happy fall y'all

Here is our pretty outside decorations for fall. We had way too much fun at the pumpkin patch and I think we have more pumpkins in our yard than our whole neighborhood combined!! I love it and can't wait to finish the inside! 

weekend wrap-up

Good morning!!!

As I speak my husband is making "big breakfast" as we like to call it. It is one of our favorite things. He makes pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, grits, and coffee of course. And it is all yummy!!!! Over the years we have turned into early birds and 7:00 am is the normal get up time for a Saturday and Sunday morning in the Gautreaux household. I used to get really upset but now it is so nice to get up and get more things done. It also makes 8:00 am class a lot easier during the week compared to my freshman year when I missed quite a few of those morning classes!! 

So anyways while I lay in bed sipping my coffee I thought I would tell y'all about our weekend! I was supposed to work on Friday (For the first time in three weeks) but lucky for me my aunt called me to babysit my precious little nine month old cousin and I  could not resist. I quickly gave my shift up! I mean who would rather spend their night waiting on hungry and sometimes grouchy people when you can spend your evening with a happy, sweet, and cuddling baby?!?!? Sadly Olivia has been going through a phase and was far from a happy bubbly baby but we made it through! They think she is possibly teething and she pretty much cried the whole entire time!!!! It wasn't the night I expected but still way better than working at the restaurant! 

James had his friend Ryan over and they played Xbox late into the night (something I will never understand). From what I hear they played some new scary game and took turns getting the begeebers scared out of them and screaming like girls! (Can I please be a fly on the wall?)

On Saturday we woke up and went on an early morning grocery shopping trip. We are now on a once a month shopping trip so we knew it would be a long and pricy trip and wanted to get there early to be the crowds. Luckily Starbucks is right in front of Walmart and we picked up coffee before heading inside. We were in and out in ohhh 2 hours... not too bad right?!? ;)  It really isn't too bad, we have always liked going together to go shopping so it is actually something we look forward to!

This is only a portion of the list ;) 

After we got home I had to get ready for a baby shower. One of my friends, Lauren, is pregnant with her second baby(first one was a boy and now she is having a girl!) and some of her friends decided to throw her a shower for baby Addison. I had a lot of fun and she got lots of goodies. There were so many dresses and bows I think she is going to be the most fashionable little miss around!! 

When I got home we hurried up and changed again (Yes I know, it was a crazy day) and we headed to the pumpkin patch! We love fall around here and get so excited to go to the pumpkin patch. I think I might have gone a little crazy with the pumpkins but who cares I could not resist. We have made it a family tradition to go together every year with our dogs and can't wait until we will be able to bring our own children there. I love seeing all of the little families there taking pictures and buying pumpkins.

Hubby was a good sport and never complained as I was adding more and more pumpkins!

Daisy was bored and yawning while I was trying to take pictures

My little family

Crazy right?!? 

After leaving the pumpkin patch my Maw-Maw called and said she was cooking the first gumbo of the season an to come pick some up! My response: HECK YEAH! Will be there ASAP!!! We love gumbo around here and Maw-Maw makes the best gumbo!!! We went over there and all the puppies got to play together and we got to visit with Maw-Maw and Poppy for a little while. 

This is Teddy's favorite spot: Poppy's chair!!

 Today we are going to decorate the inside and outside for Fall and I am so excited. I have been burning "fall" candles for two weeks now so it will be nice to have everything out (pictures coming soon)! I am also trying out a Pinterest recipe I found and hopefully it will turn out super yummy!!!! James is sadly leaving tonight to go back but I have a huge test on Tuesday so as soon as he leaves I will be studying nonstop until Tuesday at 9:00 am.

Hope your weekend was just as amazing as ours!!! 

7 years and counting...

Yesterday was the seventh anniversary of James asking me to be his "girlfriend" during the last song of our freshmen homecoming dance. At the time I never would have thought in 7 years I would be married to him! At the time I thought it would last a few weeks or months and then we would move on, but God had other plans for us. Also at the time I had no clue how absolutely amazing this guy was and how happy he would make me. He is the sweetest, kindest, most loving and generous person I know. He makes me strive to be a better person every day and he encourages me on my roughest days. He is simply amazing and I get to spend the rest of my life with him. He is just the best and I am so dang lucky. Everyday I thank God for this amazing gift he has given me. I am so lucky to have found my soulmate so young in life and I cherish him more than you can ever know.
I wish he would have been here with me to celebrate the special day, but of course he is in Shreveport. =(

While celebrating our four year anniversary 3 years ago he proposed. It was one of the best days of my life. We were spending it at the beach and the second day we were there he decided to make it the trip we would never forget. It was such a special weekend and I am truly blessed to have such an amazing man to call my husband. Our dating-anniversary is always going to be so special to me and something we will always celebrate it. 

I love this man more than anything and the past 7 years have been the best ever and I am looking forward to the next 70 years!!! Love you Babe... more than anything =)

weekend adventures: a wedding, a football game, and homework in between

This weekend was a pretty busy one for us, we had a wedding, a football shindig, and lots of homework!!!
James got home Thursday night to a newly red-headed wife waiting for him. He loves my red hair and from the day I decided to change it, he has been saying he wanted the red hair back. I finally gave in last week and went Thursday for the big change. I have to say he is right I love the color and love how it makes me more unique. (Note to self: listen to hubby when it comes to hair color) After my hair appointment it was time for James to come home!!! They decided to come home on Thursday this week and this wifey was super happy!!!
On Friday I had school and a student teaching meeting (AKA one step closer to graduation) and James went do manly things like going to Home Depot and buying stuff for another project (pictures to come... when the project is done). After I got home from school we spent a couple hours cuddling and watching tv then it was homework time for me =(
Saturday James and I attended an absolutely beautiful wedding. We are good friends with both the bride and groom and were so happy to be there on their special day.
The groom is the person I consider my big brother, he is the closest thing I have to one and I am so happy to see him so happy. He is such an amazing guy and has been such a great influence on my life. He has taught me some of the most important things in life... to drive... to drink... and to never give up on love. He means so much to me. The bride used to work with both of us at Texas Roadhouse and is such a sweetie. Together they are perfect. The ceremony was so beautiful (yes, I cried my eyes out). You could just feel the love throughout the church for two amazing people on their special day. The reception was just as awesome. Yummy food, good music, and great friends. We ended up running into two of James' good friends that we didn't know knew the bride and groom. It nice to catch up with them and see how life has been treating them!
Today, I did more homework all day and then this afternoon we had some friends over for the game. Unfortunately our beloved Saints lost but we had a great time. I attempted pulled pork for the first time... it  wasn't the best pulled pork I have ever had but it was pretty good (definitely getting a different kind of pork next time). We had such a busy weekend but spending it with my amazing husband made it all worth it. Now i am off to finish my last homework assignment of the night and then cuddling the hubs until it is time for him to leave again (5am)!

Here are a few pictures I snapped from the wedding!

everything happens for a reason...

I am not ready to get into details about anything but this quote has been something that has gotten me through this extremely hard week. We would really appreciate extra prayers right now to get us through  this difficult time.

cutting our grocery bill in half

I have been dying to blog about this all month long but I wanted to wait and make sure we actually followed through with our plan! Now that August is officially over I can tell you that we made it through an entire month with only one major grocery shopping trip and with a pre-planned month of meals. I had a lot of doubt in myself when we decided to do this because I am a spur of the moment kind of person, I like to just say I want this and go get it but somehow it was not hardly as hard as I thought it would be. There were two time I did have to make a quick trip, once because we ran out of coffee, orange juice and I needed things to make a banana pudding and the second was because Hurricane Isaac came along and by that point we were out of pretty much out of anything needed to survive a hurricane.

Okay so my inspiration you ask??? One day on one of my Pinterest binges I came across a blog that said "How to cut your grocery bill in half"and being the penny pincher that I am I could not resist. When I clicked on it I was introduced to Danielle from Blissful and Domestic.  And let me just say it now this woman is super woman!!! She juggles family, blogging, and everything in between so well. I love her and she has great advice. 

From there I made my meal plan. I had already ordered this super cute notebook (another Pinterest find) to make your menu's on so it was perfect timing to put it to good use. I kind of struggled thinking of what I would cook the whole month, I just kept thinking will I really want to eat that in three weeks?!? Since James is out of town Monday-Friday I knew I only needed two-three meals per week (I have this weird thing that I can't cook alone it makes me feel so sad to cook and eat alone so I eat left overs or frozen chicken patties all week long). After getting the list made we spent about two and a half hours shopping at Walmart and then went get fresh produce at a local market. We finished that day spending $150. We just looked at each other in complete surprise. We spent the rest of the month reminding each other that there was NO Walmart visits and if we did not have it we would go without! So from around $400-500 a month to $200 a month on groceries!!!! I am so impressed and so happy we actually did it. There were a few snags in the road and we are still learning how to master this skill but we are doing great and best of all saving money!!!!! Now we are off to make our September shopping trip!!!! I really hope we can keep this up we are saving so much money and I just LOVE it!!!!!!! Happy Saturday!!!!

weekend adventures: Houston

 Since we just bought a house we decided that vacation was a no-go this year and that we wanted to spend our extra money on things for the house... so we decided it would be fun to take a trip to Houston for an over night getaway/buy things for the house/buy things for Malary weekend(the mister refused to buy anything for himself)!!! I am in love with Living Social and saw a deal for an over-night stay in Houston at a really nice hotel that included a $40 credit and valet parking for half off and knew we couldn't pass it up!!! So Saturday morning we woke up super early and started on the four hour journey to the Lonestar State. The drive itself wasn't bad at all, we had so much fun just talking about random things and singing songs to each other(insert a big LOSER sign here). When we got there we decided to go ahead and eat our sandwiches(I packed an ice chest of food, drinks, snacks, and left over chips and salsa from Chili's to save money) and then go take on IKEA and all it had to offer. Let me just say that place was totally mind blowing. I am not sure what I expected but surely not what I saw. It was so cool the way everything was set up so you can see and choose what you like. We spent about four and a half hours walking around shopping and getting ideas for our house. We ended up getting quite a few things for the house beings as the prices are so reasonable. 

After we left IKEA we decided to head to the hotel and check in and just relax for a little while before getting dressed for dinner. Well after a nice long relaxing nap we decided getting dressed up for dinner was not happening and used our $40 credit towards our dinner and just ordered room service from the restaurant downstairs. The food was really tasty and we didn't have to get dressed up or go anywhere. We had also bought a bottle of wine with us and cracked that thing open and had a glass with our dinner. After we ate we thought it would be fun to walk to the mall (one block away) and shop around for a little bit. James had never been to the Galleria and was so mind blown with the fact that there was a ice-skating rink inside the mall!! We had fun and ended up grabbing a couple pieces of cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory on our way out to eat when we got back to our room. 

The next morning we slept in (9:30am sooo late I know ;) ) and then got up and headed to the Katy Mills outlet mall. I had to do a little begging for this stop but the hubby gave in pretty quickly. Once we got there I saw they had a Rainforest Cafe and knew James would LOVE it (He had never been) so we split a lunch there and spent the morning shopping and just enjoying each others company. 

This little mini-trip was so nice and relaxing for us. Having a long distance marriage is so hard on a couple and we just missed each other so much. I am so grateful for the time we do get to spend together and I am so glad that this separation has just strengthened our marriage but I am really looking forward to the day he is home for good. It is so funny how much people take for granted having their spouse home every night.