New Camera!

Okay, so like I said, I am going to dedicate a quick post to my new camera. I love it. And I want to show you why. First of all, this is the camera:
I really don't think you need more explanation than that, right? I mean, c'mon - it's GORGEOUS. And hot pink. And if you know me, then you know I'd pick hot pink. Duh :)

But just in case you needed MORE convincing that my camera is wonderful, here's some more proof. First, let's take a look at my old camera:
Okay, don't get me wrong. It was a great camera while I had it. Lots of good photos and memories with that camera. But it was time to move on, and here's why... the next picture is a picture of my actual new camera taken with my old camera:
See? Not the best quality ever. Note the difference between the picture above it (the one of the old camera) that was taken with the new camera. Night and day! I'm still not sure why my old camera decided to focus on the keyboard in the background instead of the camera in the foreground. Anyway. That's point number 1.

Point number 2 is the size. I had to take these next pictures with my iPhone so I could compare so these pictures are bad too, but they get the point across. So, from the front you can see that Pink is a little smaller than Silver.
But, the true shocker lies in the overhead shot:
I seriously think my new camera is 1/3 the size and weight of my old camera. AWESOME!! It doesn't even take up half of my purse when it's in the case, thank goodness!

Oh, and did I mention I love it because it's PINK!!?? :D

Christmas Festivities

Wow, okay... so I realize I'm two weeks late getting this posted. I haven't even been that busy. I guess laziness is just taking over. That tends to be how I get in January. Gah. Anyway, onto our Christmas this year!

First, we spent Christmas Eve at Trevor's parents' house in Elk Ridge, UT. I've stolen a couple of pictures off the blog of my sister-in-law, Meghan, to show some of the happenings:
We spent the evening eating a tasty Christmas ham, playing with all the kiddos, talking, snacking, eating desserts, and present opening of course! Trevor and I got mostly gift cards, but we were also able to add some dried apples to our food storage collection! Trent (Trev's little brother) had my name this year, and instead of being boring and just giving me money, he folded two 10-dollar bills into origami boots and even added a little price tag! So creative!!
The above picture is me holding up the "money boots" after opening them and the below picture is a close-up so you can see the detail he put into it! The back of the price tag had the Macy's logo on it! :)
After some wonderful festivities, Trevor and I traveled home to snuggle up and spend Christmas Eve in our own wonderful bed. :)

The next day, we woke up to find all the presents that Santa had left for us under the tree! (Picture is courtesy of my phone, sorry for the bad quality.) We spent the morning opening up all of our gifts and our stockings! It was a bounteous Christmas for us! We feel so blessed!
Trevor opened his main gift - a new touch-screen iPod Nano! :) Thanks Santa! It's SO tiny!!
Here are some of Trevor's stocking stuffers: golf tees, candy, deodorant, gum, iTunes gift card, travel toothbrushes, chapstick, more candy.... you get the picture, no?
Here are some of my stocking stuffers: candles, candy, socks, lip gloss, hand sanitizers, an AWESOME homemade bookmark by my mom, more candy..... again you get the picture right? :)
One of my favorite Christmas gifts is pair of yoga pants from lululemon. Talk about nice tush! ;) I seriously love love LOVE them! And a headband to match, of course!
Some of the other gifts we received included a gym membership for Trev, a really pretty pink sapphire necklace for me, and a NEW CAMERA! (Some of the pictures in this post were taken by my new camera, but I'm going to dedicate a whole post to this new item of mine because it's so AWESOME!!).

Oh! I forgot to mention that before we opened presents we got to Skype with my parents and other extended family in NC for about an hour and a half! We also got to be on Skype with them when they got the Christmas phone call from Mike (he's on his mission in Boise, ID). It was SO much fun to have us all together, even if it wasn't EXACTLY in person :).

So later, after Skype and present opening and getting ready for the day, Trevor and I went over to Meg and Steve's house at about 1:30pm. It was honestly the most fun day getting to play with their 4 kids' new toys! The highlight was getting to put together Kanyon's new huge Lego set! Oh man! Talk about fun! It took hours, but I hope I never get tired of putting together those things! :) Hopefully I have a kid who wants me to do it for him too! He he he....

For dinner they served us delicious cheesy potato soup and then after the kids went to bed we got to play a heated game of Pictionary on the Wii! SOO fun! Trevor and I pulled through and won at the last minute, but I will say it was a CLOSE game! :)

After the game I free-handed this wonderful landscape on the drawing pad :) Hahaha. Seriously, Christmas is about being a kid again, right? Well, it's a good thing I got in touch with my inner child!
Overall, it was the best Christmas I've ever had away from home in NC. It's sad that I wasn't able to be there, but I look forward to a fantastic Christmas celebration with my WHOLE family next year!

Merry Christmas 2010!

So I know you can currently see this as the header of my blog, but I wanted to make a post about the Christmas card I had made this year! It turned out beautifully thanks to the help of my WONDERFUL sister-in-law Meghan. Yes, she took the pictures. Yes, she made the layout. Yes, she got them ordered and delivered asap. Yes, she IS amazing. Thanks for asking! :) Anyway, more to come about Christmas as the festivities begin, but until then, MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE SHIPPS!

(And hopefully it will be a White Christmas for you, as I'm hoping it is for me!)

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Finally! Seems like I was just a little bit behind on everything this year... shopping, sending, decorating, enjoying! :) But guess what! I got it done!! :)

I just wanted to share with you some of my Christmas decorations. They may not be big or fancy, but they fit my little apartment perfectly. And I love them!

Especially this nativity scene, which I think I've had since I was born. I'll have to get my Mom to tell me the story on it. For the longest time I always thought it was a Precious Moments set, but upon further inspection this year... I'm realizing that it might not be! And if it is, then it's an ancient/retro Precious Moments set that must have been made before they had the signature "Precious Moments" eyes... Regardless, I just LOVE this nativity:And my little snowman and Christmas tree countdown calendar that sits on top of my TV:
And a fun little doorknob hanger snowman jingle bell thingy. I got this last year from Trevor's grandparents, I believe:
And this I know I got from Trev's grandparents Kayle and Deanna... it's a fun little winter rug. Cute little penguins all wrapped up in hats and scarves:
Here's my typical Christmas tree shot. You might be able to see some of my Precious Moments ornaments. These are for SURE legitimate Precious Moments items. I guess my Mom made me into a collector (it started with my "Baby's First Christmas" ornament and I get a new one almost every year!), and I'm grateful. I think they are such sweet, darling little figurines! Anyway,this is honestly my favorite corner of the house this time of year. Sometimes I just turn off the lights and let the tree just glow. It's such a peaceful and yet exciting feeling to sit by the glow of the lights on the tree! One of life's little pleasures, I guess:
I just LOVE Christmastime, and most of all because the whole world seems to turn their thoughts to peace, love, happiness, and, most of all, Jesus Christ. What a wonderful gift He gave all of us by laying down His life so that we might also overcome death and live again and have the opportunity to return to the presence of our Father in Heaven. No other gift given was greater than this gift that Christ gave so willingly to every man that would ever walk the earth. It's amazing that such a gift can be so universal, but so personal all at the same time.

I hope you take time to enjoy the true meaning of Christmas this year. Read the Christmas story in Luke. Listen to Christ-filled songs! Just enjoy every single minute of it and try not to get too caught up in the "busy" and the "buying" of this season.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Temple Square - November 27, 2010

On Friday November 27th, during the long Thanksgiving weekend while Mical and her family were in town, we all went up to Temple Square to see the lights. It was gorgeous, but it was also SO cold! Below is the whole crew less Meghan (taking the pictures) and Kelan, her youngest, who was sitting bundled up in the stroller next to her.For this next picture, everyone had been getting pictures of their families, so I asked if we could get one of our little "family": Me and Trevor .... :)
Like I said before, it was SO cold - almost too cold to enjoy our visit. Almost. It was still great. And the best part is that they were selling cups of hot chocolate to help warm us up! Good news! The hot chocolate worked... I felt much warmer after drinking it. That is, everything except my VERY cold/numb toesies. Poor little digits. I can still remember how much they hurt! :( But, at least that was the only really cold part of me, thanks to hot chocolate and awesome earmuffs: And, finally, a bit of family history for all of you... apparently this next picture is one of the first pictures the "original" Shipp family has taken (just them) and all together in a long time! From L to R: Mical, Meghan, Trevor, Jill, Troy, Russell, and Trent. Oddly enough, I just noticed all the "kids" are standing in order of age from Mical down to Trent! Such a good lookin' family I married into!! :) Hope you enjoyed these AWESOME pictures, courtesy of Meghan. Thanks Meg! Also, please forgive me for taking forever to post. More fun posts to come in the next few days and weeks!

And an early Merry Christmas!!! :)

Birthday Boy!!

Today is very special (and its not just because it's Black Friday). Yep. There's something even MORE important than shopping that happened today - and that's Trevor turning 26 years old!! Happy Birthday to my sweet husband!!!The best part, to me, about this picture is how you can genuinely see how much happier and better he is feeling now!! That's probably the best birthday present he could have been given. However, I did get him some other fun things like new light-colored jeans, socks, scarf & gloves, and a very yummy-looking ice cream cake (we have yet to try it)!

I am so grateful to have such a great husband (and good-looking too!) who is willing and able to not only provide for our family, but also to help out around the house and make sure I'm happy too. He's one of the biggest blessings in my life and I really do love him.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!!!!

Why Do I NEVER...

... have anything interesting to write about!?!?

Oh well. I guess for now you get to be entertained with recent life updates!

#1 - Trevor is feeling SO much better! After nearly 6 weeks of feeling AWFUL, we got him to a doctor again who prescribed prednisone (a steroid) to treat his UC flare-up. And guess what! They work soo well and he's so happy to feel back to normal. Of course, you can guess that missing over a month of school was not going to work, so he also discontinued from classes for the semester. Good news? We get at least 50% of his tuition back and have applied to get up to 85% back! Other good news? He'll continue classes next semester so Wymount is letting us stay where we live and not kicking us out! Whew! Talk about blessings :)

#2 - By the end of December, my entire department at work will be completely different. I recently had to let one person go (it just wasn't the right job for him), one is moving back to Arizona, and one is ready to move to a different department within the company. Sigh. It's stressful just thinking about finding, hiring, and training 3 new people in the next month. Wish me luck and pray for me!

#3 - Still LOVING Netflix! I think I'm on disc 6 of season 1 of Charmed. I just LOVE that movies show up in my mailbox. Also love the instant movies! Ahhh, definitely one of the best decisions I've made in a while.

#4 - Getting ready for the Christmas program at church. It's coming up in less than 3 weeks now. I'm trying not to panic. ;) I'm sure it will all turn out fine, right? RIGHT?

#5 - Got some more NEW BOOTS! Cute, huh? Very similar to the gray ones that I love, minus the wedge heel. That's my very favorite part of cold weather - the excuse to wear boots and other cute sweaters and such!

#6 - Finally picked up my yoga training certificate. Haha. Yes, yes, I know - I finished the training in March. For some reason I kept thinking they would mail it to me and finally figured out I had to go in and grab it. Good news? They still had it! I took it home and framed it! It all feels very legitimate and complete now. I'm still up to teach you some yoga if you're interested!

#7 - Just REALLY REALLY excited for Thanksgiving and the fact that this week is a 3-day work week! Woo hoo! Ready to spend time with family and eat some goooood food!

Peace out for now! And comment, please! Because I don't even know if anyone even reads my scarcely-used blog anymore! :(