Weekend Wrap Up :)

It is Monday so that means it is time for a weekend wrap up! We had a lot of fun this weekend and we have tons of pictures to prove it! Thursday night we had some newly married friends over for a yummy lasagna dinner. As I was setting the table I realized that I matched the dining room and the plates! It was a fun moment of realization for me :) The Mr. was there to document everything for me!

Friday night we ran to the grocery store to pick up some things and stopped at Ruby Tuesday's for dinner. It is just me, or do they have the best salad bar?! I love it! Once we were home we got ready for bed and watched some of my favorite show, Friends before going to bed and reading our books until some hour in the middle of the night...seriously, I stayed up way to late but I cannot put down Karen Kingsbury's Redemption Series...it is SO good!

*I also made a very cute Valentine's Day craft Friday night that I will share with you later this week!

Saturday morning The Mr. was so sweet and got up and went to the post office while I slept in. We had some packages to ship and our post office is only open until noon on Saturday (and it is usually packed with people!) It was so nice to sleep in late in our oh.so.warm bed! We had fun plans for the day though, so getting up was pretty easy. My SIL dropped her two younger kiddos off with us for the day and the fun began! After watching Despicable Me and having a mac-n-cheese picnic in the living room it was time to pack up and head out for a sledding party and soup dinner with friends from church. *Please note that I may have been more excited about the sledding than the girls! Here is documentation of all the fun we had sledding:

Hadley was such a ham in the car...until she feel asleep!

How cute is she in her snow gear? She was so padded, I think she would bounce if you dropped her!

The Had and The Uncle, ready to do!

Ainsley with very rosy cheeks!

Ready to go down the hill, she was so excited! (I was too!)

I think this was Had's favorite part of sledding; getting pulled back up the hill. She would purposely fall out and start yelling "help me, somebody help me!" Too cute!

Cousin Tim and Hadley...she was brave enough to ride with anyone after awhile!



All smiles from this girl!



Tim and Ainsley!

Ainsley and Hadley getting ready for a push from Tim!

Last run for the day because it was getting dark. We had so much fun!

Our Sunday was pretty low-key. We were driving to Subway for lunch (delicious salad, by the way!) and stopped in North Manchester at the covered bridge. This is the first covered bridge that I have been on to my knowledge and it reminded me to much of a painting in my Grandma's house of a covered bridge. Gram, doesn't this remind you of the painting?

We hope everyone had a great weekend and has a great week also. We are forecasted for a winter snow/ice storm that will begin tonight and work it's way through Wednesday. I will be sure to report back and let you now how much snow and/or ice we get over the next few days! Is it weird that I am excited about this storm? Yes? Okay...See you all next time!

...a little bit of everything!

This is another one of my very random posts that will cover topics across the board; from a celebrity being in my hometown to WW week one recap! Hope you all enjoy the update and my random musings!

First off let me tell you about some exciting news I got on Wednesday. I knew that Extreme Makeover was planning to be in North Florida, but the family who would be blessed by their presence had not been announced. Well, Wednesday morning they announced who the family was and it is someone I know-from a distance. Coach Pewitt was and has been the coach at the high school I graduated from for years. She also organized and directs a volleyball league in the area and several summer volleyball camps, which I can say I attended back in the day. On top of this exciting announcement for people in the area, the filming crew and stars were at the high school yesterday where they "surprised" coach with the news. This is what I was excited about. I would have been SO excited to be a student in a small high school and be surprised by seeing Ty Pennington walking in the halls...man oh man.

Since my little brother is a Sophomore at that school I figured I could live vicariously through him, yes? Well, no. He was not at all excited about the filming or the stars. He actually seemed disgusted about the hussle and bussel that was happening all around him. I can only imagine that girls want to hug/take picture with/get autographs from Ty...boys, not so much. I guess that is understandable...

I know people are already worried about what will happen after the house is built and life returns back to normal for this family and the surrounding area. Hopefully the family is able to afford the larger electricity bill that a much bigger house and new appliances will bring, along with the increase in property taxes. Regardless, this is such a huge blessing and will definitely change their lives!

Second, lets talk about WW. If you recall I started the online WW program last week officially on Thursday, so today was weigh in day! I realize that maybe I was too excited about getting on a scale today, but I just knew I was going to see results AND I did! I am down 2.8lbs since last Thursday morning. I'll take that...week after week, yes please! Can you picture me doing a happy dance in my Old Navy jingle jammies in my bathroom this morning? don't judge...it happened! {insert enthusiastic high five here} Here is to a successful second week and healthy lifestyle changes!

Last but not least, we are having company over for dinner and games tonight. I am really excited to see Tina and her new husband Kyle. I am sure there will be lots of talking about the details of their wedding and honeymoon adventures. It is such a blessing to have other newlywed friends close by!

Tina, me and MOH Keri at my Indiana Bridal Shower :)

We have so fun plans this weekend that we are looking forward to also. On Saturday we are watching our younger nieces so my SIL can take Emma to her gymnastics meet. I love these girls, and am really looking forward to spending time with them. If there is snow on the ground; which there should be, we are going to a sledding party Saturday afternoon too. It should be loads of fun and I have a feeling we will have a fun update with pictures on Monday!

Update and taxes...dun dun dun

Not to much to update you with here in our lives. We had a very laid back and relaxed weekend that included a full day in our jammies. We woke up Saturday around 11 and finished watching a movie we had started Friday night while the snow was falling. Once the movie was over I thought about getting dressed and doing my hair/makeup...but that did not happen. We spent the afternoon reading and scrapbooking before finishing the evening up with a competitive game of Scene It Friends Edition. The Mr. had gotten that for me as a Christmas gift and this was the first time we broke it out. It was SO much fun, AND since we have both seen every episode multiple times we were pretty stinkin' good!

Sunday we made it to church just a little bit late for Sunday School and then spent the afternoon doing laundry, watching football, AND Hallmark movies. Oh, it was so nice! On top of the fact that they were Hallmark movies, they were also wedding movies-one after the other! I stopped after the second one so The Mr. could watch his football game!

So now the not-so-fun topic of taxes. If you are newly married, have you thought about the stress of filing yuor taxes with your hubs? Well, let me just tell you that it is overwhelming. To me at least! We were discussing how and when to file last night when several questions popped up; 1.) Do we file jointly if we have only been married 4 months? 2.) Do I file in IN and FL since I moved in Sept? 3.) If we file separately, whose filing does our joint check and savings earning go on? 4.) etc, etc. There were more I am sure! After feeling overwhelmed by just discussing the topic, we dropped it and will probably go somewhere tacky like HR Block and have them completed for us! If you have any advice or ideas or answers please comment or shoot me an email please-this means you Aunt Erin (my go to tax question answerer!)

Hope everyone has a great week!

Complete Randomness...

I am running low (not empty, just low) on creative juices today, so this post will be bullet style. Hopefully things will get back to normal next week! Here are my random Thursday ramblings and snippets on what is going on with our life:

• I am wearing corduroy today for the first time in my life (that I can remember)...I officially live in the North-well, technically the Mid-West!
• The Mr. needed a haircut...badly. Only he did not know where to go for one in our town and really does not have time with his work schedule. The solution? I cut it. Yep, I cut his hair! AND it turned out very well for my first time. We were both happy in the end, so hopefully he will let me do it again :)
• I have been busy working on our wedding scrapbook, and I am so excited to have it finished. It really is fun to look at all the pictures and remember details from that moment to document them. I cannot wait to start on our first year of marriage scrapbook when the wedding one is complete!
• We have been pondering ideas for summer vacations and have narrowed it down. So far, the first weekend trip is to Kentucky for my friend Brooke's May wedding :)
• I am really looking forward to Winter Jam this weekend in Fort Wayne, I just know it is going to be a great time praising God!...I do love the Newsboys and Michael Tait!
• I  officially started Weight Watchers online this week to shed some marriage weight. It is crazy how fast you can gain and how long it takes to lose! I have heard great things about the new PointsPlus program and the accessibility of doing it online and I am excited. My first weigh in is next Thursday-hopefully there will be results!
• The Mr. and I are already on Season 8 of Friends that means before we know it, we will be done. What show should we start watching next? Being the Friends nut that I am, I would be okay with starting over and watching them all again...or backwards maybe?
• I really, really, really have been craving some Southern BBQ...Sonny's or MoJo's would be the best. Why did I not think of eating there when we were in FL for Christmas!?!
• It seems like everyone we know is either engaged, or pregnant-so we have lots of gifts to buy. It has been so much fun shopping for sweet baby clothes, who does not love that!?! We can't wait to meet all the new additions very soon!

I hope everyone has a blessed day-just remember that it is almost Friday. Woohoo!



Wedding Picture Galore!

If the title was not enough of a warning for you; be warned-this post has a lot of pictures! :)

Since I have finally received our wedding photos from our photographer I thought I would share some of my favorite with you all! I have been working on uploading all 921 photos to an online photo account to share with all our family and friends. Don't worry, if you are a blood relative; once that upload is complete you will get an email with details on how to get access to the pictures. We know that many family members may want pictures that were taken that day of them, or fun wedding stuff! Okay, so now here are some of my favorites!!

Are you ready!??!

GO:

The sanctuary before guests began to arrive...

I did not actually wear these shoes. I had planned on it, and I did wear them for my bridal session but completely forgot on the wedding day. Not the end of the world though because I had cute (and comfy!) purple flats!

I love this shot of all the boys, our ring bearer's face is my favorite. He looks like a toy soldier he is standing so straight-way to go Will!

My hand (and ring) with all of my BM before the ceremony...lots of anticipation in this picture, you just can't tell!

3 Generations, love this picture with Mom and Gram and SO glad the photographer could crop out the ugly projector screen behind us! :)

Lots of love!

Daddy's little girl!

My (handsome) hubs!

During the ceremony...not sure what part...

Delicious cake-seriously, it was SO good!

We're MARRIED! Tearful bride? Yes!

"We are FAMILY!"

I think this is how we all felt about pictures at this point..SO over it!

Saw this shot in a magazine and had our photographer try to recreate it. It is similar, but not exactly what I had envisioned.

All of us by my uncles old Chevy truck. This truck was given to my as a joke on my 16th birthday and it is still in the family. I am glad we thought to use it because the pictures are great!

Love this one!

Newlyweds in front of the church. People may or may not have been honking at us as they drove by...

I had beautiful flowers! A friend of my Mom's helped with all the flowers, which were a mixture of silk flowers and real ones. They were perfect!

This one is framed and in our living room :)

My BIL and soon to be SIL-they are getting married in June! :)

Not sure about the edits on this one...guess it is kind of neat.

Invitations (DIY'ed by me), rings, and a centerpiece...

Toasting our new life together :)

Toasting glasses that I got a great deal on. They are personalized too, though you cannot really tell in this picture.

Haha-during the toasts the Bestman said something I obviously did not agree with, or understand...and it was all captured.

Maid of Honor and Best Man toasts...very sweet!



The Mr. thanking everyone for coming and supporting us...tearful and funny moment!

His awesome, kick butt grooms cake! It was just what he wanted! :)

Spending time together...

My maternal Grandmother and her children

Our parents, happy that it is over! :)

Calling "all the single lades!"

Lookin' good!

:)

My good friend Serena and her man Jonathan-who are getting married in June!

Leaving with bubbles! Only we did not really leave :)

That's about all I have for today. I have tons more pictures from friends and family who photographed during the wedding and after the photographer left too. I love the picture Aunt E captured while we opened our gifts! Hope everyone has a fantastic Wednesday!