Happy First Fathers Day!

This past weekend was Aaron's first Fathers Day.  It's hard to say we actually celebrated.. since we were at the beach, and that's not one of Aaron's most favorite things ever.  But our family of 3 will make sure to celebrate together soon.  

Emory and I are truly been blessed to have Aaron.  He is working on his PhD with such dedication all while watching Emory 4 days a week and spending lots of time with us on the weekend.  I know it's not easy for him but I am so thankful that he's been the one watching over Emory when I go to work each day.  I know things will change soon, but it's been a true gift these last couple of months. 

Aaron - thanks so much for being an awesome daddy.  I had no doubt you would be.  

We love you.  

And he apparently loves us too since he spent his first Fathers Day on the beach… :)

Momma's back! (hopefully)

Momma's back!  I say momma because.. well, the last time I updated this blog, I wasn't even pregnant.  And now I have an almost 5-month old.  So I'm pretty much a complete slacker and let this little ole blog fall to the wayside.  I kept getting further and further behind.. and then I got pregnant.  We waited for so long to tell people, so I felt like there was nothing important to share because I couldn't share the most exciting news!  And then things got very busy and I never found the time.  But here I am!  I decided to get back to it so I could do a better job at documenting some of our fun times.

A couple of things.

*Most important thing first.  Meet: Emory Winter Howell
Born on January 4, 2013
Our joy.

(5 weeks old in this picture - now he's almost 5 months.  But this is one of my faves. - Thanks Auntie Lauren for taking it!)

*I finally passed my CPA exam.  Which is amazingly awesome.  Now I actually have free time in the evenings to do whatever I want to do (after Emory goes to bed of course).

*Aaron is still pursing his Ph.D at Georgia Tech and is an amazing daddy.

*Emory and I road tripped to Nashville for a cousin's wedding.  Loved getting to catch up with friends and family! :)

*Aaron and I just celebrated 5 years of marriage on May 17, 2013.  What an amazing 5 years it's been.  I think 2013 is my favorite so far. :)

(The 5 year anniversary is the wood anniversary.  Aaron got me this even though he hates knick knacks.  and I absolutely love it.)

*We made a 2013 Summer bucket list and we have already started knocking it out!

(Already complete: s'mores and drive-in movie)

*I celebrated my first Mother's day on May 12, 2013, all because of this little man.

Coming soon: Emory's first trip to the zoo!

oh.. and I finally updated the look of my blog since it had been about 3 years - go to my blog page to check it out if you use a reader. Hoping to get it cleaned up a little more soon  :)

Happy 3rd Anniversay!

Happy 3rd wedding anniversary to us!!!

Today marks 3 full years married to the love of my life.  We have had so many wonderful memories and adventures so far and I can't wait to have even more.  :)

Just to name a few:

• 3 places we now call "home" (Atlanta, Memphis, Nashville)
• 3 new niece/nephews (Ethan, Katie, Roman)
• Newton!
• lots and lots of traveling
• multiple jobs
• tons of holidays spent with our families
• moved to Atlanta
• Aaron in graduate school
• Erin pursuing photography

I can't wait to see this list grow and grow as we enjoy life together.

I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful spouse beside me each and every day. I'm really thankful for him and I'm extremely proud of him.

Happy Anniversary to the love of my life!

Happy Birthdays!

Happy 2nd Birthday to Nephew Ethan!

and Happy 21st Birthday to my sweet sister, Ashley!

I'm glad we were able to celebrate with you guys this year. :)

Celebrating the 25!

Well I'm officially 25 years, 1 week, and 3 days old. Which also means I'm a little late posting this blog. Oh well.
Can you believe it? A quarter of a century old. Crazy!
Although I've been dreading it.. I was also looking forward to getting this picture.

3 generations.  Me. My Mom. and My Grandma.  25, 50, and 75 years old. 

I had a pretty good birthday week... starting with 2 snow days from work.. which meant I returned to work on my birthday.  It's ok though, I got free pizza for lunch. Yum. 
Aaron and I braved the snow/ice on the roads and had dinner at Olive Garden.  Thanks to my parents for the gift card!  He also spoiled me with beautiful cheery flowers.

We even put on the birthday celebration hats for a few photos. (Newton too!)

On Saturday we celebrated with our friends, Hibachi style.  I guess Hibachi is my new birthday tradition since this is year # 3 for doing it.

After Hibachi, we headed back to our apartment for cake (Maggie Moo's Oreo Ice Cream Cake... the best!) and Just Dance 2 on the Wii!

It was a wonderful birthday week!
Thanks to all my friends and family who wished me well wishes and celebrated with me. :)

Happy 2nd Birthday!

Well it's been one whole year since this picture was taken.. and you better believe we whipped that hat right back out.
He still hates it.




and here's his birthday present that he was oh-so-excited about...

It's already half-way destroyed....

Happy 2nd Birthday to our Newt!

On a side note.. Aaron and I and my friend Lauren are heading to Memphis tomorrow after work. Lauren and I will be photographing a wedding this weekend. Should be fun. :)
In the meantime, my brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and nephew will be coming from Memphis to Atlanta for the Nascar race on Sunday. We'll be heading back on Sunday in hopes to spend a little bit of time with them and love on that precious boy.

Celebrating...

Wow, I have lots to catch up on. :) I haven't been a good blogger lately. Between traveling, reunions, photography, new job (yep, I'll blog about it soon!), weddings, etc.. life has been running away from me... and I'm just trying to keep up.

Aaron and I recently celebrated our 2nd anniversary. :)
Technically our anniversary was after our cruise, however we celebrated while on vacation with a cruise excursion, followed by a fancy meal on the ship.

We were planning on checking out the Stingray Sandbar while at Grand Cayman Islands, however when we arrived, we were informed that the excursion was canceled due to the windy weather. So sad.

Instead of trying to pick up another excursion there at the port, Aaron and I decided to wander around the island. We were pointed in the direction of a beach, so we started on our way... luckily for us some cruise guy stop us and told us we were going the wrong way.. haha. At that point, we really had no idea what to do. We debated riding in a taxi around the island, submarine tour (kinda pricey) or a random snorkeling hut. We chose random snorkeling hut. :) This was my first time ever snorkeling and I absolutely loved it. My feet did not, there were a couple of blisters from where the flippers rubbed against my toes. and I absolutely failed when it came to the mask. I could not keep water from leaking for more than 3 minutes at a time.... and I kept forgetting that I was snorkeling and would go too deep under and start choking on salty salty water. lol. Aaron had a good time too. He spent quite a bit of his time following a particular fish around. He's so weird. I ended up scraping up my knee on a rough rock, I'm glad the sharks didn't come for me.


Once we returned to life on the boat, we met up with Mags and Hunter for a friendly game of putt-putt. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty good. I even got my first hole-in-one. (well that was technically on our first day on the boat.. but nonetheless... also just realized that I never blogged about the first day, not sure I ever will) I've never been good at putt-putt... must have been all the wind helping me out. :)


Next up was fancy dinner date night with my wonderful husband. We got dressed up in our best. Me = beautiful teal dress, technically not my best as I borrowed it from an awesome friend, and some smoking heels. Aaron = sharp looking suit. We feasted at the on-board steakhouse. Of course I got the surf and turf (filet migon and lobster, fyi), my favorite and go-to meal whenever I go out for a fancy dinner. Aaron got a huge NY strip... his might have been better than mine... I had to taste it a couple of times to make up my mind. We also got fabulous dessert. Me = chocolate*4. Aaron = humongous cheesecake.



All in all we had a wonderful day celebrating our 2nd anniversary. Eating delicious food, spending time with friends, snorkeling in the Carribean, visiting foreign island, putt putting out at sea, and loving on each other... basically all the things we do best.

Click for more cruise pictures... and more are on the way!