Here at the end of 2008 I thought I would take a look back at all the major events of this past year in our lives:

January 2008 - Steven returns to Army boot camp in Oklahoma.

February 2008 - Steven graduates from boot camp  |  Courtney and the Volker's fly to Oklahoma to visit him for a few days

March 2008 - Steven starts AIT training in Maryland

April 2008 - Courtney turns 21!

May 2008 - Courtney graduates with a B.S. in Visual Communication Arts  |  Steven comes home from training!!  |  May 31: Steven proposes to Courtney in VA and she says YES!!

June 2008 - Courtney gets her first "real" job as a Communications Manager

September 2008 - Courtney and Steven find their first apartment

October 2008 - Courtney moves into the new place

November 2008 - Steven gets a new job with Brinks Inc  |  Nov 22: Steven and Courtney tie the knot!! 

December 2008 - our first Christmas together as a married couple

Whew! It has been quite an eventful year that I will never forget! We are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends to share these events with in our lives and we thank God for them each and every day. Thank you to everyone who has been with us through this year and helped us celebrate every step of the way! We would not be here without you!

Steven and I had a wonderful first Christmas together. I think the highlight of the season was the television that I bought him as a gift. He could not wait to set it up! We went to several parties and spent some time with the Volkers. It was a very different Christmas for me but an enjoyable one none the less. 

The only day Steven had off from work was Christmas day but I had Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas off from work as well. So I spent those days cleaning and organizing the apartment and finished writing thank you cards for all the wedding gifts. I had a productive yet relaxing and fun vacation from work! 

Due to my efforts the apartment is almost finished! I hung 90% of the frames I had collected for my collage over the couch. One requires a bit of work and a power drill so it's Steven's job to hang! The living room looks so much more like home with pictures all over the wall! I hope to get my artwork from my parent's house soon so that I can hang some of it in our bedroom. We have an artwork poster for over the table that Steven has to hang as well, it's too big for me to handle. 

We "finished" our Target and Crate and Barrel registries this weekend. And by finished I mean we went through what hadn't been bought and then we purchased only what we thought we needed. We are going to wait a little while on the things that were just on the registry for fun. We also bought some of the things off the Belk registry. But the salesman informed us of a bridal completion sale at the end of January where everything on our registry will be 20% off. It was a no brainer to wait on most of that stuff. So he's got a list of what we still need and he is going to have it all gathered in the store, reserved just for us, for that particular sale. Awesome! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEVEN!! 

Steven is 22 today! We've been celebrating since Saturday. I surprised him with an outing with all of his friends on Saturday night. Then last night we celebrated with my family. Tonight we are celebrating with his family and then tomorrow we're going on a date to celebrate by ourselves. I love birthdays! 

I love Christmas too and I am soo excited that it's just a few days away! Still kind of bummed that I don't get to go to GA with my family but I know that we are going to have an awesome first Christmas together anyway. 

We are still waiting for our niece/nephew. Due to arrive on Christmas day, it should be any day now that we get to meet him/her. I can't wait! I want to buy cute little outfits and spoil the child rotten! I'm the super cool aunt, so I'm allowed to! 

We took our concealed carry license class yesterday. And I have to brag ... so first of all I have never shot a gun in my life before yesterday. Steven is like super expert marksman, Army man. I got all 30 rounds in the center circle of the target ... ALL 30!! First time shooting EVER and I got ALL 30 in the center circle! AWESOME!! Steven missed (and by missed I mean he was like two inches from the center) like 3 rounds. HAHAHAHA!! The first timer beat the experienced shooter! Granted I was shooting a smaller and lighter gun but still... I totally won! 

Well we almost have all of our Christmas shopping done. So far I've been able to find some awesome deals/sales which is great because we wouldn't be able to afford gifts otherwise. 

This weekend we have two Christmas parties at the same time so it looks like we will have to hop between them. But even if we can only spend an hour or so at each one we'll still have loads of fun!

My parents 25th anniversary is tomorrow! Wow! Such an accomplishment in today's world, I am so proud! They are on a trip right now but when they get back we are going to celebrate with them. My siblings and I have a few things up our sleeves! 

Still organizing the apartment! 

Family day at Bragg was fun. I got to meet a lot of his friends and he took me around the base a little bit. We also got a chance to go shopping ... most of the stuff in the stores on base is CRAZY cheap! Next time he goes to drill, I am sending him with a grocery list and a list of other misc items! No joke!

It's Friday!! We have a busy weekend coming up but it's going to be fun! Tonight we are going to my parents to have dinner, after which we have to do some shopping (fun!). Then tomorrow my sister and I are going shopping which will be a blast, I can't wait! Steven has to leave early Saturday morning for his weekend drill but I have two parties to attend while he's gone. One right after the other. Then on Sunday, I actually have to go to Fort Bragg for family day. Which is basically just a really really big party for Christmas that lasts all day long. I have been to the base in Oklahoma but this will be my very first visit to Bragg so I am super excited! Then after we get back from Bragg Sunday night we're going to the Providence Christmas cantata. Whew! I am going to be super tired when this weekend is all over!

Lots to do this week! 

Work is busy trying to get the magazine out on time. No doubt in for a long week here. Steven went to work at 6 this morning and he starts working at Brinks at 8 a.m. on Wednesday. So excited! So that will certainly through a new twist in our schedule.

I am going to the Social Security office this afternoon to change my name. Hopefully that will go smoothly and I won't have any problems. I am going to get my driver's license changed later this week. 

We got our tree this weekend! It's tiny, barely five feet tall, but it's perfect! We decorated it yesterday and I set up the nativity and hung the stockings. Our apartment just looks like Christmas and it makes me happy! I took pictures so I'll upload them soon. 

Still cleaning and organizing the apartment. I finally got the living room to look semi-decent. That's my biggest project this week. Hopefully I'll get most of it done. 

Feeling a little better, although not much. At least the searing pain in my ear is gone! 

Steven starts working at Brinks on Wednesday, he seems excited about that. He did slice his finger open this morning while trying to cut up a grapefruit for breakfast. That was fun. Luckily it wasn't anything severe and we were able to just wrap some gauze around it. 

Still haven't gotten our Christmas tree. Hopefully we'll have time to go tonight. If not, then I don't know when it's going to happen! 

Tomorrow night we are going to my brother's Christmas concert with the band, which should be fun. It's always my favorite concert. Then Saturday night is the office Christmas party, which let's just say should be entertaining.

Meanwhile we are just unpacking presents and trying to get our apartment clean/organized. All the while, loving being married! 

We're home!! 

We had such a wonderful time at our wedding! It was beautiful and everything that I wanted, I just wish it didn't have to fly by so quickly! It was really fun getting to see everyone. I teared up during the ceremony but thanks to Pastor Horner who planned ahead and had a tissue in hand ready for me! I can't believe that we didn't run into any major problems, it all went so smoothly. The wedding pictures arn't finished yet but I got to see some of the pictures that friends took. I will post some pics whenever I get them from the photographer! Pa, Steven's grandfather, taped the whole thing so hopefully he will send us a copy so that we can watch everything. I am so glad that he brought his video camera! 

Our honeymoon was amazing! We flew down to Disney World and had a wonderful time (as if it is actually possible to have a bad time at Disney World!) Here are a few highlights from our trip:

• We received "Just Married" buttons upon arrival. We wore them all week which got us noticed by quite a few people and we received a lot of attention, and many congratulations. But more specifically it got us noticed by a staff member in the Magic Kingdom who asked us to be the Grand Marshals of that afternoon's parade! That was sooo much fun! We got to ride in the coolest car and have our names announced over the loud speakers as we drove by. Way super cool!! 
• We went to go see Cirque du Soleil one night. Words cannot describe how amazing that show actually is. Yes, it's expensive, but way worth the money. If anyone ever gets a chance to see it ... GO! Even though it is called a Circus, it is so much more than that ... I would even venture to call it art ... it was that good!
• This could go on forever, the whole week was just wonderful!

I did get sick though, but it was the last night and on the way home. It wasn't a fun way to end it but at least it held off until the end and didn't ruin our trip. Poor Steven has had to take of me but he's doing a great job. I woke up in the middle of Saturday night throwing up ... which he had to clean up but he was a good sport about it and even helped me brush my teeth and carried me back to bed. Sunday I felt better but on the flight home as we were landing my ear started hurting extremely bad. I couldn't get my ear to pop but eventually it did and the pain went away so I thought nothing of it. But after we went to bed that night the pain came back worse and wouldn't go away. I was in tears it hurt so bad. He packed me up in the car and off the emergency room we went. We spent three hours there but they never called anyone back so we decided to leave and he took me to my regular doctor yesterday. Turns out I had an ear infection the whole time, so now I have medicine and hopefully I will feel better tomorrow. 

As soon as I get the pictures from our trip off of my camera and onto my computer I will post a few.

We are going to get our first Christmas tree tonight after work! Thanks to my parents we actually have ornaments to decorate it with! They bought us quite a few and they also got us a nativity which I was really happy about. Hopefully we can find a small tree and a stand tonight so that we can decorate for Christmas! I'm so excited, I love Christmas!!