My New Hat

Well let's see where do I start. Monterey. I will start with Monterey. I needed to go out to Monterey to put deposits down on quite a few wedding vendors and look at the ceremony site so I headed out there early Thursday morning, and by early I mean 3:00 a.m.! I was unable to find a good flight out there so I had to drive, and Micah being the amazing husband that he is didn't feel comfortable with me driving all the way out there by myself and then getting a hotel to stay in so he took off work and went with me. We were able to accomplish everything I needed to on my Wedding To Do list. We even had the chance to walk around the downtown area and fall in love with it's little community.

It was overcast so you can't tell how beautiful Stewart's Cove was.

FRIDAY

So the next morning we headed home. There are quite a few places Micah and I wanted to visit together that were on our way home, so we took advantage of the opportunity and drove up the coastline (this adds a few hours to the drive and so we never drive the Coast Hwy) and took in all it's beauty. We stopped at Hearst Castle and then had dinner in Carpenteria. We had such an awesome drive home. I loved every minute of it.

View of what we looked at when we drove home

Hearst Castle was awesome!

SATURDAY

Today was the Nantroup Family get-together day! We don't see our cousins often enough so whenever we have these little parties or excuses to see each other we all get so excited. We were celebrating my two cousins birthday's and my brother's. They are all spring babies so my mom had this idea that we should have an egg hunt as one of the games. Now you saw pictures of the last Egg hunt and you know how ruthless my brothers are, but when you add my competitive cousins in the mix, well all I have to say is watch out. I was just cracking up the whole time. I only found three measly eggs! After this my aunt Sherry had a game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey for us to play. I am not kidding we really played it! For the rest of the afternoon it was just relaxing and catching up with family as well as a little Air Hockey, Ping Pong and Nerf gun war! We called it a night around 7:30 and headed home. I love my crazy family, they never let me down of having a great time.

Just me and my cuz yo

We took Bea to meet Hobby

Since Jenn is an L.A.P.D I thought she would protect me from Bear

Apparently she loves him more

So as you can see I Love, Love, Love my new hat and rocked it all weekend long.

Easter

I assumed Easter was going to be a mess this year and that I was going to be stressed out, due to the fact that I was in Nashville all week and thought I didn't have time to prepare. Well here is just another example of why it I can't have a full time job. I have time to actually prepare for things instead of trying to get everything I need while on my lunch break. Last week I froze sugar cookie dough that I doubled while preparing the St.Patty's dough so that was ready, plus I went and got all the plastic eggs and goodies I needed before I left for Nashville. Micah, being as awesome as he is, picked up the ham for me during the week and all the other ingredients. So basically Easter was a breeze. Not stressful at all. We woke up and went to church, then came home and started preparing. Shan went home and started on her fabulous green bean casserole and cooked carrots, then came over right on time to help set up. Dawna and Neil showed up at the perfect time so she could help put the salad together. Then my family showed up and well basically it was time to eat. Those who know my brothers know that when they are hungry, well let's just say food better be ready.

After lunch my parents set out to the backyard to hide all the eggs while we cleaned up the dishes and the boys set up rock band. We closed all the curtains and blinds and they hid all 108 eggs between the two backyards. We laid down the ground rules for the hunt and then ready, set, go and it was every man for himself. The Hartmans' were determined to go to any length to get the most eggs. Just look at the pictures below.

Then after the hunt we played Palino, which is basically like batchi ball but with bard boiled eggs. There were prizes for the top boy and girl of this game.

We handed out the prizes for most eggs found, least eggs found and then there were 3 hard boiled eggs that if found received a special prize. And of course Bear found all three. He gave one to Bean though just to be fair. I still say he cheated. My brothers are ruthless at egg hunts, they will take you out even if you are wearing a dress just to get to the egg before you.

We finished off the day by relaxing and a couple hours off rock band.

Church Service Outside

Yes I know, 25 and still receiving Easter Baskets.

Shannon's traditional bunny cake...yummy!

Stripes...hmmm I wonder...Did they call each other to see what they were going to wear?

They call us Mellow Yellow

Smashy and Don watched anxiously as they hid the eggs

See what I mean about the Hartmans

While trying to find the last two eggs my dad just announced he saw one and Josh took off

Always time to pose even in the midst of a competitive game of egg hunting

Here is Luke, the newest addition to the Nantroup Family

Micah was hoping this getup would distract everyone playing Rock Band

As you can see, no reaction...

NashVegas!

A.K.A Nashville, TN. Actually I was in Franklin, TN which is basically Nashville...but prettier. Well I flew out this week because Kristi (Bride to be) was on her spring break and would be there visiting the groom to be (Ken) and so we thought it an opportune time to get all the details settled for the wedding. We also thought we would spend time looking for bridesmaid dresses with Sarah (her maid of honor) and Jenn (sis-in-law/bridesmaid.) Kristi also had her Bridal pictures taken which was basically a high fashion photo shoot. The pictures were taken by an amazing photographer in whom I hope will take pictures this year for Micah and myself... anyway, this was a crazy week. Trying to juggle time between wedding stuff and visiting with my sis and nieces, was a lil' hectic. Thankfully craziness is my middle name so this hectic week was right up my alley! I seriously woke up this morning and felt like I needed to do something just because I have been busy all week. I missed everyone instantly and almost wished I was back there. I could here Jenn making some sarcastic remark or Vail waking me up by jumping on me. But if I was there then I wouldn't be here with Micah now, and... well, basically I missed him way too much. Sometimes I wonder if I will ever get to a point of being OK getting away without him, even if for just one day. After almost five years we have grown closer and become the bestest of friends. I hated that my best friend wasn't with me enjoying family and all the madness.

Basically we planned details of the wedding, did a six hour photo shoot, looked for bridesmaid dresses, found the flower girls dresses, found Jenn her Easter outfit and just hung out!

Katy has decided she likes tea just like me.

Vail was loving every minute of trying on princess dresses!

We found the perfect dress finally... serious sarcasm here.

All good things must come to an end...

Top of da mornin' to ya

So of course any excuse I can come up with for Micah to let me host a party happens often, but St.Patty's is not one of them. Micah loves St. Patrick's Day just as much as me. Neither of us have any Irish blood or anything like that but we love preparing that traditional meal and hanging out with friends. So, we had three crock pots of the Corned Beef and Cabbage brewing, as well as potato soup. We had lots of snacks and treats to go along with that. I thought we would have played our usual round of Cranium (very addicting board game, with the right group) but my brother Bear brought over Rock Band and basically that consumed the evening until the last couple (Quiggle's) left after 1:00 am.

Girls Rule and Boys Drool

No not really, but it was girls day out for Shan, Bean and myself. Last Friday we decided to go to Disneyland just us gals while the boys were slaving away at their jobs providing for us. HAHA! That sounds really bad...

Anyway, we headed out there and the weather was perfect and all the characters were out and it was a great day. We definitely need to do this more often. We topped off our fabulous day by sitting in two hours of glorious Cali traffic, but we prepared for the journey and stopped at Sonic for some fatty food and drinks.

We had so much fun! I love girl day!

Bean took this pic!

Drumroll Please...

Ok so I am not going to write much about the new kitchen. The pictures speak for themselves. This was a really fun project that I would've never gotten around to if I didn't quit my job. OK so here it is, my new and improved kitchen!

BEFORE

*yawn*

AFTER!!!

the awesome cupcake and Nat's bakeshop signs I purchased from some adorable shop on ebay and are basically what I based the kitchen off of.

LOVE!