Sweet Sadie

 Sadie made her arrival into this world early Halloween morning! L&D took a long time, not sure if it was as long as Parker’s birth, but it was a looooooooong time!   Sadie is 7 weeks old now and looks remarkably similar to Parker as a baby. She has a wonderful temperament and rarely cries, or at least I rarely see her cry! Parker loves being a big brother to her and tries to be as helpful as possible. I asked him the other day if I could take Sadie home with me and he said “No! That’s MY baby Sadie!”
I've got high hopes that Sadie will want to be a snuggler! (Parker would rarely indulge us long enough to get a good snuggle out of him; he still doesn't want to sit still long enough to snuggle!).

I'm Backkkkkkkkkkk

Obviously I've been on a little bit of a blogging hiatus but hopefully I will get back on track now. 

Here are the highlights since my last post:

1. I FINISHED MY MASTER’S DEGREE! I just recently had it framed. It now hangs proudly under my undergraduate degree in my home office.

2. We went to Maui! BEST. VACATION. EVER. 
Drew and I had convinced ourselves by the end that we would just stay; he would become a fishing guide and I would be a bartender… My favorite activity was our hike along the Waihee Trail. Absolutely breathtaking! Drew’s favorite activity was golfing at the Four Seasons on Lanai. If you are ever thinking of a trip to Hawaii I would definitely recommend Maui over any of the other islands. We will definitely be back!

At the Drums of the Pacific Luau

Golfing on Lanai

Hiking the Waihee Trail

3. Drew and Kathryn’s Birthday! They are birthday twins! We ate at The Good Day Café in celebration. We also celebrated earlier in the week with a delicious dinner at my bother-in-law’s house (Drew and his brother’s bday are only separated by a week (and 6 years)). 

4. Bird Dog Breakaway and the Color Run! Kathryn and I recently completed both of these 5K’s. I’m not going to say that I enjoy running now, but I don’t hate it (anymore!). We finished the Bird Dog Breakaway in 33 minutes and the Color Run in 29 minutes. We were thrilled with our time at the Color Run (I had a sinus infection, Kathryn forgot her headphones and we didn't warm up). It was a lot of fun though! Kathryn has a much better description of it here: Kathryn's Blog, Click here!

Bird Dog Breakaway in Waynesboro

After the Color Run

5. GSU vs. The Citadel
We finally made it to a football game! The weather was wonderful and the Eagles won, of course! 

6. I finally found a unique way to store a few of the trinkets from my wedding. Mrs. Cheryl gifted me a handkerchief from her wedding that I pinned under my gown. My mother had this tiny bagged made out of her wedding dress and one of my father's USMC bars was pinned inside (this was also pinned under my dress).  I have had both of these items in my fireproof safe since the wedding but I have always wanted to display them. They are now beautifully displayed on the shelves in my living room. 

Old Barn Wood Shadow Box (via etsy, duh!)

7. Kim’s is ridiculously beautiful when pregnant (and not pregnant, obviously!). Here are a few pics I took last week:

8. My other sister-in-law just found out last week that they are having a girl! I know they were thrilled to find this out, plus it is so much more fun to shop for a girl! My Etsy addiction is getting out of hand.

 IT'S A GIRL!

9. This past weekend Ansley, Lori and I went to HHI for a mini-getaway. We went to the outlets, which were a bust by-the-way. After that we spent the rest of the day hanging out, eating, bar hopping and finally ended up at the XO Lounge at the resort. We forgot to take a group picture though.. But here is a picture from college… you get the idea! 

Bathroom Re-do

Here are a few pictures of our master bathroom update! We discovered that the grout in our master shower was leaking so we were forced to remove some of the tile to investigate. Fortunately the water damage was not terrible, but it definitely needed to be fixed. I have had the desire to remove the exterior tile for some time now because it I felt it made the bathroom appear too dark. Anyway, ripping out the tile was very messy (but fun!) so we decided we would go ahead with a mini-bathroom overhaul. We added bead board to the exterior shower wall (and added it to all of the other bathroom walls). The bead board needs one more coat of paint that I will get around to doing one day in the future! We also added new countertops (we originally just used left over tile when we first moved in). The granite came from Stoneworks of Augusta and I felt their prices were reasonable. I painted the light fixtures black-ish to match the new faucets/cabinet knobs and added a small chandelier over the bath tub. I think the bathroom looks much brighter and cleaner with the updates!

During the demo

Shower before and after

Tub area before and after 

My sink/vanity area before/after

Walls by our closets before/after

July run-down

Wow! It has been over a month since my last post! Seems like I just wrote about Has Lina last week! Here is what has been going on since my last post:

We went to HHI for the 4^th of July! It was a lot of fun! We stayed in Folly Field. The traffic was terrible on the island though! We went shopping, spent time on the beach and ate ….a lot! Drew, my mom and brother even played a round of golf together at Indigo Run.

Mama and Parker

There were a bunch of birthdays this month too! Our nephew turned 2! Here is opening his Harley Davidson BIG wheel from Aunt Bean and Uncle Drew! I LOVED my big wheel as a kid and I hope he enjoys this one just as much!

Kim turned 27 this month too! I forgot to take a picture at dinner (we went to Myabis!) so her is a picture from a Kenny Chesney concert we attended in 2009! That was such a fun night!

My mother-in-law also had a birthday! I took a picture of her at the Mexican restaurant in a ridiculously large sombrero that I will decline to post… for now! ;) Here is a picture of us from 2007, I believe this was our first picture together!

Last Saturday was Caroline’s 30^th birthday! We went to Augusta to celebrate.. Beamies for dinner! Here is a picture of the girls before we headed out (by the way, this is Caroline’s front porch on their BEAUTIFUL new house!)

We have also started a few upgrades on our house! The bathroom was out of necessity (the tile grout was leaking (ughhhh!)) and we had the kitchen back-splash tiled too. The bathroom is almost finished (we decided to replace the countertops and then we added bead board to the walls since we had a mess on our hands anyway!).

Kitchen before and after!

tile coming down

mid-crazy-mess that was the bathroom. 

Drew and I have also been working out together in preparation for our upcoming trip! I will post about that soon.. But back to working out, I purchased a polar watch and heart rate monitor and I'll admit it’s pretty impressive (and keeps me motivated!). Among other things, it tracks your calories burned based on your heart rate during the workout (granted you have to wear a small strap around your rib cage while you work out and that can be a little uncomfortable at times.  I got mine on Amazon, of course.

We have also had a couple lazy afternoons too!  

The sun!! 

St. Simon's Island

We snuck away for Memorial Day weekend this past weekend and it was a very nice getaway! We rented a condo near the King and Prince Resort and shared it with my brother and Drew’s brother (plus their wives of course). Our friends Scott and Laurie were also at SSI for the weekend and they spent a lot of time with us too! We got a great deal on the condo, especially considering it was Memorial Day weekend; I wouldn't mind renting it again in the future! The weather was fantastic (sunny and high 80’s --perfect beach weather!). Us gals spent most of our days on the beach, the guys went golfing on Saturday and toughed it out with us all day Sunday. We brought a ton of food down with us and only ate about a 1/3 of it; imagine that. We ate out every night (@ the Red Barn, Crab Trap and Gnat’s Landing – Gnat’s was my favorite). I’m not sure why I didn't really take any pictures, but here are a few:

Drew and his bother playing corn-hole.

Outside of the Crab Trap (great chicken fingers by the way!)

.... yep that is it for pictures! 

Another update!

It is obvious that I have been pretty slack when it comes to updating my blog; I've have been ridiculously busy at work and have had zero motivation for anything else that involves a computer (including school work!). On the bright side I am switching to a part-time-ish position with C4 in June and I am thrilled about the prospect of having a little time to myself again! Here are a few high lights from the past few weeks:

Kim is expecting again! Our family is ecstatic about another sweet baby! We find out the gender the first week in June and she is Due November 1^st! Whoop Whoop!

Our youngest nephew graduated from Bible Play School this week. He was absolutely adorable during the program and did such a good job singing and dancing with his class! 

We were fortunate enough to host a whole slew of mothers at our house last past weekend for mother's day! We had a great time having both of our families over. We cooked (way too much) low country boil and the kids got to play together which was a lot of fun to watch. 

As a fundraiser for Relay For Life I was a waitress at Burke Perk on April 25th. All of the tips and proceeds from chicken wings sales went to the American Cancer Society. Here we are in our waitress-ing gear:

We went up to the Mexican restaurant for Cinco de Mayo which has turned into an unexpected tradition over the past couple of years. I'm beginning to think that we eat Mexican too often because all of the waitresses know our orders....

We discovered 5 baby rabbits living in our front yard last night! They are adorable! Drew wouldn't let me keep them... something about this being another bad idea like the ducks.... rude! 

10 Obsessions

It has been a while since I’ve posted about random topics, most of my post as of late have been catching up on events in my life. So here are a list of my current top 10 obsessions (some of which are new obsessions others are old ones that have just been revived).

1.    Low Carb Strawberry Cheesecake. After I finished writing a paper on Sunday I decided to reward myself with something delicious, instead of driving to the closest Dairy Queen I decided that I would make a cheesecake so I could enjoy it for several days. I have basically ate nothing but Cheesecake since Sunday. I made it with splenda and almond meal crust, so I really don’t feel that guilty about it!

2.  Gelish nail polish. This is a revived obsession, unfortunately I just don’t have enough time to get manicures on the regular! I made time to get one for my birthday 3 weeks ago and my nails still look great (no damaging acrylic either!).

3.  Yoga and Heavy Bag Training (translation: punching bag madness). I found a DVD at Target a while back that had several beginner yoga routines, one of which was a night time wind down routine. I have been doing it in the evenings off and on for the past 2 weeks and I think it honestly has helped me sleep better. I also received a punching bag and gloves for my birthday that we hung out in Drew’s shop. It really is a lot of fun especially after I took the time to do some research and  figured out what I should be doing, plus it’s a really fast workout!

4.  Summer time. Daylight savings time has arrived which means that warmer weather is right around the corner. No additional explanation required.

5.  Urban Decay De-Slick. This was also a birthday present and is a great product (I haven’t used it prior to getting it for my bday). After I put my face on in the mornings I lightly mist this over my face and it helps my foundation stay put all day. I’m not sure about the cost but its available at Sephora and Ulta. 

6.  Iced Coffee. Man that stuff is good! This is also a revived obsession since it hasn’t been as cold outside as of late.

7. Springtime flowers and plants. I made a trip to Home Depot this past weekend and bought all the flowers and plants I needed to replant my big planters for the gate and my pots on the porch. This year I am determined to make sure they survive through the entire summer! (Or at least longer than they did last year!).

 8. Ebay. I don’t normally shop on ebay (not like I do on Amazon at least) but since I downloaded an app on my phone I have been doing some serious stalking of a whole array of different items. I also enjoy finding strange and unusual items on ebay and just watching to see how much they sell for which has only reinforced my belief that there are more crazy people in this world than sane. 

9. Photography. I am getting excited about doing me first round of spring mini-sessions this weekend. Will post pictures next week (hopefully). 

10. Downton Abbey. This is a show that comes on BBC America about a family in England based in pre-WWI era. It’s a drama that claims to be historically accurate about the period. My favorite character just died and I’m not too happy about that, hopefully I will stick with it though. I find myself talking with a British accent and wishing I had a house fully of maids, butlers and cooks after I watch the episodes! Drew has yet to respond to my bell ringing…….. rude. 

27th Birffday!

My 27th birthday has come and gone but it was an amazing birthday thanks to my wonderful family and friends! My mother and sister-in-law Kim went to great lengths to throw me a surprise birthday party and it was definitely a surprise party! Kudos to them for finally getting one over on me! They both work their butts off preparing ((way too much!)) food, hanging decorations and corralling people to come to Louisville on a Monday night!

Looking back on the clues now I could have probably put it together (Drew was super anxious about being on time, didn't want to go ride the ranger around, kept stressing that we didn't need to get dirty before we went to Kim's -- wow we sound super hick-ish!) but I just chalked it up to his occasional strange behavior! I really never expected a surprise party! It was great to see everyone together and I was truly overwhelmed with everyone's love and support! I am blessed beyond measure! Here are a few pics:

 

I also had to bite the bullet and update the about me section of my blog! 26 no more!

 

LAS VEGAS!

We have been back from Las Vegas for almost 2 & a 1/2 weeks now and I'm just now getting around to writing about it. We had an awesome time and I think we stay just long enough (to spend more money than we planned on spending and eating more than we should have!). Oops! We stayed at Caesars Palace again but this time we stayed in the Palace Towers which were almost identical to the other towers (I think these rooms for just a little bit larger though). Here are a few pictures of our room:

We also went and saw The Beatles: Love Cirque du Soleil show at the Mirage on our first night and it was truly amazing! That was my first Cirque show and I was blown away by how great it was produced and executed. The only thing I wish we would have done differently was going to the earlier 7:30 showing versus the 9:30 showing because we were all dragging by the end of it! They wouldn't allow photography inside but here are a few we snuck in! Ha!

Of course we gambled some too (playing blackjack and penny slots for the most part). My biggest win on the slot machines was $120! We walked across the street to play blackjack at the Flamingo because it was less crowded and the tables were much cheaper! I forget how much fun it can be when you're not losing all your money! We also tried playing craps for the first time and that game was just that ((crap))!

Of course we tried a ton of different restaurants my favorite restaurant was this little chocolate dessert place near our elevators literally everything was chocolate! My least favorite restaurant was Gordon Ramsay's Pub and Grill I thought the food was horrible but that is also because I'm not a fan of European style food; chicken fingers for this gal please!

Serendipity 

I also made a trip to the spa one day while the guys were out gallivanting. It was a beautiful spa but I can't say that it was worth the price of the services; yowza! Drew and Mr. David also went and drove sports cars at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on our last full day there ((Drew's Valentine's Day present)). Mr. David drove a white Porsche and Drew drove a Red Ferrari. They both enjoyed it and Mrs. Cheryl and I listen to them talk about it for the rest of the day! Here are few pictures for

Great trip, great weather, great family... GREAT time! 

Catch Up!

A couple weekends ago we had a girl’s evening in Augusta and went to see the Price is Right Live Show! The show was hosted by Jerry Springer himself; yes that Jerry Springer (“Jerry, Jerry, Jerry!”). We all met up at Mellow Mushroom for dinner before the show and then went over to the Bell Auditorium. I was pleasantly surprised at how entertaining the show was; Jerry Springer did a great job as host! The line to sign up and participate was ridiculously long so we skipped that part, which I am glad we did because none of the prizes were worth standing in line for several hours (to me at least). There was no photography allowed so we couldn't get any pictures though :(

 Valentine’s Day! Valentine’s Day was a little over a week ago. Drew and I normally don't do anything extravagant for Valentine’s Day mostly because everything is so far away from where we live and I'm not a big fan of crowded places. Last year we rented a movie and ate Lucky Charms in our PJ's which on a scale 1 to 10 was a 15 in my book! This year Drew decided he was going to cook dinner for the two of us. This is probably the fourth time he's ever cook dinner for me so we were both pleasantly surprised when everything turned out great! He cooked steak, grilled onions, grilled asparagus and made a caesar salad. He did a fantastic job and did the dishes too! We even ate in our dining room which was the first time that has happened in over a year, it was nice sitting there just talking to each other with no distractions, the dogs didn’t know what to think about it because they couldn’t sit in their usual spots around the kitchen table.

Rain, Rain, Rain…

It seems that we have had more rainfall in the past few weeks than we did for all of last year combined! We desperately needed the rain but I have had enough for a while. Our yard is a disaster from the builders driving to the shop in the soggy grass. Plus the dogs have cabin fever from being stuck inside too much (well, Reagan does at least). Thank goodness the sun has decided to make its appearance today. Here are a few pictures of the rain and mess:

From left to right: The river running by the shop (aptly named Cary Creek), the golf cart path completely flooded, a Mustang in a full ditch by Wal-Mart and the Ranger stuck in the mud. (Drew's fault!).

 

Per usual I have waited until the bitter end to buckle down on my school work for the class I am currently enrolled in (Advances E-Business Strategies (ie, super boring!). I received an email from my professor last week wanting to make sure everything was okay because we only have 3 weeks of class left and I still have SIX papers to turn in… ooops - my bad! So I have spent most of this weekend writing papers trying to get somewhat caught up. 2 down so far… After this I will have ONE class left which I have put off taking from the beginning. The class is Micro Business Economics II and I severely despise economics. I hope to be finished with all of my classes by the end of May! Halleluiah!

                                                            Basically....

 

Tomorrow is my 27^th Birthday – Yikes! As a treat to myself I am going to invest in some precautionary wrinkle cream...  30 is approaching at an alarming rate!

Oh, and we spent most of last week in Las Vegas!! I’ll write a blog post about the trip later this week! It was A LOT of FUN!