Happy Birthday, My Love!

Today the Bip is 34! I am so glad he was born, because he certainly brightens my life. I am sure it is a hard job, being the most handsome man in all the land (not to mention having to put up with me), but somehow he manages.

He did not want any sort of big shindig, he just wanted some cake! Easy enough.

Yellow cake with chocolate frosting is his favorite, so that's what he got. I used a mix for the cake, but the frosting was homemade.







It was great in both looks and taste, if I do say so myself!

We celebrated with Tim and Meredith, and Josh wore the Birthday Princess ribbon that we have been passing around since Meredith's Birthday.

Who's the pretty Birthday Princess??










The ceremonial passing of the ribbon to the next Birthday Princess:



Happy Birthday, Bip! Love you madly!

Daily Photo for sometime over the weekend....

I don't remember what day it was... Friday? Saturday? But I did some grocery shopping and on the way back stopped at this tiny little place called Huckleberry... It looks like it was originally built to be a little ice cream place, but it has everything from frozen yogurt to hot dogs.



I grabbed us some hot dogs - they have a ton of toppings to choose from. Josh just wanted ketchup (no sense of adventure, that man!), and I got baked beans on mine. They served the hot dog on garlic Texas Toast instead of a bun.

Man, that was good. I really want another one. Like, right now.

Famous boys!

I was informed by my ex late last week that the boys are in the newest Nashville Scene (a weekly local publication), and will be for the next five weeks. Look out, Kardashians! These cuties are about to come steal your fame and your reality show!

Thanksgiving!

Wow, that four-day weekend just flew right by me! It was a festive whirlwind, for sure!

Thanksgiving morning, we had brunch at our house for Josh's dad, stepmom, siblings, sister-in-law and neice and nephew. I didn't know if we could fit that many people in the house at once, but we did it!

I tried to set the table all pretty...



...but everyone ended up coming at different times, so we didn't all sit down to eat at the same time. Oh, well, that's what I get for trying to be fancy! ;)

The menu included:
 Mimosas
Pumpkin bread (made by Kristen)
Breakfast Casserole (Made by Stephanie)
Scrambled Cheesy Eggs
Oven-baked french toast
Roasted Asparagus
Fruit Salad with honey, lime & mint
Cinnamon Rolls
Bacon Appetizers w/brown sugar
Chicken and Apple Sausages
Spicy Mochas



We were going to try to keep the boys out of the way during brunch,

but luckily Josh's family are dog people! The dogs happily spent time with everyone, and were pretty well-behaved.

Julio fell in love with his Uncle Donald


And sometimes he was even nice to Brooke:












Everyone hung out for a while afterward... it was really nice to welcome everyone into our home for a Holiday gathering!

But that was just round one of our Thankgiving... round two had us heading to Josh's Aunt's house for dinner - though we were still full from the morning (don't worry, we managed to force more food in our bellies)!

Her house is amazing. It's over 200 years old, and Josh says it has been in Country Living a few times. Good decorating must run in the family, because his mom is good at it, too! I tried not to be the creepy new girl taking photos of everything (though I really wanted to), but I did manage to discreetly take a few pics - however, they don't do the place justice.











This is the porch:






That's the best I could manage without looking like I was casing the joint. But seriously, it's one of those houses where you could look for hours and see something new every time. The layered decorating look is just something I can't master. I love the way it looks, but I can't replicate it. I am missing that gene!

My mother in law kept refilling my wine glass!! Luckily she stopped before I had too much and started dancing.


Here she is with Brooke:


Not only is she good at decorating and filling up a wineglass, she's crafty, too. She made us this for our front door - love it!




Hope your Thanksgiving was happy!

Around the house....

I'm a homebody. Although there is still so much I want to do to our house, I do love it, and when I'm home, I really don't want to venture out. It truly is my little nest! I don't think I've posted any pics of our bedroom, but I have a plan to change the furniture around.... maybe this weekend? We'll see.

Anyway, here are some photos I snapped while enjoying the house the other day!



















I look forward to getting more stuff up on the walls - shelves to be hung and prints need to be framed, but that will all come in time. Right now I just want to curl up on my couch and enjoy it the way it is.

Daily Photo for 11.23.10

Early birthday gift...

Daily Photo:11-22-10

Christmas vodkas... the bottles have arrived!

Daily Photo for 11-20-10 No more Piggly Wiggly

It's been turned into an HG Hill. But it will always be "The Pig" to me!

Every Girl Loves a Handy Man!

I have never really posted pictures of my kitchen on here. Not because I don't love it, because I do. It's not huge by any means, but it's just the right size for us. I love my soft yellow walls and cobalt blue accents. It's a happy kitchen. That's not to say it doesn't need a few changes (floor, curtains, cabinet knobs and hinges ASAP)!

Right before Josh moved in, he was nice enough to give me the (stainless steel) appliances in the kitchen of his old house. He traded me them for my less-than-stellar white ones. However, it wasn't until this past weekend that he got around to swapping out the dishwashers. I still had the white one and the stainless steel one was sitting in his storage unit. But now that all my appliances match, I feel like I can share photos of my kitchen, even though they aren't that great.

And can I just say how nice it is to have a husband that is handy and can do things like swap out dishwashers? Of course Tim helped him, but still. I like having a man that does man things. Grr. It's sexy. And it doesn't hurt that's he's nice to look at, too. Rawr.

Here's what you see walking into the kitchen from the dining room:



The fridge is to the left. The antique metal cabinet was given to me by my stepgrandfather - it belonged to his aunt & dates back to the 30's. I keep a lot of my canning stuff in there. And dog food! Straight back is our laundry room (you can see the hamper and dog beds) and to the left of that is the back door).

Another shot of that wall (curtains came with the house):

Woohoo! Wood floors were found when the old dishwasher was pulled out. I don't know if they extend back to the laundry room (as I think that used to be a back porch), but I am hopeful we can refinish the hardwoods in
the kitchen instead of tiling...



Here's the fridge, part of the dishwasher, etc.Some of my Fiesta is above the cabinest, but it didn't really make it into the picture.



Stove, sink, some of my Fiesta (not a great pic because of how the sun was coming in):




Wow, I need to redo this post someday, because it really doesn't capture the essence of my happy little kitchen at all. But at least my appliances match now!

Saturday...

Well, it's been a busy few days!

Saturday we got up and went to the Farmer's Market for more of that delicious chocolate milk I got last week. The line was huge, so I had this butternut squash quiche for breakfast while we waited... yum!



It was so good.



Then we went to Home Depot for mulch, came back home and got to work on the front of the house. Weeding, mulching, general upkeep. But it took all damn day.





But all that dirty work was worth it - look at our happy little house!



Some close-ups of our new and improved entry:






LOVE. Just as a reminder, here's how it looked around Halloween:



Yes. Much better.