My Friends Are My FAMILY

  As most people know, I grew up in Plano, TX.  It was a great place to grow up-wonderful schools, great athletic programs, and the BIGGEST plus of them all...AMAZING shopping!  I absolutely LOVED it there.  If I ever had to move back, I wouldn't be upset ! ;)  However, there were some downsides; the biggest one being that we were so far away from family.  Most of our family lived in New York, New Jersey, Virginia and South Carolina.  For the most part, we were the ones who would make the trip to the east coast to visit family.  Occasionally, family would visit us, but never for the holidays.

   Luckily, we had really good friends - the Laughlins.  Craig and Vicki were great friends with my parents.  My sister and I were very good friends with their daughters, Katie and Sarah.  We spent Christmas with them almost every year; they were like family to us!  I still remember this like it was yesterday; Christmas of 2001 my mom decided to tell the Laughlins that we would be moving to Charleston, SC that summer.  Of all times to give this kind of news and she had to pick Christmas!!!  Was she crazy?!?!?!  Needless to say, that Christmas was not the happiest.  So summer of 2002 we said goodbye to our dearest of friends. 

Craig, Vicki, and Katie

 
   We've stayed connected through Facebook, email and a couple of visits back to Texas.  My dad probably see's the Laughlins the most since he often travels back to Dallas for business.  We invited them to my wedding and I assumed that they wouldn't be able to come because of the distance BUT they came!  (except for Sarah - she had a college soccer tournament - we sure did miss you!)  Don't get me wrong, I was so excited to see everyone that came to our wedding, but I was beyond elated when I saw the Laughlins.  They kept telling me that they wouldn't have missed it for the world.  Friday night when I saw them for the first time at the rehearsal dinner I was so happy!  I had to excuse myself to the bathroom to let out a few tears (tears of joy, of course), I just couldn't believe they were here!  It was so good to see them, just like old times.  We (Craig, Vicki, Mom, Allie and me) even danced to our favorite song from back in the day, "500 Miles" by The Proclaimers at the wedding! 

  The Laughlins are a part of our family and will always be.  They are one of the kindest, most loving families we know and I am so thankful that we met them in Plano.  Thank you for making my wedding day so special!

Fall Decor

So, I know I've been saying I was going to post about my pumpkin decorations for awhile now, but unfortunately one of my pumpkins bit the dust after I finished it.  I'm so mad that I didn't take a picture of it prior, but I was sure happy with the outcome.  I had spray-painted it silver and then with black fabric paint, I drew some dotted patterns.  My decorations aren't as great as I thought they would be, but still give our place the nice fall look.

I simply put a pumpkin on a cake stand with leaves that I bought from World Market.  I also put tea lights on the cake stand.  I also purchased leaf-shaped tea light holders from World Market...super cute!  I bought 2 little white pumpkins and put them on our entertainment center along with a pie pumpkin and a gourd.  On our books shelf I put a pumpkin that I spray-painted with chalkboard paint then I simply wrote "BOO" with chalk.  I also put 2 little pumpkins up there. I am hoping to pick up a fall wreath to put on our door within the next couple days!  I just love fall and love our place to show that! :)

Dave and I were on a mission last night to make our place look absolutely perfect for all of our guests this weekend!  We have already received so many wonderful wedding gifts but have limited space in our apartment so we've been trying to reorganize our things and go through stuff we don't need anymore.  I went to Target last night to pick up a couple things and since Dave's little cousins are coming tonight, I decided to make them each a cute Halloween basket with goodies.  I hope they like them! :)  I also bought all the essentials (sprinkles and orange icing) to make fabulous Halloween cookies!  Dave's cousins arrive tonight with Dave's mom and her sister.  Apparently Dave's cousins, Val and Mia, want to swim in our indoor pool, bake cookies and eat macaroni and cheese with me...girls after my own heart! :)  Such a fun weekend ahead...I'm beyond excited!! :)

I Can Breathe Again

Tax deadline is OVER, I'm FINALLY feeling 100% and it's 25 days until I get married!  I have so much to be thankful for!  I am so excited for this upcoming weekend.  It's my bachelorette weekend and my aunt is throwing me a shower!  I cannot wait to see all my family and friends, especially my sister who I haven't seen since Christmas!  Just 3 more days of work this week, then let the fun commence!! :) 

I hope to post this week about my fall decorations.  I'm still putting on the finishing touches! ;)  Hope everyone has a terrific Tuesday!!