6 Months

Willie and I had our six month anniversary last weekend! It feels like we've been married forever and like we just got married at the same time. It's been great, and I love it! :) We decided to celebrate by going out to lunch and to a movie. We ate at Cafe Rio, which was so delicious as always.

Us right before we headed out

After lunch we headed over to the Riverwoods to see The Chronicles of Narnia. Before our movie started, though, we walked around and browsed the stores. We found a really fun toy store called Blickenstaffs (I think...). They had the coolest toys! Willie and I had fun riding around in these cool contraptions.

For Willie's you just wiggled your feet and you started moving, and mine you wiggled that steering wheel thing with your hands. They were super fun!

We went into our movie, and it was so good. We have seen all of the Chronicles of Narnia movies together in the theaters. Little did we know when we came out that the Riverwoods would be transformed into a Winter Wonderland! They had lights everywhere, and a little gazebo in the middle with a band playing Christmas music. The best part was they had horse-drawn carriage rides going on. I was looking at them thinking ok, yes, that looks super fun, but we don't need to pay 20 dollars for one. And then I saw the sign and line of people and realized they were FREE!!! Oh I was so excited!! I think carriage rides are kind of magical. We went on a carriage ride the night we got engaged.

So we waited maybe 5 minutes and it was our turn!! The little girls sitting across from us busted into song singing Jingle Bells while we were riding. It was like we had our own personal carolers serenading us the whole time lol.

Us on our carriage ride

On our carriage ride we drove past something we just had to try when we got off. Recognize it?

This is the game the kid wishes on in Big. It was pretty fun, but they were out of fortune cards! After playing this game we went over and looked at this cute Christmas house they had.

Cute little fires they had everywhere

Willie and I in the Christmas house

After walking around a little bit more we headed home to warm up and play our new game with Robbie, Kelli, and Timmy. It was the perfect 6 month anniversary!

A Matthews & Petersen Christmas

We have a tradition with Emily and Joe to get together one night sometime before Christmas and have a Christmas celebration together. We get some food and have dinner, open presents, and then play games. Last year we had it at Emily's apartment.


This year we had it at our house. We got Chinese food, and I made these yummy brownie oreo cookies for dessert. Yes, I baked, and it turned out good!! I was so proud. We decided to exchange games this year for our gifts, and then play the new games.

We got Emily and Joe the game 10 Days in Asia, which is really fun. Emily and Joe got us a game called Truth Be Told, which was super fun too. Kind of like Balderdash but for questions about the people you are with instead of definitions. We had such a great time playing with them and it was so fun to see them!!!

Look What I Made!

I've been inspired by friends' blogs of their super cute creations, and have attempted a few crafty projects. It's pretty fun! This is what I've done:


A festive Lima Bean Wreath! The original was an acorn wreath spray painted to match the
season, but they said if you can't find acorns in your area (or in my case are not willing to scour the streets for them), you can use Lima Beans. And so I did!


My second crafty project was a faux apothecary jar. You make this by gluing a candle holder to the bottom of a vase. I think it makes a cute candy jar/vase/creation. This is the second round of candy. We went through an entire bag of cadbury eggs and mint m&ms already. I learned this time to not put in some of my favorite candies :)


I've also printed out some free subway art printables from craft blogs, which are super cute, easy, and cheap. Fun!

The Perfect Friday Night

Last night Willie and I had low-key and completely perfect Friday night. I know Fridays are supposed to be filled with fun and exciting weekend activities...but I am so tired by Friday that half of the time I end up napping away our night. I get up at what I consider an extremely early hour for work (between 6 and 6:30 a.m.) every day, and just can't make myself go to bed early enough. I'm working on it.

Last night we started our Friday night with dinner at one of my favorite places.

I love the Pizza Factory! It's so good, and not too expensive. It has a lot of sentimental value for me, too. My roommate Jenna worked there in college, and she would bring us back food all the time, and we would go eat there often and enjoy the sweet dicount she could get us. Even after she didn't work there anymore we still went a lot. Lots of good times and memories at this place!

After dinner, we went to the Cocoa Bean Cupcake Cafe and got me (yes, just me. Willie doesn't like sweets much so it's always me ordering fatty sweet desserts alone) a frappe.

Yummmm! I had been wanting to try one of these for a little while and oh my was it delicious. It's made with all chocolate, not coffee. I got the mint truffle one. I already can't wait to go back! I brought it (well, half of it) home to drink while we watched this show:

So funny! Willie and I borrowed it from his old roommate this week and have been watching it a lot. At first we both thought it was really funny, then it went through a 3 or 4 episode lull. They were duds. Not funny. But, it's picked up and I'm a big fan again. Willie says he likes it now. Maybe not to the degree I do though, he's a tougher critic than me. But like I've said before, it is a rare thing for us to find a TV show we both like to watch, so I am pretty happy about this. It's hard to find middle ground between Bill O'Reilly and Glee.

So that was our Friday night. A little bit of fun out, good food, and a good show at home. The best!