Fun in the Fall

 La casa!

 At a friend's Halloween party

 Picking out our fall mum.

 We bought some white mini pumpkins at the pumpkin patch.

 I spray painted these since big white pumpkins were $12 each!

 Michael's office.  Wish the sofa was a pullout for the holidays so more people could stay!

 On one of the hot fall days.  It FINALLY got cold December 12th!

I still LOVE the bedding from Dillards.

Seasons Greetings and a Recipe

With Christmas approaching, we have been very busy decorating the house and yard.  Pictures of the house will be coming soon :) We will be spending our first Christmas as newly weds (sort of!) in Longview and are going to Marshall to celebrate the one year engagement anniversary.

I want to wish everyone a simple, relaxing, and joyful holiday season.  One of the items I'm making is this eggnog from Hungry Girl.  I love this rum extract in it. Enjoy!

Nog Heaven!
	It's BAAA-AACK! We couldn't resist serving up our insanely great eggnog recipe now that the holidays are here again. True, there are a few good packaged nogs out there. First there wasSilk Nog -- great stuff with less than half the calories of regular eggnog. Then along came Vitasoy with Holly Nog -- another delicious, guilt-free version. And while we love those, Hungry Girl's super-easy, make-at-home version has just 88 calories per 8-oz. serving!!! And it is super-thick & creamy and tastes as good as the real thing (trust us -- we've now tested it out on 213 people!). So dust off that blender of yours and go NOG WILD! Ingredients: 5 cups 8th Continent Light Vanilla Soymilk (or another light vanilla soymilk**) 1 small (4-serving) package Jell-O Sugar Free Fat Free Instant Pudding mix, Vanilla 6 no-calorie sweetener packets (like Splenda) 1 tsp. rum extract or imitation rum extract 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg Directions: In a blender, combine all ingredients and blend on high until mixed thoroughly. Refrigerate for a few hours to allow it to thicken. Makes five 1-cup servings! HG Alternative! For some "over 21" eggnog, add 5 ounces of rum to the recipe. With 153 calories and aPOINTS® value of 3* per serving, that's WAY better than an ordinary eggnog cocktail!
	Serving Size: 1 cup (1/5th of recipe) Calories: 88 Fat: 2g Sodium: 350mg Carbs: 11g Fiber: 0g Sugars: 5g Protein: 6g POINTS® value 2*

Honeymoon to Paradise

One of our last nights there.  I was ready to go back after day 6 and Michael could still be there today.

Qatar - Our layover stop.  Pretty sure our mom's had nightmares about us getting lost here.

An island from the plane.

This is my favorite picture.  Every morning, sting rays would swim under the bridge looking for breakfast.

Our first day of snorkling.

Christmas card picture

Every day was overcast part of the day but it only rained two days.

Michael begged and begged for me to do this to him.  Haah~!

One of the snappers Michael caught in the Indian ocean.

We kept waiting for it to open....

Wine and cheese tasting night.

An upset octopus after Michael kept stalking it with his camera.

As if it wasn't perfect already...

Walking back to the villa after dinner.

I was so happy to let Michael plan our honeymoon, that I didn't care about the 30 hour travel time and rain.  It was so great to just sit back, relax, and be married.

Favorite Wedding Pictures

One of the greatest Matron of Honors ever.  

I was so thankful for all of our out of town guests coming down.  The Rutledge's came from California and Virginia, and the Yantz's from Tennesse, North Carolina and Virginia.

Love my Kinz!

Grandma Yantz was telling me how happy she was to have the wedding indoors in August.  I've lived through one too many Texas summers to be that crazy!

English Minter - always helps keep me calm when I'm hyper.

The bridesmaid gifts

Handsome groom and groomsmen.

The dresses looked pink outside and....

....the orange color popped inside.

Rutledge side

Jerebs & the Williams!

Can't wait to try our cake on 8.13.2012

Romisa being so cute here!

Was this before or after the break down... ?

One of the few moments we felt peaceful and calm.

I'm finally getting around to blogging the wedding!  Here's a few of my favorites from the rehearsal dinner to the big night.  Thank goodness for Mallory Williams, my MOH, being there with her camera at all times! First the bridesmaid luncheon at Roseville Bed and Breakfast on Friday a.m. then the rehearsal dinner at Tyler Street Bistro Friday night. Finally, the wedding at First Baptist Church on Saturday and reception at Arabella Manor.

Inspiration Boards for Our Wedding

After the engagement pictures, wedding planning really began.  This was so difficult since I was living in Dallas and my mom and Barbara were in Longview.  I began by looking at so many websites/magazines and getting ideas and DIY crafts, since Michael had convinced me we were getting married in 2015.  I hadn't starting dreaming about the wedding yet! So here are some of my inspiration boards for our wedding.

                                           We made our save the dates on Adobe with this template.

                                                   I loved the coral fabric samples at the bottom!

                             This is the picture I showed my stylist at Salon PINK for the rehearsal dinner.

                                          Trevor, Jennifer and Mallory on the day I bought the dress.

                                               Loved the coral bridesmaid dresses here.

                                          It was too late for coral peonies, so we used huge coral garden roses.

             I saw decorations from Iron Inspired in Longview at a Bridal fair and thought they would be perfect.

~ Actual wedding pictures to come! ~