Update on the Wedding Aisle Dance

Update: The day after I posted this video Matt Lauer interviewed the bride and groom on The Today Show! Then this morning the wedding party reenacted the entire thing on live television! I told you it was sweeping the nation! Here's the video:

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And here's the story about their interview on The Today Show on Friday: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/32122519/ns/today-today_weddings/

July

Here's what's been going on lately...

I went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and wore the Gryffindor scarf I got when I went to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire while I was in Oxford. We had a delightful theater who started the "I say Harry, you say Potter" cheer about 15 minutes before the show, as well as the wave. Highly entertaining.

Rachel's finger (up top), Amanda, me and Hedwig (you'd have to be a HP fan to understand)

Went to Lake Grapevine with some high school friends...

Melissa, me and Brittany

Preston surfing

I guess skin protection counts as important enough to sport the pop-up collar.

Mom turned 50 and we celebrated...

We stayed at the Embassy Suites in Frisco and dad surprised mom by reserving the presidential suite and had this put in the room when she walked in!

There was also a table with lots of goodies set up when she arrived.


Then we went to the Embassy Suites spa for the day and had it all to ourselves!

We brought Ella along because she's adorable. Here she is wearing mom's spa flip flops.

The Frisco Rough Riders are the minor league team for the Rangers. They actually have a swimming pool in their outfield that can be rented for parties during games so mom and dad decided to rent it for mom's birthday. We also had a suite compliments of dad's company.

Our family at the Rough Riders game minus Trey. :(

If you look closely you can see the pool at the top of this picture.

View of the pool from the suite.

Close up of the pool.

View from the pool to the field.

Ella and Julie just layin' out by the pool.

This guy cooked hamburgers and hotdogs poolside during the game for us.

Go Rough Riders! Woo!

At one point I looked at the jumbo-tron and saw that it was mom talking to some friends so I started jumping up and down and yelling "Mom! You're on the jumbo-tron!" and so then they put the camera on me. You know, you always see people on the jumbo-tron and you think "Do something! You're on TV!" but when you get to that moment it really is hard to figure out what exactly you are supposed to do. I just jumped up and down and waved my arms. Right behind me Preston was playing on his phone and they quickly zoomed in on him. Luckily he noticed in enough time to give a friendly wave.

Then we went back to the hotel and found this waiting for mom!

Summer is almost over...can't say I won't miss the heat! Not that it's going to get cooler anytime soon...the worst has yet to come. By the way, I am on the job search (along with everybody else in the United States) and am looking for something I can do Monday-Friday so that I can still work weddings on weekends. If you have any suggestions at all please let me know!

Now that's what I call a Grand Entrance!

Four people have already sent me the link to this video today so I can only assume it is sweeping the nation by storm. All I can say is that I am so mad I didn't think of doing this at our wedding...Preston would have loved it.

Two Girls a Kitchen and 300 Bucks

My cousins Chandra and Aubrey uploaded a video to DIY (The Do-It-Yourself network) in hopes of becoming the next do-it-yourself TV stars. I think they sound exactly like do-it-yourself TV show hosts! Check it out and please give them a 5 star rating so they'll win!!! (Click here to rate them).

Perini's on The Today Show

Perini's in Abilene won best burger on the Today Show this morning! In college we would go to Perini's quite a bit for date nights and when our parents would come in town. In fact, Preston and I celebrated our one year dating anniversary at Perini's! We were always a big fan of their Sunday brunch but unfortunately I have never tried the burger. I should also mention that the burger was declared the best burger in Texas last month by the Food Network magazine, which selected the best burgers from all 50 states. Next time we head to Abilene, a trip to Perini's to try that burger is a must!

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Petit Fours and Desserts

A friend of mine recently taught me an easy way to make petit fours. I was pretty proud of the way they turned out and will definitely consider making them again for a shower...





I have actually been experimenting a lot lately with desserts. I get daily recipes emailed to me from Martha Stewart and I immediately put them in my "recipes" folder. Then when I have tried them, I either put them in my "tested recipes" folder or trash them, depending on whether or not I like the recipe. Here are a few that passed the test...

Hazelnut Blondies

The hardest part about this recipe: finding hazelnuts. I finally found them (well, Preston really found them) at Whole Foods but I had to chop them myself.

S'mores Cookies
Wouldn't these be fun to make for a camp-out themed birthday party? I might just have to throw one someday for my child just so I can make these again.

Rocky Road Brownies

Make sure you use sweet chocolate chips with this recipe. I can't remember what kind I used (the recipe calls for semi-sweet) but they were a little bitter...unless you prefer bitter. I always prefer sweet.

Soft-Baked Chocolate Chip Cookies

We made these for Morgan's school and they were very good and yes, very soft.

Palm Beach, Florida

I want to move to the beach...or maybe just have a beach house one day...who's with me!? I mean, Texas is great and all but...I just love the beach. It was so nice to escape from reality and pretend we didn't have a care in the world.

We arrived in Palm Beach late Thursday night and went straight to bed at our cute little hotel. The hotel has been around forever but it has been redone and it was just precious. It was only a couple blocks from the beach so on Friday morning we ate breakfast at this adorable little restaurant right around the corner from our hotel called Cucina and then spent the rest of the day lounging on the beach. That night we went to the Palm Beach Grill and Preston ordered the best cheeseburger I have ever tasted in my entire life. We tried to go back and have another the day we left but they were closed. Guess we'll just have to revisit Palm Beach in the future...darn.

On Saturday we decided to go to the Four Seasons and get massages at their new spa. They were having a promotion, which discounted our massages, and because we were going to the spa we were permitted to use their pool, beach and spa facilities for the rest of the day. It was heaven! We had couples massages in the morning and spent the rest of the day laying out in our padded chairs under our own umbrella with butlers handing us ice cold towels, water and Popsicles. Totally worth it. Preston said we had to stay at another Four Seasons in the future. Can't argue with that.

Saturday was, of course, the 4th of July, so that night we watched fireworks downtown with the entire population of Palm Beach. They were no Texas fireworks but they were fireworks nonetheless. We realized that for the past three July 4ths we have been in different parts of the country: Cape Cod, Lubbock and Palm Beach. I think next year we have decided to be in Austin. I've never seen the Austin fireworks show Preston raves about so we shall see...

After fireworks we went back to our hotel and watched our wedding video in it's entirety...it's a very long video but always fun to watch. We even watched the entire ceremony and joked about how Preston had no idea what Chris had said because he was so nervous. Preston thought the message was about wineskins. Close. It was about Jesus' first miracle (turning the water into wine at a wedding). This time we payed more attention to everything going on in the background of the video which proved to be highly entertaining...especially during the reception. I was reminded again how wonderful my family and friends were to have made our day so perfect. I am so glad we have our video to help us remember how fun that day really was.

On our last day we walked down to the beach and collected a few seashells and then said our last goodbye to the ocean. We had lunch and ice cream at a little shop called Sprinkles and then hopped in cab and bid Palm Beach a farewell. Maybe one day we can buy a house on the beach and never have to say good-bye...cross your fingers!

Here are a few pics from the weekend...

The adorable Bradley Park Hotel

Our view on day #1

Seashells I collected

Preston: "Take a picture of me running into the water!"

Royal Poinciana Way...lined with palm trees. Lovely.

Our Four Seasons pad. Day #2

Lunch at the Four Seasons...so so so yumm

Popsicles at the Four Seasons. (They melted about 2.4 seconds after this picture)

Preston in his cacoon...we stayed under the umbrellas the whole day and still got burned because of the reflection of the sun on the sand.

Our goodbye to the beach! We hope to see you again soon!!!