HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!
Hope all of your thanksgivings were wonderful, filled with good food, good company and lots of love.
So our engagement party was in July of this year. It was really a joint Birthday, House warming and engagement party. John's Birthday is in July and mine is in August so we sort of split the different and had the big event in the middle of July.
It wasn't anything fancy, just a backyard BBQ with our friends and my family. John's family is really hard to get together in fact most of them wont be able to come to the wedding it looks like. (that is another story for another post)
We had so much food, i prepped all the food the morning and day before. We had chicken, shrimp, veggie burgers, turkey burgers, sirloin burgers, turkey and beef hot dogs... all different kinds of dips and chips etc etc etc. My cousin was nice enough to do all the BBQing which made it nice for John and I to enjoy the company.
John and I were still eating the food well into the fall. John is still eating the last of the sirloin burgers... which at this point I find to be kinda gross but John can eat pretty much anything and doesn't like to waste food. So I just say "good luck!" and let him do what he wants!
At that point we still were expecting to get married in WDW, so my mom and dad had made us a castle cake! It was so cute I loved it so much. They made a bunch of rings out of white chocolate and put it all around the front of the castle. John and I also got another cake from Costco. I wanted to have a vanilla cake since the one my parents were making was going to be chocolate. (John is vanilla and I am chocolate! )
The Drama of this Party (because what in life doesn't have drama!
) :
So we had hired a landscaper to try to get the outside of the house looking decent for the party. Well he came cheap, he did a bunch of stuff, but definitely didn't do what I thought we had agreed on, and took much longer. Our backyard was entirely weeds and so he sprayed it all down, and he was suppose to lay seed down a at least a week or so before the party so the seeds could take hold. Well in the end he didn't finish nearly in time to do any of that and said that to lay the seeds down it would cost more money! Then on top of that, he was trimming our trees etc. and would lay all the debree out in front of our house... I must have asked the dude 3 times if that was okay to do. He just kept saying "yea of course the town will take it, and if they don't no worries, I will take care of it!"... well after he had finally left, the town came by one day and said if we dont get rid of it soon, that we will get fined. So, when I called and told the landscaper about it, he started complaining about the town and then said he would take it but would have to charge me for renting a u-haul to take it away in and a day-labor's fees. What a douche!
but the house looked much better for the party and the little kids seemed to enjoy running around in the back yard so I was happy!
The best present was one of our friends playing the banjo for us. I love to hear him play and his voice is amazing! I especially enjoyed the crowd that stayed later into the night and we got to light up our tikki torches and party lights. My closest cousin and her family stayed along with some close friends. We had great conversations and lots of laughs.
Here are some photos of the day, hope you enjoy them. I think its time for me to get some sleep. We had one crazy Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Can't wait to tell you all about it!
Till next time... keep smiling!
The Photos:
The house cleaned up outside for the party .... we got roses planted outside.
The backyard set up...
The Cakes:
Food out on the table, people began to show up and have a good time.
John and I cutting the cake, not one is a great shot but its all good because the cakes were great!
Me and my niece listening to some good banjo playing!
Shot of backyard at night with the lights:
And the aftermath of the party, the next day:
Sorry to hear you and your family have been going through so much. That is truly awful about your friend's family, and my thoughts and prayers go out to everyone involved.
... hopefully my posts will be interesting enough for some of you to keep reading! LOL ;-) 
Oh and Becky, I have been catching up on your PJ ... just one thing I wanted to say real quick. LOVE your dress you looked amazing! 
