its been too long.

wow. we have been so bad about blogging lately! We have left out a whole semester of our lives! So what have we been up to? Lets see...School, School, oh yeah...and School. The first semester of graduate school is over and it turned out quite well if we can say so ourselves. We are enjoying Occupational Therapy School and are enjoying Augusta as well. But instead of going through all that we have been doing (as it would be some what mundane and full of studying) we will just start from this great Christmas Season!
We kicked off the Holidays with a OT Tacky Christmas sweater party!!

my tacky sweater decked out with bells, gold trimming, and green fuzzy trimmings too!

prom pose with my husband!

Krista and I before in our Decked Out Sweaters

The OTs that came to the Tacky Sweater Party

...and who are these great people?! The large group are just a few of our fellow OT students! and then there is Krista and Parker, they are such a great couple that we have really enjoyed being around and getting to know! We had such a great time with friends and enjoyed not having any lingering exams over our heads!

Next we had a girls night of Christmas Cookies! We made sugar and gingerbread cookies then decorated them for hours! There was Christmas music, wine, lots of sugar, and all together a great time with friends.

Lindsey and I

Lindsey and Krista

While in Augusta over the break I was able to finally get the new apartment completely cleaned and organized!! We are absolutely loving our new home and will be sad to see the Christmas decorations go.

 We left Augusta and headed to begin our Christmas holiday of traveling! We spent time with my Dad our first week home. He just rescued a Dog from Labrador Friends of the South...his name is Cooper! He is a big ball of love! Cooper is a great catch and will bring lots of love to the family. He has yet to meet his cousin (maybe ... don't know) Dakota (stephen and I's perfect dog). But we spent time playing in the backyard and also at the Dog Park at Piedmont Park. It was a great time and we enjoyed spending a week with Dad, Kathy and Cooper!

As a continuation of a yearly tradition...all of my brothers and families came over for Christmas, however this year Mom had a great idea of brunch instead of dinner! It was magnificent! We all enjoyed breakfast, dessert, Christmas presents, and watching all the kids LOVE their presents. Sadly though the afternoon ended in a trip to the emergency room when my nephew did a flip off the trampoline and ended up with 6 staples in his head! It was not a good ending! But he is doing just fine and was excited to show off his staples... oh boys. 

This break has been such a great time to explore the world of photography! My parents had gotten me an early Christmas present on black Friday and ever since I have not been able to put it down. I now am a proud owner of a Canon EOS Rebel XS Digital SLR Camera!! I am absolutely in love with it and love using it! What I would give to play with this all day everyday! I have really enjoyed getting to learn the camera and explore it's functions, I hope to learn lots lots lots more as time goes...but here's a little taste (including all of whats above) of what I have learned!

so it is easily said that so far this has been a great break! We are loving the time with family and can't wait to enjoy time with my Mom and Tommy and then also The Freshwaters.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

last days of summer

I cant believe it...school is only a weekend away!! Stephen and I have been busy cleaning our apartment and opening doors for mailmen with all of our school books! We finally got all things to do with financial aid complete...at last. The OT class had a cookout the other night that we had full intentions of attending however, our apt complex shut off all the water to fix a leak at the front yet let none of us know that was their plan. Therefore when we went to get ready...no water :( But to make up for that cook out we had a cookout with our life group the following night...we had a great time playing corn hole listening to music then the girls chatted while the boys played ping pong and cards. The past couple of days we've been going store to store making sure we have everything we need for school...we got toner for our printer (not a fun purchase!) Had to buy new running shoes for stephen...his had holes in them and no support! and well i got a pair of nike shorts yay (i think only stephanie secrest can appreciate the love for nike shorts!) That said...our un-responsible purchases are coming to a hault!
On the more creative side the stencil I had ordered for our wall came today! Lemme back up just a bit...while we were in Auburn Laura and I got a creative craving and decided we would stencil a wall in her bedroom! It turned out SO amazing...so i went and got myself a stencil and did it in a smaller scale! I love the way it turned out. In addition to the stencil, last weekend Stephen and I decided to make our home a little more us... so we did two accent walls! It looks so much better than all white walls! AND...we decided to paint the dinning room chairs...I LOVE THEM! They are so cute, I did an Heirloom White paint then went back and sanded the edges to distress it a bit. The paint really ties into the material we used to upholster the chairs. As of now the table is still stained a dark brown, and we are trying to debate...paint like the chairs or leave brown.

Stephen and I were able to celebrate his birthday much more than we antcipated...for a wedding gift we recieved a gift card to PF Changs, so Stephen and I went out to dinner and a movie for his birthday and had so much fun! We both shared a wonderful dinner and got to have drinks, I had a great chocolate/espresso martini and stephen...something blue that had coconut, his favorite! We then went and saw A-Team...great movie!

Our summer has been amazing, and we can only expect more to come once we start OT School!

Happy Birthday to my Husband!!  Today is Stephen's 23rd Birthday. He is the most amazing husband i could have ever prayed for! I am so blessed to have him in my life!!

I Love You Baby

back to school

Had a new experience today...going school supply shopping without the parents...not as much fun! I stood there deliberating between the pencils that were $3.19 and the ones that were $2.59 haha. Oh the days where we would just grab and go! After going up and down the aisles at target we settled on the necessities and headed out. Oh the day when we have kids and they want everything...now i know that only the necessities are necessary! Gotta Love Budgeting! 

car conversation

An 8 hour trip is a long time...so Stephen and I decided to think about kid's names!! NOT saying that anyone is on the way or going to be anytime soon, but just thinking...

CHAMBERS MONTGOMERY FRESHWATER

this truly is the only name we are set on...

but I LOVE IT!!!

family vacation

We traveled down to orange beach last friday and stayed for over a week!! It was such an amazing time with family! We spent a lot of time relaxing both indoors and out by the pool soaking up the sun. Sad to say we never did go down to the beach...not sure why. The weather was beautiful and the presence of oil was very slim to none. The views were gorgeous every morning and evening.

This is one of the views from our balcony, we stay right on the bay with no obstructions, it is breath taking! I think that these boats are working on the oil...hopefully!

They are trying to keep the oil from reaching the wetland areas of orange beach and gulf shores!

This was the sign for one of the realty companies! so sad.

This is Brady, our youngest nephew. He is so precious, he was a little sick while we were at the beach, but he was so cute carrying around uncle stephen's shirt wherever he went!!

Suzanne, Rocky, Stephen , and I all went on a Date together while Nona and Popi took care of Bryson and Brady. We had a great night out. We went to dinner at Nolan's, then searched for a coffee shop somewhat near the condo...no luck.  We absolutely loved spending time with them, we wish we were able to see them more often! Love you Suzanne and Rocky!

We ate at LuLu's a total of 3 times in one week! I have to say that after that... it may be a while before we go back. some people say you cant have to much of a good thing...i beg to differ ;) But it was so much fun seeing the boys play in the sand and running around! Nona and Suzanne had to wash Brady off before we left for home because he was so covered in sand. And Stephen and Bryson had a fun time running around. Bryson's laugh and scream are so funny!!

All in All our trip to the beach was fantastic, and we cant wait until we can go back again!