Happy New Year!

I do promise that wedding pictures are coming. I have not yet heard from our photographer, and need to get pictures organized that we have received from people before I put them out. Soon though, I promise.

That does remind me; however, that if you took some pictures at the wedding, we would love some copies!

So obviously, during the wedding, we brought in the new year as well. Now that all of the craziness has began to settle down a bit, I have started thinking about the fact that it is 2011 already.

Time really does fly . . . I sit back and think about all of the things I've done in the past year, and am amazed at what a big year it has been for us. The fact that Joel and I have been dating for 6 years, and have known each other for even longer. How much traveling we were able to do. How I've been a nurse for a year and a half already, and how fortunate I am to have a job that I absolutely love. The fact that we bought our first house. The changes we have made this past year that make me feel like we've really started our lives together.

I am going to admit that I am fully copying my sister-in-law (cool word, huh? :) and am going to bring you through each month of the past year. It really has been one full of changes, all for the better, and what better way to remember it all then list it all out. So here we go . . .

January

This was probably one of the most "event-less" months of the year. We were a newly engaged couple, ready to start planning a wedding. We were still living in our apartment, and if you would have told me then that in two short months we would be living in a house, I wouldn't have believed you. We didn't own our new camera yet, so pictures were hardly taken of anything.

February

February is probably most remembered because it is when we first found our house. I knew our lease was going to be up at the beginning of April, and was definately ready for a change from out little apartment. We began the house hunt, and after just two days, found our perfect little house. Within a week it was ours.

March

March was a busy month for us. We moved into our house. We spent a week on a fabulous vacation to Florida. We were given our new camera as an early birthday present, so the mass-load of pictures began. I chopped my hair off. Our engagement pictures were taken. We spent a lovely weekend (one of many) with my cousins from Seattle.

April

This month is a busy month of birthdays for us, so many family get-togethers were in the works. We celebrated with Connor at his dragon-themed party. Joel was spoiled with tons of gifts for his birthday, mostly themed toward our new house. The Americans were still in the play-offs, so hockey games were regularly attended (both in the stands and bartending.) I bought my wedding dress. We helped Tommy and Terra paint their new house. We celebrated Easter with Joel's family.


May

May was filled with trying to organize our house, as well as putting in sprinklers and a yard. We took an overnight trip to Seattle for a Sounders soccer game. We spent a lot of time with friends. My birthday was celebrated. We spent Memorial Day weekend camping with Tommy and Terra, as well as at the cabin.


June

June was party central at our house. We celebrated our new house with our housewarming party. We attended Tommy and Terra's housewarming party. We celebrated with Megan at her bridal shower, as well as my friend Ashley at her baby shower. Joel's youngest brother, Jordan, graduated from high school.


July

The beginning of this month was filled with my family coming for a week long reunion. I was honored to be a part of my good friend Megan's wedding. We celebrated with Kelsey and Terra for their birthdays.

August
These days were filled with wedding planning, baking in the hot sun, and going to the cabin multiple times. We celebrated Jordan's birthday, and visited the Idaho State Fair on a mini vacation to Boise with Tommy and Terra.

September
Again, not a very "eventful" month in our book. An overnight trip to Seattle with my family to visit my mom's cousins took place. We celebrated Derek's birthday. And, once again, wedding planning consumed our lives.


October
This is the month we welcomed Westin into our family. We vacationed to Vegas with our wonderful friends and family. We celebrated Halloween as "Ben's Bathroom Buddies" at the Steelers game. We celebrated with my Mom for her 50th birthday.


November
Wedding planning was in full swing, and consumed every extra moment. We were lucky enough to celebrate Thanksgiving with my aunt, uncle, and cousins from Seattle. We met Roxy for the first time. The first snow fell this month. I was more than spoiled with a wonderful wedding shower and bachelorette party.


December
And finally, December came. You have been reading about this month in the last however many posts, so pretty much can figure out what happened I'm sure. We celebrated Christmas with our families. And of course, what would be the biggest event of our year, we were married.


So there you have it. Our entire year, all laid out in one.

And what a year it has been.

We are fortunate enough to have celebrated every moment of it with our awesome friends and family, and we couldn't ask for anything better.

I can't imagine what kind of exciting things it has in store for us to come. Although it is only 19 days into it, it has definately been an eventful year already. We have taken one vacation, and have plenty more in the works. We will be able to get our house settled in, and start our lives together as a little family. And I'm sure there will be plenty more to add to the list.

We hope everyone had as good of a year as we did, and here's to a new year!

Christmas 2010 . . . Part 2

So after working half of a shift on Christmas Eve (which happens to be the last time I've worked to date . . . crazy thought. Thank goodness for PTO!), I came home and slept for a few hours.

It was then time for round two of our Christmas celebrations.

We began at my parent's house by opening gifts.

And after a quick visit from my Oma and Opa . . .

. . . it was time to load up and head over to our family friend's house, the Jones'.

It was great to see them, as I hadn't seen Holly for quite a while. We had decided that this year would be 'crazy Christmas sweater' year, so see for yourself . . .

After a fabulous dinner, we decided a white elephant gift exchange was definately a necessity. And let me tell you that it turned out, as always, a complete success.

Some highlighted gifts were a moving scenic picture (which we happened to end up with) and a talking toilet paper roll.

And the night was topped off with a visit to my Grandma and Grandpa's house . . .

. . . for . . .

you guess it . . .

more presents.

And yes, that marked the end of our Christmas celebrations. The next day was spent on the couch with a nasty cold . . . we seemed to be a very sharing family this year.

But really, we had a wonderful Christmas, and are very thankful to have such awesome family and friends!

Christmas 2010 . . . Part 1

As I said before, on Christmas Eve we celebrated at Joel's parent's house. This is the second year we have 'split' the houses, so to speak, this way, and it seems to work out really well.

Celebrating at the Cline's household never fails to provide tons of food, family, and excitement. I love going over there for multiple reasons . . . One of them because everyone just begins tearing paper off of boxes at once. The night normally begins with some type of order, but by the end, everyone seems to be ripping paper at once. You always hear random squeals as people have found what they have been hoping for, and it is the only time during Christmas that I get to see small children light up with every gift they open.

Joel and I ended up with way too many gifts, including some gift cards, scrapbooking supplies, and even a new ladder for our house.

We were not as lucky as Sharla; however, who managed to score with this lovely life-sized cutout of Edward Cullen . . .

The night was topped off with Joel and I exchanging gifts with eachother, then me heading to work for part of the night. All in all, a great Christmas Eve.

We're Still Here . . .

I am obviously incredibly behind in posting. We have had a very busy 3 weeks, to say the least, and I have so much to post about I honestly don't know where to begin. I will just go ahead and recap as much as I can think about at this point, but there are more detailed posts to come . . . Promise.

** Christmas was wonderful. It's kind of weird how it feels like just a week ago and months ago, all at the same time. I was kindly reminded; however, how recent it really was by returning home from our cruise to all of my Christmas decorations still up. . . One of the many things I have to tackle on my 'to do' list. But we were spoiled, once again, and were glad we could make time to spend with everyone. On Christmas Eve we celebrated with Joel's family, and Christmas Day was spent partly at my parent's house, at our good friend's house, and my grandparent's house. Although I did manage to catch the nasty bug that seemed to be going around later Christmas Day, we had a wonderful time with everyone. Like I say, more details and pictures to come.

** The week between Christmas and New Years Eve was filled with 'last minute' details, as I like to call them, for the wedding. Making sure everything was ready to go, finishing projects that I had honestly forgotten I planned to do, etc. This was also the point when family started arriving into town, and we are still so thankful they went so out of their way to make it to our special day!

** Before we knew it, it was Thursday, December 30th, and time to set up for our wedding. We spent the day decorating, and again were so thankful for all of the people that came out and offered their help. We couldn't have done it without them. Everything went smoothly, and I was so happy with how everything turned out. I discovered it's a little tricky trying to get a picture in your head portrayed to everyone else and make it happen, but in the end, everything looked great.

** That night was spent at our rehearsal . . .

. . . and rehearsal dinner.

** December 31st came, and everything went as smoothly as we could have hoped. I will share a lot more details and pictures from the wedding obviously, but we had a great time, and couldn't have asked for a better day!

** The next day was spent with friends and family again, with lunch and some opening of gifts. Again, we were compltely spoiled.

** We left for our honeymoon on January 7th by first driving to Portland. We spent the night and flew out the next day, ready to board our cruise in San Diego, CA. We spent 7 blissful days cruising to Mexico, and trust me, I have plenty of pictures to share from our wonderful vacation.

And now we are back, and slowly trying to get everything back together again. The upcoming 'To Do' list seems massive at this point, but we are looking forward to piecing our house back together again.

And once again, I know this is a little late, but . . .

Happy New Year!