Swaying the Smiths - One Member at a Time

Greetings from the Black & Gold soaked City (of Champions) Pittsburgh!

As die-hard Steelers fan, I've been trying to coax Brady into donning some Black & Gold apparel for some time. I mean when was the last time the Redskins even made the playoffs? While Brady will wear some black to games and even purchased a Terrible Towel, he has yet to wear a Steelers logo.

While I've not totally given up, I've moved on to other family members. Amanda is rooting for the Black & Gold on Facebook and word out of EHT is that Mike already has a Steelers shirt on.

My other victims? Brady's cousins, Joey and Jenna. Below you will see what they made for the AFC Championship game!

I now have them for the Super Bowl and we'll use those as decor at my parents fiesta (complete with football field gaucamole - my dad's request) this evening.

Now, I need you all to cheer for the Steelers tonight. Because if they win, the Smithkowski public relations power team have a little PR trick up our sleeves prior to the potential victory parade. Detils to come with a win ; )

Go Steelers!

Smithkowski Wordle

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Have you heard of Wordle? It's a site that takes the homepage of your blog and makes the words from the posts into a fancy graphic. I was showing fellow blogger Jason Sacks how to use this tool and entered in the Brandi & Brady blog and - voula! The Wordle Cloud above!

I thought I would share it with you all as we are VERY excited for some of the bigger words - Family, Friends, Traditions and of course Christmas and Trees! We can't wait to see all of you in the next two weeks!

Oh, Old Christmas Tree, Oh, Old Christmas Tree

Yep…here it is. The stereotypical “look…it’s out boring Christmas tree” photo.

You may look at his and roll your eyes, BUT before you do, we’ve got a little story for you about our tree. While we are celebrating our first Christmas as a married couple, this tree is celebrating its 48th Christmas.

When the Bonkowski’s told us that they had an extra tree stored away, we were expecting the one that I (Brandi) used to decorate my college house (408 Forest). However, on tree-getting day, we discovered that a key piece of that tree was missing. But something else was still living in the Bonkowski house…


THIS GUY!

You see, this tree was Mr. Bonkowski’s parents’ first artificial tree from 1962. This tree was a pretty big deal back then. And for the year’s following, because all the siblings had to sit around and watch Nun (aka Brandi’s grandma) decorate the tree. If you know her, that’s her style. The kid’s watch her decorate the tree and dye the Easter eggs lol.

After a good run at Nun’s house, the tree was transported many, many miles to the Bonkowski house (I kid, we lived 1 house away on the same street). The tree it had about a 10 year-run as the Bonkowski family tree – then was stored away for about another 10.

After piecing the tree together, Brady and I decided that we would give this old tree a run as our first tree. AND, if you know me (Brandi) well, this is a birth of a new story right here! “Our first tree was 48-years-old…”

Our tree had some visitors this weekend, so it was only natural that I made them pose in front of our bright masterpiece! (No, I did not style them for this shot).

Here’s to many more trees and many more Christmases!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Season’s Greetings from Brandi!

Being a newlywed (or old married, suburbian lady as some will call me), I’ve been thinking a lot about traditions during the holidays. While most traditions are passed down, but for my new husband and I, it’s never too late to start one!

Here are some traditions my family has:

· On Thanksgiving, after all the turkey is cooked and consumed (and the family has napped), we go bowling! I don’t know why, but that’s what we do and its fun! Brady participated this year!

· A newer tradition for the day after Thanksgiving that Brady has also adopted includes attending or watching on television the Backyard Brawl between West Virginia and Pitt (go Mountaineers!). This tradition can always change thanks to the scheduling gods at ESPN. Look at us here being nice to Pitt fans ; )

· Now on to Christmas, for the last five years, my close high school friends and I have had a gift exchange. This typically involves a theme (sparkly gifts, books, earrings, etc), dinner at a restaurant and then some libations. Another Brady spotting – for the last 3 or 4 years, Brady has been playing the role of Santa and assigning the names!



· When it comes to trimming the tree, I have some special ornaments that I put on the tree. For the last 30 years, my parents have gifted me an ornament with the date on it. Typically the ornament links to something I like at the time. Hanging them is always fun – you’ll see my collection of baby ornaments, sports, Winnie the Pooh, Hello Kitty, shopping and wine! Based on a tip from my friend Amy, we’ve started buying ornaments from places that we vacation to add to the tree as a couple.

· On Christmas, the Bonkowski girls are always extra good, so Santa comes to our house first and we get to open our gifts on Christmas Eve. Sometimes we are SO GOOD that he even swings by on the 23rd. Oh and recently my sister J Bo and I have brought back the cheesy tradition of wearing the same outfits (yes, we are well aware that we are both over 20-years-old).

I’d love to hear any holiday traditions that your family has!

We're Back! Greetings from the Newlyweds!

By popular request, we’ve decided to keep this blog going post-wedding to keep our friends around the country updated on our crazy lives. Yes, it is crazy.

We’re almost certain you all know by now that we’ve moved to Pittsburgh. We knew that at some point a move back east was in our future – we just can’t believe it happened this soon. Brandi received a great job offer with a PR agency in April, which allowed her to work from both Chicago and Pittsburgh until we were able to make the move. A move date was set for September 1, but Brady just so happened to get a job earlier, so we moved in late August.

Prior to our departure, we had a great send off from our Chicago friends with a little bar-ty (bar-party) in Wrigleyville. We are really going to miss all of the great people that we met in Chi-town and don’t worry – we’ll be back to visit. We love the Windy City and it will always hold a special place in our heart.

Due to a quick move (um, three days notice!), we found a temporary apartment in “the hills” of Pittsburgh. We’ll give you a little tour of that later. We now have two bedrooms which makes our pad “slumber party-friendly.” – Visitors welcome!

We also added to the Smithkowski family. We'll introduce you to Billy – our first car super soon. We can’t take full credit for the name. Brandi’s friend Lindsey nightshifts as a professional car namer and felt that since the car was a “Patriot” that he should be named after someone from the New England Patriots. Since this family has way too many Brady’s, we went Billy after Bill Bellicheck. The name was solidified when our most-awesome-car salesman-ever’s name was Bill.

Check back every few weeks! We promise that we’ll update you on our adventures!

If you want to see 2,100 pictues of us...

Greetings friends, family & random strangers!


Our wonderful, amazing photographers have shared a link to all 2,100 pictures from our wedding day. I know by now you are probably sick of seeing our faces (and us kissing), but we encourage you all to check out this link. Studio Bash did a great job of capturing pictures of our guests!

http://www.pictage.com/900915

And stay tuned - we are going to recap you on our crazy summer very, very soon!

Hello from The Smith's!

Hello from Mr. & Mrs. Brady Smith!!

While we are still trying to find the proper words to THANK everyone for an AMAZING, AWESOME Wedding Day, we wanted to share a link to our wedding photos from the very talented Studio Bash (we LOVE Aly & Derrick)! Enjoy!!

http://www.studiobash.com/blog/