Inspired...

I've had a lot of time on my hands this week. Four whole days off with no kids.  I've cleaned, I've organized, I've de-cluttered.  But, I've also watched far too much tv.  Oh well, it's vacation.  I've learned there's not too much on tv during the middle of the day but CMT is notorious for having marathons of "Extreme Makeover Home Edition".  That show is a real tear-jerker.  Yesterday, Ty and his crew built a house for the Beach Family.  They were a family of 15 all living in a trailer because their home had been destroyed by Hurrican Ike.  The thing that really got me was that 9 of their 13 children had been adopted out of the foster care system.  They were only 40 years old and had already fostered 85 children!  So, in true Extreme Makeover fashion, they built them a gigantic house (around 5500 square feet) in a week while they sent the family away to Disney World.  Sometimes I  think this show is a little over the top.  I mean, who really needs a house that big and fancy? But, I think this family deserved it.  One of the designers on the show described the family as something "out of a fairy tale".  That made me chuckle.  I am 100 percent sure that their life has not been a fairy tale.  I'm sure it's been hard.  I'm sure it's been heartbreaking.  I'm sure there kids have whined and yelled and come from really bad backgrounds.  But the inspiring thing is, even though it's nowhere close to being a fairy tale, the Beach family keeps loving on kids.  In fact, I Googled the family after the show was over and found that they had adopted 4 more special needs kids after the show aired because now they had all that space!  I couldn't help but be inspired by this family. Chris and I have learned so much in 5 months of doing foster care but we know we have so much more to learn.  We look forward to providing many children with homes and maybe adopting a few ourselves (but we will not be adopting 13...I can tell you that right now...unless of course Ty Pennington wants to build us a mansion too!).

Oh, one other thing that inspired me about the show.  You may know that we are taking the boys to DisneyWorld next week.  Well, we figure if the Beach family can handle it with 13 kids, we can handle it with 2?  Ok, well you still may want to say a prayer for us...

whoopie!

Well, seeing how it's the holiday season and my family is 1000 miles away, we have been getting a lot of packages in the mail.  Each one is exciting but most of the gifts are still wrapped and under the tree.  But, a few days ago we received a box from my aunt and uncle that I could not resist opening!  The box had an "Isamax" tag on it.  If you're not from Maine and have no idea what this means, check it out here.  In the box were 6 Wicked Whoopies, all different flavors- red velvet (which you'll notice is missing in the picture below because it was devoured right when the box was open), black forest, raspberry and cream, peanut butter, pumpkin, and (of course) a classic whoopie pie.  Oh. My. Gosh. 

These things are a little taste of heaven.  They are a staple at our family gatherings.  We even had a special extra large whoopie pie made as the cake for my grandmother's 70th birthday last summer.  So, while I may not get the pleasure of being with my family on Christmas, I can still eat our favorite tasty treat and know that they are probably eating one too!!

PS- If you're a native Southerner and have never tried a whoopie pie, please promise me you will.  Believe me, you won't regret it!

'Tis The Season...

I have always loved this time of year. I love Christmas music, shopping, wrapping. I love the excitement surrounding the holidays. But I'll be honest, this year has been incredibly stressful. Maybe it's the two kids living in our house, maybe it's the fact that I had 30 cakes to make in the month of December, maybe it's that I hand-made my Christmas cards (thanks for the inspiration Pinterest, they took way too long). Or maybe it's that I'm just trying to do too much. We want this to be a good Christmas for the boys, one that they will remember. I'll be honest, I have gone way overboard with gifts for the boys...I just can't help myself! But more than the gifts, we want them to remember the the love they are shown, they joy that comes with Christmas, and of course, why we even celebrate Christmas. And honestly, with all the hustle and bustle, sometimes I forget what Christmas is all about. It's not about buying the perfect gift or wrapping it up in a pretty bow. It's not about the food or even about family (thought it's certainly nice to have someone to spend Christmas with). But, it's all about celebrating the birth of Jesus! I am so glad that Christmas falls on a Sunday this year. What a better way to spend Christmas morning with the boys than at church!

So, despite the stress and craziness of this year, it really has been a memorable Christmas season already. I am so excited for Christmas morning and seeing the joy on the boys' faces!

At the beginning of this post are some pictures of the cakes I made this month (blogger was being funny and wouldn't let me put them at the end of the past). I delivered 26 to a Christmas party yesterday and failed to take any pictures...so I apologize for that...honestly, after working on cakes for 10 hours straight, the last thing I thought about was taking pictures!

Thankful Thursday: Thanksgiving edition

I have never been regular at posting "Thankful Thursday" posts like a lot of my blogging friends. But today seems like a good time to start since it's Thanksgiving! I, like you, have so much to be thankful for but I'll limit it to 10 things today.

1) My husband who puts up with me day in and day out...I'm really not sure how he does it.

2) A seriously incredible family. I am very blessed to have them!

3) Yummy food...one of the simple joys in life.

4) A stable job. I feel blessed to be able to go to work everyday and work with wonderful people that I consider good friends.

5) A place to call home. I know there are countless people in this world who don't have that.

6) A love of running. Honestly, what would I do without my stress relief?

7) Books. There's nothing like getting lost in a good book.

8) Friends that I can just simply be myself with, that's the best.

9) Being able to take an adult "time-out". Sometimes it's just oh so necessary. Thanks Chris for being understanding.

10) Last but not least (in fact, it's the most important)- the Lord's grace, forgiveness, and salvation. Everything else in life is meaningless without!

What are you thankful for this year?

Babies and baby showers!

If you follow my blog (all like 5 of you...), you will remember this post where I blogged about a baby shower I threw for my good friend Christie. Well, baby Fain is finally here! Savannah Grace Fain made her dramatic entrance on November 13th at 7:10am. I had the pleasure of meeting her a few days later. I have been praying for this little bundle for 9 months and it was a special moment to get to finally hold her! She sure is one beautiful baby! But, you can see that for yourself :)

Following in the "baby" theme, I made a cake for a baby shower this weekend. The couple is in my Life Group at church and is expecting a baby boy in January. Here's the finished product, congrats Baxter and Maggie!

Pinterest fun!

So, I have found Pinterest! I have heard people talk about it for a while but really didn't know what it was all about. But, I have learned that there are so many fun DIY projects on it to try! I really enjoy to be crafty even if I might not be too talented at it. So, here's the first project I tried. It's a cookie sheet magnet board. It's not perfect but I sure had fun making it!

After this project, I checked out the food section of Pinterest thanks to a recommendation from my friend Andrea! I found the simplest recipe ever for pumpkin muffins. Here are the ingredients:


No joke...there are only 2 ingredients. This recipe is fool proof! It was sort of strange not to add anything liquid but the muffins turned out good! I think I'm going to try them again and use a spice cake mix instead of plain yellow because it will give it more of a "fall" flavor. Here are the muffins just before going into the oven!


Well, I already have several other Pinterest projects in mind that I'm going to try out...so stay tuned! And if you haven't checked out Pinterest, you should!

Go Deacs!

A friend of mine asked me to make a cake for her hubby's 30th birthday this weekend. They are both Wake grads and, of course, Wake sports fans. So, it only seemed fitting to make a Wake Forest football cake! It was caramel cake with vanilla buttercream and fondant decorations. The footballs on the sides of the cake were handmade- melted chocolate poured into a mold. This cake was one of my favorites to make to date! Here are a few pics for you to enjoy:

loving on purpose

This post could very well be a rambling, jumbled mess of what's going through my mind right now. For a few days, I have been wanting to blog but every time I would try to sit down and write, it just didn't come out right. So, I'm apologizing in advance. It's just that there has been a lot of lessons I have been learning lately. And it all boils down to this...what does it really mean to love a child?
Let me tell you how this all started. One thing we were taught in our foster care licensing classes is that, quite truthfully, most parents (no matter how horrible the circumstances) love their children. Love is not really the issue. What they did not tell us is foster care classes is that one of our greatest challenges as a foster parent is not simply to love the children (that comes naturally) but how to love in a way that you teach the children in turn how to love as well. We have had the opportunity to spend some time with the bio parents of our foster children and it is clear to me that, while they certainly love their children, they were never taught the appropriate way to love. They are simply a product of their environment. And, out of courtesy to them, I will leave it at that.
A friend and mentor of mine from church gave me the book "Loving Your Kids on Purpose". The idea for the book came out the author's experiences working with foster parents. As most of you know, we cannot spank by state law. The book gives alternate ways of discipline that all focus around loving your child. Because discipline is a form of love. I have learned that disciplining to make myself feel better (basically out of anger) will not work. But, if Chris and I can discipline with the sole intent of showing the children the love and respect they deserve, it works much better. Love is a tangible thing. It absolutely must be shown and not just spoken of. Love gives respect but also commands respect back from the child. Loving discipline will teach the children integrity and how to handle difficult situations with grace. Love treats the child as a beloved child of God and not as a thing to be controlled. For another blogger's (more articulate) review of this book, take a look here.
The children in our home right now need to learn so much- their colors, numbers, letters, animal sounds, etc. And while those things are important, Chris and I have an opportunity right now to teach the kids what real love looks like. We have the opportunity to model love in our interactions both with each other and the kids. Real, tangible, Christ-like love. Love that never gives up. Love that perseveres. Love that will not leave them no matter where their life circumstances take them. And that real love is Jesus.
Sometimes, when the day has been long and the kids are cranky, we lose our patience. We yell, we snap, or we ignore. What we need to do is remember that this precious time that the kids are with us, may be the only time they see Jesus modeled in their home. That's a heavy task, will you pray for us?

Ch-ch-ch-changes

I'm not a big fan of change. I'm definitely a girl of routine and order. I like to know when, why, where, and how things are happening. With that said, I've gone through my fair share of change in my mere 27 years. I have had a permanent address is 6 different places in 4 different states from Maine to North Carolina. I switched high schools at age 15 after going to school with the same kids from kindegarten to 9th grade. There have been some major changes in my life that frankly were just out of my control. Maybe that's why I try so hard to control the things that I'm actually able to...yes, I'm a bit of a control freak (just ask my husband). I like my house to be clean. I like my clothes folded a certain way and put away in a certain spot. I think I re-arrange the pantry every time I go grocery shopping because it gets too cluttered. I wake up pretty much at the same time, drink my coffee and read my Bible for the same amount of time, and run pretty much the same route every morning. I know I'm probably sounded a bit obsessive compulsive but I warned you, I just like routine.
So, you can imagine how flipped upside down my life was 10 weeks ago when we went from a household of 2 to a household of 4 in mere hours. Literally, we were called about the foster children at noon and they were in our custody by 5pm that evening. Talk about major change. I didn't handle it too well the first few weeks...toys all over the floor, clothes strewn throughout the house, not to mention (the worst of all) the toilet seats being left up all throughout the house! But let me share some important lessons that I have learned about "parenthood".
1. Investing in the boy's lives is way more important than a clean house. I had a hard time with it at first, but now I'd much rather sing a few extra songs at bedtime than have 10 more minutes to clean the bathrooms. The boys aren't going to remember if the house was spotless but they will (I hope) remember the time we took to love on them.
2. We have to pick our battles. Yes, discipline is important but some times just aren't worth it (expecially when any kind of disipline is brand new to them). I found myself, at first, wanting to boys to do things exactly like I wanted it. But now I'm learning that if it isn't going to hurt them physically or morally, it's probably best to just let it slide. For example...the boys got new coats a few weeks ago and they loved them so much that they refused to take them off even inside the house. While I preferred that they took their coats off in the house, it just wasn't worth the battle.
3. Life must go on. Since Chris works on Saturdays I spend a lot of quality time with the boys by myself. However, it makes me a little nervous to take them anywhere because, well frankly, taking 2 small children anywhere is a little daunting. Saturday is the day that I, like most people, run my necessary errands. This morning, I loaded the boys up in the car and we went to Target. I'll be honest, it's the first time in 10 weeks I have attempted to take them by myself anywhere. And guess what, it was a success! It's nice to know that instead of planning my life around the boys, I can just involve them in it.
4. Last but not least, I have learned just how important it is to have a supportive spouse. Chris has been amazing over the past 10 weeks and I am so thankful. He is the best "foster dad" and will definitely be an amazing father to our kids one day!
Not only have my life circumstances changed over the past 10 weeks, but I know that I have also changed. I'm learning to appreciate each day and the blessings that it brings. So, if change is what it takes to become the woman that God wants me to be, then bring on the change!

13th birthday cake

This weekend I had the pleasure of making a 13th birthday cake. I was requested to include the following: hot pink/black/white, zebra stripes, and polka dots. The cake was 2 tiered with the bottom tier in classic white and the top tier in chocolate sour cream cake. It was decorated in vanilla buttercream and fondant. Here's the finished product!

long overdue blog post

Seven weeks ago, Chris and I entered onto a new mission field...one called foster parenting. I have been relucatant to do any blogging about the whole experience because of confidentialty and out of fairness to the children and their bio parents. But, I have realized that writing can be very therapeutic and for that reason, here I am blogging.
First let me say, foster parenting is not as "easy" as I ever thought it would be. Now, don't get me wrong, I never thought it would be easy. But we have come across challenges that I never even thought of. I have felt emotions that, in all of my 27 years, I have never felt before. I have felt more emotionally spent and physically exhausted then I have in a long time. Working full time and parenting is tough....I have so much more respect for moms now that I've been through the ringer.
Things have gotten substantially better over the past few weeks but let me tell you, the first few weeks were more than rough. I had a hard time adjusting to my life being "interrupted". I had a lot of selfish pity parties where I thought, "when will my life be back to normal?" Until one night when I was having another breakdown. Chris looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, "Don't you realize these kids just need a home? Just need to be loved?" That put things into perspective for me. This whole process is not about me...it's about the children. It's about two little kids that, right now, don't have parents that can take care of them. So, God has entrusted them to us for a little while. Of course, I still have my moments. When shoes are being thrown at the television or a child is screaming "NO" in my face, it's hard to remember that this is what we're being called to do right now. But, for everything there is a season, and right now in the Wrights household, this is the season to love on two little children and see where the Lord will take us from here.

Celebrating Baby Fain

Two weeks ag0 (yes, I'm a little behind on my blogging) we had a baby shower for one of my closest friends, Christie. She is having a baby girl, due on November 6th. I have been SO excited about this shower for quite some time and had so much fun planning it. I also loved making the cake- a giraffe theme since she's having giraffes in baby girl's nursery! We had a luncheon at Deacon Tower Grille (if you've never been there, you have got to check it out- it's fabulous!). Here are some pictures from the occasion. Sadly, I didn't get a picture myself with the mommy-to-be!

Christie with sweet baby Jeffery! So glad he joined us :)

Christie with another momma in the HES Department, Jordan!

I just can't wait to meet sweet baby girl Fain!!

butterfly cake

Let me just take a quick minute and post a few pictures of the cake I made last weekend. I tried out a new chocolate cake recipe that I really liked. The cake was chocolate (obviously) with pink buttercream and fondant decorations. The birthday girl requested blue butterflies but I added in a few other colors to give it a little extra pizzazz! Enjoy!

thankful

I haven't blogged much lately. Or at least about anything of real importance. These past few weeks have been a roller coaster. I have experienced the whole gamut of emotions for a lot of reasons and I can't quite articulate what I'm feeling. So, that's really not what this blog post is about. What I do want this post to be about is just how thankful I am for my support systems in life.

First of all, my husband. Sometimes I feel just downright sorry for him, having to deal with me. But he handles it beautifully. Sometimes he just sits and listens, sometimes (ok just one time) he buys me flower, sometimes he sends me encouraging texts at work, and sometimes (he would not admit this) he even cries with me.

My parents have been my rock through my whole life. I honestly don't know what I'd do without them. Today they called me and just listened to me cry through the phone for 30 minutes. The crazy thing was that I had something on my mind that I had not mentioned to them before and when I told them about it my dad said "we've already been praying for you about that". They just knew, crazy. Their encouragement (even from 900 miles away) means the world to me.

I have some pretty awesome friends too. I often have a hard time talking about my feelings because I just can never find the right words. So, I tend to stuff my emotions inside until I feel like I'm going to burst. But, the girl friends that God has placed in my life in NC have always provided a listening ear when I needed one and for that I am very thankful.

I am going through a time in my life where I know the Lord is refining me for the future. I know that someday all the crazy emotions and tears I have been shedding will be used for His glory. There are certainly moments (a lot of them) when my worry takes over but right now I am just learning to take deep breaths and baby steps.

catching up and craziness

So to say my life has been a bit hectic lately would be a major understatement. So, blogging has been put on the back burner. But, I will do my best to hit some of the highlights as of late.
First, take a look at my latest cake. I made this for a runner like myself so I enjoyed doing it! She is turning 30 and running a 30k to celebrate. So, I made a running themed cake. The cake was strawberry flavor with vanilla buttercream. The "dirt" path was made of brown sugar and the rest of the decorations were fondant. Voila:


Last weekend I had the absolute privilege of going to Boston for the marriage of my good friend Monica and her now husband Josh. It was a gorgeous wedding and such a testimony to their love for each other and the Lord. Thankfully the wedding was on Saturday...the day before Hurricane Irene hit Boston! We had our share of wind and rain but thankfully no real damage at my parents house. And, both of my flights were on time which was very pleasantly surprising! Overall my trip was fabulous (despite a short bout of sickness on Saturday). I loved spending time with my family...even without power for a little bit on Saturday! It's always a little hard to leave when I visit, I sure do miss them! Take a look at this gorgeous bride and groom:


So, like I said before, life has been hectic and a little overwhelming. Yesterday I was having a particularly hard day and here's what I came home to:

I sure am blessed.

Whoooo's having a baby?

Laura, that's whooooo! I had the pleasure of making a cake for her baby shower last weekend. Little Evelyn Ruth is going to make her debut is just a few weeks now and I have heard through the grapevine that she will be residing in an owl themed nursery. Thus, the owl. So, here it is! Thanks Alison for asking me to make the cake, I had so much fun!

encouraging word

Often I will read something in my morning quite time that is just SO applicable to my life situation. It's like God knows exactly what I need to hear (which, of course, He does) at that exact moment. I have been reading through 1 Corinthians. This morning I was reading chapter 15 and the very last verse was my ah-ha moment. So, here's my tid-bit for the day. I hope you find it as encouraging as I did!

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

-1 Corinthians 15:58

this weekend's cake/cupcakes

I'll keep this short and sweet and just post a quick pic. 50th anniversary cake and cupcakes- 20 white cupcakes, 20 carrot cupcakes, and a 6" red velvet center cake. All with cream cheese icing and fondant decorations.

Our week in God's country

Chris and I spent the past week with my family in God's country...at least, that's what my dad calls it and I wholeheartedly agree. Most of you would probably just call it Maine. Seeing as how I have thus far spent more time living there than anywhere else, I also call it home. But honestly, look at this view...


We have become pretty comfortable with the 14 hour drive to Boston to visit my parents and then the trip to Owls Head, ME is another 3 hours or so... however, it becomes a 5 hour drive if your mom just insists that you stop at Red's Eats for a lobster roll and the line is 2 hours long!! The lobster roll was delicious but I think that will be our one and only time visiting Reds.


We spent the week doing a lot of relaxing, reading (I finished 2 whole Harry Potter books...now just 4 more to go!), playing board games, laying on the beach, fishing, etc. We spent a day at Acadia National Park and then stayed in a cute bed and breakfast which was my parent's anniversary gift to Chris and I. That was a great day...in all the years I lived in Maine, I never remember going to Acadia (though my parents are adamant that we have been there lots of times).

One of the highlights of our Maine trip every summer is seeing my whole family...and boy do I have a big family. In fact, I have 18 first cousins and I saw a majority of them during this trip. We range in age from newborn (actually my aunt is having a C-section tomorrow!!) to age 30. We had a lobster bake on Thursday and we got to catch up on each other's lives. This is the only time of the year that I see some of my cousins. Two of my cousins are started college this year and they are both coming south! I also got to see both of my grandmothers, one who turned 70 this year and one who turned 80!


On our way back home we stopped in Augusta, ME for a surprise birthday party for my Grandma Betty who just turned 70! So, I was able to see the whole family for a second time. We had a wonderful time celebrating with her!


It's always a little bit hard to come back home after such a great week with my family. It makes me realize just how incredibly blessed I am to have been put into such a great family. I'm still hoping that one day my parents will decide to move south, even just maybe for part of the year. However, this yearly trip also makes me realize something else. My family is really a bunch of Mainers at heart and we will always be!

Beat the Heat update and last week's cakes

It's sort of ironic that my two hobbies are cake decorating and running. But, last week was full of both and I sure did love it! Let's start with the, umm, healthier of the hobbies. I ran the Beat the Heat 5k on Saturday with a group of about 40 other people from my church and nearly 700 other people. It was so much fun to see that many people come out! The weather was absolutely perfect, we couldn't have asked for anything better. First of all, let me tell you just how ridiculously fast some runners were! The winner ran it in 14:13. I'll do the math for you, that's like 4 minute 30 second mile...for 3 miles. CRAZY. Me on the other hand, my goal was to run it in under 24 minutes. I crossed the finish line at 23:44 so I was happy! I was also very proud of my husband! He has only trained for about 5 weeks and ran the 5k in 26:03. This was his first race ever...his goal for next year is to beat me ;) Jamie ran participated in the race also...let's just say he got a bit sidetracked, enough said. Chris and I are running another 5k in the middle of August so I'll let you know how it goes!
Ok, moving on to the cakes! I made 3 last week. The first cake was a birthday cake for my really good friend and co-worker. Her favorite color is orange so I did a zebra print cake with orange buttercream. The second cake was for a little boy's first birthday smash cake. It was a small replica of the Dr Suess Cat in the Hat cake that I had made last December. It survived more than an hour drive to Virginia...whew! The last cake was a baby shower cake. I was asked to replicate a boy shower cake I did a few months ago but in pink for a girl. I was pleased with all the cakes. Enjoy!

blog lazy...

So, I've been super blog lazy lately. Not even that busy, just blog lazy. My brother has been visiting this past week- he arrived last Friday and will be leaving on Sunday. We have had a great time. Since the new Harry Potter was coming out on Friday, we decided that would be something fun to do. But, there was one problem...Chris and I had not seen movies 1-7! So, we had a movie marathon all week. We watched one movie a night and surprisingly I really liked them! I have decided that I need to read the books though because there were quite a few things that didn't make a lot of sense but I think they would if I knew all the back story. Anyways moving on from the Wizarding World...
Tonight is the Beat the Heat race that a group of ladies from Center Grove have been training for for 8 weeks now. I led a running group and ran with another and it was so fun to see the improvements in some of the ladies! I'm looking forward to running tonight but I still get so nervous before I run races...you'd think I'd be used to it by now! I honestly haven't run too many 5ks so I have a little trouble pacing myself in shorter races. So, we'll see how it goes.
Alright, that's about it for now. I made 3 cakes this week but I'll post about that later. Happy Saturday ya'll!

cupcakes

The last two weekends I have had orders for cupcakes- one for a baby shower and one for a girl birthday party. Here are a few pics of how they turned out! I forgot how much I enjoyed to make cupcakes. Both of these were classic white cake with cream cheese icing and fondant decorations.

Happy Fathers Day

Ok, so I realize this post is a few days late but that's how my life's been lately...hectic and behind schedule! But anyways, I do want to give a special shout out to my dad who I love very much!!

I've always been a daddy's girl and I will always be! I really couldn't ask for a better dad. And I'm so excited for my future kids because he is going to be just the best grandfather to them! He is really the most kind and compassionate individual you could imagine. In college, he wrote me a card every single week just to let me know I was loved and that he missed me. I hope that someday I could even be half the parent that he is. I love you Dad!

21st birthday cake

I'll keep this post short and sweet but here is a picture of the cake I made last weekend for a 21st birthday. I was asked to do pink and gold with glitter! So, I used pink fondant, gold luster dust, and pink and gold sparkles! Voila!

Weekend

Last weekend we had the opportunity to help my good friend Alison and her mom, Sharon, with a yard sale fundraiser for their upcoming trip to Kenya. This will be Alison's third trip to Kenya and Momma Sharon's second. We had a great time hanging out with Alison, her husband Paul, Sharon, and of course Gram on Friday and Saturday. We were thrill that they were able to make almost $2000 for their trip! God is certainly going to do great things through them in Kenya once again. Keep Alison and Sharon in your prayers as they leave on July 28th and will be gone for about 14 days.
In cake news, I made two this weekend. One was a Mario Kart cake and it may be my favorite one so far! It was fun to be able to be creative with the fondant and try some different things. Chris and I delivered it on Sunday to the precious little birthday boy who was turning 5 and he and his parents seemed to really like it!! The second cake was a girl baby shower cake. Until this weekend I had done only boy cakes so it was fun to be a little girly! Here are a few pics, enjoy!

2 years!

On Monday Chris and I celebrated our anniversary! It's hard to believe that we've already been married for two years! We spent our anniversary weekend in PA with my parents attending my cousin's wedding. The wedding was at a beautiful state park where we took the picture below (which is not the best, but it was the best of the bunch we took!). Our actual anniversary was spent driving 7 hours home...but hey, we were together right?? Anyways, I feel very blessed to have spent two wonderful years with Chris and I look forward to many more!

"be a best friend
tell the truth
and overuse i love you
and go to work
do your best
don't out smart your common sense
never let your praying knees get lazy
and love like crazy"

Happy Birthday Alison

Yesterday was my good friend Alison's 30th birthday. She and I lived together for 2 years before our hubbies came along. I have never laughed so hard in my life as when I'm with Alison. She is a real blessing in my life and in the lives of so many people. Here are some pictures from her 30th birthday celebration!!

They know how to have fun at Mi Pueblo!

blowing out the candles (with a little help!)

with her 30th birthday teapot