Fake Flowers.....

Hi Everyone!  We had a fantastic few weeks and are all in good health!!

First and foremost we had an absolute BLAST at the Yankees Rockies game and The Zac Brown Band concert at Red Rocks!!

We were able to go with a couple friends to the game.  It rained the entire time and wasn't postponed or delayed at all, but we lucked out and didn't have to fight the weather! Bruce and I were given our tickets as a gift and each ticket was worth $125 and combined we were able to pay for ourselves and our friends to be moved into the VIP bar section.  This involved very comfortable seating, tables, out of the rain, $20 worth of free food and drink, and our own waitress! It was one of the most comfortable games we have ever been to! And of course we had a blast!

The concert was simply amazing.  I have no other word to use to describe it.  Even if you aren't a country fan (because even I get annoyed with some of it!) and you have the chance to see the Zac Brown Band live, GO!!! I'm completely serious.  They put on one of the best shows I have ever had the pleasure to see.  And not to mention it was our first time seeing a concert at Red Rocks.  It is true what everyone says, it's an EPIC VENUE! I doubt I'll ever find another place that is as amazing as Red Rocks is to attend a concert.  It rained allllll day, but stopped literally 10 minutes before the show started and didn't start again until we were getting in our car to leave.  It was cold, but after the show started, you didn't care or even notice.  We are already plotting our next purchase to another concert this summer.

OK. Fake flowers.  How do you all feel about them?!  I have always had a bad attitude about them and never wanted anything to do with them.  I'm a person who absolutely LOVES real plants and always thought fake flowers or plants were tacky.  I know, I know completely snobby of me.  I think I just always envisioned gross plastic cheap looking ones and never took the time to find the well made ones.  But Michael's had a HUGE sale last week on their flowers, so of course being the bargain shopper I am I had to go and take a look.  I also had this awesome vase I bought at Ikea a couple months ago that I was dying to put out for show, but needed to fill it.  So much to my surprise there are some really beautiful fake flowers out there.  The key is to find a good sale on the "nice" ones that are usually ridiculously expensive.  I am still a little unsure and admit to over analyzing it every single time I walk by it, but it's definitely growing on me.

We have a housewarming party to attend in a week so I went on Pinterest in search of a good gift, because I had never had the pleasure in giving one before.   I found the MOST adorable gift and I just love it! (so if you are planning to buy a home anytime soon, you see this gift here and also end up getting it, please don't be offended.  I just love it that much!) I will post the link to the original idea I found online and a picture of mine (with a few tweaks I made) below, but here is a list of what is in it and the saying that goes along with it........First get a cute basket to fill (Michael's carries adorable ones and they always have a sale!).  I used dish cloths to wrap the items in just for an extra gift.  Then add a bottle of wine, a bottle of olive oil, a candle, salt and pepper, honey, and a loaf of bread from the bakery (or if you're ambitious homemade!).  The little saying that goes along with it says..... "A Candle so you will always have light, A bottle of wine to share with good friends, Salt and Pepper so there will always be flavor and spice in your life, Honey so you always enjoy the sweetness of life, Olive Oil so you'll be blessed with health and well-being, and Bread so you'll never go hungry.  Wishing your family many wonderful years in your home!" Now isn't that just adorable?! In my picture I obviously don't have the bread yet and I will also wrap the entire basket in clear cellophane and tie it with a ribbon and the cute saying attached.  :)

Well we hope all is well with you! We love and miss you all!!
Love,
Nichole and Bruce xoxo

Such a cute idea! Original link 

Here is my first fake flower display! 

Rockies vs Yankees game

Zac Brown Band at Red Rocks! 

Quick Update

Hi Everyone!!

Just a quick update.....we are all doing well. Loooooving the beautiful weather! We went to a couple baseball games last wk, and had so much fun. :) Our super comfy big bed got delivered yesterday.  We sold our king size bed when we moved back to Denver to accommodate to the smaller room and took the spare bedroom bed, a full.  Needless to say, it was not comfy! Poor B's feet hung off and we just didn't have enough room. So we consolidated our things in our bedroom and bought a big king bed. It's wonderful!! It's taken over our room, but well worth it!

I was also able to complete a few Pinterest projects this week.  I always feel so accomplished when I do.  I pin so many things, that when I actually complete one of them it's awesome.  It's just great knowing I didn't just pin something, but actually completed it.  I'm sure my fellow pinners understand :)

We hope all is well with all of you!!
Love,
Nichole & Bruce

Oreo Rice Krispie Treats.  I made these delish treats for B & his coworkers. 

Ticket Frame.  I bought this shadow frame from Ikea and B

drilled a slit on the top so we can drop all of our tickets inside and display. :)

Frame locations of where B & I met, got engaged, and married. I marked each spot

with a tiny heart sticker. It'll be hung next to our framed dates.

My lazy Sunday afternoon today at our pool! ahhhhhh ;) 

Cravings

Everything has been wonderful.  We got a bit of a cold front that moved in, but it's quickly warming back up, thank goodness!!

We went to the Wings Avs game last Friday.  It is always fun for us because we are on opposite ends of the spectrum during this match up.  I LOVE the Avs and Bruce LOVES the Wings.  This year he gets to claim bragging rights as the Wings scored to win with 13 seconds left in the game. We also went out downtown Denver with some friends afterwards, which we rarely do.  It was a lot fun.

We are going to a Rockies game Monday.  The games are a lot of fun, not as fun as Tigers games, but fun nonetheless.  We absolutely love baseball games.......beer, peanuts, snacks, and the ball park, nothing like it!  We also bought our first tickets to a concert at Red Rocks!!!! We are sooooooo excited about this.  Red Rocks is an AMAZING place, there's nothing like it.  So we bought tickets to the Zac Brown Band concert on May 8th.

This past week we were also able to take the kids to Garden of the Gods.  It was so beautiful and the kids had a blast! :)

So I've had some intense cravings lately......Last week it was sushi and this week I wanted some sort of pound cake.  So last week I made California Rolls, starting off simple since it was the first time I was attempting homemade sushi.  I also wanted to start with those because Bruce has never really had sushi and I wanted to start him off easy.  He ended up loving it! So now we can move on to better stuff! YAY! Fingers crossed he keeps enjoying it.  And today I made a cream cheese pound cake.  It was the first one I have ever made, and although it wasn't as pretty as the one pictured in the recipe, it was very good.

Anyways, we hope you are all doing well! We miss and love you tons!!!

Love,
Nichole & Bruce xoxo

Homemade California Rolls

Our beautiful Easter flowers

Garden of the Gods

Wings Avs game

Cream Cheese bunt cake 

Pinterest Recipe

Happy Easter!

First and foremost....... HAPPY EASTER!!!  We love this time of year.  It's so beautiful in CO, 65-70 degree weather, sunny, and breezy! Perfect Spring weather.

Anyways......we are doing well, our little family is healthy and happy and Pudge is still loving life at Grandpa Browns.  I made an impromptu trip to the Soo a few weeks ago to pay my respects to a WONDERFUL man and be with one of my best friends and her family.  As much as it is always wonderful to see the ones I love, it was not a trip I looked forward to going on and hope the next trip up is for other reasons.

Our last snowshoeing trip, right before leaving to head to the Soo, was by far the most beautiful.  It was the perfect trail and day.  It was calm, quiet, and beyond gorgeous. We snowshoed up as far as the trail would allow, then hiked the rest of the way.  It was hard, but definitely worth the effort.

Last week we had visitors.  One of Bruce's best friends from High School, Joe and his girlfriend Ashlie came to visit for a wk.  We had a blast with them.  We were able to explore Denver, going to places we hadn't been in quite some time.  We also shopped and explored the mountains.  We went back to the sight of our engagement for the fist time in three and a half years, and it was still as beautiful as ever.  We also were able to go to Loveland, which was breathtaking.  All in all it was so wonderful to have a piece of home here.

This week we are hoping to make one last snowshoeing trip to Estes Park, praying they still have enough snow for us to get in one snowshoeing adventure.

We hope you all have a beautiful holiday.  We love and miss you all very much!

Love xoxo
Nichole and Bruce

Our engagement location, three and a half years later....

Joe and Bruce at Loveland :)

The group at Red Rocks.  P.S. We just got our tickets for the

Zac Brown Band concert at Red Rocks in May! YAY! :) 

I am one seriously lucky girl! This is what I came home...

RIP Joe Daddy!!! 

Homemade granola bars! Turned out delicious!

Our reward! At the top

On our way up....

Clearly exhausted....

Knee deep trying to get to the top. Bruce thought it was

sooooo funny! ;) 

climbing up up and up! 11,150 ft up.

Warm or Cold?!?!

Hi Everyone,

We are all happy and healthy......now.  I just got rid of the flu bug about a week ago.  All the news channels reported that this is one of the worst flu seasons in a long long time, and I definitely CONCUR! It was the worst case of the flu I have had in a long long time.  My worried hubby finally made me go see the doc. and it turned out I had strep and an ear infection.  And that was all towards the end of the sickness, due to me stubbornly refusing to go in the few days prior.  The beginning was the worst head cold ever, which included 10 boxes of Kleenex and 5 bottles of NyQuil (OK MAYBE a little exaggerated).  But needless to say, I feel back to "normal" :) And our fingers and toes are crossed that Bruce doesn't get it.

Bruce got moved to a different unit within the same prison facility.  He wasn't happy about leaving his original unit, but the schedule works a lot better for him.  He no longer has to do fast turnarounds, going from days 2-10 to mornings 6-2, which he usually did at least once or twice a week.  Now he is on all days.  Pudge is doing well with Grandpa Brown.  I get daily pictures, thank goodness, because we are missing him sooooo much.

Weight watchers is going well.  I am down 24.6 pounds. :)  I am feeling re-energized and have my running schedule back on track.  We also just signed up for the color run in Denver in June, and I am so excited.  We have done plenty of 5k's, but never a color run and they look so fun!

We have had AMAZING weather lately, in the high 50's and even low 60's sometimes.  And the sun is usually always shining!  But CO weather is sooooo unpredictable.  One minute we are golfing in sweatshirts and the next we have our snow suites out.   That's how the last few weeks have been.  So we plan our activities depending on the weather for that specific day.  But I suppose I can't complain too much, beings though my Soo MI family just had a terrible store come through.

We hope all is well with you all.  We miss you dearly.

Love,
Nichole and Bruce xoxo

My valentines themed breakfast for Bruce.  Along with some 

chocolate covered strawberries. 

I got off the treadmill and set my shoes aside, and then laughed a lot after

looking at them sitting beside B's.  HUGE  vs TINY :) 

Golf in February with the beautiful snow capped mts. in the background 

So fun! 

Groupon has great deals sometimes! We got these cute phone covers

(B's not pictured) all for only $12!! Love them. 

Kale chips. YUUUM! Just tear up some kale, put on a baking pan lined with 

tin foil (too keep the mess to a minimum) and drizzle with extra virgin olive

oil and salt.  Bake at 350 for about 15 mins.  SO delicious and a healthy option. 

Adding some color

Hi Everyone!

We are doing well and loving the mild and beautiful winter here in CO.  We snowshoe almost every weekend up in the beautiful mountains! Our last snowshoeing adventure was 4 miles long, and tough! But so worth it in the end! :) Other than that it is business as usual....

So I decided we needed to add some more color and organization in our lives.  A trip to Ikea for some new throw pillows and containers was, of course, the only way to achieve this goal.......

My new containers for the pantry.  I just added some chalkboard stickers 

and I love how the pantry looks now! 

New throw pillows. COLOR! 

Some other purchases from Ikea.....New larger lantern & shoe rack :) 

Have I mentioned lately how much I love Ikea?! ;)  

We hope you are all doing well!! Love and Miss you all

Nichole & Bruce xoxo

2013 :)

Hi Everyone!!

Sorry we have been MIA from our blog, but you know how it is.  I am, of course, using the same old excuse....busy busy busy lives during the holiday season!

We are all very happy and healthy and had a wonderful Christmas, NYE, and start to 2013!!  Bruce is still doing very well at his new facility and position.  I am finally done with school!!! YAY!! I am still working as a nanny for the Miller family, and love every minute! I always say I am going to have the hardest time when I finally leave.  I will be starting the "big girl job" hunt once we decide where we are going to plant some roots.  Speaking of......

Yes the rumor is out, we are CONSIDERING moving back to MI.  We know three things for sure:

1. We DO NOT want to live in the Soo.  (sorry fellow Soo peeps, but it's just not for us)
2. We will make our final decision by this summer so we are able to purchase our first home either here in CO or in MI, no more procrastinating. 
3. Bittersweet!! We are pulled in two directions.  We absolutely LOVE CO more than anywhere, but also want to be a bit closer to family and friends, which makes this decision bittersweet.  If we stay here, we know we will love our life and environment, but if we move back to MI we know we will love being closer to so many that we love.  

So yes, MI is an option we are thoroughly considering.  We are weighing all of our options and will definitely keep you all posted as to what we decide by the time summer rolls around.  

So back to the holiday season, we had a fabulous time.  Being promoted to Sgt. has its definite advantages.  One being, having the upper hand at getting days off.  Bruce was able to have Christmas Eve, Christmas, NYE, and New Years Day off.  It was such a pleasure to spend the time together.  We were able to spend Xmas eve with my Gram down in Pueblo.  Christmas we cuddled in our matching (yes I said matching! It's one of our family traditions we started a few years back:) PJ bottoms and relaxed.  We were able to Skype with some of our loved ones while opening our AMAZING gifts (THANK YOU!!).  We cooked a delicious dinner and cuddled up some more.  New years eve we had a few friends over and ate, drank, played games and repeated all night! It was so fun.  New years day was spent in PJ's watching football recuperating.  It's true what they say, the older you get the longer it takes to recover from a night of drinking. 

We have been busy snowshoeing every chance we get.  Our latest trip took us two hours up to Breckenridge and it was beautiful!! We had yet to go and it was just so awesome.  It is your typical tourist CO ski town, but we loved the charm.  And the trail we took was breath-taking.   Weight Watchers is again in progress.  I took a few weeks off for the holidays and am back at it.  Hopefully the new year brings a more disciplined 2013. Wish me luck! 

Well that pretty much sums up our lives for the past month......Holiday fun, celebrating, being adventurous in the mountains, and weighing our options for future decisions.  Typical ;) 

We hope you all are doing well.  

Love and Miss you all tons! 

xoxo,

Bruce, Nic, and Pudge 

One of the views we saw at the top of our climb

Xmas morning breakfast! TY Pinterst for the yummy idea! 

(Crescent rolls, cream cheese, apple pie filing, & cinnamon sugar)

Stuffed Peppers! YUUUM! 

We made homemade chocolate covered pretzels. They turned out so good! 

My team lost last night! It was so depressing to drive by the stadium today.

But there's always next year! #Broncos

Our new stockings. We love them! :) 

The beautiful 16x20 canvas we received as a gift! I LOVE it! 

The framed dates are those of the date we started dating, got engaged, and 

married.  The idea came from pinterest of course, and it's super cute! 

One of our favorite gifts.  A dutch oven pot (I have been DYING for one!)

And an adorable MI oven mit.  One side has the U.P and the other downstate.

Bruce jumping off a hill while snowshoeing

Love