February 21, 2012

Flashback: Christmas in Travelers Rest.

Christmas 2011!
Jon and I experienced our first Christmas together as a married couple. It was also our first Christmas together in our first home. Lots of firsts!

We spent Christmas with my family this year. Every one was here! It was great to have my brothers around for the holiday. My parent's purchased a Wii. We all spent a lot of time together being slightly competitive -- but more importantly just laughing and having a good time {the canoeing game is hilarious if you haven't played it}. We also all experienced Estelle's 2nd Christmas. She was just over a year old and able to open gifts and enjoy them. It was so fun to see her laughing and walking {slowly and stumbly} around.

O Christmas Tree!
All the presents!
Christmas Eve kisses from Dakota

Jon let me open one gift on Christmas Eve
Our First Christmas Together ornament! :)
Christmas Morning
I got a miniature ping pong set! :)
Making Nana's Monkey Bread
Christmas French Toast

Sweet Estelle

Uncle Jon putting on her sparkly new shoes
Mom gave all of the guys bungy cords "BUNGIES UNITE" {oh boys.}
Donald and Ariun gave mom a real fur hat!
Donald and Ariun

David and Amy

Dad checking out his new game Pit!

Mom looking through the book we made them of our wedding pictures
Uncle Jon with Estelle
Everyone was able to see Jon and I's new place. What fun!

In our back yard!
The Santa Claus plays a song... Estelle loved and hated this guy!

It was a very successful and enjoyable Christmas weekend spent with the Miller Family. Jon and I loved every minute of it! Thanks mom and dad for hosting such a great time! :)

Old School with the niece -- she loved it!


Flashback: We bought a house.

Well, we bought a house. That's where we've been this whole time. My apologies for not keeping you all updated as frequently. We've had quite the adventures over the past few months.

The house hunt began on a whim in September. My mom {Val typing} had mentioned a house for sale in Greenville across the street from friends of theirs. It was a brand new construction. Just for kicks and giggles, Jon and I drove by and peeked in the windows. Let's just say, the dreaming began.

Did we want to stay in Greenville? We have good, stable jobs. We love Greenville. We have established friend roots here. We have found a good church body. Why not? We decided that we would at least be here for 5 more years, so why not buy a house? Why not invest in something? Ah! But a house! 30 years! Wow.

Jon and I searched online and put together a list of homes in our price range. We spent a whole day driving around neighborhoods using a Zillow App as our guide. The hunt was on! We found residential areas we didn't even know existed! We also learned that you can't always go by the pictures you see online, and that the price really does say a lot about whether or not you're going to end up with a "fixer-upper."

We visited about 10 homes in the area. We narrowed it down to 2 {3 if you include the house that started it all - we knew that one was way out of our price range - but we could wish right?}.

We loved the back yard of one and loved the inside of the other. Do we satisfy our dog with a fenced in huge yard? Or do we satisfy each of us {Dakota included} with a little more open feel inside?

We knew which one we loved.

November 10, 2011, we became homeowners. Later, we began to understand the depth of that statement -- in a good way... and a bad way. Ha.

{the keys to our first place}