Cookies!

I just finished baking up a storm.  Growing up, Christmas preparations included baking lots and lots of goodies.  Generally this was a team sport, but since I'm stuck with Matt, I carry on the tradition on my own.  Don't get me wrong, Matt knows how to help in good ways - I'll holler and he'll load/unload the dishwasher so I can have a clean mixing bowl, he'll taste test, he'll even unwrap Hershey kisses.  But if you ask him to follow a recipe it's all over.

So this year I decided I was going to bring cookie trays to the vet, the place we board the babes when we travel, Matt's office and the adoption agency.  I may have overshot how much to make because I decided to not make 2 of the recipes because I didn't have room on the trays.  Don't worry - the two recipes I sacrificed were the two Matt was most looking forward to so I'll just make them closer to Christmas and he can have them then.  Enjoy all the desserts without the calories!  By the way, I'm exhausted.  I must be getting old.  I included the recipe for any I would make again, except for the caramels, because I don't have a link for the caramels.  But they're a cinch and delicious!

Chocolate cake Cookies with Peppermint Kisses

(Matt's favorite of the day)

Cranberry and White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Peanut Butter Cookies with Peanut Butter Cups

Homemade Caramels (so easy)

Sugar Cookies (these are ugly and I will never use this recipe again)

The final product.  Apparently I forgot to photograph the snickerdoodles.  Oops!

Baby Shower!

About a month ago, Emily, Hillary and I hosted a Baby Shower for Katy and we could not have been excited to plan an event together!

 Photobomb!

So first we needed to pick a theme and that took some time.  Emily and Hillary didn't want the same theme, but we eventually decided on a Children's Book theme since Katy's a teacher.  And when we pick a theme, we commit.  Check it.

 Cupcakes to look like The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  Katy thought we were making Christmas cupcakes.  Oh, sweet, dumb-dumb, Katy.  No, we were not throwing you a Christmas Baby Shower in October.

 All the food had to have a book to correlate with.  For example, Green Eggs and Ham for Ham Sandwiches and Deviled Eggs.  Stone soup for Cheese Soup and Chili.  Peter Rabbit for the Vegetable Garden.  Rainbow Fish for, well, Rainbow Goldfish.  You get the picture.

Even the drink had to follow the same idea.  James and the Giant Peach for Peach Tea and Olivia Has a Lemonade Stand for Lemonade.  In the carriage to the right are the favors.  Cookies for If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and "bookworms" (gummy worms).  Seriously, when we find a theme, we commit.

What's a shower without a few games?  We played a few - Baby Price is Right and the one pictured above.  You had to name the character's name from the pictures above.  Lemme tell ya.  It was hard.  I knew like 3.  We also did a raffle.  We asked people if they wanted to bring a children's book instead of a card (again, sticking with the theme and seriously, who keeps cards?  Books are better) and to write a note inside the front cover.  Then whoever brought books we did a drawing for a prize.  

And, yes!  Presents!  Katy was definitely showered.  Ton and ton of presents.  In fact, she got 2 car loads full of things so that was a success.  

 And seriously, Adriana was awesome.  She handed Katy every single present and had an awesome time.  The. Whole Time.  

Everyone had a good time and Hill, Emily and I are planning on opening a party planning company any day now.  Thank goodness for Pinterest!

Here Comes the Bride!

Katy's Married!  And everything went perfectly smooth!  I was exhausted by the end of it, but everything went without a hitch and the two are now hitched!  I don't have all the photographers pictures yet, but here's some that others took!

Just chit-chatting before the ceremony.  Probably talking about how hungry we were or how we'd rather be in sweatpants.

The siblings, pre-wedding.  There's about to be a new one in the bunch!

That's a lot of Love!

Just after the ceremony!

Wedding party!  It looks like I'm pinching Katy's butt.  Maybe I am.

Awwwww.

This is How You Know You're Old

In light of my recent 30th birthday, here's what constitutes one as being old.


1.  You prefer NPR to the music on the radio.

2.  You avoid fast food because you just don't have the metabolism for it anymore.

3.  You've found multiple gray hairs.

4.  You start using wrinkle cream because of said gray hairs.

5.  The conversations of college kids boggle your mind.

6.  You make a list of things demonstrating how old you are.

Adoption Debunked

For those of you unaware - we are knee deep in the adoption process!  We have filled out the mountains of paperwork, completed several background checks (this is where living in so many states really kills you) and paid lots and lots of money.  We completed our final interview this week and are just waiting to receive a copy of the official home study to sign off on it.

In order for us to be matched with a birth mom, the agency requests the prospective adoptive parents make a Shutterfly book that outlines your family, what life looks like for you, hobbies, who makes up your family, etc.  The birth moms look at them - and based on if it appears they might be interested in you - request to have a face-to-face meeting to get to know each other better.  It's just a chance to ask questions of one another and get a better feel for the other person.  At this point you can make a decision if it seems like it might be a good match or if it just doesn't feel right.  We'll also post a online profile on the agency's website so that moms in other states can check out our profile, too.  We'll be listing with several other states that we have friends and/or family living in because if you do receive a child from another state one of the parents must stay in that state with the baby until the adoption is finalized.  We figure this way I can just stay at friends or a family member's home during this time and it wouldn't be too inconvenient.

There isn't a timeline on when we might be matched - adoption doesn't work on a first-come, first-serve basis.  It's just whenever we are matched with a mom based on what she chooses.  So it could be 2 months or it could be 2 years.  We also will not get 9 months notice of when the baby will be born.  Most of the time the moms come to the agency in their 2nd or 3rd trimester so you're working on that time-frame.  In light of this, we're trying to do as much ahead of time as possible since we don't know what our ETA is.  Obviously, we're not decorating the baby's room or anything like that, but we've started cleaning boxes out of the room and talking about names (which will remain a secret) since we've never been able to agree on any.  In the meantime, we're excited that it's pretty much a waiting game at this point and who knows what's just around the corner!

KJ Came to Town!

Over the weekend Matt headed out of town (for drill) and KJ came into town!  It was ideal for everyone because Matt didn't have to deal with all the extra estrogen and Jessica and I didn't feel obligated to dial it down for Matt's sake.  That's a win-win.

Sidenote:  We call Jessica KJ.  When Matt and I first started dating I had several Jessicas in my life.  Matt had a hard time keeping them straight so he nicknamed them all.  Jessica became Karaoke Jessica, a.k.a., KJ.  The first time Matt met Jessica we all went and did karaoke, hence the name.  It stuck, despite knowing the differences between the Jessicas now.  I think she likes having a nickname.

Jessica and I hadn't seen each other for a year and a half, which now that I think about it, might be the longest period of time without a visit.  We usually see her at Christmas in Illinois, but we were in Maryland last year, and one of us usually travels to see the other during the year, but with the move this year and Matt getting sick it didn't happen, so I think it was probably the Christmas before that we saw her.  Whoa.  She hadn't even met the girls yet.  P.S. It was mutual love at first sight.

The weekend was filled with the beach, a dolphin cruise at sunset, watching movies from our childhood, eating Mexican food like it was our business and talking about boys.  Seriously, nothing has changed in the seven years we've known each other.  Except we need sleep more than we used to.  Way more than we used to.  When we were in grad school we would stay up until like 3 a.m. (not exaggerating) and I would have to be at work the next morning at 8:30.  We did this repeatedly.  It's a wonder I didn't die.  I did get pneumonia, though, so maybe that should've been a wake-up call.

Anyways, good weekend, good conversation, lots of dolphins and tons of Mexican.  Way to go, Pensacola.

Sooo... Summer's Over

I think my absence of two months is self-explanatory, but if not, it's been cray-cray at our house.  Last week was the first week Matt and I have had by ourselves all summer.  It's been really nice to feel loved and have everyone visit us, but I am exhausted from going to the beach, shopping, overeating at restaurants and hanging out.  We are super excited to be getting back into a normal routine again.  I think summer is my least favorite season just because I feel like it flies by every year and Matt and I look at each other in August and say, "Where did the summer go?".  Last year it was his heart surgery, the year before that it was non-stop yard work because we had just bought the house, before that we moved to ATL, the year before that we got married, and before that we were moving to Virginia.  Summer always seems to have big things for us and it makes the time go by so much faster.  I will get back into a normal routine with this again soon.  Despite having had a whirlwind summer I don't have any pictures to prove it!  So I will leave you with this :)

3 Little Puppies waiting to welcome the next set of house guests

Wannabe

Matt's jealous of my Jenn + Blue Angels = True Love so he tried to be them. Matt did a 5K on the runway where they take off. It was for military only, but come to find out I could have done it. They weren't that strict. I only came, though, because I was afraid Matt would do something stupid and blow his heart up by pushing himself too hard. Military boys do stupid things when they're together. There were some dudes there running it while pushing double strollers WITH TODDLERS IN THEM!  And they finished in like 19 minutes.  WHO ARE YOU?!

It was the most humid, foggy day of the year, but he managed to get a personal best and a smile at the end.  Sounds like a winner to me!

The runners running off into the fog.

About to cross the finish line!

I certainly never smile when I run.

Blue Angels

I've become obsessed with the Blue Angels.  Going to their practices is about the coolest thing you can do in Pensacola.  I've gone to two so far and Matt thinks I'm a junkie.  Matt doesn't get it because he hasn't gone yet - but I think he's going to take a day off in June so that he can.  I'm pretty excited about it.  I also intend on taking everyone who comes to visit to a practice just so I have another excuse to go.  Even though I don't really need an excuse because last time I went I went by myself just because I wanted to go so badly.

I think the best part of the show is when you can't see them - you're just twirling around trying to figure out where they're gonna come from and the BOOM! they fly right over you and you nearly poo your pants because it's so loud.  And then you get so excited because you were just so surprised that ANOTHER ONE COMES OUT OF NOWHERE!  And you're like touche, Blue Angels, touche.

It's like reliving the Fourth of July every time you see them.  When they fly by super fast you just want to say, "God Bless America".  I think Matt is a little disappointed that the Army doesn't have anything that evokes this feeling from me.  I still love my little solider man anyways.

Since there are no professional sport teams in Pensacola the Blue Angels are kinda like the home team.  Which I kinda like because you don't have to change your allegiance from one team to another.  I always hated it when we were in Atlanta when people didn't understand why we weren't Falcons fans.  I always said to them if THEY moved to Chicago would THEY because Bears fans?  Of course not.  You stick with your team.  Well, I've never had a Thunderbirds or Blue Angels preference before.  Now I do.

On Wednesdays when they practice you can go into the Naval Aviation Museum and meet the pilots and get autographs, pictures, stalk, just chat with them.  I felt that it would be weird if I went and did that alone so instead I took the more psycho-stalker option and just took pictures from above.  I'm a creeper.

Laundry Room

Our laundry room used to be lacking in about every aspect - color, function, storage and organization.

It was just a blank slate... but it's actually a decent sized blank slate.  It's fairly deep so once you get the washer and dryer in you still have lots of room to take advantage of.  But that shelving up there was no doing it.  Not only does it limit how much goes up, but everyone gets to see it, too.  Not going to work.  So I added the same color I put in the bathroom I painted already, slapped some organization to the walls and voila! - a room you'd actually want to spend some time in.  (Sorry the pictures are a bit blurry - I'm not sure why they are).

The organization pegboard that Matt and his Dad made for me one weekend.  It's actually pretty easy to do and makes things look a lot nicer.  Here's the post for instructions.  I basically did everything she did, but you can modify it to fit your space pretty easily.

Just some decorations on the shelf.  The yellow ceramic carton is actually useful - I put loose change and things I find in pockets in it.  The owl is also a vase, but he's just there to look pretty.

The hanging thing on the left is a drying rack.  We air-dry certain things fairly often so it's nice to have a place to do it instead of just draped on random chairs in the kitchen.  The sign on the right I found at Kirklands last night and it basically sums up my attitude about laundry - "Sort tomorrow, Wash later, Dry someday, Fold maybe, Iron never".  

And here is the whole she-bang.  This room is done.  

Easter Video

I did not want to have an Easter Egg hunt.  Matt did.  I thought it was going to be a nightmare and end up in a dog fight.  Luckily, that wasn't the case.  So without further ado the long short-awaited video of the puppies hunting Easter Eggs.  Some dogs (Nigel) are better than others, but I think it was an overall successful hunt.

The Easter Egg Hunt!

Hoppy Easter

There was an Easter Egg Hunt!  Here are the pics - I'll post a video once I figure out how to do that (i.e., Matt does it for me).  No one was spectacular at hunting eggs, but Nigel was the best.  However, everyone did figure out pretty quickly how to crack open eggs to get the treat.  So much for reusing some of the eggs next year.  Meanwhile, Honey got so excited - she pooped during the hunt!  She's so funny.

Honey found one!

Honey found another one!

Nigel, I think you got one, buddy!

Sugar enjoying her spoils.

Matt helping to open eggs.  Clearly, only Honey is obedient enough to sit for the treat.

I think Sugar is leaping in this picture while Nigel is finding another egg.

Here comes the Honey Bunny!

Nigel, look to your right!