Christmas 2011 with the Cress Family

We packed up the Jeep on the 23rd and drove the 7.5 hours across Indiana and Illinois to the wonderful state of Iowa for Christmas this year.

Nervous that Santa wouldn't find him in such a wonderful place, Nate was stoked to see that Santa loves gift in Iowa as much as in Ohio.

Opening presents at Casa Cress on Christmas morning is always a trip.  Joseph got a pack of fake mustaches (hilarious), Dad opened a true Hawaiian shirt from the Ohio State Alumni club of Hawaii (from Nate, of course), Mom got some cute new clothes (some even with the security tags left on- awesome), Elyse opened her signature Lego set of the year, as the new home owner... Nate got a leaf blower (I'm actually pretty pumped about this), and I think Andrew put every article of clothing on that he received. :)

 

 

 

 

 

One of the highlights this year was the couple's gift that Joseph bought for Mom and Dad... matching Nerf guns!  The whole family broke out into war for a hilarious morning of family bonding.

Merry Christmas!

Our First Christmas on Green Place

Since we already had Christmas with the Browns, and are heading to Iowa for Christmas with the Cress' on actual Christmas day, we decided to have our own holiday a few days early.

We were wondering if Santa got our new address, and thank goodness... he found us!

  

 

Nate got clothes, books, tools, a book about our honeymoon... and the new desk chair he's had his eye on for a few months now.

 

And I got... a Kate Spade handbag and wallet! I'm sure there were other amazing gifts that I opened but hard to remember after opening this one :)

 

Christmas 2011 with the Brown Family

With Nate's on-call schedule, we sometimes have to get creative to spend time with our families for the holidays.  This year, we celebrated Christmas a couple weeks early with the Brown family.  Timing worked out well, as Veronica and Kylee are spending the holiday in Mexico with her family so we were all able to get together.

 Kylee was clearly a good girl this year, with a PILE of gifts.  Ranging from adorable clothes, to UGG boots, to a Dora dress-up outfit and an Ohio State wind suit... she was spoiled!

Uncle Nate and Aunt "Abi" joined in the spoiling fun.  We got her a Dora activity desk, kitchen utensil play set... and a pink tricycle!

Grandma and Grandpa also got her a pint-sized basketball hoop... it was a.dor.a.ble. to watch her play with it with her Papa.

After all the madness, her mom said "Do you want more?" and she eagerly said, "Si." :)

Happy 50th Birthday, Dad!

It's rare, but Dad let us celebrate this 50th birthday with a party at the Lake House earlier this month.

The kids made him a "cake" of his favorite things: Mt. Dew, Goldfish, Slim Jims, Planters Peanuts, and Armor All :)

Many people came from all across the country to help Dad celebrate.  Nate and I drove from Ohio, Elyse from Chicago, Russ, Diane, Mark and Deb came from Morris... and Sherri flew in from Arizona.  It was a wonderful surprise!

 

Great family, great friends and a great fireworks show to cap it all off!

The Big Basement Cleanup and Adding Curb Appeal

Nate was on call for Thanksgiving so we spend our first married Thanksgiving in Cincinnati together in our new house.  We made a pot roast in the crock pot all day and worked on the house from sun up to well past dark... we were productive!

Slowly but surely, we've been working to clean up the exterior of our house for some updated curb appeal.  Finally the ugly house numbers are gone and we have a great new replacement!

Before...

Nate using his power tools... 

After! 

The bulk of the day was spent on the basement.  Prior to Thanksgiving weekend, we placed all of our stoarge items at the bottom of the stairs.  Now all of the floors have been scrubbed and we feel like we have a complete home!

Bar/ Rec Room Before...

During (cleaning process)...


AFTER!  We now have a bar and are ready to entertain :)



Storage Room before (empty)...

 

Storage Room during clean up...

Storage Room after (clean, and filling up fast!)



While the hubby's away...

... the wife was hard at work! :)

Two of my three goals were accomplished this weekend while Nate attended a perfusion conference in Charlotte, NC this weekend.

Goal #1: Rake the leaves in the front yard - Complete

BEFORE:

 AFTER:

 












Goal #2: Unpack everything in the upstairs, clean/organize all of the closets and drawers, and feel like we actually have a bedroom - Complete

(This is our bedroom.  You can finally see the floor and ALL of our clothes are clean AND put away!)

Goal #3: Mop the basement floor and organize storage - Not quite.  I purchased shelving for the storage room in the basement but ran out of steam so will have to wait on this project for another weekend.

Fall decor

While we still have a lot of projects to do around the house, I was dying to do some decorating, so the house now finally has a feeling of fall.  I love it - and can't wait to decorate for Christmas now too!