Happy Thanksgiving!

What a wild and crazy week it has been!  First, my computer was sick, and then I got sick!  I missed work on Monday and returned today.  I was catching up on everything when water started gushing into our office building around noon.  Thankfully, my office was spared, but unfortunately others were not.  Oh the joys of an old building!  A break for Thanksgiving is much-needed and will be much-appreciated.

Hope you have a happy Thanksgiving with family and friends!

A Weekend at Home

David and I had a wonderful weekend in Savannah to celebrate my brother's 30th birthday.  Anna hosted the birthday party and worked so hard to make it special for him!  We had delicious food and wonderful company.  Here are some pictures from the night....


Anna's Dad, Brad, with Anna and David

 

Carter, David, McKenzie, and Ben



The Birthday Boy



Molly and Lacey



Bailey, Bart, David, and Bret

 

David and Me



McKenzie, Bret, David, Carter, and Ben

 

Molly, Uncle Kirk, and Me



The day after the party we had lunch at my parents' house, where my mom made several delicious recipes from Trisha Yearwood's cookbook, including baked spaghetti and a pumpkin roll for dessert.  I spent some time looking through the cookbook, and the recipes are mostly easy and look fabulous.


What a perfect Chritmas gift for your favorite cook!

After lunch, we just relaxed...

First Cousins - Sage and Huck

 And then decided to have a photo shoot with the dogs...

Anna getting attacked by Sage, Huck, and Lucy

Lucy and Ben

We're looking forward to spending more time with family during the holidays!  Hope your weekend was great :)

11-11-11

Happy birthday, David!  Today, my brother is celebrating his 30th birthday.  David's wife, Anna of The Savannah Chronicles  (http://thesavannahchronicles.wordpress.com/ ), is having a birthday bash. We're heading to Savannah after work to join in the festivities.

I consider myself blessed to have wonderful brothers.  Dave, who would've thought after driving each other crazy for all those years that we would become great friends?  Thank you for being an amazing brother and friend.  I've always been so lucky to have you.

David, Mom, and Dad

Before a UT game with our cousins, McKenzie, Molly and Carter

 

David and Ben with our cousins, Bart and Bret



David and Anna - I love this picture!




Happy Happy 30th!

Rosemary Roasted Potatoes

Rosemary Roasted Potatoes have become a staple at our house because they're easy and go well with a wide variety of main dishes.  My favorite recipe comes from Barefoot Contessa.  I hope you'll try it during the holiday season.

Ingredients

• 3 pounds small red or white-skinned potatoes (or a mixture)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 4 tablespoons minced rosemary
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2.  Cut the potatoes in quarters.

3.  Combing olive oil, rosemary, garlic, salt, and pepper in a bowl.

4.  Toss the potatoes in the mixture until well coated.

5.  Place the potatoes on a baking sheet and spread out into 1 layer.

6.  Roast in the oven for about 1 hour, or until browned and crisp.

7.  Flip a few times with a spatula during cooking to ensure even browning.

8.  Remove from oven and serve. 

Enjoy!

A Place to Relax

As I've mentioned before, I spend quite a bit of time considering ideas for our new home.  My nights are mostly spent perusing home magazines and Pinterest (my recent obsession) to look for creative options.  Lately, I've focused on the master bedroom and bathroom.  Here are some of my favorite pictures of bedrooms and bathrooms.

The bedding in this picture is my favorite.



I love waking up to natural light.



This bedroom is so relaxing and beautiful. 



I dream about built-in bookshelves and a window seat in our bedroom!

These pillows would look great on a window seat!

I love the natural cabinets and tile floor. 

Built-in shelves like these are very practical and pretty.

The gray cabinets are so crisp and clean.

 

I would love a hamper in the bathroom like this one.  Maybe it would inspire me to do laundry more often!



This would avoid my usually messy counters!



I like everything about this picture.



I love the sink in this picture.

My dear friend, Jessica, always has good advice on decorating, entertaining, and life in general!  Her blog is  http://www.whitandjess.blogspot.com/.  When we were engaged and considering wedding ideas, Jessica suggested I pick three words to describe what I wanted our wedding to be.  I thought that was such a helpful tip, and I think it's a good thing to do when decorating also.  Because each room has a very different purpose, I think I will work on choosing three words for each room.

More than anything, I want our home to reflect who we are - the things we are passionate about, the places we've travelled, and the people we love.

Catching Up

During my visit to the Geek Squad at Best Buy last Saturday, I found out my computer had contracted a horrible virus and has a damaged hard drive.  They've been nursing it back to health ever since.  In the meantime, lots has been going on!

We had a great Halloween weekend.  I went to a party on Friday night at Emmylou's boyfriend, Jason's, parents' barn.  Brooke was my date for the evening, and you can see our uninspired costumes below:



Black Cat and Bumble Bee

And the Swamp People came to the party:



Jason and Emmylou

The next night I had a fun Mexican dinner with Brooke and Kelly and then we saw The Ides of March.  The Ides of March kept us on the edge of our seats.  George Clooney and Ryan Gosling definitely didn't let us down.  All three of us would highly recommend it.

On Sunday, we had lunch at the Ellises.  David's Aunt Nancy was in town to visit Jack and Olive, so she had lunch with us too!  It was great to see her.  David wrapped up the weekend on Sunday night by preparing the most delicious chicken and sausage gumbo you've ever tasted.  He combined Emeril Lagasse's recipe with his Uncle Dave's.  It's too complicated for me to type, so you'll have to ask him for the recipe if you're interested :)  He even made his own roux.


The Chef Himself

Last week was a busy work week, and we welcomed November with a trip to Starkville on Friday.  On Friday night, David and I had dinner at Anthony's in West Point, Mississippi (20 minutes from Starkville).  It was fabulous!  If you love stuffed mushrooms, this is the place for you.  For more information, see their website:  http://www.anthonysgoodfoodmarket.com/

After dinner, we visited Ashley and Andrew Shapley and met their 2 month old son, Weston, for the first time.  He was adorable!  Andrew, Ashley, and Weston just moved back to Mississippi, and we're so glad we will get to see them more often.

On Saturday, we had a fun day of tailgating before MSU played UT Martin.

We ran into David's cousin, Egan!  Egan is a sophomore at MSU.

Yesterday was truly a day of rest.  It was nice to have some down time so we will have plenty of energy for the holiday season.  We're looking forward to a trip to Savannah this weekend for my much older brother's 30th birthday!  Hope you have a great week :)