Dress Shopping!

I can't believe my little sister is getting married!! This past weekend we went dress shopping for her wedding. Although it was a very long process, she purchased her dress and it's absolutely gorgeous. We had some laughs along the way with different dresses and a very interesting bridal consultant at the store. Ashley thinks she knows which bridesmaids dresses she wants, but is going to wait and look around a bit first. I have a feeling July will be here before she knows it!

Christmas Highlights

We were lucky to be able to visit all of our family again this year for Christmas. We even planned it in a way that we would have a few days at home to relax and enjoy some time to ourselves at the end. We feel like this was the best Christmas traveling we've done yet.

First, I have to say I came up with the best oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe ever! It's chewy, but not too much so like many cookies can be. This is because I grind the oats into a powder first. Don't these look delicious?? If you want the recipe, let me know and I can email it to you :)

Back to our Christmas...

We had our own little Christmas again the Sunday before Christmas. Here are our gifts to each other beneath the tree:

Our family haha

Mom Bevan's tree:

And their new sofa/loveseat set and new tv:

We arrived in Hollidaysburg on Christmas Eve around 4:30 PM. The table was set for dinner, but no one was home! They were all at church and visiting others. We had a delicious meal and enjoyed a fun evening with family.

Apparently something was funny here in this one haha.

A beautifully wrapped present that I received :) The gift was just as fabulous, in my opinion.

Opening presents:

We ventured to NJ on Christmas morning as we've been doing for the past few years. Here's a group shot of us all at Mima's. Even Uncle Michael made an appearance!

Hanging out with family:

On Sunday we celebrated Christmas with Nana and Aunt Marian. Caleb was sick so unfortunately only Bella and Vasti made it out during dinner and opening presents. We did get to see Tim later which was good. The weather on Sunday was beautiful weather and we took some pictures outside.

Obviously this one's a little goofy...

...but this one's a bit nicer :)

Who are these two tough guys?

Father and son :)

Bella was very excited to open presents! It was the cutest thing :)

More present opening...

Traveling for Christmas can always be tiring, but we felt as though this year was our best planned week of Christmas and we hope to do something similar next year. We really enjoy seeing both sides of our family and are blessed to have such great families to visit. :)

New Kitchen Island :)

While waiting to pick up pizza one day during Christmas break at my parents' house, Peter and I stopped in VCF to look around. I'm still holding out for my matching end table! They have them for $250, but since I purchased my first one for $50 in the clearance section (with nothing wrong with it but a small scratch on the back that was barely visible), I can't justify $250 for the other! Even if it's just $300 for the set. One day I hope to see another clearance one to match :)

We didn't find it on this trip, but we did find this...

...a new kitchen island! On clearance for $96! :) They even had one in the warehouse so we didn't have to take the floor model :) It's a perfect size for our kitchen and matches the black in our current appliances, etc.

I thought it would look huge at first and that it would take a while to get used to it, but I'm already used to it and it's only the next morning! That must mean it was meant to be, right? :P

It provides great extra storage space. I was able to change some things around and get my extra funky dishes and new water goblets in our regular cupboard. I love that all of our dishes are now in one section in the kitchen :) It's the organization geek in me, what can I say?

Our new island also provides great additional counter area while cooking, etc. And the best part is that the top opens up to provide twice as much counter space!

It even has a marble insert for a cutting board.

Ahh, I love our new island! It was just what our little kitchen needed and just what we were looking for!