30 Rocks!

Turning 30 is better than I thought it would be! I know some people dread a big birthday like this but I am loving my 30's so far and look forward to them!! I have been celebrating for almost a week now haha!

On my actual birthday my parents cooked a delicious meal and all of the family came over to enjoy it. Neil turned 19 on March 15 so we celebrated his birthday as well!

I received so many sweet and funny cards and thoughtful gifts.

Aunt Mary put together a gift bag with the theme "30 rocks". On the card she cut out paint chips and each color had a rocky name! There was also rock salt, pop rocks, a swimsuit cover up with bling on it, mortar and pestle and Black STONE wine! So clever!

Friday night we went to dinner with Brooke and Clark at Terelli's. I have been wanting to try this place for a long time and it was delicious. It has an awesome roof top patio that has a view of downtown that makes it even better!

Kari was SO nice and I think brave to have a few friends over to her house last night for my birthday. I say brave because she is due to have a baby ANY DAY NOW!!!

Brett smoked a brisket to take over and it was delicious! I know he won't be happy about this picture but I thought it was cute. I put the apron on him because he was getting it all over his shirt!

Kari also went with the 30 Rocks theme! Pop rocks and rock candy are in the jars. She also made the cute banners out of scrapbook paper!

Kari also painted that- isn't it awesome?!

And she made the tissue paper poms!

Pioneer Woman's sheet cake=YUM!

The girls. Kinda crazy to think this time next year there will be 8 girls because 3 of the 5 girls here are expecting a little girl!!

Clark told Brooke: "Don't drink the water around here-there are pregnant people everywhere!" haha Brett agreed with him of course!

So obviously I have had a fun time turing 30! I have been able to share this time with so many special people and that has ROCKED!! :)

The Kitchen is Finished!

We have been wanting to make some changes in the kitchen since we moved in. We finally decided if we are going to do it, we needed to do it so we will have time to enjoy it. I liked the way our kitchen looked before, but the black countertops and tile never looked clean and made the small space seem even smaller. So here are some pics!

I made the curtains from burlap and ring clips. Less than $10 and really easy!

We didn't paint or change the cabinets. Just countertops, sink, floor and backsplash. We are loving it!

Kari's Baby Shower

I can't believe baby Kari and Derek's baby Cora will be here in less than a month!

Rachel and I hosted a shower for Kari a few weeks ago and here are some pics.

Kari is the one in the pretty flower dress. I had to point her out because you can hardly even tell she is pregnant from the front or back! Rachel in the blue and Jessica in the black are also expecting!

Rachel and I made a few finger foods and I made the cupcakes which turned out really cute and so good. I found the recipe on Pinterest. I also saw these little yarn pom poms on a blog and made them for the decorations.

Found the punch on Pinterest too. It is made from Rasberry Sherbert, 7 UP and a frozen pink lemonade. Everyone loved it.

Me and the mommy to be.

Kari ended up using the yarn pom poms as her mobile. Isn't her nursery adorable?!! She painted that cute picture on the wall. She is so crafty and will have so much fun doing those kinds of things with her little girl :)

Post Vacation

Vacation was awesome. I said I was going to update the blog during our trip, but it took too long to try to type on the iPhone. Plus, we were just too busy!

We kinda feel unhealthy and blaaaa after eating out 3 meals a day for 14 days, drinking lots of wine and having dessert with almost every dinner and sometimes in between!!!

So, I got on Pinterest to look for some healthy recipes and this is what I cooked tonight:

Veggie Burger on Roasted Cabbage

We have NEVER even eaten a veggie burger much less cooked one. We obviously usually go for the juicy beefy burger, but this was pretty good and oh so healthy it seemed!

Recipe for VEGGIE BURGER

Recipe for the ROASTED CABBAGE

I followed the recipes for the most part. I used 2 eggs instead of flax eggs like the recipe asked mainly because I have no clue what that is! I cooked the burgers in the pan and when the cabbage was done I stuck the burger on the cabbage and melted feta and cheddar cheese over them in the oven.

I also added a little mayo.

Poor Brett had to dive right back into reality the day after we got back. He worked a 15 hour day. He will have 4 days off this month, but the rest of the time he will be really busy. He said he got to do surgery to correct an umbilical hernia today so that was fun for him. Just a few more months of General Surgery and then he will actually be doing Oral Surgery until he is done. Yay!

I spent my morning with my friend Katie and her triplets. They are 2 months now and SO cute and sweet!!!

No Snow in Tahoe and Rental Car Games

We are officially on vacation! We didn't book any hotels for the trip because we were not sure how long we wanted to stay at each place or exactly where we wanted to go. And now we are really glad we didn't. The plan was to ski Heavenly in South Lake Tahoe until Sunday and then head to Sonoma/Napa Valley.

We knew there had been no snow in Tahoe but we still though there was enough to ski on- maybe. We learned today from talking to a few locals that only a few slopes are open and there is only artificial snow. We decided the skiing would not be very good- crowded and icy- and it wasn't worth renting skis and buying lift tickets for that. So we drove around half of Lake Tahoe and are now headed to Sonoma. Since we have extra days from not skiing we decided we will go to Yosemite National Park before heading South because it is supposed to Be beautiful.

A pic at the lake. It's beautiful and we want to come back when we can ski.

A shot of the mountains. Not even a patch of snow. They said they had 20 feet this time last year.

Anyway onto our rental car. We didn't reserve one because we thought we would when we arrived. We knew that it was going to be more because we were getting a one way, but the quotes we got today were ridiculous. We went to 5 of the counters and were told it would be $1300-1500 for their economy car. So we got on our phone and I found A quote from Alamo for $550- still lots but much less. So I showed the budget rental people that quote and asked if they could match it. They beat it by upgrading us to an SUV, not a tiny Kia, with a gps for $388. Plus I have a 30% coupon I found online I can use when we turn it in! Their quote was originally $1500. Pretty crazy huh! We were thanking our iPhones for that one. They just paid for themselves! I think we were trying to make ourselves feel better since we had to buy Brett a new one Sunday since his was STOLEN from the VA Hospital. Ugh.

Anyway- I will try to update on our adventures!

Sent from my iPhone

Christmas Cookie Party

Rachel and Brandon hosted their 2nd Annual Christmas Cookie Party at their house on Friday. Everyone brought ingredients and a recipe to make a Christmas cookie or candy.

The girls mixed and baked all kinds of goodies.

The guys worked hard playing video games and testing our food!

We had Peppermint Bark, Toffee, Snow Capped Red Velvet Cookies, Iced Sugar Cookies, Christmas Wreaths and Magic Bars.

We had a great time!

New Beds

Santa came early and brought the girls new beds.

I found them at the 8 Hour Sale at Stein Mart for 50% off.

Obviously are ALL enjoying them a little more than expected!

Our First Tree

Last year we didn't get a Christmas tree because we weren't in Dallas but about a week of December. So this year we have our first Christmas tree together! We went to the tree tent, walked right in and got the first tree we saw. It was the perfect height, size and shape that we wanted! We realized of all of the years of decorating while growing up we never have hung lights and didn't really know the best technique! The only tree I have had since living at home was fake had lights built in so we had to start over a few times to get them right!

Gotta love the self timer pics!

Family Photo! Dot had a good treat apparently!

I bribed them with their favorite treat for these photos, but they still look miserable!!

Merry Christmas!!