Life the Past 3 Weeks through Pictures

Sorry I have been slacking so much lately on the blog! Erik and I have been busy little bee's, but alas, this week is the last week of classes! Erik will have one year of grad school under his belt and I will FINALLY be a college graduate!!! I figure pictures are more exciting (at times) than words :) So, I am going to update you on our lives through pictures and fill you in along the way!

First up: Our House! We have finally gotten everything torn out, and cabinets are being installed as we speak.  Here are some pictures of the progress. First job was to scrape this wall that was covered in paper bags, thanks to an HGTV quick fix tip!

Next, we knocked down the wall between the kitchen and dining room. Paul and Erik, here, having their fair share of fun knocking it down! More pictures of the progress to come...we just have not had the camera over there in a while!

Next, Erik's aunt Lynn threw us a couple's shower where the theme was "Stock the Bar".  Awesome if I do say so myself. Now, we don't have to go buy that stuff when we want to entertain; we already have it! 

And then came Easter! I didn't get many pictures, but we had a great time over at my Granny and Gramps house with my mom's side of the family. Unfortunately, Erik had to work, but it was great to have everyone together!

Ryan's birthday came next, but we failed to get any pictures. Emily, Ryan's girlfriend, had us over to her cute little apartment that she just bought and made us AWESOME dinner! 

This past weekend Brittany was home and we had the chance to go to her good friend, Sarah Walsh's, wedding. It was the most incredible and beautiful wedding! The bride was absolutely stunning and the reception set-up left us both speechless!! It made me SO excited to be marrying Erik in just 34 short days! We are so looking forward to having all of our friends and family together for such a special occassion!

Yesterday I had my final bridal shower! It was a Pampered Chef shower hosted by a good friend of my parents and it was so great! I was thankful that Britt was able to be in town for this shower as she was for the last one.  Something about having her here just makes it that much more special and is a reminder of what a sweet time this is! 

Erik got the chance to host a booth at an Earth Week Festival in downtown Boulder for Plant with Purpose. If you have not heard of Plant with Purpose, check them out. There work is incredible and it was really special for Erik to get to host this booth for them! After we were both done with our different activities from the day, we met up with our wedding photographer to take engagement pictures! Despite the pouring rain and cold wind, we managed to get some awesome shots and we are looking forward to sharing them as soon as we have them!

Wedding Festivities

I can't believe another week has gone by! Time really is flying....I know I say it a lot, but it's so true. This weekend was a ton of fun, and of course, very busy :) Friday began with marriage counseling and concluded with an afternoon and evening painting the inside of the house. We had such wonderful help from Paul, Ryan, and Chris! Erik, Chris, and Paul were at the house until 12:30 am and finished painting every room in the house that was being painted the neutral color. I am thankful, to say the least, that they were and are so willing to help Erik and I with everything!
Saturday was spent at two separate showers for both Erik and I. Ashley Margoles is truly amazing and I feel so honored that she would host a shower in my honor. I had the most amazing time and am so thankful for all the thoughtful, loving, and supportive people that surrounded me and truly advocate for Erik and I as we start our marriage! I was so blessed to receive so many amazing gifts, but even more with the people that were there. It's such a testament of friendship and another reminder of how loved we are! I am looking forward to having them each in my life for a long, long time to come!
Erik had a tool shower with the guys and had an awesome time as well! He got lots of tools that he is REALLY excited about! They are definitely going to be a huge help in the construction and finishing of the house!
I was really excited that my sister got to be in town for all that was going on too. Beau has been out of town for work so she was in charge of the dogs! That meant the 7 puppies as well! They are growing up quickly and will all soon be gone :( They are the CUTEST little nuggets you will ever see though, and they are were so fun to have here for the weekend. Britt is an all-star for coming with all of them by herself
Here are just a few pictures from the weekend!
Thankful this weekend for amazing and supportive friends and family :)

A Weekend of Showers!

Less than 2 months and we will be married! Crazy to think about....time is definitely flying by! This past weekend was just great. Friday night Erik and I had our first shower! Erik's aunt, Lynn, threw us a "Stock the Bar" shower and it was so fun.  The idea was for people to bring the recipe for their favorite drink and all the ingredients needed to make the drink.  I have never been to a shower quite like it!  It will be perfect for entertaining or just sitting back to enjoy a nice refreshing drink on our deck. We are both so thankful for loving, supporting, and thoughtful friends and family as was evident on Friday night.
Just to share, here are some of the most interesting drink recipes we got! Here are the "Michelada" recipe and the "Moscow Mule" recipe.  I am excited/nervous to try both of them, but I trust they are good if they are truly people's favorite drinks!

Michelada:
12 oz. beer
juice of 1 lemon
2 dashes Worcestershire sauce
1 dash soy sauce
1 dash Tobasco sauce
1 pinch black pepper
salt around the rim


Moscow Mule:
2 oz. Vodka
1 tbsp. lime juice
8 oz. Ginger Beer

I also went to a baby shower for a good friend of mine from growing up.  She is due in May and looks just great! It was awesome for all of us girls to be back together celebrating the first baby of the group! Congratulations to Hannah and Ryan! Here's to hoping and praying that these last 6 weeks will go quickly and smoothly!

Spring Break!

This past week was our Spring Break...a much needed one at that! It was slightly uneventful in the way of travels and adventures, but there was much for us to do around Boulder. We have started marriage counseling with the pastor who is going to be marrying us and it has been so great so far.  We are continuing to learn so much about each other and learning how to best communicate with each other. It's funny....we thought after 3.5 years we had it all down, but its been a challenge in a good way to learn that we still have things to learn about each other.  We have been so blessed in this relationship and just desire to honor not only each other, but God in all that we are doing. Our greatest desire to serve and honor Him in a way that is wholly pleasing to Him.  As we move forward into being husband and wife we truly desire to be the best stewards with this great privilege and gift of marriage.  

 This past week our friends Bryce and Kate were in town for the evening on Tuesday from WI, so Chris and Courtney, Wes and Marissa, Travis and Rachel, and Erik and I all gathered to spend some time together! Despite the down-pour of snow, we all managed to make it to the Rio for an always memorable time.  We decided after the Rio to head next door to the Walnut Brewery where 10 min. after sitting down the power went out.  Needless to say, that ended the night, but on a funny note!

Erik and I finally closed on our house on Friday afternoon. Buying a house has been one of the most challenging, yet incredibly exciting adventures we have had! I was sure there was going to be some hiccup, but just as soon as we were in the door and the papers were signed, we were back out with the keys in our hands, free to start this very brand new adventure of being homeowners together! We started construction on it today, scraping off wallpaper, putting in bucket lights, and scraping the popcorn ceiling.  It will be quite some work and time before everything is done, but we are looking forward to calling this place HOME!!! 

Our First Nephew!

Welcome to this world, Caleb Joseph Fowler! Brandon and Kirstin welcomed healthy, sweet baby Caleb at 10:07 PM on March 23, 2010 weighing 5 lbs. 12 oz.  He is wonderful and perfect in every single way. We are looking forward to meeting you soon our sweet nephew! We love you! 

Love,

Auntie B and Big Unkie E 

Lot's Going On!

Lots and lots going on, once again..or maybe it’s just that things have not slowed down! The most exciting news of the weekend was that our friends Cassidi and Chad got engaged!! Cassidi is one of my roommates from Montana and she is just wonderful.  She had been so patient in waiting for this special time and it finally came! Yay!!! We cannot wait for this awesome wedding, whenever it happens to be! Congrats you two!

Erik still has not heard for sure about Peru. He will not be going in May but there is still a chance he will be going the end of July through mid August.  Last week he was presented with a couple of opportunities for some different things including an internship and research opportunity that he will be discussing in some meetings later this week.  For 6 months it seemed like there were limited opportunities out there and in a matter of just a few hours he was presented with 3 possible leads outside of Peru.  He is excited to say the least and it finally is starting to feel like some doors are opening in his favor!

Over the weekend we celebrated Erik’s 24^th birthday! It was quite the weekend including finishing the design of our kitchen, a visit to the natural history museum to see the Body Worlds exhibit, an IMAX about the Hubble Telescope, a day of skiing at WinterPark, and dinner over at Erik’s dads’ house with my parents! Going to the museum was something neither of us has done since elementary school, maybe middle school at best. We had a blast, and the Body World’s exhibit was amazing.  If you have the chance to see it, we highly recommend that you take the time to go. The Hubble IMAX was incredible too.  The technology aboard the telescope today is incredible allowing us to see pictures of a galaxy 10 billion light years away…incredible!

We are getting more and more excited about the house! We are scheduled to close on Thursday of this week….just 3 more short days away. It has been quite the process with the lenders and agents making sure we are crossing all of our T’s and dotting all of our I’s.  We are thankful that we are even in this process, but wish in some regards that it could have been a little easier or at least a more smooth process. As I mentioned above, we re-designed our kitchen this weekend! The first thing we are going to do is tear out the old kitchen, and replace just about everything in there. We are going to knock down a wall that currently separates our dining room from kitchen and make it one big open space, complete with an island.  It feels so grown up to be doing all of this, but it’s so fun knowing that this is the house we are going to begin our marriage in!  

Reflections

Erik and I had another great weekend! We got to spend Friday night up in Dillon at a condo with a friend of Erik's from graduate school and then skied all day Saturday at Copper. It was a beautiful day! We even got a little sunburned...definitely a good sign that spring is just around the corner.
 It's been so fun to finally be together in the same place doing the same things.  I can remember what it was like 3 years ago when Erik was in New Zealand and I was back in Longmont and we were trying to figure out how our relationship would look and work. As I think back now those times now I realize that they were challenging for us, but necessary.   We were challenged to trust each other and challenged to trust our own decision to be in relationship at such a time.  There was never any question that we shouldn't be in relationship, but it was hard to know that after just three short months of dating our lives would be lived thousands of miles apart and in completely different ways.
Thankfully, both of us trusted.  A love had been established between us that no distance could break. Love won out. Here we are just 2 1/2 short months away from our wedding day and I could not be more thankful for the passions and travels that Erik pursued in our time dating.  They have helped foster a deeper love and appreciation for travel and pursuit of adventure not only for Erik, but for myself as well, and for our relationship. I so look forward to building and creating our own adventures in marriage, and will be SO thankful that no longer will we be having to fight any distance between us in marriage! Well, that may not be true, but at least we will be married :)
Thankful today for: beautiful sunshine and spring time air and an adventurous fiance.
Not so thankful today for a 30 page paper I have to write... I better get back to working on it!