Life Recently

Summer is here and that means we are busier than ever! Here's what we've been up to lately.

Every other week we try to do Taco Tuesday, which also includes the pups! So glad I had enough throw pillows for each of them.

We attended the Arkansas Derby Race in Hot Springs. One of my favorite events every year!

We saw Mumford & Sons and it was easily the second best concert I have seen ever. Second only to Garth Brooks, who has held my heart since I was a little girl in Texas. 

Our sweet niece Ella turned 2! How cute is her ice cream cake? 

Our kickball team made it to the Championship! We won our first two games before losing the third. It was a great season and I can't wait to pick it back up in the fall!

Memorial Day Weekend was spent in Hot Springs at the lake house. There were a few thunderstorms but otherwise the weather was perfect.

We played the Watermelon Bust game. All you need is a watermelon, 500+ rubber bands, and a little patience and quick hands. Ours managed 740 rubber bands before exploding everywhere! Super super fun!

Lake life is the best life.

S'mores don't hurt!

We've enjoyed some patio day drinking in between big weekends. Our newest favorite has been Rebel Kettle. If you're local I definitely recommend it! The patio is great.

My little sister graduated high school! Hard to believe! So excited to see where she heads to next. And how fun is her graduation hat? I reminisced how we couldn't wear anything other than a black dress and heels, no way could we have decorated our caps. It's changed a lot in 10 years!

Also my nickname growing up has always been Midge. I bet you can't imagine why. I was even wearing heels in this picture while some of them wore flats!  I hate being so far away where we don't see each other that often, so this visit meant a lot!

Everyone is growing up too fast!!

So all in all it's been a busy it's been a busy couple of months, but great memories have been made! Looking forward to the rest of summer. 

4th Anniversary Memphis Trip

It's been a whirlwind of a month! With the beautiful Spring weather comes lots of activities. I'll back track a little here - March 31st was our 4th Anniversary (crazy!) and so we decided to steal away and visit Memphis, TN. 

The drive to Memphis should be pretty straight forward but the traffic from all of the trucks makes it a somewhat stressful drive. But before we knew it we were in the Volunteer State ready to celebrate!

Of course the first thing EH wanted to do was check out the giant Bass Pro Shop at the Pyramid.

We have a Bass Pro Shop here in Little Rock, but the Pyramid is really impressive. 

The best part are the live animals everywhere. I could spend hours just watching them!

After Bass Pro we headed to our hotel to freshen up and get ready for dinner. We picked Flight and it was perfection from start to finish.

Similar to a brewery where you can order a flight of various beers in smaller sizes, Flight offers everything from their appetizers, salads, main courses, and desserts in flight form. Even the wine!

The food was delicious and it was so fun getting to try several different types of wine. EH finished off the night with a flight of three different scotches. How fun is that!

After dinner we hit up Beale Street.

It was fun walking in and out of the different bars, and we were lucky our hotel right off Beale Street. The only Uber we had to take the entire weekend was to and from the restaurant the first night.

Saturday we woke up and headed to the Gibson Guitar Museum, also conveniently across the stress from our hotel. 

These two in the shop were my favorite. I love the birds!

Unfortunately for us they don't allow pictures back in the factory but if you get an opportunity, make sure you visit this museum! We got to see each part of the guitar making process and even got to see some limited edition guitars - one designed for Foo Fighters front man Dave Grohl.

From there it was more patio sitting, bar hopping, and just enjoying a weekend away with each other.

Then Sunday came too soon and it was time for a quick brunch at the Majestic Grille. 

 It was so nice to get away, even if only two hours from home! Best way to celebrate our anniversary. 

Putt Putt Bar Crawl

I love putt putt golf. And I enjoy day drinking. So when our friend invited us to join his team for the 2016 United Cerebral Palsy's Putt Putt Bar Crawl for charity (a great bonus!), EH and I were sold. 

You might recognize EH and our friend's outfits from the Four Ball golf tournament last year - the love any excuse to wear golf knickers!

There were 9 bars participating that each set up their own hole. Some much harder than others!

The skeeball style hole was my favorite! 

We didn't win, unsurprisingly, but it was a great time and hopefully a lot of money and awareness was raised for Cerebral Palsy. 

Since it was so nice outside, we decided to walk across the Arkansas River to try out Flyway Brewing Co, where the late afternoon day drinking continued, this time with board games! I'm much worse at Jenga than Putt-Putt.

Sunday was another gorgeous day, perfect for our first day of kickball! Moose enjoyed the weather too, and making new friends!

Isn't Bear cute? I love any dog who is named after another animal, like Moose!

I'm grateful the weekend was so nice and sunny and that we took full advantage of it. This week is rain, rain, and more rain for the unforeseeable future.

Happy Wednesday!

My Favorite Kitchen Essentials

So far 2016 has been the year of me returning to the kitchen. We've been trying to curb eating out during the work week so it's back to meal planning. After years of being able to cook basic pasta dishes and microwaves meals exclusively, it's nice feeling confident in the kitchen!

One of the main reasons I do feel so confident in the kitchen is because I'm equipped with the right products! Here are just a few of my favorites that I use all the time.

Cravings by Chrissy Teigen: Amazon / Salt Grinder: Amazon / Taco Plates: Eggshells Kitchen Co. / Garlic Zoom: Eggshells Kitchen Co. / Lodge 6.5" Cast Iron Skillet: Eggshells Kitchen Co.  / Zak! Confetti Mixing Bowls: Zak! / RSVP Culinary Torch: Eggshells Kitchen Co.

In the interest of full disclosure, I do own those mini skillets but have not put them to use yet. But if they are anything like my regular cast iron skillet, I know they will be perfect. I have lots of breakfast scrambles planned for our immediate future!

What are you can't live without kitchen products?

Valentine's Gift Guide for Her

I can't help but love Valentine's Day - maybe it's all the heart shaped items? Love is in the air? Who knows, but I dig it. We usually celebrate ours on a different day than the 14th but it's still fun having a dedicated day to spoil eachother.

And that's what I like about Valentine's Day - I like gifting EH something that spoils him that he wouldn't normally buy for himself. And same for me!

So here are a few items if you need some inspiration for yourself. A gift guide for the Mister in your life coming soon!

Druzy Earrings: Kendra Scott / Acrylic Photo Block: tinyprints / Perfume: Tory Burch /

Lock Pendant: The Giving Keys via Nordstrom / Oval Signet Ring: Bauble Bar / 

Custom Stuffed Plush Dog: ShelterPups.com / Naked Smoky Palette: Sephora

I love all of these items but my favorite is that sweet custom plush dog. Not only is it a sweet reminder of your own furbaby, but they donate money back to your local shelter to help shelter animals in need. I can't think of a greater gift than that!

Hope you enjoy the rest of the week - I swear it's been the longest week ever!!

OAR at Goldstrike, Brunch in Memphis

One of my favorite memories from college is going to see O.A.R. in concert. Something about that music just takes me back. So when we heard they were playing at the Goldstrike Casino in Tunica, we knew we had to go!

It was everything we remembered from college! 

EH broke out even at the casino, and I came out with at least some of my spending money left unused. That seems like a victory to me!

The next day we all benefited from brunch in Memphis. A quick google search gave us Bar Dog in the heart of downtown. 

Their bloody mary was delicious - just spicy enough for that post night-out headache.

I ordered breakfast sliders with potato hash.

Super cheesy, perfectly cooked fried eggs and bacon. I want to try and recreate these at home, so good!

EH went for a ham and cheese omelette. 

Our friend S ordered a little bit of everything - pancakes, eggs, bacon, breakfast slider! Who can blame the guy.

A few hours we were home! Tunica treated us well and was a great 24 hour trip. Have you ever been? What casino game is your favorite? Penny slots for life over here!