ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY

It's amazing to think that it has already been one year since our wedding!! This year has gone so fast and has been so wonderful for both James and I.

We decided to celebrate our One Year Wedding Anniversary by visiting Niagara Falls.

Here are a few pictures of our visit- including our ride on Maid of the Mist, our ride to the top of the Skylon Tower, the Butterfly Exhibit, the Botanical Gardens and the Walk behind the Falls.

Some of the pictures of Niagara Falls are from our goreous hotel room.

We had a wonderful weekend and enjoyed celebrating our Anniversary!!

SIEBEN

I haven't posted in a while... but I thought that I would introduce everyone (if you haven't met her yet) to our Weimaraner Sieben. James got her almost 10 years ago. She got sick in the car SEVEN times on the way home ("Sieben" is seven in German).

Here's a couple pictures of her. The first picture is my favorite of Sieben and her buddy Zeph (who we miss greatly!) The last picture is Sieben "the mountain goat" running through the trees and brush at Lake Cumberland... she loves trying to hunt down squirrels and raccoons.

WHAT A GREAT DOG!!

Chocolate Trifle...yummy!

Because James loves chocolate... I decided to surprise him with a chocolate trifle when he came home from work this week. If you've never made one... it is so good. James thought that it was good enough for me to share with everyone on our blog- so here it goes:

Ingredients:

- 1 package of chocolate cake mix

- 1 (3.9oz) package of instant chocolate pudding

- 1/2 cup water

- 1 (14oz) cap sweetened condensed lowfat milk

- 1 (8oz) container frozen whipped topping- thawed

- 1 (12oz) container frozen whipped topping- thawed

- 1 bag of oreo cookies

Directions:

-Prepare cake mix according to package and cool completely. Remove from cake pan and cut into 1 inch squares

- In a large bowl, combine pudding mix, water and sweetened condensed lowfat milk. Mix until smooth, then fold in 8oz wipped topping until no streaks remain.

- Crush some of the oreo cookies to use between layers as desired.

- In a trifle bowl or glass serving bowl, place half of the cut cake pieces, half of the pudding mixture and half of the 12oz container of whipped topping and some of the crushed oreo cookies. Repeat layers. Use some of the remaining oreos on top for decoration.

- Refrigerate 8 hours before serving.

I love this recipe because it's such a great dessert- and it's really fun to make... enjoy!!

OUR NEW HOUSE

Here are a few pictures of our new house.... Even though we have been living here for almost 7 months- we finally feel like we can concentrate on making it "home" (now that James' house is sold).

This is, of course, a picture of the front. We love the brick exterior and love the fact that it's located on a dead end street (no traffic at all).

The landscaping is a "work in progress." The previous owners had one of everything in their flower garden- and we wish to simplify- we don't want to spend every single weekend in the garden (all 7 of them!)

This is a picture of our "Great Room"- which we love because it so open and has a gorgeous fireplace.

We need another chair or something in this room because there's a big space in the right corner (which you can't see because I cut it out of the picture).

You can see the keys of my piano in the bottom right- I guess I need to start playing it again... huh?

This is our cute little living room/sitting room. It's going to be great for any time when when one of us just needs a "moment alone" because it has pocket doors which completely close off the room.

I love the colors in this room and the curtians. It was the perfect place to hang our gorgeous wedding photo.

**For anyone who remembers- this is the furniture from my apartment.

This our kitchen/dinette area. We both love the island (which we have never had before) for the extra counter space and extra storage.

Even though James was a little nervous about painting the walls blue- I think that it was a great improvement and gave the room a little character.

I want to put curtains in this room... but I know it needs something else- any ideas?

This is our dining room and the newest furnished room in the house. We bought the dining room furniture for each other as our Christmas gifts this year- and we FINALLY recieved the last piece the first week of April.

I love the colors in this room and the chandelier. We need to add curtains, a table runner, pictures/mirror and some other decorations.

I currently am displaying James' Grandmother's china in the buffet (which you can barely see in this picture) and some of our wedding flowers and decorations in the china cabinet.

This last picture is our screen-in porch and probably our favorite part of the house. We have been spending most of our time this Spring on the porch eating dinner and talking in the evenings.

This room gives us a beautiful view of our back yard... we have 1 acre of grass and 2 acres of woods. It's a lovely, peaceful area.

James is planning to add insulation and carpeting to make this porch a three-seasons room so that we can use it even more in the future.

We're both enjoying our new house and spending time together decorating it and trying to make it "our home."

Getting Started

Well, after talking for a few days, James and I decided to start our own blog.

We have realized over the past year that so much has changed in our life- and we feel like we have lost touch with all of our friends and family. Hopefully this will help us keep up with our friends and family so many miles away...

As most of you know- we got married in June 2006. It was a beautiful wedding.... We enjoyed beautiful 60 degree weather as we got married outside (my dream) at Stan Hywet. We spent the next 1 1/2 weeks Honeymooning in Hawaii- the perfect honeymoon. Every day was an adventure... we hiked to the bottom of the volcano, took a helicoptor ride around the islands, attended luaus, SCUBA dived (of course), snorkeled, took sunset cruises and visited Pearl Habor (both of our favorite days!)

Being married has been a wonderful, growing experience for both of us. We were both such independent people- and now we're learning to "think of two" (as James says). There have been two large challenges- both of which I believe we have now overcome.

The first was selling both of our houses and finding a home to call our own. My house sold quickly before the wedding- but we finally just closed on James' house this week!! It's so wonderful to have only one mortgage payment (maybe we'll have some "fun money" now).

The second challenge for me was teaching Sieben (James' Wiemaraner) that she can't sleep on the bed anymore. There have been a few nights when she's just so cute that I can't say no- and I break the rules. Besides-she's been James' bedmate for 10 years now... and you know- "You can't teach an old dog new tricks!"

We have been blessed with so many wonderful things in the last 10 months since we were married- and hopefully there will be more... I will try to stay faithful in writing each week so that I can continue to share with friends and family. Much love-