Christmas in Kansas City

I made it through work this week! That means two days off before and after Christmas. Except I get to work Christmas Day. Aren't you jealous? Now I'm just waiting for the sweet hubs to get home and thought I would share some highlights from our Christmas trip to the 913. We celebrated a little early since Kiewit was flying us back to KC for par-tays. I mean...meetings.

I had a really great seat on the first plane and a really crappy seat on the second one.

We did a little Crown Center ice skating and general Christmas merriment with Caleb's family. We also enjoyed some Jack Stack. I love you, bbq. And here's something honest: I love to ice skate. Everyone was ready to go and I was like "but I just warmed up!"

We had "Christmas" with both sides of the family, since we will be hanging out here in Tennessee for the actual holiday. The most fun was watching George. We seriously love that guy. Caleb's dad got some KU tickets and gear for Christmas. We force our love of the Jayhawks on everyone around us! Baby June, guess where you are going to college?

My dad got a grill for Christmas. He was super pumped. I also made him grill our Christmas dinner but he didn't seem to mind!

I love my parent's Christmas tree, it always looks exactly the same as I remember it from when I was a kid.

We also babysat for George and June one night. Caleb was a jungle gym and his keys were the best toy ever.

June cried most of the time. So we just snuggled her and kept her out of bed. Oops. Sorry to mess up the sleep training...

We had SUCH a good time with our families! It's always hard to leave. Hopefully someday soon we'll be back for good!

Last sip of Boulevard Wheat in the airport before catching our flight back...

I got an early Christmas present from the hubs...a macro lens. So expect so close up pics soon...

Kiewit knows how to throw some rockin Christmas parties

Its an extravaganza because it was three (3) parties. That's right. I'm a high roller now. (Oh wait, I'm not.) I bought three (3) separate outfits. They were awesome. ThankyouExpressstore. Did you know that if you ask Express for the coupons in their mailer, they will just give them to you in the store? And then you get a large discount. It's quite nice. I'm never above asking for discounts straight up.

Ok. Party number one. This was my favorite. It was here in Tennessee for just us Tennesseeans. The band was super rockin'. There was even a prom photographer that took some super sexy pics. I left work an hour early for this party. And it was great to spend time with everyone before we all start moving to separate ends of the world.

This dress was my fave too. And my husband maybe smiled normal for half a second. Why are we holding hands like this? No one knows. Also, the things sticking out from my head is a reindeer antler, not some misguided curls.

There was a cocktail party in Kansas City a week later. No pics were taken. I work a cute purple dress. But my tights that claimed to be control top were not very controlling. Moving on.

Corporate Christmas party on Saturday night. I pulled out the big guns for this one. Super shiny top! I love it. Another awesome band played, Liquid Blue. The singers had a choreographed dance for every song and they played for hours. I was super impressed.

I love these girls. Our feet hurt (high price for heels) so we picked a table near the dance floor and did some people watching, learned some new dance moves, and found some dresses that should be on What Not to Wear.

Emily and Christi: Tennessee is not the same without you!

The hub, looking classic.

Elevator ride. Because I could never get him to take a super nice pic with me. Oh the burden I bare. I kind of love this pic actually.

Yeah so that wraps it up. We brought our big camera but sometimes we don't like carrying it around at parties. And we just love our little Iphones. But the moral of the story is, get yourself a nice sparkly top from Express. Thank me later.

And now on to folding laundry and my last of three in a row tomorrow... 

There's no place like home. And no shoes like ruby slippers.

We went home last weekend for a few days, short and sweet. We wanted to meet the new June bug. And she is so sweet! All these pics are from my iphone. Since I'm slightly obsessed with it and its picture taking capabilities.

And we are kind of obsessed with her big brother, who is growing like a weed! Seriously, this kid is adorable and hilarious. He changes so much every time we see him!

 We got lots of family time and included a trip to the Bass Pro Shop. My mom and bro just love the fish.

I also visited my Grandma Voth, who is 90. Wow.

 I had an afternoon with the besties and we hit up Pryde's in Westport. Ok, I did not even know this existed and I lived like a mile away from there for two years! Amazing kitchen store. Check out this chandelier made out of whisks. Love it.

 There is a pie shop inside the store so the whole place smells amazing.

 Cara modeling a sexy gardening hat.

Does anyone else love the owl trend that is happening right now?

Also, I'm in love with the instagram app on the iphone. I can't help it. All those wonderful filters...

 Love.

Caleb and I went to the Kansas sampler store to stock up on Kansas gear. I found this super sexy Dorothy wig to complete my Halloween costume. They said no one had ever bought one before. Ha.

Back to work on Halloween. I channeled my Kansas girl spirit. Red shoes: check. Mini Toto dog: check. Awesome Dorothy wig: triple check.

Are those red shoes dress code appropriate? I think not!

And there is our quick trip in a nutshell! I'm spending today cleaning, doing laundry, and doing errands. And going to the gym to get my butt kicked again. I could barely walk this weekend!

Last chance for the giveaway! I'll announce the winner later this week. You know you want some free Mary Kay! I also have been cooking up a storm, so I'll post some recipes as well.

Happy Monday!

Kansas City goodness

This post is a little belated since I got back from Kansas City late Saturday night. I was going to post on Sunday but then I was hanging out with my hubby all day. I worked on Monday and Tuesday (and it was a little crazy). Yesterday I was going to post, and then after spending most of the day shopping, I realized I should probably clean. I did buy three pairs of shoes at Target though. On sale. And they are super cute.

Anyway, our trip to Kansas was a success. We went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter, which was amazing. Caleb did make our group stand in line outside the theater starting at 7pm. It was really, really, really hot. I should have taken pictures of all the hilarious costumes people were wearing but I just wasn't in the mood. I was too dang hot. But the movie was seriously awesome. And they had butterbeer, which was super hilarious.

Butterscotch schnapps, cream soda, and a glow stick.

We spent the weekend hanging out with our families and celebrated Caleb's mom's birthday! We had a birthday cookout and spent the evening watching George do funny baby things. Because we are all obsessed with George.

Tell me this picture doesn't make you smile.

Caleb had to leave on Monday (boo work) and drove the whole 12 hours by himself. My husband is a rockstar. I got to stay for the rest of the week and spent lots of time hanging out with my family and friends. My parents celebrated their 27th wedding anniversary last Friday and we headed out to the Royals to brave the heat. We got some shady seats and loaded up on buck night goodies, so it was a good time.

27 years, people.

We also saw our all time favorite player, Johnny Damon. I like to call him Johnny D. And we cheered for him even though he was playing against the Royals and we love the Royals. Johnny D. played for the Wranglers (a previous Royals Double A team) when we lived in Wichita and we loved him. We have loved him throughout his major league career, long hair, and two wives.

Johnny D., you can totally get 3,000 hits. I believe in you.

Not only was it buck night, my parent's 27th anniversary, and Johnny D. day, it was also firework night.
I do love some good fireworks.

Saturday was my last day in Kansas. Kerry and I headed out to George's first birthday party. It was freaking hot. I am a committed aunt.

He is starting to walk!

It was so hot, the candy all melted. The kids didn't seem to mind though.

Layne, the other birthday boy, sucking melted gummy candy out of the package.

Birthday boy with his parents and super cute cake.

Kerry and I took some notes for our future children's bday parties as we sweated it out. (By future, I mean distant future.) So so cute! Check out Audrey and Jami's blogs here and here!

BFF pic (minus Cara! We love you Cara!)

I had a wonderful week but was so happy to get back to my hubby. I love Kansas City. And my man.

I hope you are having a wonderful week! This is my last day off before my work weekend so I'm trying to spend it getting some stuff done and not thinking about work! Happy Thursday!

I love Kansas City

We road tripped it up to Kansas City this past weekend for Caleb's brother, Jordan's high school graduation. It has been four long months since I have been HOME and it was beautiful! We left Thursday night and drove all the way through with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on cd to keep us company and we rocked it all night. We got there at 6am and since no one was up yet we decorated Jordan's car.

The rain washed it off later that day. But it's the thought that counts!

We hung out with my parents for the day and saw their rehab house project. I told them to make a blog about it. They looked at me like I was a little crazy.

Then we crashed around 3pm. That staying up all night eventually gets to you! Then we headed over to Zach and Audrey's to find out if their bun in the oven is a boy or girl. (It's a girl! So excited to buy girl stuff!) But mostly we went to see George. Sorry Zach and Aud, we love your spawn. That boy is like twice as big as he was four months ago (not an exaggeration) and totally knows how to ham it up for the camera. Love him.  And we met Audrey's sister Jami's new peanut, Penelope (and by new I mean, less than one week old!). Not gonna lie, holding babies makes my womb ache a little. Just a tiny tiny itty bitty bit.

Tell me that isn't the cutest face you've ever seen.

Saturday was the graduation extravaganza. Chipotle catering your grad party=genius. I love Chipotle. (But not as much as baby George.) We got to see tons of relatives that we hadn't seen since our wedding and had a blast.

Caleb and Grandma Baker

Caleb and Uncle Mike, who said he wanted a different pic if it was going on my blog.

I think George loved Grandma Baker, they hung out for awhile.

Baker fam.

Caleb and I are really bad influences. 

Haha.

I forgot to take pics of my fam or of my bff because I'm crazy. But I love them and loved seeing them! I finished up the trip by waking up on Monday with awful back pain. I dislike hard mattresses. Very very much. Thanks to some muscle relaxers from my father-in-law, I'm good to go. Because as a nurse, I encourage people to share their prescription meds. (Oh wait...)

We rolled in at 3am, crashed for awhile, and now it's back to real life! I love Kansas City, family, and home.

There's no place like home...Part Two

Ahh nothing like spending your Friday night eating leftover pasta, watching Chopped, and blogging. Aren't you jealous? I know, I know. Ha.

Time for part two of the home visit!

We spent an afternoon with Zach and Audrey in Kansas City at the wonderful Boulevard Brewery. In case you didn't know, you can take a FREE tour with FREE beer samples at the end. It is super fun and the brewery is beautiful.

The room with barrels of beer was my fave! It smelled SO good!

Delightful.

We had so much fun. Just another reason to love Kansas City.

Next up: Kiewit district meeting. This where everyone in the whole district gets together. The guys have lots of meetings. The girls have fun group events, go shopping, and get gifts. This year they gave us Vera Bradley makeup bags. That's right ladies, if your man works for Kiewit you get a sweet bag. Oh you don't want to move about the country at random? But the bag is so awesome...

Anyway, we had fun seeing people that we miss from KC and going to the four course dinner parties at night. And we stayed at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center, which was pretty sweet. I didn't take lots of pics because there is no where to stash my camera in a little black dress.

I love city views so here is the morning and night views from our 30th floor room. You are looking at the Sprint Center and P&L. And somewhere towards the left is the place where we had our wedding reception. Awww. There is also one of Mat sleeping. He loves those meetings. And me and some sweet girls that are surviving TN with me, Paige and Natalya.

Our last day in KC we went to the KU vs Nebraska basketball game in the epic Allen Fieldhouse. This is one of our favorite places in the world. Caleb got four tickets for Christmas (from his awesome wife) and so he decided to take Jordan and Mat.

Check out that sweet NCAA championship trophy.

Again with the refusing to smile. Embrace it.

It was a great game and KU won! (Duh.)

Other highlights of the trip:
-snow days!
-going to Westside Family Church again...we miss it
-Mi Ranchito
-Chipotle
-seeing my beautiful Grandma Voth
-meeting Caleb's sister Audrey's middle school classes
-seeing the super cute Alana Ryan and Ashley Wills
-a late night Applebee's hangout with my brother
-just spending time with our families!

Loved this trip. I miss Kansas City and can't wait to live there again!
Have a wonderful weekend! I will be saving lives, teaching a new grad the ropes, and telling doctors what to do. Aren't you jealous?

One last photo for you to enjoy...

Rock Chalk!

Tune in Monday for the closet clean out...before and after pictures promised!

There's no place like home...

So we went home for ten days...and it was wonderful. We were pretty disappointed that we had to miss Christmas with our families but this was a great time! I kind of took a massive amount of pictures...and even missed some stuff I should have taken photos of. Oh well. But this post will come in two parts because there is just too much stuff!

Family Christmas dinner with the Bakers...we finally got to meet Tessa, Jordan's super cute girlfriend! It was her 19th birthday so we had to celebrate. And I'm pretty sure Joe hates taking pictures as much as Caleb does.

Obviously we are in love with baby George. He wants to crawl so bad!

So freaking cute. Don't you just want to kiss those cheeks??

More of us and George. Obsessed.

He loves hanging out with Grandma!

I got to see my bffs, Kerry and Cara. Kerry made a yummy dinner and we sat around and drank some wine and had some girl talk. I miss that a lot here! And I took no pictures of it...sad. But I love those girls! We didn't go ice skating like I promised Cara. It was just too dang cold! Next year, Cara, next year.

My beautiful Grandma Frank was in town too! She taught me how to make a blueberry pie for the Voth Christmas dinner. We had a blast.

Grandma is a pie making pro.

After Voth Christmas dinner, the boys all disappeared and my mom did facials for the girls. She will give you a FREE Mary Kay facial if you want one!

So fun!

Part two will be posted tomorrow night...don't fret. 

I went to the gym this morning (only because I had to go downstairs to move my car...and figured I should make the trip worthwhile). The guy that works there said "Oh hey, I haven't seen you in awhile!" Thanks gym guy. Maybe that's why I huffed and puffed my way through the tredmill and eliptical. I think I can, I think I can...

I also started the state of the house project today. (I've been working the last couple days, give me a break.) I cleaned and organized the bedroom. It took like...an hour. I even cleaned under the bed and put up pictures. So I was pretty happy with myself to get it done in such a short amount of time. Even though this is the least cluttered room of the house. It was a good way to start out the project! I also remembered why my house is cluttered and a mess. Because I work all the time. And on my days off here are the things I want to do: 1. lay in bed and watch the Today Show and drink coffee, 2. go to the gym, 3. bake things, 4. catch up on all my dvr'd shows. *Sigh* I will not give up. 

I'm working all weekend and so my sweet hubby who has been working his butt off all week can play xbox in peace. Closet cleaning time on Monday. Watch out closet!

The hub is going to a concert tomorrow night so when I get home from work I will post the rest of our fun trip! Have a beautiful weekend! And enjoy your snow days all you lucky KC people!