My Birthday! {24}

Yeah, its a Thursday and I'm just now getting around to blogging about my birthday weekend, but I don't really mind. Life just gets in the way sometimes! But oh well, I'm here! Let's roll on!

Friday afternoon we headed to INDY! I always forget how close Cincinnati is to so many awesome cities...and luckily this was under a 2 hour drive for us. With a little hiccup in our hotel choice, things got resolved and we were about to have ourselves a wonderful weekend! We ate at a local restaurant and then spent the evening getting our glow bowl on!!

We had plans the next morning to grab a quick breakfast and hit the State Fair! I had never been to a state fair so I didn't know what to expect. This event was HUGE! I felt like we walked for miles and still didn't see everything. It definitely made me want to check out the Ohio State Fair sometime!

We pet the cutest animals!! Like this little guy...

...spent way too much money on rigged games...

...and spent a lot of time acting touristy!!

What state fair experience would be complete without the greasiest of greasy foods?! Caleb and Jared each bought a "Krispy Kreme Burger", while Erin and I opted for the cheese coma ribbon fries!

...then of course fried cookie dough and fried oreos!

Then on our way out we grabbed one final photo in front of the coolest sign we saw all weekend!

Once we were done running around and sweating our butts off, we went back to the hotel and cleaned up to hit Downtown and see a bit of the city! Unfortunately, it was the craziest/busiest weekend we could've chosen to go to Indy, but it was a blast because we were all together. The views of the monuments were gorgeous, and their mall is killer.

These friends of mine made me feel special all weekend long, and even let us fall asleep watching pitch perfect.... THOSE are the best kind of friends ;) when we woke up on my actual birthday we got breakfast and hit the road to head home.

Caleb gifted me with the prettiest watercolor print ever as well as a wireless speaker!! I'm so excited to have dance parties wherever I go now ;) we spent the rest of the day shopping with a few gift cards I got and my man took me to my favorite place in Cincy...

We went to the evening service at our church then came home to relax and watch a movie...but he surprised me with a DELISH milkshake to get me through the movie, first!

I feel like I have a lot to accomplish before my 25th next year and I'm determined to hit my goals! Caleb is so good to me and I couldn't be more thankful that he's in my life to make me laugh and to feel appreciated, especially on days like this one! Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday, it was honestly amazing!!

Tailgate Tuesday!!

Do you smell that? The leather on the newly purchased football... the skyline dip in the oven... the "first down" yankee candle burning? No? That must just be my imagination...whoops.

My Erin is back with her one-time linkup and anything football related goes. I'm here to show you how to enjoy the first full game of the season from the comfort of your couch. It'll be here before you know it!!!! Just grab the cutest Bengals gear you can find, burn that amazing candle, and have an enormous amount of buffalo chicken dip in the crock pot for you and your husband.

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...invite the coolest friends you have (who also equally love + understand the game) over to stress along side you until the last second of the game...

...and then celebrate the win with some celebratory football-tossing outside!

So much of mine and Caleb's relationship revolves around our love for football. The first Christmas we were together, he got me a pair of tickets to a Bengals game near the 50 yd line. It was my first game ever! It was unreal, you guys! Amazing seats, and an even better date.

We spent every game that we weren't downtown for, on the couch, ordering more pizza than a normal human should consume.

We spent our Sundays in the fall/winter of college watching the game at random pizza huts that had the channel available, when our satellite wouldn't pull through! Then when we moved home and got married, every now and then we'd tailgate with friends even in the coldest of temps.  Nothing can stop us!!!

So all in all, I'm extremely excited for this first game to start, even if it IS "just" pre-season. My heart will beat a little faster when my Bengals hit that gorgeous field. I have high hopes for this season, friends!! I hope to be back tomorrow with a weekend recap, I know...on a Wednesday, but better late than never! ;)

My blog is 3! Also, is 24 still considered early twenties??

Sunday might be my 24th birthday, but today is this little blogs 3rd birthday! Woohoo! It's birthday week all around these parts. I truly can't believe how much joy this blog has brought to my life! The genuine friendships that I've made are unreal, and looking back just a few years during our engagement nearly brings me to tears. I'm so thankful for this little space I call mine! Thanks to all of you who show up day after day to listen to my ramblings ;)

Speaking of! This is the first time in a long time that I've blogged 5 days in a row. I'm beat, you guys! I don't know how some of you do it all the time! A few things got cancelled this week so Caleb and I had a pretty low-key week and a whole lot of time to burn.

Tuesday night I came home from the grocery store after work to find a little surprise waiting on me to kick off my birthday week. That man knows the way to my heart!!

Then last night I was snap chatting with Becky and she told me to check my door! I saw a package waiting there and the cutest cookbook was inside! She knows me too well! ;) thankful that last year she hopped on a plane having never met me, and stayed the weekend! We explored the city, made french toast, and ran 5 miles! I can't wait for her to visit again so we can make a recipe from my new book! Birthday week rocks!!

If you follow me on instagram (which you should), you probably saw me mention the most delicious Panera salad that I got! It's the seasonal one (strawberry poppyseed w/ grilled chicken), and I immediately took to twitter to ask how to recreate it. A couple friends mentioned a few dressings that were similar but when I made a trip to Kroger I found THEE dressing!!! So insanely tasty and at only 30 calories a serving, you better believe its my new go-to.

For the past couple weeks I've tried to be a lot better at finding encouragement for friends, and for myself, and this little square of inspiration brought me so much joy. How amazing that God gives us a sunrise and sunset DAILY?!!

Also... for girls with next to no volume in their roots naturally, buy this STAT! It was less than $3 and stacks up next to those salon products, in my opinion. I'm definitely not one to spend a ton of cash on products (or buy them at all)...but this is worth it!!

Hope you all had a great week. I'm so excited for our weekend away with friends. It'll be nice to have no real obligations :) enjoy it, friends!!!

Birthday weekend: coming right up!

Is it Friday yet?! I haven't been looking forward to a weekend this much in a WHILE. I'm very excited. Caleb and I, along with our best friends, are celebrating my birthday! Which isn't until Sunday but we've decided to take a little road trip somewhere to celebrate and to just get away for a couple days!

I'm not usually one to make wish-lists, but ever since we signed up for Amazon Prime a couple years ago, I just can't help it!! Also, it makes for a good blog post. So in honor of my upcoming 24th, here are a couple things I've had my eyes on lately!

1// gold bar necklace I might be late to the party, but these little things are beautiful. I'd probably want it engraved with something like our anniversary in roman numerals, or a word like "worthy".
2// an adorable headband like this one. I think with my hair being a little shorter, it could be easier to style, and this would be perfect with a basic tee!
3// a new camera strap the one Lyndsie got me a couple years ago is dirty because I wore the crap out of it, which is the point!
4// bluetooth speaker Caleb and I are always wanting music on while we cook, do laundry, or even just edit photos. Would be nice to have something we could sync with our phones to blast through the apartment....especially around Christmas time (yes, I said the C word)!!

I've also been eyeing some sort of instrument to learn to play. I envy that my awesome husband is so musically talented and...well, I'm just not. I want to be able to play alongside him, or even have him teach me!! I know it would be a blast, no matter what it was!

I also found an adorable print this week with an awesome verse, and its given me the "watercolor bug", whatever that is :)

Can I also just say one of my favorite things about August are all the awesome freebies that come in my email? LOVE! Free Auntie Annes, free slushee, free burger, free money! Hehe! Wish I could figure out how to get those emails ALL year round!! ;)

In all honesty, I know its not about gifts... its just fun to put a collage of pretty things together. Just being able to spend time with my favorite people will be more than enough! With our insanely busy calendar, having two jobs, its hard to make time for those we love. So this weekend will be such a blessing!

These are like magic. No literally.

One of my all time favorite desserts growing up were Magic Cookie Bars. I can remember making these with my Nanny at a crazy young age. They are one of the EASIEST things to bake in the entire world, but TASTES out of this world. I'm sure you already know the recipe, or have at least heard to these, but in case you've never had these... RUN, don't walk, to the nearest grocery store and pick up the following ingredients;

1/2 cup melted butter/margarine
 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 (14oz) can of sweetened condensed milk
1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
1 cup chopped nuts
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips/morsels
1 cup butterscotch chips/morsels (I added these instead of 2 cups chocolate chips, but that's just my preference)

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (but only 325 if you're using a glass dish) & coat 13x9" pan with non-stick spray.
-Combine the graham cracker crust and the melted butter, then press it into your pan...no worries, it should be a thin layer!
-Pour the condensed milk evenly over the crumb layer, then the morsels, coconut and nuts. Then press into the pan lightly with a fork.
-Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool and then ENJOY!

Then if you feel up to it, make your sister in law take random photos of you while doing all of the above ;)

PLEASE tell me you've tried these before?! & if not, tell me when you do, and what you thought!!! Happy hump day!!

Our productive weekend.

Last week honestly flew by, and sadly, so did the weekend. How does that always seem to happen? We had a wedding to photograph on Saturday but we still managed to sneak in some fun with friends and get a lot done, too!

Friday evening we hit the gym after work (back to our old ways!), then headed home for dinner and literally an entire night full of editing on our computers. Between the both of us, I think we edited near 1,000 photos. Our little fingers nearly fell off ;) I was getting sleepy but my girl Lyndsie called to meet up. She was in town for a wedding she was a bridesmaid in and we got late night appetizers at Applebees and talked for nearly 3 hours (until 2am). I miss those days, so I was grateful for it! We also swapped birthday gifts (hers was only a couple weeks ago) and she got me an adorable mug and the cutest earrings.

Bonus points if you noticed Caleb throwin' up a deuce back there ;)

We woke up early the next morning, ran a few errands and headed out to shoot our 15th wedding of the year! We're OFFICIALLY over halfway there, guys! 14 more to go ;) we spent a decent amount of time riding around in a golf cart scouting the vineyard looking for some nice shade, and snagged a few selfies along the way! Caleb went way too fast, but I kinda loved it!

As always, here are a few snapshots from their big day on Saturday!

We had such a long day that I fell asleep on the way home! Caleb even stopped the car, went into the gas station to surprise me with a moon pie (love that man) and got back in, and I didn't wake up once.

Sunday we had a nice afternoon spent at the pool, then a couple hours with the youth group jumping on trampoline and we had our first acoustic night of worship. It was awesome. These kids are so talented.

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend packed into those two little days! I know we did!

Welcome to the best month ever.

HAPPY AUGUST, EVERYONE! Oh, am I the only one that excited about this month!?! It's always been my favorite (hellooo, birthday month), but in the last few years its become my favorite for a few other reasons!!

It was August 18th, 2012 when Caleb and I arrived in Hilton Head with my family and he asked me to take a quick bike ride down to the beach to finally get a few minutes of alone time (we were in separate cars the whole drive down with the kiddos), so I hadn't thought much of it. I changed into a less sweaty shirt and we hit the trail for the beach. I was so pumped. Right when we get on the beach we just started jumping around in the sand...we were made to live at the beach, fyi ;) anyway! He tells me we should make a silly video to send to his brother (and Erin) so they can be jealous we're on the beach. If you guessed that he tricked me into video taping my own wedding proposal, you'd be right. Our engagement is something I'll always remember with some really awesome memories (including the engagement photo session: photo below).

It's also the month of my 24th birthday. Woop woop!

OH and its the month Caleb and I officially began dating. August 24th, to be exact. Man, we were babies.

It's also still summer, plenty of pool time, and lots of time with family. I'm excited to get started with this month.

I took July off from posting about my goals, I honestly felt like that helped take some of the pressure off and I got a lot accomplished. I feel like August is a great time to get back in the swing of things though, so here are my August goals!

WORK OUT! I know, such a specific goal ;) but I kind of  like the idea of leaving it open ended. No specific number of trips to the gym or anything like that this month, as I'd rather focus on the quality of my workouts. It felt so good to finally find my groove again in July, so I'm ready to keep at it and impress myself! The weight room is addictive, friends.

Continue reading my Bible every day. Once we returned from Tennessee with the teens, I've been so inspired. I've done a great job at studying my Bible daily and it gives me a much better perspective  on life and my daily attitude in general.

Get to the pool more. Caleb and I were really good about making trips to the pool in early summer, but now that our tans have faded, we're missing it. We were able to make  trip up there yesterday and Caleb's brother even stopped by so we played some "pool football" for a while. It felt nice to be out in the sun while being somewhat active, too!

Make new meals for dinner. This is huge for me. Caleb and I are so good at just laying out meat and cooking it as is with a can of veggies on the side (so blah), I want to utilize my crock pot more and make a few new meals for our post-gym evenings!

Make a huge dent in our debt payoff. We're currently working on loan #3 (now that our car is paid off, holllaaa!) and we're hoping to cut it nearly in half this moth. That would be a huge step for us and I know we can do it!!!

All in all, I think I can accomplish this list of goals for myself. I'm excited for the challenge! If you wrote about some goals today, I'd love to hear some!! Happy August, friends!!