CONGRATULATIONS CUSHMAN'S!!!

This weekend our dear friend, Ashley Connick married her best friend, Chase Cushman in her hometown, Omaha, NE! We've known Ashley for a few years now, as she taught with us in Austin at Woodson Kindergarten Center! I personally taught across the hall from her and after school, we would shut her classroom door and have secret dance parties where we wore silly sunglasses that her students used! She was also my assistant basketball coach when I coached the middle school girls...man that was a fun time :)

We had many fun and crazy times together with Ashley! Even though we are miles apart, our friendship stays the same :) We are so happy for this amazing couple! The wedding was absolutely GORGEOUS and she couldn't have been more BEAUTIFUL!

The ride down was very entertaining! We traveled down with our good friends in a 12 passenger van :) Many laughs and memories!!!

Chase works for President Obama as his Scheduler (I capitalized Scheduler, because how important is that job!!!). No, he did not attend the wedding, but he sent a personalized note to the happy couple as they celebrated their day together!

The rest of these photos are just laid out for your enjoyment :) So many laughs...good times with good friends!

Josh got a little sleepy before our "pre-cocktail hour"...

We left Austin at 5:30 AM to drive to Omaha, NE...it was a LONG morning of traveling...

but it was totally worth it :)

So I had some fun with him :)

Jason & Lisa Denzer...AMAZING Couple :)

Lisa & I all dressed up :)

McRae's :)

This is the type of vending machines they have in NE!

The ladies :)

Ashley sharing a special moment with her parents!

The beautiful Bride - Ashley Cushman :)

Old friends...new memories :)

The McRae's traditional "make the couple kiss" dance!

I'll kiss you any day :)

Great dance moves, Chase!

Lisa and I :) She is such an amazing, honest, caring and loving friend!

Our traditional dollar dance...I love my friends :)

All the girls, all dressed up:
Amy, Katie, Cori, Ashley, Stephanie, Alisha, Sarah & Lisa

My sweetie

:) Oh boys...Josh & JJ Galle

Stephanie Bisek...I have never seen you so happy!

Lisa and I had a modeling session (Josh being our photographer)...yes, I'm sure he was loving every moment of this too!

The bride saw us and wanted to join in :)

Work in ladies, work it! You can only imagine how it was when the three of us were together in Austin...Ashley, we miss you :) Yes, we are teachers!

LOVE

You don't need "Things" to be Blessed...you need Friendships!

Every couple needs a couple...Josh & I with our life coach...Lisa :)

Thank you Chase & Ashley Cushman for an amazing weekend! We were so happy to have shared in your day and create memories that will last a lifetime :) Best Wishes!

My New Bench

My dad LOVES to go golfing! Not only does he enjoy it, but he's good at it! Something else my dad is good at...building things! A long time ago, I saw an HGTV episode with this really cool shelf! After some serious searching on the Internet, I found a picture of it! I showed my dad, and guess what...HE BUILT IT! It's hanging up in our basement!

Back to golfing! My dad was at one of the many courses he plays at, and he saw this really cool bench with flowers in it! To make a long story short, he wrote down the # of logs, length and sketched it :) And just like that my mom had a BEAUTIFUL bench in her backyard! I love it - it's a great place for pictures, it holds flowers, and best of all - my dad built it!

I decided that it was time for the McRae's to have a bench just like it! My mom is currently in Okinawa, Japan visiting my sister, brother-in-law and their three AMAZING boys...so my dad came down to Austin for a couple days and brought a car load :)

Time for Josh and my dad to start building :) It was a hot day too, so that sucked, but they were so excited to build this for me :) Callie and I had fun sitting back and watching! We provided both of them with lots of Powerade!

Callie and I went for a walk, but while we were walking it started to POUR on us...but it was fun! She was kicking her little legs as the rain soaked her legs! I had the rest of her covered, but I was soaked! We pulled down these Callie size lawn chairs and watched the boys, and the rain!

After they had the base of it built, they carried it to my backyard and plopped it where I wanted it! It's in a GREAT place, but you'll see that in a few pictures...

Oh yes, then it started to rain again, so they came inside to relax and try to stay dry (even though they were drenched in sweat!

Rain stops...BACK TO WORK! This is the finished product! You have to pardon my dead flowers on the left...it's been REALLY hot and lets face it, I suck at keeping flowers alive! The right pot is my basil, and that's still going strong!

The builders! Thank you both for making me an amazing bench! I'm sure we'll have many wonderful photos taken in this spot!!!

My dad and I...I LOVE YOU :)
Ah...my sweetie pie :)
This might be one of my favorite pictures! I love how excited Callie is here...so adorable :) She was sure happy to be hanging out on our new bench with her Grampa :)

Now I just have to stain it along with the deck...but that's a fall project!

McRae Olympics!!

A post you have all been waiting for I'm sure :)

On July 30th, we hosted our FIRST ANNUAL McRae Olympics! We had a total of 24 of our close friends come out for the event! Although you will not get to see ALL of the pictures...have to sensor these you know :) I will post some of the fun ones :)

This was Josh's event! I told him that I would help get things together (food, drinks, organizing, etc...) but invitations, follow-ups (people never RSVP anymore...) and planning were HIS responsibility!

He did a fantastic job of planning! He ordered the Keg and had it delivered to our house on Saturday evening! He had all of our lawn games set up and ready to go - directions taped to each one! He had the beer cups ready to go, tables set up for "tippy cup" and "beer pong" and we were ALL SET!

We served Burgers and Hot Dogs! I made some delicious cake pops and a popcorn cake :) We had fresh veggies from my garden and a delicious veggie dip to accompany it! Our friends brought so many wonderful dishes to share! Over all, the food was DELICIOUS! Perfect way to start our events...full tummies :)

We started the Olympics with a HUGE game of Lightening (basketball)...for those of you who don't know how to play...figure it out, because this game rocks! I've been playing it since I was a little girl...as many have! I personally had a great hot streak going on! One step up and BAM - I got the person in front of me out! Then I had one miss and Josh got me out :(

Josh ended up taking first place, Andy second & Derrick third! Our medals were SWEET! I had been saving soup can lids (all had a smooth edge thanks to my smooth edge can opener) and we wrote "McRae Olympics 2011" on them! When someone won an event, we wrote that on the other side!

Next was lawn games: Bags, Washers, Lawn Darts, Polish Horseshoes, & Can Jam! Everyone was paired up with a partner (not the person they came with! - Great way to help everyone meet someone new)...and you had to earn points at each event. In the end, the team with the highest points WON! Josh can't remember who are winners were for obvious reasons...Remember, I said we had a keg!

We also played this ridiculous game called "lightning" - but it was an electrocution game...you had to push the bottom when the light turned green or you got zapped...Derrick won this game...I sucked and was out right away!

The night ended CRAZY! Josh passed out (sorry, but it's true), keg stands were taking place, tippy cup, beer pong! Over all, everyone had an amazing time! Sorry there aren't more pictures...just couldn't post all of them!!!