Happy Anniversary!

A little late with the post...but... Last week Hubby and I shared another great Wedding Anniversary!

We decided this would be it. The big event. The first time I would leave Harper all night.  Brian already had to do this when he went out of town on business, but I wasn't so sure about leaving her.  Honestly, before I had Harper, I would have NEVER thought it would have taken me 6 months to leave my baby girl. But, alas, to each is own.

So...Hubby wanted us to get out of town and do something but I just couldn't. I was too nervous that something might happen and I would be too far from her!  So, we decided to still make it adventurous and spend the night in a hotel!

My wonderful husband planned such a fun night out! 2nd Anniversary gifts are cotton, so he planned {a much needed} couples massage at our Hotel Spa {we had cotton robes...}. He then planned a taxi for us to get downtown to eat at Grey Goose - a place that isn't so easy to eat at with a baby! It was so very fun! I soo needed that massage and getting dressed up to go downtown was great! We spent the night just hanging out, taking our time to eat, enjoying our drinks, and then went out to a local bar. We wanted to stay for the live band but decided to head on back before it was too late, well because, this was our night to sleep through the night! Ha!

~I was super upset when we dropped H off. I had tears on the way to the hotel. But, I soon got out of it and my Mom sent me lots of picture texts per my request.  All in all, it was a great night. I knew she was in good hands! I think I could do it again! :)

getting in some extra snuggles

our second room...we moved due to a very loud party room next to us. we KNEW we would not be happy come sleepy time. these parents wanted SLEEP!

our suite!

love my sweet hubby!

March 27th, 2010

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to the BEST DAD AROUND! 

Father's Day this year: Kelli, Dad, Me

Without getting too mushy-gushy, I'll tell you I had and still have the best dad ever.  He's always been there to laugh with, play with, and have his serious life talks with me. :)  I couldn't imagine having a better one!

{check out the Dad-to-Be's silly gift here}

Also, Happy 34th Anniversary to my Mom & Dad today! What a great example of marriage for Brian & I to see!

Happy Dating Anniversary!

I met my husband today on a slightly cold, but fun day out at Keeneland Race Track.  My how our world has changed since then! Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our first summer together!

What A Weekend!

What a weekend for sure! We had so much to celebrate starting on Friday!  So WARNING! This is going to be a long post! ;)

Friday:On March 25th of last year {2010} Brian and I got re-baptised by our minister.  This was SO special to me...almost more special than the wedding, almost:).  I was baptised when I was in 2nd grade and Brian in high school.  Although we've remained pretty close in our own individual relationships with Jesus, we wanted to make a commitment to make sure we remain close with Jesus together and in our marriage, and in our future family... Well here's the cute little kicker... We said a lot of things about how we pledged to bring up our future family in the Lord and... this year on this day we are 3 MONTHS pregnant!! {Apparently this is a big deal in preggo world I've found...}.  Oh how God is laughing above at His master plan!

So, I found this sweet card series from "Baby on the Way" at Hallmark and gave the card to Brian with a cute little book on Championship Fathering by this really cool NFL and FCA guy.  I wanted to look up the card line online to share with you all, but I couldn't find it! It is written SO cute! It's written as if the baby is speaking.  This particular card was telling the parents not to worry about baby getting lonely because God was holding his/her hand and letting the baby know what was going on. The card was so sweet ~ it brought tears to B's eyes!

card from baby "H" :)

Then we enjoyed a big W from the CATS!

Saturday:
Saturday and Sunday we enjoyed a fun weekend get-away in Nashville! We seriously love getting away together and taking trips no matter how small.  There is just something about getting away from your daily life and just having time with the 2 of you that we just need and crave.  Since we have both been to Nashville plenty of times, we decided to steer clear of the regular 'downtown' atmosphere not hitting up popular places like The Stage, Cadillac Ranch, etc.  We decided to stay on the West End and try to find more local places{we love doing that!}.  AND it just so happens we ran into a sorority sister and her husband whom we went to college with while eating lunch! They gave us some great places to try.  Thanks Emily!  We ate lunch at this cool place called Which Wich? that we totally need in Lexington! It was super yummy!  Then we walked around and drove around town for a while. 

is my belly sticking out a little bit here?!

how cute is this?! great way to walk into the hotel room!

Before dinner we went back to the room to enjoy some very romantic Sparkling Grape Juice {don't hate!} and chocolate-covered strawberries {thanks Jordan and Nick!} and opened our gifts to one another, then got ready for our anniversary dinner at Stoney River.

ok, ok, Brian poured beer in his glass...

UMM, best steak ever! It was cooked in coffee beans with maple syrup, cinnamon, cumin, and a few other spices. OMG delish!  Next, I actually surprised my hubby and made it past 9:00 and went to a few live music joints! Woo Hoo, go me! :)  We went to SamBuca and tried The Standard but it was a one-in-one-out situation... boo! {thanks baby burton for giving me 2 great days!}

Sunday:After we finally got ourselves going on Sunday, we enjoyed brunch at this cute place called Athens Family Restaurant that we found out later was featured on Diners and Dives! It was yummy!  We ended up pulling into Lexington right at 5:00 - the start of our BIG game about #1 Ohio State! Hello W once again and Hello Final Four!!!!  Afterwards we went home and watched our entire wedding DVD...and after a few tears and laughing, we enjoyed our wedding cake topper. YUMMO! It was delicious!  Did you save yours?

It was a wonderful year and a great weekend to celebrate! So thankful for all the blessings we have!

*And if you've made it through this LONG post, YAY to you! ha! I will be doing a Give-Away soon for Spring...stay tuned! :)

Our First Year...

I have no idea where to begin.  This year has been ridiculously amazing.  I have more 'special moments' than I ever thought I would have.  It's also been one of the most relaxing years of my life.  Brian and I match so well.  We didn't really have any huge fights or disagreements, no burnt dinners, just a lot of laughing and hugging.  My face just can't stop smiling when I think about this past year.  Between trips, living together, and just being 'us', it's just been plain amazing.

I am fairly certain we all think we have the best husbands {or we wouldn't have married them!}, and I am certainly one of those people, too.  I was complete before Brian but Brian made me overflowing with extra joy.  He is such a good, honest, and caring man.  He is sensitive and puts forth more effort than I ever knew was possible.  I know he's worked at certain topics we had discussed during our pre-marriage classes, and I can tell - because we don't have a lot of issues because we both work hard on the things we already know could cause one.  And while I know that yes, this year was a blissful one and not all the years to come will be this 'easy', I know that with the strong love, bond, and Christ-centered marriage we have we can get through anything together. 

A few of my favorite simple moments from this year:
*the night we got re-baptised together (March 25th) to re-dedicate our marriage and future family to Christ
*the moment walking off the stage as a married couple
*the night we came home from our honeymoon and stayed in the same bed in our first home for the first time
*our monthly special things we did for one another to celebrate another wonderful month
*all the trips and weekend adventures we went on
*just going to bed with one another each night
*decorating our first Christmas tree
*finding out our little miracle

I'm getting too excited for this weekend! We have some fun things planned - hurry up work week!! :)

Chic-Fil-A to my Heart

Happy 7 Months to US! :)
Today my sweet hubby surprised me at work with some yummy Chic-Fil-A and a very sweet card hidden in the bag. I love that he remembers every month without any reminders. It makes me feel so special to him.

My husband gets an award of some type for the past 8 days. We decided we wanted to go ahead with our kitchen project last Sunday. He started on the project Wednesday, and just finished tonight at 8:30. WOW. All because I wanted it complete before my Book Club tomorrow. He's been working during the day and on the house at night, been sick, and still he completed it on time.

Now that's true love ;).

Can't wait to share pictures of the kitchen! But for now, I've got to keep up with being a bad blogger this week and work more on that Book Club I'm having tomorrow. I should get an award for having it on a work day! haha Hopefully the girls won't judge me too harshly!

Hope your week has been good. I've had lots of praises this week to Him!

Asheville Get-Away

Southern Living Magazine stated Asheville, N.C. one of the top 10 places to visit. After we decided Chicago wasn't going to work out on the weekend we had planned, we decided to travel only 4 1/2 hours away here. It was fantastic! We could not have planned for better weather!

We left around noon on Friday and were able to get to Asheville in plenty of time to walk around Downtown. Our awesome hotel, Crown Plaza, {thanks to Priceline} even offered $5 round trip shuttles to Downtown anytime between 8am-11pm. Yes, Please! We lived for that shuttle!

{...it's so hard to take pictures when you are on your own! disregard all the self-timer photos!}

Their Downtown is so much fun. Little shops everywhere, fun places to eat, open-air bars, and they even had a local drums concert going on!
We took in the sights and ate and drank the local food, wine, and beer.
Here are a few pics from Friday night:
{Patio at Mayfel's ~ SUCH yummy food! We ordered an extra plate of sweet potato fries here b/c they were so good!}
{local drummers and dancers right in our view from the patio}
{local beers from The Thirsty Monk ~ so fun!}
{Senior Photo shoot b/c no one here ever asked us for our i.d.'s :(}

{re-enacting some awkward moments that happened to us that night!}

On Saturday we woke up with no plans ahead! That feels so good, doesn't it? Although we got a little late start to the day {we are so not 21 anymore ~ ha!} we decided to drive out to the Biltmore Estates to see what that was all about. UM, excuse me, who knew it was sooo expensive?! Well, we did not. After some contemplation, we decided to go ahead and visit. It was actually more fun than I had anticipated! We walked through the gardens, around the estate, and then headed to their Winery for wine tasting. That was fun ~ neither of us had ever done that before!

{The Biltmore Estates}
{on one of the patios of the Biltmore}
{The Biltmore}
{tasting Biltmore Wine}
{Outside Antler Hill Winery, gotta love self-timers!}
{The Garden's at Biltmore}






Next we headed to our hotel to grab the shuttle and went back downtown to Oktoberfest. It was super crazy. People were everywhere dressed as Germans with live German music! We only hung around there for a bit, and decided to walk around to Park Place and Battery Park where some local arts fairs were going on. We also hit up some major people watching. Asheville is like nothing I've ever seen. Here in Lexington, you pretty much see the same type of people everywhere. In Asheville; you can't turn around without seeing someone 'unique'. I mean, these locals were OOC! Hippie capital of the world!
{Oktoberfest}
{I don't know the story behind this, but both nights downtown this funny looking nun would ride around on this large bike and everyone would yell and wave! It was hilarious!}
Then came the best part of the night...in true Burton fashion...we decided to hit up all the local bars and restaurants we'd read about and get an appetizer and drink from each of them! HA! Here are a few we hit up that night:
{The Southern}
{L.A.B. brewery}
{TallGary's where the people were, um, interesting!}
{This place was called the Bier Garden. It was the only bar downtown with TV's! We caught part of the sorry UK game.}

We decided to not be as fun as we were on Friday night since Saturday we had done a LOT of walking, and ended the night after our bellies were full! Loved calling the shuttle to come pick us up!

On Sunday we decided to hike at the NC Arboretum through the Blue Ridge Parkway. The scene was so pretty! My dinky camera did not even grasp how fun and pretty the trail looked ~ but here's a try:







Next we drove around to 3 different places hoping to eat lunch. The first one wasn't open on Sundays, the second one {with the great view} was too long of a wait, so we found a fun little Tavern that ended up having TV's everywhere and ALL the NFL games on. So B was in heaven watching the Packers game! {too bad every team we root for lost this weekend!}

All in all we loved Asheville. It was super different than we had expected, but in a fun and crazy way. You know what else was fun? Going on a vacay where we really didn't have anything planned, we just went and found things to do. I really liked it that way. Hopefully we can continue this non-planned fun for a while!

I'm so glad my hubby and I make time to get away and celebrate the 'little' things in life! Although, six months being married is the biggest anniversary we have to date!