The Start of Forever

Christmas was magical...

I spent the first few days of Christmas with my boyfriend's family.. We went to Wicked which was a great production and a lot of fun! 

I came home on Christmas Eve to spend time with my parents, sister and other family members. We had our traditional lasagna dinner on Christmas Eve and I went to bed snuggled up with sister. 

I woke up on Christmas morning to the traditional breakfast and gift opening. A few hours later after my aunt, uncle, grandma, and great grandma came the doorbell rang. Low and behold there was Josh. (Who I thought was still in his hometown and wouldn't be seeing until the following day)

Josh looked as nervous as I've ever seen him. He told me to sit down and that he had forgotten to give me a gift. He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him!!! 

After lots of tears of joy, I said yes! 

It was the best day of my life! I am having so much fun planning our wedding and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with him! As I reflect on this year, and look forward to the new year I can't help but to be thankful for so much:

A cozy home, a cuddly dog, amazing friends, a supportive family, my wonderful fiance, my education.

2011 was a life changing and memorable year. Can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for me! 

Birchbox Review

I began getting Birchbox in November. Birchbox is a monthly subscription (much like a magazine). You pay $10 and get 4-5 beauty samples in the mail. This may seem like a lot of money, but if you buy high quality make up I think it's worth it. They also have a points program for every box you get, and every review you do you get 10 points. When you get 100 points you get $10 to spend in the Birchbox store. For my december box I got 70 points after doing the reviews (Thats almost to $10 =] ). You also get 50 points if one of your friends join..

Okay, enough explaining...

Here is my december birchbox

It looks like this when it comes in the mail...

The inside looks like this..

 When you open the box inside you'll find a card with the "theme" for the month and what products you are getting. It also gives you the price of the full size products.

All of the products I recieved in my December Box..

This is probably my favorite item that I recieved. It is the Incoco nail strips. The picture doesn't do them quite enough justice. They are sparkley and I can't wait to try them out! 

 The next products that I got was the Ahava Body Lotion and the Jouer Lip Gloss. I also really liked both of these products.

 The following products were my "bonus" products. There is always a little extra non-beauty product in the boxes. This months was the show stopper fashion tape and an enegery drink mix. I'm not sure if I'll use these products, not really my kind of thing!

 The next product was the amiko hair oil. I haven't used this, but my friend has and she really liked it. One down side to this product was that it leaked all over my box.

 This box also came with a $20 off a $75 purchase. Not too shabby!

This was my November Birch box.. minus one thing.

Two lotions..

 A lip treatment and a perfume. The perfume is Twirl by Kate Spade. I LOVE this perfume.

 This was Novembers "bonus". It is a hair tie. I am surprised with how much I like this!

The last product I got was a Zoya nail polish.  I was SO excited to get this because I had been wanting to try Zoya nail polish for a long time! I really liked it. I haven't used it a whole lot, but when I tested it out it seemed to really stay!

Interested in joining birchbox?

http://www.birchbox.com?raf=nr6vb

What gets me through..

Whether you are a student or not I think this time of year is pretty stressful. There is so much going on and not enough time to do all the things you want to do. After years of trying to hide under the covers, cry and give up around this time of year, I have FINALLY learned to take the time to smile. So what gets me through an endless to-do list, 14 hour days, and non-stop studying....

..Putting up our first Christmas tree..

(Then watching it fall down =] )

...A puppy who suddenly wants nothing more than to constantly be by his mommy's side..

...Remembering the ones I love...

..Seeing these 18 silly girls...

..Reading Good Books before Bed...

....AND...

RED nails until Christmas

What makes you smile when things get stressful?