Day 10 - Public Praise

Hello, ladies and gents. Today's post will be a slight change of pace from my typical ambling ramblings. This year for my Clinton, I am doing the Twelve Days of Christmas. We are on Day 10, and today's gift is Public Praise - 10 Things I Love About My Husband. Let's just jump right in to this sapfest, shall we?

1) His Sense of Humor
Clinton is hilarious. He is a major goofball. He makes me laugh all of the time without even trying. He makes me laugh even when I'm trying to be mad. It's not some kind of weird goofiness that only appeals to me, either - he makes everyone laugh! It is nearly impossible to be in a bad mood around him, because he is the master of cheering people up. Seriously - look at this face.

Can't stay mad!

Not even if you try.

Love my goofball!

2) His Style
Know what I like? A man who's not afraid of patterns. And my man is not afraid of patterns.

He also has more than 2 pairs of shoes which is more than I can say for a lot of men I know. And he even likes accessories. Boy can put an outfit together. Mmm-mmm! I can also count on him to help me decide what to wear. I'm never afraid that if I ask him which thing looks better he's just going to go, "uhh, that one honey, whatever you say". I actually trust his judgement, so that's fun!

3) He's a Foodie!
He likes to cook, and will eat anything! I am so glad that I didn't end up with a plain old meat-and-potatoes-no-greens-ever kinda guy. I love cooking and trying new recipes, and I love that he will try literally anything I make. I love that it's not just something he does because he knows I like it - he actually liked cooking before he ever met me. I probably have his mom to thank for a little bit of that! I love that he finds and wants to try recipes on his own. I love that when he cooks for me, he tries to make the plating look pretty. I love that we both enjoy watching the Food Network and seeking out the restaurants of some of our favorite chefs. Some of my favorite times with him are when we cook together. We didn't used to do it often because our old kitchen was so tiny, but now that we have a bigger one we've been cooking together more and it's nice! There might be nothing cuter than feeding your spouse a bite of whatever you're cooking with in between stirring and chopping. And kitchen kisses. Kitchen kisses are adorable.

Eating at Distrito - Chef Jose Garces' restaurant in Scottsdale, AZ.

Together at MESA Grill (our favorite restaurant) - Iron Chef Bobby Flay's restaurant in Las Vegas, NV.

I made this for dinner one night and he dove right in. Not something you can count on every guy to do!

That's my husband's hand holding that fresh made pasta!

4) Our Shared Interests
Movies, hiking, cooking, UFC/MMA, music, family BBQs! The things that I love to do, he loves to do too. I love that we don't have to force our interests on each other. There are, of course, things that we enjoy doing w/out each other too, but it's good to have these common interests so that every time we do something together, it's not something the other one loves exclusively.

Together at a UFC Expo in Las Vegas, NV.

Together at UFC 104 in Los Angeles, CA.

Rise Against concert in Tempe, AZ.

All American Rejects concert in Tempe, AZ.

Pre-screening of 'The Campaign' in Phoenix, AZ.

After a day of hiking/exploring Montezuma Castle, Montezuma Well, and Tuzigoot.

Together on one of our yearly baseball trips.

5) His Butt
It is cute.

6) His Unwavering Kindness
He is literally the nicest person I know. Sometimes I think I am not a super nice person. I am grumpy and can get judge-y sometimes and I'm not always the best at being positive. I'm a better person because of him - I've slowly tried to become a nicer person so that he can be with the type of girl he deserves. When I get grumpy and negative, I have him there to point out the good things to me - even when they're not the things I want to hear, they're the things I need to hear. He's also incredibly giving, selfless, and so sweet. He would do anything anything for anyone, seriously. He is always thinking of others, and how he can make other people's lives better.

7) Big Softie.
He is a romantic. He might tell you otherwise, but he totally is. I can prove it!

I wasn't the only one who cried ALL DAMN DAY on our wedding day!

8) His Family Matters.
I could not possibly have asked for a better person to start a family with. I have 5 sisters, 2 brothers, 4 brothers-in-law, 2 sets of parents, grandparents, aunts/uncles, and thirteen nieces and nephews. He made an effort early on to learn everyone's names (long before meeting them all) so he could follow my stories. He got along with all of my family instantly (not surprising - everyone who meets him loves him!) and actually tried.
He never played the part of the boyfriend who sits in the corner and only talks football. He engages everyone all of the time and talks to all of my sisters/brothers/parents/nieces and nephews individually and knows their personalities, what they like, what they don't like, and how to talk to them. Every time we are around them, he plays with all of my nieces. Just recently at my nephew's birthday party he played 'Mother May I' with 3 of them. He lets them jump all over him and laughs while it happens. He lets them decorate him with tinsel. He plays video games and basketball and football with my nephews and lets them talk to him about girls. My youngest brother (who is not really that young anymore) couldn't wait for us to get married so that he could officially call Clinton his big brother.
He is very family-oriented. We see both our families often. He's very close with his mother and his father. He is so respectful of his mom, it is adorable. His dad is one of his best friends and he spends time with him often. He is always making sure that his brother and sister and his niece are doing alright.
I've never had to worry about either one of us going "uggghhh, not the in-laws!" because we both get along with each other's families so well, and I know that his personality is a big part of that.

9) He Accepts Me
Nobody knows me like he does. When I get to be in a bad mood, he knows that I am probably just hungry or tired (yes, I am a big baby) and laughs and says we need to get me some lunch. He can tell when I'm upset or sick even before I can a lot of times, and he knows what I need (and what I don't need) when I'm not feeling well. He always knows what I want or need, even when I don't have the foresight to ask for it. He has seen me at my best, but he has also seen me at my worst. I am feisty and tempermental and stubborn and I probably don't deserv him, but he loves me in spite of myself. He loves me when I'm good, and he manages to still love me when I'm bad. We should all be so lucky.

10) He is My Rock
There is nothing so important in this life as having a solid support system. I am blessed enough to have many supportive friends and family members to count on. I am even more blessed in that I have a partner for life that will always support me, no matter what. He has my back 100% in anything that I do. When I doubt myself, he encourages me and gives me the confidence boost I need. I will never feel alone for as long as I have him. He is steadfast and strong and I am incredibly proud to call him mine.

<3



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The Good, The Bad, and The Moustache

Welcome to a post in two parts! One of my favorite things - Christmas - and one of my least favorite things - lip caterpillars! Christmas is The Good. The Moustache is both The Bad, and The Ugly. HA.

Christmas first, because it's my favorite!

Hey Buddy wanna pick some snowberries? NOT NOW ARCTIC PUFFIN!

It is Christmas time which means that it is now perfectly acceptable for me to quote Elf nonstop and walk around with a peppermint white mocha 24/7. IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR! (Because of peppermint. And Jesus. But mostly peppermint. [Just kidding, Jesus, I love you!]) I love Christmas. I love the decorations and the food and the wrapping paper (yes, wrapping paper) and tons of family time and the general feeling of cheer everywhere.

Peppermint everything, all day every day!

I am one of those people who decorates the day after Thanksgiving. While everyone was out trampling each other for a deal on a TV, I was waking up and excitedly interrupting my husband's morning cup of coffee to ask him to get the tree (artificial: I don't believe in chopping down trees unnecessarily!) out of storage so we could put it up IMMEDIATELY! We don't have a huge house or anything, just a small apartment, but I still love to decorate. Each year we do a different color scheme - the main color is silver, and then we also have blue, green, red, purple, and gold. This year we are doing silver, red, and green.  Here are some pictures I have of our decor so far this year:


Clockwise from top left: Tv stand, living room wall, dining room table, tv stand 2nd view, our dog's collar (you read that right, our dog has a special holiday collar), tree, tv stand 3, entry wall, entry table.



Nighttime tree!

Window decor



I even decorated my desk at work!


I'm also working on a wreath for our front door, but I haven't finished it yet. It's made out of red and white snowflakes and covered in shimmery glitter - I don't know why glitter is a Christmas decoration, but it is. Seriously, if you doubt me, just go to your local Big Box store and look at the ornaments. Oh, a fishing reel? Slap some glitter on that bitch and BAM IT'S CHRISTMAS! I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried, folks.

One of my other favorite things about Christmas is that it is Fruitcake Season! Seriously, I know that it's gross and a lot of people just don't get it, but like I've mentioned before, fruitcake is kind of a big deal in my relationship, and so I just have all of this extra happy all the time this season because every time I am in a store I see fruitcake and it makes me just grin and grin. It is ridiculously heartwarming to be grocery shopping with my husband and see a display of fruitcake and just squeeze each other's hands a little tighter. This whole season is like a constant re-affirmation of how awesome we each think the other is!

I'm high too, Kitty. High on luuuuuurve.

There are even fruitcake features in my Food Network magazine!

Looks like a trip to Claxton, GA is in order.

I also love gifting - not so much getting (I mean, of course I like it, who doesn't?), but thinking of what to get people, honing ideas, coming up with creative wrapping. Not a ton of gifting being done this year - part of my family does Bad Santa (like White Elephant, but you can steal the gifts) and I do the same thing for that every year - a 2ft tree with scratchers pinned to it. It's always a hit and people always fight over it, so I see no reason to switch it up! With Clinton's family this year we decided to do a Secret Santa which I am organizing. I thought it might be fun to be able to really focus on one person instead of getting a bunch of weird small random things for everyone, and they were all onboard, so we'll see how it turns out! I'm doing a Secret Santa gift exchange/party on the 22nd so I'll update about it after that. The other 1/2 of my family is on a strict budget this year and not doing normal gifting, but I'm going to send them a little something home-made this year anyway. I'll post that once they get it so as not to ruin the surprise!

I'm reeeeeally excited about Clinton's gift this year - I put a LOT of thought and effort into it and I know he's never had anything like it before, so I can't wait for him to have it! I will definitely be going into more detail about it here soon!

It's basically impossible for me to be mad this time of year. Had a bad day? Eat something peppermint. Watch Elf or Love Actually or Home Alone or Die Hard (totally a Christmas movie) or The Santa Clause. Go home and turn on the Christmas lights and light a pine candle and eat dinner by the glow of the tree. Done. Le fin. Happy.

- - - - -

The Bad, The Ugly. The Moustache! Dun dun DUN!

Clinton decided to do #Movember this year. Uhhhh. I, uh... was not a fan? Ha. Last year he did No-Shave November which is was A-OK with. I thought he looked quite handsome and manly with his beard! He liked it so much that he ended up keeping it through the summer. Something that I found really weird was that people kept asking me if I was going to let him keep it for the wedding. I just kept responding that I wasn't in charge of his face and he could keep it if he wanted to, that I would be fine either way. He decided to not have it for the wedding because he didn't think it was a forever thing, and he didn't want our kids to look at our wedding pictures and have it be like "oh yeah kids, that was the one year I had a beard". So with that in mind, he ended up shaving it in... June or July I think, so that his face would have time to get some color before the wedding in October.

Well this year when November rolled around, he decided to do actual Movember. (See here.) We sat around for awhile trying to come up with a team name somehow related to facial hair when it occured to us that one of our all time favorite TV characters (Ron Swanson from NBC's 'Parks and Rec') has the most epic moustache of all time.

Ladies and gentleman, may I present to you: Ron Swanson

And with that, Swanson's 'Staches was born. Clinton created a Movember team and tried to recruit his friends to join his team as "Mo Brothers". Unfortunately for him (but fortunately for all their lady friends), nobody in their right mind wants to grow a moustache, so it ended up being just him... and me. Yep. That's what marriage is folks, joining your husband's unsuccessful Movember as a "Mo Sista" and slapping a moustache on your profile picture for the month.

Boy, don't those two look handsome?

From that point on, it was all Ron Jeremy jokes from everyone all the time. Movember might have been the worst thing that has ever happened to me, and I have not had an easy life. Haha, seriously, not a fan. I've never liked moustaches - they just look creepy to me! Clint knows that but I figured since it was for a good cause, you know, whatever. About halfway through the month I got him to admit that he didn't like it either which is good, because I definitely don't want to go through that again ever in my life ha! But he stuck with it and made it through the month and got a few donations. I even promoted his team on my FB page promising a homemade moustache-shaped treat for anyone who donated over $10, but to no avail. Funny thing, people just really don't support moustaches, no matter how good the cause! Poor guy - as previously mentioned we spent a lot of time with my family last month and he got teased constantly, but he took it like a champ... which he should have, since he is the one who made that ridiculous choice. =P

Day 3.



Family photos on Thanksgiving. Happy Holidays from Clinton, Whitney, Emmy, and The Moustache!

Finally, at long last, it was time to say goodbye the the strange creature living on my husband's lip! I have to admit though that his moustache was pretty impressive. I've seen some other people's and they were pretty sparse and sad looking. Way to rock your masculinity right up front for everyone to see, babe. On December 1st, Clinton got up early to go golfing with his dad. Normally he would let me sleep in, but he decided to wake me up because he didn't think I would want to miss the ritualistic shaving of the 'stache. It was basically the best day of my life because he let me weild the clippers. I shaved that moustache with a vengance. Peace out homeboy, please evacuate the premises.

Before and after faces!



Best day ever, clearly.

A couple of days later I went over to my parents' house and my stepmom pointed to a gift bag on the table. "I saw this at the store and I couldn't resist. I had to get it for you."

My mom obviously has a sense of humor.

She could NOT stop laughing when she saw my face. She (and everyone else) knew how much I hated it and she said she thought of me immediately when she saw it. It was pretty funny. I told her I should change into it before going home so Clinton would see it when I got home, but then I had a better idea. I got home and we sat around watching TV for awhile, and then I told him I was going to go "slip into something a little more comfortable". Shoulda seen his face when I walked out of the bedroom wearing that baby. Poor guy. Hopes and dreams dashed. It was a cruel trick, but he loves me despite my terrible sense of humor. What a champ.

Things I Am Not Good At

1) Keeping a blog. Ha! I have definitely started several blogs before that I let fall to the wayside - but I'm going to really try hard not to let that happen here! I haven't finished recapping the wedding yet (still have the reception to post about!) but I'm not in the mood to do that right now, so instead, this will be a "Here's What We've Been Up To" post.

Family. Lots of family stuff going on these days!

For those of you that don't know, I have 13 nieces and nephews - nope, that is not a typo. I have 5 older sisters and they all have kids, so there are a whole lot of babies in my family. Well, actually, a whole lot of kids - only two babies. The youngest two are Kennedy and Bently, my niece and nephew. Two of my sisters were pregnant at the same time and their kiddos were born less than a month apart. We haven't had any babies in the family for awhile so it has been nice having them around again! I can't believe it's been a year already since they were born - it feels like just yesterday that my sisters were pregnant and when I was there for both of their births. Kennedy just had her 1st birthday party last month, and Bently's party is this Saturday. I love them both so much I can hardly stand it!


Spending time with Kennedy Jean when she was still brand new.



KJ's 1st Birthday Party!



Bently Scot - chillest baby EVER.



1 Year Later.

Bently's the younger one, but look how much bigger he is than Kennedy! Even on his knees! Precious.

Aren't they adorable? I tend to think so. :) I have some of the CUTEST photos of Kennedy at the wedding. Why are babies so photogenic? My family sure does make some pretty ones!

This year Clint and I did two Thanksgivings - one w/ my parents and then one w/ his. We got to his parents' late and I was kind of stressed so I neglected to take photos there, but I took a few earlier in the day. First up, every year my dad deep fries the turkey, and every year I forget to take a picture of him in his Turkey Frying Gear. We live in Phoenix and it was like 85F degrees on Thanksgiving, but my dad winds up out there in gloves and a leather jacket (frying a turkey is dangerous!) and it just cracks me up. He actually fried THREE turkeys this year because we needed 2 for how many people we had, and then they wanted a 3rd one entirely for leftovers hahaha. Good thinking, family!

After we ate, a few of my nieces went straight to decorating the Christmas tree - that's right, someone who actually decorates earlier than I do! I waited until the day after, but they made a beeline for that tree right after eating! My kinda girls! I went in there to help for a little bit and then went to socialize some - when I came back the cutest thing had happened - my nieces were decorating my HUSBAND. And he was letting them! Haha! I definitely picked the right guy to have babies with.

Family photo time!

Also of note - another one of my sisters who lives in Oregon was visiting last week. She stayed with (yet another! ha!) one of my sisters so we went over there a couple times to hang out - I actually didn't take any pictures of my sister or her husband or my niece - I was mostly too busy just spending time with them! On the first night we were there however, we all ended up in the backhard roasting marshmallows and making s'mores over the standing firepit. It was really nice, a great family night.

Pinterest. Pinterest is addicting. If you're on it, you already know. If you're not on it you have two choices - 1) get on it, surrender the rest of your life to its mighty power. 2) Don't get on it, remain blissfully unaware of all that is awesome in this world. I've done quite a few Pinterest inspired things this year, here are just a few.

For Halloween I made a door hanger and a window decoration.

The Original Pin

My version - bigger, and longer, more prominent ribbon.

The Original Pin

My version - mirror image and added bats.

Pinterest is also good for inspiring gift ideas! Clinton and I went to a housewarming party a couple weeks ago and I wanted to bring the something other than a bottle of wine - something useful, but cute. I found a really cute idea and stuck to it pretty closely - I added a card and a tiny dog bone for their pup and a candle but that's it.

The Original Pin

My Version - Front View

My Version - Side View

Bonus - that gift only cost about $20! Cute, creative, and doesn't break the bank. Pinterest is awesome for that - I don't even necessarily look for "projects", I just look for cute decor and think that if I can make it for cheaper, I'm gonna go for it. I really actually got a lot of confidence from doing DIY projects for the wedding and realized I don't have to spend nearly as much as what stores price things at when I can make half of it myself.

I also recently made bread completely from scratch for the first time ever. I made it to bring to Thanksgiving at Clinton's parent's. The Original Pin had a caption that said "crockpot bread!", which I figured would be impossible to screw up - even for someone like me, who doesn't enjoy baking. I looked at the ingredient list to make sure I got everything I needed then went home, prepared to throw stuff in the crockpot and leave it. WELL. Turns out that is not the case, ha! When I clicked through the link it was just regular bread that you do the old fashioned way, in the oven. I approached this recipe with trepidation, but it actually turned out really good, and I think I'm going to make bread more often now. It's really REALLY cheap when you figure how much you can get out of one bag of flour, compared to buying two loaves a week!

The Original Pin

I can't find the photo of my bread, but it looked almost exactly the same except for the rosemary on top -there was enough in the bread. It was good - everyone ate it and I would make it again. It also gave me an excuse to use my pizza stone, which I am a huge fan of - thanks, Nick and Ashley!

Lastly, a Christmas decoration - I found this and didn't want to do flowers (too much upkeep!), so instead I just used a bunch of little wreath decorations from Michael's - and I switched to colored candy canes to match my red/green/silver decor.

The Original Pin

My Version - Side View

My Version - Top View

That'll be it for this week in Pinspirations, but expect more of them as time goes on! I have so many things that I want to try, I just need to find the time to do them!

I was also planning to cover Christmas and Movember in this post, but it's getting far too long, so I'll save those for next time. Hold onto your butts, it's about to get SUPER exciting up in here!