2011 Year in Review

Wow...I can't believe the year is almost over; 2011 was a big year for Andy and I.  Here are the highlights:

This is how it started in January.

In February we celebrated our first anniversary.

In March I was struggling with finding balance. 

  In April we celebrated Easter with friends and I shared my testimony.

In May we started house hunting and put our first bid on a house...which we didn't get.

 In June we put an offer on another house...

 

July was jam packed.  I went back to San Diego to visit my girlfriends;

went camping with friends;

and had some much needed r&r.  

August was crazy...we got the keys to our new home.

We started painting the day we moved in.

 We dealt with our first homeowner issue.

We find out apparently my husband is a carpenter and he builds our dining room table.

In September we become DIY "experts" and updated our kitchen.

 And redid our floors.

We also decide to expand our family.

I decide this is the month I learn to be crafty.

In October my husband wow's me again with his craftsmanship and builds "built in" bookshelves.

I wow myself with my craftiness.

 In November, Andy and I hosted a Thanksgiving Feast!

 In December we did a DIY Christmas card photo shoot.

 Andy built another amazing table.

  And as you've read recently, we spent a beautiful holiday in Flagstaff, AZ with my in-laws.  

 2011 is going to be hard to beat...but I have a feeling 2012 is going to be full of surprises.  

Are you ready for the New Year?

 

 

Merry & Bright

The holidays were a magical time.  Andy and I flew to Flagstaff and enjoyed a beautiful white Christmas.  (Can you see the snow in the background?  And isn't that a beautiful tree?).  The three days leading up to Christmas was, full of food, napping, fam time and cards.  Did I mention the food?

A perfect flip of the pancake...yeah...we get excited about the little things. 

 Christmas Eve tradition is nachos!

 We decided we needed to take a walk around the block to make us feel better about how much we ate.

The Taylor's don't mess when it comes to cards!

Hope your holidays were merry and bright!

Playing Tag

I'm responding to a tag from Lindsy at LMR Photography. Thanks for the blog love!

Rules: 
1. You must post these rules. 
2. Each per­son must post 11 things about them­selves on their blog. 
3. Answer the ques­tions the tag­ger set for you in their post, and cre­ate 11 new ques­tions for the peo­ple you tag to answer. 
4. You have to choose 11 peo­ple to tag and link them on the post. 
5. Go to their page and tell them you have linked him or her. 

11 Things About Me:

1.  I'm half Caucasian, half Korean.

2.  My favorite event so far this year was the day I rescued my dog, Augustus. 

3.  I love hot sauce on everything...except dessert.

4.  I'm an introvert by nature.

5.  I can't sing, at all.

6.  I wish I could sing.

7.  I want to learn to sew.

8.  I want to take a photography class.

9.  I was 31 when I met my husband.

10.  I usually drive in silence.

11.  I wish I could turn blogging into my job. 

11 Questions Lindsy asked me:

1.  What was the best vacation you ever went on?

 It was my honeymoon...6 months of traveling throughout Central America & SE Asia.

2.  What is your favorite thing to eat late at night?

Lucky Charms.

3.  Who was your favorite band when you were in junior high?

Poison or Def Leopard....tough call.

4.  If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?

Santa Cruz, California

5.  Favorite TV shows right now?

Parenthood

6.  If you could re-paint your house, what color would you choose?

I really like the current color, gray.  

7.  How many best friends do you have?

Two

8.  Describe your 'go-to' feel-good outfit.

Jeans, T-shirt, Rainbow flip flops

9.  Who have you known longest in your life (besides family)?

Not sure?

10.  What's one thing you're a super-nerd about?

Blogs and blogging, I love it!

11.  I'm making you spend $10,000 - what would you do with it?

This looks good no?

 

Ok...You're Questions:

1.  Introvert or Extravert?

2.  Who is your celebrity look a like?

3.  If you had to live one place for the rest of your life, where would it be?

4.  What's your favorite holiday and why?

5.  Favorite book or movie?

6.  What are your top 3 favorite blogs?

7.  What are you great at?

8.  If you could choose between a personal chef or housekeeper, which would you choose?

9.  How long could you go without your phone?

10.  How many bones have you broken?

11.  Are you on twitter?  What is your handle?

Tag:  Shannon, Faith, Jes, Cory, Heather, Calista 

Ok...well, 6 will have to do!  Merry Christmas peeps.  

This Can't Be Topped

When I checked the mail last night, I had no idea what was about to happen.  I opened an envelope that brought me back in time and filled me with such joy, words cannot express how touched I was.  See, the thing is, my family is not very close knit.  My dad was in the military and we've never lived near relatives.  I've met my aunts, uncles and grandparents less than a handful of times; I have a half sister who lives in New Orleans who visited a few times as a child, and as adults we've seen each other a handful of times.  My moms family is all in Korea with the exception of 2 of my cousins who I've met once.  Facebook keeps us tied together as adults, but it really saddens me not really knowing my family or their history. 

When I saw the envelope in the mail from my grandfather, I suspected the obligatory Christmas card; when I opened it, well, it was so  much more.  He included a scattered history of photos of my father and pictures I've never seen of me as a child.  I poured over the photos as tears streamed down my face...I can't quite explain the feeling, but my heart felt like it was going to burst from such a thoughtful gesture--and I felt that much more connected to my dad and grandfather.

 The note with the photos from Grandpa.

Images of my father as a child...no photo shop here...real images from the 50's and 60's!

Photos of me as a child.

 I absolutely love this photo...me and dad at the zoo.  

Well, good luck one-upping grandpa folks.  

Progressive Dinner

Our little church held it's first holiday soiree; we did a progressive dinner and it was so much fun!  We had 3 different hosts in different locations prepare 1) drinks and appetizers 2) the main meal and 3) desserts.  We kept it simple and had a chance to get to know each other better by sharing our highs and lows of the year, our hopes for 2012 and then some how we got onto embarrassing stories of our pasts. 

Our first stop was hosted by Libby; she set up a cute little "make your own" gingerbread house station...loved this!

Then on to the main meal which was delish!

And finally relaxing at the end of the evening with cream puffs and coffee.

Hope your holiday gatherings are warm and cozy!

Need A Place to Stay?

Have you heard of Airbnb? It's the coolest! We have some friends who use it to rent out rooms in their house to folks traveling to and through Tacoma.  But it's a great resource if you're traveling anywhere!  Since our exchange student just left to Japan, we have an empty room just waiting to be used, so we decided to post it.  And how spectacular is this?  They send a professional photographer to your place to photograph it for free if you request it.  (No, they are not paying me). I think I'm just excited to have beautiful photographs of my home! Here are a few more:

You can check out all the images here.

So the most crazy cool part of deciding to do this was meeting the photographer who came to take the pics.  Turns out him and his wife (who are also fairly recent newlyweds), did the same thing we did after we got married.  They sold everything and traveled for 6 months and they started an uber nifty blog too! Turns out we have mucho in common...so after the holidays we're gonna hang out!  I love new friends!

The Secret is Out

Ok...I'm just gonna come out with it.  Andy and I have been trying to get pregnant.  (Surprise!)  For any of you who know me in real life, I know this is shocking news.  I've always wanted to have kids (via adoption), but never, not once, have I ever had the desire to be pregnant.  Something changed 6 months ago, (the proverbial ticking clock I guess?)  It's a strange feeling of failure (I know it's not) every month to look at a little white stick and only see one line. 

I do really, really, really want to have a baby, but not so much that I'll do everything possible to get pregnant.  I know myself, and I know I'd turn into an obsessive robot if I tried to time everything perfectly.  I'm trying to have fun and relax, and not get too bummed out as each month passes. I feel fortunate however to have a peace about the outcome; if I can't get pregnant, I'm ok with it.  We still very much have the desire to adopt and will probably start that process soon...I know God has put that desire in our hearts for a reason and regardless, we plan to adopt.  It's strange though, perhaps just coincidence...but once we started trying, it seemed that everyone around me started having their babies or I got news that another friend was pregnant.  And even weirder, all the commercials we watched on Hulu were pregnancy test ads--how did they know???

I know six months is not a long time, I know my feelings are normal; I think I just wanted to dialogue with others who may be going through the same thing...because I have yet to meet a woman my age who doesn't have children.  (Which seems strange to me living on the West coast...has no one else met and married in their 30's?).

The Table that Love Built

Remember the DIY farm house table that Andy built for me?  Well, since then Andy has built and sold 7 more on Craigslist.  He's honed in his craft and actually built a more beautiful table for our dining room.  This one is well over 100 pounds, sturdier and he built in leaves for when we have lots of guests.  Here is the final masterpiece.  

He carved our initials on the bottom beam. *Squeal!*   I love him.

Japanese Food Stuffs

It's the last week our foreign exchange student is with us.  She insisted on cooking Andy and I a Japanese meal (nope, not sushi), rather three dishes that I couldn't pronounce if I tried. 

Yup...that is a ketchup heart with our initial.  Don't be jealous of the ketchup heart. 

And the awkward family photo with the obligatory peace sign.  

It was a great 3 months...we're looking forward to the next student that gets placed with us!

DIY Christmas Photo Shoot

I couldn't wait to snap photos for our Christmas card.  The tricky part was getting all the elements to come together at once.  From trying to figure out the camera's self timer, focusing, dashing to get in place, getting the dog to look at the camera, and figure out the right lighting, it was a comedy of errors caught on film (that we had to take over a course of 2 days--Oh my sweet, patient husband).  We simply sat in front one of the walls in our bedroom, wrapped some Christmas lights around ourselves, put reindeer antlers on Augustus, and rested our camera on our nightstand to keep it still.  I have a DSLR camera that I don't really know how to use it...so I adjusted the ISO and aperture a million times (as you can tell from the various lighting in the photos below).  You can also use a regular digital camera, which I did for our DIY engagement photos.  For your viewing pleasure--the mini version of the unedited photos:

And the winner (after editing):

After all the hassle, it was totally worth it.  I love the image we got!

Are you doing photo Christmas cards?