Home for the Holidays

We've been listening to Christmas music at work since November 1 and it has not just caught up with me how excited I am for the holidays! This weekend we are heading to West Point, Iowa to spend Thanksgiving with Deren's family. On Thanksgiving day we will be in Woodbury, Minnesota with my family. The holidays bring a lot of driving for Deren and I - we're no stranger to road trips these days though! I'm also so excited for black Friday, picking up my wedding dress and other wedding appointments for us. All in all, I can't wait to be home for the holidays :)

Life is good.

Des Moines has stolen Deren away from me for the week - while he's in Iowa doing some training sessions for work I'm here in KC holding down the fort. Luckily I've just picked up a second job at a pre-school so my days won't be filled with TLC and Maury (although I do love day time TV).

We have been so lucky to have two weekends in a row filled with friends' visits. This past weekend Mike, Damion and Adam made the trek. We were able to show them P&L and the plaza. We were down in the plaza just in time to swing into a sports bar to watch the Hawkeyes beat #3 Penn State! WOOO! Even in Missouri we were surrounded by a few Iowa fans. It's so nice to run into 'familiar' faces. Like always the weekend flew by.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner. I'm so excited to make the trips to Iowa and MN to be with family and friends. We were lucky enough to make a lot of wedding appointments over the holidays. So, wedding planning will be in full swing in t-minus three weeks. Wedding planning is fun, but I think I speak for Deren when I say how happy I am that weddings only happen once in a lifetime :) We're so thrilled to have all of our closest friends and family in one place at one time. We're also so lucky to have been giving (and continuing getting) such wonderful advice from the already married folks.

Engagement Pictures

We have also been lucky enough to have our dear friend, Abbey Feldkamp, take our engagement pictures. Her photography has taken off within, what feels like, a split second! Here are some of our favorites....








Check out Abbey's wonderful work!

Feldkamphotography

Fall Flings

Time has been flying by! It's already November 1. We've been enjoying Missouri's beautiful fall scenery and weather. We visited the local pumpkin patch and carved pumpkins for Halloween. Deren's is always better than mine - I'm not good with a knife.



As always we've been busy with road trips to visit friends and families. During our first autumn in KC we were lucky enough to have a few friends and family visit us! Deren's grandparents made the trip down the Missouri to visit friends and were able to stop up to see us and go out to lunch. My friends from Minnesota - Meghan, Jenni and Abbey - were able to make the long 7 hour drive down to Kansas City for Halloween. It was so fun to show them around our new stomping grounds :)

I'm looking forward to the holidays already and being with family in MN and Iowa. I'll see how long I can hold off with the Christmas music but I have a feeling my old Nsync Christmas CD might come out sooner than later :)