Dating before baby.

Let's talk dating before baby. Not to say that dating between hubby and I will not continue after Cameron gets here... but let's face it, things are going to be changing a whole lot real soon. I've always thought the idea of babymoons were silly. Now that I'm in the prebaby situation... a babymoon sounds heavenly. It would be wonderful to get away and just have some quality one on one time with my love.

Wellllll, with all that said... a babymoon is not possible for this mommy and daddy to be. So we have taken it upon ourselves to do our best to have fun, enjoy each other, and really cherish every moment before baby Cameron. It's really does take a lot of effort, especially since my hubby is one busy man. He's usually taken two to three nights a week and I claim one more, then there's weekends out of town and everything else.

So, how we do it: one fancy, shmancy date night is a must every month. Besides that it's just being thoughtful for the other on a daily basis and having a few splurges here and there.

{Such as: Surprise candies, late night fast food runs, breakfast dates, Sonic runs}

Speaking of dates. We had our grand October date last Friday night. It was especially a fun one because Matthew planned and it was a surprise for me! Those are the best because you know how much us girls like them to put some thoughtful effort into it :) {He's a good one!}
He took me to a Mexican restaurant I had never been to that he had raved about their salsa- it was delish. Mexican is an easy A+ for me since I've craved it most consistently since being pregnant! Then he took me to Steel City Pops, an organic/natural, freshly made popsicle place in Homewood! This place is VERY popular and I've been wanting to go just for "the experience." And an experience it was. I chose Raspberry Lemon and Hubby had plain 'ole Chocolate. They were yummy though! Then since I'm an old pregnant lady, we headed towards home and stopped to get a redbox on the way. I talked Hubby into watching it on the laptop in bed- my favorite! It was fun fun, and I just love my time with my sweets!

Easter Sunday.

This was a neatttt Easter. Me and hubby ventured to church all by our lonesome- no other family to be found. Fun... I like new experiences. Then my family drove to Birmingham to enjoy Easter lunch at our apartment! As you can imagine, I was beyond thrilled about cooking, decorating, and hosting. Saturday morning hubby and I had quite the slow start and I spent a majority of the day cooking and prepping. I loved it!

So I had the table all Easter'd up and decorated. I made the infamous bird's nests from Pinterest as decor/dessert :) They were a hit, and are SO easy peasy!

And what would Easter be without a photoshoot?! Well I don't think we would recognize it if we didn't! We found a nice shady spot and I set up my tripod and we had a good ole time! This one I really love:

Mom put together the cutest Easter baskets/watering cans! ha! She's super talented at this sorta thing! Of course tulle makes everything look cute :) She loaded us up with candy to say the least. The amount of sweets in this house is insane. INSANE.

The whole group at lunch! We were happy to have grandmother and grandaddy for lunch as well! Mom brought the ham, potato salad, and deviled eggs (Since I don't eat the latter two, we figured it best for her to handle those!) And I made a pea/potato casserole, green beans and rolls....

I may have made some dessert too. This barely got eaten (hence, all the sweets we have!) But it was fun to make and I was excited to use my trifle dish for the first time!!

And of course Easter wouldn't even exist without the birth and death of Jesus... because, ON THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE. He rose and had victory. I'm so thankful for a time in the year to be specifically reminded of the huge sacrifice and miracle that took place some time ago. Hallelujah, What a Savior!!!

Weekend bliss.

It was wonderful to be in town this weekend. It is super fun to travel and see family, but there's nothing like a nice relaxing weekend at home! Well, that is exactly what we did this weekend: chilled. Friday we ate some Chinese food and went to movie night at Sierra's house. We watched The Green Lantern... not really my type of thing but I did enjoy referencing Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory quite often! Saturday we slept in! I made a yummy treat for breakfast, Biscuit Cinnamon Buns! I found the recipe on Pinterest and we actually had all the ingredients so we just threw it together! YUM & easy!

Later we cleaned house and got a lot of errands done! I made a yummy "cheese, bacon, honey drizzle" dip for our game night! I forgot to take a picture but it was delicious!! I'm going to make it for an appetizer for Easter too so maybe I can upload the recipe then! So Saturday night we headed to our friends Ashley and Bobby's house! We were having game night and celebrating Bobby's 30th birthday!! Here's the group:

We thought about all wearing black for his big 3-0 but figured that may be a little too harsh! So, instead we all wore green, his favorite color!! It was sooo funny. He didn't notice for the longest time! Ahh, it was a fun night! Here's me and hubby sportin' our green:

Hope you continue to have a relaxing Sunday!

High 5 For Friday & Blog Award.

Linking up with From My Grey Desk again today :)

5. Auburn played a great game last weekend and beat Miss. State! They aren't very great so anytime we can squeeze in a W me and hubby are pumped!!

4. Last night I threw some fish together and stuck it in the oven. It was SO yum! I've been failing as of late on the cooking front so this was a needed uplift!!

3. Last weekend was GREAT! Surin on Friday night and catching up on some of our shows.

The Vow, Panera, and shopping on Saturday. And Mexican on Sunday. Blissful! Hubby is so good to me!

2. Monday night we went to go visit our friends Abbey and Lyle in the hospital to meet their sweet baby boy Parker!! Baby and Momma are doing great and he is as cute as can be :) It's so fun to have friends with babies! Hello baby feverrrrr....

1. GIC. This week at our church we are having our Global Impact Celebration. It's my first time ever to attend but I've always heard great things. Wednesday night was the kick-off and it was just as great as everyone had said. We all cheered as Pastor Danny introduced the missionaries and they ran down the isles! The kids/youth sang I Will Follow by Chris Tomlin. I've fallen in love with this song!

And now on to the blog award:

My sweet friend Kristen over at A Lovely Mist gave me my first blog award:

Here's how it works- upon receiving the award, you are to:

1. Link back to the person who awarded you

2. Answer all the award questions

3. Tell something about yourself that you haven't told anyone on your blog yet

4. Award as many bloggers that you think are worthy of this award and make them aware of it

Questions:

What is your go to make up brand?

The truth is... that I don't have a go to brand. I buy what's on sale or cheapest. Pitiful and not very good for my skin, I know! I do love my Neutrogena face powder though- it's pretty much a staple!

What was your favorite fashion trend of 2011?

I'm no where close to being even a semi-fashionista. But I did love all the lacey additions to an outfit. For awhile I thought lace was just meant for wedding dresses but now a days its so great for a dress or a skirt!

What is your favorite dessert?

I loveeee petit fours. But not just any petit fours... Peggy Ann's! They are the most delicious dessert EVER. They melt in your mouth and they are just the perfect size! I had them at my bridesmaids luncheon for my wedding. YUM!

What is your favorite color?

Green!

What is your middle name?

Before I was married, it was Lin.

The last song you listened to?

Adele- Someone Like You.

We just caught up with the rest of the world and downloaded our first Adele song. I'm obsessed.

Dogs or cats?

You know me... can I pick fish?! If I had to pick I would says dogs.

Something you haven't told anyone (on your blog) yet?

Ecckk, I don't know. I've had this blog too long to keep secrets.

Bloggers I award:

The Thaxton Life

Robyn's Reflections

{check 'em out}

I'm trying to encourage these girls to blog more so I can keep up with their lives! Maybe this will help :)

High Five for Friday.

1. All things Valentines. Including my wonderful Valentine:

{even though he is a goob}

2. Making our bed cozy and welcoming like this:

{here}

3. Laughing. I made 4 big ole mistakes this week in my cooking. Which resulted in one meal that wasn't edible. :) Glad hubby will laugh with me and then order us a pizza!

4. Baking successes. It's only right to say something I did right after sharing the negative details! Made some delicious cupcakes and blondie brownies. YUM!

5. Winning 2nd runner up in the "You Had Me at War Eagle" contest through AuburnArt :) We will see what our prize is once we get it in the mail. Ohhh, the anticipation!

Have a happy weekend, soak up the weather today.

{link up}

Valentine's recap.

If reading blogs does one thing to a girl it is this: Obsession with all things Valentines- hearts, pink, red, goodies, flowers, decor. Sadly, my husband can agree that I have fallen for it.

SO true.

I started Monday night:

I got completely sucked in to making cute little tasty treats:

Decorating all around the house:

And of course hubby did a great job. Brought me a card and twizzlers Valentine's morning and lovely roses when he got home from work :)

I made sure hubby was completely sugared up. I snuck in the bathroom the night before and decorated the mirror with markers and gel hearts! Powdered donuts for breakfast. Card and snickers when he got home. And then we cooked a delicious steak dinner! YUM.

Valentine's is such a fun day. I love showing and telling my loved ones how much I love them!

January date night.

To go with our New Year's Goals we squeezed our January date night in the nick of time right before February arrives. For dinner I cooked up some Baked Beef Ziti! This recipe was super delish and tasty!

Next I planned for us to spend some {cheap} quality time together. We learned in sunday school that guys typically feel loved when you spend time together side by side. With that being said, I went to redbox to try and find a PS3 game we might could play together. Of course ALL the games were shoot 'em up games, except there was one- Spiderman. I thought that would have to do. It was kind of a dud but still provided many many laughs and Matthew continuing to prove I will never beat him at anything! (and I like it that way :)!)

Thankfully I had planned one more activity to save the night when the Spiderman didn't work out! Homemade Doughnuts!!!

They were easy-peasy to make! And SOOOO delicious! I'm sure this will become a regular at our house! They were yummy right after making them and then again this morning after being warmed for about 10 sec. YUM. So Matthew being the great great hubby that he is let me document the occasion with a fun picture!

So I think we both count our January date night a success... I told Matthew he's got to out do me next month... lucky for him whatever we do for Valentines will count :)

January date night: $5 ... can't beat that :)

Ff5.

{Friday's Favorite Five}

#5. Burt's Bee Grab Bag!! Yesterday I saw a deal for a BB's Grab Bag for $15... regularly $50. I had to snatch it up :) You get 5 full sized products and several other sample sized! I'm pumped- not only do I love Burt's Bees, I love a good deal!! I'll post about what fun surprises I get later!

#4. Fish for dinner! On Tuesday I made Parmesan Crusted Tilapia (found from Kristen's blog!) It was so yummy! We haven't made fish since we've been in Birmingham so it was a nice change for sure!

#3. Wednesday Night MIT! I got to work with the 1st grade girls again! They are so cute and fun! I'm looking forward to getting to know them and spending time teaching them!

#2. Going to lunch after church with our sunday school class to celebrate Baby Parker and the Northingtons! Abbey is due mid February and we are beyond excited :) We also got the surprise of finding out another couple in our class is expecting- such an exciting time! (We really need to work on taking some pictures together class! ha!)

#1. Saturday! All of it! We went to Auburn to meet Mammaw and the fam for some bbq! Then headed to the Auburn basketball game where we beat South Carolina! Next we went to Wetumpka to meet up with some family for Grandaddy's 70th birthday dinner!! After dinner we met mom and dad at Krispy Kreme in Birmingham! It was great :)

Good week :)

In the kitchen.

I've been cooking up a storm here lately! A few things I've never cooked before... fun :) It's really quite overwhelming for me to think about how I need to come up with atleast 5-6 good meals every week. And be budget conscious too! I think it will take me some time to get used to it and get good at it!!

So like two weeks ago Mammaw stopped by to see us and our apartment on her way to Huntsville to visit with the Tatum girl! She brought us some fresh okra straight from her garden! I pan fried it! It was really yummy, and I was so proud of myself! I only got two teeny-tiny splatter burns!

Of course... another dessert from Pinterest! These were yummy, and I love that its only 4 ingredients! Rolo cookies! We still have lots... come eat them!!

So then I made another Pinterest recipe. We were eating dinner at the Watfords so I offered to bring dessert! Peanut Butter Ice Cream Pie- sound delish?! It was maybe one of the richest desserts I've EVER had! But Mere and Mace pretty much cleaned their plates so it was hit :)

A few other new recipes I've tried out are Mimmie's Chicken and Dumplin's and Mammaw's Crockpot Chicken. They both are big recipes so we've been eating off both of them for a few days! Yumyum! It's really been crazy trying to stay on a budget and not eat out. I'm so use to being able to pick up whatever I want when I want it. Here's whats been keeping me in line, when I babysat a few weeks ago I got paid $100. So we said that had to last us till September for out to eat. For most people I guess this would be beyond simple... but I'm an "out to eat junkie!" It's tough!!! So far we went to Chickfila for lunch and just had to pay for the fries because we we're loaded up on coupons! Another night we went out to Johnny Rockets because we had a $15 giftcard, so we only spent about $8 including the tip. Then we went all out on Sunday. (haha, it's just in my blood to not cook on Sunday!) We went to Iguana's Grill for lunch and that was around $17 with tip (good right?!) Then that night I was craving some trash food so we hit up McDonalds (don't judge!!) that was only $9! Woohoo! I'm SOO ready for September to be here!!