BIG Birthday's

Today is a special day. The two most important men in my life, JH and Big Pops both celebrate their birthdays. It's also my uncles {dad's brother} birthday as well. Yea, I know. It's interesting weird how we all share birthdays around our family.

John's only request for his bday was not to be featured on LTK. He got a fishing rod instead.

So, HAPPY 31st Birthday to the sexiest, sweetest, wildest husband I know:

And HAPPY 60th BIRTHDAY to the cutest, funniest, most supportive Dad I know:

This pic is a little dated but too good not to share.

Let the celebrations begin!

29: Time to live it up

So, Tuesday I had a birthday. And while the number is nothing special, the age actually is. It's a wrapping up, coming to the end, closing of a chapter kind of age.

29. Last year of my twenties.

It's funny how you begin your twenties in one state of mind - college, class, dorms, partying, shackin', traveling ...and finish your twenties in somewhat of a different state of mind - job, career, travel, weddings, husbands, houses.

Well, at least for me.

But what's even funnier is while I started and ended the decade in a different place, I'm still {for the most part} doing the same things at 29 I did at 21.

The twenties are accepting. If there are things you're still doing at 29 that you did at 21 but shouldn't be doing, you can get away with it. It's ok to figure yourself out, change jobs, drink too much, spend too much, date and break up and marry. It's also ok to find your dream job, grow your family, and actually stay in on a Friday night, if you want to.

That is what your twenties is for; to make decisions, to make mistakes, to go and do, see and be seen, grab life by the horns and run with it.

With all that said, I'm embracing this year. I'm going to keep doing what I've been doing for the past 9 years.

How is that for a preachin???

Here is my birthday week in celebration....

icecream cake from my bestie coworker, LBS

cute husband

Birthday dinner and Limoncello shots with the girlz

Cheers!

Happy Birthday to my sweet Lil Sis as well. She made her debut 23 years ago on my 6th birthday and while I may or may not have thought it at the time, it's still my best birthday present yet to this day. Love you Lina.

An Easter Celebration with Everyone

Easter was special this year. Not that it's not always, it's probably the most special holiday of the year in that regard, but we changed up our holiday tradition.

Since it was Master's weekend and Master's Sunday is not only John's favorite day of the year, but according to him also a non travel day. With that made known, we extended an open invitation to both sides of our families to join us for church and lunch at our house afterwards.

Being that Easter is a Big Celebration of Life we decided to expand our little gathering and include two of our dear family friends were in town as well. Making that a total of 15 peeps in our little rancher, dad said it best ...'Dear God thank you for this special day and for the celebration of your son's life and thank you for bringing so many loved ones together into the smallest house in Buckhead' !

Luckily for me, everyone brought the feast and I was just in charge of setting the table.

We missed those that couldn't make it, especially our siblings, but it was definitely an Easter for the books.

Note: my knife setting is improper and the tulips are wilted. I forgot to put water in the vases. Oops.

 Always fun to bring out the China

John's bloody mary bar fixins'

MBT Homemade Cake

The best Blessing of all - Godsis announced thru cake pops baby Dean is a GIRL!!

Weekend

Wow, it's already Wednesday.

Bloggin' sometimes sneaks away from you.

I jetted off for the weekend to celebrate my dear cousin's upcoming wedding. Living in NYC she wanted guaranteed sun, so we escaped to this fabulous boutique resort. It was delightful & FUN. And I got to see my sister who I hadn't seen since Christmas.

pic (obviously) from their website

Here is the bride dressing the part. We kept it classy.

My other cuz, her sis & MOH, did such a great job with all the details & accessories. These were delicious cupcakes from a local bakery that devoured at all hours of the night.

The cousins

sister.

(who claims she didn't have a 'hurt head' all weekend.)

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After a long weekend of sun & fun, I then carried on the getaway to one of my most favorite events of the year with husband, brother, & his gf...

It's a tradition like no other, and we had a blast. In fact, John says he added a nice contribution to our 'china cabinet'. That's 32 cups just in case you're curious.

It was the perfect weekend filled with lots of family quality time.

Doesn't get any better than that.

Merry Christmas! {a little early}

Hi. I'm off to hit the ski slopes with the in-laws for a few days & then return to spend Christmas with my fam.

Wishing you & your family a very Merry Christmas!

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There is much to Celebrate.

How True?

{Our Tree 2011}

Turkey Round Up

Hi Friends! Where have I been? I guess recovering from lots  of turkey, family, friends, & a head cold.

We had a great thanksgiving. It was just the immediate family this year minus the sis (we missed u!) which was different - but perfect. It was actually nice to have some Q.T. with just us and really enjoy eachother's company...that's what its all about right?!

So here it is in pics...

Table All Set.

Timer Shot. Fail.

My holiday spirit addition.

Finn discovered the pool cover.

And the Best for last.....

4am. Too much stuffing? Or Too much Moonshine?! You decide....

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We concluded the holiday weekend with an engagement party for one of our besties. Here is the gorgeous bride with her fam doing what she does best (love ya Tina!) when her Dad gave his sweet toast .

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

Now moving on to the Most Wonderful Time of the Year ...

NYC in November

Hi. I am back from my 5 night adventure. Started in Memphis for work and finished in NYC for a girls getaway with the mom, sis, aunt & cuz. I am tired. The 4am wake up call for a 6am flight on a Monday morning = torture. What was I thinking right? Live & learn.

Anyways, we had a blast. Girls are fun. Family trips are even more fun.

The weather was perfect, sunny & breezy, and we didn't have an agenda. That's the great thing about having a sis that lives there and getting to visit often. I feel like I can go & pretend to be a local and not have to do 1,000 touristy things. My sister would digress. If I heard it once I heard it a 1,000 times "your such a tourist" "walk this way" "do it this way". Gotta love the sisterly love. As our mom reminded us, I'm used to bossing her my whole life & now she has a little yankee in her and stands her ground!

So moving right along...the mom's stayed at the gorgeous, old fashion Waldorf

and the cousins stayed at the sister's apartment...what a beaut.

We dined here, here, & here - clearly we have a thing for Italian.

And brunched here, which was pure perfection. I knew I would love the place which is tucked in a little back alley & greeted by these awesome blue doors.

We drank. We went the Rye House and it was fun to reminisce on our NYU summer living...oh the memories made at Union Square.

I also made an appearance got drug to Bowery Electric & was by far the oldest person there. I must admit it was really fun....and I must admit that I awkwardly stood in the corner like a fugly 6th grader at her first dance. I couldn't get going with my dance moves - must of been the 'age'. However, after this weekend I am obsessed with this song. How bizarre is that video?

What else did we do? Of course we shopped. Oh, I kindly drug them to the flea market again and it was a bust. Well, I got 2 more of my vintage plates...yes, they were still there from August & he still claimed they were some fancy french something.

We also shopped at the Holiday Market  in Union Square. It was awesome. Well worth checking out if you're making the trek soon. Imagine vendor after vendor selling everything from ornaments to jewelry to art to spices? You name it, it was there. I bought an ornament {a tradition jh & i started} and by Sunday it was shattered to pieces in my purse. Great.

Lastly, we re-vamped / re-vitalized / re-birthed the sister's digs. Let's just say we went from the before above to this....

Details & more pics in another post.

Sadly we missed Occupy Wall Street. And Chelsea Market & a run on the Hudson River. But can you ever do it all?

Alright, enough said. I'm half-eyed & four-eyed - i left my contacts, debit card, & watch in nyc...one day I will learn.

Hope you had a great, fun, entertaining weekend!

*Oh and I must admit for those curious, I really missed little Finn.

A {Grateful} Getaway

Hey friends. Hope you are having a good week. We returned late Monday night from an island wedding weekend & I played catch up at the j-o-b all day yesterday.

We were in St. Thomas, USVI celebrating one of my favorite people...Godsis! She is my godparents daughter {self explanatory, eh?} and we are 364 days a part in age & very close. She is a flight attendant & married a Pilot....fitting right? Both of which said they would never marry the opposite.

{view of paradise from our room}

It was such a special, fun weekend.

There was a slight mishap...my wonderful Godparents were robbed & held at gunpoint in the gated house they rented. Horrible. Luckily, they are safe & alive and only material {replaceable} things taken, but we are so fortunate they were ok and grateful they are alive, hence the post title.

Here they are looking gorgeous, happy, blessed, and content.

It was a perfect wedding and everything was absolutely gorgeous. Love you Godsista & thank you for letting us share in ya'lls special day!

Budget Talk

My sister has lived in NYC one full month and of course already feels broke. In her defense, her rent almost exceeds her paycheck and a girls gotta live it up in the city, right?

So with that, lately there has been a lot of money talk in our family.

Couple that with my brother who is also employed but constantly counting pennies {insert: girlfriend, golf, etc} and I thought the bossy Big Sis should introduce the friendly word... Budget.

{Disclaimer}: By no means am I a money expert.

My out-go often exceeds my in-come.

But I am a Right brainer. I love numbers and budgets.
I found one of my first budget spreadsheets, post college-just entering workforce.

2006	Aug
rent
bills
Lunches	93.13
Dinners	161.66
Bars	129.17
clothes	161.44
gas	65.01
grocery	19.65

Clearly I liked to eat out. Who grocery shops at 23, right?!

I have come a long way. But, those sure were the good 'ole days. 

Budgeting can be a positive thing. It gives you a 'sense of reality & perspective.'

It can also be very in your face...tough to admit you spent $ on that shirt or $ on a bar tab.

So, for my siblings and any other recently employed & non-budgeters, I found these simple tips on How to Budget:

*Keep it Simple. Break expenses into two categories: Fixed & Variable. As for variable, list main categories that fit your lifestyle and have a miscellaneous category for infrequent purchases (Avoid my above budget!)

*Stay on top of it. Make an effort to frequently track your spending. (I found a good time is Monday morning after a big wkend).

*Review and adjust. At the end of the month, take a minute to review your spending and adjust the areas you need to cut back. You should know what to expect from your income and your fixed costs (rent, bills, insurance, cell, etc). If your expenses are exceeding your income, make an effort to pull back next month in the variable areas.

Give it a shot. I promise you will like it. It becomes almost a game and if it's not your thing then...Who Cares, it's your Dough to do whatever you want !


For those that budget, have any tips or tricks you've found successful?

A Special Day

2 years ago today.

Happy Anniversary to the best husband a girl could ask for...

He cooks delicious meals. Cleans our bathrooms. Mows our grass. Does his own laundry....all while naked looking HOT.

It's been a fun, eventful, sometimes challenging, and most of all rewarding two years.

Love you husband.