Happy 4th of July!

Hope everyone has a safe, fun filled 4th! I will be back Monday with weekend recaps! Enjoy family, friends and sunshine!

Wedding Wednesday {The Rehearsal}

So I realize it might not be the norm to talk about our rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, but it was really fun and our photographer came to our rehearsal and got some really good shots! Apologies for the picture overload...or not :)

Top left: Momma & Me. Top right: B & his momma.

Bottom left: Both parentals. Bottom right: Me & Abs (one of our flower girls)

 

Top left: My bros & dad (I love this pic because they are all cracking up!) Top right: Both our flower girls

Bottom left: Best pic of the night :) Bottom right: B & Abs

 

Our WONDERFUL bridal party!

At Rehearsal Dinner

Top left: Me & Ma & Pa. Top right: Me & my sis in-law

Bottom left: The whole Barker fam. Bottom right: The whole Klinepeter fam.

 

Top: Normal occurrences between my brothers & I

Bottom left: Groom's cake. Bottom right: B & I at the rehearsal

 

We held our rehearsal dinner at the Elks Lodge. It was a good place to have it and the food was AMAZING. We had BBQ and all the fixin's! YUM! We also had a slide show going with pictures of B & I as children and growing up. My FIL gave a toast which included us having blue eyed blonde hair children ASAP and then one of my bridesmaids and one of B's groomsmen also gave a toast.

 

Up next week...everyone prepares for the big day, getting ready with my girls!

Helllloooo July!!

Whoa! I seriously cannot believe it is already July! But happy week of the 4th! Only 3 more work days including today and that is awesome if you ask me! Linking up today for my favorite things for July!

We are headed to the lake this weekend for the 4th. Should be a good time with probably too many sunburns, beers, food & fireworks!



On top of that when we return back to SC on Saturday one of my BFF's and her fiancé are visiting! SO excited!

 

I believe that both of these delicious food & drinks will be making the trip with us this weekend. Who doesn't love a good ice cream cake and this one is so easy! Both will be great for a hot July day! 



 
 

Last I couldn't resist this super cute suit from JCrew! I may have way to many bathing suits but I definitely couldn't pass this one up! Especially for this weekend!

 

And seriously just because it is SO funny and SO true...

 

 

This weekend {cannot believe June is OVER!}

A little recap of the weekend....
-We rented a movie we had already seen in theatres so instead paid $2.99 to watch 21 Jump Street  from Time Warner Cable. It was good, bring it on 22 Jump Street.
- I played a great tennis match Saturday morning. Besides it being really hot and really early.
- We furniture shopped allllllll afternoon. But walked away with some goodies!

Bar cabinet, super excited about this place for wine, wine glasses and liquor bottles!

Not exactly the chairs that we purchased, but very similar. I totally forgot to take a picture!

 

- Drank lots of beer and enjoyed a summer league baseball with some friends on Saturday night.

My husband is a goofball.

 

-Sunday was filled with a TON of yard work. I'm talking 24 bags of mulch, which was after we pulled out lots of pine straw and other things. I'm also talking about major sunburn and really sore legs. Ouch.

- As if that wasn't enough we then rented a rug doctor and cleaned all of our carpets. Okay let's be honest here, Brian did all of that.

-As a reward we treated ourselves to dinner at our favorite restaurant and froyo afterwards. It was a good weekend!

 

Here's to our 4 day week and 3 day weekend ahead! I'm excited for the 4th! Happy Monday friends!

The Glorious Unfolding {What a JOY this song is!}

This song brings so much joy to my heart on a Friday morning. Hope it does the same for some of you!

"And this is going to be a glorious unfolding. Just you wait and SEE and you will be amazed. You’ve just got to believe the story is so far from over, so hold on to every promise God has made to us and watch this glorious unfolding" - Steven Curtis Chapman

Moving on....

Am I the only one that is seriously excited about the premiere of Girl Meets World? TONIGHT, it is TONIGHT! It is either going to be great or awful, I really hope the first!

 

Lastly, I have made this cookie cake twice recently. I made the funfetti sugar as well as the chocolate chip. Both were SO good and SO easy. I would highly recommend. Well only if you aren't watching your calories :)

 

Happy weekend friends!



I love a good recipe! {4th of July Recipe Linkup}

Especially when it involves holiday food (or let's be serious anything sweet!!) I was just trying to think about a good treat to take to the lake for the 4th when I remembered a super easy cookie cake that I made a few years back!

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

For the cookie:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
11 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
For the toppings:
4 ounces cream cheese (half of one 8-ounce package), at room temp
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temp
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup blueberries
3 cups raspberries (or strawberries work too!!)
1/4 cup white chocolate chips

Equipment: Quarter size (9x13 inches) rimmed baking sheet

Directions:

Make the cookie cake:
Preheat the oven to 400ºF.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and brown sugar. Cut the butter into pieces, and using two forks or your fingers, work the butter into the flour mixture until it's the consistency of wet sand. Press the cookie dough firmly and evenly into a non-stick quarter size (9x13 inches) rimmed baking sheet.
Bake the shortbread for 10 to 15 minutes until it is pale golden. Remove the shortbread from the oven, place it on a cooling rack and allow it to cool completely while still in the pan. Once it has cooled, use a sharp knife to carefully cut around the edges then invert the shortbread cookie onto your serving platter.
Make the frosting:
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, blend the cream cheese until it is smooth. Add the butter and continue blending until combined. Add the vanilla extract then sift the powdered sugar into the bowl and blend just until combined. (Over-blending the mixture will cause the frosting to be too runny.)
Spread the cream cheese frosting in an even layer on the cookie cake. Position the blueberries in the top left corner of the cake in even rows to form the blue portion of the flag then position the raspberries in horizontal lines across the cake, leaving about 1 inch between each row, to form the stripes. Position the white chocolate chips between the blueberries to form the stars.

Using a sharp knife, slice and serve the cookie cake immediately, or refrigerate it until ready to serve.

And just for fun...here is the cake I made last year, not as festive, but still good :)

 

My first Wedding Wednesday {The dress}

I don't even know where to start with recaps for our wedding day. It was a truly perfect day, I wouldn't have changed a thing about it and I am still overwhelmed with the amount of love and the joy I felt! I think where I want to start today is with my dress. I loved my dress so much. I only went to David's Bridal, I tired on about six dresses, and I bought mine. It was one I had found online and loved and then loved it just as much when I saw it in the store. I feel lucky that it was so easy and I am sure my mom, Erica, Lauren and Jessica felt the same way!

 

 
 

 
 
 
 

I wore two pairs of shoes. The pink ones were Nina's from Zappos and the Tom's were made for me by one of my bridesmaids for the rehearsal. I also wore a veil that was from David's Bridal as well as pearl jewelry that was a from my brother and sister in law's wedding a few years back. Next week I think I will talk about the rehearsal dinner (it was super fun!) and then move onto the getting ready! Hope you will come back and join me! I was sad our day was over but now I am so glad I can share it here!

Linking up for Wedding Wednesday