Cookie Exchange

I was invited to a cookie exchange this weekend, I LOVE holiday parties but I was super nervous about this one because I don't know any of the girls invited other than the one who invited me. Buuuttttt, in my attempt to meet new people I sucked it up, made my cookies and headed to the party. Honestly it was a little awkward, but I still had a good time. I'm not sure I met anyone that I will be hearing from again but we'll see. Geez I feel like I am dating again ;)

I mostly wanted to tell you all about my cookies, not the party itself. A few years ago my old high school friend Jamie and I made the BEST cookies ever, Oreo Balls. I have made them countless times since and they never disappoint, here is the recipe:

1 package of Oreo cookies
1 8 oz package of cream cheese
1 package of white chocolate almond bark
1 package chocolate almond bark
Combine the Oreos and the cream cheese in a food processor.
Blend until it makes a wet ball of dough.
In your hand roll the dough into small 2-3 inch round balls (really as big as you'd like).
Place the balls on a cookie sheet and put in the freezer for at least 1 hour.
Melt the white almond bark according to the directions on the package.
Remove Oreo balls from freezer and insert a toothpick into each.
Dip into the white chocolate until fully coated, lay gently on cookie sheet to harden.
Once all of the balls have dried, gently wiggle the tooth pick to remove.
Melt chocolate almond bark according to directions on the package.
Put the melted chocolate into an icing bag (or a Ziploc bag with a corner cut)
Drizzle the chocolate on top of each ball in a zig zag pattern.

Normally I top the Oreo balls with the chocolate as per the directions. For the cookie exchange I wanted something a little more festive so I decided to use Christmas sprinkles instead. I'm not exactly the most creative person so to my huge surprise they turned out GREAT! I hope you all enjoy the recipe. Here is a picture of my fantastic Christmas Oreo balls:

HAPPY COOKING!

the honor of MY presence is requested

So today in the mail I got an invitation to my own wedding! ha! We had the invitations shipped to my Mom's house in Houston and when they arrived earlier this week I was DYING to see them, so my sweet Mommy sent me one in the mail :) They look amazing! Matt and I are both very pleased with how they turned out, especially Matt since the invites were one of the few things he was able to help pick out from Dallas. They are "pocket" invitations and as it turns out there is quite a bit of assembly required, so we all know what I will be doing while in Houston for Christmas. Even still I'm very excited! They will be sent out a few weeks into January. I'll try to take a picture and post it later, things aren't really getting done around here b/c me and cheeks are both super sick :(

Have a great weekend everyone!

P.S. I think I will RSVP for two ;)

My First Mixon (well almost) X-mas

Matt and I have been dating for almost 3 years now, and this will be our 3rd Christmas together but this one is extra special. Why you ask? Because this is our first Christmas living together :) This may not sound like a big deal to some but to me it means the world. I have never lived with anyone and I have never been about to marry someone, so for me living with Matt and sharing Christmas under the same roof for the first time feels amazing because it is the first of many holiday memories we will be making together as our own new family.

We decided not to go crazy buying decorations this year because I know that I will be able to get some great ones on sale after the holidays. So, we went small and minimal but I love having the apartment filled with holiday cheer and of course the smell winter candles in the air. <3>

We bought a small potted tree because we didn't want a fake tree but we still wanted to be environmentally friendly. I hate the thought of just throwing a tree away after Christmas. We plan to take good care of our first tree and plant it in the back yard of our first home :)

Here are a few pictures of our first tree and my super fun fake snowed balcony

100 days

Just in case your personal countdown till MY wedding is broken...

100 more days!!!! ;)

busy bees

Wow where has everyone been? No one has been blogging these days, just too much going on I suppose. I'm in the same boat, December is shaping up to be quite a month. Finally Matt gets to come home for a holiday so I'm looking forward to December's trip to Sugar Land more than ever. Until then I have shopping to do, house hunting to do and a whole lot of wedding planning to do. Here is a list of things I could use right now:

-personal shopper
-a way to make baby cheeks poo more regularly (ewww I know)
-a wedding planner
-the perfect house for sale, in the city of Dallas, near one of the 3 good schools, in my price range, ready for move in April 1st.
-personal chef
-telaporter between Sugar Land and Dallas
-my bestie back in Texas where she belongs
-animal trainer

here is a list of things i could do without currently

-fussy, constipated 4 month old baby
-the extra 5 lbs Ive been hanging on to
-the 4 hour drive to Houston
-pot smoking neighbors
-kitten that meows incessantly when the sun comes up each morning
-the Dallas stars (for taking Matt away form me at least 2 nights a week)

here's hoping...

back to normal

This morning I have a baby in my arms...all is right with the world again :) I absolutely LOVE my job, if you can even call it a job. I was off for 6 days which at times was nice but I was super bored and found myself wishing I had some little cheeks to pinch.

We looked at some houses in Plano on Sunday with our real estate agent. We have defiantly decided that Plano is the way to go. Every thing in Dallas is too close to "questionable areas", if we were able to double our budget living downtown would be great, but that's not going to happen so it's off to the burbs for us ;) We have sort of put the hunting on hold for now, we aren't really looking to buy until after the wedding in March, but before the end of April...so I suppose we will start looking hardcore come the end of February. At least now we know where to look. Yay :)

I'm leaving for Houston tomorrow morning sans Matt :( He has to work of course and I need to be in Houston to see my sister who won't be coming for Christmas. The timing sucks but I can't wait to spend the week with my sister. Shopping to come. ahhhhh

That's about it for today...riveting I know ;)

113 days

I really don't have much to blog about today. Shannon had to leave town unexpectedly so I have been off work since Tuesday, therefore no cheeks stories to tell. I have been held up in the apartment all week trying to clean and also get some wedding things done. Thats about it.


Christiana at the Courtyard gave me the cutest idea...shoe clips! Have a look at the website:

http://www.absolutelyaudrey.com

Any suggestions? I am looking for ones without pearls, that's about my only stipulation. Let me know if you see one I just have to have ;) Hope everyone is having a great week, sorry for the boring post!

P.S. I'm getting married in 113 days?! CRAZY!

1 is the loneliest number

Today I'm having a bit of a pity party for myself. Living in a new city has been really hard. Im just plain lonely :( Every time I have moved in the past I have been in school so meeting people was easy. This move has not been quite so easy. I am a nanny so I don't really get out much, and when I do it's all baby related. Matt's co-workers are all a lot older than him, not to mention they work so many hours that the last thing they want to do is see more of each other ;) Matt and I have always been a couple who spends an unusual amount of time together (we just really like each other) so when he isn't working I'm not lonely at all. The problem is that Matt works a TON now, and all sorts of crazy hours, lots of nights and weekends. This leaves me alone A LOT. I love my animals but I really would like a friend or two here in Dallas. One of my good friends Jamey lives in Plano which is awesome but she is in grad school and works a lot so we are only able to get together about once a month or so.

Would it be weird to just show up in a class at SMU and pretend I'm a student to meet people? ha ha Ok so no I will not being doing that...maybe join a rec sports team? Maybe when my feet heal. Maybe an exercise class...yeah that's it, exercise and meeting new people, this idea is two fold. :) If you have any other good ideas, shoot em my way! I'll let you know how my exercise class plan works out.

Here are a few of my much missed Houston friends :(

Winner winner chicken dinner

So I have officially won my first blog award! Now I still don't quite understand this whole award thing and I highly doubt that my blog is interesting enough to merit an award...but still my sweet sweet friend Jenn over at http://jennmarieb.blogspot.com/ has given me my first award so of course I am going to participate!

THE RULES:

-Add logo to your blog

-Link to the person who gave it to you

-Nominate 7 or more blogs

-Let them know you nominated them :)

I only have 6 followers and Jenn is one of them (ha-ha) so naturally I pass this award on those 5 lovely ladies...

http://kristenandchris08.blogspot.com/

http://longhorninhouston.blogspot.com/

http://sprinklesofscarlett.blogspot.com/

http://sweettfamily.blogspot.com/

http://robstacyandava.blogspot.com/

Oh and obviously I haven't figured out how to add links to blogs just using names not the whole link...hmmm....if anyone can help me out with this one I would appreciate the help ;)

The Pictures Band

I am finally getting back to posting about the wedding! There were a million things I wanted to tell you all about but when I started thinking about my favorite parts of our wedding I immediately thought about our band. When we started wedding planning Matt and I both agreed, more than anything we wanted our guests to have a great time. We want them to eat, drink and dance all night long so of course we HAD to have a live band. They tend to be pricey but I was willing to sacrifice almost anything to ensure good music. Heres how we found em:

Last Christmas Matt was still working for the Rockets so we were invited to and attended the Rockets Christmas party. When I say "Rockets Christmas party" I mean it really was "their" party. After walking into the beautiful hotel Zaza ballroom we were shocked to find out that even lowly interns like Matt were invited to the same party as all of the players! Yao, Shane, Tracy, Rafer...they were all there! In fact the highlight of my night was went I clumsily dropped my purse in the bathroom, everything went flying and Shane Battier's super adorable and sweet wife helped me pick it all up. Love her! ANYWAY, the party was amazing and they hired the most amazing band ever. All night everyone was talking about how great the band was, especially the lead singer. He does a rendition of Billy Jean that will really knock your socks off! Matt and I immediately fell in love and new that when the time came we just had to have this band. After much research we tracked down "our band" and booked as soon as we could. The band is named "The Pictures". The coordinator is super nice, the song list is crazy long, the price didn't give my Dad a heart attack and so far they have been really easy to work with.

Here is a link to their website

http://www.thepictures.com




P.S. Yes, Billy Jean is most defiantly on our play list!

LONG weekend

I've already blown my goal to blog everyday in November but I have decided that people who can accomplish this must have no life at all. This weekend was way to busy to check my email let alone make a post.

Matt and I went to good old H-town this weekend to getting some wedding stuff done, and maybe play a little too. He had to work late (stars game) Friday night so we headed out at 5 AM yes I said 5 AM on Saturday morning. Bauer needed his yearly shots so we had to get to the vet before noon. I know it sounds silly to take the dog all the way to Houston to the vet instead to just going to one here in Dallas but I'll let you all in on a little secret, vets are hella expensive. There is one vet in Rosenberg who is amazingly cheap, but still wonderful, he loves animals, and went to vet school at A&M. He can afford to be so cheap on things like shots because he makes most of his money from treating large animals (cattle, horses etc). The doggies and kitties aren't really his bread and butter so he keeps costs low for those pet owners. Bauer's yearly shots cost me 45 dollars! Heck yeah!

Anyway, after driving 4 hours to the vet we went to my parents house to get started on the 10 loads of laundry we brought home. No, we don't have a washer dryer in our apartment, they didn't have one available when we were looking so we made a sacrifice to get into the complex we really liked. After a mini rest, we went out to the country club with my parents for a round of "goofy golf". It was a golf scrabble that involved lots of drinking and funny golf shots...my personal favorite was teeing off out of a baby pool ha ha! Before the the scramble we had lunch, then practiced tons at the driving range. We practiced too much, the rest of the weekend I was too sore to move :( We were at the club from 12 till 6...what a day! But it didn't end there, Matt headed out to meet his parents for dinner and I headed out to a friend's Bachelorette party. As much as I would love to tell you all about this ridiculous bachelorette party (and boy was is interesting) I must refrain, you never know who might come across my blog and I never want to hurt anyone's feelings. I'll just sum it up by saying that my I hope my bridesmaids have good manners when it comes to my showers and bachelorette party.

Now you would think that Sunday would be a relaxing day wouldn't you? Not so much. I ran errands with my mom all day and by the time I was home and ready to relax it was time for dinner with one of my best friends in the whole world. As tired as I was I just could not miss dinner with the lovely Cara and her sweet little boy Cory. We haven't seen each other in months, it was sooooo nice to catch up and see how much Cory has grown...boy that kid is SMART!

Last but not least....Monday. We stayed and extra day in Houston because our wedding venue only does tastings on the weekdays. First thing in the morning we met with our pastor, Pastor Curry. The meeting went very well, he is such a sweet man and he said some really touching things about our wedding. When he said a prayer for us before we left it made me cry! I can't wait to hear what he has to say during our ceremony. After that meeting we headed to the Courtyard for our tasting. The food was AMAZING! I'll have to tell you all about my menu choices in a later post. On a really happy note Christiana, our coordinator at the Courtyard (who is just cute as a button and I love) is engaged! YAY! It was so nice to talk wedding with another bride, it's like sharing an addicton with someone lol I could have sat and talked to her for hours about her wedding :)

We drove home last night. *SIGH*

Here are some pictures from the golf scramble:

Daddy helping me with my swing (then I had to do it blindfolded)

Matt in full swing

My adorable Mom


Dad playing in loafers lol

In our team carts

Me and Matt ready to lose ;)

Lame Salad

So I missed yesterday's post. Oops! I had a really hard day with Samantha yesterday, Mom forgot to leave fresh milk so I had to try full frozen which DID NOT go over well. Today was much much better but still busy. I had to pack for our mini trip and kitty proof the apartment. Matt and I are going to Houston this weekend to finally get some wedding things done together...it's so nice that Matt finally has some time off to go with me. I was getting pretty tired of taking that 45 minute flight, all alone. ;) Too bad we're driving this time. When I go alone my parents insist I fly, with "big strong Matt" Im allowed to drive haha

Anyway, I couldn't miss another day so here is my super lame post for the day. I'll leave you with a few pictures of our new kitty cat Oscar, he's the cutest and already getting too big! I'll have to make a post all about him later.

New Best friends, Oscar and Bauer

Sleepy Kitty

Just plain adorable

Mini Post

Just in case anyone was losing sleep over this...I finally got cheeks to eat well today! Three bottles (3 oz each) all on schedule and without a meltdown! Don't get me wrong it wasn't exactly easy, but it was successful. I think I have figured out what the secret is, she doesn't like the frozen breast milk. She isn't a fan of the bottle either but today I mixed half frozen milk and half fresh milk (Shannon pumped before work). YAY! Lets pray for another successful day tomorrow and a happy baby cheeks :)

Halloween at the Arboretum

For those of you who don't know Matt proposed to me at the Dallas Arboretum. It is basically a beautiful 70+ acre garden. His proposal was amazing with a surprise photographer and all. If you want to read all about the amazing proposal click here: http://kate-katharine-ellis.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html

Anyway, the day he proposed we had so much going on that we didn't get to see much of the arboretum. We only got to see the parts the photographer took us too, then we had to run off to find somewhere to live in Dallas lol Since May we have been talking about going back to the park to get the full tour and of course revisit the proposal spot. We decided that fall would be a great time to go. Every year for the month of October, the arboretum goes fall crazy with amazing exhibits. On Halloween weekend Matt actually had a day off (two days to be exact, amazing I know) so on Halloween day we headed out to the arboretum for a picnic. We picked up Jersey Mikes sandwiches, I made some mimosas and we ended up setting up our picnic blanket about

50 feet from where Matt proposed. It was so perfect. I think I teared up about twenty times. We got to tour the entire park this time, and even take our annual pumpkin patch pictures. Yes we are dorky ;) We also had the best time looking at all the cute kiddos dressed up for Halloween. The park was packed with families all there for Halloween pictures and some fun activities they have for kids. The day was amazing and very romantic, but unfortunately we both left the arboretum with a bad case of baby fever...I just had to keep reminding Matt that they cry...alot...trust me, it's my job ;)

Here are some great pictures of our Halloween at the arboretum. Sorry for the sunglasses, it was too bright to take em off.

Out front, this is my "we got engaged here" face ;)

Laying on our picnic blanket

Over looking White Rock Lake

In the Poetry Garden

My annual pumpkin patch picture

Matt's annual pumpkin patch picture

Makeover...And A Starving Baby

I officially have a whole new blog...as you all can see I'm sure ;) This somehow makes me feel like I will be a more frequent and productive blogger. Even if it doesn't at least it's cute right? Thanks Kristen for your amazing creative skills, clearly I do not possess any of my own.

Word on the street is that November is some sort of special month in the blogging world, we are supposed to make a post everyday this month. Sure I can post but I can't promise it's always going to be good...I'll try.

Today is a lazy day at home with baby cheeks. She was up all night and so today we are really going to try to establish a good routine and we are also trying some new bottles. Any one have any secrets on how to best transition a breast fed baby to the bottle? She fights me constantly, it's a struggle just to get an ounce down. I've tried the usual array of tricks but homegirl is quite the stubborn baby. Any and all advice is welcome. (so much for being the professional here)

I'll leave you with some cuteness because no post is complete without some baby love.

Testing, Testing 123

Just testing out the new blog...made some changes, as you can see....my bestest is AWESOME, she has been making my blog pretty all evening :) LOVE YOU KRIST!

Clarification

After my post about our wedding venue a friend asked me..."so your ceremony will be in front of the big green wall?" At the Courtyard there is indeed a very large wall fully covered in green ivy. However, I will NOT be getting married in front of said green wall. I absolutely hate it! Now keep in mind this is my opinion and mine only, truth be told the "green wall" is the most popular ceremony site of the two that they have at the venue. It is great and I can see why brides love it. Most people chose to get married there over the balcony/courtyard area. In fact I had trouble finding pictures of weddings at "my site". However the look just isn't for me. Also, some of it has to do with the ballroom, each site is tied to a different ballroom and I preferred the larger of the two, which meant the green wall was out for me. Just thought I'd clear that up ;)




To all those "big green wall" brides out there, sorry if i offended you, the site is beautiful...just not my taste...I'm always a little bit of a rebel ;)

Baby on board

Here is a picture of my sweet girl...look at those CHEEKS! Pinch-able!

So this morning I am blogging with a baby on my lap :) Samantha to be exact. She seems to prefer sleeping in my arms/on my lap rather than in her bassinet...OK who am I kidding? I prefer her to sleep in my arms, ahhhh baby love :) Today is Mommy's first official day back to work, which means that this is also my first official day back at work. Ive been part time for a few months now which has been great, but I am soooo ready to get into a full routine with the cutest 2 1/2 month old I know ;)

In other news we have officially decided on and "reserved" tuxes for the wedding! I know this may not sound like a huge deal, but for anyone who has ever planned a wedding, you know that anytime you can put a big X through something on your checklist it has been a GREAT day! We picked a two button black Calvin Klein tux with a black vest and black tie for the guys. For Matt it's the same tux with a white vest and white tie. The tie has wide stripes which is my fave part. At first Matt was hesitant to go with white but after showing him a million pictures of his options he was "swayed" lol


This is the tux (without the vest)


This is the guy's vest, but the tie will be striped, the website wouldn't let me change the tie, ugh
Matt's is the same...only white.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day! I'm off to get ready for our 1o Am feeding, bound and determined to get cheeks on a schedule!