excite

I'm no history buff, but thoroughly enjoy all aspects of world history--reading about it, documentaries, and getting to see it :) My very favorite! It's not often that history comes to you, but opening in Dallas in just a few days, is the King Tut Exhibit at The Dallas Museum of Art!

I'm thrilled to say the least! I loved learning about Tut in school, and I'm a dork!

We're taking mom and dad as a treat! Today I found a very good article/review for the exhibit if you're interested! It lasts Oct 3-May 17th I believe...

Bloggy Party!!!!

Okay ladies!!! I drew out of my USS coffee mug, and here's our official Halloween Bloggy Party Buddy List!!

I set it up to where, the buddy you give to, is not the buddy you receive from--that way you interact with TWO buddies! Does that make sense? I hope I didn't confuse anyone...I probably did...

The Pettijohn's gift The Rigdon's

The Rigdon's gift The Neaves'

The Neaves' gift The Hammond's

The Hammond's gift The Sadler's

The Sadler's gift The Brock's

The Brock's gift The Thrasher's

The Thrasher's gift The Jarnagin's

The Jarnagin's gift The Pettijohn's

Please be on the watch for an email from me today with the address for your Halloween Buddy! My goal is for us to all have our gifts sent out by Friday of next wk, giving us all plenty of time to enjoy our sweet Halloween treats!!! If you have yours before then, by all means, send it out as soon as you have it ready! I just figured Friday the 3rd was a good deadline...

Okay, please please let me know if you have any questions! Happy Friday y'all!

mantle

The mantle isn't just for Christmas y'all!! I made it for Halloween too!! This was the only way my husband was going to be okay with feathers in our house :)


I think it turned out super super cute though!! I bought the brown feather boa and two cute pumps, and knew I could do something fun with them! I later bought the ribbon and added the gingham bows to each "peak"...

i'm so excited

and I just can't HIDE it!!!! The grand TX State Fair opens tomorrow night---JR and I are having a date night to the fair, and guess who is opening?!?!?!


Lady Antebellum!!! OH HAPPY DAY!! Here's the full lineup, it's fabulous! Please note, Jessica on the 17th!!! oh yay! What? Will I be there? you asked??!?!?!? Oh geezzz, OfCoUrSe!!!!!

um, and who can forget this wonderous event! ahem!

BOOMER SOONER BABY!

Bloggy Party

Update! We now have 7 blogs in our party :) oh happy day! I'll announce your buddy on Friday!

Okay, we had 6 wonderful blogs interested in the Halloween Bloggy Party!!! YAY!!! We have the following guests:

The Neaves'
The Thrasher's
The Rigdon's
The Jarnagin's
The Brock's
The Hammond's
and us!

I think the easiest way, will be a random drawing to see who gets who--in the meantime would you all please email me your address to natalie.pettijohn@gmail.com!! Tomorrow I will announce your bloggy exchange buddy and then email your home address to your buddy! I don't want to make anyone's address public---yikes.

So get excited for our Halloween Bloggy Party!!! yay! Any cute Halloween treat will do! Something fun you'd like to share with your buddy for Halloween! It can be anything!! Once we have all received our treats, we can post and share :) If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask me! I'm no pro though, ha!

need your help

After perusing several blogs, and it's something I've been wanting to do for awhile now----I would like to set up a Bloggy Halloween Gift Exchange----I've seen several creative blogs host baby shower style, wedding, or HoLiDaY bloggy parties!


I'm not necessarily sure how I would set it up, but if you are a reader, and I really would love to know who you are :) please let me know if you would be interested in participating.

There are several blogs I read via Our Friends, so when I say aaaaanyone that wants in, please!!!! It would be so much fun to exchange holiday goodies and make new friends!! We'll do Halloween first, and if it works then we can advance and ultimately get to Christmas, oh the best.

Please, please let me know if you are interested!! I think it would be awesome to make new bloggy friends and exchange treats!! Don't be shy :)

preparation

This morning in Dallas it was 64 degrees!! yesssssss. What a glorious feeling to feel Fall fast approaching :) Knowing Tx weather, though, I'm sure a few hot ones are still in order before Fall is here to stay...

The crisp morning got me in the holiday mood! Every week I'll start sharing my cute holiday finds!! My most recent holiday purchase is my Halloween sign, bought at Kohl's. I can't find a pic online, so I'll take one and post later. I love me a GOOD bargain, and I can usually find a cute treat for the house during the holiday's at K's--always for a great $$!

Okay, so here's an Etsy find, by designsbyangie! It looks like she may have every state, but I thought this one would be a hit for the Okie lovers, like us!

Mr. Oklahoma Santa ornament, too cute :)

ask, and you shall receive

Stephanie :) You can find those cute lil' pumps below-----here!!!

I linked it to the main page, because there are several others that you may like too...let me know which one you choose!!

cute

How CUTE are these little pumps?! I have these in mind for some sweet lil' pumpkins I know...

date night

allllllll two million of our wedding pictures were delivered today!!! so we may open a bottle of vino tonight and gaze at pictures of ourselves for the evening.....yay!

Still hard to believe 4 months has gone by so quickly, wow.

pumpkin

I just ordered our personalized Halloween cards! The holiday's give me 1,345,768 reasons to personalize and/or monogram something!

oh the joy!

likes

Along with monogramming and such, I have a liking for oilcloth! I first discovered this wipeable beauty with Jen...I think she had a zippered oilcloth pouch of sorts and I loved the material!

I got my mini oilcloth cooler, as a treasured find at Old Navy once, ha.

Alas, I have found others that enjoy the unique look of the oilcloth. Over at Etsy, one of my likes, I found these:

Handmade oilcloth placemats!!!!!! AH! Love! They are custom made, so you get to choose your own colors and prints, come on now. Yesssss.

Wouldn't they make such a great gift too??!

anniversary din-din

Our celebration of life is through food. In honor of our four months as husband and wife, we put aside our meal of parmesan crusted chicken, homemade mashed pots and salad, and instead headed to Snider Plaza :)

We have a few favorites there, Kuby's, a very good German restaurant with a cute side market filled with fresh meats and foreign treats. Peggy Sue's, the closest thing to Nancy's ribs I've been able to find in Texas, and Penne Pomodoro.

Italian, it was. Always a good "anniversary" choice. Snider Plaza is such a neat pocket of the city, the locals always walk around with their strollers and slew of children, and at Penne, there are a few tables outside to enjoy.

The weather was absolutely perfect, so we grabbed the last open table outside and JR got his favorite, Penne Carbonara. It has a very smooth, light, Alfredo sauce with fresh strips of bacon and the bacon flavors the sauce as it is mixed. One of the best pasta dishes in the Big D.

I went with the baked ziti, one of my very faves. It was piping hot, with lots'a cheese, and I had my husband. It was a perfect dinner.

these are a few of our favorite things

The Pettijohn Farm is fresh with these right now! Amazing! These are ma-in-law's Crepe Myrtle's!

Our Okie-Doke



-and ofcourse, some food. I don't have pictures but last Saturday ma-in-law feasted us with my new favorite (ribs still hold fair, but oh my) a delicious beef roast with homemade mashed pots and corn. YUMMMMMM. I can't talk about it too much, or I'll start eating something.

anniversary

don't make us mad

yikes. see this.

moderate

traitor

I said I wouldn't do it---ever.

I'm trying out the iPhone today. Just because.

Let's see if my Crackberry can sway me back...

I don't like having a phone smarter than me.

me and you

miami

We're back, and none too happy to have left the waters of Miami :( It is always good to be home though, and we left our kitties for more than two days for the first time in their kitty lives...and we came back to some angry little beans...mommy and daddy were too busy doing this....

They had resorted back to some sort of kitty primitive state, one without humans, they felt abandoned.

We got a chance to see mom and dad's new abode, and we were left speechless. It is indescribable, and sits right on the water in Sunny Isles Beach. It is perfect for them, made for them, and we were glad to be able to share it with them this wknd. They are 19 floors up, with a view directly of the ocean, and you have the sensation that you are cruising on the water...it is priceless.


JR and I both, love the water, and enjoy so much just being outside and feeling the sand on our feet--the water was very choppy this trip thanks to Gustav (awesome name choice) but that ofcourse would never keep my husband from the water.


Our first night there, we headed down to Coral Gables and mom and dad treated us to some of the best Argentine dining we've ever had at Graziano's. So authentic, even most of the waiters were of my land...delicious wines and a vegetarian's nightmare---ribs, strip steak, sausage galore.

our gracious hosts--ma and pa heff

my sweet husband

Saturday and Sunday were windy and wet from Gustav, so we willingly went to the mall :) A favorite of mine! We shopped mostly for JR, had lunch there with mom and dad and then headed back to the Ocean 4...

That night, the Montaldo's came over with their sweet baby girl, Justina (mom has pics on her camera) they are life-long family friends, and Gonzalo decided to come out and surf the next day at our beach so JR joined in the fun!!!!! My favorite pics to follow------

JR with Gonzo, learning how to surf...

Trying it out for the first time, so hot!

um, yeah.

Greeting my surfer husband :)

HE DID IT!!!!!!! SO AWESOME!!!!

and.....exhausted, like he'd never been before!

with his coach :)

the end of a fantastic trip