WBTB Officer's Gala

Life has been busy, busy, busy!!!  With the holidays in full force, we seem to have something planned constantly.  In the past few weeks, there was one major event that basically controlled my life.  It was the final planning of our FIRST EVER Wives Behind the Badge "A Night in Blue" Officer's Gala.  I have never in my life been so incredibly excited and stressed out at the same time.  We had been planning this event for months and I couldn't wait to see how it all came together.

We spent literally months just trying to get our name out there so people knew who we were and what we did...let's face it, it's pointless to have a gala and no one show up!  We recruited volunteers, we spoke at a zillion law enforcement events, we found sponsors, we got raffle donations and silent auction donations...just to name a few things.  We were so incredibly blessed because a very nice Hilton hotel in the area donated a ball room to us, gave us a great rate on our buffet, offered discounted rates for those that wanted to stay the night and even donated several items to our silent auction and raffle.  They were amazing!!!

The biggest stressor was getting enough people to come and actually fill up the room!  Y'all I can't even tell you how many nights of sleep I lost thinking about this one detail.  We booked a room with enough tables for 100...we had over 80-something people attend.  We were thrilled!!!  Not only are we a brand new auxiliary committee, but we had to hold this event on a Thursday night AND this was the very first WBTB gala ever done....we had a lot against us. 

I won't go through the entire day, but it was wonderful.  Absolutely wonderful.  My friend Nicole and I ran errands in the morning then went to get our hair did.  Below are some pics from my hairdresser.  I was so in love with my hair...can you believe it only took her about 15 mins to do mine?!

 

 Nicole's beautiful hair!!!

After our hair was beautiful, we headed over to the hotel to finish setting up and to get ready (while drinking champagne to calm our nerves of course).  My closest friends all stayed the night at the hotel and we had co-joining rooms...which only made for more fun.  Also my college friend (also a police officer) was our DJ and he just happens to be married to one of my very best friends since childhood.  I was thrilled I got to spend the evening with the 2 of them!

Everyone had a blast....the food was awesome, the music was great, the decorations and blue lighting were gorgeous and we even were able to make a nice chunk of change that will help us assist LEO's and their families in their time of need.  We even had a news crew find out about the event and come out to interview our Director!

I walked away from that event with an even closer group of LE friends and family.  I haven't heard one bad thing about the event, with the exception of it being on a Thursday.  Lucky for us, the Hilton has already given us a date for next year (a Friday!!!) and has agreed to the same cost and terms as this year.  We're already planning our 2nd annual gala for 2013 and expect it to be even bigger and better than this one!!!

Our professional pics aren't done yet, so you have to deal with the few cell phone shots I have.  I'll post the amazing ones when our photographers are done editing them!

 Is this not an amazing shot?!  

Our DJ set up blue lights around the ballroom, it was awesome.

Peyton on Mommy Shorts

Head over to one of my all time FAVORITE blogs, Mommy Shorts, to see Peyton featured on her Halloween Costume Awards post.  I absolutely love Mommy Shorts, so I'm probably way more excited than necessary right now!!!

Halloween Fun!

So my Halloween post is a little late, my bad.  We had a wonderful time again this year, especially since Peyton really understands the concept of trick-or-treating now.  In fact, she loved it so much that she ran around the house with a lunch bag for days saying "trick or treat Mommy" expecting me to give her MORE candy. 

The weekend before Halloween we went to my parent's church for their Fall Festival.  They have pizza, face painting, trunk-or-treating, bounce houses and ponies.  We were able to see a lot of our friends there and even got a few cute pics. Peyton decided to go as Olivia and her costume was to die for...so stinking cute!!

Take 1....

 

Take 2....

On Halloween we went trick-or-treating with Peyton's BFF from church, Addison (and her parents of course).  For the first time since we were married, my husband was off on Halloween.  The police dept decided to start a lottery for officers with young children.  2 or 3 of them are picked randomly each year to be off on Halloween :)  Here are some pics from Halloween night. 

Weekend Recap - Mountain Edition

We had an absolutely amazing weekend in the gorgeous mountains of NC this past weekend.  Our small group from church decided to have a little retreat so we could spend more one-on-one time together and really strengthen our friendships.  Unfortunately there were 3 couples that weren't able to make it (and we missed them!) but we had 4 couples that were able to get babysitters for the weekend and go.

After a 5 hour car ride and newly formed "bromance" between my husband and Nick (which all started over Bojangles biscuits...seriously), we finally made it to Maggie Valley.  We met the other 2 couples at the grocery store, got a few things for the weekend and headed straight to downtown Waynesville for a little lunch and shopping.  We eventually headed back to the house to get ready for dinner (and so Jennifer and I could change out of the pajama pants we had on).  We cooked an AH-MAZING dinner the first night and got a fire going for stories and s'mores.  The weather was cool, but not freezing.  It was perfect.  After a few rounds of Catch Phrase we were out for the night.

The 2nd day was our hiking day.  We got up (way too early, thank you Randy hahaha) and drove to Cherokee to hike a trail in that area.  Our 4 mile hike ended up being around 8 miles...no kidding.  The weather was perfect yet again thankfully because we obviously weren't very skilled at reading signs on the trail.  Even though the hike was about 2x's longer than we had planned, we enjoyed every minute...except maybe the last 30. 

We went to Bryson City after the hike to finally eat.  I'm not sure we picked the greatest place to eat because EVERYTHING was beer battered, fried, and slathered in butter.  And I mean everything!  Edwin and I got the absolute only thing on the menu that wasn't fried...the ham and cheese sandwich.  After that we all got ice cream and headed back to the house for naps and showers.

We had to force ourselves to get some dinner around 8pm since we had such a late lunch and weren't very hungry.  We went to a great pizza place in downtown Waynesville and somehow managed to pig out yet again.  We spent the rest of the evening talking...with the TV off.  It was a nice change from the "real world".  We talked about how we all met our spouses, told funny stories and just enjoyed each others company...something we don't do nearly enough. 

I really hope we do this trip again next year.  I sure missed my little girl, but feel like I came away from the weekend with stronger friendships within my church family. 

Excuse Me....

While I die from cuteness overload....

Weekend Recap

We didn't do a lot this weekend by choice.  The hubby was in a training all week and we barely saw each other, so we didn't want a hectic weekend.  Peyton got her first hair cut this weekend.  Ok, so it's really just a small trim but it makes a world of difference.  She's had these long strands hanging down her back for months making her look slightly homeless (see below). 

 
Now it's all trimmed up and looks adorable!  She loved having her hair trimmed, as long as she was able to play with the spray bottle :)

 Notice the lack of scraggly hairs!

 We also did a lot of playing in the dirt, which is always fun. 

For those of you that live in the area, you know Saturday it rained...I mean REALLY rained...ALLLLL day.  We had a Family Fun Day planned on Saturday for Wives Behind the Badge, and I was really looking forward to our event.  We had reserved a shelter at an awesome park in the area, but alas the rain took over.  A few dedicated families came out despite the rain and it ended up being a really fun time.  The kids got to ride the carousel, train and boats as many times as they wanted without waiting in line.  They had a blast and that's all that matters!

Can we please ignore my lack of makeup and horrible rain-soaked curled-up hair?!

Saturday evening we hit up the mall to get a few fall clothes for Peyton.   I came down with a nasty fever while we were out and we had to cut the trip short (not before we got ice cream though).  Everyone else had a cold earlier in the week and I guess it was my turn, I thought I had escaped it.  I spent Saturday night and most of Sunday in the bed or on the couch.  Thankfully Peyton wanted to be pretty chill on Sunday and I was able to rest most of the day.  I'm still feeling pretty crummy today, but I hope to have this mess gone soon.

We have a busy weekend coming up with our town's Harvest Festival and a baby shower.  Not to mention I have to pick out our Halloween costumes SOON!!!

Fall Fun!

Fall fun has already started around here, despite the fact that the weather can't decide if it wants to turn cool or stay summer.  I love warm weather, but there's something about the fall season that excites me!  Leaves changing, boots, football, chili and soups, Halloween, harvest festivals and the start of the holiday season!

We kicked off fall last weekend when we took Peyton to a local pumpkin patch.  We went with some sweet friends of ours from church and had a blast.  The weather was warm, but there was a cool breeze most of the time we were there.  Unfortunately I forgot my camera, but thankfully our friends remembered theirs and took loads of pictures of the girls for us!  I'll do another post in detail once I steal their photos...

Next up we have our town's Harvest Festival.  It's next weekend and Peyton and I will be riding in the parade with her preschool.  I think she'll be really excited because she always loves a hayride.  That's her favorite part of picking out a pumpkin :)  After the Harvest Festival comes the State Fair and then Halloween!  We have so much fall fun to look forward to.  I can't wait!!!