a baby changes everything

I have some scary--yet exciting news to share! Jeff and I just found out we are expecting! After two days of crying, I am now looking at this with a different view. We had planned on waiting a year or two, but obviously God had other plans. Though this wasn't something we had planned for, now that the shock has worn off, we are SOOO excited. Who doesn't love a sweet little baby? LOL. I sure hope God knows what he is doing...imagine me.....yikes.....a mom??? (Oh boy, extra prayers are definitely needed!) Its a good thing I've had so much experience with my siblings...it will sure come in handy.


We've spent the last couple days looking at baby names and making him/her baby blankets. (You know, the super easy cute tie together ones?? I made 3 of them in an hour!!) And we've already "picked" our names...though i'm sure they'll change a million times over the next few months!!



If you will please all keep me in your prayers as I enter this new season of life. And all the experiences that come with growing this new little life. And for a healthy pregnancy, specifically for my blood sugar.

Christmas on a budget

I am sooo excited for Christmas to come this year! Jeff and I decided to go nuts decorating our house! We are going to make a bajillion paper snow flakes and COVER our living room ceiling with them! We're also going to take actual Christmas tree decorations (mainly the round ones) and hang them from our ceiling also. And our outside decorations are going to make our neighbors go blind! (mu ha ha ha ha!!!) Our house will be the North Pole of Ceres! Have I mentioned I'm excited for Christmas to come this year? :-)

I'm at my mom's house right now. We've been talking about our Christmas gift spending budget. We've come up with a fantastic and super fun idea! All of us Ney's are buzzing about it! On Monday night we are going to our uncle and aunt's house. (Its a Monday night tradition...the guys watch football, and us girls giggle and talk over a plate of bean dip...yum.) This Monday we are going to go over our Christmas gift idea.


We decided to keep our spending minimum (which is very hard in a family of 12 plus auntie lynette and uncle micah (we all buy for each other) so we came up with the following idea...we are only allowed to shop at specific stores this year. (I'll include the list in a moment.) the stores aren't your traditional "Christmas gift" stores, but it will definitely be more of a challenge this year! Instead of running into walmart the night before Christmas and grabbing a few random items off of the end caps...we are really going to have to hunt...woohoo!!!

We've yet to fill in the $blanks on our list. And there are still a few changes to be made with the list. (I.E. added items, stores, ect.) So us ladies are going to be working the kinks out on Monday night.

The small print underneath "Homemade gifts" is...crafts, burned cd's, burned movies, sewing projects, soaps, and such. (we've got more to add...) Underneath the "Homemade baked gifts" is...cookies, candies, jar goodies (i.e. brownie mix in a jar, ect.) again...we have more to add.

I don't know if any of you know this...but I LOVE thrift stores. LOVE THEM LOVE THEM LOVE THEM!!! They are SO much fun! You do have to look for stuff, but underneath a lot of the junk is some really cool, nice, fun stuff! And dollar tree/99 cent stores...well, I live at them. lol. And who doesn't love a good yard sale?

Wooo hooo!!! I can't wait for the holidays!!!!!!!!

honeymoon pictures

honeymoon pictures

honeymoon photos!

wedding pictures!

Check the wedding blog for a sneak peek of wedding pictures!

sneak peek of pictures!

I get the rest of my pictures this week, but here is a sneak peek...I love them! Can't wait for the rest!

sneak peek of pictures!

I get the rest of my pictures this week, but here is a sneak peek...I love them! Can't wait for the rest!

update time!

Hello blogger readers! I finally have a moment to sit down and write! Life has been really busy...but is finally slowing down. :-)

I haven't yet gotten my wedding pictures back...but will be getting them in the next two weeks and will definitely post pictures!

The wedding was beautiful! (Thanks to all my wonderful helpers...I could have never pulled it off myself.) Sadly though, I don't remember hardly anything about it. We were rushed along a lot, and didn't even get to say hi to anyone. But from what I have been told...it was very nice. :-) I can't wait to get my pictures and videos back and see what it looked like and who was there.

Our honeymoon was a blast! When we got back I couldn't remember anything about the first three days (It kinda freaked me out...thought I was loosing my mind!) but after some coaxing and prodding, little details came back. We didn't leave until Saturday night. (Saturday we had a bbq for our families and we opened our wedding gifts. It was a lot of fun.) Saturday night we stayed in Monterey in an adorable bed and breakfast inn. (I forgot my camera, but next time I get a chance, I'll post pictures of our honeymoon also.) The next day we walked around in Monterey a little bit, and even went by the Aquarium for a couple hours. We ended our afternoon at the place he proposed to me, where we ate lunch. Then we headed back out on the road. We drove up (or down??) to Solvaigne (spell check!) which is a Dutch colony. It was an adorable little town and we spent the day walking around there. That night we finished our drive down to SanDeigo. We stayed in The Surfer Beach Hotel for the next three nights (with two flat screen tv's--right next to each other!!) and we had a beautiful view!! For the next three days we walked around in SanDeigo, went to dinner and a movie (our first REAL date!!), spent some time on the beach, and one night stayed out walking on the water til 2am. The SanDeigo night life is so fun! Its very relaxed and peaceful, yet interesting. After our three days in SanDeigo we drove down (or up??? lol) to Anaheim. Let me state now, very clearly...THE DISNEYLAND SOUVENIR SHOPS ARE THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH!!! Our hotel in Anaheim was awesome. We had a SPA in our bathroom!! (I'm dead serious...it was a spa.) Not to mention, on either side of us was a Coldstones or a Cheesecake factory. :-D yes, we did gain a few pounds that week. lol. We were only able to spend one day in the actual DisneyLand park, but we spent an extra day and a half in the Downtown Disney area. I've never been to DisneyLand before...but it was so fun!! And I loved the shops! I drove Jeff nuts (he wanted to hit all the rides...I was all about the toy shops!) We want to go back again very very soon. On Saturday we headed back home. That was the longest drive evvvvveeeerrrrrrr... lol.

When we got home we were surprised by the condition of our house. It was tp'd inside and out. (Complements of my siblings doing our tree outside, and some dear friends taking up toilet paper art on the inside.) Thankfully though, the surprise of a new bed in our bedroom kept us from getting revenge. The next several days were spent unpacking all our gifts and setting up house.

Since then we've been enjoying keeping house, going grocery shopping, cleaning and being together 24/7...no I haven't gotten tired of him yet. :-)

We recently got our rebate check in the mail. (There is a state promotional going...First time home buyers are getting a huge check for buying houses) We were very excited! We went out and bought new kitchen counters, sink, faucet, doors, screens, windows and couches!!! woo hoo!!

I got such a great deal on the couches. I went to ikea the other day with my parents expecting to spend at least $1500. (Each couch was $400, plus the slip cover which is $150 each.) While I was there, I decided on the spur of the moment to also buy an arm chair. I figured if I was ever going to get one, all three (sofa, love seat and chair) should wear evenly. The arm chair was $250. Then I had to pick my couch covers. I decided to get this super cute slip cover for the arm chair that was striped green, pink, white and burgundy red. This would be my accent chair and I would get burgundy red couches. Well since this isn't a color ikea carries, I decided to buy white slip covers and dye them myself (as my mom has done many many times with her ikea couch.) So I got both (love seat and sofa) in white. When we went to pick up all my furniture, we discovered that my striped couch cover was on clearance for $19!!!! (remember...used to be $150) I was ecstatic! Then I went to get my couch covers. I grabbed the two I needed and then again discovered that my love seat cover was on clearance for $11!!! INSANE! I got to the counter and watched as he rang everything up. Much to my delight, my sofa cover was also on clearance for $11. My total bill (with the extra armchair and cover, plus I ended up getting a 2nd love seat cover) was $1040. I was amazed and thrilled and ecstatic! Talk about saving money!!!

We immediately went to walmart to buy my dye. I got 2 bottles...all that I thought I would need. When I got home I started the dying process immediately. (This, by the way, is a loooonnnng process...) After the first batch was done, I took it out of the washer to lay out to dry, and to my horrors...it was HOT PINK!!!! I didn't have enough dye in the water. Ugh. Therefore, I had to dye the rest of my slipcovers and pillows to the same hot pink color before adding to it. It took me two days to get both couches hot pink. Finally I was finished with that. My house looked like a Barbie Dolls house!!! My dad said it looked more like Looney Tunes. Either way...hot pink wasn't going to cut it. I went out and bought 4 more bottles of dye. I started re-dying. 8 bottles later, it is finally a burgundy redish color. I am happy with where it is, but eventually (after my hands resume their skin color, and lose their hot pinkness) I will probably darken everything a little bit more. But it was a funny, irritating, long process that brought everyone lots of laughs!

Well, I am off...my family (well half of it...the other half is out fishing with my dad) is coming over to my house this afternoon to watch "Monsters VS aliens" and eat popcorn and lunch!

TTFN