Kevin's Birthday Pretzels

Today is Kevin's birthday!  They next few months are some of my favorite because they are the months when Kevin has caught up with me in age.  (He married an older woman.)  When I asked him what he wanted to do on his birthday, he said 'stay home'.  So stay home we did, all day long.  He has been wanting to make pretzels to have with some of his home brew for some time, so we gathered all the ingredients for some homemade soft pretzels.  I have never made pretzels before and discovered today that I have been missing out.  They were so yummy!  You can click here to find the recipe for these amazing morsels of goodness.  Happy Birthday to my incredible husband!

birthday boy!

Fat happy babies

Fat happy babies...every 'just married' couples dream.  Maybe for some, maybe not for others.

This past weekend Kevin was a part of his best friend, Kyle's, wedding.  It was an incredible weekend and a beautiful event.  It was so great to spend some time with Kevin's friends and their girlfriends/fiances.

Now, the story behind the fat happy babies.  When Kyle was Kevin's best man his speech discussed us having fat happy babies.  Five years later we are finally following through and Kevin wanted to wish the same to his best friend during his best man speech.  I don't know if Kyle and Alisha will be having any fat happy babies anytime soon, but I'm excited for when they do, because they will be absolutely adorable...just like Mr. and Mrs. Rannells.

Well dressed and well read

There is no doubt about it; our little guy will be well dressed and well read.  Last weekend Kevin's sister, Hillary, his mom, Diane, and my friend, Kara, hosted a sweet baby shower for Kevin's family and close friends from the area.  Many members of Kevin's family were able to make the trip from around the state and it was so special to have them all there.  Hillary had this great idea of having guests bring a book instead of a card and Baby Boy Forristall's library is now overflowing with amazing, colorful, beautiful books.  
Kevin and I can't wait to tuck him into bed each night with one of those books and cuddle him up in all the adorable little outfits we were showered with last week.

these cupcakes were amazing

homemade gifts from great grandpa turner

sadie helping kevin open the stroller from grandma diane and grandpa gary

kara and i...she is such an amazing friend!

all of kevin's family in attendance!

love this man

Photo of the Day: It's Raining...It's Pouring!

The wonderful, not so familiar sound of rain is floating through my house right now.  Abel and I barely made it inside before the downpour because I was outside watering plants...go figure.  I love this heavenly sound and I hope it lasts all day so I have an excuse to stay inside and put away all the cute little things our little guy got yesterday at our baby shower.  YAY for rain!

The cork line

I have corks.  Lots of corks.  Bags of corks.  For the past five years Kevin and I have collected many corks with family and friends and had a great time doing it.   I have been trying to figure out something to do with all of them for awhile now.  After scouring Pinterest to get ideas, I finally came up with one.  The cork line.  It was quick and easy and just what our wine bar needed.  I hot glued the corks together and then nailed the piece to the wall.  This cork line ended up being perfect to post invitations and birth announcements.  Christmas cards will look great up there in just a few short months...did you know there are only 15 weeks until Christmas?!

Tailgate Shower

As most of you that live in Iowa know, this past weekend a very important football game was played, well important to those of us that live in Iowa.  The Iowa/Iowa State game took place on Saturday afternoon and, as always, was an exciting event, no matter the score.  This game has always been especially exciting for Kevin and I because he is an Iowa State fan and I an Iowa fan.  It was not my year this year, as Kevin's Cyclones beat my Hawkeyes in a pretty uneventful game.  The upside to the Hawkeye loss was that I had lots of Hawkeye friends surrounding me.  

Two of my friends, Shelby and Jill, planned a tailgate shower for some of our local friends to celebrate the upcoming arrival of Baby Boy Forristall.  It was such a fun and cute shower and it gave some of the boys a chance to celebrate with us.  Shelby and her fiance, Jeff, cooked up some great shredded pork sandwiches complete with grilled buns, along with mac and cheese cupcakes, and chips and queso dip.  Everything was delicious and before the game got underway, Shelby and Jill had everyone make little onesies with iron-on decals and fabric markers.  Everyone was quite creative and now we have some fun little onesies that Baby Boy Forristall can sport this fall and winter.  The shower was such a clever idea and so much fun, despite the Hawk loss.  There's always next year...I think we might make this Iowa/Iowa State tailgate an annual event.

2 baby hawkeye fans = 4 hawkeye fans...we made that up
how cute are scarlet and amelia?!

kevin's creativeness

sweet little scarlet

kevin tallying people's bets

how cute?!

sorry jill - i. love. this.

thanks girls!

Photo of the Day: 31.85 Weeks Pregnant

I worked yesterday.  Yep, this stay-at-home-mom-to-be actually worked.  I subbed in my friend, Beth's, first grade classroom.  I had a wonderful afternoon with those little bright eyed first graders and I am excited to get to go back again next week.  Since I worked, I was actually dressed in something other than leggings, shorts, or yoga pants.  Oh, wait, I did wear leggings.  What can I say, they're pretty much the only pants that fit me these days.  I love leggings...I love the comfort, the stretchiness, the fact that you can wear them with pretty much anything.  Did I mention the comfort?  Well, I had on my leggings and did my hair, so I had Kevin snap a picture of me 31.85 weeks pregnant.  It's hard to believe that in 8 weeks this little guy will be gracing us with his presence and making our lives so much sweeter...I. just. can't. wait.

Working on the Weekend

Being pregnant has left me limited on some of the work that needs to be done on the Trail.  That leaves Kevin's 'to do' list quite a bit longer than mine.  This past weekend he sanded and stained our small deck that was put on during the renovation, along with many other miscellaneous tasks.  Abel acted like he was helping, but all he was really doing was chewing on sticks and chasing grasshoppers.  So, Kevin was all alone on this one, but he did a marvelous job...don't you think?

before

after

abel doing absolutely nothing

Football Saturday!

Hope you all are enjoying this first football Saturday!  Kevin and I have been excited about this all week, okay maybe month...we love college football!  Although I am a Hawkeye fan and Kevin is a Cyclone fan, we both manage to cheer on each other's team every Saturday, well every Saturday except for the Saturday they play each other.  

There are yellow and black plants in all the ditches around the Trail and there are even some in our backyard.  I believe these are around to remind us all of the Hawkeye black and yellow!

goooooooooo hawks!!!