Halloween Prep

Can you believe it's already almost Halloween!?!?  October has gone incredibly fast...just like all the other months.  BUT Halloween season is the kickoff to a whole run of holiday seasons so we can't really complain...except for the cold weather that comes along with it, I guarantee they'll be complaints on that one.

For now we'll focus on the positive side... like carving pumpkins!  Everyone loves carving pumpkins around Halloween and it was pretty cool to actually have somewhere to set them this year.  Check it out...

 Our jack-o-lanterns can't keep their eyes off each other.  =)
Don't they look cute on our front porch?! 

I definitely wouldn't consider Halloween my favorite holiday, but it's up there!  The one and only reason that it's even close to being in the running is the fact that it involves costumes.  If you know anything about me than you know that I reallllllllllly like theme parties, and since Halloween costumes are essentially an entire day of themed attired, I'm pumped.  =D  Naturally Kurt has also jumped on board with the costume fun and we've had some pretty awesome get-ups in the past few years....

 Toga Part & Kentucky Derby Party (above)

 Bank Robbers (this was a little scary roaming around like this)

 

My Favorite,  Fred & Wilma.

Hmmmm are you curious what we'll be this year?!?!? Wait and see! Muahhahhaha (evil Halloween laugh).

Oh yeah, Pita got some new swag too.  And the weird thing is that he seems to really like it!  Ever since we put the sweater on him he is way more "normal".  Even Emilee, my cousin that does her laundry at our house and periodically has to be the dog sitter when I'm unable to come home at lunch, noticed the difference in him!  All this time the poor little guy just wanted to put on some clothes.... LOL.

 

Lookin' good Pita!

Too young to act old

This past weekend was spent re-living our college days, and it was a dang good time!  Maggie & Lauren, two of my senior year roommates, came to town to stay with us on Friday/Saturday and we dove right back into UNI Homecoming festivities just like the good ol' days.  :)

Kurt shot up to Iowa Falls for the Ellsworth Wrestling reunion where he hit the mats with the current team and some fellow alumni.  Judging by how sore he complained to be on Sunday I think he had a good time!  Although I would have loved to watch him wrestle again I spent majority of the weekend on UNI's campus.

Of course, Friday night we had to cheer on the Alpha Phi ladies as they competed in the final round of the Pride Cry.... they placed 3rd (way to go girls!) and put on a hilarious show of panther spirit.  They know how to make us alumnae proud!  Saturday took some mental preparation because I haven't spent an entire day tailgating in a reallllll long time but I stepped it up and we proved that we've still got it!

Starting the day off at the OP on the Hill!

...Sign says it all. :)

LOVE having Emilee around as a fellow Panther

Kurt joined the fun after wrestling in I.F.

It got late and we got goofy.
This picture really catches a true glimpse of "us".  Haha!

Oh yeah, we also took a quick moment of silence for the sad Hawkeye loss but quickly re-cooperated when the Panthers completely dominated the Redbirds.   It was SO good to catch up with college friends that we hadn't seen in a while and I'm already looking forward to next year!!  Here's to another great homecoming weekend -- and many more to come! :)

In case you didn't know... this is PANTHER town!

Ahhhh as we get ready to kickoff another great UNI Homecoming, it's only fitting to give all you out-of-towners a little taste of what you're missing here in the Cedar Valley.....


GO PANTHERS!! :)

Wedding Planning & Weekend Fun

We are right about half-way through our engagement, can you believe it?? We're only 8 months away from the big day!  Although we've crossed a lot of the big ticket items off the wedding to-do list it has proven to be a never-ending task.  Kurt is semi-interested in the details and I'm totally loving all the fun stuff we get to do! ha! 

Last week I had two days off work which I strategically took on Tues/Wed in order to catch my brother's last 8th grade football game AND make some progress in the wedding-planning arena.  Matt did a great job at his game and I had a blast watching him and his friends! I can't believe they will be in high school next year -- jeesh! At least the games will be easier to get to... this Tuesday evening stuff doesn't really work for us.  :)  On the other hand - my Mom and I got quite a bit of stuff rolling for the wedding!  We managed to meet with a couple florists and the booze guy, sample some cake, raid Hobby Lobby for DIY project supplies, gather estimates for the print projects, reserve the linens and even try a mock-up of the centerpieces.  Whew, that was a successful couple of days! 

This past weekend was also packed with excitement, on Saturday I participated in the Cedar Valley Chase with my co-worker/friend, Ashley.   This event had us a little nervous at first but it turned out to be a really good time!  Essentially the Chase is a race where two-person teams compete in challenges as they race from location to location all over Cedar Falls &Waterloo.  The challenges were super secret leading up to the event so there was a lot of unknowns that morning but we dove in and gave it our all!   We ate some not-so-tasty concoctions, wore boxing gloves, slurped too much water through tiny straws, got lost multiple times and I was even locked in a coffin at one point.  It was interesting, memorable and oh, for a good cause too!  It was a fundraiser for United Way. :)

We also squeezed in a concert on Saturday, and had a really fun time with some WL friends that we don't get to see enough!   Kurt always says that his favorite part of owning a house is that we can have parties in it... so of course we opened our home to our buddies before and after the Papa Roach concert.  It needs a good scrubbing now.   ...This was my first rock concert and I had a blast!  Although I forgot to change my shoes before we left so I found out the hard way that flip flops don't really cut it, ouch.  Oh well, next time I'll know!

i found this old man in the crowd.... nice beard.

the view from Kurt's shoulders :)

This week is UNI Homecoming and I can't wait to pretend that I'm a college student and reunite with my old roommates and sorority sisters this weekend!!  Wahoooo is it Friday yet?!?!

What? No working this weekend??

We are happy to report that our house and garage are totally re-shingled and looking fabulous!!  Kurt earned himself a big pat on the back for all his hard work over the past 2 weekends, plus numerous nights (and even a day off work to finish it off).  With the help of our family & a few friends the guys finally finished this big (pain-in-butt) project.  THANK YOU Dad, Jim, Adam, Joe, Jerrod, Chuy and Noah for letting us put you to work!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We have to admit this roofing project actually ended up being the perfect way to attract visitors, and we loved that part of the deal!  Last weekend we got to spend time with lots of Kurt's family and it was really fun to have everyone at our house, especially the little ones!  The nieces and nephews proved that our house is not childproof but they sure loved the park down the street!  Oh, they also loved Pita... A LOT.   Maybe it's because he is so small and fun to chase??

Proof that 2-year-olds really LOVE Pita.

Now that the roof is finished we finally are enjoying a weekend with NO PLANS.  This rarely happens for us so we've been flying by the seat of our pants and doing whatever we please.  This weather has been SO fabulous all weekend that we did end up doing some work around the house but we also got some fun and relaxing in, here's our favorite parts:

• Enjoying a cup of coffee on our front porch
• Staying in our PJ's until lunchtime
• Renting movies
• Cruising around to enjoy the changing Fall leaves
• Purchasing and putting together a little storage shed for the backyard
• Game night with good friends
• Winning tickets to a Blackhawks game while eating Chinese at Hy Vee (lucky!!!)
• Hitting a nearby trail and taking the dogs to the park

We love all the local trails!  We can access this one just a few blocks from our house.

Rockie liked the park by the river!

 Pita loves walks too...but this one tired him out! :)

Our Favorite E-Pics!

We had engagement pictures taken last Thursday by Rose at Infinite Image Design!  We stopped at the Stuffed Olive before our session to have a martini (well, I had some sort of martini-for-wimps that swapped the vodka for Moscato and Schnapps) to loosen up.  Our whole session felt like a date, it was blast and Rose did a great job because we could tell right away we were going to love the pictures. =D

Without further ado... here are some of our favorites (ahhh, we have *a lot* of favorites, haha):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We couldn't be happier with how they turned out and can't wait to place an order and finally get some quality pictures in our home!

Coming Soon -- Update on the FINISHED roof! Woohoo, what a week. :)