Second Annual Bailey's Barkin' BBQ

Earlier this month, we hosted the second annual Bailey's Barkin' BBQ. (And yes, our dog, Bailey, is the hostess of all of our parties.) As usual, we had a great time hanging out with all of our friends. We're so glad everyone could come!

Jessica, Cara, Jan, Dan, Holly and Champ hanging out at the party.

Fratastic! Here are Garth's fraternity brothers - Shane, Ben, Blair and James.
Carlos, Garth, Kyle and Jason hang out on the deck (I think the three on the right planned to match their outfits, don't you?!?)

Courtney and Shane

Our hostess, Bailey, was very worn out from all of the preparations. It's hard work being a social butterfly!

Last, but not least, here's Garth and me. Garth is pictured in his favorite chair. I swear, everytime we have people over, all the guys have to marvel at the chair's greatness. I, however, would like to sell it to the highest bidder! ;)

Thanks again to all who came - we had fun hanging out with all of you!

Pan Fry Chicken - Easter recap (very belated)

I realize this is extremely belated, but I was getting pictures off of my phone and realized I had some old photos from our Easter trip to Missouri that I hadn't posted. I didn't take very many, but thought it was worth sharing the few I took.

Here's sweet Bailey sleeping in the back of the car on the way to Missouri.

What's Easter without baby chicks and ducks??? One night, we took Grandma Kiehl out for dinner and stopped by Orchelen's (a local farm store similar to Tractor Supply) for their annual "Chick Days".

Aren't they cute?

Though, we found it quite disturbing that one variety was called "Pan Fry Special".

Last, but not least, I thought it was very important to note that my parent's road actually has a name now! Because they are now getting 911 service in their area, the county had to name all of the gravel roads so they could be identified for 911 calls. My entire life, the road just had "311" on the stop sign. It wasn't an address, just a number. Our address had always been Rt. 1. For the first time ever, my parents have an actual street address. I think it's funny that they live on Boxelder Avenue...nothing like a gravel road named after a bug!

Memorable Memorial Day weekend

A couple of days before the Memorial Day weekend holiday, I get a call from my sister, Jenna, asking "what are you doing this weekend?" Although this is fairly inocuous question, it had a twinge of devious curiosity behind it. I soon learn the reason she asked - she and Jeremy wanted to come visit. We told them we'd love to have them. The next day, I talked to my Mom and it turns out that she and my Grandma Kiehl wanted to come along! So, we had a house full of guests for the holiday weekend.

When my family arrived, they showed up with a huge bucket of flowers from my Mom and two grandmothers! I was thrilled! I quickly whipped out all of my vases (that never get used, ahem, Garth!) so we could arrange them and place throughout the house. Since I couldn't keep them forever, I took pictures so I could always remember how great they looked.

I was especially excited to get these gorgeous, fragrant peonies. Garth and I got married four years ago during Memorial Day weekend and we had peonies at our wedding. I love them! They are beautiful and smell fantastic. It was such a treat to have some fresh blooms in our house for a few days.

Pretty pink roses from Grandma Kiehl in a crystal vase from Grandma Tieman (which was a wedding shower gift - it came from Germany and is something she's had for years).

Petit roses from Grandma Kiehl in a charming vase from Garth's mom, Linda. It was darling on our kitchen window sill.

The irises came from my Mom and both Grandmothers. They looked lovely on top of my piano!

I didn't get many pictures of the family, but here's one of my Grandma Kiehl, Mom, Jenna and me. On that Saturday, we had a great trip to the farmer's market. Since my Grandma has such a green thumb, she loved inspecting the fruits and veggies and talking to all the vendors. After that, we headed to Zackie's Hot Dogs in Germantown for lunch. This is us sitting outside of the restaurant. After lunch, we hit the flea market that was in town. Busy day!

Jenna and Jeremy at Zackie's.

Garth and me outside of Zackie's.

Bailey also enjoyed seeing my family. She loved all of the attention (and the food!). She did one of her favorite things and climbed up in my Mom's lap. She loves her Grandma Marj!

We had a great weekend and enjoyed having everyone come visit!

Bailey's strange habits

We haven't posted about Bailey in a while, so we thought we'd share one of her strange habits. For some reason, Bailey LOVES to run between our legs. I guess she does it because it means it's hard for us to move and we HAVE to pay attention to her. Whatever the reason, we find it funny and snapped a couple of photos of her doing it recently. Silly Bailey!

Cousin Charlie

Erin and Jeremy have a Bassett Hound named Charlie. This was the first time we got to meet him. Since my mom doesn't have any grandbabies, she claims Charlie and Bailey as her "granddogs". Sorry, mom - babies will come later!

Here's Charlie in one of his sweaters. Isn't he cute?

Bailey wasn't sure what to think of Charlie at first, but it wasn't long before they were best of friends. Here they are cuddling together on a blanket. They are about the same age, so they had a lot of fun playing together. We're so glad we finally got to meet Charlie!

Bailey's Christmas Extravaganza

This year, we decided to have a Christmas party at our house. In keeping with our theme of parties this year, we had another "Bailey party". This one was aptly called "Bailey's Christmas Extravanganza".

Here's the invite for the party

Garth and I at the party
Bailey was thrilled to have people come over to the house. But after a while, her bone was far more interesting.

Jan and Dan chillin on the couch

Nathan (aka Putty) gives the party a thumbs up!

Garth and Rosemary, a fellow lawyer from Springfield

Blair and Chris

My gal pals, Katie and Jessica

Brian and Kim, our friends from church

Our neighbors, Ricky and Jennifer stop by

"Crazy Kyle" and Chris show us the infamous "prom pose"

Drew decides to relax a little at the party.

Blair played some Christmas tunes on my new piano.

Thanks to everyone who came - we had a great time and hope you did too!

Heading Home for Homecoming - Day 1

Last weekend, we headed to Missouri for Mizzou's Homecoming. Last weekend was my first football game at Mizzou since my senior year, so I was really excited to go. I took a LOT of pictures, so I'm going to break up the blog posts.

We left on Thursday, so we could have time to go see my family. As always, we're not really thrilled with the 8 hour drive, but we make the most of it.

This time, we got stuck in construction traffic. Boo! So, what's a bored girl to do? Take pictures of it!

Garth talking on the phone as we sit in traffic.

Meanwhile, Bailey just sleeps in the back seat. Isn't she cute?!?!

When we finally got out of the construction traffic, it was dusk in St. Louis. I thought the sky looked so cool behind the arch. This photo was taken as we were crossing the Mississippi River while in the car, so it doesn't nearly do it justice!

Fashion Show...sorta

Last week, Bailey and Garth got some new things. Grandma Marj (my mom) sent Bailey a lovely orange Halloween scarf. And Garth got some new glasses. It was time for new glasses anyway, but we were forced to get new ones after Bailey decided Garth's glasses would make an excellent chew toy. I guess they must have fallen off the bedside table in the middle of the night. At about 3 a.m. one night we hear a crunching noise. And by then, Garth's glasses were a mangled mess.

Anyway, with all this new stuff, I decided we needed pictures. However, neither Bailey or Garth were as excited about a "fashion show" as I was.

"Seriously, mom, do you HAVE to take my picture?"
(The second picture was Bailey mid-bark. I was holding a bone over the camera. I thought picture was funny.)

Finally, a smile! Isn't her scarf cute? I love the fraidy cats on it!

Garth avoiding getting his picture taken.


That's better! I think his new glasses are cool, don't you?

Sleepy Bear

This is Bailey after a busy day at puppy day care. Isn't she cute?!? I love when she sleeps in a little ball. I just had to snap some pictures and share.

Mom & Bailey do tricks

Here's a video of my mom doing tricks with Bailey. This was when my parents came to visit last month.

Visitors!

As you've likely noticed, I'm WAY behind on the blog. Sorry for the lack of updates! Things have been really really busy the last several weeks. At long last, I have a few minutes to post some updates from the past month or so.

1st Visitors

Sam, Garth's fraternity brother (and best man from our wedding), came to visit in July. Sam's in law school in Arkansas and was in town for the weekend. Here he is with his daughter Sophia.

Isn't Sophia beautiful?

2nd Visitors

In August, my parents came to visit for a weekend! They arrived on August 8, the day the Olympics started. We spent a LOT of time watching the opening ceremonies and all of the events.

We did get out on Saturday to check out the Tomato Art Fesitval. We brought Bailey along and she got a cool green scarf to wear. I was impressed she didn't try taking it off!

We went to the festival to see my friend, Jan. She had entered her dog, Hubble, in the "Fashion Faux Paw" dog show. Hubble posed as "LeBron Hubble" and had a basketball jersey on. Hubble won 3rd place! They even made the paper!

It was great to see all of our visitors! More are welcome to come. If you want to visit Nashville, or just come see us, our door is always open!