Thanksgiving Recap

We had a marathon Thanksgiving Break! I need a break from this break if you know what I mean!

We drove back Tuesday night and Charlie rode on Kelsey's lap 

Wednesday I went for a long walk with my dad and Charlie. I love getting to talk and catch up with my him! I went to the Valley to grab a few gifts from the outlets and most stores had the same deals as Black Friday already. Of course I had to show my mom all the great stuff I got and then we headed to pick Kels up from the airport.

Someone LOVES his Aunt Kelsey

The Thanksgiving Marathon begins:
We started at my dad's house and somehow convinced them to let us eat some Mac n Cheese since they wouldn't be eating until 4pm. Annnnddd we took some goofy pictures of my dad in his Turkey hat. Classy family

After TGives Numero Uno we headed out to Wash -MO to meet the Habs side. We spent an hour getting there, an hour hanging out, and an hour getting back. So basically a lot of time in the car. I made Klye get a plate of his Aunt's cooking and we headed out while he ate in the car.

On to TGives #3 at The Mitchell's. We made it in time to eat, but everyone else had already started. I can't believe we went three places and only managed to eat at one of them! 

Baby Bear

Turkey coma snuggles

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 

MU Basketball 11.23

We went to the CBE Classic at the Sprint Center last Monday to watch Mizzou play! They played K-State and lost badly. It was a terrible game, but we had a lot of fun! We also stayed to watch UNC play after the MU game. Holy buckets, those guys are HUGE!

Kyle and I rushed from work to meet Becca, Matt, Laura, and Ryan at Il Lazzerone in River Market. Becca surprised Matt with the tickets and they drove in that day from Farmington. I was SO excited to see my bestie! Getting down there was freaking insane though...They had just installed the Street Car stuff and it was so confusing trying to get where I wanted to go! It's always worse when you're excited. Il Lazzerone is a trendy Pizza place, and we've been a few times before, so I was excited to have our friends try it. This time I don't know what was different, but it totally grossed me out. I didn't like the pizza at all! We were the only ones in the restaurant and Sly James (the Mayor) walked in! I felt like I was seeing a celebrity and totally nerded out. He's a pretty popular guy around KC and it was so cool seeing him as an actual person eating dinner. I realllllly wanted to go talk to him. I didn't though! I'm such a nerd.

We left to head to the game and I got all stressed out again by driving through downtown KC in traffic and trying to find parking. I'll just stay in the suburbs thank-you-very-much. We had great seats at the game with Laura and Ryan (thanks guys!). Becca and Matt moved down to sit by us at some point. I spent the entire game texting Laura W from across the court commenting on how bad we are.

Girls at dinner

Becca and I

Kyle wasn't so happy

Becca and Matt stayed with us at our house that night. It was awesome getting to catch up with them :)

I should also mention that the OC's are awesome and hosted a Friendsgiving for us the previous Friday Night. We had a blast and loved getting to meet their other friends! I think my favorite part is that we ended up eating ham because Laura didn't know turkey's needed three days to thaw out. To be fair, I wouldn't have known that either! Grownup problems. We are so blessed with amazing friends in KC and I can't wait to have them over to celebrate Christmas soon.

A Very Mizzou Weekend {11/13-11/15}

It was quite the week at the University of Missouri. Students protested. A hunger strike happened. The football team went on strike. The System President and Chancellor resigned. Threats were made. Bad decisions took place. It hurts to see a place I love so much go through this. 

What better way to show that we are #mizzoustrong and #onemizzou than to have an awesome tailgate for the Mizzou vs. BYU game at Arrowhead this weekend?

We started the weekend at Coal Vines with Kyle and Laura! Love them! Someone (cough, KYLE) forgot to mention to them that we had a reservation. Whoops! They ended up being able to met us and we had a blast. The food there is so good! Kyle and I tend to have our favorites at restraunts and get the same thing each time. We branched out and got a meatball pizza this time, and it did not disappoint! I started to lose my voice that night so I'm sure I was a whole lot of fun to have around.

The whole point of going to the Plaza on Friday night was to see Lost Wax! They're an amazing cover band that plays pretty much everything you can think of. They started the night with a lot of good songs, but closer to their first break I didn't recognize many songs. That combined with how loud it was didn't keep us out too late. 

By Saturday I lost my voice to barely a scratch. It reminded me of a chain smoker! I went to bootcamp and made it through a billion squats (ouch) and could barely talk to complain haha! Kyle and I got the car packed for the tailgate and made a few appetizers to take. I brought fruit dip, fiesta ranch dip, cookies, and chocolate dipped pretzels. I had to google how to melt chocolate HA! They turned out ok.

We had a huge tailgate and had a blast! The Neth's parked with us and it was so nice to catch up with them. 

We had amazing suite level seats thanks to Laura's dad! Super fun (cold) game with friends!

Katie

Five on Friday - November Edition

Kyle returns from India and is home the rest of the month! #praisejesus #alleluia I usually don't mind having him gone during the week because it's so routine and busy anyway, but missing weekends together just plain stinks. I've also eaten eleven million turkey wraps on the George Foreman for dinner...that gets old quick!

We have our last wedding of 2015 this weekend! Congrats to Laura and Tyler! I can't wait to celebrate these two and their love for one another. We are also excited to take a short out-of-town trip to Springfield! On a #katiefail moment, we forgot to make hotel reservations and will be bunking with the Whittakers in a teensy hotel room. (Thanks for taking pitty on us!) Cheers to fun and dancing (and maybe a little drinking) with awesome friends!

MU Football Games and Friendsgiving

We have two more MU games this season and I'm hoping they end better than the last few. It's simply not our year. Oh well. We had a lot of fun traveling to bowl games and Championships the past few years, but maybe this year we'll be heading to Scottsdale instead? 

We also get to celebrate Friendsgiving with the OC's! I cannot cook, so deciding what to bring should be interesting. 

Thanksgiving with the fam(s). We will be eating at least 3 Thanksgiving meals. Sooo not complaining about that. The only problem we face is that each place has AMAZING food. I tend to overeat at the first one and then continue to eat the rest of the day. You'd think I'd have learned by now to pace myself but nope. Hoping to spend next Thanksgiving in Dallas w/ Stace and Alex? 

I'm going to use #5 to list all of the things I am thankful for this week:

• A good haircut and color
• Friends that meet for dinner and end up sitting at Olive Garden for 3 hours
• Charlie 
• Royal Snow Days celebrating the Royal's World Series Championship! (Tuesday, November 3rd)
• My work out buddy, Amanda for keeping me motivated!
• Daylight savings making it easier to wake up in the mornings
• My mom who always has great advice 

What We've Been Up To {A September/October Recap}

This is mostly an October Recap because I can't remember what the heck we did in September besides Italy?

House Projects
Kyle's dad came in town one weekend and they stained the deck and built our gorgeous Restoration Hardware inspired farmhouse dining table. The deck took FOREVER. It must be noted that the deck now looks awesome! Can I also say how awesome my father-in-law is? He's awesome.

MU Football Games
October 3rd, the Tigers took on South Carolina! Kyle was in Singapore so my dad came to Columbia to go to the game with me! We tailgated with my Aunt Jan, Uncle Steve, and Nicole. After we stopped at Shakespeare's for pizza along with the rest of Mizzou's fans.

MU Homecoming
So.Much.Fun.

Friday, October 9th, we left for Columbia after work. The stupid bridge on I-70 was still under construction so we sat in traffic for what seemed like ages. Traffic is always worse when you have somewhere fun to be. We had plans to pick up Sophie and Ava and take them to House Dec's in Greek Town. We finally got to Columbia and had a blast walking the girls around to look at the House Dec's. I'm so sad they don't pomp them anymore. We reminisced about our Good Ole Days as sorority/fraternity members and the hours and hours of pomping we had to do.

Saturday we slept in at Heather's and got food ready for our tailgate. We parked a Phi Psi after paying a s*** ton and had time to go see the Miller's and Seever's at their tailgates. The Chi O's were all in town and we had one heck of a reunion tailgate! We went all out and I think everyone had a blast! That night we were supposed to stay at Heather's house again but must have had a miscommunication because the house was all locked up when we finally got there after the game. We had to break in!

Sunday we met Becca and Matt for breakfast at Bread Co (NEVER Panera!) before heading back to KC.

Kyle's Birthday Weekend
The weekend of October 16-18th was deemed KYLE'S BIRTHDAY WEEKEND (by me). We had fancy schmancy dinner reservations at Marina Grog and Galley, but ended up canceling them for something more "us" that didn't cost an arm and a leg. Waldo Pizza! Still awesome food, great atmosphere and fun. We met Adam and Abby at the Peanut afterwards to watch the Royals game.

Saturday I made Caramel Bubble Loaf for Kyle's Birthday Breakfast. I didn't ruin it either! I'm the worst baker in history, but I'm glad this one worked out! We had Google Fiber fixed that morning and then headed out to meet friends at Joe's for Lunch. Then we had plans to check out Top Golf. That place is seriously amazing. They have a top notch facility and are a Golf Lover's dream hang-out! Abby, Adam, Ryan, and Laura met us there. We played for an hour and a half before the girls headed out to go shopping! I never get over to Nordstrom Rack, so we went there since it was so close. We met the guys back at the OC's for dinner, the Royals Game, and the Mizzou Game. It was such a fun day!

Sunday we went to church and then ran errands before heading home to do normal Sunday activities.

Pancake Breakfast Weekend / The Weekend we Finished ALL THE HOUSE PROJECTS!
I'm not sure where to even begin? This weekend could probably be characterized by saying we lived at Lowe's. Friday night we tried out Konrad's in downtown LS. YUM! That place had my heart at pretzels and spinach dip. We will definitely be going back! We watched the Royal's game and headed to bed early.

Saturday we were up at 8am for the HOA Pancake Breakfast. It was freezing, but we still had a decent turn out! We spent the rest of the day (and Sunday) hanging new lighting fixtures, pictures, and putting together new chairs for the dining room. Our house looks complete! It only took 3+ years!

HALLOWEEN WEEKEND
Friday we had our "Fall Party" (Halloween Party) at school. My parents drove up and got there in time to attend! My Grandma came with them and I think she was overwhelmed by the kids! 50 crazies in costume can be a bit much. However, it was one of the calmest class parties I've had. Win! That night we headed to Jack Stack for dinner at the new location. It is fan-cy! Kyle left early Saturday morning for India so we got him all packed up, but didn't stay up too late.

Saturday morning I convinced my mom to go to Bootcamp with me. It's my favorite class all week! She hung in there and really enjoyed it too! After lunch we showered and all headed out to shop. I am so disappointed in DSW. They have a huge selection, but they are so overpriced if you ask me. I'm on the hunt for some decently priced new winter shoes. Specifically I'd love some booties and new brown boots. We found a few things at Loft and then dropped my dad and Grandma at the house before heading back out. We finally got lucky at White House Black Market. I loved pretty much the whole store, but can't justify that nice of clothes when I'm on the floor all the time with kids at work. My favorite part of the day was when TRICK OR TREATING started! My friend Amanda came by with Kristen and their sweet kiddo's to kick off the evening. We had Chili and watched the Royal's game before heading outside to pass out candy. I think we had over 230 kids come by. Um, Crazy! I love our neighborhood!

Sunday my family left bright and early and I spent the day reading Killing Patton and looking at everyone's pictures on facebook. Awesome weekend, but missed my husband something fierce.