Favorite 10 of 2012.

#10 Moving to a new apartment in August! When we found out we were adding another member to our family we knew we would have to get a bigger place! The Lord provided the exact place I wanted to move into originally when we moved to Birmingham! It was a process of a move, but so perfect for us!

#9 Getting to stay at home! I finished working at Pinnacle on November 30th. Although that day was bitter sweet, it has been wonderful every since! It was fantastic to be able to have a month to prepare and rest before Cameron came! It's just a tremendous blessing to be able to stay at home and I'm so thankful!!

#8 Making new friends! One specific prayer I had was that we would find a core group of Christian couples to consider some of our closest friends in Birmingham. Of course the Lord provided through our Sunday School class at Shades! We are so thankful for the relationships that have grown strong over this past year! Looking forward to many more!

#7 Our family was extremely blessed when Matthew was offered an accounting position with Colonial Property Trust in October! Because of this job change I am able to stay home with Cameron! Matthew has enjoyed learning another side of accounting and getting to know some new folks!!

#6 Thanksgiving with all the Watfords in November! It was so wonderful to have EVERYONE together! Since Tucker was just born a little before we all headed to Nashville to stay with Brandon and Meaghan! It was some great family time!!

#5 Thaxton family beach trip in June! We had so much fun all being together and not having an agenda :) We were hoping Caroline would make an early debut... but she didn't! Love all these people so much!!

#4 Traveling to Israel with our Sunday School class in July. It truly was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity we were so blessed to experience. It was amazing to serve the people in Israel, but also have the chance to actually walk where Jesus walked! We read and understand the Bible differently now.

#3 New additions to the family (besides our bundle of joy!)
Caroline Grace Thaxton was born to my sweet brother and SIL, Blake & Katherine in June! Tucker Brandon Odom was born to my sweet SIL and BIL, Meaghan & Brandon in November. And my sweet cousin Robyn married the love of her life, Greg Abernathy, in August! And just recently Matthew's cousin, Courtney, married her main-man Ryan (Sadly we were unable to attend due to Cameron entering our life!)

#2 Our one year anniversary in May. Yes, I survived one wonderful year with my sweet sweet hubby. Unfortunately I was a little sickish with just finding out I was pregnant so dinner and such wasn't SO magical but it was still so wonderful! Excited for many many years to come :)

#1 Cameron Martin Watford. The biggest blessing of all even if he came only a few days before 2013. We are just eating him up and adjusting to our new life.

Just like 2011, God was so good to us in 2012. And we look forward to 2013 with anticipation!!

MIA.

Did you notice? I've been completely MIA since I broke the baby news. Well that may tell you a little bit about how my life is going. I'm tired 90% of the time. Not like, Oh yeah I'm kind of tired... like OMG I'm about to fall over asleep!

Pregnancy has been pretty good to me so far I think. I had about 3 intense nauseous weeks. The rest has consisted of fatigue, lack of appetite, and having an upset stomach a lot! I feel like I can't complain too much though! I feel blessed, to say the least!

Well, lots and lots has been going on. May and into June always proves to be busy busy.

Over Memorial Day Weekend we all headed to Florida for some R&R down in Blake and Katherine's neck of the woods. It was wonderful. I love love love getting to spend time with my whole family. We couldn't believe that it worked out for everyone to make it. It was so fun to enjoy this special time with Blake and Katherine before little Caroline makes her entrance! We had a great time enjoying some sun and just having fun together. I wish it was a longer vaca but we will just have to wait till next year for that. {when we are +1}

Blake kissing Caroline underwater :)

The fam was so sweet to shower me with some birthday love while were down at the beach! It was a great start to my birthday week.

AND if you know me you know I loveeee birthdays. So on that Wednesday my birthday day had come around. This was a first for me because I have never worked or had school on my birthday in my entire life. Helllllloooo to the real world. Nah, it wasn't too bad.

My fabulous coworkers made it much more enjoyable at work! For one thing I happen to work with a birthday twin of mine! They got us balloons, cookie cake, Chickfila for breakfast and sweet gifts!

Then that night me and Matthew went to Olive Garden for dinner and went to see What to Expect when Expecting... OMG like my favorite movie!! It was so fantastic, I laughed and I cried and I laughed some more!! And I can't forget what my sweet hubby got me for my bday!! My long awaited Silhouette!!

I'm in love!! I've had so much fun playing already and can't wait to take on so much more with it :)

SO, I guess we are all caught up! Matthew's birthday is a short three days away. Can't wait to celebrate!!!

And just to inform ya... I'm planning to start my baby updates on my 12 weeks! Thats one week from tomorrow!! We have a doctors appointment tomorrow, can't wait!!

OH, and one of my best friends got married!

Happy weekend :) Back to the grind tomorrow...

Sunday bloggin.

News, news. I'm going back to working full time. I have quite mixed emotions on this. I'm excited for the opportunity and flattered by the promotion- but... I get run ragged when I work 8-5. Poor hubby is going to have to step up and help this wifey out. Whew, this past week the apartment began to get a little crowded with all of our dirty dishes and laundry everywhere. I'm certain as I get into a routine things will get better. 

Every morning I wake up thinking: house, house, house! This will bring in SO much more money for us to save for our first home. Talk about motivation!! The new responsibilities make me a little nervous but I'm sure once I get settled in that will pass. It really felt like such a God thing. The morning before work I prayed that the Lord would bless us in our finances and I've really been unsettled about working part time for a while. HE is good.

SO, this past weekend was good. After working a lot I needed a break! We had a chill Friday night catching up on our New Girl {hilarious!} Then Saturday we enjoyed some down time and enjoying our fun families! It was Macie's birthday! (And Meredith's was last week!) So we took the girls to Johnny Rocket's to celebrate for lunch! YUM!

After we went and got Macie's KindleFire! This is the most perfect gadget for this girl! She is such a reader!! For dinner mom and dad were going through B'ham so we met up with them at Brookwood Village (This is my new favorite place to shop/eat!) We ate at Cocina Superior, a fancy shmancy Mexican restaurant! YUM! It was wonderful and so fun to catch up with my parents! 

Sunday we had church and then I got to go to my sweet friend Laura's bridal tea! So excited for her and Drew and this special time!!

Good good weekend!! Looking forward to next weekend- couponing workshop and some of Paige's wedding festivities!! 

{I feel like Sunday is going to become my blogging day! It is very difficult to squeeze blogging into my schedule at the moment! Hopefully that will change soon!}

High Five for Friday.

On your mark... get set... go: here's my high 5!


#1. Helloooo, it's March Madness!! Is your bracket all filled out? Who do you have winning it all? I'm going with Kentucky!

#2. This is a biggie... so excited that work has finally slowed down slightly. I was about to lose my mind with all the changes and extra hours!

#3. I did it... I tried one of those new Doritos tacos for Taco Bell. It was so YUM!

#4. This weeks Up All Night. First off this is me and hubby's all time favorite show- we literally laugh out  loud the whole episode!! Chris has baby feverrrr and Regan wants nothing to do with it. I just loved how Chris was so passionate about wanting to have another one... precious dad moment... look forward to seeing hubby be a dad one day!

#5. Here's my new color of choice for my nails! The polish is Sally Hanson Xtreme Wear- Mint Sorbet, it's just springfully delicious! (Sorry the pic quality is horrendous!!) I've gotten so many comments about how "I'm so ready for St. Patrick's Day" ... haha okay.

Sooo, go link up... and thanks for stopping by :)

Ff5.

{Friday's Favorite Five}

I feel like this week has passed sooo slowly. Probably because I'm anticipating the weekend!

5. I finally got to pretend to be photographer again. Wednesday morning I met up with Michael and Stacy to take their engagement pictures. It was fun to do it again :) Here's a preview:

(I always love a good ring shot!)

4. Wednesday night a special came on ESPN about Auburns quarterbacks this season. It was excellent. We kind of watched it with a heavy heart knowing that Trotter hasn't quite performed as awesome as we would have liked. But still it was still so great, War Eagle!

3. We got our own internet!! We have been borrowing someones internet (we could only pick it up in our bedroom) since we moved in to the apartment. And even in the trailer we may have borrowed it from one of our neighbors. So having our own is really great.

2. We had a family dinner night on Monday at the Watfords. Michael and Stacy were in town and Nan and Daddy Butch came over. We were celebrating Daddy Butch's birthday. I love soaking up some time with the fam.

1. I started my job! Thursday I drove to Jasper to fill out paper work and observe the tellers there. Today I went to my actual branch and worked. It will take me some time to figure everything out... but I think it will be good :)

SO, why am I anticipating the weekend you ask?! WELL, Tatum and family are coming to Birmingham tomorrow for a visit! We are going to the zoo! I'm beyond excited!! Then mom, dad, Blake and Katherine are staying to watch the game with us! It will be great!!

McDonalds, internet cafe.

I'm so sorry that I missed my FF5 this past Friday. We have been "borrowing" internet since we moved into our apartment in Birmingham and our secret friends must have moved away. The free internet has disappeared. It was a sad day in the Watford household. So instead I'll just give you a few highlights from this past week. I had my interview on Monday which I felt went pretty well- haven't heard anything back though. BUT I did hear back from the bank I interviewed with last week and they would like to hire me on as a part time teller. I would work from 10:30 to 2:30 Monday through Friday. Hellooooo, I can handle that :) So I will give them my answer tomorrow (which I may wait till the afternoon in hopes of hearing back from the full time job at the dermatology office)!

Friday was great... me and Matthew went on a date and enjoyed some food court Chinese food. Since we're unable to eat out all that much it's a treat to have some chinese! After that we did a little shopping at Target (where I bought a new workout dvd... here's to hoping it works and staying committed!) Well after that we went to see the movie Courageous. Let me just say, stop whatever you're doing and go see it! Take every man and unbeliever you know. The Gospel is spelled out word for word. I cried, a lot and loved every minute. How thankful am I to have a man of courage and one that I know will seek God every step of the way :) #blessed.

Saturday was spent relaxing and enjoying my sweet husband. We enjoyed a wonderful victory for our Auburn Tigers over the #10 South Carolina Gamecocks! It was a great game and just what our team needed... maybe some confidence?

This morning we joined Shades Mountain Baptist Church and are excited to see how God can have us serve there. Matthew is already leading a d-group for some 7th grade guys. I'm excited to get really plugged in! I also got to meet up with Gigi and Pappy and Liz to eat an early birthday dinner for Elizabeth's bday. Happy day tomorrow girl. You are so stinkin' old!

AND NOW, I am sitting here in a booth at McDonalds blogging to the world. Ugh, this is crazy crazy. I don't want this to make my posts far and few between. I'm too addicted for that :) I'll do my best!! (also, no internet puts an extreme downer on couponing! I'm so upset!!)

Ff5.

Friday's favorite five:

1. Tuesday night basketball.

Matthew plays in a church league on Tuesday nights at Dawson. This week they only had five players so they had to play the whole game. And not only that... but they went to over time. Of course the one time they can't sub out they have to play even longer. But it was totally worth it because they came out with a victory!

2. Television.

How sad it is that we get so excited about the new "fall shows" coming out. We loaded up just to see what we would enjoy this season. The Office didn't disappoint which I was slightly surprised about!

3. Dinner.

I know this hasn't happened yet, but it's tonight... so I think its okay. We're going to dinner with my cousin Ryan and his wife Aubrey. We live literally 5 minutes from each other but haven't seen each other since we've moved! We're going to Iguana's Grill (my favorite Mexican!) so that will be delish too!

4. Interview.

On Monday afternoon I got a call from a bank I applied at to come in for an interview on Tuesday. I was thrilled to actually even have an interview :) It went well, and we shall see what happens.

5. Another interview.

I got a call this morning (Friday!) from a dermatology office asking if I could come in for an interview on Monday. This is just such an encouragement because when I applied to SO many jobs in Auburn last year I only had one interview (out of about a billion applications!) Prayers for this interview are greatly appreciated :)

Looking forward to a wonderful weekend with lots of family time! Meaghan is coming in town, so it will be great to catch up with her! AND I'm having a girls sleepover Saturday night!! Can't wait!!

Packing.

It's happening... and it has taken over our home.

I think it's actually wayyy worse than this picture shows. Because the piles are everywhere... and I mean everywhere. But looking forward to finishing up and packing up early Thursday morning :) It will all be worth it! I can't wait to set it all up and share picture with you all.

So a quick update on this past week. It was my last week keeping the kiddos. They were super sweet on the last day and surprised me with a cookie cake :) Little did they know that it is my recent favorite! It was the perfect ending to a great summer. Elizabeth is being the best little sister ever and keeping them for me next Monday and Tuesday before they start school. Matthew starts work on Monday so it would have been so tragic for me to have to stay! Thanks sis :)

On Friday we loaded up one load of moving junk and headed towards Birmingham. Matthew had been planning to get together with the guys to camp so I found it a perfect opportunity to go home and do some chilling, shopping, and Tatum-loving!! It was nice and fun, of course I would have liked Matthew being there with me though!

It had been quite a while since I had spent some quality time with my TatumTot so it was definitely time. She is growing up so fast and can now crawl (she's a pro!) and almost stand up perfectly on her own! She say's a few words, but doesn't really go for the "on-demand" thing anymore but it's still adorable!

So thats about it... have a crazy few days ahead that I will catch you up on later!

Recipes and life.

I've been trying to do my wifely duties lately and COOK. It comes a lot easier to me to bake rather than cook, so tons of desserts are flying out of my kitchen :) I have come across a few other recipes that are tasty too, and I wanted to share!

The first one is Lemon-butter Chicken. (from Cuisine at Home)

All you need is:

4 boneless chicken breasts

salt/pepper

1 tbsp. lemon juice

1 tbsp. minced lemon zest

1 tbsp. minced fresh parsley

3 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

So here's the easy part... All you do is season the chicken with salt/pepper and grill it as you normally would. While the chicken is grilling, whisk together the remaining ingredients. Then add salt/pepper to butter mixture. Once the chicken is cooked brush the butter on. It's so simple and is so delish! Oh also... for leftovers I shredded the chicken up and put it, with the rice and broccoli leftovers in a pita- it was SO yummy :)

So my dessert recipe of course I got from Pinterest :)

Source: recipegirl.com via Summer on Pinterest

It's a chocolate chip cookie dough brownie. Did you just die at the sound of it?! I thought it was pretty yummy but it's everyone else's reviews that has me blogging about it. The Thaxton's and the Watford's LOVED it. Like... I gave them a small piece and then was joked on for giving extremely too small of portions! You can find this yummy yummy recipe here! It's highly recommend :)

Now... on to the FUN news :) In just 9 short days we will be apartment leasers in Birmingham, Alabama! We had an awesome week of witnessing God's perfect timing this past week. Everything comes together on His terms. Last Monday Matthew got in contact with a family friend from his B'ham church about an entry level accounting job open with his company. They set up an interview for Wednesday afternoon. Matthew was off to B'ham on Wednesday ready to dominate in the interview. He returned later with "a good feeling" of how things went. Thursday night he received an email from the manager from the company... HE GOT THE JOB! By Friday night he had officially accepted the job and we were off to B'ham in search of an apartment! Saturday we searched high and low and finally found one with what we wanted at a price we could afford. God is so good. He has blessed us so much this past week, and even so much since we've been married.

We are excitingly looking forward to moving in officially on August 7th, the day after Matthew's graduation from Auburn University. I told you... God's perfect timing. As Matthew anticipates getting settled in with his new job, I look forward to setting up our first "on our own" home. As well as searching for a job in B'ham (not really excited about that part!)

At the Watford's house the fun has already begun... I'm already sorting through my stuff getting rid of the unnecessary items! We are so excited to be walking in God's plans and following where He leads.

Day two.

"The meaning behind your blog name"

There's not too much of a story with this. When I was making my blog I wanted to come up with something that went "good" with my name, because I knew I wanted it to be Summer's "something"... So I thought of a good "s" word that meant something along the lines of what I thought or felt. I finally came up with "Sentiments" and I think it works pretty well. See... not a good story at all.

Am I allowed to do a regular post with my 30 Day Challenge? Well I don't think there are any rules so here I go:

Just one super exciting bit of information... Auburn is 11-0! Woah, it's been quite the ride. Especially with all the recent "allegations" against my CamCam. I have absolutely no idea if he is guilty or innocent, but for his own sake I hope it's all just a bunch of junk (I guess for our sake too!) Another exciting thing, WE'RE GOING TO THE SEC CHAMPIONSHIP!!!! War Eagle, can't wait to take on those Gamecocks again!

Now an update on the job front. Just last week I got moved from my 18-21 month olds to a 3 year old class. I'm beyond pumped and have enjoyed it so much so far!! It's still yukky work at the daycare but still at least I can go to work a little more happy now! Well, isn't God good? Don't forget it!

Hmm, so how's the wedding planning going you ask?! Well it's a measly 174 days away and I've got about a billion things left to do. But that makes it especially fun, right? Yes! Right now I'm working on booking the caterer, cake maker, and doing invitations.... also looking for a veil and accessories and deciding on bridesmaids dresses- (which I had already decided on but am now second guessing... haha!) But it is fun. Can't wait till the day gets here!!

Okay, well I think that is most definitely an update suitable for catching you all up :)

See you tomorrow for day 3.

Employed.

What's the big news... I'm FINALLY employed :)

It's not my absolute first choice, but I am very pleased to not be in food or retail! I'm working at a daycare called The Growing Room. I work with the K1 class (15-18 month olds). They are quite a hand full but after only two days of work I feel like I may have already fallen for most of them! I work with 4 other ladies, and lets just say we're hardly from the same planet. When I go to work I have compassion on the kids, I HATE that they are separated from their families for such a long period of time... I can't imagine dropping my kid off!! Well the other teachers do love the kids but they don't really have some of the patience needed for a 1 1/2 year old!

Anyways, it will be an adventure to say the least. It will be interesting to see how long God has me here with these kids. I'm full time which is great, money wise. I work 9:30-6:30 Monday-Friday which is really such a blessing to have my weekends :) I have to wear purple and khaki's everyday... I have very few of both of those things! Ha!

(flowers from my Matthew for Congrats of the New Job!!)

And on another GREAT note, Me and Matthew had an interview this morning with Cliff Knight at Lakeview! We've been approved and Curtis can now officially do our wedding :) SOOO excited!

Job hunt.

Oh the job hunt continues.

Although I have enjoyed being back in Auburn, away from pulling weeds, the job search is hard. It's kind of emotionally draining. It's an on going process so hopefully it will eventually lead to something!

On the other hand, wedding plans are rockin' and rollin'. We have the church and reception site booked :) What a relief! I feel like I can sit back and relax now. Still trying to make minor decisions though! I think I've settled on a color theme, I know what kind of dresses I want for my bridesmaids, I know who will be my bridesmaids (; and Jeanna helped me find a photographer that I LOVE last night who I'm waiting to hear back from! I told my dad that he is kind of in charge of finding a caterer for the reception. I know he will find someone good for a good price! More details to come... and maybe an inspiration board?! If I can figure that out!! (ML inspires me!! haha!)

Check out our knot page for fun details!

Hello Auburn.

So, I'm back in Auburn... like for good.

On Wednesday I let the company, I was working with, know that Thursday would be my last day! It had come about that I may think about leaving sooner rather than later since I felt like I had different expectations of what this summer would be. When I heard internship and even after talking with the management of the company I had the idea that I would get to learn all aspects of the green industry! Four weeks into it and I was still on a Floriculture crew picking weeds, watering pots, and laying mulch. Stuff that in one weeks time I would have fully got the "gist" of what they do. I, as with the other interns, imagined getting to experience it all- like maybe a week with each crew, a week following the designer, a week in the office etc, etc. I talked to the VP, who was responsible for recruiting and basically being our boss, on Tuesday about what I was thinking and how I felt I wasn't learning anything. He talked to me with complete disrespect, and later I found out that he actually lied right to my face about some things. After that I just decided that was something I didn't want to be a part of any longer. So Wednesday night I packed up my car and I headed out Thursday after work. It was exciting to leave, after I had been a bit miserable, but I didn't like the idea of "quitting" or having to leave the other interns.

So now Im back in Auburn and now searching for a job! If anyone hears of any kind of opening with office, secretarial, or bank type jobs in Auburn or Opelika or even Montgomery PLEASE let me know as soon as you can.