Hello AGAIN!

Whew! Guys! Sorry for the silence! (insert emoji here) (on an early side note I literally feel like I can't express myself correctly through text without emoji's. it might be a problem! ;))

Well. Happy 2014!

And goodbye to all of January, February and half of March! Honestly. Where does the time go?! I can't even handle it! And the crazy part about all this is, my busy season is JUST getting started! (insert another emoji here)

2014 Has already been so wonderful.  I feel like maybe, really in my 26 (almost 27th) year of life I'm really figuring out who I am, what I want out of life. Searching for God's will in my life has always been a challenging, frustrating, exciting journey.  I'm not always ready for some of the things I find out about it - but like with everything else - His will and vision is better than mine and He does everything for my Joy & His Glory. Such a comforting feeling knowing that!

I remember years ago (I know, I feel SO old these days) when I told someone for the first time I wanted to be a "photographer".  I could barely get the word out! It felt so foreign and crazy to me! Like a dream. One that might never come true - but when I finally really believed it and got over my fears, my insecurities about it... Look where I am today.  So whenever a new dream comes to my head I always feel that same way.  Fearful. The fear of the unknown. The fear of failing. The fear of - everyone would laugh at me if I told them this is really something I would like to do! 

Lucky for me, I have this incredible guy in my life who believes in me more than I believe in myself and patiently and lovingly pushes me to get past those fears, to trust God, and to not be afraid to dream or to know that fear is not of God's character and every time I feel this way it's an attack on my heart, my soul, my very being by the enemy that wants to hold me back from my full potential in glorifying God with my talents and dreams!

All that was just to say - I've got dreams stirring in my heart, I see and feel change on the horizon and I'm so excited and thankful for it! I'm ready to jump all in with both feet and push myself to the next level!

I sat down at my blog not really having a plan for what I was gonna write about or if I had any pictures to share - so I'll just leave with some recent photos I've snapped with the ol' iphone! :)

Hopefully I'll be back soon! :)

Just so you know what's going on in all the photos here (starting at the top left and going clockwise) I ordered a couple pairs of floral leggings for spring and they are literally the most comfortable things I kind of don't even care how they look I will wear them forever just because they feel so good and Aric likes to make fun of me for it! haha! Next Aric had ridden Brad's scooter home so a couple Sunday's ago we went for a little joy ride around the neighborhood when the weather was so nice!  On that note, We spent one of our last free Saturday afternoon's with the Tucker's looking for bikes so we could all start going on bike rides together, the day we bought some we tested them out around the neighborhood just the two of us and I can't wait for the weather to be nice so we can do it every night! and Lastly Aric's been growing a mean beard and I have to admit, I think it's kinda cute! ;)

Homemade Lasagna

One of my most favorite pastimes has become eating with friends.  There's just something so genuine and heartfelt about spending an evening together, chatting and enjoying good food together.  Our friends Matt & Jessica are AMAZING cooks! (more on that in the next post hopefully...yes I know I'm so behind on things...)  They always invite us over and serve the most delicious homemade meals!  So I decided to try and actually cook something from scratch myself! Aric & I went to one of the new "organic" grocery stores in town and stocked up on all the best ingredients to make some homemade lasagna.  This particular night as I whipped up some lasagna he was outside working on one of his projects in the garage!  We invited Matt & Jessica over to critique my work (haha) and enjoyed a beautiful night sitting on the patio eating and drinking wine!  Perfect night indeed!

Looking back through the pictures from this night just makes me happy.  And SO so thankful. For friends. For our home. My kitchen, Aric's handyman work...so many things.  Life is crazy right now. I mean when is it not, really.  But my head has been spinning lately with a million to-do's and not nearly enough time! So even just taking a few minutes for myself to post this little blog was good for the soul. I'm really tempted to go take some pictures of the house with the Christmas decor up...(even though it's not completely ready)...but maybe I'll go ahead and wait so you get the full effect!

I still have to blog about our cooking class!!!!! (eek!)

Happy happy!

xoxo

-casey

October Cooking Class!

We've talked about having a cooking class for a few months now.  Cooking is Matt & Jessica's favorite thing to do together. (unlike most people I know) And we just thought it would be such a cool experience to get a few couples together and enjoy a fun date night where we all cooked together, learned some new stuff and then enjoyed a great meal!  It was definitely a night to remember and I can't wait until we do it again!! 

The guys learned to make a drink called an "old fashioned" and everyone got to take home a shot measuring cup and those wooden muddlers!

Here they are makin' those drinks!

Now we are right into the cooking... I believe we were all trying to correctly mix the aioli for our homemade dressing for our wedge salads!

a salad never tasted so good!! We made the sun dried tomatoes, croutons and dressing ourselves!

Next, Matt taught the guys how to properly butcher a chicken!

I guess I kind of stopped taking pictures there, but we also made the dredge and fried the chicken, and made the most delicious and creamy garlic mashed potatoes!  And then Jessica had made some of her famous chocolate chip cookie dough that we baked up for dessert!

The best kind of night!

Such a fun group!

Road trips with friends...

...are the best. When Jessica told us that John Mayer was playing in Albuquerque we knew we had to go.  Even if it was right after we got back from a ridiculously long vacation to Europe! Albuquerque is Aric's home town, so it's always fun for him to be a tour guide.  We've traveled many places with Matt & Jessica and it's always a blast.  We always eat at the best places, have the best wine, make the best memories...so we were excited to experience Albuquerque in a whole new way since most of the time when we visit we are visiting Aric's family and going to Aric's old favorites like "Fuddrucker's" Haha!!

So we booked the tickets and took a short road trip out to Albuquerque with these friends and it was amazing.  We took them to a couple of our favorite "sites" The Los Poblanos Lavender & Organic Farm, and Casa Rodena winery...  I can't even believe that the people at the concert wouldn't let us in with our "professional" camera so I didn't get a single good picture at the concert, but it was amazing to say the least!

Thankfully I snapped a few pictures for the rest of the time that we were there! So enjoy our cute friends & some of the beautiful sites of Albuquerque...

This first group of pics is from the Lavender Farm...

After the farm we headed down the street to the winery.  We had a tasting and then spent a couple hours outside on their patio just chatting about life and enjoying a glass of wine. 

So cute, I know.

Oh hey! There I am! ;)

And this last picture is the view from our room at the resort!! We stayed at the Hyatt Tamaya Resort and WOW was it beautiful.  We got up every morning and went for a walk, rode bikes...and if I hadn't have almost fainted we would have gone horseback riding...Next time!

Previews

Okay, let's just be honest. I have hardly even had a chance to look through all the pictures from our trip.  We've been pretty much going non-stop since we've been back so even having a chance to download the cards was a victory for me! I quickly pulled out a few photos off the card from the point and shoot camera that we took with us so I thought I'd at least share these! :)

Enjoy the little preview...you know there's a lot more where these came from! 

These first two Aric was takin a break and taking in the beauty of 

Château de Chenonceau.  We were here eating lunch with the wedding after visiting a winery just before.  We got to walk through all the rooms of the chateau and all over the beautiful grounds.  It was definitely the kind of place you would imagine in a fairytale or children's story book.  Pretty incredible!

And...Here we are at the wedding!!! I'm sure I'll regret that we didn't take more pictures - but sometimes it seems like just such a hassel! Aric was the best groomsman...he worked so hard to make sure the groom had everything he needed.  He's always so selfless and giving in that way.  But I was so glad to get to enjoy the reception with him!  It was another fairytale kind of day.

There's the whole reception!! And we got to stay 3 nights in that chateau! Can you believe that?!

AAAHHH... Paris.  The most romantic city in the world! ;)

This time I was determined to have our photo taken in front of the eiffel tower no matter what.  So thankfully we had someone snap a few here one night as we were walking around the city. Love it.

GUYS! I got drawn by this incredible artist in Montmarte! Aric & I both just loved the way he sketched in a not so literal way and as difficult as it was to sit in that chair and stare at the same spot on the ground for about an hour straight - I think it was totally worth it! ;)

Leaving Montemarte with my drawing!

Montemarte is officially one of my new favorite spots in Paris! Just magical!

The view of the city from Galleries Lafayette

Our next stop was Lake Lucerne, Switzerland.  I've never seen water so pretty or greens so green.  We were only here 1 short day so as soon as we arrived after checking into our hotel we hopped onto a boat tour of the lake... It was the perfect way to see the lake and surrounding mountains...

<3

Unfortunately the next day (when we were planning to take a tram up to the top of the mountain to see the view of the lake from there) it was super foggy and drizzly so we ended up just walking around the old town square for the day...

Oh, you know...just walking through Venice after catching the sunrise...

Although you can't tell...that's Florence behind us. We got there just in time to watch the sunset here with a view of the entire city and then walked through the streets, had dinner, gelato and visited a museum that was open late...

I guess I stopped pulling photos there... We still have some from our first stop in Spain, Rome, the Amalfi Coast, and Greece!  But this is a start at least! :)