Happy Easter!

Today was a good day. Ken picked Brooke, Hillary and I up and then we went to get his mom and drove to my parents house for brunch. They made scones which is a total family favorite and Susan brought a huge fruit salad. My mom had Easter baskets for all of us which was really fun. Even Bandido got new toys and treats! After brunch Ken, Susan and I drove up north to meet up with Kyle and Meghan at Meghan's sisters house. There were a lot of friends and family and we all particpated in an Easter Egg hunt. Ken and I won a gift card to a restaurant so that was pretty cool. The house was decorated really cute and Luke had a special Easter sunflower headband and Ella (Meghan's sister Kelly's daughter) wore pink bunny ears. They both looked so cute! By the time we got back to San Diego we were all exhausted but it was a really fun day! Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday as much as we did!

Corvette Diner

My cousin Brooke and her friend Hillary flew out from Washington last week and spent four days here in San Diego. They came out to celebrate their 16th birthdays. It was a whirlwind of a trip!! They did so much in just four days! My parents took them around quite a bit, but I was able to see them here at SeaWorld and then we all went to Corvette Diner one night and had a sleepover. It was really fun. The best part of the diner was getting the balloon hats. Brooke got a dolphin hat, Hillary a killer whale hat and my dad got a penguin hat. They were hilarious. I even got Ken to wear one for a picture! We had a ton of fun at this 50's diner. The staff there does a great job of dancing and just making it really fun in their crazy wigs and light manner. Another highlight is when they throw straws and Bazooka bubble gum at you. Magically straws appeared later in both my purse and jacket...wonder who could have done that;)

Foosball time

It has been really fun to have people over to Ken's to play foosball. Anyone that walks in that door is guarateed to be bugged by Ken until they agree to play a game with him. I'm glad he loves it so much, who knows if I'll ever be able to top that present! Here are some shots of times when his dad Wolf came over to watch the Superbowl and play foosball and of his mom Susan playing him just a couple of weeks ago. It was pretty fun to watch!

Studio birthday party

Here are some of the promised pictures from Katie's fun studio party. Her mom and sister co-own a ceramic studio so we all went there and made fun projects. I was so impressed with Ken's newly discovered artistic talent! He made some coasters that have different ocean scenes (my personal favorite was the Spongebob Squarepants crew complete with Plankton!) He also whipped out a super impressive pot on the wheel. My projects of the bubble coasters and star jewelry box looked pretty pathetic next to his, but they will all be fun to have in our house! We drove up with our friends Graham and Karrie so I included some shots of them hard at work as well, and of course one of the birthday girl. We had so much fun!!

Happy Birthday Susan!!!

Today is Ken's mom Susan's birthday. Unfortunately she has been sick, but feeling much better now so we are going to take her out tomorrow night. We always have a great time when we go out with her and are so grateful for all she does for us!! Happy birthday Susan! We love you and I am so excited to be apart of your family!! Here are some cute pictures of her as a proud grandma with baby Luke.

It is also St. Patricks's Day and my grandpa Ballard's birthday as well as our friend Katie's 21st birthday. What a fun and busy day! We went to Katie's birthday celebration yesterday and had tons of fun. Pictures will be coming soon showing off our new experiences and adventures at the studio party...Happy birthday Grandpa and Katie and Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Recipes

My goal is to make a cookbook before we get married. Anyone that has a favorite recipe, send it my way. I would love to compile a book of all of your favorites! Does anyone know of a site where you can input them, or anyone can access it and input theirs? That would be the easiest way and I would have a collection. Just some thoughts....

So busy!!

Life has gotten pretty busy, I am amazed at how quickly you have to start when it comes to wedding plans. I feel like that is all I talk and think about right now. I'm not complaining because I love every second of it, but there is A LOT that goes into these things. We are off to a good start though! The official date is October 27, 2008 for the wedding and November 1, 2008 for the reception. There will be tons more details to follow; which I will try to post within the next couple of days. I did want to post some pictures though of Ken's goddaughter DrewAnn, her mom Leia sent me some super cute ones and since I promised some, here they are.

We're Engaged!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ken proposed last night!!!!!!!! It was so sweet and romantic. He took me to the beach where we had gone the night we realized we liked each other a year ago. I was totally surprised and more than ecstatic!!!! It was perfect! I tried to take some pictures of the ring myself, but they didn't come out very well so I also posted one from the jeweler of my ring. I love it! Stay tuned for wedding details. We met with the moms today and have some great ideas. It's gonna be fun!

Doggy Dress-up

I am not a huge fan of animals wearing clothes, but when Mel came home with matching pink polo shirts for our dogs I couldn't resist. We tortured them into a mini photo shoot and laughed till it hurt. By the end we were all ready to put on pink shirts and take a family photo. Ken came over during our puppy torture session and resuced them by taking them on a walk. To me that was even funnier, walking two dogs wearing pink polos. He already felt stupid enough so he made me walk Bandido, it was already too much walking dogs in clothes, so walking the 4 pound one instead of the 70 pound one was going overboard. It was a pretty funny night. I have spared Bandido as much as I can from further torture, unfortunately my mom likes to play doggy dress-up so he has quite the little wardrobe. Hailey and Bandido get along for the most part, they just kind of ignore each other, every once in awhile I've caught Bandido snuggled up into Haliey resting on her arms and it's pretty dang cute!

Great Roomies!!

So I have two of the greatest roommates! Amber, Melody and I have been living together in Point Loma, San Diego for almost two years and have all kinds of fun! We live in a 3 bed/3 bath condo that Melody stumbled upon on Craigslist and we could not be happier. We even have Mel's dog Hailey with us (a 70 lb Yellow Lab) and once in awhile my dog Bandido spends some time with us at the condo. The three of us met working the camp programs at SeaWorld. Melody and I met the summer I got back from the mission in 2004, we were working as lifeguards for the camps and had tons of time to bond while taking the campers to surf and do other beach activities. We met Amber a year later when she came to SeaWorld and summer of 2006 we moved into the condo. The three of us have been a perfect blend and I am really grateful for such great roommates and for the friendships we have formed! The picture of Mel and I in the wall was of our sneaky attempt to scare Amber, the wall cut outs are outside of her room. It didn't work so well because I couldn't stop laughing, it was pretty funny though!

Happy Birthday Mom!!

So my sister in law Misty always posts birthdays and I thought that was a great idea, so I wanted to give a shout out to my mom. Today is her birthday and we love her very much! We were able to go out to a movie with her and my dad last Saturday to celebrate, the movie wasn't so great but it was fun to go with them. Hope you have a great day! Thanks for all you do for us!!!! We love you!!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!

As a side note, it is also my cousin Brooke's 16th birthday. To celebrate she wants to come to San Diego for a visit (she lives in Washington). We are excited to have Brooke and her friend out here for a couple of days! Happy Birthday Brooke!

Hardcore Foosball Championship

My parents and I got Ken a foosball table for Christmas. This was probably the best present ever because I have totally reaped the rewards! It is in Ken's apartment and we spend A LOT of time playing. One night Ken made a ring out of a dollar and for some reason he put it on one of the goalie's heads, it then became our crown. Whoever wins the game gets to wear the crown. We play with real rules, no spinning that is. That was hard for me to get used to, but now I definitely hold my own. Ken's is the blue side and mine is the red and let me tell you the red side is definitely the crown wearer. I will admit that this is not always fair though because if Ken wins I'll want to keep playing, but only until I win so I can get the crown back. Then I call it a day and my team continues to be the champions. Ken's a pretty good sport about this, or at least was until the one time I let it slide and came to work with the crown on his team. I got a message that day of his guy with the crown and a recording with it that kept saying, "Number one, number one, number one, who's number one." This repeated over and over, it was pretty funny though and I now use that as his ringtone. I have a feeling that this is a championship that will go on forever!!

Spotlight #4 Luke

Spotlight #4 goes to Ken's nephew Luke James Wolfgang Weichert or Prince Weichert as Ken likes to call him. Born August 28th 2007, he is the first to Kyle and Meghan. Kyle made the mistake of asking Ken for suggestions for baby names and Ken's big ideas were Prince and Batman, well Prince stuck as far as Ken goes since he will continue the Weichert legacy, so I guess that means our first son will get stuck with Batman, poor guy. I told him that would only work if we have a Robin as well (jokingly) but he seemed to like the idea a little too much. Luke is a really cute baby. We drove up to the Laguna Niguel area where they live to see him about a week after he was born and I was so surprised to see how big he already was. I forget the Weichert boys are big and tall. I'm so used to the short little ones on my side. Luke has pretty big feet and is already way bigger than my nephew Max, who is about 4 months older than him, so we all expect Luke to be tall like his Daddy. The last time I saw Luke was over Christmas and he looked so cute in his little red outfit. His little smile has already melted quite a few hearts. We look forward to spending more time with him and I look forward to seeing Ken change his first diaper, I definitely think Kyle should make him the next time we're there:) I have no doubt I'll be surprised at how much bigger he has grown in just a couple of months. Hope to see you soon...we love you Luke!