Rainy Spring Day

I don’t know about your neck of the woods, but it has been pretty rainy here in Springfield.
Sometimes it feels like winter went straight back to fall. Remember last fall when we were planting and planting?


(My Parents and Lori helping us plant the pansies they bought us last fall)
(Me and Neil planting bulbs and crepe myrtles)Here is our pretty little garden last fall


And here is the springtime explosion!Just some spring pictures to warm up your day!

Playing Catch (Up)

Here is a quick recap of the last couple months!

In March Neil's parents came to visit for spring break. We had a wonderful time, as usual!

(you wouldn't believe the time we had getting this picture, people kept walking into the shot, and the sun kept attacking us through the blinds)

(spring decorations)

In April we had a wonderful Easter party for the "orphans"

(that is friends who aren't going home for the holiday)(Isn't her dress adorable? Beth made it!)

Neil got licensed to be a minister.
Our small group threw a surprise baby shower for the Mason's!
Colt Mason was born April 27th.
Master Kimberly (MS, CCC-SLP) graduated with her Masters!
What a wonderful start to spring!

Bliss

I'd like to share a couple pictures with you that make me blissfully happy :) They are just random pictures from over the years that always make me smile, every time I see them!

Neil and Marty at Bass Pro posing like a polar bear! I couldn't get my camara to take this picture so I kept having to take it over and over, probably 3 times at least! And people would just stop and look at these crazy boys acting like bears! I had to coerce them to keep posing so I could get this awesome shot!

Neil and I on our honeymoon at the Riviera Maya in Mexico. Our waiter offered to take our picture and then gave us these awesome hats to wear!

Me and two of my best friends Amanda and Kimberly in Taos, New Mexico. We are trying to make the same face as that Indian Statue :)

This is me and incredible Emily, (aka Captain Slow Jack) one of my Sunday School students from OKC.

Me and my father in law. I believe the correct caption for this photo should be "let's jump when we take this picture!" LOL I'm laughing right now!! and Neil just said "you are a messy girl! I can hardly do anything with all this laughing" See, I'm not lying when I say that these pictures make me happy!

A ping pong tournament, see how competitive my mom is? Karen is all sweet and doesn't realize she is playing with a hard core partner! Well, maybe Karen is growling a little bit!

Here is my sweet bee boo, Bryce! I love this picture, see his soft cheeks!

I hope at least one of these photos brought you a grin!

P.S. there is also a great one of my dad with with two fully loaded waterguns that keeps coming to mind, but alas I do not have it on my computer! Those of you who have seen it can think of it and smile :)

Pizza Making

This week I decided to try my hand at Pizza making. I was inspired by Karen who gave me this recipe.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/jays-signature-pizza-crust/detail.aspx


Neil was working on an outdoor project (pictures to come) so I thought it was a good night for a late dinner. I had so much fun making the dough! It was my first time working with yeast and it was so exciting to me to watch it rise. The dough took a lot more flour than I was expecting, but I had so much fun kneading it together. It was like playdough!

Here is my dough after it had risen for 1 hour. It is more than double the size that it started! Neil was excited about this creative dinner because he used to work at a pizza place in college. I stood back so he could show me his skills :)
Here he is punching out the air bubbles from the middle, but saving the bubbles in the crust so that it would puff up. I was worried that George might get polluted with flour so I took precautions!now comes the fancy part!

It was huge! and Num Yummy! See how it covers up all four ranges on our stove? We used a ton of toppings, pepperoni, artichoke hearts, pinapple, mushrooms, red onions and green chilis! If you are looking for a fun dinner at home I would highly recommend this recipe.
(note: don't use spaghetti sauce instead of pizza sauce, and buy enough pizza cheese that you don't have to resort to Mexican fiesta cheese! Just two things I will know to do differently next time!)

Happy Birthday, Julie!

So, I WAS going to get you this stuff for your birthday:

A new car...

Some new jewelry items...

A vacation home in Malibu...

And then I was going to tell you to quit your job and take up a life of leisure...

Heaven knows you deserve all that, but it turns out I had to settle for some nifty winter garb items that I hope you liked well enough :) Maybe next year on this other stuff? In the meantime, let me just assure you that I am more in love with you than ever and I count it a huge blessing to just wake up next to you every morning! The fact that I get to celebrate birthdays and such with you just makes it all the better and gives me just one more chance to try and show you how much you mean to me. Thanks for being the best companion I could ever have. And HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!! love you, Neil

Valentine's Day Postponed

The first day Neil ever talked to me was February 7th 2007. He wanted to meet me on Valentines Day, but I wanted a little more time to get to know each other before meeting. We set our day to meet for March 2nd and decided we would celebrate Valentines that day instead. Well wouldn't you know it, that smooth talkin' man convinced me to meet him early, Feb 23rd. But we still celebrated Valentines day on March 2nd. Ever since then, it has been a tradition to celebrate Valentines day late, which works great for our budget! I get twice as many roses for half the price!

This year we were in OKC the weekend before and Neil took me out to eat at my favorite restaurant Johnny Carino's. It was sooo good! We planned to celebrate in Springfield just one day late, Feb 15th, but I was feeling kinda sick, so we postponed it further to Friday Night. As it turned out, I was feeling even worse by then, so Neil modified our night out on the town to dinner at home. Delivery pizza on the snuggler (yes that is really what our chair is called) is my idea of a perfect date!

When I asked Neil how much we were spending on presents, he told me that we would just go on a date and that would be our gift. However, I think this was the plan last year and when he took me out to eat at Hemmingway's, he surprised me with a video slide show set to Dash Board Confessionals song Stolen and then he gave me a backup wedding ring! I am getting off subject here, but last year at this time I was working in the warehouse, packing and shipping. I was so worried to wear my ring for fear it would get damaged or that I would accidentally ship it to some lucky customer! So Neil got me a back up ring to wear to work! How glad I am now to have a cushy desk job and get to wear my real wedding ring :)

Back to Valentines day 2010, even though Neil told me that we weren't doing presents I expected that he had some trick up his sleeve. So planning on this I decided to make him a present, that way I would stay within our present budget, but not come up short like I did last year! However, when Neil discovered I was spending long amounts of time shut in the office, he found out I was crafting his Valentines gift and revealed that he didn't have a gift for me! Poor Neil! So instead, he planned our date and he took me to dinner in OKC and he bought me roses! And he had a surprise present for me after all!

He is my dream man :) Did I mention that he has been waking up early and making my lunch and sending me to work with hot tea all week? Now that is a true Valentine!

You have stolen my heart

I Am Yours

Happy Valentines Day! We hope you had a great one!

p.s. you may have to jump start this video and move the bar over a little, it seems to be shy to start on its own.

p.p.s. If it sounds like I hit a terribly wrong note at the end, Neil made me! He said I had to do the dissonance and then resolve it. Sorry!

p.p.p.s. even though i don't remember the exact conversation (it was several months ago) i am not actually evil like she makes me sound... -Neil