The Greatest Christmas Gift of All

It's official folks. There are onesies in the Whitaker home. 

Baby onesies. 

This is my baby.

Just kidding! My FOOD BABY that is. Sorry, I saw my huge belly and just couldn't resist. But there are actual baby onesies in the house, but only as my current sewing project. 

I'm making my pregnant sister baby onesies with felt appliques for Christmas and couldn't wait to show them off. I think they're turning out super cute. 

I'm only hoping baby Shelby will fit in these; if not I guess we will just have to get a little girl of our own!

Oh Christmas Tree!

We'd postponed getting a Christmas tree because we decided we really wanted a real one, but had heard from everyone, that here in Utah the trees dry out really fast.  So our two options were to wait a little longer to get one and risk all the good ones being taken, or buy a humidifier and hope that our tree would last out the month. We opted for the first.

So for FHE, after Kellan got home from work, we bundled up and hit the streets of Utah in search of some groceries, and the PERFECT Christmas tree.

We found some really tall scraggly ones that looked a bit like large versions of Charlie Brown's Christmas tree minus the single ornament. Turns out they were wild Christmas trees, and people actually want to buy those. But we chose a very fat, very full, domesticated Christmas tree.

Kellan, checking out our short and stout options. I love when he stands beside our tree because it makes it look even shorter and more adorable.

After selecting our tree, we decided to round out date night with a little ethnic food that Kellan only typically gets treated to after General Conference ... Mongolian BBQ.

I don't know if I've ever looked quite so Asian in all my life. The fact that my hair is a hot mess up in a bun is not helping matters either, but the food was yummy and checking out what the Chinese Zodiac has to say is always fun.

After dinner we headed home to decorate!

We'd picked up a metal tree stand from where we bought our tree and within ten minutes of trying to set everything up, we broke the stand. Thankfully it's still working well enough that our tree is standing, so that's all that really matters at this point.

After we got it standing, we got to decorating while watching Disney's Prep & Landing. So totally tinsel.

Kellan really likes that it matches our carpet almost perfectly and really cuts down on all the vacuuming up we have to do. We knew one day we'd find a use for this forest green carpet of ours!

We don't have a tree topper yet, so right at the top, we placed the Christmas ornament Momma Whitaker got us from Disneyland! You can't quite tell in this picture, but it says "Happily Ever After"

Then we took down our Fall garland from the banister, and put up our festive new Christmas garland!
And yes, right now those are baby pictures of us hanging in our Family frames. We'll change them out at some point.

And that was it!

Or so I thought. It was still looking a little bare and sad, so I had to "fix" it. We added Candy Canes and then I had the bright idea of adding a string of popcorn!

Kellan had bought a tin of popcorn and there's always that one flavor no one really likes. Well this year it was the Buttered Popcorn and I knew just what to do with it.

I've always thought popcorn strung up on a tree was so cute and nostalgic, but my family never has; so I figured, my own tree, my own rules! The very next day I set to work stringing that buttered popcorn thinking "How hard can it be?! It'll take me like two or three minutes, tops!" Right? Wrong!

I slaved over that popcorn for like twenty minutes and only got half of the length I wanted before I gave up and admitted defeat to those delicate kernels and knotted string.

I mean it looks okay, but definitely not worth all the fuss. Lesson learned! Popcorn is ONLY for movies.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

There's snow on the ground, presents bought & wrapped, Christmas carols heard throughout the house, and the faint smell of chalk dust hanging in the air.

Yup, it's officially Christmas in the Whitaker home.

What's that you ask? Why is there chalk? Well let me tell you.

For a little while now, actually just December, I've been lamenting over the fact that our place doesn't have a fireplace or mantle where we can hangup Christmas stockings. But Pinterest once again came to my rescue and presented me with the PERFECT solution.

I had some left over chalkboard spray paint from the reception and made Kellan pick me up some thicker-duty fabric for this particular project. Then we went to the backyard and went crazy with the can.
Kellan could have a real future as a graffiti artist if this whole University thing doesn't work out, but here's to hoping it does. Keep 'em crossed.

Anyways, here's the completed work! & by completed I mean I'll most likely be tweaking it nearly everyday till we leave for Christmas.

Pretty toasty huh?

That's going to come in handy seeing as it's absolutely FREEZING outside. 

It started snowing yesterday afternoon up in Salt Lake, and Kellan & I took a few moments out of our busy day to stop and enjoy the beauty of it. 

It was magical & we may or may not have gotten a bit too excited. 

We are not ashamed. 

Though I do look like a crazed dog, but no shame! 

The fresh snow looked like little bits of cotton. 

The snow kept coming down all afternoon until we left Salt Lake and headed back South to Provo. Kellan was a bit bummed it wasn't sticking here but he didn't have much time to be sad because we headed straight off to his Work Christmas Party!

Aunt Leslie & Uncle Randy had a beautiful tree and a very yummy Christmas feast waiting for us, and ... a downpour of snow. Looks like it just completely skipped over Provo. 

The Christmas party was a success, the babies were oh so cute, and the food was delicious, but hands down my favorite part of the evening was the White Elephant gift exchange. 

This year, instead of just putting in names; the employees all wrote a little-known fact about themselves and a quality they love most about their spouse.  Kellan wrote about me: She is beautiful. Sweet, but a little bit superficial. Just kidding, it was very sweet. 

But I just love what he wrote about himself: I have no fashion-sense. So painfully honest. But I love him anyways. 

We brought The Dark Knight Rises on Blu-Ray and were hoping to snag it back. [They told us to bring something WE would want & we did] Turned out one other person had the exact idea so we ended up getting theirs and not having to take back our own! Success!!

Kellan was the very last to go and grabbed an interesting rectangular package. It was a cute rustic looking frame with a picture that words cannot quite describe. 

Cannot be described, but CAN be reenacted. Which my sweet sweet husband did, just for me. 

Best husband ever. 

And best white elephant gift ever haha ... except for the very nice rotary fabric cutters he traded it in for for me. Now that's true love. 

And speaking of true love, this little guy has my heart. 

Baby Mason is the cutest little boy

After the Christmas Party, Kellan got what he REALLY wanted.  The snow followed us home that night and we woke this morning to white!

Church was nerve wracking for Kellan because he kept thinking while he was inside the snow would all melt away. Sadly for me, it didn't. But my family came for a Sunday dinner!

We had fun, talked about the upcoming wedding between my brother Micah & his lovely fiancee Courtney and the littlest member of our family coming soon. 

The Perry Clan & baby bump Shelby 

The two whiteys getting added to the family, we sure like 'em. 

Well, as you can see, we sure love the holiday spirit and have quite a bit to celebrate about. 

Picture Perfect

Well, as most of you, if not all of you, already know; we have officially been married for over a month now [35 days to be exact] and I've finally given in to peer pressure and created our blog.  Hopefully it will keep you all in the loop as to what we, Mr. & Mrs. Whitaker, are up to here in Utah and hopefully it won't become as addicting for me as Pinterest already is...

So in the spirit of our one month-five day anniversary of wedded bliss, I've decided to fill you in on all the wonderful, behind the scene details of our wedding! Yippee!!

Actually, just the reception because all of the wedding photos are already up on Facebook haha

This was by far one of my favorite details. Leigh-Ann let us borrow one of her VERY cool typewriters & beside a picture of the Las Vegas Temple we typed out: 

A true love story

never ends.

Precious, I know :)

The Candy Bar/Party Favors. I just now noticed someone threw taffies on there, not something I'd picked out, but Kellan sure has been enjoying them. 

I loved these centerpieces, possibly because I made them all myself. From cutting and sewing the burlap sleeves to painting dollar store frames with chalkboard paint, it was an effort of love. 

I also loved adding little things about us as a couple that corresponded to each number. 

One was: They met on the first day of school

This was the centerpiece for our sweetheart table and featured the adorable heart wreath I picked up at Michael's. 

This cake was DELICIOUS & looked so so cute. My fantastic sister a state away, helped me find the woman who made it for us. 

Here we have the photo video of the two of us I made with the help of Animoto & the sign-in book that now has writing in Chinese that I can't read...

Almost all of the Whitaker girls together :)

Our kissing bell! Kellan & I bought this in Idaho months before we were even engaged because I absolutely loved it & knew I wanted to use it in our reception. & boy did it get a lot of use that night haha

The yummy food.  As a joke, when we were meeting with the caterer, Kellan said he wanted pizza rolls & he'd be happy with just that.

Well, our caterer was AMAZING & lo & behold, on the hors d'oeuvres table were pastry pizza rolls. Probably the most incredible pizza product I've ever tasted. But unlike Kellan, I'm no pizza connoisseur. 

Putting up those lights and figuring out how to keep them from tripping the breaker was a two day feat, but thankfully we got it done. & I loved the effect the lights had on the whole evening. 

I also bought a million clothespins to decorate with to add to the rustic look of the evening and ended up putting up a bunch of photos of Kellan & I along the fence of the garden.

 

This old pickup truck was another favorite detail. We hung up a "Just Married" banner along the back of the cab & filled it with hay and an old wicker trunk with baby breath flowers spilling out of it. It turned out absolutely lovely. 

Kissing Couples.  Definitely one of the highlights of the night.  Elaine & Jordan got called on first & they did fantastically, but I have to say I enjoyed our copy of it a lot more ;)

The metal K and M were other little things we picked up in Idaho before we were engaged. Then Kellan & I spent over 10 minutes picking out the font for our ampersand sign. 

We currently have them up in our kitchen serving as decoration. 

This next part, the Cake Cutting & Cake Smash, can only be shown through pictures. 

Our DJ asks, "Should they smash the cake?"

Poor Colby has no idea what he's getting himself into when he shouts "YEAH!"

It's a good thing Shauna & I are bridal besties so I can get away with things like this. 

The Evans actually got married only two weeks after us in the Las Vegas Temple as well. We went back for their reception & had a BLAST. 

Now they only live like 5 minutes away from us here in Provo! 

Another Kissing Couples with Aunt Leslie & Uncle Randy 

The Newly Wed Game.

So with all the excitement of the day I'd forgotten we would be doing this and that the shoes I wore would matter anymore for photos. SO I took off the shoes we spent WEEKS searching for thinking no one would ever see these more comfortable heels. 

How wrong I was. 

Well, now that this is SO much longer than I anticipated & we're only halfway through the reception, let's just put a pin in it. Plus it's date night & we have way better things to be doing, so this will just have to be continued another day.