Happy New Year and an Update

Dear blogging community,

I have been absent from writing my blog for quite some time, 174 days to be exact.  Since then I have had some good times and some bad times, but for now, let's focus on the good:

My husband Kevin and I celebrated our 1 Year Wedding Anniversary.

I went on a weekend trip to Montana see my sister-in-law, Katie, for a girl's weekend while my brother was out of town.  We had a great time going floating down the river, soaking in hot springs, enjoying a few bars in Bozeman's quaint downtown, and watching roller derby. (I think the unintentional photo-bomb in the picture below is pretty funny.)

Kevin and I took a trip with some wonderful friends to Leavenworth, WA for Oktoberfest.

I moved from being a temporary employee to a full time permanent employee at my company (with killer benefits!)

My offer letter!

Kevin started student teaching for his Masters in Secondary Education and will be fully done with his masters program in two weeks. 

Cheers to that!

We found out that my oldest brother's wife is expecting twin boys in April/May, and my mom and I threw her a High Tea Baby Shower while they were in town for Christmas.  I made her two knitted foxes like this one.

Really!  What DOES the fox say?!

We moved from our tiny (seriously, tiny) one bedroom, dark, half basement apartment into a lovely third floor, two bedroom apartment with tons of windows, a laundry room (room! not laundry closet! room!), a large pantry, plenty of kitchen storage, a real-sized fridge, room for my yarn storage, and nearly twice the square footage of our previous place.  Did I mention that it comes with an indoor lap pool and hot-tub, all for only $15 more than we were paying at our last place?  Needless to say, I am much more relaxed and happy in our new place.

Kevin and I traveled to his hometown of Sequim, WA to have Thanksgiving with his family.  I successfully avoided cutting any of my digits like two years ago.

I finally made a homemade Christmas wreath that I can use for years to come.  I got all of the supplies from Michael's while all of their Christmas decor was 50%-60% off.  I put together the wreath myself and it cost about $18 (compared to the pre-made ones that go for $30+).

My biggest Christmas present this year was a surprise from Kevin for a Western Caribbean Cruise for our belated Honeymoon in May.  We are so excited to have something so fun to look forward to... 136 days can't go by fast enough!

Lastly, I had a wonderful Christmas and New Years with Kevin, and our friends and family.  We are so excited for the upcoming year to welcome two nephews, to go on a Honeymoon, and to go to Oktoberfest again.  We are also grateful for the friendships we have made this year.

Bring it on 2014!  This year is going to be great!

Please note that I hope to get back into a blogging routine of one or two posts a week.  I haven't had too much time to seriously cook or make up recipes over the last few months, but I'm beginning to be inspired again!  Thank you all for your patience in waiting for me to return.