A simply sweet 2 year anniversary

Andrew and I have now been married for 731 days. wowza.

Yesterday Andrew and I had a perfectly relaxing, sweet and simple 2 year anniversary. We were so fortunate this year that new years day fell on a Sunday and therefore gave us an automatic holiday on Monday (our anniversary!). What a great way to end a long weekend :)

Knowing that we both were going to have the whole day off together, I didn't want to pack our day full of "stuff" and running around. We already had enough of that happen with the holidays. So instead, we opted to use this day to relax and enjoy a solid, full day of quality time together. No schedule. No house work. No errands. No to-do's. And let me tell you...it was exactly what we needed and exactly the kind of anniversary we both loved.

We started the day by sleeping in (hallelujah!). Sleeping in was then followed by hot coffee and waffles and warm blankets and cuddling on the couch and harry potter movies. And that, my friends, was a wonderful combination of events.

Andrew was then sweet enough to take me to get a pedicure. Lucky for him, there was a TV in the salon that had football on. What took place right here is what we call "compromising". It's a major key to this marriage thing, folks! :)

As we approached dinner time, we had 2 options. 1) Fancy dinner out. Or 2) keep it simple with the same "tradition" that we started on our wedding night - Chanello's pizza with a side of wings (remember last years post from our 1 year anniversary?).

Andrew was absolutely giddy with the idea of having Chanello's on our anniversary every year from here on out. In his words, "It's awesome! No one else has a tradition like it!" ha. That's for sure! But let me tell ya...he's so darn cute when he gets giddy excited. So how can I not agree with him!? Plus, I admit...it is kind of a fun and quirky "tradition". So why not!

Here's us last year...on our 1 year Anniversary....with our half cheese/half pepperoni pizza and a side of wings.

*(I apologize right now for the mixture of quality canon camera pics and semi-blurry instagram iphone pics that you are about to view)

This year. Year 2. Waiting on our half cheese/half pepperoni pizza and a side of wings - Look at that sweet and handsome "anniversary" face :) Love that I get to see this face every day, for the rest of my life.

There it is...our now traditional White wedding anniversary meal.

Holding up a 2 for 2 years! Or doing an Asian peace sign. Whichever you prefer to view it as. I sort of prefer the latter...at least my eyes are going along with it.

Just a little "cheesy" chow down picture here. Ha, get it? (Insert a "womp, womp")

No anniversary is complete without a fancy dessert! Or in our case, Sweet Frog. SO yummy and the perfect treat to top off our night. (5 bucks to whoever can guess which cup belongs to Brittany and which cup belongs to Andrew. Easiest 5 bucks you'll ever earn.)

My favorite part (and ending) to this simply sweet anniversary day was the time we spent reading our bibles and praying together right before bed. One of our goals for 2012 is to read through the entire bible...together. We picked out our reading plan and last night we began. I can already tell this is going to be my favorite part of every day. And now that you all know this is our goal, you can help keep us accountable!

Well, what a wonderful year 2 it has been - Our first full year back in Virginia. Moving into a new place. I started a new job. Almost a full year with our wonderful new home church. So much to be thankful for and so many blessings to praise our heavenly father for.

I also love that our anniversary date falls right at the beginning of a new year. It falls during a time when we all generally reflect on the past year and look forward to what the new year holds. I am SO looking forward to what this new year of marriage holds - but more than that, I am looking forward to what our sweet Lord has in store for us this new year. Because whether it may be good or bad, all I know is that HE is good. And He uses all things and all circumstances for His good and glory. So our prayer for this new year is that we would continue to trust Him in our relationship and with our relationship. What a beautiful gift marriage is and how merciful our Father is for letting us experience such a wonderful thing - considering we are all so undeserving. So what better way to be thankful than by glorifying him with all that we are and all that this marriage is.

So here's to year 3 - I pray that Andrew and I would use this marriage and this year to grow in His love and share it with others.

Happy 2 years, babe! And thank you for spending a simply sweet anniversary with me :)

A Very Merry IKEA Christmas

Since Andrew and I decided to purchase a brand new computer a month before Christmas, we agreed that this would just be our Christmas present to each other....along with a trip to IKEA!

You see, our whole bedroom set is from IKEA and there was one more dresser piece that we were missing. Our last two apartment bedrooms would not have been able to fit this 3rd piece, but in our current townhouse, there was not only plenty of space, but the PERFECT space for it in our new bedroom. So on Veterans day, Andrew and I used our glorious day off of work to make a day trip to IKEA. Seriously...if you have never been to an IKEA, you for real need an entire day. That store is amazing. And I would say we had a very successful day trip...despite Andrews face (pictured below), extra long receipt, and a clearly blown budget.

When we got home, Andrew got to work right away putting together our new dresser

but it wasn't all work and no play :) ha!

Oh, what did I do while Andrew played handyman and goofball?

Why, I supervised of course!

And maybe watched a couple of episodes of this

And maybe played with this sweet girl

As things started going up on the walls, we started getting excited about how it was turning out!

...almost there...

All done!

We LOVE our new addition to our bedroom. And we couldn't have accomplished this look without some help from IKEA. Okay, maybe a LOT of help from IKEA since everything pictured came from that store.

Oh, and we can't forget about our new desk for our new computer! Love this new set up too...again, thanks to IKEA :)

So (Early) Merry Christmas, babe. Hope you enjoy the new computer, dresser and desk! (And when did we become old enough for furniture to be exciting Christmas presents?)

Kitchen Bonding

My kitchen and I have been spending a lot of time together lately. Particularly this past weekend. Saturday through Monday were packed with so many fun events that involved food...and of course, I can't help but make a contribution to ANYTHING involving food.

So here's a little recap of what my kitchen and I have whipped up since Saturday evening:

Pumpkin Scones with Spiced Glaze. Made these for hospitality at church on Sunday morning...

Image from Browneyedbaker.com

...which were accompanied by these Blueberry Muffins.

Image from Browneyedbaker.com

And a girl's gotta eat dinner while she bakes. So this Goulash was our Saturday night dinner.

Image from Budget Bytes

Sunday night we celebrated my Grandma's birthday. She requested this awesome Carrot Cake.

Image from The Pioneer Woman

...which was also accompanied by Chocolate Sheet Cake. Who says you can't have two cakes for your birthday?

Image from The Pioneer Woman

And of course, me being me, baking two whole cakes for my Grandma's birthday wasn't enough. I felt compelled to make and appetizer too. And what better appetizer to make than these extremely addiciting Bacon Wrapped Jalapenos.

Image from The Pioneer Woman

Last night we had a yummy Pre-Thanksgiving feast with our church kingdom group. Yet again, do I offer to bring just one thing? Of course not!

Broccoli Casserole (which is a family recipe and my favorite Thanksgiving dish that my mom makes) was the side item of my choosing...

Image from myrecipes.com

...along with Brown Sugar Cookies....

Image from joythebaker.com

and Pumpkin Pie Dip

Image from tablespoon.com

Every single thing turned out absolutely delicious and I absolutely recommend them all.

With all that said, I now need to go spend some quality bonding time with the gym.

Upgrade

Well, Ladies and Gents...considering how long it has been since we've posted anything on here, Andrew and I should just get our blogging rights revoked. I wouldn't be surprised if no one even reads this. We're sorry for being so lame. But there is a reason! Sort of. You see...we both have our trusty Apple MacBooks that we use at home. Love them. They've been so good to us over the years. Until recently. Nowadays, neither of us can use the CD drive as all CD's that enter now get jammed, which leads to a trip to the Apple Store to get them removed (thanks Erin for your help with that!). And as for pictures...umm, we have about 700+ of those just sitting in our lovely Cannon Rebel waiting ever so patiently to be downloaded. But we can't. Both MacBooks are pretty much maxed out in storage, along with our external hard drives, and not to mention is seems to take about 34587987 years for the pictures to download IF they decide they want to. It's all very frustrating. And actually, I'm probably describing it all wrong and Andrew will probably correct me later...but point is, our beloved MacBooks just aren't really cutting it anymore beyond surfing the web. As for why this has affected my lack of blogposts? Well, I've discovered I'm sort of a picture snob about them and only want to make a post if I have pictures to include. Sorry. It's the visual person in me. SO, with all that said...we ultimately felt it was time to upgrade to solve all these problems. This afternoon, my sweet husband will be picking up this BEAUTY! (Again, thank you Erin for your help! FYI for anyone reading - this Erin I keep thanking is our lovely cousin who lives in the gorgeous city of Charleston and works at Apple. She's basically the best.)

I am soooo excited about this pretty piece of technology, I can hardley contain it! I almost feel bad for our poor little MacBooks now as they will probably become severly neglected. Andrew and I will probably even argue like little kids over who gets to use the computer since we will both no-doubt want to play on it at the same time (remember the episode of Friends when Monica and Phoebe fight over playing on the Pac-Man Machine? yea, something like that). So no more empty promises this time when I say I'll be posting more soon! So if you haven't given up on us yet, THANKS...if you have, understandable.

New Job

Forgive me for leaving y'all hanging for so long. We just moved. We went to 2 more (BEAUTIFUL) weddings. We've been unpacking. I've been sick. I'm week 3 into the new job. crazy.

BUT, the new job. Oh.My.Gosh. Awesome.

I recently became employed by The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. For those of you not familiar with this place, you can learn more here. For those who do know about ColonialWilliamsburg, you know what I mean when I say this place is awesome. And, well, I have only been obsessed with Colonial Williamsburg for ..hmm, all my life. So to be able to work for them is crazy cool.

My new title is Merchandise Analyst. I support the Buyers that buy all of the gifts, home goods, furniture, souvenirs, collectibles, jewelry, etc. for all of the Williamsburg shops. Go here to see our world. To get another picture/idea of our world, below is the fabulous book I was given the day I picked up my offer letter. (yes please!) oh, and p.s. - One of the PM's in our office contributed to the text of this book...she's a rock star.

So praise Him, for answering my prayers, for providing, for working out His wonderful plan, for opening my heart to listen and follow this perfect plan, and for delighting in our work and allowing me to delight in it and in Him. It was all His doing that I got this job, and for that I am overflowing with thanks.

And thankful for such a cute office and beautiful scenery as I stroll into work.

Thanks for reading, y'all!