Christmas Time is Here

Civil Engineering LT's! Aaron think he looks pretty cool in that UW tie. ;)

My love and I at the party

Last night was Aaron's squadron Christmas party and we had a lot of fun! All the LT's did a skit that had everyone laughing. Of course...making fun of the Colonel and Major was involved....how could it not be?? And plenty of making fun of the "fire dogs." It was all in fun and everyone took it that way. I took a few pictures because I wanted to make sure I got a shot of John's sweet Christmas sweater. Their skit included a Christmas sweater fashion show, a poem and more (but I won't go into the details since you really had to be there to laugh!)

I sure love these guys. They're all like brothers to not only Aaron, but to me as well and they have been a huge blessing to us.

So Aaron and I only have about 10 more days until we're off to Washington for Christmas! I can't express how wonderful this will be! Cookies and gingerbread houses with the fam, hottubbing and wine parties with my girlfriends and much much more!

This year, we decided to purchase gifts for a family rather than for each other - Maybe we'll exchange a few small things, but nothing big. Aaron and I realized this year that Christmas gifts are a bit stressful. I think this is the first year I haven't cared much about them. I think it might be something like how a parent would be more excited about watching the joy on their 3 year old's face as they open presents - that sounds like more fun than opening any presents of my own! We're really excited about giving to this family. There are 3 kids and the youngest has cerebral paulsy. Their grandmother who helped care for them just passed away this year, so its been a rough year for the entire family. We picked out some really sweet shoes, a few sweatshirts, nintendo games, books and a remote control truck for the little guy. I had so much fun online shopping for them!! We decided that we would wrap the gifts and give them to the parents with blank gift cards on all of them. We want the parents to sign them so that the boys think the gifts came from them. ;) They never need to know the truth because it isn't important.

More than anything, I just want to enjoy time with my family (I am so excited to finally see my sister prego in person!!) I also just want to spend time focusing on what God might have for me to do for Him in the next few months.

I don't mean to sound like a debbie-downer, but life hasn't been the easiest the past few weeks. I know what i'm going through is nothing compared to some, but to not get too specific, i'm going through a painful trial right now that isn't easy. I am thankful for the love of Aaron and how God uses him to fill my life with joy, because i've really needed it! I am on a new life journey right now and i'm trusting God every step of the way even though I feel like i'm walking through a dark tunnel with a blindfold on....it's all pretty unclear and confusing. On the up-side, I am thankful that God uses these times in our life to reform and grow us. So I say, "God, mold me and make me into who you want me to be" because that's all I want! Nothing matters if i'm not doing what He has planned for me to do.

God is in the good and in the difficult times and probably most present in the difficult. And that's how I find a place of peace.

Merry Christmas!

First Snow!! And new pictures :)

This is Bobby, my uncle's dog. Don't you love that name?! Can you see his eyes?? He is so sweet.

My cousins putting on a show for us. D.A. likes to shake it.

I had to capture this epic moment. Aaron watching the final games of the regular college season in our basement. Boo hoo....By the way, that couch will finally be upstairs soon!!

Our santa. Dad and Mom Meredith sent this to us along with some other goodies for St. Nicholas Day!


Our living room from the loft. We LOVE our vaulted ceiling! I had to be careful not to get too close to the edge! Do you like my accent wall, Mel?? :)

I haven't posted in a while so I decided I better stop being a slacker. Some of you are really good at posting regularly! Unfortunately, I typically don't even have energy to make dinner when I get home from work - let alone blog.

Today we had our first real snow! It's freezing out here, but there's nothing better than snow on a Saturday. Unfortunately, we chose today as the day to replace the ugly brass door nob and hinges on our front door. So our house was exposed to the cold most of the day. Sadly, the weather made for dangerous roads and an elderly man slammed into a tree just down the street from us. I think he's ok, but it was quite the sight with fire trucks and ambulances everywhere. The poor man was laying on the side of the street in the cold snow. Every street in this area is busy because it feels like the entire United States lives in Alexandria, but the street just outside our neighborhood is especially busy. We have seen some very entertaining things since moving here. For instance, shortly after we returned from our honeymoon, we were sleeping in our loft while we were setting up our room with the new bedroom furniture and at about 2 a.m. I was woken from a dead sleep with what sounded like a semi-truck hitting our house. I jumped out of bed to find a man in a truck who had hit 4 parked cars along the street right outside our window! He was trying to drive away so I started yelling, "He's trying to get away, let's stop him! He's trying to get away!!" I grabbed my phone as Aaron was still in a daze and I called 911. Long story short, the guy was drunk. The best part was watching out our window as the police made him walk the line and saying, "Uno, dos, tres...." I couldn't help but laugh. Really, how do you hit FOUR cars before realizing you might want to use your brakes? And buddy, you should have hit cars outside someone elses house because I wasn't gonna let you get away!

Aaron and I have been super busy lately. My new job has me working some longer hours than when I worked at NAB. I'm still pretty happy with my decision to take on this new opportunity, but of course it too has its challenges.

I'm still adjusting to life as a wife (I mean that in a nice way!) Sometimes it's challenging, though! Before, I made all of my own decisions. Now I have another person to consider! I've also realized that I can't just come home and eat chocolate chips for dinner anymore (bummer!) because my handsome, strong husband would not survive on that diet. I suppose I shouldn't be able to either. Hmmmm......Anyway, I am learning new recipes but i've found that pasta is so easy! Haha. It's good that Aaron likes it. ;) If anyone would like to pass along some yummy and EASY recipes, I am gladly accepting suggestions! Hint, Hint.

Aaron has been working hard to install our new bamboo floor. It's a lot like hardwood but more durable and it looks really cool! We hear it's the hot new thing so hopefully someday when we sell our house, people will be knocking down our door trying to get to it first! We're about 90% finished. The final touches are to finish the floor and install new railings throughout the house. I'm ready for our loft to not look so dangerous anymore. It's a good thing we don't have little ones around our home just yet. Aside from those final things, there will only be a bit of touch-up painting and we also hope to install french doors in our basement. Right now the sliding door is just nasty and terrible and bugs keep getting in - Gross!!!! I make Aaron catch them. Most of the time we get these bugs that look like beetles/grasshoppers and they jump really fast. I know they probably don't sound that bad, but they make my skin crawl - I just hate them!

Other than working on the house, Aaron is wrapping up his final weekend of the regular college football season. He wants to cry - I'm a little more OK with this. Don't get me wrong, I actually enjoy watching football with Aaron and often times I cheer louder than he does. But, this has just about consumed every Saturday for the past few months. And just when I think it's only Saturday, I realize there's also football on Thursday's Sunday's and Monday's, too! Yaaaayyyyyy! No, i'm not being sarcastic. Who am I kidding?? Is football on every day of the week??