Oh What A Year! 2011!

Anyone who works/has worked in retail during the Holiday season understands why blogging has been impossible.   It was been a CRAZY two months and I am so happy to start getting back on track again.

2011 has been a great year and I can't wait to celebrate the new year with my love on Saturday night, but before that can happen let's take a walk down 2011 memory lane:

New Years Eve 2011

We "officially" started dating on New Years Day 

On January 28th 2011, I moved from Buffalo to Saratoga to live with Trevor

My Brother, Ryan got married to CJ on

May 20, 2011 in Jamaica 

photo by: Kathleen Hertel Photography

It was a beautiful wedding ...

I would give anything for this weather right now!!

Since it was my first summer here in Saratoga Springs, NY, we went to opening weekend at the track and my bestest, Launa came up:

We visited Charleston, SC and now hope to move there as soon as the wedding is over

How can you not want to live there?

We went on a wine tour in the Finger Lakes and got engaged!!

Then we celebrated our engagement in Disney

It was amazing 

Our niece and nephew turned the BIG O-N-E

photo by: Kathleen Hertel Photography

These are just some of the highlights of 2011, it has been a fantastic year!  We are so thankful for a great year full of love, family and friends!! 

Here is to the New Year!! 

xoxxo

Weekend Recap

Why do weekends off go by so fast??

Friday night we just relaxed after a very very long week ...

Since Trevor had a Bachelor Party at Turning Stone Casino Saturday, I decided it would be a perfect day for wedding dress shopping!!

My parents, Trevor's mom and my sister all came with me!!  My sister best friend wedding planner most amazing person in the world set up all the appointments for us.  We visited three places in Saratoga:


1. Danielle's - I did find one dress that I liked there, but have completely forgotten about it at this point because the next two places had much better selections.  I was not impressed with the service at all here.  The women that worked there were very nice, but they were not attentive at all.  The dressing room felt like a closet and the overall atmosphere was nothing special. 

2. Lily Saratoga -  The service here was fantastic!! The woman who helped me was Monica and she was great!  I found a dress that I absolutely loved here, it was the only one that brought tears to my eyes.  They didn't make me feel rushed to make a decision and really took there time with me.  It was my favorite place of the day.

3. Something Bleu - It was a great experience here.  It was more upscale than the other 2 places and had more of a couture ambiance.  They had an Angolique Bridal Truck Show and I really liked a lot of the dresses from the collection.  I fell in love with one that was similar to my first love back at Lily's.  The service was great, but we were cut down to only having exactly one hour and when my mother suggested that I tried on a dress they had just brought out, the woman said that our time was up and I couldn't try that last one on.

Overall, it was a wonderful experience and I am so happy that I was able to share it with the people I love.  I found two other dresses at Davids Bridal that I am going to try on and if I don't fall in love with either I will have to make a decision between the two I found fell in love with on Saturday!! Decisions, decisions, decisions!!

Trevor got home this morning and it was been great hanging out and watching football together all day.  I hate it when he goes away, but at least I got to spend the night at my sister's house and see my nephew and my parents.

Back to work tomorrow ...

xoxxo

A Few Of My Favorite Things

I am obsessed with the following two things right now:

Love my Camelbak, in fact I have 2 that I love equally.  

I just purchased Trevor one and he seems to love it too, but I don't

think he is obsessed as I am. 

Recently a co-worker of mine insisted that I try these and now

I can't stop eating them!  They are so yummy and fun

to eat!

Some things in life are just so great!!!

xoxxo

Pinninggg!!

PINNING

Yes, like winning.  Or if you are a Jersey shore fan, twinning.  

I have been loving Pinterest since August (only reason why I remember the actually month I started using it is because my sister introduced me to at the Maroon 5/Train concert... Thanks Sissy!). 

Trevor really never understood my pinning obsession and would get quite annoyed when I would stare at the computer screen for hours.

He has recently become OK with Pinterest for 2 reasons:

1. Since the "twinning" J.Shore episode he thinks that pinning sounds like twinning and it makes him laugh (Hey, whatever makes him ok with me loving Pinterest is good by me)!

2. I have found and cooked LOTS of great recipes for him

So far I have made:

Flourless Chocolate Cookies

Crock Pot Mac n Cheese

Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili

via 

Roasted Tomatoes with Shrimp and Feta

via

Crock Pot Baked Apples

Want to make Butternut Squash Risotto, but all the squash 

looked gross at the store. I ended up using the risotto recipe

and made Shrimp to go over it. 

via

Nutella Hot Chocolate

via

All recipes have been great so far!! I love the Crock Pot ones because as we all know, I have an obsession with my crock pot.  

Pinterest has been great for recipes, wedding ideas, workout ideas, crafty projects and so much more.  

Follow my boards here to see what else I am loving!!

xoxxo

Wheat Grass

Good for you, but Gross??

We have been drinking Wheat Grass every morning this week and can feel the difference in our energy levels, but it is seriously gross.

Currently we are trying Amazing Grass from GNC:

via

It is organic and suppose to do all these things for you:

• Increases and sustains energy naturally
• Detoxifies and cleanses your body
• High alkalinity helps balance acidic PH levels
• Strengthens immune system
• Complete food with enzymes and all essential amino acids
• Natural source of anti-oxidants to help repair damaged cells
• Field grown outdoors through winter
• Vegan, Gluten Free and Raw
• 5+ daily servings of vegetables 

We usually mix it with water, I don't like the consistency of it so I have been trying to mix it with my favorite morning smoothie when I can:

1 banana

1/3 cup of frozen blueberries

1/2 cup of diced frozen strawberries

1 cup of skim milk 

1 scoop of wheat grass 

It is a bit more bearable.

Any recommendation for different better tasting wheat grass?

xoxxo

DISNEY!!!

Sorry we are been M.I.A for a veryyyy long time.  Disney was amazing! We had so much fun and don't want to bore you with the every detail.   So, here is a quick rundown of what we did, our favorite moments and some of our favorite pictures.


We tried to cover as much ground while we were there,  here is the list (in order of course) of where we went:

1. Downtown Disney

Having our first beverage at House of Blues

2. Magic Kingdom

3. Hollywood Studios

4. Universal Studios - Islans of Adventure

5. Epcot

6. Animal Kingdom

Tempted to buy this hat and I am sure Trevor

feels the same way about those ears

Every moment of Disney World was magical, but we do have some top favorite moments.  We both agree on the Top 2, but have a difference of opinion on #3.

1. Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure   

The ride was great 

and so was the Butterbeer ... yummm

2. Food & Wine Festival and Fireworks at Epcot

Trevor's #3 Tower of Terror at Hollywood Studios

Laura's #3 Safari at Animal Kingdom

Could have stuck your

hand out of the jeep and touched the

Giraffes

So many laughs and memories  ♥

Bonus:  We get to cross this off our Bucket List!!!

One last picture before we go

With Stitch at Magic Kingdom

xoxxo

Has anyone else been to Disney World? What were your favorite moments/memories?

Sunday Funday!

This weekend has been great! We looked at 3 possible wedding venues on Saturday:
 
    1. Longfellows
    2. Saratoga National
    3. Gideon Putnam

We think we have made a decision on our wedding venue, but you will have to wait to find out until we are sure!!

Mike, Christina and Ethan came over today to watch the Bills/Giants game (we are not going to talk about the game) and I made mac n cheese in the slow cooker my new favorite thing.  I basically followed a recipe I found on pintrest, but made a few changes.

recipe

Around 8pm we got really bored and went for a walk (in the rain) down to Starbucks for a Pumpkin Spice Latte.  

Yummmmmyyy!!

pic

While we were there I heard a song that I THOUGHT was from the movie Elf, but now that I just was looking through the soundtrack, I don't think it was actually from the movie.  Anyway, it got me very excited for the holiday season because I literally watch Elf at least once a week (Trevor is very excited about this). 

How can you not LOVE this movie!!

I then realized that it was Fall and Halloween time and I needed to own Hocus Pocus immediately!! We drove to Walmart and Blockbuster and they were BOTH sold out!! Target was closed, but we will be going there tomorrow to purchase this classic movie!

here

Can't wait to get this baby in our DVR!! 

xoxxo

Days until Disney: 2!!!

I Love Wednesdays

Trevor got us this little gem with his points from BOA:

pic

I have be dying to use it since it first arrived!! Yesterday, I finally fired it up and made delicious Turkey Chili:

Ingredients

   - 2lbs of ground turkey ( i used 99% lean)

   - 1 20oz can of black beans

   - 1 20oz can of crushed tomatoes 

   - 2 cans of stewed tomatoes

   - 2 packets of chili mix

   - chipolte pepper flakes

   - 1 block of pecorino romano cheese

Directions:

In a large pan, add olive oil (enough to cover bottom) and desired amount of chipolte pepper flakes.   Add turkey and cook until there is no pink, add both packets of chili mix with about 1 cup of water and mix it.  Place turkey into the slow cooker.  Next, stir in beans and crushed tomatoes into the slow cooker.  Cut stewed tomatoes and then add them.  Add more chipolte pepper flakes if you want it to be really spicy.  Turn slow cooker on low for 3 hours, then on high for 1 additional hour.  

Serve hot with freshly grated pecorino romano cheese and bread. 

I also baked some flourless chocolate cookies I found on pintrest:

Recipe Here

They were yummy!!! Trevor liked them too, but we wished we had some milk around because they are verrryyy chocolatey. 

While the turkey was finishing up, we took a walk to the Putnam Market to get a loaf of Ciabatta Bread for our chili and a bottle of wine.  We love being able to walk everywhere, if Saratoga didn't get so cold and snowy for 5-6 months a year we would definitely live here forever!!

Can't wait until the weekend -  we will be checking out 3 wedding venues in Saratoga!! 

Hope everyone enjoys the rest of the week!!

Days until Disney: 5!!!!

xoxxo 

Weekend Rewind

Even though I worked all weekend, I still got out early enough to enjoy time with Trevor.  There are a few things in life that I enjoy doing so much, I jump up and down and squeal when I find out that we are going to do them.  Pumpkin Picking is ONE of the!!

Trevor got to experience me acting like a maniac when he said we could go pick pumpkins and have cider donuts when I got home from work Saturday.  I was literally jumping up & down.

After googling a place to go, we decided on the closest location to us, Ellms Family Farm. Little did we know it was going to cost us $ 54 to get some pumpkins!!

$9.50 x 2 - to get into the place

$27 for 3 pumpkins

$8 for 2 cider donuts(that tasted like they 

were from Price Chopper) and

2 cups of cider

It was a good time, I just wouldn't say $57 worth of a good time!! haha oh well!

5'2 and proud of it!!

5'10, maybe 5'11??

We laughed the whole way home about how bad we just got ripped off and decided we needed to go out for a walk around Saratoga Springs.

As we were walking, of course I noticed a new sign "$5 wine tasting, 6 wines of your choice."  Swedish Hill Winery (located in the Finger Lakes) opened a tasting room right around the corner from us! How could we say no??

It was a great tasting and I will go back sometime this week to make a few purchases.  We could have done 10 wine tastings for the cost of our pumpkins, now that's a bargain.

We walked around a little more and decided on Peebody's for dinner.  The food was good and our waitress was very friendly, but the service was a little slow.  We called it an early night after that considering I had to be at work at 4am Sunday.



After work Sunday, it was off to End Zone (they need a better website) to watch the Buffalo Bills beat the Philadelphia Eagles!

Then we went to Trevor's moms house for a birthday celebration for his brother Jeremy.  It was great to spend some time with the family!!


Overall great weekend.

Days until Disney: 6!!!!

4-1!!!

If you read our Blog regularly, you know how Happy we are right now ...

The Bills Won!!! 
4-1!! 

pic

Overall, we had a great weekend!! Pumpkin Picking, mini wine tasting, football and family ♥

Lots to blog about, but not tonight.  Work at 4am = an exhausted girl!! 

xoxxo

Fiancé

fi·an·cé

   [fee-ahn-sey, fee-ahn-sey]  Show IPA

noun

a man engaged to be married. Synonyms:  future groom, futurehusband, future spouse, betrothed.

via 

Is it weird that we hate the word Fiancé?? Now that we are engaged, we feel the obligation to introduce each other as "my Fiancé." We hate it!  It is such an awkward word coming out of our mouths.  Can we please just be married to we can refer to each other as husband and wife?

Fiancé sounds so snobish.  

Like a pinky up

via

Poodle owning 

via

SNOB!!! 

We are sure most people don't feel like this, but we are weird.  We sat here tonight and tried to call each other "Fiancé" and it was just uncomfortable.  

Anyone else feel like this after they got engaged?? 

xoxxo

What NEEDS to happen on Wednesday!

I have off every Wednesday, sometimes I get a lot done and sometimes not so much.  Tomorrow needs to be a "get a lot done day."

1. Gym - got to get ready for this wedding.  YMCA here I come.  Trevor and I have been lazy so far this week, tomorrow needs to happen!!

2. Pick up our Disney packets from the travel agent!! We are going to Disney in 2 weeks!!! We can't wait, but I am not excited about driving 40 minutes to pick up a packet on my day off :( RUDDDEE!

3. Laundry and Clean.

4. Take care of this wall:

please excuse the really crappy iphone picture

To get it to look more like this:

via

Trevor is about ready to rip down these construction paper squares.  Almost every morning he stares at this wall and tells me how much he loves the pictures.  Thank you smart ass, I know I have been  neglecting this project! 

I HAVE to order some pictures and also make this:

Thank you Pintrest 

5. I am thinking about making these with the rest of my scrabble tiles:

via

I am not a huge fan of magnets, but Trevor 

loves them and at least this is cute :)

6. Make a yummy dinner for my love before he gets home from work - Shrimp over Green Beans, healthy and delicious. 

7. Make appointments to go look at wedding venues before my sister wedding planner yells at me.  Anyone know of great venues in the Saratoga Springs area?? 

Sometimes I just HATE productive days off. 

Family Weekend

We spent the weekend in Newburgh and besides the Bills losing (sad) we had an awesome time!!

Friday night we just stayed in with the parents and caught up.  Mom and I were loving some Blackstone Merlot (as usual) and the boys were enjoying Sam Adams Octoberfest.  We went to bed at 3:30am!! Ekk!! Bad idea when the guys had to move my brother at 9:30.

Saturday was a chill day, lots of relaxing, naps and watching this cute little guy.

Our nephew, Ethan!!

Saturday night KJ an Joe came over and hung out with us, my parents, Ryan Drunk Ryan and CJ.  

It was an awesome weekend!! Can't remember the last time my whole family was sleeping in the same house!  It was a little bit of a circus, 8 people, 3 dogs and a baby.  Overall, GREAT weekend with the fam!! We are so lucky to have an amazing family.  Love you!! 

xoxxo