Merry Christmas! + the month of december :: in instagram pictures

Oh Christmas morning, you are so magical! I still get the same giddy feeling I did as a child. My family on Christmas morning... 

We were spoiled...

And Rue wanted to eat all of the pine cones and needles off of the Christmas tree... haha

We couldn't help ourselves and had to bring the classic Griswold family Christmas into our home in the form of a Williamson family Christmas drum roll.... ;)

December has FLOWN by! Up until this year, we had a 3.5 ft tree that we would decorate in our apartment. All of our special childhood ornaments and the few we have got from family since filled our little tree to the brim. This year however, we bought a new 7.5 ft tree to use year after year in our new home. Those 15 ornaments looked rather sparse on our new tree, but still special all the same. We scored some Christmas balls to add to our tree next year and I can't wait to use them! I love having the Christmas tree up all of the December and have a really hard time taking it down at the end of the season. It is just so pretty! We ended up having to put a gate around our tree. A certain someone would have had every branch around the bottom eaten to smithereens if we didn't! ;)  

We sent out our first Christmas cards this year and I loved how they turned out! A new version of The Sound of Music came out this month with Carrie Underwood playing Fraulein Maria. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that movie!

My brother found out he made it into special warfare services and participated in the tradition of shaving his entire head and eyebrows off. Needless to say, he looked a little creepy, a lot like an alien actually for a few days. haha

We hung our first print in out master bedroom. It is the one room in our house that I have the total vision of how I want the entire room to look when it is finished. I can't wait to continue adding pieces to it throughout the new year.

We spent the week of Christmas in Meridian with my mom and brother. My mom and Rue bonded. :)
We had a wonderful Christmas and are sad to see it go but are excited for what the new year will bring!
Hope you had a Merry Christmas!!

a special Christmas gift

Eleven days before Christmas Day, we got doorbell ditched. When I opened the front door, I found this little manger sitting on the porch...



The next day, the same thing happened. This time it was a wiseman and so it continued... a second wiseman and a third, a sheep, a cow, a donkey, a shepard, and finally Joseph and Mary.



While we weren't in town, I know that on Christmas morning, baby Jesus was there, waiting for us to let him in and to complete the nativity. I know that is exactly what he does for us in our lives. He waits for us to let him into our homes and our hearts, to be surrounded in his love. I am grateful to the people who left us this special gift throughout the Christmas season to remind us daily what it is truly about. I'm so grateful for the birth of my savior. I hope we can do the same for another family next Christmas.

an old car and a new car

On my 16th birthday, my parents handed me a little black box. There was something I REALLY wanted for this birthday but I never would have dreamed of getting it. There was something about the smiles on my family's faces though that I think I knew even before opening it what was inside. The anticipation was killing me but I hid it behind a slight smile just in case I were to get my hopes up. I didn't want to look disappointed. I slowly pulled off the lid and inside that little black box was a key! The slight smile grew into a giddy perma grin when they told me to close my eyes and escorted me to the garage. When I opened my eyes I could hardly believe what I saw! There it was, with a bouquet of balloons attached to the antenna. My very first car, a silver Oldsmobile Alero!

{a picture of a picture, 2006}

The first few years, that car took me to countless early morning dance practices, high school football games, movies, and friends' houses. Then it ventured with me a long way from home to college and many trips back and forth between Pocatello and Meridian ever since. It now has at least 130,000 miles on it. My only hope was that it would last long enough to make it through college. When I graduated in May, it started lurching whenever I stopped at stop lights or had the air conditioner on. The electric window quit working on the driver's side of the car and it was becoming more and more apparent that it wouldn't last much longer. I finally took it into a shop to get looked at a couple months ago and was told that the repairs it needed exceeded the worth of the car if I were to sell it. It didn't seem like a worthy investment for us to fix it. I had to take some pictures on the last day I drove it before it goes to get parted out at a junk yard...

Then began the hunt for a new car. I drug my feet for at least a month before even looking. I was fine with just being a one car family for a while. It turns out, one car isn't as conducive to two full time working people though. Nic was constantly running everywhere with his car during the day so he would drive me to work so that he could use it during the day and I would wait for him to pick me up when he got off. Several times I had to ask coworkers for rides to meetings and the second I started feeling like a nuisance, I knew it was time. I have a hard time asking others for help.

Despite the not so fun car payment, it turns out there are so many great things about having a new car with only 150 miles on it. It will be perfect for a growing family in the future, it gets just as good if not better gas mileage as my little Alero did, it feels SO much safer to drive in the snow with all wheel drive, and I LOVE IT! Here's to new adventures in our Toyota RAV 4!

a Christmas card and a letter

At the beginning of December, we received our first Christmas card this year in the mail! It was just what I needed to get my act together this year and send one of our own. While I got on the ball with the card, not so much on the letter but so much has changed in our lives this year that I wanted to share those memories somewhere so here it is... this is the letter I wanted to send with it...

Dear Family and Friends,

If there was one word to describe 2013 for our family, that word would be change. SO much has changed in our lives in just a short 12 months that, looking back, we were in a completely different place in our lives this time last year. Change used to be a lot harder for me than it is now but that is probably because, with every change, I've grown and witnessed just how wonderful change can really be and this year is truly evidence of that. Rewinding back to March to the first change in our lives... Nic graduated with his Master's Degree 3 months early from Western Governor's University in Business with an emphasis on Health Administration. I can't even begin to tell you how proud I am of him for that! He continues to work incredibly hard to support our family and his employer recognized his efforts by promoting him recently to Operations Manager of the Medical Practice Division. He has continued to do wonderful and brilliant things for them. 

In March, we added the newest member to our family, an adorable lop eared bunny named Rue. She fills our home with lots of laughs with her quirky character! Shortly following Nic's big change, I graduated from ISU in May with my Bachelor's Degree in Elementary Education. That very same graduation weekend, I was called to interview at the local school district. I remember hoping and praying during the interview that even the slightest glimmer of desire would shine through in the midst of the most nerves I've ever experienced to show them how much I truly wanted my own classroom full of little ones to teach. In August, that dream came true for me. Third grade to be exact! 

To add to the craziness, we moved out of the little apartment we lived in since we got married and bought our first home! We had a whirlwind of a weekend quickly moving in before my first week of school. I can't even begin to tell you how incredible it is to have a dishwasher and a garage!! It is a total dream not to have to scrape my windshield on these snowy mornings anymore. Shortly after moving into our new home, the car I've had since I was 16 finally died on us. With the hope of an ever growing family in the future, we are now the proud owners of a Toyota Rav 4 SUV. 

We truly have so much to be thankful for this year and know that those blessings begin with our family and friends. We hope you had a very Merry Christmas and are wishing you the happiest of New Years to come. Can't wait to see what 2014 has in store. :)

xoxo, the Williamson's

the month of november :: in instagram pictures

November is for...







First snowfalls, fun and festive table settings complete with baby pumpkins and homemade burlap table runners, and homemade pumpkin pies!

Hosting my very first Thanksgiving! I kept it to a party of 3 just in case things went very badly. ;) Which, they didn't. But darn those mashed potatoes. I underestimated how long those puppies would take to cook. Rookie mistake!

Trying new braided hairstyles on a Sunday afternoon, ranting about pencil companies and their inability to put the lead in the center of a pencil or including lead at all so that I don't have to throw away brand new ones (teacher probs), and loving watching my little Rue sleep.

Last minute trips to Boise to visit family! We bought those ridiculously huge stuffed animals for our nieces for Christmas. They are going to love them! Also, I was completely blown away by how much my hometown has grown just in the last year. They have a brand new outdoor mall complete with a movie theatre with dinner seating, shopping, and fountain shows that are synced to music. So much fun!

a reason for the silence + the month of october in instagram pictures

The reason for the silence reallly... school. I graduated back in May and thought to myself then, I will have SO much free time on my hands now. HA Oh Meagan, how silly. I adore my job though so the extra time I spend in my classroom in the evenings is worth it. The good news is, I've heard that this is completely normal for a first year teacher. :) The perfectionist in me had my doubts. If I let a week of not posting go by, it quickly turns into two, and then pretty soon, a couple months have blown by without even realizing it. One of my goals for 2014 is to be better at keeping this space updated regularly and making it more of a priority. Especially because I am dying to share all of the plans I have for our beautiful new home as they become a reality in the new year!

And because I am still catching up... a few updates from October!








We may not have dressed up for Halloween or even carved a pumpkin for that matter, but we visited a local pumpkin patch for the first time and it was fun to fill our new front porch with them! Rue quickly learned where our refrigerator is located in our new house and jumps her little paws right on top of the first drawer where she knows the apples await her. Cutest!

We celebrated Nic finally getting the title to a job promotion that had been in the works for him for a while. Proud of that Operations Manager of the Medical Practice Division. We celebrated with extra sticky finger sauce at Wingers for dinner. ;)

My brother was featured on ESPN as a senior for the Navy Sprint Football team. I'm really proud of the accomplishments he has made and it was fun to watch him do his thing.

Red Ribbon Week also makes school life in October extra fun! I dressed up as a "Super Teacher" for Super Hero Day. Wearing those glasses for a day made me want to go out and find a cute pair to wear every day, even though I have great vision. Insert, the fun date night excursion to Claire's to try on some silly ones.

the month of september :: in instagram pictures

Happy November {almost December}! Here I am giving updates from back in September. ;) Better late than never huh? September was THE craziest weather month in Pocatello I have ever seen. We had serious rainstorms and flooding all over town for multiple days. Nic and I live about 10 minutes away from our places of employment yet one night, it took us almost an hour to get home because every street we came down was closed down. Here is a video I took on that particular day during our drive home....

Seriously, that man was at least waste deep in water at that intersection! Craziest thing I've ever seen in Idaho!











On a random Tuesday evening, I was surprised by a group of young women that I served in my last ward for my church. They brought sweet, hand-written notes and cookies. They really know how to make a girl's day.

My little Emilee, a girl I have babysat for several years and now tutor, got pneumonia and ended up in the hospital for a few days. I went to visit her and couldn't believe what a trooper she was. She was even sitting up and smiling!

Don't ask me when, but I managed to find the time to decorate my classroom for fall. :) and now it is about time to take that down! HA Time flies these days.

happy halloween! and a #tbt

We are spending this chilly Halloween evening in our new home with our feet in a pair of cozy socks kicked up on an ottoman watching The Proposal. Because Netflix doesn't have a single Halloween family movie. It is so fun to be able to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters at our OWN house this year. Although, I must say, I am seriously looking forward to the day I will be dressing up a little one in an adorable animal costume (because those are my favorite kind) and taking them on their first trick-or-treating experience as a mom. Until then, chocolate chip pumpkin cookies and passing out candy at our own home is the next best thing.

As soon as September 1st rolled around this year, I was in the ultimate Fallish of Fall moods. But the truth is, being a first year teacher is kicking my butt and after many late nights spent working at the school, coming home and carving pumpkins and finding a costume were kind of put on the back burner. Before I knew it, this day was here and I hadn't done either. Oops! ;) There is always next year!

So since I don't have any current costumes to share, here is a #tbt of me and my little brother. The cheetah and the lion. He was such a little porker.

And a comparison of a #tbt and a current picture of Rue... I see some family resemblance...

Happy Halloween! Bring on the holiday season! :)

the month of august :: in instagram pictures

Happy Tuesday! Unfortunately it is not too peppy around these parts as it seems I have caught my second bug this school year. That and the pile of grading are the main reasons for the lack of updates around here. Yeesh, I'm behind! Anyway, here we are with the month of August...























August was seriously the perfect month to say goodbye to the fleeting moments of summer. So many life changes happened. All really big ones and all really wonderful ones as well. It started out with an apartment full of boxes and a fluffy little bunny who managed to squeeze her way through a bathroom door and hop herself right on in to the bathtub. Silly rabbit. I ended up getting a little ahead of myself on the packing and we ended up eating off of paper plates for a good two weeks. oops. We said goodbye to our first home as a married couple, apartment #3, and spent the next week or so unpacking. Rue made herself RIIIIGHT at home in her new favorite spot next to the vent. Oh central air conditioning, what a luxury!!

The last week of August happened to be my first week of school as a brand new teacher with her own classroom full of third graders. LOOK OUT! It was crazy times and many late nights pulled to get that classroom put together but it turned out perfect. My classroom has an owl theme. :) Owl addiction, what's new around here. I am a very detail oriented person so what probably could have taken someone a day to complete took me a whole week. haha But I love how it turned out, cute owl welcome tree, curtains, and all.

Rue went on her first road trip to Boise for my step brother's wedding between the transition from apartment to new house. Needless to say, she was FREAKED the whole time and shaking like a leaf but made it in one piece. Within the first few days of living in our new neighborhood, we met SO many sweet neighbors who brought us the most thoughtful notes and treats.

The final weekend in August we went to the fair! I seriously hadn't been since late elementary school, early middle school. How lame am I?! I also had never been with a boy before. ;) haha We had so much fun together. The pronto pup and elephant ear eating was probably my favorite part. That and the bunny barn! Biggest bunny of my life. Rue looked like a dwarf compared to that big brown bun. At the end of the evening, we had tickets to see the bull riding event. I had never been to one before and it was terrifying! I don't know how those mom's sit in the stands and watch as their sons almost get trampled to death! Needless to say, I was more than freaking out for all 50 of them. One boy's stomach got stomped on and an ambulance had to come. Eeep! I can't even think about it. We also got to see these hardcore women called the Axe Women of Maine compete against each other in various events like log rolling and cutting through stumps. It was a really fun day. My one regret was not riding and getting a kiss on the Ferris wheel. It is on my August bucket list for next year. :)