Happy Birthday to me??!!

I've always liked celebrating birthdays whether its mine, Garrett's, or other family members. It brings people together often for a good day of laughter and fun. This year I turned 27. My birthday was on a Friday and I had taken the week off from work to finish up all grad school homework. We laid in bed for a long time and Garrett pretended to stay asleep so he wouldn't lead on to the surprise he left me in the house! I went into the hall to turn the heat up and when I opened the bedroom door there were BALLOONS, STREAMERS, SIGNS, PARTY HATS, and CANDY waiting for me all over the house! What a fun surprise! It was so nice spending the day with Garrett. We laid low at home, watched some movies and ran a few errands. Garrett went off to work at 2 and I was home alone until my mom came over later that evening.

I am definitely my mother's daughter. We goofed off all night and she even came up with the silly idea to move all the decorations into different places around the house, all balloons were in the bathtub, the door streamers we put on his side of the bed! it was also mom's ides to hide from Garrett when he got home from work! Ha ha. What I didn't know was that my sneaky mother and husband had planned a family birthday surprise Saturday afternoon. HERE'S TO A GREAT YEAR BEING 27!

Chicken N Dumpling

Making a tight budget stretch is VERY hard, and I wish I could say that we were on the healthy bandwagon or the Paleo drive, but we aren't! Being married to a 22 year old bottom-less pit makes the grocery budget hard to maintain. Lucky for me he will eat anything, BUT olives and pickles. SO with a few left over ingredients in our pantry I came up with Chicken N Dumpling soup.

Now I wish I could tell you what I put into the soup and how much of what went into it, but I never measure and never know how its going to taste when its finished. I must admit it was delicious and I had a HAPPY husband!

100th Day of School

Having a 7 year old sister-in-law definitely has its FUN moments! These moments are especially fun when she attends school where I work! The first graders celebrate the 100th day of school with costumes, songs, and a parade around the school. Well, Emma isn't a first grader, but we had been planning a special project together for the 100th day of school.

One evening while I was watching Emma we decided to make a special shirt for the 100th day of school. We came up with a tally mark design and Emma chose all the colors and the order they went on the shirt. I finished the shirt and took it to school for Emma to wear. Her teacher had her stand in front of her class and discussed the 100 tally marks! Oh course Emma loved the attention. The first grade teachers loved the design and asked for the template for next school year. Here is the before and after...


                                                                         BEFORE

                                                                     

                                                                           AFTER

My amazing, talented, and creative sister

For the past 6 months, my sister Lindsay has been SUPER busy!!! There is never a dull moment in her life. She returned back to work in November, is raising a beautiful little boy, keeping up with the activities of her husband Evan, and always making time for friends and family!!

She has been so thoughtful to make sure that all those around her and keeping up with fast growing Conrad!! He is 6.5 months old and we tried 4 different pairs of size 12 month pants on him! Each were TOO tight!!!! WOWZA!

Here are the beautiful cards she has created and sent out over the last 6 months!

                BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENT!

Front

Back

THANK YOU CARDS!!

Front

Inside

Front

Inside

Front

 

Inside

Front

Inside

VALENTINES DAY CARD!

Front

Inside

Love you Lindsay!! You are a 

wonderful mother!!!!

OUR BIG DAY!!

As planning for the wedding started, choosing a date was turning out to be a lot harder than I thought!! Garrett and I threw around several dates for our wedding. I love the patterns of numbers and I have always tried to use my favorite number, 5, in parts of my life or find it in the numbers around me. For instance, I was the number 12 in softball during college. 5 was already taken, sad, but 5+7 (my other favorite number) = 12! ha ha... so Garrett and I tossed around Oct. 5th 2012, January 5, 2013 as possible wedding dates. The decision to get married January 5, 2013 as our wedding date. It best suited all parties involved.

I was having a real sad feeling about that date because planning a winter wedding was something I never imagined for myself. Garrett and I started per-marriage counseling soon after our engagement and during that time we decided that we were going to choose a date that worked for us, and decided to get married sooner. August 12, 2012 was the day we would hold our actual wedding.

We began planning an engagement party to make sure our out of town family would be able to make it out our wedding. We also spilled the beans to out of town family too that we would be getting married in August. As the day came closer, our counselors helped us realize that my family would be very saddened to know it was my wedding the day of.

We began to share with family members that the day had been changed, and when the real wedding would take place. Many were happy, a few were confused, and some were sad. I shared in the sadness too, especially with my sister Lindsay. I was risking her not being at the wedding with the new baby on the way, and unsure of how life would be after the birth.

Planning turned into high gear, and within 3 weeks, our WEDDING was here!!!

     It was a beautiful, HOT day! We had so many people there helping set up and organize the  ceremony and reception site. We planned a small wedding, at the Red Cross Building downtown Vancouver. We held the ceremony outside on the brick patio, and the reception was inside the beautiful historic building. Here are little glimpses of our BIG day!

 Getting ready at my little tiny apartment, which was a total mess!!! My hair and make-up was done by Jessica Gandy. I originally decided that I was going to do my own hair and make-up to save money, but last minute (the week before) I had asked Jessica. The story behind that, Jessica was a neighborhood girl that Kelsey and I went to school with along with Jessica's brother. I happened to look on facebook and liked Jessica's hair. I just emailed her and asked if it was something she would be interested in doing. Jessica lives in Idaho now, and was going to be visiting family in Vancouver the weekend of the wedding so she was delighted to help!! LUCKY ME!! Jessica flew in the night before the wedding and we met to go over what I was thinking for hair and make-up! She did a fabulous job, and my hair stayed for most of the honeymoon!!

                                              Katie, one of Garrett's younger sister's and Kyron

 Flowers were all local and hand picked. I went to Dave's Dahlias, Saturday morning and picked most of what I could. Dave and his wife life down the street from my mom's house. Mrs. Radkie taught as our local elementary school. She was my sister's teacher and also Garrett's teacher! She also sings in church with my Grandma!! I loved having so many connections in making this wedding! My BFF Kara also recommended Wayne's Dahlias.Wayne and his wife are a retired couple that own a beautiful dahlia farm. I walked down the rows and marked the flowers I wanted for the wedding. They picked and wrapped them for me, which made making arrangements very easy!

If you look closely, you can see the PURPLE mom added to my dress!!

Pictures turned out beautiful! With so many textures
and backgrounds provided by the Historic Fort. I love how the colors of the flowers and dresses POP off the brick and the white wood!

This is one of my favorites! It looks like a magazine add.

The details of our wedding were so simple. I designed the wedding program and printed them off at home. The Better Together sign came from left over wood in my Brother-in-laws yard! The cake knife and server were used in both of my sister's weddings. We added beads of each sister's wedding colors

Kelsey found these R napkins that made a great finishing touch!

Aunt Kelly giving me a Hankie from Ester.

MY SHOES!!!

This candle was our symbol of Garrett's late father Robert. It was on our alter

We stayed traditional and this was our FIRST look!!

Sealed with a KISS!!

SISTERS! SO happy they were here to share the love!

BABY CONRAD!!!!

The birds on our cake were Garrett's Great Grandmothers. I saw them on his mother's counter and asked if I could use them. We had no idea what we were going to put on top! These were perfect!

We had so much fun celebrating our new marriage with family and friend!! We left the wedding in Garrett's truck and headed to a surprise (for me) honeymoon. We headed east out to the Gorge. We spent 3 days at the Skamania Lodge. We entered the room filled with decorations! Garrett's aunts came to the room before the wedding and decorated it with a sign, candles, and flowers!! It was great, I have never had a sign before! Our room came complete with a bottle of wine and glasses, I'm not sure if we were supposed to leave the glasses but I took them to remember our stay (plus, my mom has hers from their honeymoon!). We also had complementary breakfast, which I was in love with! SO MUCH BACON!! and a s'more package to roast at their fire pit. More to come from the honeymoon adventures!!!