Bekah's wedding

My dear friend, Bekah got married a few weeks ago and I had the honor of being a bridesmaid. The reception was at Music Hall on a beautiful and windy day in May. Here is the day in pictures...

Congratulations Bekah + Adam!

Raspberry Crisp (The perfect dessert)

You guys, I found the most delicious and easy spring/summer dessert. It is by none other than THE Pioneer Woman herself! I promise this is one of those recipes you will want to pin and make over and over again.

What you need for the berry mixture:
2 1/2 cups fresh raspberries
1 Tablespoon Cornstarch
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla extract

What you need for the topping:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup oats
1/4 cup chopped Pecans
Dash of Salt
3/4 sticks butter cut into small pieces
Vanilla ice cream

Steps:
Start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees

Make berry mixture by combining rinsed raspberries, corn starch, 2/3 cups sugar and vanilla in a medium sized bowl. Stir and set aside.

In another bowl combine flour, 1/4 cup sugar, brown sugar, oats, pecans, salt and butter pieces, which will be used for the top of the crisp. Use a pastry cutter to mix ingredients until it is crumbly.

Add the berry mixture to a small pie pan. Sprinkle the crisp topping all over the top until covered evenly.

Bake 25-30 minutes until topping is golden brown. Let dish sit for 10 minutes to cool before serving. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream. Mmmmm.

For the original recipe, click here!

Pregnancy Files: {The Bump Week 17}

I'm finally almost caught up with my bump posts. Pretty soon I'll be in real time. Yay!

Best moment this week: My students telling me that my bump was getting bigger. I have 3 or 4 girls that always check in with me and Baby Renner. They even talk to him/her and I must say it's one of the sweetest things I ever did see.

Food cravings: Chipotle never gets old to me. Drew is going to refuse to go to Chipotle after this baby is born. Haha.

Movement: Not yet!

Symptoms: I'm finally getting to experience those two wonderful things called indigestion and heartburn. I have not been missing out.

Nursery: This week we took apart the beds that were taking up space in baby's room. It feels wonderful having all that empty space to dream up plans for!

Prayer for Baby:
Dear Peanut,
This week your dad and I have had fun dreaming up names for you. So far we agree on most of the names we like and we can't wait to start calling you by name when we find out if you are a boy or a girl! We have our appointment scheduled to find out in less than 2 weeks. Boy or girl, we will be thrilled, but we are both feeling like you just might be a boy. Are you?! We can't wait to find out! We love you so much already.
Love,
Your Mama

Lord, whether our little one is a boy or girl help them to grow to love and trust in you the way we do. Thank you for helping our little one grow strong inside me. Amen.

Isaiah 41:10
"Do not fear, for I am with you:
Do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

          Week 14 Bumpdate                          Week 15 Bumpdate                          Week 16 Bumpdate 

Creative ways to share that you are expecting!

I have had entirely way too much fun planning how to reveal our baby news to our friends and family. When I first found out I was pregnant, one of the first things I did was search for unique ways to share the news and while there are lots of great ideas out there, I didn't find exactly what I wanted. I created this post in the hope that this can be helpful to some of you mamas-to-be out there looking for a way to reveal your special news to the people you love most.

1. If possible, use the new names of family members you tell in the reveal. Your mom or mother in law will absolutely love something that already says Grandma on it! I found a few old fashioned milk bottles at Michael's and used a Martha Stewart Stencil to paint a chalkboard label on each one. See the full reveal here.

2. Another fun way to reveal your news is to make it personal. My brother in law's father is from China and owns a Chinese restaurant so my brother in law truly makes the best Chinese food ever. When I knew we were getting together with my family for a meal at my sister's house, I knew I wanted Chinese and I immediately thought of creating a custom Fortune cookie to go with our meal! I used Lucky Girl Fortunes and absolutely LOVED how they turned out. See the full reveal here.

3. I had originally planned to tell my parents later than I did, but when we heard the heartbeat of our baby I couldn't wait! I still wanted to make the reveal special so a quick and easy way to reveal the news is using balloons. I got one pink, one blue and labeled each one with the date and my parents new title: grandma and grandpa.

4. For those of you that have family and friends out of town, a custom greeting card is a sweet way to share the news. A phone call is fine, but a card they can open and see an actual picture on is just fun. Who doesn't love to get a surprise in the mail? If you choose this option I highly recommend using a new greeting card brand, Treat. They offer adorable designs that you can personalize for any special event. I absolutely love how my cards turned out and my family adored them!

What are some of the best ways you have seen baby news revealed?

Boyz II Men in Concert

Boyz II Men recently performed a concert with the Cincinnati Symphony known as the Pops at Music Hall and of course I had to be there! Drew even came along and actually enjoyed himself (maybe due to the extremely drunk white man in his mid thirties in front of us who we swear is the Boyz II Men fan club President!) It was an amazing show and I am still in love with their music. They are talented guys I tell ya. If you want a good slow jam station, create a Boyz II Men Pandora and thank me later.

With our friends Kevin and Erin. We just found out Erin is pregnant too and is only a few weeks behind me!

I hope you all had a fabulous long weekend!

A day on the farm involving eggs

Easter was so incredibly long ago that I'm disguising this post. This is not an Easter post, just a family get together where we dressed up and had an adult egg hunt just for fun. These pictures were too cute not to share.

Baby's "first Easter." You know that had to be documented.

Pregnancy Files: {The Bump Week 16}

I'm playing catch up on my bump posts. This post was actually written a few weeks ago and is not in real time, but I don't want to miss out capturing these memories.

Best moment this week: Mother's day was this week and I truly enjoyed every moment of celebrating all the mother's in my life and knowing that next Mother's Day I will have a baby in my arms. It was such a sweet day.

Food cravings: Still Chipotle...thank goodness for Teacher Appreciation day buy 1 get 1 free burritos.

Movement: Not yet!

Symptoms: I can literally feel my uterus stretching...it's true. It's like an elastic waist band inside that I can feel pulling apart. It's uncomfortable, but not painful and it actually makes me excited because that means my baby bump is getting bigger.

Nursery: This week we cleaned out the closet in Baby's room and it felt so good! We bagged up tons of clothes and took it to Good Will. Next up, taking apart the bed frame that is in the nursery and stripping paint off of our future changing table.

Prayer for Baby:
Dear little one,
I treasured this Mother's day knowing you were inside me. Becoming a mom is already an adventure and I'm thankful every single day. Since we know you can hear our voices now, your dad started reading aloud to us this week in bed. We picked Winnie the Pooh and it makes me laugh. We love you already.

Love,
Your Mama

Jeremiah 29:11
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

          Week 14 Bumpdate                        Week 15 Bumpdate

A very sweet season

There were two things that Drew and I really wanted as we entered 2014. We had a strong desire to be part of a community of couples that we could grow spiritually with and we wanted to grow our family. 5 months in to 2014 and we have both...an amazing small group and a baby in my belly. God is so faithful. After a very hard end to 2013, I am thanking him daily for this sweet season we are in.

If you want some amazing BBQ and you live in Cincinnati, you need to head to Eli's immediately. You won't regret it!