Christmas time.

For our first married Christmas together, we visited the magical land of Washington with it's miles of blue waters and endless green trees. In this mystical state resides my family - my mom, her husband, and my two little brothers. We were lacking in the Christmas spirit until we landed in the 20 degree chill, and suddenly we knew what it was like to feel like Christmas.

   

From walks in the rain to late night talks; from real Christmas trees to real white snow; from trips to Multnomah Falls to shopping in downtown Portland and watching Les Miserable in the best theater in the US; this had to be my absolute favorite Christmas of all time. We stayed through New Years and were able to bond so much with my beautiful family. And even though the snow didn't stick to the ground, I still consider this the perfect white Christmas.

Welcome.

One of the most important things that happened to us over the past months we've been away is that we moved out of our tiny little apartment. It was a good apartment while it lasted...but this house is much better. These are just a few of my favorite parts of our little house.

I'm not much of a decorator, but I'm pretty proud of myself so far! I'm still discovering my style and I try to do a little bit each week to improve our house. 

Speaking of improving our house...I wish I would have taken before and after shots of the entire thing. We were lucky enough that my grandma allowed us to rent out her house when she moved out, but unfortunately that meant that she didn't clean anything up. It was a disaster. It took us weeks to clean out a room to even be able to live in. But! We did it. And now the house is clean, stink free, and ours.

I love our home.

Pause.

We're going to take a break from our regularly scheduled catch-up session for this important service announcement. I LOVE THRIFTING. And this post doesn't really have to do with thrifting as much as it has to do with being thrifty. As I've said before, since I got married I became a cheap-o. I can't fathom spending more than 10 dollars on a shirt and cringe at the idea of buying pants.

Recently, Kendall and I have become obsessed with this little place called Plato's Closet. Seriously. It's amazing. Kendall bought me a pair of pants for 12 dollars...and AH! Amazing. This post also isn't about Plato's Closet. Today I went in to Downeast Basics to update my much needed undershirt collection, and as I walked in the girl working the register informed me that all clearance items were an additional 40% off. That was the wrong thing to tell me, lady.

So what that I bought 5 shirts, a cardigan, two pairs of pants, and three undershirts? It's not like I only went for two undershirts or anything... My wallet may be empty, but my closet is happy. And that's all that matters, right? The moral of the story is to be patient, because eventually your stinginess will come in handy and you'll get nice new clothes for Plato's Closet prices. Awesome.

Adoption.

I don't know if I've made this common knowledge or not, but I'm a huge dog lover. Like, my parents had to start putting restrictions on the amount of dogs I would "save" and bring home "just until we found their owners." It's a compulsion, I know, and I'm getting help for it (thank you, Animal Hoarders!). But seriously, I love dogs so much that when I moved out of my dad's house my Sophomore year of college, I bought a little dog, Sirius Black Lewis, to keep me company.

Well, once me and Kendall got married, it was inevitable that Sirius would come with me. Unfortunately, this also meant that Sirius had to leave his best friends at my dad's house. Womp womp. This lead to many discussions with Kendall about Sirius feeling like he had no friends in the world and that all the other dogs rejected him, making him the outcast of the puppy world. 

My drama seemed to win over Kendall's heart, and one morning in November I woke up to this four month old, adorable, wrinkly face.

Meet Beauford Maddog Clark, or as we like to call him, Biff. And prepare to die of cuteness, because I'm about to overload you with the most adorable pictures you've ever seen. Seriously. He's the bomb dot com of all puppy faces.

If you did not melt into a puddle of puppy love on the floor, I don't know what planet you live on, or if a soul resides within your body. THAT FACE. We are seriously obsessed with him. He runs amuck, pees and poops all over our house, bites us 'til we're raw, and all we can say is "aw, isn't that cute?"

Best Christmas present ever.

*Also...all of these pictures were taken with my iPhone. Why do I even own a real camera when I think my iPhone is better?

Next thing's...next.

Hooray for awkward post titles! And two days in a row of blogging! I'm on a roll tonight. Anyways, seriously. The next important thing in the long list of things that I didn't blog about is my new face. And by face, I mean hair.

I went from this (please excuse the crappy iPhone pictures...that predicament is another post for another day):

To this:

Am I crazy? Bangs + ombre at the same time? I think not. I'm so in love with my hair. I've always wanted to be as cool as Zoey Deschanel, and now I can pretend even more that I already did. Also, my mom is the best hairdresser of all time. And one more picture of my bangs. THE END!

(bear with me during this awkward return-blogger stage where I say awkward jumbled up messes of kerbobbled things that make no sense. Like kerbobbled.)

Frist thing's first.

For years, I scoffed and scorned the obsessive Applers who worshiped the Mac gods in all their expensive glory. Why would I need to spend a million dollars on a computer when I can get one for $200? Why would I conform? Why, why, why?

Well, now I know.

The world is more beautiful now that I have this dream machine. Pictures are more beautiful, Blogger is more beautiful, even Facebook is a more vibrant shade of blue. It's a dream come true. Ok, I'm being dramatic. But after having a laptop that shut off if it got bumped and took 45.78 minutes to reboot, it's about time I spoil myself. Plus, I really wanted Garageband.

Speaking of apps...what apps do you Macbook Pro users love? I only have Garageband, mostly for music therapy purposes. Any photo editing apps? Music apps? Apps that make my face look funny? Anything!

I know I can put my trust in you.

January.

Oh how I love these cool winter days and freezing winter nights. I wish it would stay like this everyday so that I could stay warm, cuddled in my blanket, with a warm fireplace burning...

Oh, I didn't see you there!

It's been so long. And I promised myself (and New Year's Resolved) that as soon as I got my new computer (ahem, MacBook Pro...) that I would work my hardest to be an awesome, beautiful, wonderful, amazing blogger. Unfortunately I've made that promise one too many times;

BUT.

I mean it. I'm motivated. I'm on top of it.

I'm ready.

Stay tuned for lots of updates. And by lots I mean LOTS. So many things have happened in the past month and each time I do something exciting I say to myself "Wow, I should blog that!" We know how that went. So, I leave you with lots to look forward to. Lots.