Blog Breaks and Babies

Hi! 

Remember me?

It's been a while. Actually, it's been a whole month. I didn't mean to take such a long break, but between work picking up, stress with the house (more on that tomorrow), and simply not feeling inspired to write this blog got put on the back burner. Apologize for the absence, but I'm back now! 

My first friend, Cara, and her sweet husband, Frank, are expecting their first baby this August! This past weekend we celebrated mom-to-be and "Baby E" with an elephant themed baby shower in honor of Cara's favorite animal. 

It's been fun, albeit a bit odd, transitioning from having wedding showers to hosting a baby showers. How did I get old enough to have friends who are having babies?! Love it as long as I'm hosting and not having one... yet.

I'm a bit obsessed with these adorable invitation we used from FrancyShmancyNotes. So perfect!

When guests walked in the door they were greeted with this pretty pink table. "The Giving Tree" was one of my favorite childhood books, and we figured it would be a great guestbook.

In case you didn't know my sister is crazy talented. She sewed 6 adorable elephants that we used to decorate the chandelier. Seriously, could they be any cuter? 

We set up a "Wishes for Baby" station. I found these from StockberryStudio and loved how they matched the invitations. Everyone did a great job of filling them out!

Some of my favorite answers:

"I hope you learn to love UGA football" As if that's even a questions!

"I hope you aren't afraid of wolves" & "I hope you learn not to hit" Great advice from a 6 year old!

"I hope you love cheese dip" Let's be honest. This is key.

"I hope you become just like your momma" <tear>

We also set up a decorating station. We laid out iron on appliques and fabric pens. Everyone decorate either a onesie or a burp rag. Have you ever held up a newborn onesies?! So. Tiny.

I know I'm biased, but I think the one mom, Sis, and I made was the cutest ;)

And no good shower is complete without lots of food! Momma-to-be loves her some goldfish, so of course we couldn't forget those!

Is she not the most precious pregnant person ever?!

 Love you sweet friend and can't wait to meet baby girl in August! Oh, and please move back to GA, Baby doesn't like TX!

What a Weekend!

It's been a while since I did a post recapping our weekend. Lately our weekends have consisted mostly of house hunting which doesn't really make for blog friendly material. I've also tried to focus more on being present and less on trying to get good shots and brainstorm blog posts. I still love this little blog, but sometimes I just need to step away and put the blog on the back burner. 

With all of that said, I'm excited to recap our weekend and share some pretty awesome news with y'all!

First things first though. Can we please discuss this weather? I'm not sure about the rest of you, but GA got its act together this weekend! 70 degrees? I'll happily take it. I just need to remember warm weather  = sunscreen. I now have a sunburned face to remind myself of that.

GA Tech sports are not my favorite, but it was nice to spend an afternoon outside watching baseball. I'll give them this, the baseball field is pretty nice. 

After the game we headed to Yogli Mogli for a celebratory treat. Frozen yogurt eaten outside in the sun? I'll take it! 

James was celebrating a GT win, and we were celebrating... {drumroll please}

A HOUSE!!

Yay! We are under contract on a home! We still have a long way to go before it's really ours. I'm trying not to get my hopes up just yet because a lot can happen over the next few weeks. I can't lie though I'm super excited! Prayers that everything works out how it's suppose to are greatly appreciated!

My mom gifted me my very own decorator's bag complete with paint color swatch book and magazines. She always carried one around whenever we went to fabric or home improvement stores. Hers was always overflowing with fabric samples, paint colors, and design ideas. I feel so official having my very own! 

See that beautiful blue and gold binder? I've also started to put together a decorating binder! The house isn't ours yet, but I'm already brainstorming "looks" for each room :) So much for not getting my hopes up.

 Hope you all had a great and hopefully warm weekend!

Weekend Photo Dump

Friday:

Ugly Christmas Sweater Party. Hey, I participated! That's what counts. Right?

It actually ended up being a lot more fun than I thought to "dress up." I'd do it again. I may get super crazy next time and find a really ugly sweater! We also did a "White Elephant" gift exchange. I came home with "batteries (toy not included)". At least it wasn't bacon soap! 

The whole group and some adorably ugly sweaters.

Saturday:

We spent the day with James' family baking cookies and decorating their house for Christmas. We made "Babies can't do this" aka sugar cookies. James has a sister who is 3 years younger than he is. When he was little he would tell her "babies can't do this" whenever they made Christmas cookies (never mind that she couldn't even talk yet, but he's always been a bit bossy :). The name stuck.

And of course I couldn't leave this one out... 

Yup, I love that man...

Sunday: 

Football. 

Is Fantasy Football over yet?!?

Hope y'all had a wonderful weekend!!

Happy December

I had a few posts planned for late last week, but ended up foregoing those for time with family.      Hope y'all don't mind :)

We spent Thanksgiving this year with my family. It was the first time all six of us have been together since Sis' wedding at the beginning of October. It was so good to be together again, and a little weird that Sis wasn't the one I was rooming with this year.

We spent all day Thursday cooking, eating, and watching football. It was wonderful! I have a few recipes I'm hoping to post in the next few weeks!

Friday we got our first Christmas tree! We went all out this year and cut down it down ourselves. For the past few years my parents have had an artificial tree, so it's nice having a real tree again.

James did all the work and actually cut the tree down. Me? I just took pictures. I'm not the most coordinated person, so it's better for me to stay away from the sharp objects.
Meet Charlie the Christmas tree! He's beautiful and we love him.

Saturday Dad, James, and I took our annual trip to the UGA/GT game. We don't go to the beach for Thanksgiving because of this game. It's a big deal. 

As you can see James and I are not in the same colors. All football season we try to be supportive of one another's team, but as soon this game comes around there is no support to be seen. When we were dating we would agree not to speak this entire weekend. Not really a healthy option when you're married, so we decided this year we would go to the game together and go home together, but we would not sit together. Based on how the game went this was a good decision.

It was the most exhausting game of my life, but we pulled out a double overtime win. 

We agree to no gloating or boasting, but the winner gets to put their teams ornament on the top of the Christmas tree. 

Guess the Dawgs are on top this year!

Now it's time to make Charlie pretty and get in the Christmas spirit!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Happy December!

Weekend in Pictures

Friday:

We celebrated 5 months of being married at South City Kitchen! 

Really we were celebrating good news about James' job, and it just happened to fall on the same day.

Saturday:

James has been a great sport going to quite a few of my games this year. I figured it was time I repaid the gesture. As much as it pains me to wear navy and gold yellow lime green? {no clue what color that scarf is} it makes the husband happy. I always make sure to get a little red in there :)

I still can't talk about what happened with the UGA game. Happy about a win, but my heart is hurting... 

Sunday:

Celebrated James' mom's birthday at Seed. If you ever are in Marietta, GA you have to try this place.

And just because I love you I'll leave you with chocolate peanut butter perfection:

We Survived AND Had Fun!

We went camping and we survived! We came home with no injuries and we didn't run into any serial killers {too much Criminal Minds lately}.

The first time James I went camping we had only been dating 3 months. We had no electricity, bathrooms, or running water. I don't think either of our families were expecting us to come back still speaking to each other. We came back still dating {we actually said "I love you" for the first time on that trip}, but James promised me we wouldn't go camping like that again. Even so, when he suggested going camping this year I was really nervous. While we had a good time, peeing in the woods wasn't my idea of fun!

Thankfully, this trip was much different. The bathrooms were within walking distance and we had electricity. Heater inside the tent? Don't mind if I do! 

I set my camera right by the door so I wouldn't forget it. Guess what? I forgot it. I absolutely did not stomp around the campsite and pout. Okay, so maybe I did...

James taught me the 2 rules of camping: don't set up camp in the dark and don't set up in the rain. We managed to do both. By the time everything was finally set up it was time for a much deserved drink by the campfire that was next to impossible to get started in the rain. 

Hot dogs roasted over the campfire for dinner? Not happening...

Story-time: When I was in 2nd grade I had a serious fear of fires. Like cried every night and couldn't sleep kind of fear. I ended up seeing the school counselor for a few weeks and we had to get an escape ladder that we put under the bed. I prayed every night:
 Dear God,
 Please bless my family and everyone in the world.
Please don't let there be any fires or any burglaries.
Please keep my family safe.
Amen
 I actually prayed this way longer than I'm willing to admit; there is no way I still start my nighttime prayers with this :) I digress, eventually my fear went away, but now I have a crazy odd fascination with fire. I love watching it and watching things burn. It's weird.

Back to camping. Saturday we woke up and went hiking. Really, we just climbed up and down lots of stairs. We were camping at the top of a canyon and there were some really pretty waterfalls once you climbed hiked to the bottom of the canyon. Any sort of water in nature is my happy place, so I was in love.

 The husband knew how upset I was about forgetting my camera, so he offered to be photographer for the weekend. He's sweet :)

I just had to make sure we made it back by 3:30 so I could watch my awful game. I camped out in the hammock for about 30 minutes watching the game on my phone before I just couldn't handle it anymore. Y'all, I can't even... :( 

I was smiling at this point; the game obviously hadn't started yet.

Some couple friends of ours joined us for our second night of camping. We spent the evening huddled around the fire playing the "Newlywed Game." Moral of that story: James and I know really odd things about each other. If there was ever a fire one of the three things he would grab would be his Calvin Johnson signed football. I would grab my pillow. We both got this right... we just work.

We're made it home safely and in desperate need of a shower. Good sign of a successful camping trip!

Hope you all had a great weekend!!

Quick Weekend Review

Friday:

I did something I've never done before: I went shopping... by myself! Yup, that's right. I've never gone shopping alone. I'm not a big shopper. Clothing stores kinda overwhelm me, so I tend to avoid them. Friday was different. My plan was to run into Old Navy get what I wanted, not try it on, and leave. However, there was such cute stuff I decided to try a few things on. Granted I spent the entire time texting pictures to mom and sis to make sure it all looked good, but I think it still counts. Honestly, it was actually kind of fun, and I feel like such a grown up for having done it {almost} all by myself!

Saturday:

We spent the day in Athens cheering on the Dawgs! I should mention James did not cheer for UGA; he just cheered for football. I was a little nervous after the first half, but they got their act together in the second and pulled out a nice win for Homecoming.

Football isn't so much mom's thing :)

Sunday:

My father-in-law's birthday is this week, so we celebrated Sunday afternoon. We went to one of our favorite Italian restaurants and ate our weight in food. So good... so full! Always love seeing my in-laws and my favorite SIL.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Reunions and Recipes

Happy Monday!

Our weekend started off with lots of downtime, football, and cleaning. This was all well and good until we decided late Saturday morning to road-trip to South Carolina to see Sis and her husband! We haven't seen them since the wedding. While this may not be long time in regular time, in sister time it was forever. Plus, we had lots of celebrate.

They live in this sweet town, so while the boys were golfing on Sunday we baked lots and Sis showed me around. Seriously, sweetest small town ever! Even though I miss her like crazy I'm so happy for everything going on in their lives. They make me so proud!

Like I said, boys golfed; we made treats! 7-Layer Pumpkin Bars and Puppy Chow!

I've been craving a pumpkin treat since Fall started. Growing up we always made 7 layer bars and loved them. When we found this recipe that incorporated 7 layer bars and pumpkin, so we thought we'd give it a shot. So easy and so good!

The crust is just crushed graham crackers and butter. You press it into the pan and pour the pumpkin mixture on top. Then you get to layer all the yummy goodness {coconut, pecans, and chocolate chips}. Finally you add the magic: sweetened condensed milk.

After you bake it you let them cool, cut, and serve with caramel. So yummy!

7-Layer Pumpkin Bars

Adapted slightly from My Sister's Kitchen

1/3 Cup melted butter
1 Cup regular graham cracker crumbs
3 oz softened cream cheese
1 Cup pumpkin puree
3 Tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 Cup chocolate chips
1/2 Cup coarsely chopped pecans
3/4 Cup sweetened shredded coconut
1/2-3/4 Cup sweetened condensed milk (Drizzle till mostly covered)
Caramel topping

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place melted butter and graham cracker crumbs into a bowl; mix to combine. Press into the bottom of an 8x8 pan.
2. In a bowl beat the pumpkin, softened cream cheese, sugar and cinnamon until smooth. Spoon evenly over graham cracker crust. Next layer chocolate chips over pumpkin layer following with pecans, coconut and condensed milk. Bake for 22-25 minutes or until top is golden brown. Remove and let cool. *Before it completely cool, take a plastic knife and run around edges to loosen. It becomes very sticky and difficult to remove from the pan if you do not loosen.*
3. Once cooled, cut bars and arrange onto serving tray. Drizzle with warm caramel and serve.

*These didn't hold up as well as the ones we use to eat, but we just used a fork.*

We also made Puppy Chow aka Muddy Buddies {recipe found here}. Slightly messy, but too easy! We added peanut M&M's and Reese's Pieces just because we could.

The only thing I would do differently next time is double the chocolate peanut butter mixture. You can never have enough peanut butter.

Can we please discuss the incredible lighting in their kitchen!? So much better than our apartment. I was in love. We can also discuss sis' pretty ring; he did good!

Right before we left James and I traveled to the pumpkin patch to pick our carving pumpkin.

Meet Hugh. He's huge and we love him.

My heart is so full after spending a weekend with people we love so much. Best part? 

We get to see them again this weekend when they come home!