Been a While...

It has been a while since I've posted, things have been so busy! I never thought I'd be so busy yet so calm and stress-free through planning a 6.5 engagement to wedding! So I thought I'd blog a little bit to document what we've been doing and what is coming soon.

We stayed in and cooked steaks for New Years together just the two of us and it was so fun... honestly we kind of accidentally got hammered on champagne and at 12:03 we realized we were watching the wrong channel and missed the ball drop by 3 minutes. Whoops. At least we still toasted and had our new year's kiss! I really enjoy most the low key nights where it is just us two hanging out.

January 10th, we were thrown an engagement party by my bridesmaids and it. was. SO. fun and so well planned and cute! Here are some photos from it. I loved the theme "I DO BBQ" and we even received a few gifts from our close friends and a Jenga game with truth or dares on them. So cute!

one of my girlfriends babies, Landon. I am slight obsessed with him. :) hehe

That Sunday, I signed my MOH Suzy (who is getting married in October!) and I up for the Austin Bridal Extravaganza, and had just enough Park $1 mimosas to make it sooo fun! Loved watching the fashion show and getting lots of coupons for Mens Wearhouse and my bridal shop for booking my bridesmaids appointments, and Suzy got a lot of great ideas on what she wanted to do. I highly recommend doing an Extravaganza event if you are a bride! Lots of fun.

Late January I took my bridesmaids Denise and Brittnie, my only two wedding party people that LIVE in Austin, to get their Bridesmaids dresses at Alfred Angelo. SO FUN! We are doing sage colored dresses, and I let each bridesmaid pick whatever style they wanted as long as it was in the same color and short. I cannot wait to see all 6 of them standing together ALL in different styles, they looked so stunning  and I love that each bridesmaid feels beautiful and comfortable in her own styled dress. I think it will be perfect!

Which brings me into wedding stuff. I am so pumped, you guys. Everything is basically complete. We even finally have found our cake person and we are just waiting for the final quote from them now. We have spent more than we planned (by uhh a lot) but we are so thrilled that it is going to be the event of the decade!! We found out just recently that apparently the biggest boxing match in our decade (was almost century but Muhammad Ali fight was in our century) so decade is going to be happening ON our wedding night. Am I bummed about it? Not really. I don't care for boxing but I know a lot of guys do, so we're planning on having a small room to the side of the dance floor with a projector screen and sound playing the fight for those that want to watch, so no one feels like they have to skip out on our wedding early or anything.

Invitations are coming along awesome, I have noticed these are the most tedious annoying thing of the entire wedding. And really, it's because I ordered a digital file off Etsy with revisions and this Etsy shop closes and opens every other day, it is the most bizarre thing to ever happen - so I might be biased about this being the worst part of planning.

We also only have our Wedding Rings left. I am so excited to go pick them out with Scott soon. We have planned to go to St. Lucia for our Honeymoon and we couldn't be any more excited about it unless someone sent us a check for the whole amount - if you're interested, make it out to "Amanda" please hehe.

Valentines day was very low key (saving $!) so we made each other dinner drank some wine and watched movies. My perfect evening for our first and last Valentines as Fiances!

Last week Maddie (my other MOH and baby sister) sent me freaking flowers to my office as a just because. This girl makes my heart just SMILE so big. She is so thoughtful and didn't have to do this but the fact that she did made my whole month. So so sweet. I miss her!!

I ran my first 5K this past Saturday and as a complete NON-runner, I had SO MUCH FUN. It was the Austin Foam Glow 5K and with all the glow sticks, black lights, foam being shot out of cannons, and glow in the dark slime being shot at everybody, it was literally a running party. We were drenched from head to toe (my feet are so sore now from running wet) and were in complete bliss. I highly recommend doing these FUN 5Ks because I barely even noticed that I ran 3.3 miles. WIN WIN!!!

It has been such a fun couple of months, I am looking forward to all of the festivities to start happening soon!!!!

This Wednesday we have engagements with the absolutely stunning amazing Shalyn with Love, the Nelsons!!

March 7th weekend I will be in Willis, TX taking Engagement photos of my sweet MOH and her fiance Taylor around Conroe and as a complete amateur I'm super excited about it and treating it like a professional session and we're also going to be looking at Wedding dresses. Couldn't be MORE excited and happy for my beautiful friend.

THE NEXT week March 12th I will be in Dallas at the MIRANDA LAMBERT concert with my future SIL Helen and her step daughter Jazmin and I just cannot wait for the road trippin and to wear my boots jammin to Miranda I love her!

Scott and his bachelors are going to Vegas for their bachelor party and I am not even jealous cause my girls are a big party and we are turning up in NOLA the first weekend of April.... any recommendations on what to do or where to go is greatly appreciated but as Louisiana girl my go-tos are going to be Cafe du Monde, and it is the French Quarter Festival so I forsee lots of day drinking and crazy shenanigans happening!!! Can't wait. And alas, in 68 DAYS - SIXTY EIGHT PEOPLE -- I will become Mrs. Owens, married to my favorite person for the last almost 8 years, and will be flying away to a magical island with him to celebrate. I am the happiest luckiest lil lady in the world.

Life Lately

One. Amazing hot coffee from Domincan Joe's, this fresh organic coffee shop in a little plaza next to my office. perfect way to warm up in this crazy cold Texan weather.

Two. Friday night we went to this bar called "Baker St. Pub" off South Lamar for the first time. It is identical to Sherlocks which was my favorite North Austin bar that I held annual birthday bashes at! I was so excited. Malford Milligan was actually there - he was a contestant in "The Voice"... he got up and sang it was so fun! Scottie and Denise danced to it too. And no way - I am not the crazy person yelling in the background.  ;-)


Three. Recently I took a work from home day to take videos care of my best friend D who got her wisdom teeth surgically removed. It was a fun morning and got some great videos and snapchats of her coming off anesthesia, also got to enjoy mac n cheese for lunch and watch movies while she slept. #win

Four. This is what happens when we stay at home getting #turntup. Huxley basket races. He looks terrified in the picture haha but that was only cause he was in the air. We have too much fun with this little chunk.

Five. Sakeeee! Finally had a sushi date with friends last week and let's just say we almost got kicked out of the restaurant...oops. It was so fun though. I had been craving sushi for MONTHS. It hit the spot.

Six. Cuddles with my boys, I'm under the blanket. Yes, Huxley sleeps with his eyes open. Creepy demon puppy. <3

Seven. Date night Saturday night after relaxing ALL DAY LONG. It was so very needed. We watched a ton of Netflix movies and lounged around. This was at Jaliscos, our little TexMex restaurant less than 5 minutes away from the house. Nothing better than fajitas and a strawberry margarita with your love.

Eight. Curly hair, don't care! I am loving my new haircut so much, it is so much easier to do your hair! This is actually me today, my girls and I have a "Galentines Dinner" at Matt's El Rancho. Can't wait!

Nine. Last night's dinner. Since it was Scott's first day at his new job and I had a long day as well, we threw a pork shoulder into the crockpot with Stubb's Spicy BBQ sauce and some onions bright and early, and when we got home the house smelled delicious and we enjoyed some pulled pork tacos! Recipe here!

Ten. I went to Orthodontist yesterday and...... exactly 1 month until my braceface is off forever!! I am so excited, I've had them on for two years, and it has been a great experience but I cannot wait for beautiful teeth!!!!

Take a good look, these babies are comin' off soon!

Life lately has been so fulfilling, fun, exciting, stressful, and crazy... I couldn't ask for a better life though! We finally have made it through the two and half months telling my mom we're moving back to Louisiana to live in a trailer in front of her house, and now are back on to saving money and feeling secure and stable. :-)

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week! 

A New Chapter

As you may or may not know, Scottie and I both work in the Software Industry, where he is a salesman for IT Software Applications and I am a marketer for an EMR Software IT Company here in Austin. We began this journey working at Dell selling computers to your everyday consumer, and moved our way up, got promoted, and left the company for better opportunities.

Well, two days before Thanksgiving and our annual trip to see my family in Louisiana, we got news that he was being laid off from his job. It was a scary feeling, but I remember being so calm in it all. Isn't it crazy how that works? I immediately met Scott for lunch and we talked about it. What was our plan? How can we make this work if he is 60% of our income, etc. How can we stay encouraged in this time? 

Getting laid off two days before the holiday season is the worst case scenario, but we didn't have a choice in the matter. We prayed, we sent out applications, and we waited impatiently. We are blessed to live in a city with so many opportunities in the IT world, so we had interviews lined up weekly. However, no one really hires during the holidays, so fast forward 2.5 months, and...

Today is Scott's first day at a new job.

He not only has been promoted to an Account Executive, but he is the lead on a new chapter in this company's history, in a hopefully very successful pilot! This company is a great little start-up located only about 15 minutes away from home and is a Software Application company for IT Professionals. 

I couldn't be more proud of him and envious of how he has carried himself the past two months. It has not been easy, cutting back on gifting during Christmas, cutting back on spending by not going out, eating in, cancelling gym memberships to save, etc. At times it's been disheartening when you don't hear back from a great lead you thought you had in the bag. It feels good to know that I have such a strong, courageous, and optimistic man in my life who didn't sit on the couch and sulk in his unemployment, he kept his faith, and he did projects during downtime. He helped me with little things throughout the weeks, he even made dinner (what!?). It's incredible how you can watch your spouse and be encouraged by how they deal with situations, how they react.

Trying times in your life like these are always the biggest lessons. How was I so calm and supportive? How did we manage to live on my income alone for two months? I got a Christmas bonus that carried us through the second month, we had enough savings and CC rewards to get us HEB/Walmart gift cards for groceries, we were seeing family over holidays who kept us feeling encouraged and loved through all of this. We know 100% that this was all in God's hands. Honestly! I have never felt so at ease in such a stressful situation. I felt like I could be his rock in this and I succeeded. We left it up to Him to decide Scott's next move in his career. We had complete faith in what His will would be.

He hated his previous job... it was the most difficult sales atmosphere where people were negative, there was favoritism, bullying, harassing, etc. He would come home feeling so defeated even though he had made a lot of money over a deal! We were already unhappy, so I completely believe that this was all God's doing. Scott deserved better. He deserved a career that he could thrive and grow and be encouraged, and doing honest work. We couldn't be more excited for this new chapter of our lives, and I couldn't be more proud to be his partner through all of this. As scary as it was for us, I am so glad that we experienced this situation and grew from it. I feel so confident in him and so blessed to know that we make such a great team and together, we really can get through anything life throws us. 

We truly appreciate all of the support and prayers we've received throughout this journey! 

Have a fabulous Monday, and wish us luck on his first day!!!! :-) 

Super Bowl Weekend

I don't think I could have had a MORE fun and relaxing weekend at home. It started off on Friday with some amazing news that I will be able to share next Monday (stay tuned for a good story..) and so we started off with a little celebration time.

After hanging out at the house for a while, we headed about five minutes down the road to Jalisco's and had a great dinner date. Thank you Groupon for keeping our date under $20! I ordered the Shrimp Diablos and Scottie ordered enchiladas. So yummy!

We met my brother Chris back at the house and decided to head to Game Stop to finally get the XBOX Kinect we've been wanting for a while, did you know they're only $39.99 pre-owned!? We got some games to go along with it, and our Friday turned into a little game night. 

We've only tried the middle game so far, and I am LOVING the bowling, volleyball, and ping pong on this game. It is a great workout, too! I had never played the kinect before so this was super fun, I highly recommend getting one if you have an xbox. And it also served for some great games Before the Super Bowl started. 

Saturday was nothing but laziness. We watched Last Vegas, Mud, other TV movies. We've seen Captain Phillips lately (just wow! so good) and relaxed on the couches. 

Pancakes, bacon, and mimosas for breakfast. So deeeeelicious.

Sunday Funday. We had Chris, Suzy, and Denise over for the Super Bowl game. I actually got out of the house Sunday and went grocery shopping (desperately needed, we haven't been in over 2 weeks...yikes) and picked up some easy ingredients for some super bowl apps later. We played more Xbox Kinect all the way up until the game started. How about that game???? I was totally going for Broncos, but lets be honest - I really was just waiting for that #BestBuds commercial to come on ALL GAME LONG!! The commercials weren't THE best, but they were way better than last year, anyone agree? Also, the halftime show. The HALF TIME SHOW. It was the best I've seen in so many years. Dear Bruno Mars, YOU are amazing just the way you are. Loved him. Also really fun to see Red Hot Chili Peppers. 

I'll be doing a post later this week for Easy Super Bowl Appetizers, so be looking out! We had Buffalo Chicken Taquitos, which I've made before and are super easy and delicious, Spicy Spinach Queso, and Burger Sliders. We also had a bunch of celery, bleu cheese, chips n dip, etc. Oh and lots of beer, crown, and sky vodka.  I'd say we had a pretty good time.

Huxley was sure enjoying the fire :-) 

What did you do for the Super Bowl?? Hope you had a relaxing weekend!!

Photo An Hour Link Up

As I have been slowly getting back into the swing of all things blogging, I have been looking for some fun linkups to participate in so that I can meet new bloggers and reconnect with old blogfriends. I was so excited hearing that Steph and Meg were launching a "Photo An Hour" linkup, so I decided to recap this past Tuesday... one of our "Snowpocalypse" days.

7:30am: Morning cuddles with Huxley, believe it or not he is ALWAYS the last one out of bed.
8:30am: Email from the boss saying "come in when you can" so I light a fire, make coffee, and watch fresh prince. I love ice days!
9:30am: Snoozing with Huxley on the couch by the fire. Still in PJs. Working-ish from home for the morning. Still too icey to get out on the roads.
11:30am: Attempting to make it to work alive. No really. Look at all that ice on my house!
12:30pm: Made it to work in one piece. This is my usual morning ritual. Check emails, drink iced coffee, and eat a banana.
1:30pm: Since Jan 1, been trying to get into the habit of drinking way more water. I got myself a bubba keg that holds 64oz and it really helps! I haven't been able to finish it in a day, but getting closer!
2:30pm: Because everyone takes selfies in the work bathroom, right? Wearing my cute scarf Helen got me for Christmas from Tarjay. So warm and pretty!
3:30pm: Checking up on the blogpost I wrote earlier in the day about Surviving the Austin Snowpocalypse.
4:30pm: Looking at all the hilarious posts on FB of all the people making fun of Austin because one drop of ice and the whole city shuts down. Hey I wasn't complaining, I had a 4 hour workday.
5:30pm: Gym time at Suzy's Apt. Leg day after 30 minutes cardio. We did this workout for legs and I am still so sore today.
6:30pm: Wine at Suzy's, perfect for post workout. ;-) Just waiting for our show to come on.
7:30pm: Enjoying our guilty pleasure, Pretty Little Liars. I am so addicted to this show, anyone else?
8:30pm: Dinner at home. Scottie made us blackened tilapia with black beans topped with Avocado. DELISH.
9:30pm: Watching TV with Huxley and Scottie, my favorite part of my nights. Love my boys.
10:00pm: Ridiculous re-runs. I like this show WAY better than Tosh.O. I think the videos are much funnier, too.
10:30pm: In bed, of course Huxley sleeps like a human in between us, under covers, head on pillow even sometimes. Usually sprawled out by middle of the night. Spoiled rotten brat! We are usually in bed/passed out by 10:30-11:00pm most nights.

My life isn't all that exciting, but the best part about lately is that I've gotten into a great routine of eating healthier, drinking more water, and working out 3-5 times a week. Let's hope it does something by this summer!!

I love this linkup because if you're like me, I love knowing what's going on in other peoples lives and it is a great way to connect and find people that you have things in common with! Here is the link again for the Photo An Hour LinkUp  and I encourage you to check out and see what other people have written about!

Have a great Thursday, friends!

Home Tour + Projects

For 4 out of the 6 years of Scott's and my relationship, we have lived from one apartment to another apartment to another apartment, all of 800sq feet usually, and one bedroom. Despite close friends and sometimes family coming to stay, we never really had any get togethers because it was SO small! Both of our parents live over 200 miles away (mine 500 miles away), and we have been sick of not having the extra bedroom for them to come more often or not having a backyard for Huxley to play in. Well, I had been just searching and searching in the Austin area for a possible home to rent and in early June, we found one!

Located at the tip of South Austin, this beautiful home became available and we jumped on it as soon as we could. It may look ginormous for just us two, but it is about 1800sq ft and had the perfect sized little backyard for Huxley. The community is all young adults and it was located less than .5 mi from the nearest shopping outlet (dangerous!), grocery, gas station, hole in the wall bars, we loved it.

We moved in July and since then have had guests almost every weekend which I love! I couldn't be more blessed and happy that we were able to take the plunge, and it has encouraged me to do DIY Projects and start making this house our very own first little home.

I spy a peepin' Huxley in the above picture...

I love our living room and how open this layout is. A lot of my decor is from previous apartments I've lived in, so I tried to incoporate more navy into the picture. Found these beautiful curtains with the perfect amount of sheer from Target! Still looking for a rug to tie everything in together. 

We have 3 bedrooms... So far the only bedroom I've really worked on is the Guest Room since we are always having someone stay with us. I re-did one of Scott's old dressers from HS in a coral color (Flamingo Lily) and am currently working on getting some more yellow accents to go with what is already a Coral/Aqua room. 

I have a queen bed in there with a geometric quilt in aqua and white, but have not found shams and decor pillows to go on it or a headboard just yet - another project I can do.

Our room seems so white and all the decor I have right now is brownish stuff so any advice helps!! We've decided not to paint this home since we're only renting and would need to paint it back, but when we buy a home I am dying to throw some colors on the walls!!

Some other features of the home:

1. Up the staircase we have a little nook there with two windows and hanging lights. Love love loved this feature!

2. Our 3rd bedroom which is currently becoming an office right now. We plan to put a desk, bookcase, and futon or daybed in there but am still looking for the right furniture (and a good deal!).

3. Upstairs is our game room. There isn't any wiring for cable or internet which stinks but Scott has turned it into his music room. He has his guitar, an amp, and I'm letting him do the decorating. We plan to put a loveseat or couch against the wall for seating since we have pretty much nothing in there.

4. A CUTE CUTE find at Garden Ridge. Looks just like Huxley huh? 

Here is our backyard: 

The only downside (and it isn't even a downside really unless its super hot) is having no covered portion of the patio. We saw a canopy umbrella at Garden Ridge for $80 that we may end up getting just for some shade, but as you can see below Huxley is just LOVING it, and it makes me so happy that he can run around and play instead of being cooped up in a tiny apartment. We don't plan on landscaping back here since it is a rental, but we have added a little baby pool for Huxley and a Corn Hole game set for us for parties. And a grill! :-) 

The only picture I'm missing is the one of Scott and me in front of the house. Let me just tell you I am still working on learning my camera and the self timer, so those pictures came out hilarious. LOL I might post them one day once I at least have one decent one to finish it off. :-) 

We couldn't be more happy in this home and the neighbors, landlords, dog neighbors, everyone is so so nice and the area is wonderful. We only plan on living here a year for right now while we search for a home to purchase, but for now - it is the best and I will be updating the blog with my DIY projects as I complete them.

Have a great Thursday!

This ole blog is makin' a comeback!

I am so glad to finally get be able to get back to blogging after a year of taking off. While I finish up making the blog prettier to look at and getting some things back in order (aka learn how to do this ish again ha), enjoy the photos of what's been going on in my life over the past year... 

Went to Louisiana to visit family Nov 2012

Turned 24 and had my annual bash at Sherlocks Dec 2012

Huxley keeps getting cuter

Raelyn (Scott's niece) is getting so big and so precious

Took a family creek trip in Austin Jan 2013

Hosted Cinco de Mayo weekend bash on Lake LBJ

Fun trips with the boo

Beach trip with my family March 2013

Biker Rally 29th Birthday for Scottie 

Learning how to use my Canon T3i I got for Christmas 2012!!

Huxley turned 2 in June!

Got a boiler for Christmas so we boiled Crawfish this year!

Christmas in Louisiana with my gorgeous sister, Maddie

My favorite pic of Maddie & Scottie, even the catfish is smiling!

I went Ombre for the summer!

Dinners with great friends

Blues on the Green in Austin

My BFF Suzy came to Austin to visit me in December

Drunktastic Happy Hours on South Congress

At our Cousin's Graduation in Louisiana May 2013

Huxley keepin it shaded at my office

Took a trip with my little sister to Los Angeles, CA for the first time... met Snoop Dogg FIRST NIGHT! 

We are FINALLY in a house! For right now we are only renting, but I couldn't be happier and we love our home so much!! 

Hope everyone has had an amazing year and I hope we get to reconnect as I start this ole thang back up. 

Happy Monday, y'all!