Moving Day

Moving day officially starts today by finishing boxing the last few items around the apartment. The movers come tomorrow morning which we are extremely thankful for. God is great and has provided for us in our transitions with jobs, housing situations and finding a home where we can settle and continue to obediently budget and save.

In past news, we've been having a blast with family, friends, church and this awesome weather...

Cooking in the small kitchen

Jonathan put together the sweetest evening for Valentine's Day and cooked a special lobster dinner, had champagne toast to our engagement which happened over 3 years ago and took me to see The Vow which I loved! Thank you sweetie :)

We've made the most of our quaint little kitchen while we've lived in the apartment but boy are we ready to be in our house...lately, we've been cooking lots of good things from a vegetable stew to Cajun shrimp pasta to the pinterest espresso shortbread cookies which were delicious. Another amazing thing about Jonathan is that he enjoys cooking so I am treated to wonderful meals quite often. 

With the expected bad weather this weekend we made arrangements to stay at some friends' house as we are on the top floor of a small apartment. We spent the day eating, watching weather, playing wii dance and about 11:30pm the weatherman finally said everything passed. Thankfully bad weather for Birmingham consisted of 5 minutes of a hail storm. 

Found this great entryway table for our new house (Edgewood Antiques Red Balloon Sale)

Great recipes we've cooked lately

 

 Valentine's Day with my sweet husband...I am so blessed to be his wife

Cuddled with this sweet girl on Friday while waiting for bad weather to pass... 

We are looking forward to this short week to include our small group and going to the beach with family!

It's February!

With Jonathan out of town last week for work, I didn't mind putting in a few lot of extra hours at work. I missed him a lot but another blessing about being in Bham is the friends and family that surround me and spend time with me esp when the hubs is out of town. Allison and I spent practically every waking moment together working, working out, dinner, lunch and breakfast. I enjoy and look forward to going to workout classes with my sis and Allison...it's a lot more fun than going alone and definitely more motivation.

In other exciting news, Jonathan and I have been volunteering in the nursery aka Wamba Land at church and it is amazing! We keep such beautiful kids with so much personality and it's my favorite part of our church; we love reading and talking about Jesus with the little ones...I've missed nannying and it feels great to visit with the young in's each week. It's sweet when Jonathan looks over at me or I look at him and we are both engaged with the little ones, usually I'm reading to the girls and he's throwing the basketball with the boys...exciting times to come for us with parenthood whenever that time may come.

We've started small groups at Redstone and tonight is our first meeting with our group...looking forward to getting to know each couple and share stories, concerns and learning about living a life for God and experiencing a fulfilling marriage. It's important to us to continue growing and we've wanted to join a small group for a long time but with our move to Florida and back to Alabama, we didn't make the time to settle down...finally we are doing it! Blessings!! I'm not completely sure what to expect but what I do know is that we will be encouraged, disciplined and blessed by making time for God and working with other couples to honor Him, study His word and live life for Him.

Looking forward to date nights & quiet nights with my incredible husband, girls night with my sister and a family weekend in Atlanta visiting my cousin. Even if I only get fuzzy pictures using my iphone, I am going to take pictures; I miss our camera.

My best friend's wedding

With the New Year we have been busy and participated in lots of activities with family, friends and church. We started volunteering in the nursery at our wonderful church; hunting season has led to avid travels to my dad's and grandparents and my best friend's wedding showers and preparations have come to a close because her wedding day is TODAY! Despite the rain, this is going to be a beautiful and emotional day. Last night's rehearsal and dinner was precious and it's exciting to stand beside Lauren on this special day. I can't believe it's almost been two years since she stood beside me on my wedding day...time is precious and cherishing each moment is cliche but true...time discreetly passes us by. 

I love you Lauren and am so happy for you and Brad!

Closing day

What a wonderful Thanksgiving we had! Lots of family, food and football. We enjoyed three Thanksgiving meals; my mom/step dad's, dad/step mom's AND Jonathan's amazing parents. We helped decorate at mom's house which I enjoyed especially since Jonathan and I aren't decorating too much at the apartment.

After Thanksgiving, November 30, we closed on our first house!! We are gracious and more importantly shocked at how smoothly everything went and that God blessed us with a wonderful home, stress-free preparation and perfect timing. We can't WAIT to move in :)

Siblings and husbands

Jonathan helping fix the tree...being a trooper :)

Again...it's a beautiful tree 

Great friends

Jonathan with our closing binder & festive pillow, haha 

We closed!!...thought the pillow was appropriate

Today is Jonathan's Birthday!! I am so thankful for him, all he does and how much he loves his family. Looking forward to this year and spending many more Birthdays together. I love you sweetheart! 

And Thanksgiving is here

Since I started working in October, time has been flying by. I'm thoroughly enjoying my job and thankful that I get to work with two of my best friends! J and I have been quite busy but having a lot of fun. He went to Gatlinburg for a bachelor party and I went to Atlanta with the bachelorette. We had a great time despite the bride getting a nasty cold right before we got there :( 

Last weekend we headed to west Alabama to visit grandparents and cousins...that was a lot of fun and Lacy and I got some great antique treasures from my grandmother. We are slowly but surely gathering more things to fill our home...We are scheduled to close on our NEW HOUSE Nov 30! The incredible blessing is that the sellers are building a home and can't move in until March and we have our lease until March so we actually won't be moving in until then.

Our new house! Can't wait to move in

Made it to ATL for Lauren's bachelorette weekend 

Kristen, Ashley & Sarah (Ash pretending to be the bride)

Again-the girls at lunch

My adorable husband 

Hubs had a strange episode while working out & had to visit the ER...thankfully, everything is fine!

Next week is Thanksgiving and there is much to be thankful for...health, marriage, family, friends, being back in Birmingham, jobs and more. We're looking forward to spending special time with everyone next week.

All Hallows Eve

Halloween is a bizarre holiday to me but I've always participated in the festivities...dressing up, giving candy to trick-or-treaters, carving pumpkins and watching Hocus Pocus (which is my favorite part). This year, Jonathan and I came up with last minute costumes that were free and easy, the way we like it. Friday night we went with friends to a costume party at a local brewing company. It was a lot of fun to see such creative costumes and spend time together. We carved pumpkins but with the weather going back and forth between 75 degrees and 38 degrees, we couldn't leave our pumpkin out all week or it would have collapsed. This is one of my favorite pumpkins so far!

Carving & separating pumpkin seeds

The girls & our pumpkins (see my flame pumpkin?)

Great costumes!

My friend Haley

Lacy, Eric and me being silly 

Me, Lacy and Hubs :)

Peyton Manning (his career) and football

Peyton throwing the football, haha