Before and After

I want to begin by saying that we love our house, and I do not want to sound the least bit unthankful in this post.  But, like all houses, there are improvements we would like to make.  Our house was an estate sale purchase in a round about way (complicated but boring story).  The last, and only family, to live in it before us was an elderly couple, therefore it can be concluded that some updates are to be desired. Although, we are very grateful that everything is in working order, and the only changes we might make are cosmetic.  Here is a small, inexpensive, quick, easy change we made, that I think makes a big difference:

Please ignore the decor on the mantle.  Its the only close up picture of my fireplace, decorated for a baby shower.  

Before:

After:

(Obviously the Christmas decor is only temporary.  I took this on my phone just for this, so it isn't the best quality. )

You really can't see the full effect this close u, but I have more "before and after" posts up my sleeve for this same room, and don't want to give anything away.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas, we certainly did!

Christmas Ornament Tradition

We do not have many Christmas traditions of our own yet.  I think that happens when you have your own kids.  But we do have one - the ornament of the year.  We do not have one of the "matchy-matchy" trees, although I think those are pretty.  Instead, our tree has ornaments with meaning-even if mismatched.   Each year we add at least one (but usually more) ornament that represent a significant event of that past year.  In ten years from now, we will be able to look back and remember what we did each year, just based off of our ornaments.  Here they are so far...

2007-
We were engaged this Christmas.  The ornament isn't the cutest or Christmasy-est, but we bought it at Vanzant's orchard, where Michael proposed.

2008- The year we got married!  The first ornament is obvious, the second is from a (mission) trip we took to Egypt just a few days after Christmas.  

2009- We spent a lot of this year overseas. The two ornaments are a (mini) shoe and a cooking pot commonly seen in the country we spent the most time.  

2010- The year Michael started working at Field Agent- this ornament is obviously homemade and is hiding on the back of the tree- but until their company has an ornament, this will have to do.  

2011- This year we went to Scotland and Ireland on vacation.  The cross is a Celtic cross from Ireland, and the other is self explanatory from Scotland.  We also became homeowners this year- ornament coming soon. 

Not all of our ornaments having meaning.... yet.  Hopefully by year 50 of marriage they will.  

Where I Have Been: The Baby Boom

Well, I stopped blogging. But I have been BUSY!  I will finish my first semester of grad. school this next week.  Woohoo!  And then of course there is the normal holiday business this time of year.  But,  mostly, I have been a baby shower marathoner.  5 of my closest friends in the whole world are pregnant, and one just had a baby.  Not only does this make for lots of fun and excitement, but lots of baby showers as well. I helped host 4 in 5 weeks, which involves traveling and having company in our home.  These are some pretty special babies.
Now to hold you over until the next post, some Christmas card photos our great friend Ryan Klintworth (of Klintworth photography) took of us!  Since we are such great friends we had some bonus play time experimenting- turned out super fun even if I can't take myself seriously when I try not to smile.

http://www.klintworthphotography.com/p592248747