Merry Monday!!

What's 'merry' about today?

C U P C A K E S !!

I cannot get enough of them! Before this pregnancy, I didn't have much of a sweet tooth but wow, it sure seems like these babies loooove their sweets!!

We went home to Oklahoma City this weekend...which was were the cupcake extravaganza began...1st up, Cuppies & Joe.

Here's their website

their menu is uh-mazing!!!

My favorite flavor is their Boom Boom Pow ~ it's a vanilla bean cuppie w/chocolate buttercream, caramel, and sea salt. It's beyond delicious!!

We may have had to take a few home...ya know, just a few. ;)

Ok, so when I imagine what Heaven will be like, it's definitely a version of this place. Pinkitzel is every 'Girly Girl's' dream come true. They manage to combine an upscale boutique (complete with clothes, baby girl clothes and home decor) with a cupcake and coffee bar. Seriously friends, it's heaven.

Here's their website

While I was down this weekend, my best friend, Christina, threw me a baby shower...AT Pinkitzel!!! Yes, it was perfect. Truly, there aren't any other words to describe it. Here's a picture of the room where the shower was held. This pic is from their website...I'll be doing a baby shower post soon with lots more pics. Believe it or not, the room looked soooo much cuter for the shower. LOVE the antique circus theme!!

On our way back to Omaha, we stopped at the Plaza in Kansas City. After doing a little bit of shopping, we had to stop at KC's well-known cupcake place.

It was just a small store front...small but adorable! Here's their website

Super yummy & fun flavors!! My favorite was their seasonal flavor 'Peppermint Hot Chocolate,' it was delicious!!

Now that we are home, I'm still craving cupcakes. Luckily, I went to a Christmas Party tonight that was right next door to Jones Bros. Cupcakes!! Pretty sure it was meant! Ha!!

Here's their website

If you're ever in Omaha and are looking for a place to grab a tasty cupcake and cup of coffee (or a glass of wine) I highly recommend Jones Bros.

Weekend in OKC

Last weekend Kevin and I headed down to OKC for a very special occasion....it was my best friend's son's 1st birthday!!! Yay! Yay! Yay!!! Needless to say, I was beyond excited to celebrate this amazing milestone!!

Since Kevin didn't get home from his business trip until Saturday morning, we hit the road as soon as he got home. Even though it's a pretty long drive it was so nice to have some time to catch up with each other, chat about each other's week...ya know stuff "normal" couples do during the week - ha!!

Usually when we spend the weekend in OKC, we spend so much time driving around to visit everyone that by the end we are just so so so super exhausted.....so, this weekend we chose to not really tell anyone that we were going....is that bad? I kinda felt guilty..... Anyways, it was such wonderful and relaxing weekend that it might just make-up for my guilt - lol!! ;)

We stayed in Bricktown (Okc's downtown area) and LOVED every minute of our stay!! I love being a tourist in my hometown! ;)

Our Hotel

Saturday night we headed out for what was suppose to be a triple date...but, the other guys couldn't make it....poor Kevin!! He is such a trooper for hanging out with me and my girls!!

We had sushi & martini's at in the raw....perfect dinner combo!

Me with my gorgeous besties!! OMG I miss these girls!!!

Sunday morning we slept in...yup, that's right slept in - haven't done that in a while!! It was glorious!!! Before heading out to the birthday party, Kevin and I took a little stroll around Bricktown and, of course, grabbed some coffee from Starbucks. ;)

After our little stroll around OKC we headed to Shawnee (my home town) for Eli's Birthday Party!! I think 1st birthdays are soooo fun and very exciting!!

Here's the big man walking...sooooo precious!! Still can't believe he is walking!! They grow up so fast!!

The cake!

The birthday boy eating his cake!!

Present time - yippee!!!

us at the birthday!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I just love Valentine's Day!! I think it's such a sweet holiday - perfect opportunity to celebrate love and life!

I feel so blessed to have had such a fantastic Valentine’s celebrations – my husband really went above and beyond this year – everything was just really amazing and very romantic! I have loved every minute of this weekend.

Friday evening Kevin and I headed out to our favorite little vineyard for our official Valentine’s Date – how cute is this place?!?

Just so adorable!! If you are ever in the area I highly recommend SVE Vineyards

And….it doesn’t hurt that their daughter is in culinary school – she and a few of her friends made this delicious 4 course meal……

Menu

Lobster Bisque

Main Course

Dessert

On Saturday, we took a quick trip to our house and hung out for a bit

And, of course, we brought our little Molly!!

It's so neat to see it being built - it's really starting to take shape and looking more and more like the home we imagined!! Pretty exciting stuff for us!!

Then we made an even quicker trip to Nebraska Furniture Mart (btw, fabulous place to get furniture) we met up with some of our friends for dinner….they, their 3 kiddos & 2 dogs are preparing for their upcoming move to the Netherlands!! Isn’t that so exciting!!! We can’t wait to visit!! ….What’s that you ask??? Where did we go? ….Um, would you believe me if I said Kona?!?!!! I know!! So….right about now, anyone who isn’t from Omaha is probably thinking that Kona Grill must be the ONLY place to eat in Omaha…since it seems to be the ONLY place I EVER eat!! I can absolutely see why one would assume such. BUT….BUT I PROMISE we have SOOOOO many (many, many, many) other a-mazing restaurants – I promise! Back to my personal Kona ordeal…..I do love Kona but, this is getting mildly embarrassing. And sadly, I didn’t take any pictures…we were wrapped up in “OMG!!! You are moving to the Netherlands ”talk though. ;)

And today….*sigh* has been so relaxing. We started off our day with a delicious French toast & mimosa breakfast – yum! Then I was off for a manicure – woo hoo! It was kinda nice to have some pampering. ;) We did a little more furniture shopping – I think we pretty much have our bedroom stuff picked out!! Yay for small victories!! Ha!! Now, if we can just figure out living room stuff!! Have any ideas??? Send ‘em our way!! Ha!! No, but seriously....

….And we ended everything with a pasta and crab dinner!!!

Lately, Kevin and I have been doing a lot of reflecting on God’s love and how we can best represent that love – not only to each other but, to everyone…..So, I thought I’d share 2 of my favorite verses on Love….

A NEW COMMAND I GIVE YOU: LOVE ONE ANOTHER. AS I HAVE LOVED YOU, SO YOU MUST LOVE ONE ANOTHER. PY THIS ALL MEN WILL KNOW THAT YOU ARE MY DISCIPLES, IF YOU LOVE ONE ANOTEHR.

JOHN 13:34-35

THREE THINGS WILL LAST FOREVER: FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE - AND THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE.

1 CORINTHIANS 13:13

Christmas at the Oklahoma Governor's Mansion

I had the privilege of working at the Oklahoma Governor's Mansion during college and the year after graduating. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed my time there and how much I learned. The atmosphere in the house always so warm and lovely - great place to work. Mostly though, I just loved being around the amazing First Family of Oklahoma. ....Yes, that includes their (sometimes naughty - lol!) little doggies - Jasper, Sophie ("Sophers") and Samson. A few weeks ago an Oklahoma Magazine, Distinctly Oklahoma, did a piece on the house in all it's Christmas glory.....please know that these two pictures below do not do justice to the house and for the full story please click on this link (then go to pages 50 & 51) to see the "real" pictures.

It's November! Guess that means it's time for a Summer Recap ;)

Boy have I been slackin' on my blog!! I have meant to start writing again several times but, each time I sat down to write a blog....it just seems as thought life pulled me in another direction. This summer has had a ton of twists and turns! It's been a lot of fun....maybe a bit stressful at times but overall, it's been really great! Here's part 1 of a short & brief-ish recap of what we've been up to -

May

I graduated from nursing school - HUGE yay!!

I visited my friends and family in my beautiful home state - Oklahoma

I was able to spend some a-mazing girl time with my two besties!!! Plus, I got to see Eli (the cutest baby in the WORLD a ton!!! - woo hoo!)

Went to my good friend Laurie's wedding - such a gorgeous bride!!

As soon as I got back to Omaha, my brother, John Paul came up for a quick visit before he headed off to boot camp. So, so, so proud of him!!

After John Paul's visit, my Aunt & I were off to DC for a few days. Even though it rained the majority of the time we were there, we had a great time....I was truly thrilled to have a few rainy days - rain has a way of slowing you down and that's exactly what happened to us, we both really enjoyed the down time!

Even though Kevin and I lived in Omaha for 3+ years, due to my school and his extremely busy (and crazy) work schedule, there were still soooo many things that we wanted to see and places we wanted to explore - so, we took a weekend a went around to some new places and of course, we returned to some of our favs....here's a new one, it's the Soaring Wings Vineyard. The guy that own it is a retired pilot - I thought it was a pretty clever name. They had some pretty tasty wines and beautiful views.

And, here we are at The French Cafe...love this place!! It's an Old Market fav! If you ever find yourself in the Omaha area, I highly recommend that you try it ;)

June

We had a going away dinner with some friends on their awesome deck....I'm not really sure what it is but, I love eating outside. There's not a whole lot that beats cooking out with friends on a nice summer evening!

There was a ton of stuff we did in June but, most of it was just boring time consuming stuff - like, planning out stuff for our upcoming travels and looking for townhouses in the DC area. I'll tell ya, once you've looked at a dozen or so townhouses online, they all start to look the same. ....I also said good-bye to some good friends - I just love these girls so I was pretty sad to say good-bye.

Lori and I at the lake

Jacquelyn and I at the Nebraska Brewing Company

Heather and I at my fav sushi place in Omaha

July

On July 1st, Kevin and I headed off to Colorado Springs. Some of our best buddies live there and we've been meaning to visit them for a few years now....it was really awesome to finally get out there. While we were there, we went on a few adventures with them....

The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

The top of Pike's Peak

7 Falls

Garden of the gods

When we got back from the garden of the gods, there was the most amazing rainbow!!

Air Force Academy

The bear we saw at the Air Force Academy - pretty cool

From Colorado, we made our way to South Dakota...where we saw Crazy Horse

....and Mount Rushmore

Then we did some great hiking in the Badlands. All I can say is that this area is REALLY gorgeous and we had a great time exploring it.

And, of course, we stopped to sample wine at a local vineyard - it's called Prairie Berry and if you ever find yourself in the area I highly recommend stopping by!

We left South Dakota and headed back home but we were only there for a few days before we were off again!!

Well, I'm off for tonight! Hopefully by the end of the week I will be all caught up - lol!

I can't wait to get all caught up on all of your blogs too!!