Just Add Sugar

60 Never Looked Better

2012-02-10T11:58:00.000-06:00

On Sunday Ryan & I had the privilege of hosting Harlan's 60th birthday party. We had a ton of help from Ryan's family bringing decorations and side dishes. It was the first time that we have had most of Ryan's family over to our place. There's just something special about having a bunch of family all gathered together in one place. I think Harlan had a blast and we successfully celebrated his birth.

Sally hand made this delightful birthday banner that was perfect over the fireplace.

Susan & Sally even brought some playful chicken pillows to help spice our our couch in the den. Love them!

View of the decor in the living room.

(I'm still planning to post pics of our house really soon! It's just hard to time taking the pictures in good lighting these days.)

The festivities in the kitchen, a great common area for congregating.

Time to blow out the candles on the cake that Susan lovingly made for her hubby. It's her famous chocolate cake that is to die for. We couldn't bare to mess it up with 60 candles so we stuck in 6 instead. I don't think Harlan minded. 60 candles would be pretty hard to blow out in one breath!

Singing Happy Birthday to the birthday boy.

The onlookers.

I had to include this sweet picture of Leaha (Ryan's cousin's daughter).

I made everyone go outside in the cold for a group picture. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get everyone in one shot! This is also a cute shot of Parker pointing something out while I was trying to set up the tripod.

The winning shot!

Apparently my camera was setup to take several pictures in a row and I didn't realize it. I was running back to the camera so that we could take another picture without realizing it was still shooting. This picture made me realize I need to hit the gym more and cut out the soda! Holy cow double chin!!

always have to take a silly photo too

Afterwards, it was time to open presents. One of Harlan's siblings gave him this hilarious cane. He put on his glasses for added effect. Ha!

Lots of great goodies from the fam.

This gift was the hit of the night. It was a remote controlled helicopter!! I don't think the boys stopped playing with it all night.

Too funny.

Cute little video of Ryan learning how to fly it. It's kind of loud in the beginning, just a warning.

Happy Birthday Papa & Meme!

2012-02-08T14:35:00.001-06:00

Today is Ryan's grandpa's 84th birthday! Papa is doing well and still as ornery as ever. :) Sadly, he's feeling a little under the weather today so he can't enjoy his big day to the fullest. We will just rain check his celebrations for another day. Susan (his daughter) made the sweetest picture below. She included Papa's wife (affectionately called Meme) because her birthday was just over a week ago. I never got to meet Meme but I've heard all about how wonderful she was. There's actually a really fun story about how Ryan & I's Grandmothers knew each other way back when. I'll save that for another day.

Just in case you can't read this it says: "He spotted her on a bus, followed her and got off the bus when she did. Luckily for dad he knew one of her friends and the rest is history. You both are loved!" So sweet!!

(Doesn't young Papa kind of look like Ryan?!)

We've been celebrating a lot of birthdays around here. My good friend, Lindsey's, was on Jan. 29th, my SIL, Emily's, birthday was on Jan. 30th, and my FIL, Harlan's, birthday was on Feb. 3rd! I actually have a fun post coming about Harlan's big 6-0 birthday bash we had at our place this past weekend. Stay tuned!

Random Friday

2012-01-27T14:16:00.001-06:00

This is just going to be a random post. I haven't been doing the best at taking pictures of our crazy lives lately so I plan to get on that. :) I some how just got out of the habit, and now I hope to be more intentional about the pictures I do take. So we'll see how that goes.

You may have noticed a few changes around here. I got the itch again to switch up a few things. The most obvious change is the header. I'm not sure if I'm completely happy with it so it might change again. I also changed the background and added some social media icons on the top of the column to the right. Recently, I've received a few emails telling me that blogger wasn't allowing them to comment so I switched to a new host provider for my comments. I hope that fixes the problem!

Oh! And I updated the "about me" tab. Check it out. :)

Does anyone know how to change the margin to the right of my column? I can't figure it out in the new template designer on blogger.

And now for a few random pics I took of Yogi being his weird self.

I found him the other day asleep on a throw pillow near the fireplace. His face was so smooched on the pillow that I wanted to get a picture of it. When I went to snap the picture he woke up. Shoot. But then I realized that there was something on the pillow where his face had just been lying.

I looked closer and realized that he drooled in his sleep! I didn't know cats did that!! I thought is was just a human thing. Ha!

We recently just replaced our dishwasher. It took us a few days to install it so there was some stuff scattered around our kitchen while we were getting around to it. We found Yogi in this batting several times in the course of those few days. He just snuggled right up in there!

This has been his new favorite spot in our house since it's been so cold out side. Our den tends to be a little chiller then any other room in our house so Yogi stays firmly planted up against our heating vent. Seriously too funny. I promise our house isn't this freezing!

This is just another funny picture of him sleeping while face planted into our blanket.

KC does some pretty hilarious things too. It's just harder to capture him on film. We keep saying we need to video all their quirky habits so that we can remember them when their older and just lay around all the time. I guess they are already doing that...

Tiny Tot's Birthdays

2012-01-25T10:47:00.000-06:00

Geez, I'm pretty behind on posting about my cousin's little daughter's birthday from a couple months back. I thought it would be fitting to post it now since we just celebrated her little brother's birthday too a couple of weeks ago.

My cousin, Sommer, has the cutest kids! Three to be exact. I also thought she did a great job of coming up with fun unique names. Her first daughter's name is Isabelle (Izzy), second daughter is Temperance (Tempy) and her son's name is Liam.

A few months ago we celebrated Isabelle's 2nd birthday over at her grandparent's house. She is so stinkin' adorable. Here she is with her grandma on the left and her mom on the right over seeing gift unwrapping.

Getting ready to blow out her candles.

Sommer scored these adorable cakes and cupcakes from Sam's club for a killer deal.

Just had to include this precious pic of my cousin Matt with his nephew, Wyatt.

My mom enjoying the treats.

This little guy (Liam) is a lady's man. Just look at those eyes!

Here he was just learning to walk and just a few short months later (as you will see below) at his first birthday he was running all over the place!

Now we are at Liam's first birthday party held at his house. He took a liking to Ryan right off the bat. We had just entered the front door and he was already all over Ryan. I like to blame his preference of Ryan over me on his height. Liam just likes to be up high apparently. ;)

It was so funny to watch Ryan with him. He didn't really know how to hold him at first. Ha!

But then he got the hang of it. As you can see by the delight on Liam's face.

They were just so cute together I had to post a bunch of pictures of them.

Liam opening his presents with his dad and older sisters standing by ready to get in on the action.

He was pretty good at it too!

Letting his tummy hang out wild and free.

Next up was the infamous cake ~~feeding~~ destroying!

Singing Happy Birthday and Liam eagerly awaiting his cake.

Testing the waters.

Deciding what he thinks of it...

He likes it!

Enjoying it so much that the icing went from red & blue to purple! Just look at those chubby arms. How can you resist?

Liam had a lot of fum squishing it between his fingers and clapping his hands flinging it in several different directions. But he did manage to get some in his mouth. :)

I love going to kid's birthday parties. It's so fun to see their excitement and bring back fond memories as a kid.

Puppy Love

2012-01-23T13:18:00.000-06:00

Ok, so you guys know that we are a cat family currently. Everybody asks us when we plan to get a dog but the thought of adding another animal to our household right now seems like too much. We would love to have a dog at some point if we can ever agree on what kind we want. Ryan loves big outdoor dogs and I love small indoor dogs. At this point, we both agree that we want to wait until we have kids and they get a little older and would appreciate a new puppy. We'll see if that happens but so far we've done pretty good holding out. Ha!

We will just live vicariously through our friends dogs. For instance, how cute is our friend's, Jon & Erica, dog Lucy?! Those eyes kill me.

I snapped this little video on my phone while we were over at their place to watch the K-State bowl game (fail). She was cracking us all up!

This past weekend our good friends, Brandon & Cynthia, just made the parental leap with adopting two puppies! We had fun watching them play and stealing cuddles with them.

This is Taco a dachshund schnauzer mix.

And this little cutie is Tommy Trojan (named after their alma mater). He's a mutt and such a good cuddler!

I just had to throw in a sweet picture of Yogi for good measure, just in case you all thought I had changed my mind. ;)

Über Belated New Years Post

2012-01-19T12:41:00.000-06:00

Sorry, I didn't know that I was going to take a bloggie break but I did. I plan to get back into the swing of things shortly. It's been fun reading about everybody's New Year's resolutions and celebrations. This year the hubs and I decided to keep it pretty low key. Really, we've been doing that for the past several years. I guess we are just old fogies now. Hey, at least we are staying up until midnight!!

Past New Years...2010 & 2011

Earlier in the night we went to dinner with our good friends David & Michelle to an italian restaurant that we went to a few years back together. I think it's becoming our tradition. :) Brad & Lindsey were going to go with us but they were still sorting through boxes in their new house. (Oh ya, did I mention that they finally closed on their long awaited house?! More details to come on that in the future.)

After a nice dinner we came back to our house to play a few games while the clock ticked to midnight.

Michelle & David playing their beloved game of Dominion. It sounds evil but it's really a lot of fun, especially playing it with these two.

Brad & Ryan

Brad & Lindsey came over later to play games and ring in the New Year with us.

Random picture of Lindsey just to prove that she was there. She was not about getting her picture taken for some reason. I thought it was hilarious. :)

Counting down with Ryan Seacrest and Lady Gaga.

Love this girl!

Ryan being goofy. We took a ton of pics and this was the best one where he wasn't looking crazy. Love that man.

Another fun New Years, maybe next year we will go all out.... Oh who am I kidding we will be lucky to make it 'til midnight. ;)

2011 in Review

2012-01-06T10:25:00.001-06:00

Since I started this blog back in '08 I've never gone back and looked over the previous year. I think it's high time that I start that tradition. It will be an easy reference point for Ryan & I to remember some highlights from years past. So here we go!

January

2011 kind of got off to a sad start with the passing of Ryan's grandmother, Georgia. The good that came from that was the whole family getting together to honor her memory. I will always remember the joy everyone had watching all the cousin's sing their childhood song.

February

Oh man, I remember how bad our weather was last winter. We had so much snow and ice it was awful driving to and from work. But we still managed to make it fun. This was a picture of our little trip to Snow Creek to go tubing down the snow with my family.

March

We had so much fun this month traveling to Mexico with our good friends Brad, Lindsey & Kelsey. It was the first time we had been to Puerto Vallarta and it's a trip we will not soon forget.

April

This month I started taking a photography class with my mother-in-law, Susan. It was such a neat experience to explore Kansas City and take some unique pictures. I had a blast with Susan and picked up a few more photography tips. I still have pictures from that class that I still haven't posted. Ooops!

May

In May, Ryan & I celebrated our 5 year anniversary in Chicago. We both had been there in the past but not together. Our friends Brad & Lindsey happened to be there the same weekend too which made it even more fun.

June

In June, our good friend's (Lindsey) show aired on ABC, Expedition Impossible. That was such crazy experience to watch your friends compete against 12 other teams in Morocco!

July

It has become a tradition now to spend the 4th of July in Ryan's home town. It is so fun to get the family together on the farm for good food and LOTS of fireworks. No city limits to have to worry about. ;)

August

August was a big month! I had been playing in a women's golf league with my family, joined in on our family's annual golf tournament with Kara, Ryan & Harlan and I turned 28. It was also probably the hardest time in my life.

September

September slowed down for us a little bit, and we were able to join Susan & Sally in St. Louis at one of their art fairs. I did not realize how much work it was to have a booth in an art fair. Oh. My. Goodness.

October

This was probably my favorite month of the year. Sean & Emily were married in Zion Nation Park, the fam spent time beforehand in Vegas and Ryan turned 29 (last year in his twenties!). I LOVE going on family trips together, and sharing in Sean & Emily's big day made it that much more memorable.

November

We held Thanksgiving dinner at our home again this year, and it was the first time that Ryan & I made almost the entire dinner ourselves! It was quite the experience and we loved it. We were sad that Sean wasn't able to make it due to starting his new job that week.

December

Ryan & I both agree that this Christmas was our favorite so far. All the family was together in Ryan's home town (including Papa & my mom!), it was low key, great food and fun times had by all.

We are gearing up for another full year ahead of us, and we are excited to see what this year has in store. I'm not one to make resolutions but all the blog posts I've been reading has got me thinking about it more. This coming year, I've decided to make more of an effort to live in the now. I need to stop looking forward so much and just enjoy today. We are not guaranteed tomorrow. You never know when your life can change in an instant. I am so blessed and need to learn to let go of certain things I've been clinging to. I'm ready to start this year fresh with less pressure on myself. I want to live life to the fullest and glorify God in everything that I do. I'm excited to see what God has planed for Ryan & I. You never know what He is up to. :)

Project Christmas

2011-12-29T09:13:00.000-06:00

This Christmas was spent with Ryan's family back in his home town smack in the middle of Kansas. It really isn't too far of a drive so it's pretty easy to pop over there. Ryan's grandpa and my mom were able to come with us and made it that much more special. This was the first time the whole gang has been together since Sean & Emily's wedding.

I am about about to blast you with a ton of pictures. Just a forewarning. :)

Ryan's family (especially Susan) completely out did themselves! Susan was calling it "Project Christmas". They overhauled the house with a silver themed Christmas. I think about every room got silverized. I think I just made up a word. It was so gorgeous!! They are about to completely renovate their home this next year so they didn't mind spray painting everything. In the above picture, the chairs, table, doors, light fixture, and center pieces got painted including the screen print on the wall. AND she made new curtains and dyed the place mats. I'm exhausted just talking about it.

I LOVED the Charlie Brown Christmas tree that they cut down from their farm. Notice the new silver fireplace.

Silver walls & lighting and new pillows. She is amazing!

Silver table with Christmas cards and antique family toys.

Sally & Mary

A closer look at the table.

Even the kitchen got revamped for Christmas.

Susan & her son

I loved all the fresh greenery around the house that they cut from their own farm.

Papa was enjoying all the gorgeous decorations.

We even got to meet Sean & Emily's new family member, Charlie. He was HUGE but the sweetest dog you have ever met.

Charlie getting some love from his dad.

Annie, the farm dog, had to get in the action too. She is the sweetest farm dog you'll ever meet. :) And she loves Ryan. I will have to post a video soon of the noises she makes because she gets so excited to see Ryan. Excuse Ryan's getup... We were about to go on a family walk and it was pretty chilly out. See the snow on the ground?!

The next day we had a delish meal prepared by Susan, and with our belly's full we opened presents. For the past several years we've done secret Santa so that you don't have to get presents for everybody. It's been really nice because we set a spending limit, and we also make lists of things we want so people know what to get.

Here's Emily doing her best impression of the American Gothic painting. Ryan was her secret Santa. Do you like how he wrapped her gift with pink trash bags? Ha!

Harlan showing off his loot.

Harlan had Susan as his secret Santa for two years in a row. I think he did pretty good!

Ever since Ryan got an iPad for his birthday he has been obsessed with it. I've definitely taken a back seat. ;) All he wanted from his secret Santa was an itune gift card so he could buy more apps for it. Too funny.

I had Sean for my secret Santa and all he wanted was KU stuff. It pained me to buy those things but since I love Sean I stomached it. But still had to make it funny with an awesome knitted hat and snuggle.

I think Sean was excited.

Sweet Sally.

Me getting excited over baking accessories.

(Do you see Papa snoozing in the background?)

Sally had my mom and she was explaining all the fun little gifts she got her.

Papa enjoying his new book. I swear he goes through a book a day sometimes.

To top it all off, Papa had his own little Christmas gift to share with all of us... We all about died! This is so Papa.

Later Papa wanted to try out some yoga moves I was showing him. I was pretty impressed with his flexibility!

Ryan snapped a pic of us all enjoying the dessert that Susan & Emily made us.

Ryan & I

Mom & I

We always have to play a game or two, and Sean brought us a new one that was like charades that involved Lego's. I think Ryan was in heaven. This was the boys after the game was over just playing.

Ryan was proud of his creation.

We had a wonderful Christmas, and both agreed it was the best one we could remember!

Christmas Party

2011-12-27T21:36:00.000-06:00

This year has been lots of fun going to holiday parties and spreading the Christmas cheer. My good friend, Kara, had an awesome Hot Coco bar party, and she wrote a blog post about it here. I totally forgot to take pictures.

I don't know what got into us but Ryan & I decided to throw a Christmas party the week before the actual Christmas. We made a bunch of food, invited lots of friends and they brought treats so we were in abundance!

This isn't even all of it!

We had a blast mingling, listening to Christmas music and watching K-State basketball dominate. We are so blessed to have such amazing friends to fellowship with.

Rob & Jack

Cynthia & Michelle

Matt & Brandon

Brandon, Matt & Britt (such goobers ha!)

Matt made me retake the picture because he said he looked ridiculously short in the last pic. Haha!

Wendy & Jessica

Graham, Cody & Beth

Megan, Phil, the Hubs & Kara

We've been friends since high school! I can't even believe that our 10 year reunion is coming up this summer.

Greg & David lounging and watching the game.

Britt & Carly

Brad, Dave, Britt & Jim

Lindsey & Meg

Me & Michelle (love this girl)

The boys crack my up with their high collars.

Matt & Kara in front of our tree!

We are still pinching ourselves that we're back home and able to do life with these people. Sadly, we missed a lot of people that couldn't come because of going to the game or had other Christmas plans. Hopefully we can all get together again soon!

Tis The Season

2011-12-24T23:35:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone is spending it with their loved ones.

I know these two are. ;)

It's my favorite time of the year to take time off and slow down. It's such a special time of reflecting on what Jesus has done for us and a time of giving. Spending it with family is just the cherry on top.

At the Request of Papa

2011-12-21T08:33:00.001-06:00

A few weeks ago we had my mom, Ryan's sister, Emily, and his Papa over for dinner and a special treat. Papa gets on these kicks where he talks about something until he gets it (i.e. food). Now I know where Ryan gets that from. :) Papa's latest obsession has been the fact that he can't find funnel cakes anywhere. I think Emily found a place that sells them year round but it was a little to far away for him. Well, it just so happened the other day while we were at Bed Bath & Beyond Ryan spotted a do-it-yourself Funnel Cake Mix. (BBB&Y has everything!) After a few months of hearing about these scrumptious cakes Ryan snatched it up off the shelf and declared that we would be making these that night.

So we got some of the family together to partake in the festivities!

Emily graciously offered to create the goodness.

The kit was great because it came with everything you needed except for the oil & powdered sugar.

The master at work.

Ryan putting the finishing touches on aka powdered sugar.

Papa finally diving into his precious Funnel Cake.

Here's a short clip of him enjoying his dessert. After the first bit he let out a big "mmmmmm" and I told him he needed to recreate that for the camera. Instead, he let us know that we needed to put syrup on top. Ha! Also the clip is sideways and I couldn't figure out how to turn it. Ooops!

They were really good and pretty easy to make! Would definitely recommend the kit at BBB&Y.

Janet's Baby Shower

2011-12-20T08:50:00.000-06:00

One of my good friends, Janet, is expecting her first baby this February. We were actually sorority sisters a few years apart but didn't know each other until we both worked for the same company in Bartlesville, OK. I couldn't be more excited for her, and wished we lived closer together so I could see more of them! She had a shower here in KC just over a week ago, and I was thrilled to be able to go.

Some of these pictures turned out a little dark. My editing software was acting up so it is what it is. :)

Baby boy Jaxon. I loved the way she chose to spell the name. Those little booties on the cake can be written on the bottom of them with all the birth measurements. I think it's an ornament too. So cute!

Table Decor

Janet is so cute! She looks freaking amazing!!

I believe Janet's sister-in-law made all these onesies for her.

Opening all her wonderful gifts.

We played a couple of fun games. I think my favorite was the one that you had to guess how much certain baby items cost like The Price is Right. I had no idea how much some of that stuff cost!!

You can't even tell that Janet's pregnant in this picture! Let alone due in less then two months!!

Can't wait to meet precious Jaxon!!

Monday Night Football

2011-12-15T07:34:00.002-06:00

So this post is majorly delayed. I have a few coming up that for whatever reason have taken me awhile to get around to post. Back on Halloween (ya I know) Brad, Lindsey, Ryan & I got tickets from a sweet friend to the Chief's game against the San Diego Chargers. I think it's the best NFL football game I've ever been to! It was a close game the whole time, and even thought we were for sure going to lose at one point. But the Chiefs pulled it out in overtime and won! It was also a really fun night because it was on Halloween, and everybody was dressed in costumes. It made for some great people watching. :)

Before the game we went to Lindsey's family's tailgate to grab some grub and hangout for a bit. Well, Lindsey's dad had a little surprise in store for us.

Check out this costume Reed came up with on his own! Can you tell what it is??

It's a man standing on his hands! But really Reed is still standing normal he just dressed himself backwards and put a head on the shirt!! Hahaha!

We had a good long laugh. Reed is always the life of the party. :)

The view of the tailgate next to the stadium. Notice Ryan to the left is never too far away from his Mountain Dew.

The view from our seats.

I always love watching the pregame and halftime performances.

Just a short clip of pregame to give an idea of how energetic it gets in the stadium. It's such a blast!

Ryan, Me, Lindsey & Brad

We don't go to a lot of games but Monday night football + Halloween + winning the game = The best game I've ever been to!

Christmas Cheer

2011-12-12T21:29:00.001-06:00

I don't know what got into me this year. I had all our Christmas decor out and our Christmas cards stuffed, addressed and mailed out before the end of the Thanksgiving weekend! Seriously... that never happens. But I still procrastinated on blogging about it. That's more like me. ;)

The finished product.

Next year I want to do some kind of garland to really dress it up.

A few close ups of our ornaments. My Great Aunt Mary hand made a lot of them. They are so special to me and hold a lot of childhood memories.

One of our very first ornaments as a married couple. I can't even remember who gave this to us!

Twinkling garland on the staircase.

Our nativity set that was also a wedding gift that we have just been adding to each year. This year I plan to snag the angel to set up on top of the manger.

We don't have a mantel currently over our fireplace so our built in TV console has been the next best thing. Ryan promised to have a mantle built by next year. ;)

We are so proud of our outside Christmas lights this year! We bought big red and white old fashion lights and then unscrewed every other one so that we could alternate red and white. Ryan about killed himself putting the second story lights up so this maybe a one year thing so we are enjoying every second! Lights always help me feel cheery in these dark cold months. I wish we could keep them up until spring!

We have lots more little Christmas decorations scattered throughout the house. We are having a little get together at our house this coming weekend, and I will try to snap a few more photos.

To see more from last year that I didn't show this time click here.

2011 Christmas Card

2011-12-02T07:54:00.000-06:00

It's that time of year again! I think giving and receiving Christmas cards are one of my favorite things about this season. I get so excited checking the mail everyday. It's not everyday that you receive mail from loved ones and not just bills. :)

This year I ordered my cards from Minted. I like checking out different companies to see their designs. I really liked this one because you could customize so much more and a lot of the designs are from small designers. (I'm not getting paid to say this. I just really liked them.)

front

back

I really loved how they turned out! Yes, I realize that I look 5 months pregnant in the group picture. It was a bad angle! I still chose it because everyone else looked good. :)

To see our past Christmas cards go here and here.

If you have 4 minutes to kill, here's a video of Ryan & I decorating our Christmas Tree in fast forward.

Side notes:

* We obviously didn't get dress up for this video. :)

* Hanging of the Christmas lights took entirely too much time! We ran out of lights at one point and had to run out and get more. That's why you will all of a sudden see Ryan has on a sweatshirt and I have boots on.

* I totally dropped a ornament and broke it. You cant' really tell since it goes so fast.

* The camera just stopped taping before we were done hanging all the decorations. I will be posting pictures of the finished product and other decorations next week.

Conversation Last Night

2011-12-01T09:33:00.000-06:00

My mom watching the Grammy nominations.

Mom: Did you see that LL J Cool is hosting?

Me: Who??

Mom: LL B Cool

Me: LL Cool J?!?!

Mom: What does it stand for again?

Ryan: Larry Loves Cool J (completely serious)

Me: It's LADIES Love Cool J!! WHO'S LARRY??? What in the world??

Just a slice of what a typical night looks like with my family. ;)

Much to be Thankful For

2011-11-28T21:06:00.000-06:00

This Thanksgiving was either our 3rd or 4th time to host at our house. Usually, we split up the meal between our mom's and Ryan & I. Unfortunately this year Susan came down with a pretty nasty cold that had her out for the count. We even decided to push back the festivities until Saturday in hopes that she would feel good enough to come. That left Ryan & I to do most of the cooking which we probably needed to learn how to do anyway. Fortunately my mom was still able to make a few of her signature dishes that helped out a lot. It ended up being pretty fun, and we enjoyed learning a few of the family's traditional Thanksgiving recipes. And I think Susan enjoyed her well deserved cooking break. ;)

The dining table before getting it set to eat.

Little bit of fall decor

Mmmm...

Whenever all of us get together I try to get it on film. It seems pretty rare that we are all in the same place now a days.

My first attempt at a group shot with a timer.

Much better

We missed Emily's husband, Sean, this year because of work. :( Maybe next time!

I had to include this pictures of Harlan trying to do a yoga pose I taught him.

Good job Harlan! Not bad at all!

He later admitted that his wrists were pretty sore. Ha!

Also this past weekend Ryan & I were the Advent family at our church and read the below message. I found it fitting that we were asked to be apart of the first Sunday representing Hope. That is exactly what Ryan & I are feeling right now after everything that has happened. I know a lot of people talk about having a word to represent the coming year instead of resolutions. Hope is going to be mine because 2012 promises so much of it.

***

Advent Liturgy

During Advent, the four Sundays before Christmas Eve, the traditional Call to Worship is replaced with the lighting of the four candles of the Advent wreath. These are the candles of Hope, Peace, Joy and Love.
At Leawood Pres, members of the congregation, the church staff, and their families take part in the candle lighting ceremony.
This is the liturgy that accompanies the candle lighting:
First Sunday of Advent
Today we light the first candle of the Advent wreath. This is the candle of HOPE.
With Christians around the world, we use this light to help us prepare our hearts and minds for the coming of God’s Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.
May we receive God’s light as we hear the words of the prophet Isaiah:
"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness -- on them light has shined."
-- Isaiah 9:2Let us pray:
Lord as we look to the birth of Jesus, grant that the light of your love for us will help us to become lights in the lives of those around us. Prepare our hearts for the joy and gladness of your coming, for Jesus is our hope. Amen.

Belated Birthday Post

2011-11-23T07:00:00.000-06:00

I am so late on posting about my hubby's birthday bash. Well, it was more like several smaller bashes. The weekend of his birthday we went to dinner at one of his favorite pizza places (of course) with his Papa, my mom and I on Friday. Then on Saturday we met up with some friends to watch the KSU football game as kind of an unofficial birthday gathering. Unfortunately, I was hoping the cats would pull out a win in honor of Ryan's birthday but they didn't come through for us. Oh well, we are still very proud of them this season!

The next weekend we made a quick trip to his home town to visit family and celebrate some more. (Like we needed an excuse.)

The birthday boy enjoying his homemade chocolate pie and admired the family heirloom clock that was gifted to him. It was made from a tree that was cut down in his grandmother's yard. His grandma felt bad for cutting it down so she let her son's class make clocks out of it back in the day.

Family love.

Harlan, Ryan, Susan, Sally, Emily & Sean

K-State game with friends.

Michelle (which her sassy new hair cut!), Moi & Emily

David, Ryan & Mark

The whole gang minus Jim & Jon who ducked out right before this pic.

I had to get my picture made with the birthday boy!

Ryan had a great birthday and got some really neat stuff in my opinion. :)

We've talked a lot about how we needed art for our walls that meant something to us. So I thought about it awhile and decided to make it part of his birthday gift. We love to travel so it was an easy decision to incorporate that into the art. I bought a cork board, painted the trim white and bought a really cool map to stick pins in.

It's serving dual purpose in Ryan's office by giving him a map to use for work and also a personal touch by sticking pins in where we have traveled together as a couple. The red pins are where we've been together and the black pins mark where we have lived. It was a hit with the hubs.

Sorry for the poor lighting in the next several photos!

I also found some gocco art from this etsy site that represented several places that we've been together that meant something to us.

From left to right: New York City, Rome, New Orleans and Chicago

Close up shot of the art.

I think Ryan's favorite gift of all was from his family. They all made a collaborate effort to make him his very own chicken. Actually, it was The City Girl Farm's first rooster that we lovingly named Romeo.

He was so excited to have his very own! It's already a part of the family here in our household.

Another very successful celebration of Ryan's life has come and gone. Can't wait to start planning his big 3-0 next year! :o)

Our Story

2011-11-21T09:17:00.002-06:00

**I wrote this post awhile ago but just couldn't press the "publish" button. A friend of mine just recently went through the same thing and was strong enough to write about it. She in turn gave me the strength to post something extremely personal in the hopes that it might help others out there that have gone through the same thing.**

I'm not really sure how to begin this post. I know I've been pretty quiet on here lately and it's because I just don't know what to write about. It's hard to post happy, exciting blogs when you don't feel that way. I guess the best way to begin is to just start at the beginning. Bare with me through this long rambling post.

Back in May Ryan & I decided that it was the right time to start trying for a baby. We were over the moon with excitement. We couldn't stop talking about names, plans and who they would look like. In the back of my mind I was pretty worried about even getting pregnant. Just about a year ago I was diagnosed with PCOS- Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. (it's pretty common) Some of my symptoms were rapid weight gain, extreme fatigue, and high cholesterol. That coupled with the fact that it took my mom 4 to 5 years to get pregnant with me had me pretty worried. I had read entirely too much information on how PCOS can effect getting pregnant, and I was trying to push that away. In the mean time I was focusing on getting healthy by taking medicines to help, excising and eating healthier.

Well, to our surprise we found out that I was pregnant in July! I remember reading the pregnancy test and just breaking out in sobs. We were in complete shock that it actually happened for us. I know how difficult it can be to get pregnant, and I just never thought it was going to be easy for me. We were singing praises to the Man above. It was actually the same day that our friends moved in with us temporarily until they could find a house of their own. It was so hard for us not to just go out and immediately tell everyone. It was the first time I can ever remember that I was looking forward to a Monday so I could call my OBGYN to get an appointment.

A very long story short, the last couple of months have been such an emotional roller coaster that has whipped and jerked us around until we couldn't see straight. We found out on August 12th that we had lost the baby. I would have been due March 15th according to the doctor. I can't even begin to try and express the feelings Ryan & I have been wading through. The best way to describe it is just broken. I felt like all my fears and worries had been realized, and I couldn't believe that we were actually walking this road. It just didn't feel real. All I've been able to do is cry, sleep and pray. I haven't felt like being around people. I've needed to retreat to be able to sort through all these emotions. It didn't help that I had all those pregnancy hormones surging through me either as my husband would attest to.

We prayed so hard that God would spare this pregnancy and allow us to meet our baby here on earth. We really believe that God is all powerful and should it had been His will he could have change things in one breath. It was very hard to except the fact that we were not meant to meet this baby on this side of heaven. But our God is the same God regardless of our outcome. I have been clinging to this song "Praise You In This Storm" by Casting Crowns. I believe every word of it.

I am so thankful for our family, friends and community who have surrounded us with incredible support.
I am thankful for my loving husband who, while broken himself, was able to encourage and support me through it all.
I am so thankful to have been able to even get pregnant in the first place.
I am thankful to have been able to see the heartbeat of our baby on my birthday. The best birthday present ever.
I'm thankful for the opportunity to try again in the future.
And I am so thankful to already be a parent to a beautiful girl or boy in heaven.

I can't imagine getting through this without the love and support of our family and friends. This is something that almost everyone has experienced, will experience or knows someone who has gone through this. I feel like it is not talked about enough and has been a silent burden that many women have carried by themselves. I wanted to share this with you all because we are not meant to carry our burdens alone. The community of people that have experienced the same thing as me have been such an
encouragement that it is worth sharing. I know without a shadow of a doubt that God has great plans for Ryan & I and our testimony. This is part of our story and we will use it to God's glory.

**Update: I ended up having to have a minor surgery two weeks ago to complete the miscarriage. It has been a very long road that we are now finally reaching the end of. God has granted us such peace and we are in a much better place now.**

Our little Angel

More Wedding Love!

2011-11-17T14:56:00.000-06:00

As I promised before, here are more pictures of Emily & Sean's wedding. I can't wait to get my hands on the reception pictures too!

The married couple with their bridesmaids. :)

Ryan & I

I loved my funky shoes except for the fact that they were at least 4 inches high. Killer!

Father of the bride (Harlan) and I hiding behind some trees with Emily before she walked down the isle.

I have no idea what I was doing here. I guess I was just so excited for Sean & Emily! I kind of look possessed!

Sally & I displaying the gorgeous homemade programs.

New family photo! So happy to add Sean to the group pic now. He's an awesome addition if I do say so myself. :)

(Check out Emily's shoes!)

Kersten's Oktoberfest

2011-11-09T15:50:00.000-06:00

Ryan & I's good friends, Matt & Kara, host an annual Oktoberfest over the weekend of Halloween. This was their third year and in my opinion the best yet! For whatever reason I had a hankering for Popcorn Balls and wanted to take them to the party. It's a family tradition to make them around the holidays. So I bribed my mom to come over and ~~make them for me~~ help me make them.

It requires a lot of delicious molasses. My mom likes to get a specific kind from southern Missouri where she's from.

Then you cook it with sugar until it becomes like a candy consistency.

Pour over freshly popped popcorn.

Butter your hands and start forming those balls (without burning your hands)! I forgot to take any "after" pictures.

Then it was time to get ready for the party and throw on our costumes that we got very last minute.

Here's a quick hint of what we were. Can you guess why we spray painted Ryan's hair white?

He was Papa Smurf and I was Smurfette

This was my favorite party of the costume besides the sweet beard.

Matt & Kara went all out on Oktoberfest decorations. There was no detail left out.

Even the twins, Brighton & Violet, came to party... Well sort of...

I think Kara's mom, Vicky, is ready for some grandchildren!

Smurf couple. Not the cutest costumes but they were comfy!

Kara & I

The hosts Matt & Kara

The party was actually on Ryan's 29th birthday and our good friends, Dave & Michelle, were so sweet to bring him a chocolate cake with candles to blow out. Love those guys!

Yum!

Jon & Greg

Kara totally out did herself with this! It's supposed to be Matt, Kara and their little dog. It was so funny to see everyone getting pictures with it.

Ryan & Mark

Greg and baby Annie

I think Cynthia and Brandon's costumes were the best. (see below)

Got to love Slash's midriff!

Hopefully next year we can get more people to dress up!

Fall Please Stay Awhile

2011-11-04T13:37:00.000-05:00

I am so enjoying this Fall season and praying that it stays longer then last year. I really want to get out and snap some fall foliage pictures before it's all on the ground. Since my schedule hasn't really allowed for that yet I settled for a quick pic of one of our trees in the backyard from my phone.

I could stare out my back window all day if my job allowed it.

In other news, look what is happening to our (used to be) pretty pumpkins!! Remember when we first got them?

This fat little guy has been making a meal out of them, like breakfast, lunch and dinner meals. Check out the gut on that guy and his thick neck! It's sort of hard to tell from this pic since I took it from my phone and through our window screen. Have you ever seen such a chubby squirrel??

He must have invited all his friends and family because they have gone to town. It sort of looks like we carved our pumpkins from a distance, but sadly the squirrels got to do it before we did. :( We left them for Halloween since they kind of look creepy but tossed them the day after. I think next year we are going to have to go with fake ones or maybe paint them so they aren't edible for all the woodland creatures. Ha!

How did everybody elses pumpkins turn out? Has this happened to you guys before?

Have a great weekend!

Vegas Baby Part 2

2011-11-03T09:10:00.000-05:00

The second day in Vegas we slept in a little bit after all the exploring we did the day before. We were determined to get farther down the strip this day. Our first stop was MGM where Ryan's sister, Emily, and her friends were staying.

I really liked this hotel too! It was one of my favorites. It also housed another free exhibit that was on our list of things to see. My mom was probably the most excited to see the tigers.

I have to admit that it was pretty cool. You could walk in a tunnel with the tigers laying right on top of you! I'm not sure if you can tell but that Tiger on the right has it's paw on the trainer!

Here's a closer look.

So funny to see the smooshed tigers from underneath. They almost didn't look real!

Afterwards, we headed up to Emily's room to check out her pad and her sweet views.

I love this picture with the Wynn & Encore Hotels, the Stratosphere and the mountains in the background.

Closer shot of the Stratosphere.

We never made it over the the Trump tower since it's a little off the strip. Maybe next time! :)

(Please ignore the gal chugging a beer in the foreground.)

The new City Center was probably the coolest thing I've ever seen! It is an architect's dream shopping mall! Granted, we probably couldn't afford to shop at any of the stores inside, but it was still so amazing to walk through.

I mean, just check out the floating restaurant!!

and the the swirling water features!

Check out a little video of it.

(Sally, Mom & I)

I was loving all the Fall decorations everywhere. When we had left it didn't feel much like Fall yet but all their decor was definitely putting me in the mood!

This is the Excalibur hotel. It was gorgeous at night. I would have loved to stay here when I was kid. This is what little girl's dreams are made of!

We stopped at the New York New York Hotel for dinner and to ride their crazy roller coaster. You can see it on the on the left side. We loved the indoor replica of the city. So freaking cool! I seriously can not even describe how amazing all the architecture was in Vegas.

Night time view of the strip.

I think our favorite thing (I keep saying that) was the Bellagio fountains. It was way better then I could have imagined!

This is a short clip of just a small part of a free show.

Of course we had to go inside and check things out. This was the ceiling entrance. Can you even believe this??

The fall decorations were just incredible.

The seasonal garden. Those horses were made up of 1-3 tons of live grass!!

Somebody pinch me! Can I take this home with me??

A little clip so you can get the feel of the live action.

Gor-geous!

This tree moved and talked to you. Ha! Every plant in there was real but you couldn't tell because they were so perfect.

The view of the Paris hotel from the Bellagio. We didn't go in this one because of time but it's on the list for next time around.

One of the last places we stopped that night was at the famous Flamingo hotel. It was completely dark at this point so it was a little hard to see the live (free) Flamingo exhibit but still was neat to see.

I had a lot of reservations about Vegas and I definitely wasn't expecting to love it as much as I did. We definitely want to go back because there was still so much that we didn't get to see. Plus, we didn't have a chance to see one of the famous shows either due to time. It's probably not every body's cup of tea but I appreciate it for what it is. Sure there are definitely downsides to Vegas but there is just no other place like it in the world. Where else would you see all of this in one spot??

If you haven't ever been you should at least go for two days just to see this!

Vegas Baby Part 1

2011-11-01T21:40:00.000-05:00

I'm finally getting around to posting the long awaited Vegas pictures. Well, at least long awaited for my mom. :) I have a long list of things I've been wanting to blog about, and I plan to knock those out soon.

This first thing I always start with on vacation posts is where we stayed! This was our lush pad at the Hilton Grand Vacations Hotel right on the strip.

I really liked the color scheme.

Jacuzzi in the room!

The bathroom was fabulous.

We flew out ridiculously early from KC and with the time changed we arrived in Vegas around 7:30am. As soon as we checked out where we were staying we had to find a breakfast joint. We really wanted to try out the highly recommended Peppermill but randomly it was closed for cleaning?? Oh well, luckily there was a Denny's near by to save the day. My mom was excited.

Afterwards, we walked back to our hotel to change into more comfortable shoes to prepare for a day of walking the strip.

We came here after a long day of walking to enjoy the hot tubs.

But that was only after a very long day of trying to take in all the sights. We didn't even see half of the strip!!

Treasure Island

My friend, Lindsey, asked me to gamble her $5 at the Venetian on a Wheel of Fortune slot machine.

This was the first gamble of the trip so we were hoping to have beginners luck.

No such luck... Oh well, there's always next time! :)

Mom & I at the Venetian over looking the Mirage.

Mom really liked the moving walkways. I've never seen them go up and down before. They are normally just flat.

There was so much to see it was incredible. My mom had to stop to get a pic with the wax version of Harrison Ford.

We were so overwhelmed by all the sights. There is just nothing like this in the whole world!

We decided to take a quick break from walking and try our luck at gambling again in the Mirage. We found what would be our favorite game of the whole trip, Deal or No Deal. It was pretty fun and I even netted $25! :)

Here we are at Caesar's Palace shopping tunnels or whatever they are called.

Their aquarium was one of the many free sights that was on our list to see.

I just can't describe how gigantic everything was. I mean these hotels/casinos are as big as a city block! You can see like 3 hotels and have walked three miles! Ok, maybe not that far but close.

I think one of my favorite hotels was the Wynn. So gorgeous and it had a really neat (and free) water show that I forgot to get a picture of.

We headed to dinner to meet up with family & friends at one of the many restaurants in the Wynn. Then we called it at night. That two hour time change did us in. Stay tuned for the trip wrap up!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T07:00:00.000-05:00

My good friend, Kara, sent me a link to this awesome video and I totally think someone should do this to their house!

Wouldn't this freak someone out if they just happened to be driving by? Ha!

29 Years of Hotness

2011-10-29T21:01:00.000-05:00

How did my husband turn 29 years old today? Wasn't it just yesterday when he was 22?? I keep telling him that we have to make his final year in his twenties count. I don't know what that will entail but we will come up with something. :) You have to go out with a bang!

Ryan's pretty sure as soon as he turns thirty he will automatically have joint pain and that his days of frolicking about are over. Ha!

I'm pretty sure our thirties will be even better then our twenties babe. And I can't wait to spend every single one of those days with you. I know without a doubt that this next year will hold a lot joy, laughter, adventure and blessings beyond measure. Even though there will be tough and painful days ahead, it will be bearable because I have you in my life. I know we can face anything together, and I thank God everyday for allowing you to be my partner in life.

Happy 29th birthday love!

Ren Fest Fun

2011-10-28T12:38:00.003-05:00

I have joined instagram and I am loving it! I just have a few pictures loaded on there but I have a feeling I will go crazy. I love all there photo effects. You can check in and follow me here if you want. :) If you have an account send me your userid and I will follow you.

I feel like I am part of every social media out there. It may or may not be getting out of hand. Ha!

These are just a few pics I snapped when visiting our good friend, Matt, at the Renaissance Festival. Last year was the first time Ryan & I got to see Matt in action.

Kara getting in a pic with her main man. Love his garb!

We actually went to the fair over a month ago and I'm just now getting around to posting about it. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera but I did have the trusty cell phone to capture some of the fun on video.

Poor Ryan, right after this a guy walked right up and hit the bell no problem. It was hilarious because he was obviously trying to show him up and even looked over at Ryan to make sure he saw it. We all about died of laughter.

This was a quick video our our friends Brandon & Cynthia showing us how it's done with the axe throwing. I'm actually kind of surprised there wasn't any protection for the bystanders from people who may throw their axe backwards!!

Busy Weekend

2011-10-27T15:22:00.004-05:00

K-State pulled it off! We are now 7-0!!

It was absolutely perfect weather for the game after it had been pretty chilly all week.

It was so fun running into people we knew that traveled to Lawrence to see the game. We got to meet up with Ryan's sister, Emily & her new hubby Sean (not pictured).

And of course there's always the annoying KU fans... Totally kidding! Love you Kelsey!

Kelsey, Austin & Brad

After half time the KU fans pretty much cleared out and we moved up to some awesome seats. All I can say is Go State!

Later that day my family had their annual Halloween Costume Poker Tournament. I know that was a lot right there, but that is what makes it fun!

Blurred picture of my cousin's husband in his chainsaw massacre costume. That was a real chainsaw but without the chain. Still loud though!

Aunt Cindy the China doll.

Cousin Lacey as the Day of the Dead. Her face makeup rocks!

My cousin's kids being held by their Uncle Josh.

It was a very fun night and I was even beating Ryan for most of the game! It was only my second time to play Poker ever.

On Sunday was my church's family farm day out south.

My in-laws were so gracious to let us borrow some chickens for the event. Don't they look at home??

The perfect spot for photo ops for families. Kara is demonstrating how it's done.

It was the again perfect weather and the perfect farm for such an occasion as this.

Here's our pastor, Ryan, showing the kids how to fish.

His own little girl had the first catch of the day!

Greg came prepared!!

After fishing we all got warmed up for a rousing game of softball. Teams were made up of small groups playing against each other.

We all worked up an appetite for the cookout that took place after the game. The whole event was so much fun!

It was busy but very fulfilling weekend.

Big 9-0!

2011-10-25T11:11:00.000-05:00

Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers for my Grandma. Sorry I didn't posted a follow up sooner! She has been in heart failure for a very long time. In fact, I'm not even sure when she was diagnosed with it. She's a fighter and knows that her work is not done here until the Lord welcomes her home. While she was in the hospital she was asking every nurse, doctor and house keeper if they knew Jesus. :)

When she was in the hospital back at the beginning of September, we found out that she was in the final stages of liver failure (due to her on going heart failure). We don't know how much longer we have with her, but I'm soaking up the time I do get. She's doing pretty well right now at home. And I'm ecstatic to say that my Grandma turned 90 yesterday!!

What a blessing to see after thinking she wouldn't be here for it.

Of course we had to make a big deal about it! My family catered in Smokestack BBQ so that she wouldn't have to go anywhere. Little Kaylee (with her Uncle Josh) even dressed up as Princess Peach for the occasion.

The whole family has always gotten their cakes from the same place ever since I was little. Mmmmm....

Grandma is so blessed with so many family members that love her and would do anything for her.

I'm so lucky to be her Granddaughter.

Family Farm Day

2011-10-21T07:00:00.000-05:00

We made it to another Friday. Woo Hoo! This weekend will be another busy one as it seems all my weekends have been for awhile now.

Friday night the hubs & I are hopefully going to have a date night maybe including a scary movie for Halloween? Saturday we are planning to visit Lawrence to go to the Kansas State vs. KU game. K-State is 6-0 right now and we hope to watch the streak continue. Then we are going to rush back and attend my family's annual Halloween Poker Tournament. You have to dress up in a costume to play, and Ryan & I plan on going as crazed KSU fans to really get my Mizzo family riled up. :) Then on Sunday is always church but this Sunday we have a little something extra planed. Our church is throwing a fun family farm party out in the boonies including grilling, softball, fishing, hayrides and bonfires. It should be a lot of fun.

My good friend Kara filmed a promo of her oh so adorable hubby talking about the upcoming farm day to get everybody excited. It is seriously so dang funny. This is totally Matt. He is hilarious. So I will leave you with this for the weekend. I'll update everybody on the fun next week!

Sean & Emily's Love Day

2011-10-19T19:34:00.002-05:00

**Forewarning - Lots of pictures to follow**

I'm going to kind of do this backwards. Our trip started in Vegas and ended in Zion for the wedding but I'm blogging about Zion first. Why? Because everyone's asking about the wedding! Unfortunately, I don't have that many pictures of it since I was in the wedding but once the professional (holla Elise!) pictures come out I will definitely post more.

First lets just take in the beauty that is Zion in Springdale, UT at sunset. This was the location of my SIL Emily & her now husband Sean's wedding.

It was a destination wedding and there was a great turn out! There were loads of family and friends all having an incredible time drinking in the sights and festivities.

We arrived on Saturday and had a short time to relax before getting ready for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Emily & Sean's wedding was on a Sunday which I loved. Sundays are the best days. This was our back drop during the wedding. Can you say gorgeous??

Sean's dad is an amazing cook and caterer. So it was only natural for him to grill us up our dinner right there in the park. Everything was absolutely perfect!

Then the sun started to set and everybody was mesmerized by the sights.

The Virgin river flowing right behind us.

Of course this called for a photo op. Emily walked over this bridge the next day to greet her soon to be husband.

My mom and I about to head back to our villa.

Speaking of our villa, you have to check it out here. We stayed at the Cliffrose Lodge in the Hummingbird Villa, and it was perfect for all the immediate family to stay together. You have to check out the pictures of it!

The next morning we woke up early so that we could get in a hike before all the wedding activities began. The wedding started at 4:00pm that day. So my mom, the hubs and I ventured off to check out some of the trails offered by the Zion National Park.

We ended up going on several different ones because a few of them were not for beginners and we were time limited. By all the trails displayed these gorgeous views.

It was a little chilly that early in the morning and whenever we hiked in the shade of the mountains as you can tell from the picture above of my mom and Ryan.

I can't believe that that little river down there created all those crevices.

Of course anytime we are near something we could fall off Ryan has to take a "falling" picture.

There were a lot of switch backs that got us all pretty winded.

Stopped to take a short break and admire the views.

So stunning.

I have so many pictures that is was hard to narrow them down for this post!

I love this picture with my mom in it.

We were even graced by the presence of a few ram!

Ok, so they weren't this close to us but I have a really good zoom lens!

We kept seeing these trail markers called cairns. So Ryan decided to build himself one. I don't think he was doing it right. ;)

Good views = Lots of photo ops

I really should have taken some pictures of the crazy paths that made us turn back. Let's just say they were not wide enough to put your feet side by side and required you to hang on by a chain! Ryan & I definitely want to go back some time and really dedicate a few days to climbing some challenging trails. Some day!

Afterwards, we rushed back to get ready for the ceremony and take pictures. These are basically the only pictures I took since I was in the wedding and then my battery died at the reception. :(

I love this picture with Papa surrounded by family. They were all trying to make Aunt Evelyn look big in this picture since she's so tiny and tends to hide in pictures.

I have to give a shout out to my SIL, Sally's, best friend Elise. She was asked to take the wedding pictures, and she rose to the challenge. She was freaking amazing all weekend. I don't know how she did it, and I can't wait to see some of the hundreds of pictures she took.

Elise you are amazing!!

The rest of these pictures I swiped of Facebook since it's the only documentation of the wedding and the bridesmaid dresses right now. That's why they aren't the best quality.

You can kind of see the gorgeous bluish greenish dresses. This was Harlan reading scripture during the ceremony.

I just had to share this picture. How amazing is this?? Emily had her dress made especially for her, and it was perfect. I couldn't have dreamed up a better dress for her.

The one and only shot of the reception I took of FB. I love the pure joy of this madly in love couple holding up their freshly signed marriage certificate. They are just the sweetest couple ever!

I can't wait to get my hands on more pictures of the wedding and especially the gorgeous outdoor reception. I'll definitely share those when I get them. It was such an amazing time that the whole family will never forget.

We love you Sean & Emily. Look forward to seeing your faces a lot more now that you are home in Kansas again!!

It's Fall Ya'll

2011-10-18T07:50:00.001-05:00

Hello Fall. It's so nice to see you after this brutal summer. Please stay awhile.

This past weekend my mom, Ryan & I all decided that we were slacking on getting in the mood for Halloween. After leaving for Nevada & Utah for about a week Fall had somehow magically appeared when we returned. So I felt like I had missed out. Ha!

Visiting the Louisburg Cider Mill was what popped into my mind to get us all in the holiday spirit. I haven't been there since I was a kid, but I remembered the big red barn, pumpkins galore and the best tasting cider & cider donuts ever!

I could go for about a dozen of those cider donuts right about now... mmmm....

Smiling because our belly's were full.

After taking out some donuts and cider we did a little exploring. We checked out how they produced that delicious cider drink that we had just consumed.

It was such a quaint operation. Loved it!

Then afterwards we headed to the kiddy area with no kids. Ha!

So we were our own kids. I love that Ryan is the little girl in this picture. He told me later that he thought he was being the pumpkin. I think we will wait to go back until we actually have some kids to bring with us. :)

Then it was time to tackle the corn maze... or what was left of it. We need to remember to do corn mazes in September while they are still green and tall and probably go at night. We still made it fun though.

Finally it was time to pick out our pumpkins that would be going home with us.

Ryan found the best one ever!! I love it so much. I think they called them Cinderella pumpkins. Next year I'm going to get a ton of them!

My mom and I stopped off at Suburban Lawn & Garden to grab a couple of mums and pots to finish off the look.

I just love fall decorations. Ryan & I bought that extremely heavy jack-o'-lantern a few years ago when we were in Joplin, MO.

Closer look at the gorgeous Cinderella pumpkin. I need to clean the dust off of it apparently!

The gorgeous mums and our brand spankin' new pots. Now I will just curl up and drink my hot apple cider that I got in Louisburg.

I will be posting on Emily's wedding and Vegas soon!

I'm Back!

2011-10-12T09:17:00.002-05:00

and my sister-in-law, Emily, is now hitched to her man, Sean!

It was a gorgeous wedding in Springdale, UT and I can't wait to tell you all about it. I just need to get settled and sort through all the photos.

There will be a lot more from here...

And a lot more from Zion National Park.

Stay tuned!

Before & In Progress :: Half Bathroom

2011-09-29T08:13:00.000-05:00

I know it's been awhile since I've last updated on our house. So it's high time I post about our half bathroom on our main level. Here is the before picture in all it's glory!

Gold everything, mini blinds, outdated window treatments, wooden toilet seat and mirrorless.

(the last owners took the mirror!)

Got to love the scalloped sink with the crystal acorn handles. My sis-in-law, Emily, actually had a dream about them they were so bad!

And now here's what it looks like now after we got a hold of it.

We painted everything including spray painting the current hardware & light fixtures.

And my oh-so-talented MIL & SIL, Susan & Sally, helped by screen printing directing on our walls to spice it up. I absolutely love it!!

I love that it has a little sparkle to it.

We ripped down the old window treatment and again my in-laws came to the rescue by making our very own custom roman shade. I love that it repeats the screen pattern so that it carries it to that wall.

The new mirror and freshly spray painted light fixtures.

Whenever I'm near a faucet KC comes running because his favorite thing is to drink out of them. In the picture above he's yelling at me to turn on the water for him. Ha!

Funny story about the above sink. Ryan & I purchased an updated pedestal sink for the spot. We brought it home & Ryan got right to installing it. Sally & I were somewhat supervising the progress. When Ryan was putting the final touches on it (after a couple of hours) I started to really take notice of it. Something just didn't look right. I went to shut the bathroom door and I couldn't! The sink stuck out too far and wouldn't allow you to shut the door! We all about died right there but especially poor Ryan. So we had to rip everything out again and take it back to Lowes to exchange it. We can laugh about it now....

I actually think it worked out for the better. We decided against the pedestals sinks and went with what's pictured above. I like that we have a little bit of storage now.

One of my favorite features about this bathroom is the door knob. It was gold before we spray painted it and I still LOVE it. I'm a dork like that.

We still would like to hang things on the wall and possibly a shelf above the toilet. I'm just not sure what to put yet. But we are almost there!

Day in the life...

2011-09-27T07:00:00.000-05:00

This post took me a little longer to write but it's done! I'm excited to start doing these every year and see how life changes. Life is going full force and feels like it's flying by faster each year. It's all about capturing the memories on here. :)

Ok, here it goes!

~My day starts off with the alarm going off at 5:45am on my husband's phone. He most graciously snoozes it until 6:00am at my grumbled request. (Am I a lucky girl or what?!) I begrudgingly climb out of bed and into the shower. I am so not a morning person. I rush to get ready and try to make a lunch with no food in the pantry, and I try to be out of the house by 6:40am.

~I got to work at bright and early time of 7:00am. Since it is the Tuesday after a three day weekend (Labor day) I am greeted with 4 days of closeouts on my desk. (Can you even see my desk?)

~After paperwork, reports, phones calls and answering emails I took a short break to snap a pic of my new shoes I scored at Macy's for $17! Oh ya, I get to wear jeans to work everyday if I want. Woohoo! Definitely a change from the Houston office.

~This particular day I got a fun surprise. Ryan was out visiting a customer and stopped by my office to take me out to lunch. I was so glad since I didn't really bring any food with me. (My boss went with us as well for a little goodbye lunch since it was his last week before he moved on to another position.) This rarely happens anymore. We used to have lunch together everyday when we worked in Houston. It's been a tough transition driving to work by myself and leaving Ryan at home to work.

~I've finally caught up on most of the paperwork and emails. I know when I can see my desk again it's been a successful day.

~Another perk to having my husband work for the same company as me is our IM system. I get to check in on him from time to time through the day. I always send him a quick IM to let him know I'm leaving for the day usually around 3:30pm.

~Locking up shop and calling it a day before 5pm is definitely one of the things I love about my job.

I just wanted to record what the temperature was like on the day after Labor Day. (Ignore the dusty dash.)

~I get home around 3:50pm and run upstairs to greet my hard at work husband in his office. I am so jealous that he gets to work in mesh shorts and a t-shirt!

~After a short run down of each other's day I head downstairs for a quick bite to eat and crash on the couch to catch up on a DVRed show. I'm always STARVING after work for whatever reason.

~Since today is Tuesday it means I have my golf league tonight. So I have to hurry and get ready to play golf with my cousin (who is my partner). I decide that I'm not feeling like dressing up much and put on some comfy clothes. I can get a little cool in the evenings now so I threw on some sweats. I love that our golf course is so laxed on clothing attire. :)

~I leave the house a little early around 4:45pm so that I can stop off and get gas on the Missouri side since it's so much cheaper then Kansas gas. I just wanted to document the price of gas now so I can look back on how it changes through the years.

~Kathy & I tee off at 5:30pm and hit 9 holes of golf. I'm so bad it's laughable. This is my first year to really play golf so we can definitely say it's a learning year.

~This night was particularly fun because it was game night in the league. We played golf bingo. As you can see, Kathy & I had all the bad golf moves covered. Ha! In fact we won!

~I got home around 8:30pm and jumped straight into the shower. Afterwards, I climbed into bed to try and catch up on some reading and had myself a little snack. I was trying to finish that book before the movie came out but that didn't happen. And Caramel Corns are the best snack!

~And finally, I check in on the ol' blog and catch up on reading everyone's posts. I decide I'm too tired that night to attempt a post of my own. I snuggle up to the hubs and call it a night sometime after 10:00pm. I drift off the sleep to the faint sound of the TV Ryan is watching before he turns in for the night.

There we go! I'm first official day in the life post! That was way fun. Have you guys done one? If so link it the comments to I can read it too. It's so interesting to see what other people's days look like. Mine can look different every night depending on the day but it usually involves me running around somewhere. I love those nights when I can just cuddle with the hubs and the kitties on the couch watching our favorite shows.

Best Concert Ever!

2011-09-25T21:50:00.000-05:00

Um, so I've totally been slacking lately on this here ol' blog. There has been so much going on that it's left little time to sit down and write about it. I really want to get back into it, and I am making it a priority! :) I'm actually traveling Monday & Tuesday for work so I will have some good quality time in a hotel to get caught up.

I haven't even posted about Labor Day weekend yet! I can't even remember what all we did now other then the sweet concert my husband & I got to attend. Back on my birthday, one of Ryan's gifts to me were concert tickets to see Train & Maroon 5. I love music and they are definitely some of my favs. Concerts are one of the many fun past times Ryan & I loved to do together. It had been awhile since our last one. I can still remember my first concert as a kid was Amy Grant. I LOVE her and I really like all her new stuff she's come out with recently. I've been to quite a few since then but I really think Train & Maroon 5 rank right at the top for me. It was a great concert! It was held at Starlight Theater which made for a really fun atmosphere.

Sorry for the really grainy pictures but I forgot my camera so I just used my camera phone.

And I got a few short videos of the fun!

I just thought this pic had a cool lighting effect on the old camera phone.

Do you guys go to concerts? Which ones have been your favorite?

35 Years!

2011-09-18T17:23:00.001-05:00

Happy 35th wedding anniversary to Harlan & Susan!

We love you both!

Love,

your son & daughter-in-law

Beat the Heat

2011-09-15T14:23:00.000-05:00

This is a picture of the George Bush Park fire in Houston, Texas. The far right building is where I used to work!

I cannot believe all the fires going on in Texas! It's so crazy to me to hear all the reports on it everyday. We have some friends that just went back to visit and told us they've never seen anything like it. It is so dry that complete yards are lost and foundations are moving! I remember last year when I thought that it was dry and we were on water reserve by the city... It doesn't even compare to this year. I feel so bad for all the homes and farm land lost. They've definitely been weighing very heavy on my heart.

How many Alpaca can you fit in one sassy chicken footstool?

2011-09-12T12:48:00.001-05:00

To figure out what the title of this post means watch the video below.

Yes, that is my sister-in-law, Sally, on a news station in St. Louis, MO talking about her chickens!! I am so blown away by her.

This past Saturday Susan & Sally brought their chickens to an annual art fair in St. Louis. Ryan & I made a day trip there to help them out on Saturday with the crowds. They were by far the most popular booth there!

It may of had something to do with this...

How cool is that??

And just in case you were wondering what an Alpaca looked like Ryan provided this gem for you. :)

The art fair was Friday through Sunday but Ryan & I were only able to make it for one day due to what I talked about here.

Our day started out bright and early at 5:00 in the morning. It was a long drive from KC to St. Louis so we made a pit stop at Burger King for breakfast. I had to show this picture of Ryan & I's drinks because Ryan's tiny little straw had me in stitches. What is that tiny little straw for anyway??

We arrived just after the fair started at 10:00 am. And this is what we all looked like for the entire event! We never stopped talking. I think we all had scratchy throats and almost lost our voices by the end of it.

I LOVED their booth setup. They had chicken wire hung up in wood frames for effect, and the large blue wooden board was for people to sign up their email address for more info. Too cute!

By the time we got there, 7 of the 8 chickens they brought with them were already sold and they were taking orders! They even sold their big purple chicken in Cardinal's country. Ha! The only one not sold in the above picture is the little white one on the left.

So Ryan put Sally to work making another one so it didn't seem so empty right there in front of everybody. I think people enjoyed seeing the artist at work.

These are just a few shots of the constant crowd of people at the entrance of the booth. We only took short breaks to rest our voices. My cheeks hurt so bad by the end of the day from smiling so much!

View of the booths lining the street.

This was definitely the largest art fair I've ever been too. There was even a place for people to draw their own art in chalk!

The chickens were by far the biggest hit with the kids. They loved to pet and talk to them.

What a cutie!! I loved that he was riding the chicken. Ha!

Adorable!

I can hardly stand it!

I died laughing after I saw this picture later on my computer. That little girl was tearing off like that chicken had pecked her. Hahaha!

We finally took off around 7:30ish and made it home about 11:30pm. We were exhausted so I can't imagine how Susan & Sally felt! All that work and it definitely paid off. They really got a lot of exposure and sold a bunch of these sassy chickens. :)

When It Rains It Pours

2011-09-12T07:59:00.001-05:00

That statement is ringing very true for me right now. There have been so many things that have been drenching me lately with hard things. The most recent has been my Grandmother. I received a phone call in the middle of the night on Tuesday. (No phone calls in the middle of the night can ever be good.) My Grandma was rushed to the ER with some really scary things going on. After a very long day of stabilizing and running tests on her, they found out she is in the final stages of liver failure. She has been in heart failure for a very long time and we knew it was effecting other organs. It was just a matter of time before things were going to go down hill. It has been a tough week with a lot of tears from the whole family. She was able to come home on Saturday and will have care at home. The doctors are not sure if she has days, weeks or months left. I am just thankful for each day I get with her.

Again, sorry I've been so silent on here lately. I was at the hospital every chance I got last week which didn't leave a lot of time for anything else. If you wouldn't mind saying a few prayers for our family right now, that would be wonderful. I'm learning to try and take each day at a time. I am hoping for many more with my Grandma. Sorry for such a heavy post but I'm definitely feeling heavy as of late. I will be posting later today about a more fun and uplifting thing that happened this past weekend.

Random Smatherings

2011-09-02T10:07:00.000-05:00

I feel like it's been forever since I've just updating on life. Most of my blogs recently have just been about activities that the hubs and I have partaken in. This will be pretty random but I just wanted to get some of these things down to document life. Because, after all, that is what this blog is for.

(Side note: There will be random pictures of my cat Yogi thru out this post to spice it up. Plus, isn't he so cute?! He puts himself in all these situations. We did not have anything to do with it. Just found him like that. Ha!)

:: I know I've been in a major funk lately but I'm slowly starting to feel my old spunk returning. In fact, I just imed my husband this morning saying "I'm going to get skinny and decorate our house!". Random, but feeling motivated. Ha!

:: In terms of "getting skinny", my plan is to drink a TON of water so that I won't be as temped to grab that Dr. Pepper that's calling my name, be more active most days of the week then not and cutting out all the sweets at least until my SIL's wedding in October.

:: I've been at a major stand still with my house as of late. I am drawing a blank on how to finish almost all of the rooms. However, I feel as though I've turned a corner and have been incredible inspired by this blog, especially this post and this post. We can do it!!

:: Speaking of decorating... it's September and it's time to drag out the fall decorations! I can't wait to sip hot apple cider while snuggling next to the hubs on a cool night.

:: Speaking of Fall, I am so ready for this heat to disappear. It was seriously 104 degrees here yesterday... in September!! I've never been so ready for a summer to be over with. It's really effected my exercise routine. Who wants to die of a heat stroke while trying to run in this blazing hot humidity??

:: We've definitely been keeping ourselves busy since moving back to our home state. It's pretty much been a whirl wind and we are finally trying to slow ourselves down and just enjoy life. My golf league is getting close to wrapping up which will free up a night each week. That will be nice. :)

:: A few random other things going on currently, our friends Brad & Lindsey are under contract on both their house in Houston and their new house here! Ryan & I will be hosting a small group at our house that will be starting pretty soon that will last 6 weeks. We are pretty nervous about it but our pastor has been very encouraging. Heck, it's only 6 weeks right? How bad can we screw it up? :) My sister-in-law's, Emily, wedding is coming up fast. We've booked our hotel for half of the stay and need to book the rest. We are so looking forward to seeing where Emily & Sean live, spending time soaking in our surroundings and celebrating their love for each other.

:: And finally, I've been thinking about doing a post about our daily life. I think it would be interesting to do one around the same time each year to see how our life changes. I know it's dramatically different from our life 5 years ago. I can't wait to see how our life changes in another 5 years!

The Boulevard

2011-09-01T14:05:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday some of our friends had organized a tour of our local home grown brewery. They actually had to schedule our group months in advance to even get a spot! I guess they are so popular because the tours are free, and Ryan & I like free!

I guess I wasn't really sure what to expect but it was actually really neat and very informative. Our local brewery, the Boulevard Brewing Co., has grown to be the largest speciality brewer in the Midwest. It was fun to learn a little piece of Kansas City's history and how this once little brewery effected the development of our fine city. :)

The new addition.

Before we headed inside for the tour.

They had rooms full of barrels with different speciality brews.

I only snapped a few pictures of some of the rooms were were in.

This picture cracks me up of Gregs expression, Brit's sweaty back and John's stare.

I found out on this little tour that they have a sweet event space that over looks the city. Any local friends getting married in the future should really check it out for your reception. I'm just saying!

Family Golf Tourney '11

2011-08-28T22:13:00.000-05:00

I've been in such a blogging funk lately. Really, I've just been in a funk period. Whenever I get that way the thing I always do to help me get motivated again is writing out lists. It helps me visualize things I need to do and it feels so good to check them off the list. It works every time. :)

So, at the top of my list tonight was blogging about last weekend's annual family golf tournament. Go here to read about last year. It's become such a fun tradition to get my dad's side of the family together (and friends) to play golf. The actual name of the tourney is "You Don't Have to Know How to Play Golf, Golf Tournament". Love it.

This year our team of four included Harlan, Ryan, my friend Kara & I. We did pretty well since it was a scramble.

Harlan & Ryan

Kara & I

We met a friend along the way that followed us to a couple of holes.

I don't think you want to know what they were looking at...

Ok, you asked for it! So Harlan. Ha!

Like Father

Like Son

Can I just tell you think was the longest day of golf ever! Like, going down in the history book. 7 hours!! A team a couple of holes in front of us had flat tires on both of their golf carts, then the team in front of us was extremely slow and then it rained on us!! Got to love it.

The fantastic four.

I would play another 7 hours of golf if I could play it with you guys!

Sally Jane!

2011-08-23T20:29:00.000-05:00

Last week was my beautiful sis-in-law's 26th birthday! We tried to surprise Sally with a birthday dinner in the middle of the week by meeting half way in between our towns. Harlan drove her to Emporia where Ryan, Papa & I were all waiting for her at an Applebee's. I think she figured out what was going on as soon as her dad drove her out of their small town. :)

The birthday girl and her Grandfather

We were all treated to Papa's stories and jokes. He must of been talking about something serious in this pic!

It wouldn't be a birthday dinner without the free dessert and the servers serenading you!

And finally it was time for the gifts! Ryan of course had to have some fun with Sally first. After poking her in the hand with a tooth pick he gave her a DVD player for her new apartment space.

This was a clue to her final gift. Hint: it was an air pump

Ta Da!!!! Sally has been in need of a "new" bike for a long time now. Especially, since she just moved into her own place in a neighboring small town. So Ryan & I discussed it and decided to gift my bike to her. The bike will get so much more love now with it's new owner!

Priceless.

Weekend at the Lake

2011-08-17T08:11:00.000-05:00

This past weekend Brad & Lindsey invited us to Lindsey's parent's lake house in the Ozarks. Their lake house was amazing! It had 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and an annex! I believe they had enough room to sleep 10 people just in beds. It is definitely the perfect place to bring friends and have fun on the lake.

They family combined brought their 4 dogs on the trip as well. It made for an entertaining weekend.

See above. :)

Lindsey's little sister, Kelsey, & her fiance Austin where there as well. It was the first time we had seen them since they got engaged a few weeks ago. How cute are they?? That's a good future husband to be painting his fiance's nails.

Ryan & Brad

We pretty much spent most of the weekend out on their boat cruising around or swimming in the lake.

Linds & I

Austin & Kelsey manning the ship

Lindsey's mom, Sherry, and Linds

The boys getting ready for some tubing action.

The water was pretty choppy making it hard to stay on those things! So I decided to not subject myself to that.

The best was when Lindsey's dad, Reed, decided to tube. He must have been in this position for 20 minutes. Ha!

I think since we were giving him such a hard time about not doing anything fun he decided to do this.

Pretty impressive!

These are just a few pics of the back of the lake house and the views from the deck. It had so many different layers to the deck and even a screened in porch!

We had a blast with the Fuller family this weekend as always. Thanks for having us!! You may regret inviting us because we will probably beg to go all the time now. ;)

Entertaining Family

2011-08-12T09:58:00.000-05:00

It has been so ridiculously hot this summer I thought Ryan & I had brought the Houston heat with us to KC! I just don't remember the summers being this hot as a kid. We've finally been getting some relief from the heat the past few days but it's still been pretty humid. I can't ever remember a time where I have wished away a summer before but I am REALLY looking forward to fall this year. ;)

Considering all that, we really haven't sent that much time in our backyard this summer. We have a great space for entertaining but it just hasn't been possible. However, there was one night where we decided to brave the heat and invite my family over for a cookout. It at least wasn't deathly hot that night and everybody seemed to enjoy themselves.

That gang on our lower brick patio.

(You can see can Ryan in this picture wiping away his sweat standing over that hot grill.)

Cousin Chelsea, Aunt Cindy, Marty & Gene

Uncle John, Aunt Darla holding little Wyatt, Cousin Josh & Brad

Ryan, Cousin Shyla, Grandma and Cousin Jace. You can see part of our upper deck in this picture.

(My mom is missing from all these pictures because she was busy being the hostess with the mostest inside. Ha!)

It was so great to be able to have some of the family over to see our house and just spend some good quality time together. I feel very fortunate to have a family that all likes to hangout with each other. I swear they have something going on every week! Next weekend we are having our annual family golf tournament and I can't wait!

New Arrival!

2011-08-11T08:14:00.000-05:00

Stephanie's baby girl, Chloe Renee, is here!

Born 8/10/11 at 7:23 pm. 6 lbs 14 oz and 19 in long

Is she not just absolutely precious?! I can't wait to meet her and squeeze those little cheeks.

Visitors

2011-08-09T08:08:00.000-05:00

This is the only picture I took all weekend even though we had some great friends visiting us! I'm so bummed. I think I was just anti camera for some reason and needed a break from it.

Our good friends, Mark & Brittney, flew in from Houston to visit us for a fun weekend. Mark had never been to Kansas City before so we had to show him the ropes. The very first thing we did was introduce them to KC BBQ at Oklahoma Joe's. Mmmmm... Then we made our way to a Royal's baseball game that was actually pretty fun and had the best fireworks show I've ever seen there!

(I swiped this picture from Brittney's fb page since I didn't take a single picture of them!)

Saturday we slept in and then had brunch at one of our favorite places, First Watch. Then we drove them around for a little bit to show them the area, and I may or may not have forced them to try my favorite cookie place, Blue Chip Cookies. :) Afterwards, we stopped by my mom's since they had never met before for a short visit. Then we headed down to the plaza area to Papa's condo to swim at his pool. It is just so stinking hot these days it's hard not to make a pit stop at a pool. Once we got good and pruney we decided to go back to the house to shower and get ready for dinner. At first we were going to take them down to the Power & Light distract but at the last second just decided to go back to the Plaza and have dinner at Cafe Trio. We were all pretty worn out after dinner so we just came home and played Mario Kart for the rest of the evening. I know we are such nerds. Oh well!

Sunday we had to take Mark & Brittney back to the airport after our very short but fun filled weekend together. It was so good seeing them since it had been forever since the last time was saw them. I guess it's Ryan & I's turn to come visit you guys next! And I will make sure to take way more pictures this time.

So Blessed

2011-08-03T15:23:00.000-05:00

So my birthday was yesterday and I am now another year closer to 30. I seriously can not believe that. I still feel like I just graduated from high school!! I'm having a hard time dealing with the fact that I am no spring chicken anymore. Oh well, being 28 can't be all that bad when you have such a wonderful husband to share life with. He seriously out did himself this past week trying to make me feel special and honored on my birthday. I love that man!

Ryan believes in "birthday months". So we both get special treatment the month of our birthdays. Who am I to argue with that?? So if I can't decide what to do about dinner and I want him to make the decision, he has to because it's my birthday month. Ha!

Ryan started a little early with my birthday month this past Friday. He surprised me by taking me to the mall to buy some fun clothes and then taking me out to have dinner at Maker's Mark down in the Power & Light District. Lindsey & Brad were able to join us for the delicious food!

(All of these photo's were taken from my camera phone).

I know this looks gross but it's fried chicken on top of mash potatoes on top of waffles with syrup!! It was freaking amazing. I am craving it right now. Don't judge until you try it.

After dinner, Ryan had planned for us to enjoy a free concert that was going on right outside the restaurant. We had a blast that night.

On Saturday & Sunday, he took me shopping for things for the house and did whatever our hearts desired. That's always fun. Saturday night Ryan took me to see the last Harry Potter movie and we both enjoyed it.

Monday night my mom had us over for a steak dinners to celebrate. It was mouth watering good. She gave me these gorgeous flowers and a gift card to get a massage!

My mom even made me this delicious homemade chocolate chocolate chip cake.

Mmmm...

And then on my actual birthday Ryan ordered in pizza and had a few friends over to the house. He bought me this amazing red velvet, "birthday cake" ice cream cake from Cold Stone.

to die for

Ryan showered me with so much love, creativity, gifts and fun over these past few days it's been hard to recap! I am definitely a lucky girl. It's helped me forget the fact that I am now 28...

Matt's 30th

2011-08-02T08:11:00.000-05:00

Wow, this has taken me forever to post! My cousin's 30th birthday was on June 27!! The family tried to have a surprise birthday party for Matt but I think he figured it out before hand. :) Oh well, I think he still had a good time. Of course, Matt would not let me take a picture of him. So I snapped this cute one of his daughter ready to lick his cake. Ha!

His wife (and my golf partner) had the perfect cake made for him.

This was also an opportunity for me to meet the two newest additions to the family. Kathy is holding Chelsea's new baby boy, Wyatt. Isn't he a doll?

Isabelle, Kaylee and Addison the little girls of the family

(I am missing Tempe in this picture)

Uncle John, Aunt Cindy, Aunt Darla and Grandma in the backyard of Cindy's house.

Sommer kissing on her new baby boy, Liam.

The gang. The birthday boy is the one standing up holding the Coke.

Finally getting a chance to hold baby Wyatt. He was just too presh...

Can you even resist this chunky monkey?? His mom was trying to keep him cool sleeping in the shade.

This picture made me laugh out loud. Liam's face is like "what is this crazy lady doing with me?".

One final shot of Wyatt all curled up. Isn't it amazing how babies are so flexible when they are born? If this doesn't give you baby fever I don't know what will. :)

Stephanie's Shower

2011-07-29T07:35:00.000-05:00

I feel like there has been a lot of baby posts on here lately. I got to thinking about it, and I know 6 different women that are all due within a month of each other! So it makes sense that there would be lots of baby news. :)

One of my good friends, Stephanie, from church growing up is expecting her first child in August. A baby girl named Chloe Renee.

Sweet Treats

Look how adorable the favors were! (Strawberry malt balls) Stephanie even designed the cute stickers.

I always love a good diaper cake.

Chocolate and Strawberry cupcakes. Yum! Stephanie handmade the cupcakes and designed the toppers! She is so talented.

One of the shower games we played was to try and guess how big around Steph was with ribbon.

Stephanie even got in on the action and won!

We also played Bingo were you fill out your card with what gifts you think she will receive. That is always a fun one.

Stephanie definitely got a lot of fabulous gifts.

Who can resist baby socks!?

Me, Stephanie & Ashley

(all friends from church growing up)

The guests from the shower minus one. It was a fun bunch of girls.

I can't wait to see Stephanie become a mom and meet this sweet baby girl. She will be the best mom ever!

New Experience

2011-07-28T13:16:00.000-05:00

Sorry I've been so quiet on here this week. It's been a tough week for many reasons. But moving past that there have been so many things I've been meaning to blog about so I'll start getting to a few of them. One thing that's been a big part of my life since April has been golf. I never thought I would ever say that! Ha! Ryan has had a love for this sport since he was young and was always trying to get me to play with him. He even went as far as to buy me my own set of clubs off Ebay the first year we were married. I maybe used them once? My family is also really into golf and they even have an annual golf tournament that Ryan & I played in last year.

The women in my family also play on a women's golf league that I've been hearing about for years. Well, since I've moved home I was invited to join. I was a little hesitant at first since I'm terrible!! But they reassured me that I didn't have to be good to join. Plus, I wanted to spend more time with them so I agreed. What I didn't realize was that it was going to be every single Tuesday from April to September!! I was a little overwhelmed at first... but now I love it!! In fact, I look forward to it every week. :)

My partner in crime is my cousin (by marriage), Kathy. She is so naturally talented! It's been fun playing a different team each week so I can pick up tips from a bunch of different people.

I have started to improve so that's been exciting. However, one thing will get better and then another thing will get worse. I guess that's golf for you!

This is my favorite picture from the season by far. I was teeing off and hit my golf ball about a hundred yards right into a trunk of a tree, and I'm pretty sure that's poison ivy or oak!! That was a classic Lindsey move that everybody in the league is still laughing about. Oh well, at least I'm having fun!

Brighton's Video

2011-07-23T09:09:00.000-05:00

Here's the video that I couldn't seem to upload for the last post.

I can't handle those cheeks!

Meet Brighton & Violet

2011-07-22T10:47:00.000-05:00

Melissa's baby girls were born July 19th, Brighton Eloe at 6:28pm weighing 4lbs 12ozs and Violet Brucks at 6:29pm weight 3lbs 3ozs. Mom and the baby girls are doing great. The little ones will be in the NICU for a little bit until they can feed on their own and regulate their own body temperature. Other then that they did not have any other complications for being just a tad premature. Just some healthy twin baby girls.

My friend Kara & I went to visit Jeremy & Melissa in the hospital last night. We got to meet their daughters and even watch Melissa feed Brighton! This tiny one below is Violet. She has on the striped hat.

Violet hanging out in her incubator.

This is Brighton in the adorable ducky hat. Since she's a little bigger she doesn't have to be in an incubator. Mom is getting ready to try and see if she will take a bottle.

Melissa is such a natural!

They both have feeding tubes until they can eat from a bottle better.

Brighton is waking up a little!

Time to get burped! I tried to upload a video of this and it didn't work. I'll try and post that over the weekend.

Melissa taking Violet's temp and changing her diaper in preparation for her feeding.

Kara & I didn't stay to watch Violet's feeding since you can only have 4 people at a time back in the NICU. We wanted to let Jeremy's parents come back too.

They were so tiny and just absolutely precious. They are two lucky girls to have Jeremy & Melissa as their parents. Can't wait until they get to go home with them!

A list & A Birthday

2011-07-20T08:21:00.000-05:00

There have been a few things going on this past week that I am just going to bullet point them.

Melissa had her twin baby girls, Violet Brucks & Brighton Eloe, last night!! The middle names are their grandmother's maiden names. I can't wait to meet them!

Brad & Lindsey moved in with us this past weekend. And you better believe we have already started our Canasta tournament. They will be with us until their home in Houston sells and they close on another house here in KC.

Speaking of Lindsey, if you have been watching Expedition Impossible then you know Team Kansas was the last time to finish and was sent home. :( They did so well and we are all so proud of them. They made it 4 weeks! If you missed the last couple of episodes you can still watch them on ABC's website. You can't miss Lindsey getting thrown off a camel!!

Finally, it was my mom's birthday on Sunday. We took her to a movie Saturday night, then went to church together the next day, lunch a Five Guys, stopped by to check out the newly opened, extremely packed Trader Joes, and then made a homemade dinner for her that night!

I think I'm really going to enjoy Brad staying with us because he really likes to cook! Ryan & Brad made us all homemade pizzas to celebrate my mom. She got us that pizza stone so we thought it was only appropriate. :)

Yogi was doing his part too.

The birthday girl!

Instead of a cake this year we decided on brownies. One of my mom's gifts was a brownie pan that ensures that every brownie has edges. She's been talking about one forever. So I had her open her gift and then I used it to make these delicious beauties. They turned out sooooo good! Highly recommend this pan.

Make a wish!

I was thrilled to be able to celebrate my mom's birthday this year at home in KC. Looking forward to what this next year has in store for my mom!

At the end of the night, Brad decided this was a "welcome home" dinner for him as well. So he had me rearrange the fondant letters to spell out his name. Ha!