Enchanted Castle

Dave and I have recently tried to think of places to go to have some random fun. Growing up, my parents used to take me to Enchanted Castle in Lombard. It's basically an arcade for kids. I used to think it was the coolest thing ever and I would definitely start crying if I couldn't stay longer! Dave and I went together a few months ago as a date and decided we had to go back because it was so much fun. Not to mention, it's a lot cheaper than going to Dave and Buster's. This time we invited my brother and his high school friends to come along. Dave and I love hanging out with them! They keep us young or maybe we keep them young!?! I don't know! Anyway, we had a ton of fun! My favorite game to play there is "Deal or No Deal". Dave hates that I play these "chance" games because they take absolutely no skill, just random luck. So he always goes for the basketball hoops or the football games. But me...I stick to plain old luck...I'm in it for the tickets, even if I don't like anything I could get with the tickets. I just like getting them. So.....here was how my luck turned out this last time! I first played "Deal or No Deal", won about 75 tickets and decided I would play another game for the jackpot!

As you can see...I hit the jackpot!!!! 400 tickets!!!!

This was the game! The object is to roll your token on the center line where it says "400". Your coin however must land exactly in the middle without touching any of the black bars. You really have no control over this game but of course I HAD to play it. Dave rolled his eyes at me the first two times and the third time...I hit the jackpot!!!

400 tickets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dave wouldn't try it himself so he stuck to his football game.
My brother didn't even go for the tickets, he played the arcade version of "Guitar Hero"
He looks sad...probably cause he didn't get all the tickets that did!!!!
"Gimme da gold, I want the gold"

Here's the whole gang...as you can see Dave and I were the only "adults" there. We had a ton of fun and ended up trading in all of our tickets for a bunch of candy that I couldn't even eat because I gave sweets up for lent! ha!
Overall, we had a great time! Dave says he'll never take me to a casino because I'll lose all my money on the slot machines. I guess I'll stick with trying to win the jackpot at Enchanted Castle!

Dave's new haircut!

Yesterday, Dave let me cut his hair for the first time!! I was a bit nervous, after all Dave had been going to "Black Daniel's" for years and years and I certainly didn't want to mess his hair up and then lose my first and only customer. For those of you who don't know "Black Daniel's" is acutally Dave's brother Danny who has been cutting just about everyone's hair for years. Danny has been giving me some quick lessons on how to cut hair so I thought that I would try it myself! How hard could it be right?! Well, luckily I have a husband who doesn't really care about what his hair looks like. I'm reminded of the first time he chopped his long hair off and didn't really care if it had any particular style. So anyway, I began to cut his hair...knowing that if I messed it up really bad, I could always just buzz it. I even had to cut his hair with a pair of dull paper scissors...which I don't recommend! I do have to say that the results weren't half bad. I was so proud of my very first haircut ever that I made Dave do a photo shoot to show it off. What you are about to see are some very rare photos of Dave smiling....I guess he can get serious sometimes!!!

I don't think he actually wanted me to show this one to anyone... but I think it's hilarious! He was trying so hard to be serious!!!

And that only lasted for so long...of course I had to post some silly ones, as 90% of the pictures I took had Dave making a ridiculous face!

This next one reminds me of Zoolander!

Hansel: "I wasn't like every other kid, you know, who dreams about being an astronaut, I was always more interested in what bark was made out of on a tree. Richard Gere's a real hero of mine. Sting. Sting would be another person who's a hero. The music he's created over the years, I don't really listen to it, but the fact that he's making it, I respect that. I care desperately about what I do. Do I know what product I'm selling? No. Do I know what I'm doing today? No. But I'm here, and I'm gonna give it my best shot. "

Watch out "Black Daniel's" I may be putting you out of buisness! :)

A Birthday Party!

Last weekend Dave and I attended a surprise birthday party for our friend Samantha. Samantha and her husband Ron are our neighbors. We met Ron at the clubhouse gym when we first moved in and a few weeks later we met Samantha at an event that our building had. We've had a lot of fun getting to know these two! Anyway, Dave and I had soooo much fun at this birthday party. We didn't know anyone but it was great to meet new people and learn a little bit more about our friends. Here are some pictures from that night!

Here is the birthday girl Mrs. Samantha Wright!

Look at that cake...it was sooo good!

The dancing at this event was a blast! I caught these really sweet pictures of Ron and Samantha dancing.

Then someone caught a group of us dancing the two step!


Here's Dave chilling by himself at the table.

It's Been a While!

So I know I haven't blogged in a while but boy does time fly by. Lots of things have happened and since I'm sitting around after getting my wisdom teeth pulled out, I thought this would be a good time to look back at some of the events that have happened recently. A few weeks ago we went up to Dave's parent's house and hung out with some Glenview folk! It was a blast. We were celebrating having Jasmine back with us. This a week or two before JP came back from China...and of course I forgot my camera when JP made it back so I have no pictures to show from his return. I do have to say that we are all glad to have him back home...although he isn't quite home home as he is in Colorado. Anyway, here are some pictures of us hanging out at the Chookaszian home in Glenview.

I'm not quite sure what's going on here but I think we were tyring to figure out all the amazing features on the Macbook.

Dave and his dad!

The following weekend we went to Glenview for the international food event that they were having at church. This was one of the best events ever! You could have food from all over the world in one shot. Here are two of my favorite food shots from that day!

Look at all that delicious sushi!

Besides taking pictures of food, I really enjoy taking pictures of children! Here is little Annalie Johnson. I took these pictures while she was sleeping at Kate's birthday party.

This weekend we also had got to hang out with Danny's friend Dale. Also known as "Shundo" (I hope I spelled that right). Here is Shundo and his buddy Don! I think he's happy because he got to eat soooooooo much food that day!

New Years!

This New Year's Eve we spent the day with a bunch of our college friends:

The Bernthals

Josh Hook...soon to be Dr. Hook!!! Here he is playing the guitar.

The Kinseys

TUNDE! He was trying to give me some of his camera knowledge. For example he said that when you have a nice camera, you're always the one taking pictures and you often forget about yourself! He also said that taking pictures can get adictive...I've noticed...

That's why I had Tunde take this picture of Dave and I. At least I got to be in one this time!

And our hosts, Steve and Christy. Here Christy is preparing the pizza dough. We made homemade pizzas and IT WAS FUN!

Here are some pictures of us making pizzas. Everyone had couple's pizza except Josh, he shared his pizza with Tunde. I would say their pizza was the funniest.

Here you can see that Josh has lumped a bunch of stuff on his side. He was trying to make a hook out of the peppers.

And here is Jenny holding up Dave and my beautiful, most perfect, most delicious pizza! wink. I do like to make a lot of homemade pizzas though so, I just think I have more practice than Josh and Tunde.

And I love this picture of my roomie Jenny and I. It is soooo much fun to have her around when the boys want to hang out. Since the Daves are such great friends it's always a joy when they want to hang out because then I get to see Jenny!!!

The rest of the night we spent playing games! We almost missed the count down, yikes. Here Jake and Dave play ping pong on a very tiny board. So tiny that I don't think they could play scar-pong! Thank goodness. I don't know why but Dave and his friends LOVE that game. That the ping-pong game where the loser get smacked really hard with the ping-pong ball by the opponent. Dave has had some serious red marks because of this silly man game!!

We also played a great game of Scene-It, Taboo and a very large game of Nertz. Jenny showed us all how to play it and luckily we had about 10-15 decks of cards so we played a giant round of Nertz. This has become Dave and I's new favorite game...which I would like to mention now that I have dominated him the last TWO times we've played at home!!

The Holidays Part 2

After the K-Dawg Gift Exchange, Dave and I headed down to Springfield to visit his Grandma and his other relatives. While we were down there we got to spend lots of time with his two cousins: JT and Danny. There are just two of the cutest kids ever...and so of course I had to have a photo shoot with them! JT worked the camera but Danny is very much a free spirit so I could only get a few shots of him. Here are a few of my favorite shots!

Here is JT in the tub!And here is Danny, one of the few good pictures I actually got of him!

JT has a great smile and a very kind spirit!

This is a picture of Dave and his grandma!
Big Danny spent some time reading a bed time story to little Danny and JT. I think they enjoyed it a LOT!
This is one of my favorite pictures because here Big Danny is trying to have a man to boy chat about using the potty in the morning!

The Holidays Part 1

What an eventful few weeks we have had! Dave and I have just been overwhelmed with God's grace and abundant love. He has given us the opportunity to visit with friends and family. We've gotten to take many many pictures, hence why this is only part 1! Here are a few highlights from early on in our vacation. Dave was fortunate enough to get some time home so we've been living like normal married couples for the past week and a half! It's great and I can't say that I'm tired of him yet...I don't know about him though! :) Dec. 21st we went down to Bloomington to meet up with several of my college friends...the "K-Dawgs". This has been a tradition every year since college. Each one of us gets a gift for someone and we meet at an Olive Garden and exchange. The price limit is $10 so we have to get creative.

Here are some of my favorite shots...you can see more from this exchange in my facebook photo album. This is a picture of the treats I made for Kelly and Christian. I had so much fun making these and then taking pictures of them!

We stopped on our way down to take this picture. It was sooo cold that week that everything froze. I just had to get a shot of all the frozen grass.

Here are all the K-Dawgs. As you can see all of our names start with K...except Laura but her middle name is Katherine with a K and her last name is Knox which also start with a K. It's probably a good thing that her first name doesn't start with a K because then her initials wouldn't be so nice! We were all music education majors and found great friendship in each other and God strengthened our relationships!

L to R: Katie V., Kati P. Keren (Me), Laura K., Kelly R., Kristina R.

Here is a picture of our wonderful husbands!
L to R: Jeremy (Kati P.'s husband), Christian R. (Kelly's husband and Kati's brother), Andrew K. (Laura's husband), Art (Kristina's husband) and Dave!