5 for Five #5 {2013 New Years Eve Edition}

Happy New Years Eve!!

Time to link up for my 5 for Five!

Thanks to Jenn and Jessica for this fabulous link up as always!!
This Monday, 12/31/2012, New Years Eve, we are linking up for a 
New Years Eve Edition of 5 for Five and I am so excited!

First, let's see how I did last week {Christmas Week}

December 23-29th Goals

1. Workout at least 2 times this week after work. Yeah, not so much!  No excuses here.
2. Not to stuff myself at Christmas.  Eat what I am hungry for and NOT overeat!! Seriously all the food was so delicious that I couldn't stop eating....bad Jess....
3. Get all of the Christmas stuff packed and put away by next weekend.  Sad, isn't it! Yeah, this was put away on Wednesday night after work {yes, you read that right, the 26th, I put all the Christmas away} I don't know why, but once Christmas is over, I like to get it all put away ASAP!!
4. Not stress out over the snow coming on Tuesday evening (Christmas) and Wednesday morning.  If I can't make it to work, then I just can't.  So the 2-6" I was talking about, we got NOTHING!!!  I was sad to see no snow!  :( 
5. Get my house all clean like I normally do.  (I have been slacking the past 2 weekends.) So the downstairs is all cleaned up, but the upstairs I still need to vacuum   I will get there eventually! Lets go with a mini-goal of vacuuming tomorrow {New Years Day}

2.5/5: Eh, I could have done better, but Oh Well!!  It is, what it is!  :) 

2013 Goals

1. Run a 5K!  {Sounds lame, but if you knew me, you would know that me running or even participating in any kind of a race at all is shocking!}
2. Have our basement completely finished!
3. Stop spending money on frivolous stuff and start saving!
4. Get a nice dSLR camera and learn to use it.
5. Work on my sewing skills and get better at it, not give up!
6. Become healthier, work out, eat better foods for me, give up soda, and eat smaller portions.
7. To have more patience with everything!
8. Read 20 books in 2013 {Should be easier since I got a new Kindle!}
9. Take a Yoga class at the new gym, Complete Fitness!
10. Cook at least 4 dinners at home every weeknight.  Sounds silly, but some nights, I have NO desire to cook.  A weak goal, but something I think is attainable!

Christmas Day - Part 2

Christmas Afternoon/Evening was spent over at my Mom's house.
I found out earlier in the day that my Aunt Nancy was able to be with us at Christmas and was super excited!  This was going to be our last Christmas with us, since she will be moving to Florida next year.  I guess she can spend Christmas with her daughter next year....haha!

When my brother's family arrived at my mom's, my nephew Jackson noticed the wrapped presents under the tree.  I had used some Snoopy Christmas paper not thinking that he LOVES Snoopy so much, and he was so excited to open his presents.  We all gathered up and opened presents.  My mom got me a bunch of new kitchen gadgets and my new Toms shoes!!  The white leopard ones!!!!  I was so excited!  Andy received a bunch of games for his computer and PS3 and he was happy!  He will have plenty to do next weekend when I take a rode trip to Alabama with my mom and Aunt!  My mom loved her scarf we got it, I had it monogrammed for her, which she was NOT expecting at all!  

My mom's dog Jazmine, loving being held by Andy

Jackson waiting patiently for presents, cute smile from him!

Claire smiling with Jack smiling in the background

Dinner was delicious as usual!  In fact that food sounds so good right now!  :)  

We ate the following {Yes, I again forgot to photograph the food...}
-A Rib Roast (it was so good!)
-Green Bean Casserole (I ate so much of this!)
-Smashed potatoes
-Sweet Corn Dish
-Mashed Potatoes
-Rolls
-A new version of Green Bean Casserole

I had made a Coca Cola Chocolate Cake for dessert and we forgot about it.....I ended up taking a piece of cake home and it was GOOD!!  So rich and delicious!  I will definitely have to post this recipe up for you all to try! {Yep, I forgot a photo of the cake too!!}

I did manage to get several photos with my sister, mom, Aunt Nancy and Andy in front of the tree!  In fact, we got Andy to give a good smile in the photo too!!  It turned out really cute!

In all Christmas was the BEST as it usually is, and I Love being with everyone!  
Only thing I don't like about the Holidays, having to go back to work.  Which I did promptly the next morning at 7 am as usual.  BOO...  I did manage to have lunch with Andy that day though!  So there's always a positive to every negative!!

Christmas Day - Part 1

Christmas Day we went over to Andy's parents house around 11am that morning.  
When packing up the car to leave, I was getting the presents together and found Mokey sitting in the bag I was going to put presents in, it was too cute to not get a photo of it!!

I cant forget to get a photo of Keeley and I!!

We started with breakfast and there is nothing wrong with that!  I was starving!!

Our Christmas breakfast included:
Pancakes
Coffee Cake
Bacon
Sausage
Fruit
Orange Juice
Mike

Silly me completely forgot to take photos of breakfast....good one Jess.

Present opening started after the breakfast table was cleared and dishes were cleaned off, man oh man were their presents!!  It took a good 10 minutes to pass them out to everyone!  

I had received an ever generous amount of presents!

Kelly and Justin waiting to opening presents

Lynn taking photos of everyone

My presents included:
New Nike shoes (grey and blue)
A purple quilt bag
Tupperware (we were running SUPER low on it)
6 new sewing machine feet
A sewing book
A crockpot book
A beautiful candy dish
A new Tervis cup (love those!!)
A cute pink long sleeve Pink Ribbon shirt

Andy's gifts included many new tools for him to use, he can now get rid of the "pink" handled tools that I had when I first moved out on my own.  He also got a couple new t-shirts, a new PS3 game, and a new Tervis tumbler also!

Grandpa opening presents

Lynn putting in her new earrings

Grandma watching everyone enjoying themselves

In all we had an excellent time over there and loved being with everyone!
Christmas went way too fast as usual, it's because we really did enjoy our time with family!

Christmas Lights - 12/23/2012

Last night, our best friends, Nick and Laura came in town to celebrate Christmas with Nick's family.  They always make sure to take time out to spend a little bit of time with us on the Holidays, which we both appreciate more than they will ever know!  :)  

I went out with my mom, sister and Aunt Nancy for final shopping (groceries) and things while Nick, Laura and Andy went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch and football watching.  My Aunt Nancy made us a plate full of delicious cookies, yum!!!  Thanks Aunt Nancy!

That night we went to dinner at good 'ol Steak 'n Shake and went to look at Christmas lights. We drove to the Ft. Zumwalt Parks for the Celebration of Lights!  Spent a good hour in the car waiting to get in and drive through, but I thought it was a lot of fun!  We want to make it an annual tradition in going to see Christmas lights together in December.  I think it would be a great Christmas tradition to make with our best friends.  :)  

We then took Nick and Laura to a house by ours that does the Christmas lights and syncs up the music to the lights.  They had never seen a house in real life do this, so this was an extra special treat!!

We came back home and started a movie, Men in Black 3.  I enjoyed what I watched but went to bed in the middle of it since I had to work the next morning.

Of course, I forgot to get a photo of all 4 of us together.  One day, I will get this.  For now, I will post the photo from our wedding of all 4 of us together so you can see that we really do have some friends.  :)  Just wish our best friends lived a little closer.  

Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve Evening !!!!!!!!!!

It's OK, you can go ahead and laugh at me!  :)  

Tonight, Andy and I spent a wonderful evening together.  We went to I-Hop for our "Breakfast" Dinner and then came back to the house to open presents.  Such a special time spent together.  I wouldn't trade him in for the world!

I got Andy a Cardinals Baseball Jersey with our Last Name on it and his favorite number, 71!

Ok, so he doesn't have a favorite number, I already asked him, but it's his favorite car year, a '71 Charger, so I thought it was appropriate to made it the jersey number.  After Pujols decided to be a traitor and leave the Cardinals for the Angels (can you tell I'm still bitter about that, haha), Andy had no desire to wear his Pujols Cardinals jersey, so I thought I would get him one he would never want to get rid of.  :)   The jersey also came with a 2011 World Series Champions Hat, so it was a nice touch to add to his gift.  

I had wanted to get him something else, but he kept bugging me about wanting a new keyboard for his computer, so I let him get the one he wanted, on sale on amazon.com and that finished off his Christmas presents.  He has been using it for weeks now.

Andy got me, a Kindle paperwhite!  I am so excited!  I love to read and it is kind of hard to read on the iPad.  He thought it would be a great idea and I think he was right on.  Of course he got me pink cover to go on my Kindle.  Gotta love the color pink!  :) 

Smokey got some new catnip toys and was going CRAZY over them!!  He was flipping them all over the house and having a good time by himself and his new toys.  They were in a "Sardine" can, so its his own sardines to play with.

Keeley got a new squeeky toy, a skunk.  It has a waterbottle inside of it with a squeeker in the tail.  She seemed to really enjoy it also.  She also got some new tennis balls to play with ourside and some chew bones.  She raked it in this year.

To finish the evening we just spent time on the couch watching tv and just hanging out.  I had made the coffee cake for the morning and the chocolate cake for the evening so I am prepared and ready to go for Christmas Day!

This final photo says a lot from last night, Keeley and I were exhausted!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

I hope you all are enjoying this special time spent with all of your loved ones, I know I am!

I thought I would leave you all with a Christmas photo from our first three Christmas' together.  I thought the photos came out so cute and wanted to show you all. :) 


Christmas 2009


{I feel like Andy and I look so young in this photo, it was only 4 years ago!}


Christmas 2010


{No clue why we didn't get a photo that day of Christmas, since we got engaged that day, but this was a week later after Christmas in Milwaukee.}


Christmas 2011




Ill be back tomorrow with my Christmas Day recap for you all and a Christmas 2012 photo!