Liam's First Christmas | 2013

Liam's first Christmas was wonderful! We spent Christmas Eve at my parent's house - dinner with both Paul's and my parents, and my brother, A.J. Liam enjoyed sitting at the table with us and then opening all kinds of fun gifts! (sorry no pics from the Eve).

Christmas morning was a lot of fun, I think the highlight was definitely seeing Liam's reaction to his gifts. Obviously he doesn't understand anything about Christmas, but he definitely had fun with the new gifts. We started off with Scout - I had a lot of fun programing him, and Liam loves toys that talk to him, so he got a kick out of his new Scout plush pup!

LiamChristmas2013_ScoutNext was the gift hand-picked from Daddy! Liam's very own laptop! Liam is always trying to get on our laptops, so now he's got his very own to bang away at those keys! And to his delight it has a mouse too! So yummy!!

LiamChristmas2013_laptopAnd lastly Liam got his first Early Rider! It's essentially a bike, but a very cool bike. It can turn in any direction and helps to develop balance. Liam has a bit of growing to do, but he definitely seems to like it. Another thing that he can chase after Chunk with... hehehe

LiamChristmas2013_earlyriderWe also had a wonderful Christmas, and following our little family time, we headed to Gama and PaPa's for some brunch and more holiday fun! Al in all it was a wonderful first Christmas for this growing family!

LiamChristmas2013_goodtimesWe hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and look forward to a wonderful New Year!


Pumpkin Fun | 2013

It's that time of the year and pumpkins are all the rage, of course! With a new little one in the family we had to take Liam (aka Baby Man) out to the pumpkin patch for those notorious fall pictures. We headed to the Custom Wood & Garden Shop at Hamilton Mill and I-85. They feature seasonal products, and this time of the year that includes pumpkins! They had lots of pumpkins, bunnies for petting and purchasing, ponies for riding, and jumpies too!

Liam was such a great sport! It was so hard to decide which pictures to share!

LiamsFirstPumpkinPatchI love that pouty face!

After getting a lot of pumpkin shots, we decided to have a little fun with bunnies! Liam really liked petting the bunny, and the bunny was quite tolerable. I was the only one not having absolute fun, worried the bunny would go rogue on Liam and he'd leave the pumpkin patch crying with nibbled fingers. No such thing happen, and no bunnies were harmed! haha But we did get some absolutely adorable shots!

LiamandBunnyWe had the Chunk Master with us, and Paul could not resist getting some classic shots of Chunk and the pumpkins.

ChunkandPumpkinsI love the shot of Chunk and Liam... they look like the best of friends here. Unfortunately Liam was losing patience with Daddy, so it was only a matter of time before we had to hit the road!

Paul's Mom and our niece and nephew, Kennedy and Trey, met us up at the pumpkin patch for some more fun pictures. Had to get some sweet pics of the "grand-babies" in for GaMa!

CousinsWe then headed back to GaMa's house for some pumpkin carving! Trey and Kennedy made some creative jack-o-lanterns! As night fell, Paul was able to get some creative shots of all the kids with the glow of the newly carved pumpkins.

I love my photographer Husband! Our house will be filled with beautiful photos of our family! See all the photos from our Pumpkin Patch Shoot Here...


Christmas Breakfast 2012 | CRAZY FUN!!!

Well, we are catching up as usual! But I definitely wanted to be sure to post about our 2012 Christmas Breakfast because it seems to get better and better every year! So last year we ran out of Mimosa's, so we made sure to stock up on the beverages, but this time around we ran out of food (this was a first)! We did a Breakfast Burrito Bar - sorry no pictures, the food went fast! But it's not surprising when we had such an awesome turnout with probably 15 more friends than last year! We had to have had 45 people or so at our house for this awesome holiday gathering!

The food was delicious, but the company was even better! We had a blast visiting with everyone and of course the White Elephant game was an even bigger hit! Lots of great gifts to choose from and people were stealing left and right!

Check out the fun pics Paul caught! Santa even came out!

ChristmasBreakfast2012

It was such a fun event we are already scheming for plans next year! We may even have to move locations!

Hope everyone had a wonderful and Happy Holiday! :)


Perdue Vision Pecan Pies - Just in Time for Thanksgiving!!!

Paul has been on a pecan pie rampage! Several months back Paul took the liberty of making a pecan pie for our neighbors. They moved into the neighborhood and neighbors all around were bringing them cookies and candy and all sorts of stuff, but they were surprised having moved to the south that no one brought them a Pecan Pie. And that was Paul's queue!

Paul decided since he had never made them before to make two! One for us to test and the other for the neighbor. And they both turned out AWESOME! Absolutely delicious! We scarfed that pie down in no time! And got some rave reviews from the neighbor as well.

Now with the holiday's approaching Paul decided he wanted to give thanks to his clients and close friends and family with some pecan pies! What started out as a client gift for a few turned into 24 or more pies for many!

So Paul decided to make this into a project, and what better way to share the love then to share the recipe and début Paul's first cooking video! He definitely had fun with this one! Check it out!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMiC9R1H7MQ&w=750&h=422]

For detailed written directions, see below:

Perdue Vision Pecan Pies

Prep Time:  5 minutes
Bake Time:  60 to 70 minutes
Chill Time:  2 hours
Yield:  8 servings

Ingredients:

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Mix corn syrup, eggs, sugar, butter and vanilla using a spoon. Stir in pecans. Pour filling into pie crust.
  3. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes. Cool for 2 hours on wire rack before serving.

TIPS: Pie is done when center reaches 200°F. Tap center surface of pie lightly - it should spring back when done. For easy clean up, spray pie pan with cooking spray before placing pie crust in pan. If pie crust is over-browning, cover edges with foil.

 


Wild Bill's Spooktacular!

My motto these days seems to be "better late than never!" So here is the Wild Bill's Spooktacular! I'm not one to frequent Wild Bill's often, but I have to say that for Halloween it's pretty awesome! It's amazing the creativity that comes out around Halloween, and this is one people watching experience you can't miss out on!

Paul used to be big on throwing Halloween parties, but this is the 2nd year we've gone to Wild Bill's and it does not disappoint! I'd say my only complaint is they didn't get to the Costume Contests soon enough!

Check out some of these awesome customs and at the bottom we have pictures of the winners for the Scariest and Most Original!

We've got our friend Matt dress as the guy from Beastie Boys Sabotage, and with him Gloria as a gangster, me and Paul (can you guess what I am??), "Storey" (Kristin) as a Gothic flapper, and our Robert as a bath salt zombie... There was so many more though!!!

We had a couple of devils, Curtis is a Transformer guy and his girlfriend Natacha is a french maid! There was a zombie alien dad and baby and a zombie version of the Mad Hatter and Alice!

Now for the winners... We stuck around for the Scariest Contest and the Most Original.

For the most original, it was between Kiss' Gene Simmons and the Ghostbusters' Stay Puft Marshmallow Man! And the winner was Marshmallow Man!!! And for  Scariest, it was between the evil puppet master and this crazy barbarian skull man (I don't remember what he was calling himself) and the winner was the Barbarian Skull Man! He was definitely scary! Of course I kind of thought the Puppet Master one was cooler!

Hope you enjoyed! To see more awesome pictures and costumes check out the full gallery here! Oh and by the way... if you're still wondering - I was FireFox the web browser! ;)

 


Two Weekends @ Lake Oconee!

Paul's parent's have a beautiful house right on the lake at Lake Oconee, GA, and we have been lucky enough to spend time down there not once, but twice in the past month! We did a spontaneous one night trip down with our good friends Desi and Tristan, and it was a nice "pre-Memorial Day" weekend getaway! It was nice as we were able to test out the experience with Chewie, and Arnie (Desi and Tristan's little ones) and it was their first boating and lake experience! It was a gorgeous weekend and we were wishing  we had thought to go down sooner!

We were greeted by the neighbor's dog Sam (the beautiful black and white boxer pictured above), and he was super excited about having not only Chunk to play with, but two new pups! We spent as much time on the lake as possible! Getting out as soon as we got in and and settled and back out the next morning for a full day on the lake! The boys did great, Chewie was a great swimmer and Arnie was getting the hang of things but definitely preferred to be on the float or on the boat! Chunk too took a couple dips, but definitely enjoyed the beautiful breeze!

We were also able to catch a guy on a really unique seated ski called a "sit-down hydrofoil." Paul caught some awesome shots of him flying big time! It looks like a lot of fun! I'm not a skier myself, but I honestly think I'd be willing to try this. We talked to the guy after we caught these pictures and he said it was actually pretty easy! Probably easy for him to say, but it seems pretty cool!

And then we were back for Memorial Day weekend, and it was just as good if not better! We stocked the fridge with tons of good eats and this time we were not only hanging with Desi and Tristan, but also our good friends Derrick and Jesus came down from Charlotte and it as a great gathering of good friends. We all hadn't been together since Paul and my wedding over a year ago! We spent the entire long weekend relaxing on the lake, drinking delicious beverages and eating even better meals! It was AWESOME!

It was so hard to leave! We are so thankful that Paul's parents allowed us to take over the house for the holiday weekend and couldn't have asked for a better time with great friends. Can't wait to get back down there again soon!


St. Patty's Day Fun | Party ON!

So this past weekend was St. Patty's day weekend, and while we have gone to bars and traveled to places like Savannah to celebrate in the past, we decided to have our own little party! And I must say, while I have always enjoyed going out and drinking green beer with a bunch of strangers, it was a nice change from the norm, and we did it up right. Our close friends, Andrew, Desi & Tristan, and Storey came over for a festive dinner and drinks and an evening of drinking and fun!

In the spirit of St. Patty's Day, we of course had to make some Irish dishes, and what better than Corned Beef Brisket, Reubens and Cabbage in every form. Paul and I purchased two large corned beef briskets and I cooked them up in style! I was a little worried about cooking two at once, in one pot, but they turned out AMAZING! Paul prepared some amazing Reuben Sandwiches with all the fixin's - Rye Pumpernickel, Swiss Cheese, Sauerkraut and of course Russian Dressing. Absolutely AMAZING! Desi brought some awesome Cabbage Casserole as well as her little experiment, which turned out really good - the little cabbage, bacon, cheese puffs. That was the best way I could explain them, they were delish!

The evening continued with drinking with great friends, and I must say it was one of my favorite St. Patty's day celebrations yet, even if it was low-key! Oh and I almost forgot to mention, Chunk has his own little get together too!

Chunk's friends, Arnie, Chewie, and Eddie all came out to play for St. Patty's Day! They had a blast roaming the house and our yard, and I think all of them were quite tuckered out by the end of the night. Especially Chunk!

I couldn't finish off the evening (and post) without noting I did also make a desert with a little "green" to it! I wish I had pictures... but they were eaten up too fast! But I did get the idea from Pinterest, and they looked just like the pictures! Check it out here! I altered the recipe slightly using Ghirardelli Double Brownie Mix instead of Chocolate Cake.

It was a great evening and I truly hope all our friends had a blast!


Korean Aquarius Throw-down!

This past weekend was both Paul's Birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAUL!!!) and Chinese New Year!  Our friend Trapper planned a get together for the Chinese New Year and we naturally thought it would be a great opportunity to bring our friends together to celebrate Paul's Birthday as well.

So our evening started at Tofu Village Korean BBQ in Marietta, GA. Yes, we celebrated the Chinese New Year with some Korean BBQ! Paul and I have had Korean BBQ before, but it was a new experience for a lot of our friends, and we are definitely glad that so many were open-minded to the experience!

There was options to order entrees or to order BBQ where they cook the food on a grill in front of you. They also have an array of unique veggie and meat options like Kimchee (love it!) and cow tongue (never tried that...). Paul even had some rice wine (Gluten free!!!)!

After dinner, we headed over to Melody Karaoke, where we had a private room for our group to cut loose and sing! It was the first time Paul and I had done the private karaoke room, and it was awesome! Definitely an evening of experiences! The music was Korean-esc, with reverb  microphone effects and an Asian twist. There were flat screens around the room that displayed anything from Asian Music Videos, to floral scenery and more...

It was surprising how many music options they had, and with the bar just outside the door, the beer and Saki were flowing! Some of the crowd started to trickle out and we then decided to move the party somewhere where everyone could dance! Luckily there was a bar called "The Place" in the same strip mall, and we decided to check it out!

It was actually a great option, as they had plenty of dancing and obviously plenty of drinks to go around! The party just kept going, and everyone was dancing and having a blast. I was surprised it was so easy to find a good option so close by! "The Place" it totally was "The Place!" haha (see the site and you'll understand why...)

Our crowd slowly fizzled out and we decided it was time to soak up some of the alcohol with Waffle House! While this didn't get everyone sober, it totally hit the spot. After the awesome service and food, we took some time to get our friends home safely and then headed home ourselves to crash.

It was an awesome evening, thank you to everyone that came out to experience the Chinese New Year and Paul's Birthday at Tofu Village, Melody Karaoke, and "The Place." It was a blast to see everyone and celebrate!


Happy New Year!!! 2012 Is Already Looking to be a GREAT Year!

We celebrated New Year's Eve and New Years Day 2012 with some great friends this year at Sheer Atlanta's NYE 2012 Celebration at Shout in Midtown Atlanta. Thanks to our good friend Matthew Levine, we got hooked up with a great party and Paul and Matt were able to "WOW" Jonathan Sheer and his guests with some awesome photos!

For a good part of the evening Paul and Matt were all over the place snapping shots, from the red carpet entrance to the party inside. Luckily I wasn't alone while they worked! We had a lot of great friends join us for the evening.

We rode down to Shout with our friends, Stephen, Frank and FUN Ron! Met up with Ashley Cash and her 30th Birthday Entourage (Shane, Susan, Kendra, Kendra's Husband, and Kim) and I was also joined by some new friends Gina and Kristy! What a fun party!

The evening started off with some red carpet shots... I missed out on this part... but it's all good, we got plenty of other photos elsewhere. I think I may have been chowing down on my New Years Eve dinner (Sushi Sushi Sushi! I love Sushi!).

As people started to file in, the party just continued to get better and better! This is by far one of my favorite New Year's Parties yet! Here we have the Birthday Girl and her hubby Shane, and the rest of us getting warmed up by beverages on the outside veranda!

Things just get better and better as everyone gets their drink on! Ashley's group chipped in on a cabana inside, and luckily it wasn't half the price they quoted her in advance. It was honestly pretty reasonable split among their group! Ashley definitely had what I would consider to be a great 30th birthday!

I was surprised how quickly midnight rolled around and I had to find Paul for our midnight kiss! Gina accompanied me downstairs to find him with no luck! I totally thought it was possible that I wouldn't get my New Year's kiss, but luckily Kristy found me and brought me to my man and we started our New Year off just right!

I got my New Years Kiss! YEAH!

We ended up closing down the bar... I was chilling by all the equipment when I heard the announcement for last call. I couldn't believe we were there ALL night!

After the guys packed everything up, we headed out and couldn't end the evening without the customary morning drunk meal so we stopped at the Georgia Dinner in Duluth, GA where I got Challah Bread French Toast with Crispy Bacon!!! It was amazing... YUMMMM!

We all had such an awesome time! Thank you to all our friends that celebrated with us, we are looking forward to an AWESOME 2012! Hope you all had a great NYE Celebration!!! Oh and Thank You Matthew for driving, that made the entire evening that much better!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!


Homemade Christmas Ornaments: Favors for Our Christmas Breakfast

I know this is a little late coming, but we wanted to post it anyway. Better late than never! As you may read in the previous post, we have an annual Christmas Breakfast, and what's a party without some memorable favors!

I'm a very crafty person and have always loved to be able to give friends and family something to remember when they leave a happy gathering such as the Christmas Breakfast! So this year, I found the idea for the Color Swirl ornaments, and they turned out great! Everyone was very excited to take one or more home with them!

What you need to make them:

  • Clear Glass Ball Ornaments (I got mine at Garden Ridge)
  • Acrylic Paints (an assortment of colors - I got a mix of shimmer/pearl paints as well as solid)
  • Ribbon (for hanging)
  • Card Stock Paper (for tags)

It takes some patience, but all you need to do is remove the metal tops, and pick a few colors you like together and drip the paint inside. Enough to coat about a quarter to a third of the ball going in, and then swirl it around. It also helps to add some water to the paints as they will swirl better, but not too much or you'll have to do multiple coats. Swirl the paint around inside the glass ornament until it is fully coated and then you can turn them upside down over a cup to drip excess paint out (make sure the lip is narrow enough that the ornament will stay at the top). If you don't allow it to drip, it will take a LONG time to dry! You'll want to let them sit for about 24 hours before you put the metal top/hook back in (it's ok if there is a little bit of wet paint in there still).

And repeat for all the ornaments! It's great for kids, or to do with a glass of wine and some good friends! I had the help of my friends Desi and Elaine, and we knocked out 36 ornaments in no time! And they were a hit at the Christmas Breakfast!

Check these beautiful ornaments out! This isn't anywhere close to all of them, and we had some gorgeous ones that got snatched quick!

Can't wait for next year, I'm already thinking of ideas for favors! The ornament idea is always nice and people can start to collect them over the years, but I also saw something cool that could be used all winter long! We shall see... I'm sure I'll be collecting ideas throughout the year!