First Christmas as Mr. and Mrs.

While Brad was still working out at the coast with hurricane clean up, he came home the weekend after Thanksgiving (surprise!) so we could spend some more time together and go pick out our very first real Christmas Tree (...we're banking on AZ being lacking in the tree department). We took Oscar and went out to a Christmas Tree farm right down the road and ran into some familiar faces as a bonus! 

The One!

Pulling it through the net so we can carry it home!

Lit, decorated and presents underneath! Cue Family Photo!

Our 2011 Ornament :)

I just love this one of our tree... thank you Droid for your camera.

Stockings on our make shift mantle :)

-D

I'm Just a Bill, Yes I'm only a Bill

I'm glad to start this off by saying Brad is home from the Hurricane clean up! In order to celebrate that and have a long weekend to ourselves, we traveled to our nation's capitol! We were able to stay with some family a few nights and at a snazzy hotel the others.

It's way too much to write, but while in the area we visited: the Kennedy Center for a performance of the Canadian Tenors, Arlington National Cemetery, Air Force Memorial, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, WWII Memorial, Holocaust Museum, White House, Saw Marine One landing with Mr. President aboard, International Spy Museum, Ford's Theatre (Where we saw a performance of the Christmas Carol!!!), The house where Lincoln died, Hard Rock Cafe (of course), Georgetown Cupcakes, took many trips on the Metro, a really sweet little Christmas Market in town, had a flat tire changed in the middle of the night in the middle of D.C. and went to the Air & Space Museum.

Whew!

Here is a small snapshot of our trip:
(Click the photos to enlarge!)

USAF Memorial

Arlington National Cemetery

Doorway in Robert E. Lee's House at Arlington.
Brad said the doorway made me look tall.
I disagree.

Changing of the Guard

Washington Monument, WWII Memorial and Dry Reflecting Pool since it's under  construction.

Lincoln Memorial

Korean War Vet Memorial

Marine One!!!!!

*Cue President's Song*

Bed where Lincoln Died

Holiday Market!!!

International Spy Museum

Georgetown Cupcakes. Haven't heard of them?
Visit their website... they ship throughout the U.S.!

Metrooo!

Our seats for the play :) Perfect view
of the stage annd of Lincoln's box seat!

After the play, Brad went to pick the car up from
the parking garage while I waited at Hard Rock.
Well, a block from the restaurant there was a really
nice nail in the road and blew the tire. Enter 24 hour
tire service in the not-so-nicest part of town. Eek!

Such a nice man we met at the National Air and Space Museum!
He was explaining all the ins and outs of the space suit to us.
He fought for our country with the Army in Vietnam as a Helicopter Pilot.
Pretty neat because they had the helicopter he flew at the museum!

Panorama of the National Air and Space Museum. This is where I took the most pictures!

On our way home we stopped to eat at a Cracker Barrel.
It's required that you play this while you wait for your food.

Thanks for reading!
-D

Happy Belated Birthday, Mere!

On Sunday, December 18, my youngest Sister-in-Law turned 15! During her birthday weekend, we were in Rocky Mount celebrating Christmas with Kim's side of the family. So rest assured, we celebrated appropriately and we got her an enormous amount of gum as requested.

So here goes: Happy Birthday Meredith :D We love you!

What do you wear to Thanksgiving dinner?

A Har-VEST!


Pretty appropriate time for a corny joke... I think hubs has really rubbed off on me! :)

I am SO thankful this year to have Brad home for the Thanksgiving weekend. He's been out in the eastern part of the state doing hurricane clean up for the past month or so. Though I've been able to go visit him a couple of times since he's been gone it hasn't been easy to be away from each other.

So he's home and we're having a great week so far spending time with his family that has come into town. Oscar, of course, is happy too that his daddy is home!

Also, earlier this week we celebrated 6 months of marriage! What a blessing it has been. I am so glad to have him as my husband and to spend my life with him. We've only just started... but it's been an incredible adventure so far. Only a few more months until we move! :)

Hope everyone is having a blessed Thanksgiving. Enjoy all the food!


-D

Happy Birthday Heather!

Happy Birthday (yesterday, on the 23rd) to my big sis, Heather!

We Love you!

<3,

Brad, Dani & Oscar

Jazz on Tap

Last evening, I had the pleasure of having dinner with this amazing couple:

Sarah & David

Sarah and David moved back to the States a couple of weeks ago from Venezuela. Sarah and I went to High School together and traveled to Venezuela a couple times together with a church group on a mission trip. She's also a blogger!

Enter David. He was one of the leaders for us and worked with a group called ITAM, which has since ended. It was there that Sarah and David started to get to know one another and, well, the rest is history. :) Since gettin' hitched, they've lived in David's neck of the woods serving the Lord and working on getting his visa! haha They finally made it and will be here for a good while!

Back to dinner. We met at the Tap Room in Hickory. This is by far my favorite restaurant in Hickory and whenever I am in town, you can find me here. The picture above is with a plate of their pub chips... which you have to order when you go. One of the other bonuses to last night was that it included Sunday night jazz, or 'Jazz on Tap'. Ever since I was in High School I would come to the Tap Room Sunday nights after church for the jazz. It feels like home. I think David really enjoyed his experience at the Tap Room. It was the perfect night for it.

We also exchanged a couple gifts between us. I didn't get a picture of it, but they brought me some Venezuelan coffee and candy (yum!). I gave them some pumpkin spice Hershey Kisses since they arrived in the States a little after they left store shelves.

Here's one with all of us after our delicious meals. It was so so good to catch up after not seeing Sarah for 2 years and not seeing David for... 3 or 4? Wow, time flies by!

We stopped at the front on our way out to see the musicians up close! At the time they were trying to figure out something to play, us thinking they were taking a break. Big mouth me let Rick know that it was David's first time here and he hadn't heard them play before. Next song they played was for him! :) haha

Sarah and David: Thank you SO very much for a great time at dinner! It was wonderful to catch up and pick up where we left off. I am grateful for your friendship and for you both being in North Carolina for the time being. I'm excited for you both to meet my hubby and look forward to our next dinner date!

Love you guys!

D

Photo Montage

In lieu of a wordy post, here are bits of the goings on in my life over the past month :)

The first victim of the new camera. (Yay for working camera!)

My handsome guys :)

Mere in the homecoming parade! 

Homecoming game, Mere on Freshman Court.
"If you could be any household appliance, what would it be and why?"
Mere: "I would be a refrigerator because I would always be needed."

Getting all dolled up for the Homecoming dance.
Don't you love the hairspray action shot?!

On the way to drop Mere off and take pictures

Mere & Rachel with their dates. Awkward prom pose courtesy of Sarah :)

Celebrating Brad & Josh's 24th and 23rd birthdays! 10/11/11

My man is still a kid :)

Sweet campfire shot during the boys' birthday par-tay!

The Dishwasher.
(and I don't mean the actual appliance)

NC State Love-A-Fair 2011
(I'll post more pics in a different post.. too many!)

In Winston-Salem for McKenna Kate's 2nd birthday party!
Love my niece!

Birthday girl with her cake

Mac "eating" a kiwi from her grocery toy set :)