Tuesday, September 30, 2014

October To Do List

Newlywed Bliss
I'm excited for the fun things we have coming and honestly just excited for everyday life! We're having a great time settling in (with the exception of a couple mini-melts) and little things like cooking dinner, sitting together on the couch watching tv and running errands (sort of) are really fun to us right now after all the craziness we've had!

6th Date Night
Each month on the 6th of the month (or close to it - depending what's going on) we're going to have a special date night - something we wouldn't normally do - to celebrate all our little anniversaries during our first year of marriage! Up this month: Ruth's Chris with a wedding gift card :)

Fall Festivities
A trip to pumpkinland, pumpkin picking, decorating for fall, enjoying cool nights on our deck, Halloween, fall crafting, fall recipes - we'll just roll this all into one - I LOVE this time of the year when it's chilly but not to cold and leading up to the holiday season, there's so many activities to partake in!

Penn State Football
We've been slacking on our attendance at games so far (I think we have a good excuse) but we're ready to be back and we'll take a break from our spree of staying at home for the biggest game of the year, a white out and a big tailgate!
 
Just because we've been slacking in attendance, doesn't mean we haven't been slacking in watching - we even tracked the game in Bora Bora while we were away and when we get our photos back there will be one of Steve and I watching the game just before leaving for the wedding ceremony!
 
Get Our House Organized  
We are certainty not going to just hang things on the walls so they look finished or put things on bookshelves so it looks decorated - We are going to take our time and get exactly what we want for our house - we don't want to rush so we'll probably save this project for after the holidays (what better of a time then the dead of winter to spend hours on Pinterest figuring out exactly what you want) - but we most certainty will have our house clean and organized and by the end of this month this task should be completed!
 
Learning to Cook
We're hoping to try out two new recipes a week this month! (so far we've been successful) the other nights we'll go "home" to Mom & Steve's or try a repeat or eat something quick or eat out - on occasion
 
Xo CHS
 

Monday, September 29, 2014

I'm Back!!

I, Christina Henderson Sotherden, am back as "the new Mrs."!
 If you look up at the blog name, you'll see a new change :)
The month of September has been fantastic!  Our wedding week was filled with so much excitement and happiness - our wedding day was filled with fabulous, fun and love (reminiscing about our special day will never get old), our honeymoon was filled with relaxing, laughing, loving.. and a lot of eating and drinking (Derek said we can't eat or drink anything again for at least a month!), our first week back at home was an adjustment and now we are living in newlywed bliss and LOVING everyday - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday they are all almost as fun as the weekend days when you live with your best friend/roommate/husband.
  
What We've Been Up To...
{The Newlywed Diaries}
Steve paid me one of the biggest compliments the week of the wedding, he said, "I don't like reality TV but you guys really should have your own show."  We've had some funny/interesting/adjusting moments in our short time home so I think I'll add "The Newlywed Diaries" into my normal Friday Favorites post as well!
We are embracing our new home and learning saying "no" to things is okay and to just stay put an adjust to our new life - which is a little hectic right now as we get caught up on things - hopefully by late October we will be feeling at home, calmed down and ready for the holiday season! (and I'll stop calling our home, "the new house")

I'm so glad we waited to move in together until after the wedding because it is SO much fun! Living with your best friend is the best!  I love my new roommate but I do miss my old ones, see below...
I'm proud to say that in week two of being back to regular life, I haven't cried once!  In week one, I think I had a mini-meltdown most days - but hey, this is a big adjustment and we were dealing with major jet lag - at least I have a super supportive husband (thanks, Der) to help with the changes!  While I might be homesick sometimes, I'm super thankful that I'm homesick for a home that is 15 minutes away, that I probably was at four times last week in addition to my family stopping by "the new house"
In the midst of my mini-meltdowns which probably last five minutes, I'm having a blast being a wife!  Before the wedding I had never touched our oven (still had plastic wrapping in it a day before guests arrived), our stove, our washer/dryer or our dishwasher and in the past week I've tested them all out - made meals, done a lot of loads of laundry and ran the dishwasher (I know the novelty will ware off) but I enjoyed all of it!
 
(I wasn't super happy to look up and find Derek playing "paparazzi" with the camera)

We'll get to wedding memories later but I was surprised at how calm I was walking down the aisle (actually for the majority of the day) but when it came to changing my Facebook name, I panicked!! And I even messed up (cue a mini-meltdown) - I wanted my name to be Christina Henderson Sotherden - I didn't realized that changing your name IS NOT like changing your picture and you can't just do it multiple times - look for my next new name change in mid-November, when I'm "allowed" to change it again.
 Stop by on Friday to see an entire month's worth of "Friday Favorites" (Which is not that much since we were busy getting married, being in love and honeymooning) then Stay tuned for a couple of our personal wedding day/weekend photos (I can't wait until we get the photos back from the photographer and I can share those - probably after the holidays - but for now our friends and family did a pretty good job getting some shots to hold me over) and an overload of honeymoon photos - if your not interested in that, probably don't check back until November :)

Xo CHS

Friday, September 5, 2014

Time to Say "I DO"

Tomorrow is the big day!! I can't believe it, I'm so excited to marry my best friend!!




 Xo C





Thursday, September 4, 2014

Thursday Favorites

A day early because, well, I'M GETTING MARRIED IN TWO DAYS!!

We spent the long weekend at the lake

Penn State had it's first game and victory of the season
 The scenery on our walks never gets old - I plan to *try* to still stop home some nights for walks
 Labor Day Weekend Friday - feeling blessed that I can just grab lunch with my parents on a Friday (Mom and I also took the day off to catch the holiday sales)
 I popped into Grandma's briefly - she's got her clothes for all three weddings layer out like this (these are just the ones for mine and Derek's)
Tuesday I finished getting ahead at work and walked out of the office for a final time as a single gal!
 Yesterday between errands I had some lunch at home - somebody was doing his best pose hoping to share those leftovers
The pig's countdown got smaller and smaller
 Wedding week is (aka this week in September) of course  hotter than it has been in years at this time - go figure!  I wish I could have thrown myself into the creek with Nash on this day - note that his head isn't even down to drink the water - just to lay.
 No matter how many times you go to Target, it's like you always forget something!  I think I was in Target about four times this week!

Xo C

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Wedding Wednesday: Next Stop, The Altar

We picked up our wedding bands on our last trip to New Jersey



The biggest final step.. We got our marriage license, things really got real this day! (August 21st)



 I of course had to be the "holder of the papers" the left is Derek trying to steal them, the right is a happy bride again.


Xo C

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Labor Day Weekend

We spent some of the long weekend (Friday to Sunday) at the lake for a relaxing weekend

Poor guy - confused why he couldn't come upstairs to sleep too
 We were all up bright and early for the Penn State game in Ireland some mimosas and bloody mary's a big breakfast display and a big victory 
 Best Bugs on the porch
 3pm on Saturday afternoon - exactly a week to go!  All five of us cheering

 One week until Mr. & Mrs.
 I asked them for a photo - this is what I got

 Jealous the three boys weren't playing with him

Then he invited himself out into the lake


 Cocktail hour on the porch


 Nash & Nick have come a long way
 Trying so hard to stay awake and stay out with everyone
 Ready to kick off wedding season!
 Two of the three brides this fall


 Hunting for minos 

We finished off summer with a great grilling night.. until next summer

Xo C