sombrero dip

On Sunday we went to a Super Bowl party at Kevin & Beth's house and we had so much fun! Beth always outdoes herself and she had so much yummy food! It was a great time with great friends. I made this Sombrero Dip for the first time and brought it to their house - I think it was pretty good!

Ingredients:

1 packet taco seasoning

1 (16 ounce) can refried beans
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 (16 ounce) container sour cream
1 can rotel, drained
guacamole (homemade or store bought)
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

Mix 1/3 packet taco seasoning with refried beans. Spread the mixture onto a large serving platter as bottom layer. Mix the sour cream and cream cheese together with 1/3 taco seasoning. Spread over the refried beans. Mix guacamole with rest of taco seasoning. Layer rotel on top of guacamole. Top with Cheddar cheese. Easy and delish!

photography

Hey y'all! I hope everyone is staying warm in this crazy weather!

Leslie just finished my new photography website and I would love for everyone to check it out! Just click HERE to take a look!

home is where the heart is

"You have Mississippi; it never leaves you." - Willie Morris


"To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi." -William Faulkner


"I talk about all the things that I really needed to make me happy at that point in time were outside of Mississippi, and now all the things that I need to make me happy are back there." -Sela Ward

Growing up I always disliked living here. I tolerated Jackson but also spent my years waiting for my life to really “begin” once I moved away.

Far away.

I dreamed of going to school in New York and becoming famous for my dramatic talents on Broadway. After my adventures in New York, I planned on moving to California and living there forever. My plans to attend Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles were abruptly changed May of my senior year in high school. At the last minute, due to unforeseen circumstances, I decided to attend the University of Alabama. It wasn't California, but in my mind I was at least getting out of Mississippi.

After many years of searching, I found my soulmate while dreaming away my life at Disney World during a college internship. Everything changed. We moved back to Mississippi, and I was still trying to get away.

“Let’s move to Charleston, Nashville…Miami!” I would say.

Anywhere but here....anywhere but Mississippi.

After spending the first few months of marriage trying to get away, I finally accepted that we would be here a little while due to our jobs. We began exploring our town on the weekends. Since Danny had never lived here before, everything was new to him. Seeing everything through his eyes was like seeing it for the first time. We saw places I had never seen before, and being with him made even the most mundane thing seem so exciting. I experienced Mississippi as an adult - not a bratty, entitled teenager.  Everything I used to hate was now so beautiful. 

My love/hate relationship with my home state turned into something very bittersweet. We were married here, we bought our first house here, my parents lived ten minutes away from us. I traveled out of state fairly often for work, and I began to feel a sense of pride overtake me whenever I was asked where I was from. "Mississippi" I would say, a grin slowly forming across my face as I anticipated a response. "Wow. Is there anything to do there?" A few years ago, my answer would have been an immediate no. Now? Now my answer is something like, "Yes, in fact there is."

I now take pride in being from the deep south. I feel blessed to call myself a Mississippian, born and raised. My grandparents lived here. My parents live here. It’s home. I like my southern accent and find southern culture so intriguing.

I've finally realized that it's not about having awesome clubs, cool attractions or world-class shopping. It's about family and friends. It's about relationships. Sure, it would be awesome to live in Miami or Los Angeles for a second. But at the end of the day (as cliche as it may sound) my home is where my heart is. And my heart rests in good ole Mississippi.

Will Danny and I live here forever? Probably not. But she'll always have my heart.

san francisco

I went to San Francisco for work on January 26th (Wednesday) and was there until Saturday morning. It was our bi-annual brand conference and I had a great time! I didn't want to lug my camera through the airport so all the pics are from my iPhone.

 I'd never been to San Fran before and thought it was such a cool city. My sister is actually living there right now so I was able to get dinner with her one night and she gave me a little tour of the city. You can see the Golden Gate bridge behind her in this picture! We had dinner at a place called the Slanted Door - my sis managed to get us a reservation even though it was packed!

We drove through Haight Ashbury and down the famous Lombard Street. My friend Carmen from Virgina Beach was at the conference and we actually sat next to each other on the flight from Dallas to San Fran. She and I met back in March and I love her!

They kept us SUPER busy during the day with all the seminars/meetings, but the food was delicious and they kept the diet cokes coming all day - haha! Carmen and I walked around downtown when we first got there and had dinner at a cute 50s-themed place!

Everything was at the Hilton San Francisco - the hotel was super nice.

I asked for an upgrade and they actually gave me one (which I couldn't believe!). I was in a suite on the 17th floor and had a great view of downtown.

The first night we were there was the welcome reception at Ghirardelli Square. All the restaurants and bars were opened just for our group! We took a trolley through Union Square to get to the reception and we got to see some of the beautiful architecture!

The last night they had a nice dinner for us and then had the Eagles after dinner as the entertainment!

It was a good trip. I was just SO exhausted when I got back! The stretch from San Fran to Dallas is over 3 hours and that is a long time to be sitting down. It wore me out! I had so much fun with Carmen and we are definitely going to be visiting her in VA beach soon!

We didn't have time to really do any touristy things, so next time I'm there I am definitely touring Alcatraz! I heard it was awesome. :)

baby ben

The Saturday before I left for San Francisco (one week ago) I took baby Benjamin's 6 month photos at our house! Jessica and her family came over and we spent the afternoon capturing precious memories. He is growing like a weed and looks just like his momma!

*I have a photography website in the works which should be finished this week. I also created a page on facebook, so feel free to "like" it if you want! http://www.facebook.com/sweetmagnoliaphotography

Enjoy these sweet pics of precious Ben!

miscellany

I've been telling Danny for months that I want to get a maid. It sounds ridiculous since it's just us and we don't have kids, but we both work full-time and I feel like our house is always organized and clean, but never really deep-cleaned. So he agreed to help me deep clean our house on Saturday. I made a list that was a page long and included everything from the base boards to self-cleaning our oven. We split the list and got to doing our chores and checked everything off as we went. It was so satisfying 3 hours later when we finally finished!

Then we got ready and went to Michael and Wyatt's surprise 30th birthday party on Saturday night and we had a great time! Lots of dancing and laughs with great friends. After their party we went to a blues club downtown with Sarah and Derrick. It was a fun night and I realized I just can't stay out super late like I used to anymore!

I've had a busy week at work and I'm so ready for the weekend. I leave for San Francisco next Wednesday for our annual conference and can't wait!

I decided to create a website for my photography so I can better showcase my work. Leslie is prettying it up for me right now and I can't wait to reveal it soon!

I hope yall have a great weekend!

the great ice storm

Y'all - I'm so exhausted! We volunteered at the Mississippi Blues Marathon yesterday morning and we woke up at 4:45am! We passed out water and gatorade and cheered on the runners until 9:30am. It was fun but so tiring!

I wanted to check-in and let y'all know I'm still here and we have just been super busy! I will do a full update soon. We are in the middle of an "ice storm" here in Mississippi and everyone is freaking out. We woke up to snow and everything was frozen!

I've never seen icicles on our roof before - so cool! 

The streets were literally empty today as everyone was staying inside to avoid the slick roads and bad weather. We left really quickly to run to the grocery store for food and that was it. We've been home all day taking down our Christmas decorations (finally!).

I hope everyone has a great Sunday evening and I will catch up more tomorrow! Stay warm!

2010 - our beautiful year

This past year was one of the best yet. I didn't think it was possible, but I manage to love Danny more every day. He is my best friend and we enjoyed a great year together. We worked, traveled, played and enjoyed our second year as newlyweds. I'm really loving this season of life.

I got a promotion at work in January. It was exhilarating and challenging, and I loved every second. I stayed super busy. Danny returned from his 2 week trip to Costa Rica on January 5th, and it was such a sweet reunion when he came home. I decided then that we would never spend Christmas apart again.

Posing with all the goodies he brought me from Costa Rica :)

It was an unusually cold January. Danny and I spent one Saturday volunteering at the annual Mississippi Blues Marathon. The water was freezing as we poured it in the cups and the temperature got down to 17 degrees. We spent our weekends relaxing and having fun with friends.

February brought us our first snow in the new house.

I stayed busy in my new role at work and finished up all my training. We took leisurely drives through town and spent Valentine's day exploring local places we'd never seen before.

I spent the first week of March in Dallas for work. Danny began landscaping around our house and planted our first tree in the front yard. We spent alot of time at Lowe's, Home Depot and Callaway's Yard & Garden.

March was a really fun month! We went to a crawfish boil...

a professional soccer game... 

and saw the Hornets play the Lakers in New Orleans! 

I spent a week in Memphis for work - which totaled two weeks out of town in one month. We also celebrated St. Paddy's Day at the annual parade downtown with our good friends.

April was another busy and fun month for us. Our grass was finally green and the yard was finally finished!

It was finally warm enough to enjoy laying out by the pool! We had friends over to our house for a backyard BBQ and also went to Ashley & Tyler's wedding at the end of the month. 

 I planted sunflower seeds back in February and never expected them to sprout. By April you could see them (to my surprise)!

Danny also mowed our lawn for the first time since we moved in! 

In May, we went to Jill & Michael's wedding and vacationed in Destin, Florida. The oil spill happened a few weeks before our trip, but the water in Destin was still pristine and beautiful. Brannon met us in Destin and we had so much fun!

Danny finished up his basketball season with a win at their last game.

We went to a Mississippi Braves baseball game and got to sit in the BankPlus suite! 

We spent time with friends and looked forward to a hot, southern summer. 

Danny completed his first half-marathon in June! He finished in the top 5 in his age group and I was so proud of him.

We had our friends over for a summer BBQ...

 and also enjoyed watching the World Cup!

We kept my parent's dog Bella when they flew to Chicago for a week, and we also booked our trip to Jamaica!

It really felt like summer in July, as the temperature got above 100 degrees several times! We spent alot of time at my parent's house enjoying their pool. My sunflowers bloomed and eventually grew to 3.5 feet tall!

 We spent 4th of July at Jessica & Matt's house and watched fireworks in Madison!

We also went to Disney World!! It was our first time to go back since our internship three years ago. We drove down on a Wednesday and came back on Sunday. It was SO FUN!

We got to see my good friend Obie (who I met during our college program)! 

We went boating on the reservoir with friends and got to know our new neighbors.

I also got my new DSLR camera in July and it was love at first sight!

August was laid back and everything slowed down a bit! I had my first photography session with some friends of ours and realized how much I loved my new hobby!

We took our big vacation to Jamaica in September! It was incredible and we had the time of our lives. It was so nice to take a break from everything and enjoy time with my hubby.

October has always been my favorite month and this year was no different! It started off with us going to the annual Mississippi State Fair with our friends Sarah & Derrick!

On October 12th we celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary! Danny surprised me with dinner at AJ's and it was so romantic. Danny also finished building our fire pit in the backyard and it turned out great.

We had a party at our house on October 16th and revealed the new fire pit!

I flew to Chicago for work during the middle of the month. The trip was short which was nice. We went to a Halloween party at Kevin & Beth's house and we had so much fun!

November was a sweet month. We took our Christmas card pictures and celebrated Danny's 24th birthday.

I also took Wyatt & Rachael's engagement pictures.

Tyler, Danny and I celebrated Thanksgiving by ourselves as my parent's were spending the holiday in Montana visiting my older brother. It was our first time to cook a turkey and I think it turned out well!

December ended our year in a great way. We hosted our annual Christmas party at our house...

 Danny's brother Christian flew in town from Costa Rica to spend the holidays with us, and my entire family (minus my brother Trey) were all together to celebrate Christmas and my birthday.

We spent New Year's in New Orleans and just got back today. I am so excited for 2011 and know that God has great things in store for us. I'm so blessed to have such a great family and their unconditional love.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. -Ecclesiastes 3:11