We are ALIVE!

Holy MIA! And when I say  MIA, I definitely mean the Action part…meaning we have been so busy! There is a lot to update you on. First things first…

I actually meant to blog about this awhile ago, and I actually did, but had issues loading pics and didn’t want to share the story without the pics! Basically, the old “always a bridesmaid never a bride” motto no longer works for me!! That’s right, Kelsey has asked me to be in her and Kevin’s wedding and I couldn’t be more thrilled and honored. This will be the first wedding I’m in since I’ve been married and I’m thrilled! Chris is also going to be in the wedding, and it will be the third wedding we are in together, not including our own! We love Kelsey and Kevin and they are such dear friends to us, we can’t wait to celebrate with them!

The front of the puzzle...

The back of the puzzle!

The reason I’m bringing up this update first is because I just got back from bridal dress shopping with Kelsey and some of her posse. It was a great time! Kelsey is going to make a GORGEOUS bride!

So, what else have we been up to? Well, Chris’ grandparents were visiting from Arizona this past week so we spent every moment we could with them. We baked some yummy treats and just hung out around the house! Can’t wait to go out and see them next year!

Our friend Tyler’s sister, Molly, had her baby shower for baby MacArthur (or McIntosh as I like to refer to him) and it was such a blast! It was filled with lots of laughs and love…the perfect combination! Yesterday, Sue (Ty’s mom) and Molly came over to see our house and take us out to lunch. They are so sweet. Tyler was there too, but he is definitely nothing to write home about…

On the pup front, we have discontinued the use of our usual nicknames for Ari, and have resorted to calling him The Butt. Like I told you before, I fear for our future childrens' names! Ari has a new friend named Tucker, and we have now realized that Ari is an alternative lifestyle dog. Or maybe he’s just confused. We love him just the same. We spent the morning at the dog park with Chris, Cynthia and Tucker and the pups really enjoyed their time!

Ari and Tuck

Chris and I loved this dog!

After Chris' softball game

Darin and I are in the process of planning a magnificent party for our family in just about two weeks. It is going to be Treasure Island themed, but with Mexican food. Winning combination, IMO. We are going to have treasure hunts for each kiddo with homemade treasure chests (thanks to Aunt Maria and Uncle David) holding all their loot! We also bought water toys and every time P, S, Alex or Zack go in the guestroom that’s housing the supplies they ask if we can do the slip-n-slide! Soon, my little ones, soon!

Chris and I also have been hard at work doing a few home improvements! Thanks to all of you guys and the generous gift cards, we have been able to furnish the home with some new toys! Take a peek at the new additions…

We bought this rug for the entryway, but it was too small so we found a new home for it. $9.99 at Ross

$19.99 for two pillows at Ross. We got two green and two brown that are on the other couch/chair. I think I'm still in the market for a lumbar pillow for the chair...

Placemats, $4.99 for all four at Ross. I won the candle at Mac's baby shower!

The mirror was $24.99 at Ross, and the set of three flower canvas art was $13.99 at Ross, originally $50 at Target!!

Part of the set of three in the above pic

Do you spy the weird bottle thing on the ledge? $13.99 at Ross. And for future reference, the glass table is our current "foyer table."

View from my kitchen window. LOVE! Placemats were off our registry, thank you, Karagianes! And thank you, Gpa, for the awesome table!

Whole house fan, courtesy of our fabulous family and friends! The switch that controls it is in the bottom right corner

New rug under the table. Also note the awesome bowl and platter from Molly as a housewarming/wedding gift!

So, a little more about the rug above. Chris and I bought a cheap rug at Ross for $20.99 for this space. Well, we HATED it. I hated how cheap it looked and it was too massive for the space. Since our kitchen space is so small, we have to have the table up against the wall and can't center the table/chairs on the rug itself. I took the rug back to Ross and looked for something else but nothing caught my eye. I went over to Cost Plus since Marshalls and Pier 1 were closed (open at 11 on a Sunday, what is up with that), and fell in LOVE with this. It was a splurge at about $70 bones, but since we did so good on our other items I felt less guilty about it. We will see what Chris thinks when he gets home tonight! The quality is there and I like it much better than the previous rug. I also fell madly in love with a new foyer table (ha! like we have a foyer...but you know what I mean), and Chris did too via MMS. It was 20% off, but I decided to wait since we have a truck registraion due soon. BOOO!
I also went shopping at Bed, Bath and Beyond with Amanda (Jason's fiance) on Friday and bought a curtain rod that was on clearance. The only thing that was wrong with it was the packaging was crunched! It was $4.98 and we both thought it was a steal. Well, that was until we brought it home and Chris measured the window I wanted it on and the measurment wasn't even close! Then he measured the rest of the windows in the house...no dice. So does anybody need a curtain rod?!
Well, that's it for now. I'm sure I'm missing a million things. Oh, like the silverware we got at Ross for when we have get togethers. See, Tyler has plastic plates and silverware that he uses just for parties. We loved this idea so we got the silverware (it's plastic, but nice plastic and comes in a caddy), but didn't see any plastic plates. Well, Sue must be a mind reader because when she came over on Saturday she bought us tons of plates in yellow (my favorite!) for this very purpose. Thanks, Sue!
Okay, I'm off to make our August to-do list! See ya later...and hopefully not next month later!