Turkey/ Birth Days

Hey guys, I'm back. We've been road warriors the past couple of days celebrating Thanksgiving and a couple of birthdays around here and there. This was our first official holiday spent together period. We always split up over the holidays when we were dating and decided that it might be nice to start celebrating together. I'll admit, it was nice having Kyle around. I think he makes a nice addition to my family. We started Turkey Week off with some time in the kitchen doing what I do best, "Micro-Baking." Basically, if you can dip it in (microwave melted) chocolate I've pretty much dunked it. I made some goodies to take on the road with us to our various stops.

Our holiday/birthday weekend started Wednesday when we traveled down to Dothan to visit my family. Wednesday night we hung out with my mother's side of the family and celebrated my grandmother, Mama Hall's birthday with some oysters and shrimp. I haven't seen many of my family members since we got married so it was so good to see them! It was really nice seeing my cousin Stacey who will be expecting a girl (Anna Beth) in February. This will be the 1st great grandchild on my mother's side so we are excited for a baby to join the bunch.

                       Cousin Clay and Kyle

                             Eating some oysters

                Aunt Kay, Daddy Hall and my Mom

I really think Mama Hall enjoyed her birthday cake. She admitted she doesn't think she's ever had one. She's probably one of the sweetest grandmothers ever. I just love her. She along with my other grandmother and Daddy Hall are very special people and hold a special place in my heart. Since we didn't celebrate Thanksgiving with my mom's side of the family, Mama Hall made us some dressing to take back to Birmingham. I was pretty pumped about that.

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Thursday morning we got up and celebrated The Dan Man and Kyle's birthdays. Yes, my dad and Kyle share a birthday. I about spit my drink out when I found out that Kyle's birthday was November 24th when we started dating. I was like, "are you for real?!" O well, there's nothing we can do about that. Guess they'll just have to share that date. My sweet and talented sister, Hayden made the birthday boys their cake. She did an amazing job! The pictures do not do it justice. She actually cut the A- shape of that cake herself and iced it. Amazing. She's better than me at cooking...she's Martha.

This picture cracks me up. It pretty much sums up life around the Hayes household. My mom is probably trying to teach me how to do something in the kitchen while my dad looks on sharing his opinion. I can hear him now, "if I were doing that..."

It was nice being home for about 17 hours. I especially love seeing all my mom's fall decor. Can't wait to be home a little bit longer over Christmas!!!

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After celebrating the birthdays, we headed to my Aunt Gail's house to celebrate Thanksgiving with my dad's side of the family. We had a great time catching up with everyone and playing with all of the great grand-kids. The way my dad's family is set up, it seems like there have always been little kids around so there is never a dull moment. We loaded up on some of our turkey day favorites and spent some time outside with the fam.

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Thursday after lunch we headed to Montgomery. This was a huge change of pace. We went from being around a whole bunch of family and little kids to just hanging with Kyle's parents and brother. It was nice just to be able to chill. Since we had already had a big meal that day, we decided to do a Thanksgiving meal on Friday. However, Kyle did make room for some more birthday cake. His mom made him a lemon meringue pie. One of his favs.

It was such a beautiful day and we enjoyed ourselves helping Kyle's parents cook. Kyle made the sweet potato casserole and helped his dad fry a turkey and I did a whole bunch of everything including fixing the green beans. 

After a delicious lunch and a nap Kyle and I headed over to his friend Wes' home to hang out with his wife Kristi, their 2 year old son, Brannon and Kyle's other friend, Shawn and his wife, Allie and their new baby Avery. We enjoyed catching up with everyone and playing with all of the babies. Brannon is fully of energy and was learning how to use the potty. He is going to have a new baby sister, Peyton next Tuesday. Poor child doesn't know he's about to loose all the attention.

While it was SO much fun playing with the babies, I'm not going to lie, it was nice being able to go home Friday night and know we could sleep through the whole night without being woken up and sleep until 9. We're going to enjoy life with just the 2 of us for a while.

Saturday Kyle's mom and I went to Southern Homes and Gardens to pick up some Christmas decor then went home to watch the Iron Bowl. Watching Bama win was a nice end to the weekend.

Comfort food

You know things are pretty boring around our neck of the woods when I decide to post about comfort food. Listen people, although it may be hard to believe, we aren't living the life style of the rich and famous up here in Birmingham. Case in point, our supper last night. Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup (from a can).

Tomato soup is something I learned to appreciate when I met Kyle. My mom isn't a fan of tomato soup therefore we (my sister and I) never were. Imagine that. However, grilled cheese sandwiches have always been a personal favorite. It's like Kyle said, "who doesn't love bread, butter and cheese?"

Grilled cheese sandwiches were pretty much a Sunday night tradition in the Hayes household when I was growing up. I can remember getting home from church and my mom turning into a grilled cheese sandwich machine. Seriously, every Sunday night. Last night, I tried a grilled cheese recipe I saw on pinterest. Grilled cheese roll ups. It reminded me of something my Aunt Kay would make. She's likes cute recipes like this.

I made one and must say it was pretty tasty. Tasted like a grilled cheese..duh. We decided to stick with the good old classic sandwich though because we agreed that we could probably eat like 5 roll ups each. We struggle with portion control.

Weekend Happinngs

Things were pretty low key around our house this weekend. I had Friday off (thank the good lord) for Veteran's Day and stayed in my pj's most of the day. That night we had some friends over for what I like to call a Fiesta Bonfire. Basically, Kyle made fajitas and we sat around a bonfire. So fun! Our good friends Caroline, Grant, Virginia and Matt came over. Caroline and Virginia are two of my good friends from high school and I am lucky to have them living here with me in Birmingham. Every once in a while we like to get this group over to have dinner. True be told, we like having people over for dinner. It forces me to clean up a little around the house and I get to pull out some of my wedding gifts that we wouldn't use when it's just the two of us. Plus, we enjoy the company. Really, I think the boys just like to laugh at the insane amount of gossip we can come up with between the three of us girls. If I had a dime every time the phrase, "according to my mom..." was uttered between us, I'd be rich.

I normally like to host dinners where Kyle does most of the cooking gets to show off his culinary skills. Over the years, I've come to love his flank steak and chicken fajitas so I thought I'd share the love with our friends. After dinner we sat beside our outdoor fireplace and made s'mores. Honestly, I haven't had those in forever. They never really "tickled my fancy" but will admit, they were pretty good.

                             The Davis Family

            Matt and Virginia

Saturday we had a pretty lazy day watching football and then Sunday we finished out last Together for Life class at our church. We have been participating in a 14 week class about the ins and outs of marriage. We have both enjoyed the class and are looking forward to finding a new Sunday School class to join.

People let me tell you about (one of) my best friends

I'm a lucky gal I tell ya. I have been blessed with some of the most amazing friends with some of the most amazing talents and gifts. One of my particularly "bestest" most talented friends is Megan:

         (this picture completely captures who Megan really is...it cracks me up!)
I met Megan when she moved to Dothan when I was in the 8th grade. I basically took one look at her and decided I was going to make her be my friend. Literally. Turns out, Megan was cool with that and we have been best buds since. There are a ton of wonderful things about Megan but one of the coolest things about her is that she's SUPER creative. Seriously ya'll...it amazes me. I call her my little creative genius. Megan has a degree in interior design and currently works for Eastern Accents in Chicago where she is designing anything from beautiful bedding to precious pillows.

Isn't she talented? As long as I've known Megan, she has always wanted to start her own business of some sorts. Well, 8 months before she's to marry she has decided to fulfill that dream.  She and her finance (Jason) have just launched their new business, Dishique. According to the website, "dishique specializes in unique and custom dinnerware for every occasion." Each plate is designed by Megan herself and let me tell you, the girl can draw.

Ya'll have to check out the website! There is soooo much more to look at! Plus she does custom orders. Here's the one she did for me for Mill's 1st birthday (it was farmed themed).

I recommend looking at both the website and online catalog. I know both she and Jason have been working so hard trying to get this business off the ground. Soooo proud of them! The great thing about Megan is that not only is she really creative, she is also very giving and patient. I'm always coming up with these crazy ideas I want her to make for me and she is always more than willing to give it a shot. Case in point: designing my Save the Date. I really think this girl is going to be famous one day. I really hope so because she promised me a long time ago that if she does I can be her Gayle.

Weekend: Highs and Lows

     Well, we made the journey to Tuscaloosa this weekend with all the other Bama fans; eager to see the Tide take down the Tigers (the purple and yellow ones). We all know how that turned out. We're making it. After the initial shock was over, Kyle handled the loss pretty well. I think we are both happy the football season is officially over for us. No more traveling to games until next year.
     The loss was balanced out with the fact that we had a wonderful weekend hanging out with some of our friends we haven't seen in a while. I'm telling you. There is nothing like hanging out with good friends you haven't seen in a while. I woke up Sunday more upset over the fact I don't know when I'll see some of them next than the actual loss (shhh don't tell Kyle). We were happy to host the Sessions (Ferrill and Rob) at our house for the weekend. They live in Atlanta and came in town Friday night. Ferrill is a pledge sister of mine who happened to marry a Georgia boy. We always enjoy hanging out with them because of their easy going/go with the flow attitudes. Ferrill had an amazing closet in college...I may miss that more than I miss her (just kidding Fay).
     Anyway, Friday night we chilled with the Sessions, ate pizza and went to bed. Saturday we headed to Tuscaloosa bright and early and began our day of tailgate hopping.

                               The Whittingtons and The Sessions
At our first tailgate we got to meet up with my friend Ellen and her hubby Brannon and BJ and her hubby Michael. I also bumped into my freshman roomie Danielle. 

                              Ferrill, Ellen, BJ and your truly

                              Me and Danielle
O, forgot to mention that Kyle's brother and his girlfriend Taura made the 10 hour journey down from Richmond for the game.

                        The bros

     After tailgating on the new "mini quad" we headed over to the big quad and hung out at my friend Morgan's family tailgate. Borrowing Morgan's exact words her dad invited a "real live Cajun" to make jambalaya for 400 people at their tailgate. Let me tell you people, the jambalaya was AMAZING. I honestly woke up Sunday craving another big bowl. Kyle was pretty impressed with the whole operation and  took some pictures for ya'll to see how one prepares jambalaya for 400.

               We really appreciated the Berney's hospitality!

      BJ, Ferrill, and the hostess with the mostest Morgan (a.k.a Mo/Mo Money)

                      Me and the hubby
After hanging out at Mo's tent for a while, we left the boys and walked over to another tent some of our other college friends were hosting. It was so nice being able to catch up with more girls I hadn't seen in a while. We spent a lot of time gossiping, laughing and making fun of each other (in a friendly way).

BJ, Arden, Caroline, McRae and Amanda
We headed back to Mo's tent for the rest of the day (a 7pm game allows for A LOT of tailgating) and that's when "a Christmas miracle" happened...I ran into two of my closest gal pals Callie and Kate. Terrible game day phone service had stopped us from being able to get in touch. We luckily ran into them on the quad. I was PUMPED.

          Kate's the tall blond, Callie's the one holding the Coors. 
So, the rest of the day we just hung out on the quad. I'm pretty sure by this point of the day we all had one (or more) of Callie's Coors and were having a pretty good, of course responsible time.

This is Kate's hubby David Milton Peek (Dave). Kate and Dave have a precious son Mills. Raise your hand if you think Dave has a mini me.

                      Higher, higher. Gosh. Isn't he the cutest?!
Anyway, the evening turned out being pretty fun. Forgot to mention 1977 Alabama alumni, Sela Ward was tailgating beside us for a brief moment. I decided to play paparazzi for a while.

The night was ended with a loooonnnnggg drive home and lots of Sunday afternoon naps on the couch. We were thankful for an extra hour of sleep.