Merry Christmas 2011!

For those of you who didn't get a physical card in the mail, I wanted to share one with you here.

Thanks again to my wonderful sister-in-law, Meghan, for taking the pictures and putting the card together!!

Merry Christmas from the Shipps!

Also be sure to check out the other two blog posts I did today! :)

Our Place / Christmas Decor

So, I just realized that I never actually posted pictures of our current apartment, which we have now lived in for over 6 months... So, as I was taking pictures of my Christmas decorations this evening, I decided to take pictures of the whole place (minus our bedroom, which is rather boring and quite messy at the moment haha). So, please enjoy the tour!

First, the living room. As you walk in the front door and look to your right, this is what you'd see:

More close up of my little Christmas tree:
Since we don't have a fireplace, our stockings were hung by the window, with care :)

Second is the kitchen (my favorite!!). As you walk in the front door and look to the left, this is what you would see:

Third, if you walk in the front door and walk straight, you'll go back into the hallway where there's a washer/dryer closet in front of you, and to your direct left is the bathroom:

Then, there's a bedroom on either side. They are about the same size. The bedroom on the right is ours, and the one on the left is the combination baby/office/piano/storage room :) Here are the pictures of the baby's room. I've got some nice framed pictures of Charlie ready to go up on the wall above his crib, I just keep forgetting to go out and buy the sticky velcro to use (since they don't let us use nails here):

And for the wall over the dresser, my plan is to find wooden letters that spell out Charlie's name and then cover them in the different fabrics of the quilt that my mom made for Charlie. Which, by the way, I will take a picture of and show you once I get it at Christmas!! It's the cutest quilt I've EVER seen. My mom has some serious skills! :)
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the little tour. It's simple and humble, but I love it. And it's definitely much more spacious than Wymount was.

Oh! One last picture - my fridge in its current Christmas-y state (I LOVE getting Christmas cards to display!!):

The Hubby's Birthday

This year on November 26th, T turned 27 years old. In his typical fashion, he didn't really want a party... or a cake... or any gifts for that matter! But, knowing me, I HAD to get him something (or a FEW things)! So, for his 27th birthday, T got new white dress shirts, a pair of jeans from American Eagle, a gift card to Cold Stone, and a frame for his BYU diploma!! :)

He's so different from me in the regard that he doesn't like to party... but if that's how he likes it then that's okay with me! :)

Happy 27th Birthday Hubby!

Charlie's First Halloween

Since he was only 6 days old, we didn't take many pictures, and we didn't dress up, but we had to go to Springville and celebrate and get out of the house. I couldn't believe how much planning went into getting everything ready to go - such a big life change! And then, wouldn't you believe it, in our scramble getting out the door I left the diaper bag at home!! You can imagine how I felt when I realized it. I cried. I felt like I already sucked at being a mom! I failed on our first outing. Fortunately, Meghan still had some diapers around the house for Kelan. Unfortunately, they were a size 3. Haha! So, this little newborn of mine wore a size 3 diaper for the rest of the night. But hey - it worked! Thank goodness! And we were able to enjoy some relaxing time with our family. Here's the one photo that Meg snapped of little Charlie being held by his Grandpa Russ:

We are loving this sweet little squishy-faced boy!