Wedding Day!

Sunday was the big day!  All the girls headed down to South Haven to get our hair done - we had such a nice time and was a great start to the day!!  After hair, we headed back and started getting ready - before I knew it, it was time!!  Besides the fact that I married the love of my life and best friend that day, the most special part of the day was that my grandma was able to be with us during the ceremony...I will never forget how special she made it and cannot thank her enough for being there and hanging on as long as she has TO be there with us.  She completed my day.  I will post more wedding pics as I get them, but here are a few that I had from my personal camera and one from our amazing photographer!

Doug & I - Taken by Jeremy Fenelon - JF Image Design

Kristi & I

Doug & I with our boss, Bekah, we had when we started dating

Rehearsal Day!

Saturday before the wedding we were VERY busy!  All the girls headed to get our nails done early Saturday then a large group of us were off to the winery in Fennville!!  We had SO much fun at the winery! 

The Whole Group

We learned a lot about wine, and also got to sample 10 different wines!!!

Marcella & Kristi

Sue & I

After the winery, we hurried back so we could make the rehearsal! 

The rehearsal was VERY windy and we ended up having to move the dinner inside...regardless, it was a GREAT day and a great time with great good and amazing company!

The sunset was unbelievable the night of the rehearsal...

Doug & I

Marcella & Clint

The four of us

Marcella & I

Wedding Week!

Doug and I left Wednesday September 1 and spent those days finalizing details of the wedding, and also spending some great time with our family and friends!! When we got there we were fortunate enough to be able to spend one night with just our parents! Mike, Sue, my mom, dad, Doug and I headed out for a nice dinner just US! It was SO nice to be able to spend some quality time with our parents before everyone started arriving!
Thursday we ran around, did more errands and awaited the arrival of family! Most of our family came between Thursday/Friday - again, it was SO nice to be able to spend so much time with our families! We had pizza at my parents house on Thursday night then I waited up for my sister, Grace, Iz and Doug and Britt (and coach!!) - We got to spend some time with them that night!
Friday we ran errands ALL day! We were very fortunate that my mom and dad offered to watch the girls on Friday so I was able to have my sister, Doug and Britt all to myself with no interruptions! (I love the interrupters, but it was nice to spend some time alone with my sister!!)Sue and Doug's grandma also joined us in Holland for some shopping and a great lunch of burgers and hot dogs at Froggy's! Doug and some of the boys headed to Kalamazoo to the air museum there...they would not shut up about how cool it was, so I was glad they were able to do it!! They were suppose to go fishing, but due to the gale force winds, their fishing trip got canceled!
Friday night everyone headed to the Hartman house for Lasagna - it was a great group of people and a lot of fun!! Most of our friends were in town Friday so we were able to spend some extra time with them! It was also VERY windy friday night so we headed to the beach to take some pictures of the waves!

 Friday after dinner, the boys headed to Grand Rapids for Doug's Bachelor party, and the rest of us (about 15 of us) headed out for bowling/karaoke!  it was a ton of fun!!

Ashleigh and I bowling

I will try to upload some of the amazing karaoke from that night...but I do not know if that will be appreciated by the ones who participated in karaoke! :)

Chicago and then some!

I headed to Chicago a few weeks ago for my final shower and bachelorette party!  I had a GREAT time spending time with family and friends!!  I enjoyed spending time with my aunt karla and cousin liz whom I never get to see!  Some of my great friends also made the trip into the City to hang out for the day/night as well! So thank you Kristi, Becky, and Meghan!  It was also nice to spend time with my mom, sister, Greg, my brother, Brittany and of last but not least Isabel and Grace! 

Cole, Doug, & I

Kristi & I

The weekend after Chicago we had the great joy of having my cousins Sarah and Debbie and their families stop through Omaha on their way back to Springfield and Chicago!  We had such a great time sharing our house and our new lives with family!  We had a full house for the night but we had a great time!!

Doug and I and a friend of mine headed out to the horse races in Ralston last weekend too! Who knew there were horse races right down the road from our house? We sure didn't!! We caught the last race, but we had a great time! We met our neighbors there and bet on a horse and OUR horse came in second to last and their horse came in first...go figure!

This weekend we hosted a get together with friends from my work - we had such a great time - we are finally feeling like this place is "ok" We played the hilarious game of "Just Dance" on the wii and then the girls enjoyed a game of apples to apples while the boys played some ping pong! Then we had to bring out the dancing again!! We had so much fun playing the game that Doug and I had to go out and buy it today!!! Today I headed down the Elkhorn River with a friend of mine and some of her friends - it was a lot of fun and I got some much needed sun! Well, burn, but thats ok! Its better than blending in with my wedding dress :)

I head to Michigan next weekend and Doug will stay here and work - only 35 days to go!!

Our Yard...

So Doug is swearing up and down that we will NEVER buy a house again when there is snow on the ground...we did NOT know the shape of the yard and just how much work it would be!!  Needless to say, it has been a constant project and the front yard at least is done or VERY close to being done!!  Doug is SO proud of his work and I am too!  I did not know he had it in him and I did not realize I had it in me a little bit either!  We both said that our parents didn't have us outside spreading mulch and doing yard work for nothing because now we have a great looking yard!! 

Here is a picture of our yard right when we moved in - this is even with a lots of chopping and trimming done by Mike, Doug & Sue when his parents were there helping us move in!

 

Here is the yard as of today - yes, there are some rough spots still, but there is new grass growing!  He has done a GREAT job!!

Now to add a little bit of wedding to the mix....I have taken a picture of our 'yes' and 'no' piles....Doug and I find it humorous, my mom is not quite to the laughing point :)

As you can see, we have MANY yes's and one no....We are getting VERY excited!  Only 61 days to go!!

Home Sweet Home!

As much as I enjoy living away from home right now, I also miss it and the people there terribly.  Doug and I headed home last weekend and got to see so many people!  Doug headed home Wednesday with the dog so he could spend some extra time with his brother who was home from Florida for the week - he enjoyed the time he had with his family and Chloe enjoyed swimming in the pond AND the pool for hours on end!  I headed back Friday after work then headed out with the boys!  We had a great time and I really enjoyed spending time with my soon to be brothers in law!  We met up with a lot of friends while out and  had a great time!  We realize during nights like that how much we miss being home, miss our friends, and most of all, miss being social! 

On Saturday after VERY little sleep, I headed to Springfield for my haircut!! (yes, I drive 6 hours to get my hair cut and colored....I can't resist, I have the best girl ever!!)  I spent 2 hours there then headed to my aunt and uncles to hang out with my sister, brother in law, nieces, and cousin's and their kids!  We cooked out and enjoyed each others company - yet another part of my day where I am missing being back home!  We hung out there then I headed back to Jacksonville and got some pool time in before the BIG party! 

 All the kids (minus ella :)) walking down to look at the lake..

Doug's parents with the help of many threw us an amazing and wonderful party to celebrate the upcoming wedding!  Though it was sweltering hot out, we had a GREAT time!!  My parents came down for the party and my brother, sister, aunt, uncle,cousin's and their families all joined in!  It was so nice to have most of my family there to support Doug and I!  It was almost like a preview of the wedding which has shown me how much fun this wedding is truly going to be!!  After OUR party and most of our guests had departed, we headed down the road to a retirement party that had a live band and ended up being a great ending to a great night!! 

Isabel and I

Sunday we headed back late in the afternoon and didn't get back here until almost 10 - needless to say, I am still trying to catch up on the sleep I lost last weekend - but I would take time with family and friends over sleep anytime!  We don't have a whole lot planned for this holiday weekend (I have monday off!!!!!!)  But I do think we are headed to our town parade tomorrow and also to our neighbors for a cook out!   We will also be trying to find several firework shows throughout the weekend too!!

We found out the hard way tonight that Chloe does NOT like fireworks!!  We left her outside (like we always do) to play for a while and kept hearing this strange sound...we didn't really think anything of it because we have kids next door that play and are always up to something...Doug finally opened the door, found Chloe outside our door (where she should not be) and we found the door to the back yard like this......

First Wedding Showers!

We headed back to Springfield the 1st weekend of May for 2 wedding showers! Yes, they are really early, but between my schedule, living in Nebraska and everyone else living in Illinois, it makes sense to have showers whenever we are home!

We started out the day at Island Bay at a shower thrown by my mom's good friends! It was absolutely wonderful, the food was GREAT and the company was perfect! I had such a nice time celebrating with my mom and her friends!!

My mom & I

My Mom, Me & Soon to be Mother-In-Law :)

After the shower at Island Bay, we headed to my cousin's house for yet another shower with family and my friends! We had such a nice time visiting and munching on deserts! I also had a special treat, a friend of mine who I have not seen for years and dances on cruises 8 months out of the year showed up at this shower! It was soo nice being able to catch up with her and the other girls that were able to make it to this shower!

Jacqueline, Ashleigh, & Cristina - Such a fun time with girls from High School (And before!!)

Cristina & I :)

Ashleigh & I

Jacqueline & I

A cute picture of Isabel - I love the hair, the fancy dress, and tennis shoes :)

Michigan & Florida!

We have been busy the past few weeks and know it is only going to get busier since the wedding is very quickly approaching!

Memorial Day weekend we headed to Michigan to make some more decisions about the wedding and also spend time with BOTH sets of parents and my sister, brother-in-law and beautiful nieces! We got our menu picked out, my dress tried on, the guys suits picked out, desert planned, and still managed to have plenty of time to relax and spend on the beach and at the winery! We both enjoyed the much needed weekend with our families and are looking forward to our wedding even more than we were before!!
We headed down to Orlando Florida for 2 of our great friends wedding! We had so much fun celebrating Clint and Marcella! It was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL wedding and an awesome weekend! We met a lot of great new people and tried to keep up with the Spanish that was being spoken! Marcella's family is great and we appreciated every bit of our time with them and cannot wait to go back down and visit them!!

Doug & I at the Reception

The Beautiful Bride & Groom

This weekend we are headed back to Springfield/Jacksonville for a pre-wedding reception hosted by Doug's family and some friends of theirs - we are looking forward to it and realize this is the weekend the wedding madness is really going to begin and September is going to be here before we know it! We have a very busy next 2 months so I hope I remember to take the time to enjoy it and not get wrapped up in the craziness!

Just a cute picture of Chloe :)

Omaha!

So I have decided to finally start a blog!! I usually have a lot of extra time on my hands, so this will give me something fun to do! This will also be a fun way to track the work we do on the new house, the fun we are having here, and also the weddings (including ours!) we will be attending!! So, Welcome to our new lives in Omaha!