HOME!!!

It looks like we will officially be getting a house! Ryan and I are super excited, and we have gone through all the bank stuff and signed the initial paperwork at the bank last Monday.

We also had inspections done this week!


Super excited about all of this but just wanted to get it out there!

Christmas Presents!

So, 2010 Christmas. This is the first year that Ryan and I have lived together for Christmas. So after doing all our rounds and heading back home with gifts the two of us had a big pile.

This is the stuff from my parents and grandparents house. Lots of goodies that I will spend the rest of the week going through, sorting and putting away.

All the stuff from Ryan's parent's house. More goodies to sort through and put away.


And when you put it all together..... We have a ton of stuff!!!!

We got a welcome mat from my parents for out first house present! More to come on that.

I got lots of quilting stuff that I will be putting to good use I just need to find some time.

I got this cute bag from my mom with the black lab on the front.

Another item for the new house. A Black Lab Christmas tree ornament for our Christmas tree!

A new Cookbook from my parents.

Lots of kitchen goodies. These are already packed away in a box labeled Kitchen for the new house!

I got a lot more things but these were just some I was able to get a snap of before they went into the big pile. I should probably start putting things away but isn't that why I have the entire week off, so I can procrastinate and wait till the last day to put them away!

Influential People

Ryan and I have many influential people in our lives. We enjoy quality time with these many people who have such a positive influence in our lives.

My grandmother and grandfather. They adore Ryan and have made him feel very much a part of the family. They will have been married 50 years on the day that we will be getting married. We have decided to share this special day with them as they have been such a huge part of my life and such a large part of what we do every day.

My parents are such a wonderful role model. Ryan and I have watched my parents over the time we have been together and have seen the many good attributes. Ryan and I threw my parents a 30th anniversary party this past summer.






Ryan's parents have helped us out in many ways. They are great to see and have by our sides. They have taught us a lot about how we can help our own relationship.






My cousin Cindy and her boyfriend Jim. They have both been through a lot and they have now come together and their relationship continues to grow.






Dan and Lynda, these people are great family friends and show Ryan and I what it is to have great friends that we spend a lot of time with.

There are definite advantages of having influential people in our lives. It is always good to see people around us that mean so much to us and that we get to share and spend some much time with. It is great to see such people that have such great relationships that also influence our relationships.

Two Happy Campers!!!

We have two happy campers this morning in our house. When we wake up and the snow is coming down so beautifully we can't help but be happy.

Mind you we did just buy a new snowmobile and a new trailer! We should be happy about getting snow!

It's off to the last day of work before a week and a half vacation. I will be sitting at my desk watching the lovely snow falling outside today!

Great to have you by my side!

The title says it all. This person is the most wonderful person to have by my side through all the difficult times he is always there and I wouldn't want it any other way. I just had to post something about how thankful I am to have such a wonderful person to stand by my side through all this!

I love him VERY much and can't wait to spend many more years by his side.

Presents

How is it that we discuss that we weren't' going to buy each other Christmas presents yet there are Christmas presents under the tree from Ryan to me and from me to Ryan.  Why when we said we weren't going to do presents we still have presents under the tree.  

Not really sure how this ends up happening.  We wanted to save money to spend on a house now that we are looking at buying a house.  I want to have all the money we can to spend on a house rather than buying gifts for each other.  Our gift to each other should be things for a house.  

We will in turn switch the gifts that we have already purchased.  We will open them Christmas morning which will be our first Christmas together.  

We are hoping for one big Christmas present together for the both of us.  Although it will cost us a lot of money and will require a lot of years and hard work.  We both want a house for Christmas.  Will we have a house under contract or not?

O Christmas Tree!

This is the first year that Ryan and I have lived together for Christmas. So, it is also the first year that we together will have a Christmas tree. In a prior post you saw the Christmas trees tied up tight in the garage. Well.......It's up!

And, it has lights on it.

And decorations!

This is 2010 The first Christmas tree Ryan and I have together! It is beautiful and we enjoy seeing it when we walk by it many times is a day.

It now also had presents under it!

Quote of the day!

"Age is simply a matter of mind.  If you don't mind, it doesn't matter"

Holidays!

With everything comming up this month I am excited that things are looking great.  On Saturday Ryan and I went out to the tree farm and scoped out some trees.  We picked out 3 trees and had them cut and wrapped.  We got one for our house, one for my parents, and one for my grandparents.  I will probably put my grandparents tree up Thursday evening and mine up Friday.  

But, for now mine and my parents are sitting in my garage to let the snow melt and to help the tree defrost.  So every time I walk into the breeze way I get the wonderful smell of these trees that are right outside the breezway door.  I love the holidays but I have also been trying to find many things to keep me distracted during the holiday season.  

I was slightly slow this year on getting the advent calendar ready.  I personally have never had an advent calendar in my house.  Last year after Christmas I decided I wanted to make this project to have for when I have kids.  So this year now that Ryan and I are living together I decided that I would fill it.  

Ryan had an advent calendar while he was growing up so i thought it was perfect for me to fill it this year for him.  I will admit I was a little slow and got some of it stuffed by December 1st but am sad to admit that I didn't finish stuffing it until Saturday the 4th.  

Ryan was fine with that though because candy is candy in his opinion and as long as he gets candy he is all set!

Houses

Houses, Houses, Houses!!!

This has been the current focus of many of mine and Ryan's last couple of weeks.  We have decided that with the wedding and all we are not in a complete rush to buy and move into a house but we have talked a lot about weather the time is right.  The interest rates are low, we can afford the payments with only one income, we have no children but some day we may want to have children and we want to be able to provide a house for them.

We had previously put an offer in on a piece of property in the next town over.  The offer was not accepted.  The property was wonderful but the house needed a lot of work and it would require us to put a lot of time into the building and a large addition.  

We started looking at other properties we have previewed many other houses and looked into land and building opportunities.  We are weighing all of our options.  It is a long hard process that has a lot of stress involved and a lot of patience.  I am very busy with work right now and I am very happy to have the help of my parents while going through all of this.  I am able to get my work done and get through the paperwork for my investigations.  

We will see how things go and what will transpire.  

Cake Cake Cake!!!!

So yes, we have had our cake testing and we enjoyed it completely. We met the pastry chef and loved what we tasted so we booked him right away. Knowing that we need this for the July 4th weekend we wanted to be sure that we would not loose out on this opportunity. This is one more thing I can check off my list of to-do's! I am enjoying checking things of my list of to-do.

Look at all those different options. Samples of three of everything, one for mom. Even though I am not thinking mom got any of her share.

We enjoyed trying the fillings first. I'm not sure on the fillings though think I just like the frostings better!

Here is my "sweet tooth hubby" He enjoyed this experience fully. He loves sweets and testing all these different sweets just made him so happy!

We did lots of laughing, lots of smiling, lots of fun! This is about my favorite picture. We have such a look in our eyes as we look at each other!

Mom caught Ryan with his work brain on. He was checking out the building, HEY buddy! Back to making cake decisions here!

Ahhhhh.....

One more thing off my checklist,

now I sit and double check my list

and

see what I can work on next

What will be the next to be crossed

off?