Our First Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

Kev and I kicked off the holidays season in style...ugly Christmas sweater style. We hosted a small group of friends over the first weekend in December to set our holiday season officially in motion.

It was a great night filled with bourbon cider, tacky sweater decorations, yummy food, lots of laughs, a crazy game of charades, a dirty Santa gift exchange and even a photo both equipped with props. 

 

  

We had SO much fun! Can't wait to host again next year!! 

what you missed....

During the blog hiatus.......

- Kevin "Rex" landed a brand new job downtown Cincy. He wasn't even looking to change jobs, it just landed right in his lap and was an opportunity and a blessing that we could not pass up. So proud of that man and his ability to provide for our family

- We have been on a serious health battle with sweet Uggie Sue. Poor girl was diagnosed with irritable bowel disease back in October 2014 and has had massive diarrhea up to ten times a day for months. We have been through rounds and rounds of blood work, antibiotics, steroids, eighty dollar bags of dog food, ultrasounds, a doggie upper GI scope, doggie colonoscopy and three small intestinal biopsies ...to be basically back at square one. It has been so emotionally exhausting to say the least We recently started low dose chemotherapy right after Christmas. The vet basically told us that if she doesn't respond to this, then she probably won't respond to anything. I can't tell you the last time we slept through the night either. She usually gets Kev up anywhere from 1-3 times per night. To say it has sucked...is putting it mildly. Prayers for our sweet girl as we head back to the vet this week to monitor her blood work to make sure there aren't serious chemo side effects. I know dogs are pets, but to us they are truly members of our family.

 Showing off her shaved belly

- We spent a lot of time with family. One of our favorite ways to spend our weekends!

- We had another house guest in the fall. My brother's girlfriend Brittany stayed with us a few months while she got settled in NKY/Cincy. We loved having her in our home. Britty has quickly became one of my closest friends. She is family to Kev and I.

- Spent a lot of time with this pretty and her hubby 

This cutie and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary in November. We had a weekend out of town trip planned, but Uggie Sue's health condition stopped us in our tracks. A weekend at home was fine by us. 

In home decor news...we finally put up Round 2 of the memory wall in our new house. This time it sits under the staircase to the second floor as well as the main entry to the house. I love the way it turned out! 

Also added this bar cart to our kitchenette area. I have been updating the styling of it to match the seasons. 

We also added this media stand in the kitchenette area. It is one of my favorite places in the house to curl up. It has such a cozy feel to it. 

I splurged on garland this Christmas. It's my favorite Christmas decor to date. I am obsessed with the long needle pine look. Would you judge me if I told you it was still up.....and it may stay up till February. 

Can't wait to share our holiday season next. It was so much fun having everyone at our house for Christmas this year!!! 



Back In the Saddle

I tend to fall into lonnnnnng blogging breaks where life gets busy and blogging takes a back seat. Sometimes it becomes a semi-permanent break and I always get super sad that I haven't been able to document mine and Kev's lives. So here's to 2015 where I hope I am able to carve out a small portion of my time to capture our memories.

That's the whole reason I started this journey in the first place :-)

 

(Photo by Kelsey Malicote)

makes me wanna take a back road

If you follow me on insta, then you already know about my hot date with the fellar on Friday night.

We took a casual ride down a country road with a cooler full of cold beer, a bucket of fried chicken and a blanket to have dinner on the back of his tailgate out in the middle of nowhere. I am talking zero cell service kind of nowhere.
The leaves are all changing here in Kentucky. While it has been a week full of rain, friday we were blessed with 70 degree temps and the weather was just perfect. Everything outside just screamed fall!

I can totally see Kev and I living out in the country one day. It speaks to our souls. The country girl in me absolutely loves it. 

We parked way out in a clearing on the edge of a park and dropped the tailgate, turned on a little country music radio and poured cold beer into dixie cups. I took a couple of photos when we first go there and then we both left our cell phones in the truck. There were zero people around and zero distractions. Just me and my hubby enjoying good conversation, good food and good craft beer.





Now don't get me wrong, I love teasing my hair and throwing on fake eyelashes just as much as the next gal, but this causal kind of date night was perfect....our kind of perfect. It was just so much fun to disconnect from the world and be connected to each other in nature. It always recharges us to spend time together outside. 

At the end of our evening, Kev and I were just chatting and I looked over at him....his eyes were as big as saucers. I was pretty sure a bear or coyote was about to attack us, but it was just a family of four deer who came to check out our party. We were soooo close to them. They were very interested in what we were doing on their turf. After a few minutes, they frolicked along back into the woods. It was a great way to end our night.

Such a fun, but simple date night. Loving this man and doing life with him is my favorite.

A Double Date

Hey Y'all!

I am still reliving this summer over here on thee bloggy and trying to still play catch up. As many of you know, I blog to capture mine and Kev's lives first and foremost. It's such an added bonus that I have met so many amazing gals through this avenue. Amazing, I tell ya!

Let's rewind to July when Kev and I doubled dated with Britty and Baby Brother. 

We went to one of our favorite local spots just outside of Cincy. Let's be honest, the Kentucky girl in me loves staying this side of the river (aka the promise land). We headed to Covington to a local area called Mainstrasse. It has some really great local restaurants, cute shops and some fun places to grab drinks. It's become one of our go-to's when we don't feel like crossing the river. 

Britty, Charlie, Kev and I tried out Main Bite for the first time. It was delicious. It's known for its's small plates and most of the menu items are grown in the backyard of the restaurant or locally. An added bonus too is that the majority of the entire menu is organic. It was perfect sized portions if you plan on having a few drinks. I left not feeling stuffed as we headed to the Old Kentucky Bourbon bar for some cocktails. 

We just love the Bourbon Bar. The cocktails are out of this world. It was the first time we had taken Charlie and Britty to experience all of it's magic. 

We also had a little rendezvous with my pals from work. Soooo great to see them outside of the four walls of the hospital. 

I can't even begin to explain how fun this summer has been having these two in NKY/Cincywith us. We have enjoyed every second of it. Looking forward to creating so many more memories with them in our new city as Brittany and Charlie have both officially started their new careers in Cincinnati. A very exciting time for both of them!