Nieces!

I just bought a new camera. So naturally, I've taken my first pictures of our nieces! :) Since they're so cute. We've had a weird couple weeks. Jason and I went to Ohio for Spring Break and a reception. It was great spending time with his side of the family. Near the end Jason got really sick. :( It lasted about a week. Poor guy. I've been incredibly busy with school. 34 boys really stress me out sometimes!!! Anyway, here's some precious pictures! Our family is very blessed!

First up is Kaylee! She's Jama's (Jason's sister) oldest. She actually shares the same birthday as Jason. She's just the smartest little almost 4 year old I've seen!


Then there's Julianne. She's Jama's youngest. She just turned one in January. She's a cutie, and has so much character already! It's so amazing to me! Then there's our little miracle Evelyn. Kevin and Mitchi's baby! She'll be 4 months at the end of the month. She's starting to sit up by herself and her teeth are coming it! She's beautiful!

Swaab Street

We've really enjoyed having our own house to invite people to! One: Because it makes me want to clean the house. Two: Because it makes me want to cook. And three: Because we enjoy the company of our fellow friends and family! So here's a look into some of the people we've had over, and some of the things Jason and I have tried to cook!

First, it starts off with our first visitors, Kyle and Stephanee! We are using our wedding guest book as our house guest book as well. So every time people come over, they have to sign the guest book as well. Then Tobi came over, and we cooked chicken soft tacos together! It turned out yummy! We made our own chips too, Jason was amazed with how we did that ourselves!

Then mama and papa Thomas came over and we cooked them Salmon! It turned

out delicious! I didn't realize how easy salmon is to cook! On a cold, rainy Saturday, I thought I'd try making potato soup with a sour dough bread bowl! It was... A-mazing! It turns out, I might actually be a good cook! We've also had people over for food and fun!

The Lum's came over, I cooked ginger-fried pork, and then we played Aggravation, which is a game Jason and his family taught me. My dad knew what it was, so he made us a board for our Christmas present! The Lum's hadn't played before, so they had fun with it. Now, when we play this, Jason... ALWAYS wins. It's frustrating. But THIS time, after we played three times, I finally won! So it was great. Then we made them Special K, which was a hit... but I have yet to take a picture of it, the recipe came from Jason's mother. :)

We also finally bought a grill! So Jason jumped on that the other day and made steak with peppers, and shrimp. It was tasty. I'm excited to try out some yummy recipes with the grill. Tonight, we're off to Ohio with my parents. We're having an Ohio wedding reception there for this family that wasn't able to go. We're staying a whole week! It should be very fun!

I AM DONE WITH MY MASTERS! WOOOOOOOO

House, Transportation, and life Updates

Checking in from the Lawyer's! Life has been going at high speed lately. So much is going on, so let me start with our base housing! Everyone always asks me how living on base is. It has it's ups and downs. It's nice to feel safe, and I like the feel of living in a small town again. We live at 101 Swaab St! We finally got our name plate for our house! :) The other day, they came to take our fence down because we didn't feel like paying $20 extra a month to have a fence... but now they mow our grass for us! How fantastic! The down side is that it is a hassle getting people on base! Luckily, people still come to see us anyway! It's been fun putting together a house with Jason. We've gotten a lot of hand me downs which has been so helpful! Other items we've gotten amazing deals on! So here are some pictures of our little shack of a house!
Across the street, they've started demolishing the houses. They're plan is to get rid of all the old housing on base to build new homes. These houses were all build in the late 60s or early 70s. So this will be what our house looks like come August or September. In other news... Jason and I bought our first big item together! We bought a new car!!! It's a Nissan Versa Hatchback. I absolutely LOVE it. I named her Chelsea. Mostly becuase of the soccer team, they're color is bright blue... and I thought the name just fit the car. It has that fabulous new car smell! I love it! Another piece of transportation we've gotten is a new road bike for me. Jason is really into riding his bike, and I've been wanting to get back into being active, so we thought this would be a good newlywed hobby! I love my new bike!News with us Lawyers. I am on track break... but not really. I volunteered... like a nerd, for track break tutoring. The students have 3 weeks of, including Spring Break, and when they come back we have a week of review and then the following week are the high stake testing. yikes! I'm totally enjoying my boys. I look at some of the 3rd graders, and I'm so thankful for my group of boys! There's a lot about the gang world I've started to learn as well... it's all very new and interesting, as well as scary to me. OH!!!!! And I'll be finishing up my MASTER'S here NEXT WEEK! HORRAY!

Jason just turned in his Officer Training School application. It's taken him probably 4 or 5 months to complete this hefty packet. So keep up in your prayers, we're unsure of what's going to happen in the future. I can't remember if I've mentioned Honor Guard, but he's been doing that this week. It only last two weeks and then he'll go back to his regular job for a month. He basically does the rifle turning and marching as well as shooting at events like funerals, weddings, and retirements. It's different for him, but I know it's good for him.

In other news, we're starting up our Sunday school teaching this Sunday for the next 3 months. Jason has also but such an amazing husband and has offered to help me out with Youth Group while my brother Kevin is unable to do so himself. So we're very very busy! That's a good update for now! Stay tune for more soon!

Coming up on 2 Months!

Just wanted to share the new photobucket I uploaded with more wedding photos. So if anyone is bored and would like to go through them... have at it! ^_^

http://s939.photobucket.com/albums/ad232/MelissaLawyer/

Things in our next of the woods is... to sum it up in one word, BUSY! Jason just finished up with Honor Guard training. It lasted 2 weeks, then he served his 2 weeks of duty. Now he's back at his real job, and very happy about it. I've been teaching my boys, with lots of drama and issues arising along the way. It's time to get the kidos ready for the big tests coming up. So it adds a lot more stress that doesn't need to be there.

We were able to spend some time with our newest family member on the Thomas side. Baby Evelyn Rose! She was only awake for about 3 minutes, long enough to get a cute picture out of her! She's the most precious thing I've seen! We're working on finishing up some last minute additions to the house. Then I'll take pictures and get those up here!

3 Weeks In

The wedding was a success! It was just as beautiful and fun as we imagined. Jason and I both felt like we had our whole church family and close friends with it and us were very comforting. There were so many people that volunteered to help us out too; it was just amazing to us both! So for all of you who came out early to set up, we think you’re just smashing and can’t thank you enough!!! The wedding pictures will be up and running soon.

Jason and I spent the few past week packing, moving, running errands, spending time with our families, and somewhere in there, we managed to sleep! It was a pretty crazy week, but we have about half the boxes unpacked in our house, enough to function with at least. The first thing we did was put our new bed set together! The rest of the house has been coming together pretty nicely. More photos on that when we get it all done!

The day after Christmas, we finally were able to leave for our cruise! With a late start… and worries we wouldn’t make it in time, Jason was the man and we did in fact make the boat. My cousin Josh gave me one major piece of advice and that was to not plan anything for the honeymoon because all you’ll want to do is sleep. Well, at the time, we just laughed, but our first night on the boat we decided to take a nap before dinner. So we lay down around 5:45 and then… we ended up sleeping through the whole night and woke up the next morning at 8:00! Haha

Other than that the cruise was great! We ate… A LOT, mostly me actually, and it was just relaxing resting on the outside of the boat on the ocean. To some people, we may seem boring, but we’re a simple couple who really does just enjoy curling up in a chair and reading. Jason also taught me how to play chess!! It was a huge hands on board that we could walk on, it made me feel like we were playing Wizard’s Chess! When we got to Cabo, it rained ALL day! It was actually pretty enjoyable considering I love rain and we don’t get much, and the next day was full of sun. The ocean was beautiful and we had a good time dodging Mexican vendors and hanging out in Cabo. The venture back to San Diego was a lot more rocky than the way to Cabo. I was glad to get off the boat and back on to dry land. From there we spontaneously stopped at the San Diego Zoo. Jason got it for free and got me in for a discount!

Now we're back at home, back at work, trying to get things organized in life so maybe it'll start slowing down... or at least let us catch up? More on life when we get things figured out! For now... keep us in your prayers! ^_^

It's closing in!

3 days left til the big day. We've had loads of family coming in this week. My cousin Tobi just graduated from UNLV yesterday, so a lot of them came up for that and will be staying through the weekend! Having the family here makes it seem more real to us! It's so much fun! Jason was able to get a Christmas tree for free on base, so he donated it to our family!

Sadly, after trying so incredibly hard to keep away from getting sick... the sick bug has caught me. I've spent the last several days taking meds and TRYING to sleep, but it's hard to rest at this point! Oh well... hopefully it'll go away, if not, I suppose I'll just be a sick bride. Jason is enjoying his days off and short days at work, and he's just trying to keep up with me and how busy I am. He's also been taking care of me while I've been sick! What a fantastic guy! ^_^

We just finished up teaching our quarter of the Sunday school. We threw a small party for the kidos this past Sunday, they did a White Elephant game with presents and we brought donuts. Now we're off for the next quarter. Most likely we'll volunteer again. They're a good group of kids!

THEN, Jason planned a surprise "last date before we're married." He had me guessing all the way to the location. It was indoor go kart racing. It was pretty intense. Jason use to race motorcycles so he was absolutely ecstatic to start that race. The karts could get up to 45 mph and there were lots of twists and turns. It really was a wee bit scary, but it was fun for a last little date before the wedding.

Wedding plans are slowly coming to an end, now we're just taking care of helpers and who's going to do what. Jason and I are only full of excitement for the big day to arrive. We both had our bachlorette/bachlor parties this past weekend with our close friends and some family. We just cannot wait to be married! And the stress level is so low right now, it's all just fantastic! Really all we have left is packing up our belongings to get ready for the big move to our new house. YAY!!!

Let It Snow?

We had a surprise snow fall a couple days ago! It's been a nice 60 degrees for the past month and then BANG! Today, the snow has pretty much melted and I've been watching the weather everyday since. The weather man SAYS it should be 59 degrees and 45 at night on Dec. 19th. Fingers crossed! I'm trying to not worry so much about it, no matter what the weather is, the wedding should be fine either way! ^_^ The whole idea is to celebrate the new marriage, cold or not! So bring your jackets and scarves because it's going to press on weather the weather cooperates or not!

In other wedding news, the loose ends are slowly being tied up! Wedding favors are done! Mitchi spent a day in the hospital finishing them up as well as our marshmallow bags to throw when we leave. She's awesome! Music...check, photos...check! 10 more days to go! Crazy how much planning goes into this day! We checked out flowers the other day as well. They should be pretty too!

Life with Jason and I have been hectic as usual. Jason just finished up their Inspection that lasted a week long. He survived working crazy hours, sometimes which were 4:15 am to 7:00 pm!! Fortunately, they passed! Jason's also being nominated for Air Man of the quarter, for the second time I might add! I have been busy busy with finishing the wedding details as well as doing some extra tutoring with some 3rd graders from our school. There are 8 girls and 3 boys... lets just say I'm so happy to be teaching boys! :) We're excited for family coming into town in the next week!!!! This should be a very fun, and interesting couple weeks coming up! YAY!