Invitation Dilemma... Round 2

So you may remember me going on about how I am at a loss for what to do about these invitations.  Well, I stopped being crazy and upset about it and decided to sketch out a possible design - IF - I were to make them myself.  Here is the sketch images...  (please don't judge my poor artwork abilities)

This is the entire sketch sheet... There are more close ups below...

 Here is a picture of what I want the main invitation portion to look like.  I am thinking a yellow envelope with a liner that is blue paper with white polka dots.  The actual invitation would be on white paper that would have a punched out design on the left and right side of the paper.  This punch out would allow you to see the color of the paper behind it.  The paper behind it would be yellow and would fold up and close around the invitation and could be tied with a pretty blue ribbon.

 The response cards could be similar to the main invitations, with colors inverted and no closure around the response cards.  (Hope this is all making sense...)

 Information cards would look identical, in design, to the response cards.

I drug Jeff to Michael's with me to help me not spend a ton of money on supplies that we may not end up using and to help pick things out and help me think of possibilities.  I am sure that by July 16, he is probably going to hate craft stores more than he does now.  (I must tell you though, when we left the store after this adventure, he said he didn't mind it too much because we went in, got what we needed and got out and didn't spend time looking for more craft projects that we don't have time for...)

On our craft store adventure I found:

- an adorable paper puncher that does edging that is made by Martha Stewart... around $14.99

- blank white invitation card stock and envelopes (pack of 100)... around $10.99

- blue cardstock and white cardstock... $0.59/sheet (if this project flourishes, I must find these colors of cardstock in BULK!)

- a paper cutter to cut straight lines easily... around $9.99

While looking around in the wedding aisle, Jeff found an invitation DIY kit that was on sale.  There were plenty there for us to be able to purchase them and make our own invites from this kit that included EVERYTHING.... around $15.99

Luckily I had a coupon for 20% off my entire order... shopping trip total... around $50  (forgive my math skills... I think I may have forgotten a few items in our list...)

After the adventure, I decided it was time to try a portion of the idea.  I had invited people to come to my apartment to watch the playoff game so I could only try part of the idea before it was time for me to get ready.  Here was what I tried...

The white paper with the cut out part on the sides (just like I drew up)... making the sides close in proved to be pretty tough... I think if we do make these on our own, we will be scratching that part of the idea...

 Here is a close up of the invite... what do you think??

 Here is a close up of an invite from the kit that we got.  If we used this, I would probably want to put some embellishments on the right side to dress it up a little... but we will see...

Here is the inside of the kit invite.  There is a pocket on the left hand side for the response card and information card, which I like... But, I wasn't too crazy about the overall look and feel of the invite.

So after a few days of thinking about what I wanted it to look like and comparing the options, I decided to try a mock up of the actual layout of the invite print.  My printer ink was pretty much dead and it printed off center slightly, but other than that, I think I like my mock up.  What do you think?  Think we should use our design?

 Here is a close up of the monogram I designed for the invites.  There is a problem near the top of the outer circle with the dots because there are two that are almost touching - which shouldn't be there.  I gotta fix that little issue and then I will be happy with this monogram.  What do you all think?  Should we go for it?  Do you like the monogram?

Oh How I LOVE Save the Dates!!!!!!!!!!!

Our save the dates arrived yesterday - just like the UPS website told me they would!  They arrived in an un-mangled plain, brown box... See below...

Inside of the plain, brown box was a very pretty teal box that had a magnetic closure to hold all of my lovely goodies inside!  I was so excited jumping up and down like a small child!  It was like Christmas morning!

Inside the pretty, teal box, I found envelopes galore and our save the dates!!!! :-)  I was sooooo excited!!!  They turned out beautifully!  Everything is spelled right, the photo looks amazing... OOO!!! I can't wait to send them out!

I was so excited about them that I decided to put them all in their envelopes so I can print the labels, stick the labels to the envelops along with a stamp and get them out ASAP!  I don't know if you can tell how excited I am but believe me, I could hardly sit still!

And here they all are.  Nice and pretty white envelopes stuffed with out save the dates.  Ready for mailing labels and stamps... YAY!! :)

A weekend of registries!

This past weekend, future husband and I decided to start the registry process.  Our plan: register at 4 places - one that is only in NY (Erie)... one that is only in Motown... and two that they share in common.  We started out at Belk (which is the Motown exclusive) and I had already started one there during a bridal event where I won a "men's prize pack" that included a duffel bag, bar utensils and a skillet.  We tried to update the registry with things we actually wanted and didn't have much luck.  We left discouraged (and with no pictures), but headed to Bed Bath & Beyond, in hopes of having better luck.

What a breath of fresh air!  The wedding registry staff at BB&B was absolutely amazing!  The woman was so full of energy and so nice!  She printed off images from their website of some of the things we were on the fence about so we could find them easier later.  She spent time explaining to us the differences in the various pots and pans they had available, and did the same with the knifes!  We found pots, pans and knifes that we are absolutely in love with!  Then the fun began!  I let Jeff run the "gun" and I used my "organizational skills" (that some like to refer to as OCD) to check things off as we registered for them.

We spent 2.5 hours in that store and only registered for kitchen items and luggage!  We found it difficult to decide on kitchen linens, bathroom and bedroom linens because we hadn't really thought about what colors we wanted to use for those rooms.  Figuring that out is certainly on our to-do list!

Look how much fun we had!

YAY!!!  (I will let you all take a guess at what this may be...)

 Jeff was so excited when he found a waffle maker that flips around!

We will be having more fun registry adventures this weekend.  All the time we spent at BB&B wore us out so we celebrated with dinner at Carrabba's.  We were also celebrating 6 months away from the wedding! YAY!  Getting more excited as the day gets closer!

DELIVERED!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so excited that I almost can't sit in class any longer.  Unfortunately, I am stuck here until 5:30 tonight... EEEEEK!!!  I can't wait to get home, bust open this box and just get excited!!!!!  

Here's the proof!

Today is the day!!!!

Save the dates arrive today!  I can't tell you how excited I am!!! Luckily I will be in class all day to keep me from sitting at the door of my apartment waiting for the knock that delivers great things! :-)  Be safe today Mr. UPS man... I need that package! :-)

Take a look for yourself!  YAYY!!!!

They are "completed"!

I have been checking the website we ordered our save the dates from every day hoping that there has been a change in the "status" of the order.  Every day they have said "in production."  While that is excellent because it means they are being made, I am dying to get these in my hand to see how they turned out!

Well, the day has come!  The status is now "completed"! YAY!!!!!!  Now I just have to keep checking back to see when they have shipped.  This means I will have the screen open all day clicking refresh a million times in hope of a change in their date shipped! :-) 

Sooooo excited!  The company even threw in a wedding style book for free.  I'm not even sure what it is, but maybe it will be something cool! :)

Invitation Dilemma

I have been searching for months now for the "perfect" wedding invitations.  To be "perfect" the invitations must be cute, come in our wedding colors, have some sort of special element to them, be reasonably priced and just wow me.

I began my invitation adventure believing that I was SuperBride and could hand craft EVERYTHING including the invitations.  While I am sure this is possible... it is not a feasible plan for me.  Don't get me wrong, I will be doing A LOT of crafts this semester preparing for the big day, but I don't think invites will be on the craft list (which needs to be made...).  You may remember seeing our first attempt at a mock up of our hand crafted invites... the problem with this one was that the paper just seemed too flimsy... Here is the original mock up in case you missed it...

 Mock up with the inspirational one beside it...

The main reason I decided that making my invitations was a bad idea (at least for now) came when I decided that I needed to have raised ink and realized I couldn't do this on my own.  I knew from the beginning that I wanted to carry something throughout the wedding... something that was unique - like a monogram.  Solution?  Buy a monogram seal that was personalized with our initials and press that into the top of each invite after flat printing the rest.  Then I decided I didn't like that idea so much anymore and decided I could letterpress some part of the invite after flat printing the rest.  (Letterpress is where text is pressed down into the paper.)  I decided this was a bad idea because it would be incredibly time consuming.  There were considerations of these invites that you fold up and when guests get them, they tear off the bottom portion and mail back their response which is like a postcard - super cute... but not traditional... I considered these for a hot second (maybe more like a hot few days) then realized I wanted something more formal, more traditional.  I bounced back and forth back and forth between ideas.  I thought I had finally decided when I came to the conclusion that flat printing would be fine... then changed my mind back to raised ink and started looking online for the perfect invite...AGAIN!  At least I finally settled on colors... right? :-)

Well, I have continued the search and haven't been able to come up with anything that I am in love with yet that meets my criteria.  I LOVE the idea of a monogram and have clearly fell in love with polka dots... so should I use a monogram in a circle?  Should I even care about having raised ink on my invitations or would flat printing (like what you would get if you printed this page on a desktop printer) be ok?  Do people truly care about the type of printing on the invite?  Am I concerned too much about this little detail?  Should I still consider making my own or should I continue the search?  Any suggestions or words of advice?

The Blizzard that Paralyzed the South...

If you have been watching the weather, you probably saw reports of the south getting "pounded" by a blizzard.  Well, as a northern, this was no blizzard.  We got 4-5" of snow... and then about 1/10" of ice on top from the freezing rain.

The south was paralyzed by the "blizzard" for a few reasons.
1.  No one here can drive in this stuff
2.  The state has barely any (or no) equipment needed for handling snow and ice
3.  The people that have no idea how to drive on this stuff think they can drive, so they do, and cause problems

As a result of this paralyzing storm, I was saved from the doom of returning to school on Monday.  I was unhappy on Monday when I heard school was cancelled because I was sure that we wouldn't get Tuesday off and I didn't even have classes on Monday!  Well, I was wrong.   Classes were cancelled not only on Tuesday, but on Wednesday too!  The school decided to alter the schedule to make up the snow days, and as a result instead of having 6 days of classes in two weeks... I have 3 days of classes in two weeks!  Amazing!  I am not sure I will be able to handle a full 3 days of classes in ONE week.  I guess eventually I will find out what that is like! :)

My snow days were used to attempt to get ahead on my reading for the semester and to browse TONS of websites for wedding ideas.  My head is spinning with ideas and now it is a matter of stopping my mind from spinning, making some decisions and putting my plan in action.  Oh what a great semester this is going to be! :)

Here are photos of the epic storm...

This was the first picture I took of the "blizzard" - I took this around 10am... 

 Here is another view of the street near the apartment complex... taken from my balcony

 Look how "much" snow we got!  This is on one of the tables outside of the clubhouse near the pool...

 Who wants to go swimming?!?!?!?!

 The driveway to the complex...

 Day Two of the Blizzard... Gotta love an icy blanket covering everything!

 Too bad I left my ice skates in West Virginia!  

(This is the same road that was in the first picture, only instead of snow, it is all ice...)

 Look how deep the snow is on the railing of my balcony... HAHAHA!

I actually took this on my third snow day... things had started to melt but the ice was still there!

Simply the Best!

I'm sure it comes as no surprise that I absolutely LOVE my fiancé!  I considered providing you with a list of a few of my reasons but I changed my mind and instead decided to share what he recently did to make my day amazing.  (Making my "ok" days turn into "amazing" days is one of the reasons I love him which is what he did for me yesterday!)

So as you know, I have been head over heels for the polka dot Kate Spade dress.  More lately however, I have been even more in love with a similar dress at Limited for many reasons - not to mention it is WAY more affordable.  Well.... drum roll please...

My amazing fiancé surprised me yesterday with the dress!!!!!!

I was so excited it brought tears to my eyes!  I know it is just a dress, but I haven't wanted something so bad since... I don't even know what to compare it to!  It wasn't just the dress either that makes him so amazing.  (I am not as material as this post is making me sound.)  After giving me the dress, he explained that he got me the dress because he knew I wanted it, and he thought it was the perfect way to thank me for all the work I have done on the wedding thus far and just for being an amazing fiancée to him.  How sweet is he???  (Thank you to his mom for raising such a sweet, caring guy!)

Here is a pic of the amazing surprise!  I can't wait to wear it!!!

 Another reason I love him... he is an amazing cook!  He made a delicious blackened chicken salad for dinner!  It was amazing! 

I've found a replacement!

So yesterday I was all sad and moping around because I had found **the perfect** dress to wear for wedding activities but it was WAYY out of my price range... Lucky for me, I may have found a replacement today, and for a way more affordable price!!  What do you think?  Will this work?

Save the Dates - Check!

Future Hubby and I took another big step in the wedding planning process last night!  We FINALLY decided on a save the date design, a photo to use for the save the date, and actually ordered them!!!!   Do you know what else that means?  That's right!  Our guest list is pretty much COMPLETE!!!  YAY!!!

While you will have to wait to see what design we selected until they have arrived and are mailed to our wedding guests, here is the photo we selected...  Special thanks to Paul Meyer Photography for an amazing set of engagement pictures!  Can't wait to see how wonderfully you capture our special day!

Here is the proof!!!  The order has been placed... Production time - approximately 10 business days... Shipping time - approximately 2 days... That means in a little less than 2 weeks I will have Save The Dates in my hand for our wedding!  That also means that in 2 weeks you will probably see me complaining that I have to stuff TONS of envelopes, write a TON of addresses and place a TON of stamps on envelopes... but regardless, I am sure that I will be thrilled!!! :)  We initially thought that making our own Save the Dates would be an excellent idea... but after calculating the price of materials and factoring in our time, MagnetStreet.com saved the day and was a perfect fit for what we had in mind!  I can't wait until they arrive!!!

While this isn't exactly wedding related, I thought I would share a picture of the Chinese inspired meal I made last night!  Chicken fried rice, egg drop soup and cream cheese won tons!  I am on my way to becoming a good cook - I just know it! :)  If you are interested in the recipes, send me an email and I will pass along the sites where I found the ideas! :)

OH EM GEE!!!!! I found the perfect bridal shower dress!

Please tell me I am not the only one in LOVE with this dress???

This LOVELY Kate Spade Jillian dress can be found at a Kate Spade  or a Nordstrom store near you.  The dots are navy blue which would be perfect with a yellow cardigan and yellow shoes... perfect attire for my bridal shower???!!!! I think so!  If only it wasn't so expensive... (only $375)... eek!

New Year's Resolution

My 2011 New Year's Resolution:  

Be an awesome blogger!

I have spent a large portion of my winter break browsing TONS of wedding blogs and websites.  I must say I have become inspired!  I have fell in love with a few blogs and those wedding bloggers have inspired me to be an awesome wedding blogger!  That means to all of you who read my blog... get ready for more posts this year, up-to-date wedding planning details and all things wedding!  I will of course keep everyone updated on how the future hubby and I are doing and where we are and what fun we are getting into... but I am really going to try to be an amazing wedding blogger!  I haven't really thought much about what other resolutions I have for the new year, but I am sure that I will find some!

Happy reading!

Oh How I Love the Holidays!

I am sad to say, Christmas has come and gone.  It is truly one of my favorite times of the year (minus the snow of course!)  I get to see friends and family and just relax!  It is such a fun time and I can never get enough of it!  This year, I got my Christmas wish early - Jeff to have a job in Charlotte!  So I have been on a high cloud for weeks now!  After working in the office for a week, Jeff and I jumped in my car and headed to Morgantown for holiday celebrations with my family!  We had a great time catching up with friends and seeing all of the family.  After a few days in "Mo-Town" we headed farther north to Clymer to see Jeff's family and friends!  It was a wonderful time filled with lots of food, laughter and of course, lots of snow!  We rang in the New Year at the magnificent French Creek Tavern surrounded by friends!  What a great way to start the new year... our wedding year! :)  Here are some pictures from the holidays...

I got a new camera for Christmas and didn't think to have my camera beside me for opening gifts at my parents... :-(  Here is one from gifts at my aunts! 

 This is the snow out of my bedroom window in Clymer... This room is on the second floor!  There is a porch roof below the window, but there was about 3-4 feet of snow on the roof!  Jeff tried to shovel it off from the window, but it was not a successful attempt.  The snow was way too heavy!

 More Snow!!!!

 Due to all the heavy snow and rain that has fallen, the roof to one of the warehouses at Maplevale Farms, where Jeff's dad works, collapsed.  The company has had to move their operations 30 minutes away from this location, but luckily have been able to keep shipping!  Thankfully, no one was injured in the collapse!

 NYE had arrived!!!  We went to dinner at a local place but weren't impressed with their "special NYE menu" so we had some appetizers, and headed for the Tavern where we knew we would love the food!  After dinner a few more friends showed up to begin festivities!

Here are the ladies!

 The Future Mr. & Mrs. Willink! <3

Christmas came on New Year's Day since it was the best day to get everyone together.  Here are some pictures from opening gifts...

Brian with his new mug that said: "My dad thinks I'm cool" - priceless!

 Tate with his new WVU hat!

 Jeff and the nephews with their Bills gear!

I'm so glad we were able to spend the holidays surrounded by our family and friends!!!  Here is to an awesome New Year!!

It's been far too long!

Well hey there!  Have you missed me?  It has been FOREVER since I have posted... I thought I had updated everyone on what had been going on in our lives but apparently I have not updated since midterms... Guess that says something about my life - CRAZY BUSY! :)

Anyways... before I begin updating on the happenings around the holidays here is a photo montage of our life since midterms... :)

We will start with WVU Homecoming... Janelle and MK came to visit us and see what Mo-town was all about! :)  It was so great to see them and spend some time catching up!

 I also got to see Little, my MOH... Love her!

 V also joined in the fun!!! :)

 Cousins! <3

 Future Mr. & Mrs. Willink! :)

 Miss you V!

Shortly thereafter, Halloween came along!  What could we be?  There were so many possibilities, but we finally decided that a gangster and a flapper were the perfect idea! :)

 One of my favs, Shannon, was a cave girl... this was night one of Halloween!

 Night 2 of Halloween - KE$HA concert!!! :)  Thanks for helping us get the tickets Shannon!

 The ladies up front at the concert! 

Halloween came and went... a few weeks passed by... then Jeff and I headed to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina (about a 3-3.5 hour drive from Charlotte) for Julie's wedding.  Julie was my big in the sorority!

Here I am getting ready for our pin up photo shoot!  They put all the bridesmaids in vintage outfits!  It was a great time!

 There was a vintage wedding dress hanging up that I just had to try on... But it didn't fit... :)

 Jenna, Ali, and me hanging out waiting for the group shots! :)

 The beautiful bride! :)

 Each morning we got to see a beautiful sunrise (if we got up in time!)  While we were watching for the sun to rise, we caught a glimpse of dolphins swimming in the ocean!  It was a gorgeous sight - and all from the comfort of our pjs on our beach house balcony! :)

 Here is the cake from the welcome party for all of the guests the night before the wedding!  How amazing is this cake??? LOVE!

 Sorority fam picture! <3  Big, Little, Grand-Little... :)

 One of my favorite AOIIs!!!! Miss you Jenna!

 Julie with all of her bridesmaids at the beach house pool! :)

 Family picture during the wedding! <3

 <3

 Big & Little! <3

 Were next to get married!!!!!!! <3

 AOII picture!

After catching up on sleep and work for classes, my classmates decided it was time for a little fun.  A group of people got together and hosted "The Olympics" where we had to form teams and play different games at various places.  The winner got the golden duck trophy (which was a tribute to our civil procedure professor from our first semester).  Unfortunately, there were a few disasters during the night (specifically a natural gas leak at one of the locations a game was to be played) and so the games ended without a winner... and the trophy was missing... Regardless, we all had a great time!

Shannon made our team shirts...

 Here are all the shirts drying on the balcony

 Chip making our team dinner... spaghetti and meatballs!

 Team photo! :)  Jeff had to drive to Charlotte for a job interview (yay!) and got to be a part of the team!  He was one of our coaches!  This was such a great time!

The semester began winding down, and Thanksgiving had arrived.  I jumped in my car and drove home to WV to see my family, Jeff and then eventually to go visit his family!

On my way home, I passed this tractor trailer carrying a bunch of bells!  It was an amazing sight!  

 While I was home, Jeff and I made "trash" which is a yummy treat made with rice krisp pieces, chocolate, peanut butter and confectioner sugar.  To get everything mixed together, you have to use a **clean** trash bag because a baking pan just won't cut it!  

 After you mix all the chocolate onto the rice krisp pieces, you cover it all in confectioner's sugar and get this yummy looking treat!  Jeff wanted to mix the chocolate mess together and his hands ended up covered in chocolate.  It was quite the site.  We had a little photo shoot to remember the fun.  I'll save those pictures for another time! :)

 After a yummy Thanksgiving dinner with my parents and grandparents, Jeff and I headed to Clymer to visit his family and friends.  My favorite part of Thanksgiving has come to be the annual Black Friday shopping trip where Jeff is the chafferer and drives all the ladies around Erie while we shop.  He finds the best parking spots, drops us off at the door (because it is normally super cold), stands in the long lines while we shop, gets a little shopping done himself and carries our purchases if we need an extra hand to shop with!  He is a great sport and doesn't seem to mind it at all.  I think he actually looks forward to it! :)

Here is a picture of the living room when we got back with all of our awesome deals for the day!  We shopped for about 10-11 hours that day!  It was a long, but really fun day!

Thanksgiving had come and gone along with Black Friday fun.  I headed back to school for a week of classes before beginning exams.  While I was dealing with classes/exams, Jeff got a job interview with an AWESOME company in Charlotte.  He had interviewed with this company before, but for a different position.  We were still waiting to hear about that job opportunity when he got a call to interview for this position.  The call for the initial interview came while we were in Hilton Head for the wedding weekend.  We tried not to get our hopes up in case things didn't work out but we were very hopeful!  He got a call to come down and over the course of three days he was interviewed 4 or 5 times.  I got to go along with him to his last interview where I got to meet the woman who would be his boss.  She was incredibly nice and a very caring person!  She told me that she would get him to Charlotte working for her by Christmas.  I was so excited but I wasn't sure what to think.  A few minutes later, we left the interview and Jeff had received a verbal offer to begin working on December 20.  The next few weeks were a whirlwind!  I was taking exams, but couldn't stop thinking about him finally moving to Charlotte for a job in his field!!!!  Before I knew it, the day had come and he was moving to Charlotte to begin his new job!  I am so proud of you for working so hard to get this job!  

You would think that with all of that going on, I would be focusing on studying.  However, for those of you who know me well, this will not come as a surprise.  One day, I decided that I was sick of studying for finals, I had reached my end.  I wanted to clean out my closet!  I was sick of looking through everything - new and old - to find the outfit I was going to wear that day.  I called up my good friend Lauren, and before I knew it, my closet looked empty!  It was a great feeling (until I realized I had less than 24 hours before my next final!) I felt even better when I learned about a little girl who's house recently burnt down and she was left with nothing.  I sent several bags of clothes to her in hopes that she could wear it.  I also sent several bags of clothes to my cousins who I knew could get use out of the stuff that I have been holding on to but not wearing!  Lauren explained that it was time to let go of the past (and old clothes) and put on my big girl, lawyer clothes, since I was almost half way done!!!!  YAY!!! Here is a picture of **some** of the hangers that became empty!

Before I could finish my finals, Shannon and I decided that enjoying a night out in Charlotte was the perfect idea to de-stress before our last round of exams.  Jeff had come down to finalize things for his new job (which of course made me incredibly happy) so the plan seemed perfect!  Charlotte was hosting a "Santa Bar Crawl" so we thought it would be fun to head to one of the places to enjoy some good music and friends to de-stress!  We dressed up in festive, Christmas garb and off we went!  We had such a great time!  Jeff left the next day, and I began studying... again!

Finals were **finally** over!  I survived.  The wait for grades had begun.  Before I started worrying about whether I passed classes or not, it was time for a celebration.  I made it to the half-way point of law school!  What could be better?  Oh wait, I know!  Jeff getting a job in Charlotte!!! YAY!!!!!!  I finished my exams, and within a day, Jeff was officially a Charlotte resident!  Two reasons to celebrate!!  Wait... three reasons!  It was also Shannon's birthday!  What a great start to winter break!

Future Mr. & Mrs. before heading out to celebrate all things wonderful!

 The second night of celebrating started at my apartment with appetizers before we moved the celebration to Dixie's where all proceeds from the night were donated to the fundraiser that one of my classmates is in charge of.  The fundraiser is a school wide event where we will be raising money to reach a goal and once we reach that goal, we will be stuffing packages of food that will be sent all over the place to help fight world hunger.  It is a great way for the CSL students to give back to others!  It should be a great success!

 It is important to mention that in the midst of all the craziness, my "little boyfriend" recently moved to Rock Hill, SC (30 minutes south of Charlotte) because his company opened a new office.  (for you non-sorority gals, this is my little's boyfriend - aka little boyfriend - and she has a big fiance... who used to be big boyfriend... but anyways...)  I am secretly crossing my fingers that this new office will mean that my little (and MOH) will be moving to my area very soon!  I can't tell you how wonderful it would be to have her so close!

Celebrations ended, Jeff started his new job... and I was in Charlotte with nothing to do.  To fill my time, I decided I needed to bake... and when I say bake, I mean BAKE... TONS of cookies, and tons of food was made in a week's time...

Jeff mixing up the batter for the sugar cookies - the first round of cookies...

 Frosting them...

 The lovely sugar cookies!!!

 Then I made mint chocolate chip...

 A cheesecake...

 Hershey Kiss cookies... and I didn't get pictures of all the other cookies... but believe me... 

there were a TON!

Well, now that you have been updated on our life since midterms... here is to a New Year of regular blog updates that I am sure will be filled with wedding planning and fun!  Stay tuned for all the fun we have in store in this upcoming year - our wedding year!!! :)