Merry Christmas...

onto 6...

I love looking back at our wedding pictures.  I loved our wedding and thought it was wonderful, and I still do (it was pretty simple).  I was talking with my cousin a bit ago about her wedding and it got me thinking about our wedding.... not that today is our anniversary or anything!  So I dug out the pictures and had a look. 

We've changed quite a bit...

and we don't live in WV anymore...

but luckily, most of our friends have remained close & true...

and 5 years later we are still happy...

and in love...

Happy 5th Anniversary!

***UPDATE***

see update at bottom of post below!

upgrades & downgrades...

It's taken us oh... 6 months, but we finally finshed our master bath.  It wasn't a huge deal, but it made it look so much better.  And hopefully when we sell in a few years this will help, especially since it's sooooo small.  Oh, and we still have a few more things to do in there, but at least it's livable/usable again.

Sarah taking pictures of the M.Bath

there used to be a white cabinet over the toilet... piece of junk, the doors were broken and it wasn't even centered... as you can see the medicine cabinet wasn't either.  Oh, and the sink cabinet used to match the medicie cabinet in color... we painted that back in May when we started this project.

the shower

I can't find the picture, but we had a few setbacks along the way.  One of the major issues was the medicine cabinet.  As stated above, it wasn't centered.  We tried buying a light fixture that would cover the hole that was in the wall... because obviously it wasn't centered either.  But that didn't work.  So after we painted and everything, Nathan ended up having to put another hole in the wall and then we had to redo the drywall, putty, and paint.  We called it the "Well, $#*t" hole.  We did get it all figured out, and even though this house isn't built the best (as a designer, there are so many things I'd change about this house), and you can see little imperfections, the bathroom looks pretty good. 

Our "new bathroom"!

still looking for a new shower curtain & bath mat,
but our old ones will do for now.

double towel bar... the original towel bar feel off the wall 1 month after we moved in.  Nothing in this house was on studs.  Did we ever mention the vertical blinds downstairs?  Lets just say, they are no longer!

We love the new look of our bathroom, and even though it is still small, the little additons we made make it feel so much warmer. 

And one last picture of our tree.  I haven't been able to get a good picture this year.  Maybe thats because our camera is slightly broken.  Anyway, here is it, in all it's glory, decorated from about the middle up  (cats & toddlers are terrible for trees and Christmas decorations!)

***UPDATE***

I never finished this blogt.... doesn't surprise me considering I rarely have my head together.  I talked about the bathroom, but never got to the downgrades.  It hasn't been the year for electronics in our house.  We've lost or had die: a TV, DVD/VHS, MP3 player, Digital Camera #1, Digital Camera #2, Queen Mattress.  Thankfully we had a small TV (19") upstairs in our guest room that we were able to bring down... but so far nothing else has been replaced.  We have hopes of replacing the TV in the future, although we already have plans for our tax refund if we get anything, and it's not going to a TV.  As for the mattress, we're now sleeping on my old full size mattress.  It sure is.... cozy?  We'll look into that sometime too, but for now, we're just thankful we have a place to sleep.  

So, if you come to visit us, don't expect anything great.  I mean, have you seen our furniture?  Everything we own, except for our bedroom set, is pretty much hand-me-down, and looks it.  We're hoping to hold off until we move in a few years.  Chucking our old stuff will making moving much easier, especially if we end up somewhere like Tennessee or North Carolina. 

Anyway, thats it, not much, but we did have downgrades too!

snow fun...

Well, we're giving it a try:

and so far.. it's not working.  We're 47 minutes into nap time and Ava has gotten out of bed 3 times.  She has been warned that the next time, she is in trouble.  And I can hear here playing in her room right now... at least she hasn't opened the door yet.  My friend Shawna told me yesterday that it took about a week to get her son accustomed to sleeping in a "big boy" bed.  She said after a week he was doing just fine.  Now lets see if I can make it through the week. 

We've been having trouble with Ava going to bed at night.  This is new for us, we haven't had a problem since she started putting herself to sleep at 4 months.  Honestly, we have no idea what to do.  She screams and cries, but the minute you walk in, she is fine... chipper even.  I can't imagine tonight will be easy.  I'm liable to have to stand outside her door and hold it shut. 

On a better note, we have snow!  We've actually had snow for a little over a week.  So this morning in an effort to keep Ava from watching too much tv, I agreed to a wagon ride after we got home from dropping my church work off at the office.

She was sooooooo excited.  I don't think she had any clue just how cold it was outside. 

 trying to catch snowflakes on her tongue... what a cutie!

 back home, she wanted to play in the snow

 she thought by shaking the tree she could get the ornaments down

and this was just too funny not to post... I tried to talk her out of it. 

but have we told you how determined and strong willed this child is? 

With the bike being a "no-go" she opted for a stroller ride.  By this point, I was so cold, I only hoped walking would warm me up.  It didn't, and when we got back from our SUPER short walk, I could barely talk staright when I saw Kristi (next door) outside.

 oops... and this pic is so cute.

I captured these pictures specifially for Daddy.  He would be so proud. 

PIC Microcontrollers

 Anatomy (thats my girl!)

shoot... back to the engineering

long wait...

It's been a while since we've gotten a chance to update.  We were waiting on a picture from our family Thanksgiving, but it hasn't come.  (Come on Alan!)  So instead, you can have some random pictures from the past few weeks... no order and even a couple that are sideways (sorry). 

We had our first snow last week, and it hasn't seemed to stop since.  There isn't much accumulation, but give it a little bit of time and we'll get there.  Hopefully we won't end up with 6' like last year. 

 view from our stairwell window

Ava is quite a character and is into everything.  She is quite fond of "hide & seek" and "horsey" rides with Daddy.

 Have we ever mentioned she's a Daddy's girl?

just hanging around 

Ava got her first Christmas present the day after Thanksgiving, it came from her PawPaw.  We have both the Chipmunk movies, which she loves, so a singing Alvin tickled her to death.   We also put up our Christmas tree, and it has already hit the floor... actually the couch, once.  We ended up having to move all the ornaments to the top half again this year.  And as a side note, Ava wasn't the culprit!

 it's blurry, but too cute not to include.

The night before Thanksgiving we got together with some friends for pizza.  We've tried several times to get together, but with 3 families, 3 kids & 1 on the way, it isn't always easy.  Since we were together we tried to have a little photo shoot. 

 "Hali, hug Maddie... now Ava, hug Hali..." 

 didn't work out so well!

Ava and I went to Krispy Kreme last week, it was Ava's first time there.  She enjoyed watching the doughnuts go through the glazer and of course picking out her very own doughnut... with sprinkles of course. 

 Yumm!

 she really is a monkey

 Watching Alvin & the Chipmunks in Mommy boots

 she loves the Christmas decorations

We've had an easel in our basement since last Christmas I think, and we finally drug it out this week.  Ava has really enjoyed playing and writing with the chalk and coloring on the big paper on the other side.

I've been trying to get pictures of our darling daughter for some Christmas projects I'm doing, but getting Ava to stop and smile is almost impossible.  Most of the time, she laughs, (joyfully) screams, or reaches for the camera.  I am determined to get a picture of her smiling one of these days. 



Well, shoot.  I had several other pictures picked out to put up, but they didn't upload.  Oh well... next time.