A Year in Review..

I took a little blogging hiatus over Christmas, as we were busy running all around to see both sides of our families.  We're lucky that they all live close enough that we can do that with enough time for a little pit stop at home to let Henry out sandwiched in the middle.  I thought (like every other blogger) that it'd be fun to do a year in review post.  So, here goes.

January
We spent most of January deep in the throes of house hunting, worrying more and more as we got dangerously close to not finding a house before the wedding. Lucky for us (and our realtor, who I'm sure was growing impatient) we found a house and our offered was (finally) accepted. We were able to agree to close on the house in March, just 3 weeks shy of our wedding.  We were also busy sending out wedding invitations, coordinating last minute details with our venue, and packing for our big move.  And my mom and bridesmaids were busy planning and throwing me a beautiful wedding shower.  

Blurry instagram house pic.  We'd never been prouder!

Wedding details..

February

We celebrated Tim's 29th birthday.  We were finishing up more final touches for the wedding (like our seating card holder below).  We were also busy packing up all of our belongings, and getting ready to live together for the first time in our 4 years of dating. 

March
No big deal, just bought a house this month, went on our bachelorette/ bachelor parties over St. Patty's day weekend (in D.C./ Boston), and got married at the end of the month.  Not that busy of a month or anything. 

Cutest shirt ever that my bridesmaid's had made for me (and they have their own too).
On a Target tshirt, obviously, they know me very well.



Holding our adorable niece, she was sooo tiny!

Our first look. <3 

(all wedding photos by Sanderson Images)

 

April

After the wedding we jetted off to Antigua for a week, it was amazing.  We stayed at an all-inclusive Sandals resort, it was our first trip out of the country together.  We celebrated my 29th birthday at the end of the month.  We started unpacking and really settling in and started to decorate the house. 

 Antiguan sunset

 



May

We found and picked out our future puppy.  He wouldn't ready until July, but we were already super excited.  

Our new furniture also got delivered, and we started painting the house

(after numerous samples were purchased).

Our niece was getting bigger and cuter by the minute.

 Poppy turned 5 at the end of the month.

 

June

 

We spent June enjoying our new house and the summer heat. We also bid adieu to one of our close friends who moved to Texas for school (and sounds like he'll be staying there once he graduates).  As his goodbye gift we got him a tshirt that says, "Pennsylvania:  Covered Bridge Capital Since 1891".  He loves it and puts it on shortly after opening it.  

 

July

Henry Halifax Hager arrives.  Our worlds are rocked and will continue to revolve around him for the next 6 months (who are we kidding, he will need constant supervision for the next year at least!) 

He came home on 7/3, looking very patriotic, and weighing 16lbs at just 9 weeks old. 

(Luckily he was unfazed by fireworks.)







 

August

Spent the rest of the summer working on training Henry, who is rapidly gaining approximately 5lbs a week at this point.  Quickly realize that slobber is going to make keeping the house clean really difficult.

Henry starts giving sassy faces to the camera, and may have developed a bossy attitude.

 

September

 

My sister and niece come to visit, she's pulling herself up but not quite walking yet. 



Discover she also loves chewing remote controls.

 

October

Fall is here!  My favorite season, we are frequenting any and all area parks on weekends to drain any rambunctious energy from Henry.  He can only be trusted alone when he's sleeping.  We decorate for Halloween and start stockpiling candy.

Hurricane Sandy hits our area worse than we thought it would and we are without power for 5 days.  As a result of the power outage our finished basement floods and is ruined.

 

November

Henry gets neutered and appears to be ready for a nap or airplane ride at any minute with his new neck accessory. 

Angie turns 1 and we celebrate at Thanksgiving.  Tim and I give her some new clothes and of course her first pair of Chucks since she's walking now!

 

We spend a Sunday with Melissa & Dan taking our Christmas card photos.  This one was my favorite.

 

December

We start preparing and decorating the house for Christmas despite the fact that all of our furniture/boxes from the basement are still upstairs in the front room.  Our tree (who we name "Douglas") goes in the dining room - safe from Henry's reach.

We start new Christmas traditions involving chicken manicotti and When Harry Met Sally (note: neither of us are Italian, we just like pasta). 

 Our Christmas cards arrive.  Making us feel very grown up and married.

 Henry and I pretend to be fashion bloggers. (same head tilt)

Presents all wrapped and ready to go.

On Christmas Eve my best friend (who is dating Tim's best friend) gets engaged!  Shrieking ensues, we are thrilled for them.  A merry christmas indeed.

We've come a long way in a year.

[engagement photo by Sanderson Images]

 

 If the first year of marriage is the hardest then I think we'll be a-ok.  I think 2013 will have big things in store for us.

 

xo

Kate

 

I'll be Home for Christmas...

Is this Apple commercial making anyone else teary whenever it comes on?  Just me?  Carry on...

All the Trimmings...

I really love wrapping presents.  I know Christmas is about a lot more than gifts, but I really just think giving someone that I love a gift that I know they'll be excited about is the very best. 
Also, I used to work at Hallmark when I was a teenager, and would always hope that people would request the complimentary giftwrap.  I am totally a wrapping paper, greeting card loving, ribbon curling nerd.  Here are a few of our packages, I used brown kraft paper with red striped washi tape and clippings from our tree to make them festive.  Oh, and I can't forget those cute tags from...where else? Target!  (I admit it, I have a Target problem)

Today I will tackle more baking, wrap one more gift for our niece, and then I should be all set for Christmas.  I think we may even sneak in a movie date to go see "This is 40".  Hope you're enjoying your holiday weekend!

xo
Kate

Furry Fridays

I'm over on B is for Becky & A Geek in Glasses today for Furry Fridays talking about what it's like living with a 90lb bloodhound puppy.  Spoiler alert: Lots o' slobber! 

[feeding him an ice cube so he'll sit still and prove he's almost taller than me sitting]

Sometimes we even tilt our heads the same way. Like mother, like son?   

[please note slobber hanging from henry's lip]

Come check it out here! :)

xo
Kate

Christmas Baking Begins!

I will never claim to be a good cook, but baking? Baking is definitely my thing.  I'm not making anything impressive, but the Christmas baking has begun.  Tonight I'm making mint oreo and nutter butter truffles (just to be clear that's two different kinds...otherwise it would just be gross), and the easiest "baked good" of them all hershey kiss pretzel sandwiches.

Candy cane Hershey kisses are just downright festive.

Recipe for the truffles (3 ingredients!  so easy!  make these!) is here.  I usually just buy those dipping chocolate discs from Michael's (Wegman's also carries these).  These truffles are always a big hit.  Be sure to keep them refrigerated before serving or they do get a little bit melty.

Truffles chilling in the fridge pre-chocolate coating

 truffles post chocolate dipping

I will also be making these cookies for Christmas, they're my new go-to baked good.  Anyone have an easy and delicious baked good that I must know about?

xo
Kate

What I Wore Sunday..

shirt: target, jeans & hat: h&m shoes: dsw (similar), bag: rouge & whimsy

 

Pictures in front of the garage door are cool, right?  That's what I thought too.  I'm making an effort to take more outfit photos.   Can you believe this hat was $3?  From the men's side of H&M.  I'm a sucker for a bargain.  And I just got this bag from Erika's shop, I really love it.  Polka dots are my thing, I'm pretty obsessed with them lately.  Now if only I could get my Christmas shopping all finished today.  Now that would be a productive Sunday.

 

xo

Kate

 

Christmas Cards from Minted!

Our cards arrived!  And I totally love how they look and can't wait to send them out to our family and friends.   I'm a huge Minted fan, I've always been thrilled with anything we've purchased from them. 

Oh, I also stood in line for 25 minutes at the post office today to get stamps, now that's dedication.  I won't even go into the people I was sandwiched between in line, the holidays brings the crazies to the post office.

Henry didn't make the card this year, maybe he'll be calm enough for it next year.  Who knows, maybe we'll get Poppy in on it too, the cat and dog in perfect Christmas card harmony?  A girl can dream!

xo
Kate

New Traditions..

After being together almost 5 years, and married just 8 months, Tim and I finally got to decorate our very first tree together tonight.  Not too shabby for our first tree, right?

We listened to records, drank wine while we decorated the tree, ate chicken manicotti, and watched my all time favorite, When Harry Met Sally.  We think this will be our yearly tradition for our tree decorating night. 

 And you really can't go wrong with a little wine and music to get you in a festive tree decorating mood. 

The best part of creating your own new traditions is that they can be whatever you want.  So what if When Harry Met Sally isn't exactly a Christmas movie, they go through the Christmas season and New Year's in the movie.  It's good enough for me :)

xo
Kate

Confessions of a Curly Haired Girl..

I think most of the pictures on the blog would have you believe my hair is semi straight.  Sorry if I led you to believe this lie, the opposite is actually true, my hair is naturally SUPER curly.  I'm talking full on spiral curls over here.  You'd think after 29 (eek) years I would totally know how to achieve the perfect curl.  Nope.  I mean, I have an arsenal of beauty products to tame this bad boys (the curls).  But I still haven't found THE product I can't live without.  If I'm not completely drying my hair (that's what my car heater is for on the way to work, am I right?) then I can do my hair in about 10 minutes.

Here's my hair if I let it air-dry naturally with no product. Frizz; not a good look.

My "curl cocktail" is always gel first, then maybe some mousse, and always ALWAYS hairspray.  Amounts of each product vary, though the recommended "dime sized" amount of gel will never cut it.  More like I cover my whole palm if I'm being honest.  There are very few gels that don't work on my hair, so I buy the cheap kind, since it doesn't matter either way.  For hairspray I have to go with Garnier, it's light and does the trick.  I like it better that most others I've tried.

It look me a while to find a recent curly haired pic (this pic is kinda old, but you get the point), guess I've been wearing it straight more often then I think!  Also I do a straight side bang thing, weird? Probably.  I realize this is an odd picture since I'm not looking at the camera, but I thought it showed the curls pretty well. I also cropped my friend out of it, she was making a funny face. I'm a good friend. 

I think I just have a love/hate relationship with my hair.  I'm jealous of others with straight hair who can just wake up and brush their hair, then run out the door.  I have to wash the product out every day, my hair might look okay the next morning but by mid afternoon it will be very clear if I skipped a shower (read: flat frizzy curls). 

 

Some days I love the curls, others I wonder how I still haven't found the perfect method after spending oh I don't know MY WHOLE LIFE with this hair.   Soo, other curly haired ladies, what is your secret hair product?  I'm in need of suggestions.  I think I spend a lot more time on my hair than others, if I want it to be wavy then I have to straighten (aprox 30 mins), then re-curl so it's a loose wave (approx 30 more mins).  Oh, the things I will do for a hairstyle! 

Do tell, what's your curly haired secret? And, if you do have curly hair and often straighten it I will take those tips too!  My hair is looking fried lately from coloring it fairly often which I think is half my problem with not loving my hair lately.

 Oh, and if you have poker straight hair that does whatever you tell it to do then I GUESS we can still be friends. MAYBE.

xo
Kate