Happy 2017! // Bloggy Break

Happy New Year Everyone!

You know when you *say* you'll blog... and then you just don't? I guess I was overdue for a mini break...!

I am determined to make 2017 a great one! I'm excited to talk goals soon, but I just wanted to get a quick post up to say hey! :) I plan to catch up on some blog reading this week! ;)

Hello Everyone! I hope you had a lovely Christmas weekend! We certainly did! :)

Earlier in the month we made xmas gifts for our coworkers.

We opted for pineapples (Mele Kalikimaka!) and "Rein(root)beers".

Christmas Eve Eve

We wanted to go to a fun Christmas Party at a bakery in KCMO called Natasha's Mulberry & Mott on Friday night. They recently opened up a dessert food truck called Cirque de Sucre. I've been wanting to try this place for ages, and I was hoping to get the chance. We got out there about 45 min before the party ended... and no one was there... whomp whomp! Oh well, at least we tried. We then went to paper source, made a return and purchase and then had a little ice cream treat at glace!

I didn't really take any photos... haha

Christmas Eve

Since my parents moved KC and I have spent Christmas Eve together, just the two of us. This year we ended up with a lot of plans... and it was kind of stressful... but we did what we could. We had breakfast and cleaned the house in the morning.

We drove back to KCMO to see The Nutcracker at the Kauffman Center. It was so lovely!

I have been enamored with The Nutcracker for forever, and I am so glad that we got to go this year! :) It was seriously the most beautiful and imaginative version I've ever seen!

It was an afternoon ballet, so we then went home and Jess and Kalor came over for dinner (which Jess made! THANKS JESS!) and we played a teeny bit of games... I was bummed we didn't have more time. We also face-timed my family in Phoenix, so Olivia could open her presents "with us", it was nice to talk to them a bit. I have no pictures of this... :(

We ended the evening at the Christmas service at KC's family's church. We hadn't initially planned on going, it was nice to do the candle light part, and it was in the old church downtown which is pretty. :) I had a huge caffeine headache though... and kind of wish we had stuck with not going. But it's good to make people happy. (right? - more on goals for 2017 later....)

Christmas

On Christmas morning we woke up and had another breakfast together. We then went to KC's parents' house to have second breakfast (LOL) and do our family stockings and gift exchange.

We had a lot of fun doing that as always. :)

Scalawag is the silliest cat I swear...

We then drove back out to the Kansas City area to KC's grandparents' house to visit with them pre-family holiday gathering. It's nice to get a quiet time to talk with them before the bigger group gets together. You guys know how it can get once everyone is together! :) Loud and busy! hehe

After that we went on to KC's aunt's house for our Christmas dinner and extended family gift exchange. It was a nice time too, and fun to see the kids. They are getting so big! :)

KC's mom made family shirts for us again this year. Hehe how cute are these penguins?! Note that I am the only one doing the penguin flipper thing... lol #thecoolest ...

We ended the night back at home, cuddled up with our kittens!

Post-Christmas

We finally got around to watching Love Actually on the 26th and had Hot Schnaapslate... which is one of our yearly traditions at home. :)

Later that week we had a game day with KC's parents and sister, and her fiance. It was really fun and an all day long type game day.

The 31st was our 5th Anniversary! We took it easy and went out for breakfast followed by hanging out around the house... it was kind of awesome.

I can't wait to share the video on this one!!! :) 

We just listened to New Girl while I scrapbooked and KC messed around with his various projects. :) We purchased a new mattress and box spring type thingy... woot for grown up purchases! :P Super excited though. At the end of the day I managed to tear myself away from the crafts to watch French Kiss. One of our favorite hilariously quoteable love stories. :) We stayed up past midnight to make sure we got a New Year's Eve kiss in. :)

And then we had a New Year's Day game night with our friends (at least the ones who are in town!).

KC spent the day doing food prep, and I made some Christmas crackers, but with New Year's fortunes.

I had a ton of fun with that and made teeny tiny crowns to put in them out of the scraps. :) It was nice to see people and chat, eat, play games, etc. Can we talk about how yummy sorbet in champagne is?!?! NOM.

I've also been doing a ton of scrapbooking... and I made a few more videos. I can't wait to share things with you. :) :)

Fun times!

What have you guys been up to?!?! :)

I hope that you had a happy holiday and a good start to 2017 so far!

XO,

Alexandra

4 Years Married // 9 Years Together

Back on Dec. 31st, KC and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary, and a few days later it was our "dating" anniversary. Wow, 9 years!

We went to IKEA to look at new beds, and spent the evening at home watching movies and hanging out. :) We don't usually splurge on anniversary dates or fancy gifts, and that's ok with us. :)

This year we had the special opportunity to do a photo shoot with the INCREDIBLE Jennie Karges of Jennie Karges Photography while we were in Arizona! We met in a small business group online and we were just crazy about each other's work! I owe her some prints for her home... but this swap ended up being the greatest gift we could have asked for.

We've never done an official photo shoot together, not even for our engagement! So, this was just the very sweetest gesture, and I'm sure she had no idea how much it touched my heart for her to offer it. Thank you so much Jennie!

We were running a little behind, and we'd been up since 2 am.... we were so worried we would lose all of the light as the sun was setting, but it turns out we ended up with the most beautiful light. It just saturated the whole area we were in. It was a really hard year for us, and I am so grateful she was able to capture some light and hopeful moments to bring that into focus. This is us right now. This is where we are. This is how lucky we feel. Even with all of the hard stuff. :)

It should be noted that a lot of "who I am" is a big spaz and KC makes me laugh so much. It's just real life us. :)

If you live in Phoenix, or ever go to Phoenix, I highly recommend her! She's so fun and easy to work with. She's obviously GREAT at what she does, she chose the perfect time and place to take these photos, and she made us feel so comfortable doing the shoot. Thank you so much for your sweet gift to us Jennie! Find her here.

Thanks for Reading & Happy Wednesday!

XO,

Alexandra

New Orleans Anniversary Trip // Day 1 // January 2015

You might remember this post, the one where KC surprised me with an Christmas gift/Anniversary trip combo.

We spent a few days in New Orleans at the beginning of the year. It was such a needed break. A good chance to spend time together, and a nice break from all of the holiday and end-of-the-year chaos. :)

Here are some details from our trip. I'm going to try to keep these shorter... because not only is scrolling through the huge posts hard... writing and editing for them is a draining task. So let's split it all up! :)

Our first day back in the city was amazing. I'll be honest and say that I was worried that I wouldn't love NOLA as much as I did the first time... but I loved it more.

We spent most of the day walking and exploring the Quarter again. We started with breakfast and beignets at Cafe Beignet, amazing.

Then we walked around enjoying the warm air and the liveliness of the city. Admiring the beautiful colored walls, doors, gates, and arches.

We passed a shop that had the most incredible collection of rare antique coins, maps, and weapons. It was sight to behold. KC had a good time there, and I know my dad would have LOVED it.

We browsed a beautiful vintage store, the piece that I actually would have bought was WAY out of my budget, so I just admired things on the hanger.

(not all of the prices were that high... I've just been told that I'm good at falling in love with the most expensive things. : /  )

We stopped by Johnny's to try a po' boy for lunch. This is the most famous place to get them, so we waited in line for a bit.

It was ok, but perhaps we didn't pick the correct option out of the 50-some choices...?

After that we walked around Jackson Square and went inside of the Saint Louis Cathedral (the oldest cathedral in the US), something we didn't get to do last time.

It was absolutely gorgeous. I'm not catholic, but (as an ex-art history major) I have a love of art and architecture.... so this was a treat. :)

Then we may have had more beignets... thank goodness for all of the walking!

Then we went back to rest before going back out to the Music Legends park and eating dinner at the second Cafe Beignet, and enjoying the live music.

We grabbed drinks at the Carousel Bar at the Hotel Monteleone again on our walk back to our hotel.

It was very busy, as it was a weekend this time... but it was nice.... and I always love a Pimm's Cup.

Have you ever gone back to a place you visited before? -did you feel differently about the place you visited?

See Day 2, and Day 3 Pt. 1, Day 3 Pt. 2, and Day 4.

See our first trip to NOLA.

Thank you for reading!

Alexandra

My Love & That Powdered Sugar Thing & KC's Rap // Obviously a Must-Read

Today marks KC and I's third wedding anniversary! Where has the time gone?!?!

First, I am going to get a little sappy....
Then, I am going to reveal the 'Powdered Sugar' thing.... 
Lastly, I will share KC's ridiculously silly rap song 'Anniversary Girl' that he wrote and performed for me last year.... - yeah, it really happened... haha :)

Sappy:

This guy is the best.

He may come off as serious and super smart (which he certainly is!), but he is also incredibly funny and light hearted. He's punny, he's nerdy, he's full of Gilmore references now, he certainly knows how to make me laugh when I need it the most. I hope that more people get to see this side of him in the future.

Not only is he funny, he is so selfless and considerate. He continually thinks of others above himself, he works hard to make our relationship his first priority, he treats my family like his own, he sacrifices as much as he can to make his relationships with everyone he knows better. This is so rare. Especially today, he's a great friend and an incredible listener. He always has a good plan and solution to a problem too.

He's handy. He built a crazy cool cat tree for Duchess, and then revamped it for further stability. He helped me build a mug rack for the wall in our apartment, and boy can he open a jar... ;) hehe. He takes care of car stuff, he knows some HTML, he's way better at playing games with Duchess....

Together we make a good pair, and we've had the best time over the past three years of marriage, and nearly eight years together. So many adventures had, and many more coming.

As much as I could continue this.... for years... I will not. But if you would like just a tad more you could read this.

Powdered Sugar:

If you read yesterday's post.... you may have tried to guess what my surprise gift was....

This is a tough one.... it took me a bit to get it too... here's the decode!

Did you guess it?!

That's right! We're headed back to NOLA this weekend to celebrate our anniversary!! -I'm floored and so excited! A big thank you to my love.... ! 

And another big thank you to my in-laws for our Christmas gift of plane tickets, and my grandparents-in-law for their time share points. :) This is such a sweet gift from all of you!

'Anniversary Girl' - to the tune of LFO's 'Summer Girls': 

Short Preface: we think this song is hilarious in all of it's '90's brilliance, and the fact that the rap is really, really, really bad, and makes absolutely no sense. So this was HILARIOUS when KC rapped it to me, but with words about our first two years of marriage... re-reading it has me cracking up!

Anniversary Girl

Yeah...I'd like to wish my wife happy.. annivers'ry
Do you remember, Do you remember?...what we did..those two years??

[Chorus:]
We got on a cruise, went to Canada,
Ate at La Familia
And we moved into a big brand new apartment, new apartment.
I like you and all of your thrift store fashions
And I also think you have great buns
And we've been married two years...for two years.

[Verse 1:]
Alt-j, Celtic Woman, and Bastille
I met you at Baker and it was fo real
You're the best girl that I ever did see,
Instead of pickup lines I used Chemistry
Batman fought a villain by the name of Bane
You like books by Austen comma Jane
When we go to Target they all know our names
When we wait for breakfast I will make up games
Watchin' Gilmore Girls, that is time well spent
In my belly button you can find some lint
You work at preschool and not at day care
Andy Brown sang in the movie Hair
We get cheese sticks from our good friend Rudy
"I see you baby" when you shake that booty
When I met you I said my name was Kyle
And all I wanna do in life is make you smile.

[Chorus:]

[Verse 2:]
Freddy's fries, Five Guys, homemade cookie
Laugh when Snoop Dog raps about "Aw, Sookie"
Always been happy to pop your back
When I clean up, I just make a stack
Love Downton Abbey and then Dawson's Creek
I play Magic but you say I'm not a geek
You come from Perry where the corn cobs grow
Make population jokes 'cause it is so low.
You love Starbucks and TJ Maxx
Steak 'n Shake takes forever when they make our snacks
There was a good man named Lucas Danes
I met you one day and my whole world changed
You love Pinterest and Instagram
Sandia Mountain view from a cable tram
When I met you I said my name was Kyle
And all I wanna do in life is make you smile.

[Chorus:]

[Bridge:]
Man, my wife she's got it going on,
Shake and wiggle to Christina's songs
My wife's the only woman I could ever love,
She's like an angel, came down from above 

[Verse 3]
Watch the Teenage Witch and Game of Thrones
Spend lots of time comparing our two skin tones
Been to a lot of concerts that smelled like pot
I used a bent coat hanger to fix our sink clot
You don't like neon colors or American cheese,
Lady Gaga, Ke$ha, or Duck Dynasty
Sometimes you crave apple juice
You hate Kevin Bacon, and you hate Footloose
Cat by the door I said it before,
I think I'm always lovin' you
And I'm totally sure
When I met you I said my name was Kyle
And all I wanna do in life is make you smile.

[Chorus:]

[Bridge:]
Other people they come other people they go
Some are worth while and some are so so,
Other people they come other people they go
Some are worth while and some are so so,
Man, my wife she's got it going on,
Shake and wiggle to Christina's songs
My wife's the only woman I could ever love,
She's like an angel, came down from above.

[Chorus:]

Well... there you have it bahah I love this fella, and I am so lucky that he is willing to be this silly for me. (and to let  me post it here!) He makes life a blast! :) 

We will be in NOLA for a bit.... but I'm hoping to post some 2015 goals / 2014 goal recap later today and tomorrow. :) 

What are you guys up to tonight?!?

Happy New Year Friends!! :)  

XOXO,

Alexandra

Past Anniversary Posts: 1st Year, 2nd Year.

Back From Saint Louis!

You may have noticed I have been incommunicado for a bit... but that would be because I was prepping for a lovely valentine's day / anniversary getaway in Saint Louis! & then in Saint Louis. & then subbing a lot.. but I'm back! & Getting some swoon worthy and photo packed Saint Louis posts ready to share with you all! 

I hope that you had a fantastic holiday & weekend! 

XO,

Alexandra 

1st Year of Marriage! {+ Happy New Year's Eve!}

I can't believe that Kyle and I have been married for a whole year!

We had heard that the first year of marriage is the hardest, we aren't sure if it is true or not.. but either way it is a very good indication of the many many years to come.

Kyle surprised me with a nice dinner out and a stay at a fun & romantic hotel. We spent the evening talking about all of our favorite moments of our marriage so far and of 2012 in general. We had a lot of fun and wonderful memories to look back on.

It was special but low key.. it was perfect. We woke up to this gorgeous view outside our window.

We are about to try our cake topper and open up a bottle of champagne we saved from our wedding. I'll let you know how it is... :) 

Along with our anniversary comes New Year's Eve! :) 

So happy New Year everyone! :) 

Welcome 2013! 

All for now,

Alexandra

Coming Tomorrow: Goals for the New Year! & Why it is not too late to set yours! :)