February

February is my favorite month of the year for so many reasons!  Even though it's only been one week, it's been so fun that it feels like a full month has gone by and I can't wait to see what the rest of the month will bring!  We started the month meeting my family at the UNC basketball game in Chapel Hill.  My brother and sister-in-law gave my parents tickets for Christmas so Townsend and I met them at the game last Tuesday night!

 

My brother and Sister-in-law

 

 My Mom loves UNC basketball so we walked around the Basketball Museum before the game.

 

The Jones Girls

  

My birthday this year falls on a Tuesday and since it's suppose to snow, yet again, my parents came to Raleigh this weekend to take me to lunch and celebrate my early 28th birthday!

 Then Townsend was so sweet to get a little bowling birthday party together for me with some of my favorites!  It was an amazing weekend and I am so thankful for everything I have and to see what 28 will bring to me! 

 

 Some of the best friends a girl could ask for!

 The best boyfriend in the whole world!!!  I'm so thankful for everything you do for me!  This upcoming week is just as full as the first week of February.  We have the 100th Day of School (which to Kindergarteners is like a National Holiday), my actual birthday, a Field Trip to the NC Museum of Natural Science, and wrapping it all up with Valentine's Day on Friday and an engagement party for good friends on Saturday!  Hopefully the snow that is forecasted for Tuesday will not mess up too many of our plans this week!  Hope everyone has a great week!!!

Blogger Failure

I will admit...I am a blogger failure.  There has just been so much going on since I last blogged that blogging about it was the last thing on my mind!  However, I will try to do better about keeping it up to date...but I can't make any promises!  But here is a giant catch-up!

 We went to a beautiful wedding right before Thanksgiving in Georgetown, SC

 We had a great Thanksgiving this year and I absolutely love having girls around now verses when I was growing up and was the only girl in the whole house! 

Then December came...which is usually my FAVORITE month out of the entire year, however this year threw me for a slight loop.  This December the most important person in my entire world came very close to leaving me forever and it changed my entire life.  I could not imagine having to wake up everyday without being able to call my amazing Mom to complain/celebrate/embrace/or just talk with her!  However, her little heart may have been very sick...but now it is better than ever thanks to the amazing doctors at Carolina East Medical in New Bern, NC.   

I know it sounds like a complete cliche, but she is my world and it was the scariest thing that has ever happened to me.  It was very hard being that close to losing her, and I am so thankful to everyone who has been there for me and my family during the past few months!  You have no idea how much it means to us and we are so thankful and so blessed! 

The following week I went to Rutherfordton (Townsend's hometown) to celebrate an early Christmas and an early birthday celebration for him, (one of the most important men in my life)!  Townsend is a Christmas baby so it's hard to celebrate his birthday together since we are usually in two different places with our families.  I flew straight from Asheville to New Bern the folloing Monday to celebrate Christmas in Morehead with my family.  It was truly one of the most heartfelt Christmases we've ever had, especially since we were able to enjoy it with Mom at HOME with us...it really makes you think twice about the reason for the season!  Dad's birthday is the 29th and my brother Christopher's birthday is Jan 1st, so on the 29th Townsend and I were in town and we celebrated everyone's birthdays with a big family celebration!

 

All three birthday boys, even though Towns tried to play it down for Dad and Chris!  I love this picture because it's three of the 4 most important men in my life, celebrating their lives...just missing Donny(he's a July baby).  I'm a very luck girl.

 

 

Here's to hoping 2014 will bring us amazing joys and wonderful health!  Thank you so much to everyone who has had an impact in my life, I am very thankful for each and every one of y'all!  My New Year's resolution this year was to just be happy and enjoy being surrounded by the beautiful people I have been blessed with in my life.  I am so thankful and so blessed!  When I go to sleep at night, you can guarantee my prayers are full of thanks for all the amazing blessings I have in my life!  Wishing everyone a very beautiful, blessed, and amazing 2014!  xoxo 

MIA

 

I've been completely MIA for over a month...literally MIA from Raleigh and MIA from my blog.  So sorry, but I'll try to be better over the Holidays!  Last weekend we were down in South Carolina for a wedding.  It was beautiful!  The actual wedding was in Georgetown but we stayed at Townsend's family's beach house in Debordieu!  It's quickly becoming one of my favorite vacay spots! 

I wish I could spend every Friday afternoon with this view.

My handsome date

I have a lot to be thankful for this year...one of which being the sweet little Angels that made these cute Turkeys and make my days at work so fun...very blessed!

Weekend Recap

The weekends go by way to quick, especially when a total of 8 hours of them (4 hours each way) are usually spent driving to or from Asheville!  This past weekend was my turn to make the drive so we spent a fun weekend in Asheville.  Saturday after lunch we just went to the lake to meet Townsend's parents then headed out to the Golfcourse.  Of course I got a blister after just hitting balls on the driving range so I decided I would just be the cart driver for the day and bother drive Townsend while he played 9 holes. 

 

 We went out to dinner at Wicked Weed Saturday night, it's one of our favorite spots!  We had some friends in town so it's a fun spot to grab some dinner and for the beer drinkers, get some in-house brewed IPAs. 

 

 I always love having people in town so I can drag Townsend to go out with me! 

While we were at dinner we ran in to some of my girlfriends who were in town to celebrate a birthday!  So after we finished dinner we met up with them at Wine Bar.  It was a great weekend, but way too short!

New Orleans

Last weekend Townsend and I traveled down to New Orleans for one of the most fun weddings, ever!  We got there around lunch on Thursday and went hard every day, all day, and did not stop until we sat down for the plane ride back to Charlotte!  I had a wonderful time and Elise looked absolutely stunning!!!  I was so happy to be there to help celebrate her and Scott's big day/weekend!

 My first shrimp Po'boy of the weekend at Redfish Grill.  There were many more to follow!!!

 Bourbon Street in all of it's madness...Bourbon Street +1, Christine's Liver -1

 All sorts of interesting sights to see on Bourbon Street

 

Our first stop in New Orleans after lunch was Razzoos to meet up with the Bride and Groom and their families to kick off the weekend!

 The loving couple

Friday after another delicious seafood lunch we meet up with some of our friends Tim and Betsy for afternoon drinks.  After a couple hours on Bourbon street we went back to the hotel to shower and get ready for the night.

 After the rehearsal everyone met up at Pat O'Briens and had a blast singing along with the dueling pianos! 

 The beautiful bride after her rehearsal, she honestly was just absolute gorgeous the entire weekend!

Saturday Townsend and I walked all around the art district with Betsy and Tim checking out all the Touristy spots.  This was one of my favorite days!  We hit up Lafitte's Blacksmith shop (the oldest bar in New Orleans) as our first stop for a hurricane and voodoo drinks to help get us a kick start on our day!  

 Townsend is such a good sport and will take pictures with me in front of random city landmarks!  I am very thankful for my sweet and VERY patient boyfriend!

 

 New Orleans has some of the most beautiful architecture in the country!  This is in Jackson Square, which is an art lovers paradise! 

 Absolutely Flawless

 Gorgeous Couple

 My handsome date and amazing dance partner

 One of the most stunning brides I have EVER seen!  She was born to be a bride and I'm so happy we were able to be there with them to celebrate!

 First Dance

 Party Time at the Reception

 Cutting the Cake

 The before shot

And...the after shoot!

Thanks so much Elise and Scott for having us all down to New Orleans to help celebrate y'alls big day!  It was amazing and I can't wait for you to get home from y'alls honeymoon so we can re-live all the fun moments from the entire weekend!  Love y'all, xoxo!

MIA

Sorry for being so MIA lately!  With the combination of the first month of school and leaving every weekend to go to Asheville I haven't had time to even think about blogging...until my Mom reminds me about it! haha  

I painted this tiny little chair for a friend who is giving it to one of her childhood friends for their  new baby (PS...I know the black spot is missing from the tarheel foot, I took the pic while it was still drying and I added the black spot after I took the picture.)

 Even though the Panthers lost against the Seahawks, I did get to meet David Thompson when we were at the game...GO PACK!

 This Thursday we are heading to New Orleans to help celebrate one of my favorite couple's wedding!!!  Elise is going to be absolutely GORGEOUS, trust me I've seen her in the dress and it's breathtaking!  

I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU!!!!  Thursday can't get here soon enough!