Our New Home

I finally got a chance to sit down and do a before and after shot for everyone. If you'd like to see more, you'll just have to stop by. :) I hope everyone's holiday season is going great and I can't wait to see everyone. Anyway, here's a before and after of our kitchen so far. Hopefully well be able to replace the Steak-n-Shake floors (thanks Jeremy) soon, but for now...they stay. Oh and don't look too close at the pile on the table or the dishes...we're still moving :)

Halloween 2008

Anthony and I handed out candy this halloween, and then went over to Markita's Halloween party. We had a great time...especially Anthony. I was a nurse and he was a hunter who fell from a stand...notice his bleeding ears and bruise.

Below...Danielle and I

Mike and Markita...an Egyptian and a Jamaican. Markita and her roomies had the theme "a trip around the world". They were all so cute.
Anthony and Markita...lovin life.

My favorite picture of the night...Markita, Mike Ockerhausen, Danielle and my cousin Brandon-a lumberjack.

Anthony and I...arent we cute. Anthony rubbed his blood on my forehead...very realistic.

Markita and I

Sorry Hallie, it's not the best pic. Here's a picture of the kiddos I babysit. They were our only trick-or-treaters. But weren't they so cute. Cooper the lion, Parker was Buzz Lightyear, Spencer was Woody and Abby was the tooth fairy. We were so happy they stopped by.

Hartsburg Pumpkin Festival

The Hartsburg Pumpkin Festival was a blast! Danielle and I had so much fun spending the day together, looking at crafts and pigging out on good festival foods...we supported the MU Collegiate Cattlewomen, Hartsburg bar :) and I picked up some roasted almonds for Anthony..yumm. Anyhow, here are few pics from our wonderFALL day!

Danielle is too cute!

These were the coolest pumpkins I've ever seen, he used a chissel to carve out the faces.

Danielle and I decided to end the day at a local favorite...Flat Branch Restaurant and Brewery. We enjoyed some wine with some "chokes and cheese"---my favorite! It was a perfect way to end the day with a great friend.

Roots, Blues and BBQ

Anthony and I attended the Roots, Blues and BBQ festival a few weeks ago. We enjoyed some good bar-b-que and got to do some much enjoyed people watching! Columbia is such a funny hippie town.

Trip to Iowa

This is Bruce's backyard. Anthony and I were able to wake up and look out our window to see this! What a beautiful view. If Iowa weren't so far away, I'd move there in a second.
Bruce's house needs some updating, but overall it is actually beautiful. This is my favorite part... the windows and the woodwork. All of the windows had beautiful character and there are hardwood floors throughout the house.
The boys spent Saturday afternoon replacing the roof on the back of Bruce's house. They seemed to have had a good time. Another project of Bruce's is re-doing the back porch seen here. He has ripped it up, and is now in the process of rebuilding it. I can't wait to see what he does with his charming new home.
The boys, hard at "work". Don't take too much pitty on them, it was a beautiful day--and they had beer.
To round off Saturday night, the boys decided they needed to visit a good friend...Jose! Apparently, Iowa beer doesn't do the trick. Thanks Bruce for having us, we had a great time!

GDI Dance

Thursday was the "start day" GDI dance. We had a great time with old friends and new. However it wasn't the same without our buddies Jacob and Bruce :)

Markita and I

Justin and Emily
Anthony and I
The dance was packed, as usual. What a great time.

Our Apartment

To the left is our front door. I'm standing in our living room, nothing much to see. This is our tiny dining room and kitchen. Although the kitchen is a good size. Behind the wall on the right is the fridge and walk-in pantry. We have so much storage in this apartment...it's amazing!
This is our hallway, the first door to the left is a closet...behind the second door is our bathroom. At the end of the hall on the left is the office and the right is our bedroom. Along the right hand wall is the washer/dryer closet, however we use this as a storage area.
The lovely bathroom.
Our bedroom. These pictures were taken only a couple of days after we moved in, before we left for our honeymoon I snapped a few pictures...don't mind the mess. Through the door in the back is our patio. It now houses our grill and clothesline. :)
Lastly, this is our office. The last thing to be unpacked. It's our cozy place for writing papers (me) and paying bills (anthony) haha. Just kidding. Overall, we love our apartment, we only wish we could stay a little longer.

Honeymoon

Okay, so forgive me... my pictures are pretty jumbled. They skip around some, just read the captions and it should make sense. Our honeymoon.................................



Anthony and I at the home of the Grand Ole Opry....The Ryman Auditorium. This was a really neat experiance. We really enjoyed exploring the roots of country music.

Anthony... doing his best to look like the tourists we were at The Hermitage (home of President Andrew Jackson). The 1100+ acre farm was beautiful. We went on a horse-drawn carraige ride of the plantation grounds and toured Jackson's home (sorry no pics inside). Anthony is seen here in his driveway, faceing his home.
I am standing in the back of Jackson's home. One of our favorite parts of our honeymoon was visiting these old plantations. In Jackson's home, all of the furnishings were origional...dating back to the early 1800s. The wallpaper in the foyer was coming up on 200 years old and still looked fairly new. It was a great experiance.
Anthony and I enjoyed many great restaurants. Before the Grand Ole Opry on our last night in Nashville we went to the Rainforest Cafe. Neat, but not as cool as the Aquarium restaurant. They did have dancing monkeys and rainstorms... very fun to take kids to.
Anthony and I had a GREAT time at the Grand Ole Opry. Some of the entertainers included Ricky Skaggs, Kellie Pickler, Jim Ed Brown and Craig Morgan.
Anthony and I on the front porch at the Belle Meade Plantation. This was an old thoroughbred horse plantation. Some of America's most famous racing horses can trace their family tree back to the "foundation studs" kept on this plantation. The history was very interesting.
Anthony in front of the main house on the plantation.
Ahh... the plantation owners. :) The small house in the background was the children's play house.
Anthony petting sting rays at the mall in Nashville outside of the Aquarium restaurant. I can't tell you how much this freaked me out. The sting rays are hand fed by everyone visiting, so they just swim right up to you and even come out of the water for food. Needless to say I kept my distance ... happily snaping photos instead.
Inside the Aquarium restaurant. The HUGE tank had everything from tuna to sharks.

FLORIDA--- Anthony and I really wanted to meet our newest family member Alexandra McKay Simpson. Alexandra made her entrance earlier than expected...the day before our wedding. Her daddy Chris (my brother) was unfortunately in Missouri with Taylor for the wedding when Trish went into labor and had baby Alex. Luckily she is a happy, healthy baby and Chris got to spend a few short weeks with his new girl before heading to Korea for a year. Anthony and I enjoyed our time spent with Trish, Taylor and Alex and can't wait to see them again.

Anthony and Alex watching cartoons. (Actually Anthony is watching cartoons...Alex could care less) Funny, who is the kid in this picture?
Alex and I playing on the couch. We had so much fun meeting the newest addition to the Simpson's. Alexandra is beautiful...and so well tempered. Miss you already.
Anthony and I ate at Fudruckers restaurant in Destin, FL. They had a large man-made swamp with over 100 small aligators in it that customers could feed. we also got to touch an aligator's back, side and stomach. Oh yeah, and the food was good too.
This picture was actually taken in Nashville when Anthony and I went bar-hopping. We had so much fun listening to music and going from place to place. We definitely have to go back with friends soon. What a blast.

Anthony and Taylor playing Jenga. Anthony is always so intense... even when playing with a 5 year old.

Okay....so I am pretty special in this photo, but I thought I'd share it with you all anyway. Taylor did my beautiful hair and wanted a snapshot to commemorate the occasion. I know you all are jealous of my good looks. They are definitely what gets Anthony up in the morning. ha.

Anthony is so proud of this picture. Little Alex is a clone of her sister I swear! She was really enjoying laying on my lap and looking around. I'm pretty sure we are watching the olympics right now too. Alex and I watched a lot of beach volleyball together!

Uncle Anthony was great with the girls... Taylor has really warmed up to sharing her Aunt Sara with him. Here they are at the beach discussing seashells.

Okay, so I put my "special-ed" picture in...here's Anthony's for the trip. I told anthony to smile and this is what he gave me. Gotta love him!

MEMPHIS----- Beale Street. Graceland. Civil Rights Museum.

Anthony's "Beale Big Ass Beer" Our first night of our honeymoon was spent on Beale street. I loved the atmosphere...Anthony say's, "it's dirty." We still had fun.

Always the tourist... at the home of THe King...Graceland. Suprisingly, this was one of my favorite parts of the trip. A must see if stopping in Memphis.

On top of the Peabody Hotel in downtown Memphis. We are standing in front of the duck mansion built on top of the hotel. As corney as it sounds we watched the duck parade out of the lobby's fountain, follow the duckmaster down the red carpet and into the elevator up to their home. I can't believe we watched this, but I'm glad we did.

Flashback to Florida... the above picture is Anthony (holding Alex) and Taylor. He's such a sweetie. Below, I am holding Alex soon after we arrived in Florida.