Gobble Gobble!

Why did the turkeys cross the globe?  To get home for Thanksgiving, of course!

Eric and I thoroughly enjoyed our whirlwind trip to Indiana for Thanksgiving.  We decided to make this trip all about family, since we were there for such a short time.  We started with a couple of days stuffing our faces with food and playing ping-pong with the Rogers' in Marion.  Then we headed south to Zionsville for more stuffing our faces and shopping!  We feel so lucky to have TWO great families to spend time with.  We feel even luckier that they are relatively close together, so we can see both each time we are home. 

I was very camera happy at the beginning of our trip (with a heavy emphasis on two little ladies), but then became quite a slacker for the second half.  I am going to have to make up for it and take extra pictures with the Smith family at Christmas-time:). 

 Sooooooooooooo precious:)

 

 There was a lot of time spent picking out favorite ornaments on the tree...

 Emmy cracked me up all weekend long....though she NEVER let me hold her! (I am pretty sure she forgot me when I moved to NYC)

 Maddy made our awesome place settings.

 My parents cleaned out the attic and put all of our old toys in tubs for us to take.  Chad and Eric enjoyed some time with GI Joes.

 Pops.

 Part of the feast.

 When did she grow up???

 My first shot with the self-timer.  Pretty impressive, if I do say so myself:)

We are looking forward to more quality family time in two more weeks.  We hope to squeeze some quality friend time in that round as well!

Murphy the Sneak

It has come to our attention that our beloved Murphy is quite the sneak.  We have caught him in the act of "sneaking" quite a bit lately.  Take a look for yourself.....

 Here he is sneaky a taste from the dirty dishes in our dishwasher.

And here he is, sneaking a sleep on the couch.  Katja, the dog-walker, catches him in the act all of the time.

 My personal favorite...here is Murphy, sneaking a peak out the window.  The exit that all of the dogs have to use to leave our building is right below our window.  We started keeping the blinds closed so Murphy wouldn't bark when he sees them.  However, he outwitted us again.  Murphy has learned to split the blinds and look outside while pretending to eat.  The blinds are permanently bent in this way.

 You know who else has been doing some sneaking lately??? My beloved husband.  I came out of the room to find this....

When it comes to sneaking sleeps on the couch, it looks like Murphy isn't the only guilty one.  He has a cohort in crime:)

Good golly, I love that dog!

My first attempt at Photoshop....

 

Before.....

 After......

So, this was my first attempt at Photoshop.  Since I am currently having a fling with photography, I decided Photoshop could enhance the experience.  However, I had no clue how complicated Photoshop really was.  I guess I was expecting a slightly fancier version of IPhoto when it comes to editting. However, Photoshop put me in my place from the first time I looked at their website.  Elements, Lightroom, CS5?  I had no clue.  Luckily, they let you download free 1 month trials.  I quickly learned that my rookie knowledge belonged with Photoshop Elements.  

This was my first project, and I still have so much to learn.  I could only figure out how to use about 1/4 of the buttons.  Oh well!  Now that I know what version to get, I can get a Dummies guide to go with it:).  If you have any Photoshop tips, feel free to share!

LYLAS

Love Ya Like A Sister....

When thinking of a title for a post about a visit from my life-long friend Sica (aka...Jessica), LYLAS comes to mind.  Not only was it one of the many taglines on all of the many letters we wrote each other over the years, but it is also true.  I love this girl like a sister.  We met in preschool and became the best of friends.  She was my friend when I went through my "spend the night fright" stage.  We went on family vacations and celebrated holidays together.  She once wrote me a 30 page letter.  We were roommates for two years.  Though our lives weave different paths, they are still always intertwined.  Who else do you get that with besides a sister?? So, obviously, it was really fun to add "hanging out in NYC" to our list of memories together. 

Jess came in on Saturday night with our friend Shauna after wrapping up a conference in Connecticut. We had caught up over margaritas on Saturday night, and then hit the town all day Sunday.  Brunch at the Seaport, a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge, cupcakes, Radio City Music Hall Christmas Extravaganza with the Rockettes, and a Meet the Parents/Fockers Marathon makes for a very full day!!  Jess was the perfect friend to spend doing all of these things, because she appreciates the cheesiness of tourism and Christmas fun as much as I do:).  We got to hang out Monday night when I got home from work, and then she left for Indiana this morning.  It was such a great time with such a great friend! Here are some pics of our time together.

 Yummy brunch!

 Friends.

 Isn't this place cute??

 Outside at the Seaport.

 Some Brooklyn Bridge action....

Wearing our sassy outfits for the Rockettes.  We thought we looked like Rockettes.

Funtimes!!

So, LYLAS Jess. And Boys Before Books:)

And this is how we bond....

This is how the Smith family bonds after a long weekend with great friends!

 We get comfy and lounge around...

 We make something in the crock pot, because it makes the whole house smell delicious...

 And we ALWAYS have dessert:)

Eric and I had our last of a steady stream of visitors this weekend.  We had the pleasure of spending four days with the Welus! Amanda and I have been great friends for about 20 years now, so I was really looking forward to their visit.  As you can see, she has a baby bump going on.  She was a trooper and didn't let that hold her back from exploring the city!  One of our highlights together was exploring Central Park and taking part in an NBC Studios tour.  Thanks for coming to see us Welus!

 Here she is with the bump!

 Aww, such a great couple.

I also enjoyed the opportunity to experiment with my camera as we were exploring.  There were two guys making enormous bubbles for onlookers.  It was a great chance to work on snapping the camera at just the right time...

 I love that the camera really captures the color and transparency at the same time. 

 My goal was to get the bubble mid-burst, and I did it!

 Pretty cool...

 The park has many great places to experiment with color....I enjoyed myself as I tried out the different camera settings under this bridge. 

 I really want to take a class, because I don't have a natural eye for beautiful spaces and angles.  Its fun to try anyway!

I decided to play around more with the cool plant Chad and Kim got us as an "apartment warming" gift during their visit:).  I think it's the prettiest thing in our apartment.  

Pretty Great Start...

For this post, I don't have any pictures or fun adventures to share.  Instead, I will share some thoughts that came to mind as I was sitting in our apartment reflecting on the weekend.  As I was trying to think of a title for this post, what came to mind was "Pretty Great Start."  And what I am referring to is, being married - Eric and I have had a pretty great start.   When I say "great," I don't mean easy.  Rather, I mean solid, meaningful, growing...fun, exciting, and challenging.  There are a few factors that have contributed to this "great start."

First is being in a position to only rely on each other.  Though being away from our friends and family is super challenging in some ways, I think it has helped us to build a really solid foundation during our first year of marriage.  I mean, what other married couple gets to spend all weekend, every weekend with each other?  Most couples have friends, family, commitments, a house to take care of, etc., vying for time.  I won't pretend I am not envious of those things at times, but not having them close by has allowed the unique opportunity for undivided attention and time to spend with one another.  In addition, we have learned to communicate and help each other through the challenging aspects of being away.  I can't leave out the fact that, as we grow together, we are also trying to becoming better people, looking more like God. 

Next is the fun factor.  With a steady stream of visitors, a city of endless entertainment opportunities, and thinking each other is hilarious, fun comes easily:).  I really believe that laughter is an important part in a healthy relationship/marriage.  Whether we are laughing at each other or with each other, I think the fun that we have together has helped us have a great start.

And last, having solid people in our lives supporting us has had a huge impact on the beginning of our marriage.  I think this was most evident to us at our wedding, when we were surrounded by such amazing examples of fabulous people and couples.  The impact of that moment has only increased as we have people still reaching out to us and pouring into our lives from states away.  Great friends and family encouraging us, visiting us, calling us, checking in on us....makes us realize how lucky we are to not only have each other, but to have a great community of people around us. 

So, this is definitely one of my sappier posts.  But, I felt the need to share that I am an extremely lucky woman because of an extremely amazing husband.  Though we have much more to learn about being married, I know that having a sense of "oneness" with each other and God, having endless fun together, and having an amazing community supporting us will increase our chances of having a pretty great journey throughout our entire marriage.

Two of My Favorites

My brother Chad and his wife Kim are two of my favorite people:).  They are so much fun and are raising two of my favorite little people, my neices Maddy and Emmy.  Because they are raising those two little people, I have not had the chance to spend time with just Chad and Kim since the little ones were born.  It was so great to get 3 whole days of quality time together.  I was very delinquent in taking pictures, but I did get a couple which are shown below. 

Some highlights of our trip:
*Eating at Bubby's.  It came out that Chad thought I took them there because I used to call him Bubby.  That would have been a much better reason than it was just a place with great food close to Eric's work!
*Watching the IU/Ohio State game together (Chad went to IU, Eric to OSU)
*Drinking PBR
*Cupcakes
*Seeing one of the best musicals I have seen in awhile....In The Heights
*Shopping for Coach purses in hidden, locked rooms in China town.  Kim was like a kid in a candy store:)
*Exploring a new area of Brooklyn for dinner and a movie
*Having live in dog walkers for the weekend (Chad and Kim always got up before us and helped us out by taking Murphy on nice walks)
*Shopping at markets for scarves!
*Taking pictures in the old school photo booth:)

Here are some pictures of my beautiful family.