hot chocolate with a tablespoon of nutella= amazing.

butterbeer!

hamburger helper with fries

oreo truffles!

Our weekend starts today and doesn’t end until Tuesday, and I am SO excited about it. I don’t even know why, since we don’t have any cool plans…But who can resist a 4-day weekend? Not me. I’m off to enjoy it

Pretty simple, yes. But there’s nothing that relaxes me more than sitting down with tea or coffee, reading, writing down thoughts and prayers, and maybe swooping in on some cuddle time when that strapping husband of mine comes home from work (asleep or not, but usually…he falls asleep eventually. See last post).

Simple is never boring for us.

A few photos of my time in California. For part of the week I stayed with my in-laws and we visited our favorite Tea place, the Tea Rose Garden in Pasadena and had afternoon tea. We went for wedding talk as my sister-in-law is newly engaged. I don’t know much about afternoon tea or tea at all for that matter, but I love it. I love the finger sandwiches, tea scones, and all the little treats that come with it. I am definitely on the lookout for a place that serves afternoon tea in Alaska.

I spent time with my sweet little niece Josselyn and let her show me her baby doll collection. I can’t believe that after only a month of not seeing her, she’s already grown so much. I love that little girl.

And most importantly…the wedding. My whole reason for going back home was to be a bridesmaid in my best friends wedding. I went, she got married, and it was absolutely beautiful. It was my first time being a bridesmaid and seeing how things go behind the scenes, but I loved it. And oh my, was I emotional. Tears were flowing freely down my face as I watched her walk down the aisle. The whole day and experience was so rewarding to be a part of…and it made me think about Jimmy, our wedding, and how much God blessed me by making me his wife. What can I say? I’m a sucker.

Apparently me and my husband like small pumpkins?

They made us do it.

Then we made a pit-stop at Starbucks before going to carve our pumpkins.

The finished results from left to right: Hearts, J+B, The Misfits, Green Lantern, “Haduken” from Street Fighter, and a scary lookin’ face.

Then Brit and I went and put some pumpkin seeds in the oven. They were so yummy. Half with garlic salt, the other half with light salt.

I’m gonna try to get the other pumpkin patch pictures up soon, I just need to get on editing them. Hope you’re all having a great week and have a happy Halloween!

Uncle Jimmy babysitting Joss and teaching her how to play guitar.

We were on a budget with buying decorations so we had to get creative, but getting creative also happens to be the funnest way to decorate!

Capturing some sweet moments with my camera…

I LOVE this picture!

And lastly, a picture of Jimmy and I at Chuck E. Cheese!

Happy Sunday!

I know I said that I wouldn’t be posting any newer outfits until I got all the old ones out of the way, but these are pictures from my birthday weekend, so I’m letting myself cheat a little! Anyway, This was from my actual birthday. My husband Jimmy took me on a date to our favorite place, Disneyland. We go quite often, as you’ll be seeing in posts to come. It was a really nice day and everything was perfect. We had initially planned on spending the whole day there, but we sort of procrastinated and arrived closer to the evening…haha. Either way, I had a blast. I’ll start off with what I wore.

vest: thrifted, tank: target, shorts: a small boutique back home, shoes: F21, necklace: a gift from Ashley that was originally a hairpiece but it broke, so I transformed it into a necklace

Our Indiana Jones and Davy Crockett hats!

This is probably Jimmy’s favorite ride at the park. Not surprisingly, he happens to be awesome at it.

The highest score you can get is 999,999. Jimmy got that score less than half way in to the game.

Then we went and played around at Downtown Disney, where we put on silly hats and clothes, and Jimmy talked me into wearing a (meant for toddler) Snow White gown. I got a few weird looks and the stink eye from an employee, but whatever, it was all in good fun.

Nick Jonas’ outfit in a glass case. Creepy much?

Lately when we’ve gone to the park, it’s been a tradition of mine to stop by the bakery and watch them make their famous Mickey shaped apples.

Ahhhh…Disneyland gives me such a happy feeling inside, I’m smiling as I’m thinking about it and typing this out! Combined with being there with my favorite person ever, it’s magical. I can’t wait until the Christmas decorations go up! I’ll have to enjoy it without Jimmy sadly, but I’ll make the most of it

for this date we went and grabbed dinner at Red Brick Pizza and it was so….just, yum. we started off sharing a greek salad, pepperoni pizza, and mint chip gelato for dessert. also, we had a cool little tv next to us so we ate while laughing at an episode of “world’s dumbest inventions”. my, i have been getting way too spoiled with all these special dates! but i am definitely grateful and cherishing these moments with jimmy before he leaves in november

do you ever have so much of one food that sooner or later even the smell of it grosses you out? i used to feel that way about pizza. see, around two years ago i used to help out as a youth leader for jr. high and high school kids at my church and we would have events almost every weekend and at most of the events the food that we ate was pizza. haha, i got so sick of it after a while that i would just eat before the event so i didn’t feel hungry enough to eat pizza. it’s been a while though and i’m glad that my aversion to pizza faded. in fact, just looking at these pictures is making me crave a slice!

the look on jimmy’s face is due to him watching a kid fall on his skateboard and hurting his nether regions.

well thats it for now, my next post might be postponed until the weekend is over because my birthday is in 4 days. the big 24. i might get a little emotional about it, we’ll see. no set plans as of yet, but i know whatever we do, i’ll be bringing my camera along to capture some fun! have a great weekend

Jen

Oh Panera, you give me such joy in visiting you. With your selection of pastries, bagels, breads, and not to mention your delicious soups, salads, and sandwiches I feel that the possibilities are endless. And my most favorite thing…free wifi. I have so many fond memories of spending time sitting in your comfy booths catching up with my girl friends. Before I moved, you were less than 5 minutes away from me and were walking/biking distance. Now, you’re about 20 minutes away and my heart is NOT happy. When Jimmy and I move, one of the first things I shall do is find my nearest Panera Bread for my weekly fix. Thank you for always being there for me.

Always,
Jen

Anyway, things are going great! A few weeks ago Jimmy got his date to leave for basic training…November 29th! We were awaiting a call to let us know he’d be leaving any day now, but it’s nice for us to have a date and make the most of the time we have left together before we are away from each other for 8 weeks. We’re thinking of taking a mini-vacation somewhere, but not sure where yet. It’ll be nice that he will get to be here on Thanksgiving, but the thought of spending Christmas and New Years without him makes me cry a little inside, and I’ll definitely be crying on the outside when he’s gone. All I gotta say is that we better have one heck of an amazing Valentine’s Day when he comes back!!

Coming up: Disneyland pics, Palm Springs, outfits, and so forth

x
Jen

She came to visit me a little while ago and our day consisted of lunch at Johnny Rocket’s, shopping, and being silly with my camera in the playground down the street!

my top is from Marshall’s, shorts and belt are thrifted, and shoes are from Target.

We probably looked so silly at the playground with my tripod set up and running around and posing, but…it was fun so who cares! If we looked dumb, we looked dumb together. I love my friends

x
Jen

Lemon poppyseed muffin with vanilla chai….

and a very grumpy Jimmy.

The muffin may have been questionable as well. As soon as I finished it, Jimmy walked into our room and our conversation went something like this…
Jimmy: “You didn’t eat one of the lemon poppyseed muffins, did you?”
Me: “…Why?”
Jimmy: “…They have some mold on them.”
Me: (still chewing the last of it) “….Oh.”

Umm, whoops.
However, it tasted fine, and 6 hours later I feel fine….hmmm.