Whirlwind

That's how I see that last few months. They have totally gone by in a whirlwind! Since I haven't posted in a while, I thought I'd just share some photos of what's happened since New Year's.

1. I turned 25. And I'm surprisingly cool with that. Ryan made it great by planning a whole day of gifts where I would open one every few hours at work. First, he "made" breakfast aka got me McDonald's breakfast (my favorite) and had me open his first card and gift, a Bananza banana slicer.

I looked at it curiously because I wondered where I had seen this product before and then he said, "I got it for you because you pinned it!" I laughed and couldn't believe he stalked my Pinterest for gift ideas! So great. The next card I opened was at work and it had a PF Chang's gift card inside for dinner that night. The next card I opened right before lunch and it had a McDonald's gift card in it for lunch since he was in class and couldn't take me out to eat. Third was a Hershey's with almond candy bar for a mid-afternoon snack. I was so happy all day at work because he knew all my favorite things! When I got home, he gave me the big presents and another card. First I opened this:

Another Pinterest present! I love this movie and I love this poster. I was thrilled when I opened it! I've framed it and put it on the wall, but we'll save that for another post. The second present I opened made my heart so happy:

ALL THE HARRY POTTER SERIES IN HARDBACK. 

Love him. I've been wanting these books forever and now here they are! Gifted to me by my favorite person. Finally, we go to dinner and while we're eating he surprises me with one last gift. I opened the card and my mouth dropped when I saw the two tickets to Coldplay for this summer. COLDPLAY. I couldn't believe it! Granted these tickets were birthday-valentine's day-2 year anniversary gift all rolled into one, but I was still so excited. I'm so thankful for my hubby who loves me and knows me so well and celebrates well. He's made 25 great.

2. Valentine's Day. We're old school so he got me my favorite flowers (tulips) and favorite chocolates (ferrero rochers) and I made him a mix CD. You may think he got the short end of the stick, but he loves my mix CDs. Fo realz. That night, we went on a double date with Kara and Crockett and watched the Vow. Movie was ok, but with me being a girl and all, I could not stop crying and telling Ryan how much I loved him afterwards. I'm sucha sap. 

I also made these cookies for the Women's Systematic Theology group. I thought they were fitting for the day after Valentine's.

3. Lots of school and work....this is self explanatory and I don't have any pictures to go along with it. Soooo yeah. :)

4. Ladies' Night to celebrate Lindsey's upcoming nuptials! We ladies got all fancied up and had a great time talking about EVERYTHING and looking forward to Lindsey and Alec's wedding! I'm so happy for the sweet soon-to-be-married couple and so thankful to call these women friends!

There have been all kinds of other things happen, but I don't think anyone would want to read all that! Hope you enjoyed the highlights and hopefully I get around to blogging more frequently. 

Love,

Amy

Birthdays and Such

Hey friends!

I have quite a picture filled post for you today! Last Saturday was Ryan's 25th birthday! He's such an old man now. ;) We went to Cincinnati with our friends Mallory and Camden to celebrate by going to Ikea and Pappadeaux. It was our first time in an Ikea and man, was it awesome. I want everything in that store! We've needed another bookshelf for some time because of all the books Ryan has gotten for seminary, so we were determined to get one on this trip. Our only hiccup was that we drive a Civic. Not exactly the best vehicle for hauling furniture. We ended up getting one though and got it home by taking it out of the box and placing the boards in car with part of the back seat folded down while Mal and Cam sat next to each other on the rest of the backseat. I'm so thankful for friends who love us enough to ride uncomfortably in the car! We got it all put together and it is wonderful!

After Ikea we went to Pappadeaux, Ryan's favorite restaurant. It was soooo yummy and we even got a free dessert since it was his birthday! Here we are after our meal!

Me and my hot husband-in-flannel

I also made a birthday cake for Ryan. This year was not my best work, but at least it was yummy!

Note: Royal icing and pudding frosting do not mix.

Finally, I wanted to show off my Christmas decor like I promised in my last post!

Our baby tree on the table

Christmas cookies!

Presents for the fam

The Nativity Set that I got for Christmas last year

Close up of our stockings

Front Door Wreath

Close up

Living room window

All lit up!

I love our decor this year! I'd really love to do more, but seeing as the only people who see it are me and Ryan, I thought I'd keep it low key. If we ever get a house, you better believe I'm drenching that place in Christmas!

I doubt I'll update in the next couple weeks because we'll be so busy seeing friends and family, so until then: 

Merry Christmas!!!

Loves,

Amy

Thanksgiving Goodness

Hi Friends!

Sorry it's been a couple weeks since I posted! Not a lot has happened, just a lot of little stuff preventing me from getting to the computer. Not to mention the Hubby has been studying for finals, so I have minimal laptop exposure. Anyway...Thanksgiving happened and that was good. We had a small crew but it was so much fun. Crockett and Kara came over with their sweet baby girl, Tessa as well as our friend Garrett. We had enough food for 20 people but in true Thanksgiving fashion, we engorged ourselves with goodies. Here are a few pics from the day taken by Kara.

The table before the food



The table all loaded down!

 I don't know about you, but every time I cook a turkey or whole chicken, I imagine that scene from Christmas Vacation where Clark cuts open the turkey. There is half a second where I think, "Please don't explode with steam!" Thankfully our turkey did not do that. Yay for Reynolds oven bags!

Pumpkin pie and minis

Kara did not take the previous picture. That one was snapped with my iPhone the night before. I've never made pumpkin pie before, but it turned out great! The mini pumpkin pies were so addicting! I found the recipe on Bakerella's site. They will definitely be made again!


The cooks!



The boys!

My love. :)

Kara, Tessa, and Crockett

I would like to take a second and say how awesome Kara is! She made awesome biscuits and dressing and allergen free pie for Crockett and took pictures and took care of a baby! Super-woman! Kara, I'm so thankful for your friendship and also for you getting a light scoop for your camera so I didn't look sweaty in all these pictures. (I'm sure that's why you got it, right?;) haha!)

We had to work on Black Friday which really wasn't that much of a bummer. I've never gone out deal shopping on Black Friday and I don't think I ever will. After reading all the horror stories of people getting pepper sprayed, beaten, and shot over cheap merch, I think staying home and/or going to work are my best options. We DID, however, go on an impromtu 6 hour shopping excursion on Saturday night and got 90% of our family's Christmas presents. It feels good to have it almost done. I even got them all wrapped and they are now sitting in front of our t.v. Be on the lookout for my next post...it will be full of Christmas decor and cookie goodness!

Loves,

Amy

Recently

Hey friends!

The last two weeks of October went by in such a blur! I wanted to update everyone on our recent happenings. On October 22,  I went to Arkansas to surprise my grandpa for his 90th birthday. I had a lot of fun seeing my family and celebrating such a momentous birthday! Here are a few pics of the shindig!

Grandpa's cake and some pictures of him over the years

Some of the guests

The family!

I can't wait to be able to spend more time with them over Christmas vacay!

Last Sunday, we had trunk or treat at Sojourn and had so much fun! Ryan and I dressed up like pirates and decorated our car like a pirate ship. Here are some pics of the event courtesy of our friend Kara!

Arrrg!!

Our pirate trunk complete with a treasure chest full of candy

Great friends

There was a great turnout and we saw some really great trunks! I'm already looking forward to next year. We had several kids think we were real pirates and I'm pretty sure one little boy thought I was going to take him with me to work on our pirate ship.

I'm hoping that I will be able to post a couple tutorials of crafts that I've done. I've already taken the pictures, I just need to sit down and write it out! I think I'll do a series of DIY gifts since Christmas is right around the corner! Crazy!

Hope you are all doing well!

Loves,
Amy

3 day weekend!

Hey friends!

Man oh man do I love a 3 day weekend. It came at just the right time too! We've been so busy the last 3 weeks that we just needed time to stop! I got caught up on most of the household chores (still haven't completely unpacked our clothes. oops.) and got to do a couple projects I've been wanting to do since we moved in! Saturday, Ryan had to spend all day working on an assignment so my friend, Kara, came over and helped me paint an accent wall in my apartment. I've been wanting to paint for-ever. I was so tired of the bland white walls. We needed color badly! Here is the before. It's not the best pic, I had already moved the table when I remembered that I wanted to take a picture.

boring white wall.

Here is my inspiration. Thank you Pinterest!

Here is the actual paint sample from the Home Depot Site:


Martha Stewart Sea Glass

 I've been a little obesessed with this color lately. It's just so darn pretty! Here is the after that I know you're dying to see. ;)

It made a HUGE difference in the room! I already know I'm going to have to get a different picture to hang there. That one is just too small. I also know I need to get a different tablecloth. That olive green is not working for me. It's a little darker than the paint sample, which I kind of expected, but I love it! Ryan really likes it too. This whole little project cost me just over $30 ($31.11 to be exact). This was for everything as in paint, paint tray, rollers, brushes, drop cloth, edger, yeah, all of that stuff. I was very pleased that it didn't cost more. If you already have the accessories than this project would be even cheaper! I just bought a quart of paint since I was doing the one wall and it was just the right amount. The paint itself only cost $10! ($9 and some change) I'm really considering painting an accent wall in our bedroom now that I have all the painting stuff. We'll see!

This weekend I also painted a few canvases to go in this room. I'm sure they'll show up in a future post. I also baked a Chess Pie for the first time and it came out perfectly. This is seriously my favorite pie ever. I used this recipe here and made my own pie crust with this recipe here. Yummy in the tummy. All in all, this was a wonderful weekend! I got to craft, bake, spend much needed alone time with the hubby watching office re-runs, and enjoy 68 degree weather! All of my favorite things!

Happy Fall everyone!

Surprise! {not}

Hey Friends!

Last Saturday we threw a "surprise" party for my sweet friend, Kara. I put surprise in quotes because she knew about it the whole time. She's a smart one, that Kara. Her hubby had no chance when she interrogated him. We had a blast nonetheless and I wanted to share some pics from the event that were taken by another wonderful friend, Lindsay (who is expecting a baby girl any day now)! Enjoy!

Brooke, Me, Lucas, and Nikki before Kara arrived.

Since Kara knew about the surprise, we had to think of a way to throw her off. We invited them over to play Settlers of Catan and had it set up on the table. We had all of our friends hide in our bedroom so it looked like no one was there.  

Some of the men waiting for instructions. ;)

Brooke, Lindsay, Mallory, and Lauren in our bedroom waiting for Kara.



The boys were ready to come out and yell, "Surprise!"

 When it was time to come out, Ryan would text Camden to have them all run down the hall.



Camden waiting for the go ahead from Ryan.



Surprise!!! Tessa did not enjoy that part.





cake fail

Me, Brooke, Lauren, Kara holding Tessa, Lindsay (with baby girl), Bethany (with baby boy) and Mallory

We had such a fun time! Kara knew it was coming but she loved it anyway! I made a funfetti cake with cream cheese frosting and used this technique to decorate it. It was my first time to decorate a cake in any way other than just slathering on a layer of frosting! It was a pain because  my apartment was so hot. I ended up having to put the cake in freezer after every 3 rows of ruffles to keep them from melting off! At the end of the night the cake just did not want to stand up any longer and took a little nap on the table. Ryan was just glad nothing happend to the Settlers board.

Thanks to our wonderful friends for making such a sweet memory!


Loves,
Amy





Updating for the sake of updating.

Hello world,

Boy have I been doing a horrible job at updating! My last post was in March. Yikes! Since then there have been so many changes! Ryan has finished his first year of seminary at SBTS and did quite well! I'm so proud of him for working so hard and still making time for me. He's such a wonderful husband! My brother, Julius, and my SIL, Wella, had their baby girl, Genevieve, on April 25! She is just precious and already growing like a weed.

Here's my mom holding her right after she was born:

Here is a current pic of her:

MOHAWK BABY! And look at those chubs! So cute. I still haven't gotten to meet her in person. We did skype with them after she was born and I just wanted to snuggle her up! Thankfully, our fellow community groupers, Bruce and Chinh, had their twins, River and Rayne (a boy and girl) on March 17 and Kara and Crockett had their baby girl, Tessa, on May 16 so we've had a lot of snuggle time with babies to ease my baby fever. Ryan even babysat Tessa BY HIMSELF one evening while Kara and I went shopping! Can you believe it? He is so great with babies. :)

On April 17 we celebrated our first anniversary! I can't believe it's been more than a year since we got married. Since Ryan was in the midst of school, we decided to celebrate our anniversary at the end of May and take a trip to Chicago. Ryan had never been and I hadn't been since 9th grade. It was a fantastic trip even with the sore feet. Here we are at the famous Cloud Gate scuplture in Millennium Park:

On July 4, we had a community group cookout/block party in the neighborhood where we meet. We had a great turnout and got to meet a lot of neighbors. We're praying for God to do great things there! Here's a few of us from the party:

I love our community group! This was also the first week that Ryan and I officially became the community group leaders! Our former leaders, Matt and Lauren, have become coaches and we have been apprenticing under them. We were so thankful for this opportunity to be able to minister to the body and continue building strong relationships with other believers. Soon our group is going to multiply, meaning we are going to basically split in half and form another group because ours has grown so much. It is a bittersweet time, but we are excited about making room for new people to join!

We just moved (and by "just" I mean 3 days ago) and we're loving our new place. I'm so thankful for Village Manor and it was a great first home in Louisville. We just needed a little more space and I really wanted a dishwasher. I will never take that machine for granted again. We moved out to the east end of Louisville and our new community group will meet out there. We're excited to be able to meet new people in the community and hope to further the gospel there as well.

I'm sorry this is such a long post! I really need to get better about updating. I'm planning on doing a lot of new craft/home improvement projects over the next few months and will try to blog them in hopes of inspiring others to try them as well! Thank you so much for reading and hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Peace,
Amy