6 Month Anniversary with my love...

This past Sunday was the 15th of April which means it was Justin and my 6 month anniversary! *smiles* Who knew 6 beautifully sweet months could pass by so quickly? *happiness* Since our day was on a Sunday we decided to wait till Monday to celebrate this momentous occasion. After he got home from work, Justin took me out to Avantis for dinner. It was his first time ever eating there so it was a fun little adventure for us.

We both agreed that we just loved to atmosphere of Avantis, they play beautiful Italian music and the service is fast and great!

Waiting for our yummy food while sipping Dr. Pepper...

For those of you who know Justin personally, you know that he doesn't even wait a second before inhaling his food. *laughs* So when I remembered I wanted to get a picture of what we ate just for fun I looked over and his food was almost done. While my food still looked like it had just been served. *laughing* So anyway, here is a picture of the delicious dinner I had. :)

After our lovely meal we went to the store to get some ice cream for dessert since it's cheaper than buying dessert at the restaurant.

Before going inside to eat our yummy ice cream I asked Justin to get some pictures and he agreed cause he loves me. Thank goodness for cameras with timers for self portraits. :D

It's been 6 months since I married my best friend. Every day spent with him is better than the last.

I cannot wait to see all the Lord has in store for Justin and I in these next 6 months. *happy sigh* He has already given us so much and I am so thankful for each and every passing day I have with my man.

Until next time,
~Melinda <3

The story of my hair...

My whole entire life I have gotten comments about my hair, "You have such pretty hair", or "is it naturally curly?", or "Do you like your curly hair?" My answer as a child was, "I hate it and I've always wanted straight hair like all the other girls". My answer now is, "I love my curly hair and I feel very blessed to have it. But every once in awhile it is nice to change things up a bit." Lots of people have seen me with my curly hair and lots of people have seen me with my straight hair. But There are only very very few people who have seen me in the "in between" stage. To get my hair straight I have to brush out all my curls which then leads to this...

...extremely-poofy-hair-with-no-chance-of-ever-being-styled-into-something-pretty. It's just huge and none attractive on me. It makes my face look tiny. lol But then I take a flatiron to my hair and work for about 30 minutes and this is my reward.

Doesn't that look sooo much better? :D I heard some people say that it makes my hair look dryer, lighter, and stringy. But I don't mind in the least! Like I said before, it's nice to change things up every once in awhile. Plus it shows how long my hair really is without the curls. It's amazing how much length I add when it's straight. AND I can brush it whenever I want which is something you can never do with curly hair! :D

This is my hair after accessorizing...

And thus ends the post about my hair. You can now start the comments about how vain I am to dedicate a whole post to my hair. *laughs* I don't mind though cause it was fun for me.
But for those of you select few who actually enjoyed my pictures, I thank you. :)

Next up: a post about my AMAZING 6 month anniversary dinner with the love of my life!!

Until then!
~Melinda

Our first Easter

Our first Easter as a married couple was fabulous. It was such a beautiful day to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The sermon was wonderful, the food delicious, and the fellowship sweet. After lunch we went on a walk and then got our annual Easter picture by ourselves and then with our families.

I could not have asked for a better man to stand beside.

Family picture with our Ryken side.

And a family picture with our Sanford side.

We were talking about how blessed we are because we get to celebrate the holidays with both sides of our family. Having all of us go to the same church really helps. ;)

I have decided that this post will not be complete unless it has my adorable, hugable, kissable, sweet, and all around gorgeous niece in it. So here is her sweet little smiling face as the closing picture. :)

That's all for now! I hope each and every one of y'all had a fabulous Easter Sunday and I pray the Lord's blessings on you all.

Until next time,
~Melinda

CUPCAKES!!!

The other day I had the urge to make cupcakes so I decided to make them for lunch after church this past Sunday. The urge came as I was walking down the baking aisle in the store and I saw these pink strawberry cupcakes and they were calling my name. I went home and made some just like the ones I saw. Once I was done baking them I remembered that my parents had given me a cake decorator for my birthday some years ago. I pulled it out and had a really fun time trying to get the design I wanted on top of the little things! But enough talking, here are the pictures I got.

Fresh out of the oven. Mmmm! They smelled so yummy.

Yours truly - The Baker.

The cool little thing I used that made me feel like a true master. *cough* ;)

Annnnnd the finished product! I was so proud of myself when I got this decorated so perfectly. Of course it took till the very last cupcake to get it right, but who cares? :D

As you can tell, some were better than others.

When I was done doing the cupcakes I still had lots of leftover icing so some cookies I made the other day got a little decorating as well. I took them all to church and came home with only one left. I guess that means they were not too terrible, right?

SMILE!

Until next time here is me wishing you the best Spring ever! May God bless all of y'all!

~Melinda