new year, new ideas and a mustache!?!?

be kind.

be happy.

listen more, talk less.

get married.

love more.

be present.

learn something new (knitting).

perfect something old.

face my fears.

read more books.

bike more, run less.

run two races.

travel.

live healthy.

maintain new and old friendships.

facebook less.

take more pictures.

learn to be a wifey.

celebrate weddings.

bake more.  

write more letters.

When I think of 2013, these are the things that come to mind!! For one reason or another, these thoughts have crossed my mind the past few days. I like to reassess with each new year...new years, my birthday, etc. And this year I decided to make it public via the blog! I realize this is a quite a list, but some of these thoughts are mere suggestions for 2013 and some thoughts will definitely become reality. 2013 has potential to be the best year yet, and whether you are a main character in our life or simply a blog reader, I hope you enjoy the ride!! Cheers to another year full of opportunities and potential.

And I "mustache" ask you a question, how did you spend your NYE??? ;) AK and I hosted a little shindig for some of our friends and rang in the new year with some really great people. We are lucky and enjoy the picture roll below!!!  

wow, i am lucky!!! ;)

so creepy, but so funny!!

love!!!

makes me laugh every time!!!!!

don't worry ladies....he's taken!!!!

the ladies+mustaches!!!! 

Happy  new year!!! 2013 is off to a great start!!!!

the imPERFECT Christmas.....

hello, hello....again!! And Merry Christmas (belated) to all the Beer and Champagne readers. I don't know about the rest of you, but Beer and myself had a wonderful Christmas, almost a perfect Christmas if you will. I keep thinking that one of these years, Santa will get the memo that I usually error on the side of naughty rather than nice, but lucky for me, 2012 was not the year....and Santa was more than good to both of us. And before you criticize the title of my post let me explain our imPERFECT Christmas.....

Now I'm not one to really shove religion down a person's throat, but I was in church quite a bit over the Christmas holiday and heard a really great message on Christmas Day. The summary of the message was that so often we want things to be perfect, or we have visions of the perfect Christmas, birthday, celebration, etc and many times our visions or expectations are not the reality of what actually happens and this is due to our imperfections as people. Our Pastor gave the example of how Mary rode on a donkey all the way to Bethlehem while in Labor to deliver a baby....baby Jesus at that. The thought being, Mary probably didn't envision riding on a donkey while in labor and it certainly was not the perfect scenario but in the end she was granted a wonderful blessing, baby Jesus.....I thought about this lesson a lot and applied it to our Christmas holiday and found some similarities....minus the whole childbirth thing and birthing someone that many people consider a Savior, but similarities nonetheless...just hear me out!!

The Christmas holiday vacation began with a run in with winter storm Draco. This silly storm ended up delaying me a day and a half due to road closures and lots of snow and ice. The blessing being, I made it home safe and was still able to spend 4 great days with family and friends.

This time of year is hectic for my people as their business operates on a calendar year, rather than a fiscal year so their year end of business happens right in the thick of the holiday madness....The blessing being we are so grateful in this economy, that the business continues to thrive and do so well.

Andy I spent much of this holiday season apart as he was finishing up his gig in Chicago and I was busy getting settled at my new gig in Denver, not ideal for either of us....The blessing being, on the Friday before Christmas we found out he could come back to Denver for good. We are both thankful for great jobs and opportunities and for the time to be together again.

Sometimes when you add people to families, you add personalities which can make for more thoughts, opinions, comments, etc, which isn't always bad, but can create tension if you're not careful. I'm proud to report that our family can all be in the same place for multiple days and have fun with each other....The blessing being, we have wonderful families who are filled with love and support. We are thankful for that, especially as we embark on 2013, the year of the wedding(s) (we have 8 weddings this next year including ours....thankful, but CRAZY!!).

This was also the first year AK and I split holidays, meaning we spent Thanksgiving with his family and Christmas with my family. Both holidays were a little hard for both of us respectively as we missed our own families very much....The blessing being, we are so lucky to both have families that want us around and moms who create an environment at home that is so welcoming and inviting!!!  

With the delay in my arrival, I had to cancel some fun holiday plans such as visiting friends, wedding appointments, and shopping (DUH!!), which was a total bummer because this time of year at home is when I get to see a lot of people that I only see once a year.....The blessing being, we are BEYOND thankful and grateful for all our friends and feel so blessed that we have so many wonderful people to keep in touch with. And this is where I get to plug Christmas Cards.....I LOVE receiving holiday mail from all our loved ones all over the country!! Makes my heart happy!!

So anyways, you get the picture. Sometimes things are not always perfect, but there is always a blessing if you look hard enough. Even with all our imperfections, I cannot tell you what a wonderful Christmas this was. I loved every minute of it.....we ate too much good food, we drank a few too many drinks over fine conversation, and we spent quality time with people I love so much. We laughed a ton and even exercised a little. We even found time for a little snowmobiling and sledding. When I sit back and think of the memories created and fun stories told, I am able to smile and giggle to myself, because it really was a PERFECT Christmas!! We are so lucky and so blessed. What a fantastic way to wind down 2012, and welcome 2013.
I hope all the same for everyone else and while I'm at it, I wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous new year....2013, here we come!!!!

Please enjoy a recap of our Iowa Christmas!!!

we attempted a race. clearly AK is winning.

hysterical....and when he had two working legs!! poor guy broke his ankle a few days later!

ahhhh!!!!

i wanted the "fast" sled!!!

snowmobile ride!! love me some Iowa time!!!

go sledding with us....there is no walking up the hill. takes the fun out of it!! ;)

naughty or nice!?!?

pretty, pretty. post christmas eve service.

dan's family!!! love.

garth's family!! love!!

papa and grandma with the grandkids!!

santa...a.k.a Tommy!! #hysterical!

mr. and mrs. clause (emma and tommy!)

another cyclone jersey....perfect!! ;)

cader hiding how handsome he is....it was an artic cat christmas for this guy!

papa and emma. i love this picture.

boys and their toys!! AK's first run at snowmobiling!!

papa jay and his Iowa Staters.

our little elf on the shelf!!! a.k.a. Jack Spieker!! :) (on of the funniest things i've ever seen).

lovey on christmas day!!

tommy tried to put on his new shorts and put both legs through one pant hole and thought he was so funny!! so silly!!

As you can see, we are lucky people and had such a great time!! #soblessed!!!!

cookies galore!!!

When I was growing up, the Krull/Cordes/VanDeest girls (basically the ladies on my mom's side of the family) would all get together and make cookies. I remember baking in my grandma's huge kitchen and seeing sprinkles and frosting go everywhere. My favorite moments were cracking the eggs, decorating the cookies and then eating as many cookies as my mom would let me...DUH!!!! Anyhow, now that I live a ways away and am not surrounded by nearest and dearest people, I decided to start this tradition with my girlfriends and added a little twist....the twist being we drink copious amounts of wine while we bake, decorate and get caught up!! :) The tradition actually began last year while we were living in Chicago, however I brought it West with me and continued it in Denver this year.

So last Wednesday a houseful of my best girlfriends in Denver came over and we baked, decorated, chatted, drank and kicked off the holiday season with some laughter and cheer!!!

The idea was everyone bring cookie dough and the cookie fixins (frosting, sprinkles, red hots, candy canes, etc) and we baked the cookies in my kitchen and then decorated/frosted together. As I was preparing for the party, I went to my recipe book, given to me by my momma in hopes I would some day honor the art of cooking/baking (it worked...finally!!), and I found my two go-to recipes that remind me of Christmas...Chocolate Drop cookies which are like chocolate cake but in a cookie (YUMM-O!!) and peanut butter star cookies (now known as peanut butter chocolate kiss cookies b/c you can no longer find the chocolate candy stars). At one point, I called my mom (okay lets be honest, at a few points, I called her) and requested her secrets...and she responded with, "well great grandma always used margarine instead of butter because it leavse the cookies softer!" I instantly teared up thinking of my little old Grandma Krull mixing these cookies, rolling them into balls and baking them in her kitchen 30-40 years ago. It was one little moment among many that made my heart happy. And little did I know that evening would bring moments just like that....I heard many 'o times, "ginger bread cookies remind me of Christmas" or "cornflake christmas wreaths make me think of my grandma's on Christmas!" I think for a group of girls who are primarily from the Midwest, the cookie exchange 2012 was a success and a way to bring a little piece of home to Denver!!!

a little dark, but you get the idea!!!

we got wine, cookies, frosting, girlsfriends....boom!!!

pretty ladies!

lots of smiles and wine....where are the cookies???

jen said, give me your biggest smile....i think we all listened!!! ;)

group shot....i love this!!!

one more looking down!!

and then the evening turned late and all of a sudden the disney songs were blaring....and. I. MEAN. BLARING!!! 

Such a fun evening with some of my favorite girls. We missed the ones who could not make it and I obviously missed the ladies that instilled the baking genes in me, but for now the Denver girls did the trick. And on top of that everyone left with a box full of goodies and happy hearts!!!
#lovetheholidays!!

Thankful!!!

We spent this past weekend celebrating Thanksgiving with AK's family, and I must say we are thankful for them and for my family. We are thankful for our parents/families for obvious reasons (raising us, supporting us, feeding us...you know basic things), but even more so that our parents have created an environment we want to come back to. Not everyone is close to their families and I'm glad that we are. This was my first holiday away from my own family, except for when I was required to work, and it was a bit rough for me, but they Kays took me in and made me one of the group. That's a great feeling. We had a very relaxing weekend that involved eating way too much homemade food, watching lots of football and taking just the right amount of naps. I'm pretty sure I hardly took off my sweatpants.....so hats off to the Kays, because that is how you should spend Thanksgiving. On the flip side, I heard my peeps in Iowa had some fun of their own.....and that they had a great Thanksgiving as well....hard to believe, without me, but the holiday had to go on I guess!! ;)). Despite the naps, food, and football, AK and I were a bit productive regarding the wedding plans and I have included a snip it that will be featured on our wedding website which we will launch soon, but for now enjoy this little masterpiece!!! I took very few pics of the weekend, so this will have to do....

Oops, we did it again!

No, I'm not a serious Britney Spears fan, but crazily enough we have "done it again!" Done what, you ask? Well we have successfully moved across country, unpacked all our belongings and made our home look/feel like a cozy place to live. I think we could seriously start our own moving company after experiencing two cross country moves in one year, but we are so glad to know Denver is a spot we will be for a while.....and is a city we will always call "home" no matter what!!

One thing we learned when moving the first time was that you need a little help to manage a big move, so I give lots of credit to the fabulous moving company who drove our things out here and stored them until we were ready for them to be delivered. I also give lots of credit to AK for being a master planner and super duper organized, meaning the move was so strategically thought out and planned that all I had to do was refer to the moving spread sheet if I got confused or off track!! :) #loveyoubabe! And then last but certainly not least we have to give a huge thank you and shout out to our interior designers/decorators who flew all the way from the farm fields of Iowa to give our place some much needed TLC. Mom and Jacki (a.k.a Fancy), your contributions to our humble abode are so appreciated!! We are so lucky to have awesome people like you in our lives to help support us when we need it most.

Now more about the weekend with the decorators......

Mom and Fancy arrived Friday afternoon and we hit the ground running! In the beginning we were going for a low key weekend that would require very little maintenance and lots of DIY home projects. I would say after surviving the weekend, we met somewhere in the middle!! :).

Friday: After landing in DEN on time, I quickly shuttled the decorators/designers to our place and we started with inspiration....ideas, pottery barn pictures,  past experiences, etc. Once we had a vision, we realized we had some shopping to do, so we wasted no time....per usual. Friday evening we hit up Cherry Creek and all cashed in at Lululemon and browsed the amazing home stores Cherry Creek has to offer. Way out of my price range, but inspiration, nonetheless!! Friday night we met our friends Steph/Nick for some wine at Vinue (more about that in sec) and we were lucky enough to have them join us for dinner at the Cherry Creek Grille....yummo!! But back to Vinue....this may be my new little spot. It's such a cute place that offers tons of different wines and champagnes. The concept is you prepay and put money on a card and then walk around the wine bar and decide which wine/champagne you want and how much. Once you decide you insert your wine card into the slot and then make your selection....basically you control if you want to taste a wine, have half a glass or go for the full pour. I'm summarizing it as a Vegas style wine bar.....you pay the slot and get what you want!! Perfection!!! The night did end in great fashion and Steph and Nick were an absolute treat to dine with as they were both so funny. Even though Nick had to make a mad dash for a cell phone recovery (eh hem, Fancy), I would say they enjoyed themselves as well and Steph, Nick and myself learned a thing or two about Butt Quarters (if you don't know, don't ask)!! Craziness, but either way, I'm pretty sure they secured themselves a place at the Jasper Farm for the weekend of the wedding!!! :)

Saturday: We all started off a bit slow on Saturday. The decorators had a little jet lag and I was just plain old tired. But we still accomplished a lot. After a walk and a delicious bagel we ready to take on the home goods isle of Target, Home Depot, Crate and Barrel, etc. We made major tracks and found so many wonderful treasures that added a great deal to our little place (see pics below). As if shopping for the home wasn't enough, we also were gearing up to host a little cocktail party/dinner. Bridget, Jen and Meg were all able to join us along with Jules and Suze....all the usual suspects!! We drank wine, ate great food and chatted until the wee hours of the morning!! Fun times!!

Sunday: I personally felt like I blinked and Sunday was over. It went so fast....we began the day at Snooze and had a wonderful brunch. I mean we waited for an hour to get in, and it did not disappoint! If you're ever in Denver, it's a "must eat" for sure!! After that we trekked around picking up our final pieces and finishing touches to make the house "perfect!" (curtains, curtain rods, pillows, etc.) Basically we picked up all the "little" things that add up to a lot!! As momma said once: "no DIY home project is ever fast or cheap!!" She is a wise one I tell ya!!! But suffice it to say, after multiple trips (what felt like 100) to Target and a few mishaps with the curtain rod, our little place is put together and couldn't look better. AK hung the final pieces, so we are now able to call this project a wrap....well until a few weeks when we will rearrange for Christmas deccos!!!!! :)))

Thanks again to the decorators...mom and fancy!! I had so much fun with you and our place looks, feels and smells like home.....always my goal and exactly the kind of house I grew up in!!!!

Yes we did it again, but this time, we're here to stay....(for a while at least!!) :)
please take a quick peek of the very unprofessional pictures of our place below. For a birds eye view, come and visit. We have plenty of room for guests!!!!

our bedroom....a little tight or cozy we like to say, but a great little space nonetheless!

our little sitting area when you walk in the front door!!!

kitchen/breakfast nook

dining room/living room. the bottom left of the pic shows a little peek of our burlap curtains which cover a wall of windows. LOVE!!

decorating/interior design is not easy....needless to say the jeep was full!!!

Denver Time!!!

I'm hoping this will be short and sweet as my past few posts have been a little lengthy!! But there is some really good news and updates to share.....

So as you know, Andy and I are in a bit of transition so I'm currently in Iowa for a few weeks before we go to Denver for good and he is finishing up his gig in Chicago. This past weekend however we met in Denver to find a place to live for at least the next year, which will also be the first place we live in as a married couple. Sentimental, I know, but I just can't help myself. Anyhow, I was terrified of finding a place. A few of our friends recently relocated to different places within the city and said it was a bit of a challenge. Meaning, there wasn't a lot available and if something decent popped up, it usually rents within 24 hours. In fact, it was so difficult that a few of our friends ended up buying a place because they were frustrated with the rental market. Plus while I lived in Denver, I was lucky enough to live in a super cool spot and never had to move, nor did I want to. And we lucked out in Chicago and fell into something great, so I was beginning to think our luck was almost out when it came to finding good rentals. I looked all night on Thursday, all day on Friday and nearly had a breakdown after seeing some of the grossest places Denver had to offer. AK arrived late Friday night and was sick and tired of me saying: "we're going to be homeless because I will not sleep in one place I looked at!" Lucky him, huh?? ;). So out of desperation early Saturday morning AK did one last expanded search on Craigslist (meaning he upped our range in what we would pay in rent) and we came across this great looking house in a pretty cool neighborhood. Not a neighborhood either of us had lived in before (a little nerve racking for me) but still a cute little street and fairly close to all things important...work, friends, grocery stores, etc. Luckily we drove by and let ourselves in as the current tenant was moving out and fell in L-O-V-E with the place. The owners of the house met us at a nearby Starbucks shortly after that and we fell in love with them too.....very nice young couple, wife is a nurse (at Children's, where I worked in the past and will start back in a few weeks) and he seemed like a kind man who wanted responsible people to live in their home and love it as much as they did. Sounded good to me....I've never hated a place with a remodeled kitchen, a nice bathroom, a big living room and a big yard+patio!!!! :)) So we totally scored on a great place and they even dropped the rent by a $100/month because AK said he was handy (Handy Andy, duh!!) and would maintain basic things, the biggest being the yard in the summer!!!! Booya!!!!

Our next thrill of the weekend was getting to see some of our friends who we have missed oh so much over the past year. When I started at Children's long ago, I was lucky enough to start with some pretty cool people and three of them have become some of my best friends to date. Such good friends actually, that this weekend I was honored enough to be able to ask them to be bridesmaids in our wedding in June!!!! Such a fun moment even though I had just spilled a half bottle of champagne all over myself and all over Bridget's new floor (she and Chris just bought a house).....those champagne bottles are tricky little things things, just sayin!! Sorry B & C, but thanks for hosting a fabulous wine/champagne+cheese party!!! After the little cocktail party we all went to Sushi Den to celebrate lots of things (Bridget/Chris's engagment, Meg/Micah returning home safely from NZ, Jen almost turning 30, Bridget/Chris just buying a house, and our engagment!!). Leaving on Sunday made me really realize how special these cool cats are and how lucky AK and I are to have them in our life. Such fun things going on and I'm so glad we are all around to share in the celebrations. First up, Jen's 30th birthday bash on October 19....great way to get back in the Denver groove!!!!!! Can't wait!!! :))

Another little perk of the trip was being able to house/car swap with Matt+Kaiti Bush. These great people let us stay in their cute little home while they went to Napa to celebrate their 1st wedding anniversary!!! We car swapped at the airport as we came and left at similar times so it really worked out well. In exchange for a free house we dog sat their yellow lab, Izzo and that was so much fun. AK and I have grown up with labs all our life, so we knew what we were in for and it made us that much more eager to buy a dog of our own. Izzo is still a puppy but has a great personality, loved to be petted and played with and was amazingly happy drinking insane amounts of water and chewing on numerous bones!!! We loved him!!! Thanks Matt and Kaiti and happy anniversary!! We had so much fun celebrating with you 1 year ago today and we wish you so much happiness!!! 

And that's all folks.....we were so busy trying to find a place to live and catching up with friends, that I did not take one picture, NOT ONE!!! So this is just a worded post and I will try and not let it happen again!!! :))

As always, cheers!!!

Facelift!!!

For my regular blog followers you will notice we did a little facelift to our blog. We changed the theme, the colors, the pictures and made it a bit more polished and professional. I know a great gal that is in the photography bizz (you can find her here) and she was a doll in helping me come up with a cool new look. And this came just in time for so many facelifts going on in our life right now. Obviously you all know we are engaged on the path to marriage (so fun!), but I'm not sure if many of you know we are also in route to moving back to Denver, CO!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sure this comes as quite a surprise to some, but to those of you who have walked every step with us, I'm sure it's quite obvious. This past year in Chicago has been a tough one for sure. If you ask me, I knew on minute 1 of driving into the city we would be going in reverse in 1 year, but if you ask AK he liked it for a while, and then it got old. I think the combination of two terrible jobs for me and all the big city inconveniences (hour long commutes to go 12 miles, over priced everything, drinking and eating being the favorite past time, rude people, constant hustle bustle, etc) put us over the edge. I think we are fairly outdoorsy/Colorado people at heart and one year ago we made a promise to trade cars for trains and mountains for lakes, but we also made a promise that if we were not happy we would go straight back to where we came from. Turns out neither of us worked in convenient locations to ride the train and we don't own a boat, so the lake was only so much fun after a while!!! ;) But in all seriousness, we lived a good year where there were many ups and downs (personally and professionally) and we did it together and came out on top. We now know where we want to live, we learned we can survive hard things and prefer to survive them together, and we learned a valuable lesson in that some things work out and some things don't, but how would you ever know if you NEVER tried!! Some may say we failed or we didn't try that hard, but I give us credit....one year ago we had only been dating but a year and we packed up our lives, moved in together in a brand new city, and tried to conquer what is Chicago. After a full year of living together we still like each other, we managed to get engaged despite all the stress of Chicago and we managed to see and do a lot of the positive things Chicago has to offer. So with a transfer to the Denver office made possible by Andy's company and with the luxury of me having a flexible career....we are headed back West and could not be more thrilled. We have some great friends in Denver who we missed very much this past year and it is time to reunite.....

So I start my new gig on October 23 and since our lease was up Oct 1, I am spending some much needed time at home with my fam and am trying to crank out some serious wedding plans!!! AK is finishing up his gig in Chicago and also bunking up with his parents and hoping to be out in Denver no later than the end of November!!!! This weekend we are meeting in Denver to find our first Denver place together and to get reacquainted with the city!! And if you have caught on....we are not at all embarrassed about each being 28 and 29 years old, engaged and living with our parents.....isn't that how most you have done it!?!? HA!! Thanks goodness for them though....who else would take us in during transition for free!?!? #Lovethemsomuch!!!

So without saying much more, our Facelift has been a bit intense and we have chosen a lot of change, but we definitely don't take the easy road and I'm beginning to believe we thrive on change!! :) Good thing, because the next 12 months will offer a lot of that!! :)

Cheers to us, cheers to Denver being great, cheers to Chicago being a great place to visit, cheers to the great fall weather, and cheers to a much needed Facelift!!!!!!!!!


**Enjoy some pics below of our last days in Chicago and the first few days in Iowa**

one of our last El rides....waiting at the "chicago stop"

last cupcake at work!!

last morning on school street....and saying good bye to our first home together!

our lovely landlords....alan and susan. delightful people!

good bye skyline!

my niece emma rocking the fun run!!!! go em!!!!

colors!!

a little fall walk!

Go Cader....#33. his name is announced all the time.....he's such a stud!!