Laborless labor day weekend.

Labor Day weekend was really quiet in the BB household.

Grounded child equals cancelled plans.

It also meant a really really quiet weekend.

That we totally soaked up and enjoyed!

I felt like being domestic and made 2 dozen 100% whole wheat cinnamon rolls...

ding ding. our tastebuds were ringing the sweet tooth alarm all weekend with these sitting there all glazed and gooey.

We finished them off in just three days...between the three of us.

yeah, yeah, i did some extra miles on my run to burn these babies off!

We played with this little fella, as he ran and roamed around his territory, aka, the kitchen area, nicely gated, but he's figured out the side of the fence that gets loose quicker and has made a few jail run attempts.

I did some menu planning.

I love organizing my meals and knowing what exactly i'm going to be cooking and which day of the week i'll be making it.

my favorite part is going to the grocery store and getting all the ingredients.

one day i want one of those menu chalkboards that I can mount on the wall and fill in each week.

For now, I just use my handy dandy free from our bank notepad to hold the menu for the week;).

In honor of labor day, since we couldn't go anywhere (cuz of the grounded one's restrictions) ryan and I did a little partying of our own.

Ryan grilled, I made sides, and Alexio raced around and around our yard.

Ryan makes the BEST steaks.EVER. 

they are seriously the best red meat I've ever placed in my mouth.

Talk about making tastebuds dance and go crazy.

These steaks do this to me.

After our grilling and our meal with the grounded one, 

we had a Bourne trilogy movie watching marathon...well, over three nights.

I have a really difficult time staying awake when it gets close to 8:30...

I tried so hard, but normally i end up falling over and passing out til my bedtime at 10:15.

So that was our truly exciting weekend.

I loved being home with Ryan and Alexio.

It was a great start to fall.

Can't wait! September and October hold such exciting things for us!

Back to school campout

While Ryan's away camping with the pastors, we've been doing a little campout of our own.

It's also the last night to enjoy late night fun, because from here on out, we're back to our school schedule of early bedtimes and early rising! 

So, we had pizza, junk food, pop, and popcorn while watching movie after movie. (All things that rarely make an appearance in this calorie-counting home.) Both lil guy and I had really good hard workouts (football for him, strength training at the gym for me!) so we felt like we could enjoy one last night of celebration for summer.

We've both set up camp in the living room and fell asleep to a marathon of Pair of Kings on netflix.

here we are the morning after-he's still sleeping and enjoying his last morning of sleeping past 7.
Both of us are pretty pumped to go back and see the kiddos and teachers at school, but we're both trying to hang on to the little bit of summer freedom that we have left.

Here's to a brand new school year, fresh fall weather, and early mornings! 
So thankful for the summer and the many things we got to do!

Spontaneous Anniversary

this is waaaaay over due.

and i'm only blogging late on this, because i originally wanted to write detailed descriptions on everything.

however, lots of happenings in the Brandenberger household, so this has been delayed up until now.

Can I first say, that I cannot believe it's actually been 3 years of marriage with this wonderful man?!

We've been together for 7 years all together, and life with him is absolutely blissful.

We've grown so much in the years together (sideways and front ways, lol, and back down again), I can't believe we've been in each other's lives for this long.

 [2006-JSB banquet...my freshman year]

 2008-Senior year - JSB

 I love knowing that I'll get to grow old with this man.

and that he'll be the daddy of our kiddos one day.

That with all the love we share, we get to expect each day to get better and grow closer with each other.

It's something to be celebrated. 

So we did.

Ryan and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary with an unexpected twist.

We usually get away for a vacation around the time of our anniversary, but this year we didn't plan on going anywhere, because of not having enough respite days to leave our foster child with another family, and also with our new puppy, we just did not see how it'd work to get away.

But with some dear friends' offers to take care of both lil guy and Alexio, we were excited for the chance to go somewhere just the two of us. We didn't even know where we were going to go until the night before our anniversary-which added to the excitement of it all.

Ryan surprised me with some gifts that went with the theme of the year (Leather is the theme of the third year of marriage...last year was cotton and next year is fruit/flowers...google it, and you'll understand;))

He surprised me with two beautiful purses that he picked out himself.

the night before we left, he presented me with two big boxes and I was impressed with his choices. 

(i'm not going to enlarge this pic, because i'm in my pjs, with no makeup, no hair done, and no bra. so this side will have to do.) 

We took the trip out to Minneapolise, the same location we went on our first anniversary, but this time, we hadn't planned on going...we just up and went!

We have an annual tradition of hitting an amusement park every single year, so this year was Valley Fair....

to be honest, we weren't impressed, and the rollercoasters weren't terribly exciting, so I think we will retire going to the amusement parks in the midwest and stick to going to the good ones on the coast. 

we still had such a fun time hitting all the thrill rides and trying not to freeze from all the water rides.

We stayed at the Sheraton in downtown Minneapolise, where we enjoyed the luxury of the Club guest floor, which gave us access to all the fun and yummy stuff in the hotel.

It was a good pick...ryan usually picks really fun places to stay at.

We got to reminisce old memories of dating each other at McCormicks and Schmicks, which is a happy date place we'd find ourselves at, usually at 10 or 11 at night during happy hour.

Food is really the best part of trips for me, and i enjoyed splurging from healthy eating and eating at places i normally don't get to eat at. Breakfast in a restauarant is key to whether or not I like staying there. 

This place passed. i liked everything i ate.

Mall of America has some new additions to the stores and entertainmet. this is one of them. Go in there and I dare you not to laugh at the merchandise in the store. its kinda ridiculous.

I've been craving sushi...and it was the first restaurant we saw when we stepped into the mall.

There's really nowhere to get it here in storm lake, so was a treat.

It was such an unexpected trip and fun time together, just the two of us.

What a blessing to get to be together on our anniversary, refresh our relationship, and re-energize ourselves for this next school year ahead..

Thanks to all ya'll that let us go on our trip! 

overnight guests

[this is the early morning of their departure...we're both lacking alot of sleep, but it was too enjoyable to stop talking late into the night!]

This week we got to have some sweet time with one of my bridesmaids and her husband.

They stopped by our house on their move from Washington state to Ohio.

Walking with the dog.

Sitting down to a meal and talking and laughing over dinner.

Getting to give them a quick sneak peek of our crazy life with kids.

Staying up really late, sitting on the kitchen floor, with Lindsay. 

Waking up really early for breakfast and to wish them farewell and safe travels.

These are just some of what we did in the 13 hours that they stayed in Storm Lake:)

sigh.

it was such a nice time...and it went all too quickly.

It was like getting a tiny piece of Beaufort, South Carolina, in my home in Storm Lake, IA.

Reminiscing with Lindsay and realizing how much time has flown over the years was so fun.

Had such a wonderful time having ya'll stop in!

call me crazy

Someone noticed how many pictures I was putting up on Facebook of this lil pup.

It made me laugh when she made her comment,"If you're like this with a puppy, I can imagine when you have kids!"

It's true! And I didn't even noticed how many pics I had taken of this lil dude.

Usually I only have my iPhone, and formal pics with my Rebel just isn't an option sometimes with his crazy hyper moments that come out of nowhere.

But he has so many adorable moments.

And you'll be seeing so many pics of this guy as he grows up.

Because, well, as stubborn and aggressive as he is as a puppy, I can't get enough of his puppy dog eyes and his cute lil tongue hanging out of his mouth.

[walks are getting better and better with him. He's not as scared, and enjoys exploring with his nose. one day, i'll have him running with me!]

[he's not allowed on the carpet yet, but sometimes we lay out blankets so he can join us in the living room...he's figured out the only way to stay in the living room is by staying on the carpet!]

[date with my puppy at the beach, while waiting for his brother in swim lessons]

[fell asleep while helping mom out on the laptop]

Right now, we have conquered "sit" and working on "down."

"Come" is one of those commands that he decides whether he wants to or not...don't worry, I"m working on changing that;)

He can "Shake" and "stay" is not far from him knowing it.

Who knew that a puppy can learn and change so much in just a few short days! 

By the way, we know that he's half Beagle...anyone out there have a clue of what the other half of him might be? Any guesses?

Mom's day

 Happy birthday to the most amazing woman I know!

It's my mom's birthday.

and she looks this good.

Her hair is still naturally all black...hope I have that young gene!

She's the most amazing mom I know.

And she deserves to have the best of the best day.

Love you, Mom.

Wish I were with you to celebrate your bday, eat Buffalo Wild Wings, and watch the Olympics opening ceremony! 

You're the best! Hope you have an extra special day with the family!:)

Pretty poppy picture team!

This week at Summer Sizzle, I had the fun task of being the photographer. 

I traveled around on my bike going from place to place to get some fun shots of the campers.

I had two of the BEST helpers while I took pics.

Before we got started, we waited around for their dad to pick up their siblings and friend, so we had a fun little photo shoot with everyone.

Now, isn't she just precious? 

She carried my list of different teams that we needed pics of, and as we took the pictures, she marked off the teams so we could keep track of the teams that were left! 

She kept me laughing with her funny "grown-up" ways of explaining things, and how seriously she took her job. She did GREAT.

This girl came with me for TWO days this week, helping out and keeping me company. 

She rocked, because she "tested" all the field trips - the gymnastics center, the beauty salon (she got pampered and got her hair, make up, and nails done!), and sailing. 

and of course, we had to "test" the ice cream at the ice cream shoppe to make sure it was yummy for a hot summer day.

This lil one didn't come with me to take pics, but she LOVED getting her pictures taken. She kept saying, "Mrs. BB, take of picture of me like this!" and then give me this huge hammy grin.

Her blue eyes are to die for, as they seem to get brighter and bluer each time I see her!

and right when I was taking this fun shot of the girls, their bro popped his head out through those doors.

Perfect timing, eh?!

(and then I asked him to do it again, but the posed shot didn't look as fun as the real one, so I stuck to this one.)

and here they are! The fabulously cute four!

More pic of Summer Sizzle to come...

I've been working on a slide show video and was flipping through pics and couldn't help but share these pictures with ya'll. 

enjoy!

p.s. the sweet headbands that they are wearing are courtesy of my sister's shop, Much Love, Illy. All three of us wore these headbands while we took pics of camp. It was our team uniform!:)