The Trouble with Flowers

Since we bought our house last year, I have been having an issue with the flowers in the front of our house. My first issue was that we didn't have any flowers, so we got some. Then after planting them, I discovered that I did not like the flowers we got. But we just left them anyways. Now that we have a new summer season, I wanted to get flowers that I really liked. First I got beautiful dalia's, but they died. So back to Home Depot I went. I really wanted some bright beautiful perennianls that could handle a lot of sun. I quickly discovered that the pickings were slim. So finally I decided to plant annuals since there is a much better selection.

Finally, pretty flowers in the front of our house!

What a Difference Furniture Can Make!!!

Up until this weekend, we had a lot of empty space in our home. We bought our house a little big, assuming that one day would be able to fill it up. Lucky for us, we were able to fill it a lot sooner than we expected. Tommy and Enalyn are remodeling their home, so were able to get some of their terrific furniture for our home.

I am working on getting some placemats and napkins to tie in the formal living room colors. I was able to find this awesome centerpiece that matches perfectly.

This furniture came just in time. We were able to put a lot of stuff in this hutch, which will give us more room in our kitchen (Need Desperately). And we still have one empty shelf for additional barware.

The complete set. Our new dining room table! I am so excited! I have been dying for a dining room set to fill this room.

We also got a couch for our bonus room upstairs. Before this, all we had in the room was a small fridge.

My Bailee is very fond of this couch. Everytime she runs upstairs she has to jump on the couch!

A BIG THANKS to Tommy and Enalyn for thinking of us, and giving us this terrific stuff!

Summer Garden

I have always wanted a garden. So now for the first time, we have our own house and decided to plant our first garden. We didn't exactly know how many plants to buy, so we just guessed. We have tomato plants, bell peppers, yellow peppers, red peppers, jalepenos, serranos, strawberries, cilantro, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, and cantelope.

Bailee insisted on being on the table while I was planting everything. She does not like to miss anything.

Here is Josh setting up the fence, so that way our dogs won't destroy all of our hard work.

This was Layla's contribution to the Garden. She decided to drink out of the jug that I was using to wet the dirt.

The final product. We have lots of bugs, so we decided to use planters for most of the items, and see how well it works. So far we are having some snail issues, so I need to get something for that.

Here are Bailee and Layla posing for a picture in front of the other part of our garden where we actually planted in the ground.

Birthday Cake

We recently celebrated Josh and Craig's birthday by going over to Craig and Valarie's house and eating delicious tacos (prepared by Val). Then we hung out the rest of the night and played darts. Usually Craig really beats us, but I think I might have actually won a game that night (can't completely remember...haha)!

As everyone knows, I have been practicing my decorating techniques. I made a chocolate cake for Josh and Craig's birthday.

Happy Easter!

This Easter we were very busy. We had to go to my family's house, then to Josh's family's house, and then we were off to the Laker game to celebrate Josh's birthday. We had a blast at the Laker game, but unfortunately we did not take any picture while we were there. We are bad at taking pictures of ourselves, but great at taking pictures of Bailee and Layla.

So I am pretty sure that this might be my favorite picture ever. Bailee was our Easter bunny. As you can tell, Bailee didn't like this outfit very much.

We made white chocolate covered strawberries, that were Easter colors to take to each of our family's house's.

The strawberries turned out great, but they were a lot more work than we initially thought they would be.

Decorating!!!

Let me start off this blog by apologizing for the long delay in posting any blogs. Most of our spare time these days are spent doing wedding planning activities. So it is hard to find time to do things that are blog worthy.

I recently have discovered the joy of baking, but I especially enjoy decorating. I recently bought a 70 piece decorating set (so I am taking this very seriously). I have been doing lots of practicing.

I have learned that decorating can be a messy business. I was using 8 different colors of icing, and it made quite the mess!

More mess! I borrowed Valarie's KitchenAid mixer, and I am in love!!

I made these cookies at the request of my co-workers. Here is the final product.

I was very proud of the way they turned out, and they tasted good too! I hope to take decorating classes soon, so I plan on getting better.

Engagement Party

We had a great turnout for our engagement party. A special thanks to Craig, Val, Jen, and Jerm for making it all possible. They all put in a lot of time and effort to make this a special day for us!!

We had a cocktail party with a variety of specialty martini's, and delicious appetizers. The colors were brown, white, pink and yellow (some of our wedding colors). We had beautiful centerpieces with pink and yellow gerber daisies (our wedding flowers). It had been raining earlier in the day, but luckily it stopped raining just a couple of hours before the party....thank goodness! The night turned out better than we imagined.

Craig, Heidi, Valarie, and Josh. This is a really special picture because Josh has his eyes open AND he is smiling.

My good looking family. Ryen, Louise, Lauren, Heidi, Laurie (one of the bridesmaids), Dani (the flower girl), Aunt Becky, Aunt Sylvia, and my Grandmother. It is rare that we all get to take a picture together.

A great picture of Jen and Val sitting outside close to one of the heaters. Notice the fabulous tables and flowers.

Our friends Kolbe and Jennie, being really smart and staying inside where it was nice and warm.

Jen and Jerm posing perfectly!

My LBA friends, Jill, Heidi, George, Becs, and Kavita. I thought I was hilarious by giving George bunny ears, and Becs was also cracking herself up with her pose.

Crazy Dogs!!!

How sweet is this picture? Every once in a while Layla and Bailee stop their constant play fighting and show that they actually do love each other.

Layla is a small dog trapped in a big dog body. She is the cuddler and wants to be held. Since she thinks that she is a small dog, she also thinks that she can fit in Bailee's bed.

It is hard to tell in this picture, but Bailee is standing in the back yard after Josh had just mowed the lawn, and he thought it would be funny to hit her with the leaf blower. She ended up liking it!

Layla is about 9 months old, and needless to say...she is quite the digger. One day after digging a hole (the size of a small swimming pool) she decided to come to the window and get herself busted!

Birthday Dinner

Last week was my birthday. It is a very difficult time to have a birthday, but Josh always makes sure that I have a special day of my own.

Earlier in the day, Josh had started to tell me that he was really busy at work, and that he wanted to get home early that day, but didn't think he would be able to. Well, I half believed him. Part of me thought he wouldn't just have me make dinner on my birthday, but the other part of me was worried that he actually did get busy at work, and really wouldn't be home to celebrate my birthday.

On my way home from work, Josh told me that he was still at work and he was really sorry. But when I got home there was a candlelight dinner waiting for me. He made meatloaf and garlic mashed potatoes (one of my favorite meals). Josh is quite the trickster!

Wedding Update - August 08, 2009

So with our wedding only 8 months away, here is a quick update on what is done (keep in mind I am super planner)

Ceremony and Reception site is booked
Food is picked
Favors are purchased
Bubbles are purchased
Wedding dress, veil, jewelry, garters,and hair piece is purchased
All bridesmaids dresses are purchased
Gifts for bridal party are purchased
Thank you notes are purchased
Invitations are picked (but still need to be made by us)
Colors are picked
Flowers are picked
Reception vases are purchased (but still need some bows added)
Limo is booked
DJ is booked
Save the dates are prepared

I am pretty sure there are a couple more things complete, but I can't remember them. So do you think I am excited?

Here is a link to our ceremony and reception site. It is gorgeous! Stay tuned for more details.

http://www.castawayrestaurant.com/sanbern/banquets.html