Hello November

Another holiday has came and gone. For Halloween this year we spent the evening at Shaun & Whitney's Halloween Party. We had such a great time and loved seeing all the cute little girls in their costumes. They are all so stinkin' cute! I feel sorry for the first little boy that comes along - he is going to be severely out-numbered! haha

Also, my mom and little sister came to KC for the weekend. We went to dinner with them Friday & Saturday night and also went to my nephew, Ethan's, football game on Sunday. It is hilarious watching 2nd graders playing football - so cute! Mom & Hannah spent the large majority of the weekend shopping - I'm sure they had a great time!

AND - my older sister, Mandy, announced to our family that she is EXPECTING!!!! She just had her first appointment and found out that she is due June 15 - which seems like forever from now. We are so excited and happy for their family. YAY for another addition! Currently we have 5 nieces and 1 nephew...so I'm hoping they have a little boy! :)

In less exciting news, we also tried our first Garage Sale this weekend. It was pretty much a bust - I don't think we did nearly enough advertising. The good thing is that now we have all the stuff we don't want sitting in the garage - so it'll be that much easier getting it together to take to Goodwill! The house seems pretty empty now that most of our decor is put in storage - but it actually feels great to be nearly clutter-free.

This upcoming weekend I am taking the MPRE (the ethics portion of the BAR exam) so wish me luck! Immediately after taking the test we are heading to the KU/CU football game...let's hope we show up this time!

Hope you all had a great and safe Halloween!

Bryant, Danielle & Belly

Looking Ahead

We have officially decided to put our house on the market! We don't actually have to move until August 2011 - but we figured with the current real estate market that we might as well get a head start and see if we can get rid of it before then. Since we are putting the house up so early, we run the risk of someone buying it right away and having to put everything in storage and rent an apartment until I finish up school and taking the BAR. But, after weighing all the options - we figured this risk is minor in comparison to being stuck with a mortgage payment after we have to move in August.

We still don't know where we will be living at this time next year - but are hoping to get everything settled sooner than later. Right now there are not any interviewing opportunities through the law school and nobody seems to be accepting applications. Hopefully in the Spring there will be more law firms interviewing on campus - but I'm not holding my breath... I am actually surprised at how I've handled the unknown so far. I am a CRAZY planner and normally not knowing if/where I will have a job upon graduation and where we will be living would put me over the edge. Now, I'm not saying that I'm not worried and stressed over it - but I am definitely not at the point I thought I would be. I think Bryant's "it'll all work out" attitude is starting to wear off on me finally! :) At least one can hope...

This past week we have been going through everything in the house to try to de-clutter and make it presentable to sell. It is amazing how much stuff we have accumulated over the past 2 years of living here! We are having a garage sale on Saturday to see if we can get some of the stuff off our hands. I'm a little worried that people will be disappointed when they find out we don't have any kids clothes or toys for sale... My nephew, Ethan (7 years old) called me the other day to ask, "What's Bryant giving up for the garage sale?" He has been eye-balling all of Bryant's "toys" for years! It was pretty hilarious - and I'm sure he'll be disappointed to know that stuff isn't for sale. He did however inform me that a garage sale isn't exactly a "garage sale" if toys aren't involved. Oh well - it's worth a try! :)

We plan on putting the house up within the next few weeks or so - after we do some minor fixes. We are planning on trying to do the For Sale By Owner thing at first to see if it'll work out. It will be more work but the money we will save by not using an agent will be totally worth it! If you know anybody who is looking for a place in Eudora - send them our way! :)

Hope everybody is doing well and has a GREAT Halloween! We are so excited to see pictures of everybody's costumes!

Bryant, Danielle & Belly

Falling Leaves

October has been good to us so far. (Can't believe it's already almost over!) This is my absolute favorite time of year! I really don't think there is a more beautiful place to live than Lawrence in the fall. There are so many trees here that during the Fall it looks like it is actually raining leaves all day! It is amazing to see this on campus everyday! It makes going to school a little easier...

A few weeks ago we went to the NBA game at the Sprint Center - Miami Heat v. Oklahoma City Thunder. It was so much fun! We went out at P&L and then stayed the night on the Plaza. The next day we went to John & Laura Schmidt's house to visit Jude! What a doll! :) We can't wait until we get to see him again!

I have been crazy busy with school lately and had my "Fall Break" last week. It wasn't much of a break since I spent the entire time working on school stuff. I hate this time of year - right in the middle of the semester - it always seems like anxiety sets in. I start to realize all the stuff I have been slacking off on and it always scares me that I have finals coming up in the next month and a half. I also have to take the MPRE (the ethics portion of the BAR exam) in a couple of weeks. I'm not incredibly worried about it, but I suppose I should probably start studying... At the end of this week I enroll for the Spring semester - my FINAL semester! WAHHHHHHOOOOOO! :)

Bryant had his last softball last night - sadly I don't think they ended up with a winning record. Oh well - they had fun and that's all that matters, right?! :) Last week Verl came up and went to the KU/KSU football game with Bryant. I think they had a pretty great time, even though it was a massacre. The next night Bryant, Shaun, Whitney, Lyla & I all went out to dinner with Verl. After dinner we went back to Shaun & Whitney's and I'm pretty sure we heard Lyla say "moo" for the first time - while pointing at a cow in her book! :) So exciting! The week before, Ruthie came up to watch Lyla for a few days so we were able to see and spend time with her as well! It's great when they come up to visit, but I think it just makes us miss home even more. Some day we'll be home for good...some day...

Speaking of home, we are planning on going back for pheasant hunting on November 13 and also get to go home for Thanksgiving as well! This is the first year in several that we are going home for Thanksgiving. Usually we stay in town and go to the KU/Mizzou football game at Arrowhead - but I think we are going to skip that this year. KU football...ugh! I hate to be "that fan" but I really am looking forward to basketball season.

This coming weekend is Homecoming at KU which is always a good time! My good friend Perrin will be coming into town - so I'm sure we'll be doing lots of tailgating on game day! :)

Hope all is well!

Bryant, Danielle & Belly

I Love the 80s

This week was pretty great! This past weekend we went back home to Stockton to help Kayla Hilbrink celebrate her 30th birthday! Kayla's party was on Friday and it was an 80's theme - hilarious! :) We could not believe that so many people dressed up. Everybody had great costumes and we had ALOT of good laughs. A great time was had by all and of course we all stayed up way too late - which made for a painful Saturday. While all of the costumes were great, I have to say that Michael Carpenter had the best - Pee Wee Herman! :) Verl also celebrated his birthday this past week on the 23rd - which is the same day as Kayla's birthday!





We spent the rest of the weekend relaxing with family and playing with our niece Jenna (Jamie & Jill's littlest). She is so unbelievably cute and is growing so fast. She is now 4 months old and is in the 100th percentile for height and in the 90ish percentile for weight. This will probably be the only time in that little girl's life where she is tall for her age! :)

On Sunday, before we left town, we stopped by Nate & Julie's new house. It was great to finally see it! We are so happy for them and can't wait to see all of the changes and renovations they are going to do. Congrats again! :)

Unfortunately, we had to miss the KU game this past weekend in order to go home...but we were able to watch it on TV at my parent's house. Hopefully we won't have to miss any more of the games this season! This coming weekend we play Baylor - it's an away game, so I'm not quite sure of what our plans are yet.

Over the weekend we watched Alex, my niece's dog, Max while Mandy, Justin & the kids went to Omaha for a little vacation. Max & Belly had a great time playing and snuggling all weekend long. Mandy, Justin, Alex & Ethan stopped by on Sunday night to pick up Max. It was great to see them - we ordered pizza and watched the season premiere of Desperate Housewives! I love, love, LOVE Fall TV! Currently I have a different show to watch every night! Life is good.

Bryant's softball team won two games last night - their first wins of the season! I still haven't gone to see them play, but hopefully next week their game will be earlier and I will be able to go!

Our good friends John & Laura Schmidt are expecting their first baby VERY soon! They know they are having a little boy and have named him Jude Michael. His due date is today, but he still hasn't made his appearance. Hopefully he shows up soon, but if not, they will induce Laura on next Tuesday, October 5. We are so excited for them and can't wait to meet Jude! :) Another excuse to buy cute little baby outfits!

Since I didn't really talk about Belly last time, I suppose I should let you know how he has been. He has been so good lately - which means we have been giving him lots of "cookies" - which means he has been packing on the pounds. I was yelled at a couple of years ago by our vet because Belly had gotten too overweight...I'm worried that may have happened again. We are working on getting him back on a workout schedule - this consists of Bryant using a "red-dot laser" to run him back and forth in the living room. haha! Hopefully we will have his weight back down before we have to go back to the vet again!

I forgot to mention in my last post that in August my parent's celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary! So awesome - can't wait to be doing the same thing 35 years from now! :) Here is a picture from their wedding on August 2, 1975.



Hope everyone is having a great week so far!

Until next week,

Bryant, Danielle & Belly

Holy Cow!

I just started looking back to when the last time we blogged was...April?!?! Here we go again, although this time I'm not making any promises about Bryant blogging, since we all know he won't. :)

Well...SO much has happened since April! It was definitely an amazing summer with LOTS of love and weddings! What more could you ask for?

In April, Laura Schmidt and Alicia Gourley threw a lingerie shower for me - everything was so cute and perfect! Lots of pink! :) So many friends and family came to KC for it and we had an incredible time!



In May, I finished my second year of law school! Yay! :) After finals I moved to Wichita to start working at a new law firm for the summer. (I'll spare you the details - but working was great and I even had a pretty great time in Wichita!) After working for a whole 3 days, Bryant & I flew off to Jamaica to watch our two best friends get married! What an amazing trip! We had the best time ever - 5 nights at an awesome resort with so many of our best friends! Congrats Nate & Julie! We came home with so many funny stories - most involving the infamous Tyler Muir... Also in May, we officially welcomed our new brother-in-law Justin to our family! My sister Mandy got married to Justin in my parent's backyard. It was such a beautiful wedding and was one of the sweetest ceremonies I've ever been to. Also, since it was such a small wedding, they had karaoke rather than a dance! SO MUCH FUN! :) During this month we celebrated Lyla's 1st birthday - and the arrival of our newest niece Jenna Reyne Berland (Jamie & Jill's daughter). Lyla & Jenna were born exactly one year apart - WEIRD! We have been having so much fun with all of our nieces and nephews (well I guess there is just one nephew right now!) and are so happy we have so many new additions! :)










In June, we had even more wedding festivities! Julie Glendening, Lindsey Muir, Kinsey Post, Gina Muir, Pam Hageman, and Ginger Kollman threw a wedding shower for us in Stockton. Again, it was PERFECT! I had such a great time and was so happy that so many of my friends and family many of Bryant's aunts were able to make it! Later that day we all went to Hill City to celebrate Jill & Jenna's Baby Shower! What a full weekend! We also had our bachelor and bachelorette parties in June as well! The boys headed to Lawrence and the girls to Kansas City. My sister Mandy was able to get us an awesome suite at the Intercontinental on the Plaza and the boys all headed back to our house for the after party (surprisingly the house wasn't too much of a wreck!) All of my bridesmaids were there for it too, which made it even more special! Unfortunately neither of our dads or my brothers were able to make it since it was over harvest. We had WAY too much fun and I believe we both felt the after effects for several days... Unfortunately, we also made the decision to send our newest Bulldog, Peanut, to a new home this month. We tried so hard to make it work, but couldn't figure out how to make her stop attacking poor Belly. It was really hard and terribly sad, but we were able to send her to a home with no other pets and to a family with a little girl! I am sure she is absolutely loving all of the attention she is getting now! Belly is certainly liking that things went back to normal too...







In July, I moved back home from Wichita and we GOT MARRIED! Everything was even better than we could have ever imagined! I could not believe how many people helped us get everything ready and made sure that everything went perfectly. We love you all and appreciate EVERYTHING you did for us! :) We have pictures from the wedding that you can see at www.tjstudios.com. Go to "Online Viewing" and put in your email address and the password is "muir" - all lowercase. There are A TON of pictures! We were so happy that our photographers were able to capture everything...especially since the day seemed to fly by!



In August, we flew off to Mexico for our honeymoon for 7 nights. It was amazing and we didn't want to leave. It was a beautiful resort in the Riviera Maya. We had such an amazing time - mostly eating, drinking, laying in the sun and relaxing! There were 7 restaurants and they were all amazing! It was an all-inclusive resort so we ate and drank everything in sight! All the pre-wedding dieting went right out the window! :) While we were there we went on a Steak & Lobster Cruise which was beautiful. It was a Columbus ship with a saxophone player and we had dinner at sunset...ahhhh! We also went golfing one of the afternoons...well, Bryant golfed and I rode in the cart and drank Coronas! :) Once we got back I had to start getting ready for school and Bryant back to work. The good news is that this is my LAST year in school! That feels so good to say after 20 years!







Currently we are just enjoying being newlyweds! :) Bryant started playing in a softball league with some of the other guys from Stockton that live in the KC area. They play on Tuesday nights and he is having a lot of fun with it! I haven't been able to make it to a game yet, but hopefully will soon. I am again going through the interviewing process, hoping to find my job for when I graduate. Keep your fingers crossed! We still don't know where we will be living at this point next year, but are hoping we now sooner than later! This week Bryant has been on "after-hours" and has received an enormous amount of claims due to a large hail storm in North Kansas City - which means LOTS of overtime. He has been working SO hard...luckily his after-hours are over on Friday morning!

I was finally able to get my name changed and am officially Danielle Nicole Muir! :) It has been a little complicated at school - professors call me anything from "Mrs. Muir" to "Mrs. Berland to "Mrs. Berland Muir" - I'm sure it will all work it self out eventually! It seems so weird to suddenly sign a different name! I still keep messing it up whenever I introduce myself to someone new. The other day I was at the dry cleaners and had to say my name 3 times since I was stuttering and fumbling over what my name was! :) The poor lady probably thought I was a fugitive on the run!

Okay - that's all for now. I will try to post pictures from all of our summer events soon...if I can ever figure out how to put together a slide show.

Lots of Love,

Bryant, Danielle & Belly MUIR

Time Flies...

It's almost April already?! It is unbelievable how fast time is flying this year. Not much new here - wedding planning/dieting/working/reading for class...same old, same old!

We finally decided that we ARE going to Nate & Julie's wedding in Jamaica! Initially, we didn't think we would be able to go. We weren't sure if we'd be able to get enough time off of work for both our wedding and theirs...but after Julie told me not to worry - we could always watch the VIDEO of their wedding - we bought tickets within a week! I guess she knew how to twist our arms! haha! We just can't imagine not being with our two best friends on one of the best days of their lives. Luckily we were both able to get the extra days off from work, so we're good to go!

With the decision to go to Jamaica, came the decision to kick our diet into high gear. Bryant had been working out fairly often since we started dieting, but I hadn't yet at all. Ugh! So, we started the "Slim in 6" work-out plan. It is 6 days a week for 6 weeks. We're on day THREE and we can barely walk...SO SORE! Hopefully, it will all be worth it - if it doesn't, the first law-suit I file will be against the people that made these videos for cruel and unusual punishment! haha

We're going home for Easter this weekend and are really looking forward to seeing our families. We're having Easter on Saturday at Grandma Shirlee's and on Sunday at my parents. Easter always reminds me of being little and getting chocolate on the little white gloves my mom would make me wear. haha! Do people even make their kids wear white hats & little white gloves anymore?!

I have my first wedding shower coming up in a few weeks and am so excited! I have girlfriends coming into KC from all over the place...it will be so much fun to have everyone together! :) The wedding is only 4 months away and the count-down is definitely on! There is still a lot to do, but I haven't started freaking out...yet!

Hope all is well and that everyone is enjoying the beautiful weather!

Until next time,

Danielle, Bryant, Peanut Butter & Belly

Puppy for Sale!

Well...as you can tell, we have had it up to HERE with Peanut! Somehow she seems to have regressed the past couple of weeks and has been chewing on EVERYTHING and forgot what she is supposed to do when she is outside! She has been unbelievably stubborn and frustrating lately. So far I have lost about 6 pairs of shoes (and yes, they were put away...Bryant just seems to forget to shut the closet door) some missing carpet, bottom of a couch & the ottoman, the knob on a dresser, and the list goes on. Hopefully she grows out of this soon - otherwise we're going to look into the Puppies Wanted section of Craigslist. Just kidding...or am I?

We were pretty busy this past weekend, Ruthie came into town on Wednesday and my mom and Hannah came into town on Friday. I was able to spend most of the day with Ruthie & Lyla on Thursday which was great - she is getting SO big and is all over the place! That evening Bryant, Ruthie & I went to look at suits for the wedding...glad that part is done! On Friday my mom & I got a little bit of wedding stuff done and then we all went to the casino to eat crab legs! It is always fun when we are able to get both of our families together. Unfortunately, neither of our dads were able to come, so we really look forward to seeing them when we head back to Stockton in a few weekends.

On Saturday we went with my family to watch my nephew Ethan and my niece Alex play basketball, so much fun! Grandma had her video camera out the WHOLE time! The kids' basketball games were at the same time as the KU game, so I missed most of it, but Bryant was able to watch the majority - we're calling this a "good" loss. Better to lose now than in the tournament. Bryant & Shaun are going to the KU v. KState game this week...I know they're both pretty excited about that!

Aside from the KU game, there is not much going on this week, but in a couple of weeks we are heading home for Julie & Nate's bachelor/bachelorette parties! :) Can't wait - should be alot of fun!

Until next time,

Danielle, Bryant, Peanut Butter & Belly

P.S. As I was writing this I could hear Bryant yelling at Peanut downstairs...sounds like she's in trouble - yet again!