We want a dog! Or two...

Ok, so Levi and I both grew up with dogs in the family, ever since we were little. The first dog I remember my family having was an Old English Sheep dog named Kiley. Now my parents have a Boxer, Darby, who has been in the family for over 10 years now. She was originally my brother's dog until he went off to college and then she became the family dog. A few years or so ago my brother got a Boston Terrier named Gracie. Gracie and Darby are the dogs of the DeLoach house. Levi grew up with an Australian Shepherd mix named Keanu. Now the Luster's have a Lab named Mika and a Shih-tzu named Ty.

I don't have pictures of Mika or Ty, but here are some of the DeLoach family dogs:

Gracie

Darby

Clearly, dogs have been apart of our lives for a long time. We knew we would want a dog when we got married, but we are unfortunately unable to have one in our condo because our landlord put in new carpet. (Booo!) So, we are enjoying life without a dog until we live somewhere we can finally have one. The thing is.....we can't decide on a dog! We both want dogs that we grew up with. Levi wants a Shih-tzu and a lab and I want a boston and a boxer...oh no!

Well, recently, we have really had dog fever. Maybe its because we are moving so our chances of having a dog are quickly approaching?? The last couple of weeks we have looked at a bunch of dogs in the local pet stores and we finally found one that we both love! Wahoo!

Who could resist this face?!!

We LOVE a Cavalier King Charles! They are so cute! We reallly wanted this one, but couldn't buy it for many reasons. We were already picking names for her and everything :( But at least we know we like the same dog! We are thinking of getting 1 small dog and 1 big dog and getting them at the same time so they are never alone. We don't want to buy from a pet store, so we will have to find a breeder. Another dog we agree on is a chocolate lab, so that is in the running for our 'big' dog. But we just never know what we will like next or what will come our way....stay tuned!

Christmas Cards & Pictures

Levi and I had a friend take some pictures of us for our Christmas cards this year. It started out with a simple idea and Heidi (our photographer friend) turned it into an amazing little session :) We told her we were thinking of doing something along the lines of moving (since we are moving to Arizona in Jan) and Heidi took the idea and ran with it....literally. She got up at 6 AM on Saturday morning and went garage sale shopping to find some old luggage and look what she found! She even found an awesome trunk. The pictures turned out great! The colorings were really cool and fall looking. We were so happy with how they turned out. Thanks Heidi!

Fall around the Luster House

Levi got me flowers one day...they were beautiful fall colors

Some of our fall decorations

Our pumpkins! They didn't last long before they got moldy. Luckily we were able to use them on Halloween for the trick or treaters :)

Our 1st Anniversary

Levi and I headed up to Santa Barbara for our 1 year anniversary. We had a really great time, and loved everything we did. We stayed at Oceana Hotel which was right across from the beach. It was a small hotel with a lot of personality; the rooms were fun and bright. On our actually anniversary we went out to dinner at an italian restaurant called Ca Dario. After dinner we went through our "Make The Wish" cards from our wedding as well as eating our wedding cupcakes from Sprinkles. They were just as good as they were on our wedding day :)

After we celebrated our anniversary, we were able to really enjoy Santa Barbara. We walked downtown, went into some of our favorite stores and ate at some really great places including The Habit. Their burgers are one of our fav's! When we were in Urban Outfitters, we actually ran in a few famous people - Katy Perry and Russell Brand. We aren't really fans of either but I get slightly 'stockerish' when I see famous or semi-famous people. I never think I will but when I'm in the moment, I surprise myself. Levi was able to see this for the first time and couldn't help but laugh. He was able to take a picture of them walking out while I 'casually' acted like nothing was going on.

One of our favorite things we did was go horseback riding. We went to a place called Circle Bar B Ranch. We absolutely loved it. We plan on going back one day for a longer visit and being guests of the ranch for the full experience. The ranch is tucked away in the mountains and has some incredible views of the ocean along the property. It was very peaceful and relaxing. Our horses Wiley and Herman were great to us and we plan to take another ride with them in the near future.

1 year under our belts, and many more to come!

Evoke Photography

Micheal and Emi at Evoke Photography posted a few of our wedding pictures on their blog. You can check it out here if you'd like :)

Beach Days

This past weekend Levi and I heading down to the beach for a little R&R. We started the morning out by going to Laguna Beach/Crystal Cove area to have breakfast at the yummy Beachcomber Cafe. If you haven't been there, you should go, its a great experience. It's part of the Crystal Cove State Park Historic Distrct. There is a lot to do in this area. There are paths to walk or run on, right along the coast, you can go for a walk along the beach and there are even beach cottages you could stay in. I was reading up on the cottages and they were originally built in the 1930's & 40's. They have since been authentically restored to reflect that area of when Crystal Cove became a community. Some of them are kinda cute! It would be fun to stay in them for a night or two :)

Levi & I on our way to breakfast

An old photo from the 40's (look at the rolling hills in the background!)

The cottages

Beachcomber Cafe

Yum! Macadamia Nut Pancakes

After Levi and I have breakfast we headed towards a different part of the beach called 'the wedge' in Newport Beach known for its awesome waves. We found a great spot and enjoying relaxing, reading, and most of all people watching :) We were pretty entertained to say the least! Overall we had a great relaxing day and are once again thankful for being so close to the beach.

Milk + Honey

I am so blessed to have all the wonderful friends that I do. God has truely blessed me with great friends and friendships. This last week I was able to catch up with Cathleen! We have a few 'usual' spots where we meet but this week we decided to try something new. Its a little place in Costa Mesa called Milk + Honey. I love unique places like this. The sign alone is one of my favorite parts; I love the simplicity of it. My second favorite part is their 'business card'. I grabbed a couple of them when I was ordering. I love the uniqueness of it. Who says a business card has to be 2" x 3.5"? I love when people think outside the box. Not to mention their food & drinks are pretty good too :)

Cathleen caught in the act!

Yum!