It was a fantastic weekend. period.

On Friday, we went down to the courthouse to get my birth certificate, our passports and the marriage license. It was a very easy, carefree process (other than my mini-breakdown during the name decision). I’ve decided (if you haven’t heard) to keep my last name and that’ll be another article later. After telling the lady who was doing our license that the courthouse should have a bar, we headed to Open Sesame with our witness, Kari and our witness’ husband Derek. After another delicious meal there, Nick and I did some East Village shopping. Later that night the boys went out as Kari and I enjoyed the night outside on their deck. Very nice night.

Saturday night was the Andersen/Leeper couple shower at the Red Monk. It was all themed around our honeymoon in London. The tables had fun facts about us and places where we are going to visit. The food was authentic english pub food and it was amazing. So delicious. We played a little trivia game, I did horribly, Nick did awesome. Then we opened gifts and it was much better with Nick by my side and drink in my hand. We got some great gifts and got to see a lot of people, in fact most everyone was there, so that is awesome. The cake had one of our engagement photos on it and it was a very yummy cake. Everything was totally us and we really appreciate all the planning that Nancy, Connie, Marsha and Kari did.

Here are the photos from me & mom

I just really wanted to tell everyone THANK YOU for making my 30th the greatest birthday ever!

I’m now 30 and one day old. Still loving life! Here is how I spent my 30th birthday:

My celebrating started on Friday, I took the day off and met up with Grandma & Grandpa for lunch and then headed to Williamsburg to the Coach outlet. Yep, found a cute bag(s)! Got back into town, got flowers from Mom & Tim, went shoe shopping and hung out with Drea, Tia & Kari.

Saturday, woke up to a doorbell and flowers outside the door from The Leepers. Had lunch with the fam (Tim, Mom & Chad) at Manhattan Deli, delicious. Then I headed to my spa day that Kari planned, it was amazing. We got our own room and Kari brought awesome snacks. We (Kari, Tia, Drea & Jen) all got different services. I got a wonderful massage and an hour long pedicure. It was great hanging out and getting pampered. After the spa we headed to Derek & Kari’s house for cake and drinks. Kari got me, of course, a fantastic champagne cake. And then the boys, who just got back from Omaha, joined us and we heard about their very amazing and inspiring weekend. Then off to dinner, to my fav, Dish and I was a little turned off at first by the loud music and weird standing-up crowd, but after a drink I was singing along to Pure Prairie League too. Had a great dinner with Craig & Tia, Ando & Jen, Derek & Kari and then went to Good Sons to finish off the night, met up with Brother and his date. Headed home to find flowers and a balloon from Dad & Brenda. And that ended my birthday. A relaxing, fun and perfect Nicole weekend!

Side note: Nick was of course the amazing boyfriend, the minute he got back into town Saturday he made my birthday fudge, surprised me with awesome jewelry, a trip to Kansas City and a hilarious card.

I can’t even begin to express the amount of shock I’m in that we are in mid May. I kept thinking, oh I’ll do that later, I have plenty of time and the BAM I’m less than two months away from the wedding. Oh…my…God! However, on the positive side to that, I’m only two months away from marrying this guy! So, I’ll take the little stress I have now and try to enjoy the moment.

With that all said, a lot of things have been going on. We are completely booked every weekend (except one) until the wedding. April was super fun and super short. The best thing was the trip to Minnesota to go shopping with some ladies in my life. Also, Nick and I took some very basic ballroom dances, which both of us really enjoyed. Who knew?

So far, May has brought some awesome events. We attended the ICADV Gala again this year, Nick bet on a golf excursion in the silent auction, but didn’t win. We celebrated all the May birthdays on my mom’s side. I had a mini-work bridal shower at Flying Mango and I had a mini-dad’s side shower at Centro, both were very awesome and very nice. Finally this weekend was Nick’s bachelor party and Mother’s day. Below is more of a break down on some of these events, with the corresponding pictures.

MOA Shopping Adventure.
Call us crazy, but 10 of us all headed to Bloomington to go shopping, particularly for those who didn’t have dresses for the wedding. 6 of us piled into Jan’s van. Lex and Deb drove up separate and Kari and Andie flew in from Illinois. This is where I get a little teary-eyed… it is truly amazing the love everyone has for Nick and I. And doing all these extraordinary things, it is so touching and I couldn’t be more happy and thankful. I’m truly grateful and blessed. And I think one of the greatest part of this wedding is bringing everyone we care about together and getting to hang out and spend time with everyone…I’m really going to miss that.

Ok, I digress…back to the MOA weekend. So, after getting slightly lost on our way there, we met up with the whole gang at the mall for dinner. At first we were going to eat at this Mexican restaurant and took photos in front of it, but then changed our minds and went to a Bar & Grill spot. Which was really good, or I was super hungry because it was around 9pm before we ate. Mom nearly died. After dinner we went back to the hotel and prepared for Saturday’s shopping. We got up fairly early and ate the pretty decent breakfast. Made a plan to all meet in the front of Macy’s and headed off. 5 minutes into Macy’s…5 minutes…Jan, Mom & Jen made jewelry purchases. We met up with the whole gang and the trying on dresses began. It was so much fun for me to watch. I really got to see Andie and Jen trying on stuff and they were finding such cute things. Jen (who already had a dress) found one she liked a lot better. Mom found a just a cute random dress. After Macy’s we all split up to meet back up at lunch. During the split up, Kari realized her wallet was missing. Hoping it was back at the hotel, we (kari, andie and I) headed back there. After some scary moments we eventually found it in Lexie’s car. Thank goodness! When we did find it, it was time for lunch, so we all headed to the food court. Refueled and split up again, some peeps headed to Ikea, I just traveled the mall looking for bargains. Then we all met up for dinner. Mind you that was seven hours of pure shopping. And everyone was pretty successful. Kari got a dress, Andie got a dress, Lexie got a dress, Joy got a dress, Mom got an ashtray, Dee got some accessories and I ended up with a purse, a ring and a pair of jeans (dee also got me a awesome ring)…I think I bought the less of everyone, go figure. We went to dinner at Ciao Bella and it was super good. Afterwards we did a little fashion show at our hotel room. It was a great weekend and being with everyone made it so special for me.

May Birthdays.
My mom’s side is really fertile in August/September. We have a lot of May birthdays. We were particularly celebrating Becca’s and Ella’s. We headed to Norwalk, had a pizza & salad dinner, played cards. Kim showed off her “cupcakes” and we hung out. And the twins were a riot.

Mother’s Day.
Dee put on a Mexican fiesta for all the mothers. It was super yummy, I love my mexican food. Mom showed up with cute, short, straight hair. LOVE IT. And Dee had the idea of all the mother’s get to wear the sombrero to get into the spirit of things.

I’m a little late on this article, but better late than never.

This halloween we headed to Aurora to spend the weekend with the Leepers. We left our sweet, limping dog with my brother (who was slightly annoyed with all the love she gives). Friday night we went to downtown Naperville which reminds me of a bigger Valley Junction, cute stores, yummy eateries. We ate some mexican food and then did a “ghost walk” around town. The guide took us to the most haunted places in Naperville. It was really fascinating, especially the “smashed bananas/zombie chicken” story, I’m not making this shit up! Afterwards we headed home and I crashed.

The next morning Kari had a wonderful morning planned. Starbucks in hand we headed downtown Chicago for some magenta shoe shopping (for my wedding). We went to bucktown/wicker park and lincoln park, however, we arrived about an hour too early before stores even opened. We walked around a little and it is a cute area, loved it. So, instead of waiting we headed to Michigan Ave/Water Tower Place. We went to all the big named stores and came up with nothing. Everything was brown, black and purple. Apparently we are in the wrong season for magenta. Sad. So instead I did some emotional shopping and bought my first Betsyville bag 70% off. Then we were going to have lunch at the John Hancock building (95th floor), but there was a line just to get on the elevator, so we nixed that and headed into the ‘burbs. We had lunch at the White Chocolate Grill and let me tell you this was the first time I ever wanted to cry over food it was that delicious. First let me say the service was awesome. The atmosphere was very Frank Lloyd Wright. We ordered martinis (mine was a white chocolate martini) halfway through lunch our server brought us over freshly chilled glasses and changed our martinis. That was awesome. Then our lunch came, I had the most delicious prime rib french dip. Holy cow, the meat was perfectly cooked and tender the au jus was so amazing. I wanted to contain myself and be proper just eating half my sandwich, nope I couldn’t help myself it was too good to go to waste. We then headed home.

They don’t do beggars night, kids just trick-or-treat on halloween, so Andie was getting ready when we got home. She was a zombie-prom-girl. Also, it seems that Iowa kids are the only ones who say jokes for their candy. I think this is so wrong! Kids need to earn that candy. After trick-or-treating we went to Eric’s new apartment and watched a little Evil Dead 2. Headed back to Terry and Kari’s where Andie made us a Halloween-themed dinner with dessert. We played some games and then went to bed.

Had a fabulous weekend shopping and spending time with family. Didn’t find the shoes there, however the awesome internet found them thanks to Kari’s searching. So, another awesome wedding item crossed off the list!

Back again and again life has gone screaming by.

Here is a very brief update on life with the Leeperlands.

We saw Matt Nathanson again, at the Fair this time and I must say it was one of my favorite shows. The greatest moment was Matt started the intro to “Lose Yourelf” by Eminem for kicks and challenged someone in the audience to come up and rap. He grabs this chick and she did the first half of the song and chorus, it was awesome.

We did Jasper Winery/Brother Trucker for Deb’s birthday. It was a perfect night, afterwards Chad, Nick and I hit up Mezzodis on the South side for yummy Italian food. Recommended!

Mom and I hit up the Bridal Fairs which were out-of-control. I hate those things and thankfully that should be my last ones. And wedding plans are still going on, just when I think I’ve got them all wrapped up, fifteen other things pop up. Dress shopping is happening mid-October and we are still looking for a videographer. Other than that plugging away at some little things.

And last weekend we celebrated four birthdays! Nick’s cousin Lauren is turning 16 so they had a gathering at Cherry Glen which was really nice. And my uncle Rick, cousin Joy and Grandma Rose all had birthdays close together so we went out to Walnut Woods this Sunday to celebrate. It was a super nice day and a super great time. So chill and fun.

Engagement photos are this week and I am super jazzed. I love our photographer and she is really trying to incorporate what we are about as a couple. I love photography!