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.