making life together

are they brothers? no, no...

2008-12-15T12:12:00.000-08:00

Andrew and Sean look frighteningly alike with this hair...

(December 14, 2008)

christmas party with friends... 'tis the season!

2008-12-14T12:03:00.000-08:00

andrew and his giant hair are hanging out

so jolly.

jeremy is about to open a ridiculous red bird, which he will hate.

ahh, there's that bird. truth be told, we were all ever so excited about our gifts.

(December 13, 2008)

christmas decor

2008-12-05T09:52:00.000-08:00

gingerbread house found a home as part of our christmas decor... and here's the house, all gussied up...

(December 5, 2008)

thanksgiving

2008-11-30T14:14:00.000-08:00

for thanksgiving this year, we took advantage of the (relatively) new blessing of having family within driving distance. we spent thanksgiving weekend near phoenix, and celebrated christmas to boot. excellent.

mom and sarah.

sarah's cousin mandy came over, too.

pie.

dog.

cotton!

funny caricature.

yes.

sarah. (!!)

rattlesnake. yes, we ate it.

christmas!

my first gingerbread house.

the finished project.

michael, at home.

diogee thought they needed a family portrait.

'zona.

(november 27-30, 2008)

saturday working together

2008-11-23T14:02:00.000-08:00

(november 22, 2008)

acquire the fire

2008-11-16T13:50:00.000-08:00

we took our youth to acquire the fire. (no, it isn't much better than you remember from when you went in high school...) but it was a great experience together.

(also, there was a bad fire nearby. it looked like armageddon.)

(november 15, 2008)

bazan

2008-11-09T13:43:00.000-08:00

(you know you're jealous)
(november 8, 2008)

roast chicken

2008-10-22T09:36:00.000-07:00

i made my first roast chicken. it was delicious.

(october 21, 2008)

Oktoberfest

2008-10-03T09:28:00.000-07:00

This year, we invited friends to our second annual DeFusco Oktoberfest Oktoberfeast. It was yummy.

(october 2, 2008)

before work

2008-10-02T09:23:00.000-07:00

(october 2, 2008)

sarah's home office

2008-10-02T09:18:00.000-07:00

this fall, andrew took his first evening class. determined to make the best use of time, out came the temporary home office (cleaned up every evening at 10pm).

(october 1, 2008)

summer vacation - other

2008-09-22T09:08:00.000-07:00

besides the LA county fair, we spent our "summer vacation" (only two days off of work this yeatr!) at a gorgeous park, and again recreating our house into a wine bar, lounge, etc...

(this park is so pretty)

(wine tasting at casa defusco)

(i think i lost this card game...)

summer vacation - LA county fair

2008-09-22T09:04:00.000-07:00

(september 18, 2008)

youth group cookout

2008-08-25T13:28:00.000-07:00

summer youth group cookout at eric's house...

(august 24, 2008)

senior dinner

2008-08-18T14:45:00.000-07:00

we took our seniors out to dinner to say goodbye...

(august 17, 2008)

defuscos visit

2008-08-06T14:25:00.000-07:00

andrew's siblings and mom came to visit us in pasadena...

summer weddings

2008-08-04T13:54:00.000-07:00

We went to a couple of weddings this summer...

here's one

here's another one. this one was andrew's dad's.

here's the wedding.

(august 2, 2008)

anniversary vacation part 2

2008-06-23T22:51:00.000-07:00

...after heading home, we continued to be on stay-cation. but, it was too hot to venture out all that much, so we mostly stayed at home and turned home into lounge, park, wine bar, nightclub as the mood struck.

(DeFusco park)

(june 20-22, 2008)

anniversary vacation

2008-06-23T16:21:00.000-07:00

This year we saved up our pennies and wandered down to Laguna Beach, CA to spend a few days relaxing at the luxe bed-and-breakfast inn, Casa Laguna.

This is the door we walked through when we arrived.

The pool area, with a view of the steps up to the private hot tub we had a dip in, with champagne.

Andrew relaxing...

The Casa was built on a hillside so it felt like there were 1000 levels. It felt lovely and secluded.

Our little room and private patio.

The view from our patio. mmm... peaceful.

Loving it.

This is the view from the highest balcony.

Chillin' at the pool.

Downtown laguna beach's candy store....

Beach.

(june 17-20, 2008)

incredible.

2008-06-13T15:38:00.000-07:00

(june 13, 2008)

two years!

2008-06-10T10:41:00.000-07:00

happy anniversary to us! (june 10, 2008). we made it through year two with flying colors. if i do say so myself. ;-)

(the toast)

(mmm.... steak dinner...)

Sarah's birthday

2008-05-10T15:47:00.000-07:00

Some photos from my birthday this year...

(may 7 and 9, 2008)

My first baby shower....

2008-04-27T15:40:00.000-07:00

(no, gosh no, not for me!)

I threw my first baby shower for Stasi, because I like her, and she (unlike me) was having a baby.

(April 26, 2008)

Andrew's birthday

2008-04-12T15:49:00.000-07:00

(birthday dinner i made...)

(getty villa. pretty amazing.)

(inside)

(outside)

(upside-down?)

(plaque reads: man with a beard.)

(april 8 and 11, 2008)

Classic...

2008-04-02T15:34:00.000-07:00

Roses, purchased to cheer up a bad day... (April 2)

spring break - the other stuff

2008-03-30T15:45:00.000-07:00

some other things we did...

(night in with friends.)

(suspicious.)

(friends!)

(dinner out.)

(dinner in.)

(March 26-30, 2008)

spring break - the norton simon museum of art

2008-03-30T15:37:00.000-07:00

Ever in search of low-priced things to do for fun, we headed to Pasadena's little art museum, the Norton Simon, in March (during our three-day spring break together)...

(said museum)

(beard.)

(refreshment.)

(garden.)

(pretty.)

(march 28, 2008)

Easter basket hunt....

2008-03-25T15:36:00.000-07:00

the amusing Easter basket (bag) hunt...

(i hid his, so of course it was easy to find.)

yeah, it took me a long time...

...and i had to beg for help...

...not to mention dig...

...and i made a huge mess.

we all needed some wine after that.

reluctantly posed with my prize.

andrew's dad visits in march!

2008-03-25T15:35:00.000-07:00

Some shots of us with Andrew's dad in March when he came out for Easter weekend...

The rings at muscle beach.
(This was an attempt at something which was not realized.)

Andrew and Sarah on Venice Beach

Happy Easter!

Andrew's non-foretelling fortune.

Andrew and his dad at the Huntington Gardens.

(march 21-24, 2008)

random spring photos

2008-03-11T15:33:00.000-07:00

Here's a look at the beginning of 2008:

(Spring Flowers, early February)

February monthaversay brunch :)

Us on said day in February.

Bookshelf numero dos. (And yes, we already ran out of room and already have another.)

Rachel and Brent came to visit! (Wow, terrible picture of me.)

March flowers.

january, the beach, and p coopie.

2008-01-28T16:15:00.000-08:00

paul came to visit us in january. here are a few of the highlights (the lowlights were not photographed):

my au lait at mi piace. it was a fantastic drink.

yeah. that right there is snow in southern california.

sailboats off the coast.

andrew and sarah on the beach.

brave souls. (also, i love the ocean.)

paul stealing the pacific for his collection.

beers (and food) at the "worlds largest selection of beers on tap" (aka the yard house).

(January 25-27, 2008)

christmas on epiphany

2008-01-07T13:51:00.000-08:00

This year we decided not to lug our gifts for each other home with us to Pittsburgh, so we held out on our personal celebration until after our return to California. Thus it happened that we had a lovely Christmas on Epiphany (otherwise could be known as Christ-piphany, or something else equally disastrous to the tongue).

(Pay no attention to the man frowning on the couch. He had a paper to write. :)
This is just an idea of what our decorations looked like this year - disappointing when compared to last year's superior display (this year's tree was terrible in comparison), but recorded here nonetheless.

Epiphany DeFuscos (in clothes purchased with Christmas gifts - thank you!).

Andrew got me a teapot and matching cups for Christpiphany. And then he took a picture of them for me. Love it.

christmas on the river

2008-01-02T09:04:00.000-08:00

Andrew and I were so excited this past Christmas to be able to travel to Pittsburgh to spend the holiday with his family (and about 24 hours with mine, too!). We would not have wanted our first Christmas (2006) to be anything other than it was, and we loved being secluded together to celebrate something for the first time. But this year, it was time to spend it with family. And we had a great time!!

Christmas comes to the river.

Andrew and I decorarted our room by hanging our stockings. Apparently stockings do have to be hung by the chimney to get filled, though! ;-)

Christmas Eve

Italian fish dinner for Christmas Eve (we had 7 kinds of fish).

Kaylynn and I are thrilled about fish.

Not Anthony, he's thrilled about drinks.

Christmas Morning

( yeah. )

Christmas Afternoon

d.o.g.

ahh yes, this is how you hang stockings to have them filled!

Christmas Dinner Table

Day After Christmas

Day After the Day After
(yes, we're still celebrating)

I am not sure why we are so yellow. But we're cool anyway.

Siblings and Mom D (missing me, because I took it)

Mom and Dad W.

Christmas Cheer.

After Christmas

Adam and Beth... yay for college friends!

Another Christmas Dinner. (yum.)

My big gift was a camera. I love it. But this is me being sad because my camera is missing the feature with which Andrew's camera took this picture of me with only one color highlight.

Me and Matthew

Sick Face

(again)

"let's plaaaaay PIT!"

Roomie visit.

New Year's Eve

Poker face?

Anthony, again excited about his drink.

New Year's Day

(thrilled)

Siblings and Dad D, saying goodbye.

a brotherly visit

2007-12-11T17:53:00.000-08:00

my (andrew's) brother, anthony, came to visit in august and these fantastic bits of photo-documentation were never posted. we are a happy bunch, our unimpressed expressions notwithstanding... enjoy...

thanksgiving!

2007-12-01T10:12:00.000-08:00

and now, i have gotten around to posting the pictures from my favorite of holidays: thanksgiving! my (sarah's) family came out this year (parents, siblings, cousin mandy!) for the weekend, and i cooked a fantabulous organic feast for all. including my very first homemade pie (crust a little too heavy, but pretty stinking good otherwise!).

here's the aforementioned pie...

...and the rest of the feast.

matt and beth in our huge 15-passenger van.

nothing like a thanksgiving weekend beach trip.

i love this one.

finally, a shot of mandy.

the beach at sunset.

LA actually looking pretty sweet. (the building on the far left was where my first job was).

breakfast (mandy had to go home, sadly)

geeks.

we like the zoo, my brother and i.

postcard perfect.

friends for a long time, and now sisters.

the beautiful sarah

2007-11-15T21:08:00.001-08:00

so, this is my lovely sarah standing in front of a lovely fountain at a lovely location in downtown, los angeles.

us at the city hall building a couple blocks from our home in pasadena, california.

hallowe'en!

2007-11-01T13:46:00.000-07:00

andrew's anime pumkin and TheEye. spooky, huh?

cranky pants. (well, if your house was between the milk and the cream, you'd be cranky too.)

andrew poses with our pumpkin kids.

hallowe'en party. i'm the night sky. andrew is a cowboy. check out his horse.

this could be today

2007-10-18T14:43:00.000-07:00

it is not today. but it could be, or any day really. just another day i made us lattes.

andrew in his natural state.

yeah, we're weird. and funny. funny and weird.

Oktoberfest!

2007-10-03T11:08:00.000-07:00

This year, despite being only somewhat German in cultural heritage, I decided we would feast for Oktoberfest. So I made my first foray into German cuisine. (You can read more about the menu in my blog post about it.)

(October 2, 2007)

october colors come to pasadena

2007-09-28T13:59:00.000-07:00

there aren't a whole lot of autumnal cues out here on the coast. so i try to make my own. here's what i did this past fall.

how i spent my summer vacation

2007-09-22T15:30:00.000-07:00

remember how your first grade school project of the year involved reporting on the highlights of your summer break? yeah. well, for our summer break this year, we experienced the thrill of not having a summer break for the first time in our lives. Andrew on the 4-quarters-all-school-all-the-time plan, and me a full-fledged member of the working world, we managed to eek out just four days together at the very end of September. Here's how we spent them:

lazy mornings. a lot of reading.

breakfasts together.

going to a crazy fun mall with a streetcar and fountains. pretty cool.

and a clock. also cool.

the pond in the dark.

drowning in my drink. :)

...it was a really wonderful couple of days.
(september 19-22, 2007)

hanging out; playing games.

2007-09-02T08:28:00.000-07:00

september 1, 2007. a lazy saturday... and what better way to spend it than playing games with friends?

youth painting day

2007-08-25T11:28:00.000-07:00

awesomeness. this is how you might describe the painting of a youth room. or, you might not. anyway, here are a few photos of our experience doing that very thing. and just check out those boxes! (i'm really not sure why i didn't take any pictures after we removed the tape. but... there you have it. tape and all.)

my new car

2007-08-07T10:18:00.000-07:00

i suppose this isn't a car. nor is it as flattering a picture of me as andrew posted. but regardless, this is a picture of me the first day i rode my new bike to work... and, since i do that every day, this is basically my new cadillac.

necessary complexity

2007-07-28T10:51:00.000-07:00

this picture documents one of those moments where you have to accept that no matter how hard you try to keep life simple, it moves invariably down the path toward complexity. so here we are, in the summer (end) of andrew's first year of seminary, running out of space on our lovely bookshelf and having to procure a second one.

independence day

2007-07-05T16:46:00.000-07:00

i really like the 4th of july. okay, let's face up to facts. i really like holidays, of all manners, shapes, and sizes. (fact: thanksgiving is my favorite.) i like the colors associated with their decoration, and the different types of food they each employ, and the various traditional things we do to celebrate them. i like how they give us a reason to eat a little more, laugh a little more, and do things that we can't justify at other times (things like, having a party! :-) ).

soo... the 4th of july this year saw us hanging out with our biblestudy friends, with food, and beer, and croquet rivalries.

and here are a couple snapshots (sadly, the photography of the event was slight):

andrew chats it up.

tim takes a picture of us, just before i take one of him.

goin' to the beach!

2007-07-03T15:38:00.000-07:00

what says socal like a day at the beach? nothing, my friends. so here we are, doing our due diligence. (this actually happened on june 30, but summer days are timeless, right??....)

point dume beach. mmm.

me at said beach.

more beach. (really, it's so pretty.)

less than the best shot ever. but, here's us at the beach.

angels' stadium

2007-06-29T13:55:00.000-07:00

we went with some of the youth to see the angels play the pirates. sadly for us, the pirates lost. but at least our youth were happy...
:)

one year of marriage

2007-06-10T23:49:00.000-07:00

For our very first year anniversary celebration, we decided that we needed a full weekend. So, Friday night found us dressed up and eating Northern Italian cuisine.

This is us feeling full but in love after we got home.

Andrew :)

Saturday we took the day and wandered down to Long Beach, to visit the aquarium and to waste time...

...so, this is a fish.

Another fish, unhappy.

Underwater delights.

Underwater frights.

Ahh yes, we got a kick out of this one (literally, i suppose). This small child thought he should kick this crab, which is clearly the larger beast of the two.

Taking a fish's picture.

A lot of 'em.

The petting zoo... er, tank.

"I touched a shark."

Hilarious.

I like the aquarium too.

This is pretty.

The Queen Mary in the harbor (thanks Stasi for the helpful name info). We spent some time afterwards just walking around the harbor and going to the shops.

Lighthouse.

The sign explains.

And on Sunday, not pictured, we opened our unopened bottle of champagne from our wedding night. Nice weekend.

matt gets married

2007-05-29T13:32:00.000-07:00

after many, many years of waiting, and the humiliation of a younger sister beating him to the punch, sarah's brother matt got married memorial day weekend, may 26, 2007.

the lovely couple pose for a glamour shot.
(i included that "u" for bethany, because she's canadian ;-) )

andrew and i wander down the aisle together after the ceremony.
(it was fun to be in a wedding together!)

obligatory photo-with-moms-and-dads

matthew and i go from having just the two of us to having four!
(we're all growed up now)

a bit o' birthday

2007-05-07T23:14:00.000-07:00

just one blurry one from my birthday itself, after dinner at the olive g.

stasi's party

2007-05-06T10:28:00.000-07:00

saturday of my birthday weekend was also the birthday party of one of our friends...

we're cute.

so's stasi...

easter !

2007-04-30T14:23:00.000-07:00

here are some long-awaited pictures from the whitehead parents visit at eastertide. ;-)

looking amused along the bamboo gardens in the huntington...

sharing childhood easter traditions with my hubby.

walking back to work after a lunchtime visit (yay they visited me!)

i am la chef extrordinaire... and i made them a tasty dinner.

(dad missed out on being in the pictures because he took so many of them. i must see if i can find one of him, too!!)

getty museum

2007-04-30T12:56:00.000-07:00

we visited the getty museum finally, on the last day of the icons of sinai exhibit. it was pretty wonderful to get to see such ancient images of our faith.

the getty itself is also worth seeing... andrew and i both loved the architecture.

we arrived at about 3:20p, and we had to wait until 5:45p to see the icons... so in the meantime, the sun set.

everyone loves waiting in line.

us-- another attempt at our famous self-portrait.

ϋber organ.

(its ϋber.)
(seriously. if you don't click on any other picture for enlargement, try this one.)

in honor of paper writing

2007-04-24T15:48:00.000-07:00

andrew's been plugging away at some nasties for a good long time, and incidentally i am far enough behind in my picture blogging that the next thing for me to blog was the last time he had a paper to write. and so, partially in retrospect and partially applicable to our current situation: a tribute to being in seminary:
paper = not happy

loving wife = happy?

honeymooning take two

2007-03-20T16:46:00.000-07:00

so, as a generous generous wedding gift, we were given a week of a timeshare and we ended up in south lake tahoe, CA (right on the nevada border) for the weekend of st. patty's day in march.
this vacation was a second honeymoon. basically all that we did was relax and soak in the beauty and bounty. (if this is not enough pictures for you, you can check out the rest of them here.)

to tahoe, we go
(a view from the car.)

this place is bigger than our house.

bathrobes = relaxation

(so does a huge comfy bed)

view from outside
(albeit crookedly)

Lake Tahoe
(keep tahoe blue...)

me, relaxing.

him, enjoying.

chocolate chips, fresh baked
(milk included)

because we take these shots a lot...

mental stimulation

time to go, sad sad

the weather agrees, "so sad to see you leave"
(it was sunny all the rest of the time)

be mine

2007-02-17T20:08:00.000-08:00

i got these lovelies for valentines' day. our first. (i'm a sucker for roses.)

shots of everyday life

2007-02-17T20:06:00.000-08:00

this is andrew's natural state.

and here we are, just chillin'.

another zoo photo shoot

2007-02-17T20:04:00.000-08:00

so we'll spare you too much zoo goodness this time, but just to prove that hippos do indeed emerge from the water once in a while...

Jan 1 ~ Pasadena Rose Parade

2007-01-01T16:23:00.000-08:00

ringing in the new year with champagne, cheese, bruschetta, friends, and risk was fun, but lacking the excitment of the ball dropping in times square. (that happened at a depressing 9pm our time.)

but we made up for it by sleeping only 3 hours, and awakening at 5:30a in order to drag ourselves the couple blocks to the famous Pasadena Rose Parade.

see, take andrew as a perfect example. he was utterly thrilled to be at the parade:

turtles are really cool.

dragons are also. this guy breathed fire.

storm trooper color gaurd?

a buff. made us think of yellowstone, and also buffalo.

all in all, a fantastic set of winter holidays. too bad it had to end.
but here's to a fantastic 2007!

boxing day is zoo day

2006-12-26T16:06:00.000-08:00

what better way to spend the day after Christmas than at the zoo?
especially when you live where it is warm.

santa's zoo workshop... where the photo above was also taken. (even santa's reindeer were there, in the flesh.)

fantastic shot of birds...

this is a scary green tree snake, which coils itself symmetrically around a tree branch. i wish i could have seen him do it.

even the zoo got decorated. this christmas palm tree is lighted for the holiday season.

december 25

2006-12-25T15:53:00.000-08:00

andrew is ready for christmas.
mmm....chocolate...

super duper reindeer pooper. no further explanation needed.

well, aren't we just freakin' Italian??
matt got us mini ornaments for our mini tree.

the aftermath.
ready to go out to dinner.

christmas eve in our place

2006-12-24T15:07:00.000-08:00

christmas decor...

more decor... (the stockings were hung on the doorknobs with care...)

our Christmas stash! (thanks to help from the moms, dads, and siblings).

creche...

merry merry christmas love us.

thanksgiving weekend - recap.

2006-11-30T14:50:00.000-08:00

i'm really happy that thanksgiving weekend went so well. but, all things have their consequences, so here's me at the weekend's end:

thanksgiving day

2006-11-30T14:42:00.000-08:00

the promised turkey dinner photos!

andrew carves roast bird for the first time:

did you make this food taste bad?

we clean up thanksgiving together :)

happy thanksgiving!

2006-11-30T13:59:00.000-08:00

happy thanksgiving! happy beginning of the church year (today-nov.30-st.andrew's day)! happy advent season-almost! happy december (tomorrow)!
i regret that i don't have pictures yet of my very first turkey dinner (but it was a success, at least), but here are a few pictures from the rest of the weekend.
hollywood blvd at night:

ella and me:

a sleepy smile from the cheescake factory:

happy birthday, anthony (cheescake factory. and no, he turned 20, not 6):

and finally, merry christmas from california. much love to all:

haircut....

2006-11-20T20:11:00.000-08:00

big beautiful bear

2006-11-10T08:53:00.001-08:00

so we went on this retreat with the youth of st. luke's, and headed up to big bear. it was really lovely.

andrew on the ropes course. that was pretty fantastic.

From 061105 - yout...

me, dancing impromptu in a skit. getting in touch with my high-school self.

From 061105 - yout...

(on a technical note, if you click on these pictures, you'll be redirected to picasa web albums where you can view the whole album. pretty spiff, however somewhat annoying if i only wanted to share a few photos. so i'm going to try to go back to uploading individual photos from picasa, but so far the feature is broken. sigh!)

life starts: now.

2006-11-03T10:12:00.000-08:00

i thought a few pictures of LA would be a fitting place to start. after all, its kindof where we start.
this is a view of LA at night (really the only time you can call it beautiful) from hollywood hills.this one is great because i found it on deviantart.com and yet its exactly what i see walking home from work if i look up.