Christmas List!

I know Christmas isn't all about gifts, but in the spirit of Christmas I thought it would be nice to do a post on my christmas wish list!  Obviously, this is just a wish list, but who doesn't love a good wish list?!

I need a new bible!  One with my *new* name and one to study with.  I'd also like The Message- I think it would be a great study tool...do any of you use The Message?  Do you like it? Hate it?  Any good devotionals?  I'd really like the "Women of the Bible" devotional.

I would love a new phone!  I have a verizon Galaxy S droid and I hate it.  I absolutely love being connected to everyone at all times and I think an iphone would be great for that, right?!  Now, if I only had a few hundred dollars laying around.... ;)

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I found this at Kirkland's and thought it was so cute and would be perfect with our new bedroom furniture.  We have a large bedroom and finding things to "fill it" is proving difficult.  Having a full length mirror in the corner would be perfect!  And to top it off, it opens into this:

Yes please!  A place to put all of my jewelry!  LOVE!

I really want a pair of light brown flat riding boots to add to my closet!  I think they are so cute!

Lastly, I really want an Erin Condren planner!  I've been talking myself into a $50 planner, but from everyone I know who has one, they are totally worth it!  If you have one, what do you think?  Worth it?!

Our First Thanksgiving

My job is an important one.  So important, in fact, that we don't get holidays off.  So my actual Thanksgiving Day was spent working.  I understand, we can't leave the babies unattended. :)  But I still missed my family's Thanksgiving get-together.  I was completely jealous of everyone getting holiday time and time with family! :)

(Macy enjoyed getting to come visit!)

When I first found out I would be working Thanksgiving, David thought it would be nice to have our own Thanksgiving a few days later.  I jumped on the idea because, hello, who would turn down Thanksgiving dinner?!


(My Thanksgiving table setting!)

So we invited my mom and David's parents to come up the Saturday after Thanksgiving for a nice Thanksgiving dinner.

(My perfect pie crust!!)

So, for our first Thanksgiving as a married couple, David and I cooked for our families!  I worked Thursday and Friday so I got home around 8 am Friday morning, slept for about 2 hours and then was up and cooking.  (Well, I started cooking after 2 rounds of coffee ;) )

(This is the absolute cutest face I have ever seen.)

(Pretty girl...she wasn't very sure about all the excitement.)

I have to say, it was so much fun getting things ready for people to come visit us in our home!  We made cherry salad,  pumpkin pie, pecan pie, turkey, balsamic green beans, homemade rolls, and sweet potatoes with roasted marshmellows on top.  David's parents brought stuffing and mac n' cheese.


(Our spread!)

  We had quite the spread for 5 people!  And every bit of it was delicious.

(First look, okay this isn't so bad...)

(Okay...it IS that bad!)

David and I enjoyed having guests in our home and are very thankful for our families.  It was especially sweet for me since I missed out on my traditional Thanksgiving.  But new beginnings call for new traditions and I think we have started a wonderful one!  I hope everyone had happy holiday and now...time for Christmas!

Weekend Fun!

Our new meal of the week didn't actually happen over the weekend, but I'm adding it to this post because I don't want to write two posts!  On Thursday, our new meal of the week was lime-infused, honey-crusted chicken.

I got the recipe off of Pinterest.  I'm kind of wary about making recipes off Pinterest because I've heard of a few that have been busts!  But this one just seemed so good that David and I decided to go ahead and try it.  The directions say to mix up the marinade the night before and let the chicken soak over night.  Our chicken wasn't thawed so it really sat for about 4 hours before we cooked it and I don't think it affected the taste at all.  It was so good and easy to make!  We had ours with some french green beans on the side. :) 

On Friday, I picked David up at work and we headed home to Charlotte for Scott's birthday!  Our family has always done birthdays and this one was no different.  Scott requested seafood pasta and homemade ice cream! 

I am so glad we were able to go home for a night. I have to work over Thanksgiving so I won't be able to go home for this holiday.  I was getting quite bummed about it not getting to see my family, but now I have!

I had to work Saturday night so we headed home Saturday morning so I could get a few hours of sleep before I went in.  When I got home Sunday morning I slept until noon and then David and I headed out for a little Christmas shopping! :)  We have been wanting a new bedroom suite for a while because we have been sleeping in David's childhood bed and it's just not cutting it anymore!  We were ready for something new and we found it yesterday!  So, our Christmas gift to each other is this new bedroom suite from Ashley furniture:

(via)

We love the design.  We've been looking for a while and comparing and just kept coming back to this so we bit the bullet and will have a new bed come January. :)  We are going to use the month or so between getting our bed to paint our room, find a nice duvet, pillows, sheets, etc.  and get everything ready so once the set is here, we can just start using it!  We are so excited!  (We don't have the bench, but I really like that idea so we might look into finding one.  And our bedside tables are slightly different than the ones in this picture...we like ours better!)

I am back to work tonight so I'm getting some things done this morning (like blogging...it's the important things, right?!) and then I'll get a nap in this afternoon.  I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday week!

Happy Birthday, Scott!

Today is my cousin Scott's 24th birthday!

Scott and I are only 8 months and 8 days apart and have always been close.

(That's me as a baby...but Scott is in this picture, too! ;)  )

And as we've gotten older, we've just gotten closer.  :)  He's technically my cousin, but feels more like a brother to me. 

We used to do everything together.  We have celebrated every holiday together, 

...Many Easters...

...Many Christmases...

Taken many trips...

...to the fair...

...to New York City...

...and many trips skiing in Colorado.

We spent countless hours coming up with new things to play...

...reading on Christmas Eve...

...and making up lots of games in my play house.

And when Amy came along, she got to play, too!  

(Although she'll tell you we never let her be "the person."  :) )

We played outside....

in the yard...the good ole' days :)  Kids don't play outside anymore...

...and were lucky enough to have a pool to play in, too :)

Then we graduated and went to college and weren't able to hang out as much anymore.

(Scott's high school graduation)

So instead, we met up halfway for birthdays!

        My 20th birthday...

        ...and Scott's 20th birthday!  And many birthdays and college times in between.

Including my wedding :)

Marley loves his "Uncle Scott" too. 

 We think the feeling is mutual :)

And now, two of my favorite guys in the world get along :) 

  Including being almost a quarter of a century old and still making up games to play in the pool with really cool goggles ;)

 When I turned 24, Scott started kidding me about being an "adult" because I have a job and I'm 24...apparently "that's old."  Scott is now 24 and has a job, his own apartment, bills,e etc...so, Scott, welcome to the club, you old fart! ;) Even though we are "growing up" and have our own lives we are beginning, I hope we can always meet up to enjoy birthdays!  Happy Birthday and I love you so much! 

Meal of the Week: Enchiladas

Last week was crazy so I'm doing last week's meal update this week!  Last week, we had mexican for our new meal.  I made Pioneer Woman's Enchilada's with a few of my own changes.

I knew it would be time consuming so I went ahead and got the majority of my things gathered before I started.  PW's recipe calls for meat and I'm not a huge beef enchilada fan, although I'm positive they would have been delicious.  I boiled some chicken and shredded it into smaller pieces and sauteed some onions on the side.

The actual make time took me forever.  I thought I had done good by getting everything together early, but there was still so much to do and I made a huge mess!  I think, though, now that I know what to do and have learned a few tricks, next time would go much smoother.

Overall though, it was delicious!  I don't know how often I'll make them since they were so time consuming, but it's definitely a keeper for sure.  We added refried beans and a side of mexican rice to seal the deal :)

Honeymoon: Day 1

(I haven't figured out if I want to do a honeymoon post for each day or not.  I don't want to forget the details  of my honeymoon so I may...or I may just hit the highlights :)  But for now, here is how we spent the first day of our honeymoon!)

We left for our honeymoon on September 26th from Charlotte at 9:00am and made a pitstop in Dallas.  Our layover was about an hour and a half so we grabbed lunch at Au Bon Pain.  (Just a side note- have you ever been in the DFW airport??  That thing is HUGE and they have multiple restaurants and fashionable stores in every concourse!  It was just nuts.)

It took us about 12 hours total to reach Honolulu and by the time we landed, it was already 10:00pm back home.  We got "lei'ed" once we got off the plane and the weather was just beautiful.  It was 4:00pm Hawaiian time and about 85 degrees.

                                               

We grabbed our rental car and headed to our hotel.  Honolulu is incredible.  It's a city with a beach.  There was non-stop traffic at all hours, yet there were always hundreds of people on the beach!  When we got to our hotel, we weren't able to check in right away because our room wasn't ready so we went to the hotel bar to grab a drink and officially start our honeymoon!  We decided to go ahead and have dinner at Shor,  one of the hotel's restaurants.  We were so exhausted at this point we could hardly keep our eyes open, but dinner was absolutely delicious!  We had a lot of fun reminiscing about the wedding. :)

                                     

After dinner, we went back to the concierge only to be told our room still wasn't ready.  What the heck?!  We couldn't believe it.  It had been a busy few days for us, plus a long day of traveling and all we wanted to do was go to bed!  By the time we got into our room, it was 9:30pm and 3:30AM our time!  But half of our hotel fees for the week had already been paid for :)  The hotel was amazing and comped us for having to wait so long on our honeymoon!

Our room was nice, but our view was incredible.  Every morning around 6:00am the surfers would show up to "hang loose" and catch some waves.  David and I enjoyed sitting out on our balcony in the early morning hours and watching them.

We found a spot right across the street from our hotel that had a breakfront with minimal sea life (I'm all for that!) and tiny waves.  It was almost like a wading pool.  This is where we spent our afternoons once we finished our daily excursion.  David would sleep and I would people watch.  We had so much fun in our little spot.

Our day of travel was fun; it was the first time David and I had vacationed anywhere by ourselves and we loved the company. :)  It was, for the most part, uneventful and we have a fun little story to tell about our room.  But we couldn't wait to start the rest of our honeymoon and do all of the things we had planned!