yowzer....

Hey friends!  So, yeah, um, okay.....I totally suck.  I completely fell of the face of the planet last week.  See, the wedding weekend completely exhausted me. (In a good way of course.)

The wedding was PERFECT!  Absolutely beautiful and wonderful in every way.

Dad and Linda were so cute, and so in love.  It was a special day for all who shared it.  One that won't soon be forgotten.

The time with my bestie was fantastic!  We had a little mishap, or shall I say Delta had a little mishap that kept her with us for one extra night.  I guess I didn't mind.  It's always nice having her here.  Can't wait til she's back for girls weekend in the summer!

The rest of the week, I was trying to catch back up on sleep and not feeling all that well.  I was blah all week long.

So, I suppose you want to see pics of the wedding?  Okay!  Here's some sneak peaks from the talented Amanda Onstott of Wanted Photography {She's based out of Fort Worth, if anyone's interested in hiring her.}

Aren't they the cutest?  Love them!

Congrats again to my favorite newlyweds!

.....

In other news, my allergies are OFF THE CHARTS today!  C'mon Claritin!  Help!

Do you have allergies?  


Also, remember that giveaway for headbands?  Well, the winners have been announced!  Holly and Amanda, you'll hear from me shortly!

A Holiday in Photos...

Our Christmas was wonderful.  I hope yours was too! 
I'm enjoying relaxing and doing nothing much but dinners with friends and playing on my phone.  We hope to repaint the powder room off the kitchen this week, and I'm planning to make this soup today.  Cannot wait! 
Are you off work for the week?  Or is it back to the old grind for you?

p.s. I'm on Instagram!  If you are too, come follow me, and I'd love to follow you back!  {I'm jdavissquared, of course.}

Bonfire 2011...

This weekend was probably one of the best weekends ever.  It really was just nearly perfect.
Great weather, great events, and great friends and family.  Fabulous.

Saturday was Jon's birthday.  He got to sleep in, and had a big ham steak for breakfast.  {This was really exciting to him.}  I am a horrible wife, cause I did make him cook the breakfast....but he's just so much better at it!  We lounged around for the day, and then Saturday night was the much anticipated bonfire at the farm!  Wheeeee!  It was SO. MUCH. FUN.  We had friends and family who joined us, along with lots of friends of Jon's dad and stepmom.  There was chili  and hot cider bubbling over the (smaller) fire, and s'mores (also over the small fire, cause you couldn't get within 30 feet of the bonfire without burning your face off).

*Jon insisted on wearing his "hair hat ".  According to him it's the perfect headwear for a bonfire.  Uh-huh....whatever, sweetie...it's your birthday!

The barn was opened up so the kids could check out all the animals.

Gosh, I love that place.

I'm so grateful for the friends and family who came to celebrate fall {and birthdays} with us.  I cannot get over how blessed we are.

I also had a brief moment standing in the barn looking up toward the house all lit up, with the party sounds all around me, where I had a little flashback to my wedding night.  {For those of you who don't know, our reception was held at the farm.}  I'm for reals tearing up typing this...I'm so lame.  Anyway, it took me back, and it took my breath away all over again.

Life is good, people.  It is so, so good.

Prize ribbons...

I was recently browsing on Pinterest and came across these images of ribbons...

                                  Source: stylemepretty.com via jennifer on Pinterest

                                  Source: flickr.com via jennifer on Pinterest

They reminded me of my mother-in-law's amazing collection of ribbons. This isn't the best picture, but you get the idea. {she sent it to me to show the dogs and cats keeping warm in the lounge in the barn.}  She has hundreds of them.  They actually go all the way to the ceiling, so there's about three times what you see in the picture.  And every last one, she won herself!  Pretty impressive, huh?  I love the way she's displayed them on the wall.  

I think ribbons might now be up there with buntings and bicycles...love them!

What's your current obsession?

animals on the farm...

just a few of our animal friends on the farm.  

That's Baa Baa the sheep up top...poor little fellow lost one of his horns. :(

Solomon the Cat. 

McCain and Palin the goats and Angel the Donkey.

Cindy lets me give them graham crackers as a treat.  It makes me laugh how they suck them down like a shredder!  And all those farm kitties, oh how I love them!

father/son frisbee time...

The weather was absolutely perfect yesterday.  The boys spent some time playing catch and throwing the frisbee.  It was quite entertaining!

Easter on the Farm...

How was everyone's Easter?  Ours was completely unexpected and wonderful!

We had a busy day of yard work, errands and birthday parties on Saturday, so we decided to sleep in, do some things around the house and then go to the 5pm service at church.  Well, at about 1:00, Jon's dad called to remind him to bring his baseball glove....say what!?

Needless to say, Jon had a lapse of brain power which caused him to completely space off the fact that we were supposed to go to his dad's for dinner at 3:00.  This was the first I had heard of it.  So, we got ready, and headed to the farm!  We got there early, so we thought we might still make it to church, but we were just having too much fun, so we stayed.  It was a wonderful Easter!

We had the most delicious dinner.  On the menu:  grilled pork chops, baked potatoes, green beans with bacon and warm garlic herb bread.  Oh, and of course my usual gimlet!  ;)  Now, I'm not really the biggest fan of pork chops, but oh my, were they delicious!  I didn't know a pork chop could taste that good!  As George kept saying, "you can't go wrong with an Iowa Chop".  Agreed!

I, of course, did not take a picture of the food, because I was too intent on stuffing my face.  I did get a picture of the dessert, however.  Look at this decadent chocolate cake!    Paired with a scoop of ice cream, it was too die for!  {please note the darling little dessert fork...love!}

Jon couldn't help himself and busted into a rendition of Bill Cosby's Chocolate Cake bit.  

I might have joined in.  ;)

{If you don't know what I'm talking about you can go here to watch it.  About the 7 minute mark is what we were doing.  ha!} 

What a lovely Easter!  I'll share more pictures from our day on the farm later.

Happy Monday!

Rainy day on the farm...

Sunday was my father-in-law's birthday.  {Yes, there's a theme here lately, and it's not over folks!}  To celebrate we went out to the farm to visit.  A storm rolled in on our way, and set a cozy backdrop to our afternoon.  As he always does, George promptly made rum gimlets for Cindy and me and a white russian for Jon.  Oh my gimlets are delicious!  That man sure knows how to shake a martini!

We feasted on snacks and Cindy's wonderful chili and talked politics all afternoon in front of the fire.  Oh, and there was also ice cream cake!  We couldn't believe how long it's been since I've been out there...since Christmas!?  Can that be!?  No wonder I was so excited! 

{it's hard to see in the pic, but George had on the most hilarious visor with hair to cover his head! 

Let's just say Jon get's his hair from his dad!} 

To finish off the day, we went out to visit the animals in the barn.  They have two horses of their own, 3 boarders, a donkey, a black sheep, two goats, two dogs, and a group of cats.  The barn has changed so much since we had our reception there!

It was such a lovely day spent with family.  We really must do it again soon.