Stuart's 30th Birthday Party

Day In.

It's been a while. Somehow, this summer has gone by very quickly, and we seem to be busy most weekends.

In July, I threw a party for Stuart since he was turning the big 3-0. I wanted it to be about his favorite things...so I invited close friends and family, catered BBQ, had a keg of Blue Moon and Bundt cake for dessert. There were yard games of cornhole and "white-trash frisbee", both two of his favorites. The weather was surprisingly perfect for an outdoor party.

Here are some pictures. It was a lot of fun!

This fun dresser has been in our guest bedroom since I moved in. Sadly, it has always smelled bad despite all my attempts to fix it. So, I decided to move it outside to serve as our bar! (good idea, Rebecca!)

Stuart loves bowties and has a lot. I found this printable and put it on the bar.

There were Mason jars for water and tea.

Family. Cotton perfectly popped through our photo!

I made this sign with some leftover pallet wood we had, just in case people weren't sure where things were located :)

Take-aways. 

Bundt cake as requested. Chocolate-chocolate chip and a white chocolate. Yum.

I made the burlap bunting with some leftover fabric I had from our stockings.
I sewed it together and then tied it onto skewers.

I asked 30 friends and family to write Stuart a letter for his birthday. They could be sweet, funny, silly, etc. He loved it.
It was a surprise! And he read ALL of them that night after everyone left.

Our friends, Bo and Sarah, have one very cool Kegerator which I asked to borrow for the party. I ordered a keg of Blue Moon (one of Stuart's favorites) from Green's, and the boys set it up.
I also used Stuart's collection of Sweetwater glasses for the beer. It was fun to pour your own!

Cheers!

I ordered food from Pig N Chick as requested. I featured baby pictures of Stuart on the table.

I printed off signs to label the food.

Good friends.

Our dear friends came from Memphis. Cole and Cotton wanted to be near each other :)

Family. 

Happy Birthday!!

We had a great time. More people came, we just didn't have photos of everyone. Overall it was fun and pretty easy to plan. Thanks to my mom and sister for all their help; to Stuart for cutting the grass; Bo and Sarah for the Kegerator; Mrs. Day for the Mason jars; and everyone for writing him a letter!

Day Out. 

AC

Blessed

Day In.

I recently took a new job at a medical real estate office. I am loving it! It was a long and crazy story of how I got the job...mostly, God knew exactly what He was doing. The wife of one of Stuart's co-workers was leaving her job (at the real estate firm) because they were adopting twins from China! It has been amazing to watch their process and the love they showed to the girls before they even got them.

I recently brought them dinner, only one week after they got back from China. Needless to say, they are tired. Understandably so. But also, so incredibly blessed, as they put it.

Here are a couple pictures from my visit. I can't wait to go back!

Kim with her girls, Evie and Abbie,

Giggles!

Dimples!

They are so precious and blessed to have Kim and Nathan as parents!

Day Out.

AC

As of Lately...

Day In.

Hello, Summer! I am definitely enjoying your long days and nice weather.


This weekend, we had supper club at our house. It was a lot of fun. I didn't take many pictures but I have a couple from my phone before the party.

White Sangria I made. Yum!

Recipe (I added 2 nectarines and 2 bottles of Chardonnay, 1 Riesling):
http://andyandbelle.blogspot.com/2012/12/white-sangria.html?m=1

Victoria made these adorable "hamburger" for dessert! They were a hit. So cute and delicious.

One of many that I ate.

I decided to use "real" napkins for our supper club/picnic. Very Barefoot Contessa.
Also, I'm a little obsessed with the yellow mesh bin I found at Target. 

New flower boxes!

We had an amazing Patriotic service at church.

Cotton got a new bed! He's a fan. AND he's officially a real dog because he is no longer staying in his kennel!

Day Out.

AC

Cotton

Day In.

Some of our fans have been asking for some updated photos of Cotton. Here you go :)

Remember this guy?

And now...

I love tiny toys!

I love to wrestle with Dad!

...but sleeping is still my favorite.

There's a bug!

Here I am waiting on Dad to get home.

I destroyed a toy...

Oops...low point. I destroyed my foam bed insert. 

I love playing with Riley!

Nigh night.

I love looking out the window.

My, what long legs I have!

Dirty socks are another favorite.

Blankie.

Here's my beehive toy.

P.S. These were all taken on my old phone...sorry for the bad quality.

Day Out.

Adventures in Pressure Washing

Greetings, avid readers! This blog is not going to be the most exciting for the majority of people, but as my 30th birthday is approaching, I've come to accept that I'm getting older. I told my friend who just purchased a house that he will realize he is old now, because he will be excited about getting things like rakes for Christmas or his birthday.  I realized this has never been more true for me, when I spent all day on a Saturday pressure washing our driveway and my joy in this subtle difference this created.

I must first thank my dad for letting me borrow his pressure washer. It's a Clean Force 1800 PSI. For my driveway, I used the 15 degree nozzle to really get it clean, and followed up with the 40 degree nozzle to get off all the excess.  Without further ado, here is a picture of the magical machine:

In the picture, you may have noticed a bottle to the left.  This is "Krud Kutter", which is supposed to help, but started without it and realized it wasn't needed for this job.

I knew our driveway was dirty, but I had no idea how dirty until I started washing it.

Can you tell where I've done?

What about in this one?

This is about when I went inside to get Anna to come look at how awesome it was.  She couldn't tell where I had cleaned. :(

She thought that part of the driveway was wet, and not dirty. Because of this, I thought of you, faithful blog readers, and took a picture to prove that it wasn't just that part of the driveway was wet.  It was also to let out some of my inner child.

Just for the record, this was not a quick process.  I started at about 11:00 AM, took a break for lunch at 1:00 PM, started back about 1:30 PM, and finished at 4:00 PM.

Now for some before and afters...

Before

After

Before

After

Well, that's it for this update.  I've gotta go watch "The Voice" now.

Day out.

Stuart