Wedding Coordinator!

Tonight, Tony, my mom, my dad and I met with Cindy, Bethel's Wedding Coordinator. We went over all of the specifics for the wedding rehearsal and day. There are so many little details that I never considered about a wedding ceremony: such as who walks my mom down the aisle, the order of the attendants, where we want the guest book, where are the flower girls going to be after they walk down the aisle...and the list goes on and on and on. It was really great to do some thinking about everything!


There is another wedding the same day as ours, so that complicates things a little. The other wedding is at 1pm, but since we met with her first, we got to make some choices instead of getting stuck with the leftovers: such as the room that the bride and grooms get ready in and little picky things like that.


We're just a little over two months until the big day. Tony and I have been preparing for our marriage, thanks to two wonderful sources that Brian and Kate lent us. We are reading a book, Sacred Marriage, which is challenging me to look at marriage in a different light. We're also watching a DVD series that seems to know the ins and outs of our relationship without even knowing us! Tonight we met with my life insurance provider to discuss different life insurance options for me. As of September 7, I will no longer be covered under the plan that my parents had for me, since I will then be 25. There's so much to consider! We have a lot to talk about...


Tomorrow is my last day as a beer cart girl for Willow Creek. I do work next Wednesday waitressing/bar tending. I'm a little sad to say goodbye to my customers that have become almost like a family to me! Tony and I were at Thursdays on First tonight, and I ran into so many customers who had to hug me and talk about life with me. It made me realize how many friends I've made since starting that job over three years ago. I guess I'm getting older and moving onward and upward with my life!


Tomorrow night, Laur and Jill are coming over for some supper and visiting! It will be great to see them. It feels like we haven't seen much from the Knutson/Sutter side this summer. Everyone is so busy all the time!

Stealing the show!

Yesterday, my aunt Amy text me a picture of Megan in her flower girl dress that had just arrived in the mail. Today, Mindy sent me one of Natalie in her dress! It's official, they're going to steal the show from me! It's a good thing I love them both :)

Nanny job and Pampered Chef

Hey everyone! Yet another long time between posts. I guess we're just spending time relaxing before the storm begins on Monday!
Today, I was able to nanny for an orthopedic surgeon from Mayo. He is from Spain, and his kids still live there. They come every summer for a month. My friend Kelsey usually is their nanny, but she started new teacher orientation today. Marta, Pablo and I had a blast together! We watched a few hours of Friends, drove down to our apartment so they could meet Luna, ate lunch at Whistle Binkies, and spent a few hours at Skyline Raceway. The kids talked me into doing some go-karting with them! It was a blast! I also creamed them both in mini golf. It was such a fun day! Now they're off to Washington DC for a week, then back to Spain.

Here's a picture of them panning in the Niagra Cave exhibit at Skyline. They loved finding emeralds and gemstones. They even gave me a few to remember them.

Yesterday 7 extra large boxes were delivered to my parent's house filled to the brim with Pampered Chef items! I sorted it all out, and here's a picture of the items Tony and I were given spread out across our ping pong table! Thanks again everyone for being so wonderful!

I just got back from my first rehearsal with the Celebrant Singers at Bethel. They are a praise team sort of choral group. It was a lot of fun! I'm really starting to feel like a part of the Bethel congregation!

I hope every one's having a fabulous week; I know I am!

What I've been doing

I was just thinking about how I haven't blogged in quiet a while. I figured I should update everyone on my life in the last week.

Last Tuesday I went to Joann Fabrics with Cher to help pick out fabrics for the quilt she is making Tony and I for our wedding. We went with blues and brown/beige's. I'm really excited to see the finished product! After we finished up, I went to Hobby Lobby to look for items to make paper pomander balls. However, the materials needed were so expensive, I've scratched that centerpiece idea off the list.

Wednesday, Tony had the day off. We had a pretty low key day. We enjoyed lunch at Hunan's, and took Luna outside for a little grass play time. Tony also started looking at locations for us to spend our Honeymoon. We want to go up to the Northshore, but the challenge is, we want to stay someplace neither of us has ever been. Wednesday evening, I went to Glee in the theater with my cousin Matthew. I loved it of course.

Thursday, I went and got a pedicure with my friend Kelsey and Marta. Marta is a 7th grader that Kelsey nannies for when Marta and her brother visit her dad in the summers. She lives in Spain with her mother during the school year. I'm going to nanny this next week for a bit for them, so we thought I should meet Marta and her brother Pedro. She is such a sweet girl!

Friday I beercarted for a tournament at Willow Creek. It was a fundraiser for National Association for Women in Construction. It was quite a long hot day in the sun!

Today I  was sitting around planning my friend Becky's bridal shower that is taking place next Saturday. There's really a lot of work that goes into planning a shower!

I'm sure you all didn't need to know every detail of  this week, but I figured I'd share anyways! If you made it this far in the post, it must not have been TOO boring! Happy weekend everyone!

Luna's Playdate and some wedding updating!

Today we had some very special guests over for a play date with Luna. Harvey, Natalie and Mindy stopped by to play! Harvey loved to throw the miniature basketball for her to catch, and Natalie was liking the little toy mice. All I know is that Luna slept for 4 hours this afternoon when they left! She had such a fun time! It's so cute how she never nips or scratches at kids (she saves it for Tony and I). After we tired Luna out, we went to Florence Park to have a Subway picnic and play on the playground. Jon even joined us on his lunch break! After a large bus of kids showed up to play, we retreated back to my parents house to show Natalie and Mindy my wedding dress. The kids had fun running around their house. It was such a great morning! I hope they come visit us again soon!

We have a rather large and exciting update about the wedding as well! Tony and I were talking tonight about how it would be nice to have Natalie or Megan has a flower girl for our wedding, but I couldn't choose just one....So, we asked both of them to be flower girls. Yes, it's rather short notice, but they both excepted the challenge with excitement! Now to find dresses...I think I may be just as excited as they are! Flower girls are so adorable, and these two girls are probably the cutest girls I know!

Here's Miss Natalie

 and here's Megan!

My first recipe test

At my bridal shower yesterday, people were asked to bring a recipe to the shower. Laur and Jill went above and beyond and put together a basket of the ingredients for the recipe they gave me. So, I decided I needed to make them today! My dad is coming over after he finishes 18 holes of golf to try them out! They look absolutely delicious! Thank you to two very special aunt in laws!

Here's the gift basket.

 And here's the finished product. It's a little burnt around the edges in some places, but our oven isn't the greatest...

 This has nothing to do with the bars...Luna tore apart my Victoria's Secret bags and had so much fun!

The Bachelorette Party...Oh goodness!

My maid of honor got a suite room for us at the Best Western Soldiers Field for my bachelorette party. We got together and had some drinks before we met the large group of 20 at Twigs for a great dinner! I don't have the huge group shot since it's on Jacque's camera. I will post that once it's in my possession!

After dinner, the majority of the group headed back to the room and played games and drank some drinks! Then, we headed to downtown Rochester!

Here are the shots from the bachelorette party:

Again the Smidt girl cousins at the Bachelorette party!

 Oma Kathe got these for me from Victoria's Secret! Love it!

 My new sister in laws got me quite the nice selection from Pure Pleasure!

 We played a fun game. Here I am spinning my mother around before she puts the kisses on the guy!

 Here are my new sister in laws!

 Here's the group that went downtown. Amy and Sue Sue joined us for a while too!

 Crazy good time!

 Three of us got engaged within the last 7 months! FUN!

Guess we're going through with this thing!

Yesterday my fantastic aunts and amazing Made of Honor threw me a beautiful Pampered Chef bridal shower. My favorite part was when we went around introducing ourselves and offering up some marital advice for me. Of course, me being the emotional wreck that I can be, cried through Oma Kathe's, Judy's, and Jacque's. You all know how I get!

Here are a few shots from the shower:

These are my little side kicks for the day! They stuck right by my side!

 We are the women of honor! Grandma Jayne, Cher, Mom and me!

 I had to help with the food preparation!

 Smidt girl cousins at the shower.

 My mother and I!

 Grandma Jayne: The one we took of the group didn't turn out well on my camera, so hopefully it was better on Cher's!

 Laure drove down from the cities for the shower!! My mom's best friend from college!

It was such a fun day! I can't wait to see all the fun pampered chef items people gifted us! Thank you for everyone who made this day so special!

The girls are here!

Last night, Becky and Liv arrived a night early for my first bridal shower and bachelorette party! I decided to make them a Mexican feast, margaritas included! Thanks to the best maid of honor in the world for the fantastic Mexican lasagna recipe! It was delicious, if I do say so myself...

The rest of the evening we spent talking weddings. Becky is getting married October 8, and she just got back from spending a month in Europe, so there's a lot of planning to be done. We had to take a break since Tony forgot his socks and shoes for Fiddler. Oh goodness, if you know Tony, this isn't too surprising! :)

We stopped by the house that Tony and I are buying as well. We pulled into the driveway and looked through all the windows and walked around. No one's living there, and the neighbors know who I am, so no one got suspicious. It was fun showing them what our life will be like in under a month when the house is ours!

Our last stop before getting back to wedding talk was at Grandpa Arnie's. We chit chatted with him for a while. He loves getting to know his grandkid's friends!

We decided to make it an early night since tonight will be a late one! Happy shower and bachelorette day!

Engagement Photos!

Today I finally got to pick up our engagement photos. Here they all are:

Luna's big adventure!

Today, Kaylee and I went to PetSmart to buy Luna a harness and leash. We decided it was time she experienced the great outdoors!

We got home and got her all hooked in. This took about 10 minutes to do since she was fighting me tooth and nail. Literally...

She hesitated as I took her out onto the deck. I assume this is because she usually gets in trouble for trying to go outside. She explored for a bit out there.

Then I carried her down the stairs to the parking lot. She bolted for the building to try and find a hiding place.

I picked her up and moved her to the grassy area outside of our building. She was trying to run to hide under my car. There was just too much going on. Every time a car drove by she jumped!

She felt much better when we brought her back inside. She has become obsessed with my clothes hamper. She attacks it like she's a crazy person! Here she is hiding inside of it. She felt so nice and safe after her evil owner dragged her outside!

Practice makes perfect!

Tonight I decided to break out the apron Tony made for me and make some dinner for Tony and Matthew. It's a very rare occasion that Tony and I are eating dinner at the apartment at the same time. Cheers to no more rehearsals! Here's a picture of me in action practicing my domestic skills:

It's FRIDAY!

Today (actually yesterday, but I had to post before I went to bed), was my first day of vacation from summer school. Whew...glad that's over for now! Tony was lucky enough to get an EA (excused absence) from work, so we had a fun day together.

Here's a little breakdown of our day:

We started with a fantastic massage at Massage Envy. It was perfect! Although now my shoulders and neck are pretty sore. I think they just got a little stiff from sitting in the theater too long tonight.

Then, we headed to Dos Amigos to enjoy a great Mexican lunch. I ate a little too much of the chips and ranchero sauce, so my meal didn't quite get finished.

Next on our list was to start and finish our registry at Target. Mission accomplished! I held the scanner for the majority of this registry trip!

Now we had some time to kill; so, we headed to Flapdoodles. We've heard such wonderful things from Natalie that we had to be sure they were all true. It was superb! I had "birthday cake" and Tony had "birthday cake" and "cookie monster". YUM! After we licked out lips, we headed to the mall to get Tony's wedding band exchanged for a larger one. He's been trying it on a lot and realized it's much too small.

Now the fun part, we went to Men's Wearhouse and picked out tuxes for the groom, groomsman, and fathers. Tony got measured, so now the other guys need to! He's in charge of informing them of that, but if you're a part of our wedding and need a tux, I'm afraid this might be your only notice! We all know how great communication can be with Mr. Tony! I kid, I kid...

Tonight, Fiddler on the Roof opened, so I went! It was such a great show! I'm very proud of my little musical director fiance! (The guy that's snoring away in the recliner as I type) Such a long 2 months of rehearsing.

Off to bed I shall go as well! Such a fun productive day!

Randomness of life!

Here are a few shots of our life in the past 24 hours..just a hodge podge of events!



Harvey giving me the stink eye!

Harvey loved to clap for his Dad!



Will and Luna being silly!

Connor and Megan came over for lunch today. Luna is still recovering from her play date!

Will's little buddy!

Dad sold the last Model A today. This was the one that Grandpa taught me how to drive a few weeks before he passed away, so it has a lot of special meaning to me. It's really hard to see it go, but it's going to a family that will put it to good use!