vampires + love = addiction

Ryan's brother (deric) called me a 13 year old girl, but i don't care....i'm addicted to the new book series TWILIGHT.

after reading a chapter, it's hard to put the book down...

i don't want to ruin it for anyone, but i love the back of the book so i thought i'd share....

About three things I was absolutely positive.

First, Edward was a vampire.

Second, there was a part of him--

and I didn't know how dominant that part might be--

that thirsted for my blood.

And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably

in love with him.

mmmm...monkey bread

A couple weeks ago Ryan and I were bored and decided to make the delicious monkey bread dessert. We found all of the ingredients we needed at his house except for the biscuits, so we made a trip to the market.

(good thing for the internet and online recipes)

shake..shake..shake..

I was in charge of cutting the dough

my little monkey...

THE END RESULT!!

Wedding Updates

Wedding planning is going slowly but surely as always....our photographer Cassie had The 12 Days of Christmas, Holiday Giveaway this winter. On the Sixth Day of Christmas we were winners!!! We won a free 11x14 print. Thanks Cassie! :)

My aunt Paula makes wedding invitations and she let me borrow her book of "put together invitations" that I could look at for ideas. The binder was packed with sample invitations. Ryan and I have looked through it and we think we have decided on a layout. I'm excited and can't wait to have a few girls nights to make them all! Paula's daughter Tricia (my cousin) was back home with her husband Urs and their new little one Charlotte. I'm so glad we finally got to meet her! Here are a couple pictures of the cutie....

Last night we met with Msg. Mack. I don't know why but I was REALLY nervous? It turned out not to be bad at all! We got there and he filled out paperwork on us. Then he popped out a 164 question test, we each had to take separately. Some of the questions were funny and I wonder what Ryan answered. Like, "Does your future spouse always have to win?"...ahhah.....Ryan better said that he disagreed.....I just like to win. :) Our test results should be back in about 3 weeks and we will meet with him and go over the answers. He gave us information to look at as far as readings and guidelines for the wedding ceremony and then we were on our way......

.......164 more days.........

Christmas '08

This Christmas felt like it snuck up so fast. It was nice to get to spend time with family and friends that we haven't seen in awhile. Christmas morning Ryan came over like usual to open gifts with my family. My parents bought us a video camera! We were sooo thrilled because we have alot of important events coming up that we would love to capture and cherrish forever (idk... something like our wedding??/?) So this Christmas, I didn't get alot of pictures on my regular camera. We made it to many Christmas' that day. Here are some pictures of family, friends, christmas trees, and presents.......

Cousin's Dan and Mitch with Rhys and William

Deric's shelf to hold his records......I think we are going to ask for one next year :)

The Sweitzer men and their ladies.....

Elizabeth and Grace got a camera for Christmas and they have an abundance of pictures.....once I get them loaded on my computer I will share......Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Chicago Trip

William and I wanted to take a trip to Chicago together "just the two of us" before Christmas. So we both agreed on Tuesday (23rd). We decided that probably two days before and it was ridiculously hard to find cheap train tickets from Pontiac to Union Station. So we decided to do what Ryan and I usually do and drive to Westmont (where our cousins live) and hop on the train there.

It was so hard to wake up early, but we wanted to make a whole day of it. We were planning on making the 8:53 a.m. train from Westmont. We knew that wasn't going to happen when we weren't even close and it was a couple minutes 'til. So we decided we would take the next one which left at 9:49 a.m. We pulled into the parking lot a little after 9:30. We were getting more layers on (because of the snow) by the car when we heard a train coming and the lights were flashing at the station. We both freaked out and I looked at the time and it was 9:39. I asked William "Was the train coming at 9:49 or 9:39????" He's said "I don't know....RUN!" ahhaha......just picture us running through the parking lot, trying to finish getting our extra layers on and making it to the train.....once we got up there we realized the train was going the other way and didn't even stop at the station. We were right the whole time and we still had 10 min. until our train came. Dad called us while we were waiting for the train to see how things were going. William told him the embarrassing story and dad laughed and called us "Hillbillies" :)

The train came and we were finally on our way downtown!

We didn't really have a plan when we got there, we knew we wanted to make it to the Water Tower Place to shop and we wanted to see the big tree.

William in Macy's!


Us by the HUGE Christmas Tree! It really put me in the mood for Christmas Day......

Out of all places we could eat lunch, we ate at a McDonalds...but I will admit it was a pretty cool Mcy D's. There were two levels to the place and I told William to get us a window seat upstairs, while I waited for the food. When I came up to meet him...he had the BEST seat in the house!

Here are a few more pictures from the day.....we rode in a "free" trolley to get back to Union Station...which was really nice!

We had a REALLY fun day! William bought a new shirt and a shirt for Ryan for Christmas & I bought a new purse. We couldn't find much we wanted to buy, but it was just fun being together and walking around town.

Us on the train on our way back to the car.....