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...

Driving to a Halt

Over the last month, I've traveled 1,457 miles via plane and 2,593 miles via car. Aaron was with me for most of it. We are exhausted. We are so glad to be home. But I wouldn't have done it any other way. Well, unless I could teleport.... I'm so glad we were able to see so many friends and family over the past couple of weeks. It makes the holidays so special. We were able to attend 2 weddings, have 5 family Christmases plus our own, spend time with our family in from Africa (including our adorable nieces), and visit friends in Charlotte.

For now, we've come to a halt in our travels. Busy season loometh... I may have a week or 2 of calm before the storm. Aaron starts back to class on Monday. We're getting cozy in Atlanta for a long winter. Well, at least till February. ;)

A Christmas Wedding

My best friend is finally married. She was absolutely stunning. The decorations were perfect. and we had tons of fun!The happy couple! Maggie and Hunter Mitchell

Best friends! The Mitchells and Howells

Maggie getting ready for the big day.

Alisha and I just killing some time before the wedding.

With Beth and Lydia, some of my Gtown girls. :)

Love her!

Some of the gtown gang!

You can see plenty of more pictures from the weekend here:
Mitchell Prewedding Festivities
Mitchell Wedding Day

Candy Wreath

Thanks to my awesome mother-in-law, I had this beautiful, potentially yummy wreath hanging in our home this year. The wreath was made with dum-dum suckers! We used miniature dum dums and covered them with some snazzy wrapping paper. We wrapped a styrofoam wreath with some white ribbon. Since the ribbon is pretty tough, we had to cut little slits in the ribbon to slide the suckers through. Add some little berries and you're done! I love it!