Moving to Wordpress

I have decided to move my blog to Wordpress. I just think it will be easier to manage. I hope you all will follow me over there! I even bought my own url, so head over to:

http://familyandfur.com

And don't forget to update your subscriptions and bookmarks!

P.S. I'm starting all the wedding recaps on the new platform to help entice you over. :)

2010 in Review

Here is my year in review:

February - I fly to Seattle for my first wedding shower.

March - Joe receives his Bachelor's Degree.

March - Gown shopping with my mom and I purchase my dream wedding gown.

March - First trip into Boston.

May - A trip into Maine.

May - My 29th birthday celebrated with a trip to New York City.

June - Our final trip into Mystic, Connecticut.

June - Joe's 40th birthday, a surprise visit from Cindy and Samantha, and Fenway Park!

June - Another trip into New York City (continuing Joe's birthday celebration).

July - Walking the National Mall with the dogs.

July - Last night out with friends in Washington D.C.

July - We start our cross-country move back to Seattle, with a stop in Chicago.

July - During out trip through Yellowstone, we see a bear and her cubs.

August - My neice gets married!

August - I start a new job where I can bring Ava to work.


September - We get our marraige license!

September - My cousin throws us another shower.

September - Joe's family throws us a wedding shower.

October - We get married!!!

October - We take an amazing, relaxing honeymoon to Cancun.

October - My cousin gets married.

November - We meet my cousin's new dog Bogey for the first time during Thanksgiving.

December - We celebrated our first Christmas as a married couple!

It has literally been the most amazing year! I have never been happier and am so happy with all the fun adventures we've been able to experience in 2010. I know it will be a hard year to beat, but I already know that 2011 will be amazing as well.

I hope you all are as happy with your 2010 as I am with mine!

Christmas Day

Joe and I really wanted to keep our tradition of having our own special Christmas morning with just our family of four. So, Christmas morning we woke up in the room we were staying in at Joe's parent's house, got some coffee, and settled in for our little gift exchange.

First, we took down our stockings.

(I had to hang them up the night before.)

Then the dogs got to open their gifts. Well, actually, Jackson opened both gifts while Ava watched from the warmth of the blanket on my lap.

Jackson playing with his new Christmas raccoon.

Then we opened the gifts from each other.

You can still see Ava sleeping in my lap - that's my girl!

Joe has been begging me for the movie "Shooter" for months.

Yay! The new S.K. book!

mmmm... Beckham. :)

I loved our little private Christmas morning. I don't have any pictures from the rest of the day, but we had another nice relaxing day with family. We headed over to Joe's aunt's house for lunch and hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps. After lunch we went back to Joe's parent's and a few other family members stopped by to catch up. It was nice.

Low-key, that was our Christmas. And it's just what we needed.

Christmas Eve Festivities

I can't believe it's New Year's Eve already! I've really been lazy between Christmas and now! So be prepared for a few posts today, so I can get caught up before 2011 begins.

We spent Christmas with Joe's family in Portland. It was a nice relaxing weekend with family.

On Christmas Eve, we invited our friends over so we could give gifts to their kids. One of their little girls, Marleigh, was the flower girl at our wedding. We were really happy to see them during the holiday, even though everyone was so busy.

Marleigh and McKenna

Zander as the center of attention. :)

Zander opening his gift - a dump truck. (Joe almost kept it for himself he liked playing with it so much. I suppose all men are just big boys at heart, huh?)

Marleigh and me.

After we visited with them for a bit, it was time to head over to Joe's sister and brother-in-law's house for Christmas Eve dinner. This is one of the things that Joe has missed the most since we moved away - his brother-in-law's cooking!

Cindy and Shane with the famous prime rib.

Family getting ready for dinner.

My in-laws.

After dinner it was time to open gifts. Everyone was very sweet and generous and we were gifted a lot of great things.

Me and my husband. :)

Sam, Dalton, and Zach opening the last of their gifts. (Look at that mess behind them!)

Cindy with her fur-nephew. Doesn't Jackson look so happy?

It was a great night and I have to say, I'm pretty lucky to have this family as my in-laws. :)

Christmas Fun at Work

The Thursday before Christmas, my work had some fun things going ton. We had an ugly sweater contest, a cubicle decorating contest, cookie party, and potluck. My little team had fun with all the festivities. Here I am with two of my coworkers in our ugly sweaters in front of our cubicle, which we tranformed into a gingerbread house.

I've never owned an ugly sweater, so my coworker brought me one to wear. It was a kid's sweater that was too small and super awful. Unfortunately, I didn't win the contest, though.

Our Fur-Cousin's First Christmas

I have a ton of pictures to share with you of our Christmas, but Joe and I have both been feeling a bit under the weather, so I haven't had the energy to get things organized. Until then, I do have a picture to share with you of our fur-cousin, Bogey.

Bogey is my cousin's new dog and he celebrated his first Christmas with his forever family this year. Doesn't he look excited?

Okay, so he doesn't really look that excited. But he looks cute! And while I wasn't able to visit with him (or any of my family) this Christmas, I hear he had a wonderful time and got lots of great presents.

Merry Christmas to Bogey and all the new pets out there who finally have their forever home!

Cookie Party

Last Saturday night, I headed up to Edmonds for a cookie party hosted by Heidi. It started at one in the afternoon, so I figured we would be baking cookies for a few hours and I'd head home early that evening. I had NO idea what a Taffera cookie party was all about! I was there for over seven hours and we made TONS of cookies. It was unbelievable.

Before the guys left us alone. :)

Heidi's friend's new baby, Cooper. He was the only boy allowed at the party and he stole the show!

Shasta

Heidi rocking her new apron. SO 50's housewife, no?

Hanging out, drinking wine, and having snacks before the baking begins.

Me, Cooper, and Cooper's mom Mo.

The makings for Holly Leaves.

Seriously, he stole the show.

Half of our sugar cookies.

I had such a great time hanging out with the girls, but I swear, I was exhausted at the end of the night. AND my favorite cookies made that day were the Holly Leaves and I think I got to eat one of the 10 I took home. Apparently, they are also Joe's favorite. haha