Super Birthday Fun!

Thursday was Sarah's birthday! Ryan was working, so she decided to have a girls night out. Good times for sure!

More beads for her growing collection!

Here we are at Simeon's drinking "Turbos".
(Chris, Patina, Sarah, Ashley)

Sarah and Ryan reunited towards the end of the evening!

Happy Birthday Sis :)

Super Bowl Sunday

Look at me - I might actually get caught up with this blog!
So for the Super Bowl, Ryan and Sarah had us over and then Bill, Patina, Dylan, Ashley and Chief came over too. It was an awesome time - good company, tons of good food, football (I THINK I could tell you now who played), and just an overall good time. Thanks Sarah & Ryan :)

Sarah was quite festive with her Super Bowl chalk board drawing!


Huge homemade sausage by Ryan - everyone brought such good food!

We even had some towel snapping!

Ryan & Dylan with Patina in the background

Spikaroni

Silly Dylan :)

Happy Birthday Phil!

Last weekend we got to go to a surprise party for our friend Patina's father. Mike works with Bill (Patina's husband) and they just moved back here from living in Vermont.
It was a lot of fun! They had it at the American Legion in Trumansburg - good eats and music. I think it might have been the first time I've ever been in an American Legion.
Thanks for having us - good times!

Here is Phil and Nan (Patina's parents) when they came into the hall. Turns out he already knew about the party. It was still fun waiting for them to come through the door.

Here's Patina taping the big entrance.

Bill and their son Dylan

Mike & Sarah :)

Holy Birthdays!

Maybe it's silly, but I love birthdays and I think they are good times that should be recognized :) There have been so many birthdays over the last couple of months - so instead of going into serious detail,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO:
Justine, Avi, Carol, Mom, Josh, Joy, Angie, Mick, Dad, Tabitha, Jeannie, Brent, Phil, Sarah, Chief, and Mike K!
We hope that you all had great days and have a fantastic year ahead!!

House Hunting

So Mike and I have decided that we really love Ithaca and want to stay for a long time. SOOO we've started looking for a house to buy. It's been pretty intense so far. We started in Jan. and have gone basically every weekend. So far we've seen about 20 houses :( Way too many with still not too much luck. We did find a cute place downtown but didn't act fast enough and it got sold. But we learned our lesson and are keeping our heads up. Things are already picking up with the Spring season approaching, so we'll see. We sure have seen a lot of different types of houses - several have been alright, but there have definitely been a handful of AWFUL ones!!! I take pictures everywhere we go so we can remember what we've seen, so now I can share a couple of scary/weird images with all of you:

This bathroom was the only bathroom in one house we saw. Isn't it cute - especially the tub. Unfortunately no shower, but maybe it could have worked.....ha!

This house was a little creepy. Mike and I have decided that we're not interested in any serious fixing up - and this was a little out of our comfort zone!

And this one takes the cake - it litterally had mushrooms growing out of the ceiling - YIKES!!Mike just reminded me of this one the other day - they actually went tanning in their basement - it was just a little too creepy :P

Bobby & Kelly Visit Ithaca

Sarah's brother, Bobby, and his wife Kelly came to visit Sarah and Ryan around mid-January. They live in Altanta and wanted to come check out Ithaca and see where their sister had moved to. It was Mike and I's first time meeting them and they were really nice! We took them for a tour at the brewery and then went to see some waterfalls. We also had dinner all together at Simeon's, where Sarah works.

Here's Bobby and Sarah

Mike and Bobby with the fermenters.

The girls - Kelly, Sarah & Chris

At Ithaca Falls

Frozen Buttermilk Falls - it was so cold when they were visiting - I guess it gave them a good taste of winter :)

Crafts of the Holidays

I know that it's February, and I am so far behind with blogging, but hopefully this weekend will allow me time to catch up. I've been meaning to post these pictures for too long :). These are all crafts/homemade gifts that we received this year (oh, I mean last year). My mom's side of the family does a big craft exchange every year. It's a lot of fun to see what everyone comes up with. This year was quite a good one if I don't say so myself!
And actually we have so many crafty and creative people in our entire family!

My Aunt Pat & Uncle Bob hosted our get-together this year. On all of the tables in the gathering room, they had these great decorations.

My Aunt Pat is a master seamstress and had sewn table runners and embroidered these cute snowflakes on them.

My Uncle Bob is a master woodworker and made these little manger scenes.

My Aunt Pat also made these oven mits.

My Uncle Bob also made these amazing little wood stars for the tops of our trees.

My Aunt Pat embroidered her Christmas cards too! I think she is enjoying her new machine :)

And my Uncle Bob also made these amazing little wooden ornaments. Do you think they have enough to do? :)

My Aunt Pat ALSO made some jam.

From David and Jeannie we received these hand embroidered table runners.

From my cousins Kathy & Jeff, we received these embroidered towels. I think everyone got different designs - ours were cute little hemlock pine cones.

And they also decorated their bags - so cute:)

My cousins Brian and Stacy made some awesome cookies. I would have pictures of them but we ate them too quick! They had about 6 different kinds - Yummy!!

My cousins Mike and JoAnne made these pretty crystal ornaments (and actually, I think their daughter Madison helped more than Mike :)

From my Aunt Nene and Uncle Jim we received this neat hand painted snowman wall decoration. My aunt is a master painter ;)

She also painted these beautiful note cards.

My mother painted the picture on this wooden box. (She has been taking a watercolor class and I think she's pretty darn talented!)

Inside the box she had these neat necklaces that she had made.

My mom also had a whole bunch of these flipflops that she had made for all the ladies. Pretty cute!

From my cousins Jim and Heather we received these neat glowing bottles. Everyone got different wine bottles but we got a beer bottle - quite fitting :)

Now onto Mike's family! His mom was a knitting fool this past year and made socks for a whole bunch of people. These are the ones Mike received. (I got my pair last year!)

She also made these cute ornaments to hang.

Betsy made some natural aftershave for Mike (Bay Rum) and a lavender scrub for me. They both smell sooo good!

Sarah got into the jewelery making scene and made me these beautiful earrings. She's been coming up with such great designs - we're planning a beading night soon :)

And Ryan made up some awesome Jellies and Jams - quite the variety (click on the picture to see contents)

And last but not least, I was invited to a cookie exchange at the elementary school and my teacher made these cute little ornaments. They are slices of a branch with little beads sprinkled on top - they almost looked like little cookies :)

So, some pretty amazing creations, wouldn't you say!!!!

For the Love of the Tape

"Duct tape is like the force: It has a dark side and
a light side and it holds the universe together."

- Carl Zwanzig

I was just looking online for a new duct tape book that I heard about today when I stumbled across this quote. I think it's perfect :)

And also on another side note - if you haven't already noticed, I added two slideshows to our blog on the left hand side. Papercuttings that I have done and my Duct Tape Creations. Check them out if you like!