welcome fall!

this morning i woke up to a slightly chilly tile bathroom floor , which means fall is here...even if just for a few hours. in anticipation of this "cold front", the girls from my summit connect group came over last night to make apple pies. katie's family recipe proved itself to be one of the best apple pies that i've ever tasted. i'd post the recipe here, however, i'm pretty sure the only thing we actually measured was the flour and i wouldn't dare let someone else's family secret loose. :)

apparently green was the theme of the evening...hello, shannon's belly.

katie brilliantly suggested making mini pies for us to test before digging into the big ones. my belly somehow snuck into this one, and conveniently matched as well as shannon's.

this is my masterpiece...i think it's almost worthy of publication on cake wrecks. thank goodness katie is a professional pie baker (see below photo for proof) and came to the rescue.

worst looking and best tasting apple pie ever.

i still have patty griffin's "making pies" stuck in my head after singing it all night long. i'll leave you with this...after making my first pie from scratch, i learned that a lot more work than you can imagine goes into it, so next time someone gives one to you, be sure to express lots of thanks. happy fall!

first blog ever.

well, i have been contemplating starting a blog for a while now and have finally decided that enough has happened in our lives over the past year that it was worth writing about. in a nutshell, here's what has been going on with us since we got married last august:

we purchased our first home...a 1923 arts and crafts style bungalow in downtown orlando with the interior painted entirely pink. needless to say, we (andy, our dads, and manly friends) have spent about 80% of the past year working on painting and other major and minor construction projects. more on that later...

before :(

after!

we took an awesome trip to seattle last january with some good friends. it became my new favorite city (2nd to boston, of course).

on june 18, 2009 we became aunt ashley and uncle andy to david palmer mcswain. we spent seven hours in the colorful waiting room of manatee memorial hospital waiting to meet this precious little guy, and fell in love with him instantly! i had his pictures all over my computer, facebook, phone, etc., until i got tired of people asking me if he was my baby. so here he is, our nephew david, though i'd claim him as my own any day.

andy was ordained as worship pastor at summit church.

i have continued to enjoy working as a wedding coordinator with eventfully yours.

i am on month 10 of my successful 2009 new years resolution: to correspond with more people via snail mail. grammy and i agreed on this together, and she has well surpassed my quota for the year, however, her gift of writing about the mundane in such an exciting way is partially what led me to start this blog. i think that sort of correspondence is becoming a lost art and i'm determined to hang on to it.

perhaps the most exciting news of the year for us is that we are expecting a sweet baby girl in january 2010! (although we really wouldn't mind if you arrive in december, little janie...). i have been blessed with a super enjoyable pregnancy and have a lot of friends who are also expecting which has made the journey even better. in fact, janie's best friend (little girl harmon), future husband (luke hunter), and cousin (baby de pena) should be arriving any day now. some of the preparations we have made include:

• nearly filling our guest room closet with little pink outfits and shoes
• turning the so called in-law suite (more like a large, useless room) into a nursery and laundry room
• studying our family trees, baby name books, and naming technique websites to arrive at janie (after my mom's mom). we are leaning towards caroline for the middle name, but andy has the final say on that
• learning about the endless amounts of equipment required for a 7 pound human

janie is this big today and moving around a lot!

i think that brings you up to date on the simonds' for now. i'm planning on posting some of the nursery pictures soon. it's still a work in progress, but i'm expecting all of her furniture and bedding this week!