Family Pictures

For Christmas, my sisters, Ryan and I got my parents professional family photos. We wanted them to be really casual, laid back and include all 4 dogs (my parents dog Mia, my sister Alli's dog Henry, and Ryan and I's dogs Ninja and Oscar). We definitely got the fun, relaxed pictures we were aiming for!

My awesome parents with Mia:

Everyone:

Sisters make the best friends. Isn't it nuts how much SHORTER I am than they are?:

Our first official family picture!:

The puppies were handed over to their grandma:

Ryan and Mary were involved, so the following was inevitable:

Alli's friend Karen took the pictures (she was home visiting family for Thanksgiving and was kind enough to take these the Saturday after Thanksgiving). She actually specializes in pet photography-how beautiful are these pictures of my dogs! I mean, I'm biased and all.

Needless to say, she did a phenomenal job. We linked my dad's laptop up to their big screen TV, so Christmas Eve morning we were able to show them the pictures for the first time. Mom and Dad really liked them, thereby cementing Alli's status as best gift giver of all time. Well done!

Check out more of Karen's work here.

Guest Blog from Maid of Honor/Youngest Sister, Mary Chris

Hello followers of my fellow sister’s blog. I’m Mary, Stacy’s youngest sister (note that I am taller) and 2nd in line maid of honor. She asked me to make a guest appearance…so here I am.

Also, an FYI: I am fluent in sarcasm.

Here’s my guide to being the best maid of honor:

1. Just smile and agree. Face it, if it’s not the bride’s way, then it’s the highway
2. Order your dress RIGHT when the bride asks or prepare for havoc
3. Give everything a chance. I didn’t like the idea of fabric flowers, but hey, they turned out to be gorgeous!
4. Make sure you help with the most important task: wedding cake tasting
5. Prepare for the reception by playing “Just Dance” for the Wii.
6. Know how to make a TP dress just in case the actual dress rips…and for bridal parties
7. Force the bride to pee before putting on the dress. Stacy, I will NOT hold a bucket for you to pee in day of.
8. Be there to listen. Most of the time, if you just say, “Yes, of course, etc,” while she’s on a rant, then it will all simmer down. She didn’t want your opinion, just someone to explode on.
9. Make sure that MC Hammer is on the DJ’s playlist
10. Write the toast more than 2 weeks prior…trust me, bad idea.

Yes, I know Allison would have completely different guidelines, but hey, I am the better maid of honor J.

Thanks Mary! You rock my face off!

Quilting

Tomorrow is the last day to enter the Threads Remembered giveaway! Find out all about it here. I'm glad I'm using a random number generator to choose a winner, if I had to choose on my own I would be a basket case, there are so many good ideas in the comment section!


Quilting and blanket making is a big thing in my family.

My MeeMaw used to make blankets out of old double knit fabric. She was ahead of her time with the upcycling! The blankets were not the prettiest things to look at but they are so warm; I have one she made me on my bed. When Ryan and I had just started dating, there was a vicious ice storm and almost everyone in my hometown lost power. He was in his last semester of grad school at the time, so he lived in Cape and had an apartment. My sister Alli and I, my grandma and Ryan all stayed at my parent's house for 3 days because my parents luckily had power and none of use did! That's when my mom found out that the only blanket Ryan really owned was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fleece throw. So in the 3 days we were iced in, mom and grandma made him a double-knit blanket with flannel on the back. So warm! (Also during that ice storm, I really started falling for him. He got along so well with my family and he was just...amazing. He dug my car out of 3 inches of ice after dropping me off at my job at 5:30 a.m. Hello, keeper anyone?)

My mom now makes double knit blankets just like her mom did, and her best friend Suzanna always comes over to help us tie them. Tying a quilt is when you connect and secure all 3 layers of the quilt-the top, which is the part with the design, the batting, and the backing. We use my MeeMaw's old quilt frame to do. Then Suzanna takes the quilt home and does the binding by hand.

My grandma has won prizes for her quilts. She has been quilting with a ladies group at her church for years and they donate the money they make to the church. I remember sitting in mass with my grade school and opening a new hymnal to see a note that said it was donated by the quilting ladies and being so proud. Her quilts are more works of art than blankets, in that you can't throw them in the washer when they get dirty like you can the double-knit blankets.

I would love to be able to make a quilt for Ryan and I, but I like the more non-traditional quilt styles. I checked out Flickr, and I'd love to do something along these lines:

Source

I wish I could do the hand-quilting, but it is so time consuming that I have a really hard time even fathoming it. Paying to have a group hand quilt is very pricey for obvious reasons, so whatever quilt I end up doing will be machine quilted. I think that simple straight lines fit what I have in my head the best.

Sidenote: My mom says I fixate really badly on stuff I want, and I think she's right. Like with wedding dress shopping, I knew exactly what I wanted and that's what I ended up with. I get a very specific image of what I want and the problems come when I deviate from this!

Source

I like this too, it would be perfect if the lines were vertical. I know that fabric isn't as long as I would need it to be, so some of the strips would have to be made up of 2 different fabrics.

I might attempt a baby-sized quilt for practice first. My mom's going to help me, I'll probably need all the help I can get!

Any projects you're looking forward to starting as soon as you take a big chunk out of that wedding to-do list?

Showered

Saturday my Aunt Teresa threw a double shower for my cousin Ellie and I. She's getting married in June, I'm getting married in July, so it made sense to have a joint shower. My cousin Katye just got engaged a week or so ago, so it could've been a triple shower!

We had lunch with a lovely centerpiece on the table.



And then there was cake. This was delicious. My Aunt Teresa had a bakery create this wonderful confection with cream cheese icing. My sister Mary was over the moon about this.


Present Mountain.


After lunch we played games. Toilet paper was involved. Initially, I was like, "really?" but I decided to just have fun with it. And it really was fun! My Aunt Noelle pleated toilet paper for sleeves and there were TP flowers.


No idea why my face was so red. I made use of my fabric flower skills and made TP flowers. I am an accomplished young lady, what can I say.


Before you were allowed to open a present, you had to answer a question about your fiance that he had already answered via e-mail. I sucked hardcore at this. If the questions would have been about books, running, cooking, or anything other than stuff like "who's your fiance's favorite actor" then I would've done much better. For some reason I am seriously bothered by the fact that I didn't do well at this. I guess it's the thwarted over-achiever in me!


Ryan showed up towards the tail end of the shower, so it actually worked out well that I kept getting the answers wrong-he was there for most of the present opening. He's been growing this beard since right before New Year's, and he loves it. Plus it keeps his face warm when he's running, which is always nice.


My aunt had olive oil favors.


My sisters/maids of honor. They're the best!


All in all, it was a really good day. My family is very, very generous. And I got the Martha Stewart teapot that I registered for and I am way, way too excited about. I'm glad it was a double shower, because it would've been weird if it were just me.

Have you been thrown a bridal shower, or is there one in your future? Have you ever had to dress up in toilet paper?

Cake

My mom made me this cake for my birthday last weekend (I am now 24, officially in my mid 20s). It's shaped like a giant cupcake!




She used a cake pan similar to this to make the cake.

Source

It's a devil's food cake with whipped cream icing and sliced strawberries all over it. Delicious and fascinating because of the fun shape. I haven't had an amusingly-shaped cake in years!

How cute would this be for a cupcake-themed bridal shower?

So my parents and my sisters were beyond generous for Christmas. Ryan got me the coolest present, and it sounds like his parents went way overboard and lavished me with gifts as well! (We were going to do Christmas with his immediate family on Christmas Eve, but we got back from his Aunt's house and the weather was getting pretty bad so I had to get on the road and head back to Cape. We're doing that Christmas on New Year's instead). Anyway, I am super lucky and beyond blessed to have such an incredible family and fiance.

My mom got me this book for Christmas:

Source

I was doubtful that I could pull off these projects at all, because the extent of my sewing successes is limited to the flowers in my bouquet! In terms of sewing, those flowers are elementary. Anyway, I've already thrown together a project that actually worked. So, I am going to be working my way through this book and hopefully honing my sewing skills.

The best part about this is what I'll be using to sew these projects. After I put together one project from the book using my mom's machine, she mentioned that my MeeMaw's machine was sitting unused in my mom's best friend's closet. My mom's friend prefers handwork over messing with a machine, and Saturday afternoon she brought MeeMaw's machine over!




This machine is heavy-it's made of mostly metal. It's a Bernina, and it works great. I do need to take it in for a tune up since it's been unused for so long. Mom said that MeeMaw paid big money for this machine years ago, so I hope to be able to use it for a really long time.

The really amazing thing about this machine is that it survived a house fire. My MeeMaw has Alzheimer's disease, and as of right now she is 100% non verbal and non mobile. She's broken both hips, she's in a nursing home and she hasn't recognized anyone in years. You really only see the mild, early Alzheimer's on TV, but that isn't MeeMaw. I don't understand at all why God would keep someone alive like that, but then I don't understand lots of things about God. My mom is the power of attorney, so all of MeeMaw's care has been up to her. It's been much harder than I can ever say, but MeeMaw has been sick for so many years that it's turned into a fact of life. Anyway, before we put MeeMaw in the nursing home, she put a pot of water on her gas stove to make coffee and went out to work in her garden. She forgot that the stove was on and stayed in her garden all day long and the house burnt down. This machine survived the house fire.

Sewing is something that has been handed down from the women in my family. My MeeMaw cut up old clothes and make quilts out of them, and my mom does the same. I would love to get to the point where I could make a blanket for Ryan and I's home. Mom said that MeeMaw would be thrilled that her machine is getting used. I think she would be too, and I am so excited to learn all about the art of sewing.

Are you learning any new skills? Does your family have some kind of heritage that is being passed down to you?

Happy Birthday!

Today my littlest (actually she's taller than me, I should probably say youngest!) sister Mary turns 17 today.

Mary and Ryan at Cross Country State this year

Mary's had a tough year-she got mono right before her cross country season started. Last year she was an all state runner (that means she was one of the top 25 runners in the state), and she had worked really hard all summer with her summer training, so it was really hard on her.


She stuck in there and she rebounded and came back to have a great last part of the season. She's pretty sure she wants to run in college, and she is really, really talented. I love watching her run, I think I only missed 1 or 2 meets last cross country season.

My sister Allison, Mary and me on Saturday night before Mary's Winter Ball

Mary has this thing where she'll say that Alli and I got the "pretty" genes and she got all of the "jock" genes. Which I think is totally ridiculous, she obviously lucked out and got both, don't you think?


She's growing up to be such a gorgeous girl, and I am blown away at what a cool person she is. She's assertive, she's strong, she doesn't back down...she's unlike any high school girl I've ever met! I think she's great, and I love that we're getting closer as she gets older.

It's also because of Mary that I met Ryan. He was coaching her team when I saw him that at the cross country meet. I definitely owe her big time for that!

Happy 17th Mary, I hope it's a kick *ss year for you!

The Holiday Dilemma

How do you and your fiance(e)/hubs/wife/partner work out the holidays?

Ryan and I have figured this year out....Thanksgiving we're each doing with our respective families, and I'm going up to St. Louis Thanksgiving evening (his family does the Black Friday shopping at the buttcrack of dawn...I have never done it, and does anyone know if J Crew has Black Friday sales?). Side note: I'm actually really excited to do this shopping thing. I'm pretty much done with my Christmas shopping (I know how annoying that sounds, but I HATE crowds so I am usually done by Halloween), so I'm just along for the ride.

Source

So there's Thanksgiving. In terms of Christmas, I'm going up on Christmas Eve to spend the day with his family. I'm going to an evening service at my church (which I am crazy excited about) and then I'm heading back to my hometown that night to spend Christmas day with my family. Ryan is coming down to visit with my family the day after Christmas.

Source

(How creepy is that baby Jesus?!)

I have no idea what we're going to do next year! My first thought is we'll alternate Thanksgiving every year, and then one year do Christmas Eve with one family and Christmas day with the other, then switch, but that is definitely up for debate. We talked a little about it this weekend, and we might do Christmas Eve evening with his family, then drive to my hometown, do Christmas morning and brunch with my family, then drive up to St. Louis to do stuff with his family. That way we can both be with our families on Christmas day.

I'd love to hear how you all handle it. I can't imagine not waking up at my parent's house on Christmas morning...and I'm 23. That's so lame sounding, but still! So what arrangement have you come up with?

Conference

Last Thursday, my sister Alli and my dad and I headed to the thriving metropolis of Poplar Bluff, Missouri to watch my little sister Mary compete in her cross country team's conference meet.

I took advantage of the 1 1/2 hour drive to get some flowers knocked out.


This is a luscious red silk I got off of Etsy.


So right before the season started, Mary came down with Mono. She was devastated, because she had been running all summer to prepare for the season and felt that all of her hard work was wasted. The first couple weeks of the season, she had trouble finishing work outs. I felt awful for her, because she loves to run. She was quite the trouper and biked when she couldn't run (her doctor said it was ok...by the time she was diagnosed with mono, she was past the enlarged spleen part). She stuck it out and is now in great shape! Mary's in the middle in the orange jersey.


Mary and another girl were at the front of the varsity race within 3 feet of each other for the entire meet. It was so nerve-racking...when Mary came flying around the last curve 15 feet ahead of anyone else, we freaked out!

Here's me and Alli, professional Cross Country spectators. Alli ran in high school, too.


Me and Alli with Mary, the Conference Champ! She ended up dominating.


Mary and I are wearing the new girl's Cross Country shirts...the back says "running is our long distance relationship." Love that!

I love to watch Mary run, and I couldn't have been more proud of her. She battled through her mono and now she's back, better than before. This weekend is districts, then sectionals, then state!

Do you like to watch friends and family do something they love?

Processional Song Picking Craziness

We had a little too much fun picking processional music!

I really want "Dawn" from Pride and Prejudice for my processional. My mom and my sister Alli aren't sure how I'm going to walk to it, but I love it.

The processional song picking didn't end there, oh no....we started laughing about goofy songs, and here is where the craziness ensued....

I suggested the Jurassic Park theme song...hehehe....when I was away at college, I had a (um, still do) weird fascination with this movie. I can watch it multiple times in a week and I don't get sick of it. I love Dr. Grant! Not in a weird way, he's just great.

Source

So Mary started acting like she was a pterodactyl going down the aisle, complete with sound effects....



We were all dying laughing. Then we pulled up the Russian Dance from the Nutcracker on the computer. When Alli and I were little, we used to dance to this song all. the. time. Our "dance" involved us running around in circles and jumping when the music calls for it. So I had to show Mary how it's done:


Anyway, we all laughed our *sses off and had a total blast. As of right now, I'm walking down to Dawn and the parents and bridesmaid's will probably walk to Canon in D, but it's certainly up for debate.

What's your processional? Did craziness and hilarity ensue in any portion of your wedding planning?

Things to Do with the People you Love

When my sister Alli and I were little, we loved to color. We had this great game called "Art Galley" where we would do our best coloring and trade pieces of art. One summer my parents took us to the beach for a week, and all we would do is color. Alli came home from work a few nights ago with these grown up coloring pages she had printed out, and we went to town!

Here's Alli picture, I nabbed the easy one and left her this super hard one. She was more than up for the challenge.

I can't even tell you how many pictures there are of us when we're younger just like this!


Here's my picture. I put the finished product up on mom and dad's fridge. All it needs is a gold star!


This was such a fun throw-back, and a great stress-reliever! We are definitely doing it again.

So what have you done with the people you love lately?