February…short month, lots of plans

Our February brought wedding planning to the top of our to-do lists….I went dress shopping, we picked out flowers, more marriage prep classes and had several wedding cake tastings…and, wow…what a surprise.  One quote for a wedding cake was $960.00, Doug and I about fell out of our chairs!  That would equate to about $5.00 a slice!  Needless to say we kept shopping around and think we have a much better option lined up.  We know weddings are expensive, but  seriously do people actually spend $1000 on a cake!

We also celebrated the Superbowl at my brother’s house, well minus my brother who spent the evening in the ER from a trampoline incident in his backyard.  I guess he better have a talk with Santa about the gifts he bring the kids!  We celebrated Valentine’s Day at BARcelona (http://www.barcelonatapas.com/ ), a great Tapas restaurant in Clayton.  We also celebrated my Grandma’s 91st birthday, and she seem healthier than she has in the past six months.  We also took my nephew Justin to his first Ash Wednesday Mass, which was an honor to take him as his godparent.  He is in PSR, so is learning all about Lent.

Other than that, we are looking forward to March….a new nephew’s arrival, St. Patrick’s Day and Doug’s birthday!

Excited to Begin the New Year…January 2010

We were very excited to begin 2010, as we have a lot of great events to look forward to this year…most of all the wedding!  We spent New Year’s Eve with our great friends Sue and Phil with dinner at a Japanese restaurant then on to a party.  The next day, January 1 was Doug’s grandmother’s 96th birthday so we joined her for a birthday party.  She is so cute!  We also had our marriage preparation weekend in January spending the weekend at a retreat center for the Catholic Engaged Encounter program.  We also had a skating party for our nephew, Justin, who turned 7 years old…it was a blast, and Doug and I both skated for the first time in years!  Our pets, Griffey and Alice had birthdays…Griffey turned 9 and Ali turned 2!  We ended the month with Doug fishing in the 20-degree weather and I went wedding dress shopping.  Started out as a fabulous year so far…enjoy our pics!

Random Pics of the Pets…

Here are recent and random pictures of Griffey and Ali.  We are still amazed that they have come so far from their first meeting.  When we introduced them for the first time, it was an all out war!  And the war continued for about a month.  Now, however, they have learned to tolerate each other and have even been spotted sleeping in the bed at the same time.  Alice turned 2 and Griffey turned 9 in January.  My favorite pics are of them each sleeping on the leather sofa…the one place they are not allowed….well, you can see how well that goes over!  I also love the pic of Doug in his camo with Griffey and the duck….the only duck Griffey will actually retrieve is a stuffed one!  To Doug’s dismay, his hunting dog is just not gonna hunt!

Christmas 2009 in Chicago!

We had a great Christmas this year!  We celebrated Christmas with Jaime’s family the Saturday before Christmas with a party and dinner at our house, then on Sunday we had Christmas with each other and our pets…then on Dec. 23, after work, we headed to Chicago to spend Christmas with the Ludwigs.  We had a great time in Chicago, spending time with Doug’s family, we had a snowy, white Christmas and spent some time in downtown Chicago.  Doug’s dad dressed like Santa on Christmas Eve and we took some cute family photos.  We watched movies, played games, cooked and ate a lot of great meals.

Our day in the city was fabulous….we went to the Museum of Science and Industry, then over to see the Bean, the headed to a local bar called Tavern at the Park to have a few drinks and warm up, then headed over to Macy’s for some shopping before having dinner at Navy Pier.  It was a perfect day and had a steady snow fall most of the day.

Then, on Sunday, before we headed home, we celebrated Doug’s niece April’s 18th birthday!  Here are some of our photos…

Christmas 2009 in St. Louis!

We celebrated Christmas with the Powers side the weekend before Christmas since we were heading to Chicago for the holiday….we had a great time with dinner and a party at our house.  Jaime’s two nephews and niece had a great time opening their gifts and we played Rob Your Neighbor with some pretty goofy gag gifts.  We were very glad that Jaime’s Grandma was able to join us, as she hasn’t been in the greatest of health lately, but she joined us and had a great night.

Santa Paws Comes to Our House

Well…needless to say Griffey and Alice (Ali) were spoiled this Christmas!  Santa Paws came and brought them each gifts.  Griffey, who is finally on the mend, received a huge bone and Miss Ali Cat got a kitty tunnel….both are pleased with their gifts.  We love the picture of the two of them with their gifts…mainly beacuse of how close they are…a huge difference – and progress – from when we first brought Ali home.  It was complete chaos for about a month…they were both terrified of each other and we had to keep them seperated….and now, they have learned to tolerate each other…we have even caught them sleeping in the same bed at the same time.  We are not sure they will ever be best of friends…but it is peaceful in the house now.

Griffey, who had been suffering from an infected hot spot, is finally healing…after four trips to the vet, 6 rounds of meds and just about every over the counter health aid we could find…we finally have it under control.  Poor guy, he was pretty miserable for awhile…now he is back to his usual antics…like stealing our socks!

So, the pets are doing great, and my only complaint now is that both of them follow their daddy around wherever he goes…I am the odd man out here!

Holiday Message From Us!

Merry Christmas!  Many of you are probably visiting our site for the first time, because you may received our save-the-date magnets for our wedding in your Christmas cards.  Welcome to our blog…our thoughts about our life together, our pets, our upcoming wedding…including information for our out of town guests.

We have a lot of wonderful things to celebrate this year, and we are definitely looking forward to 2010.  We hope your holiday season and the New Year is filled with many blessings!

Christmas 08 - Doug buys me camo!

Love,  Jaime & Doug

Christmas with the Pets

Well…this is Ali’s first Christmas with us, and maybe her first Christmas ever, as she was in an animal shelter for most of last year.  And, let’s just say that she has embraced Christmas fully.  She loves to lay under both trees (we have an artificial one upstairs and a real tree downstairs)…we even put her blanket under the tree so she doesn’t have to sleep on the floor.  And she thoroughly enjoys the wrapping paper and boxes…and batting ornaments off the tree.  It has been humorous watching her.  Thankfully enough she has not scaled the trees.

Mr. Griffey is going on his 8th Christmas, so he is a pro!  But the holiday decorations are old news for him…unless it is a stuffed snowman, he pretty much minds his own business.  He is having a traumatic holiday…he is still suffering from his hot spot, and it has gotten worse before healing.  We are on the 4th rounds of meds, three trips to the vet and every over the counter relief we can find.  He is a bit mopey with it, so he has an extra huge bone under the tree for him this year.

November 09: Thanksgiving and Hunting

Our November is summed up by two words…hunting and Thanksgiving!

Doug went on his annual 10-day hunting trip with the guys, on the hunt for a buck and doe…this year the weather did not cooperate, and there will not be a fresh supply of venison in our freezer.  But, he still had a great time outdoors and hanging with the guys.

Thanksgiving was in St. Louis this year, and all of Doug’s family were in town.  We had Thanksgiving at his sister Racheal’s new house and had a delicious meal…minus the turkey…long story and I am afraid Doug still may feel it is too soon to joke about yet…let’s just say it was a turkey fryer malfunction.  I told him he has a year to master it before next Thanksgiving.

While Doug’s parents were in town for the holiday, we had dinner at the restaurant where we will have the rehearsal dinner…appropriately named Mother In Law House on Historic Main Street St. Charles. http://www.historicstcharles.com/visitors.aspx and http://www.motherinlawhouse.com/

And, lastly over Thanksgiving weekend, our golden Griffey developed a hot spot that led us to an unexpected trip to the vet…this is the first one he has had in his almost 9 years…and we are still working to treat it so it will heal.  Poor guy he is a bit miserable.

Overall, we had a great November and are now in full Christmas mode!

Engagement Pics

In October, we went to a local park during the peak of the leaves changing, and our sister-in-law, Erica Powers, took our engagement photos.  We have had a gorgeous fall, with several days of beautiful weather…(despite two weeks of straight rain).  The pictures turned out great.  As we were viewing them for the first time, I started to cry…and, Doug (looking all concerned) asked me what was wrong…I told him I was crying because we look so happy in the photos and Erica really captured that.  He said, “well we are that happy.”  And, that is why I love him!  :)