reason #502 why being married rocks...

one year old wedding cake!

have yourself a merry little christmas..

matching PJs, Trans Siberian Orchestra, Christmas Eve Advent reading, tons and I mean tons of gifts, 5 Christmas in one day, White elephant, Kota Christmas sweater, a lot of sweet time with family, about 750 miles traveled and as always, really really good food.

one year anniversary, in Denver

two little love birds, with no real plans in sight, mark their adventures with pictures and words...

Denver was so incredibly fun. Since I'm trying to treat this blog as a diary of sorts, I'd like to chronicle our anniversary trip to Colorado.

As we landed we checked in to our hotel, we threw our bags in our room and ventured down to the 16th street mall for some delicious fish and chips and a couple beers at Apaloosa Grill. We watched the horse drawn carriages shuffling people up and down the streets in the snow. It was kind of magical.

Day 2: Denver Museum of Nature and Science to see T-rex and other intelligent things. Last minute drive out to Red Rock Amphitheater at sunset to "oooo" and "ahhh" at the beauty God made for us. Then out to Littleton for 1$ beers and 1$ appetizers with Blake's good friend.

Day 3: Slept in, got a yummy breakfast at Snooze with some friends, then headed to Golden, CO to the Coors Brewery tour. Maybe a highlight of the trip. Pizza in town to follow.

Day 4: Enjoyed a free breakfast compliments of the hotel for being married a year. Borrowed snowboarding gear and passes from friends and made the drive to Winter Park. Boarded the whole day with a break at the lodge for lunch. Came back in a snow storm to grab some homemade chili with Blake's Colorado friends.

Day 5: Spent some time reading and studying at a local coffee shop while sipping on one of the best mocha's I've ever had. Then headed to the airport to say goodbye to Colorado and head back to Texas to see our families for Christmas!

To spend 5 straight days, no school, no work, no studying, with your lovable, and sometimes quite strange husband is the best. I tried to soak up every minute of it, because I know in a couple days it's back to the books for him.

Is your house on fire, Clark?

After filling our bellies with lots of turkey and stuffing (on Thanksgiving weekend) we got out in the yard with one thing in mind, lights! We also needed to move around so we all didn't fall into a tryptophan coma.

Our wonderful neighbors saw us out in the yard plotting, and brought over this box of goodies! Have I mentioned how great our neighbors are? I'm going to hang out in the front yard more often, it seems every time I'm out there someone comes over and brings us free things.

Blake and I had such a merry time running around our yard with strands of lights, throwing them up on our house. With joyful hearts, we checked the strands, replaced bulbs, wrapped bushes, lined the windows, methodically plugged them all in, and finally stood back to enjoy our Christmas creation.

Porch update: As a birthday gift from my mom, we now have the most perfect porch chairs. They are so darling. It's like I'm on a beach, but also out at a cottage, and they're so dang comfortable.

my christmas pallet art made it outside.

and here he is, the christmas light master. What a great job he did!

Happy Birthday Jesus!!!!