1st Anniversary and Valentines Day!

I can not believe tomorrow will be a year since our wedding. Some days I feel like Chuck has always been by husband, yet I still learn new things about him all the time. I am so lucky to be married to a man that is so supportive, amazingly sweet, and well, I could go on and on. Getting married to him is the best decision I have ever made (well, some would say that the decision was made for us by a greater power). I also remember all of our many of our wonderful family and friends made it to Red Rocks to celebrate with us (and a few that couldn't make it there were there in spirit). We wouldn't be the people we are today without all of you.

We do a scaled down version of Valentine's Day with our anniversary just two days later. We stayed in last night and made Rachel Ray's Pasta Carbonara, and it was YUMMY!! We got some of that "take and bake" bread from Target and had steamed asparagus on the side. We are going out to Sullivan's tonight, so another good meal is in our future! We are staying the night at the Oxford Hotel, where we stayed on our wedding night.

A not so romantic thing this weekend involved our washing machine throwing in the towel, while washing towels. The motor creaked to a halt (and made the house smell icky). Once we got the stuff out, we did get it spinning enough to drain the water, but it is dead. So, I got a wish granted with a new set of front-loaders! The drier is fine, but we wanted to get a set. They deliver the washing machine tomorrow (and take the old one away). We'll have lots of laundry to do tomorrow evening, but since it will supposedly take 1/2 the time, that's good!! :) We did our part to support the economy.

On a lighter note, Eric also did his part to support the economy and put a ring on my cousin Laura's finger! Yeah!! We are thrilled for them. Laura and Eric, enjoy this special time - being engaged is a wonderful feeling. And I know you can't wipe the smiles off your faces...the wedding will be the same way. Best wishes on this new phase of your lives together. Cheers!

I have a DCB concert coming up next weekend. It is our "guest artist" concert and the featured artist this year is an organist. We play in a old, huge church that of course has a pipe organ, so it is fitting. Our next concert will be in Houston at the Association of Concert Bands convention (we have the Saturday night slot!). I have a wicked (and very exposed) mallet part in one of the pieces...already worried!! We are going to stay with Chuck's cousins while we are there and I am so excited to get to know them and there little one, Hazel Claire.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Prepping for the Superbowl

As my turkey stock is cooking, I thought I better post so Aunt Toni doesn't say I never do! :) I am making gumbo for the game tomorrow, as I always do (well, not always, as I didn't make it last year with the wedding and all). We're having a few people over for the game, so it should be fun. Our youngest party guest will be little Anderson! This boy is already a handful as it seems he likes to get all the attention he can get. :) The whole family is waking up at their house today! Yeah!

I met up with a friend of mine from grad school for margaritas last night! We hadn't seen each other in over a year, so it was great to catch up!

Time for chores - I should take some inspiration from Jenna to deep clean. It has been a while and it really is so much easier to keep the house clean once it is "really" clean. We'll see how it goes! :) Our closets need a lot of work...but I can tell you right now that I'm not *that* inspired!

Happy February to everyone! Happy birthday on Tuesday to Robin!

Cheers, and Go Steelers (or Cardinals)....!!

Winter is back and so are we!

I know, I suck at posting.  We just aren't that exciting...but, now that I think about it, January has been busy.  

We officially became Sofia's Godparents on January 4th.  The weather cooperated for Carrie's parents to make the drive our here for the ceremony, and it was great fun.  Sofia of course shined in her christening gown. That next week, Corinne came to visit and we did a whirlwind tour of Denver and family, and braved the cold and wind!  I played with the Lonetree Sympony again for a late holiday concert...I had to play without rehearsing, so I was happy to stop either with or before everyone else (after is bad!). Ha! 

Work has been very busy for both of us.  I am so incredibly happy to be with Northern Trust.  We posted record earnings for 2008 and continue to have a very strong (and clean) balance sheet.  Chuck remains busy as well, despite having his project in a slower period. 

The long await for Anderson Snyders is over! He arrived on Inauguration Day (yet another thing to make 1/20/09 historic!!).  I was lucky to snuggle him just hours after he entered the world.  He is super cute and mom and baby are doing well. Check out his blog (link to the right) for photos and more!! 

Thursday was an event that featured Northern's Director of Economic Research - a timely presentation that made me a little less pessimistic about the economy.  Dad, Suanne, Keith, and Barbara happened to be walking by the bank as the event was ending and I joined them for a late dinner at PF Changs.  Yum! Last night we went to our favorite local restaurant, Armando's, with Diane, Anne, Mom and Dick.  We ate too much per usual...it can't be helped at this place as it is SO good.  Armando himself is from the same region of Italy as Nonnie, and that northern Italian food is just yummy!! We are gearing up for the Super Bowl next weekend after a one year hiatus of our annual Super Bowl party.  We skipped last year with the wedding and all.  

We are quickly approaching our 1 year anniversary.  I can't believe it!! We are celebrating with a night at the historic Oxford Hotel (where we spent our wedding night), a nice dinner, and an Avs game (hey, tickets are paper after all!).  Mostly I just want to celebrate being married to the most amazing person I know.  In fact, that wonderful husband of mine is cooking up some breakfast, so off I go!  

I'll try and post more often!

Happy new year!

We rung in the new year (well, Carrie and I rung in 10:30pm with the boys and went to bed) at Michael and Carrie's.  The guys made it to midnight.  My cold has come back with a vengeance and my voice was completely gone by the morning.  :( I seem to be on the mend again...I have heard ugly rumors of this cold lasting many weekend and let's up that is just not true! We "officially" become Sofia's Godparents on Sunday and Corinne (now a grand-Godmother!) arrives on Monday. 

2008 was a wonderful year for us (getting married and all!) and we wish a wonderful 2009 to all of our blog readers (all 2 of you). 

Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas! The nieces were spoiled (yeah!) and the adults had some fun too! We (successfully) tried White Elephant with both families and also drew names with the Nellises.  Thank you to everyone for our gifts!  We had snow on the ground for Christmas here in Colorado, but it was in the 40s, so no new snow to make it a white Christmas.  Maddie shared her Christmas cold with me, so I spent all of yesterday on the couch watching TBS under the influence of DayQuil. I'm on the mend though!

Unfortunately, we lost a member of our family just before Christmas.  Uncle Dick(my Great Uncle on my mom's side) is now with Aunt Pat and is keeping a watchful eye over us all.  We weren't able to make it to Eureka for the service yesterday, but we were there in our thoughts.

Time to catch up on chores and get ready for the week.  Chuck has been off since last Monday and still has another week off (so jealous!), but I'm working all of this week.  His company actually shuts down between Christmas and New Years, so he is just using a couple of days of vacation.  Banks can not of course close (not ever for more than 3 days), so there you have it.  

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Happy Holidays!

I can't believe a month has passed since my last post.  We've been super busy.... 

We had a great Thanksgiving up in Bailey! We went up on Wednesday and had a fun dinner at Anne, Mark, and Emily's house.  Emily was our chauffeur for the evening. :) Thursday was a great day of cooking, laughs, and celebration.   We picked up our Christmas tree (from the bin at Home Depot...how I miss getting trees from the Santa Cruz mountains!!) that weekend and have been enjoying it ever since.  We have docorations from the late 1970s all the way through 2008 (we buy a new ornament for ourselves each year), so it is fun to decorate and have all the memories with us as we trim the tree.  Zack just watches from the stairs and awaits the garland...that we didn't put up this year since he crews it and it just can not be good for him.  He is still looking for it.

At the DCB rehearsal the following Monday I was "recruited" to play with the Lone Tree Symphony Orchestra (percussionists are in high demand in the community band world!), so I rehearsed with them twice that week, followed by a concert on Friday night.  The concert went great and us rowdy percussionists surprised Jacinda, our conductor, with Santa hats for the encore! I went to a cookie exchange at Jenna's house on Saturday which was really fun (and yummy....!).  Sunday we went up to Tarah's house with the other Nellis siblings to help Tarah put up her tree.   We had her famous overnight casserole and french toast. Yummy!! The weather was great that afternoon to get our lights up outside!

This week was busy with a DCB concert, so we had two rehearsals this week.  The Northern Trust holiday party was a bowling party at the Denver Athletic Club on Thursday, and it was fun to "let loose" as this has been quite a year in our industry.  The concert went great yesterday.  I had a challenging part on chimes in one piece and jingled the sleigh bells on a few pieces as well. 

Today we attended a baptismal class at Michael and Carrie's church as we have been given the great honor of becoming Sofia's godparents.  Father Ken (a childhood friend of Suanne's) presented the details beyond the rite and Sofia practiced her cries for the ceremony a bit once the class was all done! :)

It is really cold here in Colorado (well below zero tonight), so we are in the holiday spirit.  We should get some more snow tonight, so I'll watch the commute from the comfort of the light rail.  I have a 7 mile drive to the train, but it is good to ride in for the last 2/3s of the drive!  Cheers!

Cruising into winter!

It has been a busy couple of weeks!! And somehow we are now on the back end of November already. My how time flies. Today marks 9 months of marriage for my wonderful hubby and me. I am so lucky to have the life that I do and the love of such an amazing man.

We toasted the election of President Obama with Kari and Brad on 11/4. Wednesday night I attended my first board meeting for MiCasa - I will be voted on to the board at the next December meeting and I am so excited! I helped host a baby shower for Kari on Sunday, which was so fun!! Baby Anderson is a lucky boy, and I can't wait to meet him in 2 months!!

Chuck and I took Monday and Tuesday off (well, us banker types got Tuesday off) and headed up to Eagle to visit Natanee, Matt, and Talon. We stayed at a small B&B in Eagle and with Grandma Patty's help, went out with Natanee and Matt for their first baby free meal. :) Talon is growing like a weed and has the eat, poop, cry, sleep, repeat (not necessarily in that order) actions down!

Jeremiah, Alex, and Maddie came over for dinner on Tuesday to finally start our once a month tradition! It was nice having a short week at the office. I attended a breakfast for Mercy Housing and a lunch for the Women's Foundation. Joy Behar was the speaker at the foundation event - she was great!

Our first snow of the year was on this Friday - amazing it was so late this year. We got about 3-4 inches, and it is all melted away now. Yesterday was the last tailgate of the year. We really lucked out with the weather at for tailgating this year! Even though it was a night game, both Sofia and Talon were able to come to the tailgate with the good weather in the 50s before the sun went down. My oh my, how our tailgates have changed over the years. :)

We are looking forward to the holidays!