life lately, Christmas and future posts

school schedule to Christmas mode has been quite an easy transition. crafting gifts, running Christmas errands and baking goodies is way more fun than being confined to my office analyzing data and living off coffee. lately we've been drinking lots of peppermint hot cocoa and playing ongoing games of scrabble. my favorite past time the last few weeks has just been sitting in the living room, candles lit, tree lights sparkling and simply soaking up Christmas. lynnee has also had it pretty rough lately, not not just any cat can average eighteen hours a day sleeping under the Christmas tree c:

we spent Christmas at the in`laws and never left the house for two beautiful days full of family, eating everything yummy and opening up heartfelt gifts. the best memory was seeing the boy's face when the last step of his scavenger hunt was sitting in the living room and having his new coast guard helicopter flown to him. and {as you can imagine} he's been flying and pestering others with it every since c; even though we weren't in our home town we continued their family tradition of remembering the reason for the season by enjoying coconut ice cream balls and singing happy birthday to our Jesus. in between all of our relaxing and familiness we still squeezed in a photo shoot for our new year family card. 

now for future posts...there have been quite a few projects going on around this home and they've all remained on my camera, very much needing to be uploading and posted. this one of my many goals before school starts up. another project{s} is to offset the post Christmas blues by re`vamping our guest bedroom. so lots of laminate painting, lamp shade decorating and all things crates soon to come c:

my family vacation

this has been quite the summer, making memories left and right. from purchasing our first home to road trips galore with family and friends. we also had a total of seven weddings this summer, five of them out of town, i was a bridesmaid in three and two weddings husband was a groomsmen {make sense?}. i kidded myself to think i would have the time to write on each and every event that occurred this summer. 

but this trip was extra special. my parents rented the cabin we used to visit every summer in my childhood. the first two days was just my dad, mom, sister and me. the first time in years that the four of us vacationed or were even together in one place just the four of us. i felt like a little kid again, goofing off with my sister and helping my parents prepare dinner. it truly felt like i was back time and it was perfect in its own way...than that boy of mine came...and the trip remained as perfect as could be. it was such a blessing for the two of us to spend so much real, quality time with my family. four full days of togetherness is unheard of for our family with the conflicting schedules and living on opposite sides of california. beautiful and perfect, just the five of us. alright enough with the chatting, here's the evidence of our little family gathering. 

absolutely breathtaking lake tahoe.

yes we are definitely the family that wears headlamps for evening walks. 

hiking just the four of us, the old collins clan. 

 the stretch that we spent our afternoons at. 

 watching the boy paddle board from my kayak. 

 pardon the water splotches, my water case got a bit wet. 

 sharing a famous chamber's punch. the only reason he posed was because my mom suggested for us to take the  picture...hehe can't say no to the mother.in.law...i'm going to keep this in mind for future uses c;

pose two that mom asked him to take...i could get use to this photo taking compliance. 

i will leave you with this...pretty incredible what our God designs, yes?

our weekend

here's to a beautiful third christmas celebration weekend in oregon. it was a last minute trip, but also a much needed trip to be with and support family through life's craziness. and it was so worth it {fam always comes first}. plus first time seeing my aunt and uncle's new place. gorgeous. and my sister who i usually only get to see once a year..i got to see twice in one month. lucky girl. we were only able to squeeze in a day and a half trip between our work schedules...but it was a wonderful thirty~six hours. our first day was spent looking at waterfalls, lakes, lava tubes, natural bridges..absolutely breathtaking what God does. second day the girls crafted it up. i got a sewing machine from santa :) and my mom re~taught me what i learned back in fifth grade sewing camp. then my aunt showed us how to make lip balm and my mom gave us a tutorial of decorating spoons.

move your eyes to the left of his hand and up a tad

the snowball that i caught on camera..and most definitely not in my hand.

amazing weekend...i love my family.

christmas vacation

we spent nine days traveling down and then up the california coast. the first half our trip we spent christmas down in santa barbara because my sister couldn't get the time off to come home. so my parents, her boyfriend, the boy and i all met at her place to spend christmas together in her two bedroom rental that usually houses five girls...{yikes} her college neighborhood was a ghost town because every was gone for winter break..it was peaceful and gorgeous. christmas eve the kids taught our parents the art of beer pong..or as my dad calls it the pong. which as you could imagine, was pretty amusing.

the second half of our tip we went home and it was a little more fast paced. i ended up making a schedule for the boy and myself to just keep up with it all {yes and i love being organized} ...we had a wedding, coffee dates, dinner dates, friend time, visiting different sets of family, then there were more lunch dates...think you get the picture. pretty hectic but i enjoyed being able to squeeze everyone in and catch up with old friends. due to the craziness i didn't take as many pictures as i wanted...but i have a few that represent that section of our trip.

this picture pretty much sums up the first half of our vacation

relaxing.

lots of goofing off and playing with the sister's new fish eye lens

new profile picture..yes??

christmas afternoon we took our family photo..lovely bunch we are.

it was an awful five minute walk to the beach from her house
hard life huh?
as a fam we watched the sunset on christmas evening.

mom being the spunky and always prepared woman she is
brought a bottle of champagne and cups for toasting.

 we sipped and watched the perfect sunset.

christmas dinner was homemade chicken pot pies and dumplings

accompanied by a salad that had everything amazing in it.

a picture from one of our evening walks. 

................................

now for the less documented half of our trip

celebrating new years eve eve with some amazing friends

{because we spent the real new years eve at a wedding}

and yes we did the whole countdown and everything :)

the boy quickly traded in his pea coat for a sweatshirt that night

but i managed to get at least one picture with him :)

welcome 2012

we spent the real new years eve with the in~laws at a family wedding.

...and we drove home the next afternoon...

our relaxing.busy.perfect. vacation

recovering from vacation

so i've kind of spent the entire morning in bed..getting up only twice
first time was to get the essentials: chocolate, lap top and a candle
second time to make something for the boy to eat on his lunch break
yup...i'm recovering from vacation.

the boy and i managed to get nine days off of work and obligations

then spent it traveling up and down california with the kitty

celebrating the season with our favorite friends and getting some much needed family time in.

it was absolutely amazing and absolutely exhausting
each day jam~packed with coffee dates and familiness
needless to say i stayed very caffeinated the entire 1500 plus miles we drove.

i spent this morning catching up on some much needed blog reading
and even spruced up mine a bit :)
but now its time to start some crazy laundry business and make a grocery list
just wanted to say stop by and say...
happy new year!

our little traveling fam :)
ha...and the husband refusing to take another smiling picture.

absent much..

holy cow it has been a whirlwind couple of weeks

my biggest and best excuse is 

MY BOY IS HOME!!!!

so if there is any homework putting off to do...it's been spent with him :)

otherwise the usual school, work, student teaching stuff.

however we did somehow manage to sneak home for a bit for the holidays

and when i say bit...it's more of a bit of a bit

we drove a total of eleven hours to be in our home town for less than twenty-four 

it was a crazy, fast paced but much needed adventure.

the in-laws...aren't we a cute bunch?

here's our other 'christmas card worthy' picture

my parents were being beach bums in mexico

so we spent our quick thanksgiving with the boy's side of the family.

of course a trip home wouldn't be 'a trip home' without seeing all my favorite kids

henry and his so serious face :)

couldn't catch a picture of ty without it being blurry..haha what's new!

my sweet sweet god daughter.

thanksgiving morning the boy, his best friend and i ventured out to the brand new swanky safeway in town

picked up some doughnuts and starbucks for our good friends and surprised them with a 

'thanksgiving miracle' if you will.

first doughnut experience for peyton...she was a happy girl.

...alright...

well i did take the morning off so i could bust out some assignments

...weird that i somehow found myself doing the blog thing... :)

i can't wait to catch another break and catch up on my blog reading

and add some christmass'ness to the home

{currently there is candy corn, snowmen and framed leaves on my shelves}

poor apartment is confused. 

happy belated thanksgiving.