Goin' to the Chapel...

Since Matt and I have gotten married, I have been in a few weddings...to say the least. A lot of my bridesmaids have gotten engaged and married in a very short time. It didn't help that I had 11 bridesmaids, either :) Although for a while it seemed like I was in a wedding every other weekend, I wouldn't have had it any other way. I adore each friend's wedding I've been in and am so absolutely happy for each one of them. I never got tired of showers, bachelorette parties, bridal luncheons, rehearsal dinners, receptions, etc. All my friends are happily married and I love getting to share our married-life stories! Here is a picture or two from each wedding. Some of the weddings were just too busy to take pictures, so sorry some of them aren't that great.

A picture of mine and Matt's wedding with my beautiful bridesmaid's

March 8, 2008

Lauren (my sister) and Richard's Wedding

May 24, 2008

Catie and Will's Wedding

June 21, 2008

Cameron and Jonathan

August 16, 2008

Christina and Ashton

October 25, 2008

Kathryn and Caleb

December 13, 2008

Megan and McNeil

May 2, 2009

Jordan (Matt's sister) and Will

May 23, 2009

This is all in honor of my next wedding, Laura and Sandy, December 19, 2009. I have known Laura since middle school and she is an awesome friend and I am so happy for her! Sandy and her could not be a better match. Only a few more weeks 'til the big day!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had Thankgiving this year at my parent's house. I love coming home and cooking and baking with my mom, its almost better than the meal itself :) I am so thankful that I have wonderful parents to come spend this time with! Lauren and Richard had to work at the hospital, but they get off Christmas- I thought that was a good trade! Lauren will be here Saturday to hang out for a while. Here are a few pictures of our feast!

Ryan patiently waiting to eat

Matt and I before we ate. I FINALLY got my hair cut and its pretty short. This isn't a good picture of it, but its above my shoulders and kinda stacked in the back. I love and it and I'm so glad to finally have it cut.

Getting closer to Thanksgiving...

A few days ago I started a series of posts about what I am thankful for. The first thing I said was the love of Jesus Christ. Well the second thing I am thankful for is my wonderful husband. Matt and I have actually known each other since middle school and were good friends through high school and college. One day junior year of college we realized there was more to this friendship than we had thought. God had known all along that he was preparing our hearts for a lifetime of marriage and love, but we had no clue- He is funny like that :) I am thankful that God's plan is so much greater and more powerful than our own and that He brought the two of us together. I cannot imagine my life without him or a life with anyone else. I am so thankful for his unconditional love, support, and kindness. I am so thankful that he craves every day to grow closer to the Lord, and that he encourages and leads me in my walk, too. I am grateful that he calls me out when I am wrong and steers me gently down the right path. I have seen Matt grow from a Christian boy to a Godly man right before my eyes over the past several years. Even though I am often hard to love, he finds a way to find the best in me and continue to love me. I am thankful that he works so very hard at his job and gets up every morning at the crack of dawn without even complaining. I am thankful that he is going to be an amazing father one day to our children and continue to lead our family spiritually. I am thankful that he dreams with me about our future and encourages me to dream big! I thankful for all the fun we have together and how he appreciates how silly I am and he joins in on the silliness! I love that he loves his family and my family and recognizes the importance of spending time with them. Overall I am so thankful for the man that God brought into my life and am thankful that He knew better than either one us what our future held. Thank you Matt for being my best friend and the perfect husband, I treasure every moment we get to spend together! I love you very much!!!

"And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ."

Ephesians 1:9-10

Mountain Weekend 2009!

As I posted last, this weekend we headed off to Dillard, GA to the mountains! I was so excited because I love the mountains, the fall leaves, and the crisp air. You don't exactly get all that when you live in Charleston. This weekend definitely didn't disappoint! It was so much fun! The weather was perfect, the house was perfect, and the company was perfect! Everyone unexpectedly got off early on Friday so we were able to head up around 2:00. It was a good thing because after all our stops it took us like 6 hours to get there haha! But it was well worth it!

On Saturday morning we got up and made a big breakfast. Here are Ben and then Christy cooking some yummy pancakes and eggs!



Before breakfast Ben and Matt decided to make us a fire. All the wood was pretty wet so it never got going very good, but it kept us warm for a little while


Emma and Holly at breakfast


Ready to go hiking :)




We drove farther out of Dillard to hike a trail that went beside the Tallulah River. It was the perfect trail and we got to see some really pretty little waterfalls. Some pictures from our hike





Pretty waterfall on the way


The boys decided to go down a ravine and climb up some huge rocks to find this big log. We lost Ben for a few minutes, but other than that it was pretty cool.



They finally made it :)


A picture of my sweet little family


Matt, me, Tiger, Holly, Samson, and Ben
This was before our dogs almost got swept down a rapid! Matt thought it would be good to throw a stick into one of the "slow" parts of the river. Well immediately the dogs kept swimming and got swept down a rapid and finally made it to shore. It was kinda frightening I must admit, haha. Luckily, it was over quickly! It is safe to say that those two dogs had the best time out of any of us this weekend. Tiger slept all 6 hours back to Charleston without a peep!





We got back from the hike just in time to watch the Clemson game. It was a good game too- ACC Atlantic Champs! After that we went to the Dillard House to eat. When I told people we were staying in Dillard, GA they all said- Go to Dillard House!! So we did, and we were NOT disappointed. When you get there everyone just plays a flat fee and you eat family style. They brought out like 5 different meats (ham, country style steak, fried and baked chicken, prime rib, etc.) and a million sides!! We all ate ourselves sick! We ended up taking home ELEVEN to-go boxes. We were dying laughing shoveling all that food into those boxes..haha! We had so much that we're going to have our own thanksgiving dinner together tomorrow night with the leftovers. My camera batteries died at the restaurant, but Christy took some pictures and Ill post them later. After all that food the only thing to do when we got home was to crash in the hot tub with a cold drink :)



Overall this weekend was SO MUCH FUN! We had a blast and couldn't have asked to go with better friends. God has blessed us with such a fun group of friends that are so easy to hang out with! I even enjoyed the 6 hour car ride up and back with the girls. I look forward to next year's annual mountain weekend, now we have to go get to planning our spring adventure :)

This Weekend...

Our group of friends has been planning a Mountain Weekend for a LONG time and we have been waiting patiently for November 20th to come. Well, it is finally here!!! I mean I think we booked the place in July- which seems like forever ago! We are all so excited. We are going to Dillard, GA and staying in a cute mountain house up there. I have seen pictures of it and it looks perfect. We are going to just hang out, go hiking, maybe fish a little, eat at the Dillard House, play games, and just be lazy! Here are a few pictures from the website of the house that we are renting- looks super nice...so excited!



Not sure who these people are, but the hot tub looks welcoming :)





Big fenced-in yard for Tiger and Samson


Ryan, Anna, Mandy, and Brad- Will we miss each of you!!! We will drink a cup of hot cocoa in your honor :)

Give Thanks!

Christmas is my all-time favorite holiday for all the obvious reasons. I just love the feeling and warmth of family and friends during that time of year. I love the undivided attention that we get to give our families for a few days to celebrate the holiday. I love all of our family traditions, fun Christmas treats, and decorating the house. Not to mention how much I LOVE Christmas music and the fact that I have no school! Well before everyone gets so busy and wrapped up in Christmas I wanted to do a few posts for thanksgiving of what I was thankful for. So my first post is going to be what I most thankful for, and that is the unbelievable love of Jesus Christ. I have been overwhelmed lately by thinking about how Christ loves ME! I know that is so simple, but it is an overwhelming thought to think that the creator of the universe hangs on my every word. I find myself thinking many times, "why me, WHY ME LORD!?! How did I get this lucky that I could have the ability to know and love you?" Living in such a lost world I am reminded how lucky I truly am that I know Him. I am thankful for His mercies, kindness, gentleness, and forgiveness. I am thankful that I can put all my hope in Him and rest in the assurance that I will spend eternity with Him. So today my simple post is thank you for loving a wretch like me!

"...And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."
Ephesians 3:17-19

Pumpkin Cream Cupcakes

Being a wife for about a year and a half now, I have had to learn to cook. Not that I didn't know how, I was just definitely not an expert or very experienced. My mom was always a very good cook growing up, but I didn't ever take the initiative to learn some of our favorite recipes because I didn't see it as important. Well, now that I am responsible for putting some dinner on the table, I definitely see the value of learning. I found kraftfoods.com and it has been my saving grace. I cook literally EVERYTHING from that one website. The recipes are so easy and don't require 1,000 ingredients. And on top of all that- they are always so good! This weekend I made pumpkin cream cupcakes for Christy's birthday and they turned out great! I actually used my kitchen aid mixer for the first time and realized that I actually liked it! So I guess I will be using it more often :)

All the ingredients it took to make them


Mixing it up in the mixer


Putting them in the cupcake pan


With the cream cheese topping added...don't they look yummy?!?!


I didn't take a picture of them finished, but they turned out great. Here is the link to the recipe if you want to go make them. Perfect fall recipe :)

http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/recipes/pumpkin-cream-cupcakes-114682.aspx

Weekend Review

This weekend was a busy, but fun one! We attended a marriage conference at our church by the Author of the book "Love and Respect" by Dr. Emerson Eggerich. The book is based off of the fact that a man's essential need is for respect and a woman's is for love. We both got a lot out of the conference and had a lot of fun. Our Sunday school class (The Newlyweds) volunteered at the conference so we got in free :) Here are a few pics from the conference.

Matt signing everyone in- he wasn't too happy about me taking his picture



Emma and me




Later Saturday we went over to Jordan and Will's to watch the Clemson game, hence while we were all wearing orange! GO TIGERS! Matt's parents were in town for the game. Of course we had to take a few pictures of our favorites- Grady and Tiger. As you can probably tell, we're obsessed with our dogs, haha. Never thought I would say that about myself, but its true. Its just so hard not to love on 'em!