savannah on my mind!

Horses trotting along cobblestone streets became a sound we quickly grew accustomed to this weekend. Exploring the historic streets and squares of Savannah had us oohing and ahhing with every turn we made.



Being that J had an off* weekend, we decided to take the trip to Savannah, Georgia - somewhere I've been longing to visit just to explore the beautiful sights I somehow knew it had to offer.
*I use the word 'off' very loosely, because he certainly had much to study for (boards!) but it was a weekend in between terms where he was willing to spend time with meee :)

We arrived just in time to view a beautiful sunset outside our window. A sunset that immediately followed a quick rain shower, and we enjoyed some delicious Blue Moon beers before heading out for a stroll around town (and then brought a couple beers for the road - because in Savannah, you can get drinks TO GO wherever you'd like!) A walking town with drinks on the go - you really can't go wrong!

Oh, and -- while walking with a drink, we turned a corner to hear our wedding song playing throughout the streets and we were happy...vacation happy...and you can't beat that!

The drinks came in abundance, and the food was just as tasty as you'd expect southern comfort food to be. I had the best grits I've ever eaten in my whole life so far while sipping on a bloody mary (which might not be saying very much seeing as though I didn't eat grits for the first time until I moved to Tallahassee at 18, but would you expect grits to get any better than in Savannah?)

Live Oaks draped Spanish moss and created the most majestic backdrop everywhere we walked. And what did I do about that? Pretty much walked with my neck tilted upwards and took pictures every couple feet. I couldn't really get over them - nor the way each either intertwined like they were meant to be, or almost perfectly lined pathways for us to walk along in pure awe of those beauties!



Mama always said, "Life is like a box of chocolates..never know whatcha gonna get!"

The storefronts, churches, and mansions lining the historic streets are full of architecture that emanates southern charm. It was beautiful.



Oh, hey yall, it's Paula Deen's restaurant!

We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn Savannah Historic District and loved it. It was an amazing location within walking distance to everything. We didn't move our car once :)

City Market was on one side of our hotel, and River Street on the other side. Both beautiful areas to walk around, grab a drink, and take in the views.

Oh yeah, and East Jones Street - we yearn to own a home on you one day! We looked like young children as we passed through E. Jones St. with our jaws dropped and sounded even more like children speaking about them. We would looove to live on that street someday - period!

Until next time, I'm keeping Savannah on my mind!

surprise! a trip to florida and a newborn photo shoot :)

Hey sista, surprise!

Sister just had a baby January 11, and we all know I was saddened to miss out on the special delivery day. So I came home from work that very day and booked a flight to Florida to go meet my beautiful niece. But I decided to keep it a secret ..until I walked in the door Thursday night to surprise my sis and nieces :) My brother-in-law was able to keep the secret as well, so thanks for helping out!

It was nice to just have time to relax. I started off the trip watching planes take off during sunset while sipping on a Blue Moon. Vacation time is a wonderful time!

And as you can expect, I tried to hit up my favorite places. The places that bring back those nostalgic memories of childhood. You know, the places you spent days and nights at -- the places you knew you were sure to visit after your older sibling's football and lacrosse games when you were little; then continue visiting after your boyfriend's football games and your own lacrosse games in high school; the places you'd go every Sunday after dinner for a sweet little treat with the family. Those places -- they are great, especially when revisiting in adulthood!

oh hey Dad, you gonna share? Yesss! Aw, thanks Dad, you're the best!

Aside from spending time with my husband, spending time with my family is one of my favorite things to do! Friday night was spent with cousins and pizza. I did miss out on seeing some of my other family, but we literally didn't leave the house much at all. We can partially thank the AT&T guy, who spent an entire day installing cable/internet, for that! But time spent in the house with cute babies was nothing to complain about.

I got lunch with my mother-in-law at Bru's Room - where we had our rehearsal dinner - and it was such a beautiful day to sit outside in shorts and a shirt in February while sipping on a beer and enjoying delicious food.

And I spent hours upon hours soaking up some love from sweet little babies. My niece and I exchanged moments of staring, kisses, lovin', and funny faces. I held her in my arms while smelling that soothing little baby scent and lightly running my fingers across her soft little cheeks while telling her how stinkin' cute she is. Oh, how in love with her I am!

Mom, no bows and no clips! It's not happening. "Is there one in my hair? Hmm, is there?! Yup, I got it, haha Mom!"

~~~~

You know I couldn't leave without a little newborn/sister photo session!

If you can't tell already, I absolutely love my nieces! And family, and Florida! I've got my fill of baby lovin' til next time :)

Last night I came home to my husband and puppy and spent some quality time with my little family. They give me all the fuel I need until it's time to be with our families again :)

p.s. -- If you're interested in making one of those crochet flower headbands as seen in the newborn photos, check out Hobby Lobby (or any craft store) and purchase a pack of various sizes of crochet flowers. I layered and hot glued multiple flowers together in descending sizes and hot glued an alligator clip to the back of it. Then clipped it to a plain white headband :)

all in a Christmas trip...

Immediately following what seemed like the longest work week yet, we packed up the car and traveled through Atlanta's wonderful traffic topped off with torrential downpour, lightning, and thunder. Hooray for vacation! Who cares if it started off that way -- what mattered was that we were heading to South Florida to be greeted by welcoming arms, beautiful weather, and comforting holidays. Christmas trip of 2011, thank you for being the fuel we needed!


Such a Florida baby -- I sure do love stepping outside barefoot in December and being able to enjoy the scenery.

Being away from family, fun and familiar surroundings, we get into such a normal routine -- working, school, exams, and everything in between. We tend to get so caught up in the normalcy of a routine that we sometimes forget all the things that really matter in life. A break from normalcy, time with family, and beautiful weather reminds us of the fun we need to stop and soak up once in a while throughout life. A little fueling up to carry us on until the next time we get a moment like that was just what we needed. And when we fuel up, we're good to go -- we feel fulfilled, comforted, and are able to enjoy ourselves, each other, and everything in between just a tad bit more. Then when it starts wearing off again, a quick little break from normalcy is what we need until the next time. I think this goes for just about everyone. Luckily, this trip was well beyond what we needed. It exceeded our expectations and I was thankful to get this much time to spend with each other and our families in a beautiful atmosphere. We were busy in the best kind of way.


Our house before we left. Our first time putting presents under our own tree!

I've learned just how much I love Christmas in Florida. J and I strolled past palm trees that lined the beach. The breeze hit our faces and was just the right temperature as we stared out at the waves illuminated by moonlight. And those palm trees, those dang palm trees -- they were blowing in the wind creating the soothing sound of swaying palm fronds trickling past each other. I took multiple gazes at each tree as we walked past them. We proceeded to speak about how much we used to drive down to the beach at night to spend time together in high school -- and back then, we didn't think twice about anything in the aforementioned description. It was all just a part of our normal landscape. But being there now, oh how we loved it!

Where else can you see this in December?

Well, okay, I know you can see this other places in December. But not where we live now!



We arrived with only one day to spare before Christmas Eve, finished up any last minute gifts and Christmas prep, and woke up Christmas Eve ready to celebrate with family.

Here are just some of the things I loved about Christmas Eve 2011:

Playing pool by the pool out back- barefoot.


Beautiful decorations that set just the right mood.


Me looking for someone who knows how to play Christmas tunes on the piano. Success - Maggie could play Jingle Bells!


Getting gifts that seem to make an awesomely-goofy photo


A champagne toast with the Barr's/Esser's (I prefer listening to the toast rather than drinking the champagne!)


Fun gifts like this...

Reinbeers I made for my brother and father-in-law using pipe cleaners and pom-poms

Puppy gifts...



Staying true to Christmas traditions...A wide array of cold cut sandwiches on Christmas Eve served with delicious crock-pot soup (Corn chowder..Mmm!)


I also loved the incredible spread of appetizers, sitting out back with ice cold beer and a nice Florida breeze, hearing new (but actually old) stories from the grandparents, opening stockings at the Barr household, and the beautiful Christmas mass that we attended in the church we were married in 6 months prior.

But most important...my favorite part was just being able to spend time with family!



And as for Christmas Day..here are a few of my favorite moments:

Waking up to a Santa-Claus visited home and seeing the eyes of a 1 year old light up


All throughout the year, we make comments like "This is just like Christmas morning!" or "He was so excited, you'd think it was Christmas morning!" And this was that moment. That feeling of Christmas morning where you just feel so blessed to be in that moment.







Heading over to Heather's house to spend the day with our big, crazy, fun, hot-mess-of-a-family :)


A champagne toast with the Cahill/Hickey/Quinn/Smollett/McDonald/Vicario/Barr family. Whew, that's a lot! Lot's of married women adding to the wide array of names :)


Notes like this...written by Tyler!

Tyler - I feel the same way you do, buddy!

Spending time with the girls..whether we're really doing something in the kitchen or just pretending..spending time is spending time, right?!


Dancing, dancing, and more dancing. Michael Jackson:The Experience on X-Box Kinect... oh boy, this got rediculously fun! haha, we had 4 generations up dancing at once. GG, Aunt Kath, myself, and the kids. Arianna included. Everyone joined in at sometime or another!

Check out our Michael Jackson impersonator in the red jacket!

And most importantly here..spending time with the family!

Our attempt at taking a family picture...


anddd...we got it!

Thanks, Aunt Kath, for using your sweet coordination skills! :)

We sure did miss brotha Bill, but J and I had him over before we left for a pre-Christmas evening

We thoroughly enjoyed Christmas. Being able to celebrate such a joyous occasion with the people that mean the most to us is truly a blessing. We are beyond thankful to have each and every family member in our lives and love what each one brings to the table. And as always, we all missed you, Krissy. We know you were with us in spirit...you would have loved making a fool of yourself dancing to Michael Jackson with the rest of us :)

~~~

After we began bottling up the joy of Christmas and putting it away until next year, we looked forward to spending the rest of our trip doing whatever it is that makes us happy.

Some of those times included:

Catching up with old friends..

Thank you for having us over, Gina and Dom! Dinner was delicious, drinks were ...probably too many, and the memories were just like the old times! Our college days were relived.

Enjoying the view outside those first-time homebuyer's home :) Beautiful!


Outdoor lunches...you can't beat that atmosphere!


Days spent at the beach condo


The awesome Christmas tree at the condo...


And a special New Year's Eve that we rang in with family, good friends, and a great atmosphere... Kahuna's beach bar!

Here's to 2012!!

And for each of these captured moments, there was at least one other memorable moment that I will keep neatly tucked away in my jar of memories. Having a delicious Christmas breakfast with Mom and Grandma, my sister's little family, and J and I was a nice way to start the day. Watching a Seminole win with family and friends was another great one. A day spent on the couch with Mom, Grandma, Aunt Kathy, and Arianna was relaxing and needed. A pamper party for Catherine before the baby comes was a great time with all her close women (pictures to come!). Exploring the familiar surroundings that brought back cozy memories felt right. Bouncing back from house to house and family to family as well as friends can be a struggle at times, but such a wonderful struggle to have. We lived out of suitcases and slept at - I can't even count how many different houses - and spent time with all types of family and friends. While we may have complained once or twice about living out of suitcases at a variety of houses, we didn't once complain of being bored...and that's what I love! The constant craziness of being down there feels so good, and we are all fueled up until the next time.

~~~~

and now for a few specialties...

We would like to wish Grandma and Grandpa Esser a very Happy 57th Anniversary today! What an amazing milestone that the rest of us can all look at with pure happiness and hope for the same type of joy 57 years beyond our wedding dates. Hope it's a great one!

We'd also like to congratulate some of our best friends on their engagement. Gina and Dom -- congrats to both of you! This is such an exciting time in your lives and you both deserve the best. Here's to 57+ more years of happiness for the two of you :)

And to our sister, brother-in-law, and niece -- enjoy these last couple days as a little family of 3! Soak up every moment together in the calm before the storm as we await your new bundle of joy set to make her debut on Wednesday. Congrats and good luck to the Vicario's! Can't wait to meet our precious niece.

And to everyone else -- thank you for being a special part of our lives and for helping to make 2011 such a memorable year for us. Here's to 2012 being just as amazing -- we wish you good health, happiness, and joy in all you do :)



Happy New Year!

With love,
The Barr's

florida state, florida state, florida state, woooo!

So, about that last post...the one where I was 'home' in Coral Springs and things felt great. Well, I had another great weekend like that to follow. With it being the weekend in between J's terms, he did not have to study. That sounds just crazy saying that, but it was true, and wonderful.

So, he wanted to get away, because we could. We went back and forth - to go away, stay home, go to Memphis, Tallahassee..? If you know us, you know we couldn't make up our minds. Around 2 pm on Friday, we were almost set on staying home. "Come on, we don't have kids, we don't have any obligations, we have no reason not to just get up and go somewhere right now," J burst out. "Well, okay!" Being that we left so late, we got in the car and headed to our beloved alma mater (the closer choice.)

It felt like home. And the two of us continued to say that all weekend.

Even though we were already dating for over 3 years before moving there, Tallahassee is where we really merged our lives together and became a little unit. It's where we got our pup; it's where we moved in together; it's where we lived when we got engaged and really knew we were spending our lives together. I don't know what it is about Tallahassee or Florida State in general, but we love it.

We woke up Saturday to begin tailgating. It was our first home game in 2 years! With beautiful weather, garnet and gold everywhere, old friends all around, and tailgators galore, J kept putting his arm around me, beer in hand, saying "this just feel's right!" And it did.





It's the one place you can sit with '80,000 of your closest friends' and wave your arm feeling right.at.home.





Oh, Florida State, we <3 you! We miss you! We can't wait to see you again! It's hard to beat a weekend with wonderful friends, each other, and an awesome place. (+ a Seminole WIN over Miami!)




Be on the look out for a post from me of all the little photo shoots I've done lately :)