Chex Mix and Crafts

Good morning!

On Sunday, I headed down to my sister's place for a day filled with homemade Chex mix and crafts. My mom, sister, and I have been making homemade Chex mix each year since Andrea and I were little. It's a snack that we always look forward to and the bags that we produce rarely make it to see Christmas Day. 

We all brought a few ingredients and got to work! We made three batches so that we each could take one home to share with our husbands. Each year we make the classic recipe that is on the back of the seasoning packet, but we also make a few changes:

• We add Kix and Cheerios (or Joe's O's this year)
• Extra pretzels
• Extra wheat Chex since those are our favorite
• No bagel chips

This is how we've always done it and it is so good. I love all of the flavors and textures that are in each handful.

Check out my sister's huge measuring cup--that baby holds 4 cups! I mixed and measured all of the cereal and dry ingredients while my mom and sister melted butter mixed with the seasoning packet.

Stirring it all together to ensure an even distribution of flavors. You'd better believe we snacked on the dry mix a bit before tossing it into the oven to bake.

Working on batch two! By the third round, we had quite the system down!

My mom poured the mixture into baking pans before tossing it into the oven--stirring the mix every 15 minutes for even coverage.

Finally it was done! It made the house smell so good!

Crafts

My sister and her husband are picking up their new puppy tomorrow! His name is Hurley and he is a mix of a chocolate lab and a Corgi. From the pictures I've seen, he is adorable! They already have his bowl, food, collar, etc. all laid out and ready for him. I can't wait to meet this new addition to their family on Thanksgiving.

My whole family puts their trees up before Christmas--not just me! How cute is my sister's purple and silver themed tree? Please ignore the fact that I cut off the star at the top. Gah!

While the Chex mix roasted in the oven, we helped my mom with a Thanksgiving day craft. Well, my mom and I worked on them--my sister surfed the web and ate Chex mix while watching us do the crafts. 

My mom needed help creating and assembling little paper turkeys as placeholders for our Thanksgiving dinner. Speaking of which, we'll be headed to my in-law's on Thanksgiving day and my parent's on Sunday. Twice the celebration!

It was fun to sit back and do a craft while chatting with my family. I haven't done a cute project like this in so long! I often forget how fun it is to create things off screen rather than just on the computer.

We munched some salad while we worked--we weren't too hungry after all of that Chex mix so we kept it simple.

I cut out the turkey beaks and had way too much fun with them before they were glued down...

Seasonal candy was also consumed during the craft.

The finished product! We made 12 altogether and the letters stand for the initials of everyone's name. Here are the Laura and Andy turkeys. 

The whole army! Hopefully they stay strong this Thanksgiving so that we can use them again next year.

Today

Well, I'm off to go get ready for the day. Thankfully it's a short work-week this week and it's already almost half over. I'm working on some holiday e-card designs with animated snowflakes falling down and so far they're turning out well! This is a client that I don't usually design for, so it was nice to switch things up with a totally fresh look rather than a standard corporate style.

After work, I'm hitting the stores in search of some new jeans--the zipper came off the track of my favorite pair so they're kind of useless now!

Do you have name cards on your Thanksgiving table?

Homemade Chex mix fan?

When does your Thanksgiving break start?

Wedding Recap: Gift Opening

Hi!

I was so surprised when I rolled over this morning and saw that the clock said 9am! I'm not sure if I'm still jet-lagged or what, but my sleeping schedule has been so off for the past week or so. Normally I'm up by 6am each day so waking up mid-morning feels a bit foreign to me.

Yesterday morning began with some pumpkin spice pancakes courtesy of Allie's recipe. You can check out how to make them over on her blog! Not a bad way to start a Saturday!

Back on the Healthy Train

The gym at the resort

Oh well, I guess my body needed the rest! Yesterday I headed to the gym to get back into my healthy-life routine and boy, did it feel good! I worked out a little bit on our honeymoon: hiking, swimming, using the resort's fitness center, etc. but nothing compares to a nice strength-training session followed by a spin on the cardio machines in your usual gym.

Yesterday's setup

I enjoy using other gyms but nothing really compares to have a "home gym" that you frequent most. I like visiting other locations of my gym for variety, but when I want a really good workout, I rely on the one that is most familiar to me so I know where everything is and what days/times it is busy.

The machines at the resort's fitness center were pretty nifty--you could plug your iPod right into the machine and browse your music on the large display screen rather than on your device. This made switching songs while running a breeze!

Speaking of running, it was hot in there! I swear I was sweating within the first 3 minutes into my run and the machine was a mess afterwards--ew!

Gift Opening

Last night, Andy and I headed over to my parent's house for dinner. We were celebrating my brother-in-law Andrew's birthday and opening our wedding gifts that my parents had stashed at their house while we were on our trip.

The resort that we stayed at for the week!

It was fun to see everyone and show them pictures of our honeymoon while reminiscing of stories.

I loved this bag!

One of my favorite gifts--Mr. and Mrs. coffee mugs

Another favorite--a personalized apron!

(source)

After all of the gifts were opened, we headed down to the kitchen for some delicious homemade apple crisp topped with ice cream while we opened all of the cards we received. I opened one card and as I opened it, a baby-themed Target gift card slipped out. I stared at it in disbelief trying to figure out if someone bought the wrong gift card when I suddenly realized it was a joke. Two of Andy's groomsmen went in on a baby-themed gift card together as a joke. Hahaha, made my night.

Andrew's 21st

My dad gave my brother in law a 6 pack since he is turning 21 on Halloween! I saw this and started cracking up--they're so young! My sister's birthday is in March, so her 21st is right around the corner, too.

Off to go tackle organizing all of our gifts and finding places for them! My next post will be the "getting ready" part of my wedding day--hair, makeup, etc. so keep your eyes peeled! 

Have a great day! 

What kinds of gifts do you usually give for weddings? I usually go the "game" route--either a board game or a lawn game.

Do you like visiting a gym regularly or do you like to switch things up?

Favorite flavor of pancakes? I like blueberry--my grandpa makes the best blueberry waffles!

Wedding Recap: The Days Before it All

Good morning!

After a much-needed vacation with my new husband (it's still weird saying that!), I am happy to be back in Minneapolis as we start this next chapter of our life.

Thanks to my Aunt Lori for taking some pictures during the ceremony! 

Our wedding turned out so well and as fun as it was, I am glad it is over! Planning a wedding is a lot more time and money than you expect! We are anxious to get back into our hobbies and have more free time to spend with each other rather than working on wedding to-do's. Everything went really smoothly though and just like they say, your own wedding always flies by much faster! I felt like the whole day was only 3 hours long!

The last few days have been kind of chaotic--we're still pretty jet lagged and it has been tricky getting back into a routine since we spent the last 8 days laying on the beach.

However, our honeymoon was so worth it. Andy surprised me by planning an 8-day trip to Maui! He had me guess where we were going while we were driving from the ceremony site to our reception so that I could tell our guests of our travel plans. Hawaii was absolutely gorgeous--complete with ocean views, tropical plants and flowers, amazing sunsets, and stunning mountains all around.

I'll recap getting ready, the wedding, and honeymoon in separate posts, so stay tuned!

The Days Before It All
Wednesday during wedding week was my last day at the office before taking the following two weeks off. My coworkers actually threw me a surprise wedding celebration before I left--complete with cake and gifts! What a fun surprise!

It was so nice to have Thursday and Friday off to run around and get last-minute things accomplished before the wedding. On Thursday afternoon, I drove down to my sister's place to do a wedding day makeup trial run.

My sister definitely got the girly gene and does an excellent job at makeup. She expertly applied my makeup for a fresh look on my wedding day. Since she works second shift and had to head into work, I headed out after the makeup application and ran a few errands before meeting up with my friend Kaaren for coffee.

During the last few weeks before the wedding, I didn't get a chance to spend time with friends and I was starting to really miss them. It was so great to catch up with her and hear pre-wedding advice from her since she's been married for a few years already.

Friday morning was spent grabbing a hot cup of coffee at Starbucks--it was freezing out! After picking up a warm drink, I spent the remainder of the morning being pampered by getting a shellac manicure and pedicure--a gift from one of my good friends, Kara Lynn as a bachelorette party gift!

This was my first time having a pedicure and oh my goodness--it was amazing. They had a huge tv, massage chairs, and hundreds of colors of nail polish to choose from. I ended up choosing "Strawberry Margarita" for my toes and a shellac French manicure on my hands. The lady at the salon added a quick sparkly top coat on my fingers before I headed out the door--what a fun touch!

Don't worry, Andy didn't get his toes done...

After the salon visit, I ran a few other errands before stopping home to change and get ready to head to the rehearsal. The rehearsal was great since it was laid back and we all got to chat with family and friends. It was great to connect with those close to us before the big day. The only freak-out moment happened when our wedding coordinator informed me that the flower girls could not use real flower petals on the hardwood floors of the chapel. Ahh! Luckily my amazing personal attendant, Krystine, stepped up to the challenge of running to the store to find fake rose petals!

After running through the ceremony order twice, we headed over to the restaurant for a delicious dinner. Before I knew it, we were headed home to try to get some sleep. Despite my excitement, I actually fell asleep pretty quickly!

I'll continue where I left off in my next post; it's time to scoot out the door to work. This week is flying by since it's been a short week for me--thankfully! After work, I'm headed out to grab coffee with my friend Bre before joining some friends for Krystine's birthday party later this evening. I'm looking forward to catching up with them!

Have a great Friday!

Where did you go for your honeymoon? If you aren't married, where would you like to go?
Mani's/Pedi's--love them or no?
Do you get jet lag after returning home from a far-away trip?

Meet the Wedding Party

....well, the girls, anyway!

This post was inspired by a dream I had last night--I woke up panicked this morning because I dreamt that Andy and I got married and after it was over, I realized that we forgot to do our vows during the wedding! We did all of the other parts of the ceremony except for the vows--ahhh! Thankfully it was just a dream.

Now, let's meet those ladies, shall we?

Andrea
First up, we have my gorgeous sister! She is going to be my Matron of Honor since she just got hitched last January. It's hard to believe they've already been married almost a year! Although we didn't always get along as kids (I was the nerdy ballet dancer and she was the rough and tumble tomboy), our relationship has gotten so much better and we have become really good friends. As my only sister, I am really blessed to have her in my life. After all, she is my big little sister!

Allie
Next in line is a friend who is so dear to my heart. Allie and I have been friends since I was in 8th or 9th grade and our friendship has only continued to grow. Allie is on a mission to become a dolphin trainer and therefore, our friendship has been long distance many times as she has lived in Hawaii, Florida, and Mexico for many months at a time. She's back in town for awhile and I'm so excited to have her in my wedding. This is the woman who I can goof around with, has strengthened my faith, and shown me a true example of what it means to have Christ in your heart.

Kaaren
God brought Kaaren into my life for an exact purpose at the perfect time. We met by chance about a year ago at a church event and ended up in the same small group together. It was her goofy sense of humor and take on life that interested me and I love spending time with her. She's been through a lot of things that I'm going through right now, so it has been nice to have someone who understands and can offer advice. Our relationship is sometimes serious, but most of the time it's spent goofing around and talking in accents. What a fun gal!

Jen
As I approach our upcoming wedding, I am so excited to gain a sister-in-law. Andy's sister Jen is such a sweet woman and I love spending time with her and the rest of his family. I look forward to continuing to get to know her in the upcoming years.

Marissa
When I was younger, my sister and I didn't have any cousins. Family get togethers were fun because we both received a lot of the attention, but at the same time--we always wished that there were more kids around to play with. I was so excited when I was in 3rd grade and got the news from my aunt that she was expecting! Fast forward 9 months later, at 10 years old--I gained my first cousin. I loved spending time with her, babysitting her, and playing with her. Time really flies, though, because she will be 13 next month! She is such a pretty girl and I love hanging out with her and watching her grow up.

Karlie
After a few years, my aunt had another baby, Karlie! Karlie is a bundle of energy and so much fun to be around. She's always on the go and usually has a great story to share with you every time you see her. I was so excited when Karlie was born--now I had two cousins--double the fun! She's almost 10 years old and as cute as can be! I love heading down to her house to spend the day with her whenever I can! Her silly attitude is contagious and it is so fun to see her grow from a little girl to a charming young lady.





I am so blessed to have these amazing women/girls in my life and honored to have them stand up next to me during my wedding next month.

Photo Challenge Day 3: Clouds
(Click here for previous days)

This picture never ceases to fascinate me. I captured this shot while on a trip to Italy with my school's Art + Design Department during my sophomore year of college. The sky is so dark and eerie, yet the sliver of blue in the center offers a glimpse of hope even on the darkest of days.

"...the LORD's delight is in those who fear him,
 

those who put their HOPE in his unfailing LOVE."

Psalm 147:11

Alright, kiddos--have a great Saturday! I'm off to the gym for some circuit training before Andrea arrives to help set up for the party! Catch ya tomorrow!

Who did you have as your maid of honor? If you aren't married, who would you choose as yours?

How many bridesmaids would you like to have in your wedding?

Ever been a bridesmaid?

A Beautiful Bridal Brunch

Hello there!

This past Saturday was my first bridal shower! Attending this event definitely made the "oh my gosh I'm getting married" feeling much stronger! Now that we're getting closer to the date, things are starting to feel more real; for awhile, it felt like our wedding was so far away but now it is just around the corner!

After brunching, we moved to the living room for a fun dice game! We passed plates of dice around the circle, and if you rolled doubles, you grabbed a small gift from the middle. After all of the gifts were gone, if someone rolled doubles, they could snatch a gift from someone else. It got pretty intense rather quickly! 

After that game, we played another one in which everyone was given a sheet of paper with questions about Andy and I. My mom and sister both tied for first place (go figure! They're a little biased...) but my Aunt came in pretty close!

Next, gifts were opened! We received so many great things from our registries and we can not wait to use them! One of my favorite gifts that wasn't on a registry was this neat bike that one of the guests gave us. She also included a little poem about how riding a tandem bike can be related to our relationship with God. It was such a unique idea! I am looking forward to displaying this bike in our new home! 

I was so excited to receive such useful gifts! It will be so fun to have guest over and be able to use all of these new kitchen gadgets and serving dishes. Plus, I'm sure that many of them will make their grand appearance on the blog, as well! :D

My grandma assembled a cookbook for us with all kinds of great recipes all categorized and organized into a neat little book! This will be great for meal ideas! 

A Vera Bradley bag from my aunt! A new Kitchen Aid toaster was hiding inside! 

Lots of cards! 

The whole group that came to celebrate with me! I am so thankful to have all of these wonderful women in my life! 

Relatives from my mom's side of the family. Left to right: 

My cousin, myself, my other cousin, my mom, my sister, grandma, and my aunt!

2 of my bridesmaids and my personal attendant! 

Andy's sister Jen, myself, Andrea, and Krystine! You might recognize Krystine from a previous post since we are coworkers now! 

My two moms! Andy's mother is on my left, and my mom is on my right!

The wonderful ladies that thew the shower for me! Aren't they adorable?! My mom has such great friends--they threw a shower for my sister last winter too.

They had decorated the house both inside and out! I was so touched by their generosity and thoughtfulness!

After the shower, I headed back to my parent's house and chowed down a bowl of cereal since I hadn't eaten since earlier that morning! My sister and I sat down to plan my bachelorette party before my mom and I headed out to run a few wedding errands. Our first round wasn't too successful on the wedding front since my mom purchased a dress and a purse, and I came out with a pair of khakis and some new jeans. Oh, and a pretzel from the shop in the mall was also bought and consumed as well. 

After  the mall, we headed to another store and finally crossed some items off our our list! I found my bridesmaids gifts and I can't wait to give them to my bridesmaids for being a part of my special day. We also ran into one of my mom's neighbors at the store and it was so great to catch up with them! 

The next day, Andy and I met with our musicians to choose our ceremony music! Things are really coming together! I am so excited for the song that will be played when I walk down the aisle with my dad. Rather than doing the traditional route of canon in D, I chose "Interlude" by Shane and Shane after hearing it at a friend's wedding last Fall. I loved that we added this twist to our ceremony music and that we were able to incorporate an artist that has a special meaning to the two of us since we attended a Shane and Shane concert when we first started dating. 

After choosing our ceremony music, we went out to lunch with Andy's parents before checking out another place to live! We even got root beer floats--I haven't had one of those in so long! It definitely hit the spot as summer comes to an end.

Andy was so sweet and scanned in all of my pictures for me so that I can start working on our wedding slideshow! I can't wait to start on this project--it will be fun to watch us grow up on the video! Okay, and just to prove that I wasn't that strange as a kid, here's a normal one:

Those were the days!

Time to go blow dry my hair and head into work! Have a super day!

What special songs did you have in your wedding? Or, what songs would you like to have in your wedding?

Do you remember what your favorite age was? I'd have to say 7 or 8 was mine!

Best/worst bridal shower game you've played?