Becoming a little more domesticated

So it took me a REALLY long time, but I finally got some of our frames filled with pictures!!

Oh how excited I am! I've had most of these frames for over a year and I've had a box of pictures and empty frames in a corner since we moved in...so this has definitely been a task in the making!



I have to do closeups of our pictures though:

I saw this frame on a trip to Kohl's and HAD to have it!
I absolute love the clothesline and pins for the pictures.

This frame is from our Universal Studios trip in February

This one my aunt, Cindy, got us as a housewarming gift.
I LOVE the frame and that's my absolute favorite
Picture of Larry and me.

Even though I've decided we won't be doing any decorating to our place till after the wedding (I want to focus on one room at a time and there will most likely be painting so I figure why put holes in our walls if we'll just have to cover them up to put them back in again?) I wanted to at least fill the frames for some fun until we could do some fun decorating. I'm debating doing one more photo shoot with just Larry and me in April/May to have a bit of a mixture of pictures to frame so it's not just the ones from our engagements, but we'll see if that ends up happening I can talk Larry into doing another one.

Also, another domestic happenings in our place, I've been cooking a ton more than I had before we moved in, which is just so much fun! Well for my birthday my grandma got me the CUTEST apron (one of the ones we registered for):

(I'm still not wearing makeup from my lasik, so
I'm not taking any pics of me IN the apron, but this
Is from the site)

It says "Little Black Apron" on it and has pearls lining the neckline and has some black lace on it. I LOVE that it's my first real apron and it fits me so well! So now cooking is even more fun :)
I'm still learning fun things to mix with each meal or combining different things to make new recipes with my old ones, but it's been so nice having real dinners with Larry and mixing in old ones we used to have (like spaghetti or burritos/tacos). Plus with our meal planning each week, I feel we've saved a little bit of money with grocery shopping since we aren't really going in blind and buying stuff we don't end up using.

One big reason I love these changes is because (I've been talking a lot about this with some work people and Larry) when I first moved out from my mom's I kept thinking "I'm going from a house that was always clean, we had regular, fairly healthy, meals, and  a pretty routine sleeping schedule to a place that has none of that." I mean everything was set just so and it offered a sense of security at my mom's and I felt like I was taking a gigantic step backwards. I mean, I'm sure my mom wasn't ALWAYS so routine (although knowing her, she might just have been). I figure she had to have started similar to where I was starting on my own, but it scared me to think I had to figure it all out by myself instead of it just being there, like I was used to. Moving into that small, cramped, supremely messy apartment with Larry's dad was definitely not ideal, but we were together and we had our own room so it worked. Although, it was very depressing knowing I ate meals that were made in the microwave or on an old, used up skillet and then going to visit mom and they were having one of their yummy dinners I missed so much, I just used it as motivation that I would be back to that kind of house again (and NO, not by moving back in with her-even though I did for a brief period while Larry was in Basic and AIT). Moving into this condo, and making it our home, is EXACTLY where I wanted to be. We have a pretty routine sleeping schedule (except on the weekends!), we eat pretty good meals (not mac n cheese-that's for dang sure!), and even though it may not be clean all the time, it's not nearly like it was at Larry's dad's house! I love it, it only took me 7 years to get here, but I'm glad I am and I'm glad I started out in a not-so-ideal place so I could learn what I wanted to be back to. Being in this home has just improved so many things for us, it makes me love the choice we made to buy it and make it all ours!

So really, that's all I had, but I wanted to share our cute pictures in our cute frames that took me...well let's just say those green and pink cat frames were a Christmas gift from like 3 years ago! And I would like to point out (for all those that think we're crazy cat people) NONE of the cat frames were bought by Larry or myself-they were ALL gifts to us. But I do love them and loved finding pictures for them so thanks for the gifts! Happy New Years all (in 2 days!).