Newness!

Just a few new things we've gotten in the past week!! A brand new washer and dryer!!!! I love my little laundry room, and we just put up some cabinets above the washer and dryer too, it's perfect ;) We also finally got the new car for the year!! It's not quite the little speedster that the GTI was, but it fits the dogs and all our outdoor gear in it a lot better!! We also got some new picture ledges to show off some of our fabulous wedding pictures. Our house is still seriously lacking in decorations, but we're getting there. Finally, after taking down all of our Christmas decorations I decided that out front door was far too bear, so I whipped up a wreath for it. It's still a work in progress, but definitely better than nothing. I can't wait for more newness that this house brings!

Snow Day!

Today was our first official snow day! Thank goodness work got shut down because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to get my car out of it's spot without hurting several other cars on the street. Those giant hills in Seattle are killer with snow all over them! It's crazy watching the news showing people actually trying to maneuver the hills with little success. So instead we spent the day in Queen Anne, mostly bundled up in the house but we did take Ben for a long walk around the hill. He had lots of fun playing in the snow.

With the pretty snow Ryan also got to get a few awesome shots of one of his houses that is finishing up right now.

We like to Party!

We had our first party in the house this weekend! It was actually a belated birthday party for me. Since we were having people over it was good motivation to finally get things a little straightened up. We still have a lot of work to do to make the house done like hooking up the sink, stove top, hood, and get out washer and dryer, among many other little things. Either way we had enough working to have people over and actually cleaned up enough (moved things into the basement) for it to look half way nice. So here are a few post party pictures to see how nice our little house is looking!

We also had out first fire in the fireplace! I looove fires! It was so nice and cozy! We still have a little more work to do on the fireplace too, but it's nice to have it in full use now ;)

Christmas in Georgia

How is it 2012 already and how did that Holiday Vacation go by so quickly?!? This year we spent Christmas and New Years in Georgia with the Stephenson family. I started vacation out nicely with a bright and sparkly mani/pedi since I actually got to go a week and a half without having nail polish that conformed to uniform standards! We flew out Christmas Eve and the vacation was continued perfectly with upgrades to first class!! We got to the airport a little early and got through all the lines so quickly that we had plenty of time to hit up the Delta sky lounge and load up on free food and drinks before our flight. I was presently surprised by the quality of their bloody mary! The airplane that we were in was typically used for international flights so it was even more roomy than usual. Up in first class I actually had to get up out of my seat to reach the seat in front of me. It was a great way to spend a 5 hour flight. We had also downloaded ‘The Help’ movie on the iPad so I finally got to watch that! We got into Atlanta late Saturday night and Ryan’s dad picked us up and brought us back to Columbus.

[first class!]

Christmas morning we were all pretty lazy and rolled out of bed for breakfast. We hung out at the house for the day and had a nice Christmas dinner in the evening. By that time we still hadn’t gottento find out what Santa had brought us under the tree!! When everyone was gathered up after dinner we opened presents. So much fun stuff!! I got an awesome underwater camera that I can’t wait to find an excuseto use! It also works as a normal camera, obviously, but I can’t wait to test out the underwater feature. I wonder if people would beweirded out if I brought it to the pool at the gym…I might just have to try that ;) I also got some fun clothes and an especially awesome down parka that I’ve been wanting for a while now so I don’t freeeezeall the time!

 [stockings!]

 [Christmas dinner]

 [Aaron and Chena]

 [Brandon]

[Mom and Dad Stephenson...and Wags]

The day after Christmas we had the King family Christmas party (Ryan’s mom’s side of the family). There people from Georgia and the surrounding states (Tennessee and Florida) all gathering at Ryan’sGrandparents house. Of course there was lots more food. We tried to work it off a little bit with some football playing. We also got to doa fun gift exchange. Everyone had brought a white elephant gift and we each started with our own. Ryan’s Grandpa read ‘The Night Before Christmas’ and every time he said the word ‘THE’ we passed our gift tothe next person till we ended up with a new one at the end of the story that we got to keep. All the kids got a pretty big kick out ofit (and I may have too)!

The rest of the week we had lot of family time playing all our new games, playing some ultimate Frisbee, and of course watching lots of football. One night we went out and watched ‘The Girl With the DragonTattoo’ which I was pretty pumped to see after reading the book. I can definitely tell that reading the book first helped me follow the movie a lot better, although there were a few things the movie left out. Itwas definitely a pretty good (slightly graphic) movie. I need to start reading the next one now!

 [Brothers]

[Ultimate Frisbee]

Monday (Jan 2nd) we headed up for Atlanta since we were flying out early the next morning. Ryan’s little brother lives there now, so we planned on just staying with him which made the commute to the airportin the morning waaaay easier. Since it was our last night there (andhappened to be the night before my birthday) we did a little celebrating with the family. We went out to a great seafood placewhich actually has left me really craving oysters now. Of course I had to get my complimentary ice cream sundae to go with a few more giftsfrom Mom and Dad Stephenson. After dinner Ryan’s parents headed homeand we took that time to meet up with a few of my favorite Atlanta friends Laura, Liz, and Andrew! We all met up at a little bar for afew drinks and a few rounds of darts. I was so excited we got to meet up. I always get frustrated when I go through Atlanta and don’t have time to visit everyone there so I’m glad we at least found a few hoursto hang out before we left town again. It also made a great start to my Birthday!! We headed back to Aaron’s house afterwards and spend acouple more hours of a mini birthday party with him and his girlfriend. So much fun hanging out with them!

 [Birthday dinner!]

[Laura and Liz!]

In the morning Aaron got up extra early to fix me an awesome French toast birthday breakfast! They took us to the airport after that and we started out journey home. Although most of our vacation it was inthe 70s and sunny, somehow when we left it was in the 20s in Atlanta and there was even a flurry of snow as we sat in the bar. After that it was nice to come home to a balmy 50 degrees in Seattle. It was aslightly exhausting day (I spent most of this flight halfway covered by the large man next to me) so after we picked up the pups we wereready for some relaxing for a few hours. Later that evening I got to celebrate my birthday some more with presents and a great dinner at a place I’ve been wanting to try for a while right up the street ‘How toCook a Wolf’. It was great! It’s been a great start to 2012!