This week back to life after our vacation has been pretty blah, so I thought I’d add some more Levi pictures that make me smile.

Levi and Sam are getting along really well. They both really like to play together and you can tell they’re going to be great buds.

On Monday we took him with us to a local ice cream shop. He was really well behaved and I think he had a good time sniffing and lounging about.

We haven’t been able to figure out how to get him to look at the camera. I have a few shots of him, but if you saw how many pictures I had to delete of the side of his head, you’d see how true that is.

Levi’s been a lot of fun to get to know, but yes, dogs are a lot of work. I think we’re all learning to mesh though.

Now that we have our own house we got sort of serious about getting a family dog. We weren’t sure we were going to get a dog so soon, but little Levi (also known by his old name, Toto) was looking for a new home (he didn’t get along with his other dog friend at his old one). Levi seems to like his new home so far - napping, running around outside and chasing lizards. He really likes going for car rides in his carrier and sniffing everything. He’s one year old, but still partly full of puppy energy. I think he’ll make a fine addition to our family!

Yesterday Sam and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. My lovely husband sent me some beautiful flowers at work:

After work we went out for a nice dinner at Olive Garden (yum!) and then came home to the traditional 1st anniversary dessert:

Year old wedding cake, almost year old grape juice, and freshly baked pineapple upside down cakes!

The cake… well it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Kinda dry, but other than that it was okay. Not something I’d eat for kicks, but impressive for a year in the freezer.

We also had a bottle of grape juice that we bought at the Biltmore on our honeymoon. We hadn’t intended to keep it til our anniversary, but after we kept forgetting to drink it we decided just to save it for the special occasion. It hadn’t been opened so it was still good.

But the highlight was the freshly baked pineapple upside down cakes. That is by far my favorite type of cake. My grandmother called and asked me to stop by when I got off of work. I went over and she had just got done baking these two little cakes for us. SO good!

We both had a really great anniversary and I’m so blessed to have had Sam as my husband for the last year!

It’s been a long process, but yesterday - with A LOT of help from friends and family - we moved all of our junk stuff in record time. It feels so great being in our new home. I think we’re going to like it here!

Photo is by the lovely Kara, not myself.

Last night my new friend, Kara, and I got together to try our hand at making some paper flowers for her daughter’s birthday party. She picked some awesome bright colors and I think the flowers turned out pretty cute!

I’m looking forward to making some for the house after we get moved in. I’m picturing a bouquet for every season!

Last Tuesday we closed on our house. That means that the past week has been filled with doing little touchups to the home (it was fine, but to make it more personalized for us), changing our address, packing, painting…so on and so forth. It’s been a crazy week, but we’re both really looking forward to having a place to call our own. The official moving day is Saturday and we can’t wait!

I’ve started getting more and more nostalgic lately for simple things that remind me of my childhood. That’s just a part of aging I suppose. I had a great wave of nostalgia at the end of last year when making the Cup Cozies that were a staple of my childhood at both my parents’ and grandparents’ homes. They’re so cute and useful.

Recently I’ve had thoughts about how useful little stools (that my great grandmother made out of juice cans) were. When I was little we would put a tray on them and eat off of them, we’d sit on them, we’d use them to reach something tall, to rest our feet…. I remember her making some when I was younger, but I don’t think I was ever around to see her make one. Unfortunately she passed away some years ago so I can’t learn from her directly. At Easter dinner I asked my family how she made them and got pretty good direction. Finally this weekend I took the time to sit down and make one. I’m REALLY happy with how it turned out, almost exactly how I remembered. It really warmed my heart to think that I was crafting something that my great-grandmother once made. Now I have something useful that will remind me of my family every time I make use of it. Plus, I think it’s totally cute too!