Sunshine, fruit kabobs, and rainbows everywhere

While we were in Austin a couple of weeks ago, Tali and Cliff hosted Dahlia's first birthday party. It was no small feat! There were about 40 attendees including the kids. Tali really went all out with the rainbow theme. There was rainbow food, colorful photo backdrops, and Dahlia even wore a rainbow dress!

Here are some photos captured by Tali, Francis and a few other guests.

The rainbow food spread included fruit kabobs, skittles, baked mac n' cheese cups, rainbow cupcakes, veggies, and more!

Dahlia is asking for her cupcake!

she approves :)

photo bomb

rainbow love

isn't she the cutest? Dahlia's pretty cute too :)

In case you didn't know we were engaged...

Here are a few photos that prove it! ...Actually they totally don't, but they're engagement photos.

Both our wedding photographer Francis Joseph and Tali collaborated on our engagement photo shoot on Saturday.

Mark and I had a blast. We started at the Dripping Springs Founders Day Fair, and then navigated our way deeper into the country and found a nice field.

We are dying to see all of the photos, but Francis and Tali were kind enough to share a few teasers to tide us over.

(c) Tali Wildman

(c) Francis Joseph

(c) Francis Joseph

(c) Tali Wildman

One.

A year ago yesterday, something awesome happened. My beautiful niece Dahlia was brought into the world.
I can't even begin to express how happy she has made me. Yes, we may have 1500 miles between us, but the iPhone 4 is awesome, and I get to see her at least a couple of times a week.

Yesterday Tali, Cliff, and the folks celebrated with Dahlia, and she got her first dose of cake!

And her first tutu...

Mark and I are headed to Austin next week for Passover, engagement photos, and most importantly, Dahlia's first birthday party.

I can't wait!

It's not like I hate blogging...

Really, I don't, and now that my readership consists solely of people who have googled a paint color and my parents, I figure an entry is in order... To entertain all two of you.

I haven't even been that busy to tell you the truth. I just plain haven't felt like it, and by golly, sometimes The Real Housewives take precedent. (Mark is cringing right now, if he by chance is still part of the readership, which would make three in that case.)

A lot has changed with the house though -namely the backyard. We finally bit the bullet and got some landscaping! I'd love to claim we did it ourselves, but then I'd be lying, and no one likes that. We had sod put in, along with 3 trees, flowers, plants and some gravel. All in all it is way cool. Don't believe me? See for yourself.

One of the biggest pluses about having grass, is the dogs don't come inside muddy any more. grass+dogs=clean floors+happy Shiri

Another thing we (Mark) did was put down some cobble stone in the front where there was uneven dirt. This serves as a great place for all of our potted plants. We plan to eventually do it on the other side of the front door too and create a quazi-front porch.


So there you have it folks. I don't hate blogging, I'm just too busy thinking about what I should be doing for the wedding. :)

There will be doors.

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted a solid home improvement entry. Hope you're ready for it.

Where to begin? I guess it's worth starting with the fact that Mark and I have been lacking doors... We took the linen closet doors down when we first moved in and thought we'd paint them. Fast forward a year and a half and the closet is still exposed. That would be fine and dandy if I was say, Martha Stewart and had all of my towels neatly folded and cute baskets housing all of the random crap in there. But alas, I'm not... and I don't...
So I took a trip to Lowes and picked up the below supplies.


...and got to sawing. I had the backings cut to size at Lowes and then used our friend Aaron's mitre saw to cut the trim.

Don't I look professional?

Now I just have to sand, prime, and paint...

But no folks, that's not all. We were living with a door-less office as well as a door-less master bathroom. Not to mention the non-fire door we had connecting the house to the garage. Fear not people. Aaron and Mark sanded, shimmed, and installed those too!

The uninstalled fire door

Aaron sands down the office door

Installing the fire door frame

We've got doors!!!

Now we just have to re-trim the fire door and prime and paint the others. All in a day's work...

Lean Mean Wedding Planning Machine...

That's right folks. If you just chanced upon my blog or are secretly stalking me and don't know me too well, I'm a planner and a doer. I suffer from anxiety and can't rest until things are handled, which in the case of a wedding that's 8 months away, may be difficult. Don't hyperventilate on my behalf though, we're gettin'er done.

In the 3 weeks since our engagement, Mark and I have picked a date (9.10.11), booked a venue for the ceremony and reception, picked out our menu (with the exception of hors d'oeuvres which we'll pick next month and cake which we still have to taste), booked a photographer (the amazing Francis Joseph who will be flying out from Austin, TX), started our wedding website, found a dress (I think -ordering it today), picked out a color scheme (girls in various shades of purple, guys in grey suits), decided on flowers, and a couple of other things...

The alternative was sleepless nights or xanax, neither of which is a good long term solution. So there you have it. This process is surprisingly fun once you handle some of the bigger pieces. This weekend we will hopefully create our save the dates and perhaps even begin registering...

And the clouds parted

Shortly after posting my last entry on Weds, the rain finally stopped and the sun peaked through. Mark and I were both home early from work, and after suffering from some major cabin fever for a week, Mark had the brilliant suggestion that we get out of the house and go on a bike ride.

And so we rode. We took a route that's fairly familiar to us that passes through a nice park in our neighborhood, where on nicer days, it's fun to bring our gloves and play catch. Mark suggested we travel through the park rather than go around it. I rode a bit ahead, when suddenly I heard a crashing noise and Mark yelling. Man down. That's not what he said, but I turned around to see him on the ground next to his collapsed bicycle. I turned my bike around and walked it back towards him.

Me: What happened?!

Mark: I slipped.

Me: Let me see your hands

(I expected his hands to be scraped, because that's what I remember of every time I've fallen off of my bike.)

It was at this point that Mark (still on the ground) reached over to my bike, put down the kickstand, and lifted himself onto one knee and pulled a box out of his pocket. He made a beautiful proposal, much of which is a blur, as I was so surprised/confused/shocked at the moment. All I know is I said yes and was giggling uncontrollably out of excitement and happiness.

As we got back on our bikes to ride back to the house, we were greeted with the largest rainbow either of us had ever seen, which I have since learned was a double rainbow. I'm not one for mushy, serendipitous talk, but in that moment, I knew everything had fallen into place just the way it was meant to.