Home Improvement

The Kitchen Counters and Back Splashes Before....

Brian STARTING to cut into the walls

Ellie helping her Daddy! She doesn't like to stand on the cold tile or hardwoods so she balanced on Brian to keep her paws warm. She spent almost the entire day like this!!!

The new back splashes! The white in the corner is my flash reflecting!  What an awesome husband I have to just whip this out in a day!!!!

 More Back Splashes!!! By the Sink!!!

Last weekend we decided we and by we I mean Brian would put in full height back splashes and under counter lighting in our kitchen so this weekend we embarked on quite an adventure! Brian cut holes in all of our kitchen walls... cutting holes might be an under statement.... he took a knife and cut huge strips out of the walls. He then did a ton of electrical work and I mostly stood around watching and trying to be helpful. He got the lights in and then it was time to bring in the granite. Granite is to heavy for me so our friend Steven came over the help lift and place the back splashes. They put them in really quickly and Ta-Da.. a new and improved kitchen!!!

CHRISTMAS AT THE HAWLEY HOUSE

We spent the holidays with my family and boy was it crazy! We had a great time! It was nice to be warm and hard to come back to the 20 degree weather we are having right now!  I miss them and it is harder to get on a plane and zip to LA for the weekend now that I live so far away. We were busy, busy, busy! We went to a ton of holiday dinners and parties, did some serious shopping, went to the observatory, cleaned out my parents garage, Brian put a microwave over my mom's oven, we went to the Getty Villa, hung out with our family, went to the Bush's Boxing Day party, played a lot of Rockband, went to the rose parade, and did some more shopping. They opened a Ti-pan 40 minutes from my parents house we went twice! Ahhhh how I miss Ti-pan & Rod Works!!! The pictures are more fun than reading all the details so .... enjoy!

Us with Santa at our family Christmas Eve Party!

Brian being a Shepard in the live Nativity at the Family Christmas eve party

Us at the Long Beach Canals..... Check out the house in the background

Our cute "Normal Family Picture" Emily and Hannah  are too cute!

At the Getty Villia in the Gardens

Brian checking out the LA Observatory's Basement

Now this is my kind of shooting star (it was made of 250,000 peices of star shaped jewlery and was a few hundred feet long)

A coyote we saw in Griffith Park. Creepy!!!

Playing at the Carousel it was built in the 1920's! I used to go there a ton when I was little!!!

Christmas Cards

Since we got married one of the first thing on my holiday list was sending out Christmas cards. When I was little my mom always sent them out and I always loved opening them. It took more work  and more stamps than I anticipated but I did love printing the Williams Family on the return labels. Above is our Christmas picture Ellie was not wanting to be in the picture doesn't she look happy!!!

Antietam Battle Field

The Faculty at my school is really good about keeping me informed on all of the fun local events. I try to experience as many of them as possible! They recommended going to Antietam Battle fields for the 20th annual lighting. I was sure it would be GREAT! So Brian and I headed out for our battle field escapade...

We had been told that there may be a wait... The wait was 2 HOURS!!! Luckily we had eaten a head of time and had plenty of Christmas music. We finally got to the entrance and headed in.. I had no idea it was going to be so amazing. It was worth the 2 hour wait and i would wait that long again. They only do it one night a year because it takes so many candles, and so many volunteers!

If you don't know your history here are a few things you should know. Antietam was the bloodiest battle of the civil war 23,110 solders were killed, injured, or never found after the 9 hours of fighting ( They light a luminary for each of these solders). I thought 23,000 was a lot until I saw 23,110 luminaries burning in the dark all of hill sides were covered. As we were driving a silence fell over us. The feeling of reverence for our country's history and for the lives of all of the civil war solders who lost their lives fighting for their beliefs was really baffling. Even more mind blowing was the thought that that day in September so long ago, each of these luminaries would have been a fallen solders body. You wouldn't have been able to see the ground for miles and miles. We drove threw the battle fields for 1 hour (it took 1 hour to see all of the luminaries). Each turn we took I thought "there cant possibly be another luminaries" and then there would be thousands as far as I could see. If you are ever able to see it Brian and I highly recommend it!!!

THANKSGIVING

My little sister Claire came and stayed with us for the week before and the week after thanksgiving! We went on tons of adventures.... and we had a GREAT time! Here are a few of our adventures...

Claire

1. Apple orchard- There is this great orchard and farm store by our house it is called Marker-Miller Orchard. It is large this farm place that sells about 50 kinds of apples and all kinds of homemade baked and canned goods. They have the best apple cider EVER! I am kind of addicted to it! So I think everyone who visits needs to go there!!!

2. D.C. - the monuments mesuems ect. - we went to the tomb of the un know soilder and saw the changing of the guard, the white house, the washington and the lincon memorials, the iogima monument, the natural history mesum, the national art mesum and gardens, the pentagon, and the capitol building. We rushed so see as much as we could in one day! It was 19 degrees and we were running all over.... How CRAZY!!!

3. We went to 8 different states (doing touristy things) - West Virgina, Virgina, D.C, Georgia, Tennessee, Pynsilviana, Marlyand, and South Carolina! WOW!

4. We saw all of our Georgia relatives and we ate with all of them. My aunts used to go and stay with my mom when they were in college so this thanksgiving now it was our turn to drive 10 hours just to be with family for a holiday. We stayed with my Aunt Linda and Uncle Stewart and thier 5 kids, Brooke, Parker, Hamilton, Tate, and Eli. We saw graddparents, aunts, uncles, and tons of cousins. They were great and made sure that they made all of our Thanksgiving favorites. Our Aunt Marge made a ton of our faves she even made 2 sour cream puond cakes! I learned my mon makes her stuffing the western way and not the southern way! Mom! We called her and asked why she didn't stay true to her roots! She said it tastes the same!

Claire, Aunt Jo, Grandpa GB, Me, Brian, and Julie

5. We played with our cousins - Brian was a football star! He had tons of funs with all of the boys, there are a lot of them. They played in the turkey bowl, then they continued to play football for hours and hours. By the end of the trip Brian was so sore he could barely walk but he loved playing rough with all of our future spots star cousins! The kids can't wait for thier new cousin Brian to come and visit again.

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The uncles, and Cousins playing in the Aunt Linda's Front yard

The Boys striking a pose... Brian was playing in his socks and he wore holes all in them... we laughed pretty hard! Then we were informed that that is why the boys just play barefoot.

6. We shopped- we did some christmas shopping and of course when you get Hawley girls together they stock up on lip gloss. Gotta Love MAC!

7. We made yummy treats - Brian's nick name in my family is "the treat connesour" (He really does love treats that much) and so it is kind of a given that when someone visits from the Hawley family they make him a treat. Claire made him his favorite cookies home made oreos. He even stashed some in the freezer for treat emergencies!

8. We went to a low country Boil - I was a little leary of this family event when my aunt marge asked if we wanted her ot have a low country boil. I have to say it was so much fun! She covered all of her tables including her antique formal dining room tabble in foil and then dumped the food on the table. We had a great time sliding food around with wooden paddles and catching up with our more distant relatives.

9. We went to the varsity!!! Everytime we go to Alanta we have to go to the Varsity at least once it is Atlanta's In-N-Out.

10. We took out Christmas card picture!

We had so much fun having Claire visit and we loved seeing all of our GA relatives!

Williamsburg

While we were having our early Thanksgiving in Williamsburg we went to William & Mary (the oldest college in the country). We also went to colonial Williamsburg, and the York Town battlefields. . We love walking around and playing the tourist... it is an excuse to do dorky/silly things!

Us goofing off!!! (Leaning to the right) 

Brian, Me, Debbie (Brian's Mom)

Brian and I with the founder statue @ William & Mary

Cozying up to Thomas Jefferson in Colonial Williamsburg...it is said to be good luck if you rub his head... You know we did!!!!

Enjoying the fall foliage at the York Town Battle Field

Early Thanksgiving

We will be in the ATL with my family for Thanksgiving so we decided we needed to have a pre-Thanksgiving with Brian's Mom and Dad! Brian was very excited to have a few of his favorites... Nana's rolls, orange rolls, sweet potato casserole, brown sugar pound cake, mashes potatoes, stuffing, and all the rest of the traditional Thanksgiving food! Debbie taught me how to make some of their family recipes. We had a great time! 

Brian driving down to Williamsburg! Ellie sat in his lap the whole drive!

I was being the D.J. on the drive (3 & 1/2 hours)

Brian conferencing with his mom about what he NEEDS her to cook...

Post our scarf fest... now lest go play in Williamsburg!

Brian excited about the 4 bags of rolls that he was going to take home!