Midweek Randoms!

• It is February 1st and I am wearing open toed shoes...in Indiana. This is NOT normal. While I feel like I probably shouldn't complain about this fact, I just can't help by complain. I want winter, with snow falling, hot tea, snuggling and watching movies and sledding galore. So far this year we have had a couple snow falls, but with no opportunity to play in it :(
• Last Year on Feb. 10th the temperature was -6*, this year the high is 40*...and that will probably go up before the 10th gets here!
• We have family coming up on the 17th to see snow and I don't know if there is going to be snow for them to see. This is just sad! I am super excited to see them though!
• I am LOVING my new car...still a little sad that I had to say goodbye to my Civic, but I know we did the right thing!
• Louie has been keeping us on our toes. It is so funny when he is in a playful mood. I love coming home from work and seeing him waiting at the door for me. He is just the most precious thing...
• We will be headed to Florida in 45 days for vacation-AND we are taking Louie with us! We just could not bear to leave him with a stranger or in a kennel. Given his abusive background and the fact that he was in a kennel for 5 years I just could not do that to him. Pray for us on this trip...should be fun, right?
• I am already looking forward to the Vera Outlet Sale. Remember last years sale? It was so much fun and this year will be too! My good friend Brooke and her Mom are driving up from Kentucky to join and will be staying at our house. I am so looking forward to seeing them both again!
• I am hosting my first party at our house and I am nervous yet excited at the same time. All week I have been thinking of creative ways to display food and different things...it's so fun! If you like Mary-Kay or want to learn more about Mary-Kay; you can shop here. Right now there is free shipping!
• Did I mention we are going to Florida and I am excited? Well, I am! I am ready for some BBQ and some sunshine! Oh, and Mickey Mouse...can't forget him since we will be at Disney!
• The Honda dealership where we purchased our car offers free car washes whenever you want. I can tell you that I really like that feature and have already taken advantage of it! :) I love a clean car!
• I could care less about the Superbowl. There, I said it. I know it is in Indianapolis this year and that is great for our state but I don't care to be part of it. I did that when it was in Jacksonville and I wasn't impressed then either. We are going to a Superbowl party...the hostess bribed me with her son since she knows how much I love babies, ha!
• We are planning on adding backsplash in our kitchen next weekend...should be fun!
• We now have a lovely deep freezer in our basement. It was a lovely gift from Stephen's parents this Christmas and it will be used a lot with our little family. Can't wait to stock it full of veggies and meat!

That's really all I have to share for now...but I will leave you with some pictures taken over the course of the past week:

Above: Driving the new car on Saturday together :)
Below: The pretty blue sky and dusting of snow from Friday. It was lovely outside!

The pretty weather disappeared and left is with this on Sunday morning:


Got this idea from Pinterest and I love the way it turned out:

Louie has been snuggly this week and I love it. How handsome is he?!


Hope everyone has a great Wednesday and enjoys the rest of the week!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...everywhere you turn!

Well folks, we finally got our first snowfall this season! I had been waiting anxiously for quite some time, so I was maybe the only person who was actually excited about it. Seriously, I ran to the window at work with excitement and was met with grouchy, bah humbug comments from co-workers. Apparently people do not appreciate the beauty of snow!

What's not to love!? Well, I learned driving home Tuesday night, that driving is what's not to love. The roads were HORRIBLE in my opinion. Since I am a Florida girl and have very little driving in snow experience I thought that it might just be me, but no. Many people reported horrible roads and had serious problems commuting home. I can't even remember how many cars I passed that had slid off into ditches or fields.

It was scary!

It ended up taking me almost an hour in a half to make it home (about 25 miles), and it was dark. I was so thankful to finally be home, safe and warm. I will tell you that I prayed a lot on the drive home Tuesday night!

We snapped some pictures on Tuesday night while it was still snowing and I took some Wednesday night too. Louie is not a fan of the snow yet, but I hope he comes to like it. If he doesn't-it could be a very long winter for him!

Here are some pictures:

The flakes were big, heavy and wet. They stuck to things like electric poles, wires, trees, fences...you name it. It was beautiful!

Louie in his winter coat...poor pup was not happy!

Isn't he cute!?

These were taken on Wednesday:

Louie was so excited to see me when I came home. He was running and jumping and it was so cute. I tried to capture some pictures of him, but it was difficult! I love the above picture though...

He had to take a break and do some licking, this just cracks me up!

And of course I had to take some pictures of the glowing Christmas tree :) Have I mentioned that I love this time of year?! I do!

See that ruffle tree skirt? I made it and I love it with our tree!

LOVE the reflection in the window on this one!

Has anyone else been hit with snow this week? I am sure ours will melt because it doesn't look like we will get anymore for about a week. I do hope that we have a white Christmas for my family from Florida. I have been praying for that everyday! Have a great Thursday everyone!

Wednesday Weekend Update

My apologies for this weekend update taking place on Wednesday. Really on Monday and Tuesday I was just not in a blogging mood-so yeah. Lets look at the bright side, you get an update today :)

Our weekend started when The Mr. picked me up from work on Friday. If you remember, he drove me because he had a snow day from work and the roads were worse than I wanted to try and drive one. Anyways, on Friday he had ran to the grocery store and on the way there saw that our Blockbuster is going out of business and was having a huge sale. He did not stop during the day (which I am thankful for) so we went after work together. Boy did we hit the pre-viewed movie heaven! We walked out with 11 DVD's and Blue Ray's and I was SO excited! We have already watched Nights in Rodanthe and The Bounty Hunter. I loved them both and will be watching them again many times :) The Mr. liked The Bounty Hunter, but not Nights in Rodanthe-I could have predicted that! Have you seen these movies, what did you think about them?

Saturday morning we were up bright and early to head to the ski lodge. We met everyone at the church at 7:00am 7:10am and hit the road for Michigan. I am not sure what time we got there, or what time we started playing in the snow...but we spent the day snow tubing with a group of about 10 non-skiing people and had a blast! Our oldest niece, Emma tried skiing for the first time and totally rocked it. She spent the day on the slopes with her Mom and Dad. Ainsley spent the day on the hill with us :) Here are pictures from our day at Timber Ridge:

It was a such a long day and I was so tired by the end of it. We made it back to our apartment around 11 and I showered immediately and crashed. I felt badly because I left Stephen to unload our cooler and unpack the bag of extra clothes all alone, I literally was in the shower before he had the door locked. Thank goodness I have a wonderful husband!

Sunday morning I was moving pretty slow, making up late for church. We still made it before the worship and offering, so I think we did pretty good :) After church we met my MIL and FIL for lunch with my SIL and her family. We had a delicious lunch at my favorite Mexican restaurant in Manchester, IN-yummo! I am sure you can guess what we did after lunch...laundry, yep! We also watched the 3rd Harry Potter movie with Emma and plan on watching the 4th next week. I am surprised that I really like the movies (except for when there is a snake on the screen) but I still so not think I want to read the books...we will see I guess!

So that was our weekend in a nut shell. We have more fun and exciting plans on the agenda for this weekend and I am excited about that! I am sure next week we will have another weekend wrap up post with pictures so look forward to that!

I can't finish this post without wishing my husband a Happy Anniversary! Can you believe we have already been married 5 months?! Time flies when you are having fun :)

Happy Wednesday everyone! xoxo

FRIDAY!

It is finally Friday, but is it 5 yet!?! This week has just gone really slowly for some reason! I do think that I may be coming down with something though because I have been so tired and just not myself this week. I know there is a flu bug going around our area and I really hope we can keep it away from our house! I have a date tonight with a can of Lysol :)

Maybe this week has gone slow for us because we have fun plans this weekend that we have been looking forward to! We will be rising when it is still dark outside on Saturday morning and headed to Michigan for a fun day of skiing (husband) and snow tubing (me). Granted, I am not so much looking forward to getting up so early-but with some coffee I think I will manage just fine!

Speaking of skiing and snow-we got more snow! The Mr. actually had a snow day from work today (lucky!) due to weather. Luckily, that meant he got to drive me to work because the drifted snow was not something this girl was excited about driving in! Aside from our ski trip this weekend I think I am about over the snow. I am dreaming about spring and cute sandals, dresses, pedicures, beaches, lakes, flowers, and...just warmer weather! My Mom actually texted me a picture yesterday of the thermometer in her car and it read 80 degrees(!!!)-while it was blowing snow here! So, what did I do when I got home last night? Went straight to our honeymoon album and soaked up all the sun I could through our honeymoon pictures in Hawaii. If you missed the post about Kauai, you can get caught up here. Can we go back there soon? K, thanks!

Can you hear it too? Kauai is calling my name!

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for little Anna Grace! Anna is making strides and becoming stronger each day. Her growth in such a short period of time is really astonishing and all thanks to God. She is fighting and so cute doing it! They were able to remove her from the ventilator and place her on a CPAP-which has been working well. Her Mom is updating a CaringBridge journal for her daily to keep us all updated. Please continue to pray for her and her family!

How precious is this little girl with her Gold & Black bow supporting Purdue? Too cute for words, and look bog big she is getting already. Keep on growing Anna!

Another prayer request is for a fellow blogger who lost her precious daughter Maddie in the past week. She has been updating her blog regularly and using it as an outlet for her emotions. It always leaves me teary as I cannot imagine what she is going through right now. My heart and prayers goes out to you! You can see her blog here. Please lift her and her husband up in prayers this week and in the coming days!

Well, that is about all for today...hope everyone has a great weekend and soak up the sunshine if you are in a state that has any! I shall return on Monday with pictures of The Mr. hitting the slopes! :)

Children are a blessing from the Lord....
Psalm 127:3

Weekend Wrap Up

[This post contains LOTS and LOTS of pictures. I am just warning you!]

Sometimes weekends can surprise you. This weekend did that for us. We really did not have any plans on Friday other than dinner on Saturday with family, but this weekend ended up being a fun packed and snow filled one for sure! Our town does this event called "First Friday's" downtown. It happens on the first Friday of every month, and we have heard it can be a lot of fun. The Mr. and I had talked about going and had even seen the beginning of the preparation early Friday while out running errands. Long story short; we stayed home. Our Friday night consisted of pajamas, homemade pancakes with banana and cinnamon, and of course my favorite show: Friends. We went to bed pretty early and still had no set plans for Saturday other than the dinner with family.

So, Saturday morning comes. The Mr. woke me up at 9 just like I had asked him to. Although at the time, getting up was not what I wanted to do at all! As I rolled over and was getting some more sleep he came back into our bedroom and said it was snowing big flakes. I got up and out of the bed so quickly I almost feel down. It really was a comical moment!

This is what we woke up to on Saturday, so pretty!

I am slightly obsessed with snow on Christmas trees...don't judge!

Finally-snow in my hair for a picture! I remember going to WDW in high school with Mom, Hunter, Aunt Barb and Naomi and being so excited that it was going to snow on Main Street at night only to be disappointed that it was bubbles and did not stay in your hair or the ground because they popped!



Snowy Honda...it handles it well!

Leaving the apartment in search of sleds...these are what the roads looked like!

After seeing the abundance of snow and containing my childlike excitement we had a plan. We were going out into the cold determined to find some sleds and a good hill to use them on! After striking out at Kmart and the Big R in town, we hit up a sporting good store that I thought would have them, but be expensive. Boy was I wrong, they did have them and they were only $7.95. Score for us! Now we just had to find a public hill! Thanks to our friends Kyle and Tina we were there within the hour and had the entire hill to ourselves. It was bliss...well, for me at least!

We claimed our space on the hill behind Grace College's dining hall and spent a couple hours there. Fresh snow was still falling and that only added to my idea of perfection. We sledded for a couple hours after getting our path made and perfected our runs on our new oh.so.cheap flexible flyer sleds! We had SO much fun!

I love my Flexible Flyer!

Can you tell I was excited? Yes?

Ready...Set...Go!

Snowy Kisses :) xoxo

Allow me to teach you the proper snow angel making form...

How beautiful is this!?

After a collision...snow everywhere but still so happy and having TONS of fun!



After some hours on the hill we headed home to shower and change out of our wet snow clothes and head to Fort Wayne for dinner with family celebrating my SIL's birthday (that was last week)...the roads getting there were pretty bad. We drove past a couple cars that had slid off the road into the ditch and passed several semi trucks who were going super slow. I was glad I had my book to read so I was not focused on the mess that was the road, and our 45 minute commute that took much longer! We met and had dinner at Flat Top Grill, which is a Mongolian BBQ type of place. It was delicious! After dinner we went to Charming Charlies with the girls...they were so funny! Hadley came to life in that store and I had a hard time keeping up with her. I think she had difficulty deciding while glittery/sparkly thing to go look at next!  Emma and Ainsley were also mesmerized by the colors and sparkle. It was just fun to be there with them! :)

Hadley-little Miss Fashionista!

Strike a pose!

After Charlie's, The Mr. and I headed to Michael's for some scrapbooking necessities and then we were headed home...after a stop at Burlington Coat Factory and Target. We got home kind of late, but thankfully the roads were much better going home! Whew!

Sunday we were up and headed to church while snow was falling again :) After church we went to our favorite Mexican place in North Manchester with the girls and their parents. After lunch and starting another load of laundry we geared up to play in the snow again. We had a great time in their backyard on their snow slides and then packed into the van and headed to a park for sledding on a big hill. Turns out the girls had friends at the park who were sledding so they had a blast!

Pretty in Pink!

The Mr. and Had getting ready to go down the hill by the barn!

All of us girls, and Reggie!

The girls and some friends at the park on a massive sled! They all went down the hill like that!

Could we cheese any harder? I think not!

Warming up after a wipeout with Aunt E's dry hat and some Root Beer, which fixes everything when Mommy and paci are not available!

Sound asleep on the drive home, only minutes after leaving the park!

After sledding and the drive home we all came inside with a pot full of clean snow. While Hadley took a warm bubble bath and the older girls changed into warm, dry clothes I made snow ice cream. I used a recipe I found online and just poured milk, sugar and vanilla in to taste. It was actually pretty good, a little watery/milky but cold and creamy at the same time. We all had a bowl full with colorful sprinkles on top! We had just finished eating and getting warmed up with their Mom and Dad came home from their youth group activity at church and the Superbowl started :) Perfect timing!

We ordered pizza and watched the football game-cheering on the Packers the whole time. The Mr. and I left a little after half time and headed home with our clean laundry! While we were driving it was sleeting, but soon turned to snow flakes. The perfect ending to a great weekend with snow, family and great food!

After such a fun weekend, I think sledding is on our agenda for next weekend too! Hope everyone had a great weekend and has a great week too!