Pumpkin Patch & A Birthday

Saturday morning Chris, Sarah, Chad and I loaded up and headed out to Livesay Orchard in Porter, Oklahoma. I had bought a handy dandy Groupon and was itching to use it! What's not to love about a pumpkin patch?! I really should've thought it out a little more though because they don't really create pumpkin patch experiences for adults. It's ALL about the kids. We should've 'borrowed' some for the day just so I could go do all of the 'fun' stuff. Oh well. SO, if you have kids, this place was great! We took a couple of pics, grabbed some pumpkins and a few of the ugliest gourds and things we could find and headed back in to Tulsa for a quick bite of lunch at The White Owl.

Who can resist photo ops like this???

Us in the peach orchard

Later that evening we went to Mahogany to celebrate Chris's birthday a day early. So yummy! Fun fact: I did a short stint there as a hostess during college.


After dinner we ate a DELICIOUS dessert made by the lovely Sarah. Homemade banana cake with cream cheese filling and caramel icing. It was almost like banana bread, but taken to a whole other level! (I love banana bread). Here's Chris blowing out the candles.

As you can see, Mama Z is deciding on paint colors for the kitchen :-)

Us

Here are some pics of our ugly interesting gourds and things.

What is that thing on top? (Chad picked it out of course) I love all of the interesting colors and who can resist a mini pumpkin?! It's pretty much true that anything that comes in a smaller version is cute. 


Happy Fall!


Love,
Kels


P.S.
I'm getting my hair done tonight...bring on the 'fall' hair! (For the dudes and non-girly girls, that means going darker) :-) Cannot wait!!

3 Months In Review

It's been almost 3 months since my last post. I'm such a slacker. :-) Here are some things that have been going on in the Ziegler's lives:

NKOTBSB
Translation: New Kids On The Block/Back Street Boys concert
Yes, it's true. There was more hip thrusting than I'd care to remember, especially from 40+ year old men, but I have to say they've all still got it and can bust out the dance moves and dramatic love songs like nobody's biz.

Waiting for the show to start

Jo & I

Can you feel the excitement??

Chris & Haley (and baby that Chris is happily pointing out), Dave & Jo, & Me & Chad

All of the NKOTBSB

It was a packed out show

Our friends Abi & Zion had their baby boy, William 'Liam' Justice!

The amazing doula, Bernadette, baby Liam, & me

Scrumptious little Liam and me

We took a little weekend trip down to Dallas with the Ziegler clan and stayed at the amazing Four Seasons. It was hot, hot, HOT, but definitely enjoyed a lot of relaxing pool time and yummy food (of course)!

Rangers Game

Mustang statues

Chad

Always being silly

He tried really hard to hold him back

Mom & Dad Ziegler

Us & the steer...not sure what the deal is with all of the metal animal statues

Chris & Sarah

One Saturday I had a lovely girls night and we went out for some mexican food and the Katy Perry concert! It was a GREAT show and I would definitely see her again. Unfortunately we forgot to take a group shot :-( The show was completely sold out = over 12,000 people! We had box seats again for this concert and the laser light show was so fun!! Here's a pic:

Chris & Sarah took a trip to hike the Grand Canyon (10 hours in & 9 hours out...CrAzY!) and Sarah's birthday was going to be while they were away, so we had a little 'surprise' birthday party for her at mom & dad Ziegler's before they left.

It's definitely been a month of concerts, because Chad & I also had the opportunity to see Heart & Def Leppard! Yes, it was amazing :-) Heart was my fave (Nancy Wilson has such an incredible voice and Ann wailed on the guitar) and Def Leppard was by far Chad's favorite. He is a HUGE DL fan and had the look of a kid on Christmas the whole time.

Heart

Chad & I

Jo & I

 I have a video of Def Leppard performing the Pour Some Sugar On Me song, but it's not uploading :-( So you'll just have to take my word for it that the whole place was going crazy!


For National Museum Day I had the pleasure of taking Chad to the Philbrook Museum for the first time. I know...he's lived here for how many years and has never been??? We really enjoyed it, and the grounds were GORGEOUS! However, this was the only pic I took! HA!

We, of course, saw this little girl too :-)

Attempting to feed the fish... 

Deciding she'd rather eat the bread and swing instead :-)

And yes, it's VERY cute when she says, 'Kelshee'


Chad & I have FINALLY started running again. The weather has been so nice lately. Hopefully this means my pants will start fitting a little better (awkward) and SOON. Thanks to the ridiculously HOT summer there was a lot more sitting around in the air conditioning inside than activity outside, and that, my friends, did not bode well for my wardrobe :-/  


Tomorrow we're planning on going to the pumpkin patch...cannot wait! I LOOOOOVVVEEE Fall!!


Love,
Kels


P.S.
One LAST pic...this was from Tulsa's Fashion Night Out and this was taken at Little Black Dress on Brookside:

Pictures!

Here are the pictures I mentioned 2 posts ago (because I know you were anxiously awaiting).


In no particular order:

Chad's brother, Chris, & his wife Sarah (at Grandad's funeral weekend in TX)

Us in TX (there was no AC in the room we had dinner - SO HOT!)

Here are my little lemon chicks I made for Abi's shower

Close up of the little guys ;-)

Waiting for the fireworks to start at Riverparks

Dave, Jo, Haley & Pastor Linda waiting with us...don't worry, PL is alive ;-) 

Obligatory firework shot taken from the good ole' iPhone

Here are a couple of more pics I didn't mention in that post:

This cinnamon roll is literally as big as your head! Chad's breakfast one morning at Dilly Deli - yum!

Of course I have to add a pic of cute little E in her party outfit for a friend's birthday :-)

And one more:

I actually made it to Blue Bell! I LOOOOOOOOVVVEEE ice cream, especially Blue Bell & it just so happens that there is a factory very close to our house. Every year I have heard about this event they put on called 'Taste of Summer' & we met up with the Ziegler clan there. It was $5 to get in & you got to tour the factory & eat as much ice cream & goodies as you could possibly fit in. Kids 6 & under get in for free & they have TONS of events for the kids plus live entertainment. Even though we went in the morning it was still pretty hot so we didn't stay long. I was also disappointed that I couldn't eat much :-)

Our first ice cream stop at Taste of Summer!

The mint chocolate chip (in hand) was the only thing I ate entirely and it was a good first choice! I tried a couple of other things & ended with the oh so yummy sunday cone...perfect! Then we had to go squeeze in to our bathing suits & enjoy our FIRST day at the pool!


Put it on your list for next summer!


Hope you enjoyed the pics!


Love ya,


Kels


P.S.
Grandmother & Grandpa Bennett, if you're reading this, I can't believe I didn't get any pics with you guys! Will you send me the ones you took?? Love you & hope to see you in February!

SafetySuit's New Music Video!

I was going to post some photos that go along with the previous blog, but I'm having some issues :-(
Hopefully I'll remedy that later on...like in another month :-) KIDDING!

Anyway, this post isn't about me, but SAFETYSUIT! The video for their new single 'Get Around This' has finally made its debut this week!

Here's a link to a feature Noisecreep did on them, along with the video: click here

Ok I just tried watching the video again but I keep getting a 'video not available at this time' message. Here's to hoping that doesn't last long & you can watch it too!!

Enjoy! Let me know what you think!

Love,
Kels

Such Is Life

I love how on top of this blog thing I am :-) Sometimes life just doesn't slow down and gets busier! Can we talk about the fact that it's already JULY?! How did this happen??? I feel as though Chad & I haven't even had a chance to enjoy summer yet. Must.Fix.ASAP!

Here's a quick update on the past month or so:

2 Funerals:
On June 5th during Sunday lunch we found out that our dear, dear friend, Maurice Carter, passed away. He had been a part of the Ziegler family for many, many years & was, in our hearts & minds, a son and a brother. Chad & I are so grateful we had the honor of having him sing & play piano at our wedding. What an amazing voice! Unfortunately Debbie's (mother-in-law) father wasn't doing so well health-wise so Chad & I made the drive up to Nashville for the funeral. It was seriously the most incredible funeral I've ever been to! I know that is weird to say, but man, what a celebration we had! Even Wynona Judd, whom Maurice sang back-up for & traveled with, lent her voice in tribute.

While in Nashville, in the early morning before Maurice's funeral, we got the call that Chad's grandad had passed away too. He had just celebrated his 94th birthday! A funeral is never an event you want to go to, but it sure does make it a lot easier when you know a person has lived such a long life. The following weekend we made the drive to Paris, TX and had the pleasure of hearing so many wonderful stories about the love grandad & his late wife poured out on their neighbors & town. It was so lovely and so touching.

We're hoping not to attend any more funerals for awhile!

1 baby shower:
YAY!! I had the privilege of helping host a baby shower for my sweet friend, Abi, who is due to give birth to little baby Liam on July 26th! We will see if he is an early, on time, or late baby boy :-) I cannot wait to hold that little one!! I made some pretty cute (if I say so myself) cake pops in the shape of baby chicks...lemon flavor this time. Yum! They were a little fiesty in the travel & heat, but the taste is all that matters right?!

2 guest speakers at church:
Rich Marshall
Doug Addison
Seriously check those 2 out if you want your business/entreprenurial sense heightened (Rich) & your mind blown (Doug). Rich is one of Chad's FAVE's...Chad + business talk = happy boy. So of course Doug is one of my faves :-) Kelsey + supernatural/piercing/tattoo/prophetic/non-Christianese talk = happy girl.

Granparents from Florida came into town for the July 4th Holiday:
We had a super yummy breakfast at Dilly Deli (Chad & I's fave breakfast place to visit)...they also serve yummy lunch too.
We cooked out & stuffed our mouths with deee-licious edibles.
I made my 2nd batch of homemade icecream for the year, and this time went with butterfinger...no explanation required ;-)

4th of July Weekend also included:
Minimal sleeping in - boo
Transformers III - yay - it's great if you like the Transformers movies, which we do, and had awesome special effects
Rooftop eating at El Guapo + firework surprise from Driller's stadium - yum & yay
5 minute sprinkle while walking downtown - bliss
Pool time - FINALLY & hallelujah
Keeping our tradition of floating the Illinois River like a group of rednecks on the 3rd of July every year - yay! This also included: Seeing way too many patriotic flag bikinis - yikes, & hearing a lady yell out to a preggo, (please say with redneck accent) 'keep yer belly button outta tha water...that's how yer baby breathes.' - not kidding
Grilling out fish tacos & making guac - probably my favorite meal for summer, & yes I could eat this every night...now I'm hungry :-)
More pool time & grub + nap + downtown fireworks - yay, yay & boo (we've decided we're done with downtown Tulsa fireworks...lame the past 2 years)
Our neighborhood sounding like a war zone for an entire week - awesome (I can sleep through pretty much anything)
Having to wake up on the 5th for work - boo

And there you have it. Life with the Ziegler's (the condensed version (as much as I could)) for the past few weeks/month.

Hope your summer has been spectacular so far!!

Lot's o' love,
K Zig

One More Thing

It was quite the food weekend for the Zieglers over the Memorial Holiday. I maybe might have perhaps also made homemade ice cream on Monday. It was DE to the LISH! I make AWESOME homemade ice cream, if I do say so myself, and I do. :-)

It was the perfect reward after having moved Chris & Sarah (Chad's brother & his wife) into their new apartment on Sunday. It's true, they moved all the way from TN to the big OK and we're pretty excited about it!

Milky Way Cake

My lovely Aunt Lindy & Uncle Ken from Florida stopped through Tulsa on their way up north for business. Chad & I got to have lunch with them at my parents house on Saturday & I was in charge of dessert. It just so happened that I had printed off a new dessert recipe from The Pioneer Woman. I LOVE The Pioneer Woman & read her blog almost daily. I've found quite a few yummy recipes over the past year and a half!

ANYWAY, on to the good part :-) I made, as I'm sure you've guessed from my blog title, a Milky Way Cake. And let me tell you, it was goooooooood! The best part was that I left the cake with my parents & aunt & uncle to finish eating so I wouldn't feel bad about eating any more than 1 piece. I didn't tell my mom what was in it until AFTER they had finished off my cake pan ;-)

I started taking pics of the whole process, but then forgot to follow through. The Pioneer Woman's pics are a lot better anyway so you can thank me later for sparing you ;-)

Yes, it is made with 11, count them ELEVEN Milky Way Bars, BUT it's a perfect dessert to take to a party or other event so that you're sure to only eat 1 precious piece. At the end of the PW's recipe post she says to eat a piece & go run 5 miles...now you REALLY want to make it don't you? Trust me, it's worth the extra calories my little friends and I WILL be making it again...one day ;-)

Let me know if you make it & what you think!

Loooooooooooooooovveeee,
Kels