the big 2-4.

This year I turned the big 2-4.. which is semi-getting-close-to-almost old. not cool. but I did get to celebrate with some of my new ATL friends, Hibachi style.

We went to this place called Happy Sumo. Birthday girl got to wear the Japanese hair wig. Loved it. :)

I got my very own sets of fancy chopsticks. I'm sure that Aaron will be the only one using them though.

The drum was just way to tempting to pass up.. even though it was about 25 degrees outside.

And my friend Jenny made AWESOME red velvet with cream cheese icing cupcakes. She doesn't even know how awesome she did... I love cream cheese. yum.

Shout Out

Shout out to my cousin-in-law (Aaron's cousin) Jacob. He's a surgical tech and is currently in Haiti working with a surgical team from Le Bonheur. He's been doing such great things and we are so proud of him. Please remember Jacob and his team and all others who are in Haiti during this time.

His wife blogs here: our little life

What's Shaking?

Busy season is shaking.... that's what. I noticed that I never even blogged about Christmas... and it's already February! So here are a few collages to document our holiday season. No promises on consistent blogging for awhile, but I'll do what I can. :) Cheers!

Holidays at the Grays. Rachel got some Toms from us. Aaron started reading Harry Potter and made it through book 6 over school break. We saw pretty birds and did lots of hanging out.

Holidays with the extended Howell family. This year we did dirty santa using M. As in, M is for Merry Christmas. I got a movie night gift (blockbuster gift card, popcorn, and Mike's Ike). Aaron got a McDonalds gift card. We did pretty awesome. :)

And some pictures of Ethan being cute.. as always. We got him the crawling/drums thing.

Next was Christmas with my mom's side of the family in Florida. Of course it included shooting marshmallow guns at each other in the cul-de-sac. Doesn't every family holiday have that? Newton was along for the entire ride... he even got a few marshmallows caught in his fur.

And what's Florida without the beach? It was freezing cold, but we ventured out to the jetty. Rachel and I had fun taking pictures with pretty much every random thing we found along the way. (see random cement blocks and goggles) Aaron has learned to deal with our photo shoots... :)

And a few snapshots of our home during the holidays. Check out the awesome glass coke bottles that I got as stocking stuffers from the hubby. There is also a random picture of me and 2 of my favorite girls from M'town, Aubrie and Tara. This was not at my home.. but I wanted to include it somewhere.

Holiday picture collection

Niece # 3 - Katie!

Well, Aaron and I got a surprise phone call Tuesday! We've been expecting Africa Howell baby # 3, Amos. Tuesday, we received a phone call from Aaron's brother, Alan, telling us that baby Howell # 3 had been born... but SHE was a GIRL! haha.. got to love the technology in Africa. We had to wait awhile for a name to be settled on since they didn't have one ready. Her name is Katherine Joy, and she will go by Katie. I can't wait to meet her!

Katherine Joy Howell, "Katie"

Katie and her daddy

Katie and her 2 big sisters, Abby and Ellie

For those of you who don't know, Aaron's oldest brother and family live in Mozambique, Africa while doing mission work. They returned to the States in December to have the baby. We were so blessed to be able to see them over the holidays, while we spoiled the girls rotten. We'll be heading to Memphis again in February to see baby Katie and the rest of the family before they head back to Africa.

Here are a few sweet pictures:

Abby and Ellie dressed up as Snow Princesses! They loved their costumes and even got to wear them in the snow in Dallas.

Adorable kids

Abby with Uncle Aaron and Aunt Erin.

E-Mealz

The Howell house (well, apartment) is trying something new for awhile. A good friend of mine recently introduced me to E-Mealz. I've always thought things like these were great, but a little nervous about how much I would actually like the meals they have planned. (for those of you who don't know me... I'm slightly picky). Anyways... my friend read off her meals for the week and they sounded great! I went and checked out the site immediately and decided to sign on up. So here's the scoop on e-mealz. You sign up for a Menu Plan. You can do family (4-6 ppl) or 2 person. Then there are options for various grocery stores or just a menu in general. If you select a specific store then they try to plan the meals based on the items on sale that week for the particular store. Each week a new menu is put out on the website for you to save/print. Along with the menu is a breakdown of every item you need to make the whole meal and it is organized by shopping areas. (ie: produce, meats, etc...) There is even a break down of the staple items needed. E-mealz is $5.00 a month... which isn't too shabby, so Aaron and I are giving it a shot for a little while. We'll see how it goes. We had swiss chicken and rice for dinner tonight and it was delicious. Click on the referral banner above if you're interested!

Snow Day = Lazy Day

We got snow in Atlanta. It wasn't a lot... but it was enough for the streets to be a bit hazardous. As for me, this is how I plan to spend the rest of my day.


Aaron and I had some of this wonderful-definitely-not-good-for-you-since-it's-made-with-heavy-whipping-cream tomato basil soup from La Madeleine's. We love having it for lunch (on the occasions when I get to come home) with grilled cheese or toast. Today seemed like a perfect day for it.

And Newton got to explore the snow some... he's still not so sure about it.

It's too cold!

Feels like 9??? What?? I thought I lived in the south...