Happy New Year's Eve...

I wanted to wish everyone a happy and safe new year's eve! We will be welcoming 2009 as a married couple and are loving just having the night together! We don't have any big plans, just champagne and rice krispy treats...they go together right =) 2008 has been such a good year for us (not the world so much...but us hehe). Here are some of my most memorable times in 2008... in no particular order...

1) Us getting married of course!!! This was my far the best day of my entire life (so cliche)! I could not have asked for anything more perfect! I was so ready to marry my very best friend and to start our lives together! This is definitely the most memorable time in 2008!

2) Our mini-moon to Chateau Elan! We had a lot of fun spending a few days winding down after all the wedding excitement, with couple massages, golf, shopping, and delicious meals! We can't wait for our Honeymoon in March!!

3) Our NWeds retreat to Gatlinburg! This was our first retreat as a married couple! This was such an eye-opening experience for us and we had such an incredible time! We love our NWeds group and this trip allowed us to get closer with several of the couples from our group!

4) Bought our first house!!! This was SO exciting for us! We loved being first-time homeowners and buying all the fun stuff to make the house our home!

5) Our first married Christmas! We loved decorating our house and spending time with both families. It was also nice making our own traditions being able to come home and celebrate together!

6) Welcoming our new niece to the family! My brother's daughter, Eva, was born March 2008! She has been such a blessing to the entire family! I can't wait to meet her new brother in 2009!

7) Celebrating our other niece's first birthday! It's crazy that she's already almost two! She's at such a fun stage and we love watching her grow-up and show off all of her cute new skills!

8)We added to our own little family! We got Jackson in January and Chance in November! They are our two babies...seriously...they are our kids lol!

9) We had a fun July 4th celebrating with both families in Myrtle Beach! It was such fun vacationing with everyone!

and 10) Finding our new church and teaching Sunday school! We cannot express how thankful we are for finding North Metro! It has led us to such a beautiful spiritual path that we continue to walk each day together! Our relationship is richer, our individual lives are richer, and overall we so much happier after placing God in the center of our relationship and lives!

Have a GREAT 2009 everyone!!!

My first sewing creation...

As I mentioned in my smilebox, Greg's parents gave me a sewing machine for Christmas and Katie and Saunders gave me an awesome sewing tool kit with several cute fabrics! I have never sewn with a sewing machine before and am going to need lots of lessons from Katie! However, I decided I would try it out on my own first. Someone had posted the measurements for this purse online and I thought it looked easy enough! So...2 hours later, here is my first sewing creation! It's far from perfect and I wasn't quite sure how to end the straps, but I did it nonetheless! I hope to be making pillow case dresses soon!

Glawson Christmas...

We ended our celebration with the Glawson Christmas. We had a great time! Here are some pics of the night!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Hatley Christmas...

There are too many pics to post so I made a smilebox...hope this works!!!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Pictures for my previous post...

Gregory just after walking in...


Eva and Ashlynn


The men


Me and my Siesta!


Coloring time (Ashlynn got the coolest gifts)!


Mom..listening downstairs


Chance just relaxing...


The producer...


The dancer... crazy


The singer...slightly crazy

Christmas festivities part 1...

Last night we arrived in NC at my aunt's house for Christmas with my mom's side of the family. We had a great time seeing everyone and enjoyed showing Chance off to everyone (Jackson is in GA with the grandparents). I loved seeing Eva of course but also my cousin Ashlynn who is 5 and SO much fun! We ate a yummy meal and then played "Dirty Santa." Greg got made fun of for being such a sweet husband and getting the gift I wanted...a pink rhinestone mouse with a pink striped mouse...love it (now, so you know, I TOLD him to get the Starbucks gift that we brought for himself...he just chose to get the mouse on his own)! We also got Mamma Mia! It was fun to watch everyone fight over gifts and strategically steal gifts from others! Nothing like good family fun hehe =) We stayed for a while just chatting and catching up! Then we went to my grandmother's a few minutes to say hey and drop presents off, then it was off to Raleigh to stay with my parents. Today Greg slept in until I woke him up at 11 AM!!! Everyone knows that Greg does NOT sleep in, so I wanted to check to make sure he was still alive!! Then we went with my mom to meet my dad for lunch. Afterwards, Greg treated the three of us to pedicures...sooo fun and relaxing! Then we went to the grocery store, went home and recorded some songs with Greg and my dad! We're about to eat Greg's favorite...mom's chicken and dumplins...which I can't make lol! I'll post pics later...for some reason it's not letting me load pics!

Christmas with Karis...

Today was the last time I would see Karis (the little girl I nanny) until after Christmas, so I brought her presents for her to open. I gave her the outfit she is wearing (she insisted on putting it on right away)and a giant coloring book and tiny markers. She's really into coloring lately so I thought this would be a fun gift for her and she seemed to love it! It was such fun seeing her get excited about opening the gifts and then immediately wanting to put them to use! We had lots of fun coloring and showing off her skills! She would color and then say "Look at me JooJoo (apparently, that's my name with the short crowd lol), look at me!!!"...so cute!! After a little coloring, we went to library time which was fun. It was the last one until mid-January and there were lots of kids there, which I love! I love to see how everyone has grown since the summer and to watch the kids really start to get involved! It always amazes me to watch Karis do the steps and sing along with all of the songs and rhymes, 1) because it's crazy that she remembers the words (these aren't songs we normally sing) and 2) because I feel like she should still be crawling, not running around and actually singing all the words to songs and telling me "NO WAY JooJoo!" when I ask her to do something...haha! But it's days like today that make me realize how awesome my job is and how lucky I am to be able to work with the Bartons! I LOVE Karis and I cannot wait for Baby Barton #2 (the sex and name are still secret to some) to get here so I can love them just as much! Angie and Justin are pretty cool too...since they had the kids hehe!! I'll probably go into some sort of depression when I have to stop keeping her and actually begin my career...how sad lol!! But hopefully not too long after that I'll have my own...and then I can color all that I want haha! After library time, we ran by Michael's the get some craft stuff so that we could make a fun ornament for her mom and dad! She was getting really tired so I was worried she wouldn't be in the mood to participate and I wouldn't get it done before Angie got home, but she stayed awake and made her cute little reindeer ornament! It was SUPER easy and it looks really cute (even if we forgot the ears)! But I love crafts like these because it's a way save those tiny hand and footprints! Plus, half the fun of having kids is getting to save all of their cute little artwork! But anyhoo, here are some pictures of Karis putting her ornament together!

The concentration begins...

Glueing is serious business

Choose a nose!

Admiring her work!

"Look at me JooJoo!"

Oh what a feelin'!

And now back to more important things...

N-Weds Christmas Party...

Last night was our N-Weds Christmas party which was held at one of our couples' house. They actually live in a neighborhood we had looked at when we were house-hunting, but it is so far away from Greg's work we didn't pursue it. But it's a great neighborhood with tons of cute houses! There were about 34 people there and several new couples which was nice! I'm looking forward to making new friendships with the new people! Although, I was pretty doped up on cold meds, so they may think I was just some crazy girl that some poor guy felt sorry for and had to marry...haha! We had tons of delicious food, which we all joked about finally getting to use our wedding gift cookware and serving dishes! After we all ate and talked for a while, we played "Dirty Santa" with Christmas ornaments. It was a ton of fun, even though every time Greg and I got an ornament, people would always steal it (what can I say, we know good wrapping when we see it)! Eventually, we got to keep an ornament which we were both happy with, it was a heavy, amber colored glass ball which goes fairly well with the rest of our tree's color scheme! After the game, we all listened to Greg (the leader) read the Christmas story from Luke 2 and did a quick lesson on the real reason for Christmas and how this is the time of year we generally focus on how unimaginably great God's love for us his. Afterwards, we wrapped up with praying over a couple that is getting married this weekend and then heading home! It was a great time and I look forward to starting back with everyone in January. Luckily we get to see a few couples on Thursday for another bowling night! Can't wait!

One of the new couples that we really hit it off with, Stephanie and Randy (she's an early childhood major, he's in IT...lol)


Our table mates...the couple on the left is getting married this weekend, the one on the right was new!


About to start the ornament mayhem!


Kristin (the declared Queen of Christmas =)) is probably laughing at someone who thinks their ornament is safe...no one is safe in this game...lol


Greg reading the Christmas story...well, right before. Apparently something was hilarious based on Barbara and Brandi's faces!


***On a side note, my oh so helpful hubby just fixed my blog settings so that I can finally see the pics I post!! Before, I could only upload them in text...which made NaBloPoMo a pain!...thanks Gregory =)

Busy Friday...

So, I left my purse in Canton at work so I didn't have my camera with me all night...BOOO! Which stinks because it was a busy but fun night! As soon as we got off work we headed to Cartersville to meet Cindy, Thomas, Katie, Saunders, and Katie Anne for dinner at Cracker Barrel. I loved hearing KA tell us all of her colors, she's REALLY great at it and it's fun to see her show it off! After being harassed by Katie about the Twilight series (which I offered for her to borrow SEVERAL times and she said no...against my great judgement lol), we all ate some yummy country cookin'! After dinner, we went back to Kennesaw and went bowling with a couple from NWeds. We had a GREAT time, however, that probably wasn't the smartest of ideas since I am sick, and this morning I can DEFINITELY tell that wasn't the best of ideas...but it was fun anyway! I am not one known to stay up really late, so Joy (the other girl) who is a Kindergarten teacher, said we both actually feel like adults, staying up past 10 and all =) After bowling (terribly...besides Jeremy, who doubled our scores...and Greg did much better than me too...and I so did Joy, so really, it was just me that was terrible), we got home around midnight and fell into bed! I'm still tired this morning, but probably just from not being able to breathe! Now, I'm off to Canton to pick up my purse (lame) then to run some errands for Christmas wrapping!! Fun fun!

Gatlinburg Retreat...

We are home from our first marriage retreat! It was AWESOME to say the least! We keep saying how badly we wish the weekend wasn't over! We went to Gatlinburg with some of the married couples from our N-Weds group. We didn't get in until about midnight but all stayed up talking until about 2a.m. (which is a rarity for me)! We woke up and ate a yummy breakfast and then had our first 4 lessons. The lessons were 15-20 min segments from the iMarriage seminar and then we went off by ourselves as a couple and discussed 5-6 questions, then came back together as a large group and repeated the process. For those of you who have not heard of iMarriage, it is FANTASTIC! It discusses how a big "I" marriage can never work, you must put your spouse first (before yourself, not God) and be a direct reflection of God's love and grace to and for your spouse. This was such a large concept for all of us to grasp. It seems simple but actually thinking about God putting you here to show all of His love and grace, and all of your gratitude that you have towards him to your spouse, is easier said than done! After our last morning session, we ate some delicious soups for lunch, and then we headed out to town for a walk around Gatlinburg. It was FREEEZING!! We had a great time walking around with Kristin and Tyler and then decided to split ways while we went on the skylift and they went to the Ripley's museum. Okay, Skylift while it is FREEZING...not such a good idea! But fun anyway! After we were all too cold to keep walking, we headed back to the house to get started on dinner. Greg and I and another couple had to make dinner for Saturday night. So I brought lasagna and brownies and they brought the salad and garlic bread. The ovens were a little slow so I was worried the lasagnas would burn (they were not getting done in the middle) but everything turned out okay in the end =) After dinner, we played a pretty interesting game called "Win As Much As You Can" it's too detailed to explain, but it was a lot of fun watching everyone sabotage the other teams because no one understood that we were SUPPOSED to be benefiting everyone...oh well! Then we split into gender groups, guys in one house, girls in the other, this was one of my favorite times and Greg agreed. It was nice to hear some similar situations going on with other couples so that we could all chip in our own advice or take away great advice from others. After almost an hour and a half of that, we head back to the guys house AND THEY WERE STILL TALKING...we were all SURE they'd be watching football but apparently they needed it too! We all ate some brownies a la mode then sat around in the living room just chatting until well past midnight! Sunday was breakfast, lesson, and leaving...so sad! We seriously had such an awesome time with everyone! And the discussions that we were able to have from the questions given and the topics mentioned in the seminar were incredible. We are so incredibly blessed to have found this church so that we can be in a group like this. Over lunch we talked about how sad it was that we only have a year and a half left before we "graduate" ...how sad!! But anyhoo...I am done with finals YAAAAAY! And now I get to start on some new books =) So I am off to cuddle up in bed and read! Here are some pics of all the fun! More will be on facebook.


In the Skylift...


Shopping...




Me and Kristin in "God's Corner" hehe


Right before a lesson...with Greg and Barbara (the leaders)


Where we stayed, yes, it was slightly creepy.


***And for those wondering, these weren't taken with the new camera, we have to get a case for it first before we take it anywhere***

Such a sad day...

I finished the series yesterday! I was literally almost in tears because it was over. This was honestly one of the BEST series I've EVER read! I read this last book in about 2 days and the first three went by just as fast! I told Greg I was probably going to re-read them later because I just don't want it to be over...so lame I know! But seriously, if you have not read them..DO IT!! I'm lending books 2-4 to a friend from N-Weds, however, Twilight (the first book) is up for grabs! But anyhoo...I'm going to go mourn some more while I pack up for Gatlinburg! We're going with our N-Weds group for a Marriage Retreat. I'm SO excited!! 1) Because we are married and can do that now and 2) Because things have been SOOOOOO busy lately..like, you have NO idea how busy, so it'll be nice to get away and take time out to just focus on our marriage, God, and each other. Plus, I haven't been to Gatlinburg in YEARS so it'll be fun seeing it all decorated for Christmas! AND we got our new camera this week so hopefully we can take some great pics! But anyhoo...off to pack =)

Procrastination Station...

My living room! Which is where I am...procrastinating on all my final work. I CANNOT THINK ANYMORE!!!... say a little prayer...3 more pages and one more essay!! WHEW!!!

WOOHOOO...

Day 30

A little badge of honor from Katie


NaBloPoMo is finally OVER! Don't get me wrong, a little competition is always fun and I am always up for the challenge! However, it was tough considering I don't have any kids besides the ones I nanny for, and it'd be kind of creepy to take tons of pics and post of them every day haha! I will still continue to blog often, but with finals this week...not TOO often! But with all the holidays and family events around the corner, I'll have plenty of blogging material! I hope you've enjoyed reading all the NaBloPoMo posts! Now I'm off to write more essays...booo!!