I'm Back

Oh Hey Ladies!

I have been pretty MIA for the last few weeks or so but we returned from cruising around the Bahamas and settling back in is excuse enough but on top of that life got extremely crazy here on the home front with two baby showers our first weekend home, my first wedding that I am second shooting with this summer and two more bridal showers and then to top it off work got even crazier because the girl that was training me to cover for her when she has her sweet little baby got put on bed rest about 9 weeks too early so hello no training and just jumping into a whole new position. So pardon my absence but I am back and I have a ton of pictures and stories to share with all of you. I am planning on recapping our vacation in more detail the coming weeks but I also want to get some time to document what has been going on in our lives too. Vaca recap is probably going to be mixed in with all my other blogging topics but I promise I am not going to leave you all hanging. 

Being gone for a week on a cruise ship with no cell service and I was not about to pay for the wifi package on the ship I had a great week of disconnecting from social media and all life from home. Coming back though I have felt like I missed out on all the important announcements but hey life goes on and I will catch up eventually. So if you got engaged, are expecting, painted your front door or wore the cutest outfit ever.... CONGRATULATIONS!!! I am so excited for you!

Tonight I am going to leave you with this goofy picture of Tyson I snapped today. Unfortunately all I had was my iPad so it is snotty quality but I couldn't resist sharing. 

I was the type of kid who...

+ My brother, who is 3 years younger than me, and I grew up having my Grandma and Grandpa Spiker (Mom's parents) as our babysitters. They lived in the the nicest little neighborhood full of other kids our age. We literally ran that neighborhood like no one's business. Harper Drive had about 15 houses on it, with a turn around at the other end which also ran to the big pond at the end of the road. Grandma always stocked the freezer in the garage with bomb pops, orange push ups and any kind of strawberry snack you could think of and she graciously let us and all our friends have free roam of that little fridge. Grandpa always made sure the sandbox was full and he maintained the little red tree house down by woods and the crick that ran through their property. The neighbor kids always wanted to play at our house and I was the oldest so I was the one who called the shots and decided what we were doing.

+ I was also the oldest grandchild on both sides of the family. My Uncles spoiled me like crazy as did my parents and pretty much anyone who had anything to do with me. I was the kind of kid who joined my Uncles on their dates in high school and no one dared even question it.

+ I was a die hard Britney Spears fan. To the point that I tried changing the spelling of my name on my school papers in the fourth grade and acting like nothing even happened. I also took the little picture book out of the front of Britney's Baby One More Time and tried to copy cat her little white tee that she was wearing. It just so happened that it was Easter morning and our house was full of people visiting. I stood in the bathroom looking at myself in the mirror with a black permanent marker wearing my brother's Hane's white tshirt and I drew a 'b/s' initials to copy what she was wearing in her picture. I walked proudly down the hall, my Dad asked me what I wrote on my shirt and I demanded that I didn't do this that it just came like this. We still laugh to this day because the initials were wrote backwards due to the mirrored image and it was very obvious that my 13 year old self wrote on that shirt. I am pretty sure my Dad saved the tshirt and it's in the filing cabinet at their house.

+ I was the kind of kid who was traumatized by my mischievous and ornery little brother. When I was maybe 6 years old and he would have been 3 we were on a family vacation at Myrtle Beach. My Dad's uncle had died in Kansas so mid week he flew to Kansas to attend the funeral leaving my Mom with both of us at the hotel. Mom gave us strict orders to not open the door for anyone and just play in the room while she jumped in the shower real quick. Jonathan was playing with this really heavy metal fire truck on our balcony (8th floor overlooking the swimming pool) and threw the truck right off the balcony and on to the pool deck below where the pool boy was cleaning the pool. Mom spazzed when she got out of the shower and took us down to retrieve the truck and apologize. On the same trip he got his fingers stuck in the elevator shaft and we had to hold the elevator open and get ice to remove his hands. To this day I am still worried about the trouble he is going to get us into wherever we go.

Weekend Recap

Aside from celebrating Easter on Sunday we also had an eventful weekend.

Friday night we met some of our friends at Adornetto's for salads and pizzas and then Anthony and I joined my Mom and Dad at Rooster's for drinks.

(I didn't take any pictures Friday night and I kicked myself later for not doing so!)

Saturday morning I woke up extremely motivated to get some major housework done. We have been so behind on getting laundry done and my goal is to have all of it done and put away before we leave at the end of the week for our trip along with having the house completely spotless. I ended up busting out 6 loads (!!!) of laundry and then my Mom called me and wanted me to meet her and my Grandma at the mall for a little girls day. We ended up getting pedicures and grabbing a bite to eat at Garfield's. It was my Mom's first time getting a pedicure and she loved it! I think we have her hooked which I will not complain about because getting a pedicure every three months or so would be lots of fun to do with my Mom. Grandma talked my Grandpa into going and picking up my Dad and tricking him into getting a pedicure too! He was not too thrilled about it but he said it was very relaxing and felt good. After we left the mall I went home and Anthony and I just hung out until 5:30. We had to be at Grandma's for our annual Easter egg coloring at 6:30 but I wanted to swing into Kohl's to try to find some jean shorts for our cruise. I had the hardest time finding some and I am not completely sure I am completely satisfied with what I got so I am going to check out some other stores this week. Egg coloring was fun but unfortunately there are only 3 little kids that are still getting into it and the excitement isn't as big as it used to be but it was still fun for all of us (except Maddy, she had to work) to hangout at Grandma and Dave's.

Easter 2015

Happy Belated Easter Everyone!

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday that was spent with my side of the Family. The weather could not have been more perfect and we were able to spend the majority of the day outside. 

Everyone was kind of in and out and there was not a time that the whole family was there so unfortunately we did not get a big family picture like we had all wanted to. I actually didn't have my camera out the whole time like I have in the past and we don't have a whole whole bunch of pictures because I was trying to focus on enjoying the day with everyone and having fun. 

All in all it was a fairly decent day and now the count down is on for our Cruise!!!

Hello, Goodbye

Hello April, Goodbye March, you flew by anyways so I guess we won't be missing you too much!
Hello Spring temperatures, Goodbye random snow flurries all the time (fingers crossed!)
Hello more hiking, Goodbye big blue chair in our living room that my tush has been plopped into almost every night for the last I don't even know how many months!
Hello Carnival Cruise, Goodbye planning for our first Cruise.
Hello Easter, Goodbye Fish on Fridays.
Hello Cotterman's Campground, Goodbye camping supplies totes hogging up my laundry room!

Weekend Recap

I had a wonderful weekend that was kicked off with a shopping day with my Mom and Grandma Kuhn in Columbus. We first met with my Dad and Grandpa at this antique place to check out some old doors to be used for a headboard and my parent's want to replace a couple of the doors in their house with some more solid and full of character doors. We were amazed at how much this guy had at his place. I am definitely going to be making a trip back. After that the guys headed home with our finds from Loendick's in the truck and us ladies made our way to Columbus. We wanted to check out Burlington Coat Factory because they always have a ton of dresses. I found two dresses and a big hat for our cruise and I also found this really nice light weight, waterproof jacket for when we go hiking and for this Spring weather that is finally moving into Ohio. After that we went to BD's Mongolian BBQ for lunch and then check out Pier One. I had never been to Pier One and I loved it. They seriously have so much cute stuff! One last stop on the way home was to Buckeye Winery to get some wine because what girls day is complete without some wine. We bought a couple bottles to take home because we are allowed to have one bottle of wine each on the cruise and we knew just what we wanted to bring along! Sunday was spent doing little things around the house because it was fairly chilly outside and then we met Anthony's family at Cracker Barrel for lunch for his Grandma's birthday. All in all it was a wonderful weekend and we are all getting very excited to be leaving for our cruise in just a handful of days!