The life of a soon to be Navy wife

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February 8th is a big day!  It’s the birthday of two of my favorite people in the world- my baby seester Nora and my handsome fiance!

As I mentioned here, Don and I recently attended Pre-Cana in Albany.  The only day we could make it happened to be Don’s 4-day weekend AND his birthday weekend.  We decided that since we’d be in Albany all day Saturday, we’d make a mini-trip out of it and stay over night for a birthday celebration!  We stayed at the Hampton Inn in downtown Albany, which was right around the corner from a ton of great restaurants and bars.  We started the night with dinner at the Pearl Street Pub, and then had some drinks at Legends, a sports bar.

my handsome birthday boy

 Our plan for the following day was to do some sightseeing in Albany.  When we woke up in the morning we went online to figure out where we were going to go and when and realized that EVERYTHING was closed because it was Sunday.  Fail.   The trip was planned pretty last minute and I did a little bit of research but obviously not enough.  I felt so bad- I may have even cried a bit- but Don assured me it was okay and we headed home.  The trip wasn’t a complete loss- we were still able to spend a fun night out together.  We probably wold have been too tired (and maybe a little hungover) to walk around all day.

On the day before his birthday, Don had to work until 11:30 pm- so by the time he came home it was past midnight and his actual birthday!.  I had cookie pizza and cupcakes waiting for him and he opened his gifts- a wine decanter and a cover for his Kindle.

I started breakfast in the crockpot, a breakfast casserole we found here.  It was ready when we woke up.  We were able to spend the morning together before he went to work at 11.

Happy Birthday Babe!

Nora celebrated the big 2-1 this year!  I have been waiting for her to turn 21 for SO long!  I planned a trip home for the weekend after her birthday to celebrate!  We went out on Friday night with my brother Johnny and his girlfriend Jackie.  It was a blast!  Lucky Johnny was our designated driver and I am happy to announce that I was voted least annoying out of the three of us-  Jackie was number 1 followed by Nora.  I’m usually number 1 to Johnny so this was quite a feat!  Here are some pics from the night…

The photo of Johnny, Nora and me cracks me up!  The look he’s giving me is so typical!

Before we went to the bar we went to Johnny’s friend’s house for a few drinks and I found a crossbow!  I immediately took a picture with it to send to Don!  He still wants a real one, but he’ll have to deal with the toy he has for now! haha

Happy birthday Don and Nora!

I have been really bad at keeping the blog updated lately.  A  lot has happened in the past month or so!

I’ve made two trips to my mom’s house recently to take care of wedding plans.  Don works 12 hours a day in 7 day shifts, so he wasn’t able to come with me.  The drive takes about four hours and it’s lonely without Don, but I’ve learned as long as I have good music to sing along to the trip goes by fast!

It’s amazing how much I can get done in a few days.  During my last two visits I:

• Picked out my invitations at Celebration Creations.  The next time I went home the invitations came in so I started putting them together.  They’re pocket invitations and there are a lot of elements to it.  My mom and i had an assembly line going on her dining room table- gluing, sticking and stuffing.  They’re being mailed out this Friday- I’m excited to start getting RSVP’s back!
• Had my first dressing.  Luckily it fits me pretty well and with my shoes on, it falls at the perfect length so it doesn’t have to be hemmed.  I absolutely LOVE my dress and I can’t wait for Don to see me in it!
• I got my shoes!  They are yellow and fabulous!
• Had my hair and make-up trial at Taire.  I brought a bunch of pictures with me that I found on Pinterest.  My hair stylist, Sue, was able to take what I liked from all the pictures and create the perfect hair style for me!  The make-up artist, Melissa, was great too and really listened to what I want my make-up to look like on my wedding day.  I can’t wait to see everything come together!

Since we’re getting married in a Catholic church, we were required to attend Pre-Cana as a part of our pre-marital counseling.  We had to travel to Albany for a one-day session.  Don and I didn’t really know what to expect but we got a lot out of the day.  We received a book of worksheets that we filled out throughout the day and were given time to fill them in and discuss together.  It was comforting to know that Don and I are on the same page- most of our worksheets were filled out identically!  There weren’t any topics brought up that Don and I haven’t previously discussed, but it was still nice to go into deeper discussions about certain things.  I would recommend pre-marital counseling to anyone getting married- Catholic or not.

Don and I also purchased our wedding bands in January at N. Fox Jewelers here in Saratoga!  We were so excited to buy them- we more them around the house for a little while after we got home.  Now they are locked away until the wedding!  I’m going to leave the rings a surprise until the wedding, but her is the cute little bag they put them in!

The wedding is 2 months and 9 days away!  Don and I are so excited!  Yesterday we celebrated 8 months of being engaged!  He’s working the night shift this week and he came home in the morning with flowers for me.  Yellow of course I’m a lucky girl.

It’s hard to believe that Christmas and New Years have come and gone so quickly!  Don and I really lucked out with his schedule over Christmas and he had off Christmas Eve and Day!  We were both sad not to be able to spend the holiday with our families but were able to “visit” with both of them over Skype.  We had a great time starting new traditions and celebrating with some friends.

On Christmas Eve we went to mass at our new church, Saint Peters.  (We also just started pre-marital counseling there)  Church was packed!  We got there 45 minutes early and still had to squeeze in.  When we got home we made cheese fondue and popped open a bottle of champagne!  

We were both really excited to open gift so we exchanged stockings that night.  A few weeks earlier we had gone to Five Below to buy stocking stuffers.  We each took a side of the store and avoided seeing what the other person had purchased. 

I filled Don’s stocking with some M&Ms, Pop Rocks, other miscellaneous candy, and a volcano kit.  Don got me panda earmuffs since I’m always freezing, an “I love Zombies” shot glass, some candy and a scarf.

I found a new app called Diptic.  You can bunch together pictures into different layouts like the one I used above.  Check it out here!

Don had been working the 7am shift the week before Christmas so we were used to waking up at the crack of dawn.  Our sleep schedules plus our excitement for Christmas led to us waking up at 6:30am.  We were like little kids!

I received some great gifts from Don!  Some highlights are a sweet necklace with our initials, a new watch, some comfy VS pajamas and new VS perfume.  All of that paired with a mini-shopping spree he took me on the week before- I made out very well!

D hearts B

showing off my new gifts

I have to admit I went a little crazy when it came to Christmas gifts for Don.  His biggest gift was a 264 piece tool set.  He had asked for new tools and luckily I found this set at Home Depot that had everything he wanted.  He was very happy with it!

I also got him a Star Trek card game he wanted, a fuel cell car kit and some clothes.  My mom bought him a few Kinect games and had them sent to us so we could use them on Christmas day.

thanks Mama Reds!

She got him Kinect Sports: Season Two, and Dance Central 3.  They are both super fun!

For Christmas dinner we had some of Don’s friends from work over.  Don smoked a delicious ham on the grill!  Seriously, it was so good!  We made 2 types of cookies, oreo cake balls, baked brie, green been casserole, mashed potatoes and apple pie.  It was quite a spread!  It was born to be a hostess!  I had so much fun taking care of everyone, cooking and setting everything up!  I wish I would have taken pictures of the food and table, but you can see my centerpieces here!

Overall it was a great Christmas and the first of many more Don and I will have together!

A few days later we drove to Philly for a long weekend.  We walked into my mom’s house to find this waiting under the tree for us…

:Santa came:

My mom is the best Santa ever!  I think Don was overwhelmed by the amount of gifts he had to open up!  He recieved: a remote control helicopter, some clothes, a whiskey decanter set we had registered for and some whiskey to fill it as well as some other gifts from my siblings.  I got a Northface jacket, some cook books, a pizza stone, clothes, a ton of new Bare Escentuals makeup and a fun new makeup organizer from Pottery Barn Teens.  Our sink is super organized now!

This was probably my best Christmas ever!

Our weekend in Philly was fun and we were reunited with my little sister, Nora, who’s been in Ireland all semester!  We had a really low-key New Years Eve.  We spent the night with my mom, grandmom and sister playing board games and watching Anderson Cooper in Times Square.  The following day Nora, Don and I took the train downtown for the Mummer’s Parade to see the string bands!  It’s a Philadelphia tradition and I think Don was scared!  There is no way to describe it really so here’s a link to the Wikipedia page and a video of the madness!  It was a fun day!  I taught Don how to do the “Mummer’s Strut” and here it is in action…

It was a fun trip home and it’s always fun to spend time with family.  One of the best parts of the trip is that my wedding gown came in the day before we got there!  It was perfect timing!  I was able to try it on for my mom, grandmom and sisters.  I loved it just as much as I did the day I first tried it on!  Less than 4 months until the big day.  2012 is going to be a good year!

A few weeks ago, Don and I went to Ellms Family Farm in Ballston Spa to find our Christmas tree!  When I was younger my family and I used to chop down our Christmas trees so I was really excited to do it again!  Ellms Farm was great- a trolley picked us up and brought us out to rows and rows of trees.  There were saws and tree carts waiting for us too.  We picked out our tree, Don sawed it down and we hopped back on the trolley.  When we got back to the entrance, the staff shook our tree, wrapped it up and drilled a hole into it.  They also provided twine to help tie our tree down to the car.  The best part was complimentary hot chocolate- it was chilly out there!

After searching for a few minutes we found our tree!

Don got to work and started sawing it down while I tried to avoid getting my boots dirty.  There was mud everywhere which I should have  expected.  Next time I will dress more appropriately!

muddy shoes

We tied the tree to the car and made our way home.  I was convinced the tree was going to fly off while we were driving but Don tied it down really well.

pre-decorations

Don and I are having a really fun time starting our own Christmas traditions.  We decided that every year we will buy each other an ornament to help our collection grow.  We wrapped them up and opened them before we decorated the tree.  I wanted to find Don one that was Disney related to represent our engagement.

Astronaut Mickey!  I thought it was a perfect choice since Don wants to be an astronaut!  He loved it too!

And Don got me the sweetest ornament to celebrate our first Christmas together engaged.

And here is our finished product!

Here are some of our favorite photos from our engagement shoot with the talented Lori Gail Photography.  We had such a fun time during our photo shoot and are so happy with how they turned out!

our favorite (used for our save the date)

my bling

look at his handsome face!

Love the yellow house!

I love the background of Elfreth's Alley.

beautiful shot of the Philly skyline

I had a bad dream about the wedding last night.  I left the planning up to others and just showed up the day of.  I had to walk down the aisle barefoot, and my bridesmaids wore black instead of grey.  The flowers were also really ugly and Don saw me before the ceremony.  I’m sure weird dreams like that will haunt me for the next 4 months!

We’ve made a lot of progress lately since my last update.  We booked our transportation using Limo Today.  We rented a party bus which is going to be awesome!  I am so excited about that!  We also booked our DJ through East Coast Event Group.  Their reviews were fabulous and we got to see them in action first hand at Jess’ wedding in May.  Don and I have our first dance picked out, but we were talking the other night about choosing songs for other events throughout the night.  It will be fun to make those decisions!  Also, all of my girls have ordered their dresses and my mom found her mother of the bride dress at Yes to the Dress.

Our save the dates came in last month and have been mailed out!  As I mentioned before, we ordered them from Celebration Creations.  We are really happy with how they turned out. 

I’m going to make a trip to Philly in January to pick out our invitations.  Everything is happening so fast- so exciting!  I’m going to do a separate post on our engagement photos- we got them back last month and they are so good!

I am really getting into the holiday spirit this year!  It’s fun to have a place of our own to decorate this year and I’ve been having a blast making the house look festive!

Don has off on Christmas day so I will be cooking dinner for him and possibly a few of his friends who have off too.  On one of my many random trips to Target, I found really cute table clothes, plates and napkins and I got inspired.  I found a few cute centerpieces but decided it would be a lot more fun and cheaper to make my own.

I have been seeing a ribbon tree all over Pinterest! Here, here, here and here.

I headed over to AC Moore to pick up my supplies and started working.  All you need is a foam cone (I got mine for 50% off with a coupon), 3 or 4 spools of ribbon in whatever colors or designs you’d like, a lot of straight pin (I used around 225) and a topper for the tree (I used a wreath pick)

I chose solid red, solid green, polka dot red and polka dot green for my ribbon.  I decided on a pattern and started cutting out pieces of ribbon about 2 1/4 inched long.   Some of the trees above called for longer pieces of ribbon, but I played around with different lengths and decided I liked 2 1/4″ the best.  Starting from the bottom of the tree, fold over a piece of ribbon and pin the top of it to the foam.  Once you make your way fully around the tree, move up to the next level.  Just be sure the next layer covers the pin.

halfway done

For the very top layer, I used a hot glue gun to apply the ribbons, otherwise the pins would have been showing.  The very last step is to put the topped on.  A wreath pick works great because it can be pushed right into the foam.

final product!

I love how it turned out!  I think it will be a great centerpiece for Christmas dinner.   Another trend I have been seeing lately is vases filled with ornaments.  I found 2 matching vases and filled them with small ornaments I bought at Target.  They match the bigger ornaments we bought for our tree.  I used my hot glue gun to embellish the vases with a piece of leftover ribbon from the tree.  The ribbon can be removed really easily so I can use the vases again during other seasons.

Simple and cute.  I can’t wait to see it all come together at Christmas Dinner!

We got our tree over the weekend and decorated it.  I’ll be back soon with a recap!

Don and I arrived at my mom’s house around 9:30 pm the night before Thanksgiving.  She had pizza and stromboli waiting for us and we were starving by the time we got there.  The drive wasn’t so bad and we didn’t hit any traffic at all.

On Thanksgiving my family came over for dinner.  My mom and Katie made a delicious dinner- there was so much food.  I filled up on appetizers and snacks and hardly had room for dinner.  It was nice to be surrounded by family.  Nora was in Spain for the weekend and luckily had internet access- so we were able to Skype with her after dinner.  She will be home from Ireland in just a few weeks!

I finished Christmas shopping last week so I had no need or desire to go out on Black Friday.  Don and I went to lunch at my favorite place in Philly-  Chickie’s and Petes!  We both got a cheese steak and shared an order of their world famous crab fries.  So good!

On Friday night we went to a bar crawl in my old neighborhood with some of my good friends.  The bar crawl happens every year and this was our 4th time doing it, and Don’s first time!  It was a blast as always!  We only stayed out until 11:30 and made it to about 6 or 7 bars.  They have shirts made every year and their motto is “Less shopping, more drinking.”  Love it!

the girls

Saturday was shopping day!  Don and my mom went to the mall in the morning to do some shopping for me.  And later in the afternoon my mom and I went to a different mall.  And boy did we SHOP!  We had to take a trip to the car halfway through to drop our bags off.  We got a ton of stuff for Nora, Jackie (my brother’s gf) and Don.  It was so much fun shopping with my mom too- I miss being able to do that with her.

Johnny and Jackie were also out shopping that day.  Johnny texted me from the mall asking if he could give Don his gift that night because he was so excited about it.  I had no idea what it could be and had no idea what I was agreeing to.  Don had been saying all weekend that he really wants a sword or crossbow.  I of course ignore him, but Johnny didn’t.  He came home with a crossbow that shoots foam darts and a 4 foot inflatable deer as a target.  It was hilarious!  I spent the next hour running around my mom’s house screaming and getting shot.  Thanks John.  What a nice brother!  Don loved it and the deer is currently hanging out in our dining room.  We need to find a new storage space for it.

While we were at my mom’s she showed us my journal from first grade.

front cover

It was so funny to read my daily thoughts at 6 years old.  Most of my entries had to do with how much I loved my little sister (Nora was only 1 at the time), how much I loved my teacher, that I thought Katie and Johnny were pains, and that I was “so so happy.”  Here is an example entry…

And I wasn’t lying!  We went through my mom’s ornaments to pick out mine for Don and I to use on our tree.  There is definitely a running theme.  I’ve always loved the Little Mermaid!

We drove back to Saratoga Springs on Sunday afternoon and spent the rest of the night relaxing.  It was a great trip and I know Don enjoyed having four days off!  He’s been working so hard lately!

This is the view outside our bedroom window right now.

 It’s been raining all morning and is supposed to continue all day.  When Don gets home from work this afternoon we’re heading to my mom’s house for Thanksgiving!!!!  We have a four hour drive ahead of us, so we are hoping to have a safe and uneventful trip!  We’re looking forward to spending a long weekend with my family and I know Don is excited to have 4 days off, and for my mom’s cooking!

Last night I had a group of Navy wives and a few of their children over for dinner.  We’ve been meeting once a week for dinner and rotating who hosts and cooks.  Don and I haven’t had many visitors so it’s nice to have people to entertain.  I decided to make a poppy seed chicken casserole.  It’s one of my favorite dishes that my mom makes and it’s super simple.  The recipe can be found here on Pinterest.

I changed up this recipe just a little bit and made it like my mom does.  I only used one can of soup- I made it recently with 2 cans and it turned out way too soupy.

The casserole turned out great!  Everyone loved it, even the kids.  It was fun having a full house and it made me super excited for Thanksgiving!