First Real Shoes

Grandma and Papaw came over this weekend and took Owen shopping! They found some great deals on clothes for next fall for Owen. And they bought him his first pair of Stride Rites in hopes to help him walk! He looks so cute in the shoes, but a little too grown up for me!

Too funny...

Does anyone notice anything funny about these pictures?! Owen has been using the wrong finger to point with...he doesn't use his pointer finger but his middle finger to point to everything! It has gotten to be a little embarrassing! Haha!

Birthday with My Mom

My mom and Peter treated us to dinner at the Olympian for my birthday! And mom got this little cake that was so good! We had fun trying to keep Owen entertained! Moms out there, do you have any tips on keeping babies happy in restaurants? Our tactic has been to give him bread, crackers, or whatever food we can give him! Our eating out days are numbered at this point! :) Thanks mom and Peter for a fun night!

Surprise!!

Well...just when I thought my birthday celebrations were over, my sneaky husband and friends fooled me! Seth and Heather had been planning a little girls night out for me! The night starting off with Seth dropping me off downtown at Smoke on the Water where the girls were waiting for me!




We enjoyed a delicious dinner and I even got a free dessert. This peach cobbler was big enough for all of us to share!



Just when I thought the evening was winding down, the girls had another surprise...a SLUMBER PARTY downtown! Seth is fortunate to be able to accumulate hotel points with his work and was sweet to let us girls use one of his nights. We stayed downtown at the Hampton Inn overlooking to Reedy River. The room was soo nice! Seth had packed my bag for me, dropped it off without my knowledge, AND even left a dozen pink roses for me...SWEET! Us girls had the best time talking, eating cupcakes (yes, after our peach cobbler!), watching a girly movie, and just relaxing!





The next morning, the surprises kept rolling when we headed to High Cotton for brunch. Poor Katie was sick and couldn't join us! :(


They made me feel so special and loved! It truly was the best birthday I've ever had! Thanks to my sweetheart husband and the girls, especially to Heather (who began planning in October and is 3 weeks away from her due date with her baby girl!)

Nashville!

If you don't know...I love country music! Over the past few years, we've visited Nashville and I love it there! For my big birthday this year, I thought it would be fun to go! (To keep my mind off of the new age bracket that I'm now in!) Even though Owen was getting in a new tooth, we were busy talking with our realtor about accepting an offer (yay), and a little winter weather...we had a good time! We actually stayed in Franklin, a town outside of Nashville. We went to the Factory, which had fun antique shops, and out to Puckett's grocery for lunch.



After lunch, Seth was busy taking care of work business and Owen was napping...so I took advantage and headed downtown Franklin to do some window shopping! They have the cutest shops. I was in heaven at Landmark Books, an old historic home that has been turned into a book store. The owner was so helpful and I am enjoying the new book I got! But the most fabulous treat I found was this...



An "I Do" cupcake from IveyCake! The BEST cupcake that I have ever had! I'm drooling just thinking about it! It was vanilla with butter cream icing! Seth had a Boston Creme Pie cupcake that he basically ate in one bite! If you're ever in Franklin, you must stop at IveyCake! It is the cutest, little shop!

On the way home, we made one last stop...at the Country Music Hall of Fame! It was so neat to learn more about the history of country music, see memorabilia such as Elvis's cadillac and piano, famous guitars, and beautiful dresses worn by Dolly, Patsy Cline, Reba, and others.






The first dress was worn recently by Carrie Underwood at the CMAs. When I saw it on tv, I didn't really like it. However, when I saw it in person, it is beautiful. You can't really tell from the picture but it is so sparkly and shines!



Our trip was short but sweet! It was a fun way to celebrate my 30th! (Yikes-there it is in print!)

Over the Hills and Through the Woods...

We packed it up (basically the ENTIRE house including our two dogs!!), squeezed into our Camry and headed 7 hours to Circleville, Ohio to visit Grandma and Grandma Burns. Our biggest life saver was our portable dvd player-if you have a small child, this is a must have item for a car trip!! The trip up was not too bad considering that we were completely cramped! But we survived!!



The day after we got there, it snowed several inches! It was beautiful. We saw temperatures that I don't think I've seen before! Owen enjoyed going sledding for the first time. Well, actually, he just looked like he didn't know what we were doing...but nonetheless!





While we were there, we enjoyed spending time with Grandma and Grandpa Burns and staying warm! Grandma really spoiled us with her delicious meals! We also played card games, even though they beat us, we still had fun!



She also spoiled me by taking me to her church's fabric room. She has a group of women who sew quilts and banners for her church. They get together twice a month-sounds like so much fun to me! People from the community donate fabric to them and she let me pick out some fabric. It was like a kid being in a candy store! I picked out some of the cutest fabrics, I cannot wait to begin some new projects.



Grandma and I also spent time making a few things. We made Owen a fringed scarf, a pair of pants, and some skirts for me! I enjoyed learning from her.



Aunt Pat, Uncle Paul, Aunt Bev, Uncle Dave, and Aunt Ruth all came to visit while we were there. They surprised me with a birthday cake, it was yummy! I think that with all of Grandma's cooking (and she has a sweet with most meals!), I gained about 10 pounds!!

We had such a great time visiting and hope to go back soon!





Speaking of Grandma's cooking...here's her Baked French Toast recipe, you should try it!

Baked French Toast

1 stick margarine or butter
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1 cup packed brown sugar

Mix and melt over medium-low heat. Spray bottom of 9x13 inch pan and pour mixture in pan.
Arrange thick bread slices on top of mixture.

Mix in blender: 5 eggs, 1 1/2 cups milk and 1 tsp. vanilla
Pour over bread slices, covering all.
Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.
Remove foil and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
~Syrup's in the bottom.

In honor of my mom's birthday, I decided to make my grandmother's brown sugar pound cake recipe for her. (my mom gave me a collection of my grandmother's recipes for Christmas). My grandmother died when I was very young so unfortunately I don't remember her. Today as I was making the recipe, I felt as if I had a chance to get to know her a little bit. Even though this recipe is not the healthiest, the pound cake turned out tasty!

Here's the recipe if you'd like to try it...

Brown Sugar Pound Cake (Rose Ellen Hames)

Cream together 1 pound butter and 1 pound brown sugar. Beat in six eggs one at a time. Sift together 4 cups of flour, one teaspoon cinnamon and one teaspoon salt. (The recipe also calls for 1 pound of nuts and one pound of chopped dates but I left these out). Mix together. Bake in tube pan at 325 degrees for 1 hour and a half.

Happy Birthday Nana!

Happy Birthday Nana! We hope that you have a wonderful day! :) We love you!

Swimming Lessons

*Here's Owen in the pool last year...


*And he's getting ready for summer! (Which by the way, can't come fast enough for me! :))




He started taking swimming lessons at the Y last week. Basically, they just tried to acclimate the babies to the water. Owen had fun hitting the beach ball and trying to drink the water! His favorite part of the evening was showering off (we could have done that at home! :)) Unfortunately, he now has an ear infection so this may have been our first and last lesson for a while. (sigh).

Monkey Joes

Why Bother With a Sippy Cup?

So, Owen doesn't care too much for trying to use a sippy cup. However, we have found that he will drink water from a SQUIRT bottle! Haha!

Goodbye '10, Hello '11

Our awesome friends, the Newmans, hosted a Casino Night New Year's Eve party! I think the Newmans are one step away from opening their own casino! They are professionals at this! There were black jack tables, Texas Hold 'Em, Roulette, hilarious Minute to Win It games, and even a "dance" room! When I was low on money chips, I found myself at the snack table! :) It was so much fun to have a night "on the town" with my hubby (Owen spent the night with his Grandma and Papaw Burns) and ring in the new year! I did not think I would be able to stay up until midnight (as we are normally in bed with the chickens:)) but we made it and even stayed up til 1! The Newmans were kind enough to let us spend the night (well...they kinda had to after putting us on the "clean up" crew!). This morning, we had a delicious breakfast of sweet potato pancakes, eggs, and veggie sausage! It was a great way to start the new year! Thanks Newmans for having us!