Out with the Old, in with the New!

Well, big things are happening out here in Morristown. It's gonna be a whirlwind of a year, I'll tell you that much. This week alone has had quite the exciting little milestones!

Out with the OLD!

Well, our house is officially on the market! According to the realtor, she can lose her liscence if we "advertise" for ourselves, so this is not an advertisement, just a "Woo Hoo! Please pray!" With this down economy, houses aren't going for nearly what they're worth, and having only been in this house for a few years, we are in a sticky wicket! We wanna get out (so we can move closer to our family in STL!) but we just haven't been here long enough to get out without losing money. MAJOR BUMMER! Regardless, we're going through with it anyway and just hoping, praying, and crossing our fingers that someone bites for something near the asking price. This first week has been encouraging. We've had four different viewings, which is good for little ol' Morristown! All four have said they've LOVED the house... we're just waiting on that one who decides to make an offer! If you know someone who is interested (or someone who is looking for a good realtor in the area), have them contact Terry. She's awesome!

Check out the listing here.

In with the NEW!

In addition to selling the house (and a million other projects we have going on), Brian is still busy launching his new company! I (Denise) am so proud of all of his hard work, and we are both really excited to see where this all goes. Ooohh, the adventures of life. This week, Brian got his official business license, registered for his first vendor conferences (coming up in March), and opened his business account! He also received his beautiful new business cards in the mail! Please keep Brian in your thoughts and prayers as he embarks on this exciting, yet intimidating (I'm sure) adventure!

Happy New Year!

Maybe we're getting old, but this year when we realized New Years was falling on an annoying Tuesday and getting together with friends out of town would be difficult, we were kinda... a little bit... pretty much relieved. I know. OLD. Not because we don't love them - we actually miss you all terribly! But traveling some more... wasn't looking forward to it.

Then our friends here in town decided to go to Knoxville for the night. They're all young (our age) - no children... It was gonna be fun and sassy and exactly what a twenty-something year old couple should do on New Years. Buuuut... we declined. Instead, this adventurous duo curled up on the couch and watch hours upon hours of our new fav show: Modern Family. :)

Neither of us were really even interested in watching Carson Daly. Lame, right?

But alas... we did keep one New Years tradition: The good ol resolutions. So, for your reading pleasure, here they are:

Brian:
- Teach Financial Peace University @ Church
- Exercise & play more sports.

Denise
- Write a cook book (You can see some of the recipes as we work on them at www.ourpaleoplaybook.blogspot.com)
- keep up with meal planning & cooking (we're really good at eating out)

Both of us together:

- Sell the house (it goes on the market Tuesday!)

- Get our of Debt (scheduled for this summer!)

- Keep up better with all of you! So.. you can hold us accountable for that. Expect a birthday card this year :) 

Christmas in Chicago!

This year, we're spending the week of Christmas at Mom & Curt's! As always, the schedule is packed with fun and family! :) We left Morristown on Thursday morning, with threat of a snow storm bogging down the end of our drive, but by the time we arrived in Chicago, it was free and clear! :) YAY!

Friday - Chicago Botanical Gartens with Mom & Curt!

If you haven't had a chance to visit the Botanical Gardens, it was a fun outing.

Saturday
We spent the morning with the pups at the park, played at home in the afternoon, and were surprised when Devin & Katie showed up a day early! THEN we got to start opening presents! Phase 1 of present opening was stockings and sibling gifts. SO FUN! Stocking time at our house is a blast. Apparently, it's not completely normal for all of the gifts in the stocking to be wrapped. Well, ours are. When we were kids, we used to get out our stockings on Christmas Eve and try to guess each individually wrapped item. We were told if we could guess everything, we could open ALL of our presents a day early! Of course, there was always one weird item we just would never guess. Over the years, the tradition has held - we spend time guessing every item in the stocking, and there are ALWAYS items we would never dream of guessing. :)

Sunday

The whole clan piled up and headed off to Grandma & Grandpa's house! Of course, there was lots of yummy food and the whole family was there. Eli played the whole time with Olivia, which was adorable, and Mom & Curt got to catch up with family they hadn't seen in a while. We even had phone conversations on speaker with some of the fam that couldn't make it. Good times, good times! ;) 

When we got home, we went to Phase 2 of presents: Grown Up Presents! Once we put the little ones to bed, the grown ups got to have present opening time. Of course, we were all spoiled. Denise's favorites: North Face tri-climate, bright yellow tea kettle, and my HUGE new crock pot! Brian's favorites: North face jacket, my Dremel set, and my basketball!

Monday
Since the whole family is rarely ever together, we figure Christmas is a good time to get some family photos done! It's a lot of fun to get out together and goof off... except the part where it's FUH-REEZING cold in Chicago in December. We were super grateful the wind wasn't bad. And we were super impressed that Eli & Avaya stuck it out as long as they did! We spent about an hour and a half outside in the frigid cold (don't worry - the kids took breaks in the heated car) and we came up with these!

The Whole Fam... casually sitting on a random bench in the woods.. having a conversation. It's what we do...

I'm pretty sure this was Eli's favorite part of the whole day.

Devin & Our Gorgeous Sister, Katie.

Avaya @ 9 months - Happy Go Lucky!

I never wanted sisters - til I got these! Love them SO MUCH!!! [L-R: Brittany, Katie, Denise]

L-R: Katie & Devin, Curt & Mom (Diane), Denise & Brian, and DJ & Brittany

That's icy snow on the ground right there - first and last "snow" we've seen all year. 

This was the end of our super long, freezing cold shoot. Our hands were numb and our boots were soaked through. And the kids were NOT HAPPY. In this picture we're pretending there are not two screaming kids in the background. Don't judge.

Bon Voyage Bucket List: Biltmore

6. Biltmore 


Today we completed #6 of our Bon Voyage bucket list! Biltmore is the largest privately owned house in America. Visiting this phenomenal home was so much fun! We are so grateful mom and curt were able to come join us for this day trip!

In the Conservatory

Mom & Curt, in the Conservatory

Loving the Pink Flamingos in the conservatory!

In front of the Conservatory. Can you imagine just having this in your back yard? As part of your garden? Craaaazy.

On the back porch... In front of the beautiful North Carolina scenery

Biltmore front yard

Walkway to the back porch

Denise asked Santa for a pony for Christmas. Brian asked Santa that Denise not get a pony. Lame.

Mom & Denise in the front yard.

Visiting Eli & Avaya!

This weekend we took a special trip to STL JUST to get a chance to spend time with our precious niece & nephew! We're bummed we don't live closer already and want to make sure the kids know who we are. As soon as Eli saw us he said, "where Nana Papa?" Haha. The good new is: at least he associates us with Nana & Papa! We spent the weekend mostly relaxing and playing! Eli FINALLY says our names (By-an and Nee) and Avaya is just plain happy-go-lucky. It was soo soo much fun!

Eli loves Uncle B :)

Fun at the Mall!

Sweet Avaya face!

Balloon from the mall: $1
Hours of entertainment: Priceless

Aunt Neicy sharing her whipped cream. That's true love. 

Eli loves books!

Daddy's little girl

Trying to share with Papa over FaceTime