Tacky Enough?

We had our tacky sweater party with the youth this last week, what do you think?

Christmasy Day!

Last weekend we had a fun day filled with Christmas! Fist, during the day we went to Leavenworth which is a sweet little German town. Every weekend in December there is a tree lighting ceremony.

On our way home we saw a spot light up in the sky. We love to follow them to see how it turns out and the first time we did we ended up at a church at a live Nativity. This time we follow it we ended up at a church again at a drive through live Nativity!

As soon as we were leaving the parking lot of the Nativity we saw a lit up Coca Cola truck drive by. Well as we were already in the Christmas spirit we followed that too! We followed it to a nice neighborhood with the houses all lit up!

Needless to say it was a very fun day for the Alexanders! Merry Christmas :)

Thankful For...

• Working for an awesome Christian family who is so good to Victor and I! Just last weekend Omar (dad) took Vic hunting and most days I show up Jessica (mom) has made us some cookies, bread, granola, etc.
• The Eugene Craigslist and a sister who is willing to go pick stuff for me and keep it at her house till we come down for Christmas! Oh I cannot wait to take home our new rocking chair :)
• Home cooked meals in the crockpot.
• A husband who adores me!
• "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand." John 10:27-28

Clean Your Room

There is a funny website where people upload funny text conversations either from mispelled words, texting the wrong person, or whatnot. Anyways, I thought this was too funny and I know my mom will appreciate it :)

O Christmas Tree!

Christmas tree's are mighty spendy so since we are on a tight budget and love adventures we decided to go cut down our own tree this year! $5 for the permit, maybe $10 in gas, and a whole lotta fun!

What a hunk carrying off that big 'ol tree! ;)

What we thought was "little" when it was deep in snow is actually too tall for our house! Are we going to trim it? No, we think it is too funny like that and are going to keep it. No tree topper this year :)

Huuy

Yesterday my husband and I made a bad choice! We decided it would be fun to go to the humane society and look at those sad dogs who are locked up in kennels all day. Bad idea in case you were ever wondering of doing this. It is especially bad when you live in an apartment where the landlord says no dogs EVER! So there we went to the humane society looking at those sweet dogs. Now I have been to the humane society plenty of times but I always went to the one in Eugene where the dogs have a big yard to play in and about three time the size kennels than they do here in Yakima. I was not expecting what we saw. So we are walking down the halls and we find Huuy. He was loud and rambunctious but had the sweetest face. We decided to take another dog, Carl, on a walk. Carl had been on a few walks already today so they asked us to pick another dog. I remembered Huuy and we choose him. We leashed him up and off we went. He was not at all interested in the walk. He just kept wanting to sniff us and walk in circles around me and VIc. After a few minutes we sat down at a park bench and he rubbed his head all over our legs and just sat there wanting us to pet him.He was not the hyper dog we thought he was in his kennel, all he wanted was some lovin'. So we loved on him for a while then continued on our walk. As we turned around to head back he started crying and pulling to go the other way. He knew that we were headed back and boy was he sad. It broke my heart! We stopped to love on him a while. I started to tear up a little thinking about what a sad life it is that he is stuck in that kennel all day and we were the only ones to take him outside for a walk. I then commented, "How sad for him to be locked up all day." Vic responded with, "Well it's better than death." WHAT?! He then proceeded to tell me about how the dogs are put down if they are not adopted in a certain amount of time. Well that really made the tears flow. I was crying harder than I have in months! I could just not stand the thought of that sweet loving dog being put down. We finally had to get up and take him back. I cried the whole walk back and when they put him back in his kennel. When we went to say goodbye to him I kneeled down and put my hand under the cage. My heart broke for that sweet dog. The whole rest of the day I was a mess. Crying whenever he was mentioned and I even looked at how much it would cost to break our one year lease so we could get into a house with a yard. No can do! Vic said that Huuy is not worth not getting our $400 deposit back. I even told my parents about him in hopes that would take him home until our lease is up and we can get a house and then take him back. But unfortunately that probably won't happen. Needless to say I am heartbroken! That dog was perfect and I just want him to have a good home! I plan on going back today to walk him. I know that I am tearing myself up if I go back but I cannot stand the thought of him being locked up all day! I just hope he gets adopted by a nice family who will love him and give him a good home!

Thankful For...

• Being able to visit my sweet sister in law, Eva while she was in Seattle.
• My niece who turned four on Saturday! What a fun and crazy four years it has been, Hannah I love you so much!
• My new sewing machine!!!
• My wonderful husband :)
• God's faithfulness!

Update

Wow, how fast two months goes! It has been a whirlwind of craziness up in these parts. Here is a  little update:

- The wedding was amazing! It was more beautiful then I could have ever imagined and it was such a sweet sweet day for us and our families! (Want to see some photos?)

- We went to Running Y Ranch for our honeymoon and had a blast. We got to go wine tasting, horseback riding, and just exploring our resort down in Klamath Falls. 

- Two days after the honeymoon we packed up a U-Haul left for Washington. We love Yakima and are finally settled into our place!

- I got to go to Oregon for a friends wedding last week and that was such a fun time to be back with my friends and family but I was away from Vic for 6 days which was WAY too long!

- I've discovered since being married that I love to cook! It has been my favorite thing to do lately. I am almost obssesed with finding recipies and making fun super tasty food!

- On Saturday we got to go into Seattle and go to a Sounders game. They are a major league soccer team and we had a ton of fun! I had never watched a soccer game so I had no idea what was going on but they are the number two team in the MLS and won that game which made it such a fun experience.

Consider yourselves updated! :)

New Season, New Blog

Well now for everybody that knows me, knows I had an old blog (tessgracegabs). I thought that since I am starting a new season in my life I should start a new blog! What is this new season you ask?! Well...

I'M ENGAGED! yipee :)

The wedding is in 24 days to be exact and we are moving up to Yakima, Washington right after we get back from our honeymoon! I am so excited to be entering into this new stage of life and I cannot wait to see what God has in store for us up in Washington! Here are some engagement pictures to hold you off until the wedding post. Enjoy :)

These first ones are from my dear friend Kasey Sheldon:

These last few are courtesy of Anne Nunn: