OK, okay, I'm back...

After weeks, no months of virtually disappearing, I'm going to give blogging another whirl. So many of you, okay, ONE of you, demanded my comeback. So, here we go!

Since I've been gone, here is what I've been up to:

1. Attending as many LSU games as possible! Geaux Tigers! #1 team in the nation!

2. Obsessing over Pinterest. But, who isn't?

3. Spending every Friday night for the past 11 weeks with the SBS Varsity cheerleaders. Love my girls!

4. Baking, baking and more baking.

5. Reading. Most recent favorite book - The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller. LOVED!

6. Starting a diet, stopping a diet, starting a diet.

7. Jazzercising. Don't judge. It's four minutes from my house.

8. I don't miss an episode of Modern Family!

9. Celebrating with friends in the joy of their new babies! Sara, Brooke, Misty, Amy!

10. Celebrating 30th birthdays with my sweet friends - Joy in October and Kim in November.

11. Shopping, but not nearly enough!

12. J and I took a Birkman Couples Workshop at church and leaned so much about ourselves and each other. It was incredible. If you ever have the chance to take this test, do it. Totally worth the money!

13. Not blogging (obviously). Sorry...

14. Still spoiling Charley rotten! Of course!

15. Work, work, work! Blessed to work at such a great place!

I know this was short, and contained no pictures, but hey - gotta start somewhere!

Have a great week,
B

Pictures from December Festivities

Sorry for the picture overload....these are some of the pictures from our Christmas festivities this year! As you can see, I was one busy girl!

Me and Hannah at the Chapter Chicks Book Club Christmas Tea!

Our first annual girls Christmas Party! The theme was scarves! We did a "white elephant" style exchange and then learned new ways to tie our scarves!!

Jeremy and I hosted our first big Christmas Party - here I am with the "Fab 4" - Kim, Carl & Josh

Some of my work BFF's - Kim, Leah and Hannah

My BFF's - Jenna and Jessica! We were reunited for the party!

I had a blast performing in the Really, Really Big Christmas Show at Second Baptist Church! I was a towns-person (dancer) and it was so much fun! Especially loved meeting new friends and spending lots of time with one of my favorite friends - Joy (front row, far right)!

Me and Leah! So glad we did the show together!

J and I's attempt at a family photo! Eh...not so much.

The same weekend of the show, we hosted my Louisiana side of the family for Adams Family Christmas. Here I am with my dad, and brothers, Jack and Hall!

The couples posed by the tree! Meet my beautiful sister-in-laws, Katherine and Misti (Katherine is due with the first baby for the Adams family in April - and it's a GIRL)!
I set the table all fancy for our Adams Christmas Dinner! So much fun!
A close-up of the place settings
Ahhh.....let's all take a moment and drool over my Christmas present from J! He totally outdid himself this year and completely surprised me with this Tory Burch purse! I wanted it, but never in a million years did I think he would get it for me... I teared up when I opened it. I'm in love...Me and my FIL at the Ford Family Christmas Eve Party!
Jeremy and his brother Kevin (they got matching paintings from Collin & Melanie for Christmas...we later found out it was a "joke" gift from their wine and painting night...whew!)

Me and Brayden (our nephew and godchild) hanging out with Pops :)

Brayden loves for you to read to him! And he loves his Uncle Jeremy!

And, I'll leave you with pictures of our house all decorated for Christmas! J did a great job with the lights outside!

Love our Christmas tree!

Hope you all had a blessed Christmas!
B

My Life in (iPhone) Photos

I got this post idea from my friend Rachel! So, here is my life through the camera lens of my iPhone. Out of my 220 photos on my Camera Roll, seriously over 100 are of Charley (our sweet dog). But, I'll spare you all of those adorable moments and try to show you that I've got a diverse collection of photos! Here we go!

My niece Alex before her cheerleading practice (my 'lil legacy) - isn't she the cutest thing you've ever seen? Thought so!

I do this alot - take pics of myself in an outfit. I try it on and send it to Mom - she approved of the romper, but fashion consultant Shari did not. For $19.99 from Target, I bought it anyway. It's a comfy, around the house outfit!

Here are some of my rah-rah's at an SBS volleyball game! We were trying to twit-pic this photo - not sure it worked though!

I made this festive dessert for Memorial Day!

Well, hello there....this is Les Miles (LSU football coach, yes, I'm obsessed) posing with my boy Kenny Chesney (also obsessed) before his concert in Tiger Stadium! I got this off Twitter, I actually wasn't that close to my idols, because you know you would've already heard about that!


Pre-game before we got spanked by Florida. Good picture on my iPhone, right?


Naptime for my boys!

My new lamps for my guest room! Aren't they pretty?!?

I took a cake decorating class last summer. I'm your girl if you need a clown cake. Hey - you never know...

I made Pioneer Woman's Homemade Cinnamon Rolls one Saturday afternoon (...they took a long time to make) - but they were incredible!

Charley laid on my blanket, so I wrapped him up like a kolache! Hehe...sucker!

Our new Apple computers at work. Is the screen big enough for ya? Oh yea, that's how we do it at SBS! I'm officially a Mac snob!

This was a fun post to do! Have a great weekend everyone - we'll be busy packing! We move in SEVEN DAYS!

Playing Catch Up!

Its been awhile since my last post - so here's what we've been up to!

1. We spent the weekend in Boston (Woburn, actually) for J's cousins wedding. We had a really great time with our family and friends!! I love my new cousin-in-law, Erin! She's just the sweetest person, and we get along really great! I love when fabulous people become part of your family!

2. No updates on the house - we had another open house this weekend and received great feedback, so hopefully soon! We are READY TO SELL!!!

3. Charley got kicked out of day care while we were away this past weekend. Aggressive behavior. Yep, our precious dog, who is as friendly as can be was kicked out. Grammy picked him up on Saturday morning and he was an angel for her - wouldn't you know?!? Oh, well.....hopefully our 2-legged kids are better behaved!

4. GLEE IS BACK!!! Thank you Jesus!

5. And SPRING IS BACK!! Hooray for being able to wear dresses and sandals again!

6. Today is my mom's birthday! And for her birthday, she is taking me on a trip to the Florida Keys! Great mom, right? I love my mom so much!! She's the world to me!

Have a great week bloggers!

Tie Knot Blanket Tuesday

For today's Spring Break Project, I made a blanket! I made a cute tie knot fleece blanket. The lady at Joann's said it would only take me 30 minutes. Well, it took about 3 hours, but I'll chalk that up to the fact that I'm an amateur and that I was watching last night's episode of Gossip Girl (OMG - Dan and Vanessa?!? LOVE IT!). Anyway, I had fun making the blanket and I can't wait to snuggle up and use it, since I'm always cold! Here are a few pics from each step of the way!

First, I cut 4 inch squares in each of the corners of the blanket.

Then I cut 4 inch strips on all sides of the blanket (lesson learned: do this project on a large table, and not on the living room floor)

Next, I tied the strips together. Do you like the polka dot fabric? It's called Skittles - cute, right?

Ta-da - its finished! Charley likes it, of course, he barely stayed off of it long enough for me to finish!

I had fun with the blanket!! Jenna - are you proud?!?
Not sure what I'll be taking on tomorrow yet!
XOXO-
Brittney

Chocolate Cake Monday

To celebrate Spring Break, I'm doing something new every day! I love to bake, so I figured I'd make a new dessert today - not to mention I LOVE SWEETS!

Today I made a Chocolate Sheet Cake! I've never made one before, but I love to eat them, so I gave it a go with Pioneer Woman's Recipe. It only called for 3 3/4 sticks of butter (yep, you read that right!). It was fairly easy to make, but next time I'll use a deeper baking sheet. The mess took a long time to clean up! Live and learn! That's my cooking motto :)

This is the icing starting to boil; after I made the icing, I poured it onto the cake just as it came out of the oven...this was pure bliss!

This is what the cake looked like in the oven!

It was all fun and games until I realized the big mess I made pouring the icing on top of the cake - oh well, part of the fun!

The only downside to this cake is that making it uses a ton of dishes!

This is what Charley did while I was a baking! Usually he's right on my heels, so this is serious progress!

Happy Spring Break!!
Brittney

2009: A Year In Review

I got this blog idea from my friend Sara - enjoy!

January: Got my first new car, which 4 days later I managed to ding up by hitting the air conditioning unit outside our garage. It's getting fixed this week!

February: Had a romantic Valentine's Day seeing Legally Blonde! Went to Dallas with junior and senior cheerleaders for playoff game and had fun! Took Dog Training 101 with Charley and he graduated with honors!

March: Traveled to NYC - had a blast with our cousins Brian and Erin, shopped, drooled over a Coach bag I thought I needed (but alas did not get, and that's okay), saw Wicked, went on fun movie and TV tour of NYC. Didn't see any celebrities, but maybe next time! My beloved blind Pomeranian I got in college, Bruiser, passed away unexpectedly. First devestating animal loss for me.

April: Went to Boston for the first time for a marketing conference with fabulous co-worker Shari and we had a blast! Loved the city!! Started scrapbooking again! Joined Twitter!

May: Turned 25! Went to Sedona with our friends Sara and Cliff and had a wonderful time! Such a beautiful part of the country! Went to see my boy Kenny Chesney in concert! Joined a Sunday School class at our church and started making new couple friends!

June: Went to float the Frio River with a group of friends and had a great time and minimal sunburns. Our nephew and godson Brayden was born a month early! Just before Father's Day!

July: Had our first anniversary! Celebrated Jeremy's birthday on vacation in Boston! Went to Red Sox game, Cape Cod, Plymouth, Duck Tour of Boston and much more. Had a great time! Went to Scrapbook Village with my BFF Jenna and was blown away by all of her new scrapbooking tools. She became my scrapbooking hero! Took my first cake decorating class!

August: The girls dominated cheer camp once again, started my 3rd year of working at SBS, went to George Strait concert with my BFF, my Mom.

September: Started traveling for LSU football; had fun tailgating and winning games again! Brayden was baptized and I attended my first Catholic baptism ceremony.

October: Fell more madly in love with my husband! Struggled with decision to go back to school (specifically Law School), realized that's not where God wants me now, so I'm sitting patiently and obeying his plans! Dressed Charley up for Halloween as a bumble bee - I loved it, Jeremy rolled his eyes, the dog was indifferent, he just liked the excessive attention! Hired a fabulous assistant cheerleading coach!

November: Experienced my first cheerleading drama - and hope to never go through any again! Glad I survived! Thanksgiving in Houston, then headed to BR with my parents in tow to watch LSU beat Arkansas :) Finally!

December: Took cheerleaders to first competition and they won 1st and 2nd place! Enjoyed a busy Christmas with our families, had a nice break off of work (which I'm still enjoying), stepsister Heidi got married, Charley ate his first chocolate candy and got a Cherry Eye in the same week, and got to play in the snow in Houston!

Had a blessed 2009 and I am looking forward to a great new year!

Nieces and Nephews and Charley...Oh My!

This has been a great weekend for the Ford family - Jeremy & I have a new nephew. Brayden Paul Ford was born at 11:50 a.m. on Saturday morning to Collin (Jeremy's brother) and his wife Melanie! We are so excited for them! He is precious and adorable and we can't wait to hold him. We are (hopefully) going to visit them this coming up weekend in BR and I promise to post pics when we return!

We recently celebrated the nephew on my side of the family, Drake's birthday. He just turned 8 and had a swim party! He's so cute - he's getting to a stage where he is comfortable showing affection without being forced to "go hug your Aunt Brittney." After he opened the gifts, he came up and gave me a side hug and said "Thank you." It was really heartfelt and genuine! We also celebrated our niece, Alex's "5th birthday" even though her real birthday isn't until December! She's always adorable and had the cutest squeal every time she opened a gift! It was hilarious!

And Charley....he's just, well, Charley! Into everything and so nosy! I've been working out with Jillian's Shred DVD at home, and everytime I do it, he has to be right beside me. When I am running in place, he's trying to sit on each foot as it hits the ground; when I'm doing push ups, he's laying on my leg! CRAZY DOG! The most recent thing he's chewed is the cord of our iron, so now its out of commission - just when I was starting to actually like ironing! He is starting to calm down somewhat, so we can possibly start having guests over without having to distract Charley! Yahoo!!

Just wanted to share some blessings with everyone - hoping you have found blessings in your weekends, too!

A Great Weekend

I always hope that Sunday evenings will go by so slowly so that Monday morning doesn't come quickly! We've had a relaxing weekend - I slept in until 11 yesterday, which was wonderful! Then, we went and saw a matinee of Marley and Me. We had just finished reading the book last week, and we both loved it! It was neat to read a book together, and then see the movie together.

We truly feel like our dog Charley is part "Marley." He just does all of these crazy, off the wall, bad behavior things. Like, last night at our friends house, he broke their dogs squeaky toy. In under two minutes, it was destroyed. It's like we have the "bad kid." Ha!

So, now, I'll go enjoy the remainder of my weekend by cooking dinner, playing with the crazy dog and watching TV!