It's been a long time.

Hello, friends! Boy, it’s been a long time. Many months, a couple seasons, and lots of changes in our lives. I’ve realized that one of the things I love most about this blog is going back and reading old posts to remind myself about what life was like last week, last month, last year….

So in an effort to fill the enormous gap between October and April, I’m going to attempt to recap the best moments of the past five months.

In October, we kicked wedding planning into high gear. We already had a venue with catering, but we met with photographers and DJs. We culminated a year of fundraising at work with a golf outing benefitting Make-A-Wish. We granted 17 wishes, our biggest contribution yet, and had a great day on the course despite chilly temperatures. We had dinner with friends and a baby shower for my cousin’s wife, who welcomed their first child in December.

November was a month of family and friends. We had a surprise 80^th birthday party for M’s grandmother, which was such a special night. His family is so big that they’re not often all together in one place, so it’s really special when they’re all together. We went to a wedding for friends in Philadelphia and got to celebrate my grandfather’s birthday while we were there. On a sad note, a dear friend’s grandfather passed away and we celebrated his life in a beautiful ceremony. We took our engagement pictures and welcomed our family to visit for Thanksgiving. We had 10 people and 2 dogs sleeping under our roof, and it was just fabulous.

December brought more wedding planning with florist appointments and dress shopping.  We celebrated Mike’s birthday with an overnight stay downtown with LOTS of food. We had a wonderful family-filled Christmas and had Christmas dinner with both of our families together, which was a total blessing. We rang in the new year with friends and spent most of our holiday vacation lounging around the house and watching Christmas movies.

January was cold. Like really cold. Actually, the first three months of 2014 were so cold that I can’t even remember what we did. Well, I kind of can. January brought visitors. My sweet cousins came to visit to pick out bridesmaids dresses for my wedding. My dear friend from college came to visit for a long weekend. We ate and lounged…which was kind of a theme for the month of January.

February was filled with more dress shopping for the ‘maids and my mom. We went to M’s work holiday party (which is in February, weird I know), and celebrated my dad’s 60^th birthday with a yummy meal at one of our downtown favorites, Meat & Potatoes.

March brought some of M’s college friends to town for the weekend, which included very late nights, games and a whiskey tour followed by a loud but really fun dinner. We got all dressed up and went to a gala at Heinz Field with M’s parents and had both of our families over later that week for sweet Lucy’s first birthday party. Yes, we are those people. There was a cake. We had dinner with friends, and I said goodbye to a close coworker who moved a few hours away.

So here we are in April. The weather has FINALLY started to break. We’ve had days in the 70s (but more days in the 40s). The month started with a bridal shower for my best friend who is getting married next month. It was the best day ever. Her family was so sweet and her sister gave the sweetest toast and grace before lunch that reminded me of why women gather before we get married. So many beautiful examples of love and friendship and marriage, and it made me really excited for my own shower later this summer. We went cake tasting for our wedding, which was very sweet, as you can imagine. We went to dinner with friends and celebrated my 27^th birthday with fancy pizza and charcuterie…two of my very favorite things. My grandparents came in for Easter this past weekend, which is always a blessing and we spent so much time with both of our families.

Phew. So that was the past seven months. Aiming to be more timely through the spring and summer. I can’t believe we are getting married in six short months….yay! And we’re lucky to be attending six weddings before our own, so we will be celebrating LOTS of love this month.

To recaps,

Lia