March & April

       

        Not a whole lot of out of the ordinary things happened during March and April...of course I am 5 months late in writing this, so who knows I could totally be forgetting something! ;)

        I did finally use the sewing machine I got for Christmas to make my first project: a game day dress! My crafty college roommate Sara came over one evening and taught me how to use it and pretty much walked me through step by step on making this dress. So although my hands did the work....I would have been no where without her help! So without further ado...

        I was pretty pleased with it :) I also got daring the next day and fancified some dishtowels....ignore the dirty oven please!

        Easter was the only major event of April. Last year we went to church here at home so Ryan could play the drums, and then after the 3rd service we jetted down to Port Orange to spend the rest of the day with my family. (Splitting holidays between families really is hard!) This year though my family came up here so that both our families could do Easter together! Woo hoo! My family met us at church and then we went to the in-laws for Easter lunch/dinner. Our church does free family photos for everyone on Easter and they can pick up their free 8X10 when the come back to church the following Sunday! Everyone wants a pic when the whole family is dressed up, and its a great way to get people to come back! Here are our family pics:

(Of course, these are pictures of the actual pictures....)

We took some actual pics once we got to the house :)

Yay for family! and Yay for Jesus raising from the grave!!!

Our first Anniversary!

        I am unbelievably behind on this blog...I am almost too ashamed to even post again! Yikes! But I am going to attempt to cover the last 7 months in the next few posts...even if no one reads them it will be for our own keepsake! :)
        February 12th 2012 marked our first wedding anniversary! And 2 years since our first date! :)
Ryan planned a surprise 4 day weekend away, but of course gave in and told me the week before where we were going! He gets too excited to keep secrets from me, and I kind of like it that way! haha ;)
        He booked us a suite for 4 days in Orlando and splurged on SEASON passes to both Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure! Wasssuupp!? (excuse my 2004 reference). We headed out after work on Thursday and skipped out of work on Friday to start the weekend off early, and stayed until Monday afternoon! Our actual anniversary was on Sunday. Due to my uber late posting I can't quite remember when we did what, but I DO know that we hit up the parks like no ones business, partied in Harry Potter world, and Ryan surprised me yet again with a sky-diving experience at the simulator...flippin' sweet! :)

Yummy Butter Beer in "Hogsmede"!

The next day was a little bit cooler so we had to don the sweaters. 

Met up with Scooby and Shaggy in Universal before we hit some rides!

The obligatory Universal Globe shot! 

Back in Harry Potter world!

Legit Hogwarts!

After riding The Mummy...3 times!

We love no lines in February!!

We went to a movie at the theater in City walk that night and

look who we found! Lets just say Ryan was NOT the only guy 

having their wife/girlfriend take a pic of them with the

Star Wars characters!

        Another cool thing we did was have our characterture drawn at Universal. Obviously I don't have a picture of it to put on here but it looks somewhat like us. Haha! We decided that we are going to have a characterture done every year on our Anniversary. We'll see... :) 

Ringing in the New Year

On New Year's Eve we went to dinner at Maggiano's with Ryan's family. Afterward we planned to head down to The Landing to ring in the new year and watch some fireworks. Unfortunately....The Landing didn't end up being the classiest of places. Fortunately for us, we have some awesome friends that live close by! We called them up and they invited us over to hang out and watch the ball drop and say cheers to the new year! So thankful for great friends!

 Down at The Landing

Happy New Year!

Jingle all the way

On Christmas Eve our church has a live nativity before & after the services with shepards, wise men, horses, sheep, a cow, and of course Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. This year Ryan & I got to be Mary & Joseph! I held a baby doll for nativity when we were outside around the hay and animals, but inside for the service (Ryan & I didn't have any speaking parts, just held the baby and sat on the stage!) we had a real baby! She (yes, we only had a girl for the part) was the perfect baby Jesus & slept through BOTH services!

       Afterward we all went to Ryan's aunt & uncle's house for Christmas Eve together. We had dinner together, watched the younger cousins open gifts, and then exchange gifts with the adults. My family & Ryan's family both have a tradition of getting pajamas on Christmas Eve and this year it kept going! Ryan's parents got all four of us UT pajamas in honor of young Nathaniel!

       We spent Christmas morning together opening gifts (which we already knew about) & stockings (that we surprised each other with) at our place. Later we went down to my parents house to spend Christmas & a few days with my family. We had such a great first Christmas together & are so thankful for both families we got to share it with!

 My awesome Gator scarfs from the Flemings! 

 One of Ryan's stocking stuffers & quite possibly his favorite!

He's been a big fan of TMNT forever!

Christmas at Mom & Dad's!

Ryan turns 24!

        Ryan's birthday was on a Monday this year, so naturally we celebrated it Saturday, Sunday, & Monday!
On Saturday we went to the Jacksonville Giants basketball game at the Veterans Memorial Arena. We had never been to a game before, but we wanted to do something fun and different!

Here is Ryan with the Giant's mascot, Mr. Biggs!

(Please note the guy in the background picking his nose!)

        On Sunday we celebrated with his family. We went to La Nop for lunch after church and then went back to his parents house for cake, ice cream, and some football watching! I was so excited to make Ryan's cake for his birthday! I had never made a cake before (only cupcakes) so I kept it pretty simple....3 layers of funfetti cake & icing, and some cute decor on top! :)

        Finally on Ryan's REAL birthday we went to a Japanese Steakhouse Restaurant because you can your meal for free on your actual birthday! It was yummmmy! Afterward we went to see Sherlock Holmes; Ryan is  a big movie fan & he couldn't wait to see it!

We had a great time celebrating my sweet sweet hubby!

Here's to many more years!

Thanksgiving & Black Friday

          For our first Thanksgiving together Ryan & I stayed in town and celebrated with his side of the family. We all went over to his aunt & uncle's house and (since there are around 30 people) they set up long tables in the back yard so we can all sit together! His aunt is a VERY crafty woman so the tables and decorations looked great! It was a neat experience to have Thanksgiving dinner outside, but I clearly wasn't thinking about the weather when I got dressed that morning! It was a pretty cold day this year AND it was windy, but between borrowing a jacket and a blanket, I was covered! ;) 

          Ryan has 5 little cousins and each year the older 4 (the youngest one just turned 2 so he's not old enough yet) put on a Thanksgiving play for the family each year. This year they did "Stone Soup" which was a witty story about 2 soldiers coming to a town and all the townspeople hid their food because they didn't want to share. The clever soldiers told the towns people they could make soup from stones but they just needed a few things....the people were so interested in how to make soup from stones that the soldiers were able to trick them into bringing out their food...."all we need for stone soup is a few carrots, 3 potatoes, 2 onions...." and so on. It was fun watching the kids act it out and remember their lines! Ryan's aunt hinted that they will need "more actors" soon...haha but we're not quite ready for that yet! Chelsea could always join in though!

        Later that night Ryan & I went out on out first Black Friday adventure. And adventure it was! We left at 9pm and stayed out until 7am! Walmart was our first and craziest stop! There were hundreds of people there and they were definitely on a mission! Three fights broke out while we were there from 9:30pm-12am! We also hit Best Buy, the mall, and Jo Ann Fabrics (got a great deal on a Christmas tree!). It was a fun experience together but we decided we might not do it again together since we couldn't surprise each other with our gifts on Christmas since we bought them together haha!