No More Butter Bars: Promoted to 1st Lieutenant

On Saturday, May 28th, Dan promoted from 2nd Lieutenant to 1st Lieutenant in the US Air Force! It had been two years since he first commissioned from the Air Force Academy.

Since he's in between jobs right now (aka hasn't started pilot training yet but is already at the base waiting on casual status), there was no promotion ceremony. There are a few others this affected as well, and I'm pretty bummed no one recognized them... so I made sure to make him put on his flight suit with his new rank to at least acknowledge his accomplishment with a photo... or a few.

I know this promotion is automatic in the Air Force, but I am still incredibly proud of my hard-working husband. He has an insane work ethic, so I just know he's going to crush pilot training (which he starts REALLY soon, guys!).

Out with the butter bars... in with... more bars! No catchy nickname for this rank, but it's still so fun!

He has his ENJJPT patch showing in the bottom right... I love it and am so excited for him to get started!

Celebrating Two Years of Marriage

Two whole years have flown by since the most magical day of my life. Sure, the day Annabelle was born can easily be deemed my "best day ever", but it certainly wasn't as pleasant as the day we proclaimed our love to each other with our own, unique vows (of which I totally messed up and   called Dan my wife instead of husband at the very end, prompting these epic photographs... first, Dan processed what I said... then, I gathered what I had done based on his face... oops! Sorry not sorry... that was typical Janelle, and our guests STILL bring that up all the time).

All joking aside, we had a fabulous day, despite the rain, because we were finally saying "I do" gathered by all of our family and closest friends, and it was just the most perfect day. And I promise I'm not laughing or looking horrified in every single wedding photo... here are my personal favorites from our big day!

Two years married have flown by. We have gone through a lot already, such as moving across the country twice and having a precious baby girl. It hasn't been all sunshine... marriage is a real trial. Living with someone else and staying in love is a very real struggle. We are both super stubborn, strong-willed people... so it's no wonder we argue when we both want our way. But I am so happy that our love for each other wins. 

I am still so thankful to be Lieutenant Lovemuffin's co-pilot in this crazy life.

We took our annual photo holding last year's photo, where we were holding a wedding photo. How's that for complicated?! But I love it!

You can see our first anniversary photo in front of our last home in Ohio here... I like the tradition we've started with posing in front of our current home each year because we all know we'll live in so many different places over the years! 

To read more about our awesome Colorado mountain wedding, check out this post - or just watch our wedding highlight video below! :)

I can't wait to see what this next year brings! 

Painted Mason Jar Photo Craft

When I realized Mothers' Day was quickly approaching last month, I knew I wanted to make a photo gift of some kind for my mom and my grandma that featured my little Annabelle. I searched and searched for the perfect idea... and when I stumbled upon this idea, I knew it was the one I'd be making.

(This is the original post I got the idea from! Thanks, Pinterest! She explains how to make it, so please refer back to her blog!)

Oh, and I loved it so much, I decided to make one for myself too!

Each person I was gifting to gave Annabelle an adorable outfit in her Easter basket. My mom gave her the pink and green dress, my grandma gave her the orange outfit, and I gave her the yellow    dress... so I quickly decided to take photos outside of her wearing each of the outfits to the mason jars unique.

Then, I decided to paint them all a different color to match the outfit she's wearing, and I picked coordinating colors for flowers. (They are fake flowers.)

I am extremely pleased with how they turned out and just had to share. 

Luckily, I was able to give these to my mom and grandma in person when they visited before Mothers' Day, so I didn't have to ship them. 

Ten Years Out

I'm really not sure how it's already been ten years since I finished high school, but it has. Time has flown.

In those ten years, I:

• lived on my own
• went to college and graduated
• joined a co-ed honor fraternity
• taught middle school for four years
• moved across the country by myself
• got engaged and married
• moved across the country two more times
• got pregnant and had a baby
• started my Etsy shop
• bought a house

... and probably countless more things that I forgot to include on this list!

And for nostalgic purposes... here are some photos from Raytown South High School Class of 2006 graduation!



How long have you been out of high school?

The Falls in Wichita Falls, TX

Something we love doing when we move to new places is checking out what the new digs has to offer that's different from everywhere else!

I know Wichita Falls itself has the word 'falls' in the name, but all I knew about this place was that it had recently been through a pretty bad drought. I had no idea there was actually a waterfall here.

Sure, it's manmade... but it's really neat! It's not running all the time, but luckily, we caught it on a perfect evening! You can see the falls from the highway, so after we finished dinner at the Club on base one Friday evening, we headed down there for a family walk. We had a lot of fun and even walked up the path to the top!

I'm glad we found something cool we can take visitors to see! Fun fact: Niagara Falls actually donated this, and we just went there in January!

Do you have a place you take visitors?