Sunday is Brunch Day

Kelly and Joe cooked an amazing brunch on Sunday.

You will notice the door is open - it was 65 degrees and sunny. Amazing weather.

Besties are Back!

Today we spent the day with Steph, Ryan and Sam. We were super productive and even fit in some girl/guy time.

Highlights of the day:

• Moved the GIANT TV in the W's living room - almost as intense as the mirror from Becky and Lucas' house
• Moved furniture around for a completely new feel
• New paint! Hello Orange/Yellow...LOVE IT
• Steph and I got to sneak out for mani/pedis and Starbucks
• The boys fit in 15 holes of golf
• We all got some special Sam time
• Steph introduced me to Home Goods (although it was slightly torturous as Matt and I have committed to no home purchases until April!)
• Buying new decorative items for Steph's living room
• Enjoying time with some of our favorite people!!!!!!

I didn't take any pictures so I thought I would share two of my favorites from a previous date night.

And I just had to share this picture. Lemmon does this whenever someone she loves leaves. She FREAKS OUT!!!

A Fabulous Friday

This morning Matt surprised me with a Starbucks before I left for work. What a thoughtful guy!

Pajama Party

Last night we had an amazing dinner in our pjs at Lucas and Becky's house! Well, Becky and I wore our pjs and the boys were in painting clothes. After dinner the girls did some decorating while the boys painted and hung what might be the largest mirror I have ever seen.

Matt having a dance party on the ledge above the door. Making me nervous!!!

Becky made homemade guacamole, cheese enchiladas, soup shots with cheese crackers and we brought a salad. Dinner was followed by decorating followed by a trip to Target at 10pm followed by cookies. And all on a school night.

After looking at the mirror on the ground for the last couple of weeks, it is now secured above the mantle. Good work boys.

Lamps and things

This past weekend Matt's mom and sister came for a visit. It was so fun to show them the new house and spend some time with them. They added a special touch to the house with a sweet houswarming gift!

We put this above the kitchen table in the breakfast nook.

This picture I just had to share. Everyone LOVES the fire...especially Lemmon!

Superbowl Prep

This marks the 4th Packer game in a row we have had friends over for full on support of the Packers. I think Matt makes them say an oath that they will support the Packers and only the Packers. We have enjoyed all kinds of salsa, quesos, wings, fries, stews, and tonight Lucas made an amazing pepper steak. It was to die for. The 4th quarter ritual includes warm cookie ice cream sandwiches.

Matt's mom and sister were in town so got to enjoy the festivities.

I was in Neenah, WI for work this past week and they had a sale on jerseys at a small store at the airport - so I surprised Matt with my very own Packer's jersey and a toy for Lemmon!

This was the deliciousness Lucas made. I put in a formal request for a repeat Superbowl weekend.

Somehow the tradition holds: Packers win, friends help us put something together for the house. We have hung a huge mirror, put a dining room table together, hung light fixtures...and this victory brought new patio furniture set up in the backyard. We tried to get a fire started...but due to wet logs we mainly just got smoke. We are so lucky to have such good friends that love sharing this special time of setting up a home with us.

Enjoying the new patio furniture!!!

New Friends

Tonight was a very special night!!!! Not only was it the first night we got to use our "official" dining room table," but after 10 months of worrying about Lemmon accidentally being too rough with Sam I am pleased to report the two of them on the floor was a success. In fact, they didn't even seem to notice the other one was there...except for Lemmon wanting to use Sam's rake as a toy. Thanks Wannemachers for coming over...we have missed our dinner dates!!!

Rake or Lemmon's food. Hard to tell...

Sniffing out the new kid!

In full disclosure...it took a lot of coaxing, treats, and pictures to make this one happen!!

Spaghetti dinner at our brand new table!!!

Sam enjoyed the chocolate covered strawberries.

The "serenity room"

I wanted to do a blog post to update you guys on our latest home remodel - the guest room - so I asked Matt what a good title would be and this is what we came up with. We wanted the guest room to be super welcoming and peaceful. The rest of our house is very much "us" with our paintings and travel items all over the place, darker colored walls, etc. And while I love the rest of our house, it is fun to have one room that is calm and to me feels like something you might see in Pottery Barn (but for no where NEAR the price!). Tell me what you think.

Before:

I have got to start taking before pictures. This was the only picture I had that shows the color green they had on the wall. It was yucky! We already had the bedding from my first apartment. It was such a steal. I got it for $25 when Linens and Things was going out of business. We had a bunch of shelves and picture frames that were black that we had gotten from Target, along with my $30 tall picture frame/stand (you can barely see it in the corner).

After:

We decided to get away from blacks and browns and go with a white theme in this room. I got the picture frames above the bed for $35 TOTAL - Thank you Michaels for your 60% off frames. I bought scrapbook paper to put in the frames to set the tone for the pink/red color I wanted. The previous owners left some white paint in the garage, so Matt painted our shelved, etc white and I love how they turned out. I found the reddish pillows to match the scrapbook paper at Garden Ridge, and the sweet little nightstand at IKEA. We feel like we have a completely new room...and all for under $150. (The shelves are on the opposite side so you can't see them. I'll add a picture of them later...gotta get to work!)

Surprise Sundays

Impromptu get togethers are the best! Our friends Becky and Lucas have offically moved in to their new home about 7 minutes away so we surprised them tonight with a small housewarming gift and a casserole to take home. The gift got even better when they decided to enjoy their dinner here with us...love Swiss Enchiladas!!! Dessert started as ice-cream and ended up being a complete Sunday ice-cream bar. Delicious!!!

Lemmon was, again, passed out by the fire.

Home Makeovers Continue

Matt is really rockin the home makeovers lately. He is an excellenct painter...and I am not too shabby at supervising!!! :-) This has been our latest project and we LOVE it!

This is our front entry.

After Matt painted it. It is hard to tell the color in this picture, but it is actually a little darker - a bit more bold.

And this is the final project. I love it. I had the sconces from our apartment...found the mirrors fo $19.99 each at TJMAX...the flowers are in voss water bottles....Matt made the painting...and the green table was a gift from Kelly and Aunt Laura!!! The next project is the kitchen (you can get a quick glimpse of the awesome kitchen wallpaper in the background.)

I wanted to give you some highlights of our sweet little Lemmon...

Helping Daddy set up his surround sound speakers

She gets SOOO upset when someone leaves the house. She just watches until they come back...or gets distracted.

Her latest pose. She was curious what was going on behind the couch.

Today felt really cold inside so Matt made a fire. Lemmon did not leave a 4 foot radius from the fire. I caught her and Matt passed out taking a nap this afternoon. I guess the music I had on, fire and rain outside was the trifecta of sending them into a deep sleep.

How can this be comfortable.

Slowly but surely

I have been having so much fun decorating our house over the last month. I would say for the past 3 years I started collecting pages from magazines of things/designs/ideas that I really liked. I don't think I have the most natural knack for creating decor on my own...but I am sure good at "stealing" ideas. Here are two things that I had on my list that I knew I had to get at some point.

This I have had my eye on for probably 9 years. We will not be buying much from Crate and Barrel, but I was able to talk Matt into this on moving weekend!!!

I love having so many of our special things in one place!!!

This was my Christmas present from Matt...I absolutely LOVE IT!!! Thank you Pottery Barn.

Playing Catch-up

Well I am definitely behind in my blogs...so I am going to take this opportunity to take you on a whirlwind tour of the last two months.

My first surgery: Thanksgiving Day we played our usual game of Trifone Family touch football. After the game, and injury free, Matt and I were playing catch. Not sure what happened but I caught the ball wrong and immediately went down to the ground in pain. Everyone but my mom thought my finger was just jammed as it immediately swelled and bruised. Playing soccer growing up, not a hand sport, I never experienced a jammed finger so I went with it. After 3 weeks of no progress and continued pain I went to the doctor. Results were a piece of the bone was broken off and I had surgerythe next day. Matt and I laughed the entire time at the hospital because it was the full show and we were not expecting it: gown, rolling bed, IVs, etc. We were NOT laughing post surgery as well as the two weeks that followed. I was in so much pain. I still have a pin in my finger andhave 1-3 weeks to go before they take it out. At least the majority of the pain is gone.

Below is our Christmas card and flowers my parents sent to work post surgery. So thoughtful!!!

Christmas spirit. This year was our first year to celebrate Christmas in our new house. The decorations went up shortly after we moved in. It was so much fun to decorate a house. We had quite a bit to put up inside thanks to my post Christmas sales the past 4 years. Outside was another story though. Matt wanted to go with LED lights, which are semi-expensive. So we bought round one for this year of outdoor lights and enjoyed lighting at least one of the many trees/bushes. We figure if we buy a few strands a year that will work just fine. This years latest holiday decor purchase was large ornaments to hang from the trees in the front yard. I got 3 pre Christmas, and then stocked up post Christmas. Can't wait to hang them all next year.

Below is a picture from our mantle this past Christmas.

It was also Lemmon's first Christmas and yes, she had a stocking and presents. Mostly treats...some of which unfortunatly made her sick. She has such a sensitive stomach!!!

Christmas Vacation: Matt and I spent nearly a week in Wisconsin spending time with his side of the family. We had a blast seeing family, extended family and friends.

Opening presents Christmas Day

Loss of a Loved one: While so many amazing things have been going on in our lives, I am sad to report that Matt's grandmother passed away a week before Christmas. We extended our trip a few days to be there for the memorial. Only meeting her once before, it was pretty amazing to hear the amazing stories about her. She was one driven woman, and I can only hope our FUTURE kids get some of her amazing qualities. God Bless Angie!

Happy New Year: We had so much fun this new years eve. We hosted dinner, drinks and games at our house. Couples met at Central Market and the boys picked out yummy surf and turf. At the house we enjoyed wines from around the world as husbands, fiances and boyfriends cooked a 4 course meal. Dinner ended around 10 and was followed by watching the ball drop, playing games and a champagne toast. We are so lucky to have such amazing friends in our lives.

Half the group (PS: Wannemachers...we missed you!!! It wasn't the same without you!)

Well I will leave it at Happy New Year and try to be a bit more regular with blog posts. So far this year has been off to an amazing start. We have lots to be thankful for.