A Cheesy New Year To You!

We celebrated the new year by hanging out with friends, playing games, and eating delicious food, including one of my favorites, cheese!

I had an assortment of cheeses already bought and realized that a new years eve party was the perfect time to eat them! Zach does not like cheese, so I have to find opportunities to share my cheesy bounty with other people that enjoy them as much as I do.

I also tried gooseberries for the first time and brought those, sliced baguettes, and walnuts. Our hosts provided the delicious jams and assorted cheesecakes! Yum!

Not pictured: white chocolate cereal mix, hot sausage dip, sodas, various flavored sparkling cider/juices, guacamole, and chips. So, so good! It was one of those nights where you are kind of full, but everything is so yummy that you want to keep eating.

Brie, goat cheese (with jam), smoked Gouda, and candied apricot cheese. Mmmm. 

We had such a great time making new friends while playing games and chatting. All the kids loved running around upstairs and playing until it was time for bed and we shuffled them all to different corners of the house to sleep while we continued parting it up downstairs until midnight while watching the countdown on TV. 

It has been so good to make friends and find people to spend time with here in our new home. I only wish we got together more often! If anyone loves cheese and/or games, let me know and we will invite you over!

Happy new year, 2015!

New Year's Eve: In Holland

We were so lucky to be invited to an annual New Years Eve party that our new friends host every year. This year the country they chose for the theme was Holland.

In traditional Holland fashion, it was also a costume party! I pulled out our costume boxes and we whipped up these costumes for the entire crew.

Via the photo booth.
Chinese girl, Olympian, Frenchman, Prom Queen, Supergirl, & Mexican

Snowman contest: Boyd and Andrew

The winning team!

Boyd and Andrew were good sports, and had many fan club members by the end of the night. 

Nice hat/ears on this snowman.

A worthy adversary in the snowman contest.

"Midnight" balloon release! 

Hearing all about the traditions of Holland.

Pure joy to find the treats left behind in her shoe.

Trying to nurse an orange.

Lucy congratulating Clara, who won 2nd place in the kids costume contest. The Dragon won first.

The Adult costume contest participants. I won, and Boyd was runner up. 

Lucy's prize for participating in the costume contest. 

Finishing off the night right with fireworks! 

It was great to have a fun family activity to go to on New Years Eve.  I hope we get invited again next year!




What fun traditions do you do for New Years Eve? I'm always looking for new ideas!

Thanksgiving 2013: Reunion

Originally for Thanksgiving we had planned on having some friends come visit and stay with us in our new house. Unfortunately, we had to cancel because we hadn't even moved in until a few days before!

Thankfully we received a few dinner invitations locally and were able to go visit with my old roommate Marianne, and her husband Brian, (who had been my brother Boyd's roommate), and Marianne's brother and his wife and kids who were so gracious to host the Thanksgiving dinner at their home.

The dinner was amazing, and the company was even better.

We were so grateful that David & Elise invited us! It was so great to see everyone and catch up after not having seen them for several years.

The best picture I could find of us with all our girls. Ha!

My loves!

The kidlets. 

Searching for deals and planning Black Friday excursions.

Love, love, love this girl!

Clara's head was a good support for standing apparently.

Baby besties hanging out under the swing.

Kid wrangling. 

I am so, so glad that we were able to meet up again after all this time. Lucky for us they only live a few hours away now. Let's not wait another six years before seeing each other again!


Here's to living closer to friends and family!

Pinterest Party: The Mother Huddle

This picture was from a Pinterest Party I was invited to hosted by my new church friend. I had so much fun! Thanks for the invitation, Aubrey!

For more information and details see her post here.

Benefit Lash Bash: Ladies Night

Oh my goodness party-time. My friend Natalie won a contest to host a Benefit Lash Bash makeup party through her Ipsy subscription. We were so excited to help her and attend!

We took a ton of photos in an attempt to help her win the next section of the contest, and she did! She won a gift card for Benefit makeup.

As a Lash Bash hostess, Benefit makeup sent her an amazing prize package filled with giveaway goodies for all her guests and a few full-sized makeup products for everyone to try out and for her to keep!

Hostess prizes

Full size products to sample and for the hostess to keep!

We also enjoyed some delicious mocktails (nonalcoholic mixed drinks). My favorite was sprite, grenadine, pineapple juice, and vanilla syrup mixed with ice and served with a pineapple slice and cherry!

Natalie made a delicious Caprese Dip. So yummy, and so easy! (Recipe to come!)

Having a fun time with the ladies!

So cute!

Having a little too much fun with the ladies!

My ladies!

All the free makeup!

So, so fun.




Okay, let's finish it off with some makeup.

Um, cutie!

Thanks so much for inviting me Natalie! I had a blast with all these fabulous ladies!

Besties for life.