Sleepy Heads

Just thought I'd share this photo because I find it pretty hilarious! This is how I found Ryan and two of our "girls" when I got out of my shower this morning. So sleepy! No one was ready for the week to start!

A few more Christmas photos...

Christmas 2008

We had a wonderful Christmas this year in our new home! It was so memorable to put up our tree, spend a lovely Christmas Eve meal with family and then wake up Christmas morning and open presents in our own home for once (usually we're waking up with family and in our 4 Christmases together, we have yet to have a Christmas morning of our own). We spent the rest of our Christmas day traveling to both families. We enjoyed lunch with the Rigby side and then headed over to the Smith side for dinner and gifts with my niece and nephew. What a blessed day we had! As for gifts, our favorites were....my KitchenAid (I've been wanting one for years) and for Ryan it was a new pair of fleece comfy pants from Eddie Bauer (the only place with pants long enough for my giant!!) We also got a new waffle iron, which was much needed since our last one died, and Ryan got a great jigsaw from my parents which he immediately came home and started using!

We missed all of our Florida family, but we hear that everyone had a great day and for that we are thankful! On to another New Year now with so many excellent and exciting things to come! Stay tuned for our "year in review" post!

P.S. The Vera Bradley bag was a huge hit with my sister...I'm so happy she was thrilled! I thought I would get a few tears, but no such luck. Lynee - you still win out on making people cry with their gifts this year!

Enough is enough

We fully understand as Upstate NY'ers that winter is never going to be easy. However, since Saturday, we have gotten nearly 2 feet of snow...and yes, it's STILL snowing outside. These are a few pictures from early on in the storm (one of many shoveling attempts!). We've had enough, so if anyone in a warm climate has an extra room, we're moving in!! Also, we're taking donations for our snowblower fund :-)

P.S. If anyone is wondering, you should not drive a Camaro in a snowstorm. Ryan barely made it up the hill into our driveway. Once he finally did, it was just far enough inside the driveway so the plow wouldn't hit it!

SEC CHAMPS!

The Gators have prevailed yet again! The big SEC Championship game against Alabama was tonight, and it was an amazing game! Since we've been married, Ryan has turned me into a huge ators fan and we and now watch the games almost religiously. We've always worn our Gators gear on game day and today we decided that it was Phoebe's turn!! We took an older shirt that doesn't fit me anymore and put it on our sweet puppy. She was so annoyed! You can see the look in her eyes that says "What are these people doing to me?". She has no idea that she's in for the shirt during every game now!! Haha! GO GATORS!

NYC

On Friday, I traveled to NYC for a business meeting with one of my hotel accounts, Morgan's Hotel Group (www.morganshotelgroup.com). Morgan's is a luxury boutique hotel company that sells experience and atmosphere, rather than rooms. They day was amazing and the properties I visited were unbelievable. My drive down to the Croton-Harmon station was dry, which I was very thankful for because they were calling for lots of snow. I then enjoyed a relaxing train ride into Manhattan's Penn Station. It was great to see the city decorated for the holidays and my meeting went very well. Overall it was a successful trip, albeit one whirlwind of day! I can't wait to go back again!

Our Tree!

This is our first tree in the house...very exciting!!

Say It Ain't Snow

It's finally here...the much-dreaded snow season!! Boo!! We're currently under a lake effect warning for the next three, yes three, days! This is just the start of what's sure to be a very long, cold and snowy weekend. Phoebe is really enjoying the fluffy stuff and can't stop running around in it! She also loves to eat the snow and get her nose right into it. It really is quite amusing (except the part about one of us always having to stand outside in the snow with her when she wants to go out).

And the winners are...

Well, barring any "special order" glitches...the paisley print wins out for the panel curtains and we will use the striped fabric for our accent pillows!! Thanks everyone for helping us make up our mind!!

more house stuff...

Today we rolled out the carpet in our dressing room/closet. It's a berber and in excellent shape (thank you to the previous homeowner who just left it here, brand new, still in plastic!). We are very excited to put it down! The room is coming together nicely - walls are almost done being painted, the ceiling is done, light fixture is in and gorgeous (see night/day photos), and the roman shades for the windows arrived this week. So far only one has been installed "temporarily" because I'm still trying to choose fabrics for the overlaying panels as well as window seat cushions and decorative pillows. Lots to do...but we're getting there! I'll post some of the fabrics I'm choosing from...I need help deciding!

Decorating - Master Bedroom

As you know, we've been working very hard on turning our house into a home. Little by little we are completing projects, and things are really starting to come together. This weekend I've focused my attention on sewing projects (since my sweet mother-in-law is soon to be wintering in Florida and I will not have access to her amazing talents for a while!). Here are the fabrics I've chosen for our bedroom window treatments. I'm so excited - they're beautiful and I can't wait to see the room come together. The wall color is "Northern Sky" from the Pottery Barn collection and it couldn't match more perfectly with the blue in my fabric choice. The pattern we'll be using is the top right corner...the accent valance will be the paisley pattern and the shade will be the stripes with cream ribbon ties. I'll post some photos when the finished product is here!

Dressed to Impress

Today Phoebe got her first article of clothing...a sporty pink hoodie!! She's definitely going to need it now that the cold weather is setting in. She looks adorable and I don't think we're going to be able to get it off of her...she really likes it!

Here are some photos of recent house work. We've got the hardware on the cabinets, freshly painted stairway and the much-needed rehupolstered chairs! These chairs have been in the family much too long without a facelift, so I decided it was time. They look (and feel) so much more clean and crisp! I've found that I've had lots of "extra" time on my hands with Ryan in Houston. He commented to me before he left that he should go away more often as it seems to motivate me to work on our projects!

Construction Update

The work continues...this past weekend we focused on getting some of the door trim replaced because the people who lived here before us had apparently never heard of a level. Everything is off by just the slightest bit, but it's enough to drive you crazy! Ryan worked very hard on his projects and I'm so thankful that he's handy!

Fall Decorating

This past Tuesday, Ryan and I took the day off to spend some quality time together before he leaves for Houston. We ended up working on the house most of the day, but did make it out to Tim's Pumpkin Patch to pick up some pumpkins, corn stalks and mums to decorate the outside of the house with! It was lots of fun. Even Phoebe went and had a great time! I'm hoping that the decorations will distract people from focusing on the paint job that our house desperately requires!

Habitat for Humanity

Each year, The Hartford allows their employees to take a free day for volunteer work. This year, I participated in the Habitat for Humanity build here in Syracuse. There are so many new HFH homes going up in the "bad" sections of the city and it seems to be a real success. I was very happy to participate and hopefully my hard work will have made a difference in someone's life. My only gripe...next year I'm volunteering in the summer so it's not 50 and rainy and muddy!! I suppose, however, it isn't fair of me to complain since I had a nice hot shower and warm home to return to at the end of the day! I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to do a build with this great Christian organization.

Fun Times

Tonight we have the great pleasure of having our first overnight guests...Kalli and Luke!! We had these big plans to do late night mini-golf, but today's forecast was looking grim. It poured most of the day, but around 7:30pm we noticed that the rain had stopped and the chill was leaving the air. We took advantage of the opportunity and hit the putt-putt course!! We had a great time! The game started out serious and then around the 8th hole or so, we turned it into a crazy game and just goofed off!!

Kalli and Luke are here!!

We are so excited that Kalli and Luke are here visiting this week!! We spent the evening hanging out at Grammy & Poppy's playing with the puppy, shooting hoops and just enjoying the beautiful weather! We're really looking forward to the kids coming to spend the night Friday and so thankful that Jason and Lynee sent the kids up to spend some time with us!

Playing with Poppy

Napping

My new favorite place to sleep...