i'm too excited to sleep!

This is how I felt last night. (Still my favorite commercial of all time.)

While I wish I could say it's because we are going to Disney World, it's something almost as exciting. 

I can't share anything until tomorrow except this...but tune in tomorrow because the post is going to be a FANTASTIC way to start off 2013!

let's review

2012 was a WINNER for sure. We got married, went on our honeymoon to paradise, got a puppy and had a perfect first Christmas. As amazing as it was, I know 2013 will be even better. I'm hoping it will include buying our first house! Here's a look back at our year. (With many more in depth look backs to come on future Wedding Wednesday posts.)

the sweetest thing

I'm pretty positive that the sweetest thing in the world is seeing your husband play with babies. 

Every time A plays with Reid I get even more excited to have little ones of our own. 

Today we've been relaxing at the table with Reid while Uncle Dre reads him books. (The love this child has for reading rivals my own. It's pretty awesome.) I wish I could take a week off work every month and hang out with Reid.

We probably have a couple years before we're ready to have a little bambino of our own, so having Reid to kidnap babysit makes my baby cravings go away for a little bit. Then they come back when I look at what a great daddy A is going to be!

christmas 2012 - a recap

Only 364 days until Christmas 2013!

But seriously, Christmas 2012 was amazing. Spending time with family is my favorite part of this holiday. That and seeing everyone's faces when they open gifts! I LOVE when I get it right and immediately see the joy on their face.

Christmas was extra special this year because it was the first year my nephew really got it. 

Viewing Christmas through a child's eyes makes it even better. I can't wait to have little ones of my own and start our own traditions with them.

Until we have little ones, I'll just have to settle for Mr. Bowden. It was his first Christmas and as you can see, he had a great time. Pooped out around 5pm.

My first Christmas Eve away from home was this year. It was definitely harder than I expected. We spent Christmas Eve and the morning with A's parent's in Lafayette and then drove to Houston to get in around 2pm. I am SO blessed that I get to spend the day with two amazing families, but it's bittersweet. 

I spend 23 Christmas Eve nights with my siblings and parents. Church around 7, then home to open one present. Santa would come and we would wake up to cinnamon rolls in the morning. Not a huge shebang, but 23 years of doing the same thing makes it pretty special.

This year we spent Christmas Eve at A's parent's house. Mass at 4 and then home to eat and play board games. I made everyone Lasagna Soup and then we enjoyed some Apples to Apples and Taboo. A fun night for sure!

So, this is our new tradition for now. We're having fun thinking of we would like OUR tradition to be. Merging his and hers and making it ours and only ours. I'm pretty excited about that.

I'll leave you with a few more scenes from last night - can you tell that I'm having fun with our new iMac? Also, I got the Creative Suite and I'm having too much fun playing around with Photoshop again. I used it daily in college, but haven't much since. It's like riding a bike...but harder. Might take me a while to get the finished products looking good!

Merry Christmas, y'all!

Wishing you and yours the merriest of days!

pedi-scam

NYC at Christmastime is magical. There are lights everywhere (do they start putting those up in August or something?) and the city just feels like a Christmas wonderland. It's my second year in a row to go at this time, and though I complain of travelling so much for work, I really am SO lucky that I get to experience this for free.

The not magical part? There are people EVERYWHERE. It seems everyone know how amazing it is this time of year. People everywhere = no cabs anywhere. No cabs = standing outside in the freezing cold for even longer.

When we didn't see any cabs pull up, we thought we were being smart by locating a pedicab and jumping it in. It was surprisingly warm under the tarp and "fur" blanket, and it was only a 9 or so block ride.

Our driver was awesome, and he must have been crazy in shape to ride all over NYC with people attached to the back of his bike.

We enjoyed the sights during the ride and joked about how smart we were to take a pedicab - we even got there faster in it because of the insane traffic!

Our driver was very nice and took some pictures for us at the end of the ride. Extra tip for you, kind sir!

At the end of the ride, he plugged in his square and scanned my card. I immediately hit the 25% tip button and only then looked up at the total in the corner.

$193.75 - that had to be wrong!! I changed the tip to 15% and it read $173.45. I looked up in horror and asked our driver if there was some sort of mistake, perhaps it was supposed to say $17.43?

NOPE. The ride is $50 per person plus some sort of cents per block.

I really would have had a panic attack had that ride been on my own dime. Straight up not able to breathe in the middle of the city. Thank goodness I could expense it.

We were all set to brag about our awesome ride, but after that we vowed to not speak a word. Somehow someone at the party brought it up and we asked what she thought of them. Turns out, the city is in the middle of a big pedicab crack down as they are ripping people off right now. Yep, we were definitely ripped off. Seems as though tourists are the only ones who ever take them.

So, word to the wise, wait for a cab. (OR download the Uber app - it is a lifesaver!)

Other scenes from the city:

This is how old people pre-party. Carbolicious.

Baked by Melissa is always necessary. ALWAYS.

Hello, nola. See you again in three hours.

 

We are heading to New Orleans around 1 today. A's team plays in their bowl game tomorrow (Geaux Cajuns!), so we'll be celebrating that all weekend.

 

PS - can you believe Christmas is on Tuesday?! The insanity of EOY for me really takes all the fun out of the anticipation. I am so glad I saved some days off so I could have all next week off. I need to hit the refresh button. I'm looking forward to being able to post more & read more blogs - and keep that up into 2013!

merry christmas 2012

No wedding wednesday today because I'm about to board a flight to NYC! I wish I could say I was going for pleasure and doing all sorts of fun things, but I'm heading there for another work party. Yes, it will be fun, but I won't get to do anything off my list. A was going to join me for the weekend, but UL plays in a bowl game on Saturday and if we missed that, I would have a VERY unhappy husband!

Instead I am linking up with Kristen.

I wish I could send all of you cards personally, but I didn't order that many cards! So, this will have to do.

Here's our 2012 Christmas card. Merry, merry!

26 Angels

I wasn't able to catch up much on blogs yesterday, so I missed the moment of silence. I already had a post scheduled for today, but I felt I still needed to participate in this.

We don't know why the events on Friday happened, and we may never. But we do know that God welcomed 26 angels into Heaven that day. 26 angels gone too soon. 26 families that will be mourning this Christmas instead of celebrating.

In memory of:Olivia Engel, 6 
Emilie Parker, 6
Charlotte Bacon, 6
Ana Marquez-Greene, 6
Dylan Hockley, 6
Madeleine Hsu, 6
Catherine Hubbard, 6
Jesse Lewis, 6
James Mattioli, 6
Jack Pinto, 6
Noah Pozner, 6
Caroline Previdi, 6
Jessica Rekos, 6
Avielle Richman, 6
Benjamin Wheeler, 6
Allison Wyatt, 6
Daniel Barden, 7
Josephine Gay, 7
Chase Kowalski, 7
Grace McDonnell, 7
Anne Marie Murphy, 25
Victoria Soto, 27
Rachel Davino, 29
Lauren Rousseau, 30
Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, 47
Anne Marie Murphy, 52
Mary Sherlach, 56

I've donated to these 26 families and I hope you consider donating as well.

"Newtown Youth and Family Services, Inc. is a licensed, non-profit, mental health clinic and youth services bureau dedicated to helping children and families achieve their highest potential. NYFS provides programs, services, activities, counseling, support groups and education throughout the Greater Newtown area.

ANY DONATIONS MADE TO NEWTOWN YOUTH AND FAMILY SERVICES WILL BE DONATED DIRECTLY TO THOSE EFFECTED BY THE SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SHOOTING.
Please visit THIS PAGE to make your donation.

 

time for the big leagues

Up until a year ago, I was firmly in the anti-Apple crowd.

I had plenty of opportunities to get Apple products, but for some unknown reason, I chose to get something else.

MacBook? Nah, I'll just ask my parents for this cheap, crappy Dell laptop because I feel bad making them spend that much on something that isn't even that great. (Yes, I was naive an a little 18-year-old.)

iPod? Nah, I'll ask for some obscure branded mp3 player that will only last a year and is impossible to get to work.

iPhone? Nah, I'll stick with my crappy awesome Blackberry. Upgrade to iPhone? Nah, I'll get this super amazing HTC Evo that dies every four hours.

I finally came to my senses last year and got an iPhone 4S. And surprise, surprise, I love it. DUH! Doesn't everyone?

So, when it came time to research a new computer, I was somehow stuck on the no-way-jose' to Apple train again. That's a very lonely train, it seems.

On Saturday A and I ventured over to The Orchard. It's this cute little Apple shop in Lafayette and they are SUPER helpful and knowledgeable. (And they don't work on commission. Don't you hate when you can tell someone is only helping you so they can make money?)

A walked up to the sales guy and said "Sell her on Apple." And, surprise, 30 minutes later I was sold.

Two hours later, I did it. I bought my new baby.

To say I love my new iMac is an understatement. Obsessed would probably be a better word. She gets delivered on December 31st and I'm counting down the days. I am able to get CS5 from work, so that bumps up the excitement level to INSANE amounts. I haven't been able to do any design work since college - and part of the reason I've been down in the dumps at work is because I'm not utilizing my creative side.

Yes, she is very expensive, but she's going to be very worth it. From what everyone tells me, iMacs last a very long time, and she'll be a great family computer when that day comes.

Please tell me I'm not insane and that you love your computer this much, too. It will make me feel a lot better.

hey there monday

I'm not even going to try to make today happy by saying happy Monday. It's definitely NOT a happy day over here. The weekend, however, was a good one. Friday we ventured out, but I'll have separate posts on those activities later this week.

Saturday morning I woke up to this lovely feast prepared by my amazing husband. He's the breakfast lover of the house. It was lunch for me - he let me sleep in until 11:30 and I love him even more for that.

Bowden got in some good stair running practice before the rain started.

What rainy Saturday is complete without grilled cheese?

Under the tree they go.

Peekaboo, I see you catching up on my blog. What a good little husband.

Today has been a downright terrible day at work and it's had me in the dumps. Then I get even more in the dumps that I'm depressed because I really have it pretty good. I have a great paying job and a fantastic husband. There's 26 families out there that lost a loved one on Friday - it really could be so much worse. So for the rest of the day I pledge to think about the things I'm thankful for and not the things I wish I could change. I hope you do the same as well.

Link up with Leeann and Sami

friday randoms

Do your happy dance - it's Friday! It's the second to last Friday of the year for me. I'm off to NYC next week for another Holiday Party for work, so a Friday today and a three day work week next week makes for an awesome time. Then I'm off until 2013! I need this break like coffee needs sugar. BAD.

 

Randoms from this week

1: Found some new milk straws - cookies and cream | 2: Found this nice note in a FedEx package! There are some really nice people out there | 3: Meal planning

 

 

 

I also disovered how to land back in fantasy land regarding our future house. I found this website where you put in the amount of rooms, bathrooms and garage bays you want as well as the style of home you want. Then it brings up plans for houses. They sell the full plans that you can then give to a contractor (either editable or uneditable) and badabing badaboom, you have yourself your dream house. That bottom right one? Yep, that's my dream house. Anyone want to go in on lottery tickets with me?

 

Tonight we are heading to a new local brewery with some friends. Free tours with complimentary beer! Can't beat that. Beer isn't my favorite so I'll probably let A drink my share. Unless they have a cider beer, yumms. Then we're going to try Acadian Village again for the Christmas lights! It's cold here today so it will really feel like Christmas this time.

 

Have a great weekend!





Saw It. Pinned It. Did It.

Hello there! I am finally getting a free moment today to work on a post. This is my busy season at work, but luckily I only have FOUR workdays left in 2012!

 

I'm linking up again with Steph and Katie. This is something I pinned a while back and have always meant to do, but waited until the worst time to actually do it. It's really hard to find a blow-up pool in November. So what did I do with said pool?

 

Here's my inspiration pin.

 

via

 

My favorite thing to do as a kid was to make a pallet/fort and watch movies all weekend on it. So that's exactly what we did!

 

It overtook our entire teeee-tiny living room and made the apartment look like a mess, but it was so worth it. We spent all Friday night cuddled up in the pool watching movies. Here we were watching What to Expect. Super cute!

Bowden wanted to know where all of his play space went. Good thing he passed out for the night at 5pm - tired from being a country dog all day long.

No movie night is complete without some cupcakes. Lafayette just got the cutest little dessert shop and we go way too much. A got a peppermint cupcake and I got a wedding cake cupcake. Almond flavored HEAVEN.

So there you have it! If you're looking for a fun date night at home, I highly suggest this. Just make sure to plan ahead and buy your pool during summer.

Go link up - there's some good stuff today!

wedding wednesday

In today's edition of I have too many wedding posts, we have our engagement pictures!

I used the photographer my sister used and I LOVED him. If you live in Houston or know anyone that does, seriously consider using him. He's fantastic and so is his wife. Check them out!

I picked out my outfits way in advance and then coordinated A's to fit with mine. I had three picked out but he vetoed the last one and added his own idea.

 

 

 

 

March in Texas is my favorite - the bluebonnets are GORGEOUS. We lucked out, normally you have to drive up to Brenham to get the good fields, but my brother's neighborhood in The Woodlands had a fairly decent sized one this year and we were able to go there instead.

I probably looked through hundreds of engagement pictures to get the style I liked. I HATE a bunch of posed, weird looking pictures. Danny did a great job mixing in the necessary posted shots with the candid looking shots. I say "looking" because I was surprised by how many candid shots are actually him telling you what to do, but when you look at the photo it still looks candid.

 



A's outfit idea incorporated our schools. Normally, as a UL grad, he wouldn't be caught dead in LSU clothes (except when I drag him to LSU games on non-UL game days); however, he suggested that we switch it up and wear each other's colors. UL's mascot is the Ragin' Cajun, so this shirt was perfect for the occasion. I really liked how these shots turned out.

My absolute favorite part of the pictures is how they looked on our save the date. It's still up on our fridge because I love it so much.

If you're in the market for a save the date or a last minute Christmas card, go check out Mink Cards. I'll be using them again!

Thanks for reading and click here for more wedding wednesday posts!