A Fabulous 4th

We hope you had a Great 4th of July Weekend! This post is a tad late, but I guess better late than never! Ryan and I spent our 4th of July hanging out in our new neighborhood! And there were some awesome red, white and blue touches to our day. We decided to make pancakes for breakfast. Luckily I had red and blue food coloring, so we had patriotic pancakes instead! Ryan was a tad worried that they would taste funny...I'm just glad I got a picture of them
pre warmed- as the color wasn't as pretty afterwards.

After breakfast, we found some of our July 4th decorations (there were only 3 things- but hey it worked) and put those up. Since that only took 10 minutes, it was off to the store to find some kitchen stools. While they won't make an appearance in this post, I'm sure they will soon. However, we're still deciding whether or not we like them. By the time we were done putting the stools together it was time to head over to Becky and Rob's for some 4th fun! We stuffed ourselves with pizza, played some yard games, and had a great time watching Mike and the kids light fireworks. What a great way to celebrate our patriotism. Hope you had a great one too!

Patriotic Pancakes

Ryan likes 'em

Pushing Isa on the Swing during the 4th of July festivities

I think she's having fun :)

Sara and Becky

Happy 4th of July!

A Surprise Birthday!

SURPRISE!!! Last Saturday, Ryan's sister Sara surprised her husband Mike with a birthday party...and we were invited! Score! After letting Mike loose on a scavenger hunt around the Omaha area, he arrived back at Becky & Rob's house just in time for drinks, cake, munchies and fireworks! Happy Early 30th Birthday Mike! We hope you had a blast!

The Birthday Boy!

Birthday Boy and Birthday Schemer

Unwrapping presents

Red White and Blue Cake

My baking adventures began last weekend when I decided to try out a fun and festive Fourth of July cake. Now before you say it, I know I should be good at making cakes...runs in the family right? Well...I think I did pretty good. I'm no Kathy Thomas... yet. I started off with all of the ingredients I needed and a little My Best Friend's Wedding on the TV.

After about 30 minutes of baking, and hour to cool, another 4 hours to let the jello set in the poke cake, another 30 minutes of frosting and prepping...I was done! Wooooo! And ya know what? It was actually pretty good! Take a look for yourself, and just imagine me wafting the yummy cake smell your direction :)

The Ingredients
(Julia Roberts was a big help)

Mixing the Batter- see the box on the Left. Not gonna lie- its not from scratch.

Voila! A Decorated cake! I wish it had come out of the oven that way!


It doesn't hurt to have a hunky husband showing off the cake either :)

Steak & Potatoes

A staple for every Midwestern family meal has to be Steak and Potatoes. Ryan and I are no different! Our first true meal at our new place had to be something that we would savor and enjoy. Last Friday after work we hurried home, kicked off our work clothes & got into something comfy, and shimmied into our dinner seats to enjoy a wonderful meal. We had steak from the grill, Ryan's onion potatoes, and some very yummy (and very Nebraskan) corn on the cob. With a nice full glass of red wine, the meal was just fantastic. Definitely something we'll be making again.

The Table is Set!

Mr. Grill Hard At Work

A Delicious Meal


Let's EAT!

Feeling Settled

It's been almost 2 weeks now in our new home, and we're feeling more and more settled everyday. We now have a functional kitchen and bathroom, most of our basement seating has been delivered, and we're enjoying the quiet and privacy a home can offer. -I would like to say we don't walk around in our skivvies much...but those blinds sure did the trick! And I'm sure our neighbors appreciate them too. :)

While it still feels new, I wanted to write down a few things about the first weeks at our first residence to remind us someday of how it all felt. When anybody asks me, what's the biggest difference...I must say that it is soooo quiet. The first night we moved in as we were laying in bed, we could hear the bugs outside of our window. There is nobody stomping on the floor above us, playing loud music below us, or hacking up a lung beside us. It is piece and quiet...sometimes a little too quiet!

Ryan has been enjoying the downstairs extra bedroom as his "music room" where he has dusted off his electric guitar and has shown me a cord or two. I have been browsing through my cookbooks lately to find some baking inspiration, and have been checking out design blogs to infuse some creative decorating into our home. It feels nice to have a place of our own to call home. While there are still blank walls to be filled, we are enjoying every moment of home ownership!

Adventures in Homeownership- Step 2: Install Blinds

The second installment of "Adventures in Homeownership" is back, complete with full blind installation details. Or...just a few pictures of us trying our best at the install.

We ordered our blinds at Blindsgalore.com a few weeks before moving into the house. We had a professional come and measure the windows so we knew that the blinds would be the correct measurements. Not that I didn't trust our amazing measuring tape skills...it just gave us a little more piece of mind. The blinds showed up on our doorstep this past Tuesday...and came in 7 large and heavy boxes. They were daunting....VERY daunting. At first, I was seriously contemplating calling up an installer and paying the fee to have him install them all. But then my wonderful and optimistic husband instilled a little motivation in me by saying, "Remember all those home improvement projects you've been excited about?" So, there it was, I bit my tongue and we started on the basement blinds.

We had started our little project by planning on completing the 2 basement windows, those were flush mount and should have been the easiest. The first one took the longest, at around 40 minutes. But after that we were breezing through them! We ended up hanging all of the blinds in the house (a total of 8) within a 4 hour span! Once we had a groove, we just kept on truckin' along.

With our trust Root Beer in hand, we were happy to sit back and take a look at our newest completed project. What do you think?

Step 1: Gather all necessary materials. Instructions, hardware, pencil, screwdriver and Root Beer.

Step 2: Install Hardware Into the window frame

Step 3: Place Blinds on Hardware and close shut, figure out tricky valance.

Step 4: Still...Figure out that Tricky Valance

Step 5: valance installed, try out the blind pulls

Step 6: Try out the tilt feature.

Step 7: Show off the blinds!

Dining Room Table = Excitement

I think we have finally reached the moment in life where we begin adulthood. You would think building a house would have some sort of effect on this situation, however the moment that really hit me, was when our dining room table and chairs were delivered. Not the fact that we have one, but the excitement that it caused! Remember Christmas morning when you were a kid and you've been waiting all year for the Big Wheel Bike or a new stuffed animal? That's exactly the feeling I had with the table. After the delivery guys set the table in our kitchen I was soooo very excited. A dining table?! :) WAHOO!

Ryan prefers to leave the leaf in the table...so its quite a lot of space for the two of us to eat our honey nut cheerios at. But I can just imagine many family meals and game nights in the future around our table. And if you happen to have any meal requests next time you come to visit...please let me know, and we would be happy to oblige! :) Enjoy this wonderful Fourth of July Weekend everyone!