Relaxing weekend!

So this past weekend was just great.

Full of some of this.......

right here in Johnson County....Olathe at College and Renner to be exact!

...with some wonderful old high school friends, Lauren and Jen.

.....close up. Us and the grapes :)

And then in between enjoying some delicious wine, I decided our family room and dining room needed a re-vamping. After a year and a half, I decided we needed a little change in the dining room. Which started out with a little adjustment of the table and then some setting up the table with chargers I already had...and finally a stop by Target to get a vase and stuff to put in it! Ta-da (P.S. Jimmy placed himself in every picture, because that's just Jimmy.)

Then, I felt like a needed a decor change in the family room, you know after all the wall changes, etc. And really, I just thought there was overall too much orange in our house (hmmm, I'm weird and get stuck on things like that very easily) and wanted a different rug downstairs.

And ta-da...Kohl's to the rescue. Rugs, big, colorful, just the right combination AND...drumroll please....50% off. Cannot get much better. Paired with a few pillows that were 50% off, SOLD.

Matches just great! Love how much bigger it is!

And finally, some roses to cap off the weekend. Well, really these were from last weekend at Bobby and Hillary's rehearsal dinner. But they look pretty and are still alive!!

And of course the typical and mushy "I just LUV you pictures" :) But really, he's great!

While this next weekend will be full of lots of costumes, candy, ghost and goblins......I'm VERY excited for some fun times!!

Heble bakes a cake!

During a recent Chief's game tailgate/lunch at Ben's house, Dr. Dan decided he wanted to bake a cake. You read that right.....Heble manning the oven. With lack of a mixer, some Pam and any prior experience, he got working immediately on the fun-fetti cake!

While I didn't get any pictures of his initial work, which included stirring very swiftly with a spoon, rubbing some butter on the bottom of a pan and finally popping it in the oven!!

And here was the final result, after he impatiently waited for it to cool down before frosting. A guy, impatient, hm...who knew? :)

Working hard. And remember when it's still a little TOO warm and the frosting takes off a little bit of the top the cake. That happened, he freaked and I had to take over. But really I was just there for moral support...and a little experience!

Julia and Kate were the bystanders that were just taking it all in....

Jimmy- are you laughing or just ate too much? I would appreciate you taking up some of these baking skills Heble has learned.

Putting on the finishing touch--sprinkles!

Milly wanting to eat some cake.

Dr. Dan and his finished product! And it was DELICIOUS!!

Dan used his skills the following weekend to bake a red velvet cake for a couple's shower for Kate and Joe---and I'm sure it was delicious! I did tell him that he can borrow my cupcake pan and tower next time for his display! I love it! A man that cooks :)

Turbo Fire....here I come

Today it is folks. Yep, starting a new workout program and committing to it for TWENTY WEEKS. Yes, you read right. The big 2-0 weeks...approximately half of a year. Seems intense right? Seems crazy, huh? Well, I am ready to go back to pre-wedding Brittany and get in great shape again and ultimately just feel better! And this is my solution, work out DVDs from Chalene Johnson and beachbody.com, which is where I purchased my first set of Turbo Jam DVDs to work out to back in 2007 when I was traveling 4 days a week for work. I needed something that I could fit in my bag, do in my hotel room in the morning, and feel great. Well, I was so happy with Turbo Jam that after I joined 24 hour fitness and discovered their Turbo Kick classes on Monday and Wednesday nights, I was hooked. I went regularly with Lauren and they kept me in shape post Bridal bootcamp and pre-wedding.

So here we are again, 6 months + after the wedding and I'm ready to get in gear again. I need a schedule---I'm the type of person that strives for planning and scheduling (if you cannot tell)...hence why I just set up Jimmy and I on google calendar and synced them to our blackberries so now he always knows what is going on :) Anyways, back to the point. If something isn't written in my calendar or I don't have it as a "goal" in my mind and written down, to be honest, it's probably not going to happen, as there is already enough stuff going on in life. The reason bridal bootcamp worked? I paid for it and the trainer held me accountable to come- I didn't want to waste my $$. The reason Turbo Kick classes worked? I had Lauren to go with me, a great work out partner. The reason Turbo Fire will work? I am going to schedule it in my calendar and make a weekly countdown to reach my 20 week goal. If I miss a day, that's ok- but back at it immediately, right? Can't make excuses. Especially when I plan to do early morning work outs---because my other option to spend my time is sleeping and since I control that, I will make myself get up and get in some good cardio before work. So here we go..........this morning was a success...so here is to another 120 days of TURBOFIRE (20 weeks * 7 days in a week then subtract 7 days because you get a day off of a week---just to explain the math behind that).

Let's see how this goes :) Wish me luck.

Think I'll ever be able to kick THIS high? WOW!

Frost/Carter Wedding: Night #2- the big day!

Now, if this picture doesn't get this post off to a good start and make you smile, I'm not sure what will! What is better than two people looking so gorgeous and happy and ready to get married!! Pure excitement and joy!

And if this picture doesn't make you laugh and say "oh my gosh, so cute", then you should probably just stop reading...haha, just kidding. But really. How cute is Kenlie during my attempt to entertain her pre-wedding? She grabbed Jimmy's sunglasses (yes, those are Jimmy's sunglasses- yes he is a boy, oh I know, they look like woman's glasses...) and said, take a picture!



All the men....looking sharp :) And my mother in law turned around right as I snapped this picture! She looked great too



And the gorgeous bridesmaids- watching their sister/friend walk down the aisle. So pretty! Love those dresses- good pick Hillary!



Here she comes.....last walk as a Frost!



So pretty :) It was a great service!



And- they are done! Mr. and Mrs. Bobby Carter!! Wahoo! Now EVERYONE in Jimmy's immediate family has the last name Carter. Crazy!



On the trolley with a cute little ring bearer and flower girl :)



Jimmy and Tim

Cutting the cake- so pretty!

And...their first dance!



Um....best picture of the night- Ben and Libbie passed out at the table from pure exhaustion! No, not from anything else...but how funny that is how they fell asleep!



Waiting to get our picture taken with the bride and groom, so we got a shot of us!



Two of the Carter families :)



And had to snap a shot of this---the groom's cake! So cute! I think this is the old Jayhawk? I'm not an expert though!

Overall, it was a fabulous night and celebration of two wonderful people! We had SOOOO much fun dancing and helping them kick off the start to a wonderful life together. Holy cow! They had Michael Beer's band and they were AMAZING! Literally, but legs hurt so bad the next day from dancing so much! It was great. And after a plaza drop off of friends, a run through McDonald's and running Bobby's backpack back to Jimmy's parents house....we finally got to go to sleep----and it was so wonderful also! So cheers to the final Carter wedding---maybe Libbie is next?? She's 8....so I think we have a while to go!

Frost/Carter wedding: Night #1

All right, so I took a LOT of pictures this past weekend! With the final Carter wedding on Friday, an STA wedding on Saturday and then tons of fun hanging out with friends watching the Chiefs game and chaperoning Heble baking for the first time, blog readers, you are in for a treat :)

But anyways, onto the rehearsal that was on Thursday night. Beautiful! They decided to get married at KCK Cathedral which is in Kansas City, KS and was so nice! When we arrived that evening, apparently there had just been a nearby shooting (AH!) so we were thankful to get inside the church quick! It went over very well and then we were off to the dinner!

Bride and Groom

Such a pretty church!!!

Handsome Carter boys and Bobby's friends...

Then we were onto the Loose Mansion for an absoluetly GORGEOUS rehearsal dinner! Sue and Hillary did a great job of setting the menu, picking out decorations and everything else. The night was wonderful and filled with fun stories of the bride and groom from way back when they met in high school and Bobby pursued her with much persistence.....such a cute story. On top of some great toasts and marriage advice from the Carter boys!

This is fuzzy....so sorry!

But apparently I got that fixed for our pic :)

And we had a little guest at our table for a while---the birthday girl herself, Maren Carter! She was the only Carter grandkid that was lucky enough to come to the dinner! She spent an ample amount of time hanging out at our table and teasing the groom!

She's 4!!

Maren's photograph of the bride and groom- LOVE this!

What's up now..."I'm 4"

Maren all set with the groom and her shirley temple drink!

I can hear it now "So...uncle Bobby, are you so excited to get married? Aunt Hillary is so pretty....but when you are married...you still have to play with me, k?"

And finally, me and the bride-to-be! What a fabulous night!!

The only thing that was not-so-good for them (and Jimmy) was the beating that KU took against K-State, but I would say it was probably a good thing we were all at the dinner and not able to watch it because I know the best man was not so happy with that outcome.........and next...wedding pictures to come!

Happy 95th Kansas Beta!

October 9....Emily and I headed to Manhattan, KS to meet up with a bunch of wonderful friends in our pledge class '03 in the Kansas Beta chapter of Pi Beta Phi :) The current women in the chapter had quite the weekend planned! The first event we attended was a luncheon at the house where we got to see the great changes that have been made since we left (new bathrooms FINALLY!) and see a lot of familiar faces from other alumni, older and younger. It was great!! Best of all, we walked around the house together and talked about all the memories we had in those halls, in those sleeping dorms, and even in the bathrooms...haha. But BEST of all- we pulled out an old trick that Van played on lots of people when we were in the house....she hopped in this random cabinet in the hallway and would scare people. Is was freaking hilarious. And guess what?! About 5 or 6 years later---she still fits :) HAHAHA. I tried to look for the old picture of this, but guess what? I think that was pre-facebook pictures. Wow, that was a long time ago!

Good friends outside of the House of Pi

And YEP- we hit up the Porter's patio pretty much the whole afternoon. Very fun!

Then Vanessa and I headed to the banquet because she was a speaker! She got to talk about what Pi Phi means to her after all this time :) She did a great job! We even got to sit at a fancy table with Mom T and the president! It was very fun and amazing to think that 95 years ago women founded the Pi Phi chapter at K-State. The world was so different then and to have come so far and still be quite an amazing chapter full of wonderful women is pretty awesome! We are all very lucky to be a part of it!

But then of course later...we hit up Aggieville for quite the adventure. And what do you know? The first 2 guys I run into....Calen and Alex! Lauren and Rachel's younger brothers! So funny. Needless to say we had a fun time!

I'm still waiting for some more pictures to be posted on facebook, so maybe more later? But I will say, it was a complete blast to be back in Manhattan again with lots of good friends. Also, it was like a big slumber party all weekend because Lauren's parents just moved to Manhattan full time and were SO kind to host us all weekend in their fabulous house!! It was so great to just to talk before we went to bed and wake up next to friends! Can't wait for the next reunion or trip---maybe Mexico for Courtney's wedding or a trip to VEGAS? I think yes!