Valentines Potluck

For Valentines day we figured it would be fun to have all of our neighbors over and have a potluck instead of the usual she and him.  We are kind of low key over here on Valentines and I just figured this would be a fun way to all hang out together.  My neighbor Clay is an amazing cook and Mazzy's parents are also.  So, that was pretty much why I invited them.  Kidding! (but maybe Im not...)

And I didn't take any pictures of anything because I am so lame and I am so sad, but maybe your mouth will water in an incredible fashion when you hear what we had and your heart will soar when you hear that we all cooked together in my kitchen.  so. much. fun.  (almost as good as pictures.)

Clay made homemade wonton chips and then seared tuna that he got fresh from hawaii at a food show and then he made a sauce from all sorts of amazing things to put on it.  It was incredible!! ahhh! Mary and Ryan brought this incredible salad and made this cool drink with mint and vodka and crazy stuff.  Also incredible. Brooke and Will brought chocolate covered strawberries and stuffed jalapeños that jeff actually turned into ashes when he left them on the smoker a little too long :( We had some more guests that were amazing and fun and brought babies.  So between multiple babies and amazing food, the night was pretty much perfect.

I wanted to make kabobs (like cupids arrows), we smoked ribs (that protect the heart),


made heart cookies and some love potion number 9 (trash can punch that is pink...amazing).

and passion punch (without the punch) for the kids.

 I made some labels and bunting



and set a table up, basically just to show off all the amazing food.
The bunting was just hearts that I punched and sewed together.  So super easy.

I just have to say that the Lord truly truly blessed us on this street.  Our friends are incredible and creative and inspiring. They all run marathons and triathlons and cook and sing and sew and paint.  I am just hoping some of their creativity and drive will rub off on me.
Weren't allison's boxes incredible??? she is so kind and thoughtful.  I just loved them!
Hope you guys had a great valentines day and felt all the love.

love languages

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines Day! 

The weather was beautiful here today, the girls loved playing outside all afternoon. They had fun "planting flowers."

Did you guys ever read that purple book about The 5 Love Languages? I definitely didn't but I'm pretty sure I own it. I think my mom got it for me when everyone was reading it. Anyways, Bob's love language is hands down Words of Affirmation. This is not mine at all. When we were dating Bob would always ask me "what are you thinking?" I hated it! I knew it was always coming and it made me so nervous and uncomfortable. I would always respond with "nothing." He would then dig deeper, "really, you are thinking about absolutely nothing?" Yep. I was so shy and immature! I would even make Kristen call me while I was on a date with Bob just in case I was in an awkward moment and needed a get away. I was crazy. Lucky for me, he stuck with me and slowly but surely I began to open up:) 

Valentine's Day seems to be the perfect time for some good ole words of affirmation. I printed off three different saying that I glued to note cards.  I love you because… You make me laugh when… and One of my favorite things about you is…

Everyone filled out three cards for each other.

Ella and I decorated a shoe box to hold all of the love mail.

We read all of the love letters during dinner and it was so sweet to hear them all. Bob especially loved it.

Now lets move on to one of my love languages. Food! 

I made burgers and sweet potato fries for our Valentines dinner and it was SO good! It really was one of the best burgers I have ever eaten. The recipe is from my favorite girls at Our Best Bites. Click here for the burger recipe and here for fries recipe.

For dessert I made Bob's favorite. Creme Brulee. I got the recipe here. 

I made Whoopie Pies for Ella and McKenna. I used a box mix for these. The chocolate golf balls are super random but I found them in the dollar aisle at target and thought why not?

McKenna had fun sampling a little bit of everything.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Hotel Party!!

This past weekend we went to a hotel to celebrate avery's 6 birthday.  She had been talking about how much fun she had at the hotel that we stayed in in Lubbock on our way to colorado this summer, so I suggested that we do that for her birthday and she was so excited!  We took our neighbor with us and everyone did so good and had so much fun!

Since I wasn't going to be doing any real decorating and party planning, I decided that it would be fun to make tote bags and toiletry bags for everyone to take with them.

I found these plastic bottles at hobby lobby and filled them with shampoo, conditioner, body wash and lotion.

Sassy was a big helper.




I made a little logo with an A on it and just kept calling the hotel "Hotel Avery".

(and its crooked.  I am so good at details...)


Then, I put them in the toiletry bag with everyone's name on them from pottery barn kids.







When I started all of this, I really wanted to have a picture of a hotel to put on a shirt and use as the logo. I saw some pictures of a little french hotel a while back and showed jeff the picture and he looked at it for like a minute and just drew the most amazing hotel!! It was so amazing!  He did it so fast on the computer and I am just so amazed that he has like every gift that is out there-brains, creativity and the ability to nap on command.  Jeff.  Kills me.  I just love love love it.
So I got so excited and put it on everything!
(Well, it took four screens and countless hours to get it actually on to a screen.  I learned a valuable lesson to not be so stubborn and dumb and just try a new way and it finally worked.  I knew that I was stubborn, but it really came to light this week :)
Starting with shirts.

Ben's was blue.

The girls were pink.

Then, we made pillowcases and please ignore the wrinkles.  I am so terrible with an iron...

and threw it all in the tote bags with a swim suit, some pajamas and an itinerary.

(used the hotel again)

(and again)
(Ben's was white and blue.)


In the itinerary (which was so dumb of me because none of them can even read! I should have done it all in pictures). I put everything we were going to do for the weekend and a little map in the back of where we were going.






It was hilarious because we did end up at chick fil a before and mcdonalds after :)  Picture of health and I knew it before we even went...
They opened them before we left (so they could get their map of course)




and shirt up for the drive!

(that is ben's new cheese face. watch for it. it is like he got his cheek stuck to his shoulder and can't get it off)


Then we jumped in the car and hit the road.

Maps in hand.

some were more excited than others...

Once we got there we checked out the room and then jumped into our swimmies.


The harrisons, my parents, blair, my brother and my in laws came up and met us for cake and dinner.
The cake was from the same place that allison got the bee cake and it was just gorgeous and so delicious.

Sassy and Kinley had so much fun clowning around at dinner and it was so cute.

and of course Ty was the cutest and most perfect baby ever.

And then we woke up the next morning and headed back (stopped at mcdonalds on the way home) and was home right on time.
It was such a fun weekend at the hotel!
Whew.  Are y'all exhausted from all of the same pictures of the same thing??? Ugh.  I'm sorry guys.
Thank you everyone who came, sent presents, celebrated; Jeff for drawing the logo, and parents for being all over it when the plans had to change.
Happy birthday Avery!! Love you so much!