Lately

Sorry I've been slack about blogging lately. It's certainly not because we haven't been busy! :)

David and I recently attended a Stock the Bar party for our friends Sydney and Gray. They're getting married at the the end of February. This is me with Sydney, the bride, on the left, her sister Ansley, and sister Colby on the right. Truly, I feel like these girls are my sisters! I am so excited and honored to be doing the flowers and decor for Sydney and Gray's rehearsal dinner and wedding reception. I'm going to be busy, but I am so looking forward to it! 

And this past weekend we had the best time spending it with our nephew Ben! 

We got to see his last basketball on Saturday morning and see the "Ninjas" accept their trophies for  a season well played!  

I left David and Ben doing boy stuff so I could attend David's cousin Kathryn's baby shower at her mother's home. Kathryn and I are due two days apart - how sweet to have cousins so close in age! She's having a girl, Baby Morgan, and of course we're expecting our baby boy! 

The shower was so pretty, the food was delicious, and I loved seeing Kathryn open all of those girly gifts! 

David and I gave Ben a sleeping bag and lantern for Christmas, and more "camping" gear for his birthday. We wanted him to come and do boy things all weekend! I think we succeeded! 

Ben has always loved our kitty Sandy, and she was very sweet while he picked her up over and over. ;) 

David and Ben "camped" on the boat under the boat cover on Saturday - there were a few snow flurries so they felt like they were really roughing it for an hour or so! 

Saturday night we enjoyed Mellow Mushroom - the little guy was hungry - he almost ate a whole pizza! After a bath and the boys making our fort, we settled in to watch Hugo. The movie was precious but none of us made it to the end - we were pooped! 

Our Sunday was spent having lunch with Amanda, a little Downton Abbey down time for this aunt and uncle, and watching the super bowl Beyonce with friends. 

Hope you all had a fun and safe weekend too! 

Happy Birthday Ben!

Our nephew Ben turns 6 years old today! Over the weekend, we celebrated his big day with family at Lifetime Fitness. My sister in law Amanda is a member there, and Ben loves to hang out there too - there's so much for the kids to do! Here are a few pics from the kids climbing the rock walls....



Ben wasted no time in harnessing up and getting to the top!



And he's a pro at repelling down too!

Rodney was so good at climbing too!

And Lizzy was so proud of her big brother!

Aiden got right on up too!

Miss Riley wasn't afraid either!

We all gathered in the birthday room for pizza, cupcakes, and presents.

Then, the kiddos played in the jumpy house for a bit....

.....before swimming! What a fun party!

 After Ben's celebration, David and I joined our buds in Rome for Lauren and Ryals' engagement party. It was such a fun night, and I only snapped this one pic. But, look out on my friends' blogs for more photos of the night.

Besides the birthday party and engagement celebration, we had a mostly low key weekend. On Friday night, we had Mellow Mushroom and settled in for a movie. We watched both of these this weekend, and they were both so good!!!

Hope you're all dry and warm. It just keeps raining here! But, we want that lake to fill back up asap!

Sorry for no posts lately

This is going to be a fun weekend! Its cold and rainy here now, and I am working from home today. But, tomorrow, we'll be celebrating our favorite kid's birthday - our nephew Ben's 6th birthday party is tomorrow! We love any time we get to spend with him.

And tomorrow night, we'll be heading to Rome with all of our buddies to celebrate Lauren and Ryal's engagement at a cocktail party! Can't wait! xoxox!

Hopefully, I will have a better post to tell you all about it on Monday. Have a great weekend!

A family wedding in Atlanta

David's first cousin, Kathryn, was married over the weekend in Atlanta. Have you seen her parent's house that I have been working on?
The weekend began on Friday with me working at the home of the parents of the bride getting ready for the brunch on Sunday. I set tables, arranged the bride's gifts, made sure everything was clean, and moved things out of the way for the caterers. (Look for a post about the brunch on Wednesday on my Bellissimo and Bella blog!)
Later on Friday, David and I joined the Griffins for a spaghetti dinner at the Griffin condo. My parents arrived on Saturday in time to have a late lunch at Noche in Town Brookhaven before we got dressed for the 6:30pm wedding ceremony. Here's a few photos from the reception, and a few of the brunch.  

The wedding was at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer on Peachtree - only two blocks from the reception site - the Fox Theatre's Egyptian Ballroom.

Loved that they were featured on the marquee!

This image is from Google, but really shows the detail and grandeur of the ballroom, much more than my camera can.

The flower arrangements were gorgeous! Different heights, but all contained the hydrangea, roses, and berries.

Bride and groom dance.

Father-daughter dance

Aiden was my little buddy for the night! We missed Fain, but were happy to have Aiden there!

This beautiful boy was having fun!

The groom (far left guitarist) and his band played for about half an hour! They were so good - wish they would've played longer! Aiden and I did enjoy a short dance though.

The mother of the bride, Caron, is in the gold - dancing with her buddies!

So glad my parents could come too!

At the brunch on Sunday, Ben and Aiden enjoyed the new indoor swimming pool!

Woah.

Do yall ever have those weekends where Sunday afternoon you think "what in the world just happened?" Like, where has the time gone? Our weekend was like that. We did so much, and got to see so many friends! David and I were a little pooped last night, but it was worth it. Beware though: it may exhaust you to read all of this! :)
Happy Monday everyone!

On Thursday, the Jaycees had a happy hour at Recess, a restaurant on the square in downtown Gainesville. David and I stayed for dinner after socializing for a bit, and made our whirlwind plans for the weekend.

First stop: The John Jarrard Foundation outdoor concert at Brenau. John Jarrard was a Georgia Music Hall of Famer, and this was the 10th annual concert in his memory benefiting several charities. Performers include Blackberry Smoke, and Balsam Range, and one of Gainesville’s own, John Driskell Hopkins (bassist for the Zac Brown Band).

One of the Jaycee wives's family owns Turnstile Deli and graciously offered to bring dinner munchies for everyone to have before the music began. So, I volunteered for the desserts. I made Paula Deen's Symphony brownies....

.....Sugar Cookies from Bon Appetit Y'all......

.....and Blythe Danner's cookies from Gwyneth Paltrow's cookbook.

All of the sweets turned out great! Its hard to beat a Symphony Brownie, but the sugar cookies were really good, and the almond cookie from Gwyneth's cookbook is more like biscotti - they were really good for breakfast in the morning too with  my coffee!

On Saturday, we again joined Gainesville friends at the Melanomo event on the Chattahoochee River. Our friend Jamie grew up with Neil Gaines who's been battling Melanoma since 2008. Neil, his wife Margaret, and his family host an event at their cabin about 15 miles from here every year. The UGA game was on, there was live music and BBQ too. It was an afternoon of celebration for Neil's life and a nice time with friends.

Neil's dog sat in the river like this all afternoon watching the fish. I thought it was the most adorable thing!

Glad the Dawgs won!

I could barely keep my eyes off this little guy. When we walked up to the BBQ, I spotted him right away. I was like "Oh my gosh! Its a baby Baxter!" I could have taken him home with us! His name is Diesel, which is awesome. David explained that our Baxter is a bit larger in stature than most Beagles, and Diesel is actually a normal size. Even cuter!!!! I wish Bax had been with us so he could play with this guy.

Speaking of cuties, our friends Callie and Brian just got an 8-week old black lab..tentatively named Remy. I was obsessed!

Jamie and David

"New Mommy" Callie and her little guy!

Me, Callie, Colby and Laura

After lunch, the silent auction, and some "MelaNoMo" chocolate cake, Colby and I headed to Atlanta to celebrate with our friend Tiffany for her 28th birthday!

We got dressed with Hollie and the 3 of us met Tiffany and 7 of her Auburn girlfriends at Eclipse de Luna for dinner.

And afterwards headed to Gold Room for some dancin'.

Sunday was such a gorgeous day, so we grabbed some munchies and hit the lake to meet Amanda and Ben. Ben is in Kindergarten and is learning new things every day. I love hearing our little guy tell me all about his teachers, his playground, and his days at school.

Here, we started with 1 and counted to about 115. He can count to 200, but he got a little tired. That was ok; but I could listen to him count to a million!

My David and Ben caught two fish! Here they are letting the fishies go back into the lake...

After an early dinner of grilled chicken salads, which Amanda was so sweet to bring, we cruised back home.

Every time we're on the boat, David and I just smile seeing how happy this guy is to be on the water! He LOVES it!