A Quarter of a Century OLD???

So this is almost THREE months late, but better late than never! Hope you enjoy!!!

For my 25th birthday I had many wishes. When I first started thinking about what I wanted for my birthday, I realized that they were pretty much all material things. Friends to see, a purse to wear, a dinner to eat, flowers to smell... Then I realized that maybe my wishes should be a little most meaningful than that. I mean, I am 25 now - that's practically an adult right? So I started a new list. I wished that the wild fires in Texas would be put out - and to my knowledge they are all under control - WHOOP! I wished that my loved ones would live forever - yes I know, this does seem like a wish a child would wish for, but I won't ever give up on that. And I wished that my husband would be pleased with himself and to know that he did an amazing job planning my perfect 25th birthday.

And it was the perfect weekend. I didn't get the things I wished for initially but like I said, the wildfires are under control, I'll always wish that my loved ones would live forever and my husband did an amazing job that I'm still making sure he knows about. I received many gifts from friends and family - and cards to go along with them.

Side note: I haven't really written about this, but I have a new found love for writing. Not typing, but really writing. I have always loved talking - which to mean translates fine into my love for writing. When I write, I'm talking. But what I mean now when I say writing is really writing. Taylor & I were blessed with many shower & wedding gifts, which gave us the opportunity to write many thank you notes. It was while writing the thank you notes, and even more when I realized we were finished writing them, that I realized - I love writing. Pen to paper, and then putting a stamp on it and mailing it. And then knowing that somebody would get to go to their mailbox, and have mail! I know how much I love it when we have mail. I think between Taylor & myself we check the mail at least 4 times a day. So point of this saying, I LOVED getting those cards with sweet messages in them and loved being able to reply to them.

Back to the birthday update. I loved all of the gifts and cards that I received! ! I also loved all the phone calls that I got on Sunday. One of my very dear friends, Ryan called and woke me up with a sweet birthday call. It started the day off wonderfully. She also sent me a text message right at midnight on my birthday telling me Happy Birthday. She is quite the overachiever. :)

Taylor made me breakfast both mornings and it was delicious. He actually made dinner all birthday week and it was never a disappointment. He is an outstanding cook. It was a nice break from cooking. We normally cook together or I'll cook before he gets home. But not my birthday week - I was to relax and just wait for dinner to be served. As my presents Taylor got me an iPod shuffle. I have wanted one for a couple years actually and my last birthday Taylor gave me his old one - but it was broken ha. So this year he got me a new & working one! He also bought me (really it is for us because we both love Disney!) The Toy Story 3 pack! Yes, that's right Toy Story, Toy Story 2 & Toy Story 3 - all in one! Needless to say we couldn't resist but watch them. So Sunday afternoon/evening we watched the Toy Story trio and loved every second of it. He also took me to Texas Roadhouse for my birthday dinner! It was so nice to have a touch of home for a little while. Afterwards we went to a little dessert cafe that Taylor discovered and had cupcakes! Red Velvet, Wedding Cake & OF COURSE - Birthday cake! They were amazing!

Overall my birthday was wonderful, very relaxing - and definitely different than years before. It reminded me a lot of my birthday my freshman year in college. Because my birthday is in September - so soon after school starts, if I am in a new place/new school I don't have a ton of friends to celebrate with quite yet. That is how it was my freshmen year. My good friend, Jeff, planned a little get together, invited a lot of Aggies for Christ people (most that didn't even know me yet) and we had cookie cake & ice cream. It was chill, laid back, and a good time. Just like now, Taylor & I don't know a whole lot of people so there wasn't a big group dinner, or going out dancing  - just a sweet weekend with the two of us. I'd say it was the perfect first married birthday! I can't wait celebrate many more with Taylor!

Love you all!

Kauffman Krew

Slackerrrrrr

Yep - that's me! A slacker! At least with the blog I have been! I can't believe how long its been since I posted. I am going to blame it on all the traveling we have done. We went to Nashville, College Station & Houston all in the month of November. So even though that was really only the weekend...you all know what its like to recover from long road trips, so that is my excuse!

With that being said, I have not only been busy traveling, we've been busy with fun Christmas festivities, like Christmas shopping! And ordering those Christmas cards I was telling everybody about! *Which I CANNOT wait to send out!!!*

I will be posting some old posts that I have been meaning to posts for MONTHS, so start looking out for them! I will also be posting about our last couple weekends of traveling - it has been amazing! I can't wait to share all the love and excitement we have experienced this month. There is no doubt we have a TON to be thankful for!

Thank y'all again for reading our blog, it truly does make me happy.

Love you all!
-Kauffman Krew

Christmas Cards

To say that I have been looking forward to making our Christmas cards would be an understatement...a very, very BIG understatement.

Since before I can remember I have thought about my Christmas cards that I would send out with my someday husband and family, and now that time is here! Whoop!

So this is just a short post to tell you all how excited I am about the Christmas cards, that I am currently working on them, that I CANNOT pick just one because they are ALL so cute, and that you should get really excited about receiving one this Christmas!

Well that's about it! Hope you're as excited about Christmas cards as I am!!!

Love you all!!!
-Kauffman Krew

Pinterest!!!!

Ok so if you know me, you more than likely know how ANTI-bandwagon I am...or I was anyway. Since getting married, I've realized that I have jumped on a lot of other bandwagons that I didn't even realize.

1. Getting married - ha, ok so maybe not really a bandwagon, but still, it is something that most girls want at our age.
2. Facebook - EVEN THOUGH I can say that I joined when it was super new, I mean I was on it when you had to have a college email address to be on it.
3. Grey's Anatomy - Again, I was watching this show from the beginning of Season 2, and I didn't even know it existed Season 1, so its kind of NOT a bandwagon for me...but we'll just say for the sake of this post, it is.

*Note - I do consider the fact that if you are on a bandwagon from its origin, then its not really you bandwagoning, because you helped create the actual bandwagon. Example, me with Facebook & Grey's OR somebody who has been reading Harry Potter since the first book came out and read it before the 2nd one came out and it took over bookshelves...see my point?*

With that being said, I can say that being an Aggie, Christian, Spurs fan, & Cowboy fan is not any bandwagon to me. I've been an Aggie from the moment I knew Aggies existed (freshman year of high school) and have stuck by them through the good, the bad and the very ugly (like some of our football games this year). I've been a Christian for as long as I knew there was a God that loved me and wanted the best for me (approx age 5 :) ) I've been a Spurs' fan since I knew there was another team in the NBA besides the Chicago Bulls haha. And I have been with them with their Championships and their very disappointing early exits in the playoffs. AND I have been a Cowboy's fan since I can remember, or should I say since I could hear my Grandmother yelling for/at them. :)

But now onto the things that I have started to bandwagon on -
1. A blog, but lets be real, we are all so glad that I did! What better way to keep everyone informed on our lives alllllllll the way over here in Alabama!
2. Twitter - yes that's right, I started a Twitter. I don't tweet a lot, mainly because one of my friends (you know who you are) is an excellent tweeter, and I feel like I have a lot to live up to, and I feel like if you are going to tweet something, it better be A. good, B. witty C. make somebody at least smile!
3. and finally - Pinterest. I had heard about Pinterest this summer, but it just sounded like another bandwagon that would fade away...boy was I wrong. So a couple weeks ago, I decided to click on a link that somebody had pinned on Facebook. It was just a funny little saying about Adult Truths. Here is it below:

Hilarious, right???

Now after reading that, you would be intrigued as well, right? You want to know what other funny things you can find on this Pinterest. Well boy oh boy. Once I got started, I couldn't stop. Well I tried just saving all of the websites that I found for all the delicious recipes, but then Taylor told me to just cave and sign up for it. So I did, with some help from my friend Ryan. She invited me and there is was. A world full of great recipes, decorations, DIY crafts...just pure awesomeness. And from that moment I have been pinning like crazy. It isn't hard, I think just about anybody could do it. So that is why I am telling you, YOU SHOULD DO IT! If you want to sign up, let me know. I will send you an invite. You don't have to be sent an invite to sign up, but if you just try to sign up yourself, they put you on a waiting list...no seriously, they do. So just let me know. Whether you're young, old, male, female, you'll find something that you love. I have quite a few pins...270 as of right now. If you want to just check out Pinterest without signing up, you can! Just go to:

http://www.pinterest.com/

If you want to check out MY Pinterest, then just go to: http://pinterest.com/paigekauffman09/

I have boards for meals, baked goods, dream home, crafts, style, even a Christmas wish list!

I hope that you at least just check it out! And like I said, if you want to join LET ME KNOW! I know some bakers and cooks that would love this! And some fashionistas & crafters that would also!

Love you all!
-Kauffman Krew

*I was going to say this was really just a post from me, but Taylor will tell you that he has benefited from Pinterest as well! LOTS of great dinners of ours have come from it, and many more will as well!*
Including these "nuggets of joy" that Taylor likes to call them. They are pepperoni bites!

If you would like the recipe, just check out my Pinterest!

Exciting News!!!

So like I said in my last post, we have some exciting news! We think we found a home church!!!!

Taylor & I have been visiting churches since we got married. We haven't had a lot of luck in finding a church that we wanted to call home. Don't get me wrong, we have visited some really great churches, just none that felt quite as welcoming and right as the church we visited on Sunday.

It is Port City Church of Christ, and it is about 15 minutes from our apartment. The regular Sunday morning attendance is about 200, so it isn't huge but it isn't tiny. I think just about every person there at least said hello to us on Sunday, and many came to introduce themselves and get to know us. It was amazing.

The preacher there is very energetic and is really excited about what he is teaching. Taylor & I joked to each other that he had a few too many Mountain Dews that morning, but it really was encouraging to see. He was energetic from the first words he preached to the last. He definitely kept us intrigued and we really enjoyed his lesson.

We did see a lot of younger couples, so that was encouraging as well. We are going to go back next Sunday when we're in town again. Our hope is that the more we go, the more people we'll meet and the more involved we can become. There seem to be a lot of ways to get involved, and a lot with the youth, so I am very excited about that!

This is just a little update letting you all know the good news! Please continue to pray for us and pray that we have found our home church where we can plant our roots and grow.

Love you all!
-Kauffman Krew

Happy November!!!

It is November! WHOOP! That means MANY things!

It means the weather is cooler, and it just might stay that way!
It means college football is getting really good (well for most schools anyway).
It means we have a good excuse to eat warm soups & chili.
It means we get to GO BACK TO TEXAS!!! (Just for Thanksgiving)
It means we get to see our families! Well 3 out of 4 anyway!

So needless to say, we are pretty excited! I know I've been absent from the blog for a couple weeks, but I'm back and ready to go! I have lots to tell everybody! I still need to post about the wedding we went to in San Antonio, our Halloween, and some other exciting news (no we aren't pregnant haha).

Here is what our November looks like SO FAR!
This weekend - Taylor & I are headed to Nashville Tennessee on Thursday afternoon. We will be there all weekend for Taylor's cousin's wedding & all of its festivities. We are very excited about getting to spend a weekend out of Mobile and with family.
November 11-13 - Nothing too exciting planned, but we are still looking forward to it
November 18-20 - My friend from work is going to have a baby in late November/early December so they are having a little shower for her that I get to go to! Very exciting!
November 24-27- THANKSGIVING!!!! One of my favorite holidays - and yes I love all holidays and I have a hard time ranking them, but it is tied with the 4th of July for 2nd. (My birthday is first for any of you not sure haha)

For Thanksgiving this year we are going to Texas!!! We might even be in Louisana as well! We will spend a couple days with my parents, Pop & Mrs. B and then a couple days with Taylor's mom, Sherrill, his sister, Madeline and their family. That’s why we know for sure we will be in Texas for some of it, and we might be in Louisiana depending on where we spend that time with Taylor's side of the family! We really just cannot wait! Four straight days of family, catching up and DELICIOUS FOOD!!! MY FAVORITE!!! :)

Speaking of food....let’s talk about some of the best Thanksgiving food!
Turkey - duh!!! So good and almost any way that you prepare it, it is fantastic.
Stuffing - makes the turkey even better, but it is not complete without...
Cranberry sauce!!! And I tell you what, I eat that stuff whether it is made from true cranberries, OR straight out of that can with the can rings imprinted into it and all. Yummmm.
Sweet Potatoes - I'm not really picky on how these are prepared either. Of course, I am partial to how I grew up eating them, with marshmallows on top. But I've had them with caramel & pecans as well, and let me tell you, those aren't bad AT ALL! :)
Mashed Potatoes - yes, I know, more starch, but these are soooo good, especially with,
Green beans! - Without bacon of course haha. Just kidding, I eat them however they are prepared as well.
Corn
Carrots (all buttered up)
I think that’s all the vegetables I'm used to. Although I would not be opposed to any other gracing a Thanksgiving table.
CRESCENT ROLLS!! You cannot forget those. They are the perfect last bite to just send that full feeling over the edge. You know what I'm talking about.
Most families serve Ham as well...and that’s fine, but I'll stick with my turkey!
Ok I think that is about it for the main course...I wonder if I forgot anything. I would love to hear about what other dishes you have at your Thanksgiving table!
*Note: when I grow up and I am the one making Thanksgiving dinner, you better believe there will be Mac & Cheese! And lots of it!*

And don't worry, before we go, I won't forget the most important part: DESSERT!
Pumpkin Pie
Pecan Pie
Sweet Potato Pie
Well those are my three favorite, although some others that like to make an appearance:
Lemon Meringue Pie
Chocolate Pie
Chocolate Meringue Pie
Cobblers (all and any)
And of course, don't forget that fruit/whip cream salad thing that is on most tables with the main course, I love it, but not sure if it is a side dish or pre dessert. :)

Mmmmm...Aren’t you STARVING for Thanksgiving now??? I know I am!!! Only 23 days away!

Like I said, check back soon because I will have more posts coming very soon.
Love you all!
-Kauffman Krew