My Mother, My Best Friend

Tomorrow is such a special day, I am so excited. It honestly brings me to tears when I think about how incredible my mom is and what an inspiration she has been to me in my life.  Tomorrow is her 60th birthday. I can only pray that I am as radiantly beautiful as she is, inside and out, when I turn 60.  We have so many surprises planned for her - I can’t wait to finally share them with you (next week!).  For today, I want to share with the virtual world just how blessed I am to have this woman in my life.  Not only is she my mom, but she is truly one of the best friends I have ever had.  My heart has been overflowing with sweet memories these past several weeks as we have been preparing for her special day.  Two in particular make my heart swell with happiness.  One morning my mom woke me up and informed me that instead of going to school, we were going on a mother-daughter adventure.  We went to a park and set up canvases and trays of oil paint.  I felt like a mini Monet as we let our imaginations run wild, painting silhouettes of trees and brushing our versions of the hot, TX sky. That day I learned just how spectacular of an artist my mom really is.  We proceeded to have a bubble gum blowing contest and then lunch together.  It was magical.  The summer after I graduated from high school we took a special trip, just the two of us. We drove along the East Coast and made our way up to Maine, stopping at every single spot we deemed worthy of our presence.  That is one of the BEST ways to travel.  No agenda, no expectations.  We saw The Old Man of the Mountain before it collapsed only a few months later.  We stayed up all night in sleeping bags watching the Perseid shower and counted over 100 shooting stars together.  Oh my goodness, the memories and laughter we’ve shared goes on forever.  I am so excited to hopefully some day share the same joys and adventures with my own little ones.  My prayer is that I will mirror the portrait of the Proverbs 31 woman – a loving, Godly mother, wife and daughter of our King.  Mom, thank you for showing me what that truly means. Your joy is contagious.  Your passion for life is inspiring.  You are, quite simply, nothing short of AMAZING. 

I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for showing me a love so profound.  You are truly one of the greatest gifts God has given me.  I am SO blessed to be your daughter.  I love you to heaven and back, times a billion and one (and more).

LOVE.

Annabelle

Seriously, I do NOT think my mom looks like she is turning 60!

See the babe in gold?  BEAUTIFUL.

Happy 60th Birthday, Mommykins!

Blessings/XOXO

My sweet, little family.

A few proofs from our photo session!

 

 

 

 

 

(The photographer said, “Let me see that smile, Tucker!” and he seriously grinned from ear to ear.)

Please stay tuned! 

Some of you may remember the post I wrote called "My Original Valentine". 

Tomorrow is my precious mother’s turn!

Blessings/XOXO

Praises.

What a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving and weekend!  I even had off yesterday too, sooo nice!  I can’t wait to catch up with everyone and see how your holiday was spent.  Guess what – my FIL was released from the hospital on Wednesday!  Talk about the PERFECT way to celebrate Thanksgiving.  He is still not out of the woods yet, and is in a rehab center for a few weeks, BUT, he is back in PA with us and we are SO thankful.  We have been lifting up our praises continuously!  My FIL was in Minnesota on a business trip when he was rushed to the hospital, six weeks ago, with severe stomach pains.  It turned out to be more serious than we thought and he was unable to travel back home until he was stable enough to fly.  Finally the time came on Wednesday, six weeks later, that he could travel home and it gives me goosebumps that it was on Thanksgiving Eve. Our prayers have been answered, THANK YOU!!

AND, speaking of Thanksgiving – GUESS WHAT - the house didn’t burn down and no one got food poisoning!  Ha!  Everything turned out SO well.  We brought EVERYTHING over to hubby’s parent’s house and did the whole shebang there.  If there is anything I learned from our experience cooking the big meal for our first time, it’s that my mom is a ROCK STAR.  All of the moms/dads/peeps out there who do this on an annual basis are ROCK STARS!  I was EXHAUSTED after everything was finished, to say the least.  It really was so much fun being in the kitchen with Hubby, cooking up a storm.  We kept giving high fives and going into group huddles, haha.  Such great team work!  It was also sooo much fun relaxing on the couch after it was all finished!  All in all, it truly was a perfect day spent with hubby’s sweet family.  It was fantastic.  Some pics!

(Seriously, how cute is he in that moose apron?!  I swoon.)

A garlic/butter glaze with roasted vegetables.  One of the recipes we found during our research session at B&N.  The research paid off!  Delish.

Tucker was going CrAzY with all of the smells in the kitchen.

Carving the little beauty.

Have you ever actually carved a whole turkey?  I now know it takes some MAD skills.  My FIL taught Hubby well.  :o)

Setting the table.

Mmmmm.  Dessert.  Oh, and guess who forgot to bake the pie crust before filling it with the no-bake, chocolate-pumpkin-cream-pie filling?  ME.  Good thing we had an extra pie crust!  Crisis diverted, phew.

Our little furry-baby is not so little anymore!

And speaking of our furry baby…

Pictures are back!  Can’t wait to share!!  Coming next. (see the blue shoes?!)

My heart was so overwhelmed with thankfulness and joy these past several days, including thanks for ALL OF YOU.  Thank you for always being so encouraging.  Ya’ll are, quite simply, AMAZING.

Happy Tuesdsay!

Blessings/XOXO

PS. It’s December 1st!!!!  Does it get any better than this?!

A heart so full.

I love this time of year.

I love the feeling I get when the crisp, autumn air brushes against my cheek.  I love the delicious smells in our house after a day spent in the kitchen.  I love sipping hot tea and cozying up to a good book.  I love weekend adventures with my hubby. I love time spent with my precious family and friends.  I love daily heart-moments with my loving Father. 

I am SO blessed and SO thankful for the incredible gifts I have been given in my life.

My sweet FIL is STILL not home from the hospital.  We are so encouraged that He will be home with us by Thanksgiving, but of course, God may have other plans.  We are praying he makes it back home SOON.  We miss him and want nothing more than to celebrate our day of Thanks and Giving with him.  I’ll keep you posted.  Even in the midst of crazy, up and down times, God is GOOD and He is faithful.  I am so thankful for that. 

This week, Hubby and I are embarking on our first-ever, Thanksgiving feast adventure!  We went to Barnes and Noble after church yesterday and did LOTS of research on turkey techniques, gluten-free recipes (for my BIL) and spent precious hours over coffee planning the big day.  It was so much fun!  Since this is our first Thanksgiving meal that we’re tackling all by ourselves, and because we want to make it EXTRA special for my hubby’s sweet mom and family, we want to be extra prepared.  I think we are!  After we were finished, we headed home to get ready for bible study.  After some thoughtful decision making, Hubs said he wanted a night with “just us”, so we decided to play hookie and had an evening of cooking, movies and “just us” time.  It was heaven!  On Saturday we had our holiday photo shoot with Tucker and my BLUE SHOES!  I actually ended up wearing a different pair of blue heels, a pair that I found that I love even more – so excited for you to see them.  We had a BLAST taking our pictures.  It was a GORGEOUS day and Tucker was SO cute and playful.  Who wouldn’t love a full of hour of puppy and hubby cuddling for the camera?!  I will share some of the pictures as soon as I receive them!  We spent Saturday evening at this WONDERFUL, super cute BYOB Italian restaurant with a couple who live up the street from us that we have been having SO much fun getting to know.  I felt like I was back in Italy with good food, good wine and GREAT company.

My heart is SO full today with sweet reminders of all the things I am thankful for.  I’m spending this week with my hubby’s sweet family and will be back next week with a full recap!  Can’t wait to share how everything turns out and I am especially praying that I will be able so share that my FIL is HOME. 

Have an AMAZING and BLESSED Thanksgiving week!

Blessings/XOXO

A-MAZING!

Ahhhhhh, what an A-MAZING weekend!  It felt SO good to be back in Chi-town, and it felt even better to be back with my amazing lovies!  Our weekend consisted of everything girly you can possibly imagine.  It was such a sweet reminder of the blessings God has given me in the friendships I had in Chicago, and the biggest blessing ever that I am still connected with them.  I wouldn’t trade where I am now for ANYTHING (has something to do with that phenomenal hunk of a husband I have), but it is still so fun to revisit places of the past and cherish the memories, new and old.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I’ll let the photos do MOST of the talking!

I used to give Michelle (Miche) a manicure every Thursday night while we watched Grey’s – it was our little tradition.  Even the tiniest details such as being able to give her a french manicure like old times was so fun and precious.  Misssssed this girl!

In a cab w/Somer & Miche on the way to the House of Blues for an A-MAZING Gospel Brunch!

We had our own suite RIGHT above all of the action.  It was so much fun!  They do this every Sunday and Miche has always wanted to go – it was too perfect that we were able to do it together.  The food was DELISH and the gospel music was INCREDIBLE.  Loveee the Chicago House of Blues.

Somer is on the left and Miche is on the right – two friends of mine from two different stages of my life – college and post college.  Too funny, they met at my wedding!  And now Somer lives in Chicago and these two are precious friends.  So happy I was the link that connected them!

The whole gang!  Such incredible ladies.

Taking advantage of the CTA while hitting up Michigan Ave for some MAJOR shopping!

Wow. It was a weekend I will never forget.  God really used my mini-vacay to open my eyes and remind me how truly blessed I am with the friends, family and husband I have been given.  These ladies are so precious to me and while it was sad to leave them last night, I was SO ecstatic to make it home to my sweet Hubby.  I am reminded that it truly is about being in the present, no matter where I am, and relishing in the joys and sweet blessings God has given me.  He is SO good.  :o)

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!  Can you believe it’s already Wednesday?!  We are optomistic that my sweet Father-In-Love will be coming home from the hospital THIS week!  PTL!  I’ll keep you posted.

Happy Wednesdsay.

Blessings/XOXO

All over the place.

Happy Tuesday, B-Loves!  AHH, we had a FABULOUS weekend and I have ZERO pictures to show for it because my camera all of the sudden stopped working!  I think I have it fixed now, which is a very good thing, BUT, not going to lie - I was looking at the situation as an indicator that maybe it’s time to invest in a delicious Canon Rebel!  We’ll see what happens.  :o)

Our weekend was spent wining and dining with new and fabulous friends!  We spent Friday night at the most A-MAZING sushi restaurant I have ever been to with a few of sweet Hubby’s co-workers.  Seriously, I wanted to bathe in the sauce that came on the special roll we ordered.  DIVINE.  Oh, and they had shumai with wasabi infused wonton paper.  Seriously?!  HEAVEN.  Saturday was spent shopping with my precious and amazing mommykins (I was SO good and only bought this awesome, cropped maroon leather jacket that we both agreed was a MUST-HAVE…I didn’t even buy any shoes!  Well I did, but not at Nordstrom and not on that day, so that doesn’t count, right?) and Saturday night sweet Hubs and I were invited over to our friends’ house for appetizers, mojitos and games with another new couple we have never hung out with.  So fun!  AH, I just loveee meeting new people.  Sunday after church I spent the day with two new, precious girlfriends from church.  We made lunch together, played games and spent the day chatting about all sorts of girly stuff until when my sweet hubby picked me up and we went to our couples’ bible study.  While I spent the day with my girlfriends, Hubby and Tucker had a man-date.  They went to a bird sanctuary and then to PetSmart together.  How cute is that?!  It’s pretty rare for us to have a weekend at home these days.  It was FABULOUS!

AND NOW…oh my goodness, I feel like everything is starting to tumble quickly into one thing after another.  BUT, it’s all exciting stuff.  This Thursday I leave for Chicago! I’m going for a nice, LONG weekend and am visiting my old stomping grounds and my precious lovie, Michelle.  I am THRILLED to spend the weekend loving on her and just having precious and much needed GIRL time.  AND, so excited to see everyone from there that I haven’t seen in so long.  I am thrilled!

Picture of us when I lived in Chi!  Ah, we were inseparable.  MISSSSS THIS GIRL!

A week from this Saturday, we are getting professional pictures taken with Tucker for our Christmas cards!  It’s pretty crazy how excited I am for this.  We really haven’t had professional pictures taken since our wedding and especially not with Tucker!  There is a park right next to our neighborhood that has old ruins situated throughout (it’s incredibly random) and it is the PERFECT site for a fun-filled afternoon of picture snapping.  Oh, and I’m super excited to wear my new, bright blue shoes. 

 

We rotate our holidays every year with which family we are spending it with, and this Thanksgiving we are with Hubby’s family.  Because of everything going on with his sweet father (prayers are still really appreciated!) we decided to go ahead and take over and host everyone at our house – we are ordering his mom to not lift a SINGLE finger.  EEEK!  So excited and honestly, SO nervous!  I have never before, in my whole life, made a Thanksgiving Turkey!  Thanksgiving is two weeks from Thursday and it is time for me to get cracking and start planning the menu.  I’m excited to tackle my family’s traditional recipes and am just praying I will come out on the end with no fires or burnt food, haha.  If you have any holiday recipes you think are to-die-for, please pass them on to me!

This post is incredibly random and all over the place, please excuse me.  It goes well with how my mind is right now – running rapidly wild!  Since I’m leaving for Chicago I will be taking a mini-vacay from blogging and will be back next week.  I can’t wait to show you a picture of my boys cooking me dinner the other night in celebration of a promotion I got at work!  YAY!  All that and pics from Chicago to come!!  If not from my feeble camera, then from Miche’s camera. 

Have an amazing week and weekend!

Blessings/XOXO

Shoes & Champagne

My bff Christian has invited me over this weekend to sip champagne and collaborate on design ideas.  He told me he HAS to have me on his design team.  I told him, in response, that he is a very smart man.  I said, “Mr. Louboutin, I may be an amateur shoe designer but I am an ELITE shoe shopper.  I will gladly work for you and am happy to be compensated in your stilettos.”

…sigh….

What a fairy tale dream.

I read an article last night titled…

“Tipsy-Turvy”

(from my W Magazine)

According to an old French saying, champagne is best sipped from a beautiful lady’s slipper.  Christian Louboutin seems to take that notion seriously.  In October 2008 he celebrated his Fashion Group International award by drinking champagne from one of his own designs and then passing it along to his friend and fellow honoree Philippe Starck.  Inspired by that moment, the haute cobbler collaborated with champagne maker Piper-Heidsieck to create Le Rituel, a limited-edition box set featuring a bottle of bubbly and a crystal flute in the shape of a stiletto with Louboutin’s signature red sole.  The $500 novelty launches at select Neiman Marcus stores this month.

Talk about a drink with a kick.

Shoes & Champagne?  Yes, please.

 

And speaking of shoes…

You will find me this weekend at the fabulous King of Prussia mall (Oh yes, we live next to the largest shopping mall in America based on retail size. Mall of America is actually considered the largest mall in America based on SQUARE FOOTAGE because it has a roller coaster inside.  Honestly, I am happy to take more shopping opportunities over a roller coaster.  LOVE IT.) drooling over gorgeous eye candy and selectively purchasing a few (maybe a little more than a few) precious items at the FABULOUS Nordstrom.  Ladies, the following will ALL be available ON SALE: 7 For All Mankind, Hudson Jeans, Juicy Couture, Kate Spade, Michael Kors, True Religion – IT’S ALLLLL ON SALE! And don’t even get my started on the shoes!

Now THAT is a fairy tale dream come true.

And to top it off, we have SUCH a fun night planned for Saturday.  Can’t wait to share!

Have an AMAZING weekend!

Blessings/XOXO