3 years...

Of wedded bliss : )

This weekend Chris and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary. I know 3 years doesn't seem like that long...but it feels like quite an accomplishment. Some days are hard and some days are easy but there is no one I would rather journey through this life with.

We went to Independence, MO and did their historical Christmas Tour of Homes. We toured the Bingham-Waggoner Estate, the Veile Mansion and then the old jail/marshalls home. The Veile Mansion was by far the most beautiful. It was built in the 1800's and they had it decorated beautifully for Christmas.

For dinner we ate at Cafe Verona which is downtown on the square. It was amazing. I had a lemon/basil/shrimp pasta and Chris had the lasagna. They even gave us a free dessert because it was our anniversary!

We stayed the night in a hotel and Chris even brought me breakfast in bed in the morning. I don't think our weekend could have been any better!!

And just for fun...here we were 3 years ago...

I am so thankful for my husband and our marriage. 3 years down...many, many, more to go. : )

Haul out the Holly!

Which is exactly what we did this weekend! We put up all our Christmas decor on Saturday. Its nice this year living in a bigger apartment because we actually have a little room to put up our tree! And it sits nicely in between two windows which I am loving!

Chris started off the morning making us some egg-nog lattes! YUM!!!

Here we go....

Chris has a "method" about putting the lights on...imagine that...

Placing the angel on the top! My favorite part!!

The finished product!

Don't worry...Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus will be here soon! We are picking them up when we go home to Texas for Thanksgiving!

We hung our stockings...err...off the bar with care.

Thanks for stopping by! Merry Chrismas y'all!!

Spontaneous

On Friday morning one of my students came to me and said "Umm...Mrs. Branigan...my mom won these concert tickets and she won't be able to go...so she wanted me to give them to you!" So, Chris and I decided to be spontaneous and go! The concert was called Rock for Babies and it benefitted the March of Dimes. Mat Kearney opened for Five for Fighting.

The concert was at the Midland by AMC. The Midland is a really old theater that they have totally re-habbed in downtown KC. The inside looks like it did 100 years ago. It is amazing!

Mat Kearney was so good! We actually liked him better than Five for Fighting. They play a lot of his songs on Grey's Anatomy which is pretty cool. He actually talked a little bit about it too and said "you write these songs that expose all your emotions and your heart...and then they play them on tv while two doctors kiss..." Ha!

Thanks for a great night Lillie!

Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving!!

Last night we had our 2nd Annual Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving! It was alot of fun and we ended up having 34 people come! We made a ham and everyone brought the traditional sides and lots of yummy desserts : ) Here are some pics!

Going through the line...

This is the set-up before everyone came



(These are a little out of order) This was right after we put the ham in the oven...so excited!! Last year we made a turkey so this year we attempted the ham. The ham was MUCH easier!

My pride and joy!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Branson...here we come!

Last weekend we had our 3rd annual Branson Branigan Reunion. We met Chris's family in Branson for a weekend of fun! We stayed at a luxurious condo on Table Rock Lake and had a very relaxing time.

Our weekend consisted of eating, talking,eating, going out on a boat, more eating, fishing, eating, the Dixie Stampede, more eating, and of course shopping. Here are a few pics from our weekend of fun!

Dianna in the Kitchen

There was no shortage of laptops to be had...

David made a big catch

Getting ready to go on the boat!!

Our fearless Captain David

All of our snacks...we didn't want to go hungry!

Lounging on the boat...

The laziest fisherman I've ever seen... : )

They even let me drive! What were they thinking??

At the Dixie Stampede. They have all the horse stalls out where you can see them so we browsed around the horses before the show started.

This guy didn't really want his picture taken...he showed us what he thought of us...

Christmas card pic? I think so!

We had a really fun weekend and can't wait to do it again next year!

3 Words...

Apple Cider Doughnuts.

Yesterday we ventured out to the Powell Pumpkin Patch and the Louisburg Cider Mill with our dear friends the Johnsons. Our first stop was the pumpkin patch which was really cool. I have never seen so many pumpkins in my life! They were all still on the vine and you could walk through the field and pick your own.

Then we went to Louisburg and sampled some of their yummy cider and of course we couldn't leave without a dozen cider doughnuts!

It was a pretty windy day.

saved the best for last...happy fall y'all!