Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from Brian and I!

We hope you have an absolutely spook-tacular day! :)

Happy Fall Greetings...

Happy Fall Greetings from Riley!! :)  

He's been out and about and absolutely loving this beautiful weather we've been having!  

Hope you're having a fabulous fall! :)

A Trip to the Pumpkin Patch...

Last weekend my parents came down to visit.  We had such a fun time hanging out, shopping, playing cards, and going out to dinner.  We even took a trip to our local pumpkin patch where we wandered through the pumpkins, looked at all of the crafts, enjoyed some yummy cider and donuts, and listened to some peppy folk music! :)  Thanks so much for coming to visit, Mom & Dad!!  Can't wait until your next visit!! :)

Our local pumpkin patch...
It's literally less than a mile up the road from our house! :)

Look at all the pumpkins! :)

Cider and donuts... YUM! :)

Me with my mom and dad! :)

Happy Autumn!!
We hope you're enjoying it as much as we are! :)

MSU vs. UM...

A couple of weekends ago, Brian and I headed to my one of my favorite places...  Good ole East Lansing! :)  It was the weekend of the big game... Michigan State University vs. University of Michigan... And, after missing it for the last three years, I was so excited to be able to be there this time around! :)  We donned our green and white, met up with some friends, wandered around campus and had some fun tailgating, and then headed to Tripper's to watch the big game.  And, what a game it was!!  Lots of action, but most importantly, Michigan State!!  Woohoo!! :)  What a fantastic end to such a fun-filled day! :)

Our tailgate crew...

Jessi's husband, Steve, kept cutting off our feet in every picture he took of us, so we decided to make a point of getting our feet in the picture! :)

Steve and Jessi in front of MSU's stadium...
We had to snap this for them, seeing as how Steve is a HUGE Michigan fan! :)

Renee, Jessi, and I with Sparty!  YAY! :)

Gearing up for the big game! :)

We were attempting to be MSU cheerleaders! :)

After the game... Doesn't Brian looked thrilled about the result of the game?! :)

Off Roading and Color Touring in Northern Michigan...

Last weekend we headed up north to spend some time with my family, as well as to go off roading with some of our friends.  The weather was amazing, and the trees were ablaze with red, orange, and yellow leaves... It was an absolutely gorgeous day!!   We spent Saturday afternoon off roading with some friends, surrounded by the beautiful colors, and soaking up the unseasonably warm (hot, actually!) weather!  After our off roading adventure, we headed back to my parents' house, where we spent the evening enjoying a delicious dinner (Thanks, Mom and Dad!! :)), and chatting with the family.  Overall, we couldn't have asked for a more perfect day! :)  

I love autumn in Michigan!! :)  

So pretty!!

Brian loved being able to off road again! :)

Sherry and Billy lead the way! :)

They were having a fabulous time!! :)

I loved having the top of the Jeep down...
 It made it so much easier to take pictures as we were driving through the woods! :)

We, of course, had to go through a couple of huge mud puddles during our drive! :)
I was a little nervous to drive through that one... Yep, that's actually me driving through the mud! :)

Clearly, I was quite happy to make it through! :)

Dinner with Sherry, Billy, and the fam...
Unfortunately, my mom and dad wouldn't sit down long enough for pictures. :)
 (No worries... I'll get you both next time!  Ha! :))

Our Ship Has Come In...

Hip, hip, hooray!!  Our shipment from Germany finally arrived!!  I mean, it only took 10 weeks... But, who's counting?! :)  The arrival of that shipment, as exciting as it was, also meant that 72 boxes of stuff made their way into every room in our house...  Which caused a bit of confusion, and made our house look like this...

Riley wanted to help with the unpacking. :)

Scary, huh?! :)  

But, I can now happily say, that after many, many, many hours of unpacking and sorting and throwing ALOT of stuff away, I somehow managed to find "homes" for virtually everything... Woohoo! :) 

Now, just make sure that you don't open any closet doors if you ever come to visit! :)  

Home Improvements...

Since we've been back in the States, we've focused alot of our attention on updating and redecorating our house...  We started with the bathroom, then got new furniture for the bedroom, gave our basement a slight "facelift", turned one spare room into an office, and turned the other spare room into a dining room... Whew!  Needless to say, it's been alot of work (and we're still far from being entirely finished with them!),  but our house is starting to look and feel more like ours now.  It definitely feels more like a home, which makes us both very happy! :)

And, since we've managed to get so much done on the house in the past couple of months, we're giving ourselves a short break (albeit, we'll still be finishing up the smaller touches like sanding down and restaining doors, hanging pictures, putting up blinds, etc...) before we start our next big project... The kitchen.  For those of you that know what our kitchen currently looks like, you understand the enormity of this project...  Aiyiyi!! :)  But, until then, we're going to take some time to enjoy our house in its current state. :)

So, without further ado, here's a little sneak peak at what our house currently looks like...  We hope you enjoy it! :)  (Keep in mind, the pictures were taken before we got our shipment from Germany, so the rooms now have more decor and a bit more personality in them. :))

Our new office... Yay! :)

Our bedroom...
We finally have bedroom furniture... Yippee! :)

The basement...
It's looking much more cozy than it did before. :)

The dining room...
Yep, that's our new dining room table... Isn't it so pretty?! :)
 I absolutely love it!! :)

Pumpkin Fest...

A couple of weeks ago (yes, I realize I'm quite behind with my blogging! :)), we headed to the South Lyon Pumpkin Festival with Brian's brother, Bob, and his wife, Malinda, and we were later met by my friends, Jessi and Steve...  What a fun time we all had!  We wandered through the midway, hit up the beer tent, and ended the night at a local pub where we found some hilarious live entertainment! :)  Overall, a great way to spend a fall evening! :)  

Jessi and I with the pumpkins! :)

Jessi making friends with the scarecrows... Awwww! :)

Tailgate Time!!

A couple of weekends ago, I headed to Lansing to take part in one of my favorite fall traditions... Tailgate!! :)  This is one of my favorite things about fall and for the past three years I've really missed being able to participate in tailgate season at MSU... But, now that I'm back, I've decided to make up for lost time! :)  So, as soon as the opportunity arose, I headed to Lansing to go to my first tailgate in three years... And it was just as fun as I remembered! :)  The day was beautiful, the campus was just as pretty as I remembered, green and white could be seen everywhere, and the crowd was filled with excitement and anticipation... I remember thinking to myself... "Wow!  It feels good to be home!" :)

Kory and I just had to get a picture taken by the E.L. sign!! :)  

Our tailgate crew...
That was the first time I'd seen my friends, Bounce and Jill, in about 3 years!!  It was so great to catch up again! :)

Bounce and Jill gave a whole new meaning to the term "tailgating"! :)

Tulip Time...

One of our favorite things about Europe was the amount of flowers that could be found everywhere!  There were beautiful flower boxes on every window, flower displays could be found through virtually every city, and fresh cut flowers could be found in every supermarket and farmer's market!  There were even places located on the side of the road, where you could cut your own flowers.  It was absolutely amazing to me!!  I loved all of the colors and the breathtaking beauty of the flower displays.  Just looking at all of the flowers put a smile on my face and a bounce in my step.  

One of my favorite times of year was in the spring, when all of the daffodils and tulips were out.  There were tulip displays in every city and town, and they were all absolutely stunning.  I loved driving through the countryside and seeing tulip after tulip along the way.  We also knew that once the tulips were out, then summer was just around the corner. :)

One of the best places for tulips was the Netherlands.  The country is known for their tulips and they really go all out when it comes to showing them off.  It's absolutely gorgeous there in the spring! :)  Well, on our last visit to Amsterdam, we decided that we wanted to bring a little bit of the Netherlands back with us... So, we purchased a very special souvenir so that we would always remember our time in the Netherlands... Yep, you guessed it... We bought tulips! :)  And, surprisingly enough, they made it back to the U.S. with us!  :)

So, a couple of weekends ago, we decided it was time to plant our tulips.  We decided to plant them on the side of the house, where they will be on display for everyone to see!  Brian did an excellent job of digging the holes, while I filled them with bone meal and tulip bulbs. :)  And, now I guess we just have to wait and see if they bloom in the spring...  Fingers crossed that they'll burst out of the ground sometime in April so that we can have a cheery reminder of our time in the Netherlands! :)

Getting started...

Brian hard at work digging the holes... After all of his hard work, he rewarded himself with a beer... Hence the reason he's digging with a drink in hand! :)

The order that the tulips are planted in...
I wanted to plant them in a certain order so that the colors of the tulips would blend better when they bloom...            Yes, I'm that anal retentive! :)

Riley wanted in on the action too! :)  

And now we wait...   But, don't worry, I'll keep you posted on what we find in the spring. :)