Productive Weekend...

Although, Lewis still found some time for a snuggling with Minnie Lou, we managed to tackle a lot of projects around our house this weekend! The weather warmed up... a lot... and we spent a good deal of time outside both working and enjoying our outdoor space!

Saturday morning started out rainy, but as the rain cleared we headed to the nursery to get some herbs and small veggies to plant in my new raised beds. We ordered them from our local tractor supply store, and I am so thrilled with how they turned out! I can't wait until the plants start to grow!

You can't really see in this picture, but Lewis spent almost the whole day putting out some sod. We had a lot of dirt area from the construction of the porch and he laid a ton of sod to help fill in where we were
grassless! It made such a difference!

Sunday we moved to the front yard. You can see a peak at some of his sod in this picture! We painted and hung shutters and I am so thrilled with the outcome! You can also see some of our landscaping in this picture! It's really starting to grow. Quite an improvement over the before look huh? 

a beach getaway...

Last week, my friend Hayden and her husband Will were kind enough to let Lewis and I crash in on their beach vacation for a few days! We headed down to Rosemary Beach on Tuesday and were able to soak up some sun for a few days! It was so nice to getaway and relax for a few days with good friends! The weather was amazing, and we had lots of good food, bike riding and great company!

Lewis and I at the Red Bar in Grayton Beach, Florida 

One night, the boys even cooked dinner for Hayden and I, and we ate outside on the patio! We were so impressed with their spread ( and the candle!) 

You may remember that Lewis and I spent our honeymoon in that area, and going back is always fun for us! It was fun to talk about future vacations and how they'll be different with a little one in tow! 

Memphis Shower

I'm getting a little spoiled these days! So many wonderful friends and family have showered us with love for this baby girl....

A few weeks ago, my mom's friends Anne and Trish hosted a shower in Memphis.  It was so sweet, and Trish's house was so beautiful.  Anne and Trish are in my mom's prayer group -- they've met together for over 15 years and prayed for each other! In addition to these wonderful ladies and my family from Memphis, some of my high school friends were also able to make it, and a few of Lewis' family members who live in Memphis too!

If it's called a shower because the gifts rain down, then that certainly was true in this case! I think I said this before, but this is one loved baby! I was overwhelmed with everyone's kindness and love for us.

 The Prayer Group

 Anne, Trish, me and my Mom

me and Mom 

After the shower, I spent the rest of the weekend in Memphis. It was so much fun to spend the weekend at home and see some out of town family that was visiting and have a little mother-daughter  time too!  

Oxford Baby Shower

On Saturday, some of my close friends here in Oxford threw a baby shower for me and baby Herrington! It was so sweet and perfect in every way. It was fun having old and new friends gather together to celebrate, and I was beyond blessed by their generosity! 

Lewis commented that she was going to be one pink baby in all her new pink clothes! The party was at my friend Hayden's house, which is adorable but all the details and decorations could not have been more perfect.... 

I'm so grateful for such wonderful friends and for a beautiful spring Saturday spent together....

Happy Easter...

Wishing you and yours a very happy Easter today! Lewis and I have been couch potatoes all weekend as we've been battling colds and the rainy weather provided the perfect reason to stay inside and watch movies. But, the sun is shining and there is light at the end of our sickness tunnels, so I am looking forward to a low key Easter celebration and a sunny Sunday!

Happy Easter!

Make Room for Baby...

Guess what I've been working on? Operation nursery was the mission of this past weekend. Lewis was in Arkansas for a guys weekend and a little fishing with my brother, so I recruited my mom to come help me get started on this baby girl's new digs!

We waded through the many fabric samples I've collected, painted (and repainted) a mirror and rocking chair.

 A quick side note: take it form us, the Annie Sloan Chalk paint is the most amazing paint product out there. We tried a milk paint first, and after a messy cracking and peeling situation, we returned to the trusty chalk paint we've used a million times on items for the booth. They claim it is "paint for girls," and it really is! No sanding, no priming, and it will stick to any crazy surface you decide to tackle!  Learn from our mistake! 

After the painting mishap was finally resolved we moved on to arrange furniture, hang a mobile, and get some lamp shades. It's starting to come together! More pics to come after some more details are finished! Thank you, thank you, thank you to my mom for helping me! She can always make more happen in 24 hours than I ever dream is possible!

Meanwhile, Lewis ( and Minnie Lou) seemed to have had a fun weekend at the River House! I hope this wasn't the biggest catch of the trip!

beauty blah's...

I'm not so sure the pregnancy glow isn't a myth someone made up to make pregnant women feel prettier as their bodies grows outward!

Maybe it's my already insanely dry skin, coupled with the winter time blahs, but I have been feeling like my make-up routine might need a little pick me up (my make-up muse Mary Straton is nodding her head here I can feel it!)!

So this morning, while reading Ainsley's blog I stumbled upon this post about BB creams. Have you tried one? Thoughts?

31 and tickled pink....

This has been quite a week! One full of lots of delicious meals and many celebrations....

The first part of which was spent celebrating my 31st Birthday! Lewis and I had great dinner on Tuesday night ( my real birthday) at Snackbar and then we went with some friends to the final Big Bad Pop Up Restaurant to celebrate on Wednesday night. We were in good company, as Morgan Freeman was eating there too!

Yesterday we headed to the doctor to find out whether baby Herrington was a girl or a boy... we took some pink cupcakes ( from my friend Kat's delicious bakery) to my parents to let them know that a baby girl was joining the family before heading out to dinner at Restaurant Iris. My dad had let them in on the news and they pretty much made our entire dinner a tribute to our little girl!

A breakfast recipe: strawberry banana oatmeal muffins

I'm perpetually on a quest for breakfast options. I wake up hungry, and even more so these days, and I am not a cereal eater, so sometimes it's hard to find breakfast options pre-work that are healthy and incorporate more nutrients that a piece of toast!

So, over my three day weekend while pinning every baby thing I could find, I stumbled upon a recipe for banana oatmeal muffins.

I love a banana, but only for about 2 days and then when any brown appears I am dumping them in the trash... and I love oatmeal, so this seemed like a good marriage.

I tweaked it some from the posters original recipe and added some strawberries, because, in my opinion, strawberries and bananas were made to go together.

So, here you have it:

Oatmeal Strawberry Oatmeal Muffins ( adapted from this recipe):

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups of oatmeal ( I used quick oats)
1 cup of plain greek yogurt
1 tablespoon of honey
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1/2 t of baking soda
1 1/2 t of baking powder
fresh strawberries- as many as you like!
2 ripe bananas
2 eggs
a splash of vanilla extract


Steps:
1. blend bananas, yogurt, eggs, honey brown sugar and vanilla extract in the food processor or mixer until incorporated
2. combine oats, baking soda and baking powder in a separate bowl. mix well.
3. chop strawberries and add to wet ingredients mixture
4. combine the dry ingredients and the wet, mixing well.
5. spoon into greased muffin tins and bake at 400 for about 20 minutes or until golden brown!
                ** according to the original recipe, paper muffin cups do not work well for these...

new year, new baby...

image via pinterest

I figured it was finally time to break the big news on the blog! We've been telling friends and family for a about a month or so now, but come mid-June the Herringtons will include one more! We couldn't be more thrilled... It was sort of fun keeping it between us and our close family for a few months, but it has also been very exciting to share our joy with those around us! 

Now the count down is on to finding out the gender! Only about 2 weeks until my 20 week appointment and we are both so excited to find out whether we are expecting a baby boy or baby girl.  Any bets?  

Year in Review

It feels like just yesterday we were wrapping up 2011~ I guess that's why they say "time flies when you are having fun"... 2012 was a fun year.   We celebrated my 30th birthday, our first wedding anniversary, traveled to Watercolor, Anguilla, and New Orleans as well as squeezing in some trips to the River House ( where we celebrated Lewis' 32nd birthday).

I took the train to Chicago with some girlfriends, and had a fun girls getaway with Hayden before her wedding! And I better not forget Lewis' new favorite pass time of duck hunting. We shared in the celebration of the weddings of several friends, built a screen porch on our house where we pretty much spent the entire fall grilling out and making big warm fires in the fireplace and in general just enjoyed sharing the home we put so much work into these past few years!

I'm sure I am forgetting a million things, but over all it was a wonderful year. We are very blessed and look forward to the adventure than 2013 certainly holds!

Happy New Year!

Christmas Vacation....

We spent a few days leading up to Christmas in New Orleans.  Both of our families were there and it was a fun getaway for the holidays.  We arrived on Friday night and had dinner with Lewis' parents at Restaurant August.

On Saturday and Sunday Lewis, my dad, Matthew and one of his friends hit the waters for some red fishing.  The weather was not in their favor, but they managed to bring in a few good sized fish! You can read more about it on Matthew's blog here.

Saturday night we were able to have a big dinner with the Herringtons and Millners at Herbsaint - thanks to Lewis' dad for arranging dinner! It was fun to have everyone together! 

My mom and I spent the days wandering around New Orleans- shopping on Magazine Street, walking around the French Quarter and of course enjoying lots of delicious food! 

We managed to make my mom very happy and snag a quick picture at the hotel before we left too! Hate we didn't get any with the Herringtons... 

We headed home on Christmas Eve, after some Cafe Du Monde to fuel us for the drive! We got back just in time for a fun dinner at my friend Hayden's house before loading back up and driving to Memphis Christmas morning for brunch. 

It was a whirlwind Christmas, and we missed hosting our annual Christmas Eve gathering at our house, but it was a great weekend spent with both our families in a place that we all love! 

Do what you do.... a video

My brother and his best buddy Hays went on a fishing trip out west this summer... Check out this awesome video that was made to document the trip....  They were excited that Orvisnews.com featured it in their Friday Fly-Fishing Film Festival video pics last week.

Do What You Do from Hays Doan on Vimeo.

Good Tidings...

A Winter Recipe: Corn Cowder

I don't really share a lot of recipes here, but this is one of those soups that literally everyone asks about and it is SO easy! It's a go to when taking food to families welcoming new babies, or who are under the weather! And seeing as how our weather has finally turned cold in Mississippi, it's a good one for this time of year!

Sausage and Corn Chowder:
1 lb of ground italian sausage ( or really any kind of your choosing)
1/2 green bell pepper
1/2 onion
1 jar of pimentos
1 can of creamed corn
1 can of regular corn
1/4 cup of flour
milk ( to desired consistency)

1. dice the onion and bell pepper
2. brown sausage with onion and bell pepper
3. drain any grease and return meat and peppers to pan
4. add 1/4 flour and stir until sausage is coated
5. add corn, pimentos and milk ( usually about 3 cups I think)
6. season with salt, pepper- to taste!
              * I also sometimes add a few red pepper flakes to the sausage when cooking it to give a little extra kick!

the longer it cooked the more the flour thickens it.. but it can be ready in about an 45 minutes. I usually double the recipe because we eat it leftover for days.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree....

Sometimes I think Lewis thinks I am crazy, and the night we put up our Christmas decorations was no exception to the rule. Let me preface by saying he'd been a real trooper to tackle a long list of "honey do's" we I had been wanting to get accomplished before a little party we were hosting. Our projects, as usual, turned into a little more work than I originally imagined....more on that in another post.

So, add on top of a long days work, my desire to make our Christmas tree sit in this bucket. You may not be able to tell from this iphone photo, but there were a few issues with that plan. 1) the bottom is not complete flat  and 2) my tree stand didn't quite  fit.

Fast forward through me visiting pretty much every store in the Oxford area looking for a smaller (aka "old school") tree stand, many failed attempts to stabilize the bucket with various weighted objects, the tree falling over and a more than a few comments about why my ideas have to be so complicated....

With my heard set on putting the tree in some kind of container, as opposed to just pulling out the tree skirt and being done, I moved on to a galvanized tub that I use in our laundry room for storage.  The logistics wouldn't work here either but determined I was.....

Poor Lewis, by now was probably so over me and my ideas and I am sure he was now certain I had lost my mind. But, he remembered this old crate that I used to use as our coffee table that was stashed in our guest room and "ta-da", we had a new container with a flat bottom and ample space for the tree stand! I'm certainly grateful that he loves me in spite of my temporary insanity that night!

Not the best picture, but you get the point!

Christmas Parade: getting in the Christmas spirit!

One of the best things about living in a small town, is the hometown Christmas Parade! It is one of my favorite nights in Oxford, and always gets me into the Christmas spirit.  Our office got to be in the parade for the 2nd year in a row and that makes it even more fun.

Lewis and I on the Double Decker Bus...

We rode on one of Oxford's Double Decker buses and had a blast. The owner of Chick-fil-a is one of our board members, so if you are thinking that spy a cow on top, you are right!

We threw candy, Double Decker t-shirts and Chick-fil-a gift cards. It is usually freezing but we've had unseasonably warm weather this December!

two happy elves... 

Hope you are getting into the Christmas spirit as well. I can't believe it is almost here.... 

Duck Season

This past weekend Lewis headed to Arkansas for opening weekend of duck season with my dad and his duck club. Based off these photos and all the stories they were telling sounds like it was a good weekend for all...well, except maybe the poor ducks! 

At the start of week in which we are all more focused on what we are thankful for, I am thankful that Lewis and my dad enjoy doing this together and that they are able to spend that time together!  I am also thankful for the girl time it allowed me and my mom on Saturday to do a little Christmas shopping, work on our booth and grab some dinner together-- just the two of us!