Girls night in

Don headed to Jonesboro, Arkansas last night to see some former colleagues and watch the Arkansas State/Florida International game.  He had sideline passes and was even spotted on ESPN!

Since he was gone all night, I decided Ellie and I needed to have a little fun too! We did what any normal girls would do on a girls night...eat!  All kidding aside, we ate tomato basil pizza and baked Halloween cookies.  Ellie loved being my little assistant in the kitchen!

DeDe brought over a few Halloween goodies and included some Halloween cookie cutters.  It's pretty hard to tell what our cookies are supposed to be, but oh well.  I even let Ellie be in charge of BLACK sprinkles.  They were everywhere after we finished!

We had bats, pumpkins, ghosts, and tombstones.  Can't you tell?!?  Ellie got a little "sprinkle happy" on a few of the cookies!

Enjoying the fruits of her labor:)

It was a fun girls night with the sweetest little girl I know!  It was nice to just relax and play with her after being gone all weekend and working like crazy the past few days.

Too much football? No such thing!

Ohhhh, the things we do for our husbands!

I am a Memphis girl taught to "dislike" the color orange and bleed Tiger blue.
As a kid, Don had an orange bedroom with UT wallpaper and orange curtains.  Does that tell you anything?

I experienced Neyland Stadium a couple of times but only as a Tiger fan.  Unfortunately, that never ended well.  Ha!
Don grew up going to Knoxville and has shared countless memories of going to games with his Dad.  Can't help but love that:)

About six years ago when we were just dating, I attended my first UT game as a Vol fan.  Gasp!

This past weekend we went back and I have to admit, I was pretty excited myself.  We went with our friends Leigh and Cole and had a blast!

Don was SO excited all week leading up to the game.  Let's just say he was in his element and took full advantage of all of the fun to be had:)

 These two together are TROUBLE!

Vol fan or not, a game in Neyland Stadium is an experience.  Can't wait to go back next year!

In case you were wondering if we don't get to watch enough football, PLEASE don't worry. We still have a Titans game and an Arkansas State game in our future.

Thankfully, there is a light at the end of our never ending football tunnel.  Two more weeks of JCM ball is all that is left:)

Good morning!

Ellie just wanted to drop in and say "good morning!" to you!

This was taken this morning before school.  I have a feeling she is not going to be a morning person.  Drama!

Do you Pin?

A couple of months ago, I finally gave in and joined Pinterest!  Pinterest is basically a site full of ideas and inspiration from home decor and party planning, to recipes and clothing.  You create boards for different categories.  For example:  I have a "photography tips" board, a "my wish list" board, an "I like to eat" board, and so on.  In essence, it's a place for you to keep all of your online ideas and websites all in one place.  It really is genius!

I don't have much spare time to spend on there, but when I do log on...there are "pins" galore!  I have tried out a couple of ideas and so far, so good!

First off: chicken bacon pasta.  So bad, but so good!  I even lightened it up with turkey bacon, neufchatel cheese, and milk instead of the alternatives.  It was a hit with everyone in our house!

Board: I like to eat.  www.plainchicken.com

Next up...2 ingredient muffins!

Board:  I like to eat.  www.bigredkitchen.com

These have gotten rave reviews!  I just finished baking my own batch and cannot wait to try them. I "spiced" mine up a little bit with some mini chocolate chips and pumpkin pie spice.  Yummo!

This recipe is SO easy, and I had all of the ingredients in my pantry!  That's my kind of baking:)  All you do is mix the cake mix with the can of pumpkin until combined.  I then added my chocolate chips and a few sprinkles of pumpkin pie spice.  Spoon into your muffin tin and bake!  It's that easy.

Lastly, I went with this easy hurricane candle idea.  I just took my Southern Living at Home hurricane, filled it with candy corn, and inserted a scented white candle in the center.  Voila!

         

                                                   Board:  Holiday.  www.womansday.com

I have big plans for wreath making, teacher gifts, holiday baking, and Ellie's 2nd birthday all in one place.  What have you pinned?

Pumpkins!

We had a nice weekend without too much on the agenda.  Don worked a lot, but we still managed to squeeze in a bit of family time today.  After church and naps, we headed out to the UT Extension Center for a pumpkin photo shoot.

Trying to capture anything decent from this busy little bee is next to impossible.  She was all over the place and we were sweating after it was all said and done!

I am sure we will still make a trip to the Pumpkin Patch but I decided last minute to check out the pumpkin displays that the UT Ag Center does every year. Apparently there is a "pumpkin shortage" so the display was smaller than usual, but it was still very impressive!

There are "DO NOT TOUCH" signs everywhere.  We broke the rules.  Uh oh!

While we were out that way, Don decided to keep driving and we ended up at Cypress Grove Park.  I had no idea this place even existed!  I was pretty hesitant to go hiking in jeans and ballet flats, but we decided what the heck and went anyway.  I am SO glad we did!  Who knew there were bald eagles, owls, trails, and a lake back there?!

Ellie loved it and we were all worn out by the time we got home.  In my opinion, that means it was a good day!

I don't care if it's 82 degrees...

IT"S OCTOBER!

We are having Chili for supper and wearing our Fall outfits!

Happy Birthday Don!

Even though his birthday is still 4 days away...we celebrated Don turning the big 3-0 this weekend!

I don't think it is any secret that I enjoy throwing get-togethers, big or small.  I also think that turning 30 is a pretty big deal!

The "theme" for this little party was EASY and I am so glad I went that route.   Ellie has been SO sick and I ended up taking off of work and just holding and snuggling with her pretty much all week long.  This party would not have happened if I had done it at our house because it was a wreck by Friday!

(Don couldn't believe I mailed out invitations...of course I did!)

  Isn't the "30 Sucks" gift so cute?  Thanks John and Tori!

The original restaurant I booked CLOSED, so I panicked and had to have it somewhere else last minute.  It wasn't my first choice, but we still had our own private room and that was all I was wanting anyway!  We kept it small, just a few close friends.  There wasn't much room for a big crowd anyway.  Thank you to everyone that came and helped!

People even brought a few gifts which was SO nice.  Thanks yall!  Rusty and Alyse gave him a cane and some Bengay for his old man aches and pains.  No joke, he uses that stuff all the time.  I even put it in his stocking last year!

Oh yeah, and it was a surprise party!  This was actually not hard to keep, either.  He was totally surprised and said he hasn't even thought about his birthday coming up this week.  Success!

I ordered a cake, balloons, and some appetizers and that was it!  Easy, easy.

Happy, Happy Birthday Donald!  We love you sooo much and hope you had a great time with your friends.