The Bradfords

This past weekend we traveled to Dubuque for the wedding of our friends Kevin and Anna.  Anna and I went to Emmaus Bible College together, sang in ensemble together, and before Kevin and Anna were engaged they sang in our wedding!  The wedding was beautiful and we couldn't be more happy for them!  It was a joyful celebration.  The great thing about Emmaus weddings is that it's usually like a mini reunion.  Not only did we get to see Kevin and Anna become Mr. and Mrs., but we got to see lots of other people we know and love too! 

Mr. and Mrs. Kevin Bradford.  AT LAST! :)

got to see this cute new mommy and her snuggly baby boy! 

Sweet Ashlee.  She made the cupcakes for our wedding and her husband, Graeme was our photographer.

this is my friend Liz and her beautiful daughter Lydia. : ) Last time I saw Liz was at our wedding and this was the first time I got to meet Lydia!

Mikaela and Keagan. :)  He is just adorable.  Mik did my hair for my wedding and was my hair stylist when I lived in Dubuque.  She will never know what an encouragement and blessing she was and is to me.

This is Kristin.  She is kind, compassionate, funny and has a beautiful heart for Jesus.  She took my place as house parent at Ruth Harbor when I left last fall, and she is doing an incredible job!

Mr. and Mrs. Tabailloux!  We were very sad that we weren't able to make it to their wedding at the end of April, but so happy we got to see them for a bit and catch up this weekend! 

The soon to be Mr. and Mrs. Larsen.  They are just a few days away from their wedding day! Please notice my crazy husband. :)

Me and Lauren.  The only time we see each other lately is at weddings it seems.  :) She is cute.

Laurie and Amanda.  We all went to college together.  

I love their smiles. :)

:)  what a lovely bride

Not pictured are Ben and Kristi Graves.  :)  We got to see them that day as well, in between the ceremony and reception.  Ryan and Ben of course got in some video game time, and Kristi and I enjoyed some talk time.  

The reception location was Galena, IL.  This place is special to me and Ryan because we spent a day there walking, talking and getting to know each other during our early dating days.  We hadn't been back there together since, so we took some time before heading home to walk over to Grant Park.  I loved reminiscing with Ry about the time we shared that day, and the budding romance between us. ;)  We found the bench where we had spent a couple hours talking, neither of us wanting to end our time together.  I wanted to get a snapshot of us sitting on the bench, and while we were discussing where we could put the camera to set the timer, a young couple walking by stopped and the guy asked if we wanted him to take the picture for us!

  Right after this picture was taken, my funny husband asked the guy if he would like us to take a picture of them with our camera.  hahaha.  I think it kind of weirded the guy out a little because he wasn't sure that Ryan was joking.  :)

I love this guy.

 On our way home we stopped at DQ for ice cream (we missed out on wedding cake), enjoyed listening to the awesome wedding day soundtrack that Kevin and Anna gave out as favors, watched the millions of lightning bugs light up the fields on highway 61, as well as the lightning show from the storm that was moving in.  It was the perfect day.  :)

camping...inside :)

Later this week we're road trippin' to Tennessee for the wedding of one of Ryan's buddies and staying with his good friends Daniel and Samantha while we're there.  We were hoping to meet up with Jan, Steven and their cute boys in Gatlinburg but it's not going to work out.  We're all pretty bummed. :(  Jan and I had talked about camping out in order to save money and since Ryan and I received a 2 person tent for our wedding we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to try it out for the first time! Once we found out it wasn't going to work to see Jan and Steven, we got the tent out anyway and set it up in our living room just to see how small it really was. I was amazed at how small it wasn't!  I mean...it's not huge, but it's not tiny!  So yeah...we set it up, put some blankets in there and then watched Parks and Recreation on the TV from the door of our tent.  haha.  It was fun!

my thrifty husband and our diy projects!

For our October wedding, we used a lot of mason jars for decoration  I just can't have enough of them!  You can use them for all sorts of cool things!  So...since I have so many sitting in the basement just waiting to be used, I decided to research possible DIY light fixture ideas for our kitchen and dining room.  A few months ago I was inspired by my friend Aimee at http://themeyersdbq.blogspot.com/ , whose husband made her a light fixture out of mason jars.  

Here's what we've got so far.....

this beauty used to hang above my brother and sister in-law's dining room table and when we were visiting them last weekend I told them about our plans.  They brought this up from the basement and said "you can have it!"  I think they were just happy to get rid of it. :) So....we're going to do something like this maybe http://modernmarthas.com/2011/03/27/diy-cottage-chic-chandelier/  I'll paint it a fun color.  Maybe turquoise or something? Are you surprised? 

my thrifty hubby found 3 of these at Lowes for $3 each! He's hoping to make something like this http://www.fromourhidingplace.com/2011/01/pottery-barn-inspired-mason-jar.html out of them. I have no idea how....but I'm sure he'll come up with something.  I'll keep you posted! :)  We did spend some time in Lowes one day looking at all the necessary parts we would need to make the exact fixture in this blog, but we decided $100 was still a little too much for us to
spend right now.  I'm hoping Ryan's idea will work!   

growing boy!

I decided to do a blog about the other member of our family. His name is Gilbert. He's big and white and all around just a lovable fluff ball.  He loves to eat and sleep and shake his drool all over the place. :)  He is a 7 month old Great Pyrenees and last time we weighed him a few weeks ago he was 76 lbs!  I'm sure he's way over that now.  Hmmm....the thought just occurred to me that these are the kind of blogs mom's write about their babies. wow.

My husband has had Great Pyrs before and he would never consider another breed of dog, so I knew that someday we would get one.  That someday was Christmas Eve of 2010.  A couple weeks prior we heard about some people who were selling great pyrs in the countryside of Iowa and so we decided to go "look".  I knew that there was no way we were going just to "look".  Of course we ended up picking one out that day but we couldn't take him home with us since they still needed their shots.  Ryan insisted that we get the biggest one, but when we went to get him on Christmas Eve he wasn't there.  The lady "accidentally" sold him to someone else, but we're glad she did because we got Gil....and he is plenty big and still growing!   We love him a lot. :) He's pretty awesome.  Here are a few photos to show you how he has grown over the months!

behind the beard & blondie locks....

Welcome to the new blog!  I decided to start a new blog for me and Ryan even though I'm pretty sure he will never blog. ;)  I have enough trouble consistently blogging myself.  I have good intentions.  :) 

We've been married for almost 9 months.  It has been a very fun and never dull 9 months.  Each day I grow more in love and more thankful for this man God gave to be my husband.  He is comforting, easygoing,  kindhearted and his wacky sense humor is just what this girl needs. He is like a little boy in a man's body sometimes.  He makes life fun :) He is a wonderful husband who loves me and cares for me in so many ways.  I am truly blessed and so proud to be his wife. I want to grow old with him. :) 

Man and wife! 

Here's an update on our lives recently for those of you who don't know what's been going on with us!  Ryan is working for his dad in the Peterson Roofing business. Things are getting a little more busy with the warmer weather.   We got married in October and it was the perfect time because things were slowing down for roofing and I didn't work for the first month we were married, so we had lots of time to spend together settling into our home and adjusting to married life.  Ryan is also active at our chapel helping with music each Sunday, teaching adult Sunday school and sharing a devotion each month at prayer meeting.  We love our church family.

Currently I am working at Wild Birds Unlimited. It's growing on me. :)  I am praying for opportunities to share the gospel with the 3 people that I work with.  For whatever time I am there I want God to use me for His glory.   I am also trying to get some other home based businesses going to bring in a little more income.  I'm an independent Pampered Chef consultant and I'm also selling some handmade items on Etsy. My shop is http://www.etsy.com/shop/sewsweetlyloved. Someday I'd like to be able to stay home with our children (Lord willing) so I'm trying to establish these side businesses now. 

These last 9 months have been full of new and challenging life lessons that have strengthened us and drawn us closer together.  It is beautiful and at times painful as we trust God together for all of our needs.  He is so faithful and good and "His grace is sufficient"!

I guess I should mention why I chose to make our blog address bringmebacksomethingfrench.  It's a quote from Home Alone.  Remember that movie?! :)  Ryan says this to me every time I leave to go somewhere (especially a store).  As for the red beard and blondie locks part, well...from time to time Ryan grows his beard out and it's red.  Perhaps we will have a child with red hair someday?  blondie locks is one of Ryan's nicknames for me.  So...there you go.   The meaning behind the blog.

Thanks for reading!  Stay tuned because believe it or not I have 2 other blogs waiting in the wings!  Crazy, I know!