ZUMBA

Last week I took my very first Zumba Class.

Except -- I looked like the lady in the bright orange pants who is standing there trying to figure out what the heck is going on!

But I LOVED IT!  I had soo much fun in my first class.  I'm going back tonight for my 2nd class and I'm hoping it goes better than the first.  

People said it would take about 3-5 classes to get the hang of it...but I don't exactly have good rhythm...so we'll see.  

But who cares -- at least I'm dancing for an hour, sweating and getting a good workout!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

On Sunday Brian and I began decorating our house for Christmas!!!!  I love having all of the decorations up in the house.

I even bought us little Santa hats to wear while we decorated!  Cheesy I know, but I don't care.  I always wore a Santa hat when I decorated the Christmas Tree as a child, I thought it would be a good photo opp. for Brian and I!  

Our fantastic new stockings from Pottery Barn!

I even had a stocking made for Ellie!

Lights & Garland to meet you as you walk in the front door.

And the item we love the most!  Our Christmas tree!!! 

I also began a craft project after seeing a Ornament Ball Wreath on Pinterest!  I did one of my own!!  I think it actually turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself!  It was a little more difficult than I thought...but with a little patience and A LOT of hot glue, here we go!

Step 1 - Ball Craziness!!!

Step 2 - About 1/2 way there.

Step 3 - It's all done!!

My heart is full!!!

This past weekend I was able to spend Saturday with all of my college friends (well about 90% of them). 

We had an ADPI Reunion Tailgate at the K-State v. A&M Football Game in Manhattan, KS.  It was a blast!

Tailgating....

Game Time.....We were busy jump starting the car and missed the 4 overtimes -- but don't worry we had fun listening to the game in the parking lot!

...Sensing a theme with these two?!?!?!?!

Dinner & Laughs....

Ahh my heart is full.  I just love all of these women!!

They each bring something a little different, a new perspective, a lot of opinions, and TONS of laughter each time we are together.  I'm one lucky girl to have such a great group of friends!

Kstate v. Oklahoma!!!

OH MANHATTAN, HOW I HAVE MISSED YOU!!!!

A couple of  weekends ago, my mom, Joe, Brian and I all ventured out to Manhattan, KS to watch the Homecoming Game - K-State vs. Oklahoma!

One of my favorite memories in college was when K-State beat OU at the Big 12 Championship Game at Arrowhead in KC.  There were 12 of us that went; we made a sign that said "All we want for Christmas is a BCS Bowl" and we wore purple Santa hats!  Oh the days of college -- I miss you!

This weekend was wonderful and I was able to spend it with some close friends and family!  We ended up losing to OU, but we had fun anyway.  GOO CATS!

THIS MAN IS AMAZING BY THE WAY!!!!

Here are some actual pictures I took from the weekend!  ENJOY!

Where has the year gone?!?!?!?!

I'm sitting at work, not quite ready to start my day (hey, it's before 8am) and was thinking that this year has FLOWN by way too fast.  It is already November!!!

I swear it was just April and I was getting ready for my friend Julie's wedding, or July and I got home from the beach in Florida...I'm not ready for what the next few months are going to bring.....SNOW!

UHHHH this does not look fun.  

But on a positive note - there are only 255 days left until my WEDDING!!!!!!!!!  And I get to be Mrs. Alexander!!!  

I can't wait!!

PUMPKINS!!

Brian and I went to the pumpkin patch about 2 weeks ago.  Last Sunday we enjoyed a lovely day at home and carved our pumpkins!!

I know you are all probably shocked - we had a KU and  K-State Pumpkin.  You decide which is better?!?!?!?!

Brian starting on his pumpkin

My beautifully round pumpkin

The start of my Kstate Powercat

The start of Brian's Chickenhawk...cough cough, I mean Jayhawk

The finished product

KU finished product

Our pumpkins lit in front of our garage

I am so proud of us!!

Wedding Website!

Our wedding website is up and running!

We are finalizing a few things - block of rooms for our guests, our registries and the timing of the day, but you can check it out in the mean time!

ENJOY!!!

http://dorwardalexander.ourwedding.com/

Last Wedding of the Season!

My dear friend Sarah, who used to work at Payless, got married!  It was so much fun.

There were also some girls that flew into town who also used to work at Payless.

Jessi and I were partners as analysts before she moved back to Texas!  It makes me sad she doesn't work here anymore, but it was SOOO GOOD to see her this past weekend!

Here are a few more pictures from the weekend!

I'm not gonna lie, even though the wedding was a blast, I am ready for wedding season to come to an end.  

20 weddings or so in the past 2 years has been a little too much to handle, and needless to say my bank account isn't happy about it either!  

My wedding will be next year though!! I can't wait!!!

More Wedding Planning!

Planning is going so well, I can't even believe it!  Pinterest is AMAZING for ideas!  I am gathering soo many!

All vendors are booked, deposits down...except for the florist.  But we have 9 more months, so I have plenty of time to figure that out.

Here are some pictures of centerpieces that I've been looking at: {sorry for some blurry-ness}

Centerpiece in the top right corner is one of my favs!!

Wedding Dress...CHECK!

I ORDERED BY WEDDING GOWN!!!!!!!!!

Lauren (my sister) was in town this past weekend and I tried on my top 2 choices in wedding gowns.  I wanted her to be a part of the big decision!  She had not seen one of the dresses...and it's a good thing I waited, because I picked the one she had not seen!

I can't post a picture of the dress because every once in a while Brian checks out the blog!  But I'm soo soo excited!  It makes the whole wedding that more real!  

And I can't wait for July 14th to get here, 9 months can't pass soon enough!

YES! Successful!!!

Brian woke up this morning and suggested we go to the dog park...

I was nervous...Ellie isn't exactly stellar when we run into another dog on a walk.

So we ventured out...AND YES!!!  The dog park was SUCCESSFUL!!!!  

She had sooo much fun running through the trails, playing with other dogs.  It was soo much fun to watch her!  We will definitely make this a weekly event for her.  I'm soo happy she did so well today!

Ooopsie!!

WEEELLLLLL......

I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond and got some new curtains and a curtain rod to hang curtains in our extra bedroom.  The room just needed a little something extra.

...the screw stripped and I may have put a hole in our wall....did I mention we are renters!  I kinda started to freak out!

After crying and some screaming at this stupid screw I went to Ace Hardware and asked for some help.  They gave me this neat little "screw" type of thing (yes very technical words I know) but it is supposed to input grooves back into the screw to help remove from the wall.

THAT DIDN'T WORK!

I cried and cussed some more because with all of my might I could not pull it out of the wall.  And Brian wasn't home so I was trying to do all of this without him.  "I'm a woman and women can do anything"  Famous words from my mother!

So when he came home from the KU game we went upstairs and he helped me pull the screw out of the wall, patch the hole with some plaster and hang the curtain slightly higher to cover up the hole and we are really going to fix it later.

Here are a few pics of our new curtains!  ( I also have another project in the works - very simple, but I'm not that handy as you can probably tell from this post)

And here is a sneak peak at my new project - hopefully I can finish in the next week or so.

I love fall!!!

I love this time of year.  It is my 2nd favorite season.

Summer of course being my first.

But I do love decorating the house with leaves and acorns, pumpkins and little ghosts!  Not sure if Brian is all too keen on the decorations around the house, but I like them!

These little guy look cute next to the sink.

Little pumpkin hanging on the closet door

I bought these pumpkins to sit on the buffet in the dining room

And these little pumpkins are on the shelf in the living room