Finally A Family: July 2011

Shame on me for not posting in almost 9 months....um....my bad. Quite a bit has happened since last September! And since I'm not much of a writer (more of a list maker, really) I've

decided to just make a list of our latest and not so latest adventures!

We celebrated our 1st Halloween together! Chris (and Wes, naturally) went as sorority girls, while I myself went as their frat daddy!
We also celebrated our first Christmas together - and it was a surprise White Christmas! Now, you all know how much I love snow...I revert back to my 5 year old self whenever a snowflake falls within a 10 mile radius. Needless to say, I was so excited that presents had to wait until after I was done playing in the snow. It was amazing! Now I'm not one to believe that God sent the snow for me...but, I did have to wonder.
Then in January, we decided to pick up and move to Birmingham since it was closer to Chris's job. I have to say, its been GREAT! We're literally 6 minutes away from my cousin Shanna and her family, so needless to say I've been their babysitter for the last 6 months. Its been great! I love hanging out with that kid! Or as my Nana would say "that baby" (Every baby is "that baby"). We also found a home church, and a few new friends!
February brought our 1st Valentine's Day as married folk. Our gifts to each other? A 5 week old puppy! Gillie is her name, and she's the cutest mutt you'll ever lay eyes on. Pug-Dachshund-Beagle mix. She's an adventure in itself. So we've been house breaking, dog parking, stick throwing, you name it for the last few months.
Our long lost puppy child/BFF Wes came back for a visit!
We took our 1st vacation to Ft. Walton Beach, FL for our 1st Anniversary. We were broke, but none the less, it was needed - and it was great! We swam in the seaweed, went to a fancy schmancy restaurant, drank wine on the beach, and read our books (mine, "The Help" his, "The History of Basketball). VERY relaxing.
I had my first pickling adventure in July with my Mom, Nana & Mother-in-law. We made 24 jars of dill pickles. Question is, with my love of dill pickles allow those 24 jars to last a whole year? doubt it. So Mom's making another batch this week.
We just got back from a Ryan family vacation to Navarre Beach, minus Jon & Ging :(. We swam in a Seaweed FREE ocean, I got my first and second jelly fish stings, Chris hovered under the umbrella while not swimming, and lived his dream of watching 2 different women's world cup games on 2 separate screens at the same time. We spent about 4 hours watching Wes's Zaarly-Truman Show, convinced Chris to play Phase 10 again (of which he then lost, but was satisfied because he still beat me), and got his parents addicted to Lost. (yeah, your welcome).

Long story short, its been a great year, even with the ups and downs of tornados, friends moving away, losing a family member, and a dear friend getting very sick - we have had many highpoints in our last 9 months, and can't wait for the next nine!