Happy Valentine's Weekend!

Despite the frigid temps (yes, it's currently 25 degrees) and massive blizzards, we've been staying warm and cozy and I've managed to find enough time for some fun Valentine's Day projects. For several years now I have loved making home-made Valentine's cards; there is something so perfectly Victorian about them. Perhaps it stems from the Meet Samantha book in which Samantha makes all those lovely cards with the lace doilies. In any case, it is one of my favorite things to do. (And for those of you who can spot your card in this photo, yes, they are coming to you a little late. Just trying to prolong the love for you!) I made this banner above by cutting out various pieces of red fabrics, and hot glueing them to a cream satin ribbon.

These fun pinwheels are a project I did before Christmas, but with all the snow and red being the official color of Valentine's Day, I've just left them up. I found the directions for these pinwheels on the Paper Source website, and they are super fun and easy to make for any party.

Last weekend, James and I hosted a big Superbowl party at our house, and since it was only a week before Valentine's Day I decided to throw in some V-day treats. (No, James didn't sanction the fusing of V-day and football; I just figured the person who plans most of the food around here has the right to do whatever they want with snacks!) These drinks below are called "Magic Juice" and consist of fruit infused gin poured over ice and lemonade. The recipe is found here on Design Sponge.

And these were my Valentine's attempt at Cake Pops. If you look at Bakerella's website, you'll find tons of fun and creative ideas for Cake Pops. I particularly loved watching all the boys holding their cake pops on a stick while yelling at the football game - something delightfully childish about it!

And here are some shots of our friends hanging out at the party - James and I are so blessed to have such wonderful friends filling our lives!

Eastern Snow Board

It's been pretty cold out here on the Eastern Snow Board the last few weeks. In fact, most mornings that I've checked our handy weather station (thanks Curtie!) it's been in the mid to high teens. For a mild Washingtonian that is mighty cold! It doesn't really thrill me to walk outside and have my cheeks immediately feel prickled by 'ol Jack Frost, so if it's going to be this cold my philosophy is: bring on the snow, baby! Given that I'm still a grad student, there is still that thrill of checking your school websites to see if classes have been canceled for the day. And sure enough, both the Seminary and University classes were closed for this Eastern-style blizzard. Yipppeee!!! That meant James and I had a lovely brunch with some friends this morning, hung out with our computers in bed, and went for a lively snow walk on the canal path behind our apartments. I say the walk was "lively" because the snow was actually pelting us in our faces from the icy wind, and little branches were breaking off from the weight of the snow in the trees. There was even some thunder in the mix. Has anyone ever heard of a thunderstorm in the middle of a blizzard? Weird. Anyhow, I tried to take some pics to capture the beauty and wonder of the snow around our house, but the rapidly falling snow made that pretty hard. Here are a few of the best ones:

This image makes me think of a "snow ballet." What is a snow ballet? not really sure, except that trees become so graceful and elegant in the snow it becomes a magical dance.

James tried to dig our car out so we could go to work, less than 1 mile away. But our car wouldn't budge.

I'm not sure if you can picture the sheer size of this snowman from this picture. but believe me, it was massive! you can see that the snowman's head reaches almost to the second floor level of the apartment building.

This is the view from our living room window - quite lovely.

A great 2009, on to a great 2010!

2009 was a good year for James and I - we took a late January trip to a cabin in the Poconos with some friends...

Sister Jessica came to visit us in Princeton in March...

we finished up a very busy spring schedule and took off to Japan for 3 months...

we had a great two weeks at home with family and friends at the end of summer...

James and I worked like crazy this fall on school stuff (James applied to seven grad schools, I narrowly made it through a whirl-wind French course), we made it home for a very busy yet fabulous Christmas break...


and we rang in the new year with good friends! (Photos snagged from Rachel's blog--the host of this party).

James and B.J.

Working hard on a trivia game...

God has blessed us immensely, and we have been afforded many wonderful opportunities in our young marriage together. I know that 2010 will be another big year for us, as we both graduate from Seminary and prepare to move to a new place for James' Ph.D. studies and, for me, a new job. I pray that this year we learn to grow in the love and guidance of our great savior more more. Cheers to the new year!

The Ol' TImers...

Back in our high school days, a group of our friends started having a "formal" dinner every summer and Christmas. The menus started off with 4-5 course meals, and we all dressed up quite formally. We've kept up these get-togethers for quite awhile, although the last several gatherings have been less of "formal dinners" and more of appetizer parties. But with people spread out and increasingly busy with new life responsibilities, I'm always happy when we can get together at all. This year we had a somewhat fast and furious get-together (hopefully next year I'll plan ahead a bit more), but it was great to see everyone that could make it.

The group shot:

Jay, Leah, and Trisha:

Carly and little Noah.

Christmas Parties Galore...

Christmas came and went like a whirlwind this year! What happened? I'm not sure, but it was a lot of fun! James and I feel so blessed to have so much family located in one central place. It does call for a lot of party hopping, but Christmas is the perfect time of year to be party animals, right? We started off Christmas Eve at my aunt and uncles house; we did a "Lessons and Carols" session with some scripture and carols sung. My little cousin Aleah decided her role would be the angel, and she took this position very seriously. In her mind, angels prance through the living room during "hark the herald angel's sing" with a special star wand, and a very solemn expression on their face. She might be right...who can say?

Then we had a little immediate family gift exchange at my parents house...

Christmas morning we were off to the Rienstra's household for a fabulous day of gifts and merriment. Check out this monster mystery box...any guesses?

And look - it's a Bob in a bow!

We were graced with a choir girl in a snuggie...

And I'm so thankful to the Lord for my hottie sisters....who ever imagines they'll marry into a household of snuggie models? :0)

Later Christmas Evening we went over to the Noteboom Family Christmas...

And the infamous Christmas present game was as crazy as always...people even steal gifts from poor grandma!

We spent the next day with James' extended family, but sadly no photos of this event. All in all, we had a wonderful time with family - LOVE coming home to visit them. Now if we could only get them over to our side of the country... (wink wink!)

Been awhile...

It's been awhile since I've last posted. Probably because there has been lots of reading and writing for final papers, memorizing French vocab for French tests, and editing of writing samples for Ph.D. applications (and might I add that James turned in his first application today, which called for Trader Joe's peppermint bark to celebrate!).

Despite the fact that I get to study in a library that looks like this, and that I sometimes pretend I live at Hogwarts and that my best friends are Ron and Hermione,

I'm still basically covered in books like this, writing papers on the moral significance of innovation. Thus my world is not quite as glamourous as that of Harry Potter, especially when I don't have a broomstick to grab and a quidditch match to go play.

So I still find myself day-dreaming in the midst of my studies, especially when I find posts like this one on the topic of English country houses:

(http://www.designspongeonline.com/2009/12/past-present-english-country-house-diy-project.html)

And then I start looking on Travelocity for cheap tickets to go visit here:

And guess what - I found a killer deal with roundtrip tickets from NYC to London, including 6 nights hotel and 6 days of breakfast, all for the ripe price of $599.00 - are you kidding me!?! Anybody up for a jaunt to the continent?

Well, let me know, in the meanwhile - I'm back to the library...