Happy Thanksgiving!

Another Thanksgiving celebration has come and gone!  This year I decided to stay in Florida for Thanksgiving and head home to St. Louis for Christmas.  (Last year I did the opposite).  We decided to invite some friends over that also didn't have families in town and thus we had our first Friendsgiving.  :)  I also cooked my first entire Thanksgiving meal, including my first turkey!  Fortunately, all of the food turned out amazing and we have hardly any leftovers (yeah, right!).  Here are some scenes from yesterday:

"Oh, you'll be in the kitchen all day cooking? Sweet, I'll just hang out right here just in case something falls off the counter"

My cute little centerpieces I made for the Thanksgiving Dinner table

Ta-da!  And the table is set...now, to finish up the food and wait for our guests to arrive...

:) I love this time of year so much!

Well...our friends have arrived, the appetizers have been eaten, the sides are done...just one thing missing...the bird!

Voila! My first turkey! nomnom

My first turkey turned out A-MAZING...just a few leftovers remain...

White/Robinson fam photo :-)

And now...onto Christmas decorating!! Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving surrounded by loved ones!

"Bonus Time"

Well, as I shared in an earlier post this week - my niece was due to make her arrival this fall!  Her official due date was on November 13, 2012 (last week on Tuesday).  However, true to her mother's form, her stubborn little self arrived several weeks early!  Please allow me to introduce my beautiful and gorgeous niece; Addison Grace Emerson - Born on October 23, 2012 at 4 lbs. 13 oz. 

Photo courtesy of Olivia Mae Photography

On her way home from the hospital

That little smirk! Melt my heart!

 

 

 

 

 

 Her Grandpa Emerson said we were all given "bonus time" with her since she came so early, and I thought that was just the sweetest. 


Now, only 1 month from today and I will finally get to meet and hold my precious niece - I can't wait to give her some Auntie R love!! :-)

Wishing everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving Day!

Weekend Wrap Up

As the holidays get closer and closer (Only three more days until Thanksgiving people!!), I know my weekend plans are going to get crazier and crazier - so I was thankful to have a semi-low key weekend.

Friday night Jordan and I had a casual happy hour/date night together.  Saturday morning I got up bright and early so I could be one of the first shoppers at the grocery store to avoid the Thanksgiving shopping madness.  I'm so excited to be hosting my first Thanksgiving Dinner!  (Ok, actually, I've been scared to death of cooking my first turkey - but, I found what looks to be a pretty easy recipe, so I got over it.) Pinterest has also gotten me excited to create a Thanksgiving tablescape and now it is all I can literally think about.  More on that later this week!

Saturday afternoon, Jordan, Julie and I headed to Pig Jam 2012 over in Plant City.  What's Pig Jam you ask?  Think live animals, a TON of bbq and deep fried everything. 

Deep Fried Oreo Goodness!

Clockwise from Top Left: 1.The most life-changing dessert ever-Deep-fried S'mores, YUM!2.Julie's hotel won 2nd place in both the sauce competition and dessert!  3.My favorite item was the Tennessee Taco: Pulled Pork, Baked Beans and Coleslaw!  4.And...since we still had "Pig Bucks" leftover...we stocked up on kettle corn. 5.Funnelcake - Need I say more? 6.There were some interesting animals that we ran into, including this bird!

 

 

  

 

Sunday I did some more shopping for Thanksgiving Day, and picked up some gorgeous fresh flowers for my tablescape!  Can't wait until Friday to post!!

 Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Only one thing missing...

Unfortunately, my mother became very ill just a few days prior to the baby shower and was hospitalized during my entire visit (and a few weeks after that too!).  We had her on speakerphone as my sister and brother-in-law cut open the gender reveal cake so that she could hear everyone's reactions.  My sister also gave her the actual envelope from her doctor with the gender reveal photo so she could open it at the same time of the cake cutting.  Afterwards, I saved some of the party "goodies" and brought up everything to the hospital for her (and the ICU staff) to enjoy in the celebration.  Here's some photos :-)

It's a...

Wow! It's been a loooong time since I last blogged! My last post was about leaving my past job and getting ready to start my new one (which I LOVE), but right in between those two events was a quick trip (or a 17-hour drive both ways) home to St. Louis to throw my sister's bbq/gender reveal/baby shower!

Here are some of the desserts on the dessert table with the cute little signs I made:

 

 

a full view of the entire dessert table:

 

And then the food of course....

love these 'fruit and cheese' kabobs!

When guests arrived, they had to guess the baby's gender and received either a "girl" fan with a bow or a "boy" fan with a mustache :)

This group guessed BOY! (the parents-to-be guessed girl)

This group guessed GIRL!

The gift table

and centerpieces...I absolutely LOVED how all the floral arrangements turned out - the florist did such a good job!  (me ;-) heehee)

 And finally....the GRAND REVEAL...

 It's a ....

  I'm going to have a baby NIECE!!! :-)

Saying Good-bye

Wow! A lot has happened in the past couple of weeks! Well, for starters...I wrapped up my final days at my job in Orlando. It was hard to make the decision to look for a new opportunity, but as much as I love selling the "dream" to my brides...I thoroughly LOVE being the person to make that dream real. I know it was the right decision and I can't wait to officially start my new position (which happens in TWO days!)! While I will also be servicing corporate functions, which aren't my #1 favorite, having the opportunity to work with the brides again will be worth it all. My work threw me a going-away party last Wednesday (well, two Wednesdays ago). My boss came in from Tampa (ironically, I will now be working for her husband at my new hotel!), and a lot of my co-workers showed up to wish me farewell. I definitely shed a few tears opening my card/gift and when I received our ritual gift of a photo of the hotel with a signed photo mat with everyone's signatures (I SO love this tradition and was SO excited to finally receive my first one!). They made sure to have some of my favorite foods too: chocolate chip cookies (I am such a cookie monster), cheese displays (I can't keep my hands off of them!) and steamed pot stickers (yum!). Open bar never hurt anyone either ;) 

 Cleaning out my office took FOREVER! I can't believe how much "stuff" I've collected in just under two years! (Sidenote: I've already checked out my new office...doesn't

even come close to this amazing view and so much space!) 

 Since I've been so incredibly busy after my last day, I haven't even had a chance to try out my new gift! I can't wait to use it soon and I will definitely have a review to post about the Jambox!

 

 

Weekend Wrap Up & BIG News!

Happy Wednesday!!

Well, nothing too exciting to report out on from this past weekend.  Last week I caught a nasty case of bronchitis and ended up in urgent care because I refused to slow down with work.  I had a huge wedding this weekend to service and I convinced myself I was well enough to come in (despite the fact that I ran an average temp of 102.5 for about 5 days straight).   So I spent most of my time either at work, or recovering on the couch while I existed on almost nothing but cough syrup, antibiotics, Tylenol, Ibuprofen and water.  Charlee was excellent company of course :)

And in other news...I am excited to announce that I have officially accepted a new position within my company in Tampa!  While I have been so blessed in my current role with our Sales organization, my passion lies in servicing events (primarily weddings!) and so I will be making my way back into the Event world in less than two weeks!!  Orlando has been a wonderful home to me the past year and a half and I am definitely sad to leave all of the amazing friends I have made at my current hotel.  My last day here is next Wednesday, and then I will actually be heading home for my sister's baby shower (yay!), and when I return....off to Tampa I go!  :)

Pinterest: I Did It! - Mini Apple Pies

And I've created another pinterest recipe, the "Mini Apple Pie" found here on Little Bit Funky's blog.  I've only made apple pie (or any pie!) one other time in my college cooking class...so I definitely consider myself a pie amateur, and I found this recipe SO easy to make!   I made no variations from the original recipe, except that I halved it.  Let's face it...having 24 mini pies in the house can get dangerous!!  So here's how the mini apple pies go down:

For 12 Servings
Cut up 4 cups of apples into 1/2 inch bites (I found that approximately 1 apple equaled a cup)
In a large bowl mix the apples with:
6 tablespoons of flour
3/4c of sugar
2 heaping teaspoons of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg

You will also need:
2 tablespoons of chilled butter cut into 12 equal portions, and 1 tablespoon melted (reserve for the end!) 
1 box of refrigerated Pillsbury Pie Crust

Unroll your first pie crust and cut several circles out.   Continue this until you have enough crusts.  (Just like the Canastitas, I used a large coffee mug for my circles).

Line each cup of your muffin tin with a tiny pie crust.

Then fill the crusts with your apple mixture and push the crusts down the rest of the way.  Use all of the apple mixture; each pie should have a little mound.  Then take each of your little pads of butter and top each mound with the butter.

Using the remaining scraps of pie crust to top off the apple mound and brush with the melted butter.  Bake for 20-22 minutes at 400.

ENJOY!
ps. Best served with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream :-)