the past few weeks..

Well, it's been a busy few weeks! I keep taking pictures of all the fun going on and think "I should blog about this!" then I go another week without getting caught up - guess that's going to take some practice! So, here are a few of the fun things that have been going on:

Baking.. 

                     ..thanks to wedding gifts :)

 The Boone's "famous" chocolate chip cookies

Made with my brand new Kitchen Aide mixer!

          

  The cookies were packed up and sent to Drake's freshman dorms 

where my brother and cousin just moved in!

 Homemade bread!

 Made with my brand new Bread maker!

Celebrated Mom's birthday..

We did so many fun things this day! We started off with coffee from Petals and Perks, then crepe making (etc) lesson with Marge, and a tour of landscaping at Mom and Dad's house. From there we headed on a fun filled trip to Beresford, SD where we had lunch at an old train depot station turned coffee shop, competed in a "best dressed" challenge at a consignment shop (my team won!), and toured a few gift shops, and of course - more coffee :). Then we hit the road again - back to Sioux Center where we ended our day at the beautiful home of Kim Hoogland where we watched The Proposal in their 14 chair theater room, followed by an excellent dinner and relaxing time by a bonfire overlooking the lake. Picturesque, isn't it? :)

Painting..

Master Bedroom transformation!

Michael and Cory moved the furniture, Mom did the rolling, I trimmed, and then Michael.. took a nap! ha :) We got the entire room painted in a day, and final pictures with new furniture and bedding will posted soon!

Wedding shower..

                The Boone aunts threw a wedding shower for me this past weekend. They had a theme for it - a new experience for me and very fun! An "Around the House" theme set the mood for the shower with a touch, smell, and hear game for around the house items, and everyone was assigned a room of the house for their gift item. Very neat idea! 

                A few captured moments from the fun afternoon:

 Mom and me with our delectable lunch spread

 The Boone Aunts - wonderful hostesses!

My lovely cousin, Erin, who opened her home to us all :)

So, that's been our crazy life for the past few weeks. Tons of fun! And more to come!! This weekend we're headed out to Las Vegas where Cory's partner is getting married! Hopefully lots of fun memories and pictures to share when we get home!

..happy birthday to you..

We celebrated Cory and Bobby's birthdays on Saturday!

Friends came over to our house to grill out, take over the kitchen, and play games in the back yard! :) We had a blast relaxing, chatting, cooking, ..and entertaining Frankie Jr (top right with Mommy, April)

Sunday was Cory's actual birthday. The day started off pretty normal - slept in and went to church. Cory got to choose what he wanted for lunch after church - pasta at Bravo Cucina! yuumm.. 

After spending a few hours at work in the afternoon and opening his present from me and CJ (that's our baby's nickname until he's born and we can tell people his real name!), Cory decided he wanted to go to PF Chang's for Chinese food for dinner. Fun surprise when we got there - live music outside! So we sat on the patio :) Then we walked over to the movie theater and saw the new Harry Potter. Kind of a bittersweet activity - it's the last Harry Potter movie and we've gotten quite attached over the last few months going through the whole series of movies! Overall - awesome weekend..

I'd have to say though, my ultimate highlight of the entire weekend (and Cory's too) was CJ's gift to his Daddy.. That night after we got home from the movies, CJ was getting pretty active so I had Cory rest his hand on my tummy while we watched some tv - he felt his little boy move for the first time!!  

"Happy birthday, Daddy" :)

Getting started!

Hi! So, here we are.. starting a new chapter in my life as a newly wed, an expecting mother, and now also the proud new owner of a blog!! :) Give me a bit of a break while I figure it all out.. I'd love to have a super interesting, good looking blog to get started with, but I don't know how to do that yet! :) So we'll just start with this and hopefully I can figure some of it out as we go!