Chickens and Worms…the latest project…

My family has always been odd. And when I say odd, I mean AWESOME. Ashley has been talking about wanting chickens forever! She keeps chatting with me about having fresh eggs. So she happens to mention it to my mom and dad and 2 weeks later we have a chicken coop being built!

Dad has done much more work since this photo. I will update you when I go home again. The chicken butt hut will hold 10 hens, but I think we will start with four. Dad has built this with all scrap lumber AND the chickens will enjoy double paned windows. Such lucky hens.

He other fun project dad is working on is to make worm homes. Doug and I bought Ashley a worm composter for her birthday and the whole family has gotten excited about having worm beds. Actually, our worm sensei is my Aunt Gina. She is the worm-head, but anyway we now have thousands of worms.

Here are all the worm houses in a row:

 

An open worm house (you have to keep them moist) and worm castings:

This worm house is my personal favorite! It is made from an old bath tub. My dad is so resourceful!

Before you ask..NO! The worms are not to feed the chickens! The worms are for great dirt and to help populate the world with worms. They already have lots of babies in the boxes!

So now we will have eggs and dirt! I think I know what I am getting for Christmas!

Love and Hugs, Lizzie

Thanksgiving, Take Two (but in H-town on a Sunday)

The week before we went to Memphis, we had a Thanksgiving celebration with my family.

Doug and I helped my mom make the official Thanksgiving dinner. Well, mainly Doug just made silly faces. He has some adversity to taking normal photos…

He was grating mozzarella for a new dish! It was leek and mozzarella casserole. It was very delicious and we made it gluten free, of course!

I assisted in the making of the leek mozzarella dish:

Mom and Doug made the turkey. She is famous for her delicious turkey. I think it has something to do with the roasting bag. She is not a baste-r… (Mom informed me yesterday we did not leave enough left overs of the turkey and she actually cooked ANOTHER one so dad could make his turkey, mayo, cranberry and a pinch of salt sandwiches. What a lucky man.)

After dinner we decided to put up our traditional family tree.

Then we decided to surprise Mom and put up her childhood Christmas tree. The learning curve was steep, as we had it completely the wrong way! Once we figured out how to make it look like tree, we were good. We set it up and Mom just recently decorated it (in all red).  

Since Ashley was still not tired, she cleaned Alex’s salt water fish tank…

while Alex watched…

Overall, a successful, yummy and busy Sunday Thanksgiving.

Mom, thank you for cooking Thanksgiving for us and being generally awesome!

Love and Hugs, Lizzie

Thanksgiving in Memphis!

We had the great honor of visiting Jenni, Craig, Tom, DJ, and Steve in Memphis! They cooked an amazing spread! We ate like kings (and queens)!

Hats off to our amazing chefs: Steve, DJ and Jenni!

It was a relaxing and wonderful weekend. We have so much to be thankful for!

Thank you again to our wonderful hosts! We LOVED coming to see you guys. See you soon!

Love and Hugs, Lizzie

Thanksgiving Break

This is just a little notice to let you know I will be taking off from the blog for Thanksgiving Break. We will be spending Thanksgiving with family and will share the details next week.

Take time to catch up if you wish.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love and Hugs, Lizzie

MY DRESS IS ON THE MOVE!

My dear friend, Amanda, is currently flying around the country with my WEDDING DRESS! You heard it right folks, Amanda is working and transporting my wedding dress.

Amanda picked up the dress on Wednesday in Baltimore. She spent Thursday working all over the country and will end up in New Orleans later today with the dress!

In the past 48 hours, my dress will have been in Baltimore, Raleigh, Orlando, Albuquerque, Houston, Nashville and New Orleans!

VIP Bag:

(That thing takes up an entire overhead bin…sheesh)

Amanda, thank you so much for transporting the HUGE dress. Seriously, you have 3 other bags AND my dress. (Not to mention the heaviest food bag of all time with you.) You are a rockstar!!! Love you girl!

I have some seriously amazing friends!!

Love and Hugs, Lizzie

The Fall in NY–real Fall colors

While at the wedding blogged about for the past two days, Doug and I got to see some of the fall colors and the capital building in New York! It was beautiful (and cold)!

The Capital of NY (from Courtney and Kenny’s room):

Up close:

Real Fall colors:

Shenanigans on a statue:

(The tent city behind us was the Occupy Albany movement.)

Fun times:

Love and Hugs, Lizzie

Jackie + Pat = MARRIED, Part II

Did you think I would not show you any photos of the reception? I would not do that to you! Jackie chose a Fall/Autumnal theme. It was so beautiful. She did such a great job.

Their wedding cake complete with Jackie and Pat bobble heads. Her shoes on the cake topper actually matched her real wedding shoes!

The table number markers! Notice the wood under the cake and they used as the table number markers. So clever!

The wedding space with Doug Brown (and Mr. David) in it:

Here comes the newly married couple!

YAY MARRIED!!

The birthday girl/bridesmaid, Courtney and Kenny:

They did have a photo booth that Doug and I took about 100 ridiculous pictures in. I am sure those will surface at some point. 

After dinner we danced until midnight! It was such a fun wedding!! Again, Jackie and Pat did such a great job, not to mention all the work Jackie’s family did.

Congrats Pat and Jackie! We are so honored to be invited and to witness your wedding. We love you very much.

Love and Hugs, Lizzie

 

Jackie + Pat = MARRIED!

This past weekend, two dear friends were married in Albany, New York. Doug and I decided this was a wedding we were not willing to miss!

We flew to Albany Friday and arrived in time to attend the rehearsal dinner at Brown’s Brewery. The company was wonderful and the weather was very chilly (around 32 degrees). We had the pleasure of driving the almost married couple to the rehearsal dinner and then were joined by dear friends at the brewery for some revelry.  We were excited to visit with Courtney, Kenny, Mr. David, and Ms. Gay for most of the rehearsal dinner.

The next day was the wedding!! We got there early to get great seats as for pictures and to view the fantastic ceremony.

The church was very different from any Catholic Church I had seen before. There were no pews in the front of the church. Also, Jackie  and Pat were not married on the alter. They were married on the same level as all the guests. Very cool.

They actually got to kiss twice! Once right after the vows:

And once they were presented before the exited (get him Jackie!):

Mr. and Mrs. Pat Welker!! (Love that smirk on Jack’s face!)

We had such a lovely time. I will share more pictures from the trip as the week goes on!

Love and Hugs, Lizzie