Forever Young

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Myrtle Beach

The weekend before we closed on the house, we took a trip to Myrtle Beach. Shane's brother and sister-in-law gave us a 3-night stay at a resort in Myrtle Beach as a Christmas present. This was the first time we went away together without Elsa. Shane has left her a few times before now, but I had never been without her over night. It was time for the momma to get away ;) We had a great time! We went to the outlets Saturday and Sunday afternoon, played putt putt golf, ate at mom and pop places for breakfast, and splurged at places like Outback and Carrabba's for lunch and dinner. We slept in (which wasn't really a luxury since Elsa doesn't wake up until 8 or 8:30 anyways) and stayed out past 7 (which WAS a luxury). We definitely missed her, but we couldn't have had more fun, and it was perfect timing, with the hectic week ahead of us. I told Shane last night that it was time for another Myrtle Beach trip...it's only been 3 weeks.

Walking around Barefoot Landing

Putt Putt

We bought Elsa some Reebok Flex shoes at the outlets. They are so stinkin cute. And the perfect toddler shoe (light, flexible, easy on/off) She's out little crossfit girl.

Thank you L and G for that. Y'all really spoiled us.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Home Sweet Home

We closed on a house on Thursday, which was very exciting! We could not have asked for a smoother process. Our lender was on top of things since the day we started working with her, our realtor kept us informed (and laughing with her great sense of humor), and the attorney was very friendly and educated us on whatever we had questions on. The only person not on top of things was...ME! We moved all of our stuff in on Friday with the help of 2 friends, and at 5pm I realized that I had not turned in our application for water/sewer/garbage to get started/turned on. So, it is now Monday afternoon and we are still without water. We have made many trips to the local grocery stores to use the bathrooms, we have slept at our friend's house, and my parent's, and we have dirty dishes with food dried up on them in our sink. The good news, this is the only thing that went wrong. :) Trying to look at the bright side...

Elsa has been a super star, sleeping wherever and whenever we set up her pack 'n play, eating whatever we can get our hands on, and staying her happy, sweet self through it all. We have a flexible baby despite my strict schedule I follow for her. I am so thankful.

Here is the house! The day after we moved in, it snowed for 8 or 9 hours straight. We were thankful Shane had planned on taking Friday off, so that we didn't have to move in this beautiful yet yucky weather.

The amount of sleep Elsa has had would make all of us think that she was part of the moving crew. She has asked me to go take a nap every afternoon and to go night night every evening since Friday. Sleeping in 3 housing in 3 consecutive nights must be exhausting.

My friend, Brittany, watched Elsa for us on Friday while we moved. She also made us dinner. Ever since Shane's mom figured out Carrabba's seasoning mix that they put in their oil, we eat our bread at home with oil and seasonings. Elsa likes it to. Thank you, Britt, for dinner. It was a huge blessing and was delicious!

I hope everyone has a great week. Be sure to not take advantage of your water. Considering most of the world doesn't have their own personal water supply, I need to stop myself from complaining about this minor issue. We are so blessed.

Friday, January 11, 2013

2012

It was fun to re-live 2012 by going through pictures. I tried, at first, to limit each month to one picture, but I obviously failed at that. It was an overall good year. Much to be thankful for!

January: Tyler came to visit!

February: Valentine's Day. Shane brought home flowers for Elsa and me. I made him a red velvet cheese cake with oreo crust, and we grilled out. We all felt loved.

March: My dad and sister ran the Tobacco Half Marathon, so David, Shane, Elsa, and I went to cheer them on!

April: Shane surprised me with a trip to Wilmington for a weekend to celebrate our 2nd anniversary. Elsa saw the beach for the first time.

We also celebrated our friend's Sara and Scotty's wedding. While we were there, Shane's parent's and brother watched Elsa.

May: We bought Elsa an early birthday gift and started taking family bike rides around town. It was nice to have something new to do on the weekends and evenings. Also, our newest nephew Noah was born!

And took a trip to Monroe.

June: Elsa turned one. We had a little party at my parent's house.

We celebrated my cousin, Lauren, and Shane's friend, Tim's, wedding at Ocean Isle beach. My parents rented a beach house for our family to enjoy all week.

And met in Asheboro one evening to meet Noah!

July: Took a trip to Monroe. Elsa hung out with Mason for a bit one afternoon.

Took a ride on the mower with Daddy.

And we took our first trip to the zoo with friends of mine from college and their little ones.

Oh, and ate a LOT of peaches.

August: We celebrated Daddy's birthday!

September: Celebrated Ashley and Dustin's big day. I had the honor of being in the wedding, so it was a fun weekend.

I also started nannying a little girl from our church. Elsa and her have really enjoyed each other!

October: We went to a little pumpkin patch. Elsa wanted to pick up every pumpkin there. She also picked up an apple out of a basket and took a nice big bite out of it, so we bought it. Thankfully she bit into a juicy honey crisp, my favorite!

And then we went home and carved a big pumpkin that Grannie gave Elsa.

November: We went to Monroe for Thanksgiving. The elves enjoyed each other.

December: The first weekend of December we went to the downtown Apex Christmas festivities Friday night.

Then we went to the Apex Parade Saturday night.

The girls had a shoot off at the K's.

We celebrated Eli coming home safe and sound from Afganistan.

and celebrated Christmas at my parent's house.

It was a great year. Many blessings, lots of fun, great family time, and lessons learned. I'm sure 2013 will bring joy as well. Happy new year!

Christmas

This was a Christmas to remember. Lots of little ones opening gifts at the Puffer home and lots of good eats, shooting guns, and celebrating at the K's.