Flowers, Flowers, and more Flowers!

There have been a lot of beautiful additions to my house lately, and I've snapped a few picture! First is my Amaryllis which is now fully blooming, and beautiful!

And I harassed Jim enough for him to her me some Valentine's Day Roses...

(Jim! $15 at Meijer! You should get me some! )

Little did I know he had already ordered some to be delivered ON Valentine's Day :)

On Friday we had a nice thaw, sunshine and all! And I even found a small sign of spring starting to grow! I hope they can survive the 3 more inches of snow we got last night... :-P

This weekend Ashley (Jim's sister) and her dog Moxie came to visit. Allie and Moxie actually got along for the first time! They played so well together... Here they are playing outside in the snow :)

So I've failed to blog as often as Amy, but I have been trying to take a few more pictures to blog about! This past weekend we had people over for the Super Bowl, which was a nice end to the weekend.

We also had our own version of the Puppy Bowl (on Animal Planet each year Super Bowl Sunday). Allie was here of course, and Ashley (Jim's Sister) brought Moxie, the brown 11mo old Miniature Pincher/Terrier mix. And Holly brought her 12 week old black lab puppy, Guinness, which she had just picked up Friday. Allie is definitely the old (behaved) lady out of the group!

Allie had enough of the young'ens and wanted to just cuddle on my lap - so sweet! She is aging faster than I ever imagined - 4 years old this past week!

PetSmart sent her a birthday card/coupon, so I went and found some soft frisbees on clearance! Even though they will become outside toys this spring, we have been careful with them in the house. :)

On Saturday we went out to celebrate Jim's Grandpa and Grandma King's 50th Anniversary. They took the family out to Blue Water Grill, a very nice restaurant, and then back to Jim's Aunt and Uncle's for drinks after. Which ended up being a very fun, very late night for all.

And Jim and I finally got to hanging some wedding pictures in the living room! Yay for no longer having a bare wall!

Vegas Vacation!

Jim and I just got back from an awesome trip to Vegas to see our friends Holly and Adam get married! We stayed at the Imperial Palace, but walked a ton of the strip to see other hotels. Here are a few of the Highlights!

(Full album on pictures can be seen on Facebook... )

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2366138&id=22401359&l=b16ea04c01

Pre-New-Years - New Year's Resolution

So, I know... I have completely failed at blogging this year... But, as a New Year's resolution, I hope to blog more! SO, to get a jump on it, here is a post! I feel my life is usually so ordinary, it isn't worth blogging about, but here I am!

Last night I baked GFS's pre-made sugar cookies, so that I could decorate them tonight, and bring them to Shared Leadership Council (SLC)'s cookie exchange in the morning (my idea :-D) Here are some of my favorites! And they don't taste all that bad either! Now what to do with all the extra frosting.....

Honeymoon Teaser

Lest the honeymoon be shown up by a perfect wedding, our honeymoon has done a pretty good job so far of living up to that standard. I've been keeping a decent journal describing everything we did, but it's hard to find the time to assemble my record into something worth reading. Everything has been a blast, and earlier today we had trouble deciding what has been our favorite part of Aruba. I'll try to give you a little taste...

After getting in, we had our first meal at the Casino attached to the hotel. We met two Honeymooners from Colorado, who we met up with a couple of more times. It was the first of many surprises of how great the food is here, even at

little unassuming cafes and restaurants. The fresh baked buns for our burger and awesome onion rings made for a great meal off the plane. I also got my first taste of Balashi, which is a pretty darn good local pilsner.

We didn't waste much time Wednesday getting to our first tropical drink on the island, which came at the Iguana Cantina. Jill is drinking a Pink Iguana.

Iguanas are native to the island, and

they're all over

the place. Hence, there are plenty of drinks and restaurants with Iguana themes.

Thursday we rented a car (which has turned from a Mitsubishi Gallant to a Nissan Altima, but that's a long story that ends in a quick change of a tire by me). We took that grocery shopping, and eventually made it out to Senor Frogs in downtown Oranjestad. We actually ran into Wit and Courtney (from Colorado) after dinner. Things got a bit crazy,

but it went something like this:

We had a great time, and also hung out with another couple of honeymooners, who were out for

their last night on the island. [Note: As I'm writing this, it's getting close to time to go out, so I'm afraid the narration is getting shorter...now...]

We found time to make it to the beach:

(my shadow)

I'll leave you with just a couple more pictures, with explanations to follow later.

Sunset Catamaran Sail

Near the Natural Bridge

Aruba or Bust!

It's 5:56 AM, and we're all checked in waiting at our gate for our flight to Atlanta, and I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who made this past weekend so unforgettable.

The past week, for me, has been a busy blur of finishing a semester and preparing for and celebrating our wedding, followed by moving in with Jill. Everything went so well. Jill did a fantastic job planning our wedding, and I have to thank her mom and dad in particular for supporting her from the biggest decisions to the smallest details. I'm sure Jill's high school friend Lauren, who had been looking forward to Jill and Helen's innumerable hand-made touches, didn't leave disappointed. The church and the reception hall were both decorated perfectly. Our accommodations at the Amway Grand Hotel were beautiful; we had views to the North, West, and South, overlooking the Grand River from the sixteenth floor. It was a perfect weekend.

My only regret is that I didn't have more time to sit and visit with everyone who came to the wedding and reception. It was truly an honor to be surrounded by so many of our friends and family. I hope everyone knows how important it was to have you all there with us. We couldn't have had the amazing time that we had without each and every one of you.

Well, I'm sure I forgot to say something that I wanted to, but our plane is boarding now. Be sure to check back in for updates as the week goes on. No promises, but we hope to have the time to check in.

Now, off to the honeymoon...

Just a quick post with some pictures from this past weekend's camping trip...

12 people, 12 million misquitos, 285 jello shots, 1 rascally racoon... I know I had a blast... :)