Repeat the sounding joy.

Christmas was fantastic. We spend Christmas eve and Christmas day with my family in Corona. We opened presents on Christmas eve (something we've never done before) and saved Christmas for church and talking to my brother who's on a mission in Nicaragua. Now that those festivities are winding down, we'll be heading up to a beach house this Thursday with David's family for a few days of fun. Oh, and the detox I'll be doing for the next few days after all the delicious Christmas goodies I've been eating all week. :)

Christmas Photoshoot

I'm officially in love with shooting my friends. We're comfortable around each other and we just get each other. Plus I can make their babies smile! Love the Williams fam!

Christmas things I love.

For the things I haven't gotten to this year, I'm already planning on for next year:

Source: purlbee.com via Natalie on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via Natalie on Pinterest

Source: countryliving.com via Natalie on Pinterest

Source: blog.giddygiddy.com via Natalie on Pinterest

Source: blogs.babble.com via Natalie on Pinterest

Christmas Cookies

I'm going to do some baking this week and want your best Christmas recipes! I love making a few different types of cookies and delivering them to friends for the holidays. What is your tried and true cookie recipe that everyone gushes over? I'm making my favorite orange-vanilla sugar cookies that are my 3 year old tradition. They have fresh orange zest in the dough AND the frosting. Seriously amazing. Give me your recipes and links here so I have some inspiration!

Dreamsicle Sugar Cookies adapted from The Luna Cafe

1 cups butter, softened
1 cup of sugar
1 egg  

1/2 teaspoon salt (I use Kosher)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

zest of an entire orange (only the skin, not the white pith)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 1/2 cups unbleached flour

 

I wish I had a photo of mine, but I haven't made them since Halloween. photo credit

Beat the butter and sugar for at least a few minutes until light and fluffy. Add in the egg, salt and vanilla and mix until combined. Add zest and mix for a few seconds. Now add your baking powder and flour and mix JUST until all of the flour is absorbed. It seriously takes about 30 seconds. Wrap the dough in wax or parchment paper and let it rest in the fridge for a half hour so it's easier to roll out. Sometimes I shape it into a log and wrap it in wax paper, and then just slice rounds and bake them that way. When I'm feeling adventurous I roll the dough out and use my Christmas cookie cutters. Either way, they're amazing! Bake at 350 for about 8 minutes. I don't like any brown on mine because we are a soft cookie family. Plus, they stay fresh longer when they are a little underdone.

For the frosting I do this:
Mix a stick of softened butter with 3 cups of powdered sugar until creamy and fluffy. Add in about 2 Tablespoons of fresh orange juice and the zest of half an orange as well as 2 teaspoons of vanilla (I LOVE lots of vanilla). Sometimes you have to adjust based on the texture you want. I like thick frosting so I barely add any liquid. Top your cooled cookies!

Only in Dreams

                                                                                                                                                  Source: flickr.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

I'm one of those weird people who remember their dreams every night. They've been especially vivid and frequent since with my current job I have at least two times a day when I wake up and the space in between my sleep is at least 4 hours. I most commonly dream about nice things like babies or having a house. Sometimes I dream about slipping down stairs or tripping. I've had very in depth dreams that I thought meant something, but then the next night I'd dream about having to choose between David and my ex-boyfriend, and I feel like those voided anything the "meaningful" ones could have meant because others were so ridiculous.

My sister in law is assured her dreams mean something, and I find it so interesting. She's Korean, and it seems it's an important part of her culture. I love hearing about it. I once had a dream where my mom died and I woke up crying. I told my sister in law about it, and she assured me it meant that my mom would have a long life. Interesting, right? My mom didn't find out what the sex of any of her 4 children were, and she said she dreamed what each of us were and every time it was right.

What made me think of all of this was a dream I had this morning. It's one of the worst. I'm getting ready for school and I can't find my shoes or any of my school books. Then I realize I can't remember what classes I have that day, and I'm searching everywhere for my binder that has my schedule. I then also remember that I haven't been to my math class or done my math homework for over a month and wonder if I should even go to school. I have had the dream about being behind in my math class at LEAST 15 times. Why am I still dreaming about high school??

All I want for Christmas is...

I love love love Christmas! This is definitely our favorite time of year. We spent Friday night picking out and decorating our tree. I even carried it up the stairs by myself! It's making the house smell wonderful.
Yes. I'm greedily posting things that I want for Christmas. If nothing else, maybe it will help some of you pick things out for friends, sisters, moms. I've been pouring over other bloggers lists for ideas and inspiration.
Really the only thing I want for Christmas is a new pair of glasses. That's David's only assignment. But, in a perfect world where he could read my mind (or read my blog more often than once a month), these would be under the tree as well:

I have wanted a glass citrus juicer for who knows how long:

Large metal lettering...maybe "EAT" for the kitchen?

 

The Linus Throw from CB2.

Cute little Folk Garden Calendars:

What are you asking for this Christmas?

Busy time

I've been a bad blogger lately. With work, a photoshoot + editing, nannying and the holidays, I've had no energy to post.  Now that David has entered finals time for school I have some alone time and can get back on track.

 Above: the start of my frame collection for the couch wall.

 David got the iphone 4s (it's mostly his christmas present) and I got his 4.

I was supposed to get one for my birthday so it's like a belated bday for me!

 Getting ready for sleep!

 I like this scripture.

Lunch! It's summery, I know.

Thanksgiving was fantastic. My mom outdid herself as usual and everyone had a great time. Crock pot mashed potatoes were the winner for sure! We got to stay for three days because our car was having major issues and we had to wait to get it fixed, but I didn't mind because we got some quality family hang time in :) I even got Thanksgiving day off of work, one of my two days off (not counting weekends) during the year. Since we came home Saturday night I've been planning on decorating for Christmas, but with David so busy studying we haven't gotten a tree yet. I'm hoping tonight or tomorrow if he can take a long enough break to pick one out! Yay! I love December. 

If this doesn't make you want a baby...

She is DARLING. Can't handle it. I had to post this because it's too cute to wait.

The last two weeks

In the last few weeks we celebrated birthdays, went to Disneyland a bunch and visited Venice beach. Yeah, I'll never be going back there...I was expecting quirkiness and fun but all I got were hippies and smoke in my face (not cigarette). The beach was pretty, tho.

Halloween + Lilah's Bday

We had a quiet halloween that involved yummy dinner, homemade caramel for caramel apples and yummy apple cider. I made some bats to decorate the wall a few hours before family and Cori came over. Oh, and the only one to dress up was Campbell who decided to be Steve Jobs.

Lilah had a Rapunzel party that turned out so cute. We got her the wig over two months ago and have been saving it for her birthday party. She liked it, except that it was kind of itchy :)

Attacking Uncle David.

Me + Sadie.

Such a pretty face, such a pretty smile, such a pretty dress.

I took these over a year ago , but realized today that I never posted them. Mike + Maleah wanted to get some  fun, pastoral photos taken in their wedding clothes after the big day. Such a fun, handsome couple. Maleah's been my buddy for a long time and I love seeing her so happy :)

Half-Pint

I think we've established by now that I like old fashioned things. (I stole that phrase from Nancy Drew). Old houses, thrifted furniture and knick knacks, cooking and baking from scratch. Today I was thinking about people I look up to and admire, and one of the first people that always comes to mind is Laura Ingalls Wilder (what a perfect name, right? I love it.) I've always been a big reader and spent hours in my room in bed reading anything I could get my hands on, although I am a sucker for the classics. I started with the Little House on the Prairie series in 2nd grade and fell in love. I have read the  series several times and reread all of them a few years ago when I bought the box set off of eBay to save for my future children. I cherish the stories of the Ingalls' struggles, humility and courage. Laura, whom her dad called 'Half Pint' was a little spitfire, but obedient and full of integrity, and honestly throughout my childhood I remembered 'lessons learned' from the Little House stories often. (By the way, I have tried to get a cool nickname like Half Pint for years. I tried to get David to call me Pee Wee and Freckles, to no avail. Haha.) I plan on giving the books as gifts to neices and close friend's children as they grow and hope that they love the sweet, timeless stories from the past as much as I have.

image source. 

At some point I plan on traveling around the US and visiting any Laura Ingalls Wilder points of interest that might still be out there. I know there's at least one on the eastern side of South Dakota, which is where she lived for a large part of her life. I'm so happy that she recorded the amazing stories of her life when America was changing so much and things were so different.
 I also love that my Dad loves Little House. He gave me a season of the show, which we both love, for Christmas a few years ago. My dad IS Charles Ingalls. He does everything for his family and always stands for truth. Maybe someday I can become more like Laura, just as my Dad has become like Pa.

Exploring Pasadena

Of course, 'exploring' means eating as many things as we can in about 4 hours. Cori + I ate lunch at a yummy tea house and had these good sandwiches, salad and herbal tea.

Then we went to Dots to get cupcakes. Cori went for an apple pie and I chose the chocolate mint, of course. You can see, I'm quite excited about it.

                                       

Then we did some shopping for kitchen gadgets and fun clothes and bought the exact same t-shirt. 

Then we drove home in traffic and watched Coco before Chanel.