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Monday, March 24, 2014

Aubrey's 1st Birthday

Last week our precious niece turned one! I can't believe she is so big already. She looks so much more like a little toddler now. She is saying a few words, walking all over the place, and her little personality is starting to really show through. Friday evening my brother in law and his fiance had the family over for dinner and a party to celebrate. They had a cute Minnie Mouse/ princess pink and purple theme. It was so nice to spend the evening with them. 

Now, a photo dump! 
the birthday girl and her balloon
Aubrey and her Ganny
Aubrey and her Paw Paw - Aubrey and her mommy
Aubrey and her Aunt Sarah
Aubrey and I
Is she not the cutest?!
Cake! Smash Cake!
 
 HAHA she cracks me up!
Aubrey and her parents, Travis and Laura Beth 
(can't wait for them to get married this summer!)
Aubrey, Ganny, PawPaw - giving Ganny kisses!
 Aubrey and her Nana
Us and Aubrey - anddd she's done, haha

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Who gets engaged in Paris?

My best friend, Katie, that's who! 

Yea, you read that right. 

My best friend Katie is a school teacher and they were on spring break last week. So Katie and her boyfriend fiance, Tony, took a quick trip to London. Even better, Katie didn't know where they were going until they got to the airport. Tony planned the trip and kept it a surprise. How awesome is that?!

So apparently they took a day trip to Paris. You can't go to Europe and not country hop. On Tuesday morning Katie video chatted me and flashed that sparkly ring! I died! 

I had this strong feeling Tony was going to propose while they were gone. And I was so right! My husband even said he thought it would happen in Paris. 

My best friend, my Twinkie, my soul sister, got engaged while in Paris!!

I couldn't be any happier or more excited for her. Knowing what it feels like to be newly engaged makes me that much more thrilled for her. Katie deserves the best and she has definitely found that in Tony. I love Tony for loving my Katie and being so good to her.

Now let the planning begin!! 

Katie sent me these pictures after we video chatted and I took a screenshot... love!!
And this is a little souvenir she got. How cute is that?!
Love you Twinkie!! 

Monday, March 10, 2014

Get your grill on!

The weather this weekend was ah-mazing! After a bitterly cold winter it was so nice to enjoy some time outside. We had a few snow storms which is fun, but just the plain old cold cold cold is boring. Having bought our first home, we have lots of plans for the outside and we are both so excited to get started. Jay didn't waste a minute getting out in the yard. Ruger enjoyed the sunshine too!
Since the weather looks like it's heading right into spring, we decided it was time to buy porch furniture. We are slowing filling out house, kinda going room by room as we need. And we definitely need some outside furniture now! My parents bought a really nice set of "weather wicker" furniture at Lowe's last year and we have been on the hunt for something similar. We made a trip to Lowe's Saturday morning to get a few more thing Jay needed for the yard and sure enough there was the same set! We don't want to be copy cats butttttt we bought it! We did get a different set of cushions and a rug, so we aren't all the way copying. But really who cares? Lowe's had a great deal for the 4 piece set and we added the side table. Can't beat that!
Obviously my husband and I love to grill so we took this opportunity to do just that! We had our two best friends over too, duh. We do everything with them! The boys cleaned up from doing yard work and fired up the grill while Crystal and I went to the grocery store for the food. Let's just say we got a little carried away... our eyes are bigger than our stomachs! We had plenty of leftovers, which was our intention all along, but maybe not that much. It was delicious and perfect for our first grill out for the season! Burgers, chicken, hot dogs and sausage, asparagus with olive oil, parmesan, and garlic, and corn... oh my!

Monday, March 3, 2014

Best Banana Bread Recipe

Jay and I have been doing really well with our healthy eating lately. We've been keeping lots of fresh fruit and veggies around for snacks... even eating an apple and nutella for dessert at night! In our protein shakes we like to a banana, frozen raspberries, and either nutella or peanut butter. Last weekend I'm not sure what happened but we had several bananas turn brown before we could eat them. I didn't want to throw them away, that's just wasteful. So I decided to make banana bread with them! And not just any banana bread, but my mom's recipe. I personally think it's better than Starbucks banana chocolate chip bread. And so much cheaper! 

What you need:
1 stick of butter (I didn't have a whole stick so I improvised)
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
3 mashed bananas
2 cups of flour
1 tsp baking soda (not pictured, oops)
1 tsp vanilla extract
a handful or 2 or pecans
a handful or 2 of chocolate chips


Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
In a bowl, blend together the butter and sugar with an electric beater. Add in the eggs and beat well. Add the bananas, baking soda, and vanilla extract. Blend together and add in the flour. Once the batter is blended together, stir in the pecans and/or chocolate chips with a spoon or spatula. 
Pour batter into a non-stick loaf pan or muffin pan, whichever you wish to use. This recipe makes 1 large loaf pan or 2 smalls. I like to fill one muffin tin and pour the rest into a loaf pan.
Bake at 300 for about 45 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. I like to stick a butter knife in the middle and make sure it comes out clean.
Let cool and dig in!
 {my husband ate a muffin before I could snap a picture}
{smells heavenly and tastes even better}
I have been taking a muffin every morning for breakfast. I was also nice enough to share with my co-workers. They are begging me to make more and share the recipe. Guess I'll be making another batch!

Enjoy!