My Sweet Grandma

My grandma will be celebrating Easter with Jesus this year! She definitely had a full and wonderful  88 years of life! I like to say I was her favorite grandchild but she would always say back to me that I was her only granddaughter! So I guess I can for sure say I was her favorite granddaughter! :) She will definitley be missed!

My sweet grandma, Emma Elizabeth!

My grandma holding my baby brother and me holding my baby doll! 

Easter with both of my grandparents!

 My grandma, mom, and I a few years ago.

 I always thought this picture was funny of my grandparents!



9 months on March 26!

And once again I am late posting on our "monthly anniversaries"! "9 months and no honeymoon baby" is what I told Jonathan! I think we are doing pretty good if I do say so myself! hehe!

Well I can without a doubt say that every month that has gone by since we got married has become better than I could have imagined being married to my best friend. I always hear people say the first year of marriage is the hardest. I wouldn't say it's been hard at all but it's definitely an adjustment for both of us living with someone else. I think it's really neat seeing how we have grown and changed for the better since we got married last summer. As corny as it may sound I love him more now than I did the day we got married. ;) lol

Who would ever have thought that these two little kids would be a perfect match together in about 20 years or so! haha!

         

These two certainly knew! ;)

London Trip

Jonathan and I decided a while back that we wanted to take as many trips as we could before we had kids. So with that in mind we have come up with numerous trips we want to take such as Nantucket, MA, sailing in the British Virgin Islands, go on a cruise, London/Paris (and the rest of Europe) and the list can definitely keep going. Those are some of our top places to go! Well for our "Valentine's Day trip/gift" we decided at the LAST MINUTE (oh about a week and half before we actually left) to take a trip to London for the weekend! Back in the fall we originally were thinking about doing it the weekend of Valentine's but decided against it for numerous reasons. But once February came around Jonathan found a really good deal on hotel/flights so we decided to go ahead and book it! We ended up going the weekend after Valentine's. We left on Thursday, Feb. 17 and came back on Monday, Feb. 21. It was definitely a short trip but worth every minute of it. 

We stayed at the Crowne Plaza St. James. It was literally less than 3 minutes walking distance to Buckingham Palace. It was a nice, older hotel but it wasn't near anything really besides the palace. 

Since we only had 3 full days there we were in a hurry to see as much as we could. And I must say we saw and did a lot in the cold, dreary weather! 

In front of Buckingham Palace...this was the very first stop we made after getting to our hotel.

And you can't come to London without eating some fish and chips! 

We also saw Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament (not pictured).

Westminster Abbey...where Prince William and Kate will soon be married! We saw a little bit inside because the door was opened but we couldn't go in and just from what we could see it was amazing inside!

And of course we had to go inside Harrod's department store. It was HUGE and had everything from the  jewelry to groceries to pizza inside there! 

While visiting Harrod's I was told by a friend we should try Morelli's Gelato. So of course we did and it was delicious but this thing cost about $20 USD! Craziness if you ask me!

We also ate at the very first Hard Rock Cafe ever opened! Nothing fancy but at least we can say we ate there I guess! ;) 

One of the stores I found there was this one... I LOVED it! It had the cutest purses and jewelry!

My favorite place we visited was Notting Hill and the Portobello Road Market that is there. This is area where the movie Notting Hill was filmed! They had the most neatest little shops and vendors!

We also visited the Tower of London...

and the most famous bride there....the Tower Bridge.

And of course I had to take my picture in front of the red telephone booth! ;) 

The only other thing I would have liked to do was tour Westminster Abbey and go out of the city to tour some castles. I guess we will just have to go back sometime! ;) 

8 months...give or take a few days!

I didn't post one bit during February!!! You would think with all 5 snow days in February I would have found the time but besides those days off we were actually pretty busy! Well I guess this means this post might be a little long!

Well, to start off...Jonathan and I had a great Valentine's Day! I probably had more fun though. I had planned on doing a "14 days of Valentine's" for him. I started on February 1st and gave him a little something each day till Valentine's. I wish I would have taken pictures of the things I gave him. For each day I gave him that number of things...so like on February 5 I gave him 5 hugs and kisses (the chocolate ones!). They were all very little things but it was fun making them all cute and I think he enjoyed getting them! He also brought me pink roses to school on Valentine's Day (when seeing the flowers on my desk one student said "that's magical" haha) and cooked a nice dinner that night!

One of our major happenings in February was our last minute trip to London England! That will have to be a post all it's own! I will say it was so much fun!!

Jonathan and I also made a huge purchase....we bought brand new living room furniture! I was (and still am!) way more excited about this than Jonathan...of course guys don't care too much about that kinda stuff! We got a new oversized brown leather chair, couch, ottoman, end table, and sofa table. Our living room looks so much more "adult" now! Our furniture before was nice but I just LOVE what we have now! I still have a few more decorating ideas I want to do to our living room but those will have to come in time! These pictures are not the best pictures...they were taken with my iphone. But you get the idea!

I am also trying to be a little bit more domesticated and with that comes a new sewing machine, a Bernina 330! With the help of Jonathan and his mom I finally decided to get one. I would have bet you a million dollars when I was younger that I would never own a sewing machine...hahaha....boy was I wrong! I am hoping to do a few sewing projects for the house and maybe another quilt. I guess we shall see what other little sewing projects I can think of now! This is what it looks like...

We definitely have been very blessed this past month and I can't thank God enough for his blessings and of course Jonathan! I think this post might be long enough now!! Hopefully I will post more than once every other month! ;)

7 months and a birthday!

So January 26 officially meant we have been married for 7 months and of course my 29th birthday! Yay! I am getting old! ;) One of my friends mentioned that this is the year (29) that everyone who is old says they are turning on their birthday instead of saying their real age. Ya know, they just say they are turing 29 instead of like 52 or whatever. Anyways I was told by my friend I should just enjoy it because this is the ONLY year I will really be 29! lol Such a deep thought I know!

Well for my birthday, a few days before actually, Jonathan took me to Trulucks in Addison.

Before we went out!

We usually try to go to a "fancier" place for our birthdays. It was really good but for the price I wish we got more food...that's pretty much my only complaint!

We were going to order some yummy dessert but they brought me out two cupcakes for my birthday! They were yummy...but the best part was they were free! Free always tastes good! 

After our dinner we went and saw the movie No Strings Attached with Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman. It was a pretty good movie. It had some funny parts but there were definitely some vulgar parts that I thought they could do away with. 

On my actual birthday Jonathan took me to Grimaldi's! They have such good pizza! Love it! If you sign up on there website you can get a coupon for your birthday for one free large one topping pizza. That's basically the reason why we went there. 

We got a pepperoni and sausage pizza!

And of course we had to try their oreo cheesecake which was YUMMY!!! I certainly did NOT count my weight watchers points this week! What's the use when it's your birthday right?!?

Most of my birthday cards I got this year! Some came a little later! Yes I put them on our mantle...hey it's my birthday and I do as I please! ;) It just makes me happy seeing them. Don't worry I took them down already! 

I was also very blessed with wonderful friends and of course my husband who gave me wonderful presents! It was nice to end my birthday wearing my cute pajama pants and socks I got as one of my presents! lol

2010 Christmas Road Trip to Virginia!

Our first Christmas was spent traveling to Virginia to see Jonathan's grandparents, aunt/uncle and cousins! Since we had two weeks off during Christmas we decided to turn our trip into a road trip! On our drive there we planned on stopping and staying in different places.

We first stopped in Memphis and drove by Graceland! We didn't go in! Maybe next time!

Then we stayed in Nashville for two nights. We stayed at the Gaylord Opryland hotel the first night and the Renaissance Hotel in downtown the second night. I definitely loved going to Nashville! We also went to Tootsie's Orchid Lounge...which was soooo much fun!!! The atmosphere in downtown was so awesome...maybe because there was a Garth Brooks concert (we didn't go to that) going on but still it was fun! We also went to the Country Music Hall of Fame and did the RCA Studio tour where people like Elvis and Dolly Parton recorded music...and a bunch of other people I can't remember!

Gaylord Opryland

At Tootsie's Orchid Lounge

After Nashville we drove to Gatlinburg, TN (via the Smokey Mountains!) where we stayed for two nights! Our lodge/hotel was so cute and nice! I wish I would have taken a picture of their lobby...very country and cozy and cute! While we were there we toured Gatlinburg which was ok and then we went to Ober Gatlinburg to snow tube which was a lot of fun!

A little pit stop in the Smokey Mountains!

This is where we snow tubed! 

View of Gatlinburg from the gondola ride.

While we were walking through Gatlinburg we found this huge chair and of course had to take a picture in it! ha! 

After Gatlinburg we headed to our main destination, Norfolk, VA! We definitely had a wonderful time visiting with all of Jonathan's family for a few days!

Here is Jonathan's sweet granddad! 

We also had a little visitor called a blizzard come through as well while we were in VA!! It ended up messing with our road trip to come back home. We had to stay in VA for one more day because of all the snow so we didn't get to go to Savannah, GA, Destin, FL or New Orleans like we had planned. We just drove straight back home! Maybe next time we will go through those places. 

Here are some picture of the snow. I think it snowed 14 inches. 

I was gathering up "clean" snow so Jonathan's grandma could make snow cream for us to eat! It was actually pretty good! ;) 

Chris, me, and Jonathan in front of their grandparents house!

I am hoping for no snow next year unless I am at home to enjoy it and not go out. Last year we got stuck on I-20 going to see my parents for Christmas...instead of the usual 6 hr drive it took us 12 hrs! It's a little tiring when you have to travel in the snow! ;) But of course both times we had a wonderful white Christmas and of course what more could you ask for right! 

Our first Christmas Card!

So I must say I do love me some Shutterfly! With the wonderful deal they had right before Christmas I was able to get our first Christmas card for free! Since I didn't need 50 free cards I actually ordered two different cards! So those of you who got them can now see which one you didn't get! ;) Don't worry there was no favorites as to who got what...I just picked them at random!

Splendid Tree Christmas Card

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And here is the other card!

Pine Cone Toile Christmas Card

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Another great thing about Shutterfly is that if you share your project like this and post it on your blog you will be able to get a $25 gift card to Shutterfly! I think I will be using it to make a photo book from our honeymoon to Hawaii!!