Hello Lovely Friends.

I sure am grateful for the wonderful friends I’ve made throughout my life - from high school to college to my mission to Chicago and now in Maryland, I’ve been blessed with incredible friendships along the way, friendships that I know will last forever!!

Wendy and Sandy visited the east coast over the weekend and it was great catching up with them. {Sandy’s a flight attendant and Wendy is her companion flyer this year so I hope they visit again sometime soon!}

For dinner on Friday, Aaron impressed us with his mad Bar-B-Quing skills by grilling up some delicious shrimp for shrimp tacos with chips and salsa + guac on the side. Dinner was followed by a delightful treat at SweetFrog Frozen Yogurt. {One just opened close to our house and the frozen yogurt + toppings are scrumptious.}

The rest of the evening was spent doing what girlfriends to do best: laughing, chatting about Chi-town happenings and reminiscing. My friends are both currently taking piano lessons so they even showed off their piano playing skills on our lovely piano. {I’m so impressed, Wendy and Sandy! Keep practicing!}

Aaron continued to be the chef for the weekend by preparing a breakfast on Saturday morning that included homemade blueberry muffins, Swedish pancakes + blueberry compote. {Clearly by now you’ve realized that Aaron is a much better cook than I am.}

After breakfast we headed to the city to bid farewell to Sandy as she hopped on the train to meet up with her fam. Wendy, Aaron and I met up with Aaron’s parents and Abe. {Abe is Aaron’s cousin from North Dakota who was visiting for the weekend with his high school.} We all took a mini-walking tour of DC that included the White House, Washington Monument, WWII memorial, and a quick visit to the Air & Space Museum.

Wendy’s flight left Saturday afternoon so we dropped her off at the airport and wished her luck with her standby flight. I was relieved to receive a text from her saying she made it back safe and sound!

Next, Aaron and I + his parents ended our afternoon adventure with lunch at Dangerously Delicious Pies. The name says it all - the food truly was dangerously delicious.

I know I say this often and I’ll probably say this on every post when speaking about visitors, but it sure has been oh so great having friends and family stop by, even for a quick trip. If you haven’t visited yet, I’m going to keep posting all the FUN things we do when people visit, just so you’ll be sure to plan a trip soooooon.

P.S. In baby news, look at this beyond adorable shirt and tie combo Shannon sent me. Thanks, Shannon! She sells her stuff on Etsy. She's kind of a big deal.

Check out her work here: What a Fancy Pansy. 

A Simple One.

Sometimes I just love a simply simple weekend.

Aaron had scout training all day Saturday --- Oh.. did I tell you he’s the new scout master at church? He loves scouts. The scouts love him. --- so I spent the day at home cleaning, washing our bedding, doing laundry, grocery shopping and preparing for a new week.

When Aaron’s training was almost over, he texted me and asked if I wanted to go to this new Greek Restaurant our landlord told us about and he even gave us a gift card to the place for Christmas.

I reminded Aaron that the Broncos and Ravens were playing football at 4:30 p.m. He agreed to pizza and football. Isn't the man usually supposed to want pizza and football for date night?! My man wanted a romantic dinner at Charlie's. Apparently Aaron and I haven’t figured out the typical role of husband and wife.

So our date night consisted of football, pizza and Aaron painting my toenails and fingernails. He’s surprisingly really good at giving a mani/pedi if you want to make an appointment with him. (Dang it. I took an action shot on my phone of Aaron working his magic, but alas, it disappeared somehow.)

On Sunday, Aaron gave a talk at church and then we had my Chicago cousins, who were visiting DC for the week, over for dinner! 

We. Love. Visitors.

We. LOVE. Visitors!!!

Hope your week is off to a great start! Ciao.

Thank you, 2012. No really. Thank you!

Wow, 2012. Thanks for one incredible, incredible year. 

I’ll never forget about you. 

Ever.

I told Aaron that I was a little sad to see the year end! I must say, it was quite life changing and as I reflect on all that happened in the past year, I am truly aaa-mazed by how we’ve been blessed and guided to where we are today.

In January I traveled to Guatemala with the Rotary Club and I missed Aaron dearly. Good thing he was at the airport to propose the day I got back! During my trip in Guatemala, I learned once again that serving really does bring so much happiness to everyone involved.

February I traveled to Denver for my nephew’s baby blessing; Aaron and I sat down and figured out a plan for merging our life together. We decided Aaron would fly to Chicago during his Spring Break and we would pack up my stuff and move it to Maryland, Aaron’s first duty station.

March is when I celebrated a wedding shower with all my girlfriends, officially quit my job in Chicago and told my favorite friends goodbye. I cried as we drove through the city onnnnnne. last. time. I still talk about Chicago often. Aaron and I drove to Maryland and were excited to finally fly back to Denver. Together! (The hardest part of our long distance relationship was telling each other goodbye at the airport.)

In April it was a dream-come-true to live with Alex and Bryan and the boys for two months. I started a part-time nanny job that allowed me to spend the weekends in Colorado Springs closer to Aaron. We planned a quick trip to Utah for a friend’s wedding and my sisters planned a fun wedding shower with more family and friends. I’m so spoiled!

In May my parents planned a wedding Open House for us and once again, it was so great catching up with friends and family. I need family time in Kansas. I always leave feeling so uplifted. Aaron graduated from the academy on May 23 and then we were sealed in the Denver temple two days later. Ohhh it was the most perfect day ever. I wish we could get married every day. We stayed in Colorado to attend our friends’ wedding the day after ours and then we dashed off to our honeymoon road trip and a week stay at the coziest bed and breakfast in Kentucky.

June and July is when we enjoyed our 60 day honeymoon with lazy days at the beach, catching up with friends, road trips, shopping trips, sleeping in, movies, attending my bro’s wedding and house hunting/moving in to the comfiest 2 bedroom home 15 minutes from Aaron’s work. I still want you to come and visit ASAP!! During the last week of July, Aaron’s alarm started going off at 3:30 a.m. so he could leave for work by 4:15 a.m. (Don’t call after 8:30 p.m. We’re most likely already asleep!)

In August I started a new job in the marketing department for a law firm in D.C. I LOVE my job. Dream job. No joke. I also found out I was pregnant. Yep! New job and pregnant. Surprise! Baby boy Volk coming in April 2013!

September is kind of a blur. On purpose. I was puking my guts out every day, multiple times a day. (Taking the train to work made me soooo sick. I always had a barf bag that I replaced every day in Sep. My record for throwing up is 11 times in one day. I’m serious. Zofran has changed my life.) Aaron also got mono. We were kind of a sad pair for the month.

October is when my parents came to visit!

November we found out our little baby is a boy; Aaron celebrated his 25th birthday and we had Thanksgiving din with the Volks.

December was packed with parties galore, my b-day and our Christmas trip to Kansas. 

From Guatemala, to Chicago, to Maryland, to Denver, to Utah, to Kansas, to Kentucky, back to Maryland, and then DC, it’s been an adventurous year I’ll cherish for always.

Hello, 2013. Nice to meet you!

From our home to yours, we hope to have the happiest year ever.

xo xo