gettin' there

charlie's been away for work cold weather training in bridgeport, california.
[think: sleeping in the snow...eek! my poor baby.]
anyways, i've been trying to keep busy at home to make time go by faster.
i wanted to try to get as much done to the house for when he comes home next week.
[kind of a little "welcome home" thing :)]
before he left, our master bedroom didn't have anything in it besides our vacuum and our clothes hamper.
but now...
it's gradually getting to be a comfy, cozy, and relaxing room.
here's what our room looked like before...

and now after! 

[note: there's still a bit more to do.]

also, i would like to point out that I, girly-girl samantha, hung the curtain rod & curtain ALL BY MYSELF. with a power tool. my husband will be so proud :)

i also got this cute framed artwork at good 'ol home goods for above the stove. our kitchen doesn't seem as *naked* now.

i'll throw in a few more pics of our kitchen. just for the heck of it :)

i still need to finish staining our giant oak-unit before he comes home, too. gotta get crackin' on that.

p.s. today is our 1 month anniversary! i love being a wife to my husband :)

startin' to feel like home

ever since we've moved in a few weeks ago i've been doing little things here and there to make our condo feel more like "home". [the little things make it feel "homey"]
here's a few pictures of how it's coming along
[we're about half way done with everything...our bed is coming this week, more frames need to be hung and our oak-unit is in the process of being stained]
but here's a little taste of our home :)

my mom gave us this monogramed garden decoration. 

i LOVE it.

it's so hard to find the letter "O'

one of my favorite wedding gifts we got is this plaque.

thank you, ridley family!

the entry way into the bathroom, guest room and our room

the bathroom

our vanity in between the bathroom and our master bedroom

this is where we have our family meals :)

love that quote

:)

hope you all enjoyed! more to come...

what i love about being married (so far)

i just thought i'd take a minute to think of everything that i love about being married so far. [sometimes if i write things down, somehow they mean more and i'm even more thankful for them]

-sharing all my evenings and weekends with my husband in our home. i love that every time he comes home to work, he comes home to me. sounds selfish haha oh well.

-making dinner every night to the least pickiest man ALIVE. i can make anything and everything and he'll always go for seconds :)

-falling asleep and waking up together. nothin' like it.

-having a new last name :)

-being able to write notes like this back and forth to each other on the white board on our fridge...

[our future dog is a Weimaraner. we've already named him Wrangler]

'twas the season

i'm aware that christmas was last month and that i haven't gotten around to update you all on it, but at least i have a pretty good excuse ;)

anyways, we had a wonderful first christmas together.
on christmas eve, we made bigger and better gingerbread houses, as promised!
here are the results...

charlie's house was completed with it's very own outhouse AND a peppermint graveyard.

pretty impressive.

but not as impressive as my POND in the front yard! 

chyeah. awesome, i know ;)

that night, charlie stayed at my parents house so we could do christmas morning presents and breakfast all together.
i honestly wasn't expecting much from my family since they've already put so much money and effort into our wedding [which was the next week] but being the generous people my family are, they didn't spare us on christmas.
i got two houndstooth scarfs [two of my favorite things combined! houndstooth and scarfs. i was a happy girl to say the least] a purple sweater, a GIANT cookbook [all wifeys need the huge better homes & garden cookbook...right?] chocolate [of course!] and baking pans from williams-sonoma and a few other things.
charlie got spoiled by santa! [aka: my mom and dad]

he now has a tool box loaded with nifty tools which have definitely come in handy moving into a new place! as a matter of fact while i was typing this, mr. handyman was hanging up a toilet paper roll holder in our bathroom! i love having a handy husband.

merry christmas 2010!

it's official.

we're MARRIED!

this post is a tad last due to getting married...the honeymoon...reception...moving into our new place...oh ya and having no internet for a while.

but we're back! and we're loving every second of being married.

i don't have many pictures of our wedding and reception, but my friends snapped a few, so naturally i'll be stealing them :)

this is a picture from wednesday, december 29, 2010, the day charlie and i were married and sealed in the Newport Beach Temple. it was beautiful & simple. and a little surreal. [on the drive to our honeymoon i looked over at charlie and said "isn't it weird that i'm now your wife?" and he said "yeah...and i'm your husband" haha]

after the temple, my in-laws generously took all of us out to lunch at mimi's cafe. then we were in the fast lane to get to our honeymoon in coronado!

[a view of downtown san diego from our hotel]

once we checked in and made ourselves cozy we decided we were hungry for some dinner, and for our wedding night dinner we decided to treat ourselves with some sushi. We came upon a restaurant called "yummy sushi" [and yes, it really was yummy]
we started off the meal with some edamame, then had the classic california roll, then some other fancy california roll then an extra fancy roll which i think was called "yummy sauce roll" [or something to that extent]  i wasn't a huge fan of the yummy sauce roll but charlie absolutely LOVED it.

[the "yummy sauce roll"] 

and for dessert: gelato :)

[delish]

i love how we have a goofy picture from our honeymoon and not a mooshy-mooshy-kissy-kissy-just-married-love-bird picture. haha we're just goofballs in love :)

now onto our ring ceremony & reception which was on saturday, january 1, 2011

[1-1-11 in case you didn't catch that ;)]

it was a beautiful sunny, clear day.

i woke up at around 9:30, ate breakfast, played peek-a-boo with my awesome nephew, then got all dolled up with my bridesmaids. it was a good morning.

[my dress looks so much better on. don't judge it by this picture, scroll down for proof]

[these were my flowers the day we went to the temple. my saturday flowers were purple dahlias :)]

[my great grandmother's pearl broach]

the ceremony started at 3:30.

my dad walked me down the isle to "kisses and cake" by john powell

charlie and i exchanged vows [i think this was my favorite part of the day] charlie's vows were beautiful and of course i cried [no surprise there!] but what was a surprise was that my vows made charlie cry! that'll probably be the one and only time i see tears in that man's eyes. [my vows must have been pretty darn good ;)] 

[the kiss]

promptly after the ceremony "mr. and mrs. osborne" were announced into the reception..

we ate, mingled with loved ones, danced a little, cut the cake [which my mother-in-law made, by the way] threw the bouquet, had the garter toss, had a few speeches and we were sent off in our "just married" decorated car :)

we loved our ceremony and reception and we thank EVERYONE who was a part of it!

once we get all our edited pictures from our photographer i will post them. stay tuned :)