Expecting Greatness

Hubby and I did something different this year.

 Last night we ventured over to Michaels, stocked up on some cork, tacs, sparkle paper, sharpies, tape, a few slabs of burlap and we got our creative side on! 

We placed our dreams, favorite bible versus, personal goals, inspirational quotes and positive thoughts onto a board and hung it right up in our room. This little dream board is going to be what we spend 2.2 minutes looking at each AM (that's how long the timer is set on our sonicare toothbrushes--so it's only fitting to stand smack dab in front of our board while we brush away, right?!)

In my last post I mentioned a few highlights of 2011, it was a great year... but oh boy is 2012 going to kick 2011's toosh. 

We are expecting greatness. 

2012

Happy New Year

2011 has been full of so many blessings and so many moments that had us thinking, "seriously?!'  

Here's a little re-cap of this past year in the Edwards house... It sure was a lovely one!

•  After application, after application, after application, after application (you get the idea!) Andrew finally got his first 'big boy' job as an interactive marketing coordinator/graphic designer at a local credit union in Beaverton. He has helped design the branch that is right down the street from us, and let me tell you, he is gooood at what he does. We are so thankful for his career and that he doesn't have to travel oodles of miles to get to his office... it's a mere 5 miles down the road. Lucky boy. :)
• We moved into our very first home! This was an entire 8 months over due. My parents are amazing... but boy oh boy, it is SO awesome to have our own little place. My hubby is a rockin' roomie! We have loved decorating our little place together... although it still has lots of small projects left! 
• I started nannying through an agency in Portland. At first, I loved it. I loved the variety of families that I got to meet, the sweet... and lets just be honest... the sometimes not-so-sweet-children that this all provided. After awhile, however, I was really wanting to have a somewhat consistent schedule. I started nannying for a little girl consistently for about 3 months... and then her parents decided to enroll her in Montessori. So, back to the agency I went. It was quite the process to find a consistent family. In September I started nannying for two little boys, Noah and Danny. Noah is the sweetest little thing ever. Danny, his younger brother... well, he has his moments :) I am definitely learning what it truly means to be patient... especially when it comes to potty training. Fun stuff! I am with the boys Monday, Wednesday and occasionally on Friday. And then, a little over a month ago I started watching Ella. Ella is almost 5 months old and the cutest and sweetest little baby. And her parents... a Godsend, so so sweet. I am with little Ella on Tuesday's and Thursday's. 
• Our growing business. Whoa. We started off last year as just the two of us. Now, as 2012 is starting, we have a total of 21 other businesses within our organization. This little venture has been the greatest blessing. It brings such a peace over us to know that this is our own. To have a back up plan in this economy is almost necessary and that's exactly what it was. But its no longer the backup plan, it is the plan. We are SO SO excited for 2012.
• We celebrated our FIRST year as Mr. & Mrs. Best year yet. Full of learning more and more about one another, growing together, baking/cooking together, decorating together, celebrating together and sometimes just complete chaos together! I love Andrew. God knew just what I needed in a husband -- he is such a sweetie pie! (He will appreciate that one!) :) 
• We added a new addition, our little cockapoo, Clover. She is such a sweetie! Andrew has taught her a few tricks and apparently, as our vet has informed us, she is a pretty smart pooch if she is already doing tricks at this age. Who knew... with her potty-ing habits, we thought she was 'special' :) My grandparents added this at the end of their Christmas card this year and I thought it was too cute... "P.S. Oops, almost forgot to mention we became great-grandparents this year. Only one problem - SHE BARKS. Natasha and Andrew acquired a little pup (Clover). She looks like a little miniature "mop-head" on wheels. Was expecting more, but guess we'll have to settle for a pup for now!!" Oh my goodness! We'll just have to wait and see what 2012 brings grandma & grandpa! ;)
• The biggest blessing has been God teaching us and showing us just how much he loves us. You think we'd get the hint at some point... but with us, being human and all... it took a bit. ;) When we first moved up to the Beaverton area, our $ situation was... uh, slim. Student loans were due left and right as well as all of our other lovely life expenses. It was only about a week or so after we had moved up here and what we were experiencing looked something like this, bills > money. To be exact we were about $700 dollars short. So not ideal! We were worried, frustrated, scared... and about a week or so before all of that was due, we received a check in the mail for $800 dollars. Whoa. Andrew was going to be photographing a couples wedding that following October and they had been paying $90/month. But this particular month, they sent us the entire remaining balance which was $800 dollars. Praise.the.LORD. We are so thankful. We are definitely over that little hill and our finances and faith have never looked better.

This has been a year full of learning & growing & loving. 

Happy 2012! It is going to be so so grand.

Christmas-y happenings

 What a lovely little break this has been thus far... and we still have 4 more days off. So grand! Andrew took the Friday before Christmas off and we visited the Portland zoo. Drew had never been and the few times that I have visited I had a child strapped to each hip. We woke up early, packed the entire car up (bc we would be headed south for Xmas right after the zoo!) and made a little pit-stop for our morning fix, Starbucks!

It was free.zing! Glad we requested our lattes extra hot ;)

We felt like Mr. & Mrs. Claus. I love wrapping & giving presents!  

The days leading up to Christmas, as well as the few days that have followed have been absolutely packed! Packed with gifts, lots of driving, lots of Christmas movies, hot cocoa/steamed eggnog w/ sprinkles (our new holiday fav!) delicious goodies, lack of sleep and lots and lots of beautiful faces that we do not get to see enough! We have celebrated the holiday four times! Andrew's mom, his dad, my parents and then the 11th annual tradition with the grandparents and the entire Short/Elliott/Belloir clan at Seven Feathers. I love love love Seven Feathers with the wholeeee fam. No sleep, nerts tournaments, poker, over eating... It just isn't Christmas without all of it. :) And might I add that this year my uncle and I took FIRST PLACE in the nerts tourney. That's right. There were a total of about ten teams, so it was totally legit, a ten team tourney, and we so dominated! 

Flash back to Christmas am... Hubby and I totally pulled of the BEST surprise. My parents thought we would be heading down later in the evening to celebrate... but little did they know, we were up and at em at 5am and hitting I-5 by 5:20. We blared Christmas tunes the entire trip, with Clover and coffee in hand, of course. We pulled into the driveway a little bit past 7am, rang the door bell 25 times and completely surprised them. My mom was literally jumping--then ran into the kitchen, started brewing coffee and put her a.ma.zing Chirstmas casserole in the oven. Oh, I love being home for the holidays. 

A few a lot of snapshots from the past few days.

The next four days are going to be just as lovely. Filled with ringing in a new year in Portland, getting to see and spend time with our wonderful business peeps and planning out 2012. This will include -- Ava (our favorite cafe, conveniently located 800 feet from our front door), pictures, cork and the the sees & jrad.
2012 is going to be even better than 2011, I can just feel it! 

Merry Christmas

Our first Christmas card! 

I love that I married a graphic designer, he is one talented stud muffin ;)

Merry Chirstmas!

24

December 8th was my 24th birthday. Ah. So crazy to think that I graduated from high school 6 years ago...

I was so excited because thankfully I didn't have to work. I wanted to sleep in, but Clover was wide awake by the time Drew left for work, so sleeping in was a no go. 

Andrew told me that he was going to try and get off of work early so that we could hang out all day! 

The perfect birthday gift in my opinion! ;)

Around 12ish, I was getting ready in our room and I heard two loud bangs against the window that completely freaked me out. I looked out of it only to see this...

He is with out a doubt the best! 

The rest of the day was filled with shopping 

Seeing this

And yummy food & coffee. 

The day after my birthday my sister and Jordan came up. Saturday morning the door bell rang, and I was told it was a birthday present from my mom being delivered... but when I opened the door it was my mom and brother!! Such a lovely surprise! Dad had to work, unfortunately :(

We shopped around downtown and enjoyed all of the twinkle lights and beautiful trees, watched Home Alone, enjoyed my moms amazing peppermint cheesecake and loved all of our time together. 

My sister brought me this sweet little cake and they all sang happy birthday.

I am so blessed to have such sweet people in my life. 

A new favorite

Andrew and I love love looove talking about future holiday traditions that we would like to have with our family one day. I think these cookies made the list for a must have at Thanksgiving! We loved them--especially the frosting... I did could eat it by the spoonfuls. 

Ingredients
Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour

Frosting
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
Pinch of salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Stir in pumpkin. In a medium bowl, sift together the baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, salt and flour. Add to pumpkin mixture and mix well.  Drop by heaping tablespoons onto a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

To make frosting: In a medium saucepan, combine butter, cream, and brown sugar over medium heat.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture just begins to boil; remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Cool then stir in confectioner's sugar.  Spread frosting over cooled cookies.
   Mmmmm! 

Clover may have even snuck a lil frosting ;)

Now I suppose I will get back to listening to this and getting ready for work. 

FOUR more weeks until Chirstmas vaca! 

<3

Happy Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving. Family, food and friends. The simple things are amazing things. God continually blows me away with all of these blessings. The challenge for myself is not to take any of it for granted. "It" being: A wonderful husband who loves me and loves living this amazing adventure together. A family who is so so awesome. Friends, old and new, that have been inspiration to us, we are so grateful for them. Our future ahead and the excitement of not knowing what it holds and knowing that God is in complete  control of it. A place to call our own. Financial blessings, our business and our jobs. Little Clover, oh how we love her. 

I should probably stop there before I write a novel. 

I am so thankful. 

God is good all the time. All the time God is good.