2 Years!!

Day 2 of our cruise was a day at sea. We spent the day laying by the pool and eating. Even better, it was our anniversary! Eric and I have been married for over 2 years now! Time has definitely flown. I feel like I've known Eric my whole life (I also felt that way before we were married). He is such a sweetheart. He is always there for me when I'm sad, he will make dinner for me when he knows I'm super tired (even if it is just taquitos), and he stays up all night studying for tests because he wants us to have a great future. I couldn't have asked for a better hubby!

There are our anniversary balloons. We must have been on anniversary row, because everyone by us seemed to have their anniversary/honeymoon balloons too!

Eric got a special treat -- gelatos! He enjoyed it :)

Our anniversary just so happened to be formal night as well! It was great to get to dress up for our special night.

The restaurant gave us a chocolate cake in celebration of our 2 years! I remember it being pretty tasty, but I was soooo full by the time we got to dessert. That is the problem with free food -- we eat every course.

Yay for anniversaries!

I love you Eric! Happy really belated Anniversary!!

The Moment We've All Been Waiting For...

CRUISE PICTURES!!

On Saturday, April 30th, Eric and I left for the airport bright and early to catch our flight to Ft. Lauderdale. We were headed on a 7 night cruise to the Caribbean. The trip marked the end of Eric's 2nd trimester, me working at my job for over 6 months without spending a vacation day, and our 2 year anniversary!

Outside the airport in Ft. Lauderdale.

We must have arrived at a good time, because we got on the boat in less than 15 minutes. This is our embarkation.

Walking around the ship for the first time. Eric immediately went to the pizza and ice cream bar, where he continued to go every single day (sometimes twice).

Our favorite activity on the cruise was Movies Under the Stars. We would just lie back in the warm night's air watching a movie with no bugs flying around (a bonus to being in the middle of the ocean). It was perfect! I can't remember what we watched this first night. It's driving me crazy not remembering.

Still watching the movie.

And that's about all we did the first evening: got on the ship, walked around, grabbed some pizza, and watched a movie. It sounds like our every day lives!

The Best Things in Life...

are FREE!!!

Back in April (yup, we still haven't made it to May yet) I glanced out the window and saw our neighbor unloading a bunch of stuff from his truck. I told Eric to go help him, so he did. Eric got to talking with the neighbor and discovered "big item pickup day." There are scheduled pickup days in Overland Park for any big items you want to get rid of; your pickup day is determined by the area you live in. Apparently, people go prowl the sidewalks with their trucks and trailers and just collect a whole bunch of stuff--some junk and some pretty good items. Our neighbor invited us to go with him because it happened to be a pickup day for the rich parts of town.

We drove and drove around looking at stuff. I watched our neighbor collect, but I refused to get anything that would only clutter the house. Finally, we passed by a dresser and I knew I wanted it! It didn't quite fit, but it was obvious that I had to have it, so the boys got rid of a random item to make room in the truck.

I forgot to get a good shot of the "before." The only thing that was wrong with the dresser is that the 2nd drawer sunk down. After further investigation we found out it was just missing a piece of wood to go across and act as a support for the drawer.

Being the fixer-uppers we are, Eric and I got to sawing wood (another thing we picked up off the sidewalk).

And we measured to make sure it fit just right. Then I stained the piece of wood (with stain we had already). It was a fairly good match.

We didn't have any carpenter's glue and I was too impatient so we nailed the piece of wood in place. The top piece of wood was the already existing one and the one below it is what we created. Not bad right?!

Here is the final product! The dresser is in great shape, and so far the drawer has held up wonderfully.

Just to get an idea on what we saved from this little project...This dresser costs $259.99 (and it has one less drawer than our dresser).

(Sorry for the tiny pic) This dresser has the same amount of drawers and costs $541.49.

So let's just say we got a great bargain and are thrilled! We literally spent $0 on the dresser just by taking advantage of events in the area and using what we already had to fix it up!

Family Pictures

Our little family of 2 became a family of 3 for a weekend. So what do we do? Family pictures!!

Here's our hotness.

Then we had to mix it up with a little frolicking. Notice Eric's arm. He is a natural at frolicking! Audrey...not so much. Me...mediocre frolicker.

Sexy-ish picture. Again, Eric's pose is excellent.

Now if you look carefully, it almost looks like Eric is photoshopped into this picture.

Holly will appreciate this picture. Haha. The VAMPIRE picture. I look pretty legit with the wind blowing in my hair. Very vampirish.

Time for some sister pics! And yes, we ARE holding hands.

This is my favorite of us. It wasn't posed; it's just us! Well, actually it might have been posed. I can't really remember. It was 2 months ago!

Still holding hands. We must really love each other!

I hope you enjoyed the awesome family pictures!

Easter 2011

Like I said in the last post, Audrey joined us for Easter this year. This is the 3rd year Eric and I have spent Easter together, and thanks to Audrey, we've spent it with family each year!

At the plaza the night before Easter.

Thanks to our evening at the plaza the night before, we didn't get around to Easter shopping until after 9. A lesson for all of you: there IS an endless supply of Easter baskets and Easter goodies. But rather than go to another store, we made due with our Easter BAGS. I think it will be a memorable little Easter for us!

Eric hid my Easter bag downstairs while Audrey and I hid upstairs. It was actually really great having 3 people because 1 was able to be the photographer at all times. My bag was hiding underneath clothes in the dryer.

Next up was Eric! He hid downstairs while Audrey and I hid his bag upstairs. He found it fairly fast inside of my old backpack in the 2nd bedroom closet (I still claim Eric heard the closet door open and close...).

Eric also hid Audrey's bag. So we wouldn't hear any doors or closets, Audrey and I waited outside for this one. She searched and searched and searched the ENTIRE upstairs and still didn't find her bag. After her second time around each room, Eric had to direct her to the bathroom. BEST HIDING SPOT EVER!! And now you see why Easter bags rock so much more than Easter baskets--better hiding places! Audrey looked in the shower multiple times but didn't think to look in BETWEEN the shower curtain and curtain liner. Nicely done Eric!

After church I did an Easter egg hunt for the 2 big kiddos. Let me just tell you, that was the most fun part of the day. I didn't think the eggs were that hard to find, but apparently I was wrong! It was hilarious watching them pass the spots and not see the eggs. But hey, I wasn't going to hide the eggs in obvious spots like for 3 year olds. They had to work for their goodies!

We had a grand old Easter. I'm so glad that Eric fits right in with my family. It makes for some fun times!

Audrey's Visit

Audrey came to Kansas City for Easter weekend! This is basically how it happened.

Me: Hey Audrey, you should fly out this weekend.

Audrey: I can't this weekend. What about next weekend?

And 11 days later she was here! I had planned on shopping for decorations for our place, but Audrey and I can't seem to go a visit without clothes shopping--and that took up our whole day.

Eric reaped some of the rewards, as you can see:

I don't have many pics from our shopping extravaganza, but Audrey was not happy that I was finding more stuff than her. Hehe. It ALWAYS goes the other way around.

And this is what we came out with. It's so nice shopping for clothes with a woman; Eric just doesn't cut it with that kind of thing. We were in a very blue mood. Also, our matching item of this trip was jewelry. It's tradition to get something matching! :)

Saturday night the three of us went out to dinner at the Melting Pot. I've been meaning to take Eric there but haven't yet, so who better to share it with than my sister?

We did all the courses and it was DELICIOUS. I tried not to eat too much because we all know my favorite course is the last one...dessert!

I love miniature items, so the tabasco sauce was a big hit. I can't believe I forgot to take it home! Favorite picture of the trip:

I love having Audrey here! Girl time is a must sometimes. I'm thinking we'll have to have another trip soon because I am in desperate need of summer clothes! I'll talk about our Easter on tomorrow's blog.