Weekend Update!

This is actually a weekend update from LAST weekend. I'm trying to catch up a bit!! 

Last weekend was a wedding weekend for my one of very good friends, Kate. I was one of her bridesmaids and was so thrilled to be part of all the lovely events. Friday night they had their rehearsal dinner at Stoney River Steakhouse. Everything was super super delicious. Brent and I both ate way too much! ha. I hadn't had a steak in months and the one I had was one of the best steaks I have ever eaten. 

{Saturday}

Wedding day for Kate. On the way to the venue I reminisced about my wedding day(3 years ago in August). It was perfect and went just the way I thought. I spent it with friends and family and the man of my dreams. It couldn't have been any more perfect. I knew Kate was going to have a perfect day as well. The sun was bright and shinny and it was going to be a gorgeous day. I arrived at the venue around 11am and the other gals arrived just after me. Kate had her sister, our friend Meredith. and me as her bridesmaids. It was fun just hanging out, getting our hair and make-up done, and munching on snacks while we talked about the day ahead. I'll let pictures do the talking for the rest of the day.

The venue was absolutely gorgeous. 

Getting ready/hanging out. Look who showed up in the exact same shirt! Not planned of course! Bottom left pic-can you see what is painted on the wood?! Yes, a bride :)

Kate looked gorgeous!!

{The best of friends!}

My hair

The reception

It was a beautiful day and an even more beautiful ceremony/reception. I'm so glad I got to be part of Kate's big day!

AND this is Kate and me on my big day( August 7, 2010)

{Sunday}

Rowen was a bit under the weather so we let him sleep in and sleep in he did! He slept till 9am. That's about an hour-an hour and a half longer than usual. it was a beautiful day so we left the house tht afternoon and went for a walk. Brent and I listened to Pandora while walking and Rowen enjoyed munching on watermelon. He loves just about every kind of fruit but I would say watermelon is one of his favorites.

After the walk we decided to head to Home Depot and buy some herbs/veggies and flowers for our balcony. As far as edible plants, we bought basil, a jalapeno plant, and I was suppose to grab a mint plant but accidentally grabbed a stevia plant. We have no clue what we are going to do with that. I'll have to Google that! And then we got some really pretty flowers including a gerber daisy plant!

 

Happy Monday!!

Linking up with Sami & Leann today.

                                       

Pins I LOVE!

It's that time of the week again...linking up with Michelle for Oh, How Pinteresting.

 

Here are my favorite pins as of late!



{Turn an old door into a bookcase}


{Use tulle as a tablecloth!}


{Yummy}


{Watermelon bars}


{Outdoor living}


Make sure to follow me on Pinterest!
And if you missed Friday's Mother's Day ideas post, go here. 

Happy Friday + Mother's Day ideas!

Happy Friday! I know most of us have been glued to the tv( like I am now )and can't believe what has been unfolding over the past few days. I haven't blogged since Monday morning. I honestly just haven't felt like it. I have been staying up WAY too late watching Fox news. So every time Rowen's naps have rolled around these past few days( usually when I write my posts ) I have joined in and taken naps too! I have been super tired this week! The naps were much needed and sometimes it's ok to take a break from the computer. 

Mother's Day is just around the corner. Whether you have a momma or are a momma or even just know a momma that you would like to give a gift to this Mother's Day, I have some great ideas for you! All of these gifts are from the wonderful website Red Envelope. Red Envelope has wonderfully unique gifts and most of the gifts can be personalized with a name or initials. Y'all now I love monogramming! haha.  

1. Hen & chick growing kit

2. Personalized garden tote

3. Personalized garden apron

4. Copper roof bird house

1. Personalized casserole dish

2. Floral measuring cups

3. Strawberry jam growing kit

4. Personalized cutting board

1. Spa relaxation gift set

2. Therapeutic slippers

3. Aromatherapy candle

4. Aden+Anais mum bub natural skin care set

Happy Friday! We have a busy weekend. I'll be back to my normal posting almost everyday kind of gal on Monday!! 

{Inspirational Mondays}#7 Link up!!

Welcome to the seventh {Inspirational Mondays} link up! I'm so glad that you are here! I started {Inspirational Mondays} a few months ago b/c I wanted to start the week off with a quote that inspired me and might inspire others for the upcoming week. I thought why not make this a link up so that we could all read each others quotes and be inspired by each other each Monday. I know I will be looking back on these quotes throughout the week! Let's get the {Inspirational} Party started!

I only have ONE rule: this link up is for inspirational quotes( hence the name )! If you choose to link up( which I hope you do!! ), please make sure your post has an inspirational quote somewhere in it. I will be writing posts with just my quote but you are more than welcome to include it in your regular Monday post. 

Make sure to grab the button below if you'd like and include it in your post so others will know where to go to join the link up or just link back to this post! The more the merrier, right?! 

My {Inspirational Quote} for today

Link up your {Inspirational Quote} below and spread the word!! Feel free to grab the button to the right...at the bottom of the sidebar.

Happy Friday!! {little of this, little of that, & a recipe}

Happy Friday everyone! Hope you have a great weekend! We have one thing planned for the weekend and nothing else! It feels great to have minimal plans. It's going to be a gorgeous weekend here in Nashville so I am assuming we will be spending a good bit of time outside doing who knows what! 

We had this soup the other night and I thought I needed to share it with y'all. It's really easy to make and had a whopping 5 ingredients( that includes water! ). 

Brent and I had a version of this soup when we went to Chicago a while
ago at the restaurant Big Bowl. We go and get it everytime we go to Chicago now. I'm sure we will have some when we go in August! We decided to re-create it to the best of our ability and ours tastes pretty much just like Big Bowl's. 

Ingredients:

Udon noodles

Dumplings or Pot stickers( any kind of filling )

Spinach

Chicken broth

Water

Salt and Pepper to taste

Bring about 4-5 cups of water and 3-4 cups of chicken broth and the udon chicken flavor packets to a boil. I just eyeball the liquids and always add a little more chicken broth after I taste it. Give your broth a taste after it gets boiling and you can tweak it as you need. Next,  add the dumplings and noodles. Cook as directed. When those are on their last minute or so, throw in 3-4 handfuls of spinach. When it's wilted down, the soup is done! We have added mushrooms before and they were tasty. You might also want to add water chestnuts. I bet they would be good in this soup.

Rowen and I headed to Centennial Park on Wednesday and had a blast. This is also called "the duck park" b/c there is a huge lake with tons of ducks in it. People take bread and feed them all the time. We didn't take any but a little girl shared hers with us! How sweet. At one point I looked down at Rowen and he looked at me and was chewing on something. He apparently took a huge bite of bread while waiting for me to pinch off a piece for him to throw in! haha.

{feeding the ducks}

{me chasing a 17 month old runner}

{train at Centennial Park}

My dad informed me that my great grandpa( his grandpa )was actually a fireman on this here train! How cool is that? My grandpa was a conductor for the L&N railway too. Rowen loves trains! I'm thinking we will more than likely have a train party for his 2nd birthday! 

{springtime in its finest}

Love all the beautiful colors! 

HAPPY WEEKEND!!!

LOVES and PINS!!

It's that time of the week again...linking up with Jaime for WILW and with Michelle for Oh, How Pinteresting.

 and

I'm LOVING...

our weather here this week! Spring has finally arrived and I think it is going to stay. I plan on packing up all my winter clothes this week and hanging up all my spring and summer stuff. 

Yep, it's getting up to 82 degrees here today! After Rowen wakes up from his nap, I'm planning on taking him to the park or to the zoo. One takes a little more effort than the other! I'm leaning towards the park. 

I'm LOVING...

strawberry spinach salads right now! Every since I had some this past Saturday, I have been craving another one. I'm heading to the store later and am definitely picking up the ingredients to make some for lunches this week. 

This is the one we had last Saturday at Kate's party. Her sister fixed it and it was so yummy. The dressing is what made it! It was a strawberry vinaigrette and it was so good!

I'm LOVING...

the cuteness of my sweet toddler! 

I'm LOVING...

that I got to go to a work event with my husband last night! Sometimes it's fun to get to be part of the things he does. It was a fundraiser at the Capitol. We even saw  a beautiful sunset when we were leaving. 

And now for my "OH How Pinteresting Pins"...

Happy Wednesday!!