We seemed to have skipped fall...

And went right into winter. This past weekend was cold and we woke up Saturday morning to a little bit of snow:

No big deal. I mean it was gone by Saturday night and Sunday was just cold and damp. Well, come Monday afternoon, we had this:

Wordless Wednesday

A little background to this picture...I asked Amy to send me some pictures of her honeymoon and this is what I got. To quote my marvelous sister, "Look closely, Rhino taking a leak! It seriously looks like a fire hose!"

Sausage Squares

I made this over the weekend and it's super good. I am already thinking of things I could add next time I make it such as mushrooms and some salsa.


Ingredients:
1 tube refrigerated crescent rolls
1 lb bulk pork sausage
1/4 c chopped onion
5 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 c milk
2 tbsp chopped pepper (green, red, yellow, whatever)
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1 cup shredded cheese (again, whatever you got)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375. Unroll crescent rolls onto the bottom of a 9x13 greased pan, sealing seams/perforations. Bake at 375 for 7-10 minutes or until it starts to brown.

In large skillet, cook sausage and onion. Add peppers. Drain. *If I use salsa next time, this is where I would add it.

In small bowl, combine eggs, milk, oregano, pepper and garlic salt. Pour over the crust. Add sausage mixture. Sprinkle with cheese.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until eggs are cooked.

Enchiladas

I credit April for this recipe. When her hubby was deployed and Norah was a baby, I would go over to April's to do her hair, hang out and of course, spoil Norah and April would always make me dinner. I don't know how many times we've had this and it has become one of Joe's favorite.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground turkey (or chicken/ground beef)
1 can diced tomatoes and green chilies
2 cups shredded mexican cheese
1 can enchilada sauce (green or red)
8 tortilla shells

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375. Cook ground turkey until no longer pink. Drain diced tomatoes and green chilies than add to the ground turkey. Let turkey mixture cool. Spray 9x13 pan. Fill tortillas with turkey mixture, add cheese, roll up and place in pan. Pour enchilada sauce over tortillas in pan. Top with remaining cheese. Bake until heated through or cheese is melted (15-20 minutes). Using the broiler for the last 5 minutes works wonders!

Amy and Luke's Big Day

The kids have been officially married for two whole weeks and this post is long overdue. Here's the recap of the big day and a few (ok...probably more than a few) of my favorite pics. If you want to see all, take a peek at the slide show, it's long but worth looking through.

Saturday morning - 4:30 AM - 6 AM
I was awake - wide awake. I didn't need to be up until 6 and for some reason 4:30 came and I was wide awake. I refused to get out of bed and just laid there until Dad knocked on the door at 6:00. He or mom are our alarm clocks in WI as our cell phones get NO service at their house.

6 AM - 8:30 AM
Joe stayed sleeping as I tip-toed downstairs only to find out that Mom and Amy were awake too. They were on the couch trying to get the motivation to get going. It was a little sad too - I think the realization hit everyone that morning. For Mom and Dad, it was the last morning they'd wake up and Amy would be in the house and for Amy, it was the last morning she'd wake up in the house. It was definitely sad but happy.

Meanwhile, I'm running around getting ready and making sure I have everything, and I mean everything I could think of needing for the day and especially, Amy and Luke's marriage license which I decided I would be in charge of as to take the pressure off Mom and Amy. Joe and my Dad did whatever was asked and I couldn't ask for a better husband or Dad.

8:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Adriane (Amy's sister-in-law) was dropped off at Mom and Dad's at 8:30 and her, Amy and I squished into my car (which was packed with a ton of bags full of hair stuff, dresses, shoes, etc) and headed to the salon where we were meeting up with the rest of the "best girls" - Jayme, Danielle, Sara, Jenny and Callie.

I left the salon a little early to unpack the car at the church and to get my hair stuff set up as I was doing Amy and Mom's hair. When I got the girls 'getting ready room' this is the message I found:

11:00 AM - Ceremony (3 PM)

This was the busiest time ever - I was getting Amy's hair in hot rollers, eating lunch, fixing other girl's hair, doing mom's hair, doing Amy's make-up, etc. I started to take the rollers out of Amy's head and back comb her hair when her soon to be nephew, Owen walked in (he's 6 and was delivering a card from Luke). He was quite adamant that he would not tell Uncle Luke what crazy hair Amy had because he was quite sure Uncle Luke wouldn't marry her if he told.

I don't know if I would have married that hair either

Finally, I was able to get myself ready and Mom, Sara and I got Amy in her dress. I'm super glad that I was able to watch Rebecca lace up Anna's dress last September so I knew what the heck I was doing for Amy's dress. Next up was pictures of the girls. They were fantastic - love, love the photographer and love, love Jenny (Amy's other sister-in-law) who was a picture taking machine. If you view the slide show, most of the pictures on it are from Jenny!!

Mom, Amy and me

After pictures it was back into hiding until it was time to walk down the aisle. The air was a little more tense and we were all trying to not cry. To lighten the mood, and at my husband's expense, I told a story about a certain poker party he had a couple years ago in our garage, in January, with kerosene...

Ceremony
As the girls were starting to line up, I told Amy to remember that story and to my surprise, a couple other girls were remember that story (myself included) while Amy and Dad were walking down the aisle so we wouldn't cry.

I got super nervous walking down the aisle, I kept telling myself to slow down and smile. I got to the alter with the other girls and Trent, Owen and Callie walked down. They did so good!!! The best flower girl and ring bearers I have ever seen. Next up Dad and Amy. I seriously have no idea how I did not cry. I couldn't look at anyone else in the church because I knew that if I saw other people crying, I would start.

The ceremony was beautiful, Pastor Sean was amazing (Joe and I actually discussed divorcing so Pastor Sean could re-marry us). It went off without a hitch, nobody objected and both said I do. Standing in the receiving line after, there were so many people I haven't seen in so long and it was wonderful to see everyone. Once the last person went through, we were herded back into the church for more pictures.

Dad walking his baby down the aisle

Mr. and Mrs. Luke Smith

3:45 PM - 5:30 PM

Pictures, pictures, pictures.

My absolute favorite!

We ended up heading outside and it was a hike. It finally dawned on me she was taking us to the shade but the only shade was far away. I was holding Amy's dress on our hike to the shade and handsome little Owen come right up next to Amy and slips his little arm around her waist and walked with her like that the rest of the way. It was the sweetest thing I have ever seen.

Owen, Amy and me

Callie, Jayme, Danielle, Sara. Adriane, me

The kids did so good with all of the pictures and the second sweetest thing of the afternoon involved Callie. It was the last picture and they needed Callie. Jenny said to get in the picture because we have to get going. Callie started to cry and we all thought it was because she was done with pictures. Nope. It was because Jenny said they had to go and started saying she didn't want to go. Poor Callie thought Jenny meant go as in leave be done. When Jenny explained "get going" meant to the party aka reception, Callie immediately stopped crying and was fine. It was adorable.

The photographer dismissed us all and just needed Amy and Luke so back inside to pack everything up and everyone else headed over to the reception. Jeff, Adriane and Owen were standing out front with us waiting for Amy and Luke (we were chauffeuring A&L) and Owen exclaimed how he had one more thing to do and that he already had done two things. So I ask...

Me: What have you had to do Owen?
O: I've had to kiss Amy twice and now I have to dance with her for our special dance!
Me (I turned to Jeff, Owen's dad): You better watch him, in 20 years it will be Amy Kramer (Owen's last name) instead of Amy Smith.
O: Yeah - I want Amy to live with me at my house.

Reception:

We finally got to the reception and got situated for the grand march. Amy and Luke cut the cake right away which I thought was a great idea.

Amy and Luke cutting the cake

The DJ took control and told us to sit at the head table and then asked if anyone would like to speak. This was my thought process: 'Holy &$%#. I thought I was going to be able to have a drink first. &$%#! I need beer. No, you'll be ok, you've practiced. &$%#! I need beer.'

Some of the guys spoke and then I got my turn. It went well and I did have some help from our copywriter at work (seriously Tabbatha - you ROCK!). I didn't start sobbing although I did tell Amy I one point I couldn't look at her anymore so I could finish the speech.

The dinner was great and so was the cake. More people spoke and thank you Adriane for letting me hold your hand while our Dad's spoke! If you want to see those speeches click here.

Sisters and brothers

Adriane, me, Amy, Luke, Marshall and Jeff (brother-in-law)

Adriane, Joe, Jeff and me

Adriane and I decided we were going to switch husbands

I got to hang with Kari and Bryan for little bit and even got Kari out on the dance floor when they played a Michael Jackson song.

After that it was all dancing all night. The rest of the night is a blur. I was amazed by the dance moves that Trent and Owen have and Callie was more than happy to danced with anyone who wanted to dance with her. I got to take a picture (using the photographer's camera) of the photographer dancing with Luke's cousin, Dad got up on stage and danced, they played Mustang Sally and everyone formed a circle and I think Mom danced with every single groomsmen/bridesmaid, Amy crowd surfed, and Owen put all of us to shame and danced until the lights came on.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a ton but like I said, once the music started, it was a blur. By far, the best wedding I have ever been too.

Dad and Joe

Dad dancing on stage

Amy crowd surfing

The Dad's - Bruce and Scott

Cakes

I have this friend who is super artistic. For those of you at our wedding you may remember her, the fabulous lady who sang at our ceremony. She found a new hobby: cakes and I don't mean every day cakes. Take a look:

I showed these pictures to Joe last night and he couldn't believe it! I've told her that she needs to open her own business because, yes, the cities are full of people that would pay for these cakes. I also told said friend that she needs to enter a Food Network Challenge and she could bring Joe as her sous chef.

Stealing pears

Joe and I have a pear tree in our backyard. The first year we had no pears because of the huge tree that towered over it. Last year, we had some but not much. This year, has been a pear explosion. Because the tree is so tall, we can't really get to the pears until they're on the ground and the squirrels get to us before them as seen below:

Red Wing, sushi and a birthday

Last weekend Joe and I took a drive to Red Wing, MN. It's only about an hour and a half south of us which is much closer than I thought. Red Wing is probably most noted for the Red Wing Shoes as noted by all of the boots scattered throughout the downtown area.

Joe and I wandered into the Red Wing Shoe store in downtown and got to see the biggest Red Wing boot of all:

After we walked around some more, we stopped into the Staghead for lunch where I had the best mushroom and swiss burger ever and Joe had a salad, yes a salad.

We headed back home to relax before we had to head to dinner with Travis and Stephanie for all you can eat sushi. Now, the all you can eat thing might freak some people out but it's not as bad as it sounds. You still order off the menu and they make it fresh - it's not a whole bunch of sushi just sitting out like at a buffet.

Stephanie was an ordering machine and new exactly what to order and how much - she made it so much easier. She ordered and Trav, Joe and I just sat back and ate. The food was great.

Afterwards, we headed out to West St. Paul to meet up with Terry, his new girlfriend, Todd and Anna to celebrate Todd's birthday. I think it was the first time all of us had been together since New Year's Eve. It was a ton of fun and we need to do it more often.