House Celebration

For our wedding shower (way back when) we received a very sentimental gift that really lasts for a few years.  In our case, 3 1/2 years.  Our friends Sarah and Jessie put together a basket of wines each labeled with a special occasion including Wedding Night, First New Year, First Married Fight (we still have this one!),  New Baby, and New House.  We finally have opened the second to last bottle of wine and really the one we worked the hardest for.  We drank each sip reflecting on the past four weeks of choosing paint colors, sanding every corner, painting, fixing a hole in the wall, ripping up carpet, sanding and polying hard wood floors, hanging closet organizers, moving boxes, hauling loads of trash and recyclables to the dump, etc.  Yes, it was all worth it.....and this Cabernet tasted good.

Now, the last bottle of wine is the "First Married Fight" and we haven't even come close to opening.  Did I jinx myself?

Birthday Girl Part II

Our birthday girl, one day later....

Happy 1st Birthday, Abby!

One year old. What happens in one year?  A lot.  This past year has been one amazing journey with so many significant changes.  As of this moment, my darling little Abby is sound asleep with her butt in the air and my husband is snoring beside me.  I grew to love both of them more than my heart can sometimes handle.  The overwhelming emotion of thinking of where we have been and where we are going is so strong, it brings tears to my eyes. 

As I reflect on yesterday, the most fun birthday party ever, I realized we are right where we are suppose to be.  Home.  Abby celebrated her first birthday as she should - with all her family and friends.  A few key players were missing mostly because of distance, but with 60+ attendees we did it up in style.  The food was tasty, the company fantastic, and the mound of brightly colored presents was astonishing. Abby was a rockstar the whole day, taking in the hugs, kisses, the "happy birthday's", eating the cake, and opening the gifts all in stride. 








I took one picture on my camera the whole day.  Luckily I know cameras were out and pictures were taken - I just need to hunt them down. 



And wouldn't you know, the most important picture was never taken.  Which one is that?  Well, you know the one with the teddy and bright green chair?  We'll get to that one tomorrow.  For now, here are a couple taken by my friend Nicole. 

This many presents should be illegal. 

Happy Birthday, Sweet Abby Jean!

Timing is everything

Well, we're finally in the house. After almost three wweeks of a lot of sweat, and a little blood and tears we're home. I asked Tim last night if it felt like home yet and we both agreed that it was. While we are very grateful for my parent's hospitality, we are so happy to be filling our home with love and memories of our own.

The last 2 months have been a whirlwind and thankfully timing has been on our side. I'm probably jinxing myself when I say this, but life has been moving like a well oiled machine. Rarely any kinks and generally no stopping. We've worked hard to stick with timeline and we'll be celebrating Abby's birthday with very few boxes on the floor. Like I said, I hope I didn't jinx myself. :-)

Sneak Peak

We took a break from house work to take Abby's first birthday, holiday and family portraits.  The fabulous photographer, Tess Johnson, posted sneak peak's on her FB page :-)  Since some of you don't have FB (Mimi!!) here they are!