stocking. Sleeping in and staying 

in my pajamas for the rest of the 

day. Sending out pretty Christmas cards 

in red envelopes with fancy envelope seals on 

them. Sue's amazing Christmas sugar cookies and 

delicious cheese-chip cupcakes. Finding new traditions 

to incorporate with my family.  No school

or homework. Cuddling up with David and lots 

of big blankets while reading and watching movies. 

Putting up Christmas lights and then watching them blink

through a frosty glass window. Making delicious pizza with my

family on Christmas Eve. Having two families to celebrate Christmas

with. Listening to Christmas music while watching the snow fall outside.

Sharing it all with 

David and looking
forward to many

more Christmas 

seasons together.