She said YES!

Congratulations are in order for Laura and Chris! Last Friday night Chris popped the question and we couldn't be happier for the two of them. With some secret planning - and great ideas from Matt - we were able to get some friends and family involved to help make the surprise even sweeter. The surprise visitors met at Laura and Chris' apartment Friday afternoon around 3pm and filled the apartment with flowers, candles, wine and cheese. It was so fun to go crazy buying flowers. We made a tea-lit, flower pedal walkway from the front door to the balcony where Chris was going to propose. Chris picked Laura up from work so she unlocked their apartment to a romantic wonderland. We had two glasses and a bottle of wine waiting for them. He poured a glass of wine and started his buildup as he walked her along the rose pedals to the balcony. Outside were 5 very excited people holding signs that read: "Laura will you marry me?" While we were outside holding up the signs, covering our faces so she couldn't see who it was, a crowd gathered and was waiting with us for them to come outside. Chris got down on one knee, popped the question and yelled down "She said yes!" (The crowd literally cheered!) We ran upstairs where friends and family arrived to enjoy a little cocktail hour prior to our celebratory dinner. The best part - she was completely surprised - so all of our hard work planning paid off!

Congrats you two! We love you!!!!

Fancy Fall

Fall is officially here - and I have a brand new wreath to debut! Laura and I made these - she found some sweet deals at Hobby Lobby and had enough left over to share! Thanks Laura!

Happy Birthday Steph!

Back to back birthdays for the "W" household! We followed up Sam's smashing success of a birthday with our traditional "pizza and cupcakes" at Grimaldi's dinner for Steph. Three years ago Grimaldi's came out with their free pizza on your birthday coupon. I would say 11 out of the last 12 Lundemacher birthday's have been spent together sharing a pizza together - just the 4(.5) of us!! For Steph's birthday we did the usual of Grimaldi' in Allen - sneaking in yummy cupcakes - and ending with Sam's annual picture by the duck.

This is why we are besties!

It was fun to kick off the birthday week celebrations - Happy Birthday Steph!!!!!!

Sam is TWO

Labor Day weekend Sam turned TWO years old. FINALLY, we were in town to celebrate his birthday. Steph had the nerve to go into labor when we were out of town two years ago, and then we were in Wisconsin last year for his 1st bday (although we celebrated with our own party)! So it was so fun to get to be IN the action this year.

Sam has been all over Dr. Suess this year - so his party was a Dr. Suess Cat in the Hat theme! Check out Steph's creativity below...

"Green eggs"

...and Ham!

The Cat in the Hat

The kids table

Goodie bags...yes Matt got one too!

Gifts were supposed to be in the form of Dr. Suess books that they were going to donate to Scottish Rite Hospital. Well, after learning the theme, I couldn't resist. You can't really see it because the water is cloudy, but I made little signs in the back of the tank that say "One Fish, Two Fish" and then got a red fish and a blue fish. (I got permission for getting a live present first :-)

Love it!

Steph out did herself this year ... the bar keeps getting higher and higher. Thanks for a great party!!! Sam, you are the cutest two year old of all time!! We love you!!!

Brian's Surprise 30th!

The last two months of planning...totally worth it! Our good friend Brian turned THIRTY this past Wednesday and we had one heck of a celebration. Every year Brian gives me "the talk" about not doing anything big for his birthday. Each year I have abided by his orders and done a small dinner at our house. Well I was NOT letting 30 just slip by under the radar. About 2 months ago I called his mom to get some ideas for days (i.e celebrate on his actual birthday - a weeknight - or wait until the weekend). I invited her and Pete but they said they probably weren't going to be able to make it. She did, however, send some GREAT baby pics of Brian. Through a few of his key friends that I knew - we gathered a robust list of all of Brian's close friends. I have to say he has the sweetest friends. I had not met all of them before, but they were great people - and all SOOO excited to pitch in and surprise Brian.

The invites went out and we were set to have everyone meet at our house at 6pm Wednesday night. A week before we were set to party Brian sends me a text that "he needs to talk about dinner Wednesday." I called him and told myself to "play it cool." He proceeds to tell me that he has an HOA meeting that night and he will be late to dinner. A few emails later we are all pushed back to 6:30. In the months leading up to the big night I collected pictures from all of his friends and made a shutterfly book titled "thirty...reasons we love you." I left 2 white pages at the back for everyone to sign "a reason they love Brian during the 45 minutes we were all waiting for him.

The Dessert Table (Brian is a huge scrabble fan)...

....and Skittles!

Sweet tea, regular tea, lemonade (Arnold Palmers), lemons, water, beer and wine

Everyone hiding! Huge Success!!!

7:00pm comes arounds - no Brian. 7:05...still no Brian. Having never thrown a surprise party before I was getting very anxious. 7:20 he shows up...TOTALLY surprised. It was so much fun to see his reaction. He couldn't believe the group of friends we had gotten together. Thinking the night has peaked I hear a knock at the door...opening it to Brian's mom and dad! They surprised all of us. SO FUN! Brian couldn't believe it.

I printed out the baby pictures his mom sent and pasted them onto big foam boards for everyone to write a caption. Some of them were so funny I couldn't even read all of them outloud I was laughing so hard. 

Signing the book while waiting for Brian

Brian read each page outloud!

God Bless America

Thinking of those morning the loss of friends and family today...

A little SPRINKLE

A couple of weeks ago Laura and I threw a fun little baby "sprinkle" for our friends Chase and Hallie. The six of us do weekly dinners so Laura and I thought it would be fun to make one of those dinners special to celebrate the upcoming arrival of little Molly Jean!

Pink and Green theme!

I am officially obsessed with mason jars.  Cheers to sparkingly pink lemonade!

Hallie and Chase

Laura and I with the mommy to be

I found these cupcake toppers years ago that I used for another baby shower. They are so sweet!

 Chase doing a dry run

Games are important for any shower. Game #1 was for the mixed audience - wanted the guys to have some fun as well!  We started with which guy can chug beer out of a baby bottle the fastest. FYI moms...the dollar store has these BPA free bottles for $1 each. 

Even though we put less in Chase's bottle...he did not win.  

Next up: Bottle Bowling. Took those same beer soaked bottles and used them for game number 2! Not going to lie, nothing special about this game, just that it was fun to try to watch everyone knock the bottle over with a balloon!

We ended with baby charades! Note to self - use harder words!!!

It was fun to celebrate with friends the future arrival of Molly and shower her parents with some gifts and games...can't wait to meet her!

A Weekend Wedding

This past weekend Matt and I helped celebrate the marriage of Becky and Lucas!!! The weekend festivities started off Friday with a bridesmaid's spa and lunch - followed by a stressful tire blow out - rehearsal and rehearsal dinner! Added bonus... my brothers were in town for the LSU/Oregon weekend.

With the bride...

 Most of the bridesmaids + creeper Chuck (jk!)

I went home with this groomsman!!! :-)

Mr. and Mrs. Kramm

 With Brian

Matt rocked it on the dance floor! I am sure he is probably in about half of the reception pictures. 

Saying goodbye!