Cousins day/night

This past Saturday my cousins Karlie, Jennifer & I went to Tuscaloosa to spend the day/night together!! We had a blast catching up and relaxing together in our favorite town! We left Birmingham around 11 on Saturday and ate lunch when we got down there at one of our favorite college spots. We walked around and I did a little shopping before we hit the pool! After we laid out for a few hours we got ready & went to dinner in downtown Tuscaloosa and then took a walk around the quad with frozen yogurt in hand. After walking around for awhile we went back to my aunt & uncles apartment and made a pallet in the floor and watched the first night of the Olympics!! Sunday morning we went to a local breakfast place and pigged out before heading home. I had such a great time with my sweet cousins and it was much needed girl time!!! My aunt and uncle are so sweet for letting us stay at their apartment & leaving us some goodies to snack on too! I hope we can do it again soon!!!

Sunshine Blog Award

Thank you to Tonya from The Taylor Family - Understanding the Assignment for nominating me for The Sunshine Award!!!

Here's how this award works.
1.  First, {and foremost} thank the person who honored you with this award. Thank you Tonya!!!!
2.  Answer the questions below about yourself.  (See Below)
3.  Pay it forward and nominate 10 fellow bloggers who inspire you.  Be sure to let them know you are   nominating them.  Link up their blogs to yours. (See Below)
4.  Be sure to copy the award and share it on your blog.

Alrighty, here we go!

1.  Favorite Color?  Red!
2.  Favorite Animal?  Dog (especially my Emma!)

3.  Favorite Number?  I really don't have a favorite number? Does that make me weird?
4.  Favorite Drink?  Sweet tea! Milos and Chickfila are the best!
5.  Facebook or Twitter? Both! Follow me on twitter (@kealfano)
6.  Good Book or Movie?  I never liked reading until recently and I can only read during the summer because lets face it, my life is devoted to little ones August-May. Sooooo I will say good movie from August-May and good book June-July :) Nothing better than reading a good book at the beach or pool!
My favorite book I read this summer:

The other books I read this summer: Two Kisses for Maddie & Freedom Writers (both awesome!)

7.  My passion? God, My family and friends, teaching, running/working out, being an aunt, and anything and everything ALABAMA! RTR!

8. Giving or Getting  Gifts?  Giving!! Makes my heart warm.
9.  Favorite Day of Week? Thursday nights are the best because you know the next day is FRIDAY!!! 
10. Favorite Flower?  2 toned Roses!


Okay, now its time to nominate some lovely ladies & their blogs! :)

1. Ashlynn at A Cushy Baby Blog

2. Leslie at Lamberts Lately

3. Natasha at A Life Worth Living

4. Lindsay at Lindsay's Lounge

5. Hillary at The Mueller Family

6. Kristin at The Little Princess Diaries

7. McKeever at The Cobia Family

8. Julie at Peanut Butter Fingers

9. Kellie at Another Day Stronger

10. Meagan at The Fryer Family

Congrats ladies! Every single one of your blogs inspire me and I love reading each and every one of them! :)

Time to pass on the love - ready, set, GO!

Wedding Heels

If you follow me on instagram (kealfano) then you know I have these certain heels that I literally wear to every wedding I attend (which is almost every weekend). They go with every dress i pick out and are so comfy (well, for most of the night) so its a no-brainer when picking out my heels while getting ready. This past Saturday was no exception. My pledge sister, Brittny got married and on went the shoes! Do y'all have shoes like this? That you wear all the time because they go with almost everything?

The magic heels are pictured below along with some from pictures from the 2 recent weddings I went to the past 2 weekends....

(**I got a blog award that I will be passing along tomorrow so just a heads up!! Thank you Tonya from The Taylor Family!!!**)

Surprise Trip!

I am planning a surprise birthday trip for Ty and I am so excited! His birthday is next Tuesday (July 31st) but we aren't going until August 5th. I actually had to tell him about it because of his work but he doesn't know where we are going! :) I am pretty much the WORST at keeping secrets (especially from him) so we will see how long this lasts before he finds out. I have planned the whole thing with him sitting right next to me and he hasn't found out yet! ha! I would spill the beans on here but my luck, someone we know would read it and tell him! So, yall will have to wait.....

At his friend's wedding last weekend....love the Birmingham skyline in the background!

It's not a big trip, but it's going to be SO nice to get away to a new city that we havent been to (together). We are going with our friends Melissa & Matt so it should be super fun! Melissa graduates with her masters from Emory on August 4th so it will be a joint graduation/birthday trip! :)

And this girl will have to stay with her grandparents while we are away...hopefully she'll forgive us for leaving her behind... ;)

Lake

We packed up Tuesday morning & headed for the lake! It was kinda overcast Tuesday & Wednesday but we still had fun! We went tubing ALOT (I'm so sore) & played in the water (which felt amazing!). Emma went on her first tube ride & tried to jump off the whole time! Ha! Tuesday night it stormed really bad twice & after the first one, the sky was unbelievable!!! If you know me, i have a thing with sunsets & pretty skies. I was in awe of God's paintings that night. I think He was trying to show off :).

My summer is winding down so I am trying to soak up every second I have left!

Here are some pictures from the last few days at the lake!

Emma & Scooter

(scooter is my Granddaddy's dog)

Emma and Scooter have quite the relationship. Emma is annoying to any adult dog but Scooter gets overly annoyed by her playfulness. Emma seems to think that any and every dog she comes into contact with wants to play with her non-stop. She jumps at them, bites their ears, and barks at them constantly because she wants to play. Scooter is not the least bit impressed with her & never wants to play. When he gets fed up with it he will snap at her and Emma cries & leaves him alone for a little bit. Then she's back at it. Poor Scooter, or poor Emma?? Ha!

They have quite the jealous bone (ha!) as well. Emma cannot stand it when Ty and I give Scooter any attention, she barks her head off & tries to get in or face so Scooter can't be in front of us. It's kinda cute. :)

The other night Emma decided that she wanted to lay on my pillow & I couldn't make her get down because she's so darn cute. :) She is getting so big but still has that puppy face & I just can't say no to it!

(the first picture is of Scooter when I picked him up from the vet this morning!)

Check it out!

Head over to my other blog to check out some new items:
http://kathleenskanvases.blogspot.com/2012/07/pitcher.html?m=0

I am on my phone so sorry if the link doesn't let you click on it but you can copy & paste it into your search bar or click on the link to my canvas blog on the right side of the screen!!!

Also wanted to share a great workout that I found on pinterest awhile back & I finally tried it today! I found an easier one and have been doing that one a few times a week because I was scared of this one. Ha! It is definitely hard & works your legs the most. I was dripping sweat by the end of the first set! The only thing I did different than on this sheet is I used a 12 lb bar behind my shoulders during the squats. Bar or no bar, it's still a great workout. Let me know if y'all try it!

Quick trip home!

Ty & I got to go to atlanta Saturday for a family party for his family so we got to stay with mom & dad! This was Emma's longest car ride & she did great!!! After we got there & dropped Emma off at mom & dad's, we found out that my sister & her husband were coming over too with the kids! So it was a FULL house and mom & dad were babysitting Emma & all 4 grandkids for a few hours! After the party with Ty's family, we headed back to mom & dad's for the night! We played with Emma & the kids for the rest of the night & all morning this morning! It was good for Emma to be around the kids so she gets used to being gentle with them!!! She had a blast chasing them around (and knocking them over on some occasions...), giving them lots of kisses, and eating their crumbs off the floor ;).

Today was my best friend Melissa's birthday (as well as her boyfriend Matt) so we stopped by to see them on our way out! I was so excited I got to see them on their birthday!!!

I am so glad we got to make this quick trip home!!

Here are some pictures from yesterday & today...

2 recipes!

These are the 2 recipes I made for our family 4th of July get together. They both turned out so yummy! I could not find the right sprinkles for the firecracker cookies so I used what I had & they still turned out cute. :)

Firecracker Cookies

Ingredients:

~1box French Vanilla Cake Mix (18.25 oz)

~1 tsp Baking Powder

~2 Eggs

~½ Cup Vegetable Oil

~1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

~1/2 Cup Red Sprinkles

~1/2 Cup Blue Sprinkles

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl, mix together cake mix & baking powder.

In a small bowl, mix together eggs, oil, and vanilla.

Add the egg mixture to the cake mixture & stir.

Stir in the sprinkles.

Drop by spoonfulls on a cookie sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes.

Allow to cool for 5 minutes.

**I made these Tuesday night and they were still SO soft on Wednesday!!! 

Potato Salad

Ingredients:

~8 medium red potatoes, cubed (cube before boiling)

~4-5 hard boiled eggs, chopped

~1 ½ cup mayo

~2 tbsp finely chopped onion (can leave out)

~2 tsp mustard (can add more for a more yellow color)

~1 tsp celery seed 

~Salt & pepper to taste

(**I left out the onion**)

Directions:

Boil potatoes in water 15 – 20 minutes or until tender. Drain & cool.

In a large bowl, combine potatoes and eggs.

In a small bowl, whisk the remaining ingredients.

Pour over potatoes and toss to coat.

Cover and refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight. 

**This is BY FAR the BEST potato salad I have ever tasted! Thank my friend Rachel for this recipe :)

We had a great 4th of July! My Uncle's house is so fun - we ate, ate, ate, oh yeah and ate; played lots of games, got drenched by a downpour, went on his zip-line several times, watched fireworks, and watched lots of kiddos play in the pool!! We had a blast! 

This was Ty & I's fourth 4th of July together. Looking forward to many more :)

Me & my momma before we both (yes, she rode it too) rode the zip line!!!!

 Someone was WORN OUT from all the 4th of July fun. She played so hard all day with all the other "big" dogs!! She was filthy after all day in the dirt/mud! I was nervous she was going to freak out when the fireworks started going off but she slept under my chair the whole time. :)

I have lots of fun zip lining videos but I seem to have forgotten how to upload them. They are from my phone. Anyone have any tips?