Merry Christmas from the middle east!

The cutest little elf in the world wants to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!!

Matt and i are having an amazing time visiting friends here in the middle east. Roman has definitely been the highlight of my mornings, as i have been helping Blair so she can get a little sleep. We had an amazing time in Lebanon and an unbelievable experience in the Chicago airport for 24hrs. I will definitely blog about that later. For now, we want to wish everyone a very merry christmas! we miss all of our family & friends in america but are so thankful to be able to celebrate with such special friends:) i'll try to update the blog as much a possible.

Love to all!

thanksgiving shoot with amy and brian

since i have gotten more and more involved in the photography world, everywhere i go i am looking for places with photo-shoot potential. i love my grandmothers house for all the memories we have there but i have just now taken an interest in all the rustic scenery in the back yard. i only had a few minutes get some shots of amy and brian back there so expect more eventually... but until then, here are a few of my favorites. :)

The Middle East in a week!

one WEEK from today Matt and I leave for the Middle East!! We are going so see J&B and some of my closest friends in Lebanon. i am beyond excited! i am not really ready in that i have not packed one bit or even finished my christmas shopping for the trip, but i can't wait to be there. Our first stop will be in Beirut- my former home- oh, to be surrounded the fashion and people. the busy city streets. i might even be excited about the traffic. i get the joy of staying with my oh so hilarious friend & former roommate.... all i really want to do is spend time with these friends that i have missed SO much since i left. and they get the meet matt! i hope they approve since the wedding is just over 3 months away.... yay!

then we are headed to the home of some of our closest friends in the world. thinking about seeing them when we get off the plane makes my eyes tear up a little. that might have something to do with the fact that since i last saw them, their family has increased by a precious one:) Roman to be exact. Cannot wait to meet that sweet baby. the last time i was there all we did was talk- i can imagine this trip will be much the same and i can't wait. love them so much:)

but until we leave i have LOTS to do. i have a long list of wedding tasks that i would love to get finished before we leave, Christmas shopping and wrapping, celebrating early Christmas with all our fam, packing our stuff, packing all the packages sent.... etc etc etc. whew. we can do it. Thus, the reason i have not been able to update the blog (i am literally making myself update now).

And b/c every post has to have a few pictures: here is a few from thanksgiving. turned out to be such a great day:) i did get a pretty nasty burn on my wrist but i call it my battle scar from making my first turkey. oh yeah.

1 cent thanksgiving

i have never been a huge fan of the Thanksgiving holiday. i think mainly b/c there are no presents and i never loved the food like most do. i know i know... i'm just being honest here. But, in my age and wisdom i have come to like this holiday more a more. I am now a big fan of the food and the lack of pressure from having to give presents is kinda nice too. I think my time away has made me really appreciate these special times with family and friends and taking a day just to be thankful.... aww. And I believe this year will be the year that i officially start loving Thanksgiving!

Although Matt's house (my future house) is not nearly made-over the way we would like, we decided to invite both of our families over for Thanksgiving lunch. Everyone is bringing a traditional Thanksgiving dish (green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, banana pudding... etc.) and I am taking the great task on of making the turkey. i am actually pretty excited about it! So this weekend Matt and i headed to Food Lion to get all the ingredients for the dishes we are making. We bought a Turkey and ingredients for 4 different dishes, and only spent $60. I thought that was pretty good. that was until i saw this lady....

even though this shopping trip was not for thanksgiving specifically, i am confident this woman got by with a free or nearly free Thanksgiving. maybe i will be her one day....

Happy Thanksgiving friends! we all have MUCH to be thankful for. Let me know how you are celebrating your Turkey Day:)

PANTHERS WIN!!:)

every year matt and i try to go to at least one panthers game. one day i would LOVE to have season tickets but for now, we really look forward to our one special game. this year matt bought tickets to the Panthers vs. Falcons game... I was so excited at first b/c i think many would consider the Falcons to be our greatest rival b/c they are close by, then i was not so excited when the Falcons were doing really well and the Panthers couldn't seem to win a game early in the season, BUT THEN i was excited again b/c the Panthers started doing better and the Falcons started doing worse. beautiful. and how do you like that run-on sentence? We also thought that our Nov. 15th game would be nice and cold but no way, it was HOT. It was a beautiful day to be outside but when the sun is beating down on the same side of your body it is pretty bad- plus i dont want just one half me to be tan for my bridal portraits! haha.... So we moved to a shady spot after the first quarter. enjoy some pics from the game:)

here we are in our 1st very sunny spot

I love Charlotte:)

in our MUCH better shady spot

Here is matt doing a MJ pose with his new hat- he bought it b/c about our sunny spot but then we moved. haha, i love the hat though:)

that's right. check out that score!:)

the birthday post

if you know me, you KNOW that i LOVE birthdays. love love love. which is interesting b/c i dont feel like i have done the best job on friend and family birthdays this year. but for some reason everyone still loved on me so much on oct. 19th. i am actually one who believes in the oh so wonderful "birthweek". many people have asked me when me when exactly the birthweek falls- the birthweek is the week leading to the actual birthday. some say it is the week surrounding the birthday (3 days before and 3 days after) but i disagree b/c who really wants to celebrate their birthday after it is over? when it's over, it's over and the countdown begins for the next year.

one of my birthday traditions is to to celebrate with one of me best friends, b/c she has a birthday on oct. 19th as well. this year, heather and blake came to charlotte for our annual celebration and we went on a double-date for pizza and starbucks. not one of us remembered a camera so i will post a pic from our birthday celebration last year. I couldn't think of a better way to start the birthweek- love this girl:)

My friend Ashley also had the wonderful idea to go to the Melting Pot for a little celebration. Matt and I were so excited about hanging with Chuck and Ash and the Melting Pot was fine too.... or so we thought. I think i forgot how AMAZING the Melting Pot actually was. The last time i was there for anything other than dessert was senior prom. Chuck and Ash, we will be going back on one of your b-days! love you guys:)

And then came my actual birthDAY. the tour of So You Think You Can Dance happened to be here that day and Matt bought us tickets months before. He knew that was exactly what i would want and he endured all those women just for me:) Unfortunately, i forgot the camera AGAIN but i do have a video on Matt's phone that i will try to post.

And finally, in celebration of my 27th i have started.... dun dun dun... to use anti-aging night cream. My wonderfully-wise nurse of a best friend told me that aging starts at 27. I told matt this is the best i am going to look so enjoy it;) haha. But i really am loving the cream!

By my next birthday i will be a MARRIED woman.... can't wait to see what that post looks like:)

amy&brian

so i wanted to post these pics separately- they are a few that i took of amy and brian when we snuck away for a few minutes at the wedding. (see this post) amy is my sister (if you dont already know or can't tell) and brian is her boyfriend for oh, i dont know... forever. life seems so busy these days that matt and i rarely get to see most of our friends regularly. when we are not spending time working on the house or planning a wedding, we are usually hanging with family- which include amy and brian, thankfully:) they really are some of our closest friends as a couple these days and we love them so much.

enjoy these cute shots of these incredibly cute people. and let me know what you think:)

family weddings are so fun... :)

a couple of months back my aunt got married in the Outer Banks of NC, and of course it was a reason to celebrate. well actually, our crazy family can come up with any reason to celebrate, but this time something important was actually happening. the wedding day also happened to be my moms b-day so it was a fun filled weekend! for as long as i can remember, we have had family vacations and get-together on the outer banks b/c my mom's sister lives there as well as my grandparents (half the time). not a bad place to go visit the fam if you ask me. but this time i didn't even get a peek at the beach. the aunt asked my the photograph the wedding since i am aspiring.... and i was SO happy to help out and practice my skills.

hope you enjoy some of my favorites from the weekend!

a family toast the night before...

my sis helping out...

seriously, would it be great to be married here?..

my cousin getting ready by doing a hula-hoop exercise...

waiting for the party to start... isn't my fiance a hottie?:)

the happy couple...

one of my faves. love my cousins so much:)

the 6 pack...