Girls Weekend and Lisa's shower!

Two weekends ago two of my besties, Brianna, all the way from Cali and Lisa, representing Waco came into Dallas. After some quality hang out time Friday night and Saturday, Bri and I took the opportunity to throw  Lisa, 5 1/2 months preggers, her first baby shower!

Hostesses

Bundtini's in pumpkin spice--Lisa's fave. 

Lots of presents for Ella Grace Wilkinson. 

(Patty and Katie)

We played this extremely difficult baby shower game and then wrote little prayers for Lisa's baby which she can keep and read forever. 

Proud Momma to be. 

Me, Brianna and Lisa. And Ella Grace Wilkinson. :)

Such a fun weekend and wonderful time spent catching up with friends! 

Can't wait for Ella's arrival in March!

Weekend in the Fort

John's birthday celebration continued over the weekend as we traveled to Fort Worth and met my parents for lunch at the new West 7th hot spot, Hacienda San Miguel. Great patio with delicious food. And drinks!

Apples.

After lunch we dropped the boys off to watch the Rangers and Mom and I went shopping. We even stopped by for a quick visit with the Mammaw.

Just precious.

One of my best friends, Rebecca, shares the same birthday with John! Saturday night, we met up with friends on the patio at Piola

Obligatory photo shoot courtesy of my mother.

Family pic. 

Birthday girl!

Candace and Court enjoying bundtinis from Nothing Bundt Cakes. 

Me and the birthday girl. 

Rett and John. 

Can, Mel and Court. 

It's always good to see some of my favorite Waco peeps. 

After church on Sunday we met John's parents for lunch and continued celebrating his birthday. Kathleen and David generously gifted John with their old lawn mower and weed eater (we've been borrowing a friend's) and we'll be able to round out our landscaping needs with a gift card from them to Home Depot. We're such grown-ups.

It's patio season!

There is nothing I love more than eating on a patio with friends or family. And since we've had such awesome weather lately, it was about time to hit up one of the best patios around, Joe T. Garcia's, with some of my best friends from as far back as kindergarten and all through high school.

Gayle and Amy. I've known Gayle and Amy since kindergarten and first grade, respectively. 

Amanda, who just recently moved with her husband Anson from NYC to Dallas. 

Arden and Courtney. I met Arden at Fish Camp at AHHS and we've been friends ever since. We both even had wispy bangs together. That's friendship. 

We celebrated Gayle's upcoming birthday with another round of margaritas and cookies. 

YUM. 

We missed Meg and Lindsey!

And then we got a little camera happy. 

We talked a lot about how not everyone stays friends with their high school friends. It's definitely special that we've stayed as close if not closer with each other since graduation and we still laugh and chat as if we see each other everyday. Our friendship is unique and I'm so fortunate to have such great friends.

Following an afternoon on the patio, Courtney and I found Rett and John, who spent the day golfing, and met up with more of our Fort Worth friends for dinner at Old Rips.

Ladies' end. 

Gentlemen's end. 

And that is what I like to call a successful Saturday in Fort Worth. Patios, good friends, margaritas and mexican food. Perfection. 

Weekend in Houston

John and I spent the weekend in Houston celebrating the marriage of our good friends from Baylor, Alex and Kathleen.

The reception was at the Hotel ZaZa--which is very swanky and in the Museum District of Houston. We opted to stay at the ZaZa not only because it's cool--but it was also convenient to stay in one spot. Below are the views from our room.

Houston skyline

Beautiful water fountains

ZaZa pool where I caught some rays and read my new book.



We loved getting to catch up with our friends, ate wonderful food (sushi bar included!) and danced the night away. Yes, John danced the night away.

Newman Family Birthdays

About once a quarter, excluding the holidays, the Newman clan (my Dad's family) gathers for some quality hang out time. It's something that I always look forward to attending, particularly because we've been doing this for as long as I can recall.

This past Saturday we met at my parents house, ate barbecue and celebrated birthdays from the first part of the year. When you have a group of almost 30, that's already a lot of birthdays. Most specifically, we celebrated my Dad, Uncle Andy and Blake's March birthdays. 

(The two on the left are brothers, right?!?!)

Everyone got to blow out a candle. 

My cousin, Gina, was even in town from Phoenix. It was really fun to get to spend some quality time with her as well. 

(Missed getting to see her husband, Brad, this time around!)

Megan and her bf, Randy, were in town too for spring break. They're such co-eds. 

**Disclaimer: I don't really know what the term co-eds even means. I just know my grandmother uses that term to refer to college students. I think.**

This is my cousin Ethan with his wife, Kasie. 

 And while Ron and Lori couldn't make it, their sweet little Eli did. Cutest kid ever. 

He even found a friend to play cars with him!

We had a lovely Saturday evening with the Newman family but missed Brad, Ron and Lori! Happy Birthday to Dad, Andy and Blake! 

A Visitor!

Last weekend John and I hosted our first overnight guest, Rebekah!  It was her first trip up to Dallas to see our new digs and a good excuse to hang out and catch up!

We cooked dinner at our place Friday night and woke up Saturday to try this gem in Deep Ellum:

The All Good Cafe, as seen on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, and known for their peppered bacon. It was delicious and brought very Austin-y vibes all the way to Dallas.

Afterward we stopped at John's office to hang some pictures and frames and then Rebekah and I treated ourselves to a relaxing manicure before doing a little shopping. Saturday night we all made our first visit to the Bishop Arts District, a community undergoing revitalization in Oak Cliff.

It's got lots of great stores, restaurants and culture all within a few square blocks. We stopped for drinks at Tillman's first and then sat down at Hattie's, a low-country cooking inspired restaurant. I ordered shrimp and goat cheese grits and was probably one of the better meals I've ever had.

(Y'all you can google image just about anything these days.....so amazing!)

Sunday morning Rebekah joined us at a church we've been visiting and thanks to the great weather, we had a lovely lunch outside before she headed back down 35 toward Austin.

We're looking forward to her  next visit (or perhaps we'll get away to Austin first) and welcoming any other visitors wandering through Dallas!

Mr. and Mrs. Evan Harris

This weekend we were in Abilene to celebrate our dear friends, Callie and Evan's, wedding. Callie is one of my best friends from undergrad at Baylor and I lived with her for three years. The rest of our friends were there for the weekend too, making it extra fun to catch up and hang out all together again. 11 of us stayed under one roof at the beautiful Sayles Ranch guest house--complete with a pool!

All the Baylor ladies at the rehearsal.

Hacienda girls. 5 out of 7 were married in the last 14 months....we called it wedding blitz 2009-2010.

Callie was such a beautiful bride and every detail of the reception had her touch of style.

Callie and I met on my first day of class at Baylor freshman year. I was looking for a nice girl to sit by and it happened to be Callie and it turned out, we became best friends.

Mr. and Mrs. Evan Harris

Callie's reception featured cotton candy passed around on cute little stands.

Saying farewell to Mr. and Mrs. Evan Harris.

We are pretty exhausted but it was a lovely weekend and so good to catch up with our friends.

Katie's Bachelorette

Friday night a group of my grad school friends and I celebrated the lovely Katie Lauve's final weeks as a single lady. She was one HOT bachelorette.

We all met up at 8.0's on Sundance Square in downtown Fort Worth on a perfect April night.

She even jumped up on stage with 80's band, The M80's, and danced with the lead singer. He of course was wearing a great cut-off shirt and some super tight pants....

Lots of silliness ensued. Love these girls.

(Note to self: stealing other friend's facebook pictures will not suffice for future blog postings...)

Can't wait to celebrate with Katie and Timmy in Alexandria, LA in three weeks! So happy for the future Mrs. Katie Lauve Moon! (Doesn't she have the greatest hippie name ever?!)