December 13th

 "hhaix" - love Julianna (she came over to smack my keyboard when I had this open this morning)

Hello! Happy Friday the Thirteenth! It's been a busy day at work (like always, heh) and I'm a little bummed to be working tonight because that means I'm missing the big work holiday party. (Super sadness for missing out on free delicious food and drinks, but a plus that work is supplying some stuff for us. And free massages. So excited for that.

Anyway, I brought my new laptop to work with me so I can fool around with it on my breaks. Have I introduced my new lappy?

Meet Ziggy. She's gorgeous.

Michael surprised me with her after Thanksgiving because he found a super awesome deal at Best Buy. I nearly started crying when he did because I really needed to get a laptop or a Kindle or something for nursing school, but we couldn't really fit one in the budget and my aid wasn't enough to cover it. He had been saving on the side because he knew how badly I needed it.

Gosh, I love him.

It's apparently National Hot Cocoa Day. Um, yum. I think I need to make myself a nice steamy mug when I get home.

I found an article with all kinds of fancy upgraded hot cocoa recipes but I'm probably going to stick with my tried and true Quik since that's what I have at home. Ha.

Have a great Friday night! I'm on my last break of the shift, so it's all downhill from here!

FREEDOM

... At least until January.

Yesterday was my last day of finals for the semester, and I am SO DONE with school for the remainder of the year. I can not even express how excited I am about that. This semester has been kinda rough on all of us, between school and work and all the other day-to-day life commitments, and it's nice to be able to drop the school part of that equation for a few weeks and focus on our family.

Turtles to remind me to slow down, but they're blurry because I move so fast!

We had a fun little snowstorm in our area recently. We live in an area where snowfall actually sticking around is very rare, so when it snows, it's a novelty.

At work the morning after the snow, I was greeted by Surgeon Snowman.

(It also means that people FREAK OUT when it snows and can't handle it. Too many accidents!)

Even a week later, some areas it's really sticking around.

We've also been preparing for Christmas. I can't believe it's Julie's first Christmas already!

My parents' tree. Because I certainly don't have my Christmas shopping done!

I also wanted to share a few pictures of my ridiculously adorable kids.

My man Sam.

I wanted this jacket so badly. Too stinking cute.

So I plan on writing more later, but I wanted to just share a few of the things we've been up to lately!