Beautiful Bridesmaids Luncheon

Hello lovely blogger ladies and friends, today is another wedding recap. But I'm getting really excited about these, because now we're finally into the actual week of the wedding! After today I'll do the rehearsal dinner, and then I'll finally get to share more wedding photos!! So let's get to the beautiful bridesmaids luncheon, shall we...?

Friday, October 4, my Aunt Suzanne  hosted an extremely beautiful bridesmaids luncheon. (She also did Megan's back in May, and both of them were just perfect!) She is such a great hostess, and always makes sure everything looks amazing and tastes delicious. And my bridesmaids luncheon was of course no exception to that! We started with punch and appetizers in the back yard, then for lunch we had poppy seed chicken, bacon wrapped green bean bundles, squash casserole and a few other yummies.

Delicious food my aunt made

Jenni

My little sister and best friend, Megan, was my Matron of Honor; I met Bridget at Flagler and we became fast friends, then we were roommates our senior year '09-'10; I also met Jenni at Flagler, and roomed together for a quick summer in 2009. These three girls all mean so much to me, and I am truly blessed and grateful that each one of them were a part of our special wedding day. I love all of these ladies so much, and couldn't have asked for better bridesmaids!

Megan (sister), Bridget, BRIDE :) & Jenni

My super sweet Aunt Suzanne, who hosted my beautiful bridesmaids luncheon!

Their goody bags I had made for them (on Etsy), full of a few goodies for each of them :)

Me, my Grandmommie, and my Mama

Megan (sister and MOH), me and our Mama

It was a beautiful and lovely luncheon, and I'm so thankful for a great aunt who was sweet enough to host this for not only my sister a few months ago, but for me now as well! I am a blessed girl and a blessed bride. Looking forward to sharing a few more recaps of our wedding in the next few weeks!

Oh and P.S. - some of the pictures up there are blurry, and I have no idea why...but let's just pretend they're perfectly clear, mmkay? Thanks :)

My Life in Random Numbers

Well once again I'm coming to you today with post inspired by my blog-friend, Erin at Love, Fun and Football. What can I say? Apparently I want to be a blogger like her when I grow up! So today's post is a list of random numbers and figures that make up some random aspects of my life right now....

451 - blog posts I've written since I first started back in August of 2010, including this one

6 - months we've been married (and 3 days...)

2 - children I have (twin step-sons for now, more to come in the future hopefully!)

You guys like how I sneak random wedding pics in sometimes?!

26 - years I've been living on this earth

9 -  months I've been working in my current position at work

3.5 - years I've worked at the Florida Department of Corrections

563 - miles on Runkeeper I've biked, hiked, walked, and ran

7 - jars of sand from beach trips with my husband over the three years of our relationship

2.5 - books I've read so far this year (Game of Thrones books are SO long, it takes forever to read them!)

3 - Olympus cameras - one old, one new, and one waterproof

2 -  cars I've had since I was 16

And now for some of my little "collections" and obsessions....

308 -  books on our two main bookshelves... although there are still some boxed up that haven't made it out since we moved into this house (plus 12 cookbooks and 56 shared e-books on my Kindle PaperWhite and Jeff's Kindle Fire)

This is only 3 of the 5 shelves here in the living room, and there's also a whole other bookshelf in the other room too

105 - bottles of nail polish, including glitters and sparkles

25 - perfumes and body sprays, plus about that many more lotions

51- rolls of washi tape I own (how much is too much?)

39 - pairs of earrings, not including tiny studs (I thought this number would be higher actually)

30 - dresses, including one bridesmaids dress and one wedding dress :)

You guys - I like really, really love making random lists. Like maybe, I might need to go into some sort of 12-step program or something for it. Or maybe I should just make it a weekly feature to write lists for the ole' bloggy-blog. We'll see how it goes next week, if I can come up with something else. Anyways, this was another fun, easy post, and I encourage you guys to do one like this too. And if you do, let me know so I can check it out!

First Cookout of the Season

First and foremost, let's all take a look at how cute my blog is now!? My blog-friend turned real-life friend Angie just re-did her header, and she was nice enough to share all her secrets with me on how to do it too. Then I just ran with it from there, and went to town designing all sorts of stuff - i.e. about me blurb, profile photo, sidebar headers, post signature, and matching button. Things aren't perfect yet (for instance, that grab button box thingy is driving me nuts, and I can't figure that out...), but it's adorable and I love it so far. And I love that I've been figuring it all out on my own!

Not too many exciting things happened this weekend, other than my new blog design of course, however, we'll do a quick run through anyways... Friday night we stayed in, ate pizza and watched "The Wolf of Wall Street" from RedBox. And we didn't like the movie all that much... not really my taste or my style, but we saw it through the entire three hours, because I'm a finisher, and I couldn't just stop without knowing the ending.

Saturday was full of errands, I'm talking, like eight or nine stops. We wrote our list out of places we needed to go to, then we put it in numerical order so we could be make the most efficient travel time. Saturday night we have some BBQ pork from the crock pot with a southwest salad, and watched "American Hustle." We felt this one was just kind of mediocre as well, but stuck it through and really the last thirty or so minutes were the best of the movie. 

Sunday however... Sunday was the first cookout of the spring/summer season! Every Sunday night since we've been married, I made us soup for dinner, and we nicknamed it Souper Sunday. Well we decided that for the next few months, we wanted to do Sizzlin' Sunday, and Jeff would grill out every week. Yummy right?! So last night was the first installment, and it didn't disappoint.

First of all, I used a super cute little bicycle basket from our wedding decor to transport all the fixin's from the kitchen to the back deck, and it worked perfectly!

Jeff did a great job grilling us each a turkey burger, a chicken hot dog, and some asparagus for our dinner! He also did a little bit of onion for each of our burgers as well. And it was all so freaking yummy!

We loved our first Sizzlin' Sunday, and are so excited to continue the tradition each week for the next few months! Right now, we don't have a table and chairs for our deck, but Jeff's mom said we can have theirs! So excited about that. We just have to make some time to go pick it up from them sometime. But in the mean time, our little TV trays did the job just fine for the night ;)

Of course there were a few other things that happened the rest of the weekend that I'm leaving out, but they're just rather boring and not too important, so we'll just glaze over those details this week, and mainly just highlight our first cookout of the season. Hope y'all had a great weekend!

Oh, and I almost forgot to include a picture of my super cute doggie girl, Primrose :) How could I forget this sweet little girl?!

P.S. - This is my 450th blog post! Whoa baby, that's a lot of bloggin' folks. Here's to the next 450!

32 Things That Make Me Happy

Yesterday, Erin at Two Thirds Hazel host a little link all about happiness. Since I had already posted a blog yesterday,  I decided to wait and use this post today instead. I started writing it yesterday though, and had fun thinking of some serious, some funny, and some random things that make me happy!

32 Things That Make Me Happy

1. Gorgeous, bright sunshine and warm spring weather.

2. Fun adventures and quality time spent with my husband.

3. My super cute and adorable doggie, Primrose.

4. Being able to make just a short drive to the beach for a day in the sun and the salt air.

5. A loving family that is also fun and supportive and caring.

6. Pizza. Seriously - it makes me happy. I just love carbs and cheese, y'all!

7. Cuddly nights on the couch under a blanket, watching a cute movie or tv show.

8. Craft time, and making random things for our house.

Just did this on Wednesday night, to finally re-pot my little African Violet!

9. Decorating our house!

10. Camping trips.

11. Walks around the park by our house.

12. Taking tons of pictures, even when it's of just everyday, ordinary things.

13. Brightly colored pens used for everyday activities. (i.e. at work)

14. The Easter wreath my MIL made for our front door.

15. Six months of marriage. Tomorrow is our 6 monthiversay of marriage, and I'd say things are going pretty great so far! I sure love this man :)

16. Living in The Sunshine State.

17.  Looking forward to seeing old friends at weddings. We're going to one at the end of the month, and I can't wait to see a big group of people I love so much!

18. New nail polish. Especially super bright colors that are perfect for spring and summer.

19. Wearing flip-flops all year long. And yes, I really am one of those girls that does that. I'm pretty sure I was wearing them with my sweater, scarf and jeans on Christmas day this past year...

20. Finishing a good book.

21. Our ever-growing collection of movies, both for grown-ups and "kids". AKA - Jeff and I still watch the kiddie movies just as much as the regular ones :)

22. When my husband texts me randomly in the middle of the day just to tell me he loves me.

23. Good music.

24. Getting coupon codes for Shutterfly in my email, making a book the day it expires, getting it only a week later, and being in love with it!

Thanks to my husband for being the hand model in this one ;)

25. Burning a yummy smelling candle in every single room of the house, so when I walk around I get bursts of a new smell in each room.

26. Spending an entire day in my pajamas - but most importantly, not putting on a bra the entire day.

27. Game nights with friends.

28. Making lists, of any kind. (Also see, I'm OCD and I love lists....)

29. Singing along at the top of my lungs while watching a musical or movie at home.

30. Florida State football.

31. Chapstick. Especially if I haven't put it on in a few hours and I've been craving it, my lips get real happy once I'm finally back together again with my beloved Burts Bee's or EOS.

32.  Having so many happy things in my life! I think I could list at least 32 more (my brain is still on a roll right now thinking of more things), but for the sake of brevity and closure and sticking to Erin's allotted number of 32, I'll cut to the credits now...

This was so much fun to make! I think I need to make these kinds of lists more often - things that make me happy, things I'm grateful for, things I love about where I live... I just want to bring so much positivity into my life and into the blogging world, and what a fun, easy way to do that!

Oh, and one more thing I'm happy about - it's Friday!!

Sunny Love,
Halie

Couples Shower from Jeff's Church Family

Good morning lovelies! I don't have much time this morning, so since this post is already written up and ready to go, today is another update from all-things-wedding-related. After this though, comes the events surrounding wedding week! 

This was our third and final shower, given to us by Jeff's church family, at First Nazarene Church. They do an open invitation to the whole congregation, and it's open to couples instead of just the ladies. That made it really fun because Jeff was there with me, and my Granddaddy and Papa got to come as well! They made lots of yummy things to eat, and a number of people blessed us with amazing gifts.

My sweet Grandparents :)

My beautiful sister Megan, my Matron of Honor.

Mama, me, Megan & Grandmommie

My sister got us this cute clock, that's personalized with our last name on it!

Love these two so much!

All the ladies of my family - Granny (Jeff's side), Mama, me, Sister, Grandmother, Mrs. Nita (Jeff's mom).

It was fun getting to open presents with Jeff there as well, and we both were so excited about so many of the things we got. Wedding showers really are such a huge blessing, and we were so thankful for each and every person that bestowed their love up on us! Thank you again to all the lovely people from First Church of the Nazarene for the nice shower, and the incredible gifts as well! We definitely felt loved :)

Sunny Love,
Halie

Bridal Shower from my Church Family

Hello bloggy friends, today is another wedding update around these parts. I'm keeping things in chronological order (of course, or else my OCD self would break out in hives...), so today's recap is my second bridal shower!

This wedding shower was given by some lovely ladies from my church, Bradfordville First Baptist. I have known all of these ladies for a long time, and I was very honored that they volunteered to host and throw a bridal shower for me. Everything they made was beautiful and Pinterest-worthy, and it was a great time with a close group of lovely ladies!

The hostessses - Debra, Callie (one of my really good friends), & Allison. Oh, and Emma :)

Once again, there were some great friends and ladies at the shower, and I was so glad I got the chance to celebrate with this group of women. They all gave thoughtful gifts, and I was thankful for every single one of them! Thank you again to Debra, Callie & Allison for all the hard work  you put into making this shower such a great time for me. Love all of you!

Sunny Love,
Halie

Spring & Summer Playlist

Morning! Something my husband and I like doing every couple of months is making a new playlist for us. Jeff uses Google Play on his phone, and he pays for "All Access" which is awesome and means you can listen to ANYTHING. You can download a whole album, or make a radio station (similar to how Pandora works), or you can create your own playlists. This is actually what we did for our wedding reception, and just had our own playlist going in the background, rather than having to worry about a DJ or asking a friend to pick random stuff. We got to pick exactly the songs we wanted, and put them in the order we wanted them too. It was perfect. 

And we've been listening to that playlist a lot since October, but we were ready for a new one for the spring and summer, so this baby was born last week. We listened to it on the way to the beach Sunday, and it was great! Now it's a little heavy on the country music, but I did try to add in a good mix of other stuff too. Just thought I'd share this with y'all, in case you'd like to use it as inspiration for your own spring and summer playlist!

 

• 19 You and Me - Dan & Shay
• Automatic - Miranda Lambert
• Beat of the Music - Brett Eldredge
• Best Day of My Life - American Authors
• Bottoms Up - Brantley Gilbert
• Chainsaw - The Band Perry
• Compass - Lady Antebellum
• Cop Car - Keith Urban
• Dark Horse - Katy Perry
• Don't Let Me Be Lonely - The Band Perry
• Done - The Band Perry
• Drink to That All Night - Jarrod Niemann
• Everything I Shouldn't Be Thinkin' About - Thompson Square
• Goodnight - Glorianna
• Groovy Little Summer Song - James otto
• Happy - Pharell
• Hey Brother - Avicii
• Island Song - Zac Brown Band
• Jump Right In - ZBB
• Keep Me In Mind - ZBB
• Not A Bad Thing - Justin Timberlake
• Play It Again - Luke Bryan
• Pompeii - Bastille
• Radio - Darrius Rucker
• Red Lights - Tiesto
• Rewind - Rascal Flatts
• Send Me On My Way - Rusted Root
• Slow Me Down - Sara Evans
• Song About A Girl - Eric Paslay
• Sunny & 75 - Joe Nichols
• Sweet Annie - ZBB
• Talk Dirty - Jason Derulo
• Team - Lorde
• That's My Kind of Night - Luke Bryan
• That's The Only Way I Know - Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Eric Church
• The Man, Aloe Blacc
• The Mona Lisa, Brad Paisley
• This Is How We Roll - Florida Georgia Line, Luke Bryan
• Timber - Pitt Bull
• Toes - ZBB
• Wagon Wheel - Darrius Rucker
• Wake Me Up - Avicii
• Whatever She's Got - David Nail
• Wild, Wild Love - Pitbull

I know no one technically asked to see the playlist I made, but maybe you'll enjoy it anyways. I know we are enjoying it already, and will for the next couple of months, until we decide to make a new one! I'm sure we'll also add some more songs along the way, because these kinds of things are never really final. Hope y'all have an okay Tuesday, and I'll be back tomorrow to share another wedding shower post :)

Sunny Love, 

Halie