A Winter Themed Bridal Shower

Wedding preparations are in full swing for not one, but TWO of my sister-in-laws.  Both of the lovely brides-to-be will be moving to the great northern country of Canada in less than two months!  It will be very sad to see them go, but they have found wonderful men so I know they will be happy in their new life!

Joylin will be the first sister-in-law to tie the knot so we threw her a winter themed bridal shower at our house.  Lillia, Hope, and Joy actually got to come for a few days before to help me decorate and prepare for the shower.  Aunt Sharon was so kind and offered to help so she made a soup and Shalom made delicious herb dinner rolls.  Hannah and Joanna also made delicious soups for the meal and then I took care of making a salad.

We set up tables for the ladies to eat at in our living room.  I used blanket scarves as the table runners, evergreen sprigs from my in-laws trees were part of the table scape, and Justin so sweetly made the log candle holders for me!

We also had seasoned pretzels in brown paper bags on each table for the ladies to snack on.

Since we tried to go with a more wintery theme, I thought a hot cocoa bar would be something fun for the ladies to enjoy.  I found a recipe on Pinterest for hot chocolate in the crockpot and I will be doing it again!  It was so easy and yummy.

Juliana made the delicious cake for dessert.  Berry vanilla cake with lemon buttercream icing and strawberries and raspberries to top it off.... it was superb!!

She put berries in between the layers of the cake so every bite was a delicious combination of all the ingredients!

A close up of the cocoa bar toppings... caramel, white, and regular chocolate chips, marshmallows, whipped cream, sprinkles, and candy canes to stir it all together!

Natalia and Benaiah with the bride-to-be and Jenny :)

(We are all so excited for Jenny's little one to arrive in March!!)

I wrote little tags to place in front of each soup choice...

We had the soup served and ready for the ladies to take so the food line wouldn't take too long.

After lunch and dessert we had a few games to play...

We had two games.  One was a game where you had to circle the choice you thought the bride would pick and then on the other side you had to pick which answer you thought the groom would chose.

Comment below which choices you think they picked!!
(you can copy and paste this to make it easier 😄)

sleep in late or get up early?
live in the country or live in the city?
cook dinner or do the dishes?
travel the world or explore locally?
own a dog or own a cat?
walk the beach or hike the mountains?
coffee or hot tea?
cookies n cream or raspberry ice cream?
stay at home or go out?

We also played the "I Love You" game where they had to match the language with the correct translation.  Two of the ladies who participated got all ten correct!!  How many can you get right? 😄

 Opening gifts... everyone was so generous and Joylin received many nice things.

A lot of the gifts Joylin was given were very useful things like warm winter boots, a scarf set, alpaca wool socks, etc.  She also received a few household items as well! :)

Joylin with her mom and two sisters.  

Jenny had already left before we got this picture :)

For the backdrop I used half of our ping-pong table and draped navy fabric over it.  I used a string of icicle lights and then I cut out the "C" from a piece of cardboard and painted it red since Joylin's married name will be "Cook".  I used two large evergreen sprigs from my in-laws trees for the top and then I placed a faux evergreen bunch with white berries and glitter in the middle to tie everything together.

The favors were mini pies that my sisters helped me make the day before the shower.  We did apple, cherry, and peach pies.  I had seen the idea on Pinterest and thought it was really cute and a yummy favor idea!  (What would I do without Pinterest?! 🙈)

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Congratulations to the happy couple!  

We love you both and are so excited for you to begin your life together!  

We will miss Joylin, but we know Spencer will take good care of her :)

Benaiah is on the move!

While we were in Texas, Benaiah started crawling!  He had been "swimming" for a few weeks already but he hadn't "crawled" yet so this was a fun milestone for us as first time parents!  I put together some of the videos from when we were in Texas and one from when we got home.  Enjoy!



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Yesterday Benaiah hit the seven month mark!  

We love this little dude so much!

Thanksgiving 2017

This year Justin and I thought it would be fun to have our families for Thanksgiving at our house. My family wasn't able to come for Thanksgiving Day so Elainah, David, Benjamin, and my mom came for a few days before.

Oma and her grandson :)

Justin's hunting backpack came while they were here so Benjamin helped him test it out!

Benjamin just lounging with our new kitten and fixing his gun. 

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Mom and the kids left early Thanksgiving morning so they would be home with the rest of the Sanger's for dinner in PA.  The Strite's all arrived by noon for our Thanksgiving meal. 

Mommy helped me make favors for everyone.

Kids table in the kitchen.

The kids table had an activity tablecloth that they could color.

All the yummy food...

 Aunt Sharon and her girls made the adorable turkey vegetable tray.

Dessert table...

Looks like the kids tablecloth was an attraction for all ages! :)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with everyone!

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2 Weeks in Texas

Justin's boss, Shawn, has sold his farm here in Arizona and is in the process of moving to his new farm in Texas.  He asked Justin if he would like to drive a load down to the farm and work for a few weeks.  The bonus part was that Benaiah and I got to go along too!

This was the load we took. 

Shawn and his dad also drove a semi loaded with a disk and some other farm supplies.

This is the canal that runs right past the shop on the farm.  Justin saw an alligator further down it on the bank one day!

We stayed at the house Shawn's in-laws have purchased in Texas.  The backyard view was pretty nice! :)

These longhorns roam the field behind the house.

Little man started crawling and pulling himself up on things while we were there!

Justin worked long days in the fields.  These fields had cotton in them this summer so they needed to be prepared for planting next spring.  First they mow all the cotton stalks and then they use an implement that pulls the roots and flings them out behind the tractor.

Next all the fields have to be disked.  Then they use an implement called a "lister cultivator" that makes elevated rows for the planter to plant the cotton seeds in when springtime comes around.

We got to ride with Justin quite a bit, which wasn't a problem for this happy guy!  He loves tractor riding!

Grocery shopping with this little cutie sure is fun! :)

Shawn's father-in-law also bought a former catfish farm and all the catfish left in the ponds are going to die.  So we went one afternoon and caught as many as we could.  We filleted all of them and then froze the meat to take back to AZ with us!

Watching daddy reel in a fish :)

"I think I know how this works!"

The one on the right was the biggest fish Justin caught!

Justin also went fishing in the Colorado River.  No, this is not the same Colorado River that runs through the Grand Canyon :)

On Sunday's Justin had off work, so the first weekend we went to the beach in Sargent.

Benaiah loved standing in the sand...

...until a wave came in and he wasn't to sure what to think!! :)

We also drove to Jamaica Beach on Galveston Island the first Sunday... along the drive there we saw sooo many amazing beach houses!  This is one of the more majestic ones...

Enjoying the water at Jamaica Beach.

I found some cool shells but didn't realize that one of the shells I picked up had a hermit crab living in it!

The second Sunday we went and saw the shrimp boats in Palacios.

We also went to the beach in Matagorda the second Sunday.

We walked out on this pier...

At the end there was a bridge where you could walk over to the jetty and onto the beach if you wanted.

On our way home from the beach in Matagorda we saw some wild hogs.  The way they are running reminds me of, "and this little piggy ran allll the way home!" lol  We also saw an alligator in a marshy area but didn't get a very good picture.

The day before we left to fly back to Arizona, Justin went fishing one more time.

We aren't sure what kind of fish this is, notice the little tooth thing on the top of its mouth?

If you know what kind of fish it is, leave a comment and let us know! 

Justin found this little baby lizard/gecko in the garage before we left.

We had a really fun time while we were in Texas, it was like a mini vacation for us!