is it over yet?!

nope, not quite. the holidays aren't my favorite favorite time of the year (i'm no grinch, but its just not my fav time) and this year has been a roller coaster. my first christmas at my new house, hosting both sides of our family- cooked a meal for 12 people, the biggest meal i've ever cooked. and all my family is here. just a little crazy.
i had a good christmas though, and the meal went well- although i did under cook the green beans a bit (but hey, i like them crispy)
my best friend, who's 25th bday was on christmas day, who was my maid of honor and we've been best friends since 2nd grade, her grandmother passed away at midnight christmas morning. she was 92 years old, and lived life to the fullest! she was still volunteering and going to the symphany, and christmas eve night she went to the annual xmas eve party in her sparkly valentino skirt. it was pretty sudden, and i wasn't expecting to hear that news when i called to wish her a happy birthday and a merry christmas. mrs. bader was like another grandma to me, i saw her more than my own grandmas growing up. so i was really sad. a lot of my friends, and husbands, grandparents have been passing away in the past few months. i guess we're at that age, and its the circle of life, but its sad.
sorry for the sad post
but i do have happy news too
i got my first 2 clients today for the preschool! two little girls, maddie-3 and jillian- 18 months. they start on january 18th. 2 days a week, so thats $432 a month that i desperately need! so i'mm super happy about that.
i don't ahve time to put up all the pics i want to, cause my little cousin is visiting adn we're goign to go see chronicles of narnia, then tonight i'm going to a gift exchange party, then tomorrow we're going bolwing, then i'm driving him back up to orange county, then thursday is the holiday bowl, then friday we have family friends coming for brunch, then i'm cooking and getting ready for new years eve, then its new years eve and i'm going to drink lots of champagne! (new years is defiently my fav of the "holidays" during holiday season. just dress up and drink and celebrate? i'mm there!) so anwyas, needless to say its not over yet. hopefully i'll post some pics soon!
happy tuesday all. : )

best surprise evah

ok, so jessie- you rock
yesterday i get an email saying "in case you didnt' see" w/a link attached at 2peas. hmmmm, i think, wonder what it is? i had been on 2peas early that day, checked out all my pea buddies in my book of scraps. anyways, i click the link, and this is what i got:

oh my gosh, i like cried. it was sooooooo sweet! thank you soooo much jess! seriously, i practically cried. no one has ever done anything scrapbook related for me! so i was really really really really excited. i showed everyone. so thank you jessie!!!!! made my like month

on another note, bhg scrapbook mag is taking some submission for all about me layouts. and since those are some of my (what i think) better layouts, i thought i might submit. is that liek totally concieted, that those are what i think my good ones? anyways, so i wanted some opinions on which ones to use
check out my AAM layouts here, let me know what ya think- appreciate it mucho!!!

(oh, and can anyone help me with my 2peas picture? i can't seem to keep it there. i couldn't use a pic from my clubphoto account for some weird reason, so i was just using the pic from on my blog. what is wrong with me? grrrrr. just email me at katpost@gmail.com w/instructions, if ya could........)

don't you like how i said i was going to be all MIA but i've been on almost every day? i think its kinda an escape for me...............
anyways, now we're off to fashion valley mall (the best mall evah!) to do some serious xmas shopping. 3 days till christmas!!!! (you think this count down is obnoxious, wait till my bday.............)

thats hot

so yeah, gots to do a little bragging. today, december 21st- the shortest day of the year- it is hot. like over 70 degrees, like shorts and a tank top, lets go for a hike and we'll sweat a lot degrees. love it! steve (on his 3 week winter break- ah the perks of being a teacher.........) and i took my bro's on a hike. we live right next to these hills with a bunch of FABULOUS hikes! we went on a 2 hour one (about) and we were sweating! some awesome views, and a good work out. of course, then we came home and ate taquitos. i swear you guys, i'm totally falling into the statistic of the people that gain 7 lbs over the holiday. damn! its just hard when you're surrounded by boys who can eat EVERYTHING and it doesn't matter........... sorry, had to vent
anyways, here are some pics
my brothers and i- they can drive me crazy, but i love them!!!!! (and yeah, i'm totally all scrubby and gross- we were going on a hike peoples!) and my bro chris (the tall one) needs a freakin hair cut!!!!


here's me and my sexy hubby at Las Posas Lake. We named that ourselves, don't knwo what its really called..........

yeah, sports bras are never flattering. hate that!
anyways, my parents are comign tonight. got to run a few errands and finish cleaning. the boys are playing video games, so they aren't much help. steve becomes like another freakin brother when my brothers come aroudn, oh dear. and our kids are so NEVER having video games!
sorry for the random post. 4 days till christmas!!!!

lotsa lotsa pics

so i've been promising my decoration pics for awhile. delays with getting them up, and then being attached by visiting brothers haven slowed me down. but here they are! they arent the best quality, cause our little camera sucks, but they'll have to do for now:
first, our house! yeah! the third palm tree is supposed to be light up too, but that strand was funky. they'll fix it later. next year we're going to put lights on the second floor, too. do'nt know how, but we're gonna do it darn and it'll look awesome! here's w/no flash:
and with a flash:

and now, our tree! the pic is totally blurry, but all the dark ones are. anywyas, its tall and big and beautiful! (like me, lol- j/k) and it smells sooooo good! we don't have enough decorations for it though, have to work on it. we just got a bunch of those cheap bulb decoration for filler


our staircase (i'm SO excited to be able to do this!)


the manager set. i'm soooo lucky to have this one! my great grandma made it for my mom a loooong time ago (before i was born). i think it was some sort of kit that you painted? anyways, i love this manger set. i remember me and my brothers go to set it up, and we ususally tried to stuff everyone and every animal inside it. and i always loved baby jesus cause he's soooo little! i still was excited to set him up this year, too cute. and note the angels behind the manager? yeah, they're supposed to be hoovering in the air ; )


our fireplace, nothing that exciting. we have to add the rest of my families stockings when they get here. and i should have decorated it more, but i ran out of stuff and didn't want to make another trip. oh,and i looooove my stocking! my mom made it for me when i was a baby, i could probably have fit in it its sooo big. loooove it : ) (even though it says katie, and i haven't gone by that for almost 20 years now.......)

ok, and this is me being the BIGGEST dork. like 3 years ago i saw these in a craft magazine and thought they were sooooo cute! too complicated for teh preschoolers (unless i pretty much made them myself) but i made them anways. they're carolers made out of paper towel and toliet paper rolls, then used little kid socks for their hats......... i'm such a tool

i've been collecting nutcrackers since i was super duper little. i looove them! and i go to the nutcracker every year, and i can't wait to go on the 23rd this year! dudaduduudadoooo do (thats me humming the songs) anyways, i have 15 total, just 14 in this picture. i could totally do a post just on my nutcrackers. anyways, so here's a pic of them


some fun decorations around the house:

ok, so just 2 pics. now for teh xmas tree decorations! just a few. the snowman steve just got from one of his students, the santa we got at scandanvian days in ventura 2 years ago, the blue bulb? yeah, made that at one of those pottery places where you can paint stuff. i tried to make it look all cool and UCSB colors and made one for allmy college girlfriends. but you can't really see the yellow. damn. and its really heavy, but i can't just throw it away. memories......... the snowflake we got last year from my mom. its crystal, and so very pretty! then the pickle is like the most random decoration ever. steve picked it out at target when we went. we each picked one. i picked something normal, and he picks the pickle. he doesn't even eat pickles! (i'm the pickle lover in the family). but its cool.







and last but not least we have the angel. another decoration i don't know how i got so lucky to have, my great grandma crocheted (sp?) this way before i was born. i love it! and nothign else looks right on top of a tree to me. before i had it i had bougth a mini angel that looked somewhat similar to it. i love it


thats all for now. hope you enjoyed! sorry for the yucky quality............. i'll try to keep posting somewhat regularly, but if i go MIA its cause of all my visiting family......... happy monday all, just 6 more days till christmas! : )

christmas traditions

so i didn't get to take any pics last night, cause i wanted everything to be all done and perfect. and of course we ran out of stuff. i guess its a fun thing though, cause we have a big house now and more room. but i'll post the pics when everythign is perfect. maybe tomorrow?
so until then i'm stealing a fun christmas question thing from muriel

1.Hot Chocolate or Egg Nog?
both. usually hot chocolate, cause its less fatting and egg nog i can only take so much of. and both of them i prefer spiked ; )
2.Does Santa wrap the presents or just set them under the tree?
wraps them.
3.Colored or white lights on the tree/house?
white only. on both
4.Do you hang mistletoe?
yay! yeah i do. i loooove kisses
5. When do you decorate?
usually right after thanksgiving, but i've been super slow this year.......
6.What is your favorite holiday dish?
i love all teh chocolate and desserts, but i always look forward to having eggs benidict for breakfast on christmas morning. not really a holiday meal, but its a tradition in our family. oh, and my friends mom bakes this brie cheese and cranberry thing every year at their xmas eve holiday party and its sooooooooooooo good!!!!

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child?
pretty much all of them. goign downstairs to see if "santa came" and the one time we sent my youngest bro down- he was like 2, and he went down and said that santa hadn't come. turns out he was actually looking for santa and the huge pile of presents didn't clue him in that santa had come........ oh, and calling my grandpa (when he wasn' with us) and saying "tonights the night grandpa!" after we read "twas the night before christmas" on xmas eve. i could go on and on.....

8.How and when did you learn the truth about Santa?
i totally remember in 3rd grade sitting with friends at lunch and discussing how we knew santa wasn't real....... he had the same handwritting as mom, they used the same paper (though my santa never did). yeah, i was a gossip even then

9.Do you open gifts on Christmas Eve?
yep! one every year, and its always pajamas. i loooove it. we still get it, here's a pic of all of us last year in our "jammie-jams" as my bro coined them. even steve got a pair!


10.What kind of cookies do you set out for Santa on Christmas Eve?
sugar cookies that we all made and decorated on a plate that said some thing like: dear santa, we've been good this year! enjoy your cookies and milk. love kathryn, christopher and gregory, a glass of milk, and of couse carrots and water outside for the reindeer.….

11.Snow!  Love it or hate it?
love to visit it, would hate to live in it! last year i had my first white christmas since i was a baby. we were in iowa and it started snowing as we came out of midnight mass on christmas eve. perfect, just like in the movies!!!

12.Can you ice skate?
yep, but haven't done it in a while. that actually sounds really fun.

13.Do you remember your favorite gift?
i've had so many! i remember getting dolls and stuffed animals that i loved. and i got diamond earrigns from steve one year (diamonds ARE a girls best friend)…

14.What is the most important thing about the holidays for you?
i guess family and friends. and chocolate

15.What’s your favorite holiday dessert?
have you noticed the chocolate trend?

16.What’s your favorite holiday tradition?
getting pjs on xmas eve, eating eggs benedict, goign to midnight mass cause its always candlelit and sooo pretty, and i'm looking forward to starting traditions with steve! this year we started watching 'its a wonderful life' (such a good movie, can't belive i haven't seen it yet!) put a fire in the fireplace and drank hot chocolate w/baileys. defiently going to keep that one up. oh! and reading "twas the night before christmas"

17. real tree, or fake?
real baby. i dont' like fake anything.

18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving?
depends on what i'm giving. there are times where i'm soooo excited about gifts i'mm giving. this year though i haven't had the time or money to do anything that special. shuckleberries…

19. What is your favorite Christmas Carol?
jingle bells, rudolf the red nose reindeer (i am a preschool teacher) and silent night- though i suck at singing that one!
20. Candy Canes, YUCK or YUM?
probably yum.

guess thats it. fun fun! i loved remembering all my traditions. defiently need to make a scrapbook of them all!!!!!! (i started by taking pics last christmas.........)
have a great thursday and hopefully i'll have house pics in the next post! : )

its the most BUSY time of the year.....

look at me, being creative with a play on words. or is that a "play on words?" well, whatever, you know what i mean. so yeah- i've been soooo super duper busy. and its not all necessarily christmas stuff thats been keeping me busy (but it defiently hasn't helped!)
like i said, last week i was up visiting my cousin in anaheim, and then there was a family emergency and i ended up staying an extra day to help out with the boys. they are soooooo cute. the youngest, josh, is almost 7 months and hes sooooooo fat and has a huge head. i wish it was still cute for me to look that way............

thats him at 2am, wide awake. my cousin was about to take him for a little drive to make him sleepy. poor amanda!

then, when i got home it felt like i was going to have to leave right away, and i was missing my hubbie. and he's so sweet and took me out to dinner cause he was gonna miss me when i left again. awwwwww (it was just to el torito, but still. we'd never been there and we got a discount with our AAA membership. hehe. thought that counts)


next stop was santa barbara. i went up there to help a girlfriend move. SUCH a trip going back to the old stomping grounds. i lived there for 5 years, so it was all totally framiliar (did i spell that right?) and i felt like i should be on autopilot, but i hadn't lived there for so long (over a year) that i wasnt'. that probably makes no sense, but it was a trip. of course, i didn't get to do all things santa barbara cause we were busy moving, but i got to hit up some of my favorite eatierys: deanos' pizza- mmmmm, best pizza EVER, arigato's for sushi- mmmmm i love me some sushi, & fresco- the best (and least healthy) salads eva! and best of all, i only paid for like one meal. cause my friend took me out to thank me for everything, then we visited another friend and he's just generous like that. oh! and i also have to say, santa barbara is the smallest world ever. everytime i go back i see at least one person i know. this time it was 3. one of my old roomates is managing a friends store! that was crazy. ok, so now i'm just rambling about stuff y'all probably do'nt care about. her'e s a cute pic of me and kara, we did get to take a little break and go to a holiday party


on my way back to SD i wanted to avoid traffic at allllllll costs (i dispise LA traffic) so i stopped off at my friend amy's- hair stylist to the rock stars- house for some dinner. we went and got more sushi, and her boyfriend treated! nice.


sooooooo good to be home. of course now i really gots to get some christmas decorating done!!!!! last night we went and picked out our tree it was quite teh process putting it on the stand when we got home. then, we get it in the living room and i start up with the lights- and we run out. damn. so i'll have to show you my final product after i run to the store!
hope you all have a fabulous wednesday!!!!!

don't speed

yeah, cause getting a ticket and taking traffic school sucks! at least i can do it online and not leave my house. but it still sucks. so i just wanted you all to know that i'm back, and will post more later. until then, just remember to not speed when you're driving! or at least don't get pulled over like i did. damn

iceland

k, few things. first off, i totally got keyed. who gets keyed? yeah, big ole pancho verde (yes, i do name my cars. and translated into english that means "frank green"). i went up to anaheim to visit my cousins, ended up staying an extra day cause of a family emergency, then i go to leave this mornign and the WHOLE car is alllll keyed up! wtf? so yeah, thats a bummer
also, apparently i look like i'm from iceland. who woulda thunk it? some woman approached me at the airport and asked if i was from iceland or denmark. i told her no, but i was part norweigan. totally random.
AND i solved the mystery of why i couldn't be a cool blogger and use colors and attach sites, etc. turns out its caues i use a mac. guess blogger isn't down with the imacs. i totally get discriminated against cause i'm no pc. whatever.
so now i'm on steve's computer
and i'm going to try to do cool stuff
so, i finally did my first dare! actually, i guess its 2 dares in one, cause monica just dared me to scrap my previous post. muriel dared me to scrap all in one color. so of course i chose blue to do a lay out on my obsession with jeans. here it is at 2peas. i totally scraplifted mel's recent layout, friends for the journaling & title block. thanks mel!

so wow, i feel cool now that i can do links and fun stuff on my blog. stupid discrimations against macs. so i won't do it all the time, but maybe every once in awhile to spice up my blogs...........

have a fabulous thursday! i'm going to sb this weekend, so if i don't post before then- have a great fab weekend!!!

obsession

seriously, who needs 11 + pairs of jeans? why is it that i ALWAYS need a new pair of jeans? citizens, sevens, miss sixty, lucky, paige, james, earl, disel, levi, true religon (oh wait, i don't have those yet- those are the ones i WANT). as long as they're cute, they fit right, i love em and want em. and for some reason they can't be under $100. whats up with that? who do i think i am? i'm a freakin preschool teacher- i do not wear nice clothes (i learned that the hard way, note the jeans with all the holes? yeah, thats what happens when you're leaning and picking up and crawling around all day). so maybe i'll bust out my cute jeans on the weekends- then its what pair? long and flared? short and tight? dark or light? holely or brandspankynew? skinny or fat? oh, the choices are endless. and i can't get rid of any of them, cause you never know when you may need to bust them out....... oh yes, i am OBSESSED with jeans

stike a pose

so jessie and i had a photo shoot last thursday. it was sooo much fun! just goofed aroudn and chatted and took pics, then we went to this little resturant that had 1/2 off glasses of wine (and you all know how i love my wine!) and starters and filled up. the resturant was super cute, little bit romantic, but i'm sure steve didn't mind that i went with jessie instead of him ; ) i then suckered her into staying and watching The OC- the most addictive freakin show. i ALSO got her to sign the simple scrapbook mag she was published in ; p fun fun
so anyways, now i have some fun cute pics thanks to jessie, that i can use in the dares i was given! here are my 3 faves:






and those are my top 3 favs. now i'll have a new pic for my profile!!! yay!!! i did take some of jessie, but i'll let her share those. if you want to look at more of the pics go to my clubphoto album:
http://members17.clubphoto.com/kat799337/3895572/owner-10f2.phtml
they're there along with some other random photos. and jessie, why didn't we get steve to take a pic of the 2 of us? what kind of scrappers are we?!? ; )
thats all for now, much more to post later. have a fab monday all!