A (Sort-of) Surprise Birthday Party

Josh threw me a birthday party! We got home from Iceland on Thursday night and he let me know just as we finished dragging in all the luggage and dirty laundry that there would be a party happening in our house in less than 24 hours. Whoa. 

    

(please ignore this light fixture, it's replacement is just waiting to be installed ;)

It was soooo nice! Abby decorated the house with streamers and balloons and of course the obligatory Arrested Development banner. Josh's mom made so much good food, trays of homemade lasagna and bread and Abby made all my favorite treats, like ALL of them. Pumpkin pie, peach hand pies and lava cakes. (But there are no pictures of those because we ate them all too fast).

my mama made these cute cookies :)

And I have the sweetest friends who drove very far distances to attend this little soiree and then had to work the next morning.

and this is a little series I like to call "Marisa and Emily as Josh tries to get the camera settings right"

got it.

An Iceland Instagram Dump

We're here, we're here, we're really here! We finally made it to Iceland (give or take some luggage and lots of tears). Oh, and also an unexpected visit to Amsterdam, but that's a story for another time. So far we've been having the trip of our lives and there's so much I want to share with you all as soon as I have more time. But as I sit here typing this the clock has just ticked past midnight and we've got a trip here booked for tomorrow so we need to rest up. But, I couldn't go to bed without sharing some photos of our experiences thus far. If you've been following Josh or I on Instagram you've probably already seen these, but they're all I've got at the moment. We've got loads more photos on the good camera but those will have to wait until we're home. Until then, here are these to enjoy! 

  Much, much more to come :)

Signing Off

 

 

Pardon me for the next few days while Josh and I are off exploring the land of fire and ice. Wifi will be spotty and we'll be just a teense bit busy having our minds blown. I hope to be able to check in with some photos of the trip here and there while we're abroad, but if not, don't worry, I'll be back with more pictures and posts than you'll know what to do with.

oh, and if you're so inclined, follow along on instagram:  _iamemme #icelandicadventure

 

see you on the other side


 

30 (a few days early)

Maybe I should be stressed out that I'll be turning thirty in just a few days, but I've been having so much fun celebrating it instead I kinda just wish I could turn thirty every year. Josh and I will be out of town over my actual birthday so this past weekend was designated birthday weekend with the family. My mom and stepdad had us over Friday night for a delicious dinner of smoked ribs and homemade mac n cheese, coleslaw, freshly picked green beans and Abby made a free-form peach tart. My momma also surprised me with thirty little packages of thirty things; thirty of my favorite flavored jelly beans, thirty stamps, a thirty dollar gift certificate for the cheescake factory...you get the idea. She's the cutest and the best, and I'm the luckiest to have such a sweet and thoughtful lady I get to call my mom ;) 

(Jay wins for best card/gift though)

Saturday I painted my living room and scrubbed floors and dusted blinds so we won't talk about how much fun that day was, but Sunday!... Sunday was the best! One of my favorite people in the whole wide world came for a visit. Adam and his sweet and silly step daughter Jordyn spent the day hanging with us, eating mexican and way too many popsicles. Pretty much exactly how every summer day should go in my opinion.

(not accessorized, no art or new light fixture up yet,  Oh, and photo taken with my iphone so don't judge me too hard, but still leagues ahead of the mustard yellow walls we had been living with. Baby steps, Emily, baby steps...)

Sunday evening it was my dad and step mom's turn to serve up yet another delicious dinner. Even though my dad wasn't feeling well he still pulled off the shrimp and roasted red pepper risotto dish from this cookbook. So, so good. And because Abby likes to spoil me she made me a raspberry/peach crisp. Light on the crisp, heavy on the gooey, just like I like it. 

Like I said, I'm the luckiest.

Pittsburgh and Unfinished Photos of my House

I know I said I wasn't going to post any pictures of my house until I had something done, but screw that. This is what I spent most of the weekend doing, so here it is. Painting, painting and painting all the doors and drawers to our huge built in, in our upper hall. My plan is to paint all the trim and doors upstairs white and this built in is what I was dreading most. So, I figured just start there and the rest won't seem so bad. And since it is still not reassembled that remains to be seen, BUT the painting is done! I finished it up last night and I was just giving everything a full night to dry before putting it back together. And as opposed to the boys' rooms where I used good old fashioned brushes, this time I used Josh's step-sister's handy dandy paint sprayer. And Rachel, if you're out there somewhere reading this, bless your amazing little soul, you lifesaver, you! I feel like I can do anything now!

In other house related developments we also made a day trip on Sunday to the Pittsburgh Ikea to bring home a new sofa for my sunroom. Normally Ikea is not the first place I would go for a sofa, but I had this vision for my sunroom and that vision involved a white sofa. Now, white sofas with two young kids are, generally speaking, a very bad idea. But it's hard when you have a vision for a room to just ignore it. So, I brainstormed and researched and found this cute little number at Ikea that was not only affordable (so if they destroy it, no big deal) but also has removeable and washable slipcovers. Win!

And since we were going all the way to Pittsburgh for a sofa we figured why not make a day out of it? 



Remember that one time I went to Pittsburgh and didn't realize until I got there that I'd inadvertently worn Steelers colors? What the what?! (This one's for you, Uncle Mark!)

Also, remember that one time we gorged ourselves on street tacos, churros and donuts? Yeah, me too...

We also made a pit stop at Fricke Park while we were there because I'd read good things about the in ground slide at the playground and it did not disappoint. All the locals bring broken down boxes and slabs of cardboard to ride down in order to achieve optimal speed. It was super fun. Oren loved it.

Wes was terrifed.

and then he loved it.

And I got my white sofa.  

 Everybody wins.