C is for Cookie...

These two things deserved a post all on their own, because they just might top the list of absolute favorite things to do during the Christmas season! The first is a new one (sort of), that is sure to become a roomie tradition from now on. Lindsey and I made cute Christmas cookies the night before I left to go home, and we had so much fun!

It's a thousand wonders we didn't just eat all the cookie dough! :)

They got much bigger than expected!

Rocket wanted to help Linds with the icing...they sure did smell good!

All of Lindsey's cookies...my favorite with the tree decorated to look like a present, complete with the big, pretty bow!

And now mine! The one that's a Santa Claus was actually a snowman cookie, but they blew up so much that it made the perfect Santa instead!

Yummmm!!!

Now my absolute favorite part...getting to hang out with family and friends and play games! This is from my favorite party at the Henrys' and we're all playing Apples to Apples...I won! :)

It's a tradition to get a new game for Christmas, and then when Kay & George come over on Christmas morning, we get to test it out. This year...Partini. It was fun, but pretty difficult!

Daddy hates playing games, but likes cards. I love both! Here we are playing Spades...Lindsey and I lost big time, but Daddy and I won the night before! We also love playing Rummy.

On my last night home, we had our last game night, and this time with Reed's girlfriend, Keisha. One of my favorite board games is Cranium, and Lindsey and I pretty much dominate it. :)

This Is Halloween...

On Friday I got to bring my precious Paisley with me to work. Supposedly there weren't going to be very many people in the office, but that wasn't exactly true, but Paisley enjoyed sitting on my desk looking at my lava lamp (yes, lava lamp. I've had it since about 5th grade. Be jealous.) or in the window watching cars drive by. At lunch, she changed into her Snow White Halloween costume. :) She loves dressing up. Well, maybe not loves, but she doesn't mind it either.

For lunch, we ran to our favorite Friday spot - Gigi's - for a delicious Halloween cupcake.

Linds wasn't feeling too spunky that night and I was indecisive on whether I wanted to do anything, so we opted for a BFF night watching Hocus Pocus. Not quite as eventful as last years' Halloween (and since it was pointed out to me that I didn't say anything, the picture of Linds and me from her birthday post was of us at Halloween last year!), but in all honesty, I had more fun dressing up than doing anything else, so I was completely content to have a night in!

Wonderful Weekend

Last weekend was Lindsey's birthday and we had a great time celebrating all weekend long! Mom, Dad and Reed were in at the beginning of the week, and we went to Jackson's while they were still here. Soooo yummy (with chocolate chip cookie dough egg rolls especially) and it was great to see our friend Nate working!

On Lindsey's actual birthday, we went to lunch with Robin and Genevieve for some O'Charley's. They gave her some of their ooey gooey caramel pie that is just about to die for. That night, we went to Old Spaghetti Factory with a big group of friends to celebrate! It so much fun to have a gigantic table full of friends. We had a blast and Linds got to test out her new birthday present from me on some more victims than me (I really don't like being in front of a camera...)! :)

Genevieve, Robin & I matched...sorta!

The gang's all here!

Saturday, Taylor played in Chattanooga so Lindsey got tickets from work. It was a great show, and seeing her headline just makes it more evident why she's as big as she is...she really is great at what she does! And her opening band was great too!

Sunday was another nursery day with our sweet babies, and the wrap-up of the Baggage series at church. It was a great series, but one I'm still trying to process... Now I'm really looking forward to the next series, for obvious reasons left to be unsaid. ;) After church, Lindsey & I met up with her mom, dad and grandmother for one last birthday celebration at the Cheesecake Factory. I'm thinking that it's going to have to become a Sunday lunch birthday tradition from now on, since that's where I went for mine too. Linds even got the Bikini Martini like I did. Soooo good! After a long week of going nonstop and a big birthday weekend, we were both exhausted after that and went home to hang out with the puppies...the perfect way to end a perfect weekend!

I Drove Out to the County Fair...

I'm a little delayed on several posts, but these pictures are too cute not to share. Cross Point had a "county fair" picnic a few weeks ago and it was so much fun! We couldn't have asked for better weather that day, and the food was delicious and the kids were so adorable dressed up in the costumes for the parade!

Here's one of our nursery babies at his first Halloween. Tried to get the entire family, but they weren't into it. So precious though!

What a great action shot of my favorite blue Power Ranger! :)

And finally here's someone right up my alley - a little pink princess! I watch her for her dad in between the first two services most Sundays. One of the most polite 2-year-olds I've ever met!

Ice, Ice Baby...

It's no secret I'm not a fan of being cold. I don't mind the 70-ish degree afternoons that make for perfect roll-your-windows-down drives, and of course I love all the beautiful colors of fall, but I just always miss being able to go somewhere without a jacket and being able to be in the water! I'm truly a summer baby.

Our sweet dogs love being able to play outside in the summer too, and I guarantee they're gonna miss getting baths with the waterhose on the patio (Paisley's favorite). Well, maybe not so much the bath part, but they love biting at the water streaming out of the hose. Another favorite is getting to come inside from a long, hot walk and eating pupcicles. Yes, pupcicles. They're really disgusting smelling - they come in beef, cheese & bacon flavors. Yuck! But Paisley and Rocket love them...it also helps that they love plain ole ice cubes too. ;)

Rocket actually gets the concept of licking popcicles!

Paisley, not so much...she just chows down!

All done! Such a happy little girl!

If You Are What You Eat, In My Case I'll Be Sweet...

This one has been a long time coming...sorry for the delay!

I've experienced a first I didn't ever expect. There was actually one cupcake at Gigi's I didn't like! Linds and I hadn't had our cupcake Friday in quite a while, so when we finally went the special for the day was "Flower Power." You just can't go wrong with me when it comes to a brightly colored cupcake with a flower on it (fyi...it was way prettier than my camera on my phone shows!)!

I was worried though...the orange icing could be orange flavored, and I was not ok with that...so I asked. "Oh no," I was assured. "It's regular icing colored orange!" Um. Nope. It was definitely orange flavored and not so yummy. I was terribly bummed. My dear sweet Gigi had let me down.

However, I had this cupcake the next day at sweet little Hank's birthday party! How adorable? And how cute is he?!

As you know from my last 2 posts, I was gone the following 2 Fridays, so I didn't go back to Gigi's for a while (but not because she failed me with the orange...yuck!), but I did go this week. My delicious Scarlett's Velvet more than made up for Flower Power (once again, picture doesn't do it justice from my phone!).

Girls On The Beach...

Two weekends ago I got to take an extra day off since I'd be on the road the next weekend. Best way to spend a day of you hadn't been planning on? On the beach, of course! Pretty last minute, Lindsey, Laurie and I decided to leave late late Thursday night to meet our friends Justin and Tanner. We stayed just outside Destin and had a really relaxing weekend. Perfect little getaway! :)

I love candids.

On our first day after about 2 hours of sleep. It was a cloudy day, but it wasn't the offices!

This is my bff.

Hi boys.

Yes, I'm the 24 year old that loves playing in the sand still.

The 5 of us at the Red Bar. Laurie felt right at home with the chandeliers! :)

I love these 2. Lots.

Ice cream in Seaside. Thanks, self timer.

Justin and I were shorts twins. I made him stand like that. :)

So Laurie and I woke up at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning we were literally the only ones on the beach. It was too cold at 7am, so we went back to the room after 45 minutes. But how beautiful?! Pure bliss.

So after next to no sleep the night before, and an early morning, we crashed in the sand. But we made handy little sand-pillows to be comfy. :)

This picture makes me laugh. :)

The girls on the slide..that quite plainly said "Do not climb." I'm such a little rebel. Ha.

Our last night out. If you look carefully, you can see a wedding being set up to the left (one of 2 that night). Photo credit goes to Lindsey, the human tripod.

Here's the bride of above said wedding. I stalked her because her bouquet was beautiful. I'm pretty set on a beach wedding now, thanks to her.

After dinner, we went to play putt-putt! :)

I won. Don't let anyone try to tell you otherwise. Fair and square, too. :)

On the way home Sunday, we stopped at Peach Park for lunch. Laurie and Lindsey hadn't been so they tried some of the famous peach ice cream. I got my favorite - caramel cake!

Destin is the perfect little getaway. I haven't been in several years, but the beach is always nice and clean and there are plenty of things to do. I had a wonderful time with great friends, and definitely didn't want to come back home! I'm determined the next trip to the beach will include the puppies. I want to see Paisley in the sand!

I Am The Eggman...

So Laurie came over one night a few weeks ago for some dinner and just hanging out. Linds and I made dinner (we actually ate at the table...that hardly ever happens!), and Laurie brought brownie mix to make brownies for dessert.

Now let's go back to a few days before, when our dear friend, Justin, told us about some trick he heard... The trick was that if you hold an egg straight up and down (little part up), you can squeeze the egg and because of the pressure (or something...), it won't break. Justin apparently demonstrated the "trick" and it worked. Well, the funny part of that story is that Justin's friend, Tanner, tried to squeeze as hard as he could with two hands, and egg exploded into the air over two laptops.

Jump back ahead to our Thursday brownie-baking. Lindsey got the eggs out and squeezed. Perfection. I'm no cook or baker or anything but a cleaner in the kitchen, but I've always loved cracking the eggs, so I take one from her to break it and decide to kind of squeeze the egg...not even hard. Yep, of course you see where this is going...egg yolk went everywhere. Countertop, floor, my clothes, stove top...you name it. It was quite a sight and the three of us cracked up (no pun intended) immediately and called to tell Justin. After cleaning up (and trying to keep Rocket & Paisley from eating raw egg off the floor), Lindsey and Laurie finished the brownies. I guess I'll really stay out of the kitchen from now on...

...Come on! :)

To finish out the celebrating, a bunch of us planned on going to lunch after church. I didn't know that "a bunch" was going to turn into 13 people! And then the best gift of the day...my parents and Reed came and got to meet all my Mix friends for lunch, too! I had a wonderful birthday and I'm so blessed to have so many wonderful, amazing friends and the best family in the world!

The bestest cuz ever! So glad we could celebrate together!

Best Friend Forever.

Krista and Amber

Ryan and Robin

Karen and Nicole

Dinger and Jessica...so hardcore for coming both days!! :)

Yay!! My family made the day! (awesome camera angle, Reed!) :) Kinda mad I didn't end up with a picture with Daddy...next time for sure!

My "little" brother...he just started high school and I feel so old!

Even my WiiFit got into party mode and wished me a happy birthday! :)

Thank you to everyone who made my 24th birthday amazing! I got a lot of really sweet cards, amazing gift cards, great visits and of course, my new iBook. ;) And to those of you that couldn't celebrate with me, thank you so much for thinking about me and you were certainly missed!