A Reminder

Last night I got a great reminder of the great birthday present
my wonderful husband got me this year. He took me to the Dirty Dancing play at the Pantages theater! Dirty Dancing is one of my favorite movies and seeing the play was amazing! It was better than I ever expected! I got the reminder of this wonderful night out when I was watching the last scene of the movie last night with my sisters, my brother, and my mom. I didn't allow anyone to talk for 8 minutes until the last scene was over.

My Birthday

Every year I have to be creative and try to plan my birthday around Memorial Day weekend. Well, this year it was impossible to plan around it because my birthday landed right on Memorial Day. Thank you to my wonderful family who threw me a great birthday bbq, filled with fun, laughter, Maragaritas, and badminton. My grandpa even stopped by! I could not have asked for a more relaxing day! Thank you to my fabulous friends who took time out of their busy schedules to come and celebrate my birthday. A shout out to Lisa, Darla, and Brittany ~ You girls mean the world to me and I don't know what I would do without you! Thank you to my amazing husband for being the wonderful man in my life, I love you.

The sweetest nephew in the world and my amazing dad

My two beautiful sisters, Liana and Katrina

Sweet little Audra with Ewan and Tarisa who is gorgeous as always

My AMAZING mom

My hubs, he loves the baby

Too cool for school, Jared

My bestie

My two other besties

My fabulous friends

Lifelong friends, my mom and Tami

The badminton and volleyball game

Frank looks confused

Brandon smashed cake in Tarisa's face and she was not happy

The End of May

May started off just like any other month; filled with work and relaxing weekends. After a great Mother's Day and Liana's birthday we were really looking forward to the end of May. Our fun activities started on the Saturday before Memorial Day. We went to dinner with our favorite couple, Lissy and Ernie, at Downtown Disney. We ate at the Jazz Kitchen then had dessert at Rainforest Cafe. We talked and laughed for hours. We love hanging out with them and can't wait until they have their baby, only 5 more months until he or she is born!

Memorial Weekend

Brandon and I have so much going on this weekend, we can't wait to get it started! On Saturday we have a fun dinner planned at Downtown Disney with our favorite couple. Sunday is our lounge day. Monday is Memorial Day and it just so happens to be my birthday as well, so we have a big BBQ planned with family and friends. Then Tuesday, Brandon and I both took the day off work to go to the Dirty Dancing play at the Pantages Theatre. We can't wait for this nice long weekend!

Pictures to come...

Say Cheese!

One of the things that I already know about Brandon is that he does not like to smile in pictures. I have tried for years to get him to smile in pictures because when he does he looks so cute! Whenever picture taking is involved it takes two or three takes to get a good one. Just another reason why I love him so much! Since being married to Brandon I have learned so many new things about him. Such as, no matter what the weather he always has to sleep with covers. He hates having dirty dishes in the sink. He really believes in our air purifier. I am convinced that he can fix anything in an hour. He loves his vegetables. He keeps up with his laundry better than I do. He wants three kids and already has their names picked out. Last but not least, he says marriage is better than he could have ever expected!

What is going on with us

Brandon and I have a lot ahead of us for this year. Mostly, we are looking forward to our one year anniversary, Brandon's 30th birthday and finding a beautiful home. Right now we are both working a ton of hours but for a good cause (a future home). However, we still know how to take a break and have fun. Here is a picture of us having a blast bowling at Lucky Strike!

Finally, a chance to blog

I am so thankful I finally have time to blog! A few weeks ago Brandon was in Corey and Becca's wedding. Their wedding was beautiful and Brandon was honored to be a groomsman. Since, Brandon, Katrina, and Jeff were all in the wedding, my lovely date for the evening was my beautiful nephew, Ewan. I took care of him for half the reception, then handed him off to his mom and then me and Brandon danced the night away! While we were eating, dancing and having a great time, it caused us to look back on our gorgeous wedding and made us feel so blessed and lucky to have each other.

The wedding party (Brandon is the 3rd groomsman out from the middle)

Me, my date Ewan and Katrina

Me and Brandon after the ceremony

At the reception

Having fun at the end of the evening

6 months and so happy

Brandon and I are 6 months into our marriage and we couldn't be happier! We are very excited for whats to come in the next few months. We are saving so hard to get into our own house and we are looking forward to searching for the perfect one. If all goes well, we should be in our own home by September. Brandon is also turning 30 this year and I can't wait to throw him a big birthday party. I have been researching dogs to try and find the perfect one for us. We can't wait to go and pick out a little allergy-friendly puppy together. We love each other so much and we feel so blessed.

The quiz results

Brandon informed me that I got one wrong on the how well do you know your spouse quiz. I would definitely be making a cheesecake for his birthday!

How well do you know your spouse?

Even though Brandon and I have only been married 5 months I'm going to try out this quiz to see how well I really know him. Just for fun :)

1. He's sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen?
Football

2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad?
Ranch

3. What's one food he doesn't like?
Mayonnaise

4. You go out to eat and have a drink. What does he order?
A water and a Coors Light

5. Where did he go to high school?
Hamilton High School

6. What size shoe does he wear?
10.5-11

7. If she/he was to collect anything, what would it be?
Baseball Hats

8. What is his favorite type of sandwich?
Spicy Italian from Subway

9. What would this person eat every day if he could?
Steak and chimi churri sauce

10. What is his/ her favorite cereal?
Corn Pops

11. What would she/he never wear?
A Broncos t-shirt

12. What is his favorite sports team?
Raiders and NY Yankees

13. Who did he vote for?
McCain

14. Who is his best friend?
Yours truly

15. What is something you do that she/he wishes you wouldn't do?
Buy shoes all the time

16. What is his heritage?
Irish

17. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind of cake?
Vanilla or Red Velvet

18. Did she/he play sports in high school?
Yes

19. What could he spend hours doing?
Playing PS3

20. What is one unique talent he has?
He can make me laugh until I cry!

Our daily readings

Every night Brandon and I read our Devotions for Couples book. We got this book as a wedding gift from Jonny and Ashley and we love it! It's a time for us to share our thoughts and reflect on the Bible passage. It's time together with Brandon that I cherish. God has truly blessed us and we feel so lucky.

We are the lucky ones

Brandon and I are so blessed! We feel lucky to have each other, have amazing families and friends, and good jobs. God is good!

Sick Couple

Brandon and I have had a tough week. We are both sick and we seem to just keep passing the germs back and forth. I guess that's what happens when you share everything. We have so much medicine lying around that we should open our own hospital. We have been praying that God would heal our sickness, hopefully he starts healing us soon!

Nesting

Lately, Brandon and I have been spending most of our time at home. We love watching Law and Order and Grey's Anatomy together. But every once and a while we like to go out and hang out with our friends. Earlier in the week our friends Mike and Karissa, who just got married, invited us to go to the Ducks game with them. We had so much fun hanging out and being newlyweds :)

Our Christmas Card Picture

Brandon and I finally got to send out a holiday card together! We wanted to take the perfect picture and after a lot of different poses we finally got it! We hope all our family and friends got some holiday cheer from it!

Christmas at the Lykins

Brandon and I can't wait for Christmas! Here are some pictures of our apartment all decorated Christmas style!

Getting in the Christmas spirit

Brandon and I got our very first Christmas tree yesterday! We went around to every place that has Christmas trees to try and find the best deal. The whole time Brandon kept picking out huge trees saying, "go big or go home!" I thought we just needed a nice small tree to get us through the holiday season. In the end, I let Brandon pick out the tree. We got one that was all wrapped up and then we brought it home, cut the strings, and realized that we got a monstrous tree! It takes up half our living room! But we love it! It makes us laugh every time we look at it.