2011 Scarf Swap!!

Wow, talk about a hiatus! I had no idea that it had been over two months since I posted. Yikes. Well I'll spare you the details on why I haven't gotten around to posting and get right to the good stuff!

It was time for the Annual Scarf swap over on The Tichenor Family blog. I've been reading Meredith's blog for over a year now and absolutely love all of the swaps and fun things that she does. This is the first year that I've actually participated, and it was so much fun! I can't wait to see what she has in store for the Holiday swap.

My partner was Brandie over at The Growing Browns. She was so much fun to work with! She lives in Texas which is cool on its own. What's even more ironic is that after checking out a map of Texas, she is about an hour and a half from San Antonio, which is where we may be living when Trevor gets back from overseas. I'll have to get some tips/advice from her on how to handle the heat. (Temps in the 100's last week for her, I can't even imagine!!). She also has two adorbale little girls with the cutest names - Wesley & Hudson. It was awesome getting to know her and read her blog! I feel like we'd have a lot in common after reading some of her posts!

As for the scarf I received....SOOO adorable! It is a circle scarf that she ordered from Kristin over at Lullaby Lubbock. When I opened it up I was so excited because I subscribe to the Lullaby Lubbock blog so I recognized it instantly! I have been wanting one for a while but never got around to ordering it. I cannot wait until next month when it'll be appropriate to wear it. How perfect. Also, it was black and gray which just so happens to match both of my winter coats! Good work Brandie ;). I absolutely love it!




Love it!
*Please disregard the fact that I just woke up, am wearing last nights makeup & a purple pj shirt, and that my dogs backside is in the pic.* OH, and I wonder who rearranged those pictures on my wall?

Finger Lakes Wine Fest 2011!

Wow, only two weeks late. Impressive on my part. A few weekends ago we headed out to the annual FLWF. As you recall from last year, this is becoming a new tradition. As I mentioned a few posts ago, the line up of people changed signficantly (triple the amount from last year!) and we had a blast. A quick recap....

Kasey and I

Me, Crystal, Kasey & John

Most of the gang, minus Keith (who was taking photo) & Kansas (who we lost)

The festival technically runs from Friday - Sunday and you are able to camp the entire weekend. This was entirely too much for us (we were a good mixture of Momma's and well, just not binge drinkers), so we only went up for Saturday. We all met at Crystal's house as it was a local meeting spot and was close to the Thruway. There were 12 of us, so we were able to condense ourselves into two large vehicles (a van and an explorer that both seat 7). This was plenty of room for all of us, our bags, the tents and the grill. It is about an hour and a half to Watkins Glenn and the ride went by quickly. When we got to our campsite (around 10:00 in the morning), we hurried to set up our tents, get organized and then we walked over to the festival.

Just like last year, it was hot & sunny but surpisingly it was not humid. We had a great time, tasting new wines, samping delcious food and just enjoying the sunshine. Although we didn't stay in our group of 12 the entire time, I still feel like I got to chat with everyone.

The festival ran from 10-5, however we were only there for about 4 hours (which was plenty, let me tell you!). Before the festival closed, we headed over to the Beer Garden. To me, this was kind of a "bust" and I know it was our fault but we got there around 4:30 and as I mentioned, the festival closed at 5. You pay an additional $10 to get in (which is definately worth it), however, most places only had "1" or "2" beer selections available and some were shut down completely. To me, it was a complete waste of $10 and I feel like the nice guy at the door should have informed us of this beforehand & it would have swayed our decision to attend that area so close to closing. Eh. You can't win em all....

After the festival, we headed back over to our campsite to cook some food and relax for a bit. We grilled up some burgers and drank some beer until the sun finally went down and we were able to socialize. We met some neighbors, got together various games of flip cup, kan jam, frisbee, etc. and just hung out for the rest of the night!

Sunday morning we woke up early, packed it up and headed home! I had my little crew of hunter, buckley and trevor waiting for me and were more than ready to head over my mom's for some swimming! Great end, to a great weekend.

Also, since it took me so long to post this, it actually brings us to POCANOS WEEKEND :). That's right, tonight after work we are packing up and venturing out to Pennsylvania to the annual Pocanos trip! 5 dogs, 2 babies and several crazy adults all in the woods? Sounds fun to me!

ice cream SUNDAYS.

Oh Monday. You've come again too soon. I had a great weekend! I've got a post coming shortly about the annual Finger Lakes Wine Festival that we attended on Saturday. The rest of the weekend was very relaxed. Trevor worked Sunday night, so Hunter and I spent the day together. We did some grocery shopping, took a dip in my mom's pool, enjoyed a nice 2 hour nap. After we woke up we met my mom for dinner at one of our favorite chinese restaurants and then headed out for ice cream. Hunter loved his little kiddie cotton candy cone (free for under 3, score!), but took to enjoying my mom's soft chocolate one when he demolished his.

Happy Monday!

a swimmin' fool.

As I mentioned in a few previous posts, Hunter has finally given into the temptation of the pool. Now we can't keep the kid out of it! We are both super happy that he wants to enjoy it with us, however we were looking for alternatives to have him "beside us" rather than us holding him.

Now that he's been in a few times and is completely comfortable, we figured we'd give a few other ideas a try...

First we tried the "lady bug" floatie my mom bought for him. It's got little holes for his legs and he would just sit up in it.

This picture doesn't truly capture the "agony" that was trying to put him in this thing. The little stinker straightened his legs and wouldn't budge. We eventually got him in it, but he kept tipping forward, as though he wanted to swim, essentially giving me a minor heart attack.

We moved onto the next logical decision, that is arm floaties. And before anyone freaks out, I would never ever be more 1 inch away from him with these on.

Needless to say, he hated those as well.

I think for now, we'll stick to the happy way... and that is being held by anyone/everyone that dares to get in the pool!

(you can tell how deeply saddened I am....)

california rollin' & happy b-day to my BFF!

Greetings All! Monday's are generally hard enough, without having to wake up to a wonderful forecast of 85 degrees. I would love to spend the day lounging in the pool, rather than constructing E-Mails & building websites but who said life was fair. I'll stop complaining now.

This weekend was a great one. Friday night Hunter and I joined Amanda and some of her(/our) friends at California Rollin' for dinner to celebrate Amanda's Birthday. For those who aren't familiar, California Rollin' is a Sushi restaurant here in Rochester. They have really great food, but we were totally not impressed with the service. First off, we called ahead to make reservations for 13 adults (and 2 kids) for 6:30. We got there around 6:20 and were really shocked to find we were sitting outside of the restaurant. In booths. If you haven't been there before, just picture an old art gallery, full of various shops/restaurants. California Rollin' is somewhere in the middle, so there is a section (outside the restaurant but inside the "gallery), then the actual restaurant, and then there is an outside (for real outside) patio. Well they had us sitting on the (inside/outside <-does this make sense), so quite possibly the WORST place you could be. And to top it all off, as I mentioned they had us in about 6 different booths. Um, hello... generally when you make reservations you would like to actually sit with your party. So naturally, we complained. They made us wait out there while they "arranged" a table out on the patio for almost an hour! We weren't even offered a drink. Not cool.

The rest of the meal went off pretty well though, and it was gorgeous outside. We all had various rolls of sushi but for the kiddos (hunter and DJ) they had a hot dog and some strawberries (thank you Crystal!).

Then we had some dessert. Who could resist a deep fried oreo? Not Hunter I assure you....

After dinner, Amanda's activity of choice was to head over to the East End Festival. Since it was her B-Day, we had to oblige :). Delaney went home with Hunter (she isn't 21 yet sadly) and the rest of us went to the festival. It was pretty fun, I got to see some old friends from High School.

<--- Carolyn, one of the girls on my cheerleading squad in high school. She actually lives right next door to my Aunt on the lake (came in handy Senior year). Her house won the award for best party house by far...Boat, hot tub, need I say more?












Julie---> Also a friend from cheerleading, although Julie and I go a little further back. When I first moved to Honeoye, my parents bought her house. So it was nice to have a friend right away after moving to a new town. Julie is also responsible for getting me grounded for the first time (riding our bikes 5 miles into town w/out telling anyone), getting me grounded a second time (staying too late at the fair w/out calling) and for getting my car towed for the first/only time. Sense a pattern? ;) Apparently together we equal trouble.



It was really great to see both of them. And everyone else we ran into. I think the birthday girl had fun as well :). I'll finish up the weekend a little bit later...

but a big Happy 24th to my bff in the whole world!

What should I read next?

Happy Hump Day!

I just wanted to post real quick about this AMAZING site I stumbled across. Have you heard of it? What Should I Read Next?... Pretty self explanitory right? Basically, you just type in one of your current favorite authors. Then, it brings up several different books/authors that others have recommended/reviewed. How cool is that? Perhaps my geeky side is showing, but I can't tell you how many times I've been looking for a new read.

Also, I'm completing a new project tonight that I'm pretty excited about. It's a step closer to getting my dining room finished! Also, Hunter's room is in the "wrapping up" stages, and I'll post pics on that when it's complete.

On a side note, I'm pretty psyched about the next few weekends. This Friday is my BFF Amanda's birthday, & her event of choice is to do dinner at California Rollin' and then head over to East End Fest for a while. Sounds pretty fun to me! Unfortunately Trevor's working, so Delaney (Amanda's sis) is going to watch Hunter for a few hours. Saturday, no big plans on the agenda howeverI may just get a few painting "jobs" done. I wanted to paint the accent wall in our room gray (to match our new comforter set!). Also, our front door is a lovely shade of purple & I'm thinkin that needs to go as well.

I'm also hoping that Sunday morning proves to be nice weather, as I've been dying to get over to the flea market in Avon (about 30 minutes south of where we live). They have so many awesome booths each year, and since I've got a few items in mind that I need, it might prove to be worth-while adventure.

Next Saturday is the Finger Lakes Wine Festival! Soo excited. This year the same group of us (Crystal, Kansas, Tiffany and Myself) are going, but we have some newcomers as well. Yeah, we are total losers and bought our tickets pre-sale. It should be a fun time. We are going up Saturday morning again and will be back Sunday morning, so it's not a lengthy get-away by any means but I'm looking forward to it :).

Happy 4th of July - Weekend!

Happy 4th of July everyone (a day late, per usual on my part). I had the best weekend! Completely relaxing & full of friends and family... Friday night, Trevor had to go into work so Amanda, Delaney, Hunter and I went over to my Mom's house for a nice swim. After that, the night was pretty uneventful and Hunter and I headed home to snuggle.

Saturday we woke up and did our new "morning routine", which consists of getting up to play on the deck while Buckley does his "business" out back.

Then we hung around for a bit, and then packed it up and went to my Mom's house. We had dinner, swam and just relaxed for the day/night. (Trevor had to go into work at 4).

Sunday, you guessed it... more of the same! Although Sunday I did run a few errands (probably my longest stretch of being out of the pool all weekend). I had some coupons/giftcards to Macy's, and they were running a nice little 4th O' July sale and i wanted to cash in. I ended up getting an awesome comforter set and some sheets (still a FAIL on my part from the bridal shower) and this adorable "H" pillow. I found it on the clearance rack, it had an original price tag of $70 but was marked down to 50% off of the original, and then 40% off of the clearance price. Oh yeah, and I had a 20% off per item coupon as well. It matches his "colors" perfectly, and oh look at that... his name begins with H. What a coincidence?

After the mall trip on Sunday, we went BACK over to my Mom's to swim. Since it was Trevor's only full day off that weekend, we had some friends over and turned it into a little swim party. Amanda's Dad joined us, & ordered us all pizza. Yum Yum & more Yum.

Monday was probably the "most fun" out of all of them! We had a 4th of July BBQ at, you guessed it, my Mom's house. We had a bunch of friends over...Amanda, Delaney, Devon, Al, Kansas, My aunt Melinda, Paige & Nathan...it was a blast! We ate clams, and some amazing salads. Not to mention our "pool side" beverages consisted of our newest finding.....

Yes my friends, that is a vodka that tastes like CAKE. We also conveniently found a little card attached to it that has several different mixes that taste like various forms of cake. Our favorites were the Key Lime Pie & Pineapple upside down cake.

We all spent the day swimming/tanning/snoozing (hunter of course), & snacking. Not a bad way to spend a day you are typically at work.

One of the best parts of the weekend was that Hunter FINALLY gave into the pool. For whatever reason, he hasn't liked it thus far. He has a little kiddie pool that my mom got him and he loves to play in that, but whenever we tried to bring him into the real pool, he would scream his head off.

Well that all changed on Monday. For whatever reason, when I dipped him in the pool he didn't scream. So we tested it out a little further...and he was still fine. Even ENJOYING himself. Folks, that was the end of his fear. He is now a little swimmin' man!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Pinterest.

For those of you who are unaware of the beauty that is "pinterest", well you are truly missing out. I started seeing posts about pinterest on some of the blogs I follow, and naturally I needed to look into it. Well let's just say it was right up my ally! It's essentially a site full of different "ideas" of various subjects [recipes, crafts, kid stuff, home decor...etc]. Let's just say, I am hooked! I've decided as to not bore the heck out of people, I'll just post my top 5 every Friday. (Oh look, today's Friday?!) Perfect.

Caramel & Sea Salt Shortbread, can you say YUUUM.

Love this idea, as a matter of fact, grabbing a frame tonight my way home from work to do a "Johnson Family" one :).

Loove the idea of scouting out different letters and completing this awesome wall decoration! It would be great in a playroom...

Don't these look amazingly refreshing on a hot summer day?

I love love love this cake! It makes me so happy, I cannot wait to make this around Christmas time with some green trees.

There you have it, my Pinterest choices for the week!

Gotta love the three day weekend. Mine will be full of picnics, swimming & good ol' fashioned relaxin'.

a Blue's Clue's celebration!

I'm trying to post in "order" of occurences, however I am still working on our Wedding day post. I'm sure you all understand that one is the most time consuming. :)

We celebrated Hunter's b-day a few weekends ago, and took the opportunity to break in the new house. It turned out to be a gorgeous day so naturally, the festivities took place in our backyard.

I tossed around a ton of birthday party themes and although I found some absolutely adorable ones (future ideas?)...and of course I decided on Hunter's current fav. I figured this was the perfect way to transition OUT of Blue's Clue's.. with one last hurrah! Because the show is a little "older", it was harder to find stuff with the actual theme on it. This was fine, I was up to the challenge.

I found a lot of various blue colored items (tablecloths, silverware, streamers, cups) and decorated the backyard. Then, I created a "candy bar", where I filled several glass vases with blue colored candy. This became the party favor for the kiddos. I found these little shovel/pail sets online (get it, Shovel & Pail are characters on the show). Our next area was a table with some leftover bubble containers from the wedding (to "blow bubbles" with Slipper Soap (another character). Another table was set up with some crayons and some print outs of the different characters. This one was labeled "Test your drawing skills with Steve".

We also had one of those bounce house things... to keep the kids amused. It was hit!

Hunter got some great gifts and to be with our friends and family it reminded us of how blessed we really are.

Now for some pics!



I made little bags of Puppy Chow for everyone to take home. I glued the recipe to the front of the bag, in case anyone wanted to recreate this tasty treat.

The refreshment table

Magenta's "Marvelous" Fruit Punch & Blue's "Berry-Good" Lemonade!

Some Blue Clue's cookies shaped like dog bones...

A basket full of snacks for the little ones, and the bubble blowing table

The "Candy Bar"

The snack/food table. We decided to do toddler favorites... Pizza, mini hot dogs wrapped in crescent rolls, macaroni and cheese and build your own fruit skewers with chocolate & cream cheese dippings.



It was a great way to ring in year # 2 for my sweetie pie :)

Catch Up!

So, a few things have happened since I last posted. Some pretty BIG ones I might mention. More to come on some of the areas, but for now I'll focus on just playing catch up.

First and foremost, we got hitched!


Yes, on 5/21 I married my best friend. It turned out to be such a beautiful day & having our family and friends there to celebrate with us made it even better! I will absolutely have more to post/pictures on this. We just got our Photo CDs from our photographer & although the site she created for us has been open for a few weeks now, I have only gotten as far as printing/framing some of my fav's. Once I get around to it, I will get those up here and on facebook.

Whew.

Another pretty "Big" thing is that we moved! We said good-bye to the middle of nowhere and moved within a 15 mile radius from my mom, my mother in law, and both sets of sister/brother in laws. (Not to mention my Aunt, Uncle... and all of our friends!). So needless to say the move was filled with happiness and we love our new house and location. I did some major re-decorating, so definately more to come on those projects.

We celebrated Hunter's second birthday...(it fell on a day when we were still at the old house, all packed up!) so his actual second birthday took place with some ice cream cake surrounded by boxes. Don't feel too bad for the little guy, we did throw him a Birthday Party at our new house (More to come on that!)

We added a furry new member to our family. A 9 month old Beagle we named Buckley. (Buck for short). There's a small story behind that.. more on that later.


In a nutshell, that was our busy month. I will post more on the Wedding...Birthday Party, and some pics of the new house/decorating over the next few days! Life has been so busy, and it didn't help that we just got our internet turned on at the new place :).

8 Days...

8 Days. I'm getting married in 8 Days.

It's kind of just starting to set it for me. The wedding is next weekend and although everything is "settled" for the most part, I still have odds and ends.

My final dress fitting is tonight. Actually, I lied. I had my final one Tuesday, but tonight I am able to go check out the bustle (it wasn't done yet) and try it on with the veil. That makes it so much more real to me. I can't wait to wear my dress for more than 2 minutes.... ;)

I still have to finish the place cards. I guess if you could pick one detail that is still "outstanding", that would be it. I've gotten through about 12 and I need to do about 76. I imagine I'll finish them up this weekend, as I heard it's supposed to be pretty rainy/crappy out.

I have to wrap up a few things "bridesmaid related", I will not speak of this further... :). We need to wrap the groomsman gifts. Thank you cards? Yeah, those would be helpful. I picked out some "cute" generic thank you cards for the (DJ, hair/makeup ladies, photographer, etc) that I need to fill out but I'm being extremly lazy about it.

All I want to do is lounge around with the new book series I found and eat random lemon desserts (totally a new obsession). But I can't...It's time to get movin'. Although I must say, I went to the library last night on my way home from work to find a temporary distraction and came across the book series (Confessions of a Shopaholic). Now I know you've all heard of that book, and they actually made a movie about it as well. However, what I didn't know is that there are multiple sequels to it, about certain stages of life that she goes through... ex) Confessions of a Shopaholic "Ties the Knot", Confessions of a Shopaholic "And Baby", you get the drift. I'm excited to start reading them when I have a moment to breath.


On a side note, tomorrow is my birthday... 24 big ones. Whew.


Happy Friday Everyone!

Easter, Bachelorette, Mommy's Day (a quick run down)

Time to catch up! Please forgive me as I fall two holidays behind. It's not as though nothing exciting is happening in my life, it's more like TOO MANY exciting things. I just can't find the time to sit down, and jot it all down. I do want to keep up with the blogs over the next few weeks though because Hey, I'm getting married in 12 days. Just a quick recap of the last few weeks (in order)...

Easter was fun this year. We did a little mini egg hunt for Hunter, he loved it! His basket was full of goodies, in fact I'm still finding little starburst jelly beans all over the house. Awesome.



We made little treats for daycare... and this time Hunter actually helped...

Love it.

The next weekend I celebrated the final stretch into married life with my Bachelorette party (parties?). Friday night, we went to dinner at Sticky Lips (one of my fav local joints) and had a few drinks. It was a lot of fun, although I can safely say my mom and my bff's mom are two peas in a pod. It was a great night.

Saturday, Hunter and I work up around 10:00 and headed out to Heniretta by 11:00. We first picked up Devon (who was dropping off her dog at her Mom's house), then swung by Amanda's house. Amanda's sister was watching Hunter for the night, so we left him to a fun night filled with Jakie's (dogs), snacks and Blue's Clues. Then Devon, Amanda and I took off for Buffalo. We got to Liz's about an hour later, and quickly settled. Then the 4 of us took off to visit some wineries up near Niagara Falls. It was such a beautiful day for it, and the area was really pretty to visit. By the time we were done (we visited about 4 wineries), we were ready to head home and rest/eat before our big night out. We stopped at Wegmans and grabbed the most random spread of Sushi, Munchos, Heath Bar Cookies, and pasta. Totally random, but the perfect filler until Dinner. We relaxed for a few hours, watched some friends, took a little nap, and then by about 8:00 we were ready to start getting ready!

Mike was generous enough to be our drop-off, and he let us out on Chippewa Street which is a strip in Buffalo that is filled with bars and restaurants. We decided to eat dinner at a place called the Chocolate Bar. It was pretty packed when we got there so we took a seat at the bar and ordered some delcious martinis. I got Wedding Cake, and found it not only "fitting" but delicious as well. Once we were called up to our table though, we were starving and although the food took a while to get to us. I would definately go back there.

After the food, we visited a bunch of bars, and I had a great time. I was completely spoiled the entire trip and am extremley grateful :). I had the best time, and wouldn't have traded any of it!

This past weekend was a busy one also. Hunter and I drove down to Bradford for my little sister's first birthday party! They grew up so fast, and just keep getting cuter everyday. Hunter loved having other kids to play with and although he's not down with the "sharing" aspect of life, was a pretty good sport considering the lengthy ride.

Sunday was Mommy's day and was a great one for me :). I got my favorite breakfast made for me (Egg white breakfast sandwiches, homefries and a lemon bar. What a lovely way to start out the day. I spent the rest of the day relaxing, playing with Hunter and just watching movies. Then for dinner, (trevor had to work at 4) I met my Mom and Joey at Biaggis for a delicious dinner. It was amazing and it was a great finisher to the day. I'm extremly grateful for the great family/friends I have ....

Did I mention I'm getting married in 12 days....