Birthday Weekend...

I had an amazing birthday! Ryan bought us two kayaks... one for him and one for me... so he also got a present on my birthday... gotta love it! It's been a really great few days because the weekend started off with some celebrations and I have the entire week off for Thanksgiving break. I'm really looking forward to getting caught up on some school work, sending out invitations and having some fun. Too much work and no play is bad news...

Until next time...

little casa....

Hallway down to our bathrooms and bedrooms.

The view out of our kitchen.

Living room view towards the back of the house. Our laundry room and extra guest room is to the left. Our kitchen is to the right.

Our little casa...

Here is some of what Ryan and I have been up to these past few months. Having our own house has been so much fun! It allows for a lot of creativity! All of the colors you see in the pics (except the 'green room') we have done ourselves... after renting for three years we were both dying to get some color on the walls. The original paint color in the house when we bought it was a sandy brown. I think we had officially owned the house for 8 days before we applied our first brush of paint!

I don't know if you can really tell that well but this room is bright orange! Ha.. it has probably the best view into our backyard. You can see the ancient oak tree in the back ground. The squirrels are constantly running all along its branches and they drive Boone crazy! He has been waking Ry and I up at 2am to go hunting... urghhhh. Below is our 'green room'. I'm sure you could never guess why. You can see we still have a few boxes BUT it's coming along! We'll get to it eventually. We are lucky enough to have four bedrooms but there isn't much storage in this old 50's house. We're hoping after the wedding to get some storage containers and buy a few bookshelves to help out with that storage problem.

This is Ryan's favorite spot in the house, the Florida room. You can't see all of the windows here but it is completely illuminated by four huge windows.. it is a really awesome room, almost as great as my blue kitchen ;) Below are the counter tops in our kitchen. I honestly think this is what sold me on this house. To me, these are the coolest tiles ever. I'm not exactly sure what they are made out of but I know I love them!

This is our kitchen. When we were first putting this color 'blue burst' on our walls, Ryan and I both were thinking it was way too much. However, once it was all done, it looked great and now this is my favorite room in the house!

We still need to paint the hallways and our bedroom and after that, I think we might be done painting for awhile. I'll keep you all posted on our progress!

Until next time ...

"Ya Done Good"

Ryan and I bought a house! We found a place we can call home and stay in longer than 12 months. Our home purchasing experience was great thanks to all the help we had and our wonderful realtor Carol Fernandez. If you know of anyone looking in the Tampa Bay area, she comes highly recommended!

After looking at over 40-50 homes in the S. Tampa area, we found 'the one'. People have told Ryan and I that when you find your house, you will just know it's the one and it's so true! We had looked at eight homes already that day and as soon as we walked in, we knew we were home. We just hoped it could all work out. Obviously it did :)

We are so excited to be in the same place for the however many years and can't wait to have visitors. It's just such a cool experience building a life with Ryan. He constantly keeps me laughing and sharing all these great moments with him has been really special.

He's a picture of our new casa. I got the title for this post from Joe.. this was his take on our home buying experience.. haha.. he's hilarious! Looking forward to seeing everyone at the baby shower and celebrating birthdays this month. Love you guys!

Summer time :)

Summer time is here and things are finally starting to slow down. Well, just a bit. Ryan is starting a part time job at a local hospital to help with boredom on his two days off and has only a few more shifts until he is assigned his permanent station! I cannot wait for that day. Ryan has worked really hard and paramedic or fire probation is not a enjoyful transition period. I know he is really looking forward to that day.

As for things at home, we are still on our home hunt but I think that might be changing soon.. we'll keep you all posted and let you know what shapes up with buying a house. If we buy by October we get a tax credit for purchasing a home. Plus, we can't wait to finally paint! We are so tired of white and off-white walls!

Well, we are headed off to church in just a few minutes.. I need to get ready. I will try to get another post up soon!

Love you all :)



PS.. here is the picture of Ryan kiteboarding from last post.. opps.. forgot to post it!

What we do for fun :)

So the wind is picking up, I'm done with class for the semester and we are having a blast. We keep finding ourselves at the beach and I love every minute of it! Here are a few shots of Ryan kiteboarding and Boone sunning himself.

My Dad's BDay!

Ryan and I are in Navarre, Fl for the weekend to celebrate with my mom and dad. My dad turned 50 today. We've had a really great time so far this weekend. We spent Saturday at the track go-carting, eating the greatest pizza at Mellow Mushroom, and enjoying a few beers and great company. Today we spent our day at the Naval Air Museum. Ryan and my dad both loves planes so it was really funny to see them drooling over these planes my mom and I know nothing about. Here are a few photos from our weekend so far.

So, my dad is a pretty tall guy... he's 6'5" or so and Ryan, as you can see from this photo, is a little shorter. I think this photo is so funny because this is what my fiance looks like next to my dad! Haha.. can you imagine Ryan first meeting my dad? Well, luckily and obviously, my dad loves Ryan like a son.. but I don't think anyone will be mistaking them for father and son!

Weekend in Gainesville

Ryan and I headed up to our old stomping ground this past weekend for a wedding for our friends Jamie and Craig. The wedding was held at the Hall in Haile Plantation around 5pm and it was beautiful! It was great to see our old friends and spend some time with Dani and Dave.

I love that Craig and Jamie had a fire truck incorporated in their ceremony. This is the bride and groom and all the paramedic class.