Goodbye 2010....Hello 2011

This was our 2010.....

January

Hiked Diamond Head one last time!

(I hate to admit it, but I miss that place)

Hawaii was the best 4 years of our lives and we cherish every friendship,

experience, tradition, and memory.

We said goodbye to wonderful friends, but think of them everyday....

February

Bought our first home

Experienced our first Colorado snow!

March

Celebrated Hubby's birthday!

April

We took our first road trip to PA!

Visited my favorite sister-in-law, mother-in-law, and father-in-law

May

Finally discovered my beloved frozen yogurt

(Nothing compared to Hawaii's version of course)

June/July

Our families came to visit

(I don't have any pictures from my parents' visit) :(

August

Met some wonderful friends from church

Joined a family....

Wonderful co-workers!

September
We went to our first PBR event!

Celebrated our 5th Anniversary!October

Dressed up for Halloween and hung out with awesome friends

Got a new family member....Buck!
Ran (walked, fell, and completed) a 5k together!

November/December

Celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas with wonderful friends!

This year has been wonderful! We have experienced so much from leaving wonderful friends to meeting new ones. The only thing we both wish we were able to do more of was travel. We planned a trip back home to South Carolina that was cancelled for a few reasons. So, we hope 2011 allows us to visit our many many many family and friends back east.

This year we also began additional fertility treatments. We are praying for a 2011 baby!

I hope everyone has a wonderful, safe, blessed, and fulfilling 2011!

Christmas 2010

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! I know we did....

This year we had to stay home in Colorado instead of going home to visit family, but it was the best decision for us. We have wonderful friends and a church family that we never felt alone. The secret is out, we opened our presents days before Christmas. I kept a special one for Jeff to open on Christmas from Santa and of course the pups opened their gifts as well. We were so blessed this year that we decided to have a low key Christmas (as far as gifts go) because we just moved across the country, bought our first home, and experienced many medical issues with one of the dogs so a low key gift exchange was in the books. I'll post about my special gift later from Jeff.

Christmas Eve we watched a Christmas movie in our new theatre upstairs (more to come on that) in our holiday pajamas (well, just me...not Jeff). It was nice to cuddle up to Jeff for the second year in a row on Christmas night. I feel so blessed to have another year with him HERE and not overseas. I just pray next year will be the same.

Christmas Eve 2010

Christmas morning I made homemade french toast sticks and we opened our gifts from our families. They were so good to us this year. I wish we could have gone home, but maybe next year they will all come to us :) hint hint.

After we ate and opened gifts we went over to Gary & Annie's for a huge breakfast. I made 55 french toast sticks and could not believe there were leftovers.

Christmas Eve we had some great friends over for food and games. I made lots of goodies and reallllly enjoyed our company. For your enjoyment, here are a few pictures that will make you laugh.

You wouldn't believe it but this man is our preacher, but don't worry Southwest members...he won't quite his day job...even though sometimes he might think he has potential in the acting/singing/comedian field.

Here are a few pictures of our cherades game. The only picture I did not get was Jamal (sorry J) I promise next time I'll get ya.
The photo below is the guys' team realizing they lost to the girls!

Overall, it was alot of fun. I enjoyed spending time with this family...and new friends. I hope that next year brings us just as much joy as well as a special joy :)

Well, my weekend went very slowly due to the anticipation of hubby coming home today. My day today started off with me waking up and realizing how much I hated being Colorado (just for the moment). I have neighbors who whine and complain about my dogs, don't bother to wave, and really need to move to retirement homes. I spent the morning cleaning and preparing for hubby to get home, but at the same time wishing we were still in Hawaii; surrounded by great friends, beautiful sunshine, and beaches. After a big pity party for myself, I realized that I am very thankful for our Colorado experiences. We have a great church family that I wouldn't change for the world, a job & team I love, wonderful friends (and more to come), and a foundation to finally begin a family with.

So, after finally getting my honey home today and settling in to our normal routines I am also thankful to be mixing a little bit of this......

and this.....

to make my famous PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE.

Thanks to some of our wonderful church friends we will not be spending Thanksgiving alone. I will be preparing the cheesecake and my mom's famous sausage cheeseballs so we have a little bit of our tradition at their family dinner.

This weekend we are going to watch the local parade, cut down our christmas tree, and take some much needed holiday pictures up in the mountains :)

I hope everyone has a very very blessed Thanksgiving and creates lots of memories this year.

Glitter, Ribbon, Fake Snow Vomit

It snowed today on the way to church....briefly and it melted before it touched the ground. But, there's nothing better than snowflakes and a peppermint mocha to get me in the decorating mood. It's been a few days of pulling out boxes, unwrapping ornaments, and making lots of bows. Here are a few photos of what I've done.....so far. We still have 2 boxes left that I have not even touched yet and we (well, Jeff) have yet to touch the outside yet. I can't wait for him to come home so he can get in the Christmas mood too.

Our coffee table....don't mind the boring couch. I've yet to pull out all our Holiday pillows.

My favorite part of the kitchen decor....I love the little santa on the stove...it's probably hard to see, but he's a cook with a mixing bowl :)
This shelf is a working progress.

Still waiting for some more inspiration for the counter.

I'm working on Christmas curtains for the very plain window....please do not mind the sink full of dirty dishes....sure wish I had a dish fairy.

My FAVORITE part of the living room so far. The gold tree is a card holder....looking forward to all the family cards we'll be recieving this year.

The downstairs bathroom....I definately need more on the back of the toilet and the counter.

I got this plant from someone at church and it's just thriving, I'm so proud of myself for keeping it alive....I'm horrible at this. The tree on the table I bought after Christmas last year in Hawaii for $.25 and the "Hope" ornament means alot to me....many of you know why.

Bathroom corner

Thinking I need some toule for this table....hmmm, I'll be going to Hobby Lobby soon.

Our entertainment center.....it seriously needs help. I need glitz and glitter!

Stay tuned....for more decor vomit!

Give Thanks

Today I helped decorate for our church's Holiday dinner. It turned out gorgeous. We decorated each table with a hurricane candle and cute little pumpkins. It's going to be beautiful with the lights low and the candles lit.

Then, I baked two cakes for tonight. They are chocolate cake with pumpkin cream cheese icing and reese's for fun :)

Next week, I'll be all finished decorating the inside of the house for Christmas so all we have left to do when hubby gets home is the outside.

It's also beginning to feel alot like Christmas around here. It briefly snowed on Friday at work, but nothing in Pueblo yet. Today at noon it was 40 degrees outside and usually between 19-23 degreees in the morning on my way to work.

Speaking of work, only one full working week until Thanksgiving vacation. We're staying home this year, but celebrating with some very special friends.

For those of you wondering (Anna), Christmas is still up in the air. This has been a tough year financially due to moving, buying a house, buying a new car, and paying off credit cards. I think we'll take it easy and just celebrate the true meaning of Christmas rather than spoil eachother with gifts....although, I did hint for some cute pearl earrings :)

I hope everyone has a blessed Thanskgiving and remember in to give thanks in everything.

Today was the first day of fall....in MY house. I have a long weekend...thanks to the holiday weekend and I thought I could spend it cleaning and decorating for our first FALL season....(we didn't get fall, winter, or much of a spring in Hawaii).

The hubby is out today dove hunting and scouting for his upcoming Elk adventure in a few weeks. So, I have the whole day to myself to do this.... Put my subtle fall decorations on the shelves in the living room.

I'm thinking of getting some nicer fall colors leaves and placing them in the kitchen on top of the cabinets and maybe a few over the large windows as well.

This little guy will be our guest for the next few weeks until Halloween is over. We don't really celebrate Halloween, but we love to decorate so an oh-so-scary ghost in the living room isn't too much of bad taste.

I whipped up a table runner today for the entry way table and the dining room table. It took less than 5 minutes and looks so much better than the gold one I usually have there. I still haven't quite finished decorating this table yet, but for now it's cute. I plan to add a large fall colored floral arrangement here....just as soon as I make my way to Hobby Lobby again.

Here is the center piece for the dining room table. I also plan to add to this table as well. That's on the hobby lobby list as well. :)

Here's a view of the table runner I made today for the dining room table as well. I think I may be making a new table runner for the Christmas season. This year I have way more patience and talent than I did last year. (The one I made last year probably fell apart in the moving process.)

My big project is to find something for our coffee table. It's so boring right now. I hope to find something...where else, but Hobby Lobby!
This was my project this afternoon when I found myself running out of things to unwrap and place on shelves. I am making a sign for our front door. I haven't decided what it will say yet, but I'm thinking "Welcome to the Strayer's"....boy that's so original.
In even more exciting news, my wonderful husband and I celebrate 5 years of marriage this past Thursday. We had a very low key day. After work we came home and discussed whether we should go to a movie, dinner, and then a walk with the dogs. But, we did none of that. Instead we rode the motorcycle down a very long, very straight road (which I was thankful for, I hate the turns) and watched the sun fall behind the horizon as we traveled in the cool breeze (sounds so romantic doesn't it?) It was so romantic other than the bugs smacking in to my helmet and the annoying sweat dripping down my forehead from that hot hot helmet ;) We stopped at a very classy restaurant known as Wen.dy's. Then, we came home and played with the dogs until it was time to go to bed. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

I also have not shared the best news yet! Jeff was baptized last Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at our church. It was the best celebration we've ever experienced together. I can honestly say since he was baptized he has changed so much. We now look forward to doing bible studies together and joining our brothers and sisters on Sundays and Wednesday. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful church family that has been so welcoming, loving, and supportive since we first visited in February.