Year 1 In Pictures

Beth and Holly can out for a visit for my birthday in October. I was so happy to have them! I kept them busy with all the tourist attractions. We went to the City Museum,

The Chocolate Bar,

Forest Park, The Arch, the zoo, and my favorite restaurants. I was hoping they would fall in love with St. Louis and move out here.

Grandad past away in October, but not before giving his life to Christ. What a blessing in disguise. We have so many good memories with him. My favorite being Hat Parties. The top picture is the last party I had with Grandad before moving to St. Louis. The bottom picture is the grandchilden's Hat Party at his funeral. Virginia just won't be the same without him.

We threw a pumpkin Carving Party at our house in October. We had smores, popcorn, "Jippy Joy Juice"(My mom's recipe), and homemade Hot Chocolate (Patrick's mom's recipe). We hope to make this an annual event.

We had a work Halloween Party. We were Dog and Beth the Bounty Hunters.

Patrick's parents came out to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. His mom and I worked together to make a pretty nice feast. Notice the snow in the background of this picture.

We visited the botanical gardens,

The Arch, and the zoo.

We got to go home for Christmas! However, I had to decorate still to keep me in the mood for the season till we got to go. Our place decorated for Christmas.

Budweiser Tour with our friends Anna Marie and Taylor

Winter consisted of snow....snow...a.nd...more snow. It started Thanksgiving day and there was snow on the ground through spring break. It took some getting use to for these southern people and their dog.

My good friend Laura Stiffler is expecting her first at the end of June. We love to get together and do crafts. She had the desire to make baby Quinton some appliqued onesies and she needed my "skills" and machine to do so. We enjoyed learning the process together thanks to Holly Seeby's detailed instructions and sewing lessons. We made 6 appliqued onesies and Laura learned to sew in the process. Go to Laura's blog to see all the onesies. I now have a good relationship with my machine and would like to take it to the next level.

In April we celebrated Patrick's 26th Birthday with an ice cream party. He's not really much of a cake man but he sure does love ice cream.

The above picture is what I saw in my head when I snapped the below picture of Patrick while he was planting our garden. I guess I remembered it a little differently. It still was humorous to me.

In April we planted a garden. We decided to plant the produce we buy on every grocery trip in an attempt to save money and have some fun. We planted green beans, tomatoes, peppers, onions, lettuce, cilantro, and potatoes. We later discovered our plot is too close to a tree. You can see the trunk in the upper left hand corner of the picture below. Therefore, we have had too move a good bit of the plants to pots on our patio in order for them to get enough sun. However, we have already enjoyed our lettuce and cilantro on many occasions. We are looking forward to many more fruits to come.

Finally done with exams and able to enjoy our first hike in Missouri. We went to Meramec State Park. The top picture is Daisy and I by the meramec river. The bottom pic. is Patrick in the cool cave just off the trail. Unfortunately the ticks are bad out here. We brought 7 home with us.

It's been a great first year!