Sammy and Elijah - Texas Here They Come!

Tomorrow my cousin Samantha and her son (my Godson) Elijah will be on a flight to Dallas! Tim and I cannot wait to see them. We are looking forward to a few days with our cousin and the baby. Since we do not have any kids of our own we are more than excited to be able to spoil Elijah. We'll post some pictures after the visit.

Love to all! :)

It's Finally Fall

What could be better than the smell of apples, cinnamon, pumpkins and warm fall spices? Fall is finally here! We cannot believe that it is already November - where did this year go already?

Two weeks ago I actually welcomed Fall by heading over the the Dallas Farmers Market. What an amazing day! I started out by picking out my pumpkin for my porch as well as a beautiful mum to show my spirit for the season. Then I headed across the street to see what was in building #2. It was my favorite spice man and a wonderful organic coffee shop! With my spices and coffee in tote I was ready to face the countless vendors that were about to overwhelm me with fruits, veggies and nuts. I picked out some fresh green beans, eggplant, apples and visited the butcher shop to get some pasta to go with dinner. The day was not only made me realize it was finally Fall, but it brought back a bit of childhood to my life.

When Fall comes each year I always remember the days a Johnson's Corner in Medford, New Jersey where I celebrated many birthdays with friends and family. Since my birthday is at the beginning of October and my mom is an art teacher it was a yearly tradition to go pumpkin picking for my birthday and go back to my house to paint our pumpkins! :) Johnson's always had the BEST donuts and apple cider. I can still remember the barn the shop and bakery was in and the hayride and everything about the farm. It was the best place to have a good time and relax. We would go apple, pumpkin and strawberry picking. Strawberry picking was always in the summer and it would be muddy - we would have to take our shoes off before getting in the car.

The Fall also reminds me of my soccer days. Traveling around the state of New Jersey and throughout the Midwest to play my favorite sport of all time. Now I'm not saying that I enjoy watching soccer more than any other sport - just that I enjoy playing it the most.

There is just something about the Fall air that make me think back to my earlier days and believe that I will one day be a child again. What happened to the simple days of our lives?

And We're Back...

So no more promises on weekly or daily posts. We are way too busy to keep up with each other let alone our blog. Sorry everyone! We will however update as much as we can.

Well we're back from Cayman - nice and tan and will be posting a few pics soon. Cayman was just unbelievable. The water was crystal clear, you could see your toes through it! We went snorkeling, swam with stingrays, went parasailing and rode jet skis on the ocean. We absolutely loved every minute of our experience!

Its Just Beachy!!!

Both Tim and I are really excited about our upcoming vacation to the Cayman Islands. We both cannot believe that it has been almost a full year since we've been to the beach - work really does take its toll on you! We are really excited to be spending the week before our 1 year anniversary on Grand Cayman's 7-mile beach! (July 25 - Aug 1)

We cannot wait to go snorkeling, visit Sting Ray City and go shopping at Kirk's Freeport!!! But, most of all we're excited that we get to get out of the country and kick up our heels to relax.

Although Tim is a frequent of the island - this is my first trip to Cayman. I am looking forward to every minute of the week. We will post pictures when we return!!!

Our NEW Deck

In the past few months...

So we've been really bad about keeping our blog updated and have set aside a block of time each week to keep this going.

Since our last post a lot has changed. Let us list the changes and we will also post some pictures.

1) Jamie got a new job!! YaY - Jamie is now working at Moroch Partners, a privately-held advertising agency here in Dallas. She has been with them since April 6 and is loving her new position as Assistant Account Executive in account services on the Midas team. Yes - you can sing the tune - "Thats the Midas touch!"

2) The Worflars came down and built us a deck! Dennis and Jason worked with Tim to build a beautiful deck in our back yard. We now have a great place for entertaining.

3) Tim celebrated his 1 year anniversary at Accenture!! Since he was there a full year, he was able to attend a training session in St. Charles, Illinois and had a boys weekend in Chicago with his co-workers following the week-long training session.

4) Jamie won an i-pod shuffle at the grand re-opening of Tom Thumb in Snyder Plaza here in Dallas. She only stopped in to pick up Tim's favorite popcorn since we had run out and somehow managed to be one of the few winners of the day.

5) Jamie has become a provisional member of the Junior League of Dallas and will soon be attending meetings and charity commitments. In addition, she is also a member of Slipper Club.

6) Father's Day was a very exciting day for the both of us. While Jamie was wishing her grandfather a happy father's day - the house phone ran (no one really knows this number) and Tim took a message for Jamie to call the person back. Little did we know at the time - it was Jackson's Nursery and Garden Center calling to inform Jamie that she had won a BIG GREEN EGG! For those of you who don't know what this is - it is the BEST grill/smoker/oven/do everything in the world. Jamie had put our name in a drawing a few weeks before when her parents were visiting and had forgotten all about it! It was a wonderful Father's day for Tim!!!

7) Finally - Jamie got a new car. Since we are homeowners and have things to do around the house and store and shuttle large things, we were in need of an SUV. So on June 29, Tim and Jamie purchased a Lexus RX!!

Those are quite a few updates and I'm sure there is tons more to talk about, but this is just a few larger things going on in our lives!

Pictures to follow...

Elijah Is Already Getting Big!

Elijah has gotten so big over the past month and we cannot wait to see him!

Squeeky Clean

So nice and so clean...Aston got his first dental cleaning yesterday along with four extractions! Hopefully in the next few weeks he will heal completely and will feel better soon. We felt so horrible sending him in to get the cleaning, but in the end it all worked out for the best. No more infections and hopefully he will now be able to eat his dry food more comfortably.

Also, when he licks we won't feel like we have to take a shower because of his bad breath!

As the Days Go By...

Winter no longer feels like winter here in Dallas. The flowers are blooming and some trees are starting to get some color. Each day is a new adventure, but we are looking forward to warmer days ahead. We've been really busy the last few weeks, running around to birthday parties, social events, work events and even trying to finish up out kitchen "re-modeling" project. This weekend was great to finally relax. For once we feel like we had a full weekend. We even bought a new fridge!!

Although we'd like to say that our old fridge would have lasted a lifetime, we will admit that it was pushing it. Everyday we'd go to the freezer and pray that everything was still frozen and that the door didn't open itself during the middle of the night. We also would pray that our Brita water dispenser wouldn't fill the bottom of our fridge with water. Lets just say we had a few issues with the current 'ice box' and cannot wait for our install next Saturday. We will post pictures for all to enjoy.

On that note...does anyone need an old fridge/freezer? Who knows...it could last for 10 or 20 more years. Its already from 1982, who knows when it will really die. We just didn't want it to die on our watch.

Our Nephew - Elijah

Our little blessing has arrived!!  Our nephew Elijah Anthony was born on January 29 at 2:54 p.m. (EST) weighing 7 lbs. 1 oz. and 20 inches long.  We are so excited he is finally here and cannot wait to make a trip back to NJ to see the newest member of our family. Jamie cannot wait to spoil her Godson with love and presents!!

Congrats to the proud mommy and daddy, Samantha and Anthony.  We are so excited for you! Samantha, what a wonderful birthday present!

Our "Little Man"

So in our last post we mentioned Aston, but failed to mention who he really is. Aston is our 5 - 8 year old schnoodle, thats a schnauzer and a poodle mix. We are not sure how old he is since we adopted him from an animal shelter in September.  He was Jamie's birthday present and is a huge blessing in our lives.  He is the sweetest "little man."  Jamie tends to call him this often!

So over the holidays we thought it might be fun to dress Aston in some holiday attire, as you can see in the pictures.  For the first few months at our home we did not leave his side.  He would come with us everywhere.  Even to Lowes (did you know they allow pets?).  

Aston is the best dog in the world.  He does not bark, unless the door bell rings or the house alarm goes off, he has never made a mess in the house and he enjoys visiting our neighbor (Jeremy) on the weekends for dinner and drinks.  Aston enjoys car rides and long walks, he has even taken himself for a walk before.  We were scared out of our minds, but found him walking himself across the street and waiting for traffic to slow down so he could cross back to our house.

We really enjoy having Aston in our lives and we hope that the pictures make you smile.

We hope you enjoy our "little man" too!!

Renovations

Like we said in our previous post...we tend to make ourselves busy even when we aren't.  So just last weekend on a quick trip to Lowes, we decided that we wanted to update our kitchen a little and get rid of our ugly textured back splash.  In order to do so we needed to pick up tile and some random tools, which we accomplished on our random Lowes trip.  

After getting all of the materials needed and many trips to Lowes you will see what we managed to complete in only 4 days time.  We think you'll be impressed.  If not, then you can come and fix our mistakes!!

We also picked up a beautiful pot rack for our wall.  We were having major issues keeping our cabinets organized, at least where our pots and pans were.  The pot rack was a much needed addition to our kitchen.

Aston also didn't seem to mind the tile project either.  He was right at our heels wanting to help, although I think he just thought we were cooking!!!

The Newlyweds

Although its been just under six months since we've been married, we're quite settled in to our new home!  From graduating from college, finding our first jobs, getting married and buying a house we had a quite exhausting 2008.  We are looking forward to a much more boring 2009. 

Now that we are at the end of the first month of the new year, we have managed to stay quite busy despite our desire to live a life a little less overwhelming.  Tim is currently involved with helping Bill's (Tim's cousin) boy scout troop and attends weekly meetings.  Just like last soccer season, I will be coaching Rachel's (Tim's cousin) 3rd grade soccer team again. We are quickly adapting to life in the Big D (Dallas for those of you who don't talk Texan).

We will continue to blog as often as we can remember too.  This is just something else we are adding to our daily schedules.  Like I said...we can't stand being boring!