Christmas Time In the Ralston Home

I am SO behind on this blog. Since I wrote last its been about 3 months. In that time we have gotten married, honeymooned in Cancun and also taken a trip to GA to visit the Georgia Grzecka's. We have truly been enjoying our time as Newleyweds...no more wedding planning which leaves lots of time to spend together.

This is our second Christmas in our home, but this is the first year we decided to put up a tree. We were not going to put up a tree (we had some Christmas decorations out but didn't want to go overboard.) Yesterday we were out and about running some Christmas errands and while looking at ornaments we decided to head home and put the tree up.

Our living room ended up a war zone of boxes as we pulled out the tree and all the ornaments. We turned on some Pandora Christmas music to get us in the spirit and heated up some hot cocoa...mmmm.

And here she is... Our first tree in our newleywed home!

Only 12 more days until Christmas!

Bridal Shower & First Day of School!

WOW! What a weekend. This weekend was my dress fitting and bridal shower. I had SUCH a fun weekend. I want to thank every single person who made my day so special (even those who couldn't make it!). Pat and I are so blessed to have people like you in our lives. We are excited to put some of the awesome stuff in our home and use it! My sister and my mom did a great job planning every detail of it. I loved every single thing that we got and so does Pat. The thing he has been looking forward to and I think that Pat is most excited for..... THE TRASH CAN! haha. But seriously thanks everyone! We cannot wait to share our big day with you.

On another note, today was my first day of preschool (for the third year in a row). Every year is a surprise. You never know what you are going to get when they walk in that door. Today it was 15 sassy, energetic little girls and two (very outnumbered) boys. But like every year, we survived! It was a very long day. But I know that God was sending me some encouragement this afternoon, because I came home to a beautiful rainbow on my drive home. That is going to be a good omen in my eyes, that today was the storm, but tomorrow will be the rainbow!

"Be though the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beams that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with a prophetic ray."

--(Lord Byron)

CAMPING

Believe it or not, Pat and I have been together for over 3 years and have been putting of a camping trip every summer. This summer we finally made it on our first camping trip together (well since we went in High School...). We ventured to Leadville to Turquoise Lake and it was GORGEOUS.

Funny thing is that during the past three years, I have owned a tent (who knows where I originally got it). But in that three years it has never been used. I assumed it was the big tent we used to use in HS...until we put it up. haha. This tent was barely a 1 person tent. Here is Pat in the tent we ended up using:

Here is us in the drizzle when we got to Turquoise Lake on Day 1:

We enjoyed the Lake immensely. It ended up being clear the whole time we were there. And the water was crystal clear. Gorgeous!

I couldn't sleep in our little tent, so Bear and I took a walk down to the water on the morning of Day 2. I was the only person up in our campground and the only person on the lake, so serene...

We were not big fans of the tiny tent but Bear LOVED the tent. Any time the zipper was open she would find her way in there to lay down.

We took a lot of time to just enjoy ourselves. Us on Day 2:

We sure did love the Lake. I think that we are going to make that a yearly tradition. Anyone who wants to join us next summer, let us know! We are going to plan way earlier in the summer and get our butts camping a lot more.

More Summer Updates...

Some more fun of the summer! We went with Megan and Aaron to see Miranda Lambert and Dierks Bentley! Like all of the Dierk's concerts that Pat and I have been to, it was amazing. Since it was in WY, he even did a little Chris Ledoux tribute

It was my first time seeing Miranda Lambert. She was also pretty amazing. She puts on a great concert.
Our couple in crime, Megan and Aaron (thanks guys for going with us!)

Me and Pat before the concert started. It was a great time!
Another thing that we got to do is host a the Johnson family for a night at our place. After Kenzie and I went to the zoo, the rest of the clan joined us for a BBQ and some Ladder Golf at our place. Here are Nate and Kenzie kicking butt in Ladder Golf.
Pat and Peyton. Aren't they adorable?
Stryker right after he used that ax to try to cut our trees down.
We have had an awesome summer! Thanks to all who have made it memorable.

Coor's Brewery/Invites

Alright, I know that I am really far behind on updating this blog. It's the last day of summer so I am going to get caught up on posts. This one is about a bunch of the fun things that we have done over summer. We live literally less than 30 minutes from this place and have never been, so we finally gave in and took a tour of Coor's Brewery. (Let's just say that it was no New Belgium, but we had a good day there.)

Another big thing that we got accomplished this summer was LOTS of wedding plans. One of the big time consumer could have been invitiations, but I have a wonderful, sister, mother and friend that helped me stuff, stamp and lick all those envelopes! Mailing them was a fun adventure for Pat and I... Here is the box full of them.
And here is Pat showing off the handy work of my girls and I.

The best part of getting all of those mailed is the RSVP cards that are coming back as a result. We are getting SO excited, and finding out who is able to come to the big day is making it SO real. Can't wait! Hope to see lots of wonderful friends and family there.

Fourth of July

A little late, but better late than never! We held our 2nd Annual Fourth of July Party this year! It helped us celebrate one year in our home. For the second year in a row it was yucky rainy weather! There's always next year for some awesome sunny weather! But at least we did get a little bit a sun and lots of time with friends and family.

My mom & Holger enjoying a little bit of the sunny weather on the 4th:
Styker giving us a tour of his "fort". The favorite party of our house for the kiddos is running around in the woods and building bridges and forts:
Pat & Holger braving the rain to ensure that all of our guests had full tummies (note the flowered umbrella):
Pat & Brett playing Ladder Golf:
LA & I right after we won on Ladder Golf. We beat the weather. This is when even more rain & fog moved in:
Thanks everyone for joining us for the 4th! Cannot wait for next year!!!!

Where did OUR dog go?

So bear got a haircut....WOW did she need a haircut. Her hair was the longest it has ever been, so long that the groomer had to shave her. We got her back and neither of us even recognized her. She looks like a little puppy. Since she has gotten a hair cut she has really changed. She still romps around outside but check out this video of her.

Anyone who knows Bear will understand how AMAZING this video of her is. For the past 3 days she has been running around all over our wood floors and is not even scared of the slippery floors.

(Her tail is all that wasn't shaved... looks silly! But the video is still completely amazing if you have ever seen Bear freak out over wood floors)

Georgia

What a great trip! Just got back on Saturday from a great vacation to Georgia. It was quite the trip. Me, Liz and the 5 kiddos made our way to the ATL and then on to Warner Robins on the 22nd. We had about 1.5 weeks there and we sure did get a lot out of our time with my dad and Selma.

We got a lot of fun stuff done while we were there. We went to Lane's Packing Company. Mmmm. They are a huge peach and pecan farm that I remember from living in Warner Robins. They have some yummmmmmy peach cobbler.

Here's Kenzie on our tour of the Peach Farm (those trees behind her are peach trees)

Here's the kiddos outside Lanes after enjoying a tour, some peach bread, and lots of peach cobbler and ice cream:

Nate and Domi:

One of the highlights of our trip was our day in Savannah. Anyone who knows me, may or may not know that I love the food network, especially Miss Paula Deen. Her and her sons own a restaurant in downtown Savannah called "The Lady and Sons". The place is hopping. Below is a picture of the people lined up, waiting to get a table. And they have this lady come out banging on her triangle screaming, "Come and Get it!!!" before they open the doors and start calling people in.

The outside of the famous "Lady and Sons"

Mmmmm. Some sweet tea, fried chicken, collard greens, and mashed potatoes.

After a scrumptious lunch @ Paula Deen's restaurant we drove to Tybee Beach. Here's Poppa with Peyton:

The Johnson clan after enjoying some sun and some waves

Another thing that the kids LOVED on our trip was visiting Selma's parent's house. They have a great deal of land and the kids went wild. Styker's loved the "golf car" and the "four wheelie." Here is Kenzie and Stryker going for a ride on the back of the gold cart.

Stryker on the four wheelie

Domi driving on the four wheelie

Nate driving the four wheelie

The last day we were in Warner Robins there was a big Fourth of July Concert and Firework Show. Here is Poppa and all of the kiddos waiting for the Diamond Rio concert.

We also went to the movies, spent lots of fun time by the pool, went to yard sales, and tried lots of yummy Southern food.

The trip was an awesome time. 10 days wasn't enough. I cannot wait for our next trip back to visit, already planning what we will do when we get the time to take Pat there on our next trip!

Thanks again Dad & Selma, we had a great time!

CARPET

YAY! It is finally here...our new CARPET! We have been living for the past year with flooring that we hated. If anyone has visited out home you have experienced the lovely blue carpeting that came with our house. But for some reason we just never fell in love with the idea of blue flooring. A few weeks ago we went shopping for new carpet and picked out some new carpet for our living room, stairs, guest bedroom and our office.

This week we emptied out all the rooms we were having carpeted and this is what we have been living in for the past few days:

Here is the new carpet in our guest bedroom:

Here is the living room with the new carpet:

Here's the stairs (Bye-Bye blue carpet!):

Here's to our first home improvement posting! More to come soon!

One Year Down!

So I finally gave in. I am not sure why I finally decided to do a blog (I am sure that I am the only one who will read it anyway)...But here I am! I missed a whole year on our home renovations. I am really sad that I waited until now to start. I missed out on SO much of the stuff that we have tried our hand at in the world of home renovations :(

Oh well. We aren't nearly where we would like to be in this home. We still have lots of projects to do in this home. In addition to that we have a wedding to plan and it's summer, so there are lots of fun things happening in our lives.

Hope I am not the ONLY person who will see this! Stay tuned for the first home post coming SOOOOOON