Liebster Award & Craft Night Creation

Last week, sweet Sara from Momentary Memories in the Life of Me nominated me for The Liebster Award! I was honored that she chose my blog as one of her picks!

I've recently become one of Sara's newest followers.  She's a 3rd grade teacher,  a newlywed & is incredibly fun and creative! CLICK HERE to head on over to her blog to check it out! She's GREAT!

The Liebster Award is given to bloggers with 200 or less followers that the nominator thinks deserve recognition for their fabulous blogging abilities.

Here's how the award works. Each nominee should:

1. Choose five blogs to give the Liebster Award to.
2. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
3. Post the award on  your blog.
4. List the bloggers you gave the award to with links to their sites.
5. Leave a comment on their blogs to let them know they've received the award.
6. Share five random facts about yourself.

These lovely ladies are all extremely talented in their "blogging abilities." I've learned LOTS from each of them in this crazy fun world of blogging!

I nominate:
Amy at Fresh and Fancy
Kristen at Life with the Ellwoods
Courtney at Little Moments
Courtney at The Broaddus Family
Ashlee at The Broadstreet Family

My little blog wouldn't be here if it wasn't from my cousin Courtney Broaddus and  my sweet childhood friend Ashlee Broadstreet. Thanks for inspiring me & encouraging me to start my own blog. It's been a fun adventure & I'm excited for it to continue!

Now for my 5 Random Facts:

1. My favorite food is Macaroni & Cheese. My favorite drink is Dr. Pepper

2. I've never been able to keep ANY plants/flowers alive, but I recently started a fruit/veggie/herb garden at our new house. And, guess what? It's growing like crazy! More on this soon...

3. In college, I started dating this one, really cute guy my junior year. He invited me to fly home with him for Easter weekend to Chicago to meet his family. {Side note: He was my 1st college boyfriend, I'd only flown in an airplane like 2 times before this & I'd never been to Chicago. To say I was nervous would be an understatement. I was terrified.} We arrived at his house, I took my bags upstairs to the guest room, and as I was walking back down the stairs, I slipped on the first stair and fell all the way down the stairs. And, if that wasn't bad enough, once I hit the bottom of the stairs,  I continued to slide on their wood floors all the way into the family room. Yes, his family ALL saw me trip & fall.  It was a moment full of awkwardness & hilariousness {and pain on my part!}!!!
 Needless to say, I had to marry him after that. :)

4. I'm a Speech Therapist.  Working with kiddos is my passion, but I also love working with adults.  My full time job is working for a fantastic company in Dallas called, Cornerstone Pediatric and I also work PRN for Baylor Medical Center on Fridays & some weekends.  It's a ton of fun & keeps me busy!

5. I love kids more than anything {as I just mentioned} & I can't wait to be a Mommy one day. :)


Oh and one more thing...

This past weekend, our small group of couples got together on Saturday night to hang out.  The guys all went to play golf and the girls had a dinner & craft party over at my house. It was so fun!

All the girls made wreaths. We stayed up until Midnight watching, "Sweet Home Alabama," eating chocolate chip cookies, chatting & crafting. It was much needed girls' time!

Here is my wreath (in progress) & my blurry IPhone picture...

Have a wonderful rest of your Monday!

Baby Annalee's Shower!

This past weekend, we traveled to Abilene to celebrate one of my most wonderful childhood friends & her sweet baby girl who will be born in December! Ashlee is married to Dallas (who is also a childhood friend!), they live in the Houston area & have an adorable blog,  here! :)

I had the privilege to help plan the baby shower for Ashlee with another sweet childhood friend, Mrs. Kelsey Holson.  With the help of our moms and many other sweet ladies, we had a blast putting it all together!

I just can't wait for little Miss Annalee Ray to arrive. :)

 I just LOVE the way her banner turned out!

I'll be giving a tutorial on my "No-Sew Bunting" banner soon. Stay tuned!

 Kelsey made this adorable picture display of Annalee's Mommy & Daddy when they were babies! 

I wonder who she will resemble?

 Mom and I had a blast making white chocolate covered popcorn & assembling these adorable "Ready to Pop" bags! I found the idea, here, but I couldn't find the exact bags. So, we decided to make our own! Hobby Lobby had these polka-dot bags and we designed the "Ready to Pop" logo.

 Kelsey & her mom made individual "Cake in a Jar" for all of the guests! They turned out so cute.  I'm not sure where she found the idea, but I'm sure you can find it on Pintrest somewhere!

 Here is Ashlee opening gifts! She got so many precious things!

 Here is another craft project I had fun making for little Annalee.  Michaels was selling these baby clothes hangers for a $1.25. I snatched 3 of them and also purchased some pink letter stickers to write her name on the hangers.  Then, I used modge podge to make sure the stickers will stay on! It was a great  personalized, but super afforable & adorable gift. :)

 And, Annalee got Texas aTm booties....I'm shocked. Sic' em Annalee. :)

 The sweetest canvas painting to hang in her nursery...

 Annalee Ray, you are the cutest little love bug! Can't wait to meet you!

It was so fun to see these amazing girls--it's been way too long!

Thinking about the miracle of a child reminds me of an encouraging verse that I love so deeply.  It's so important to remember that we were made perfectly in the Lord's sight. Here's a little reminder of that...

"For you created my inmost being; 

you knit me together in my mother's womb. 

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 

your works are wonderful, 

I know that full well."

Psalm 139: 13-14 

Southbound 35

Wow. We have been so busy the past few weeks! Time for a little update here. :)

For this part of the post, the title "Southbound 35" doesn't exactly fit.  Just pretend it's "Westbound 20." I know, doesn't sound quite as catchy, but maybe it will better your West Texas geography skills. So..what is Westbound on I20, you ask??

We went to ABILENE over Father's Day weekend to celebrate my wonderful Daddy & my 25th birthday!Can't believe I'm a quarter of a century old...wa waaa. I received lots of fun gifts, (including my new bike from my hubby!) had a blast celebrating by the pool & eating homeade ice cream!

We also had fun at the Riddle Reunion over the weekend!

Continuing on in our adventure....we celebrated the FOURTH OF JULY over a wonderfully long weekend in the Texas Hill Country! Thursday, we met Don & Sandy (Kyle's parents) in San Antonio. We enjoyed walking around the downtown and riverwalk area!

 Thanks random photographer guy from Arizona who helped us learn more about our camera & it's lighting features!

The next day, we drove out to Hunt, Texas to enjoy the Hill Country at the McCollum's Ranch. It was relaxing and absolutely beautiful! 

We hung out by the Guadelupe River. 

Kyle did some fishin'

Some went swimming...

...and it was fun!

Later that weekend, we attended the official Hunt Rodeo & Dance. I tell you what, it was THE place to be. Later, we swam all day in the pool at the house, got the guns out to "shoot stuff," went 4-wheeling, played catch phrase, ate way too much delicious food and got a little sunburned. Did I mention there were 6 dogs to keep us entertained? In case you were worried, there was NEVER a dull moment. We were busy having so much fun, I forgot to take pictures...oops! I guess we'll just have to go back sometime! :)

Fast forward another week, and we were headed Southbound on 35 again! Except this time it was to WACO.  My cousin, Courtney was in town with her precious 7 month old baby boy, Ethan! Patrick was away for a church trip, so she was visiting her parents in Waco.  Kyle and I hadn't seen Ethan since January, so we jumped on the opportunity to come to Waco to see the most handsome baby boy in the world! He has changed so much since the last time I saw him...and he has such a personality!

We went to "Oso's" the new frozen yogurt place in Waco!

It was delicious. Even Ethan got a taste!

Ethan thought he hit the jackpot when cousin Kyle ...or should I say, "Mr. Trickster," offered E a bite of his yogurt! 

Such a cutie!

Love you Ethan Joseph!

Moving right along, the next day John and Whitney Collins  invited us to go out on the lake with them on their boat! It was such a blast....we loved seeing Lake Lewisville. And, it was fun because Betsy Morris, an old Abilene friend of mine (who is also one of Whitney's college friend's from HSU) joined us for the day on the boat!  We got out the wakeboard and ski's & each had a turn...

This was Betsy's first time to ski! She got right up in just a few tries...

Thanks, John for taking this cool pic while I was skiing!

And, the most BEAUTIFUL sunset!

I think that is about it for now. Thanks for keeping with me for this marathon of a blog post! Now, it's time to pack for Alaska....we leave in 2 days!!!