Destined For Royalty

what motivates you?

2012-01-19T10:19:00.000-06:00

i dont know about you guys - but i def have several conversations with myself daily. the one that most often starts the day is the discussion on whether or not to get out of bed and get my ass to the gym. usually goes something like this.

me: "dont be a lazy ass. you are already up. you might as well go to the gym"

self: "but i can go tonight after work and sleep for two more hours"

me: "what are the chances you will REALLY workout after work? REALLY?"

self: "okay ill check instagram, twitter and pintrest to try and wake up"

me "good god you really are lazy"

-- end scene --

ive gotten better now to where i will work out either in the am or pm - as long as i get it in im good. but i know that going in the morning is A MILLION times better than at night. thats just for me - it works better if i go in the am and get it the HELL out of the way.

the other thing about working out in the morning is that you are well aware of the amount of calories you can consume. now if you wait until after dinner its like you HAVE to work off a certain amount to break even.

i work better if i know - okay breakfast: check. lunch: check: dinner: check beer: AWESOME! i have enough calories left for a beer. and not just any beer peeps. the kind i like are usually 150-200 cal beers. i know i know its bad. but if i liked shitty beer i could drink the 50-90 cal crap. but thats just it - ITS CRAP.

this brings me to my point: BEER this is what motivates me. this is what gets my ass to the gym and doing lunges. beer.

done and done. you wave one of those in my face and im sold. thats all the motivation i need.

the more i burn - the more beer i can have!

sa-weet!

these are what i see at the end of my finish line. both from my favorite brewing co. (sky brewing) and both deliciously wonderful IPAs. aaaaaah now i want one! haha :)

what motivates you to get off your ass?

2011

2012-01-18T12:32:00.000-06:00

2011 was such a fun year! sooooooo much happened for us. it will be a year we will never forget...

Feb: we moved into our very first home

April: M had is big 30th birthday!

May: we welcomed Leeu into our little family (and we havent been the same since!!)

July: i was offered a job i couldnt turn down with an ad agency. best decision ever. this is truly my dream job.

August: M was offered a new position at a promotions agency just 5 mins from our new home. how nice is that?

August: Tico celebrated his 6th birthday - my little angel is so grown up!!

October: we celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary!

so yea for us!

we decided to celebrate the end of an amazing year and a great kick off to then new year with an amazing dinner with wonderful friends. we ate at OceanPrime. we had cheese fondue, lobster mashed potatoes, to DIE for mac and cheese...i could go on and on. it was heavenly!

here are some pics of the night.

me getting ready (beer in hand - duh). my friend jamie and i went to the Dry Bar to get our hair done for the night. it was my first time and i will def go back again. $35 for a blow out and a glass of wine - duh! oh and these are some bracelets i got for cmas.

me and the super cute hubs waiting for our table.

me and jamie

the whole crew

i hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

xoxo HRH

things that make me smile

2012-01-13T14:27:00.000-06:00

i was going through my phone and wanted to share some pictures.

these are just a few of the things that make me smile!

in no particular order...

me and my DC bestie kim! got to see her over christmas break (we went to high school together). i am super excited to plan my trip to DC this year!

me and my bestie brock! love this guy :)

(please excuse the boobalicous photo!!)

i LOVE my happy everything plate. LOVE IT!

i am always collecting the attachments.

THIS is the latest and greatest! and just in time for NYE!

i also collect fiesta ware. i have the square place settings.

this week i stumbled upon the NEW turquoise color (new for square) place setting and got it for a steal of a deal for only $14!

LOVE bracelets! love stacking them. also love turquoise. i dont think a week goes by without some sort of turquoise appearing on my body at some point.

THIS little ditty is one of my new favorites in my kitchen. makes me smile every time i walk into the room. its the happy everything cookie jar. i decided to turn it into a dog treat dish instead. tico and leeu really like it too :)

these have NOT left my hand since i got them.

they are personalized stackable rings!

my little sister had them made for me for christmas. how perfect?!??!?!

the top ring says "tico + leeu" and the bottom ring says "matt + hailey" and they sandwich the perfect little heart ring :)

she found them on etsy here

that about wraps it up! :) happy friday all.

xoxo HRH

gym peeve

2011-12-01T10:19:00.001-06:00

i dont know if i can hold this in any longer...

PEOPLE WITH BAD BREATH IN THE GYM KILL ME!!!!!!!!!!!!

ah - there i said it. its out there. i feel much better.

but for reals - when im huffing and puffing on the treadmill or the elliptical - the LAST thing i want in the world if for you and your stank ass breath to jump on the machine next to me and poison my air. my precious oxygen that i am needing more than ever at that exact point in time.

seriously? did you even BRUSH your teeth before you rolled up in here? it amazes me how much people can be so unaware of the way they smell.

i have even had to get off a machine and move three machines down to get away. a bit rude and dramatic you say? probably. but i dont give a crap. i am in there to workout. its hard enough as it is without someone making me gag every five seconds.

and why is it that the ONE sticky person picks the machine next to you when there are SEVERAL empty ones? WHY? do i just attract smelly people? what does that say about me really?

what peeves do you have at the gym? that is my FAR my biggest. i think i need to start putting perfume directly under my nose so no matter what i can only smell coco chanel. that wold be a much more pleasant work out experience.

aaaaaah venting. love it :)

xoxo HRH

whats your style?

2011-11-30T12:21:00.002-06:00

i just cant seem to figure out what my STYLE is.

for example, one of my sisters is uber classic and a bit conservative. lots of classic cuts, cardigans, nothing too revealing, bright colors mixed in with darks and neutrals. reminds me of charlotte from SATC.

see how i did that? i used two words to describe her style! i cant even come up with ONE word for myself. i can come up with a list of items i wear all the time - but really its just a hodge pod of what most other people wear. so i just cant figure it out. i have attempted to put together a style board on pintrest - which you can view here: http://pinterest.com/haileyhinz/style/ - but it doesnt completely capture my style. i dont even know if i have a freaking style. lordy! i need help if this is one of my problems/issues in life :) haha!

my fall lineup:

boots

leggings

skinny jeans

high waisted flare dark jeans

suede pumps

blazers

long tanks

scarfs

capes (love my capes)

fly away cardigans

blousey shirts with rolled up sleeves and pockets

i wear a combination of these things every day. these are my staples that i dont think i could function without. i try to take pics of my outfits sometimes - but they just never look right - so i gave up on that.

whats your style? how do you classify yourself?

xoxo HRH

my fitness pal

2011-11-29T12:21:00.000-06:00

hey ladies!

how is everyone after the lovely holiday? i dont know about you but i feel like i have gained a million pounds. slight exaggeration? yes! but totally true.

i have had the my fitness pal app for some time now and have just not taken advantage of it. for ONE i had no idea you could actually BE friends with people and motivate/inspire/be motivated by others with this thing. i mean DUH. had i known this crap i wouldve been doing this for months! geesh. im clearly an idiot.

anyway - so before thanksgiving i was doing GREAT. i lost 5lbs in 3 weeks (toot toot), back into a workout routine, and feeling great. then i decided - oh its a holiday - i should take some time off and enjoy it. STUPID. the scale freaking sky rocketed right back to where it (almost) was before. annoyed. annoyed at myself. i mean really. all my hard work out the door.

booooo! enough complaining from me. the whole point of this is to find my other pals out there that also use the my fitness pal app. i want to hold myself accountable and get to know some other gals trying to shed a few lbs.

so if you are out there and use it and want to friend me for motivation - or even better if you want to help motive ME! you can find me here : myfitnesspal.com.

okay. thanks. bye.

xoxo HRH

my heart belongs to austin

2011-11-23T10:10:00.002-06:00

this past weekend M and i headed to austin for a little family time and for a CD release party. i lived in austin briefly - for 6 months. its actually how M and i met. he was the very first person i met in Austin, he picked me up at the airport (it was for work) and 6 months later i moved to dallas to be with him.

man i ramble. anyway - our friends are in a band called Guns of Navarone. you should check them out -they are awesome. they have been together for almost 3 years now and finally have a CD!!! we love them so much - we decided to make the trip to austin to see them play live at their CD release party.

M and i at lamberts in downtown.

and NO its not the same place that throws the rolls.

M and cory the lead singer cory

me and cory!

love this guy - he was in our wedding too :)

visiting austin really made me miss it. i could have done without the 85 degree weather while we were there - but its just so gorgeous. and there is always something fun to do. if you really like live music - you would LOVE austin. everyone is so down to earth. its a completely different world then dallas - thats for sure.

hope you all had a great weekend! thanksgiving is just around the corner. woo hoo!

xoxo HRH

dear santa

2011-11-22T10:09:00.000-06:00

so now that i have about 1/2 of my christmas shopping already done (thank you etsy.com) its time to think about myself (as per usual). here is my wish list. def a WISH list - because there is no way in hells im getting everything i want. but lets face it i ALWAYS have something i "need".

i am that wife that will send M links to things i want. i even go as far as to show him EXACTLY how the checkout should look like before hitting submit. it works for us. i send him stuff all that time so really at the end - its a fun surprise to see which thing he picked :)

i digress.

here is my list for santa!

this monogram ring i speak of - is the tits. i really NEED this to be on my finger asap.

let me just show you...

my hand is really aching for it...

~~~

what do you guys want santa to bring for you?!!

i saw the sign

2011-11-14T11:00:00.001-06:00

as i mentioned in my post last week - a few pounds have managed to creep their way onto my short and stubby 5'2" frame. of course there were signs for MONTHS that were obvious...but i chose to ignore them. idiot. so now here i sit with a ton of designer jeans just begging to be worn...and yet my ass is to big for them. i refuse REFUSE to buy a larger size. simply wont do it. i will just buy cheap jeans and wear those suckers out until my butt can finally squeeze back into my nice ones.

so i decided i needed to list out the signs that i let completely slide by without stopping to change what i was doing. maybe this way i wont let those stupid lbs creep back up again. thank goodness the scale has been going down lately and i can look back and clearly see these calling out to me.

sign 1:

EVERY. SINGLE. TIME i sat down - i had to pull the waist band of my pants up. anyone else do that? oh yea - you know what im talking about. tell tale sign that your pants are too snug and screaming out to just be unbuttoned!

sign 2:

my workouts pants (that i was clearly NOT working out in) left marks on my thighs leaving behind a nice reminder that HEY FAT ASS get on a treadmill why dont you?

sign 3:

it feels like someone has played a cruel joke and tightened up my bra straps while i wasnt looking. these didnt use to be this tight. what the heck happened?

sign 4:

the scale started collecting dust because i refused to face reality and see just how much i had packed on.
sign 5:
i slept like absolute crap! i always sleep like a baby if i worked out that day. why would i even do that do myself? i just dont get it. working out = sleeping better. its that simple. duh!
sign 6:
i was getting lazy about other things and making terrible food choices. like hey theres a cookie. no im not particularly hungry - but hey its there and i might as well eat it. WHAT??!?! if i had worked out i would have totally thought twice and probably never even thought to pick up a cookie when i wasnt hungry. WTF!!??
sign 7:
i was eating as much as my husband, M. for reals? he has a good 60lbs on me - if not more - we should NOT be consuming the same amount of food in one sitting.
sign 8:
putting on a long sleeve hoodie, sweater, or even just a shirt and the sleeves are a bit snug. um hello large arms - where did those come from? this wasnt this tight last time i wore it. i just blamed the dryer...idiot.
sign 9:
when i jog down a flight of stairs and my belly actually JIGGLED. holy hells bells that was what did me in. nothing should shake on my body unless its my boobs and im shimmying bc its fun. period!

so there you have it folks. my list of in your face signs that you have gained some unwanted lbs. i know im not alone out there. we all have our signs that tell us we need to get back in they gym and eat a carrot stick instead of that candy bar youve been eyeing.

im in a much better place now. def not at my goal yet - and i know that will take a while. but im on the right track and glad i finally saw the signs.

a new found talent

2011-11-11T11:00:00.021-06:00

i have always wondered what talent God gifted me with. i just figured i would discover it and instantly become wildly famous - and obvi He was holding out on me. i kid i kid. apparently He was waiting for me to discover my talent of diaper cake making!!! and yes you heard that right - i am tooting my own horn. TOOT TOOT.

heres the deal. i have NEVER made one of these things before. i have never even been to a baby shower that had one. i have seen pictures and a few in boutiques and that is about the extent of my exposure to the diaper cake.

recently i have had two co-workers that just had babies. a little baby girl named Grayson (uber cute name right?) and a little baby boy (actually born today) named Gavin. two G's! how fun?!

i am in charge of parties and planning at work. so when it came to the baby shower i wanted to try something new. DIAPER CAKE!!!

Step 1. i googled "how to make a diaper cake"

Step 2. watched a video

Step 3. bought the "ingredients"

Step 4. ended up with these:

baby grayson's diaper cake

sorry the pic is bad

baby gavin's diaper cake

i mean for my 1st and 2nd diaper cakes - i would say these are pretty darn tootin good! whoop whoop for me!

and there we have it. i have tooted my horn and now im all tooted out.

happy friday!

this post was posted on 11/11/11 at 11am - freaky!

xoxo HRH

lots of changes

2011-11-10T12:51:00.002-06:00

as you can tell just by looking around the ole blog...there have been some changes.

i thought by getting rid of the old blog layout - i would spark something in me to start blogging more again. i miss blogging! i miss all of the wonderful bloggers out there and being part of this world. i just have to get into it again.

thank you ALL for being so patient with me lately. it has been an internal battle back and forth. at first i started my blog to introduce myself to matt's family. when we first got engaged i had only met his parents. so it was a great way to show his family the love we had for each other and all that mushy stuff. then the blog became all about WEDDING this and wedding that. geesh i am sure yall got sick of THAT! and then it basically got boring...

well honestly - i have always been a pretty boring person. i say boring - i guess simple is a nicer way to put it. i live a normal life. i have my normal routines. and there really isnt anything super awesome that i think you all out in the blogger world could give two shits about.

then again - it is my blog and i should be able to post whatever i want. see what i mean?? back and forth! geesh.

another thing that has been keeping me from blogging is pictures. i have HATED being in pictures for about the past year. so no pictures = nothing for the blog = boring blog. i have hated taking pictures bc i have put on stupid weight. we moved into our new house and didnt have a gym anymore and i just got out of my routine and basically got LAZY. i was lazy and it caught up with me. so i hated taking pictures. bleh - i just looked awful in them.

im back to eating better and working out so hopefully i will have some more pictures for you guys soon! pictures always make for a better blog.

well now that that is out there and off my chest i do feel better! so here i am - blogging about nonsense. i plan to stick with that for now.

so the blog layout has had some changes and so have i. i am getting back to being a healthier happier me AND i am growing out my bangs. if you follow me on twitter or instagram then you have already seen this picture. to help you understand the magnitude of growing out my bangs - let me just tell you that i have had my bangs for more than a decade now! i grew them out a teeny tiny bit around my wedding so i could keep them out of my face...but this is the real deal peeps. i have FULL ON FOREHEAD going!!!! i HATE, i mean loathe my forehead. ick it drives me nuts to see it - BUT the new hair did is winning me over a little bit.

im trying to love my forehead...but it will take some time. but here is a look at the new do - no bangs! aaaaah!

well thank you all for letting me rant. if you have made it this far in the post then i give a virtual high five!

love yall and cant wait to post more nonsense :)

xoxo HRH

new love of my life

2011-10-17T11:15:00.000-05:00

i am OBSESSED with my hair! obsessed. i have been trying to find the perfect wave for a while now and have really struggled. now that my hair is FINALLY long(ish) i have been playing around with different curling iron sizes, and even curlers. but nothing was giving me that perfect wave.

my example of the perfect wave:

i am well aware that the show dallas most eligible is TERRIBLE. but i love it. and i LOVE LOVE LOOOOOOVE Courtney Kerr's hair. i mean whats not to love? yes i could do without the ambre look and of course she has in extensions - but still lovin the wave.

well my friends, i have found the secret to the wave! or at least what works on my hair. i found this conair XL curing wand at Ulta. its a big bigger than the other wands out there. i LOVE the size - its perfect for the bigger wave.

it does take some getting used to. but after about 4 tries at it - i finally perfected it. whoop whoop! so excited to have the hair ive been wanting for what feels like forever now.

now if i could just get this shiz to grow some more i will be a happy camper!

falling in love with fall

2011-09-27T12:14:00.001-05:00

so i am obsessed with all things fall lately (as im sure the rest of the world is). creams, oranges, burnt yellows, browns. just makes me think of a pumpkin spice latte and pumpkin spice pie burning in my scentsy at home.

the only thing that sucks about it - is that while everyone else is falling in love with fall - here in texas we have a ways to go before we get the crisp cool fall mornings and patio weather. we are still hitting the 90s these days and as much as i would LOVE to wear my boots - i also dont want to sweat my ass off.

so while the rest of the world is enjoying the boots, fuzzy socks, cute hats and even light jackets...im still wearing sandals and tanks to work. dont be jealous.

enjoy my little spin on fall...

xoxo

lake tahoe

2011-09-09T11:30:00.002-05:00

the hubs and i met his mom and pops in lake tahoe in may. it was GORGEOUS! if you have never been - i highly suggest you go.

we got to do several fun things - but my absolute fav was going to a few of the local breweries. you know i love my beer! every time we go to a new brewery we always get a flight (5 oz sample collection of beers). my fav fav is IPA so i always like to get the hoppy flights. my fav beer of the week was called "bad ass ale" for reals. and it was bad ass! we ended up getting a growler filled with it to take home and came back for a refill! its one of those awesome beers thats 10-12% alcohol. so you know its good!

we also went to a wine tasting. their winery is based out of sonoma but they had a winery in lake tahoe for samples. it was fun!

so here are some pics of the trip. enjoy :)

{leeu puppy}

2011-09-08T10:30:00.000-05:00

oh our little (not so little anymore) Leeu puppy. just to clarify some things first - i call our little furries Tico Angel and Leeu Puppy. its just how it is - its not part of their real names - its just how i roll.

so anyway his name is Leeu Samson Hinz. You pronounce his first name "Leo" and his middle name is his daddy's name. we found the name Leeu (well lets be honest - i found his name bc im awesome - toot toot) when looking up different meanings for lion.

let me back up. leeu is a rhodesian ridgeback. for those of you that dont know anything about the breed (i had no idea what they were until we got one - true story). they were bred in africa to hunt lions. they are a mix between a hound, a mastiff, a great dane, and an african wild dog. and im sure some others in there that i forgot. but he got his "ridge" (the hair on his spine grows in the opposite direction of the rest so it looks like a mohawk) from the wild african dog.

this brings me back to the whole lion thing. so we thought it was cool that they were once bred to hunt lions - so why not incorporate that in his name some how? i came across "Leeu" its an african language and means "lion".

here he is the night we got him! his birthday is march 7th - so he was 6 months old yesterday! when we first got him he weighed 12lbs! the same exact as tico. but now - he is 52lbs!! hes gonna be a big one!

i mean look at that face! oh and those GINORMOUS paws!

dad with leeu puppy and tico angel just chillin

broders!

you know i had to sneak one in with just T

look how wittle he was!

i could just squeeze him!

here hes a little bigger. totally tuckered out. i think he may be 20lbs in this pic

gettin bigger! here hes probably in the 35ish-40s

here he is today! hes HUGE and i just love him. he is slowly growing into those paws. they still get in his way sometimes though.

his God parents actually bought his real life sister! so he gets to play with her at least once a week. they are so cute together. ill have to post some videos of them playing.

hope you love our little boy - his furry face is hard to resist!

the sitch with the kitch

2011-09-07T12:42:00.012-05:00

so i know i promised this a very long time ago - but here are some pics of our kitchen make over.

when we bought the house the walls were a terrible super dark chocolate brown. and the cabinets - oh lord dont even get me started on the cabinets. apparently they tried to do some "faux finish" that DID NOT turn out well. which just didnt make sense to me bc they repainted the bathroom and laundry room cabinets to update them and just left the kitchen cabinets to die a slow ugly death. ugh! makes me wonder how some peoples minds work. anyway - the kitchen was by far the biggest eye soar in the house. (dont even get me started on the fireplace...you will see that salmon marble colored beauty in another post soon).

before...notice i took off one of the cabinet doors to take to home depot with us to pick out the paint. oh and yes those are the ORIGINAL double ovens (from 1986) - i like to think they are vintage :)

horrid cabinets...horrid paint color

my bay window that i heart

aaaaah breath of fresh air!

so i wanted to go for a greyish-blue. when the sunlight hits it its a nice bright blue and it turns grey towards the end of the day. i love it. and i LOVE the black cabinets! the lighter walls really brighten up the entire room. which i love bc we spend a lot of our time in there - as with most houses.

here the walls look blue...

here they look grey...

my vintage canisters from my mom - love

bay window - love how all my red stuff pops with these walls

those of you that know me well - know that i LOVE pigs and i have a ton of them. AND they all might have names, just sayin. so i started my "pigs and plates" on top of the cabinets. here are some pics. im still working on the collection - but this is that start.

and there ya have it folks! thanks for being patient with me. i will be back soon.

xoxo

life on sandy lane

2011-06-01T10:00:00.005-05:00

thats not really our street name - but its close enough ;)

we found a house after only 2 weeks of hunting. it was actually the very first house we went to see. there are some upgrades that need to be done - but all in all its a great home that we just love.

this post im just going to show some pics of the house and how we have decorated it so far. i love to see other peoples homes and the way they decorate. its fun to see everyones different styles and the way people put things together.

some people might feel like this is sharing to much - but i love to show off our home!

this is the kitchen AFTER we painted

we did the walls and the cabinets

just wait until you see the before pics - you wont even believe they are the same kitch!

breakfast nook

OMG dying to get curtains here!

one of my FAVORITE parts of the kitch - the bay window

perfect place for my happy everything plate!

this is our bar and dining room area

i LOVE the bench with my table

and the bar is one of matts favorites - tried to make it manly for him

this is one view of our living room

this shows the entrance to the kitchen and the bar/dining room

this is an older pic too bc you can kinda see the old kitch! praise the lord we fixed it!

this is one of the DIY projects i mentioned

its above the fireplace in the living room

on the way to the master bedroom

our master bedroom

the ceilings are so high i feel like we need something bigger above the bed

maybe sometime down the road after i get some curtains!

this is kind of a weird angle of the master bath

it has two vanities on the other side - if you panned to the right

on to the guest bath

this is one of the two vanities

this is the one around the corner by the shower

this is the first vanity you see in the guest bath when you walk in

guest bedroom

tico somehow manages to get in most of these pics!

this is our new queen bed

i sadly had to get rid of my antique full size bed :(

but now we have more room for our guests!

another bay window! just love these

tico does too!

this is our make shift office for right now

we also have our computer desk and all in here

this will be the nursery some day

welp thats all folks!

i know its not much - its still pretty darn bare bones. but we are getting there slowly but surly.

i love it bc everything is ours and we are slowly making the house our home. cant wait for some more decorating. especially above the kitch cabinets AND curtains curtains curtains! i feel like my bare walls and windows are just screaming to be covered with some color!

its good to be back!

next up - before and after kitch pics!

well well well...

2011-05-31T20:24:00.003-05:00

its been a pretty darn long time since i have blogged! its been since november...holy wow that is way too long!

a lot has happened in the past 6 months. back in february we bought a house! and just two weeks we added a little addition to our family. we got a puppy!

we are super excited about all of the changes going on in our world. my sister is also getting married this weekend - man we have been busy!

i promise to start posting more. i will start with pictures of the house. we redid part of the kitchen already and i have done some DIY art projects that i want to share. then of course of course i will post about our new baby puppy Leeu (pronounced Leo - ill explain later).

next post coming soon. ALSO - if i get enough responses i will do a post answering any questions anyone had while i have been gone. would love to catch yall up!

thankful for so much

2010-11-25T11:00:00.000-06:00

in the spirit of Thanksgiving. this is what im most thankful for...

so now that is about 10 weeks after i started my job...i can officially say that i love it.

love my team.

love what i do everyday.

love my boss.

love it all!

not only do i love it - im discovering that i freaking rock at it! yes yes toot toot - my own horn. but how often do you find something that you not only LOVE but you are good at?? i certainly trusted everything to God in the search for a new job. i honest to goodness had nearly 30 interviews in time span of approx 8 months!!! all i wanted was a jot that i loved, and im so glad i waiting for the right thing. it was def worth the wait!!

every night i find that my prayers consist mainly of what im thankful for. theres just to much God has blessed me with. a wonderful husband. the most PERFECT furry little angel Tico. my life would be empty without my two boys :) my family. my amazing friends. and again of course...work!

2010 has been a great year! excited for the holiday season with my family :)

welp, sorry for the lack of blogging! promise ill try to keep up more!

happy thanksgiving boys and girls!

hillarys engagement pics

2010-11-24T11:00:00.000-06:00

so i know you have seen the video of hillarys engagements...but here are some of the pictures of the session!

just thought i would share. my sister couldnt BE more gorgeous! i have NO IDEA how we are freaking related. love her love her!

http://benfieldphotography.blogspot.com/2010/11/hillary-and-stevens-fayetteville.html

proud big sister

2010-11-23T10:31:00.000-06:00

i know i know its been FOREVER since ive blogged. im so very sorry! i have missed you all :)

i did have to come back to share something about someone that is very important to me...

most of you know my fabulous and gorgeous little sis hillary. and you also know that she is engaged to be married.

well OF COURSE hillary is using dale and meredith to do her photos (she would be dumb not to, right?). dale and mere put together this video of hill and steven during their engagement session. i have watched it over and over and just love love love it! brings tears to my eyes. im so happy for my little sis!

just watching brings back all the fun fuzzy feelings of being engaged and planning your wedding :)

love you sis! cant wait for your big day.

dale and mere - yall rock. plain and simple!

heres the video! check it out and let me know what you think :)

my best friends wedding

2010-10-13T10:22:00.000-05:00

such a cheesy - over used title - but i couldnt resist!

this weekend was my besties wedding! brown girl is now hitched :)

we had the best time! BG really knows how to throw a good party!

here comes the bride!

her little brother walked her down the aisle. how sweet is that? he was precious.

they did a sand ceremony just like matt and i did! :)

and the kiss of course!

yea! the wedding planning is over and the fun can now begin! they are such a cute couple.

our boys! G's hubby - M. my cute hubby - matt. and court's man B!

the girls!....this was BEFORE we took full control and advantage of the champagne and wine :)

first dance!

whoop whoop!!

sparklers!

love weddings! had the greatest time. congrats to BG!

wreck 'em tech

2010-10-08T11:00:00.000-05:00

another VERY late post...

over labor day weekend matt and i went with a group of friends to lubbock for the weekend. matt went to school at texas tech and we started an annual trip last year with the same group. it got bigger this year and we hope to continue the tradition for years and years to come!

me with the lovely meghan and crystal! these girls are always a blast.

oh my eric! i know you guys recognize him. hes one of my FAVORITE friends of matts. he always stays with us when he comes to dallas. i heart him and wish he was in dallas permanently to play with me all the time!

how cute is my husband? i will just go ahead and vote that hes pretty much the cutest thing ever :) but of course i think that...i did marry the dude. im not going to marry some ugly guy...lets be honest here.

last but certainly not least...the new tech stadium! check it out. looks great huh? i think i stayed at the game for a total of 15mins. thanks for spending the mula on my ticket matt :) it was great for the teeny tiny bit that i filled my seat.

sooooooo instead of being at the beyond super hot game...the girls and i opted for air conditioning and Dos Ritas!!!! these suckers are goooooooooood. note to self: you dont need more than two of these suckers.

as always - lubbock was a blast. cant wait to go back next year. preferably not when its going to be 105 degrees in the blaring, roasting, scorching sun!

where did yall go to school? do you have any annual tailgating traditions?

my girl G's bday

2010-10-06T11:00:00.000-05:00

so ive been gone - for far too long!

i came across some pics i wanted to share!

a lot of you know my bestie G (and if you dont - you should...she makes everything better!)

we had a fun little bday celebration for her what feels like FOREVER ago...

this is me and the beautiful bday girl :) love her so much! i never have a bad time when G is around!

and you also know the fabulous miss court! love her to bites and pieces. although i hate taking pictures with her bc she NEVER TAKES A BAD PICTURE!!!! always out prettying me...bitch :)

oh and this little lady...who btw will be walking down the aisle in freaking - what? like TWO days!! thats insane to me. I.N.S.A.N.E.!! love love LOVE this girl.

brown girl will be the most beautiful brown bride :)

silly girls. this is what happens when we dont see each other for WEEKS at a time. darn life for getting in the way of our fun time.

brown girls makes my sassy side come out :)

i love these girls so much! i always have fun with them. and to think - i met them all from blogging. totally crazy sauce. i would have never guessed i would find life long friends from blogging! :)

peace

1 year

2010-10-04T20:16:00.007-05:00

i still cant get over that one year ago was our wedding day.

one year ago i walked down the aisle with my dad.

one year ago i married my best friend.

its so surreal that a year has gone by so fast!

i started off my anniversary week with my new job! : )

matt was OF COURSE the most wonderful husband and sent me flowers for my first day. how sweet is he? love him! and they still smell amazing and look beautiful at my desk a week later.

so your 1yr anni is the "paper" anni. so we got our caricature done at oktoberfest. i still need to get it framed. it doesnt really look A WHOLE LOT like us...but i think its cute :)

i had to have the top of our cake remade. my parents had our original cake up in arkansas and we just couldnt get it in time. but LET ME TEEEEEEEELL YOU...this is the way to go. this cake is freaking HEAVEN and we had it for breakfast, lunch and dinner on sunday (our actual anni) :)

cant get enough red velvet!

matt surprised me with this beyond FAB marc jacobs bag! i die. its this gorg deep turquoise color. do you die? i die. he did sooooo good!

the "modern" 1yr anni is clock - so i got matt a really cool watch and had it engraved "m + h" and "10.03.09" he loves it!

still cant believe its been A WHOLE YEAR! omg it flew by. whoever said the 1st year of marriage is the hardest...was not married to someone as fantabulous as my matt. this year has been the greatest year of my life. i LOVE LOVE LOOOOOVE being married! its so fun. love being able to share my life with such an amazing man!

okay im done with the mushy mushy kissy kissy stuff.

peace

without further ado...

2010-09-28T10:00:00.003-05:00

i introduce to you the one - the only....my NEPHEW!!!

this is baby Beckham!

sweet kisses from his big sister!

this was his little razorback outfit he went home in. and those are his baby vans - thanks to his favorite aunt and uncle **wink wink**

OMG i miss him already! i was lucky with my job transition that i got to take a few days off and travel to arkansas for the birth of my very first nephew! im so so sooooo excited for my sister and her little family! they now have a girl (blakely) and a little boy and they are DONE!

he was born 12:34pm, Wednesday, Sept 22nd.

7lbs 8oz - 19 inches

he is 7lbs of pure preciousness!!!! i could just eat him up! i cant wait to see him again in just a few short weeks.

oh and one sweet surprise - he was born with bright blue eyes like his big sis AND his hair has a tint of orange...much like his fiesty little firecracker of a big sister!

so yea! thats my big news! IM AN AUNT AGAIN! love love LOVE being an aunt :)

first fabulous day...

2010-09-27T20:04:00.002-05:00

so today was the big day! my FIRST DAY at my new job. i was pretty nervous to say the least...but it really went well! i felt right at home - the team was so great and welcoming. although today and the rest of the week will consist of training, training and more training (can you hear my excitement?) --- it was still a fun day!

change is never fun - and usually not very easy. but i think this change is a great thing! im excited to start a new career and meet all new people! im finally back to working with a TEAM and not by myself on a lone marketing island.

enough with boring work talk - HOW ARE YALL DOING???!!!

i have some exciting news im posting tomorrow...stay tuned :)

xoxo

man dip

2010-09-20T11:02:00.002-05:00

we had a football watching party this weekend. i dont really want to get into it too much considering our team didnt win...buuuuut the razorbacks won saturday afternoon! WOO PIG SOOIE!

anyway - as one of the finger foody football treats we made what i like to call "man dip"! i make it every time we have boys over and we never EVER have left overs of it.

everyone was asking for the recipe so i thought i would share it with you guys.

its also perfect for the upcoming chilly fall and winter weather! which better be coming soon bc i am SO OVER this stupid 90 degree weather....boo!

MAN DIP

2 things of cream cheese (just the boxes - no i dont remember the exact oz but you know what im talking about)

1 tube of sausage

(use spicy sausage if you like dips with a kick)

1 can of rotel

(dont drain)

brown the meat and then throw it all in a crock pot. should be done within an hour and ready to eat.

serve with Fritos!!!

just writing about this is making my mouth water! we made a double batch and it was GONE before the end of the night.

hope yall all had a great weekend :)

let me know if you try the dip out and if you like it!

my newest OBSESSION

2010-09-17T10:33:00.003-05:00

omg I.AM.OBSESSED. with my nook.

i dont even think words can describe how obsessed i am with this darn thing! and i have read nonstop since i got it! i take it everywhere with me.

if you are a reader AT ALL - i totally suggest it.

my favorite use for it is on the treadmill. i just plop it down and GO! plus with the nook and its touch screen - its really easy to turn pages even with weights in my hand while on the tready! (yes i am THAT girl that walks fast with weights on the tready...i have no choice with my bum knee these days (sad face)).

ive really started to fall in LOVE with series. that way when one book ends - you can pick right back up with the same characters and fall in love with them all over again!

i started my nook with "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" series. its a trilogy and i really think that the 1st and 3rd are the best of the 3. the first book takes some time to get into - but i promise its totally worth it!

OMG the HUNGER GAMES!!!!! i had several people recommend this series to me. and i will do the same. i flew thru the trilogy in less than 2 weeks...i was very sad when it ended. so so so so sooo good. and if you like reality tv shows - this might appeal to you. its just a great series all around.

seeing as how im obsessed with series i have decided to start reading the sookie stackhouse books. im very excited that there are more than just 3 books in this series. i just started the 1st book on tuesday - so far so good!

do any of yall have an eReader that you love? the kindle? sony reader? nook?

anyway i know im a total NERD for being obsessed with a nook. but i dont care! i love him. his name is nookie mcnookerson :) hehe

happy friday to all!

what ive been up to...

2010-09-16T09:48:00.011-05:00

well boo on me for not updating in so long! ive got to get back into a better habit of updating this thing :)

over the past few months ive done a few favors for family and friends. ive helped a lot of them with invitations. now im not saying that im some super awesome designer and should actually get paid to do this - i just wanted to share some of my creations with you guys.

i created this for my little sister hillary's graduation party!

i created this little one for a bachelorette party. i mainly like it for the little poem i came up with.

a friend of mine at work is having her 40th birthday party soon and wanted a studio 54 theme. so i created this logo for her :)

here are some of my FAVORITE pieces that i got to work on.

the last 4 pieces were done for a very dear friend of mine. im sure a lot of you know her as Brown Girl. I have been so very blessed to have her as a friend!

this was her bachelorette invitation. my bestie G was the coordinator of the whole weekend - and she and i worked together to create this for Brown Girl. the skyline is similar to downtown dallas - where the bach party was. and the "champagne bubbles" are actually the petals from the flowers used on her wedding invite :)

BG wanted something a little different for her rehearsal dinner invite. she wanted to stay in the purple theme - but something a little more modern, fun and simple. i really like how this one turned out.

this is BG's RSVP card! i just LOVE the idea she came up with a fill in the blank - a wedding twist on mad libs!

and here is the wedding invite. she had this and the RSVP card printed on a soft ivory shimmer paper and matted onto a solid bold purple. they looked AMAZING! she was such a large part of the design process that i cant take full credit for these.

well thats a little taste of what ive been up to the past few months! im sad that when my new job i wont have the same design software to continue my little creations. but its been really fun - the little bit that i did get to do.

happy thursday! tomorrow is friday woo hoo!

im baaaaaaack

2010-09-10T11:43:00.002-05:00

thats right boys and girls!

IM BACK!!!

and you know what that means...

i got a new job!!

im so excited for this opportunity. its something new to me - a career change - but i couldnt be more thrilled.

just wanted to say thank you to all of the kind words and sending good thoughts and karma my way - bc it paid off!

so NO MORE PRIVATE blog! woo hoo!!!! :)

happy friday.

peace out

shut the front door!!

2010-07-29T10:49:00.002-05:00

i mean HOW long has it been since ive blogged? FOREVER it seems.

i have my google reader app on my phone - so i have been keeping up with yall!
i havent figured out how to comment from my phone - or even if you can - but i do promise ive been keeping up.

sooooooo not much to update you guys on. house hunting HAS been put on hold for a wee bit. i personally find it to be a beating and would rather live in a cardboard box than deal with all that goes into buying a house. why cant it be as simple as buying a cute dress? i will never know. but thats also why i have matt to help make these HUGE decisions with...i do NOT know how anyone buys a house on their own.

anyway - STILL on the job hunt. have started even looking in different cities - BUT the job market in dallas is much bigger than anywhere else we have looked. chances are we will be sticking around here for a while.

please keep me in your prayers! i hope to find a job that i LOVE soon! i want to get back into being passionate about my work and proud at the end of my day instead of feeling emotionally drained and beaten down.

i miss all of you guys and i keep losing followers since i have gone private. i even feel bad blogging while i have it private like im keeping a secret from the 350+ followers that i didnt invite to read it :( im crazy i know i know!

anyway - HAPPY ALMOST FRIDAY! my favorite day of the work week. hope you guys have a great one :)

{house hunters}

2010-06-22T13:32:00.002-05:00

the past few months matt and i have become OBSESSED with HGTV. i mean why didnt i watch this stuff before? i freaking LOVE it! house hunters, design on a dime, income property...the list goes on. its such a great channel. one sunday i swear i just laid there and watched it non-stop for hours!! love lazy sundays :)

anyway...we started to get hooked on these shows once we decided to start house hunting. we have been planning/saving for a while now. we actually werent going to start until the beginning of next year - but we redid our budget and realized we could get into a house at the end of august when our lease was up if we found one.

SO the HUNT began! we have actually already put an offer down on one house. it didnt work out - there were foundation issues we really didnt want to get involved in (which is to be expected in some older homes in texas). matt and i dont want a brand new home - we want an older one that has been redone that has some character to it.

we dont want the cookie-cutter, white picket fence house. im not saying theres anything WRONG with those houses - thats just not what we picture ourselves in right now.

tonight we are going to look at a house for the THIRD time! its a little small - but has been TOTALLY redone, granite counter tops, wood floors, crown molding AND it has a POOL! its in 110% the ideal location we were looking at. love the established neighborhood too! we are pretty excited.

last night we measured out all our furniture. ive got sheets and a tape measure to measure out how big they are and where we would place them in each room. i know i know - we are freaks!

if we LOVE LOVE it tonight i think we will make an offer tomorrow.

we both have the mind set that if we fall in love, make an offer and DONT get the house - then it wasnt meant to be.

thats how ive been feeling with job interviews. if i get the call, get the interview, fall in love with the job and DONT get it - then it wasnt meant to be.

God has a plan for us -and we are just along for the ride waiting to see what He has in store for the future Hinz House!!! :)

ill keep yall posted on the house hunt saga!

{wedding wednesday: reception - the send off}

2010-06-10T09:45:00.000-05:00

one of my FAVORITE parts about the wedding was the send off!
our photogs were leaving before the party was even close to an end so we did a little faux send off - just for the pictures of course.

im sure everyone has seen the sparklers before!
i wanted to make them a little more personal and try to "dress them up" a little! i mean they are just plain boring sticks after all.
i used the design that i used throughout the wedding - and made little tags with instructions for the guests.

the tags read "sparkler send off 10:45pm"
although the send off happened around 9ish....9:30 i think - it didnt matter! everyone figured it out and had a blast with it.

we placed the sparklers in a vase of sand. we used the sand to also put out the sparklers and dispose of them after the send off.
the vase was placed on the guest book table so everyone would know to grab one on their way in or on their way out bc it was right next to the door.

you can see the little tags with black and red ribbon!!
i think they turned out cute!

everyone had fun! and we had to stop and pose for a good kiss pic!

LOVE LOVE this one!

i LOVE this picture!! look how big matt is smiling!!! :) so cute

yea for sparklers!!

i def recommend verifying with your venue before you go out and purchase these. not a lot of places will let you do the sparkler thing. i LOVED it and it was so much better than people pelting you with stuff! haha.

what did you guys do for your send offs? did you do a faux send off too?

thanks as always to the wonderful and talented dale and mere! love these photos always!

{wedding wednesday: reception - the favors}

2010-06-02T15:10:00.005-05:00

ahhhhh the favors!
this project was supposed to be something very small, simple and easy. well hells bells in turned into a monster all its own!!

we decided to do a favor table that was filled with home baked goodies and a few candies that were our favorites! each goody would be labeled as the "brides favorite" or the "grooms favorite" and if it was baked it would say "made with love by ______"
i loved the personal touches of the idea. it turned out to be a great focal point and the favor boxes added a little spice to the tables!

here is a picture of some dark chocolate kisses.
i found coordinating ribbon and just hot glued it around each canister. then i took the labels that i designed and glued them on top!

this is one of the LARGE cookie jars! we found them at walmart for only $12 - and i gave one to each of my helpers as a thank you at the end of the night :)

this is a close up of our favor boxes! my mom actually put these together for me. she was such a life saver! she put together over 100 of these suckers! inside was a little saying that said

Matt & Hailey's love is so sweet

Fill this box up with their

Favorite treats!

awwwwwwe so precious i know :)

then we wrapped them with the black/white damask print and topped it all off with a "Thank You" and a feather!

this is a close up of the little signs we put on each table at the reception. they all read different fun little sayings. we collected these frames from garage sales and painted them all black. then i found coordinating scrapbook paper (black, white, red, purple prints) and used that as the background.

some of the sayings we used:

Now that Matt & Hailey have said

"I DO"

Here are some of their favorite treats

for all of you!

Matt & Hailey's

love is oh so sweet.

Go visit The Hinz Goody Bar

for a special treat!

Thank you for sharing this special day.

Be sure to visit The Hinz Goody Bar

before you leave the soiree

*a special shout out to miss tara for helping me with all these fun sayings. she is soooo creative :)

another view of The Hinz Goody Bar

the cute sign i made :)

i just LOVED working on this project. it really made the reception super personal. it was kind of hard to bake 600 cookies on the night before the rehearsal dinner...but it was all worth it in the end. everyone kept coming up to me during the night commenting on "omg those are my favorite cookies too!!" AND they all filled their boxes and took them home for a late night treat. it was a huge hit!

my little secret: i saved my favorite cookies (that i make unbelievably well) for the very last. well that was a mistake!! snickerdoodles are very particular cookies! i made the dough and let it sit too long before baking and they all fell flat. it was very sad. i had a "moment" and threw them all away. but my dad saved the day. he just ran to the bakery and bought up all the snickerdoodles they had to fill my jar. isnt he sweet? :) haha - not everything turns out perfect all the time!

{my 3 biggest fears}

2010-06-01T14:58:00.006-05:00

we all have things that make us unique, different - even a little *corky. i think there are a few things that can say A LOT about a person. ive always thought that someones room (and now that we are older - someones house) can say a lot about a person. the things they like to collect, the colors they use, and their organization skills. but one thing that can really define a person is their fears.

i myself have some pretty irrational fears. they developed since i was a wee little princess and have stuck with me the majority of my life.

fear one:
the dark.
i mean when you cant see your hand in front of your face - that means ANYTHING could be out there! i had to sleep with a nightlight well into my twenties. dont judge. admitting you have a problem is the first step.

fear two:
paper cuts.
OMG just writing that freaks me out. i have dreams where people are chasing me with paper. i kid you not. and when i get one i have to calm myself down before having a mini panic attack. and once i get one it plays over and over in my mind and just gives me the heeby geebies! i cant get it out of my head. the same goes for razors - when i cut myself shaving i seriously have to talk myself off the ledge!

fear three:
fish.
yes i eat them. but i can still be afraid of them. i wouldnt even stick my hand into an aquarium of goldfish. i would rather cut my hand off! ick just thinking about it makes my stomach hurt. i do not get in the ocean - i used to when i was little but thanks to the discovery channel i now know whats out there and i REFUSE to put myself in any danger. and by danger i mean even the slightest teeny tiny nip from a teeny tiny fish. NO THANK YOU. i also used to LOVE skiing at the lake - but the thought of having to sit there and wait for the boat to come pick me up freaks me out too much so i no longer do it. just the fear of not know whats directly swimming below you is too much for me to handle. oh and THANK YOU river monsters for officially making sure i never go floating again!!!!

IM A FREAK i know i know! i figured these fears would subside with age....oh hells no! they just get worse. im freakshow and im okay with it. it makes me me :)

do any of yall have crazy ridiculous fears? do share!

*EDIT: thanks to you wonderful ladies for pointing out that im a complete moron. YES i did mean QUIRKY and not CORKY. who the heck says corky? i cant believe i didnt notice it until now...but im def leaving it bc is funny :)

{wedding wednesday: reception - traditions}

2010-05-26T10:30:00.002-05:00

look whats found its way back! WEDDING WEDNESDAY!!!!!
i found these pics and realized i still hadnt posted them all for you! so i have just a few more WW left before i run out of pics - so i figured i would go ahead and finish them all!

everyone thinks of traditions when you think of weddings. some people have the same traditions and others change as the years go on.

youve got the speeches...

this is my dad giving us a short but very sweet speech :)

matts dad - hes was a tear jerker for sure! especially at the rehearsal dinner! i about lost it!

the best man. it was a great speech! we laughed, we cried, we clapped...kidding we didnt do all that but we did laugh!

love seeing our reaction as they are all toasting to us :)

i loved it when matt got up there. made my heart smile! hes such a sweet man. one of the first things he did was thank ME (and my mom) for all the hard work we had put into that day. so thoughtful.

matt also had everyone raise their glasses to cheers to the memories we were making!

blakely even got in on the action! she was pure entertainment!

and then theres the garter toss...matt is NOT a huge fan of attention so he was as low key as you can get! i say - bring the spotlight on!!!

apparently something was hilarious!

love matts expression in this pic - like hes SO SERIOUS! haha

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand eric is the winner! one of my FAVORITE friends on matts :) so glad he caught it.

now before the bouquet toss - my little sister and i had a "talk". i caught my older sisters bouquet at her wedding and we both wanted hillary to catch mine...

someone else had different plans. you can see hillary ALMOST got it!

its okay though bc hill was the very next girl engaged :)

laughing it off

we didnt make them dance together - but it was a perfect photo op!

we stuck with pretty traditional things for our wedding. nothing TOO out of the box.

what were some of your favorite traditions?

thanks always to dale and mere for your wonderful photos :)

{i miss the sand between my toes...}

2010-05-25T16:23:00.008-05:00

matt and i got back from our cali vacay this sunday night. it was good to be home and to see our little furry - but still sad to leave the beach.

we found the best hole-in-the-wall places this time around! they all had such great character!! it was fun to get to walk everywhere and just explore the beach and the peninsula on the other side. we had fun on the beach - matt did some surfing and we laid out, but i neglected to take any pictures while i was in a swimsuit! ha :)

our first stop was this great place called the crab cooker. sooooo yummy!

we didnt take a single pic other than the previous one on the first day. sorry! this is matt lounging in our cute beach inspired room!

my beachy attire! soooooo thankful i packed every single cardigan i could! it can get pretty chilly on the beach on the west coast.

on balboa pier. we walked two miles from pier to pier. the views and everything surrounding the area was just amazing! looks like a postcard everywhere you look.

of course we had to reward ourselves with some yummy ((and HUGE i might add)) margs

we had to share this one - it was the size of my HEAD!

doing my marg dance

out to dinner on the beach after a long beachy day!

i was very sleepy by this point. we had been out and about running around for almost 12 hours straight!!

the next day we found this amazing little newport beach brewery. i had their grapefruit infused beer and it rocked my world! i love being a beer girl :)

we took another walk down to balboa peninsula. check out the marina pics! the boats were amazing!

these were some of the great houses that lined the peninsula. most started around 3mil - just to give you an idea.

how would you like this as your view from your front door?

i freaking FELL IN LOVE with this street! we walked for a straight mile and smelled fresh flowers and blooms the entire way. it was dreamy!

the beach

the waves were CRAZY this day. no one was even out surfing they were so wild. they were crashing against the shore and almost sounded like thunder.

sunset on the newport beach pier

crazy hair - it was windy!

at the end of the pier looking back on the beach where our hotel was

sushi on the pier

360 views of the ocean and the beach! got to watch the dolphins swim by as we sipped on some beers :)

view from the other side of the pier

we had brunch at one of our favorite places. RIGHT on the beach. called charlies chili. awesome mimosas!!! ps - this is a crappy picture of me. but this is my new hat! its still growing on me...

last day of vacay :( sad to leave

our last stop on our trip was our favorite bar - called the Beach Ball. it was a local bar with 90% locals in it. it opened at 6am - and you best believe that people were knocking down the door at 6am to get in this place. it had lots of character and we always had fun! they also had the best MANmosas (aka giant mimosas) they rocked :)

we were very sad to leave - but glad to get home to our own bed and our little Tico! we always miss him so much. i can only imagine how we are going to be when we have a HUMAN baby...not even a fur baby but a HUMAN baby. watch out OBSESSION! haha :)

{my finger is no longer naked...}

2010-05-19T10:11:00.008-05:00

if you are just checking into my blog since ive been gone for so long - check out my last post to catch you up to speed. ill give you a minute...

now for the exciting reveal of my new bling!!!!
im so over the moon to have something back on my finger. i cant tell you how weird its been to have a naked left hand ring finger. ICK! ICK! i just dont like it! mine was MADE to have a pretty shinny diamond on it :)

drum roll please.....................................

BAM!

{this is it without my wedding bands}

{and here is it WITH my two wedding bands}

sorry i dont have great pictures yet. these are taken from my iphone :)

thanks for all of your sweet, kind comments on my last post. its nice to hear im not the only one that has done something beyond DUMB in the world :) yall are awesome! its very sad to say goodbye to my original ring - but nice to welcome the new addition!

today is my faux friday! ill be back here on monday with fun cali pictures for you! happy friday!

xoxo

{my DUMBASS moment...}

2010-05-17T11:41:00.003-05:00

today marks the 3 week anniversary of losing my beloved engagement ring...

this is how it went down:
i had been meaning to get my rings sized for MONTHS! literally since before we even got married. one day they were particularly big and jiggling around. i was working out and decided to take them off ((my dumbass move of the century!!!!)) and put them in my hoodie pocket. after a good workout i decided to walk home outside bc it was such a pretty day. **just a reminder - we live right on a canal**...i went for my keys in my hoodie pocket and to my horror saw ALL THREE of my rings go FLYING! i heard one bounce on the sidewalk. i heard one fall into the canal ((literally the "cur-plunk" sound you hear on cartoons - it was totally surreal)) and i didnt hear the 3rd one land anywhere. i frantically looked around - only finding the band that fell on the sidewalk in front of me. at this point i was hysterical. i RAN home and had a breakdown in our living room. matt thought i was having a legit heart attack and didnt know what to do. after explaining what happened - we went back to the scene of the crime and he found another one of my bands in the dirt!!!! so OF COURSE the ONE ring that falls in the water...my engagement ring :(

i couldnt sleep for days and i was just filled with sadness. i cant even explain to you the hole it left in my heart :(

lesson learned: MAKE SURE YOU HAVE INSURANCE! matt called ours the very next day. explained what happened and we had a check for it within two days. thank GOODNESS we had insurance - otherwise my left hand would be pretty darn bare for a while.

i was lucky and found my wedding band and wedding day band. so we designed a simple setting that would sit between both of them so i still had SOMETHING from our wedding day. the saddest part of the whole thing was when matt told the story of how many months he spent picking out my ring and it was the one he proposed to me with. that just tore my heart in pieces. but thankfully hes a very understanding a patient man and it all worked out.

i will get my new ring back this week so i will do an update to this post so i can show it to you!

im exited to get back into the blogging world. hope you guys didnt miss me too much! cant wait to read all about whats been going on since ive been gone.

happy monday - this is my WEDNESDAY. matt and i are heading to cali on thursday! woo hoo!

{hmmmm blogging}

2010-04-08T09:45:00.003-05:00

i dont know about everyone else - but i have been in a blogging slump lately.
i do have some fun and amazing things going on in my life - but im just not inspired to blog about anything.

dont know what thats all about - but i might just take some time off from blogging.
no idea how long - im just not FEELING it right now.

hope to be back soon.

peace out.

xoxo

{wedding wednesday: reception - the first dance}

2010-03-31T10:45:00.001-05:00

whats a wedding without the first dance?!?!

here are a few pictures of our moment.

we danced to Michael Bubles "Everything" - its our song. it makes my heart smile every time i hear it. another reason why im so excited to see Michael Buble in concert this summer! so excited to hear our wedding song LIVE! how fun!

this was really one of the first moments where we got a BREATHER! ya know you come in and everyone wants to say hi, see you, hug you, bring you a drink (i didnt mind the bringing me a drink part - haha). but this was one moment everyone got quiet and let you enjoy it...it was sweet

HAHA - i kept having to turn my head to the side bc matt is so tall it was hurting my neck to look up at him for so long!

((hes 6'2" im 5'2"))

it was almost the end of the dance and i pulled him closer and he said something funny that made me laugh - dont remember now but im glad to have a cute picture of it :)

oh and yes of course - the daddy dance!

my dad and i danced to John Mayers "Daughters" - i dont really know why but this song always brought tears to my eyes and i always knew this was the song i wanted at my wedding.

then we busted out a few moves to "In The Mood" my all time favorite jazz song! hahaha it was def a good laugh

what songs did you use for your wedding dances? do you have any funny stories!?

happy hump day - its all down hill from here :)

{austin is awesome}

2010-03-30T10:58:00.006-05:00

for those of you that are new to the blog - you might not know that i used to live in austin. long story short...i moved there for work and then 6 months later moved to dallas to be with the love of my life! oh the things we do for love.

well there isnt a day that goes by that i dont MISS austin. its such an awesome place. always something to do. has the big city feel as well as the small college town feel. its beautiful with rolling green hills and lakes and tons of restaurants and festivals. i could go on and on. basically - i love it i miss it and i was super excited to get to go back for a visit this weekend.

one of our groomsmen started a band with another one of our friends. they usually play during the week - so the second we found out they had a show on a weekend we were GOING!

they are called the Guns of Navarone. if you want to check them out you can - click here to go to their myspace page. they are kind of an alternative country. cory (groomsmen) writes all the songs, is the lead singer, plays the guitar and also the harmonica! it totally rocks. and our other friend richard plays the drums.

we were blown away by how good they were! we had a great time. i love live music, fabulous weather, great friends and cold beers!

heres a few pics of the band

cory is living his dream!

me with our wonderful host - mr dean

matt and the boys - i LOVE the austin boys. they are always fun!

me with cory!! he just looks like a rockstar doesnt he :)

we are so proud of him

boys will be boys

matt and eric

we were having a great night

typical

matt with richard and robert (yes they are twins) - richard in the blue is the drummer for the band

awe - love him for letting be a part of a boys weekend!

this was a boys day/night. i spent all day with my family in austin. if you remember my little ring bearer rush...well they all live in austin. it was great to see family! then i got to hit the town and meet up with all the boys! so glad i did - we had a blast.

miss you austin - cant wait to go back in april to see the boys play at Stubbs!!!

{homemade sangria}

2010-03-25T10:31:00.001-05:00

so my fabulously wonderful friend brock gave me a recipe for homemade sangria that i am DYING to try! it sounded so yummy - and this weather is def turning into patio weather that i thought i would share it with you guys so you can give it a try too!

now this is the recipe brock sent me so "I" = brock :)

--------------------

{Homemade Sangria}
1 bottle of white wine
2/3 cup of sugar
1/2 - 1 cup of peach schnapp's (depending on sweetness you like)
add your fruits - (I go with a few handfulls of raspberries, blueberries, & 2 chopped up peaches. But add whatever - strawberries, mango, apple, bet some lemon would give a nice tartness to all the sweetness going on in this)
Best to let chill over night and let flavors come together.
When ready to serve top off each glass with prosecco or club soda (club soda will also cut the sweetness)

I tried this with a dry white and then a sweeter white - if you use a sweeter wine you end up with a VERY sweet mixture, I liked this using Chard and also Sauv. Blanc.

--------------------

try it out and let me know what you ladies think! i cant WAIT to try it myself :)

{wedding wednesday: reception - the cake}

2010-03-24T10:57:00.006-05:00

first things first - the cutting of the cake!!! this is one of those traditions you see in every single wedding!

i for one have never been a big fan of rubbing the cake in each others faces. i just dont get the point of it?!?!? i KNOW its not just me that feels this way. i mean lets be honest:
1) i spent HOURS getting ready - i dont need cake in my face, ruin my make up and have me look awful in all the pictures going forward!
2) the cake is red velvet - red cake + white dress = disaster waiting to happen
3) the cutting of the cake is really just for the pictures...i dont even know if i got an entire piece of our yummy cake :( is that how it always goes? haha

well heres the cake! oh and sidenote: this was not AT ALL what i wanted my cake to look like to be honest. but i still think it turned out okay. they switched cake decorators in the middle of my wedding planning. so i planned and designed with one decorator - and then another decorator actually did it. i was totally fine with it considering my cake was under $300 and was still basically similar to what i wanted. but cake is right up there with flowers - it wasnt that important to me. i guess its all about what you want.

and of course its missing the cute "H" topper i had for it. oh AND our bakery was also in the middle of some law suit (or so they say) and they couldnt use ANY logo whatsoever. so matts poor cake was AWESOME at one point - then they had to strip it and make it not as fun :( but we had good intentions with it! haha.

this is matts cake. the left 1/2 is purple and gold for his Minnesota Vikings he loves so much. and the other 1/2 is red and black to represent Texas Tech. You cant really see in the picture - but matt collects mini helmets of his favorite teams. so i grabbed the vikings and tech one and put them next to the cake so we would have SOME sort of logo! haha :) it worked out well.

matt is boring and picked plain white cake - what a weirdo!!

blakely was DYING for a piece!!

yummy red velvet!!

do yall have any funny cake stories???

{hehe...just for fun}

2010-03-23T10:18:00.002-05:00

thanks dale and mere :)

{work it work it}

2010-03-18T10:45:00.002-05:00

WARNING: this post has a lotta words with no pictures - so stop now if you could care less about my workout routines :)

so im finally getting back into a regular routine of working out HARD and sticking to it. and the hubs and i have been eating MUCH healthier lately! i was reading browngirls blog about her workouts and it got me to thinking doin my own workout update. last year (around this time i think) i did an amazing post about how i eat great and was UBER into working out. well im not even going to give you the link to that post bc its almost like reading a different persons blog! haha.

last time around i had some pretty big motivation - MY WEDDING! so now im back to the normal day-to-day life of an old married woman. so motivation has really gone out the window!

thank GOODNESS that my clothes still fit and im still in pretty good shape. but i did fall into a slump like im sure most of us can. and i have thankfully pulled myself out of it!

today im just going to tell you what i have been doing - and then i want to hear about what YOU guys do and what you do to stay motivated!

{My Week in Workout Mode}
Monday
5:45pm ~ TurboKick
6:45pm ~ Yoga

Tuesday
5:30am ~ Cardio (3 miles)
SOME HOW i injured my knee and i have found that my knee can take 3 miles of cardio (generally just running on the treadmill) anymore than 3 miles and it kind of freaks out on me. even just WALKING for more than 3 miles can hurt. so i have taken that as a sign from my body - and 3 miles is all i go!

Wednesday
5:30am ~ Cardio
5:45pm ~ Abs (and soon to be Zumba)
6:45pm ~ Yoga

Thursday
5:30am ~ Cardio

Friday
5:30am ~ Cardio

Saturday
10:30am ~ Shadow Boxing (one class burns 1000 calories!!!!!!)

Sunday
Cardio at whatever point in the day I feel like it

Are there days i just DONT FEEL LIKE IT? um DUH im only human. and are there days that i totally skip out bc i would rather be lazy?? OF COURSE. and there are also those weekends where i cant workout either day? YES - but i get in during the week as much as i can when i know i will be out of town or something. oh and i take a day off once a week - just work my off day around my schedule.

ive learned not to beat myself up. i mean heck ONE day or even ONE week of taking off is not going to kill you OR change your body that much. and also eating has more to do with your body than working out. so i know this and i am FINALLY back to a great healthy place where i have cut out my daily snaking and sweets. i eat very balanced uber healthy meals, drink lots of water and good herbal teas. i still may have a drink here and there - but im an adult and i deserve it! :)

I FEEL SO MUCH BETTER now that im back on track.

i do know i need to add some weights in there. i do sometimes but not as much as i should. they just arent my favorite. thank goodness the turbokick and shadow boxing will help to keep my arms toned!

oh AND my trainer started me an amino acid supplement called catalyst that will help to define and tone my muscles. ill let you know how it works for me! started it on tuesday!

what do yall do?
what are your favorite workouts?
whats your motivation?

SHARE WITH ME! :)

{wedding wednesday: the reception}

2010-03-17T10:30:00.000-05:00

whoop whoop! wedding wednesdsay is BACK!

so i am going to a series of reception {wedding wedendays} bc there are just so many pictures i dont want to bombard you with too many at once!

if you have any questions dont hesitate to ask - im an open book and love to share all my ideas!

for this post ill concentrate mainly on the decor and the basic ambiance of the night!

this is a collage my photog put together to show the over all theme of my wedding.

here is the wedding sign i made. the background is wrapping paper. i designed the rest. the frame is $24 at IKEA

one of the tables. the little boxes were set at each seat. they were my favor boxes to be filled with our favorite treats at "The Hinz Goody Bar" the black frames you see say "reserved" and a little poem that directs them to check out the goody bar. the candelabras, tea candles and picture frames were items that we collected over time (either from garage sales, antique stores, discount stores) and we painted them to coordinate. the table runner is material used from curtains we purchased on sale at IKEA. they were around $7.99 for two huge panels that covered 4 tables!!! we really lucked out on that find bc all the other material i was looking at was $20/yrd

this is the head table

i had a crown in front of my seat and matts seat. this is matts crown (im sure he just loves that! HAHA). i found the crowns in the garden section at hobby lobby. they were a HORRID greenish browish color. so i took off the jewels - painted them black and put the jewels back on! they matched the theme perfeclty!

the cake table. i had a cake topper ready to go - but they put black flowers on top instead. so its missing the "H" on top - but i like it this way too.

The Hinz Goody Bar sign. again another frame we collected, i designed the sign and used scrap booking paper as the background.

a quick close up of the good bar (ill do a post on it later) and the favor boxes. we ordered the boxes from vista prints for $20 for 150 (i think if i can remember correctly). then i designed the little coordinating wrap and we added the wrap and a feather to each box. we also put a little "thank you" saying on the inside of each box. very time consuming - but totally worth it in the end.

the food - the food was amazing. we didnt get very many pictures of it. we just did a buffet style and also had a few waiters walking around with trays. they were sooooo good!

this is one of my FAVORITE centerpieces. my mom almost didnt buy this bc she didnt like it -but as soon as we painted it red i fell in LOVE! this is now in our kitchen :)

we used red bows on mine and matts chair so they would stand out from the rest :)

the BIGGEST candelabra of them all! this sucker comes up to my hip and its freaking heavy! this was at the center of the main table. and you can see our crowns on either side. mine has the fun white feathers all around it! :)

another shot of my crown

yay! champagne!

the decor in the ladies bathroom. we actually took this straight from the rehearsal dinner! we got to use them twice. the amazing black/white vase with the red feathers is now in our kitchen too. i LOVE that piece!

this is a shot of one of the bar tables. we had the tall 3 top bar tables around the dance floor. they are a little more simple and we didnt use a table runner.

the sparklers!!! they sat at a table in a vase of sand. we used the vase to put the sparklers out when we were done with them. it turned out great! and they were super cute!

well i tried to include a lot of detail. as much as i could remember! haha. let me know if you have questions. or ideas - my little sister is getting married and any new ideas are fun so please share away!

oh yea happy st pattys day!

{friday fun day}

2010-03-16T13:48:00.002-05:00

so i mentioned last week - that i had a fun night planned with the fab miss courtney! well we had an absolute blast! i love that girl - she is so fun!

here are some pics of our fun night.
mind you i was dressed for a hockey game - i had no idea that we would go out afterwards. so i look like i came straight from work! BOO! but its okay....oh AND courtney makes me look like a pasty white ghost! i need sun asap!

me and the hubs - this would be a super cute pic if it werent for my hair in my face

me, court and laura. laura and her hubs were part of our group!

i love meeting new friends and really lucked out with meeting courtney! she is so cute and fun! cant wait to hang out with her, brown girl and G soon! we all have a blast together!

hope you all had a fabulous weekend. its only tuesday and im ready for friday!

{a surprising thursday night!}

2010-03-12T11:13:00.005-06:00

so i have this friend named allie. we were besties in fayetteville - and then she moved off to nashville and got married and i ran off to dallas and got married. she just so happens to be married to kellie picklers guitar player. so when kellie pickler and taylor swift came into dallas last night for a show - i got a little message from allie saying she could get me 2 tickets!!!

soooooooo excited. although - thursdays ARE my favorite night of television. ill take free concert tickets and a fun night with a long lost bestie any day :)

it was so good to see miss allie. she is preggers and has the CUTEST baby bump!!!!

1st off - i wanted to wear my super cute 4" cowboy boots! please see outfit below. i tried to dress as teeny bopper as i could. but you would be SURPRISED at how some of these girls were dressed. i mean i swear we saw a group of 8year olds that were dress like they were 21 about to hit the clubs. and they looked like mini-snookies with the MASSIVE poofs they were rocking! i am kicking myself now for not getting a picture!

and i wasnt the only one that brought out the boots. i have NEVER seen so many cowboy boots in one place! it was nuts.
allie got us great seats right next to the stage. mind you all of these pics you are about to see were taken from my iphone - no zoom and a little fuzzy so bear with me!

this is kelly pickler on stage - allies hubby is the one in the black shirt with the guitar center stage!

the same thing - but on the big screen

and then on to t swift

very sparkly dress - reminded me of the 80s

we only stayed for a few of t swifts songs. then we met up with allies hubs down by all of the tour buses. allie actually stays on kellies bus when she tours with them. if youve ever seen a bunk on a tour bus - they are smaller than a twin bed. not really made for a husband and wife to share! haha.

this is me and the super cute and fabulous allie on the tour bus! you can barely see it - but her baby bump is there!

we had a great - but totally random thursday night!

TONIGHT im uber excited for a fun stars hockey game and the lovely miss courtney is coming!!! YEA!!!! cant wait to see her - shes so fabulous ;)

happy friday all!

{baby names}

2010-03-09T10:42:00.007-06:00

babies babies babies!
NO we are not pregnant! not yet not yet!
matt and i are excited to be parents - right now is just not our time.

with that being said - i wanted to play with taylor over at the undomestic mama and list my top favorite baby names!!!

even though a few of you have already seen the baby names that we picked - i decided to take them down and keep them from the world wide web until we know what its going to be (so be prepared to wait a long long time!!). dont want to spread my names around too much!! haha.

but i WILL share the other names that i absolutely adore. these are the ones that the mister isnt too fond of - so its very unlikely we will get to use them. i like these for either a boy OR a girl!
McCoy
McCall
Campbell
mainly the "McC" because my maiden name was McChristian!

i still like my extra names - i will just have to work on matt with those. but my thought is IM the one that has to carry the thing around for 9 months AND give birth - so the whole name thing might just be MY choice :)!!!

what are your favorite names!?!?!?

{wedding wednesday: the flowers}

2010-03-03T10:30:00.001-06:00

heeeeeeelllloooooooooo!!!
here i am - back in the sadle! doing some wedding wedneday FINALLY!

flowers flowers flowers.

now some girls LOVE flowers and dream of everything drapped in all sorts of amazing blooms. well im NOT one of those girls. i really didnt give a rats patooty about flowers to be honest! i actually had my mom go to the farmers market for me (in fayetteville since i was living in dallas) and pick out a florist for me. she picked out one that she thought had the most amazing blooms in oct (she went the year before to check them all out). so i only ended up spending a TOTAL of $525 on all of my flowers. that even included the bridal party, and the bouquet you toss at the reception.

basically i told the lady - i want everyone in the wedding party to have purple flowers and i want matt and i have have red - i was going with fall blooms. and thats about the only direction i gave her. bc like i said - i really didnt care either way.

with all that being said: THIS is how amazing all my flowers turned out! i think they did a great job! loved them all - especially mine.

i did find those fabulous red feathers you see at hobby lobby and gave them to her prior to the wedding and she coordinated them into my bouquet and into matts boutonniere!

here is MY bouquet that i ABSOLUTELY loved! i think they did an AMAZING job! oh i just LOVE it!! :)

here is a little picture of matts boutonniere. you can see the feather peaking out!

this is a shot of the bridesmaids purple bouquets. i wanted a mixture of all shades of purple - just to bring out a lot of the fall flowers!

heres a close up of the bridesmaids and flower girls bouquets. they look more PINK than purple - but just wanted to show you all the different shades that were used.

heres my bouquet sitting at the head table in candlelight :)

heres the toss bouquet! it fit perfectly right next to the cake! added a little color to the tiny table. also seen here with the silver "h"s the lower case is actually my sisters - but the big H is ours and is now in our entrance at home :)

here are the only other flowers i had at the reception. my main feature as the center pieces were the candelabras - which is its own post all together so ill get into that later. but i went to walmart and bought up all their $2 simple vases - they honestly look like tall shot glasses. i then took come cute black/white ribbon, an over sized gem and feathers to add some spice to the simple vases. you cant really tell here - but its all jazzed up feathers and all! each vase held about 3 flowers - ranging from purples to reds. just told them a variety of fall flowers!!! :)

this was def one of the things that helped me keep within my budget. do you guys like me to include the prices and little details like i did here? i dont mind sharing those ideas in future post if its what you guys want to see - just let me know.

happy hump day!

x0x0

{every girl should have her fairy tale}

2010-03-02T08:55:00.004-06:00

i have been told that matt and i have a fairytale of a relationship. this was said to me in a remark that i keep going back to "well hailey, not everyone has a fairytale relationship like you and matt"

my question is "but dont you WANT that fairytale"?????????????
im not saying fairytale as in everyone is pooping roses and dreaming in cotton candy - im talking REAL LOVE. the kind of love where you receive just as much as you give. the kind where you have the utmost respect for one another. when being with that person - you become a BETTER version of YOU. the person that knows each and every one of your flaws (including your friends and family) and STILL accepts you for you and loves you unconditionally. and most importantly - a person who is your best friend, who makes you laugh and is someone that you want there by your side to experience life with.

i know we all have different ideas of the PERFECT relationship and what we expect and want from it. but at the same time i think there are still those people (mainly girls here) that settle. thats where i bring back the comment "well hailey, not everyone has a fairytale relationship like you and matt". that to me is kind of a cop out - or just a sign of settling. i mean shouldnt every one strive to be the happiest person with someone that makes them the happiest?

this is just me - maybe i AM lucky. maybe i do sound like a bit of a brat here. but i pray and thank God every single solitary day for my husband. he is the single greatest thing that has ever happened to me. i am proud to stand by his side and im not afraid to say - "heck yea this man makes me a better person"!! since being with him i have become kinder, less selfish (if you can imagine), i have pushed myself harder, ive become more confident and finally feel secure and great in my own skin, i have become a better friend, more considerate and just plain HAPPY.

i want what i have for everyone! if i could spread love around like fairy dust i would - but we all know its not that simple!

im am constantly amazed by how much CRAP some girls will put up with from guys. its sad to me. thats a little mean - but its true. dont allow yourself to be sad and in doubt. have some self respect and BE HAPPY!!!! you make the choices of who you are with and who you surround yourself with in this life (except family of course - thats all Gods doing! haha) make those choices wisely! they can either build you up or break you down.

IN CONCLUSION ((i know you were waiting for this to wrap up a long time ago)) your fairytale is out there - DONT SETTLE!

happy tuesday everyone! this was a little heavy - tomorrow ill be back with a much happier, lighter WEDDING WEDNESDAY! stay tuned :)

{re-evaluating my lent}

2010-03-01T13:15:00.002-06:00

sooooooooo here we are in week 2 of lent. and i have changed my mind a MILLION times on what im giving up and/or trying to do better with this or that. GRRRRRRR! i just cant make my mind up. i was going to do my usual and give up alcohol and peanut butter. but that was boring. so i added sweets and junk food to the mix. then i realized i had some trouble classifying JUNK FOOD.....and of course when i was in DC the whole alcohol thing went out the window.

so i re-evaluated my lent.
instead of just giving stuff up - i want to improve my whole well being! i want to get back on track with working out ALL the time. i want to be a gym rat again and i want to crave veggies! sooooooooo matt and i decided to start eating better. we have planned out all our meals for this week and we are both excited to get our bodies back to a healthier lifestyle. so im def sticking with the no sweets and more fruits, veggies and lean meats.

then we come to the alcohol. i think i used to give it up back in they day bc i lived with a bunch of girls and every thursday - saturday we hit the town and wore ourselves out. but i dont do that anymore - and when i want a glass of vino or an ice cold beer to end my day...gosh darnit I WANT ONE! so im giving up on giving that up. thats one of the simple pleasures in life and now that im all grown up those are the little glasses of heaven i look forward to!

so judge me if you will - but i have changed my mind a good 20 times on my lent this year. but its official and it started today. here we go::::

1) workout at least 5 times a week
2) try to do most of my (cardio) workouts in the morning
3) eat at least 1 fruit at breakfast, 2 veggies at lunch, and a veggie and lean meat for dinner
4) start to take classes at our gym - they are offered mondays and wednesdays (starting tonight!!!!!)
5) drink more water
6) no sweets!

SEEEEE those are much better things to concentrate on! at least i think! they will work for me. and i am also extending my lent 2 weeks longer since i couldnt decide until NOW! haha.

what are you guys giving up for lent? im a huge fan of picking things that change you for the better and hopefully you can attempt to adopt into your real life even AFTER lent. i hope to do that with these 5 things (notice i said 5 bc i KNOW i cannot give up sweets forever!!!!!!! lets be real)

hope you all had a fabulous weekend!

xoxo

{im bringing my BANGS back}

2010-02-25T09:45:00.007-06:00

so most of you dont know me with my BANGS. i used to rock them - for years and years. and when the longer dos were coming in style i grew them out to a big long swoop to change things up. well after looking at several pictures of me recently - it reminded me of WHY i kept bangs for song long in the first place..
i had bangs because I HATE MY FOREHEAD!!!!!!!!!!
there i said it...i really hate it. i have this weirdo vein right down the middle of my forehead and that thing just needs to be covered!

so i got out my sheers and my razor and went to town!

while i was in DC i actually cut off about 2-3 inches - but decided i wanted a more edgy look.
so without further ado.........
here are the new bangs!!!!

here are a few pics of my "big swoop" bangs. see - in order to cover my hideous forehead - it also covers 1/2 my face. thaaaaaaaat doesnt really work so well for day-to-day life!

now do you see why i hate my forehead!!?!?! EEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWW

and again - 1/2 my face is missing! haha - or at least one eye is gone.

wheres my eye?!?!
im excited about bringing my old buddies back! they are super fun! THICK and a little CHUNKY - just the way i like em :) i love being able to grow them out and do different things with them. i havent let a hair stylist touch my bangs in YEARS!!!!! they are off limits! and thats also why matt was completely confused as to why i was cutting my bangs and im getting my hair done this weekend! im crazy like that. hehe!!

hope yall have a happy thursday! woo hoo for almost friday - am i right?!!?

{wedding wednesday: i suck}

2010-02-24T17:23:00.001-06:00

really?
seriously?
i have missed THREE wedding wednesdays in a row!
thats pathetic!!!!
grrrrrrrr.
im mad at myself dont worry.
i promise to get back on track boys & girls.
ive just been beyond ridiculously busy!

happy hump day all!

{DC part duex ~ the shopping}

2010-02-23T11:22:00.013-06:00

shopping shopping shopping!
whats a girls trip without shopping??!
so we did TONS of shopping - which in DC includes lots of walking. but it was so fun to explore the city and the places kim went all the time.

we started off our shopping in georgetown with makeup! we spent a long time in sephora (i know i know - everyone has a sephora but it was fun!) we found TONS of great things. my favorite purchase was the refine and finishing powder i found. sephora carries this new mineral makeup that i just had to try. my skin is beyond uber sensitive and i have to be very careful with what i put on it. which also tends to make it either dry or oily. i have found a PERFECT solution! its called amazing cosmetics. the name says it all - its pretty darn amazing. the concealer is like velvet and the powder is nice and light. it also is missing a few minerals that other brands contained which seemed to break me out. anyway - off on a rant there! i got the refine and finish powders. its a refining light powder to kind of set your makeup and then the finishing powder totally rocks! its translucent and whips out ANY shininess you may have. i sometimes (but rarely) reapply midday and your face looks like you JUST put makeup on! its awesome. even after a night on the town my face still looked fresh! i highly recommend!
amazing cosmetics: refine & finish

next up we have the little bracelets that i mentioned yesterday - which we got in dupont. kim and i both got one at the same time. kind of like corny "best friend" bracelets from back in the day! which in SURE we both totally wore. i got the gold heart on a red string. and we made our wishes together at happy hour (totally appropriate for us). i cant WAIT for my wish to come true now...now just gotta wait for the darn thing to fall off! haha :)

dogeared "make a wish" bracelet
then we have my most FAVORITE purchases of the trip! i found the cutest and totally "hailey" dresses at urban outfitters ((yes i know everyone has a UO but i always find the best stuff when i go with kim!!!)).

this dress is of course cute bc it has pockets! you know how i LOVE all things pockets! :) you can click here (little black dress) to see it online and get one yourself. they had other super cute colors but practical me stuck with the black. i wore this out on saturday and added a super cute gold chain link belt and it was adorable! ((toot toot))

last but certainly not least was the zipper dress i found. i actually didnt even try this one on bc i just KNEW i would love it! its one of those risky dresses - bc obvi you cant really wear a bra with it. but its got a cute pocket on the front and i adore tiny pointless pockets :) and the zipper you see zips all the way down the dress! you can click here (fun zipper dress) to get this fun flirty dress yourself!

we hit up TONS of other stores. including not just one but TWO H&Ms - both in georgetown and downtown - and it was so sad when we both left empty handed. couldnt find ONE thing that we liked. there were a few other purchases i made but they arent really blog appropriate!! shopping with your bestie in a SUPER fun and exciting city is always amazing. no matter what you buy or where you go!

isnt it funny how you always associate a dress or shoes with the TIME that you bought them? im a dork like that and will always think of these as my DC dresses even though they are just from UO and i could have bought them here!

xoxo!

{my fabulous trip to DC}

2010-02-22T15:29:00.007-06:00

where to EVEN begin?
well i had an absolute blast with my bestie kim in DC.
i dont REMEMBER the last time i had so much fun!
it makes me miss when we lived together and got to have girls night all the time! shes a wonderful hostess and took me to lots of fun places. it was great to be able to finally see her world and how she lives it up!

the first night i got in town we stayed at her place and had wine and cheese! its what we used to do when we lived together and it was a perfect time for catching up!

the first day (friday) we got up and around and headed to Lauriol Plaza for lunch and margaritas. got to start of my vacation on the right foot!

this was the view from our table. we sat on the 2nd level with a great view through all the pretty windows.

after lunch we grabbed a taxi and headed straight to georgetown. it was so fun and we did TONS of shopping ((almost TOO much shopping))! hours of walking and shopping can def make you work up a thirst. so we headed back to dupont circle (where kim lives) for happy hour! sangria - yum at bar dupont

while we were in georgetown we picked up some sweets at one of kims fave cupcake place. baked&wired!! we got red velvet (my personal fave) and german chocolate! sooooooooooo good!

that night we went to one of kims favorite places for dinner. Rosas! kim and brock (my other bestie that used to live up there) are OBSESSED with rosas! they have the best best pomegranate margs! we made it a late dinner and stayed in the bar area until late so we headed right home after that. saturday was another day filled with lots of walking and shopping. kim took me downtown to show me the white house.

me posing in front of the white house.

the 3rd building with the green roof in the background is kims office building. she works just across from the white house!

on our way home from our downtown shopping spree - we walked through dupont and i took some pictures of kims neighborhood.

this is a pic of kims apartment! she has a basement apt and its so super cute!

and here is the real world house thats literally just a block from kims place.

its freaking HUGE.

while we were out shopping we found a cute little boutique with fun jewelery. kim and i decided to get the "make a wish" dogeared bracelets. we both made wishes together and they will always remind us of each other!

CHEESY i know - but we are cool like that :)

saturday night was bittersweet. we were both exhausted from late nights - early mornings (we would wake up early and talk for hours each day) and all the walking and shopping almost did us in.

we went to whole foods and grabbed all the ingredients to make our famous pita pizzas. we settled in with a nice bottle of wine and cooked dinner and planned on having a quiet girls night in and catching up!

this is me and kims dog preston! i just love him!!

enjoying our girls night!

well our plans changed around midnight when we found ourselves throwing on some dresses and hitting the town! we met up with a few of kims friends and had a great time!

kims cute hair makes me want to have my short bangs again!

the very next morning - we had time for a quick brunch at kramerbooks and then i was off to the airport. i finally got to spend some QT with the man in kims life at brunch. he was a sweetie and picked me up and took me to the airport!

i was soooo sad to leave. but it was nice to be home to my two boys.

this is the little treat i came home to! love my hubs ;)

so now its monday and all i want to do is run home and get straight into bed! i am exhausted from too much fun - if thats even possible :)

hope you all had a fab weekend!

{post worthy presents}

2010-02-18T09:59:00.003-06:00

i am SURE you guys are sick of hearing about my birthday by now!
but i just HAD to do a post on the gifts that i received even after my actual birthday!

first off i got this little thang in the mail!
i just LOVE getting packages in the mail!
i was SHOCKED when i opened it and found that it was from my favorite little blogger mrs dew!

its a lolita birthday martini glass!!!! the bottom has frosting and glitter like the top of a cupcake! isnt it adorable!!!! love it!

THEEEEN i got this in the mail! the very next day! its a painting of my fabulous little TICO! and its done from my favorite puppy pic of him. i just adore it! it now lives in our living room! the fabulous miss tara got this made for me! what an awesome gift!

and last but CERTAINLY not least is the vintage monogrammed locket my mom found for me! isnt it awesome!!!! it might be my favorite gift (but its soooo hard to choose a fave as you can see). it has an old english "H" on the front!

i even filled it up with pics of my two favorite boys! tico and matt! and i have to find a better one of T - but thats all i could find laying around the house. i mean how cool is this necklace!?!?! i will wear this thing FOREVER!!! love love!

well this is a quick post for me today! got lots to wrap up before i make my way to DC!!! im beyond thrilled to spend time with my bestie kim! she is my girlie soulmate :) love love her :)

hope you all have a fab weekend! peace out! xoxo

{spectactular saturday}

2010-02-16T11:28:00.006-06:00

saturday was a fun little day for me!
i got to meet up with some super FABULOUS girls for a super yummy lunch :)
you will have to check these girls out...

brown girl over at browngirlblogs
courtney @ keepingupwithcourt
gretchen from theholmeshome

we are such a good looking group :)

gretchen, bg, court and me

me and courtney. isnt she the CUTEST thing?!?!
at lunch we enjoyed a few adult bevis and lots of fun girl talk! these girls are soooo much fun! i really lucked out finding them!! and we are all brunettes...hmmm interesting!! :)

----------------------------------

i remember even telling the girls that i gave matt his valentines early (the night before) and i doubted he was going to get me ANYTHING bc he spoiled me so much for my birthday. low and behold - i walk in the door from lunch and THIS is what is waiting for me :) ***and that is Tico in the background (cutest dog EVER) and a sneak peek at our guest room***

my all time FAVORITE flowers (star gazer lillies) and a HUGE box of chocolates! boy does he have me pegged! oh - and the cutest card ever :) love him to pieces. totally made it the best saturday ever!

here are the flowers this morning. the thing i LOVE about lillies is these little suckers will last for almost 2 weeks AND as soon as one is done blooming - there is another one on its way! and they smell awesome! :) these really might be the prettiest ones i have ever seen. they are HUGE blooms and this vibrant deep pink! sooo pretty - this picture doesnt do them justice. happy tuesday!!!

OH and i almost forgot....just TWO more days until im off to DC for the weekend :) WOO HOO!

{valentines weekend}

2010-02-15T13:42:00.004-06:00

ooooh how i LOVE valentines day!
i think it has a lot to do with the fact that its my moms favorite holiday - and she loves celebrating it!

we kicked off valentines weekend friday night!
i gave matt some valentines goodies.
we usually dont do much for valentines - but i figured i needed to do a little extra bc he had spoiled me SO MUCH the past week for my birthday.
i just got him some cologne and a fun grey blazer (which hes wearing in the pictures below)
friday night we went to simply fondue!
its just like melting pot - just dont as fancy.
to be honest - i liked it a lot better than melting pot!
it reminded me of a restaurant you would find in austin - lots of character to it!

anyway here are some pics from friday night

hes so cute :)

cheers! dressed in red for the occasion :)

im not gonna lie - the cheese was my very favorite part :)
all of the sauces for dipping!

the batters to dip and fry the seafood in! YUM!

lobster tail!
lots and LOTS of food! this was the 3rd course!

happy valentines day!
saturday we were very low key and made dinner at home.
sunday we went to see avatar ((i know i know FINALLY)) at the IMAX in real 3D and let me tell you - it freaking rocked! after our movie we stopped by and had some crawfish cheese dip and some gator juice in celebration of mardi gras! haha! it was a pretty big drink! and this was a 1/2 order!!!

please dont judge me by my ratty hair do - it photographs terribly! ((note.to.self))

well i hope you all had a fabulous weekend! and a happy heart day!

ill share more tomorrow about my fun blogger girl lunch and more updates on bday gifts ((bc i KNOW you arent tired of hearing about MY birthday! haha :))

peace out!

{my fabulous birthday!!}

2010-02-09T11:24:00.002-06:00

thank you all so very much for so many wonderful birthday wishes yesterday (and even some today)!!!
you certainly know how to make a girl feel loved!!!

last night we kicked off the bday festivities with my new favorite!
berrry champagne!
i was pretty embarrassed to discover the price tag (and brand) of my newest obsession.
matt brought this home for me on new years and i never really took notice of those things then.
but last night i discovered that im a pretty cheap date when it comes to champagne!
this entire bottle was just $5.99!!!
go out and grab yourself a bottle! youll be glad you did :)
oh and matt poured it into my queeny cup! :) queen for a day!!
for dinner we had fresh fried shrimp! hes such a good chef :) the of course more strawberry cream cake WITH fresh strawberries!

let the gift opening begin!

matt started my morning off with a little gift at breakfast.
he got me some of my favorite little lacy things from victorias secret (ill spare you the details on that one :)
at lunch he was going to surprise me with another gift - but i couldnt make it home in time :( but its the thought that counts. love that man!

last year for my birthday matt got me one of the greatest gifts!
a CHARM bracelet! i have wanted one for years and i finally had one!
so over my entire year of being 26 i collected lots of charms (mostly as gifts) and my bracelet was almost complete.
so this year he got me a few final touches that finished off my entire bracelet!
this thing is PACKED with lots of fun memories with every charm :)
he got me the blinged out colored beads and the white heart that says "luv u" on the back!
isnt he a sweetheart :) love him!
charms from left to right: wedding ring, wedding cake, queen crown, "luv u" heart, puppy, cowboy boot for texas, blinged out heart for last years valentines day, an arkansas razorback (woo pig sooie), my first princess crown, an easter egg, and a shamrock for good luck! there are a few more that i had to take off to fit all the ones from matt on there! i cant believe i have so many :)

last but certainly not least....my BIG birthday gift!
matt is so funny - he put together this little "puzzle" that i had to use to figure out what my gift was (bc i didnt actually GET the gift on my bday - you will see what i mean)...
heres a picture of his creation...
1st box: "mic" + "kill"
2nd box: "boob" (yes that is my boob from a wedding picture he has circled!!! HAHA) + "lei"
3rd box: "at" + "american airlines center" + "on" + "7" + "18"

ANSWER: Michael Buble at the American Airlines Center on July 18th!!!!!!!!!!
SHUT UP RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!! you know im totally obsessed with him!
AND "everything" was our wedding song!
OMG OMG OMG how awesome is my husband?
he totally rocks doenst he :)

my bday was beyond amazing! i am such a lucky girl!
and i still have lots of gifts on their way :) so much fuN!

happy tuesday!

{happy birthday to ME!!}

2010-02-08T11:53:00.003-06:00

well today is the big day!
my birthday!
i turn the big 2 7
still not sure how i feel about it! haha.

i had a best pre-birthday weekend EVER! lots of great food, tasty drinks, fun shopping, a little kitchen makeover, lots of cupcakes and yummy cake and of course my wonderful family to spend it with!

here is my strawberry cream birthday cake.
i really think i had 4 pieces yesterday!
sooooooooooooo gooooooooooooooood!!!

my mom brought down all of my candelabras we used at the wedding and i decided to use them as decoration bc i love them so much and just HAD to find a home for them!
the whole candelabras-in-the-kitchen thing is still growing on matt. but hes nice and let me keep them up there bc he knows i love them so much :)
this is above the sink and dishwasher - sorry this isnt the greatest picture - it was taken with my phone!

here is another fabulous new addition to the kitchen!
a cling-on chalk board!
isnt it totally fabulous!!? LOVE IT!
this is a fairly RANDOM post from me today. i barely took any pictures! sorry!!!

here is me this morning - in my birthday outfit!
the fab coat you see is from my two awesome sisters! isnt it pretty?
im also wearing my new rain boots my mom got me! so cute :)
and its bitter cold, super windy, and 90% chance of rain today!
BOOOOOO for bad bday weather - but ill get over it :)

tonight matt and i are having a candle lit dinner at home ((maybe i can bust out some of my candelabras!!!!)) and enjoying more of the strawberry cake and my new favorite berry champagne!!!!! and presents too of course!

EXCITED ABOUT IT!!!! :)

hope you all had a great weekend!

{fabulous friday}

2010-02-05T14:36:00.004-06:00

today is a VERY exciting day for me!
my MOM and DAD are on coming to visit this weekend!!!!!
they are on their way right now as i type this!
i couldnt BE more excited. i feel like its christmas all over again!

i really lucked out and got those totally cool and awesome parents. the ones that everyone likes to hang out with! the older i get the more i realize how blessed i truly am to have such amazing parents!

they are coming this weekend to help me celebrate my birthday!!!! so my bday celebrations officially start tonight! i cant wait!

tonight we are going to our favorite pizza place across the street for yummy pizza and beers! i know my dad will love that! then tomorrow i am taking them to a burger joint that matt and i LOVE LOVE and go to all the time for bleu cheese bacon burgers and loaded cheddar fries :::i can feel my arteries clogging just talking about it...thats how good it is:::: then we are walking to sprinkles cupcakes for some birthday goodness :) and of course as much shopping as we can squeeze in!

tomorrow night matt is taking my dad to a stars hockey game. my dad grew up in wisconsin and played hockey so he is really looking forward to an NHL game. while they are busy doing man things mom and i will probably shop or go ahve some margaritas! either way its a win win!

we are topping off the weekend with something i have been craving for weeks now! STRAWBERRY CAKE!!!!! yummy! reminds me of being a kid :)

here are some cute pictures of my favorite mom and pop in the world!!
love ya les and deb! cant wait for you to get here!!!!!!!!
at my rehearsal dinner

this really needs no caption - but this was my wedding day :)

arent they so cute!??!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!! its here its finally here! almost time to kick back and enjoy the weekend!

peace out!

{wedding wednesday: SPECIAL}

2010-02-03T10:07:00.001-06:00

so this is a little out of the order that i was going for my wedding wednesdays - but i just HAD to share these photos with you guys.

i told you a while ago about a secret special shoot that matt and i did! well we got the pictures back and they are too DIE for!!! dale and meredith do these sessions called the "Day After" sessions. and this is where they get just the bride and groom with their hair down, no flowers, no veil and just sexy, edgy, fashiony pictures! and let me tell you - they totally ROCKED this session!

i will only show you ONE sneak peek - but you must go to my photogs blog to see the rest.

i dont want to steal his creative thunder.....

i WILL however toot my own horn and tell you that i did my own hair, makeup and styled all of the accessories for both of us. ad i think i did a pretty darn good job :)

ALSO i would like to note that it was FREEZING, pouring RAIN and we were feeling the night before (the benny awards) BIG time! we did these shots in a parking garage (i kid you not) and the aloft hotel!

"Day After Session" Part I

"Day After Session" Part II

let me know what you think - and leave dale and meredith some comment love too!

{the benny awards}

2010-02-02T10:24:00.002-06:00

now i know i have told you guys time and time again about the Benny Awards!!
well now there are videos so i can kind of show you what it was like to be a part of them!

my little sister and i were actually STARS in one of the videos :)
see if you can guess which girls we are :)
**WARNING: we had had around 5 glasses of champagne at this point :)**

Benny Thanks from Dale Benfield on Vimeo.

here is the video that shows all of the details that went into the big night!

2010 Benny Awards video from Dale Benfield on Vimeo.

thanks again to dale and meredith {the soon to be Benfields!!!} for such an amazing night :)

and i would like to give credit to NILO Productions for making these great videos! you can check them out here on their facebook fanpage!

{a super fun gift idea}

2010-02-01T09:46:00.007-06:00

during our last trip to arkansas i got to celebrate my birthday a little early with my family.
for those of you that are wondering - its one week from today.

anyway - we also celebrated my sisters birthdays as well. they are january babies - so we had one big PARTY!

well i have been DYING for an excuse to use this girl stephanie for EVER! i found her blog and started following immediately! she has an amazing talent and does these to DIE for personalized canvas masterpieces!!! WELL - my sisters birthdays turned into the PERFECT reason to use her!

i emailed her the pictures - we swapped ideas back and forth - and within just a few days she had proofs for me and these suckers were shipped and on there way!

i got so many ews and aws from my family members that i just couldnt WAIT to show you guys!!!

here is what we created for my sisters!

this was the one we created for my older sister.

this is a picture you might recognize from my wedding pictures taken by dale benfield.

this is a picture of her and her daughter!

stephanie made it a black and white - bringing out the purple of the flowers.

this was all stephanie's genius work!!!

the quote reads "A mother's treasure is her daughter"

PRICELESS!!!!!!!!!!

----------------

this one shows the actual canvas and how the finished product looks.

this is a close up of the one i got for my little sister - hillary.

if you remember from this post - she just got engaged!

so i used the photo that dale took and had her create a memory piece for hillary!

it reads "grow old with me, the best is yet to be..." and it has the date they were engaged on the bottom right corner! DO YOU LOVE IT!?!??!

and here they are on the little stands that we found for them. PERFECT!!!

this is an example of some of the work that stephanie does. she specializes in wedding canvases. which i will have in my home one day :)

this was a PERFECT gift - and as you can see you can personalize it and use any picture you have and can be made for ANYONE in your life. go and check her out on Etsy right now!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/GeeZees

happy monday everyone! hope you all had an amazing weekend :)

{wedding wednesday: the bridesmaids}

2010-01-28T14:22:00.003-06:00

its time for wedding wednesday!!!!
i know I KNOW - im a day late.
but better late than never right?

today is all about my girls! the girls i chose to be at my side on my BIG day!!!
i just want to point out that all of my girls are freaking GORGEOUS!!!! which made it super easy to pick out the black - form fitting dress for them! they all ROCKED it :)

the first little lady to walk down the isle (bc she is the shortest :) was kim.
i absolutely adore my little kim! and you know her as my DC friend that im going to visit in February! so excited.
isnt she precious?
we have been besties for years and years!

next up was the only other bridesmaid - christy!
you can tell she just looooooves being photographed right?

then came my matron of honor - my lovely and beautiful older sis heather!
and you all already know and LOVE my little niece who walked down the isle with her mom.
such a sweet moment!

last but certainly not least - my little sister and maid of honor - hillary!

they all stood up there so pretty next to me!

here we are right after the ceremony - outside the chapel.

the sun was starting to go down so we had the best light right on the front steps.

i think it makes a cool setting and a little something different for wedding portraits :)

since i got to totally rock out with bright red fabulous shoes - i wanted my girls to have fun shoes too! they all got to choose whatever red shoes they wanted.

i think they did a great job!

this is me with my maid and matron of honor! little and big sisters :)

arent they GORGEOUS!!!????

time to let loose!!!!!

love this picture :)

and last up - the individual pics.

me and hillary. ((she is going to make SUCH a gorgeous bride...i mean REALLY))

mrs heather! the ONLY blonde in the group! haha :)

me and christy

and little miss kimmie :)

arent my girls the greatest!??! so cute and perfect for pictures! haha - i really lucked out with such a beautiful group!

ill share details like where i got their dresses, my shoes and jewelery at a later post.

stay tuned!

{its OFFICIAL!!!}

2010-01-26T11:21:00.002-06:00

after 4 hours of waiting in line...
the constant smell of cigarette smoke and curry - that STUCK with me long after i left
and getting to see some of the different walks of life that are here in the Dallas Metroplex area...

I. AM. OFFICIALLY.............
HAILEY HINZ!!!!!!!!!

i know i know - why so long after the wedding?
well our honeymoon was almost 2 months after the wedding and our trip was booked under my maiden name. so i had to wait until after that. THEN - BOOM it was thanksgiving. and then BOOM christmas. BOOM new years! FINALLY get a chance to breathe and get back to normal.

well my hubby decided to hurry me along - so he booked my trip to DC at the end of Feb in my NEW name. sneaky man! so i HAD to get it done ASAP!

here we are! Hailey Hinz and all. and let me tell you - a MAN must have come up with this changing name crap. bc they dont have to do it!

enough of my gripping! thanks for letting me vent.
bur hurray hurray! never again will i have to change my name!

GOOD LUCK to all future brides that have to do it. its an adventure to say the least!

**((man LOTS of all caps today! haha i must be in a feisty mood))**

{winner winner chicken dinner}

2010-01-25T11:03:00.006-06:00

first of all - THANK YOU so very much to all of you fabulous little blogger lovelies that went out and voted for my pictures!

we had the Benny Awards this weekend! the awards for the pictures you all helped vote on here.
without further ado....drum roll please...........................I WON I WON!

i won for Best Bridal

AND Leading Lady!

starting back at the beginning of the night....
this is us before the awards.
steven, hillary (lil sis), me, tico and matt

me and the cute hubs!

this is me at the awards WITH my award! a gallery canvas wrap of my bridal! i also won a print for winning leading lady! :)

then we met these fabulous ladies out for a few drinks. jessica, tara, me and hillary

me and my gorgeous lil sis!

me and the fabulous brockstar!

the boys!

hope you all had a wonderful weekend! other than the bennys - my older sister got the entire family tickets for a razorback basketball game. we sat 3 rows up from the court! it was fun! that was thursday night. friday was they bennys. saturday we had our special photo shoot that i will blog about later and also a big birthday party for me and my sisters! it was a lot of fun! ill do an extra post on the gifts i got them too!

{wedding wednesday: the ceremony}

2010-01-20T13:42:00.008-06:00

((WARNING: this is a big post with lots of stories and pictures!!!))

welcome back to wedding wednesday!
i couldnt decide WHICH post i wanted to do today. i finally decided on a pretty IMPORTANT post...the CEREMONY!!!!!
i mean lets face it - this IS what the whole day was about right?

so here it goes...

this is the very last photo snapped of me as im waiting for my song to start!

the moment the doors opened and my dad walked me down the isle!

awe - the first moment matt saw me! grinning from ear to ear!

the first time we made eye contact! SO HAPPY :)

our pretty little chapel

this is the moment when matt was saying his vows.

the second he started talking - he started getting choked up.

it was so precious. i will always remember that moment.
and you can see in this pic - the i grabbed his hands and pulled them in tight and smiled as big as i could to help him hold it all together!

and then this was me saying MY vows...and you guessed it - i TOTALLY messed up one of my words. i mean i couldnt even tell you what the word was - and i have no idea what it even meant! this was me laughing...i KNEW i would screw something up! haha!

this was me almost doubled over laughing over a comment made my bling! HAHA!

us doing the unity sand

aaaaaaaaaaand the KISS!

let me tell you - you saw that picture of my girls helping me put my veil on.

well my hair was so huge we couldnt get it to stay put very well - so as soon as matt started to dip me - it started slipping out! i had to grab it before it came out completely! haha!

i present to you for the very first time - Mr & Mrs Matthew Hinz!!! YEA!

i love this picture :)

happy wednesday everyone!

you know the drill - all pictures taken by the fabulous dale benfield photography

{look at me - im FAMOUS!!}

2010-01-19T10:35:00.005-06:00

or at least my booty is! haha :)

as you all know (bc i talk about him NONSTOP) my photog is uber fabulous!

but this time its a little different - im not going to be talking about him - im going to introduce you to the fabulous work of his future wifey...the lovely, talented and amazing MEREDITH!

not only is she one of the nicest, sweetest, adorable girls in the world. shes a DANG good photographer! and she has found her NICHE. and its doing secret sessions!

if you guys remember me telling you that i got matt a "little black book" for his wedding gift. well SHE is the one responsible for the amazing pictures!

she is sooooo good at what she does - they have launched a whole new website dedicated to it and even had a secret session booth at a bridal fair this past weekend and yours truly was front and center!!! :)

the exciting news - and the reason for this post - is the Secret Session master is coming to DALLAS!!!! they are only taking 5-6 girls to shoot while they are down here. they are coming feb 21st and 22nd. if you live in dallas and are interested in doing a secret session go here and book it!

***EDIT*** i JUST found out that they have added some ATLANTA dates too! so if you are interested - give mere a shout! meredithmcclary@gmail.com

this is the perfect gift for any boyfriend, fiance or husband. or even if you just want to take some sexy pix to have record of how AMAZINGLY hot you are :) !!!!!!!!

hurry while you can before they are all booked up!

their blog: http://www.benfieldphotography.blogspot.com/

their website: http://www.benfieldphotography.net/

and just bc im a sucker for a fab engagment story - go here to check theirs out!

{bloggy buddy day!!}

2010-01-18T11:19:00.002-06:00

today is an exciting day!
i am meeting two FABULOUS ladies for happy hour after work!
these ladies are particularly special bc they are my blog buddies!!

one who ive met lots of times now. we chat, email, text DAILY and i heart her to pieces! you may follow her - miss brown girl over at browngirlblogs

we are both meeting a bloggie girl for the very first time! miss courtney from keepingupwithcourt

im soooooo excited for some girl time!

i never thought by starting my own blog i would meet so many incredible ladies! im a very lucky girl and cant wait to build more friendships with you all you little lovelies :)

{get your VOTE on!}

2010-01-14T11:52:00.006-06:00

sorry to sound like such a broken record...
((thats mainly for those of you that follow me on facebook and/or twitter))

but TOMORROW is the LAST day to VOTE for the benny awards!
SO GO VOTE!!!

i need YOUR help to vote so that my pictures can win!

click on each link below - look for my name "hailey" and vote!

for best bridal portrait: not to toot my own horn - but TOOT TOOT! this picture totally rocks!
http://bennyawards.com/?page_id=3

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for best dance performance: this is a fabulous picture of me and my two sisters and my DAD singing to Taylor Swifts "you belong with me"!!!
http://bennyawards.com/?page_id=18

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for best wedding design: if you only knew the teeny tiny budget that went into making this night as glamorous as i imagined! matt said these pictures make it look gothic - but i LOVE it :)
http://bennyawards.com/?page_id=35

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for best shoes: i would like to note that we are THE ONLY couple that had matching shoes and socks!!!! :) greatest idea ever!
http://bennyawards.com/?page_id=37

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for best leading lady: now you all know how much i love this photo! so much its currently hanging in our home :)
http://bennyawards.com/?page_id=46

if my photos win we get super fun prizes! like a custom water color painting, gallery wraps, photo books, photo shoots and other great photo prizes!

thank you so much for your support!

ill let you know the results after the award party on the 22nd!

**all pictures courtesy of the phabulous photog mr dale benfield**

{wedding wednesday: getting ready}

2010-01-13T13:29:00.008-06:00

todays wedding wednesday is all about getting ready! and a few of the stories before the big walk down the isle. i dont have ALL the pictures i wanted to post because im on a different computer :(

but this still brings back suck fabulous memories and even some of the hic ups we dealt with right before the walk down the isle!

we all met at my parents home and then headed to the chapel from there. this was my pre wedding dress outfit! haha :)

the chapel was approx a 25min drive - so in order for me NOT to get car sick - i drove us up there! ha.
that is also why we couldnt get a limo. i would have been SSSSIIIICCCKKKK!!!! and no one wants that on their big day. i can make MYSELF car sick - so i didnt want to risk it.

this is my mom zipping me up! isnt she cute??

mom & sis buttoning me up! they used crochet needles! they are so smart!

my fabulous little sis helping me with my fabulous little shoes

my girls helping me put on my moms veil.

the funny part was my poof was so big - we couldnt get the veil to stay! haha! told my hair girl "the bigger the better"

this is also the reason when matt kissed me it came off my head and i had to grab it! ahh!

sorry i dont have more pictures! this def reminds me of the last frantic 15mins before the clock struck 6....one of my eyelashes FELL OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i mean when you pay $130 to get your makeup done - you assume it will be perfect.

WRONG!

luckily - being in arkansas (home of walmart) there is a walmart about every 5 miles. so we sent out our family friend (aka "uncle billy) to walmart to get eyelash glue.

what a fiasco! it was so funny. my bridesmaid christy was on the phone with him - walking him thru the cosmetic isles in walmart helping him find it. but he got it! and just in time.

i dont even think the glue had a chance to dry before i was practically SHOVED down the isle.

our chapel coordinator was a little on the crazy side - and got mad at everyone for not starting RIGHT AT 6.

but hey "the party dont start til i walk in" right??!?! haha :)

reminder for the next wedding: BRING CHAMPAGNE! i could have def used that to settle my nerves while waiting for my eyelash glue!! :)

******:::all pictures are by the fabulous dale & (future) meredith benfield:::******

{2010: the year of travel}

2010-01-12T14:26:00.008-06:00

matt and i have dubbed 2010 as the year of travel.

weve decided as newlyweds - that this will be the year that we get our travel bug out of our system! because next year will be the year of the baby bump! haha.
at least as long as everything goes according to plan - cant really plan it for sure - thats really all up to the big guy upstairs :)

here is where we are planning on going so far!

matt is going to visit his best bud (the best man in our wedding) in LA. should be a super fun boys weekend! and ill get to go next time!

i am FINALLY going to visit my bestie in DC. she has lived there for a while now -and its about time i get up there for a visit. def going to wait until its warmer bc there will be lots of walking :)

matt and i are heading to his parents new home in Iowa. and also going to ohio in the same visit for a family get together. we are going in october so it will be COLD up there!!!! i might need to purchase cute boots for that trip ((writing on check list now...))

labor day we are going to make our 2nd annual trip back to Lubbock, TX to see the texas tech red raiders in action! we had sooo much fun last year at matts alma mater! we cant wait to go back and keep the tradition going.

and you KNOW we will be back to my hometown of Fayetteville, AR SEVERAL times this year...as always!

my little sis graduates from grad school this may and i will have to go up to help her with wedding planning :) EEEEE! so exciting!

then we are doing a super fun vacay! we are going to our favorite place in the US - NEWPORT BEACH ,CA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! eeeeeeeeeee i get so excited just THINKING about it!

matt found this hotel years ago and i just adore it. its old and has a TON of character. its one of those beach front hotels with wood floors, bay windows and every single room is different!

its directly on the beach! this is the view from the front door!

its located on the this awesome strip of lots of bars and restaurants. we will spend our days on the beach ((matt will surf)) and walking up and down and visiting each place on the strip. soooooo excited!!!

there are a few more trips we will sprinkle in there. but as you can see - this is the year of travel! let the fun begin :)

{a whole decade of events}

2010-01-11T10:20:00.002-06:00

this weekend marked the one month countdown until my 27th birthday!!! that got me to thinking - DANG im old! haha

it also got me to thinking of how much has happened in my life over the past decade!

2000-2009
- got my drivers license
- graduated from high school
- graduated from college
- got my first REAL PEOPLE job
- got the furry love of my life - TICO
- got my 2nd REAL PEOPLE job (that i LOVED and made me realize the career path i want)
- bought my first car
- moved to austin, 8 hours away for work - to a place i barely knew a sole (totally out of my comfort zone)
- met the love of my life and future husband
- found a new job in dallas to move closer to matt
- got engaged
- got MARRIED

MAN now those are some mile markers there. not sure if there will be another decade in my life where SO MANY amazing life changing things happen. its crazy to look back on a decade to see how many things you have gone through.

what ive learned: live life with the glass 1/2 full. never regret anything - God puts you through all obstacles to mold you into who you are. and most of all love yourself :)

happy 2010 peeps! go out and make it an awesome year! life is what YOU make of it!

{wedding wednesday: the little people}

2010-01-06T12:03:00.007-06:00

todays post is all about the "little" people in the wedding.
any by little i mean the flower girl and ring bearer aka "bling" bearer.

i was blessed to be able to include my wonderful niece and baby cousin as a part of our big day.

blakely (who i call B.B.) is my fabulous little redheaded niece! dont you just want to eat her up!

and i just HAD to include this cute little guy.
this is my cousins baby - Rush.
LOOK AT THAT FACE!!!!

they were just the icing on the cake at the wedding.
and made for some pretty cute pics too :)

before the ceremony blakely did a great job of keeping us girls entertained as we waited for the big moment.

{BB and her mom}

these guys def added some entertainment to the ceremony as they walked down the isle.

blakey did SUCH a good job for a 3yr old standing up there right by my side ((pretty much)) the whole time.

ALMOST the whole time...

{BB and her grandpa}

after the ceremony blakey helped matt & i cut the cake!

she also danced the night away with her mom and dad!!

she even gave a little speech :)

shes just so precious! i can hardly stand it!

i wish i had gotten more pictures of rush. he is beyond precious.

also for the day of the wedding they both had matching monogrammed outfits. blakeys said flower girl with a crown to match the bride (of course) and rush's said "bling" bearer with a big fat right on it :) they were so CUTE!

everyone deserves a fabulous super cute flower girl and ring bearer! they make SUCH a difference :)

**all photos by dale benfield**

{thank you!}

2010-01-05T15:19:00.003-06:00

thank you all so very much for those of you that voted for me! it means a lot. you guys are great!

i heard from my photographer yesterday that there were soooo many of you trying to get on at once to vote that the site crashed!!!!
so if you were having problems voting yesterday that could explain it!

crazy nuts how girls can be over voting on their wedding pictures!

thanks again for all of your support! i really appreciate it :)

again - if you havent voted or had problems yesterday here are the links for you.

and YES ill probably post this ONE more time before voting ends! thanks for being patient with me :)

for best bridal portrait:
http://bennyawards.com/?page_id=3

for best dance performance:
http://bennyawards.com/?page_id=18

for best wedding design:
http://bennyawards.com/?page_id=35

for best shoes:
http://bennyawards.com/?page_id=37

for best leading lady:
http://bennyawards.com/?page_id=46

{vote for me!! vote for me!!!!}

2010-01-04T09:04:00.004-06:00

the time has come for the benny awards!

the bennys are awards that my photog holds for all of his brides for the year!

well my pictures were nominated in a few of the categories!!

i need YOUR help to vote so that my pictures can win!

each category has its own link.

click on each link - look for my name "hailey" and vote!

**even if you think my picture isnt the best one - vote for me bc you love me and want to see me win :)**

here are the categories i was nominated for!!!

for best bridal portrait:

http://bennyawards.com/?page_id=3

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for best dance performance:

http://bennyawards.com/?page_id=18

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for best wedding design:

http://bennyawards.com/?page_id=35

----------------

for best shoes:

http://bennyawards.com/?page_id=37

---------------------

for best leading lady:

http://bennyawards.com/?page_id=46

if my photos win we get super fun prizes! so please please vote for me! you can only vote ONCE from one computer.

thank you so much for your support! the last day to vote is jan 15th! so get your votes in :)

ill let you know the results after the award party on the 22nd!

{thanks santa!}

2009-12-31T09:52:00.005-06:00

apparently i was G.O.O.D. this year! because i got some great stuff from santa this year!!!

one of the first gifts i received was my blinged out zebra iphone case from my besties miss tara!!
she has a matching leopard one! we are so cute together :)

i know you wish you had one too :)

i also got my very first minnesota vikings gear! my husband has been a fan from birth (although - we cant really discuss that in our house right now...) but he wanted me to have something to wear on game days!

you all KNOW how i love my happy everything plate! and so does my family - bc i got some more attachments for my fab little plate!

first up we have santa himself!

and how awesome is the BEER attachment!!?
can you say EVERYDAY use?! i mean really...beer! i die :)

and my mom got me a shamrock bc thats coming up in march. its so cute!

last year for my bday matt got me a charm bracelet that i LOVE and am sad i cant wear it everyday (makes too much noise when i type :)

but my sis got me some more fab charms to add to my collection...

my VERY favorite! this is my new queen crown. i have a smaller crown on there already - but thats my princess crown. and now that im married i need my big girl queen crown!! LOVE IT

and a wedding cake charm :)

and you cant really tell what this is - but its a diamond ring charm! PERFECT! love my sis!

and this must have been the year of the zebra for me! my blinged out phone, zebra panties and now a fab zebra scarf! do you die? i love it!

there was so much more that santa brought me - but these are the only items i could find of pictures online for yall :) haha! ive gotta get better at taking pics for you guys.

anyway - happy thursday! :)

random - but this is a pic of me and my girls back home after our gift exchange this christmas :)