Birthday week was awesome.

Once upon a time I lived with three other girls who every year, without fail, made my birthday something exciting. Whether it was confetti everywhere or giant homemade signs exclaiming their love and excitement for me. . . .it was always awesome. Therefore, Zach had some big shoes to fill. And this year, he did an amazing job. I mean last year he did a great job too but this year, this year was just amazing. The morning of my birthday I woke up to streamers all throughout the house. It's funny how something so simple can make my heart get all giddy. He even had a little fun birthday tiara. . . I didn't wear it, but it was so cute! Kudos Zach. An hour later I had to go to work. My coworkers made sure to make my day at work fun. They all pitched in and surprised me with bagels (homemade veggie cream cheese--favorite--) for breakfast, a delicious chocolate raspberry cake, balloons to mark my chair, and a Starbucks gift card. It was a wonderful day. That evening Zach and I stayed in and enjoyed eachothers company. We ordered in from Naked Pizza (delicious) and then opened presents. Zach surprised me with a few fun gifts but also informed me that, ". . .the real gifts are in the mail. . ." He also got me my favorite, a giant cookie cake! yummmm Oh Love-O-Mine. I heart you. ALSO---Cally and Dani managed to deliver a dozen cupcakes from the House of Cupcakes in Princeton. Thank you! Delicious!

The next evening Zach and I got all dressed up and went out to dinner with the McNeals. I love Salt Creek Grille. The atmosphere is so cozy and warm but also fancy. The food is delicious. There is always someone singing jazz or some type of really cool sounding music. Le sigh, it's so good. Plus, on your birthday they send you a really good coupon. :) Needless to say we all had a wonderful night. The McNeals surprised me with a yummy Anthro candle and some very pretty matches. I love candles. And the McNeals. 

 

Friday night was. . . well. . . .cray-cray. I requested that everyone came dressed in their PJ's. Which everyone did. Made me so happy! We were all so comfortable. That night we played I don't know how many games. Three Round Charades, Guesstures, Telephone Pictionary, and a couple rounds of Kings Cup. I honestly can't remember the last time I laughed so dang hard. I miss my friends from Florida, but I know that I am going to miss my friends from Princeton sooo much when we leave here (Yay McNeals for moving to Saint A! Dontyoudarechangeyourmind). So so fun. 

Katie made brownies. She also accidentally blew out some of the
candles because she was laughing/singing so hard. 

So many pictures. So little time. 

The Ackerhol spread.

Food Spread

 Birthday week was an extreme success. I love our family and friends. We are truly blessed. Our good friends, the Hedges, surprised me with a gingerbread house kit. I was so excited to make it. After I finally got the house cleaned up from that wild-and-crazy-night I sat down in front of an ABC Family movie and put that sucker together. I loved it. I plan on making it a tradition every year. Clearly not baking the pieces, just buying different kits. Yum and cute. 

Gingerbread house spread.

Miss you and love you all. Be on the lookout for your Christmas card !

White Lightening

My husband has a fantastic beard. It's one of those beards that constantly looks full and lumberjacky. He is proud of it and, quite honestly, so am I. Yes, it does have it's ups and downs. Down: When he decides it's time to have a baby smooth face it doesn't last long. He shaves in the morning, then by noon there's a whole new beard there! Super power? Possibly. Up: (Besides the aforementioned lumberjackiness) His face is a palette for numerous (comical) illustrations. See below:

I know I know. . .sexy beast.

With this talent in mind, every year the Seminary has put on a "Burt Reynolds" mustache contest, and every year Zach has been unable to participate. EXCEPT FOR THIS YEARRRRR!!
This year Zach knew all about it and he was going to be on campus that day. Everything fell right into place. So with buzzer in hand Zach prepared the award winning design, White Lightening. 


Before:

After: 

Awesome.

Needless to say, Zach won the "Burt Reynolds" contest. I am very proud. 


I also can't wait until his beard is back to normal again. 


Miss you and love you all!

Tis the season. . .

And I love it sooo much. December brings warm cozy nights all snuggled together, wonderful smells, yummy treats, my birthday, nicer people, and Christmas. So good. 

Our newest additions. Thanks to Cat & Dad. 

Stockings made for my family 2 years ago. . .
I still love them and they make me think of my family.

Our wonderful cozy tree. 

I  can't wait to slowly fill that area below the tree with little gifts for the people I love. Though mostly all gifts for family members will be directly shipped. . . .so maybe I will just hope the kitties sleep under there. Which reminds me: When I was growing up, after the tree was put up and all the lights in the house were out, I would go and lie under the tree and look up into all the sparkling ornaments. I am pretty sure most people did this. It's so pretty and so simple. Perhaps I will do this tonight. Le sigh, I love this time of the year. 


Miss you and love you all. 

Woo Hoooo

I love the holidays. I can't wait for Zach to be done reading his lame (he said it so I can say it too) book and go out and get a tree! But first I shall blog. It's been a while and a whole lot has been going on. My lovely friend Christina and I took a road trip down to Tennessee to visit our friends the Carsons---mainly their NEW BABY! I wish I had taken more pictures but we were there for such a short time I didn't want to be distracted by anything. But I did get one. 

Meg and lil' Elias. So sweet and cozy.

Baby Elias is a doll and I love him. Meg and Dan are wonderful parents. What a wonderful family. So sweet. There is definitely a part of me that wants to move next door and start popping out some curly haired babies. But then I remember that I want to go back to school and not work at an office EVER EVER AGAIN. 

Moving on. . .the other Sunday Zach and I attended Rae's church where she is interning. Why? Because Rae preached her very own sermon. It was very good. Despite what she feared most, she spoke clearly, used her hands just enough, and looked up often. She got an A+ (God told me). So like a good sister-from-anotha-motha I took pictures. . . . 

So proud

Oh weddings. Tis the season. My beautiful sister got hitched! The weekend was full of activities. First was the bridal luncheon. Our close family friend Dada Glaser hosted the party at her gorgeous home. We had a wonderful time. 

The bridal party painted plates for Lindsey and Joe.

That night we all got dressed up and rehearsed at the church then headed to Jackson's Bistro for a delicious dinner, toasts, and even a slideshow. Also, Joe had a cake in the shape of a fish. Which was pretty awesome. 

Zach and I were able to attend and be a part of the ceremony. She married her best friend Joe whom we already love. They were married at Joe's fathers church (Joe's father --the pastor-- baptized our other sister Lucy when she was a baby). The reception was held at the Westshore Yacht Club. So pretty.

To see more pictures from their awesome photographer click here.

Zach and I had the lovely privilege of taking Lindsey and Joe to the hotel after the reception. On the way we stopped and got Wendy's per Joe and Lindseys request. Lindsey requested a large fry for free--it was her wedding night.

After the wedding we headed back to Princeton for work and school. Sofunyouhavenoidea.

Then came Thanksgiving! Every holiday that we spend in Princeton is spent with the McNeals. We love them and they're our family up here. So I stole Rae's pictures and messed with the color and put them in a collage and now you can see them. . . . 

The night before Thanksgiving we saw The Muppet Movie. Go see it.  

Friday morning I had to work and then it was off to Tampa again for my friend Katie Meehan Myer's wedding. Friday night I got off the plane, hung out with my parents a bit, then my dad dropped me off at Megans house for some fun. It was like old times. That night I saw more people from high school than I have in probably the past 6 years. It was so fun. However, the next day was no so fun. That night however I was ready to get dressed up and head out again for the Meyer wedding! Everything was held at the University of Tampa. Gorgeous. 

Now I am back in Princeton. We do not plan on traveling anywhere until it is time to move back to Florida(6 months). This month is going to be filled with fun activities right here in Princeton. My BIRTHDAY! I turn 26 on December 6th and (like every year) I am super-duper excited. Decorating the apartment for Christmas! Zeke and Momma Berger are coming into town the 18th through the 22nd. Possibly Wicked? Christmas! Yay for another fun month. We are truly blessed with a wonderful life. Now to finish laundry and then to bed. 

Miss you and love you all. 

Little girls are afraid of Batman

Little boys always love Batman, but without fail, every little girl under the age of 5 literally froze at the sight of Zach Batman. 

Tonight Zach and I answered the door for trick-or-treaters as batman and catwoman/a cat (depending on if Zach was with me). When I got home from work we ordered pizza and got ready for our costumed visitors. Oh man so cute. We had a lot of Mario, Luigis, Princesses, Lions, Darth Vader, and even one Ring Leader. The ring leader was my favorite. His dad gave him a mic (ya know the one from the dollar store that has a spring on the inside so it really does make your voice seem louder and and you loved it when you were younger and you still do because it's awesome). Anyways his dad gave him this mic(rophone) and was all, "What do you say?. . .What does a ring leader say to his lions." And the kid got all serious and put his mouth into the mic and says, "I don't know what you want me to say. . . . I don't want to say anything." It was really funny. Plus he was wearing a giant home (awesomely) made top hat. Then there were all the little girls that just stood in front of our door looking scared sh*tless (kid friendly?) at Batman. They obviously had no idea who this creature was, completely forgot about the candy, and quickly became aware of their short lives. Poor kids. 

But then there was this one kid right at the beginning that was like, "BATMAANNN, BATMANNN, IT'S BATMAAAANNNN!"  Which made Zachs night. 

All in all it was a pretty awesome Halloween. 

Love you and miss you all. 

Just in case you forgot. . ..

The Halloween movies are still very scary. Who knew?! But they are still soo sooo good. I wish scary movies were still made this way. The blood is fake but not too fake. The bad guy pops out and makes you scream. There's just stabbing and then it's over. There are no torture/rape scenes. The bad guy can walk anywhere and still catch up to the running/driving in a car victim. Scary movies these days are too realistic and too morbid. The Hills Have Eyes made me never want to watch a scary movie again. At least not a new one. 


I still mute the scary parts. 


Happy Halloween!
Miss you and love you all. 

Date Night

I love weekends. Clearly. This weekend is extra long for me because I took off Friday! We only had one doctor working in the office so it would have been horribly boring and the "boss" would have been constantly lurking around trying to find us busy work. So instead I ran errands and brought Zach lunch while he finished his paper. Friday night was GRANT-MCNEAL DATE NIGHT!!! I type it in caps because that's how you say it. . .all excited-like. 


Now, unfortunately for my spouse, I will forever pump up date night. I will imagine that we're going to be doing something amazing and new and inevitably something way too out of our budget. Which is really dumb and I completely acknowledge this and yes, I do know that I am being silly. When I found out what we would be doing there was that initial bit of disappointment (which I know is stupid so I try my best to ignore myself). We had a wonderful simple night of fun. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that--simple.


The McNeals and I left their house to go pick-up Mr. Grant who had just personally handed his paper into his professor's hand as he was collecting them from the mailbox. I told him instead of saying "mercy, mercy. . " while handing in his paper he should have told him he just prefers to have a more personal experience and shake the hand of the man who will be grading his papers. Ya know with a, "Here you go fine sir, I hope you enjoy grading this as much as I enjoyed writing it." If I was a professor that would certainly make me laugh. Moving on.

**Every picture on this blog came from the McNeal camera.
 I just edited their perty lil' colors.**

Zach and Kevin like to play.

We headed to New Hope, PA. It's a lovely ride along the Delaware River and then you turn and you are instantly in this cute little town. Well actually there's Lambertville--so cute complete with a wonderfully charming and tasty little coffee shop--then you cross the small rickety bridge --by car-- to get into New Hope. Find parking and then walk to your yummy dinner. That's typically the plan whenever we go there. 

haha. . .I love this one. 

So we walked a bit then headed to Havana. When Zach and I first went to this restaurant about a year and a half ago we shared two sandwiches (we like sharing); a cuban and a Thanksgiving sandwich. Oh man they were both soooo amazing. And so ever since then we go there in the hope of finding something equally as amazing. I don't think we have done that yet, but we do plan on going there after Thanksgiving to get another one of those amazing sandwiches. This time we started with amazingly huge onion rings and baked brie (yummmm). Then Zach and I semi shared a burger, fries, and BBQ pulled pork tacos. 


After dinner we slowly headed back to the bridge. Rae wanted to take some pictures of the water before it got too dark, which it did. We were too slow because we were too full. So full. 

We eventually headed back to Princeton, went to our separate homes, got into comfy clothes/pj's, headed back to the McNeals, and ended the night with wine and Mario Party. We had a lovely night. I love GRANT/MCNEAL DATE NIGHT!

Style Blog

One day I will take a picture of our kids just as awesome as this one. 

Relaxed.

Enough said. 


Miss you and love you all.