Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

This was the table I set up for the food and prizes

We had to put Roxy's dog bed up somewhere and we came into the spare room and found this! You can see kitty was hard at work


We are matching ugly sweater couple from the 80's. All i needed was a side pony tail

Everyone

Melissa's homemade sweater with santa coming out of her belly

Well here is the promised pictures of our house decorated for Christmas plus we had a ugly Christmas sweater party for the youth in our church and here are pictures of the best one.

Blog Make-Over

So No I haven't died and I know its been a while but we have been busy. First the obvious, thanks to my amazing cousin Emily she made over our blog and I love it. Thanks so much Em its amazing. And of course we had to add a photo of our first born child Roxy!!! the dog. she really is our child, sleeps in between us in bed and even has a stocking hanging for Christmas. So heres the updates. TEd is done another semester of school and has been studying a ton and never home so I'm glad the end is drawing near. He worked really hard and was blessed to get a job this summer at one of the biggest law firms in Canada and a global 100. So we are extremely grateful for that and if he does well could turn into a job after. I finished my semester of master classes and have one more next semester before I start the NP program. Ted was able to go home for thanksgiving to see all his family. I missed everyone but he had a lot of fun with a lot of people!!! the house was a zoo! I went with my family for my parents 40th anniversary on a mediterian cruise in October and would do it again in heart best. Best trip ever! Saw Greece, Italy and Croatia. I told Ted that for his graduation present we would go. So anyone want to come 2012 we are going!

The Christmas season is upon on us and our house is looking festive. (to post pics later) We are spending Christmas with my family because I get christmas off this year!! Can't wait. there will not be as many grandkids there as past because my brother greg is moving to utah this week because he has gotten a promotion at work to be over the west. We are going to miss all his girls. We will miss all the family we can't spend Christmas with, but know that we are thinking of you. Hope you all have a merry Christmas filled with love and laughter. We are so excited to celebrate the birth of our saviour at this beautiful season and are grateful for all the gifts he has given us.

Love to all!

5 years!

As I was looking through my pictures I had completely forgotten about these few. For Teds and mine 5 year anniversary I planned a surprise flight just the two of us around Georgian bay during our family cottage week. He was totally surprised and love every minute of it. The pilot even let Ted fly 3/4 of the flight. Ted has been saying for the past couple months before this, that he wants to get his pilots licence one day and own his own plane. I said no prob right after you make thousands of dollars!!!! haha right! The other pictures are of the annual dinner cruise the adults go on with no kids during cottage week. The sunsets are amazing.

School Is Back in Session!

Our 5K
The Labor for Life Girls!!

The crowd eating at Henrys fish restaurant.
Noah and JAck both love Uncle Justin's Jeep.
Couples Kayak races. Thats mean yelling at Ted to go faster. He already fell out once.
The swim part of the duathalon
the three sisters, my sisters girls!!!!!!!!
Owen


Summer has gone to fast for us. We have done so much it seems like a blur. We had the Templeman annual family cottage week (always crazy but fun). Had the cottage duathalon, I participated in my hospitals Dragon boat team which is a one day race in a big canoe that fits 20 people. There were over 500 teams. Our team shirts read "we labor for life" being as we are all L&D nurses. Ted and I ran a 5K in Detroit in June, visited his family and friends in Utah, took our church youth to palmyra NY to visit all the historic sites and saw my brother Greg and his family. Enjoyed veggies from my first garden (thanks for your help mom). And had Teds parents come up to the cottage to see what I talk about so much.

Next up, Ted has already started his 2nd year of law school and one more to go after that. Wow will I be glad when he is finished!!!!!! And in other news I got into graduate school this fall. I just went and got my books last week. I will be starting soon my Master in Nursing / NP school combined. I will be going to school part-time and working part-time. Its exciting and going to be busy I know but, it will be worth it in the end when I can set my own hours of work and teach at the university level if I want, take summers off! I know I will miss being an L&D nurse and bringing all those cute babies into this world. Its truly a wonderful experience to see all those little miracles take their first breath and be there to witness the joy on the parents faces. I hope to help the new nurses coming in find something they love and can be passionate about like I am about labor and delivery. I love to teach and always have and hope I can be as good as some of the extraordinary professors I had in nursing school.

I hope to be better about posting more but if anyone read my status on facebook Ted and I were on our way to Palmyra with 75 youth trying to cross the boarder when my mom called to say happy anniversary on Aug 20th which was our 5 year. We both turned to each other and laughed. We both forgot and just figured we would celebrate when things calmed down. I can't forget to mention what an amazing man I married. He has done so well in school, renovated almost our entire house, cooked and cleaned while I have worked a lot this summer and last been my emotional support and rock through this hard time. I am more in love today than on the day I married him. Love you babe and happy anniversary.

Kitchen Renovations Are Done

Ted spent the month of May off of school renovating our kitchen. He is extremely proud of his work as am I. He did a great job and I had no idea I had such a handy husband. We know if the lawyer thing doesn't work out he can always do construction!!!! (just kidding) Look at older posts for some before pictures. The renovation included:

New countertops (extended 30” with new matching cabinets)

New sink

New faucet

New dishwasher

New Microwave

New window frame

Cabinets painted, including "antiquing" (Meg did this)

New cabinet hardware

Built custom cabinets and fridge enclosure

New custom backsplash

New light fixtures

New ceramic tile floor

New painted walls (Again Meg did this)

New 5” baseboards

New garbage disposal

New light switches/outlets

New York!!!!!! New York!!!!!!!!

Our carriage ride through central park. And of course mom had to pet the horse


Enjoying our five guys burger and fries after our long day on Ellis island. And also attempting to take of picture of ourselves. We were starved.


Me being patriotic to the US as I am officially a citizen. I literally got my passport 4 days before we were leaving. (This pic is for you barb)


Getting ready to go do some serious damage with our visa shopping in NY
Eating dinner in little Italy on the street corner.

Yes I am a horrible blogger because it has been over a month for me to finally get this pictures up. For my birthday this year my mom and sis went to NY for the weekend. We went shopping in China town ate in little Italy walked around time square and took in the NY spring air. We had gorgeous weather the entire weekend. NY has so many good places to eat and we enjoyed as many as we had time for. We went to Ellis Island on Saturday and on our last day we enjoyed a nice carriage ride through central park. It was the best birthday. I could totally live in NY for a year with Ted working at a big firm or something and enjoy all the city life. Thanks mom and Sarah for a great time we have to go again soon.

More pictures

Florida

Well to celebrate Ted being done his first year of law school we went to Florida with my family. It was a much needed vacation for both of us and since we have been back it has been nothing but chaotic, that is why it has taken me this long to post. We got home and the next few days teds parents came for a week and it was so much fun. We went out to eat and to the temple in Detroit and they are coming again in august so we can take them to the cottage. We have had extremely hot weather like 80's every day which is very rare for this time of the year. Anyways while his parents were here TEd started on renovating the kitchen. And thank goodness for Teds dad he helped a ton. It is finally finished and here are a few pictures during ! Barb you are not going to believe how good it looks. And my favorite part is a DISH WASHER!!!!!!!! I have never been so excited to load a dish washer. I still have to pick a paint color for the walls and when I do I will put finished pictures up. Next weekend was time out for women so ther a fewpictures of us all out to eat the friday night. Work has been getting really busy which is good because I am finally picking up full time hours. Lets hope it keeps up. Last weekend me my mom and sister went to NY city for the weekend to celebrate my birthday and I am waiting for pictures from my mom to post about that. It was am awesome weekend and one the my best birthdays ever I wish it didn't have to end. Pictures from that soon to come.

P.S. I almost forgot since this was a big deal for Ted to celebrate being done his first year I let him rent a new camaro to drive around florida!!! It was a hit with every guy on the trip. They all wanted to drive it. Oh and my sister got a golden retriever puppy and he is so cute. I really wanted to steal him.