New Year's Eve

We haven't done anything for New Year's Eve in years and we were so excited to actually have plans this year.  We went back and forth about what we wanted to do.  I wanted to go bowling, no one else seemed excited about that.  Patrick called one day and said Sister Hazel was playing at the Alabama Theatre for their 90th birthday celebration.  I love any excuse to go to the Alabama Theatre and I was excited to get to dress up.  We made plans to go with Jeremy, Jessica, Brittany and Seth. 

We were all really excited until we realized how late midnight is, and how old we were.  So I made a giant iced coffee while I was getting ready.  You know you're old when your pregame for the pregame is coffee.

Funny story, Brittany and I both kind of stalked this sequin dress at Target all December long.  We wanted it but had no where to wear it and knew it would be silly to buy.  Well when we decided we'd be spending NYE at the beautiful Alabama Theatre I knew sequins would be perfect so I went back and grabbed up the last one.

We met at Jeremy and Jessica's house for pizza and drinks before the show.  We decided to all ride together and Jessica offered to be the DD

Meanwhile, back at my parents house the kids were partying hard.

Every year.  Oh that little NYE newborn.  I can't believe how quickly the time has passed.

We walked in just as Taylor Hicks was starting his set.  I loved him on American Idol.  I love that he loves Birmingham and he's a really good performer.

After his set he had a little meet and greet in the lobby, I didn't go get in line but I did see him taking pictures with fans. Just a super nice guy.

We're so excited to be out with grownups!  Also we're tired.

Sister Hazel was great.  Took me right back to middle school.  It was a fun little time warp.  The quit playing around 11:30 to give everyone enough time to go outside and countdown to the lighting of the new "Alabama" sign on 18th street.  It was freezing so we killed time taking pictures in the lobby.

Jeremy and Jessica

Brittany and Seth

Patrick and me.

Then we made the guys take our picture.

Then we made them let us take their picture.

With the Alabama sign that's always been there.

And the new one!

Group shot!

Both signs all lit up!

We quickly got to the car because it was so cold.  We headed back to Jeremy and Jessica's house, ate more pizza and then headed home.  It was such a fun night and the perfect way to close out a banner year welcome in a new one.  2017 was good to me.  I learned a lot about myself.  I'm so proud of all the progress I made.  I'm so excited looking forward to all 2018 has in store.  It's going to be a great one!

Weekend(s) Review

It's been over a week since I posted.  We've been staying busy.  I keep saying I don't want to be busy but I keep finding fun things to do.  Oh well...

Jackson and his mom and dad came and watched the Auburn/ Ole Miss game (Last week).  These boys are so cute together.  They wanted a front row seat for all the action
Last Sunday we went to Mass on the cemetary where my mom's parents are buried.  I love getting to be with all that side of the family.  Barrett wanted to play football with the big boys in the back yard. 

There were so many times in my childhood that I wanted to play football with the boys in this backyard and they wouldn't let me.  (Sometimes they let me play, well they let me stand around and pretend to play.)

He needs another haircut.

All my parent's grandkids.

Some family pictures.

I love these boys to much!

On Tuesday we had family pictures made. I loved choosing our outfits.  Thankfully my friend Brittany let me borrow something cute to wear!  I can't wait to get all the pictures back.  She's posted a couple sneak peeks on facebook and I'm in love.  (Local people, Lacey Barnwell at LB studios is amazing.  She did our family pictures when Barrett was 6 months old and I'm kicking myself for not booking a newborn session with her when he was a baby.) 

The rest of the week was spent working.  I'm so thankful for the growth of Signs of Sophie this year.  This is typically a slow time but not this year and there are no signs of it slowing down.  I love it!  Barrett had speech last week.  He's doing so great.  I need to do an update on all of his progress.

He's also started climbing.  I routinely find him on top of the table.  I'm pretty sure he would climb on the cabinets if he could get the chair up to them.

Saturday we watched a lot of football.  Barrett cheered his little heart out although i'm not sure who he really wanted to win.  Unfortunately for Patrick Auburn lost.  Barrett and I left to go watch Alabama/LSU play at our friend Matt's house.  Barrett was so good.  He stayed up way past his bedtime and was still so pleasant.  He played with his cars and teased the dog.

Here he is climbing on the cooler to keep Matt company.  It was a nailbiter of a game and I thought Matt was going to have a heart attack.  Somehow we pulled out a victory in overtime.  It was a really good game...and I'm really glad we won!

Sunday we celebrated Cruz's second birthday with Mickey Mouse himself.  Barrett was so upset when Mickey showed up.  He was so scared and cried and cried.  It surprised me because he did fine when we met the mouse this summer.  He was not a fan this time.  Makes me really excited for our visit with Santa this year.  I'm pretty sure it will be a disaster. We're geared up for another busy week at work and another big game this week!  Only four more days until the weekend!

Horton House Halloween 2014

Halloween is moving up in my list of favorite holidays.  Barrett put on his ghost shirt and we headed to the office. After work I had to run to the store to get some last minute things for our get together. I had to dig past the CHRISTMAS candy and Christmas tree cakes to find some Halloween candy. Then I stopped by my favorite local place and got some mums.  I was so proud of myself because I talked the guy down on a big pot because it was damaged on the back.  Then I walked off and left it.  
This year we added the hayride so we could all ride and hit more houses together.  We were kind nervous how it would work.  It was perfect.  We may have to upgrade to a bigger trailer next year.
This picture just makes my heart nearly explode.

This is exactly how I visioned these years.  Making fun memories with friends.

It was so cold.  I, for one, loved it because we got to bundle up.  We piled all the blankets on the hayride and headed out.  Patrick was so excited!

This was right before we headed out.

The best we could get of Prince Charming and Cinderella. 

Sweet pirate Jackson snuck in!

Cinderella decided she'd rather have the ninja turtle.

She was so excited with the "glass slipper".  It was a near perfect fit!

We died when Jackson and Barrett got my phone and looked like they're trying to take selfies.

Joseph is a children's minister and he some how convinced all the kiddos to pick up the toys and then lay down and watch a movie.  (Barrett bailed pretty quickly)  These four laid there for a lot longer than we thought they would.
We had such a fun night.  I'm just really loving this stage of life.  I know i've said it a million times but my goal in life has always been to have a family and enjoy life together. Now that I'm getting to do it, it's even better than I'd imagined.  I think it'll get more fun as the kids get older and we add more to the group.  Happy Halloween!

Friends in Low Places

When Garth Brooks announced he was going back on tour this year Patrick and I immediately started talking about going.  I didn't think he would come to Birmingham but hoped he would come close.  Well the second city he announced was Atlanta.  We knew we had to go!  We didn't get tickets the day they went on sale so we started to lose hope.  Well I was randomly checking a ticket site and there were some available so we snatched them up.  Our friends Tony and Carla went with us and we had a so much fun!  We got a hotel room for the night so we wouldn't have to worry about driving back.  The drive over seemed to take forever, I think it was because we were all so excited.  We narrowly avoided a head on collision, Tony quickly realized we were going the wrong way down and turned down a side street but it was scary for a second.  We finally arrived at the hotel just in time for check-in.  Funny story:  Friday, Patrick asked me if I was going to be taking an overnight bag.  I wish you could have seen the look I gave him.  It's like he doesn't know me at all.  I take an overnight bag when I go somewhere for the day.  Needless to say I packed an overnight bag.

Love is dragging a pink suitcase when you're married to an overpacker!

We got ready and headed to dinner.

A few pictures before dinner.

We went to dinner at the first place we came to. Ted's Montana Grill.  We used to have one in Birmingham but it closed.  (Patrick and I had eaten there before but I spent most of the meal trying to remind him.  He is convinced I went with someone else.)  After dinner we had time to kill before the show so we decided to ride the Ferris wheel to get a good look at the hip hop festival.  It was such a beautiful day!

SkyView selfie.

My bearded date.  He was so excited about all the compliments he got on his beard.

Not really sure what I was doing here but I can assure you I was having fun!

Carla and Me at the show.  

I was so afraid our seats were going to be terrible.  

There were definitely better seats in the house but there were worse ones too. 

We had so much fun.  Garth was amazing!  He retired right around the time that I really started going to concerts so he was one of those people that I thought I'd never see live.  Patrick felt the same way so it was kind of surreal getting to be there.  Honestly I don't know how he does it.  I was exhausted.  Last weekend he did two shows each night.  Talk about impressive.  Trisha sang a few songs and was great too.  I didn't want it to end (except my feet were hurting and I was really tired).  My favorite part was he seemed genuinely happy and shocked that people still wanted to see him after all his time off.  I also read somewhere that he is donating everything he makes from the tour to charity.  Pretty amazing.  After the show, we went back to the hotel so I could change shoes and then we headed out in search of a late night snack.  We really wanted Hooters but we took a wrong turn somewhere and never found it. So we ended up at Waffle House.  Y'all it was packed.  We had to wait for 30 minutes for a table...at waffle house.  But it was probably the best waffle I'd ever had.  We were all barely holding our eyes open at this point so we headed back to the hotel and called it a night.  Before we knew it it was time to wake up and head home.  We had so much fun and the whole trip home we talked about all the trips we need to take together.  We always have so much fun with Tony and Carla.  I think our personalities just mesh really well.  We got home around noon and Barrett was taking a nap at my parents house, so we left him there to sleep and headed home to unload.  When I went back to get him he was so excited to see me.  It was so cute.  We missed him but we enjoyed our time away and he had a blast at my parents house with my two nieces.  We were again reminded that we're not as young as we used to be.  I took a nap Sunday afternoon and I'm still exhausted today.  It may take me a week to recover...but it was totally worth it!