8 years

Back on March 13, Andrew and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary :).  We're not really ones to get all mushy about anniversaries and such and we're usually quite happy with dinner at home with the kiddos to celebrate, but this year, Andrew wanted to really celebrate...and I'm so glad he did!  He got us a babysitter (the best ever...Lovie!) and made us dinner reservations in Dallas at our favorite restaurant.  Then while we were at dinner, the waiter brought me over a fabulous anniversary present as a surprise.  I'm so blessed to have spent these last 8 years with Andrew Shull.  I hope we're as blessed as my grandparents who have been married almost 66 years and counting!



For grins, I thought I'd share with you a picture of how it all got started...

This is Andrew and I on our first date.  Didn't you date with both sets of your parents, your younger brother and both sets of your grandparents?  Well, we did!  We had met once before but we actually went out to dinner to get to know each other after the first K-State football game of the season...unfortunately, we had to bring along everyone else!  Here we are, getting to know each other at Applebees.  I remember Andrew thinking it was funny that I ordered dessert for dinner...he learned quickly that the way to my heart was through sugar :).  A year and a half later, we were married.  Happy Anniversary baby!

Happy Birthday Andrew (part 2)

Last weekend (I know...I'm behind), we celebrated Andrew's birthday yet again (we celebrated his actual birthday in Disney World here).  This time, we had dinner at Bucca di Beppo and then dessert at Mom and Dad's house.  The whole crazy gang was there...well...almost all of us...

Me and my boy

The birthday boy and our girl

It's a bride sandwich!  One month to go!!

Three lovely generations :)

And this year, Andrew requested my mom make something cookie dough-ish with chocolate.  Thankfully, she's the Mix and Match Mama's Mama, so she had no problem whipping together cookie dough brownie bars and raspberry lemon bars (recipes to come soon).

Happy Birthday love!

Crazy Week!

We've had one of those C-R-A-Z-Y weeks...the kind of week that even a weekend doesn't help you recover from.  Thankfully, this next week looks calm and quiet.  We ate brunch at Spoons this morning...my two boys enjoying our time :).

Guest Bath Re-do

Last week, Andrew and I made a spur of the moment decision and redid our guest bath.  If there is one thing you can say about Andrew and myself it's that we're decisive.  Seriously.  We can go to a car dealership and walk out with a car in 10 minutes.  It took us all of 20 minutes to pick out a house to buy.  When we need to make a decision, we do it.  Quickly.

That being said, I was ready to update our guest bath, so on Wednesday we started and on Saturday, we were finished.  Two years ago, we totally gutted and remodeled our master bath.  At the time, I had a 2 month old and an 18 month old.  What in the world was I thinking?!?!  That was major and life was a huge mess for weeks.  This was simple, quick, cost efficient and easy.  Here are some before and after pics...

Before..white counters, egg plant purple walls (which I still love but decided it would be too weird to paint the walls the exact same color), gold accessories, giant mirror, silver sink fixture...not me (except for the walls!).

After...we painted the walls a purple-grey color (I do love me some purple, all shades), we first had the painters remove the popcorn texture from the ceiling and then re-texture the entire room.  Then they painted it.  We replaced the white counters with black granite, updated the mirror and light fixture, plus got new sink fixtures and all new shower fixtures and shower door.

Before

After

Before...big mirror, silver light fixture.

After...better mirror, better light fixture.

Love it!

Cozy, right?  Love the black granite!

I didn't have a before pic of above the potty but here's your after.

Pretty painless for a home remodel.  Thank goodness!

PS: every time I blog now, I feel like everyone is waiting for a picture of my little brother to show up in the background...geez...I'll take a picture of him soon enough :).  For now, enjoy my guest bath!

The Great Wolf Lodge

Last week, when I was in Boston, Andrew took the kids to the Great Wolf Lodge for two nights.  I must stop here and say that Andrew truly is a fabulous father.  I won't gush much but seriously, skipping work for two days to take your 3 and 2 year olds to a hotel and water park...pretty awesome if you ask me.  He sent me some i-Phone pics as their little trip progressed, so now I'm sharing them with you.  (A few of them won't rotate correctly...I've now wasted 20 minutes trying to correct it...I'm done...just tilt your head when you look at them :)).



Apparently they did some "guy" shopping at Lowe's on their way out.  He did her hair himself.  I'm quite impressed.

Tilt your head...this is Smith sleeping on the way there in the car.  He has his "suit case" in his lap.

You can't go to the Great Wolf Lodge without wearing wolf ears.  I heard they wore these everywhere...even when he took them out to dinner at a restaurant.

Kensington posing next to some large animal-thing...Smith is most likely clinging to Andrew's leg.

Eating ice cream after their swim.

Both in their bunk beds inside their room.  I'm pretty sure this was their favorite part.

Ok...must gush one more minute...when I came home, I was prepared to do a ton of laundry but Andrew had not only washed and dried all of their clothes, he had put them up as well.  Yes, yes...he's a keeper.  Love them all!

10 years ago today...

...I met the love of my life.

Sean brought a college friend home for the July 4th weekend.  I walked through the back door of my parents' house as he was coming out of one of the bedrooms inside.  We introduced ourselves, proceeded into the kitchen to talk and eighteen months later, we were married.

I love you Andrew Shull.

And I love you Sean Lowe...for bringing that boy home 10 years ago.

  

I heart Kidd Kraddick

Ok...please excuse me as I have a total nerd moment...this morning, Andrew, Sean and I went to visit the Kidd Kraddick in the Morning radio show live from their studio.  It was unbelievably cool.  I've been listening to Kidd Kraddick for 18 years.  Yes, 18 years!  So, to personally meet him (and his crew) and see where they work was a very cool moment for me.  And to top it off...I got to be on the air with Sean and the gang for a little Bachelorette talk.  Made.My.Life.  (Ok, maybe the husband and two precious kids made my life but this comes pretty close.  Oh and maybe when Michael Buble touched me, that made my life too.  Probably more than the two precious kids...but I digress...)

So, we got there this morning at 6:30 and were able to watch and listen for about 30 minutes before we went on the air.  Everyone was so nice...we received lots of hugs and an outpouring of love..a fantastic morning.  My favorite parts...Big Al hitting on me.  Twice.  Kidd telling me he read my blog.  Kidd tweeting me (oh yes, that rocked my Twitter world) and talking on air about my favorite brother and my favorite TV show.  A great day.  A great, great day. 

Me and Kidd! 

Me and Big Al! 

The whole gang...Kellie, Sean, Kidd, me, Jenna, J-Si, Andrew and Al.

Thank you so much Kidd Kraddick in the Morning!  You guys are awesome!

Belgium and Holland Days 1 &2: Ghent

Andrew and I returned last night from 10 days in Belgium and the Netherlands (Holland).  Before you start flipping out and getting the wrong idea...this was not that trip.  That trip will not be blogged about until the finale of the Bachelor this spring.  That trip won't even be mentioned until then.   You gotta wait to hear about that trip.  In the meantime, enjoy the pics from this amazing trip :).

This is how Andrew and I work...last spring, Andrew said, "hey, why don't we go to NYC for the weekend in October?".  That sentence turned into 10 days in Europe.  We just start planning and our love for travel takes over and before you know it, we've planned a trip to the other side of the pond.  This was the first time we traveled without both kiddos in a long time.  The last time we went to Holland, the kiddos were 21 and 5 months old.  It was so much fun to go with just the hubby but at the same time, we missed them a lot.  We really do love traveling with our kids.  Thank you to the awesome Lovie and Papa Jay for taking care of our babies (they are already taking care of Sean's babies too...Lola and Ellie).  I'm sure it was kind of like a zoo at their house.

Here we are...about to board our flight to Amsterdam.

Not going to lie...I really, really enjoyed flying without the kids.  I love them dearly but having 10 hours to myself to read magazines and cookbooks and watch whatever I wanted on my i-Pad without them was glorious.  Flying with kids isn't the easiest thing to do, so flying without them seemed like 10 hours of sheer bliss.

Oh heavens!  As soon as our plane touched down, we were walking to baggage claim and I saw this at Starbucks...in Europe, they have a Apple Crumble Latte!  What?!  Yes, I had to stop for one.  It was a fall delight.  Maybe next year, they'll bring it to the US.  It was yummy!

We rented a car in Amsterdam and drove 2 hours to beautiful Ghent, Belgium.  This is where we stayed the first 5 nights.  Ghent was incredibly beautiful.  I loved, loved, loved it.  It was a little drizzly the first day, but we totally didn't mind.  We welcomed the cold and drizzle.

A picture of our hotel.  Isn't it in the perfect spot?  Right there on the water.  It is the Marriott Ghent.  I may be the actual travel agent but Andrew picked out everything to do with this trip and he did a fantastic job.  This hotel and our view of the water was amazing.

Me and my first Belgian waffle.  There are no words.  It was like a warm chocolate chip cookie.  It was heavenly. It was the first of 3,456 waffles I consumed on this trip.  Trust me...keep reading about this vacation and you will gain weight.  The food was that good.  Even you'll gain a few just seeing the pictures. :)

This was the view from our hotel room.

In this picture, we've been up for almost 48 hours.  We're happy and tired.  It was a great first full day in Belgium!

Click here for Day 3.



Belgium & Holland Day 3: Brussels

On Sunday, we drove about 40 minutes to Brussels for some shopping and looking.  First stop, Andrew had researched out a huge flea market area...perfect for finding treasures.

It was so fun to walk through the flea market with all of the locals.  We came across some really neat finds.  I'm not one for haggling prices (it gives me great anxiety!) but Andrew is great at it!

Andrew collects old books.  He bought 3...one of which was published in the 1700s.  Super cool!

That's me posing with our new books :).

We ran into some trouble on our way into downtown Brussels.  What are the odds that the one day we decide to head downtown, the Brussels Marathon would also be heading downtown?  We were stuck in traffic for two hours (it should have only taken us 7 minutes!) because of all of these runners.  If I wasn't a runner myself, I might have been bitter.  Andrew was realllllly bitter ;)!

We made it into Brussels and were starving!  Pizza for lunch!

Me :)

A panoramic picture of downtown Brussels

We really, really liked this town!  The architecture, the people, the shopping, the art...it was perfect!  We bought several original paintings for our house and Andrew's office.

I also found a Christmas store!  Loved it!

I'm having cappuccino here :).

We finished off our day with a great steak dinner in Brussels.  So fun!

And of course, a waffle for dessert :)!

Click here for Day 4.