Show Us Your Life: Pets

Today is Show Us Your Pet, hosted by Kelly over at Kelly's Korner. I did a few of these back when she first started the series but haven't done one in a while. I have a ton of cute dog pictures though, and figured I was due!

This sweet sack of love came into our lives on May 27, 2005.

She's a smiley girl, and loves getting her picture taken (yes, she's wearing daddy's tie).
She loves laying out in the sun, and will sit or lay quietly and just look. Ryan had just come outside, and she's looking up at him.

Before we got a dog, I was completely against having a dog on our bed or couch. The first few nights we tried to make her sleep in the kitchen, and she cried and cried. A few weeks after, Ryan went away for business, and I was just plain scared to sleep in my bed alone... so I invited her up. Whoops - she hasn't left. Every night she sleeps with us, only instead of she sandwiched between Ryan and I, I get sandwiched between her and Ryan. And she takes all of her day naps up on the furniture.

Marley's Stats

Name: Marley May

Weight: 55 lbs

Height: No idea, she's pretty little

Age: 5

Nicknames: Bean, Snuggle Face, Pumpkin Pie

Likes: Kisses, knowing what everyone is doing at all times, laying in the sun

Dislikes: Baths

Life Goal: Getting her tongue in as many mouths as possible

Show Us Your Life: Bridal Showers

After having my pick of photos for the past few weeks of Kelly's Show Us Your Life series, I'm kind of bummed that I didn't take more detail shots at my bridal shower to share with you! I guess that's cause I was busy mingling and opening TONS of fantastic gifts, so you'll really have to excuse me this week.

I was one of the very first of our group of friends to get married, and my bridesmaids did a great job! Everything was wonderful... it was an afternoon lunch shower with all of my favorite people.

Here's a shot of the cake table. That cake was absolutely amazing - lemon cake with raspberry filling and buttercream icing. Delicious. I wish I had some now. Oh, and you can see the Italian Knot cookies my mother-in-law made. Also delicious. I could eat those all the time.

Here I am, very sweaty (opening gifts in front of people makes me soooooo nervous), with my mom and mother-in-law (mom on the left, MIL on the right), modeling my awesome ribbon bouquet. My shower was in August and my wedding was in November. You bet your ass I saved that bouquet for our wedding rehearsal. To tell you the truth, I still have it....

My sister made me a towel cake! Secretly, I always wanted one and am was THRILLED to death to actually get one. I'm reeeeeally hoping she'll make me another cake out of baby blankets some day....

And my favorite thing ever:

I'm not 100% sure who's ideal this was, but one of my very crafty sisters (or mother) came up with the idea to create a huge cooking pot to serve as the wishing well. It's a huge plastic tub covered with tin foil, and they even made a lid and utensils. How cute is that?!

A few months ago one of my bridesmaids got married, and as one of her bridesmaids, I had the pleasure of helping to plan her shower! Here are two pictures from her shower:

Her wedding colors were pale pink and green, thus the green table clothes and pink centerpieces. The second picture of of her Maid of Honor and the favors we did - cookies with the bride's new last initial!

Well, that's it for today.... wish I had more to show you here, but I wasn't as into detail shots back then as I am now! I have a tons of pictures of the people that were at both showers, but I have a feeling you're a little less interested in them that I am, so I won't bore you with those.

Thanks for stopping by.... and come back on Monday morning for Giveaway #2 in the Back2School Giveaway Extravaganza!

Show Us Your Life: Favorite Vacation Spot

Conveniently, my favorite vacation spot happens to be our honeymoon spot, so without further adieu, I give you:

My Favorite Vacation Spot - Playa del Carmen, Mexico

On recommendation from our travel agent, we stayed at Secrets Capri, an adults only, all-inclusive resort about 30 minutes south of Cancun. It. Was. Amazing. The room was beautiful, the restaurants were delicious, the staff was kind and helpful.... and the scenery was simply stunning.

Here's a shot of our room taken from the balcony to the door:

The window leads to the bathroom, where the shower and toilet have their own stalls. Just under that window is the hot tub (here's a shot from the hot tub to the balcony):
And the best part is the view from our room:

Here are a few shots of the resort and beach.....
Every afternoon around 5pm, we'd head up to the room to relax before dinner. I'd sit out on the balcony with a book while Ryan took a nap. After a while, we'd get ready for dinner at one of the amazing resort restaurants. It was a fantastic routine.

Here we are at our favorite dinner of the week:

Our table was actually on a little private balcony, with french doors that closed us all from the inside of the restaurant. It was like having our own private room. The air was warm, but not sticky, and there was a great breeze. Our server was awesome. I had a tuna steak that was to die for. The wine was sweet. God, it was amazing.

One day we took a boat over to Cozumel. Here's a shot of downtown Playa del Carmen from the boat:

In Cozumel we did a Jeep tour that included shopping, snorkeling, and some historical sight-seeing. It was well worth every penny.
Here I am, driving. I have no idea why I look like I'm concentrating so hard. Oh, and please excuse the lack of chin. I have no control over that.

Here's Ryan taking a turn behind the wheel (he has a fantastic chin, doesn't he?):

Here's a shot of the Jeep... the folks in the back are newlyweds from Buffalo, NY also on their honeymoon:

Everything was beautiful:

The Cozumel trip was great. We also did a half-day trip to swim with the dolphins, and a half-day in downtown Playa del Carmen to shop. Other that that, though, we kept pretty close to the resort. We laying around at the beach and the pool all day, every day.... except for when we were relaxing at the spa. We pre-booked a couples massage and enjoyed it so much that we booked another couples treatment for later in the week (30 min. body scrub followed by a 15 min. mud mask and 15 min. massage - bliss). Our favorite part of each day, though, was getting ready for dinner. We'd head down around 7pm, knowing that we'd need to wait for a table. We'd pick up our buzzer, grab a cocktail from the lobby bar, and either play board games or sit by the pool.

That week at Secrets Capri was amazing and comes highly recommended from us! Hope you enjoyed our pictures... check out everyone else's favorite vacation spots at Kelly's Korner!

Show Us Your Life: Wedding Receptions!

I know I'm insanely late on this one, but I'm really enjoying this series of "Show Us Your Life" cause it gives me a legitimate excuse to look through our wedding pictures again (like the half finished wedding album isn't excuse enough....). And so, without further adieu...
Right after cocktail hour everyone was ushered into the ballroom and Warren G's "Regulators" came on as the bridal party was introduced. It was amazing. Then we came out (Rihanna's "Umbrella") and went right into our first dance, "Bless The Broken Road" by Rascal Flatts.
Our first dance was everything I could have ever hoped for. We laughed, we sang to each other, we talked about the ceremony and how we were actually married... and it was just us in the whole room. I don't remember actually hearing the song play or seeing anyone else. I do remember laughing. A lot.


The pictures above were taken about halfway through the dance. Know how I can tell? I'm not wearing my veil. I wanted to wear my veil all night (it's really only acceptable to wear a veil when you're a bride, and you're only a bride once) and our dance started out with it attached to my head.... I guess it wasn't attached securely enough, though, because it slipped right out during our mid-dance dip. Check it out:

See the comb falling out? I didn't even realize it was gone until someone came out on the dance floor to retrieve it! After the dance I put it back on.... it really was a fabulous veil (thank you, Bre!!) and I really did wear it all night.

After our dance, we went into the toasts. First, my handsome brother-in-law:

It was sweet and heartfelt, and I'm truly glad to have him as my older brother (in law).
Next up was my beautiful Maid of Honor, who (as she said in her speech) knew "Ryan and Katie before there was a Ryan & Katie".
She's known both of us since freshman year in college and gave a loving and very funny speech. Just look at my reaction:
After the speeches, Ryan's uncle gave the blessing and dinner was served. As dinner was finishing up, we treated our guests to a classic college sing-a-long. Back in college, it was a rare occurrence to have a house party without breaking out the guitar and everyone singing Billy Joel's "Piano Man". Our good friend Dave played both the harmonica and guitar, and our other good friend Chris took the lead on vocals:And the rest of the boys joined in:
I think the dance floor opened at the point, but I'm not sure. I was having a great time, stuck to my new husband's side, mingling and dancing and laughing with our guests. When it was time for the cake, one of my husband's best friends gave a toast:
His speech was funny and sweet, and I remember feeling so loved. And then we cut the cake, which apparently required massive concentration (note my tongue):
After the cake we did our parent dances, and then opened the dance floor for real. Everyone danced all night long, which is exactly what we wanted.



Here I am with FIL, my father-in-law:

Check out my MIL in the chocolate brown dress (in the middle):

Here's a great shot of my sister (the blond), my best friend (dark hair with the deep side part), and my beautiful mom (far right in the mocha-colored gown) rocking out:

The whole night was amazing. I spent a LOT of time laughing. Sometimes in people's faces, as seen here:


The last song of the night was "Don't Stop Believing" (Journey), and it was so much fun.... God, I really loved our wedding. And I really love this guy:
Thanks for stopping by! Check out all the other wedding receptions at Kelly's Korner... see you next Friday for more "Show Us Your Life" (or tomorrow for the midwest recap!).