Wednesday, January 7, 2015

2014 in Review


This post probably should have come last week but with so much holiday excitement to share, here it is now! 
Blessed, Exciting, Chaotic, Happy, Thankful, Memorable sums up 2014, a year that will be very hard to top but I'm quite okay with that. 
Last year when I did our year in review post {here} I thought it might be nice to keep track of each month through the year so in case you missed them, 2014 Monthly Reviews are below!! 
September was ALL about the wedding and the honeymoon
January
January kicked off with my last long distance road trip to see my fiancé followed (a couple days later) by him moving in with us!  We adjusted to our new life and some days I added "dropping Derek off at the train" into my daily schedule.  I also worked on my house wife training and started doing laundry and trying to learn to cook.  While Derek was moving in, Steve was heading out - just for 10 days but we missed him while he was serving in Africa.  The model home in our development was finally ready for viewing and we were ecstatic to get a look inside (and that we liked it).  We had two pretty big snows and two snow days (yay!) We finished off the month with a trip up to Penn State for some PSU Hockey.

Derek's Move In, One of the Snow Days and at the Penn State/Boston College Game

February
Sam made a "maid of honor" visit to Media and with Lindsay (and texts to the other girls), we picked out the bridesmaids dresses (which I still am obsessed with).  We had a great little super bowl party and watched the Seahawks crush the Broncos.  A great time was had a the Town House celebrating Mom's birthday. We were captivated by the Olympics - especially the figure skating for me.  I worked on some Valentine's Day crafts and tried new recipes (chicken parm casserole, yum!) We had a great Valentines Day Dinner and by great I mean Derek getting a stomach bug AT dinner and me eating my food in our hotel room and we had a nice visit to New Jersey to see Derek's family and I had a night out with some girlfriends. We got more snow, and more snow days!
Mom's Birthday Celebrations, Our Superbowl Party and a Girl's Night Out in NJ
Bridesmaids Dress Shopping, Another Big Snow and Valentine's Day (pre-barf)


March
We went to Casino Night at Nick's school - seriously a good time to play casino games just for fun.  We made a weekend trip to Virginia to meet Derek's new nephew.  It was time for St. Patrick's Day - our favorite holiday and the day we met.  We celebrated Daveys 29th Birthday in the city.  We got in a couple nice date nights.  I made my final spring break trip to Del Tura and to visit Grandma (along with Mom and Steve for some of the trip. 
 Casino Night at Nick's School, Davey's Birthday Celebrations, Trip to Virginia
 Shopping in Florida with Mom and Dinner at the Del Tura Pub with Grandma



 April
April brought FINALLY some warm weather and nights on the deck.  Sam made another visit down to see us.  We celebrated Palm Sunday at Church and the start of the Phillies season with some games.  I had my first bridal shower in Syracuse and celebrated Easter Weekend up there.  We celebrated Steve's 60th birthday and made tons of visit to the new house which was making lots of progress.  Mom and I also did a bunch of dress shopping for all the upcoming wedding events
Shopping with Sam, Our first Phillies game of the year, the bridal shower cupcake cake in Syracuse
 "Inside" our new house, Out to dinner for Steve's birthday and one of our first "deck" nights


May
I had my second Bridal Shower in Sparta, and my parents made their first visit to see where Derek grew up. We celebrated Mother's Day with a big brunch at Springhaven with the whole family.  We made a weekend trip to DC to visit our group.  Dining Under the Stars started back up and we did Fellini's and La Belle.  Memorial Day was very relaxing and spent at home with a big BBQ.  Our little Nash turned four years old!

 Mom before we brunched on Mother's Day, Our whole gang at the Bullpen in DC, The girls the minute we were reunited
 A MDW Cheers, Shots from the MDW BBQ, Nash enjoying a frosty paw for his birthday

June
Highlight of the month was fabulous bridal shower and having all of my friends and family together. I made a weekend trip to spend the weekend with Sam in New Jersey. Our Phillies/Mets rivalry continued and we watched them play each other at CBP.  We celebrated Father's Day with a great dinner at PCC. Lots of days spent laying out in the backyard as well as nights enjoying the deck.  We made a weekend getaway to NYC.  Lilly sent me two free scarves, one for me and one for mom, awesome!  Dining Under the Stars took us to Ariano, Spasso and more. 
Dining Under the Stars on a cool night at Ariano, Before Father's Day Dinner, Sam and I after dinner out in NJ
Some downtime on the deck and some details from my bridal shower
Some of the girls after the Bridal Shower

July
July started with a great long weekend at the lake for Fourth of July as well as a great time at the PCC Fourth of July event.  A family dinner at El Gran always makes me happy. Dining Under the Stars at Margaret Kuo's, Fellini, Azzie and Stephen's. We finally closed on our new house and spent a weekend moving things over, made many trips over and had many house errands/appointments.  We made a trip to New Jersey to visit and help celebrate Ainsley's first birthday. A couple more Phillies games and my bridesmaids and I went to Charleston for my Bachelorette Party!
 Mom and I on the rooftop at Azzie for DUTS, a 4th of July Booze Cruise, El Gran Family Night
 New House Celebrations! Our first steps in, on our porch and celebrating on the deck with some champagne (from Napa)
Ainsley's First Birthday Party, Nash and I - Post Work out, The girls in Charleston
The girls at the vineyard during my Bachelorette Weekend

August
August brought two more great DUTS at Ariano's and Dos Gringos and Derek and I had a great last engaged date night out in the city at Capital Grille.  Our house became furnished and Derek moved his stuff and himself over while I savored my final days at home.  We attended two great weddings to kick off wedding season.  There were almost fall like temperatures on our morning walks and Nash was Dog of the Week at Puppy Day Care.  Wedding preparations got really serious with just days to go!

 Day of wedding folders ready to go and before/after shots of our furniture delivery
 Tommy/Kristin and Mike/Nicole's Weddings which were both out of town and doubled as weekends away and Nash's display on the bulletin board at Day Care

 
a seriously fun last date night out before the wedding

September
In September we got married and traveled to Bora Bora on our honeymoon.  It was the best month. Ever.



October
In October we settled into life as Newlyweds and had an entire month home (it was THE best!) and this little blog changed from the Future Mrs to the New Mrs.  We celebrated our cousin Cale's wedding to our new cousin Carly. Mom and I made a trip to KOP and it was the first time in a while we weren't on the hunt for something, just shopping.  We invited some family over for the Penn State/Michigan game which was close but sadly ended in a loss but our beloved bar/wedding present was finally finished.  While Mom and Steve were in AZ, Davey Derek and I made the annual trip to Pumpkinland.  We had a bunch of great date nights including one "in" and El Gran, Fresco and Ruth's Chris out.  We celebrated Halloween and got our house ready for fall and the month ended off with the big Ohio State/Penn State game and a weekend in State College.
 
The family at Cale and Carly's wedding and our Penn State/Ohio State Tailgate
 Before heading across the street to dinner outside at Fresco and a surprise date night in
enjoying our new bar when we had some family over for the Penn State/Michigan game, Pumpkinland with the boys and our Jack-O-Lantern for Halloween

November
We started November with our annual trip to Dallas to see the Cowboys play and hit some of our favorite spots!  Derek turned 29 and we made a visit down to see our friends in DC and celebrate the start of Absorb DC and we also had Sam come visit us for a weekend.  Davey, Derek and I hosted some friends at Penn State. We got our house ready for Christmas for the first time and Mom and I had our annual "Tuesday before Thanksgiving" shopping trip to KOP.  I cut my hair short for a post wedding change and we celebrated Thanksgiving at home in Media (I had been waiting months to sleep over again) as well as in New Jersey that weekend.
 
In Dallas before the game, Everyone over for Enchilada Casserole night
 Our visit to DC, Sam's Visit and our Penn State Weekend
Our first Thanksgiving and my short hair, Mom and I on our annual shopping trip

December
December came and brought all things Christmas!  I watched ALL of the Christmas movies.  I met Sam in New York City for a girls day trip.  We of course made Christmas Cheer and tons of Christmas Shopping, some alone, some in groups (and we visited Santa on one of those trips).  My uncle gave us his Eagles/Cowboys tickets and we had a blast at the game, not so much the Monday morning after.  We had our first annual family Christmas dinner at Maggiano's and a few other nights out together.  We celebrated Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning at home and Christmas Nigh and Weekend in New Jersey as well as hosting the Family Christmas Dinner and some of our friends for NYE.
 Christmas Morning with our stockings
   a Christmas Shopping/Date night in media, Our first batch of cheer, Shopping in New York with Sam
 Our visit with Santa, the gang on New Years, Bundled up for SNF at the Linc
Chrismas Eve Eve - my favorite Day of the year, pouring some cheer and baking

Cheers to less action but still a fantastic year in 2015!!

Xo CHS


















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