Booked!

Right now I am counting down the days until I will be here....

Ahhhh... the beach.

I love everything about the beach. The sound of the waves, the smell of the ocean, the wet sand on my toes and most of all - the tan I will get. Normally I would say having a cocktail on the beach, but this summer I will have to skip that little luxury.

I know the blog world is full of people that have vacationed in this part of FL/live here/of have houses here. Therefore, pony up some information!

Where do you like to eat? Where should we shop for groceries? Any fun things we have to do? What are toddler friendly activities around the area? We will be there mid-August.

Easter 2011

Did you have a nice Easter weekend? We did. We had Easter festivities for almost an entire week and Miss A loved all of the egg hunts.


Do you have an Easter tree? Growing up we always had one, so I have continued the tradition. This year Miss A was old enough to help decorate.... she took her job very seriously.
We had a church Easter Egg Hunt and the Easter Bunny was walking around, but Miss A was not too sure of him. She much preferred him when he was like this.

There was an egg hunt and an Easter party at her school.

We took her to see the Easter Bunny, but while we were waiting in line she passed the time by riding the elevator up and down (and up and down and up and down) with her Poppa.

We dyed eggs.

Went to another egg hunt.

And then finally Easter Sunday! Miss A was refusing to smile, so this was the best family shot we were able to get.

Family Card - 2010

I know this is one day late, but Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

I ordered our cards from Shutterfly this year and absolutely loved them. The quality was great, the turnaround time was fast and they were a great price. I don't think I will every again try to pretend I am Martha and craft our cards ... this was super fast and easy.

The pictures we used were from our family pictures we had taken back in October with ee Photography. I am in love with every single picture she took. Can you believe this field of straw is in the middle of Dallas?

Sneak Peak

We had our family pictures taken a couple weeks ago with the wonderfully talented Erin Woolsey. I just got a little sneak peak of the pictures today and I AM IN LOVE!

Head over to the Baby M blog to see more.....

(Want an invite to the Baby M blog? Just let me know.....)

The Blue Grass State

Long time, no talk blogworld.

Last week we were up in Lexington, KY for a little family vacation. My cousin got married and then everyone stayed in town for a family reunion. We have been getting together every summer for 23 years now. When this tradition first started, there were only 5 kids in the picture. Now, that number has grown to 11 and these "kids" are married, getting married, bringing their boyfriend/girlfriend, and having babies. Most summers, there are about 25-30 people that get together... and we enjoy every minute of it. (Most of the time. ha ha ha)

Here are just a few of the zillion pictures I have from the week.

Here we are at the rehearsal dinner.

My cousin and I are the same age.... and we both have daughters that are the same age. We are best friends and I am positive our daughters will also be best friends.

We went to the KY Horse Park and Miss A loved every second of it. She had no fear when it came to touching the horses... I think she wants a pony for her birthday. Poppa - you reading this?

KY is known for their bourbon so we had to tour a local distillery - Woodford Reserve. Miss A even got her first taste of bourbon at the end of the tour. Just kidding!

And when we weren't drinking bourbon, we were out on the lake. Miss A loved being out on the water and even had her first tube ride.

Want to see pictures that actually show her face? Head over to the Baby M blog.

Dallas Blooms

Dallas Blooms is going on right now at the Dallas Arboretum.... I could spend all day just soaking in all of these beautiful flowers.

Unfortunately, I cannot take credit for all of these pictures. My dad took them!

***New pictures over at Baby M***

Cooking Christmas

This year, Santa was very nice to me. The majority of my gifts revolved around a cooking theme which is just fine with me.

This avocado pitter/slicer is a great gadget. I used it tonight for the first time and it made slicing the avocado a breeze. This will definitely be used a lot in our house.


I have yet to try out this Ebelskiver pan. What -- you have never heard on Ebelskiver pancakes? They are light and fluffy pancakes that are usually filled with jam. I also got the recipe book to go along with it. There is a wide variety of recipes -- from sweet to savory. I am getting hungry just thinking about them.

And today is New Year's Day... Happy 2010. Last night we celebrated NYE in a very responsible / parental kind of way. We had a family game night with some friends and were home in bed by 1. And as far as resolutions.... I am just going to aim to get rid of the baby weight. I think it is going to be the death of me.

***New pictures on Baby M ***

Casserole time!

Are you beginning to get in the holiday spirit? I am going to be totally honest and say that I have not caught the festive, holiday spirit yet. But thinking about food always puts you in the holiday spirit – right? Our family Thanksgiving meals are quite the spread. Everyone has their favorite side dish, and these ‘favorites’ seem to multiply each year.

The casserole baking dish gets quite the workout on Thanksgiving. And I LOVE it. I would much rather have my green beans covered in cream of mushroom soup and topped with fried onions…and I want the sweet potatoes baked into a creamy casserole that is covered in a delicious topping of crushed cornflakes, brown sugar, cinnamon and pecans. I have experienced a boring food spread and I have experienced the casserole spread.... Give me the casseroles!

Here is our family thanksgiving menu:

Cranberry fluff
Sweet potato soufflé
Mashed potatoes
Broccoli and rice casserole
Company casserole
Onion pudding
Corn soufflé
Green bean casserole
Stuffing

Ham
Turkey & gravy

Cheese rolls
Pumpkin bread

Apple pie
Pumpkin pie
Chess pie
Tollhouse pie
Pecan pie
Pumpkn toffee roll
Assorted cookies

Hungry yet? I feel like I have left something off....

I mainly eat the sides – who needs protein when you have a casserole?!?!

What is your favorite Thanksgiving side?

Image from Crate & Barrel

Christmas Card Pictures

Yesterday we had attempt #1 at our Christmas card pictures.

I say #1 because there will be a #2 in a couple of weeks. The outfits were picked out. The location was chosen and the girl WOULD NOT SMILE!

I really wanted to take some fun pictures downtown, hopefully getting one great family shot for our Christmas cards, but out of the 235 pictures that were taken we had ZERO with the little girl smiling. This is extremely rare for her, since she is always happy and smiling.

Looking back on yesterday - what in the world was I thinking??? Her 5th tooth is coming in. She had a runny nose. We were taking the pictures late in the afternoon. It was HOT and she was in a sweater. Any one of those factors would have made for a blah photo session, much less all of them.

At least we found some great locations. And I know that our outfits look good together.

Weekend Recap

Our weekend was a flurry of family, friends, baking, cooking, cleaning, laughing, and baptising! Baby M was baptised yesterday and afterwards we had about 25 of our closest friends and family over for a little shin-dig.

In preparation for the party, I spent all week making these little cake balls. Extremely time consuming, but totally worth it.

And I got to break out some of the wedding gifts.... loving the marble and silver cheese tray. And Nambe trays.... love.

For more pictures that actually include Baby M, head over to her blog. And you can admire the BEAUTIFUL gown that my mom made.

If I "know" you want and you invite to the Baby M blog, just let me know.....

Vacation Recap

We are back from our fab beach vacation and now it is time to do the fun stuff, like unpack and laundry.

Overall, it was a great trip. Mix in a little rain, a trip to the hospital, and a 100 year old house and it made for our normal summer vacation. One highlight of the week was dinner at Lady and Sons! I hardly ate anything that day because I wanted to have plenty of room for the butter filled food.

I started off with a southern belle martini.

Then we all had cheese biscuits and hoe cakes.

The majority of the table had the buffet, but someone ordered the chicken pot pie and another had a fish dish. (Both were delish... I tasted both) I sampled almost everything on the buffet... fried chicken, mashed potatoes, mac n cheese, green beans, and another veggie casserole.

And for dessert there was peach cobbler.

I loved everything except the cobbler. Maybe that was because my stomach was already full with other savory goodness. My favorite items of the night were the cheese biscuits, mac n cheese and green beans.

More vacation pictures are posted on the private Baby M blog.

Merry Christmas!

Mr. and I wish everyone a very merry Christmas.


(Christmas Card 08 - Laguna Beach, CA)


We have been talking a lot about how next year at this time we will have a 9 month old. Wow.