christmas-ized

saturday we continued in the christmas spirit by decorating our house. it was SO.MUCH.FUN!

you see those clips? they are a lifesaver...best $3.50 we've ever spent. took us no time to hang the lights up and with minimal cussing!

so straight. i LOVE it!

sorry. there are a lot of pictures lately. i just LOVE it when we get to do this kind of stuff for the first time together! and with weather like that!

pretty blue missouri sky. now it might snow on wednesday...so weird!

late in the day we ran to home depot to get one more strand of lights and buy wood for my craft room "remodel". have i told you about this?? we are making my craft room into a craft room/guest room. i REALLY want somewhere for people to sleep when they come to visit and i think if we make me something like this plus a dresser/cabinet for my fabric i can totally make it work.

he is cute when we gets a project going and he is good at it...remember??

gettin' the last few up!

its so cute and cookie cutter, isn't it? i never thought i could love a house like this, but i SO do. there already are and there will be so many more good memories here.

he is good to me. he willingly lets me set up the camera balancing it on whatever i can find, set the timer and change all the settings and take 100s of pictures until i get the one i like. so so good.

time to trim the tree!

our fav ornament acting as a topper...i still haven't made/found the perfect one. any crafty suggestions??

with the furniture all re-arranged and a few strings of lights acting as a tree skirt... we're all ready for the holidays!

tis the season

hey! look at me blogging three days in a row...pretty impressive, huh?!

yesterday was beautiful - mid sixties and sunny...would have been nice to have had that instead of mid 30s and windy for our turkey day run, but whatever.

we took the opportunity to get our first missouri christmas tree! last year we were in the middle of uprooting our lives so we missed out on getting a tree, but the year before we had lots of fun at the tree farm.

we went to starr pines christmas tree farm and for a split second thought we could have been in Oregon. but then we looked at the horizon and saw brown. we knew then that we were still in missouri.

seriously! can you believe this weather?! the little tractor takes you out to the trees

all ready with the saw! he is so freakin' cute! i kind of love him. kind of.

ok so. it was a whole new world of christmas tress. no douglas fir or noble firs...kind of insane, right? we persevered, but it was hard. all the trees were either really small or really huge and they all had lots of holes!

this is the winner. he is kind of huge (over 8 feet), but we were getting tired of looking and he is almost perfect.

we had fun taking lots of pictures. it was so nice out! see that vest that i'm wearing...$10 at old navy! no. big. deal.

TIMBER!

i love him.

man woman and tree

all wrapped up and ready....

... to drive off into the sunset! (dang dirty windshield!)

thanksgiving 2009

yesterday was so much fun! i love cooking on days like this - everything is from scratch and i have all day to make it without feeling like i am neglecting other things. Aaron and Sara joined us so there were four of us. It was nice having them over - took the sting of not being with family away.

the spread! it was all so so good. we used all of the same recipes as last year and had just as much success. i think these recipes will be with us for the rest of our thanksgivings...we both love them so much!

all pro turkey carver this year!

sara & aaron. they are so fun - after dinner we played guesstures and laughed pretty hard!

i found the wishbone and asked grant if he wanted to break it with me. he had never heard of this?!?! isn't that crazy? after things were explained it took us three attempts to actually break the bone - it kept slipping out of our hands!

i got the larger half, but i can't tell you what i wished for!

we hope your day was great too!

love, dr & mrs simmons

today i am thankful for

• a husband who loves me unconditionally, knows me inside and out, and thinks i look less beautiful in make-up and heels
• friends who know just what to say and how to say it
• family that love and take care of us from afar
• our home...this little plot of land is so good
• happiness...it is sometimes elusive, but SO worth the hunt
• balance...btw work/school/love/life/craft
• the ability to cook a wonderful meal with friends
• the ability to be active...i sometimes fight it, but it always feels so good. in fact, we already ran a 10K this morning!!

happy thanksgiving!

wedding quilt

{photo courtesy of simple beans}

check out the finished wedding quilt...are you in awe?!

i love my ducks!

in honor of another great weekend to be a duck! so funny, huh??

rocheport ride

we have had AMAZING weather here the past several days... 75ish, clear, and sunny! since our anniversary we have wanted to rent bikes and ride from Columbia to a little town called Rocheport. Its about 15 miles away and there are trails that run the whole route.

if we had taken this ride about two weeks ago it would have been really beautiful with all the fall leaves, but the brown midwest winter is starting to set in. we really enjoyed riding by the river and the weather made up for any lack in color.

it took us about 2 hours each way and we hung out in Rocheport for about 2 hours as well. we were SO happy to enjoy lunch at this kitschy little restaurant called Abigail's the restaurant reminded us of home and the food was amazing. we will for sure be going back.



it was so nice to spend the day doing something fun and active just the two of us. life has been way too busy and stressful lately so this was a much needed day. we REALLY want to buy bikes now...hopefully in the spring!




hope you all had a great weekend too! ta ta for now!

autumn stroll

a few weeks ago we had a beautiful saturday. grant and i decided to get coffee and stroll through downtown and head to campus to tour the rec center (OMG it is out of this world!).



we had fun enjoying all the beautiful fall foliage...



and checking out campus.



what we didn't remember was that it was homecoming day! apparently homecoming originated at University of Missouri so it is an insanely huge deal...like HUGE. these are all the people waiting for the parade! it had floats, bands from all over and the whole bit. it was seriously insane, but way cool!

it is GOOOOOOOOOD to be a duck!

ain't he the cutest duck fan you ever did see?? this is him all cheery last week when the Ducks stomped the Huskies




he is so cute... can't get close enough!



well... last week DID NOT EVEN COMPARE to the fun and excitement of last night's game! if you live under a college football rock you can read about it here, but really you should at least watch a highlight reel... it was THAT GOOD! i could hardly even knit for fear i would miss another awesome play!



ducked out!



very pleased after yet another oregon touchdown. IT WAS SO SO AWESOME to hand USC their ass on a plate... 600+ yards, most points scored against them since '97, etc, etc!!!!



i think Grant was almost as nervous/excited/exhausted as the players were!



we were happy little duck fans... only thing that would have been better would have been watching it live back home! we miss you, Oregon...especially during football season!