My favorite things....

I love these babies....


December is here!!
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Sweet November

My neighbor and girlfriend Billie and I did a Gogh Paint N Party earlier in the month- it was soo much fun! Here is my blank canvas and Billie with hers.


Here is mine before the letters.


Here is my finished masterpiece!


I can't wait to do another.

Here's me and the pups enjoying a movie night on the couch when the time changed.


And here are some pics from my contribution to the Smorgasbord at Thanksgiving.
Cranberry gelatin(with orange, apple, grapes, and pineapple)


Jalapeño Corn Casserole. (yes. it got cooked a little unevenly- but the browner side was equally devoured)


Sweet Potato Souffle. (with both candied walnuts and marshmallows sprinkled all over. I forgot to take this pic until after we ate;)


And best for last: Caramel Pumpkin Cheesecake (with gingersnap and pecan crust!)


And one picture of sweet Madison. She's getting so tall and has the cutest curls:)


I am so thankful to have such an abundance of love, family and friends. I am thankful for my many blessings and pray for many to you! Love, Dannis

howl o ween

I can't believe its already time for trick or treating!

The past two years have absolutely FLOWN by! We got engaged and moved into our house in October 2008, which is also when the puppies were born (although we didn't bring them home until December). We got hitched in October 2009. And I would love to say we achieved the next milestone in our life in 2010 but the fertility fairy has not visited us yet:( we will keep working on that:) While we are waiting to have real babies to spoil, I like to think I have the cutest fur babies ever.










I started this post halloween but for some reason never posted it. Here is the pumpkin I set out saturday night:






Here are more pics of Carter and Cash all dressed up:














And Cash begging to get his costume off:









Hope everybody had a great one:)

Starting to feel like Fall:)

After we both got home from work today, we were all sitting in the living room and Cash and Michael took a quick nap...they were soo cute:)

After a little R&R, I made some dinner, just a quick salad and angel hair spaghetti with bertoli sauce and after eating and checking some emails for a while I decided to make some cookies that my friend Hannah posted on facebook a few weeks back. I wanted to make them when we were in Seattle but the recipe calls for spotty/ripe bananas and I just now had some. SO, next time you have over ripe bananas, MAKE THIS!!!!

MOST DEELISH EASY COOKIE EVER (click the link to see the recipe)

It was so quick, simple and rich, sweet and perfect with a glass of cold milk. Michael and I scarfed down 4 in about 2.5 seconds! I will say I used olive oil and only 2 bananas. and it made 20 larger cookies.

She gave me the recipe for some pumpkin apple spice muffins. 

I will be sure to post those once I make them:)

Happy Fall Y'all!

Dannis

Seattle for 1 year anniversary

After the weekend in Nawlins we came to Seattle to visit our friends Jack and Kortne. They are orthodontists that were in residency at UT Memphis at the same time as Michael. They moved there when we moved to Chattanooga. They jut bought an awesome house in West Seattle on Alki Beach. It almost reminded me of Mud Island because people were constantly walking their dogs and running along the water. We got there late Monday night and tuesday morning Michael and I got up to run and see the beach and sun rise.


The sun reflected off the snow patches and they looked copper. Below you can barely make out the space needle.


So each morning michael and I got up and walked/jogged. Below is the sunset on the way home from shopping Tuesday.



Wednesday after Kortne and Jack finished working we took their boat "Brace Yo'self" out on Lake Union. It was a beautiful night and we ate at Joeys on the water. It was deelish!! Kfred and I sported our sparkly shoes(mine are the sparkly silver TOMS and hers are the anniversary gold Sperrys:)





The next day, we toured the Red Hook brewery in Woodinville. It was about 30 minute drive and there were tons of wineries there.


At lunch, michael had a little friend visit him- see the grasshopper on his shoulder?!


After redhook, we went to Chateau Ste Michelle and they had an ok tour but yummy tasting.


We also visited a brand new whisky distillery called Woodinville Whiskey Co. They were just starting out but I bet they will be famous soon.



I think I took this on the way home from the wineries.
Friday, the boys golfed while Kortne worked that afternoon. I hung out and had some pizza at Slices on the beach.


Friday night we went to Japonessa and ate sushi and walked around and got a sweet treat- a chocolate and caramel covered marshmallow.


We stooped by twist and there was a huge disco pig hanging from the ceiling.


Saturday we watched football, ate, walked around some shops, went bowling and pretty much ate:)
We were at the airport in the torrential rain this morning at 4:30a and are in Chicago now waiting to fly home. Thank you kfred and yak for a wonderful relaxing week on the west coast.

I can't wait to see the puppies:) xo dannis

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October! Already?!

Well. I'm kind of mad as I write this post because I just got to the end of blogging all about my weekend in NOLA and the app kicked me off and did NOT save my draft!!!! Arg.

On Thursday after work, me Michael, Debbie, Bill and the pups loaded up to drive to see his sister and her family in Slidell, LA. We made it to Meridian MS before stopping for the night. We got to the house and decided to run some errands. When we went to Sams we saw this vehicle in the parking lot





Yep. It had bejamin franklins alllll over it.
Per Chris's request, Debbie cooked her Chinese Pepper Steak(deelish). We decided to go down town and party for a while. After stopping at the drive-thru daquiri place,


mikey drove chris ashley and i to bourbon st. We had a great time people watching from the balconies and listening to karaoke at the cats meow. Here is a pic of a UT frat boy tryin to get some extra tips for the street entertainer.





That was sooo funny. The next day, the gals went shopping and in honor of our first anniversary, I got this awesome clock. It's 39inches and very detailed. I can't wait to get home and hang it up along with a grouping of black and white photos:)


Later, we watched UT almost win the LSU game but lost in the last minute. On Sunday, Debbie and Bill and the pups hit the road back to Chatt and michael and I went back down to the French quarter for dinner. We ate at the Crescent City Brewhouse and sat in the nice, quiet courtyard.


After dinner, we stopped by the historic Cafe du Monde for some sugary funnel cake aka beignets.


Mondays breakfast was life changing. The best food in the world. Bananas Foster French Toast. At Surrey's Juice Bar on magazine st.


For lunch I had an awesome shrimp po boy and artichoke oyster soup at Harbor Seafood in Kenner, LA. After that, we got to the airport and stopped in Dallas where I got a mani/pedi while Michael chatted with another Mike at the TGIFridays. Now we are in route to seattle to stay with Kfred and J. Hou <3 dannis - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Pooch Pageant

Today the LifeCare Center of Collegedale had their first annual pooch pageant. It was a benefit for the Alzheimer's Association. We did not get groomed but decided to give the other dogs a chance to win:) we invited Nana and Bill to come too. Here is a picture us getting ready to go make our debut:



Here we are post intro:


That lady was in Daddys way when he was trying to take our pic.


And here is a bunch of the other contestants before they announced the wieners. (winners)


It was a fun hour or so but it was soooo HOT. We had to go to Sonic afterwards to cool down:)
Thanks Nana and Bill for coming to support us at our first event. Next time will we do better and hopefully stay cooler!
Love,
C&C
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Girls night on the lake

I'm not sure if I've ever been to a prettier lakehouse.


When I pulled up to the front I was thinking this is the sort of house that mixes all of my favorite things. The setting, the cottage like feel, the FrontGate-esque decor, the landscaping is so beautiful and the lot us on a point facing the Tennessee River and a slew.
I was invited by Luanne Winn and so were 7 other women, all are in the Junior Auxiliary of Cleveland. They were all moms except me and one other girl. 18 children between 6 of them. They deserved this night. I am just lucky to be included. So, we all trickled in while the host, Beverly, served shrimp cocktail and this awesome pimento cheese dip. She had these special drinks called cross-eyed bullfrogs. They were deelish.


You know I had to take a picture. Some bullfrogs were better looking than mine and some were made with olives rather than the cherry and lime on toothpicks.
We lounged on one of the docks and chatted then were served a wonderful meal and took a sunset cruise on their boat followed by dessert and coffee. Here is Jennifer ams Luanne on the boat:



And the sunset:


We hung out in and beside the pool under the stars before finally bunking up for the night. In the morning Brittany and I were the first up for coffee and sat on the dock while the others got up. Here is a sunrise shot from where we sat.


Brittany and I sat put there and talked while watching the birds dive, fish jump, and even saw a couple of turtles(my fave:).



While breakfast quiche, fruit and drinks were served, we had a crew from berrywood spa come and we each got a mani, pedi, and massage. It was so nice. While we all rotated through the services we laid out and it was just so relaxing. Nobody wanted to leave! I am so glad I got to enjoy such am awesome time with such great women:) xoxo
Dannis
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