I Married an Artist

Last night Taylor & I went on a double date with our friends Ryan & Ashley. We started the date night just the two of us going to eat at Newk's. It has become a regular for our date night dinners. They have salads, soups, pizzas and sandwiches - delicious! Annnnnd they serve Coke Zero, awesome.









After dinner met Ryan & Ashley at Paint Party Studios here in Mobile. It was their monthly date night, which is what caught our attention intially. I think it may have been a blessing in disguise we didn't know about it before, because we both want to do it again! When we set our reservation we picked out our pictures from their website. Taylor chose a light house from Dauphin Island. I was really excited that he chose this lighthouse because I knew it would be a great picture and a great way to remember our time here in Mobile. I chose an artsy tree blowing in the wind. Mainly I just thought it was pretty :).

The employees at Paint Party Studios set up your station before you get there. They had the canvases out and had sketched the main lines of our photos. They also give you all the paint colors you will need and some brushes. They guide you through the process, what to paint first, what colors to use/mix, they are just very helpful. Taylor started on his sky and water first, and I followed suite by painting my sky and ground first.

I really did have a great time painting my photo, but I enjoyed watching Taylor paint even more. I don't think he even knew he could paint that well. Just watching him mix his colors and paint the oceans, it was incredible! I had some assistance with parts of my painting, I just wasn't very confident in my ability to make the swirling branches, and needed help getting started with other swirls. BUT Taylor did the entire painting on his own. Wonderful!

Here are our finished products! Also our friends finished paintings as well - kissing fish! Very cute!


We completed our date night with fro-yo (my favorite)! Cannot wait for our next date night!

2012 Part 2

Here it is! Part 2 of our 2012!

July - San Antonio/Clader Wedding Weekend

With my handsome date, the pretty bride & Taylor with some of his buddies.

One of Taylor's buddies and groomsmen was married the last weekend in July in San Antonio. It was an amazing trip and we had a great time.  We then were able to ride from Houston to SA with some good friends, Stephanie & Preston and Casey. We stayed at Stephanie's ranch and house with other friends (future Raineys) for the weekend. We were able to kayak and hang out in the river during the day before the wedding - SO MUCH FUN! The wedding was beautiful and we were able to catch up with a lot of friends and Taylor's buddies. We were so grateful to have a mini vacation to Texas!

August - Our FIRST Anniversary & I Started Nannying

We celebrated our first anniversary in Atlanta, Georgia. This was such a fun time that it will have its own post as well! We had many adventures and enjoyed ourselves greatly! 

In July I had some drama with my job (staffing) and made the decision to walk away. Although it was a  scary time for Taylor & I, the Lord provided and I was given the opportunity to start nannying in August. I am so thankful that it happened! I have fallen in love with my little man Lawson. Here he is my first day I started. He is now 13 months old! I will have a post all about my time with him as well. 

CUTIE PIE

September - Arkansas Game Weekend

Arkansas Game!

The Chicken with Kristin, Jacklyn, Ryan and Charles!

In September we celebrated my birthday by going to College Station and attending the A&M vs. Arkansas game with Tim & Betty. It was SUCH A BLAST! It was so nice to beat the ever living out of Arkansas! ESPECIALLY after they have beat us the past three years. And we didn't just beat them, we WHOOPED them! WHOOP! :) It truly was a great time! It was so fun having family there as well. ALSO, my very sweet husband threw me a surprise party with the help of my good friends on Friday night before yell practice. It was amazing. I felt so loved and had a great time being surprised. AND I had the pleasure of meeting my good friend's new boyfriend...and I adored him! (hehe Ryan & Charles). 

Surprise Birthday Party!

October - Ole Miss Game

Ryan & Holly after our VICTORY

We attended our first SEC away game in October at the Ole Miss game in Oxford. It was such a fun experience. We met some friends in downtown Oxford for a BBQ lunch. Then we walked around the square some before heading to the car to wait out the rain. Then we walked to the Grove to tailgate before the game. It was a blast! We had never seen anything like it before. Tents were back to back and they all had the full set up of food, drinks, tv's and even some chandeliers! Then we went to the actual game with our good friends Ryan, Charles, Clay & Holly. It was an intense game, and probably the best game I have ever attended. We were up, we were down, we were down even more...and then we were on the ONE YARD LINE down by +10 with 6:00 left! AND WE WON! It was just....wow! We are hoping to make it back to Oxford this year as the game is there again! 

November - Des Moines & BTHO Alabama and Thanksgiving

As the year ended we seemed to become more and more busy! But it was a blast! The second weekend of November I was able to fly up to Des Moines Iowa and surprise one of my best friends for her birthday! Melissa & Lans moved to Des Moines in 2010 after their wedding in July for Lans to attend podiatry school. I had seen Melissa three times since then. Once she surprised me at our couple's shower in May of 2011, then again in June 2011 at our best friend Caitlyn's wedding and then the last time was at our wedding in August of 2011. So needless to say, it was time to see her again! It was a great weekend. I was able to see where they have lived for the past two years, their church and meet many of their good friends. I loved every minute of it, and of course I just love surprising people! I also was able to watch A&M BTHO alabama while I was there. What a great memory to have! I will never forget it. By the way, WE BEAT ALABAMA! AHHHHH! WHOOOOOOOP!

As always, we celebrated Thanksgiving in November as well. This year was the LaCoe & Kauffman sides of the family to split us. We spent two days with each family. This works out so well and gives us good time with everybody. Thanksgiving was great with both families. I have learned to love the Kauffman thanksgiving of fried turkey strips (SO GOOD)!!!!

And of course I will always love my traditional Thanksgiving turkey with my family. It was so sweet of them to wait until Saturday to have Thanksgiving dinner with us. We have a lot to be thankful for and I love that we have a holiday that reminds us of that. 

December - Johnny Heismanziel & PJ Party : Christmas & New Years in Sequin

WHAT A YEAR! We wrapped it up with some really good memories! Johnny Football helped to start the month off well by bringing home the Heisman trophy! What a fun moment to witness. I cannot wait until Taylor & I tell our children about Johnny Football and the year a freshman won the Heisman! 

We were invited to our friend's daughter's 3rd Birthday party. The Grays are a wonderful couple at Creekwood that they have become good friends of ours. Eric is the youth minister there and they have two beautiful little girls. Kenley's 3rd birthday party was a PJ party, and you better believe we went with our footie pajamas on! Our good friends Ashley & Ryan joined in on the fun!

This year we celebrated Christmas with the Smiths and the Bedrichs. We spent the weekend before Christmas, Christmas Eve and Christmas day with the Smiths. It was fun to experience new traditions and spend a lot of time with family. We also were able to do some Christmas shopping with Madeline which was a blast! She is a fun shopping partner for sure! We also went on the traditional hay ride that weekend to check out all the lights, it is such a fun time with singing, hot chocolate and family. It was fun waking up Christmas morning and exchanging presents. I truly love giving gifts, it is such a joy to know that you found a gift that will make somebody else happy. We then were able to spend some time with Bedrichs. It was fun to exchange gifts again and catch up! We had some great meals and great conversation. 

After our time in Houston we headed to good ol' Sequin for a New Years celebration. This is surely becoming a tradition. The Martin's are SO hospitable and throw a great New Years party! We were able to see our best friends and have a wonderful time shooting skeet, catching up, eating great food and shooting fireworks. We are so blessed with amazing friends that are blessed with amazing families.

2012 was truly one for the memory books. Our first full year of marriage was a beautiful one, full of adventures. We made a lot of memories, and of course not all of them are here. This is just the highlight reel. Hopefully for 2013... at least the 2nd half, I will do a much better job of recording our fun moments. We have a lot to catch up on! Thank y'all for reading! Love y'all!

-The Kauffman Krew

Join us for 2013!

Let's Try This Again

Well...yep. It has indeed been one full year since my last post. Where did the time go? I am not sure! But let's not waste time talking about it. I am here again and I am hoping to keep up with the blog moving forward. For now let me give you our 2012 all wrapped up in a post or two with a couple of pictures!

January - EcKauffs Came to Town

Fort Gaines

Tim & Betty came to visit us in Mobile! We had a great time taking them to the Sea Lab, Fort Gaines and eating lots of great food! Tim & Taylor even got a round of golf in! We just loved having our first visitors!

February - Gibbs Came to Town

We had our 2nd group of visitors in February! It was a blast to have my aunt, uncle and four cousins in town. We showed them the sights as well - the Sea Lab, the beach and of course, the outlet mall! We had all you can eat catfish and introduced them to Foosackly's (aka the BEST chicken fingers in the WORLD). We also stayed up all night playing Just Dance and many other games after a failed attempt to go see "The Vow". The Gibbs Gang is always a good time!

My beautiful cousins: Emily, Madeline, Sam & Shelby

March - Meme's 80th Birthday & Grandparents Came to Town
The first weekend in March Taylor & I drove to Sugarland to celebrate Taylor's Meme's 80th Birthday. It was a wonderful celebration with the Smith family and many of Meme's friends. She was glowing and seemed to have a great birthday! We spent the day celebrating Meme and spending time with family. There was good food, a pretty cake, balloons - it was a party!

The next weekend my Grandmother & Granddad came to visit us in Mobile. I loved having them here. Over 50 years ago my grandparents lived in Mobile as newlyweds. It was so fun driving around and seeing where they used to live (or at least trying to find it), and also seeing how much had changed since they were here. We went to the Sea Lab and also went to the Battleship for the first time. It was really neat to walk all through it and learn the history. We also took a stroll through Bellingrath Gardens, which was gorgeous! I loved being able to host my grandparents and show them our first place as a married couple.

April - San Fran with EcKauffs & McDade Wedding

We took our first big trip since our honeymoon in April. Taylor's dad & step mom took us to the San Francisco area for an AMAZING trip! I'm not going to write a lot here because the trip deserves it's own post, so look forward to that soon!

At the end of April I was honored to be a bridesmaid in my really good friend Kelsey's wedding! It was a gorgeous day in April in College Station. It was a lovely ceremony and a very fun reception! She was a BEAUTIFUL bride. Taylor & I enjoyed being there and sharing in their love.

May - Final Review & Two High School Graduations

Taylor officially felt old the first weekend of May when he returned to A&M to take part in a wonderful tradition. Taylor went to Final Review of the Corps of Cadets to pull boots. He pulled the boots of the class that just three years prior were pulling his boots as freshmen. It was SUCH a fun day! Taylor was able to see and catch up with a lot of his buddies and it was so sweet to watch him pull a couple of his once freshmen's boots. We loved our time in College Station and with those forever friends.

We had a whirlwind the last weeks of May though. One weekend we had my younger brother's graduation from Medina High School. He looked great and we were so proud of all of his awards and accomplishments. We were able to spend some sweet time with our God daughter Olivia while we were there and take some precious pictures that we will forever cherish.

The weekend after that we were headed to east Texas to watch my oldest cousin graduate from West Rusk High School. She was salutatorian and made our entire family so proud! Madeline is currently attending SFA and will be an incredible band director before we know it! It was a fun filled weekend with my family!

June - Taylor's Baptism

We experienced the greastest blessing of our marriage in the month of June. Taylor & I began attending Creekwood Church of Christ on Easter Sunday, and continued going after that. We made a couple friends, really enjoyed the classes and the sermons on Sunday so we discussed placing membership. This discussion led to many discussions and after a lot of studying and praying, Taylor made the decision to be baptized. It was such a sweet and intimate moment. Just Taylor, myself and our minister David were there. I have never been more proud of Taylor. His commitment to the Lord, loving Him and serving Him is beautiful. He is an incredible Christian man leading our marriage and I couldn't be more blessed.

Come back for the second half of the year! If you are still here after all this time - you are a TROOPER! And I am committing to you now that I will be better about this. I have to remember that not every post has to be super long.