Memories: Our first Christmas tree

Oh memories.

Tyler and I put up our first Christmas tree.  Kay let us borrow one that we had used to decorate the beautiful Red Rock Center in Fairmont for the Christmas with Womeninc event.

Honestly, the tree didn't look so tall in that big place!

I brought the tree home, and on Sunday, Tyler and I decided to put it up.

Here's the tree after it scraped the ceiling, leaning against the wall.

Ok, so maybe a 9 footer was too tall for our little house!

We then tried taking the bottom of the tree off, and decorating the two top layers.  It was just a branchy-pole.  It looked weird.  Plus, what were we going to do with the ginormous shrub it left behind?  We seriously contemplated improving our front landscape by adding a lighted, squatty and very wide shrub out front.

We decided against it.

Finally, we decided just to take the top off of the tree and rearrange a few branches.  With twist ties and creative fluffing and de-fluffing, we attempted to create the illusion of a full tree, pointed top and all.  The star helps to distract from all of this.

We laughed the entire time we were hanging the bulbs.  I was fluffing and defluffing, shaping really, and Tyler was hanging the ornaments.

There was a Jess-shaped bare spot on the tree for a while there.  Don't worry.  We fixed it.  Otherwise that would have made the tree look ridiculous, right?

We hung my new ornaments.

And we hung Tyler's.

And then we filled the major gaps (we don't have much for decorations) with candy canes!

Then we placed the gifts we got for you, still unwrapped, under the tree.  The result:

(ha- you thought I was going to show you your gifts!)

It really didn't turn out as bad as I had expected!  Still, it's not going to win any awards or anything.  But I love our first tree as Mr. and Mrs. Sauck.  I don't think I will ever forget it.

Thanksgiving at the Burney's!

This Thanksgiving, we went to my Aunt and Uncle Burney's house.  It's been so long since we were all together for Christmas!

As we went around the table and shared what we were thankful for, it was obvious we were all thinking about Grandpa and missing him there.

After eating lots of great food, we retreated to the living room to play some family-friendly games!

First on the list, Telephone Pictionary!

It was hilarious to see how my family interpreted each other's terrible drawings!  Sentences such as "I'm a man, I can change, if I have to, I guess" (by Tyler), twisted and turned into "All the kids slid down the basement steps."  Or "No coffee means no work, and too much coffee means I can't sit still" turned into "Pulling the plug on a loved one is never easy."

I'll have to scan in some of the drawings!

Later, we played Pictionary.  No teams, just fun. If you guessed it, it was your turn to draw.

Greyson's awful, awful drawings brought about many, many laughs.

Here he is with his "contact lens" drawing.  That whistling face... he added the music notes after wards.  It was a total accident that it looked like a face whistling.  Somehow all of that added up to "contact lens"...

And here's his snow mobile.  I don't know about you, but to us it looked more like a snow-potato!

It was such an original interpretation of a snow-mobile, he had to sign it!

It was fun to see all the kids together.  It reminded me of Greyson, the Burney's and I all playing together on Thanksgiving.

This younger set of Burney/Nelsons are going to have such happy memories.  I sure do!

Ellie and Leah always have a blast together.

And I could barely get a photo of Little Man.  He was always on the run!

Oh, was Ellie ever excited!  She got to hold the newest member of the family:

Lyla Burney!

It was such a happy night.

"a case of the Mondays"

Mondays are not my favorite days.

Last night I set the alarm, climbed into bed, and my husband and I prayed together.  We thanked God for his provision, for each other, and for the wonderful weekend we had.  We prayed for Tyler's safety as he heads out of town for work this week.  We didn't think to pray for me as I faced another Monday morning.

I began the morning by pulling the laundry out of the dryer.  These were the clothes I had planned on wearing to work, and the clothes that Tyler needed to pack for work.  All were soaked.  Fun...

Then when I was "making myself pretty", I somehow managed to SLAM my head on the corner of the towel rack!  OW!

On top of that, I had to say goodbye to Tyler.  Never a fun thing to do, knowing he's not due home again until Wednesday night.  *sniffle*

To make even more memorable (or perhaps in attempts to forget the day), after scraping the frost off my freezing car, I BANGED my head getting into the vehicle!  OUCH!!

Now, I just received word that Tyler will not be home until FRIDAY.  Sad.  That just settles it.  I hate Mondays.

If the day continues as it has, will you promise to visit me in the hospital?

(maybe I should wear protective gear).

I enjoy my husband

Old School

I dug out the old 35mm the other day.

I am replacing the meter battery.

I have ordered film.

And I cannot wait to start snapping away!

I have big plans for that bad boy. Visions of photographic artwork have been dancing in my head. Spending an entire day in a dark room. Sigh. I can't wait!

And once I familiarize myself with the Nikon again, I intend to pick up the Yashica and give it a shot!

Doesn't it look like fun? I'm excited!

More like Home

We had the pleasure of having Mom, Tom, Greyson, Ellie, Isaac and Gramma Miller come visit us on Saturday.

We had a wonderful time of fellowship and chatting, a delicious pork roast meal (minus very flour-y gravy), and caught a movie. Tyler and Grey played the guitar, the kids played with the farm set, and we all just talked and talked and laughed.

Having so much family in our little house just made it feel even more like home.

I am realizing more and more each day that it's not the house you live in, but the people you are with that make a place a home. As Tyler and I grow closer, I find that I love our little place more. I am blessed with a loving and fantastic husband, a wonderful family (both born with and married into), a house to call home, a great church to belong to, and so much more.

Please come and visit us any time and help make our house a home!

Portrait time!

I have had some very fun photo opportunities lately!

I had the pleasure of photographing my cousin Allison for her senior portraits:

I also photographed Katie and Jordan. Technically this was for work- we needed a new photo for Katie's editorial page.

But... we may have had more fun with it than work really called for!

So fun!!

Still Honeymooning

We're still happily in the honeymooning stage.  We've been married for just about 3 months.

There are times I can't believe it's been that long.  And then there are times when it feels like we've been together forever.

I am so blessed!

And I realized today that I haven't shared the story from our honeymoon yet!

So here it is, a little late but still fun!

We road tripped out to Hot Springs, South Dakota.  On our way there, we took advantage of some of the tourist traps.

1880 Town caught our eye and we stopped for a stretch.

Oh, it felt as if we were at home. 

Tyler quickly felt welcomed when he realized the town values lined up with his.

And I got a job at the local portrait studio.

Everything was going swell until Tyler got the sudden urge for some Texas Hold'em.

Atticus McShiester took Tyler for everything we were worth (as newly weds, that wasn't much).  Tyler swore he must have cheated!

When Tyler tried to "convince Old Atty McShiester the error of his ways," the local sheriff threw him into jail for vandalism, disorderly conduct, and assault!

I came up with a brilliant scheme and busted Tyler out of jail.  There was one major flaw in the plan though: I didn't account for the fact that the Deputy would be a faster runner than I was...  Tyler got away and I was thrown in the cell!

(Don't worry.  I managed to dig a tunnel with nothing but a spoon and escape.)

I met up with Tyler at a chapel the next town over, where we both repented of our ways.

But when we went over to Wall Drug, and I made Tyler walk instead of ride the Jackalope with me,
he went back to his wild ways in a fit of rebellion!

It was a rainy, wet trip to Hot Springs.  But we decided to do some sight seeing anyway.  We meandered to the great mountain:  Mount Rushmore:

Isn't it beautiful?

It seemed that to get back at us for robbing him blind (oh, did I not mention that?), Old Atticus McShiester decided to steal the entire Mount Rushmore!  We, along with many Japanese tourists, were extremely disappointed.

For one last adventure before we went home, we decided to go through the beautiful Black Hills and hunt for prairie dogs (who had the black plague).  According to our talking mustang, feeding the prairie dogs can kill them!  We thought it a sense of duty to feed and destroy these creatures.  And the threat of our demise was thrilling! 

(no prairie dogs were fed, or killed during this trip.  And we did not contract the black plague.)

Still healthy and fully alive, we hopped on the ol' Mustang and headed back east, killing each other's cows all along the way.

Hope you enjoyed the photos!

to the Point!

Welcome to the Point!

This weekend Tyler and I took the 5 hour trip up to McGregor, home of my beloved "point."

We have been going to Portage Lake since I was a kid, and mom has been going since she was a kid!

Mom's family had a cabin on Portage when she was young.  Tom grew up in a farm house just down the road.  They, along with their siblings, would spend the summer days swimming in the middle of the lake.

Growing up, I was thrilled when we would go to the cabin!  I would be the first to jump off the dock, and the last out of that water!

The cabin is now sold, but Tom still has property up there, including "The Point."

Here the land juts out over the water.  You feel almost as if you have the lake completely to yourself.  It's been one of my favorite spots for many years now.

Let me tell you, that thrill still gets me when I get to go up there, even now.

Sure, it's murky... muddy...weedy.  But it's sentimental.  And Tyler got to be a part of it with me this weekend.

We kicked back and 

relaxed. 

We sang God's praises.

And we simply enjoyed ourselves.

The perfect day became even more-so when my family came to join us!

We took Mom and the kids for a boat ride.  The kids LOVED it!  It was their first ride ever!

You should have seen the smile on their faces!

Tyler, Tom, and Grey went out fishing.  Yep, Tyler caught a northern on one of his lures!

And we visited Grandma Nelson.

Basically, we just enjoyed each other's company thoroughly.

After they left, Tyler and I took the boat out and went fishing again.

Again, Tyler caught a northern on one of his lures.

And I caught one too!!  I haven't fished in years, so I was extremely excited.

Tyler says I made him proud...

 minus the whole me being a sissy thing...