Taylor's "Birthday Week"

If you dont already know, my husband is a child at heart...and that is why he insisted on having a "birthday week" for himself.  We decided to have a family weekend at the lake for his birthday...well this is where all occasions happen now, but its our favorite place to be.  We decided to invite his Aunt Karen, Uncle Larry, Mema, and Grandaddy.  I was thrilled that they could come because we havent seen them since the wedding and we are so excited to spend time with them.  Taylor and I want to be closer to his side of the family and we LOVE them!  I wish I would have gotten some pictures of them at the lake, but I didnt.

We had lunch and sat around and talked afterward.  Grandaddy is hilarious and we had fun talking with him.  Nana and Papa came as well, and I am glad they are becoming friends with Taylor's side of the family.  Here are a few pictures from the day:



Mom holding her precious baby, Dollie!

The wonderful red velvet cake (Aunt Karen brought) and a coconut pie (that Nana brought).

Present time! 

Mom got Taylor a card that looked just like Miss Dottie! how cute is that!

Taylor got three golf shirts, a columbia jacket, and a columbia shirt! He loved his gifts and will get a lot of use out of them.  The boy has more clothes than I do!

Dane and Miss. Dottie relaxing!



The next morning, Dane and I got up at 7 and drove home...I had to work at 10 and Dane had to go to a food show with Randy for the restaurant!  Taylor didnt have to work so he stayed behind to clean and get the cabin ready for next time.  That night we had friends over to eat dinner with us for Tays "night before his Birthday" party!

I had to work and Dane had my car so I began to freak out about how I would get all the food and everything! Darby came to my rescue and went to the grocery store for me.  She got all my groceries and I cooked for 9 people for only $65! I thought that was a good deal!  Taylor loves to cook so I think it was weird for him to let me cook the entire meal by myself (well Jesslyn and Darby helped) but Taylor did not. 

We cooked an app of shrimp and tomatoes...it was delicious!! And then for dinner we had lemon pepper chicken, roasted potatoes, and green beans! It was fabulous!  We watched a comedy show on TV and laughed alot.  It was really a chill night but everyone had fun! Here are some pics!

The whole group eating dinner! Dottie tried to get food the whole night from people. Shes been acting crazy lately!  Also, check out my new rug! I love it!

Taylor, being a child again!! :) Cant be serious! but thats what i love about him...

Katie is one of our good friends and I was so glad she came over even though Randy was at a food show with Dane!!  Kyndal in the middle, and Tay.  Kyndal and Justin, and Katie and Randy, got Tay some really sweet gifts! We have good friends!

Brady, Darby and Jesslyn!  So glad they were all there to celebrate the night!!

Tay and his best man, Justin "S"...that story will have to come at a later date!

HAHAHA!!!! Tay loves his Jessie and Darbs!

Kyn and Justin S, we love them

Me and tay at the end of the night!

The next day, I was off work. I cooked Taylor breakfast in bed, and then he had to go to work!  That night, we went to sit with him at his restaurant so that his "birthday week" wouldnt be over.  We ate cake and celebrated at 306. But his birthday week STILL wasnt over!! His 5 favorite regulars (really like family at this point) Mr David, Mrs Gail, Ms Brenda, Mr Jim, and Mrs Linda came to see him Wednesday night.  They are such fun people and Taylor considers them family.  I love to eat with them at 306 and chat with them.  They brought him sweet cards and gifts.  So is the birthday week over yet!??  NO! we are going to eat dinner for a date night tomorrow night (Saturday) so we can just have me and him time for his birthday!  What a spoiled baby! Maybe I will just have a birthday MONTH! :)

Marcy's Lingerie Shower

Brooke Rentz, SK Daughtrey, Leanne Trednick, Taylor Samuel and I have been planning a shower for our friend, Marcy Shiver.  We wanted to throw her a lingerie shower and thought that would be a super fun shower to do with lots of friends.  I have been "showered up" this year, so I was excited to shower someone else!!  We met a while ago and planned that we would do a night shower with dinner.  We planned the menu, games, how the night would go, etc.

The day of the shower, I had to work from 10-2.  Leanne was supposed to be meeting me in town that day and so I took off early to meet her and to help Brooke set up.  I got home from work, straightened up a little, and Leanne was there. I was so excited to see her beause I havent seen her since the wedding!! Can you believe that.  Although we talk every week, it seems like forever. 
We went over to Brookes and started setting up for the shower.  I couldnt get ready at my house because of the stupid water outage, but Brooke was more than willing to let me get ready there. I always get really nervous before things like that because I am a perfectionist and I want it to be a success and for everyone to have fun!  When I get nervous I turn really red, and that is what was happening when we were getting ready!

The party was so much fun! We had lasagna, (that SK's wonderful mom made us!), ceasar salad that I made, and bread.  Everyone enjoyed the food!  Here are a couple pics from us getting ready and the party beginning!

Me, Jess, and Leanne waiting on all the guests to arrive! It was so great for us to all three be together again. We are FUN girls :)

Taylor Samuel, who is also getting married in May, Leigh Anne, and Lacey before dinner!

How stinking cute is this cake?? Jesslyn's friend made it for us and not only was it so cute, but it was YUMMY too!!

 
The girls getting their dinner!

Brooke and I hosting our party! It was so much fun for us to pull out all the stuff we got from our own weddings and use to make someone else's shower special!

Leanne and Taylor watching Marcy open her gifts!!

Time for GIFTS!!

So after dinner, we moved into the living room where it was now time for Marcy to open her gifts.  Of course we didnt actually post the gifts on the internet, but it was so much fun and she got some amazing things!  It is so special to have such good friends to be surrounded by during the most special times in your life!! I love Marcy.  She is one of the most beautiful, genuine people I know and I am so thankful to get to watch her experience this FUN time!!

HOW Cute is she??

We played a game where SK wrote down what Marcy was saying as she was opening her gifts, then SK read the list back to the group after she was done with gifts! That was a fun little game and we all enjoyed it!

Me and Kyndal cleaning up! Havent seen my Kynnie in a while so I missed her!

These are Marcy's two sisters, Haley, and Lindsey.  They are a gorgeous family and super sweet too!

The night was so much fun! We laughed, and talked about everything under the sun! Marcys shower was supposed to last from 6-8, but we stayed until 11:00!! Can you believe that?? Brooke's husband was probably ready for us to leave, but he was a sweetie and helped clean up after!!

Auburn Champs!

Taylor and I went on a date by ourselves for the first time since the wedding.  We have been so busy with work and work that we havent had any time to ourselves.  We went to the new place, Stage 51.  It was ok and we enjoyed the cheese tray, but we went to Chillis for dinner afterward.  We wanted to watch the Auburn game.  My best friend, Annie, graduated from Auburn and Taylors good friend, Rick, is a huge Auburn fan!  We went to his house after dinner to watch the game and his son John Paige was still awake.  I was excited to play with him because he is truly a doll.  Here are some pictures from that night.  It was so nice to relax with Taylor for the first time in a LONG time!

John Paige and Rick playing.

How cute is he!  He kept yelling War EAGLE at everything!

Taylor loves JP! He will be a great daddy someday (in the VERY far off future!)

John Paige

See how cute!

Random Nights with the fam

The other night, we had a family dinner at 306 north.  Luckily, Dane was off (which he never is) so we all got together and went to eat.  It was the first time in a LONG time that all 5 of us were together at once.  We had a good time and just talked about random things.  Here are two pictures from that night (wish I would have gotten more of dad and dane, but they HATE to have their pictures taken!

Another night later that week. Mom had us over for dinner at her house.  Tay was off work so he got to eat with me, Mrs. Cynthia, Mom, Meredith and Darby.

After dinner, Mrs Cynthia told us about her game that she learned on her cruise that was so fun to play.....look at the pictures and see if you can guess what the game is before I tell you!

Well the game was to squeeze a quarter in your booty and walk across the room and try to drop it in the cup!  Me, Cynthia and Mom tried probably 10 times each and NEVER did it right!  Guess who run the cup on the FIRST try!??

Taylor of course! Everything comes easy to him and he walked across and dropped it straight in the cup! It was so funny and I think he was a little surprised!  This game is a fun one to play with a group of people because it is really hard and guys get competitive about it!

I love that my family can get together and always have fun wether we are at a nice dinner or just laughing at home watching movies! I am truly blessed!



New Years Activities

Kyndal is 24! ahhh! Shes getting OLD!  I wasnt able to go to her birthday party in Fernandina (last year was amazing) because of work...so we had a minature birthday party at Two Friends for dinner.  She wore the cutest little dress by Judith March and looked beautiful as always!  She Loved the gift I gave her!  Here are some pics:

Bread Pudding Birthday Cake

Kyn and Dev

Later that night, we met up with Alison and Jesslyn to hang out for a little while before Alison had to leave to go back to DC.  We wont see her until March so we were kind of sad :(

OK so Kyndal is VERY good at Karaoke!  She LOVES to sing Miranda Lambert and always gets the crowd going.  Here is my favorite picture of her singing on her Birthday!

New Years Eve was fun because I never get to hang out with Darby and she was spending the night with me that night.  We went to Two Friends for dinner with some girlfirends and we got to see Dane.  The food was awesome as always (Chef Randy is the best) and we took some fun pictures :)  Here they are

Kyn and Darby are sisters too!

Me and JessieMe and Kyn

We always take a "family picture" and Kyndal is always in it :) I love this pic because we are having so much fun with our horns and glasses!

The next day we headed to our favorite place on earth! The Lake!  We took 23 friends which is much more than we have ever had there. I was a little nervous because I knew who would be cleaning up after everyone...ME! But it was so much fun and I havent laughed that hard in a LONG time!

Before we left, I decided to wear my hat from the night before.  It was a hit!

Blakely is the girl who always calls me MOM.  She works with me and we love each other. She is so cute and here is a picture of us on our way to the lake.  We went on to the grocery store while the guys got the jet skis loaded in the lake and got everything opened up.

The whole weekend it was like boys vs girls.  We stayed inside and played games and they sat outside and talked.  If we came outside they went "shhhh"! hahaha it was so funny!

We played wii Just Dance alot and that was so much fun!

We went on the boat, but it was freezing so we only rode for a little while.

Miss Dottie is so TIRED from the long weekend!

We had a blast and I hope to be able to take lots of friends there again really soon!