flower girl

I just realized under our "wedding party" tab that I never added our ring bearer and flower girl so I just updated it :) Our flower girl is Sean's niece Avery and she will be 3 at our wedding next summer. I finally got to see her this past week; I can't believe how smart she is already and she's become quite the talker!

at Avery's 2nd birthday party

spring 2011

I have recently been really looking into flower girl attire. Here are some pictures of dresses that I like...

Sean's sister, Abby, found this one. It's colors are perfect!!

Avery has already grown out of a dress like this, but I thought it was cute :)

Later this week I'll be posting about our ring bearer :)

starting my diet TODAY

so after a week long stay at home and 2 Thanksgiving meals I am officially starting my "wedding diet" now! I had an amazing week at home with my family and a few days with Sean's family...and I also ate wayyyyy to much! While eating non-stop I managed to get a few other things done; here is a breakdown of my Thanksgiving break...

Saturday: Right away in the morning Sean and I set up our Christmas tree! After, Sean's parents took us out for breakfast at Perkins (they were in town for the Iowa swim meet that was on Friday). I watched part of the Iowa vs. Purdue game. Go Hawks!! Then headed home. We didn't do much that night other than hang out.

our Christmas tree

my favorite ornament on our tree (it says Mexico 2011 Sean <3 Amanda Engaged)

Sunday: Again, we really didn't do much except hang out and lay around.
Monday: I got my hair cut and started on my pinterest ornament wreath.

Tuesday: My mom and I had a few wedding appointments on Tuesday. We met at Dornink's in east village to look into a few dress alterations. After the meeting my mom and I went to Zombie Burger for lunch. It was THE best burger I have ever had. I really really liked it!! Then we met with Christiani's to try again finding napkins and left with a couple swatches. Ashley met us out at Jordan Creek for a little shopping after our meetings.

Wednesday: I had a dentist appointment at 9:00 that morning. No cavities! Holler! Then I made my tree skirt with the help of my sister Abby. Thank you for the help Abby! Sean drove home after work and picked me up on his way home. We hung out with Sean's family that night.

Thursday: We went to Carroll for Sean's family Thanksgiving. We ate a bunch of great food at watched football. Later that night we went to Walmart at 10 pm in Boone for some "deals". There really wasn't anything we wanted really bad except for the newest season of Big Bang Theory. We got the last one in the store and it rang up at $5 (the ad said $10) Score! Once we got home we went online and bought more stuff.
Friday: In the morning, Sean and I went to the bakery in Boone and got some doughnuts then went to Bacon's jewelry store and bought a new band for my engagement ring. I'm not going to have it for a couple weeks now :( It already feels so weird not having one on! Later, Abby, Sean's sister, Sean, and I went to the mall in Ames for a little more shopping. After shopping we came back and watched football and then went home (to Ankeny) for my sister Ashley's 21st birthday. We went to Latin King in Des Moines for dinner (one of my favorites)! Then went to the bar Tonic in Ankeny.
Saturday: We had my family Thanksgiving that afternoon so all morning we peeled potatoes, made dips, and got everything set up. We also had a ping pong tournament that Sean won. After dinner/snack all the adults went to Prairie Meadows. I ended up walking away with an extra $53.90!! I played penny, nickel, and quarter slots, but my big win was on a nickel slot. I love hearing the ding-ding-ding-ding!
Sunday: Everyone that was still in town went out to Diane and Rich's house for breakfast. After breakfast everyone started heading home. It was so great to see everyone!! Once I got home I finished decorating our apartment with a few more Christmas things. Now I'm going to relax for my last few hours of the break :)

I made these this past summer (the last one really does have a tag on it)

FYI this is the 50th published post I have done! Thanks everyone for reading :)

traditions

I'm at home in Ankeny taking advantage of my week long break. It is much needed! So far we have played lots of cards, hung out, ran errands, ate awesome food, and played Just Dance on the wii...and there is only 2 songs that people can beat me at. I will accept any challenge :)

So with the holidays coming up I thought it would be fitting to talk about traditions...Sean and I believe traditions are very important and I love hearing people say "we have a tradition that..." So here are a few old traditions of ours and some we want to start...

Amanda's Christmas. A Christmas tradition that we always had growing up was when Santa came. We would always be at Grandma and Grandpa's house for Christmas eve and Christmas day so Santa would come to our house early. A few days before we left town, we would set out some cookies, milk, and reindeer food and then go out for dinner (it was usually Chinese). Suspiciously, every year right as we were leaving my mom would for some reason always "forget" something like to do her hair. In addition, we coincidentally also needed gas. So while my mom "finished" getting ready the rest of us kids would go with dad to get gas. Once we got back from dinner Santa had been to our house! Once Ashley and I finally caught on we would sometimes stay with mom to help set out gifts while the rest of the family ran an errand. I really enjoyed seeing my little brother and sister still see the "magic" when we got home from dinner and get so excited :)

Sean's Christmas. Once the kids got a little bit older and Santa "didn't like them anymore" they started opening gifts Christmas eve. On that day they go to afternoon church then come back and eat homemade chicken noodle soup and chili. After dinner, they open gifts. The next day (Christmas day) they lay around and watch "A Christmas Story" all day.

Our future Christmas. One Christmas tradition that I would like to start when we have kids is "elf on the shelf". I first learned about it on Pinterest. According to amazon.com it is a based on a children's book that explains that Santa knows who is naughty and/or nice because he sends a scout elf to every home. During the holiday season, the elf watches children by day and reports to Santa each night. When the children awake, the elf has returned from the North Pole and can be hiding in a different location. It ends up being a fun hide-and-seek game.

Apple orchard. Like I talked about here, Sean and I have gone to Wilson's Apple Orchard each fall for the past 3 years. We pick lots and lots of apples and then eat half and cut up/freeze the rest so we can make apple crisp all fall/winter long. YUM!

fall 2010

Anniversary scrapbook. My mom was telling me about a daughter of a lady she works with a couple weeks ago. The couple just celebrated their one-year wedding anniversary and they decided that each year on their anniversary they will make a scrapbook page and put it into an album. I love the idea! It will be great to look back after 50 years and see how our relationship and family has grown!

8 months and 8 things we are thankful for

We're 8 months away! Since Thanksgiving is coming up I thought we would name 8 things we are thankful for as our countdown.We have so much more to be thankful for, but here is a VERY short list of 8...

1. Family. Both Sean and I are so thankful for our parent's support and love. I don't know what we would do without them! We also love our siblings!! In addition, both of our families get a long really well and whenever all of us are together it's such a good time!

2. Crafts and DIY stuff. This one is definitely mine (Amanda's). I LOVE to scrapbook, make my own cards, paint things, and create. I have a long list of things to do...

3. Friends. Our friends are amazing!! I have so many great memories!

4. Fall. This one is Sean's. Along with fall comes with football and hunting; both of which Sean loves. In addition, the weather gets colder so he doesn't sweat.

5. Pretty skies. I love everything from sunrises, sunsets, full moons, awesome clouds, and nights where you can see every star!

6. My heating blanket. This one is mine! There is nothing better than getting into a warm bed before going to sleep :)

7. Coffee in the morning while listening to Bob and Tom. This one again is Sean's. Every day on his way to work he enjoys listening to the show while he drives and coffee helps him stay awake.

8. Laughter. We love to smile, laugh, and have a good time. I think something funny can turn someone's whole day around :)

Guest from NZ!!

I'm getting even more excited now and I can't get the smile off my face!! My roommate from sophomore year posted this tonight...

Verity and I

Verity is from New Zealand and I haven't seen her since May :( I'm so excited!! I thought this deserved it's own post! YAY!! Love you Ver! Can't wait to see you!!

Hawkeyes for life

Sean and I went to the last home football game of the season today. It was Iowa vs. Michigan State. Thank you Pat and Katie for the tickets!! Both the weather and our seats were awesome! Temperature wise, I was comfortable the whole game and our seats were under the press box on the 38 yard line. The only thing that would have made the day more perfect was if the Hawks won. Final score was 21-37 :(

We got to tailgate with some of Sean's family before the game. We saw Bill, Brian, Kellie, Ella, Nick, Bridget, and Hailey! Then, we headed into the game a little early to watch the senior walk-out/recognition thing. We cheered really loud for McNutt. He's our fav!

fyi...the color of the field really didn't change, I just changed the "saturation" on the others

Even though the Hawkeyes haven't been having such a great season this year we are still going to be Hawkeyes for life!!

I will soon be less popular

Have you visited this website before? I think it was my mom that was telling me about it. You can search to see how many people in the US have your same name. Here's my run down:

Amanda: 631,148

Johnson: 2,151,038

Amanda Johnson: 4,345

Sean's name is way less popular...
Sean: 310,887

Hagan: 23,133

Sean Hagan: 23

In 8 months, and 6 days I will be Amanda Hagan, much more rare :)

Amanda Hagan: 47

Abby's Bachelorette Party!!

A friend of mine, Abby, had her bachelorette party this past weekend! It was a blast!! I really enjoyed meeting her friends; they were all so fun! I won't share too many details from the night but we first met at Abby's house to open all of her lingerie gifts. We then went to Mondo's for dinner and then got on a party bus. Here are some pictures from the night...again thank you Brittany :)

Our gifts and card to Abby (excuse the laundry in the background) The tags read: For the wedding day, For the honeymoon, and for married life...

the other end of the table at dinner

pharmacy girls

me and the bride!!

Brittany and the bride!!

flowers flowers flowers

As promised this post is more wedding-ish....it's about our flowers. I love flowers! I think I get it from my mom. Any time we see a beautiful bouquet my mom says she wants to "eat it". haha. I don't think I have ever felt like that...But, I do love me some pretty flowers!

First, I have to share my madness. I keep folders of each category for the wedding. I have one for hair ideas, photography, invites, dress, etc. The flower folder is by far the largest. Right now my count is up to 112 photos, and I have been deleting pictures along the way if they are not exactly the direction we are going.

I get the pictures from a variety of places including Pinterest of course, blogs that I follow, and websites like the Knot. Here are a few of my favorites...

Yes, I'll have one of everything

I know this is pretty off topic but...I talked about this store earlier, here, and it definitely deserves its own post! I have always enjoyed interior design, I'm probably not even that good at it, but I just really like looking at it. For years I have ordered Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, Ikea, PBteen, and other cataloges. I can't say I have ever purchased anything from any of the stores, except Ikea, but shhh don't tell them! They'll probably stop sending them to me! I said it before, but I can't wait until I graduate and pay off all my loans so I can afford a few decor things like at West Elm!!

When we were in Chicago last weekend I discovered West Elm! It's amazing! I want everything there! Sean bought me a Christmas present, but it was just a note pad. I know because I made him buy it for me :)

My mom and I wanted the coral prism pillow cover for the wedding, but it was too expensive

The end. Again sorry it's so off topic! I promise the next post will be really wedding-ish!