August in Review

In August, we mostly recovered from all of our fun activities in July and soaked up the last full month of summer.

Continuing the canning tradition from last year, I made a new batch of heirloom tomatoes. This year was MUCH easier though since my mom came to help me. We canned 10 quarts and I'm already looking forward to doing it again next year. I was even contemplating making some homemade salsa and canning it for presents.

 We also spent a lot of time taking this wild puppy child to the dog park... and taking car selfies in the parking lot! :)

We spent many Saturday morning at the Farmer's Market - loving buying our produce and homemade goodies to make our weekly meal planning more exciting. 

 
We ended the month with a get away to Litchfield Beach for our anniversary. Just like our trip in April, it mostly rained while we were there but Tyler got to play golf/putt-putt and I got several great workouts in, we took naps under a cabana during a rain storm, and we ate lots of delicious food!

Us before our second anniversary dinner at Frank's in Pawley's Island. The food and wine at our dinner was SO good!

After our anniversary dinner, we took ourselves in our fancy outfits to play putt putt. We even ran into a couple who were celebrating their second anniversary as well!

All in all, August was a wonderful month spent at home relaxing after our adventurous July!

July in Review - A Summer Vacation

This past July was the first time since I've started working that truly felt like a "summer vacation."

My sister, cousin and dad all met in Raleigh for the Rolling Stones concert. My sister and I got my dad's ticket as a Father's Day present since he's been asking to go to a Rolling Stones concert for years.

The concert was held at Carter-Finley Stadium, my alma mater's football stadium. We tailgated in true NC State style then went into the concert. We had an absolute blast at the concert - it was by far the best concert I've ever been to!

The next day, my cousin had to head to work but my sister, dad and I had some extra time and enjoyed a southern lunch at Big Ed's in Raleigh - we were STUFFED afterwards! 

Next up, was our annual trip to Kentucky for Tyler to play in the Rolling Hills Invitational. Tyler has played in this tournament the past 12 years and really enjoys this trip back to his hometown each year.

Best friends at the golf tournament 

Tyler and his group at the Rolling Hills Invitational

Dry Ground Brewery with my love

This year was a little different since we had Muggsy with us. He was a really fun addition to walking the golf course and let out a cute little bark every time his dad hit the golf ball teeing off.

Love my little family! 

The final part of my summer vacation was our trip to Scotland and Denmark, which I'll recap in a different post soon!

All in all, July was extremely fun and memorable but exhausting. We've spent August and September a little more low key and plan to travel more this fall.

Life Lately

Hi There!

I can't believe it's already June and been over six months since I've written anything in this little space!

Life lately has been a little hectic... Although I hate to describe things as "busy" but work really has been really taking a big chunk of our time lately. We are both excelling in our careers and feel like now is the time to focus on getting ahead in that aspects of our life before priorities shift.

Let's take a look at where we've been and what we've been up to in 2015.

In January, I took a half day off of work to head to Raleigh to celebrate my sorority's 10th year at our university. It was so fun to meet up with friends I rarely get to see and spend some quality time together!

In February, we headed to the beach to visit my sister and unfortunately, I got really sick on the way home... so let's move right along...

In March, we picked up our pace with working out and started going to the gym consistently in the mornings and spent a lot of time with our Muggsy man.

Spring also started to show itself in uptown Charlotte...

In April, we headed to one of my childhood favorite places... Litchfield Beach! The weather wasn't great but the company and time away from work was unbeatable. (Sidenote: this was also the first time we left Muggsy at home with a local kennel and thankfully, we all made it through with minimal tears!)

In May, we celebrated our moms birthdays and hosted T's family for a weekend in Charlotte and a golf tournament.

We also debuted Muggsy's new patriotic bow tie for Memorial day... I'd say, he looks pretty cool in it!

Thus far, June has been filled with weekends around Charlotte, preparing for our upcoming trip to Europe and T enjoying some rounds of golf with his friends. We've also been trying to keep the pup active and have found he loves going to the dog park and dog bar. 

I've also enjoyed a few girls nights, including a great night with these perfectly sized prosecco bottles for our gals! 

The first half of the year has been exhausting... T & I combined have taken two vacation days total... needless to say, we are super excited for our upcoming trip and the rest of the year (and many more vacations to come!) 

Muggsy is ready for Christmas!

Muggsy made his Christmas card debut this year in a cute red gingham bow tie and will continue to be the dapper dog he is throughout the holiday season with his new bow tie! 

 

I ordered his new bow tie from an Etsy shop called Barking in the Rain, which has the cutest collars for pups! 

 I happened to be working from home on the afternoon that his new collar was delivered and opened up the delivery box to find the beautifully wrapped new collar with a note from the Etsy shop owner. 

The collar is solid red and the bow tie is red and green with a little sparkly gold thread throughout. 

The bow tie comes off so I can easily order new bow ties from the site and switch them out each season while continuing to use the same collar. 

All and all, I am so excited for this new collar and can't wait for Muggsy to wear it over the next few weeks! 

Christmas Card - 2014

As I mentioned in the Christmas Cards - 2013 post, our 2014 card of course had to include Muggsy!

We were planning to have some first anniversary with Melissa after our anniversary trip to California so it was perfect timing to include Muggsy when he was only 12 weeks old and about 11 pounds in our family session. Our photos turned out perfectly and Muggsy was absolutely adorable. I hope to do a whole post on this shoot since there were so many cute photos I'd like to remember.

We decided to go with Tiny Print's Sugar Vine design in red this year. I loved this design and how the red balanced out the amount of navy and green in our photos. 

This year, we kept it simple on the back with no photos. We still upgraded to kraft envelopes and used a custom address stamp that I ordered earlier this year instead of purchasing matching return addresses. 

Overall, I'm so pleased with the way our cards turned out - I hope to continue the Christmas card trend into 2015! :)

Christmas Cards - 2013

Since we just sent out our 2014 Christtmas cards yesterday, I thought I'd share our 2013 Christmas card design today. I'll share our 2014 card after its recipients get it sometime next week. 

We of course used some of our wedding photos for our Christmas card since it was only a few months after our August 2013 wedding.

Wedding Photos are all Melissa Joy Photography

Tiny prints has been our go-to site for creating cards - I love all of their options and styles of cards they offer each year. I decided on the "Our First Noel" design in "Blaze" for our first official Christmas card together and T approved as well! :)

Wedding Photos are all Melissa Joy Photography

We had so many favorite photos so I also chose to use some of our wedding photos for the back of the card. I upgraded to some fun silver envelopes and ordered matching return address labels too.

I'm so excited to share our 2014 card - Muggsy makes his debut and he is adorable! 

Muggsy update!

Muggsy has been in our family for a little under two months now and we are adjusting to our new lifestyle of pup-parents! We have certainly had to adjust our schedule - T is coming home at lunch to let him out and I'm adjusting my schedule (it is a little more flexible than T's) by working from home on Fridays or at the very least, working from home in the afternoons - We hope that this will be a little less rigid when Muggsy is around 6 months old and his bladder is fully grown. Gone are the days of carefree happy hours and after-work gym sessions - but I don't think we'd change anything in our lives! Here are a few pictures from early October...

My fave picture - adorable MM exhausted after his first set of shots

Morgan guys during Muggs first bath

Muggs in Taz's VOLs t-shirt

A friend suggested that we enroll our little guy in "Puppy Preschool" to help teach him basic commands and socialize him with other cute pups, ages 8 weeks to 6 months old. Since I have never had a puppy and knew I'd be doing most of the training at night (due to T's late work hours) I knew this was something we should check out and I am so glad that we did this - it's a big time commitment but I think what we've learned in the classes will absolutely help us in the long run! Muggsy is a pro at sit, park it (going to his crate) and slowing but surely learning down and come here. 

Sneak peak from our fall session with Melissa Joy Photography 

While I write on this cold and rainy Monday night, Muggsy is curled up next to me on the couch and is definitely on the way to becoming a lap-loving and cuddly pup. I have so many other pictures I want to share - but of course I'm having trouble downloading them from my macbook... so be on the lookout for another post with more pup pictures soon!

Meet the Morgans: New Addition

On Sunday, Sept. 21, 2014, T and I drove to Gaffney, SC to "look" at a precious 9 week year old Boston Terrier puppy.

Boston Terrier Puppy

We didn't have any intentions on bringing him home with us and I was looking to T to tell me no, this wasn't the time for us to get a puppy before I bonded with him too much while we visited with him... but my sweet hubby couldn't resist this adorable little guy either and we became the proud pup parents of Muggsy Morgan!

First family photo with our new pup at the farm in Gaffney!

Meet Muggsy Morgan!

In this first week, Muggsy has already stolen our hearts! We are spending a lot of extra time at home, training him and loving on him.

Muggsy on the car ride home!

He is so playful but also loves to cuddle up on our laps for a nap. He loves playing with the other dogs in the neighborhood and is friendly to everyone he meets! We plan to enroll him in puppy preschool so we can train him properly when it comes to housebreaking, socialization and basic commands.

He is already a great car passenger!

We are so excited for this next phase of our lives... and we can't wait to watch our little puppy grow into our best friend for years to come!

More nights like this are in our future... :)

I have a feeling that Muggsy will be making lots of regular appearances on the blog as well so check back for your puppy picture fill! :)