February 20: Hunger Games

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For those of you who are unfamiliar, 'Mockingjay' is the third and final installment in 'The Hunger Games' trilogy. I'm not overly big on reading, but I had heard a lot about these books and decided to pick up the first one a week or so ago. I started reading the first one last Monday and I'm halfway through the last book now--I'm determined to finish it today! Then I'll just have to hold out for the movie that comes out March 23rd!

February 19: Let it Snow

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Even though it's a little hard to see in the picture, we actually DID get snow in Raleigh!! I think the western part of the state got more than we did, but it's always pretty to look at for a little while anyway! Luckily it didn't stick over night and the roads remained clear, but we did get to see some pretty snowflakes for the evening! Now on to the warm weather!

February 18: Wedding Bells for Kurt & Haley!

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Our first wedding of 2012 was for our dear friends, Kurt & Haley! We got to spend a lot of time with the newlyweds during our trips up to Richmond in the past few months and they were so excited about their big day. They got married at a beautiful little chapel outside of Charlotte and then we partied the night away at the Mint Museum downtown. We had a great time with our closest friends and wish the Gessamans a lifetime full of health and happiness!

February 17: Beach Babes

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In keeping with the unusually warm weather we've been having this winter, an afternoon trip down to Wrightsville beach seemed like the logical thing to do on a sunny Friday! My bestie, Laura, and I took a stroll down to the beach along with her sister, Bethany was who in town visiting. Laura and Bethany are both UNCW grads so we've all spent a considerable amount of time enjoying Wrightsville Beach--and look forward to many more days there when it warms up!

February 16: Traveling Bag of Shenanigans

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Even though I try to keep my posts about Raleigh to a minimum, this one was too cute to pass up. As we loaded up the car early this morning to head down to Wilmington for the night, Raleigh camped out in the backseat. When I looked back to check on her, I noticed she had climbed out of her house and decided to sit on TOP of it...clearly she was not understanding the concept of how this worked. Oh well--at least she does well on car rides!

February 15: Belated Valentines

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As a Valentine's surprise for my husband, I made him his most favorite thing in the whole world: his mom's homemade chocolate pound cake! While Drew was slaving away at work late, I made my 2nd attempt at this yummy dessert. We still have over half of it left because there's only the two of it to conquer it. I think it still needs some work, but Drew seems to love it just as much as his mom's so I guess it was a success!

February 14: Happy Birthday, Sister!

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Back-to-back birthday posts! This one, however, is a very special 30th birthday post for my beautiful sister, Leigh!

Leigh and I have been all over the map as far as our relationship is concerned--we fought like sisters are supposed to growing up and then as we became adults we became great friends. We got to live together for a little while after we were both done with school which was a great time! Leigh is beautiful, smart, compassionate and so much fun to be around. Love you, sissy!

February 13: Happy Birthday, Lauren!

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This is my birthday tribute post to our beautiful niece, Lauren!

Lauren turned 5 this year--I know that's harder for Drew to believe than me since he was there when she was born! But it's still crazy for me because she was just 2 when I met her and she has grown up so fast! She's going to be tall and beautiful just like her mom, Catey...can't wait for lots more birthdays to share with her! Love you, Laur :)

February 12: Snoop Doggy (Hot) Dog

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Drew and I try to keep our junk food outings to a minimum, but we thought we would indulge a little bit on this lovely Sunday afternoon. We headed over to Snoopy's Hot Dogs and got just that...hot dogs! Not quite sure what makes these so good, but they're always work the trip! Until next time...

February 11: Don't Even Think About It

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As is usually the case when Drew and I invade my parents' house, we had Raleigh in tow for the overnight trip. Layla, of course, has to step up her game a little in order to protect her stash of rawhide bones from Raleigh. Her best idea came when she tried to swallow the entire bone--however, we coaxed it out of her but she kept a tight grip on it the rest of the day.

February 10: Lots of Love

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In typical fun-loving fashion, my wonderful husband surprised me with this amazing larger-than-life fortune cookie for our first Valentine's Day together as a married couple. The cookie arrived at our door in a huge Chinese take-out type box and came equipped with the sweetest fortune, written by my better half. Since he hates greeting cards and I happen to love them, he thought this was a great way to express his love for me in a manner that is so appropriate for both our relationship. I have the BEST valentine anyone could ever ask for!

February 9: Sweet Face

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Now that I'm a part-time stay-at-home mom to Raleigh, this sweet little face is always around staring up at me. She seems to know when I'm right in the middle of something and that's when she decides it would be a good time to plop down in my lap. She just stared up at me like this for several minutes until I had to continue what I was doing. Love her!

February 8: Family Matters

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As some of you may have heard me say in the past few months, it's still weird to me to officially be a Peters now! My mom got us this wonderful handmade sign (courtesy of Etsy) for Christmas and we have it proudly displayed in our apartment. It hangs right by our front door and it makes me happy every time I see it and I can remember that Drew and I have started our own little wonderful family!

February 7: Twilight

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As mentioned in my last post...the sky down at the beach is always so stunning and tonight was no exception. I was going to run some errands before Drew got finished with work down in Wilmington and when I stopped at a light I just thought this was a cool looking twilight skyscape. This is my second favorite kind of 'Twilight' :)

February 6: Good Morning, Sunshine

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One of the best things about being down at the beach is the fact that the sky always seems much richer and more beautiful than anywhere else. After I dropped Drew off at work on Monday morning down in Wilmington, I was heading over to visit my friend Laura when I got stopped at a stoplight and noticed this awesome looking morning sky. Very cool!

February 5: Super Bowl, Super Snacks

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In typical Super Bowl fashion, our small gathering of friends included an ungodly amount of junk food. There was pizza, wings, chips, pretzels, beer, wine, cake, cupcakes...I feel fat just listing all of that out! Unfortunately for Drew, the Patriots lost a heartbreaker of a game, but the friends and yummy snacks at least kept up entertained for a few hours. Good thing we don't do that every Sunday...

February 4: Krispy Kreme kraziness

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For those of you not familiar...a group of NC State students started this thing called the Krispy Kreme Challenge where people sign up to run, eat a dozen doughnuts, then run some more...BARF! My sister-in-law's boyfriend, Brian, geared up to run this race so Care and I thought it would be fun to go experience this (from a spectator's perspective, of course!) There were almost 8,000 people who ran the race...times 12 doughnuts each...that's a lot of yummy goodness! All of the money raised goes to benefit the children's hospital in NC so it raises a ton of money and makes for a great morning of fun!

February 3: Spreadin' Seeds

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I'm not sure why this little guy was so intriguing, but it caught my eye when taking Raleigh out for her afternoon walk. The way this picture came out is really cool because the grass in the background is so focus that it looks like it's in HD, but the fuzzy part of the flower all blended together and came out blurry. Anyway--this poor guy didn't make it very long after this photo was taken because as soon as Raleigh saw that I was interested in it, she ran right through it and scattered all of the seeds. Good thing there's not a shortage of these things!

February 2: Walking on Sunshine

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For whatever reason, this winter has been extremely mild and almost pleasant at times (refer to previous posts for further proof!) I was taking Raleigh on her daily afternoon walk and just happened to look up and thought the sunlight on the trees looked really cool. Sometimes it's nice just to be able to appreciate the sunshine and its warmth.

February 1: What's Cookin' Good-Lookin'

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In another attempt to create something from Pinterest, I opted for crock pot Mexican shredded chicken and yellow rice. I have to admit--this was one my favorite dishes that I've made lately! A lot of it was the flavor combinations, but a big part of it was that I got to finally use my teal Le Creuset pot that we got as a wedding gift from my grandmother! Can't wait to make this dinner again!

January 31: Deserted Island

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Drew and I headed down to Wilmington for a quick 24-hour trip while he had to do some work with his client who is based down there. I got to spend the day with my dear friend, Laura, and even got a little beach time in with Raleigh down at Figure 8. It was such a beautiful day (unseasonably warm for January) and it was even more beautiful to see the beach with absolutely no one else on it. Can't wait for summer!