5 Years in 5 Minutes

Kids, a growing church, and deciding to be a mom who is not just a STAY at home mom, but a PLAY at home mom has slowed down the frequency of my posts and made me the world's worst blogger over the past few years. BUT… since I started this thing right after we got married, hopefully this little video will catch you up!  Five years… five sweet, amazing years… five years filled with lots of love, laughter, chaos, and fun. I was at a wedding recently and the best man said, "I hope that today is the day when your love is the weakest," and I loved that. I get that now. I love my husband more with every passing season, with every trial that we work through, and through every triumph that we celebrate. I cannot imagine a better life, nor do I want to. I thank God everyday upon remembrance of this man that God chose for me, which makes me love my God even more. Thank you, Josh, for contenting to challenge me, encourage me, and for helping me to grow into the woman that God created me to be. Five years does not even seem like how long I feel like we've been together… you were made for me and I feel like we've known each other forever. I can't wait to see what the next five, ten, fifteen, or fifty years hold for us. Happy Anniversary to you my love. Forever and ever….

Bringing Spring Inside

As I mentioned yesterday, I was in a wedding yesterday, and like most bridesmaids do (I assume), I took my bouquet home with me. There are very few surfaces in our house, so the only good spot for it was on our mantle, which I have been unhappy with for some time now. I also happened to have a ton of Mason jars leftover from decorating that morning, and that's all it took to make me love that space in our home:

I've always loved having fresh flowers, but never thought it was worth the investment to keep up with it. Now I'm thinking I might be wrong... it's amazing what a pretty little bouquet can do!

And you probably are not wondering, but in case you want to know what the picture to the left of the TV is, well, it's one of our new favorite items around here. Our family has a motto; it's something we tell our kids every night before bed, and it's something that our church hears from time to time from the platform. To thank me for speaking at DG's Founders Day, my sweet friend Rebekah had this made for us... how thoughtful is that???

What she did not know was that I actually included that motto in my speech, so it was all the more appropriate.  Does your family have a motto? I think every family should! Words are so powerful!

Red Hot Mountain Getaway!

Hello, friends! I hope that you had a wonderful weekend! I am smack-dab in the middle of back-to-back wedding weekends, so I apologize if I'm a little off the grid these days. This past weekend I stood next to one of my closest friends, Sara, as she married a wonderful man, and on Friday I have the priveledge of standing beside my long-time best friend Elizabeth as she does the same. For some they might see these bridesmaid duties as obligations, but I have truly loved trying to make this time special for them both and hope that their wedding days were and are just perfect. I'm hopefully going to post about Sara's big day this week, so stay tuned!

 

Of course, along with wedding-day duties and showers, however, there is also the fun of planning a bachelorette party! For Elizabeth (whose shower you can see here), the bridesmaids are kind of scattered and we knew that this would mean a weekend getaway was in order. She initially wanted to go to the beach, but seeing that it would cost a lot of money during spring break season and it's very far for some of us to travel, we decided to meet in the middle and got a cabin in the Smoky Mountains. Besides, all she really wanted was a low-key girls' weekend where we really wouldn't do much other than relax and spend time together, so we figured we could do that anywhere!

 

If you have never rented a cabin in the mountains, I highly recommend it! Most are equipped with game rooms, plenty of bedrooms, back porches with gorgeous mountain views that you can look over from a rocking chair or porch swing, and outdoor hot tubs for relaxation... it's my kind of place. We all arrived on Friday night, had a delicious spaghetti dinner, stayed up until one o'clock in the morning sharing stories and catching up, and then "slept in" on Saturday and enjoyed a big breakfast. I put that in quotation marks because for those of us with kids, this meant that we just stayed in bed until about eight... my how things have changed! We spent the entire day in our lounge clothes, spent some time in the hot tub, took naps, and just enjoyed a nice change of pace. The one thing we wanted to make sure of, however, was that we did some sort of "party" for our bride-to-be, no matter how laid back it was. We just wanted it to be special.

 

A few weeks before the trip a couple of the other bridesmaids and I started thinking of themes and somehow got stuck on those red-hot candies... perhaps because this was right around Valentine's Day. We decided to take that idea and run with it and called it her "Red Hot Mountain Getaway," since we were celebrating one red hot bride! I called up my uber-talented sister, told her the theme, and she designed what just might be my most favorite invitation she has done to date (and she's done a lot of great ones!). Just see for yourself:

We asked everyone to wear red for our night out and our bride wore white. Actually, I wish I had a picture of the group because we could not have coordinated our outfits better... all the girls ended up in an equal mixture of red, white, and black as if it had been planned! Unfortunatley, all of the group photos are on someone else's phone. I did make sure to get this one, however, since we were the three moms on the trip, just to show that even post kiddos, we've still got it! Haha!

And since I don't have any of the photos from our night out, which was... er... interesting to say the least considering that Gatlinburg doesn't really have a night life, I just wanted to post the decor since it was fun! So here's a glimpse inside our Red Hot Party:

It was a fun and really easy theme for a "last fling before the ring" and one that I hadn't really seen before. We decorated with red roses, red hots (as well as other red candies), candles, pom poms, crepe paper, boas, and pearls and served red wine and red velvet cupcakes- heaven!  And the awesome table cloth? That's actually a curtain that hangs in our study... you can find it here. It makes me strongly consider using curtains as tablecloths more often as there are so many more cool options!

 

And what's a trip to Gatlinburg without this classic shot? If you've been there you know what I mean:

 

Sunday morning came quite early and I had to jet early to get to my speaking engagement, but it was wonderful to have a weekend away with these ladies, and one without kids! I love my children dearly, but a couple of days away every now and again can make a huge difference... sometimes we just need some me-time. I'm thankful for a husband who understands that, too.

 

Just four more days 'til my best friend is married off. I CANNOT wait!

Old, New, Borrowed... and Blue!

I think I've mentioned before, but in April I am going to be in back-to-back weddings. Not only that, but I am the matron of honor in both, so I have double-duty when it comes to making the time leading up to the weddings special for each bride. On the upside, there are a few small details that I have been able to duplicate, such as fun shower games and printables, but because of this I've had to put off the first of my recaps until both showers had been celebrated. So, even though this was back in January, here's a quick look at the fun we had at my best friend's bridal shower!

If you've ever met Elizabeth, you'll somehow learn very early on that her middle name is Blue. It's a family name and she loves it, and I do, too! Many people call her that, and so it seemed appropriate that we use the very appropriate theme of something old, something new, something borrowed, and of course... something Blue!  The I'm not posting a super-great image of the invitations, mainly because I swiped an image from the Internet and used it for my own design, but you could order very simlilar ones here:

We of course had hints of blue everywhere, but also used lace doilies and decorated with Mason jars to give it that vintage, old feel. I personally loved the way it all came together!

And ohhhhh these cupcakes were amazing! They were a chocolate-peanut butter creation from Annie's Eats. The frosting was to die for!  And how fun is the wine bottle in the high heel? The idea was from one of the other bridesmaids and I do believe that heels and wine were made to go together!

 

As for the food, we kept it simple and purchased finger sandwiches and a vegetable tray from Kroger, served pita chips and hummus, and an easy (yet delicious!) salad made up of field greens and spinach, mandarin oranges, sliced strawberries, sliced almonds, and poppyseed dressing. Delish! And thanks to someone who is much better at mixing beverages than I am, we even had blue sangria! It's hard to tell in the picture though!

 

After everyone had something to eat and mingled a bit, we passed around a notebook for them to write some advice for the bride-to-be, which will be a fun little keepsake for her. And then we passed out bridal shower Madlibs to do with a friend during the gift opening! I always think it's a good idea to have something for the guests to do while the gifts are being opened. I think it makes the guest of honor feel a little less awkward, too, since it's all eyes on her at that moment!

 

 

 

For the Mad Libs, I once again swiped someone else's brilliant design (are you seeing a pattern here) and customized it to fit my needs. But to give credit where credit is due, you can check out the original here.  Once I tweaked it, mine looked like this:

 

 

These were a huge hit, but even funnier was listening to everyone try and remember what a noun, verb, and adjective are! Wow, it's been awhile since we've all been in grammar class!  And as you know, I like to share, so if you ever wanted to use this, just email me and I'll gladly change the groom's name (since I highly doubt she'll be marrying a Dara!) and send you a copy.

 

All in all, it was a great day! I can't wait to stand next to these gorgeous bridesmaids in just a few weeks as my favorite person gets hitched!

 

But even sooner than that, I REALLY can't wait to meet up with them for our Bachelorette Mountain Getaway this weekend! After a week and a half of taking care of sick kids, this girls' weekend could not come at a better time... this mama needs it!  Look out Smoky Mountains, here we come!

 



Wedding Season!

And here I thought my wedding days were over! As it turns out, I have back-to-back matron of honor duties in 38 days, there are two gorgeous spring dresses hanging in my closet, and I am up to my eyeballs in planning showers, parties, and all the fun details! Although I'm going to wait until these events are past to share the fun details, I can share some pictures from the fun we had at my best friend's Chinese wedding reception in January. Her fiance's family immigrated from Cambodia, so not only will they have a traditional American wedding in April, but they had a party up in New York City complete with all of the Chinese food, family, and traditions. According to that side of the family, they are already married, but they are counting April when they will file the paperwork and make it legal. Either way, it was such a fun experience, and I loved seeing a glimpse into their rich culture. And what's a party without a little food? They had TEN courses! And they were as traditional as they came, so while I did not try all of them, my mom would have been proud by how many bites of unfamiliar foods I did sample. My words can't do it justice, and my pictures probably can't either, but the least I can do is try, so here goes:

The reception took place in a restaurant in Brooklyn's Chinatown. What? You didn't know there was another Chinatown in NYC? Neither did I! I found it interesting that we had the entire middle section of the restaurant, complete with head tables, floral centerpieces, fine linens and chair covers, and yet there were regular diners seated on the outer walls of the restaurant (unlike most places that have separate private rooms). This is pretty common I later learned, and I kind of think it would be cool to go out to dinner and get to witness all sorts of traditional culture happening around you! They even had the back wall decorated to honor the couple:

As part of the ceremony, Elizabeth and her fiancé served tea to the elders. If they drank the tea, that meant that they accepted the union. Thankfully they all did! Here they are serving his parents... doesn't she look gorgeous in her traditional dress?

After drinking the tea, some family members placed jewelry on her or handed them red envelopes. Red envelopes = money... not a bad deal! She was all blinged out when all was said and done, with some beautiful pieces of jewelry!

  

Even though I had known about serving the tea to the elders, for some reason I just assumed it only meant his family, but apparently it was everyone, including her parents, which was really sweet. Then, so my surprise (and I think hers!), anyone older than the couple could go accept the tea. It ended up being a lot of people, which I found kind of humorous, just because I was only expecting them to have to do this a few times. Technically, I could have had them serve tea to me, too, but I thought they had enough people to serve as it was!

Mind you, all of the above happened before dinner started. I think the party started around 6pm (sad that I can't remember and it was only two months ago) and dinner started around 8pm. But as I mentioned, once it came out there were ten courses. Maybe more. And they were very traditional... check out some of the fare below:

You'd probably never guess, but this was actually a dessert course. Yep, dessert soup, made from all kinds of fruits and other sweet things.

This course was definitely my favorite though. In all honesty, I did try it and it was good. I am not a fan of meals that stare back at you though!

After dinner, there were a series of traditional games, which were highly entertaining (albeit embarrassing to the bride and groom!). Below, Elizabeth is blindfolded and trying to find her fiancé by only feeling the guys' faces! I decided to be nice and not post the video of her trying to roll a raw egg up and down Dara's pant leg... you can just imagine how that goes! It was certainly the hardest I have laughed in a long time and the highlight of the evening!

And of course... there was cake! I guess some traditions cross all cultures, and I'm glad cake was one of them!  Oh, and if you hadn't noticed, she changed dresses in the middle of the party... traditional garb for serving tea and them something more "her" for the rest of the reception. I wish I had better pictures of both dresses because they were stunning!

And finally, a picture to prove I was there... and I'm so glad that I was! Josh had to miss out on the weekend, and was very missed, but he'll definitely be there in April. I'm so honored to share this time with such a special gal.

Hope you enjoyed a little bit of culture as much as I did! It's probably the only Chinese wedding I'll ever attend, and I must say, it was a good time!