birthday fun

Within the past couple weeks we have been to two pretty fun parties.  Celebrating two pretty cute people!  

Hannah was invited to one of her best friends first birthday in late July.  She was so excited and so was I.  The party was adorable.  Her Mom and Dad worked hard to make it a precious party.  There were so many babies there, Hannah had a blast playing with all of them.  It will be fun to look back and think about taking her to her first birthday parties :)

Ready for the fun!

H and the birthday girl :)

And just last week I celebrated my Mom's birthday.  This year she wanted to have a "girls night out".  So we left the husbands at home with the kids sleeping in their beds and headed out for some drinks and good sushi.  We laughed and talked and had a great time.  I love nights with these girls, they are my best friends!  Happy Birthday Mom - love you so much!!

I think that birthdays are really special.  It is the best day to tell that person how special they are to you and why you are thankful they are in your life.  I hope that I am able to make my kids feel extra special on their big day :)  My Mom always did ;)!

a joyful day

Friday night I didn't sleep a wink.  I was too excited about Hannah's first baby shower.  Saturday night after the shower I did not sleep a wink because I stayed up thinking about every detail from the shower :)

My beautiful hostesses

I  couldn't wait to see everyone and celebrate this little baby.  My sweet sisters and best friends threw the most beautiful event! I was overcome with so much thanks and felt so blessed because of these girls and all of the other precious guests who attended!  It was so joyful.  My mom and I rode to the party together and I told her that I had butterflies because I was so excited,  I felt like a little girl again :)

Sweetest friends

Best family

So happy you were there to celebrate 

 Mom and sisters

Love love these girl!

Precious lifelong friend with sweet sister 

I loved talking with friends and family as we sipped my favorite drink, Arnold Palmers (tea and lemonaide), viewed pictures of Zach and I as babies and young children, and enjoyed an amazing lunch.  The flowers filled the house with a sweet scent and the company filled the house with love!  I was in awe the whole time :)

One of my favorite parts was that each guest brought their favorite childhood book with their gift for Hannah's new library.  Each time I opened a gift the giver would tell about the book and share a little something.  I could tell they all brought back memories for everyone.  We have one full library now.  She has no idea how lucky she is...or how happy I am about this.  We will be reading a LOT! 

Another adorable detail of the party was this girly party favor.  Each guest got to take home an Essie nail polish with a tag on it that said, "It's a Girl!  Hannah Jean Davis"  So adorable and everyone was so pumped to take home a new bottle of pink polish :)

Our little growing family was showered for sure!  The nursery is stocked and I really feel like we can have Hannah now.  We are so blessed! 

We can bring her home with us...we got our car seat :) haha!

And to top it all off, when I got home my awesome hubby had bought a new car!  He promised it was big enough for a car seat, haha.  We are so blessed.

coming together

"Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever."  

1Chronicles 16:34

The past couple of weeks have been very busy and full of lots of fun.  

We traveled to ole LBK three weeks ago to celebrate with my sister in law her graduation.  She graduated with her masters to do counseling and I am so proud of her.  She is going to be so awesome at her job!!  I loved getting to hang out with her, she has to be one of the sweetest people I know!  Now only if I can get her to move to Dallas ;)  

Then last weekend we got to hang out with great friends, go to Colonial, and spend Memorial day at the lake.  It was wonderful, every bit of it!  

My cute friends after dinner

Max loves the lake too

Baby bump at 22 weeks :)

Baby Hannah's bedding came in last week too.  I am so happy with it and can hardly wait to pull it all together.  I found a crib and dresser from a small boutique and now we just need to find the fun accent pieces; rug, curtains, chair, pillows, wall art, ect :)))!!!  It's so fun!  My sweet Mom has been helping me a ton and I appreciate it so much.  The only problem is, everything she shows me, I love!  haha! Baby girl stuff is just too cute.

And just so I remember...we have been eating a LOT of ice cream :)

We've been getting together with family, friends, and piecing together the nursery, and I feel blessed!

lake season

It's here, it's here, the second to best time of the year!  SUMMER!  

I have three more weeks of school and can taste summer right around the corner.  Last weekend we went to Possum Kingdom Lake with some great friends to celebrate the kick off of lake season and Cinco de Mayo.  Sally and Tyler have the greatest lake house, it was so much fun!  And to really start the weekend on the right foot, we saw this man on the way.  It made me smile and laugh, he is one happy American :) 

Flag. Flag helmet. Sombrero. 

Saturday we went on a great hike, it was really neat and once we were at the top the view of the lake was so pretty.  When we got to the top baby Davis was moving up a storm, it was one of the first times it moved around that much and I knew what it was.  Loved it!  

Zach and I

The girls...almost there!

Beautiful view :)

After the hike we had a great lunch, laid out on the dock, took the boat for a ride, laid out some more, and enjoyed great company.  It's so nice to be able to relax and catch up with great friends.  Saturday night Sally made a fabulous dinner.  Fajitas to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with all the trimmings, homemade ice cream, and s'mores!!  I indulged to say the least.  She is such a great cook, I watched every move to try and learn some things :)  

 Homemade Margaritas (I was sad to miss out on these babies).....

but baby Davis and I sure did enjoy the s'mores :)

Sweet Catherine and Clay

 My love

Best host and hostess!  Such a great weekend!

We were all sad to see the weekend go but are already getting excited about the next lake weekend!  Feeling very blessed!

trick or treat

"The Lord is my strength and my song" Exodus 15:2

This past weekend we really got into Halloween.  This is one of the first years we actually got our costumes in advance.  Usually we are searching the night of a party with a million other people,  crazy! It felt good to be organized :)  We settled on a Gladiator and Greek Goddess, haha!  Fun!  Some of our sweet friends Sally and Tyler threw an awesome party.  They went all out with the decorations, scary foods, and witches brew.  We had so much fun!

Cute Sally, the best hostess!

Awesome table set up!

Today when doing my regular grocery shopping we went ahead and bought our candy for the many trick or treaters that will be ringing our door bell in a week.  Such a hard decision, we wanted to make sure we had the "good candy" :)  After lots of consideration, we decided that the best bag of Halloween candy would include; snickers, twix, butterfingers, almond joy, nerds, and sweet tarts.  There is no such combo, so we got a couple bags of each treat.  It's in my orange bowl, hope there's still some for the kids next Monday....yum!

 Have a Happy Halloween week and be safe!

busy bee

This July, I feel like its been a whirl wind. We have been super duper busy. All with really good things!! I was home a total of seven days this month. If you know me, you know I am a home body, so it's nice to be home and finally reflect on all of our activities.

The first two weeks of July we were in Colorado with family. You can read all about that in the link. It was AMAZING!

The third week of July we were in Milwaukee for Northwestern Mutuals Annual Conference. One of the best parts of this Conference is that it happens every year during the third week of July. Last year was our first year and we came home feeling educated and refreshed. This year was nothing shy of that! The week is packed with different activities and great speakers for motivation. One night Northwestern rented out the Milwaukee Zoo and set up huge tents with different bands, foods, and drinks. It was really neat! They call this night the Zoo party, and that it was. One day we ran a 5K along part of the Great Lake. It was beautiful and the weather was perfect. I swear if I lived there I would be a runner, for sure, in the summer months! Each morning we listened to different famous speakers, all telling their success stories. Talk about pumping you up! Some of the neat ones included Mark Allen a six time Triathlon World Champion and Aaron Rodgers who is the starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers and XLV Super Bowl MVP. We were wined and dined by great friends and had great conversations about the business :) It is all so exciting! I am so thankful that my husband has been given the opportunity to work for this amazing christian company, God is good!

Zoo Party Pic with great work friends!

My favorite animal! We got to see one run and it was so graceful ;)

Elephants just amaze me. They are like dinosaurs, I swear!

Beautiful sunset after a delicious meal at the Harbor House

In our pink with our cute husbands :) Was not planned, ha!

Sail boat docked at the pier, so neat!

Milwaukee skyline at sunset with 70 degree weather!

Last weekend I spent time with my dear friends at the Four Seasons Resort in Las Colinas. It was our first annual "girls weekend" and will from now on be a yearly event. The resort is spectacular. The service is so nice and will do anything to make you feel comfortable. We loved this part and felt very pampered all weekend :) What are girls weekends for, right? Friday night we went to Via Real Gourmet Mexican for dinner. It was so yummy and we spent the whole time laughing and catching up. Saturday we spent the whole day by the pool, applying lots of sunscreen (thanks Lindsay!) to avoid wrinkles down the road. The pool is beautiful and the poolside service is super! We were given ice cold towels to cool off with and were sprayed with Evian water for a cold breeze. It was a relaxing day by the pool and I loved it! Saturday night we went to Blue Fish Sushi and had great sushi and fancy martinis. The dinner was filled with great girl talk and lots of laughs too! The resort was great but my favorite part of the trip was being able to laugh, cry, and catch up with these girls. We are each so different yet so much the same. They make me want to be a better person and I love them so much! It was a special weekend :)

Pretty Flowers!

Poolside, our favorite spot!

Soaking up the sun!

Pretty girls!

"They will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully

sing of Your righteousness."

Psalm 107:1

showers

I am making a Spring resolution....

Entertain or "shower" more guests at our home, having over friends and family. I am welcoming SpRiNg and savoring this season by opening up our doors and hosting some fun "get togethers". This past winter I read a book called Bittersweet by Shuana Niequist, see earlier post, one of the things I love about this book is how much the author talks about entertaining her friends. She makes it sound so easy.

When I think of having over company, I immediately think of all the things that need to be done before someone steps foot in our house; vacuum up dog hair, dust shelves, clean bathrooms, get flowers. Shuana writes that it should be easy and time that is free of judgements. She goes on to say that if the people you are having over are going to gossip about the center pieces or dog hair (ha!) then you probably don't want them to come over in the first place! So true! Also, she states that the more you do it, the easier it gets, and the more calm you will be when welcoming people into your home.

My Mom is probably the most amazing host I have ever seen. She is so calm and collected and thinks of everything! Not only does she have the meal out hot, but the flowers are beautiful (usually pulled last minute from her garden), the tables are gorgeous, and she is fun and actually a part of the party! I hope that with years of practice I can be half as good of a host as she is. I also have to add here that my Dad is a pretty great co-host :) Besides the fact that he is behind all the funding of a great time, he is also always in charge of the refreshments, and he does a mighty fine job at that! What would a party be without yummy drinks?! It's a big part :) Here is a cute drink, Sparkling Orange Ginger, I found today!

This is a shower that my Mom did, this is the table before the food and guests had arrived, but I thought it was so cute and creative! This shower was a sushi shower. We served sushi, an asian salad, and cabbage salad. The mini picture frames told the guest what each roll was. Everyone loved it! Oh and we had fortune cookies!

I just got my April issue of Southern Living. The front cover just screams "have people over!" I was so glad to see it. On the inside it goes on to give easy recipes and fun party ideas. I am going to use this magazine and my Mom as my coaches through this season :) Check out all this magazine and website have to offer, it's awesome! It shares that there are four main things that will make your entertaining a success. As long as you have these things all that's left is just good company. Everything else will fall into place.

1. Table Setting and Florals - this sets the mood of the party! Best part in my opinion!

2. Meal - make sure it is easy to make and easy to eat.

3. Drinks - always have two options mock and cocktail.

4. Music - playing softly in the background, just fills the air, not a must.

Two weeks ago we had over a couple and it was so much fun! The guys grilled outside and the girls made an easy salad. Our guests brought wine and we had some beer in the frig, everything just fell together, it was really easy. Before we new it, it was almost 11:30 on a week night and we had just been sitting outside enjoying time with great friends. A lot of times, it's just taking the effort to get it organized, the rest should be something to savor :)

too good...

It is weekends like this when I am reminded of how blessed I am to be surrounded by so many wonderful people. This was one of those weekends when it is too good to be true. We are so blessed and so thankful for all of the joy God has placed in our lives, even if we are pooped from all the fun!

It started off Friday night, when Tyler and Sally, our sweet friends, invited us to go to the Tim McGraw concert. They just moved close to us and we are pumped they are in the same city. It was an awesome night, to say the least. I almost touched Mr. McGraw, we were so close. Man, he really does have some great songs. I had forgotten the deep love I have for his tunes back in the day. Brought back some great memories, for sure!

This is one of the sweet photos Zach took on his phone.

And on Saturday, some of our best buds came over to Dallas for the Dave Matthew's concert. Everyone stayed with us and it was so much fun to have our house filled with people we love. It was my first Dave concert and I loved it! Tunes were flowin, drinks kept comin, and of course there was dancin! We were so proud of our boys for planning this night. It was up to them to get the tickets and plan the weekend, they did a great job! So sweet :)

The whole gang!

Then tonight we got to hang out with Zach's Mom. She is in town for Market and she took us to dinner tonight at Mi Cocina and then, of course, Paciugo after. It was a delicious meal to say the least, but most of all it was just good to see her and spend some time together, catching up. While we were in Paciugo I got a photo in front of this picture.

It told the meaning of Paciugo -

an italian word meaning "messy concoction"...cooking with friends, creating recipes from scratch with fresh ingredients, and having fun...then you are making a "paciugo."

Pretty cool! All things I love, friends, fun, and cooking. Perfection!

AND to top it all off, my sister Erin, is having baby Olivia tomorrow! I am in awe of my sister and how calm she has been. She is a beautiful example of fully putting your faith in the Lord. Please pray that everything goes smoothly and that little "Livie" has a peaceful birthday. It is such a miracle, truly!

new name and labor day

New name, same blog. I had to close down my blog for a bit, but I have been missing it. So, this weekend I decided I would try it again. Hopefully this time things will work out :)

This past weekend was wonderful! After school starting back up, this three day weekend was much needed. We spent the entire weekend with friends and family. We started it off with a wonderful TCU football game at the Cowboy's stadium. It was so amazing. The architecture was unreal! I now have a new appreciation for architects! Plus TCU won, GO FROGS! Then we headed to the lake for a relaxing Labor Day. We spent two whole days by the pool soaking up the sun, eating Marme's delicious meals, and chatting about all the wonderful things this Fall will bring! Zach and I will have two new nieces and one new nephew this Fall. We are so excited to hug and kiss these little babies, they can't get here quick enough!

I want to leave you with this bible verse, it helps me remember that Jesus loves us and will give us a time to rest and enjoy all that we work for and all that he has given us. Also, that his love is peaceful and most full filling.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-29

beach bags and wedding bells

This past weekend was Keeton and Tyler's Wedding at Captiva Island, Florida. We have been looking forward to this trip for so long. Zach and I had so much fun celebrating with them. The resort that they picked was South Seas at Captiva.

http://www.southseas.com/

The ocean was clean and the water was warm. We spent all day Thursday at the beach and all day Friday at the pool. The sun was super hot and we all got a great tan :) It was so nice for Zach to be able to take a couple days off from work and for all of us to relax and soak up some sun rays.

The wedding ceremony was on the beach during a gorgeous sunset. It was one of the sweetest ceremonies I have ever been to. Keeton and Tyler wrote their own wedding vows (I have never seen this before) and it really made the ceremony so precious and personal.

I was teary eyed through the whole thing...surprise, surprise.

Afterwards we danced the night away with a great band!

The weekend was a great success and everyone had a blast. I came home with these super cute beach bags (party favors) and I know I will use them lots. Keeton's uncle came up with the

logo on the green bag (it's a shore thing...K & T) so cute! I also get to start wearing my bridesmaid dress, which I have been wanting to wear all summer, but knew I should wait until after the wedding.

The best part of all was being able to hang out and laugh with friends. Keeton and Tyler were always around and hanging out with all of their guests, which we loved. Also, Zach and I shared a room with Kate and Bryan whom are the best room-mates ever :) Plus we got to see Lindsay and Brad, even though it was short it was so nice to see them. The weekend was perfect and I'm sad it's over, but super excited for Keetie, she's married! yea!

The girls at the rehearsal

My love bug