EASTER 2016

Easter weekend was stressful for us for obvious reasons, but we tried to make the best out of it and spend as much time with family as we could. We had lunch with my family on Saturday and enjoyed seeing everyone. It's always so nice to go back home, even for a little bit. I don't know if I've ever mentioned this before, but my parent's built our house soon after they were married and they have lived there since. They lived with my mom's parents for the first 6 months of their marriage while they built our house, paycheck by paycheck. Since then they have added on twice lol. So that is literally the house I grew up in. It holds so many special memories and I just love it. 

Of course we took pictures, maybe one day I will remember to bring my camera and not rely on my phone to make pictures :)

Please look at this picture. My sister photobombed at the perfect time lol.

Late Saturday afternoon we went to Matthew's parents house and had dinner and then went on a long walk in their neighborhood. The weather was perfect! We loaded Murphy up in the stoller and we were off for our walk. Matthew's parents neighborhood is so nice and quiet, it definitely makes for a great place to go on a walk. After our walk we sat around and talked for a little bit before we headed off to bed pretty early. We were still exhausted from not having much sleep the night before.

Sunday we woke up and went to church with Matthew's parents and then came back home and enjoyed a delicious Easter lunch his mom made. We visited for a little bit longer and, then made the drive to my mema's house. Since we had already eaten lunch we just visited and I snacked on some Easter candy :)

Matthew changed out of his dress pants and into jeans right after church and we didn't get a picture until we were at my mema's house, but here is our Easter picture! You can't really tell in his picture but his shirt was white with blue and pink stripes. It was such a gloomy day and it was actually drizzling rain when we had this picture made, so taking pictures just wasn't in our favor on Easter. Matthew wasn't too upset about it though ;) 

Easter 2015

Easter 2014

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EASTER 2016

FRIDAY NO.11

This week has just been a crazy one! I am welcoming this weekend with open arms. As much as I would have loved to be off today, I am sadly not. There was hardly any traffic today so I guess that made up for having to come in while almost everyone else is off!

The weather this week has been very nice! The sunset the other night was absolutely incredible and the fact that it was still 71 when the sun was setting was even better.

I saw this the other day and sent it to Matthew and then my sister sent this to me this morning. LOL. Just replace the Hobby Lobby with Target and that is basically me. Although the only thing I have hid in my trunk (so far) were the decorations for his surprise birthday dinner!

If this is true, we are definitely adults now. I remember I used to get so aggravated with my mom for saving allllll the plastic bags and now we save them. Seriously though, they come in handy! 

We took our first walk in our neighborhood the other night. I can't believe it's taken us this long, but we really enjoyed it! Our neighborhood is very quiet and calm, which we love. We saw plenty of other friendly people out, too. 

I am on the search for a hutch. Something similar to the ones below. I really want to find an older one, maybe at a yard sale, and paint it. I don't necessarily want to make it look like an antique piece, I just want to give it a good few coats of paint and then display some of my antique plates and milk glass finds on it. I just think it would look so cute in our dining room!

You can find all of these on my Dining Room board on Pinterest!

I listen to 107.5 The River a lot in the mornings because Woody and Jim are HILARIOUS. They have basically been around on that station my whole life. I had a picture made with them when I was around 10 at a meet and greet in a mall lol. Growing up, my dad would always take us to school on Fridays, and every Friday morning they play a game called Gender Wars where listeners can call in and play. We LOVED listening to that game and would play along in the car. It's so funny hearing them still playing that game now. If I have any local readers, do yourself a favor and listen to them in the mornings. They definitely make my morning commute better, and I often find myself cracking up in my car, alone, and then realize other drivers giving me a weird look. :)

I laid out our Easter outfits the other day and Matthew thought I was crazy. I have always been excited to color coordinate with my husband for holidays and so far it's been fun! It's the little things ;) I'm also hoping it stays warm since my dress is sleeveless! Hope y'all have a wonderful weekend!

Blog posts from this week:
Weekending
Abc's
I Confess
Girl's Trip

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FRIDAY NO.11

I CONFESS II

I confess...I made these Philly Cheese Steak stuffed shells Monday night for dinner and I ended up using too much Alfredo sauce. I know, it's hard to believe there could ever be too much Alfredo sauce, but there actually is. The good thing about that though, you can just scrape some of the sauce off with a spoon. It was really good, and probably one of the messiest meals I've made so far. I'll post the recipe, soon!

I confess...seeing this ad this morning made me so excited/relieved! I spent a good chunk of Sunday afternoon (in between my two naps lol) creating a photo book through Shutterfly, and completely forgot about completing it. Their 8x8 books are free (you just have to pay shipping, $10.) It is normally $19.99 + $10 shipping so I'll be happy take a $20 off coupon code. I am making a photo book of our honeymoon! I had a bigger photo book made of our engagement pictures, and we used that as our guest book at our wedding. I love it, and love having it out for us and company to look through whenever they are over.

I confess...yesterday this showed up on my timehop. Which means six years ago yesterday Matthew text me for the first time and that's when we started "talking" and getting to know each other. I remember I was sitting in my Spanish class when he text me and I got really excited, and it just went from there! It's funny how I remember these things. I posted a simple ":)" as my Facebook status that night, because we had been texting nonstop all day. I'll always be thankful he text me asking about his birthday card that I completely forgot to give him on his actual birthday :) 

I confess...in 92 days I'll be on our girls trip with these girls (and my sister's best friend!) We are SO excited and have been looking forward to this trip since we went on our last one together when we were 16! More on that tomorrow :)

I confess...I grilled burgers last night and they actually turned out good! Last time I tried to do that they fell apart and were not too good lol. Matthew's back was really hurting last night so I insisted he lay on the couch and let me grill them. He usually does alllll the grilling and loves doing it, so it was a treat getting to grill last night! I definitely made a bigger mess and was running around trying to make sure everything was prepped....he always makes grilling look like a breeze. Also, SO PUMPED we're getting into grilling season!! 

I confess...I tried painting my nails on my lunch break yesterday and I didn't give them enough time to dry and they were messed up by time I walked back into the office. So I touched them up last night! Spring nail polish is finally making it's debut, and I am just too happy about it.

I confess...we were in bed last night by 9:15. Matthew turned on How I Met Your Mother and I could hardly keep my eyes open for the whole episode. I always feel SO much better the next morning when we go to bed early. 

Linking up with Caitlin today!

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I CONFESS II

WEEKENDING

Friday night we decided to have a lazy night. I was going to make a quick dinner, but Matthew had a craving for pizza so we ordered a pizza instead! No cooking or cleaning up from dinner? I wasn't complaining! We watched a new movie called The Big Short. It was very interesting and really made us think. 

On Saturday Matthew had to work for a few hours that morning, so I got up soon after he left and cleaned the house. After being gone all last weekend and knowing the next few weekends we have a lot going on I decided to do some deep cleaning. I probably spent a little over 2 hours cleaning, working on laundry, and unpacking boxes. We have had some boxes in our bedroom that needed to be unpacked, but we just kept putting it off. It feels SO good having a clutter free room! We have a few ideas on how we want to decorate our bedroom, but we are taking our time! We did buy some curtains for our bedroom and for our living room this weekend though. Kirkland's was having a great sale and I had a gift card there so we took advantage of the sale and purchased them. We picked them out a couple of months ago but finally decided to get them. Also, Kirkland's lets you double coupons!! LOVE that! Here they are...

Saturday afternoon my family came over to take us out to eat for Matthew's birthday, and to bring us my old patio set. I had a patio set at my apartment in Cookeville but we didn't have room for it once we got married so my parents kept it at their house. When I gave it to them I told them we wouldn't need it anymore and that they could have it, not expecting to need outdoor furniture so soon lol. Thankfully they didn't really use it but kept it in good condition and were happy to give it back! Now we can have patio dinners once it finally warms up! We are so excited!

This picture was after dinner. My parents and Mady were in their car. You can tell by the look on Mathew's face how excited he was to be in a car full of girls lol.

Macy snapped this picture of us while I was touching up my makeup before dinner. She loves watching me do my makeup and always ask if she can have some "blush and mascara" lol I usually dab a little bit of blush on her cheeks to appease her makeup "needs" ;)

Our new neighbors have a daughter that's my sisters age so since my sisters were in town we invited her over and they decorated Easter cookies and played. They are all into gymnastics and dance so they have something in common and had a blast together. Her dad came over and chatted with us as well. They have lived in the neighborhood for over 10 years so he gives us all the history and exciting events that happen in our area. He told us about the neighborhood's spring yard sale. He said it's massive and they always have a good turn out. We are already looking forward to this!!

Sunday consisted of church, picking up groceries, homemade chicken noodle soup, not one, but 2 naps by the fire (we didn't have the heat on because it's going to warm back up this week, so it got pretty chilly yesterday), laundry, shopping for curtains, church, and blue coast for dinner!

I made Kelsey's chicken noodle soup and it was the perfect meal for a chilly 1st day of spring!

We have been on a Blue Coast kick here lately, we've gone there after church on Sunday nights the past few weeks. I've been getting so many punches on my punch card ;) 

I am hoping this coming weekend is warmer than this past weekend, my Easter dress is sleeveless and I don't want to have to wear leggings with it lol. Happy Monday, friends! :) 

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WEEKENDING

FRIDAY NO. 10

I can't believe this is my 10th Friday post!! I've only missed 2 Fridays so far this year, the 1st Friday of the year because I was packing and the fourth Friday of this year because a snow day (which was also spent packing!) So that means there have already been 12 Fridays in 2016 so far...crazy to think it's already the middle of March!!

After reading MANY reviews, I recently purchased this under eye concealer, and I LOVE IT! For the past 2+ years I've used Boing under eye concealer and I loved it, but it wasn't lasting all day like I need my concealer to. If we were going somewhere after work then I would have to apply more concealer, and I was going through so much! It's such a small container to begin with, so it was lasting me anywhere from a month to a month and a half.

 If you are in need of a new under eye concealer then check this one out!! I bought it in the light shade to act as a under eye brightener as well as a concealer. It lasts all day and I love the way it covers my dark circles!! SO good, and it doesn't take much at all.

As I shared on my Instagram the other night, free cone day at Dairy Queen prompted a spontaneous ice cream date night, and a late one at that! If you know us then you know we are usually in the bed between 9:00-9:45ish on work nights lol.

We had breakfast for dinner the other night and I ended up making a lot of food on accident lol. I ended up making waffles, cheese biscuits, eggs, and bacon. There was no way we could eat all that so leftovers were used for breakfast. We love our waffle maker!!

Matthew's firm gifted us with this amazing Ninja as a wedding present. It is so large so at our apartment it was housed in a closet because we just didn't have enough room for all of our wonderful appliances. Well now that we have more room we are able to use all of them and I've been using it to make smoothies. OH.MY.GOODNESS. y'all, this thing is incredible. I can't believe we are just now using it so much. If you don't have one, and you use a blender often, do yourself a favor and purchase one ASAP. That is a pineapple and strawberry smoothie. A tip from my MIL, use VANILLA almond milk in smoothies. I'm not a milk person any mean, but vanilla almond milk is delicious!

Our sweet little old neighbor, Mrs. Colleen, came over to meet us last night and brought us over some homemade potato salad and a pie she just finished baking. She is the sweetest little lady and I am so excited to get to know her better. We are SO blessed with the sweetest neighbors!! We really do love our neighborhood.

The tree in our yard bloomed this past week with all the warm weather we've been having and I LOVE IT! Even if it does stink and make my eyes water lol. I told Matthew last night I don't know if I've ever been this excited about a tree before, but seeing it makes me so happy because it's OUR tree. Not our parent's tree, not our apartment complexes' tree, but OUR tree. We own a tree :)

I just love it!

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FRIDAY NO. 10

WEEKEND RECAP: HUSBAND'S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS

I love celebrating birthdays and I love celebrating my man. So Tuesday night I decided to surprise him for dinner. There is a Chinese takeout place that is really close to our apartment we used to live in and we would stop there every few weeks for dinner and Matthew loved that place. It was cheap and good! That place isn't too far out of my way home now so I decided to stop there and pick it up for dinner to surprise him. I pulled our kitchen table out on the patio because we don't have a patio set yet and because the weather was INCREDIBLE! I broke out the fancy dishes and had it ready for him when he got home. He even got home before it was dark and I was pumped!! So we ate dinner and just sat outside and talked until well after it was dark. I love those good conversations over dinner.

I mentioned last week that our best friends were in town for spring break so I got with them and we decided to have a small surprise birthday dinner for Matthew on Thursday night. 

Fun fact: I have NEVER been able to surprise him with a birthday party/dinner. He usually doesn't know what all is planned but he always figures out I'm up to something. He called me when he got off and I was running around trying to get dinner together and he could tell something was up...lol I'm a terrible liar. I haven't given up hope yet though lol I'll surprise him one day!

I found that cute "celebrate" banner in Target's dollar section a few weeks ago! 

For dinner I made Three Cheese Italian Rigatoni Pie and it turned out really good! That is the perfect dish to make for a small dinner party. We had 5 people and there was only a little bit leftover that I took for lunch the next day.

 For dessert I made cookie dough cheesecake,

Matthew LOVES cheesecake. His groomsmen cake at our wedding was a chocolate cheesecake lol. He loves his mom's cheesecake, although I haven't mastered her's yet, I wanted to make a cheesecake. I found a cookie dough cheese cake through one of the Tasty videos and decided to make it. It was pretty good, definitely not his mom's cheesecake but it was still good. The crust is cookie dough and then I dropped balls of cookie dough on top before I baked it.

We played a game and sat around and chatted for awhile before calling it a night. They all stayed the night and it was our first time having a group of people spend the night. It was so fun!!

Friday, on Matthew's actual birthday, we went home to Murfreesboro after we both got off for the weekend. We celebrated Matthew and Nathan's birthday and his parent's 30th wedding anniversary!

The reaction I got when I tried to make a picture of the birthday boys...#twins

Nathan got a drone for his birthday so we all went outside to watch him fly it. He attached his GoPro to it and it was pretty interesting!

Their birthday cake!

And of course we got a group picture, it was the first time we had all been together since Christmas!

We made dinner for his parents to celebrate their anniversary. The boys grilled steaks and we had grilled zucchini, carrots, and green beans! It was all delicious. There was a lot of commotion going on in the kitchen, but it was so fun!!

The steaks were SO good

Sunday we went to church at our home congregation and it was good to see everyone again! We came back to his parents house and had crockpot roast and it was delicious. 

It was a fun weekend and I had a blast celebrating Matthew all week and into the weekend. It was also warm all weekend and it made me SO excited for summer!!!! :)

22nd birthday celebrations

21st birthday celebrations

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WEEKEND RECAP: HUSBAND'S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS