Christmas 2011

Our Christmas Eve tradition, dinner at Houston's

Christmas Tree cutting

Joe and I got to cut down our very own christmas tree from the Russell's property. It was a fun little hike to find the perfect tree. Since there are so many huge trees the ones that look "small" really are not! Our tree ended up being about 10 feet tall! It takes up the whole living room but we love it. It is really our first big tree, pretty!

Kittens!

When I was in San Diego Joe surprised me with 2 new little additions to our family! Lulu and Vito! Vito has a cute little moustache and a spunky personality. Lulu is a soft and sweet little girl. They are brother and sister and love to play all day long, it's so funny they tackle each other and roll around, it's the cutest! They also love to sleep and cuddle.

At first when Joe said he got 2 I was like, whaaaa?! But now I'm so happy because they definitely keep each other company and are best friends. Now for tons of kitten pics!--I don't know what I'm going to do when we have kids, i'll probably post millions of pics! (or be way too busy to post at all ;)

Lilli & Erik's Engagement Party

Rudy & Larry hosted an engagement party for Lilli & Erik. It was a Mexican Fiesta and a ton of fun--thank you to Rudy & Larry for hosting soooo many Schierman events! (my wedding, Alexis & Josh's engagement party, Lil & Erik's engagement party and countless birthdays and dinners!)

House Exterior Before & After!

Before:

After! We had the house painted and I spray painted the brass light fixtures, numbers and door handle with a $3 can of silver spray paint! And beautiful new grass :)

Late Summer day trip

Joe and I got out for a day trip to Golden & Mt. Bierstadt for a hike. I love to make use of all of the great day trips that Colorado has to offer--I definitely don't do it often enough!

We went to the alpine slide near Golden, CO--it's a fun ride in a little sled down the hill--yippee!

One of Colorado's cute old mountain towns--I'm not even sure the name, oops!

I'll have to ask Joe

We attempted to hike a "14er"---(this means it's a mountain over 14,000 feet) I have only done one in my life--Quandary Peak. Joe has done probably over 20! This is Mount Bierstadt--Unfortunately we got a late start so we didn't make it to the top. We almost made it though!--we could see the the summit right ahead of us but decided to turn around because there was lightning ahead--the smart choice I suppose ;)

The scenery was beautiful!

Afterwards we were starving so we treated ourselves to Beau Jo's "Colorado Style" pizza--yum!

House

Hello! I have been m.i.a. lately because the moment I stepped off the plane from Africa I started a new job and have been working way too much! I have no idea where the last few months went!

The process of buying our first house took awhile but was so worth the wait! We love our new house and are getting more settled in everyday. It's a great feeling!

Here are some pics....

One of the best parts, our beautiful view. We get to see the most amazing sunsets over the mountains.

The front of the house, it is your typical "suburban" home but we already love the neighborhood, our neighbors, the community pool and our view! The front needs better "curb appeal" in my opinion....we are working on that now. We are getting the house painted this week and then tackling the grass/landscaping--ahhh, homeownership!!

this is the "before" pic, stay tuned for the "after" pic soon!....

another view shot, this was last fall when we first found the house. See the longhorn steer in the field? it is so cool our house backs up to a bike path and farmland where 2 steer, "Walter" & "Bessie" live--(joe named them :) I think that's walter below

The living room, I love it because the back part of the house is one big living area with the kitchen, living & dining connected. I love the open feeling, plus there are tons of windows where you can see the mountains.

Windows looking to the mountains, it was a cloudy day so you can't see them

Dining area

Loft at the top of the stairs. Yes, I arranged Joe's book by color. I think it looks cool (I stole the idea from our "hip NY friends", photographers, Mat & Erin) Joe is not crazy about the idea so this might be the last time we see it like this ;)

vaulted front living area, this is looking down from the top of the stairs

I like color! and I have a large collection of thrift store chairs! The side tables and lamps I found at goodwill and painted. The lamps were only $5, table on left $6, table on right $2.50! I'll post those projects on my new blog www.thedollarnest.blogspot.com hopefully soon if I find time!

Entry

Front Room

Front room under stairs, I have always wanted to do a photo collage!

in the dining room, this was another fun project. that is a retro metal shelf that I got at a thrift store yesterday for $7 and painted it turquoise this morning

Kitchen, we love having a dishwasher and garbage disposal!! Also, it is so nice having it open to the other areas of the house