Showered - Part #1

Back in September, I had my first baby shower for Baby Snider (who hopefully will be making his arrival any day now!).  My amazing sister hosted at Forty Five Ten T Room in Dallas.  Ever since she planned her own wedding in 2012, she has just had a knack for all of the little special details.  To top it off, she's an incredibly talented photographer.  She gave me such a gift in that she photographed, edited and sent me all of the below pictures which I'll cherish forever!!

It was such a neat experience to celebrate Tim and I's first child with all of my childhood friends.  Almost everyone at the shower I've known for at least 15+ years and most of them watched me grow up!  I'm normally not super emotional, but even I couldn't help tearing up when I looked around the table.  I'm blessed to have such life long friends in my life and this was an event I'll never forget!

Thanks to everyone for also conveniently wearing blue!  :)  Love everyone in this pic!!

Arrivals!  Cameron even drove in from San Antonio!

You can see what I mean about Pam being great at all the details - I had zero input into the shower (just how I like it) and Pam came up with some extremely personal touches.  She knows I love to read and Tim loves to hunt plus our nursery colors are grey, white and blue.  Pam's best friend Laura drew the above picture of the books and each of the guests signed with their own "title."  I just had this framed and will have to put a finishing pic up from the nursery.  Everyone filled out their wishes for Baby Snider which I had fun reading later.  My lovely mother misread a bit and thought it was wishes for me, so she hopes that baby (boy) Snider is the best mom ever!  :)  Everyone got to take home a bookmark which said "Children are made readers on the laps of their parents."

A gathering without desserts is just a meeting!  Super cute desserts - mini cupcakes, cake with deer and "cute as a button" cookies

Some of the decor - the hanging items are vintage books!!!

Love getting to see everyone!

Me & my mom

Friends since kindergarten!  Cameron & I

Obligatory awkward selfie

Writing wishes

Wonderful friends

Feeling him kick

Bouje girls!

Family - L to R - Sarah (my brother's FIANCE...yay!), me, Mom & Pam (oops...missing my sis-in-law Mary Beth!)

AMAZING Hostess - Love you, Sambo!

Thanks so much to everyone who came and helped make this day so special!!!  Baby Snider is very loved!

Amber & John's Wedding Weekend!

As usual, this post is way overdue...over Memorial Day weekend, Tim and I headed to McKinney, TX for his sister's wedding to John.  I'm sure Jody (Tim and Amber's mom) wonders how both of her Nebraska raised kids ended up falling for Texas folks, but I think she should just consider herself lucky  :)  And they say Texans are arrogant.....

The long weekend started out great on Thursday with me finding out I had received a promotion at work which was fun to get to celebrate with family.  Friday morning we headed to the Allen outlet malls - found a MK purse on great sale - before Amber treated us girls to manis and pedis at one of the nicest nail salons I've seen (seriously...there was an indoor fountain).



All the girls!

Next stop was the rehearsal at Heard-Craig hall.  We did find out that Hollie Cavanagh, "McKinney's American Idol" was holding a concert down the street on Saturday.  Amber had everything planned out and was a great director for the rehearsal!

Their rehearsal dinner was at Randy's White's BBQ - such a good idea!  No waiting for food, just go through the line and pick out whatever you want!  There was also a dessert bar (I limited myself to just two desserts...) and fresh bread!  It was way more food than you could ever eat and very "Texan" if I do say so myself.  Tim & I got to spend some time with John after the dinner which was good - sometimes its hard living so far away! 

Saturday was THE BIG DAY!  Of course, I decided to take a total of ONE picture...didn't even get one of Amber in her dress (which was stunning).  I'll just have to wait to order from the photographer!

The sign hanging in the gazebo, which you can ALMOST make out in the pic above was carved by John's late father (it says The Blacks) and Amber added a few touches.  It was pretty special.  Also, best idea ever....instead of one cake, they had SIX!  There was a groom's cake (complete with a Longhorn groom and Husker bride) plus a separate cake for each of the letters in their last name (B, L, A, C, K if you haven't caught on yet).  Each cake was its own flavor - white chocolate with raspberry, amaretto, spice cake, etc.  My personal favorite was chocolate peanut butter.

Since the wedding was at 1, Amber and John had the great idea to invite everyone to downtown McKinney for dinner and drinks that evening at Churchill's. 

Just one super grainy iphone pic...

I think my favorite thing about a wedding is its reason for so many people to get together - ALL of Tim's aunts, uncles, cousins (plus their kids) were there!  We don't get to see them nearly enough, so its extra special.

Sunday, we headed to John and Amber's for a little gift opening (and munching on some leftover cake...)  John and Amber are hoping to plan a trip to Ireland and so a lot of their gifts were of the $$ kind.  We all got a good laugh when Amber opened a card and I'm assuming didn't want to say "Thanks for the moola," so she paused when telling Jenny (who was writing down the gifts) and said that she had been gifted a....donation.  (At least I'm pretty sure that's what she said, hope I'm not butchering the memory!)  They also got some great kitchen stuff from Jody & Mike's store, some authentic Mexican items from their aunt and uncle who live there and a few other things.  For their gifts to each other, Amber had this huge map framed for John's office which looked great and he got her a new computer!

Tim with his sis & new brother-in-law

So, even though its a month or two late, congrats to John and Amber and thanks for planning such a great weekend for all of us!

CureSearch Walk

Last weekend, we attended the first annual Birmingham CureSearch walk benefiting children's cancer research.  Will & my dad were hoping to be able to make the trip to walk with us, but last minute my dad had some back problems that prevented them from coming - I know they were walking with us in spirit! 

Will to Win team - Joey, Lydia, me, Tim (Thanks guys for coming!)

Lydia & I

The event itself was a success - over $12,000 raised!  Starbucks, Chris Z's and Birmingham Beverage Company provided coffee/breakfast/water for all of the participants and the opening ceremony kicked off around 10:00 on Saturday.  Jim Steiner (the CureSearch representative) lead the ceremony with guest speaker, Dr. Berkow from UAB Children's Hospital.  Jim called up the top three teams who had raised the most $ to date (excluding amounts turned in on walk day) - and I'm proud to report that thanks to all of your generous donations the Will to Win team came in third!  The only slightly embarrassing part was that they made the team captain or the child the team was supporting come and accept a goofy looking hat to wear during the walk.  With Will being a few states away, I had to wear the hat and felt a little silly! :)  Lydia, Joey & Tim made me wear it for one lap and then we passed it to another team....

The ceremony also called up all of the children in attendance who were survivors of childhood cancer and they got to wear a medal.

We also had a moment of silence and remembrance for the families that had lost their child to cancer.  Those families were given a white balloon to release.  That part of the ceremony was really tough and a reminder of the devestating impact of this disease.

The walk itself was about 2 miles (6 laps around the course).  The day could not have been more beautiful - temps in the mid 70s!  Around the course they had a sign for each team, which of course we had to stop and take a picture of our team sign. 

We'll just have to MAKE Will wear the hat :)

 They also have a banner that the teams sign to show the reasons we walk - this will be displayed in Children's Hospital for the next year.

After the walk, they had a prize drawing - we all received a ticket when the walk started and they selected a ticket for several prizes - Tim McGraw autograph, Faith Hill autograph, restaurant gift certificates, etc.  I ended up getting picked for a $50 gift certificate to the Fish Market which was a nice surprise!

Thank you again for your support of the Will to Win team.  I know the walk will continue to grow over the years and we truly are making a difference.  The website (Will to Win!) is still up and running for anyone who wants to make a donation! 

Now....tonight..............GO RANGERS!

Sips for CF & Race for the Cure

Hello blog world!

Last weekend, Tim went to Nebraska for the Ohio St./Nebraska game (which they won..yay!) so I had a nice quiet weekend!  My aunt and uncle were in town for Megan's white coat ceremony at pharmacy school and they stayed with me on Friday night.  Saturday, they went shopping, I went on a run, and we went and got lunch together at Zoe's before they hit the road. I did some shopping myself and overall had a relatively quiet weekend.

Thursday night of this past weekend, Emily Ann, Caroline and I formed a team for the Sips for CF challenge!  The event raises money for cystic fibrosis research and is a lot of fun for the participants.

How it works:

• Each team is required to bring 3 identical bottles of red wine. A team consists of 1 to 3 people.
• When you arrive, all 3 bottles of will be given to the hosts. Two of the bottles will be wrapped to conceal the identity and will be used for tasting. The third bottle will be set aside and used for prizes.
• Each team will be given five votes for the night.
• As your team tastes the wines, you will vote for your favorites. At the end of the night, the votes will be counted, and the teams that brought the top 3 favorite wines will take home everyone’s third bottle of wine.

Our team - ready to taste!

The bottles set out for tasting - there were about 60 different bottles!

We brought McManis Cabernet (which actually only Caroline had tried before). So funny story - we found we didn't like a LOT of the bottles - but there were one or two we really liked.  We heard a LOT of people talking about bottle #17 - we walk over there and it has a TON of tickets in the jar.  We taste it and Caroline thinks it tastes a lot like the one we brought.  We were SO sure it was ours.  We even took a picture - thinking this was going to be IT.  Sure enough...when they start to call out the second place winner....it's #17!  They start reading off the type - the McManis.........merlot.  Are you kidding?  We were so close!  And we all had been snobby talking about how we weren't big fans of merlot in general, but of course, we voted for it!  What a disappointment!

With what we THOUGHT was our bottle  :(

So, we didn't win, but it was fun nonetheless!  We were STARVING after the event - they had some munchies, but none of us had eaten dinner.  We went to Che Fon Fon for dinner...and we may have even snuck over to Highland's next door for some sweet and salty cake which you may or may not remember from my Restaurant Week post.  It was still so good.

Dinner at Che Fon Fon

Impromptu photo shoot!  Pretending we're celebrating!

Ugh...we voted for merlot?!?

Snagged a pic this time...sweet and salty cake...yummmm!

Then, on Saturday, Emily Ann talked me into running my very first race - the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.  The race is a 5-K which I thought would be a good ease in to racing for me.  I have only been running for a little over a year now (but still wouldn't consider myself a "runner") and don't usually run with anyone - I wasn't sure how I would like having lots of people around.

Before the race

Around the corner from the start line - they had Zumba warm-up on the big screen which we elected NOT to particpate in  :)

Fountain dyed pink...sort of hard to tell

We did it!

Surprisingly, I ended up really liking it!  I was skeptical at the start...there were a ton of walkers this year and it was really crowded.  It took us a few minutes to get to the start line and even once we did we were half jogging/half jogging in place just trying to dodge the crowd.  But, after about 1/2 a mile or maybe a little less, it thinned out.  There were a few cheerleading squads along the route that cheered you on which really does give you more energy!  We wanted to finish in under 30 minutes and when we crossed the finish line the clock read 31 something...BUT...we think since we didn't start right on time, we probably met our goal.  Emily Ann has a Nike plus watch and she's going to see what we ended up running once we got out of the pack.  Overall, it was a success and I know they raised a ton of $ for a great cause.  It was emotional to see the runners with the "In Memory of..." and "In Celebration of..." signs on their back to show the women in their lives who had been touched by breast cancer.

Emily Ann is trying to convince me to run the Vulcan 10-K but I'm not so sure - its the day after my b-day!  We shall see...I'll put it out here on the world wide web and maybe I'll feel some blog accountability!  :)

Speaking of charitable events, the Curesearch walk I blogged about earlier is NEXT WEEKEND!  See this post for details about the event:

WILL TO WIN

It's not too late to donate or join our race team!!!

Restaurant Week & AU Event

Whew!  Hard to believe it's already Friday - this week has flown by!  This week was Birmingham's 2nd annual restaurant week - where several of the local restaurants get together and offer usually 3-course meals for a fixed price (in Birmingham's case either $10, $20, or $30).  It's a good opportunity for the restaurants to get some publicity and a good way for customers to branch out and try something new!  You can read more about Birmingham's restaurants here.  I first participated in a restaurant week with my friend, Jill, when we spent the summer after our junior year interning in New York - it was such a fun experience and I was excited to hit up a few spots this week (even if it was not quite so beneficial for my waist-line!)  For Tuesday lunch, I went with a few girls from work to Bottega Cafe where the menu included salads, pizza and cookies & ice cream for dessert (because who doesn't need a 3-course LUNCH).  We were highly disappointed to learn that due to the large demand the ice cream which had to be made on site daily was not available and had to settle for an olive oil cake instead (which sounds about as good as it was).  The pizza and salad were worth the trip, however - I had chicken pesto pizza and saved 1/2 so I could eat it for lunch for two days!  Delicious!  Bottega cafe isn't a new restaurant to me, but can't say I've often gone for a normal work lunch.

On Wednesday, I headed to Auburn after work for an event my Company was hosting which was pretty awesome.  Jay Jacobs, Auburn's athletic director, was the speaker and we got to sit in the room with all of the 2010 trophies (please excuse the picture quality - all I thought to bring was my phone):



BCS National Champions!



Emily Ann & I looking official with the trophy



Okay, couldn't help myself - "holding" the trophy

Heisman Trophy - WAR CAM EAGLE!

More Cam awards - Davey O'Brien Award (best quarterback), Maxwell Award (best all around)

Nick Fairley's Lombardi Award

AP Trophy

On Thursday night, I met Tim and some of his co-workers at Chuy's.  Tim is actually starting a new job next week which we are both excited about, but of course he will be sad to leave.  We had a good time celebrating with them.



Chuy's - GVMG (Mary Beth, you made the blog!  :) )

After Chuys, I headed straight to Highland's Bar & Grill where my friend Caroline had made us a reservation for girls night out.  I have always heard great things about Highland's but for some reason had never tried it and thought Restaurant Week would be the perfect time!  I ordered the chilled corn soup with shrimp and cucumber, the hangar steak with ratatouille and the sweet and salty cake.  The soup was not exactly what I was expecting - the flavors were good (look at me...shouldn't I be a judge on Top Chef or something?!), but the temperature really threw me off - it wasn't just chilled, it was downright COLD - the bowl was chilled, the soup was chilled, my spoon was chilled, etc.  Maybe I just don't have a sophisticated enough palate - there goes my Top Chef dream  :(  Caroline and Emily Ann had the salad and said it was fantastic.  My entree was delicious - the hanger steak you could cut through like butter and it melted in your mouth just as easily! 

Hanger Steak at Highland's

But let me tell you, THE DESSERT.  It was off-the-charts amazing.   I did not have high expectations given the only description was "sweet and salty cake" and given my previous experience with the olive oil cake.  I wish I had snapped a picture for you, but by the time I stopped to breathe from inhaling this deliciousness, only crumbs were left!  The cake had a chocolate base and had the most amazing toffee-like sauce, the closest thing I could find on the internet is probably this:



Sweet & Salty Cake by Martha Stewart - Recipe found here

Just picture the above with a yummy gooey sauce.  Don't worry, I've already pinned that recipe to Pinterest and plan to try sometime soon!

Overall, it was a great week and I'm looking forward to the weekend!

Me, Caroline, Caroline, and Emily Ann at Highlands