Easter Sunday.

I hope everyone had a beautiful Easter Sunday! We had a quiet, intimate day, just the two of us (or "three" if we're including the kitty). We started the morning off at church and came home to do our Easter basket hunt. Every year we hide Easter baskets filled with candy for one another and every year it takes me forever to find mine, while that boo of mine finds his right away. Well this year we are living in a much smaller space, so finding creative hiding spots was much more challenging. And I am proud to say that for the first time, this lady right here found her basket first!

 

The Easter Bunny even brought something for our little Gunther! I wasn't sure if Gunther would be too interested in the things in his basket (let's face it, giving him a basket was more for our benefit and entertainment), but he really was! He spent a good while playing with a new toy and eating kitty treats :)

 I decided to splurge on an unhealthy dinner, being a holiday worthy of celebration and all ;) Lately we've been pretty strict with our diets throughout the week, eating plain chicken breasts and plain sautéed veggies...no butters, cheeses, salts, or desserts. But for Easter, I made chicken cordon bleu, creamy corn, and other fresh veggies, with berry cobbler, and strawberry lemonade cupcakes with lime buttercream frosting (recipe to come). 

We have lots of leftovers, not to mention all of our Easter candy, so it may be awhile before the diet resumes ;) We are so blessed with all we have, but most of all for the life we have in Christ. His resurrection is the basis for how all believers ought to live out their lives. 

Happy Easter!! 

"i look up to the sky and say 'You're beautiful.'"

date night at the loveland bike trail...God's glory is all around! 

marveling at the wonder of the Creator... and sneaking in a smooch or two when the bikers have cleared the path. 

eating brick oven barbecue chicken pizza! nom. 

after all this fun, we went to kroger. when you're married, sometimes you have to add grocery shopping to your quality time together. ((warning: when you take your husband grocery shopping with you, he will intentionally embarrass you in front of as many people as possible. you will also buy much more junk food when he is with you. however, he'll let you ride on the end of the cart and push you around...this makes up for everything else.))

we ended the night with some ice cream, a comfortable couch, and "alias" on dvd... a recent obsession thanks to my friend allison! 

date nights are my favorite night of the week. i love ya, boo! 

two year anniversary.

yesterday was our two year anniversary. we packed up our things and off we went on a little get-away...

before we left, my awesome momma brought us a basket full of goodies to take with us...fresh coffee, fresh bread, oil, strawberries, chocolate, and lots of other goodness. moms are the best. 

so we arrived at this adorable little place about an hour north of us. this place is a ministry to christian leaders and allows anyone in full time christian ministry to stay for FREE! we are blown away by the generosity of the couple who runs this ministry and how God has provided and blessed so many people through them. 

we met an awesome missionary couple from turkey who were staying there as well. once we got settled and walked around the gorgeous property (lots of land, several little ponds, a prayer chapel, trails, and a swimming pool!), we cooked dinner and ate pasta & fresh bread with bruschetta oil for dipping and ate outside. the weather was perfect. 

i was beyond thrilled when i saw that there was a hammock...how gorgeous is this?! i may or may not have flipped over a few times... brian may or may not have laughed.

later last night we made these scrumptious goodies and watched some movies. 

we slept in this morning and spent the majority of our day here where we got lots of sunshine (and a little burnt ;), played a cross between water polo and football, and....

had a nerf gun fight! (which i won, btw...i'm just a teensy bit competitive...in his defense, he kicks my butt at a lot of things.) here is boo loading his gun. 

i also have this new thing where when i wear vintage inspired swimsuits, red lipstick is a must, even if i'm just laying out at the pool...or playing football and having nerf gun fights...

i am so happy i married this man! the Lord is so good to me.

it was a perfect little get-away with a relaxing celebration...just what we wanted! 

memorial weekend.

what a blast this weekend has been! friday night we went to one of our favorite date night spots: the loveland bike trail to eat and walk around. we ate on the patio of the works, an old firehouse that has been restored to a restaraunt. they have the best pizza and salads! 

dessert was at an old candy shop where they make their own candy and ice cream! we had a little birthday cake ice cream and boo got peanut butter chocolate bark, while i got dark chocolate bark with espresso beans...yum! 

we ended the evening with some more walking around the area and watching "the princess bride" at home. 

so friday was splendid and the rest of the weekend was filled to the brim with graduation parties, birthday parties, and memorial day parties. i always love memorial weekend because it officially feels like summer. i am so thankful to the soldiers who make the sacrifices they do for our country! happy memorial day everyone. 

easter weekend.

hope you all had a great easter weekend! 

on good friday, boo and i ate mexican and went shopping for each other's easter baskets. its always so fun trying to discreetly shop for one another in the same candy aisle at kroger. then we went home and baked cookies and watched the help... one of my favorites. 

saturday my car overheated on my way to work and that was kind of a big deal. we had to have it towed and taken to the shop. thankfully, i got it back on monday evening :)

on easter sunday boo and i did our tradition of finding each other's baskets. he took his typical 2 minutes to find his (buried under clean clothes in the dryer... it was literally the second place he looked) and i took my typical half hour to find mine (inside the box that he uses for his nightstand...lol). i wish i had taken pictures because our searches are always humorous. i got lots of goodies in my basket, but this is by far my favorite (it is already almost halfway gone):

lindtusa.com

we also had a great easter service at church and lunch with my family. i am so thankful for my freedom to live in communion with God because of what Jesus did. i hope your easter weekend was a good one!

date night: concoctions in the kitchen

so really nothing yesterday went the way i planned. i didn't have school so i was going to go to the grocery store, pick up some crafting supplies, prepare an oh-so-enlightening bible study, and boo and i were going to use our gift card to montgomery inn. well as it turned out, my car had to be worked on, leaving me stuck at home, and our water softener and sink were leaking, so we had people coming in and out of the house all day. to top it off we got lots of snow and ice and the roads were pretty bad. so instead of a fancy evening out, boo and i decided to go to the local mexican restaurant just down the road and experiment with some baking at home. of course, there was lots of goofing off and laughing. it actually turned out to be one of the most fun nights we've had!

let me just say that this first dessert was all boo's idea. he literally wanted everything in this dessert. we layered cookie dough on the bottom and boo placed oreos, reese cups and carmello pieces (yuck) in the middle. 

then, i mixed up some brownie mix and walnuts and poured it on top. we baked it at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes (but truthfully i cant remember the exact time) 

the layered concoction was just okay to me...but then we made something else...something heavenly :)

...oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies. 

we used this recipe for the cookies and placed the dough around the oreos. we baked at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.

 and oh. my. goodness. they are so yummy. i don't know if my life will ever be the same after eating these. 

so here's to days and nights that don't go as planned, cozy nights in, lots of laughing with the one you love, and delicious desserts that probably cause diabetes and heart failure :)

ornament craft exchange.

what a wonderful christmasy day today was! jason (boo's brother) and emilee came over and we went out to lunch, then drew names for an ornament exchange. we decided that we wanted to actually make our ornaments, so after lunch, we headed over to hobby lobby and schemed and shopped for supplies for about an hour, then came home to make our ornament for the person we drew! it was so incredibly fun. 

it just so happened that brian and i drew each other and jason and emilee drew each other. i made boo a UK basketball ornament:

boo made me a huge letter "C" with a snow-globe in the middle...it is very princessy and i am very impressed by his creativity :)

jason made emilee a snowman...it looked like something store bought, it was that good!

emilee's ornament for jason was so thoughtful. it looked like a big present and it had ten reasons why she loves jason inside. 

hanging our ornaments on the tree.

how cute :)

maybe we've started a tradition?

double dates and bloggy friends.

so i actually posted this earlier and it very mysteriously disappeared. i probably deleted it and am just getting around to noticing it. anyway, here are a couple pictures from last fridays double date with a fellow blogger and church friend, allison from nestful of love and her boo, drew. we had a yummy mexican dinner at cactus pear, amazing frozen yogurt at orange leaf, and a great time mini golfing. allison and i were nice while mini golfing and let the boys win for a change. we had such a great time!

                                        

check out her post about our double date here! 

chicago recap.

what a weekend. it was full of relaxation, ferris wheels, fantastic food (clearly), shopping, great wine, culture, laughing, naps, spontaneity, history, peter pan, whimsical fairies, romance, and the list just goes on! i want to go back. 

one year.

boo and i leave in approximately twelve hours for chicago. why are we going you ask? why to celebrate ONE YEAR of MARRIAGE of course! i have been a wifey for a whole year (well, it'll be a year on the 29th, but since i'll be livin it up in chi-town, i won't be able to post on the actual day). and boo has been the most godly, loving, protective, freakin-most-hillarious-man-you'll-ever meet-in-your-life, sacrificial husband that ever lived. we have grown in so many ways together and i cannot believe it has already been an entire year. i have never learned so much about Christ, love, my sinful nature, and forgiveness as i have in the past 365 days. marriage is all this and more. a lot like this post, which i wrote some time ago, but  am still unfolding the revelation of. 


i was reading about william and catherine booth, an amazing husband and wife team who started the salvation army. a quote about them and their lives said "each individually may have accomplished little in their lifetimes, but when God brought them together, they so complimented each other's strengths that they became a powerful force for God." this is what i want to be. i want to be a team who takes the kingdom of God by force and glorifies Christ in everything. 


we had "one year" pictures done by corynne olivia photography. corynne is only a sophomore in high school and is phenomenal (hey, you should check out her blog!). have a looksie at this sneak peak of our photo shoot. 

(uhhh, my strap broke here so i had to make this a strapless dress until i can fix it!)

happy anniversary to my best friend :)

5.29.2010

so this post is extremely mushy. sorry im not sorry, okay? there is still so much i need to do. finishing packing and our playlist for the car being a few. but more importantly, i need to sleep. a girl needs to get her beauty sleep for the mister :)