2010

2010 has been the best year yet. It is absoluetly amazing to think about all that has happened. I can't wait to see what 2011 has in store. I'm counting on a few suprises, a lot more fun, and plenty of laughs with my hubby.

A few of my favorite moments from the last 365 days...

Bringing home Zip and Milo

Saying "Yes!!" to the man of my dreams

Drinking Coronas in Maui

Seeing Tom Petty at the Gorge

The best bachelorette party with my best friends in Sun River

A fab four reunion in Oklahoma

Getting ready for a new nephew

Making it official

The best 2 weeks of my life

Going north of the border for the first time

A million things to be thankful for

Our first white Christmas

It's a Wonderful Life

I love the holidays. Every year I'm reminded how lucky we are. It really is a Wonderful Life. December has been packed full of family, friends, blessings and getting ready for the holidays.

We celebrated my brother-in-laws graduation in true family style-Greg and Jon blew duck calls in lieu of air horns as Tom received his diploma. The weekend was spent sitting around the Christmas tree, playing with nieces and nephews, and listening to all the men jam out of their guitars. It was great to spend some quality time with all of my new family. It was a true adventure getting there and home (Does your MIL have a blender that plugs into the cigarette lighter??) but well worth it.

We've also been busy working towards buying our first house! We have mutual acceptance and are just working on a few things in the inspection. Barring anything major coming up in the next two weeks, we should close in the middle of January. Greg and I are beyond excited to create a home of our own (and to finally upgrade from our full bed)! More pictures to come once we've moved in.

This weekend we celebrated the seasons with back to back Christmas parties. Between the two we covered all our bases: ugly sweaters, Christmas caroling, dance central, irish coffees, hot-buttered run, whipped cream vodka...

We're counting down the seconds until our first Christmas as Mr. & Mrs. It's going to be a white one, full of family, friends and fun.

Tree in a Tub

I think I'm going to do this with our tree. We don't have a tree skirt, and we have a tub just like this at my sister's house from our wedding! This weekend, I'm putting our tree in a tub.

Oh-Christmas-Tree

Our Christmas tree is up! We made a date out of going to get our first Christmas tree this week. No cute pictures at a tree farm for us, this baby is straight from Home Depot. I tried to give it a name, but Greg is not digging my tendency to name everything in my life :)

It seems a little big for our one bedroom place, but I love the holiday feeling it brings and so do our kitties. Milo has taken to sleeping under the tree...the cutest present ever.


Greg and I decorated tonight with a few ornaments we picked up...including a cupcake, a guitar and baseballs. Merry Christmas!

Victoria

Friday after Thanksgiving, Greg and I packed up the Honda and headed north for our first trip to Victoria. The roads were clear and the weather was cold. It was so cozy, the perfect way to start the Christmas season.

We stayed at the Empress- a gorgeous old hotel right on the water. We had great food, enjoyed the famous high tea, and wandered through the city all weekend!

On Saturday night was their Christmas parade. The lights were so pretty, and definitely got me in the Christmas spirit!

Thank-full

This year's thanksgiving was jam packed with all the things we are thankful for: our health, family, great friends, our kitties, amazing food and lots of fun!

We woke up to a fresh dusting of snow, but that didn't stop us from venturing over to Seattle to do a quick 5k at the Turkey Trot. We celebrated our walk in the snow with mimosas at Katie's and then headed up to Greg's parents house. We spent a few minutes with them before heading home to put our own bird in the oven.

Greg got a decent sized turkey for the two of us. He was quite the chef while I took a post-race nap on the couch. I woke up just in time to throw together our side dishes before our feast! Everything turned out great. Zip & Milo got a full food dish in honor of the occasion. Like their mother, they are vegetarians and refuse all human food.

Once our food settled we headed out to have drinks with some friends. A great end to a wonderful day.

Our first holiday as Mr. & Mrs. was perfect!  I'm looking forward to all the family thanksgivings to come!

Our Thanksgiving Menu

For our first turkey day as Mr. & Mrs. we will be making...

• A 10lb turkey seasoned with herbs and fresh fruit and gravy (of course)
• My grandmothers stuffing recipe
• Classic mashed potatoes (Russets)
• Peas
• Cranberry sauce from a can
• Squash
• Rolls
• Pineapple chunks & cherries (a tradition in Greg's family)
• Costco pumpkin pie

Here it is...

Weekend Plans

1. Cleaning our house one bedroom apartment
2. Shopping for our thanksgiving feast
3. An outside run in preparation for the turkey troy (oh and registering for the TT)
4. Harry Potter
5.Getting our tires rotated
6.Going through our closet and taking lots of things to GW

Last night....

Greg and I went on a last minute adventure. Via facebook we found out that Dave Matthews was playing at the Microsoft Store opening. We wrapped up what we were working on and jetted over to catch a few of his tunes. He sounded great playing acoustic and solo. It was fun get away to catch some live music and the be home before CSI.

Someone I work with took this picture

Father of the Bride

This will definitely be framed in our new house!

Its coming...

Brrr...

I've been busy working on our first Christmas card. We've got the format down but now can't decide on which picture! I'm so excited to send them out. I've decided I'm going to get a new red pen and bust out my best handwriting.... coming to a mailbox near you!

Mondays

I have a total case of the Mondays. It was a fabulous weekend with friends, house hunting, and my hubby. Today its rainy and a slow day at work.

So I will pass the time thinking about...

1. The cute house we went and saw on Saturday.

2. How I want to make home made macaroni and cheese.

3. Hunter boots (are always on my mind).

4. How soon until my little nephew is born. I calculated and he should be here in less than 100 days :)

Wedding Pictures

We got to look through our wedding pictures this week. I am in love. Our photographer did a great job of capturing our perfect day. You can check out a preview on his website. We should get all the digital files this week at which point I will be busy designing our first Christmas card and photobooks galore.

Congrats!

Last night one of my best friends from college got engaged! This day has been 7 years in the making. Its so neat watching love grow. Thinking about the two of them, and watching the facebook comments, reminded me of that special night 9 months ago. When I think about it, I still get goosbumps and want to cry.

Congrats Lo & Justin

I called Laurie this morning and gave her a great rendition of "Happy Engagement to You!" A great way to start my week. Lots of smiles and getting excited for next August.

November

I can't believe it is already November. The last 9 months have flown by with wedding planning. Its been a very cozy week on the eastside. The leaves are all changing and air has been very crisp (the rain is coming). Greg and I have been busy talking about all the exciting things that are coming up in the next few months.

We're going to have our first thanksgiving as husband and wife at home, just the two of us. We might do the turkey trot 5k on Thanksgiving morning, and then we are going to chef it up all day and watch the parade. On Friday, we are headed out of the country for the second time in 6 weeks. This time we are headed north to Canada (I know it doesn't really count). We're going to Victoria for the weekend and staying here. We're going to have high tea and poke around for the weekend.

December kicks off a busy month with apple cup, Tom's graduation, Greg's family Christmas, and a trip to the great white north for the 25th. I love Christmas, and can't wait to do all the holiday festivities with my hubby- Christmas cards, our first tree, looking at the lights, Christmas shopping, elf!!

Last Christmas with the Ivy Ladies

We are heading north for the weekend to spend some time with our future nephew (and his parents) and Greg's brother in law. The boys are going hunting, and the ladies (and future nephew) are watching Sex and the City 2 and some nursery planning. Only 3 more months until the peanut arrives!

And, my not so little peanuts turned one last weekend! I can't believe how big they are. Zip has been having trouble sleeping through the night (ie: so have we), but we sure do love those little kitties. For their birthday they got new cat toys (thanks M&N) and a full food dish.

Milo & Zip February 2010

Psst. We are in super saver mode getting ready for our first house, but I really, really want to treat myself to a pair of these. I will totally need them once we have a house, and might as well start to break them in a little early ;)

Snowy Sunrise at Home

My parent's got their first official snow of the season last night. I just popped on to my dad's webcam and caught the tail end of sunrise...so pretty. When I was a kid we almost always had snow before Halloween, so we always had to wear snow pants and sorel boots under our costumes.

Anchorage, Alaska

Meow Meow Meow

I sure love these two

Happy Birthday Mr. Lover

Happy birthday to my perfect hubby!

I'm so lucky to have you in my life.

It seems like yesterday that I was giggling over your 19th birthday from a swim meet in California.

And now I'm your wife waking up early to make you egg sandwiches before work.

I love you birthday boy.

Love blossoming circa 2005 

psst... cute earrings

The Making of a Wedding Dress

I was so lucky to have my mom hand make my wedding dress. Our inspiration was this gorgeous Amy Kuschel gown. You can see the progress below from a two piece muslin mock up to the final fitting in August (Alaska) and then the big day.

 I love how it turned out!

Three funny things about my wedding dress...

 She made the dress for a faction of the price thanks to a generous cashier at the Fabric Depot in Portland, Oregon. She gave us a 40% off coupon to use on our 9+ yards of lace!

On the big day, 5 minutes before I walked down the aisle, my mom was sewing the sash on me. I was literaly sewn into the dress. I can't wait to see the photographers pictures of my Mama with her needle and thread!

The next day, the hem of my dress was disgusting from a fabulous night of dancing. I left my dress with my mom and sister when we headed to Fiji. When we got back, the dress was all clean, sitting in our closet. Once we were settled in I called my mom and she told me what she had done. After the wedding, she couldn't bring herself to pay more to get it cleaned, than the dress had cost to make (especially since the wedding was over). So, she went over to my sister's and threw it in the wash on the gentle cycle! I love that!

Wedding Party