Showing posts with label sisters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sisters. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Fun for the 4th

I hope y'all had a Happy 4th of July! We sure did! We went down to Pensacola for four days and it was wonderful! :) We went snorkeling off of Ft. Pickens and we saw lots of hermit crabs and really pretty fish! Matt saw a blown up puffer fish and Katie and Matt both saw red snapper, but I was on the beach at the time and did not see any...maybe next time! Katie and I were laughing at Matt as he tried to body board in the small waves one day because he just kept getting tossed around in the surf but he would get right back up and do it again and again like a little boy! We had so much fun! We ate lots of great seafood, laughed a lot, thoroughly enjoyed the beach, stayed up too late, and had a ball. I can't wait to go back! I did not take many pictures while we were there, but below i posted a few of the little I did take.

This quote sums up how I felt while we were on our vacation...

:D


Matt and me at Jaco's in Pensacola for dinner

Meghan and me

Matt and me

Meghan, Katie and me

Yay for sisters being together :)

Katie's boyfriend, Bryan, and me

Matt & me on the 4th of July

Matt snapped this picture of Katie and me without us knowing and I think it's hilarious

This one we're prepared for! :D

I cannot believe the 4th has already come and gone! Summertime...slow down please!

oxox,
lauren

*image courtesy of Tumblr.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Getting settled

Well, we're now residents of Nashville, TN! We moved in a little over a week ago and we are getting acclimated with Nashville and our new home. I have been busy unpacking boxes and trying to get re-organized! It's a lot of work! I so wish there was an easier way to unpack everything and put it in it's proper place!

Matt won two tickets to a Nashville Predators ice hockey game in a drawing at work, so we went to the game last night had a good time. It was a welcomed break from unpacking!

With all that has been going on in our lives, I have not had any time to get to any new posts, so I am going to post some overdue pictures from over the holidays when we were in Florida...

Me and Matt at McGuire's

Katie, Meghan, Me & Matt having lunch at McGuire's


Out shopping

Cool light fixture

Distressed from all the amazing furniture...I wanted all of it!

Love when we're all together!

I guess I better get back to the boxes and the organizing!

oxox,
lauren

Thursday, January 13, 2011

New Year, New State

Hello! I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays!

We went down to Florida to spend Christmas with my mom and two sisters and we had a great time! We all had a wonderful Christmas and I hope you did too! We came back to Atlanta to celebrate the New Year and Matt and I had a wonderful dinner out at Pricci (one of our favorite restaurants in Atlanta) to celebrate and it was delicious.

With the New Year brings some big changes for us. First of all, we're moving to Nashville, TN! My hubby got a great job opportunity there and now we're relocating. Matt and I have been a whole three times in our entire lives, two of which were for his interviews and one to house hunt last weekend. It's been a whirlwind. The whole process began back in the beginning of October! They brought us over twice for him to interview, and then made him an offer right before Christmas and he accepted a few days later! Whew! So far I know where the two best malls are (sounds a bit lame, but one of the days he interviewed for nine and a half hours and I was by myself all day wandering around Nashville, so, yes that is how I spent my time alone!), some great restaurants, cute shops, Vanderbilt and that is about it. Last weekend we had a tour of downtown Nashville and the surrounding areas so we learned some more about the city. It is going to take a little while. We are very excited for this change in our lives! It is always a bit intimidating to move to an unfamiliar city and also in our case, an unfamiliar state, but 99% of the people we have spoken to about Nashville really love it and we think we will too!

So, back to December when this became official, I surprised Matt with a very nice dinner. I cooked him a porterhouse steak, and that was the first time I have ever cooked steak in my life! I went to a butcher in Buckhead and bought a 1 1/2" thick porterhouse and used an epicurious recipe that you can find here, if you would like. I cooked these mashed potatoes as a side dish along with asparagus. I bought some rolls that he did not even touch because the steak was the size of a basketball and he had two side dishes to go along with that...it was a lot of food, but I had planned out the whole menu and bought the ingredients before I got to the butcher and saw how enormous the steak was! I was so nervous about messing up the steak, but Matt promises it was the best steak he ever had! I feel like I set the bar a bit high though, I mean let's be honest, I am not going to be cooking him porterhouses on a regular basis here! My husband is definitely a meat and potatoes kind of guy and he had a permanent smile on his face that whole meal. It was so fun to see how excited he was...I mean, he was giddy...I am not kidding!

I told you it was a lot of food! The steak was huge! He ate the entire thing though, just not all of the mashed potatoes and he could not eat any of the bread (understandably)!

Mixed cherry tomatoes are not really in season, so I just used all red, but I don't think Matt had a problem with that!

This is now my husband's favorite meal and he talks about this darn steak a lot!

I don't eat steak, so I had chicken instead. I have to say that the mashed potatoes were really good, if you're looking for a new recipe you should try these.

Well, we have a lot going on! It looks like we are headed back up to Nashville tomorrow to continue our house hunt (we did not find a place last weekend) and we're keeping our fingers crossed that we find a place because Matt starts his new job in the middle of next week!

oxox,
lauren

Friday, December 3, 2010

Fit to be tied...with a pretty bow!

Alright, so I am just going to say it...i am in love with (or maybe obsessed with!) Christmas. Some would say I am over-the-top or even a bit obnoxious about how much i like Christmas, but I am okay with that because it makes me happy. Christmas is my favorite holiday and my favorite time of the year. I think I love Christmas so much because I know it is something I can always count on to be there, year after year. I know that lights and decorations will be everywhere every December and things just look so pretty. I know a lot of people are currently thinking of gift ideas and going out shopping every weekend. Why are some people so hard to shop for? I have already finished most of my shopping, but here are some of my favorite gift ideas. Now, these are girly gifts (i have two sisters, two sister in-laws, my mother and mother in-law to shop for) because the girls out-rule the boys in my family and i have been shopping for lots of girly gifts...

Love this necklace + it would look great for New Year's!

I think these colorful ikat bowls are just as great for decorating as they are for eating

Love and Toast is a super cute line of hand creams and other fun products and the adorable packaging makes it the perfect gift

I think I need this pretty sequined tank

Great clutch for a fun night out

Love the faux-fur trim on these little gloves

This precious little ring bowl is so unexpected

Any girl could use a notepad with some fun & pretty color to jot down her to-do list

This sunglasses case is not only cute, but probably helpful when trying to find your glasses in your bag!

Soft and pretty cable knit slippers

Who doesn't like chocolate? And please, the gorgeous Mast Brothers packaging is insane!

Sephora is one of my go-to gift stores, they have a ton of options, like this great Fresh gift set

Our wedding Shutterfly book

This is a wonderful gift idea for anyone special in your life! So, I am in love with Shutterfly, not just for storing my pictures, but for making personalized photo books and lots of other cool stuff. I completely surprised Matt with a formal photo book of all of our favorite wedding photos and then a fun photo book of our honeymoon pictures last year for Christmas. I was so excited about giving them to him and he was so happy and surprised when he opened them! I also made two more wedding books, one for my mom and one for his parents and they were a huge hit. They make really thoughtful and special personalized gifts that will be kept forever.

Our honeymoon Shutterfly book

Happy shopping!

oxox,
lauren

*Pretty sparkly gold necklace, little colorful ikat bowls, Love & Toast, fun sequin tank, zipper clutch, cute faux-fur trimmed gloves, dainty ring bowl, colorful note cube, pretty pink sunglasses case, comfy cable knit slippers, Mast Brothers Chocolate, Fresh gift set, Shutterfly