Valentine's Day 2014

The hubs and I love celebrating everything. Why not?? Valentine's Day is just another excuse for us to celebrate us and our relationship and this is our 4th Valentine's Day together. We believe that appreciating each other all the time is important (which is why we continue to "date" each other daily with notes, surprises, and cards), but Valentine's Day is a day to celebrate love. So we do! We've been keeping it pretty simple, but since the hubs always spoils me and "one-ups" me, I surprised him this year!

The hubs had to be at work early, so he woke me up before he left. I put on my red (we were supposed to wear red to work for our Valentine's Day Dance marathon to raise money for the Iowa Children's hospital). Around 10 am, in walked one of our secretaries with a gorgeous vase of flowers. Not going to lie...I love getting flowers at work! My hubby is the sweetest. My kiddos thought it was pretty sweet too. Some of my favorite quotes: "Who are those from?" "They're from Mr. Bishop...duh." "That was a very loving gift!" Haha those little ones crack me up! 

 We had our Valentine's Day party, passed out Valentines, read our Valentines, and headed on down to the Dance Marathon. And yes, I stayed for a while and danced with the kiddos. The hubs even got a text from the Baby saying, "Happy Valentine's Day! I love you Daddy!"

I headed home quickly after work and Brad got home around the same time. We both changed, headed to the gym, got in a good workout, and then headed back home to get ready for our date! The hubs got his surprise and was pretty happy about it! We had dinner reservations at one of our favorite spots, Montage at 8 pm. We walked in the door and sat right down. Yum! This momma enjoyed every bite of her un-healthy dinner and so did the hubs! We headed home after dinner, ate our Scratch cupcake that the hubs had picked up and that was that. Easy, simple, and sweet Valentine's Day ~ our last one without kids!!

Happy Valentine's Day y'all. Hope it was filled with wonderful memories!

Making our House a Home

Sigh...brand new city, brand new neighborhood, brand new home, brand new marriage. The hubs and I moved into our new house on November 16, 2012. When we first moved in, we didn't "hop to" decorating a ton of things. There were a few other priorities that we had to cover first. Well, we've been in our house a little over a year now and we've finally gotten our house about where we want it! The only thing I am still working on is the living room and a few minor details around the house. I already know the color schemes I'm going to us in the living room, but we've been waiting to actually decorate it until we get our large entertainment center (hopefully this weekend). Then all we have upstairs is the Nursery!! and that will be super fun to do together.

*Side note: I do not claim to be an interior decorator - trust me. In fact, I think my decorating skills are slightly inadequate, but I do the best I can! I find pictures/ideas of things that I like and me and the hubs work together to create those ideas/inspirations in our own way. Sometimes, I wish I could hire someone to come in and decorate everything professionally, but I do love decorating our house and take some pride in making it our own...even if it's not "magazine" worthy. It's not a contest, it's our home!

The hubs and I pretty much agree on everything, but our decorating is slightly different. He's a minimalist and I love a good "homey" feel with some personality. We both agree on clutter free, however. He loves the way I've decorated the house and asks that I at least run things by him first, which is fine with me! It's his house too and he has to look at it every day. I want him to like it! So far, we've been able to decorate the house so that both of us are happy and feel at home. So, with a few updates, here it is! Hopefully, I can post the new living room soon (in a month or two).

Entry way. I'm still deciding if I want to paint in here. I'm leaning towards a grayish color.

After entering, looking to the left... a "half" hallway and the stairs to the basement.

The "gallery" wall. I'll be adding a top and bottom layer of photos to this soon!

I got our name sign right after we got engaged, so adding some black and white wedding photos went well with it!

I adore my the kitchen/dining room! I love open feeling, the counter space, my cabinets, and the island. Love, love, love! Our kitchen was red, black, and white in Greenville, but I have "refined" the color patterns to red, black, and white damask...one of my favorite "southern" patterns. Now I just need to get a valance made for the window above the sink (which I think I might DIY). Most of my damask decor is from Hobby Lobby.

I found this idea on Pinterest. Frame a fabric that matches your room decor!

Then around the corner to the Guest Bathroom and Guest Bedroom. I'm also still debating if I want to paint the bathroom a light brown color. The guest bedroom is one of my favorite rooms! I started this in Greenville, but we moved before I finished it. I had found a picture for the idea of a black and white room with a pop of blue/teal color as an accent wall and fell in love.

Just 2 more things need to be hung on either side of the mirror, and then this will be complete!

The office is currently being turned into the Nursery, so updates on that will follow in the next 3 months! Oh, and I guess I forgot the laundry room. The hubs has plans to make me a mud room as well as build some pedestals in the laundry room and then I will decorate that with grey, light teal, and yellow!

Then on to our bedroom. It's coming along nicely, but I have a few more DIY's to finish and hang on the walls. I also need to stop being so picky and find some curtains. We like waking up to the sunlight, so the curtains will be more for decor then functionality. We bought a down comforter last spring and found this perfect duvet cover from Target! Love it!! I wanted our bedroom to be neutral/warm colors. The whites, tans, and browns are just so peaceful. I would also like to add some decorative pillows to our bed. The hubs isn't a huge fan of all the pillows, but I make the bed every morning (I seriously can't leave the house unless it's completely made), so he wouldn't have to worry about it anyways! The monogram above our bed will eventually be replaced with a vinyl monogram (when it comes in the mail!)

Our bedroom leads into the Mater Bathroom (obviously), and then from the bathroom you can walk into our walk-in closet (where my awesome shoe shelves are. Thanks hubby!).

And that's our house! Now...to get started on that basement... Construction will start at the end of February!! It won't be finished when the babe gets here, but it will be almost done and we're saving almost $20,000 since the hubs will be working on most of it himself!

Prom! 2013

Brad and I have been taking Dance lessons since March. Some of our friends had taken the Fox Trot class and were planning on taking another class. We decided to join them along with another couple!

The first class we took was Swing. Brad already knew Swing, so this was more of a...Kristen needs to learn Swing. We had so much fun that we decided to take another class! The second class we took was Rock Sway. Rock Sway is a 4-step beat that can be danced to almost anything! How can I explain what it looks like...

Anyone ever see Dirty Dancing?? It is my favorite movie, so I know it all by heart. Ok, so think about the last big dance scene in the movie. Johnny Castle (Patrick Swayze) is proving his love for Baby (Jennifer Gray) and his worth as a dancer. In the ending dance, when the music picks up (start hearing "Now I...had...the time of my life...and I owe it all to you...." in your head) they start dancing Rock Sway. *insert swooning* I die every time. Love it! The best part?...during our dance lessons we actually danced to this song! I felt like I was in the movie. It was fabulous!

Anywho, our dance teacher, Faythe, holds dances at a ballroom in Waterloo every month for her students to practice and get out and dance. Faythe has been teaching for over 20 years and teaches a lot of dance classes, so she has and has had a ton of students. Most of them being 40 and above. We are by far her youngest students. We love it though!

In May, Faythe's dance is PROM!! Seriously, it's called Prom and people dress up and go to the dance! How cute is that!?! We got Prom dresses, the guys dressed up, and we all went to the dance. We danced, we drank, and we actually got to go home with our prom dates! Perfect night. :)

Faythe got some "action shots" of us dancing, so hopefully I can add those soon!!

First 5k!...of this year

I. Love. to. Run. Love, love, love it. Races are even better. The atmosphere, the challenge, the people, the adrenaline rush. I love it. I'm a pretty competitive person, so races are always fun for me! I have run in quite a few 5k's and 10k's, so my goal this year is to run a Half Marathon. I looked for a few half marathons in other cities that would be fun to travel too (Kansas City ;) , St. Louis), but because of everything going on this year we decided I would run one here! So my half marathon is scheduled for September 7th! Woohoo!

Greenville had a plethora of races to run in as well as the surrounding areas. I was a little worried when we moved up here, that there wouldn't be as many opportunities for races. Well, boy was I wrong! Trekman racing is based in Cedar Falls and hosts most of the races around here...and there are tons!!

The first race we registered for and ran in was the "Fool's 5k" this past weekend. It was so much fun! The race was Mardi Gras/April Fools themed. We registered for the race back in February due to the amount of people who were registering. The race filled up by early March! This was such a fun race. It started at 9:00 am, which was nice (not too early). The race was at the George Wyth State Park in Waterloo and was a nice flat 3.1 mile run! I couldn't believe how many people showed up (over 1, 300-a record for Trekman racing) and they were all dressed up! Some people took the Mardi Gras theme to a whole new level - we saw people in pj's, men in tutu's, kids wearing body suits, people dressed as super heroes, and one woman was wearing a wedding dress and a wig! It was pretty...interesting.

We did pretty well. Brad had only run with me 3 times the week before the race, but he ran the whole thing without stopping at all. I pushed the pace a little, but we ran together the whole time. Our time was 26:15. A little slow for me, but we had fun and enjoyed the run together! Here are a few pictures from the race!

It was pretty windy that day! but not too cold :)

So much fun!! The next race we are doing together is May 6th! We are running in the Furry 5k, which means...yep! The pups are running with us! I think Beth and Gene are going to come up with Gracie and Lexi and run with us! The Cedar Bend Humane Society (where we adopted Abe from) is helping host this run. You can even "adopt" a pet for the day and run with them! Isn't that sweet?!? I can't wait!

Bishop Family Christmas

Oh being married and sharing holidays...sometimes it becomes quite the puzzle trying to get it all worked out, but so far it always turns out well!

This Christmas was our turn to be in South Carolina with my family! No complaints here!!

So to do this, we had Christmas with the Bishop family a few days early.The timing could not have been better, seeing as how baby Jackson was with us for Christmas!! The Bishop family Christmas occurred over the weekend, December 21-23.

Let me just tell you this...our car, excuse me, SUV was PACKED!! (Yep, you read that right...SUV. As of Dec 19th, we own a Toyota Highlander. Brad is driving it right now until he gets a truck-potentially next summer and then the Highlander will be mine! It's black and gorgeous. I love it!) Honestly, I don't even know how we got to Davenport. Brad kept coming in the house and telling me we couldn't fit anything else...but we did!

The problem was...we had to pack all of the giant Christmas gifts for the Bishops, Christmas presents for the Brunner's, as well as the dogs, their stuff, and our travel bags for a week! Whew! Good thing we got that SUV. No lie...I have no idea how we would have made it SC with all of that.

We got to Brad's parents house a little later than we had planned on Saturday. I was finishing icing the cupcakes when Matt, Karen, Abby, and baby Jackson arrived! We had a yummy Christmas dinner, prepared by Momma B, then it was downstairs for presents!!

And there were a lot of them! Christmas with the Bishop's is always fun. Momma B got all of us girls a pan that had our named etched on it as well as a lid that says," From the Kitchen of Kristen Bishop." So cute!! Brad and I had asked for family to get things from our registry...we like to make it easy, but along with those items, we got a lot of other fun/personal stuff. Overall, a wonderful family Christmas.

I have to admit, my favorite (and I think most of us can agree with this) part was having baby Jackson with us for Christmas! Now that's a good Christmas present!!
 The Fam...

Baby Jackson!!

4 Month Anniversary

I can't believe it's already December AND we've been married for 4 months! Time is flying!

During the past month we've settled into our house, went to an Iowa State game, celebrated Thanksgiving, adopted a new pup, decorated and shopped for Christmas, as well as hosted a Christmas party! What a busy month! Happy 4 months to us!!

2 Years...1 Year...12.10 Anniversaries!

December 10th has always been a big day for Brad and I...

December 10, 2010 ~
Brad and I had met at the gym on a Monday of that week. We had literally been staring at each other for 4 months straight. No conversations, just staring. The ridiculousness was to the point, that both of our friends kept bugging us to "just talk to him/her." Well, we finally did. We talked every night that week in the parking lot after we had finished working out. We talked for 1-2 hours each night...in the parking lot...in December! Yep, every night I was frozen by the time I got into my car, but I sure didn't mind. On Friday night, Brad asked me if he could give me his number - to which of course I said, "Yea...let me call you, so you will have mine too." Then Brad asked if I would like to go out to dinner Saturday night. We ended up texting/talking all Friday night and Saturday before our date. Saturday night finally came...and the rest is history. We've been together ever since! We both agreed that that night was the best first date either of us had ever been on. It was amazing how much we had in common, how alike our thinking/beliefs/families/upbringing/everything was!
{...photos from "back in the day"...}

December 10, 2011 ~
Brad and I were celebrating 1 year of dating that weekend. For my birthday in August, Brad had bought me tickets to the Biltmore Christmas Candle Light Tour in Ashville, NC. (The Biltmore is a very beautiful, very old mansion that is a famous tourist spot in NC. I had sang there when I was a senior in HS for a Christmas concert, but didn't get to tour the house. I had always wanted to go back!) Anyways, Brad and I left for our weekend get away Saturday morning. We stopped by a CVS and grabbed a SC/NC map! We decided to take the scenic route up to the Biltmore so that we could drive on the gorgeous Blue Ridge Parkway! After a few wrong turns, we finally made it up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and were able to drive the miles of gorgeous "mountain" scenery. Even though it was winter, it was sweater warm, and the views were amazing. We pulled off the Parkway into an overlook, so that we could get out and take some pictures. We took a few of us and the scenery and then I had the idea of setting the timer so that we could get us and the mountains in one picture. We got one test photo, I adjusted the camera, and ran back to Brad.

When I got back to him, he got down on one knee and proposed!!! AND WE GOT IT ON CAMERA!! Yep, that's right friends, I have our proposal, the real thing, on camera! This might be one of the most precious photos I have.
{...and here it is!}

Happy 2 year and 1 year Anniversary bear. I love you!!

Brad's Work Party ~ UNI Basketball Game

Last night, Brad's boss (Barry) had his Thank You work party. The get together was held in a box at the UNI dome. We watched the UNI women's basketball game vs. a Chicago team (I can't remember which school!). As you know, Brad works for John Deere and we have been so blessed by this new job! Brad loves it and is really enjoying the change! Since Brad is a supervisor at Deere, his boss is pretty high up the ladder. I was able to meet all of the leadership that Brad has been telling me about for the past 6 months!

I had previously met Barry and his wife Leslie. They are such a great couple. I got to know Leslie a little while Brad and Barry were coaching Barry's son's football team. Barry and Leslie have also had us over for dinner at their farm. We are very thankful that Brad has a good boss!

We got to the dome around 6:45 pm and had some "small talk" with Barry and his wife. Around 7:00, more people started showing up. It was nice to meet professional couples our age and older. We had a really nice time. We didn't take any pictures at the dome, but we did take some before we left! Brad and I don't really have any UNI gear, so we just wore purple and yellow! Goooo Panthers! (Brad's sister Beth and brother Matt both graduated from UNI.)

 P.S.- The girls won the game. It was a complete blowout! Woohoo!

Christmas Card ~ Bloopers

It's December now! and that means....Christmas Card photos!! We did our photos on Sunday night. After working in the house all day, Brad and I got ready and then set up the camera and the timer. Taking OUR picture was easy. Take 1, 2, and 3. Boom, done.

Now...adding the pups to the picture...not so easy! As you can see below, the "bloopers" were worth the blog post. Our babies keep us on our toes!

Happy holidays!

We got a NEW Baby!

No no no...not an actual human BABY....a DOG!

A week ago, Brad and I started talking about getting me my doggie. Since we were moving into our house, it was a good time for me to get my dog. Yes, we have Belle, but she has always technically been "Brad's dog". Brad adopted Belle about 2 years ago, and she has always known who her "daddy" is. She's quite attached to him. So, now it was my turn!

This all started when Brad and I started dating. I had a cat, Vincent (his whole name was Vincent Van Gogh). Welp, Brad is allergic to cats. When we got engaged, it was obvious that the Brad/Vincent relationship wasn't going to work out. A few months later, I found a nice new home for Vincent. That was a hard day and I still miss the little guy, but Brad is pretty important to me. ;) After that, Brad promised he would get me any dog I wanted. Well, that happened to be a Great Dane. We looked around for some recently, but they are very expensive (which we knew). We decided that down the road, we would get our Danes, but now was not the right time.

So, we went to the shelters around here to look around. We both felt much better about adopting a dog that needed a home, rather than paying for one. We found our little man and brought Belle to meet him. That did not go so great. See, Belle is a good dog...when she's the only dog. Belle still has some of that stray defensive/aggressive attitude in her. She doesn't do the best with other dogs. We decided to wait a little while to get our little guy, since there was so much going on with the move.

We moved into our house Nov 16th and we tried to get the house set-up and unpacked as much as we could before we went to get the new dog. On Wednesday, the 21st, we finally got him! Brad had the afternoon off, so we took the time to adopt him and stop at Pet-Smart for all his doggie needs.

We named our new baby, Abe. Abe is 18 months old, he is already fixed, and house trained! Abe is a Greyhound/Coon hound mix and weighs about 60 pounds...although he looks about 80! He is a tall boy and is much bigger than Belle (you wouldn't know with her attitude!).

Abe is the dog sent from heaven. He is such a good boy and we are happy to report that Belle has adjusted to another dog in the house and is doing very well! They even play together!! It is so cute and we honestly never thought we would see Belle playing with another dog. She is doing so well though! We couldn't be any happier with Abe and now our house is complete! Brad and I both have "our" dogs and we are a happy little family of 4!

I love my new baby! He sure knows who is "mommy" is! Abe is such a big cuddle bear :) Love him!

Our NEW Home!!!

Here it is! Our NEW home in Iowa. Goodbye Greenville...you are officially a place of the past (although always in our hearts). Hello Iowa! We officially live here now! Now that we have a permanent address, maybe I can get my Iowa driver's license... What a task!

Anywho...about the house. Everything is finsihed: house, garage, deck, patios, etc. Everything EXCEPT...the yard. So sad. We will get sod and our fence in the spring. Our builder was not able to put in sod because of the drought here in Iowa. Can you believe it?!? ALL of the sod here and surrounding states is gone! Apparently, companies started running out of sod around the end of October...boo! Winter is going to be sooooo much fun with all that mud! Uhhhhhh....sarcasm much?!?

But, we are very thankful to have a beautiful home to start our marriage in and make endless memories for years to come. God is God and God is always good!

Signing our lives away! and drinking coffee while we do it...always!

The outside of the house!! (minus the sod :( )

TL: Red front door/TR: living room/BL&R: living room

Left to Right: stairway to basement/bedroom 3 and bathroom/bedroom 1 & 2/guest bathroom

KITCHEN! I seriously don't ever want to leave it! and view of the deck from the dining room.

Left to Right: mudroom (project!!)/guest bathroom/master bathroom

 We are so blessed! and very thankful to finally have a place to call home in Iowa!