My First Christmas in my First House

I am having so much fun decorating and making the house festive for Christmas time. It's taking me a really long time to pull it all together and I'm certainly not looking forward to putting it all away. It's like packing for a vacation, you don't mind having to pack all your things up to go, but when you get back the chore of putting it all away is a real drag!

I hope you are all enjoying the season! I guess now that I am decorated I should start shopping. I wish this was 2007... the year I was done with my Christmas shopping by October, that was a good strategy.

Well here is the fun part; all the pictures.







We thought that this might be the one...



... but this one beat it out.


I cut down our tree last year so I wanted to try again, but I had to call in for reinforcements.





Christmas in my family room once everything was all decorated.


Practicing close ups.


Another close up of the garland on the ledge between the kitchen and dining room.

Before and After

I guess you could call it a small kitchen upgrade. I was blessed with a brand new disposal in the sink when the old one decided it wanted to die and thankfully that was covered by the warranty on the house. Then I decided that it was time to upgrade the fridge after having to tear it apart 3 times to eliminate a solid chunk of ice blocking the draining system which in turn created pools of ice in the fridge portion and froze my food. Bummer. Well now that you have endured by sob story, here are the before and afters.

The old humble fridge .


The new fridge that decided it wasn't going to fit. Yes, we measured!



The process of cutting off 1/2" of counter and connecting water to the fridge. It was a messy dusty process :) But had great results!

Yay, she fits!!!!! It looks and works great!! Makes the kitchen look all pretty too.

Fall is Here :)

YAY! for my favorite time of year, the Fall time is finally here!

Throwing in a couple more pics of the nephew then some pics of cozy happenings that remind me winter is coming... time when I get to cuddle in blankets and warmth watching the rain and cold outside. I'm definitely a Fall/Winter kind of girl :)

Brayden (and Mike and Lisa too!) came to visit at Grammy and Grandpa's house then a few days later came to Aunties house! He's getting to be quite the traveler, and we love having him too :)

Playing with Grandma on one of his trips out of the house.

I guess he doesn't think visiting Auntie Christine's house is too exciting. Although later we spent a lot of time playing and wiggling around on the floor while Mom tried to catch a nap. Love that double chin.


LOVING the down pour of rain and waterfall that falls off the patio cover. The day called for a mug of hot chocolate....

.... And a puzzle of a wintery scene. Steve and I started this puzzle in Dec '08. It survived the move and some how I didn't loose one piece over the course of the year. Steve is much better at putting puzzle's together than I am.

I got to put in the last piece!

YAY! We're so proud of ourselves. We can put a puzzle together in under a year! I think 3 years ago we did 3 puzzles in 1 week around Christmas time.

So there you have it. Thanks for tuning in to the blog :)

Umm...Random

So, all I can say is I feel obligated to update this blog since it's been a while. But nothin' much has been going on. So I will go back in time to update you on a few things that didn't make it on the blog the first time around.

My FABULOUS AND WONDERFUL AND AMAZING realtor gave me a BBQ as a house warming present. I didn't think I'd be able to indulge in that kind of expense for a LONG time but I had hoped to be able to have a BBQ soon since I used to use it all the time when I lived at home year round. Needless to say, getting one as a gift made me hugely grateful and it's a gift that just keeps on giving. I adore it and use it all the time. I must give credit to Steve for putting it together for me the same night I got it. I left him to working and ran to fill the propane tank and buy some hot dogs for dinner. Here is the proof of how wonderful he is for putting it together. If I had tried, it would for sure have ended in tears and frustration and fear it would blow up the first time I turned it on.


My worker bee working away.


I was a little nervous the first time it was turned on. In the end all went well and Steve finally had a source of warmth outside where he was working!


Me getting in some tummy time with my nephew. I think he thinks I'm the crazy Auntie. It's fun to get to hang out with my sister too on my days off. They even came to my house to practice going on outings this week! We had fun and I'd say the outing was a success!


At the beginning of October I had another wedding to attend of a dear friend and fellow Chi Omega sister. We had so so much fun celebrating with her at the Octagonal Barn at the Cornelius Pass McMenamins :) Such a cute little place for a wedding. Here are Cory and Bridget being welcomed to the reception as Mr. and Mrs. Cory Bradley :)


My cute date for the evening.



A pic of the Chi O girls with the bride :)

So yeah, that's what I've been up to lately. I am loving the Fall being here and the leaves changing. I even got to enjoy the first thunder and lightening storm this morning with torental rain pouring down. LOVED IT! Give me a fire, hot chocolate and a good book and it's very close to perfect.

Can't wait for Thanksgiving and Christmas:) My goodness this year has gone by fast!

My New Nephew :)

He's here! He was excited to come meet us all too :) My sister wasn't due until Sept 14, but Brayden Michael Kelly decided to arrive Sept 10th at 6:59pm, weighing 6 pounds 8 ounces and measuring 19 inches long. He is such a cutie pie. Here are his pictures and I'll let his cuteness speak for itself.

Hi, my name is Brayden. I'm new here!

Oh, I don't know if I like it out here yet!

Proud Papa

Proud (but oh so tired) Mama.

Getting to meet Great Grandma Faye for the first time!

¹³People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. ¹⁴When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹⁵I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." ¹⁶And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.

Mark 10: 13-16

Chrissy and Adam's Wedding

In August I road tripped it down to Sebastopol, CA for a dear friend's wedding. On our way we stayed in a gross hotel, and endured the craziest winding road ever created on the face of the planet. I barely was able to keep breakfast down... ugh. I get sick just thinking back to it. But when we made it to Sebastopol Jessica and I wasted no time in checking out the local wineries. It was so much fun and we learned a lot about wine and each bought a bottle to bring home with us. Then we took mom and dad to the brewery before we all freshened up to go to the Rehersal dinner at The Union Hotel.

The next day we took of to the beach and lazed around soaking up some sun before the wedding that evening. Devoto Gardens (Chrissy's home) was gorgeous! The bride and groom had smiles all night long and everyone had a GREAT time enjoying good music and good food!


On the trip down. I just don't feel these pictures do this road justice. It is a cruel road and an unusual kind of punishment when you are just trying to make it to a friend's wedding! Can you tell I'm still not quite over the torture of it? I've never been so carsick in my life! These are two different pictures, they just look very similar as that is what the whole road looked like.

























Jess and I enjoying the tour of some wineries in the California sunshine!


























Some of the views we enjoyed as we relaxed on the beach pre-wedding.


























Now the good stuff. Here are just a few but some of my favorites from the wedding :)