Kendra & Aaron 1.26.14

Here is a post about my best friend's wedding last weekend. But first, a few pre-wedding photos...

Dress Fitting!

Kendra & I

I had Kendra's personal shower at my house a couple weekend before the wedding. It was good... 3 of them stayed until 2:30am... and I got to go to work the next morning too. I'm too old for that anymore....I go to bed extremely early.

The table

The Guests

The weekend of the wedding: Saturday morning bright and early I went to Kendra's and helped her get ready and assured her that she looked beautiful. :) Elisabeth came and assisted Kandace & I with our hair that morning before pictures.

Mother of the Bride & Kendra

Pictures were at the Clock Tower, and afterwards we went to the fellowship hall to take some outdoor pictures. But it was absolutely freezing and windy. I'm pretty sure we were all so cold, we don't even look normal in most of the pictures. I was glad I had a brother-in-law in the wedding and didn't feel weird getting sort of close to him in some pictures when she said to squeeze together. :) Plus men are so much warmer. Why do they get to wear suit coats when us women are the ones who are always freezing? :)

I was honored to be the "Matron of Honor"

Groomsmen

Bridesmaids

Saturday after pictures I rushed home to get Kendra & Aaron's scrapbook together. Ha, I don't know why I ever say a specific day to return the pages to me by... everyone's was last minute so I couldn't exactly do it before Saturday! Oh well! :) Saturday night the rehearsal dinner was at the fellowship hall.

The happy couple

We sang the song "Friends" by Michael W. Smith. We made Kendra cry, so I guess it was a success. ;)

We all talked at the rehearsal dinner... I prepared my "speech" because I didn't want to regret what I said and there was so much to say. Lori gave hers before I did... which wasn't a good thing because she got me started crying. Once I start it's hard for me to stop. So I bawled through my speech. But Kendra said I made her cry, which was kind of my goal. ;) Just kidding... (sort of)
Anyway, so if my eyes look red in all these pictures, it's because I was crying shortly before they were taken. :)

Me & handsome husband :)

The Core 4... all married! What a great potluck group we have!

I love her dearly!

Looking at the famous wedding scrapbook

Aaron's sister Holly and I.. oh she makes me smile!

All the friends at the dinner

Ready to be married!

Sunday morning I headed over to Kendra's again to get my hair done. Sunday at noon we headed over to her Grandpa & Grandma's to get dressed and ready.

I'm not sure what was my problem that day though... about 15 minutes before we walked down the aisle, I cut my finger and got blood all over my dress. (Disclaimer: I thought I got it to stop bleeding... but apparently I hadn't! And I didn't have a band-aid handy!)
We called some of our mothers into the room, and thank goodness my mom got it out with cold water. I think it was even dry by the time I walked down the aisle.

In the mean time... while my mom was getting the blood off my dress, I couldn't find the bible I was supposed to carry in, or my purse. Somehow my purse had ended up in Aaron's car, and I left my bible at Kendra's grandparents where we got ready. Thanks to Ellie... she went and fetched both things for me. :)

She looks frustrated, but she really wasn't..I don't think. Thanks Ellie!

Finally all ready to walk in!

A little nervous!

 So we walked into church all put together. :) Before walking in I turned and gave Kendra a hug and told her she looked beautiful. Aaron thought so too as I think he got a tad teary eyed. :) They were married, we all signed the marriage license to make it official, and now they are Mr. & Mrs. Funk. :)

And my sloppy signature will forever be on their license...

It was time for the reception!

Me & Ellie

And with our husbands..

Kendra & Aaron

I love this man!

2 of my favorite girls! Mom & Bridget

Mother of the Bride... my 2nd mom growing up!

Our new best couple friends :)

Oh how I've prayed and cried with this girl over the years.  What a blessing to see where God has lead her!

Off they go... to Florida!

So off they went. We helped with clean up, as that is such an overwhelming job for the family of the bride! But let's just say I was absolutely exhausted that night, and especially the next day at work. Ha, actually I think it took me the entire week to recover. Couldn't be happier for Kendra & Aaron though!

Ruskin Florida

I know, I kinda have been slacking on my blog. Not even one post in December... really Wendi? I had good intentions to update my blog on vacation, but I really had no motivation to do it. Story of my life right now. :) 

Onto vacation. Daniel & I went to Ruskin Florida for a week right after Daniel finished his finals in December. It was about 20 minutes away from Tampa. It was a very nice resort to relax and do absolutely nothing, which is what we wanted to do. We took 2 days to drive down there, which went extremely smoothly! We had a condo, so we had a full size kitchen which was super nice. We cooked a lot of our own meals which was great for a number of reasons: it was more fun than at home because we did it together, they had a dishwasher so NO dishes(a huge treat for me), we saved money, and we didn't have to bother about looking nice to going out to eat. Yes, that's how lazy we really were. We did nothing we didn't have to! 

Our first breakfast- favorite meal of the day for both of us!

Stir Fry & Salad for dinner

The first full day we had there, Sunday, it was kind of cloudy and cold. So we mostly stayed inside, but did venture out to the gym. But the rest of the week we had perfect weather! Not too hot at all, and most of the week we had the pool to ourselves!

Our section of the resort where we stayed

A couple of nights we went out to eat and did some stuff in town which was nice. First we hit the beach for a beautiful sunset. :)

Cheesecake Factory! So delicious!

The only bummer about the Cheesecake Factory was that we sat so close to two other women we couldn't have our own conversation- haha, just listened to theirs!

Another night we went shopping at the mall for a bit- which was absolutely crazy busy. I asked Daniel WHY it was so crazy on a week night....oh duh. It was the week before Christmas there too. It certainly does not feel like Christmas while you're in Florida. We went out to eat at a delicious fish place afterwards- Shrimp Boat & Grill. 

(An instagram photo)

\

Our living room for the week- lots of time spent here!

Our kitchen for the week

 

 Oh how I love this man. It was such a wonderful week... something that we both needed badly. It was soo wonderful to go to bed whenever we felt like and get up whatever time we wanted. To have time for devotions and not have to "rush" them before work or bed, exercise, and to just spend time together, and of course soak up the sunshine. :) 

I must say though as a side note, we were ready to socialize with other people by the end of the trip. :) But don't get me wrong, we enjoyed every minute of being together! We left at 3am on Saturday and drove straight home. We hit some ice, but thankfully we got home safely 18.5 hours later. Did I mention that Daniel drove all the way there and all the way back? I would have driven some, but we drove his car which is stick shift and I'm not very confident with that... especially in Atlanta and Nashville traffic! Just another reason why I love him! :) 

While Florida is a wonderful place to go in December, it does not feel "normal." That's not what I grew up with... Christmas with 80 degree weather? No, you need snow and cold. :) So it was kind of a weird Christmas just because it didn't feel like it most of the month! 

 ....lots more posts to come... eventually. It's January now, which means it's crazy at work....

Noah Frederick

Today Daniel & I got to go meet our new little nephew, Noah Frederick. He was on born on Tues, Nov 26th to Fred & Jodi. Oh how precious he is!! 

Since Daniel works at the hospital and was working when Noah was born, he got to go visit them during his break and when he got off work. He was pretty proud of the fact that he was the first one to hold him besides Fred & Jodi. :) I was slightly jealous, I just love newborns. It has been so long since I've held a little one. I was so excited at work all day. :) 

Us with little Noah

Proud mom & dad

 I'm so excited to watch this little guy grow up. If he's half as cute as his sister, he'll be alright. ;)

 Oh, and holding him at church will be a plus too. ;)

Stuffed Squash

I don't normally post recipes on here... but I recently made a delicious Stuffed Squash I thought I'd share! When you have all those leftover squash from the garden, it's a great and easy way to use them up!

Stuffed Squash

1 cup shredded zucchini

1/2 cup crushed saltine or butter-flavored crackers

1/3 cup ketchup

1 egg

1-1/2 tsp dried minced onion

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

3/4 pound ground beef

2 large acorn squash

In a medium bowl, combine the first nine ingredients. Add beef; mix well. Cut squash in half; remove and discard the seeds. Fill with meat mixture. Place in a dish. Cover and bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour. Uncover and bake for 10 minutes. 

**Some of my own changes: I did not use acorn squash, I used butternut and it worked just as well. I also didn't put in crackers, and it tasted just fine. 

Believe it or not, Daniel actually loved it! He even ate the leftovers. This meal was so fast, I even had time to make it in the morning before work. 

Joseph, I thought of you while we were eating this. :) 

Carter's Bday & Hunting

This post is a little behind... Carter's birthday was on Oct 17th. His birthday party was the next day, with a little bit of a pirate theme. Mr. Carter is 2 years old, and is so busy that my pictures really aren't the greatest. He doesn't hold still and pose like his sister... :)

I love his face of joy with the sword  he got  :)

Heidi told us to get Carter some tractors... he's around his sister too
 much and needs to learn how to be a boy :) 

Tool Set...

So between a sword, a tractor & wagon, a tool set, and some more trucks, he should be set... all ready for his boy training. :) Poor little boy if Heidi's next one is a girl.. he's doomed! ;) Oh he's so sweet though... we'll love him no matter what :)

Big sister had to keep her distance so Carter could enjoy his presents

That same weekend, Daniel & I went hunting for the first time this year. The stand had me a little freaked out...it's higher than it was last year. After being in it for a few hours I relaxed a little bit. But I did make Daniel buy a safety harness. The stand was actually kind of nice because we got to sit by each other and not in different stands like we had to last year. 

I don't mind going hunting with Daniel every once in a while, but.. for as much as he likes to go, I've told him to go by himself. We never see anything when I'm out there anyway... I must scare them all away. 

Apple Cider Making

Saturday morning, Daniel's family got together to make Apple Cider. It was a cold, windy day, but with several layers on and rice warmers in my coat, I survived. :) I had a pretty easy job... going through the apples to make sure there were no bad spots or rotten ones. 

Gabe & Mary

Dad L & Daniel

 The little boys had fun playing in the leaves.

I'm not sure what the total count of gallons we ended up with... but just us alone took 6 gallons of cider to take home for two of us! Enough to share with others, and enough to put in the freezer! It was a fun thing to do... if it would've been warmer outside it would've been even better! :)

We got home in pretty good time Saturday afternoon from making cider because Daniel had studying to do. I did my housewife duties... laundry, cleaning, and making food. Friday night I went to my mom's and made a whole bunch of food for the freezer. I am so excited about this... I can come home from work and already have dinner made! We did most of it on Friday night, but I wanted to make a few more things, which I did on Saturday night. Since we got an extra hour of sleep that night, after all my duties were done, I was able to relax before going to bed. It felt good to get so much done though. I LOVE my Saturday's at home...catching up before I start another work week!

Sunday my parents served lunch... what a perfect weekend for that! It didn't even feel early. :) I felt like I talked to people more than I helped.. sorry Mom! There was a lot of extra people there because of baptisms, so I couldn't stop talking. :) 

Hannah, Marisa, and Evan & Elisabeth came over after church since they were there for baptisms. Hannah took some pictures of us for our Christmas card. Our trees down our lane are gorgeous right now... but I guess you'll have to wait to see those pictures until you get our Christmas card. :) Zach came over later, and we all went out to eat at Red Robin. They're known for their burgers... but since I am eating gluten free now, I was assuming I would eat a healthy salad. But when I saw that they have gluten free buns... I couldn't resist, I got a burger. And it was delicious. 

It was all Daniel's Knapp cousins his age + Hannah :)

Evan & Elisabeth and Marisa came over afterwards... we played an interesting game of Scattegories. I love that game... I got to see how creative Daniel is...it was hilarious. I've never seen that side of him. Oh, and we were reminded that Elisabeth & Daniel are siblings... so funny. Some things never change. It was a busy, but good weekend as always.