Halloween

This Halloween was not very exciting.  We decided we weren't going to hand out candy.  Instead, we bought a bag of our favorite candy, turned off all the lights, pretended we weren't home, snuggled on the couch watching Hocus Pocus and ate our Halloween candy.

It's not that we don't like kids.  I actually really enjoy seeing all the children in their costumes.
But Yadi and Vino make Halloween very difficult.  Last year, they were still pretty small (Yadi only 50 pounds and Vino only 30 pounds) so it was easy for Nick to hold them as I handed out candy.  This year, at 85 and 55 pounds, they have a lot more strength.  They looooooove children so it'd be very difficult to hold them back each time the door bell rang.
Just locking them in a bedroom would have resulted in a busted down door or claw marks alllllll over the door.
Crating them would have resulted in lots and lots of whiney and howling and complete loss of sanity on Nick and my part.
We could have sat outside on the porch and handed it out, but last year, we didn't get many kids and we  went long periods between kids so we didn't want to sit outside all that time.
It just wasn't worth it so we had our own Halloween locked inside and we really enjoyed it!

Plus, this was the perfect excuse for me to finally see Hocus Pocus.  I have never seen the movie in its entirety.  I've caught the beginning, then the end, then parts of the middle.  But I've never seen the movie from start to finish.  I heard it's a Halloween classic so we opted for that.  I will admit, I think this is a movie you have to see when you're very little to appreciate it.  Seeing it for the first time at the age of almost 28, I didn't get the hype over it lol.  Don't hate me, but you have to recognize the horrible acting!  I didn't hate the movie but I was expecting the most spectacular Halloween movie ever!  Either way, I'm happy I've finally seen it and think I'll add it to your "Fall Bucket List" to watch each Halloween season.

Yadi and Vino were lucky this year because they didn't get costumes.  It was difficult to find something to fit Yadi because she's so tall and long.  Even XL's were too small.  And we weren't going to torture Vino if Yadi wasn't going to be tortured as well.  So we opted for Halloween bandanas they wore all week and snapped a few photos of the girls in their Halloween headbands.

Halloween Party

Nick and I came back early from Alabama (my mom didn't leave until Sunday night) on Saturday afternoon to attend our Halloween Party.

We left much later than we expected so I was running short on time to prepare something to take to eat. I didn't want to show up empty-handed so I headed over to the ever so wonderful Pinterest and searched my "Appetizers and Snacks" board.  I scrolled through looking for something that would be quick and easy to make.  About halfway down in my board I saw a picture of a dip with a caption that said "Quick and Easy Recipe".  BAM! Done deal!  We stopped at a store and I ran inside and grabbed the 6 ingredients.

When we got home, I whipped up the dip, threw it in the oven, did my makeup (I showered and did my hair in Alabama so don't go thinking I'm gross and dirty) and put on my costume.  I was completely shocked that Nick and I were able to make a dish for the party as well as get ready in just 45 minutes!

We went as BUDDY AND JOVIE!!!!!

If you know me at all, then you know I love the movie "Elf".  Love is actually an understatement.  I'm obsessed with it.  As are my siblings and cousins and many other family members.  It's a movie I find perfectly acceptable to watch any day of the year.  I don't think you need to wait for Christmas season.  That being said, "Elf" is the movie we watch while we Dickens kids decorate our parents Christmas tree on Thanksgiving weekend.  And then I watch it about once a week until Christmas rolls around.
Yep, that obsessed.  Anytime I hear someone say "10am" I then say "10am tomorrow!"  I quote the movie all the time..."That's ridiculous"  "You sit on a throne of lies"  "You don't smell like Santa.  You smell like beef and cheese."  "SANTAAAAA!" and so on.  Call me crazy but it really is a fantastic movie!!!!!

I saw a Buddy the Elf costume a few years ago and have wanted to go as Buddy and Jovie ever since then.
Nick was totally not on board with this idea.  He wanted me to dress as a slutty...anything.  I was not on board with that.  But I batted my eye lashes and said "pleeeeeasseeee".  Didn't work.  He isn't a sucker for that =/    So then I said "What if instead of green leggings under my skirt with elf shoes, I wear thigh highs or fish nets and heels?"  That sealed the deal.  TMI but that's Nick's weakness....thigh highs or fish nets.

I found Nick's costume for more than half off store price on eBay so I ordered it just 5 minutes after he agreed.  They sell a Jovie costume but this is what they sell:

I didn't want this costume.  Jovie only wears this at the VERY end of the movie for all of maybe one minute.  I wanted to go with the green and red Gimbel's employee elf uniform.  She wears that for a good portion of the movie, much longer than the one minute clip at the end in the pink and red dress.  Plus I could put that together for much less than I could buy the red and pink dress for.

Unfortunately, the green thigh highs or green fish nets were a no go.  Finding just a normal kelly green color in any form of hosiery was impossible.  From the end of September until a week before the party I searched everywhere.....all the stores in the area, Halloween stores online, lingerie stores online, costume places online, etc.  Nothing.  I bought white thigh highs with Rit fabric dye.  Fail.  They soaked in the dye bath for 3 hours and never got darker than a light green.  Then after rinsing they were aqua.  Fail!  Nick found some that looked promising....until the arrived and they were hunter green.  Seriously.  This is what arrived.

The striped ones were the only ones in that kelly green color.  They were the only ones that were close enough.  I didn't want striped.  Mainly because I had no white on my costume but at least they looked elf-ish.

So, the costume wasn't what Nick or I originally wanted but I loved it and was pleased with it!!!

We snapped a few quick pictures before leaving for the party

The party was a lot of fun and for my super quick dip, everyone loved it!!!!!  I'll post the recipe tomorrow.  There's really not much to say other than I had a GREAT time so I'll just post pictures.  That's what most people care about anyway.

I was super happy with our costumes and I cannot thank my husband enough for giving in to my obsession and going as Buddy.  He was less than thrilled with the idea so I truly appreciate it.
This was our first Halloween ever spent together and it was my first time going in couple's costumes!  I would say it was definitely the perfect and BEST first Halloween costume we could have ever had!!!  (I'm sure Nick would disagree lol).  But I sure was one happy elf!!!


I hope you all enjoy your Halloween festivities and if you have little ones, I'm jealous that you have adorable kids to dress them up and trick-or-treat.  If any of my friends here want some company with their little ones, I'd love to join and live vicariously through you ;)  (Yes, my baby fever is still in full throttle.)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!

Mom's Vacation to Alabama

This past week I had the opportunity to spend a week with my mother and sister in Alabama (where my sister lives).

My sister's birthday was back in August.  Her boyfriend (whom she lives with at Ft. Rucker) decided to fly my mother out to visit for a week for her birthday.  Unfortunately the timing wasn't right and my mom couldn't take off work for her birthday to come that week.  After comparing schedules at her work, with my sister, and I, we decided the last week in October was the best.

We had a great time!!!!  Our days were spent shopping, indulging in Enterprises' finest eats, crafting, making new recipes, and drinking tasty adult beverages.

Mom arrived Sunday and Nick and I met them halfway between Pensacola and Enterprise and off we went back to Alabama!  We spent the rest of the day just hanging out.  We went shopping for some groceries and watched the Cardinals game.  Then we ended the evening on the patio, around the firepit making s'mores.

Monday we headed downtown.  Downtown is really just a few blocks of cute unique shops and places to eat.  We first headed to All About Art, which is one of those places where you can paint pottery/ceramics, canvases (you can host canvas painting parties), and they also have mosaic art you can do.  After much indecisiveness, I decided to join my mother and sister and do the mosaic art.  And because we're all winos, we decided to make wine glasses for our houses.

Afterwards, we met Kyle at this hole-in-the-wall diner, Annie's.  It has the most amazing, greasy food!!!!  It reminds me a place you'd see on 'Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.'

We then headed home for more drinking (wine) and watching the Cardinals lose the NLCS (more on that later).

Tuesday we headed back downtown for some shopping.  They have a lot of super cute stores with really unique decor, jewelry, clothes, etc.  Definitely not the type of stuff you'd find in a mall.  One of our favorites was the The Shoppe on Main.  I encourage you check out their site.  They had some amazing Christmas decor!!!  They also had some super cute jewelry and I snagged these adorable earrings consisting of my favorite fall colors!

We also hit up a consigment shop.  I found a GORGEOUS red formal gown I wanted soooo badly for the next formal event that rolled around, but like always, the dress was too short.  Even standing barefoot, the dress was 3 inches off the ground.  Tall girl problems =/  Mom had some good luck though!  She found an adorable dress for Mike and Alex's wedding and some sweaters.  At the Thrift Store, Leah found some awesome entertaining serving dishes that will greatly help her out since she's hosting Thanksgiving at their house with Kyle's family.  We also hit up another super unique store and scored some alcoholic mixes called 'Bitch Bags with Attitude'.  We got the Bitchy Blueberry-Pom, Dirty Bitch Cocoa-Tini, and Peach Bellini Vino Innovations.  You just mix each with the type of alcohol is recommends and freeze it!
The Blueberry-Pom & Peach VERY delicious!!!  I'm usually not a fan of Blueberry things but this did not taste like blueberry, but instead like heaven in your mouth! 

Then we headed to Cupcakes Y'all, the most adorable little bakery.  We ordered lunch: delicious paninis with amazing tortilla soup and pasta salad. 

After lunch on the patio, we went back in and ordered 8 cupcakes:  {two} Death by Chocolate, {two} Mocha, Key Lime Pie, Red Velvet, Vanilla, and Cream Cheese Poundcake.  Oh.my.goodness.  I cannot describe how delicious these jumbo cupcakes were!!!  Especially the Mocha.  It was the perfect blend of espresso and chocolate in both the cake and the frosting!!!

Then it was home for dinner, drinks, and lounging.

On Wednesday we woke up and slowly got ready for the day.  When Kyle came home from work, we all headed to Milky Moo's for lunch.  Their specialty is ice cream but after our delicious lunch of soups in bread bowls, we were way too full for ice cream.  We decided we'd venture back there one evening this week for ice cream. 

After lunch Kyle headed home for some gaming without interruption while we girls headed to Dothan, the closest town with real stores.  We needed to hit up Hobby Lobby and Michaels for some craft supplies for our craft day the next day.  Being women, we also couldn't pass up Ross and TJ Maxx.  We each left with some good finds, while spending very little money.

Little girls sweater!!!  Ivory and navy blue paired with navy blue leggings

I have these in black and they are my absolute favorite boots ever.  I've been searching for four years for them in brown but never found them.  Until today.  For only $20!!!!!

Then we headed home and walked into the house to the wonderful scent of our chicken taco chili in the crockpot.  There's nothing better than walking in the door after a long day of shopping and just being able to stuff your face with dinner.  No preparing or cooking!  Crockpots are the best!  And with it being perfect weather, we ate outside on the patio.

After dinner we began making hot cocoa on the stove.  Once it was ready, we added Mocha Kahula and made ourselves what we call 'Dirty Hot Cocoa' and headed outside.  We enjoyed an evening of lots of laughs and inappropriateness around the fire pit while enjoying our drinks.  It was the perfect end to the day.

On Thursday we just a had a day at home.  We crafted, dyed hair, and watched lots of our favorite channel, HGTV.

That evening we all went out to a Japanese Hibachi grill.  I loooooove these restaurants because the food is sooooo good and I love watching them cook it all with all the fun tricks and whatnot they do.  The only downfall is that it's waaaayyyy too much food for me.   With my cancer surgery, one third of my stomach was removed.  My stomach has stretched quite a bit since then, but it's still not where it was pre-surgery.  Because of this, I can't eat huge meals.  So when I visit a Hibachi grill, I end up taking more than half of my food home.  Good thing I like leftovers!

After we got home, we watched more HGTV and indulged in the last of our cupcakes and our peach wine mix we bought until it was time for bed.

Friday we woke up and got ready and headed out.  Mom and Leah got pedicures while I ran to Wal-Mart and walked around a pet store (I can't help it, I'm obsessed with dogs!).  I opted out of the pedicures because I had already spent more than I should have on this trip.  My mother kept insisting she would pay for it and had planned to pay for our pedicures all along but I couldn't let her.  She had already paid for so much with some of the groceries, lunches, dinners, etc.  I am less than a month away from being 28 years old and I don't want my mom paying for things for me.  I can be responsible and realize I've spent my "fun money" from our budget and that's it.  On top of that, I wanted red toe nails for my Halloween costume, but don't want red after that.  So I didn't want to pay for red polish to just remove it after the party on Saturday.  I know my mom was sad but it gave her and Leah some time alone together, which was the entire reason my mom was down here....for Leah's birthday.

After the pedicures, we went back to this store JoJo's in downtown and I bought a bib necklace and earrings set.  I love bib necklaces but have none!!!!  I couldn't stop thinking about this one I saw and I even dreamt about it!  It wasn't all that expensive ($26 plus 10% military discount) and it would be perfect with the black dress I'm wearing for Nick's cousin's wedding next month.  Not to mention I love supporting small businesses.  So I bought it and I'm in love with it!!!  I love the pop of color it gives the outfit too.

We then went home and crafted some more.

Nick was getting out of class at 4:30pm, going home to get the dogs, then driving the two hours to Enterprise.  We expected him around 7:30-8:00.  But at 5:15pm, we're sitting in the living room and I hear a bark and thought "Hmm, that sounds like my crazy ass Weim."  Sure enough, my little family had arrived early!!!  Nick got out of class early and didn't tell us.  I was so happy to be reunited with my puppies!!!  And boy was Yadi happy to see me!  (I'm surprised she doesn't die of anxiety when I'm gone with her unhealthy obsession with me).

now THAT'S a happy dog!

told ya....crazy!

We ate dinner and then headed out for ice cream at Milky Moo's.  We took our dogs because Nick didn't bring their crates and they can't be left to roam free (well Vino can but we crate her because Yadi would go CRAZY (moreso than she already does) if she saw Vino out and she was locked up).  We sat outside eating ice cream and it brought back so many memories of when Yadi was 50 pounds lighter and sooo much smaller and we'd have family nights out in Annapolis.  We'd walk around downtown Annapolis and get ice cream and everyone would gawk over our dog.  And the same thing happened this night.  The two couples outside just loved the pups.

you can put pins where you're from

(Nick was more concerned with getting the witch hat on my head (unbeknownst to me) than making sure my eyes were open)

When we got back home, we drank some wine and sat around the fire.  For a perfect last night with my family.

Saturday morning we all sat on the patio enjoying the warm morning sun.  We spent the rest of the afternoon just lounging around, enjoying out last few hours together, and watching the pups get in some last minute play time.

Vino loving her attention from her "grandma"

The girls, minus Vino who I'm sure was in the yard doing her Dora the Explorer thing, like always.

I am so happy Kyle offered to fly my mother down to Alabama.  And I'm happy my sister didn't mind me crashing their fun this past week.
I truly value my time with my family.  I miss my mother like crazy but I'm lucky.  It sucks to miss her but I'm blessed to have a mother like her that I do miss.
Not a day goes by that I don't realize how fortunate I am for my relationship with my mother.  Not all mothers and daughters are as close as we are.  Mom is truly my best friend and I don't know what I'd do without her.  I most definitely do not see her as often as I'd like (let's be honest, I wish I could see her every week) but I am very, very fortunate because I get to see her quite a bit given this lifestyle we have.  I saw her in August when I went home for three weeks, I just saw her for a week, I'll see her again for a week over Thanksgiving, and I'll be home again for Christmas.  I know I won't always be this lucky so I definitely make sure to cherish every second.  And when I get upset over living away from home, I just remember that some don't have a family like mine with more love and support than anyone could ever wish for.  I truly, truly am blessed.


Kyle, thanks for Leah's birthday gift ;)
Leah, thanks for letting me spend the week with you.
Mom, thanks for coming to visit, letting me crash your week with Leah, paying for all you did, and for loving me!!!