{weekend wrap up}

GEEZlaweez! you can tell its been crazy busy in my world if im not getting to my WEEKEND wrap up until the thursday after!

this past weekend matt and i headed to houston with some friends. our fabulous buddies richard and robert (twins) turned 30 and had a big bash! and by big - i mean over 70 people showed up to this shindig!

we took tico and this was his very first time in a hotel. he did great! hes such a little travelin pupster. love him :)



this is matt and i at a local bar watching the bama - florida game.


some of the boys waiting for our taxis to take us to the party

starting the night off right with some bday shots!

me and cory!

richard and robert with their birthday cake!

richard being goofy

roberts turn to cheese it up

boys watching their football (typical)

me and my favorite eric!

the twins! robert and richard

me and the hubs

the "after party" at the hotel. that is why im wearing matts shirt! haha

the party was held at a bar and we were in a separate room that is usually a patio - but they had the windows closed. that is why i was wearing my coat all night - just in case you were wondering :)

we had a fabulous time! love all of matts friends. even though i was the ONLY wife that came - it was fun. i have noticed a trend with matts friends...NO ONE brings their wives with them. i met a lot of matts friends several times before i ever met their wives. i guess there arent a lot of girls out there that enjoy college football (!?!?!?!?!) bc that is the main thing that brings these boys together.

i love all of matts friends and enjoy hanging out with them. im very glad he invites me to come along :) always a good time!

{wedding wednesday}

sorry for being so MIA lately! been so busy at work and so tired at the end of they day its near impossible to get on blogger anymore :( but i promise i will try to get better at commenting on all of your lovely blogs!

and thank you for being such loyal followers! yall are fantastic!

so i have decided to jump on the bandwagon and start up my own "wedding wednesday" posts. i wasnt sure if i was going to do it - but i think i have given you all enough of a break from my wedding planning ramblings to bring back a few tid bits here and there.

so for todays wedding wednesday i will start from the very beginning.
these are more of our engagement shots - the ones you havent seen.
let me know what you think! :)

these photos are all from my phab photogs you have all grown to love!!! dale and (future) meredith benfield. check them out if you havent already. www.benfieldphotography.net or www.benfieldphotography.blogspot.com

happy hump day everyone!!! :)

{its begining to look a lot like christmas}

saturday after thanksgiving we got out ALL of the christmas decor! i love this time of year. so much fun. and i love how fashionable christmas trees have become over the years. the changing trends and ever evolving new ways to decorate a simple tree!

here are some pics of christmas around our place :)


our tree with a crown on top!

and these are some cute ornaments that my little sis made for us last year. an "M" for matt and an "H" for me and i put a little heart ornament in between just to be cute :) haha

merry almost christmas!!! just 23 days! EEEEEE!!!!

{lots to be thankful for}

our very 1st thanksgiving went off with just a few hitches!
one being the fact that i have never seen anyone make a pumpkin pie - so when i found a sugarfree pumpkin pie recipe for matts mom - i had NO idea that most pumpkin pies are BAKED and dont just chill in the fridge! goodness - it turned into a mushy pudding mess. but everyone still tried it just to be nice :) haha

matt and i got home from our honeymoon wednesday night - tried to relax before we woke up bright and early to start our thanksgiving feast! we had to run to the store not once but twice! typical...but we managed to get everything including fresh flowers for the centerpiece.

matts parents got there just in time to help with the turkey. and we finally ate around 6!
here are some pics from the day!

here is the apple pie i made from scratch and it was DANG good!!!!!!

here was our little turkey stuffed with apples (before)


and here the boys are cutting the finished turkey!

here was our spread. there was baked brie on the top tier - but that was mowed down too fast to make it for a pic!

and this is pretty funny - we dont have the biggest apartment in the world. so we had no where for the 4 of us to sit down together for our meal. so matt and his dad went to the lounge area right outside our door and borrowed this table and chairs just for our event! worked out pretty nice i would say.

we also used a table cloth and candelabra from the wedding!

and this was after dinner. matts dad REALLY wanted to learn how to play guitar hero. they played for what seemed like hours! matts mom and i sat back and enjoyed wine and eggnog instead :)

this was saturday morning before his parents left. we went to breadwinners (my favorite) and matt got the banana fosters waffles again! TO DIE FOR :)

our first thanksgiving was great! we have so much to be thankful for this year. and we did get some pretty exciting news that i will share with you later.

i hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

{honeymoon!!!}

drum roll please...........
we spent our honeymoon in Playa Mujeres, Mexico!!!
it was ahhhh-mazing! to say the least.
it was on a very secluded beach - there wasnt anyone around us for miles. and you could see cancun in the distance.

here is our suite

the suns you see by the head of the bed are also mirrors for the bathroom

this was the view of the lazy river outside and the ocean from our patio door

our first night - dinner at the Lobster House

enjoying some wine

this was after dinner - they had a little band playing outside

my super cute hubby

at night we liked to relax with a fun jacuzzi and open the windows and hear the waves!

i just thought this picture was funny!

the beach

dinner the 2nd night. we celebrated with italian bc that is what we had the night of our engagement. the table was set with roses and champagne!

after dinner they had a jazz show! i LOVED IT :)

they had these amazing wicker beds set up on the beach. i woke up early and reserved us one & matt surprised me with mimosas :) ahhhhhh this is the LIFE!

matt was a big fan of all of the art and sculptures around the resort

these are the hammocks in the water right outside our patio door

dinner at Spice!

this is us after dinner. we did some hunting around the resort and found a really cool lounge with beds right on the beach...very private great for a few cocktails before bed.

this is right outside our front door at exclusive honeymooners pool :)

i got up early again and reserved us a swinging bed by the pool! so awesome. this was right before we headed out for the day - on the bed on our patio

view from our swinging bed

our very last night at dinner. you can tell i got some sun for sure!!!

matt got sick of the mexican beer!

everything was a dream! so relaxing and romantic. it was just wonderful. we ate great food, had endless amounts of drinks!!! :) the minibar in our room was stocked TWICE a day with full bottles of alcohol, candy and tons of beer. we were set! room service was great too. we had breakfast in bed almost every day.

oh and my FAVORITE part of the trip was our spa retreat. we were at the spa for almost 3 hours! we had a hydrotherapy session before our couples massage and it all ended with champagne and strawberries.

we were livin the life let me tell you! it was a fabulous surprise!

{happy almost HONEYMOON to me!!}

well boys and girls! its finally that time...

HONEYMOON TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

matt and i will be OFF on our mystery vacay bright and early saturday morning!!

i cant wait!

here are some of the things matt told me he has in store for us!

- salsa dancing lessons
- he has arranged for a photographer to get some pics of us on the beach during sunset
- a couples spa day
- lots and lots and lots of good food
- a fabulous suite

i couldnt be more excited! yea!!!!!

{never thought id be one of those girls}

ya know - the ones that mainly hang out with "his" friends? i never understood that - how when a couple becomes a couple (whether its just boyfriend/girlfriend - or married) they tend to hang out and do more things with his friends. maybe its just ME that thinks this - but its proven true in most of my life experiences.

i guess growing up in arkansas where i knew everyone and had the same group of friends forever - i always did things with MY friends no matter what. no matter the situation or who i was with. that was the 1st 24 years of my life.

now that i moved to dallas (to be with the love of my life) - i dont have that same group/support system. dont get me wrong - i have my fun little dallas ladies! and im meeting more (even from the blogging world!!!). but i have found myself (i guess more matt and i) hanging out and doing more things with his friends.

in a way - its kind of a little AWESOME. i get to hang out with their super fab wives - without the normal "up keep" of a girl relationship. know what i mean? the ones where you have to call/text/email/fb/twitter/blog all day everyday or they think something is wrong? (hey im guilty of being one of those high maintenance girls too!)

but it kind of rocks. all of his friends are married (a few single dudes - but i still love them!) and its great to have couples to do fun things with!

anyway else out there with me? do you hang out with his friends more than yours? are the wives super cool like mine? im sure everyone is different but there has to be some girls out there like me!!??

happy almost friday boys and girls!

{the mane attraction}

i love my hair - and i think its one of my best qualities!
::especially my bangs...and toot toot yes thats my own horn you hear!!::

and now thanks to the invention of the CHI - i have been destroying it EVERYDAY for the greater good of a fabulous hair day!

i decided that since im growing my hair out - i needed to make sure its super healthy too!

after doing some research, hearing reviews from friends, and talking to my stylist - i decided to go with the following:

pureology hydrate shampoo & conditioner

hydrate shampoo

hydrate conditioner

AND pureology hydrate shinemax

like i said before - thanks to things like my flat iron and hair dryer my poor hair was just all dried out! even some of the best serums havent been able to tame my crazy frizzy/sort of naturally wavy (not cute enough to wear in public) hair!

but after just ONE use of the shampoo/conditioner/shinemax combo - i can tell a difference!!! i kid you not! my hair is shinier, softer and i dont have to use my flat iron for every single piece of hair! its great!

the great thing about the pureology line is that is all natural and organic ingredients. which i really like - thanks to my short stint as a vegan - i know the benefits of all natural things! its said to be so pure you could EAT it! (if you really wanted to)

this line is really geared towards colored hair - even though i do not color mine (yes its true im all natural) - its still great for my natural locks! another great thing is that its not TOOO pricey. its def more than what you can find in the drugstore - but not the most expensive out there!

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so what do you guys do to keep your hair healthy? have any of you tried pureology products?

**you can click on the pictures to go directly to the site to read reviews and everything about the products!

{our 1st thanksgiving}

so if you follow me on twitter then you already know that this thanksgiving will be the FIRST for matt and i to host. we are excited/nervous all at the same time.

you see - we will be getting back from our honeymoon on wednesday night - so we have very little time to prepare for the feast on thursday!!!

matts parents are coming down thanksgiving day from Little Rock, AR to spend the holiday with us. im so excited to have them!

we have our kitchen stocked with all the fixins we will need for our big meal!

here is our menu :)

- turkey
- homemade dressing
- homemade sweet mashed potatoes (with marshmallows, brown sugar and pecans galore!!!)
- jellied cranberry sauce straight from the can (with ridges still intact - my FAVORITE!)
- green bean casserole (a staple in most households im sure)
- baked brie with apples
- rolls
- apple pie from scratch!!!

hmmmmmmmm doesnt that all look amazing!?!?!

well the filling for the apple pie will be from scratch...the crust will be premade. but HEY this will be my very first pie from scratch....ONE step at a time! haha :)

so how are you all celebrating thanksgiving? have you ever been the host?! how was your FIRST time!!? any advice??


ps - sorry ive been so MIA lately. i barely have time to catch up on all of your wonderful blogs let alone keep mine updated! there were some "changes" at work and i have had to step up big time and im wearing several hats now. so im super busy at work and super tired at home nowadays. but i hope to get back into it soon! miss you all! happy almost thanksgiving!!!

{and all that jazz}

i was talking with my husband the other day and i asked him "if you had to pick ONE kind of music to listen to for the rest of your life...what would it be?" i dont even remember his answer (im such a good listener) but then i asked him what he thinks i would pick. and he actually got it right!

i was talking to one of my girlfriends about music yesterday and she was kind of shocked to hear what my favorite kind of music was! so i thought i would share this random fact that makes me a little unique i guess :)

i LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE JAZZ!!
i cant get enough of it! i could listen to michael buble all day long!
(thank you pandora)

my grandpa used to be in a jazz band - back in the day. and he used to drink lots of dirty martinis (at least this is what i have been told) and i just love that jazz music reminds me of him and makes me smile!

give me some frank sinatra and a martini and im good to go!
extra olives please!

so for this fabulous friday i leave you with a few of my favorite songs!

THIS is the very first jazz song that i FELL IN LOVE WITH!
glenn millers "in the mood"
i have loved this since i first started walking!



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THIS is the first song i heard that got me listening to jazz more - more of a contemporary jazz. jamie cullum's "twenty something". he totally rocks!



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and THIS is my what im listening to on repeat now :)
michael buble's "havent met you yet"



hope you all enjoyed a little random tid bit about little ole me!!! :)

happy friday!