Fun Fact.

Brittany's brother, Nick, is a rapper. And he's good. Real Good.

Here is their new video:





Enjoy.

-Andrew

'Tis The Season!

I love Christmas time! Love, love, love it. Believe it or not, when we got married, one of the things I was looking forward to the most was getting a real tree and decorating it for our first Christmas as husband and wife! Yes, I really did get excited about this right after we got married, which was just a week AFTER Christmas.

Anyways, it's finally that time of year again! We went down to Charleston, SC to spend the weekend after Thanksgiving with Andrew's family, so you can bet getting our tree was the first thing we did when we got back on Sunday night. I mean, I've only waited ALL year for this!

I'd say Andrew was pretty excited about our tree also

Stringing the lights...and look at precious Kenzie passed out. bahaha.

Almost there...

... The finished tree!

Of course, I had to bake some sugar cookies to compliment the fresh pine smell we now had in our apartment....Sugar cookies and Pine...the 2 ultimate Christmas scents. And don't mind the orange sprinkles. They were left over from halloween and the only sprinkles I had. Oh well.

Just felt like throwing in this sweet, adorable picture of our little girl. Isn't she just the cutest!?

Next was setting up this sweet Nativity that my mother-in-law lent us. This is the Nativity that she put up every year when Andrew and his brother were growing up. She also mentioned how they loved to hide baby Jesus...

Well I guess some things never change. Notice what's missing? Yes...baby Jesus. Andrew decided to be a little kid again, and hide baby Jesus...again.

The first weekend in December, The City Center in Newport News always has their annual Hollydazzle. I went last year with my family for the first time, and it was by far the best fireworks show I have ever seen. Thankfully, Andrew was with me this year (he worked that night last year...when he worked at good ol' Captn. G's! ha) and was able to see for himself how amazing the fireworks were.

Two days later was Grand Illumination in Colonial Williamsburg, where we got to watch yet another amazing fireworks show. On the way in, we stumbled upon the same little house/area that our amazing wedding photographers, Grant and Deb, shot our engagement pictures! So of course, we had to snap a quick one.

Andrew's parents joined us, along with my parents! It was so great being there with both of our families.

And one more super cute picture of our sweet girl...just because. Melts your heart, doesn't she?

Hope everyone is enjoying this oh-so wonderful time of the year!

A lot can happen in a year...

I know people always say "a lot can happen in a year", but the term "a lot" is always very subjective. As we are approaching our 1 year (CRAZY!) I'm thinking back to everything that has happened this past year, and I CAN NOT believe it. "A lot" would be an understatement. Let me give you a little recap.

From one year ago today, this is all that has happened:

-I was back at school finishing up my last couple of weeks as a college student, and preparing for graduation.

-Andrew and I were finishing (in a frantic/scrambling kind of way) planning the wedding.

-I had already accepted the job with Kohl's in Milwaukee, and we were preparing to uproot our lives and head to the midwest.

-We got married, went on an amazing honeymoon, and made the big move to Milwaukee 24 hours after getting back from our honeymoon.

-We settled into our new Wisconsin home, and I started my job 4 days later.

- We got acclimated to Milwaukee, met some great new people, made an addition to our family (our sweet Kenzie), and also became workaholics.

- 10 months after being in Milwaukee, Andrew gets his new job offer, and we decide/find out we are moving home

- We pack our lives up YET again, and make the 17 hr trek back to the good ol' VA, and just in time for Thanksgiving.

-We gain a 3rd residence in 1 year, and no prepare for Christmas and our 1 year anniversary! (Eek!)

-Instead of being workaholics now, Andrew is in a job he enjoys, and I am living the life of a stay-at-home wife (aka, unemployed) until I figure out what I should be doing now.

WHOA. I think we should get some award for going through the most change in a year.

But in all, it has been a great year, despite all the change. Andrew and I definitely had some challenges with everything above, but we have also grown so much through it all. We are so thankful for all of our amazing family and friends that have helped us, and supported us through everything, for without them, I don't know if we would have kept our sanity through it all. We have also had to learn to be much more faithful and trusting in Him, as many of these changes caused us to have to make big decisions, and we did not want these decisions to be ours. Because we knew they weren't ours to be made. We knew He had a plan, and we wanted to make sure we were hearing and following what His plan was. And we are so thankful for His love, and for keeping his hand over us throughout all of it. He is so great! :)

Also, here is a quick recap in picture form of this past year. Enjoy!

Wedding Day!

Honeymoon in Punta Cana, DR

Last night in Virginia. With our new snow shovel which is usually necessary for WI weather. But thankfully we never had to use it. ha!

Our first weekend in Milwaukee.

The day we got our precious girl, Kenzie

My sweet co-workers/Milwaukee friends. Miss them!

After crossing the VA state line on our way home. We've missed these mountains and weather!

Thanksgiving with family

Next post, you'll get to see a little more of thanksgiving and our tree! :)

-

Homecoming

Unfortunately, this post is not about attending JMU's homecoming, which we sadly missed and wished we could have attended! Nor is it about NC State's Homecoming that we will also sadly miss next weekend.

Instead, it is to announce our very own homecoming...literally. Happening in 3 weeks.

Yep, you read that right...

The Whites are moving back to VA!

Andrew has received an amazing job offer back home, and after lots of prayer, conversation, lists of pro's and con's and what if's, we finally reached a place of assurance that this is where the Lord wants us. We know our time in Milwaukee has not been that long, and the thought of packing up our lives YET again (for the 2nd time in just 10 months) is absolutely dreadful, but we are so excited to get home, to be with family and friends again, and to be back near all the southern things we've missed!

...Such as (and most importantly)...

(First thing I do after crossing the state line will be ordering a #1 combo, with a large sweet tea and Polynesian sauce. mmm. How many more days again?)

Dear city of Milwaukee...while you have been a very different living experience for us, we will miss a few things about you:

Brewers Baseball Games

Your love for ....

And being only an hour drive from this amazing city (I'll miss being so close to you, Chi Town, and all of your amazing shopping!)

However, there are definitely a few things we will NOT miss. At all.

Surely won't miss this

Or having to dress like this for a solid 5 months

So Brew City, Thank You for your hospitality in the short amount of time we have been here. Thank you for letting us explore your great city, and for being good to us (for the most part) during our time here...But I'm sorry to say, you will never have anything on the east coast/south.

Peace Out Midwest!

Friends.

The Racing Sausages

We love going to Brewers Baseball games. And I, particularly, love 3 things about going games:

3) Miller Lite

2) Hot Dogs

1) The Racing Sausages

Every game, at the bottom of the 6th Inning, The Sausages come out and race around the track while you predict which sausage will win. 

Let me introduce you to the famous Sausages:

From Left to Right, we've got Bratwurst, Polish Sausage, Chorizo, Italian Sausage, and Hot Dog.

The races are actually meant to be a promotion for the Klement's Sausage Company, which is located in Milwaukee, and whose sausages are served at the stadium. And I must admit, it is the most entertaining 30 second promotional piece of advertisement I have ever seen. Clever, clever thinking Klement's. 

Before you watch, don't forget to take a guess as to which sausage won the race last night...

Quirky Kenzie

So not only is Kenzie a sweetie...but she can be a quite the goofball too.

Our Newest Addition

Meet Kenzie White. 

Today has been our 2nd full day with her. And let's just say...she is THE best puppy you will ever meet. Like, really....the best puppy. Let me explain why:

Number of "accidents" in the house = 0. 

Whining and barking = nada.

Waking us up in the middle of the night to go outside = nope.

Stubborn and high maintenance = yeah.right.

We could not have lucked out more with such a sweet, lovable, smart, easy going pup. She has without a doubt won us over. 

And I guess you could say she was sort of an "impulse" decision as well. We really had no intentions of getting a dog this soon, but had definitely been "browsing" the idea. We would occasionally check the Humane Society website and told ourselves that if a Poodle mix ever came up for adoption, we would consider it. (A poodle mix specifically per Andrew's request because they don't shed. And the only reason he would agree to bring a dog home). We also figured that it would be rare for a poodle mix PUPPY to be available since word is they get snatched up fast.

So Saturday when my parents were here, we had some down time, decided to randomly just peek at the site...and whatd'ya know. There she is. Our sweet 10 month old Poodle/Bichon Frise mix just staring at us on the screen. I told Andrew to grab the keys, told my mom there was a change of plans and we were going for a ride. We got to the Humane Society 30 minutes before they closed, and left 30 minutes after they closed with an extra little passenger in the car. 

Kenzie is seriously is a dream dog, and the best outcome for an impulse decision :)

Meet Travis.

We thought about a puppy. But we found a better bargain.
We got this bad boy well within our budget.
You only have to feed him once every 30 days.
And if he dies within 6 months... we'll get a replacement.

Uh Oh! :-/

just bought our first living thing... that we have to take care of... yikes

and it def. just made a mess on our carpet.

pictures of travis coming soon.

Hair = GONE

Yep. It's gone. I chopped it off.

I guess I felt like I needed to add even more change into our lives. ha.

Best Birthday

Andrew has always been good at planning sweet surprises for me. And he knows how much I love them. So last week, on my birthday, he gave me the sweetest birthday gift I could have asked for.
A day full of sweet surprises.

It started with me being at work, and I just got out of a meeting at noon and ready to go to lunch when my manager told me that first she wanted me to walk down to the main lobby with her because we had some vendors that were waiting for us to let them into a room to set up, and she wanted me to meet them since we would be working closely with them. So I'm walking down with her, excited to meet these new vendors and chatting away when my manager looks towards the waiting area and says "And here are our vendors!" Of course, as you probably guessed already...there were no vendors...it was Andrew...holding the prettiest bouquet of flowers I have ever. And he wasn't just there to bring me the flowers, but he came to have lunch with me as well. So needless to say he was sneaky...especially for getting my manager in on it too! I loved it.

But that wasn't all. At the end of the day, I made my way home thinking we would be going out to dinner...when I walk inside our apartment to find this....

Even better than a dinner out...my sweet, sweet husband served me that night. He prepared the setting, cooked the meal, and even sang Happy Birthday to me as I blew out the candle in my favorite cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory (chocolate chip cookie dough, of course!).
It was...amazing.

I guess you could say my first "married" birthday was the best one yet :)