Birthday Celebration

Today is my 26th birthday! Time can slow down any day now. I'm 26 years old and I'm about to be someone's Mom. How can this be happening? I'm way too young for all of this. Kyle and my family made this birthday very special though. We actually celebrated yesterday. My grandparents came up and met us all at The Pit in downtown Raleigh for lunch. Their BBQ is seriously amazing, actually so is everything else on their menu. I was blessed with lots of presents too! Kyle had actually treated me like royalty the whole weekend and did whatever I wanted him to do. And he got me a piece of Godiva chocolate cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory, which I ate half of for breakfast. He's the best husband ever! It was a great day that also included a nap, a win for my fantasy football team, a win for the Texas Rangers and a great small group meeting.

pregnancy weight is definitely showing now!

Photography Week 1

I'm finally getting around to taking a photography class this semester after having my Nikon since last Christmas! I'm pretty excited about it but week one was definitely over my head and I'm still way confused. However, our assignment was super easy. This week we were to take pictures of red objects. We were supposed to fill at least 2/3 of the frame with the color, which was much harder for me than it sounds. There is still much to be desired with the lighting/focus/depth of field, etc etc but we were just supposed to be creative this week so don't judge too harshly yet. Here's some of my favs. We'll see what the teacher thinks on Monday, haha.

I had to get this guy in there, the Clifford dog my Mom got for Mason

red dress

red barn

barn right down the street from our house, I think it's so pretty

trespassing for the sake of photography

wish I could have gotten more shots of the horses but they weren't red ;)

Can't wait to watch Mason slide down this slide

tunnel at the playground

dirty old fire hydrant

pretty flower

more pretty flowers

Jesus in every book of the Bible

This 11 year old gets it!!

He is MY Redeemer! He is MY Lord! He is MY Savior! He is MY Strength! He is MY LIFE!

A Family Wedding

My cousin Holly got married last weekend down in Atlanta. It was such a sweet time. I've been close with Holly since we were really small and she's the most special one to me of all my cousins. More than anyone else I've ever known, she deserved to have this wonderful day and a lifetime of happiness. Most of the family went down on Thursday night. Friday was a busy and chaotic day for everyone. All of us girls gave Holly a bridal lunch and shower. Then we came home changed clothes and headed back out to the rehearsal. The venue was absolutely beautiful! The wedding and reception were both inside of this big white country club on a gorgeous golf course. It couldn't have been a more perfect place. Friday night was the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner and the bachlorette party. By the time I got back to the hotel Friday night I was completely exhausted. Then Saturday was the big day! Everything was perfect. Holly was beautiful, Josh was happy, my dress fit and the food was awesome (which is what this preggo girl was really looking forward to!). I only teared up one time and it was only after Holly did first! I'm just so happy for her!

some of the ladies before the Bridal lunch

Bridal lunch!

Me and Nevie (she is saying "cheese")

rehearsal

 

Lez watched the little ones during the rehearsal. Cutest picture ever!

Bachlorette party

me and the glowing Bride!

me and Kyle!

I love this picture!

New blog

Hey everyone! It's time for us to move past the newly wed stage of our marriage and into the parenthood stage! Ahhhh! In honor of this new chapter in our lives, we are starting a new blog. Visit us here:  http://agenerousheritage.blogspot.com/

Pesto Pride

I am so proud of myself I can hardly stand it. For the first time ever, I made my own homemade pesto with basil from my very own basil plants on my porch! I've waited weeks and weeks and weeks for my basil plants to be big and strong enough where I could get enough leaves. Kyle and I both love pesto and I saw this recipe from the Pioneer Woman (love her!) and have been wanting to try it for a while now. It was delicious! Usually I don't do tomatoes, but I was surprised that I actually ate them in this dish. I also added chicken because it felt right. Anyway, it's super easy and you should try it if you haven't! This is PW's picture, I didn't take my own picture because I was too excited about eating it that I forgot. *grin*

Summer Vacation

For the first time in several years, Kyle and I took a summer vacation!! Thanks to my parents. They rented a huge condo down in Myrtle Beach for the week and invited the whole family to come down! It was awesome. We didn't do a whole lot other than sleep in, sit out on the beach and eat amazing dinners. We did squeeze in a trip to the outlet mall, Barefoot Landing, a round of Putt-Putt and some Calabash seafood. We all took turns cooking dinner each night which turned out to be a great idea. Everyone only had to cook one time and it was nice to not have to get ready and go out every night and wait for dinner. We had beautiful weather everyday, it didn't rain one time!! A much needed vacation indeed!

The day after we got home from the beach we packed up the car again and headed to Jacksonville to see the Fescoe's! Chris, Michelle, Ava and Linc had come down from Williamsburg so we got to see the whole family. It was so much fun as always. Uncle Kyle was totally thrilled to go see Cars 2 with his buddy Lincoln. While the boys were at the movies and the other ladies were cooking in the kitchen, Ava and I made a 4th of July wreath. It was fun and it actually turned out pretty cute! We had a great time even though it was a short visit.

Now I am playing catch-up this week with laundry, grocery shopping, house cleaning and lots of errands!