Happy Halloween!

This is my husband's holiday. He did this ALL while I was spending time with my two besties in Roswell Saturday night. Behold:

My neighbor's tree:

Happy holidays everyone!

Back at it!

It is MUCH more fun to do yard work in the fall — though, I must say, I didn't 100 percent relish doing it with a sinus infection.

Here are some of our yard updates:

Take note of the new, darker mulch. Pine bark mulch looks pretty and smells good, too. We also replaced some dead bushes with Encore Azaleas.

Here is the tree that J is calling "the newest member of our family." He's coveted this tree for more than a year:

(Cedar)

We also finally tackled a flower bed on the other side of the stairs in front of our house:

(Don't let him fool you—I dug the trench for these pavers!)

What to carve in our pumpkin...?

And, good news for us on the horizon: We are meeting with a contractor to get an estimate for all of the work we need done inside our home. If it's reasonable, we might just have a new kitchen and bathroom soon! I, for one, think that would be the best Christmas present ever!!

How are we gonna top this??

This was, frankly, just the best weekend Jonathan and I could ask for!

First, on Friday, J's mom, Rita, surprised us with an arrangement of flowers that were made to look like those we had on display at our wedding!

On Saturday, I surprised J by taking him to Dunaway Gardens (where we got hitched) for a picnic lunch. Contemporary Catering sent us there with the exact menu of food we served at our wedding!!! We finally got to eat that meal! ;-) Not only that, but Josh at Dunaway surprised us and set up a table for two in the gardens!!!!

Look familiar?

And since there was no one around to take our picture...

For dinner, J took me to eat at The Hil in Serenbe, which is where he proposed to me on April 10, 2010. After a great meal, we came back to our house to enjoy the top tier of our wedding cake. We invited his mom & dad and Nonna over to partake.

I had forgotten how beautiful the cake was!

And it was still delicious!

We, of course, cut it with our cake cutter and served it on our special napkins:

What in the world will we do on our second anniversary???

First Anniversary

It's been one year and I can't remember my life without him. Every day I'm amazed by my heart's capacity for love.

Here's a picture I just scanned in that an employee at Sandals took on the first night of our honeymoon in Jamaica:

Our actual anniversary is 10-15 — tomorrow — and we have a lot of fun things planned. I'll be sure to share them with you on the blog soon!

Amy's BIG Day!

I wanted to share a few photographs from Amy & Sean's wedding this past weekend. I get goosebumps when I look at these photographs. It was a very emotional wedding — just the perfect day. I am incredibly happy for my dear friends (and incredibly jealous as they embark on a journey thru wine country)!!

The Nortons married at the Kershaw-Cornwallis House — a Revolutionary War site in Amy's hometown of Camden, S.C.

The bride as she makes her grand, first appearance.

Lezlee & I trying not to cry...Lezlee failed miserably :-)

This is my FAVORITE picture b/c of Amy's smile and Sean's emotion!

My best friends forever.

Check out the back of this dress. Beautiful!

Beautiful/delicious wedding cake!

The most perfect sunset.

Partying into the night. We danced our booties off!!!!!

And, finally, a special thanks to my mom for snapping these photographs and sharing them with me so quickly.

Now, guess who celebrates their year anniversary on Saturday.......? :-)

Pumpkin Bread

It dawned on me that I haven't shared a recipe in a while — and my whole reason for changing jobs was so that I would have more time to do things I enjoy, like baking (and blogging)!

I made some delicious pumpkin bread, and as far as recipes go, this one was pretty simple. The recipe made two loaves — one to keep and one to share. And, as an added perk, my whole house smelled like fall!

Without further adieu...

Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree

4 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup water

3 cups white sugar

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour loaf pans. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together remaining, dry ingredients. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into prepared pans.

Bake for about 50 minutes. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Happy fall baking! Let me know if you have a wonderful, seasonal treat I should try in all my newfound spare time (ha!).