b is for bennett!

elyse & matt are having a baby boy!!  bennett david rogers is so loved by his family & this wonderful group of friends.  we cannot wait to meet you!

to celebrate this anticipated little boy, we threw a baby shower!  we enjoyed a blue theme with bleu cheese, apple, & caramelized red onion dip with blue corn chips, purple potato salad, moe's wings with bleu cheese dip, & blueberry cupcakes with honey cream cheese frosting.  we toasted with champagne & alcohol-free champagne with blueberries, blackberry mint water, & of course the father-to-be's favorite, miller lite.

it was an afternoon full of love, joy, laughs, & so much to celebrate.  congratulations, elyse & matt!  we are going to love that little baby boy of yours.

love love,

kjp.

boom soon from tuscaloosa!

we finally saw it!  the incredible bryant-denny stadium, home of the tide, where alabama rolls.  it really is an impressive stadium.  the fifth largest football stadium with a 101,800 seat capacity.  it's gigantic & very pretty.  &, man, alabama really can play some football. 

{TL: the one & only bryant-denny.
TR: the walk of champions.
BL: the ridiculously long walk up to our upper level seats.
BR: our delicious gameday hotdog.}

 {the UAB docs}

we headed to tuscaloosa for an afternoon of tailgating with a few alabama & tennessee faithful UAB residents, attendings, & former attendings.  & we got to hang out with one of my favorite former urban cooks, matthew!  so much college football fun.

at halftime, when alabama had pretty much run up & down the field on tennessee, blakey & i headed out to moe's for some delicious wings & redneck nachos & a fantastic sooner football win!

boomer sooner from tuscaloosa!  

love love,

kjp.

ice cream for lunch & wings for dinner.

you know how i used to tell you about all the crazy fun or totally different things we did on the weekends?  well, apparently we have transformed our idea of "crazy fun".  another weekend means another wonderful time of relaxing, another joyful day or two with my byrds, another chance to do a few of our favorite things.

after our usual morning of coffee & FNL & a butt kicking at the gym, we decided to have a delicious lunch - frozen yogurt!  ice cream for lunch, yes please.  have you heard about this "only 8" frozen yogurt that's all the rage?  it is low calorie, no fat, calcium fortified, all natural, no preservatives, & is pretty darn delicious.  seriously.  not lying.  now, next time maybe i can leave out all of the chocolate & candy, throw in more fruit & nuts, & it will actually be healthy.

then for dinner, we headed to our favorite patio in birmy for wings & red neck nachos - moe's bbq!  moe's recently redid their patio & made it bigger & even better.  their wings & pork nachos - still ridiculous. 

love love,

kjp.

thankful thursday - your birthday wishes.

oh my goodness, y'all know how to make a girl feel incredibly special.  from the phone calls & texts & facebook messages & instagram posts to the flowers & cards & gifts & banners...  i feel so loved!  seriously, you all are the best.

i woke up to my favorite picture of my sister & me as a birthday wish...

& then i arrived at work before "bright & early" to see amazing birthday decorations of "happy birthday" banners all over the kitchen & oven & refrigerators, bright orange flowers, & a beautiful note.  miss marygrace, you are truly the kindest person i know.  thank you for bringing so much joy to my birthday!

my super sweet husband stopped by urban to bring me a bouquet of beautiful & bright flowers!  he is so wonderful.

& then i received another bouquet of gorgeous pink & white flowers from the donatiellos!  THREE bouquets in one day!  that's incredible!  happiest girl in the world here, my friends.  happiest girl in the world.

after a fun afternoon with my husband, we decided it was time to open the cards & gifts i have been receiving over the past week or so!  lucky for me, my adorable nephew wanted to be in on the action, so we video chatted with malcolm & julie!

my super cute mother-in-law played a fun game of "how many ways can i tell kendall 'happy birthday!' this year??"  it.was.awesome.  phone call, voicemail, text, email, facebook, a note at work, a card, & the greatest of them all - she called ahead to the restaurant we went to that evening & ordered banana pudding for me!  she even convinced the fella to announce it to the whole restaurant.  priceless!

mrs holmes went all out this year for my birthday too!  in addition to the tanky + finley = love theme, she sent the most amazing fuchsia themed gifts.  hot pink pencils with "love, the porters" engraved on them!  hot pink & gold washi tape.  pink cardstock labels.  black & white twine.  & a fantastic "love, the porters" stamp!  & she even had little bags with ideas of how to use each item.

our birthday evening ended with a couple of beers, the best wings, & delicious nachos at moe's bbq with our church small group.  a fabulous fabulous birthday.  & we still have more celebrations to come!  i love birthdays.  especially because you all make them so darn special.

i hope you can think of something today for which you are thankful.

love love,

kjp.

happy birthday to me!!

happy birthday to me!!  three hundred sixty-four days counting down to this day.  the one day each year i get to be ridiculous & celebrate all day long.  it's fun.  yay birthdays!!

{birthday last year at gianmarco's!}

we have fun celebrations this week - blakey has the afternoon off, so i get to open my birthday cards & packages that have arrived the last couple of weeks!  tonight, small group is meeting at one of our favorite hangouts, moe's bbq, for wings & nachos.  thursday night, we have a dual birthday happy hour for elyse & me at rojo with our birmy friends.  & this weekend, blakey & i are off to atlanta for a fantastic culinary tour!

AND we finally get to drink the rombauer chardonnay we bought on my birthday last year!!  delish!!

every year, you will trade a little of your perfect skin & your ability to look great without exercising for wisdom & peace & groundedness, & every year the trade will be worth it.  i promise.

{mrs shauna neiquist of bitterness}

love love,
kjp.

beau & the fantasy football draft!

beau is in alabama!!!  blakey & i haven't seen him in... three years, we think!  that's crazy long.  so we were super excited to find out he {& soon jaci too!} will be in alabama for the next few weeks for some air force training.  heck yes.

as with all wonderful friends, we picked up right where we left off three years ago.  the three of us spent the afternoon chatting away about life & friends & all of those wonderful things.  we, of course, took beau to enjoy some fantastic wings at moe's.  & later that evening, he got to meet some of our best friends in birmy at a backyard cookout.  the perfect saturday!

on sunday, it was time to get to business.  fantasy football draft day!  our best friends from high school have had a fantasy football league for the last seven years.  blakey has won twice.  overachiever.  i got third once.  pretty impressed with myself, being the only girl & all.  i am pretty sure this is my year though, friends...

{how many electronics are needed for a draft, you ask?

two computers, two ipads, & three phones, of course.}

{bloody marys, southern style with pickled okra}

{my mascot!}

by the way, tanky loved having beau here.  they played & played & played outside.  good boy time.

{little man loves the huge branches from our huge pecan tree}

{by the end of the weekend, he was exhausted!}

so ridiculously happy to spend the weekend with beau!  & super excited for jaci to get here to party too!

love love,

kjp.

a beautiful day for a patio... in february!

it was a beautiful day on saturday, so we spent the lovely day on our favorite patio.  moe's bbq patio & wings & tanky with the byrds is one of the best saturdays.

& a bloody mary with a little of their bbq sauce & meat rub...

a very lovely saturday indeed.

love love,

kjp.

fun after all of the thanks.

after the thanksgiving feast on thursday, we had a super fun weekend with julie & ben.  as everything else with us, most of it revolved around food.  we had to show them all the awesomeness birmy has to offer... which is a lot of food.

real southern bbq was a top the list, so saw's had to be on schedule.  their ribs are amazing.  if you are in birmingham ever, eat saw's ribs.  so good.

one of the local breweries recently opened a beer tasting room.  good people brewing company.  very tasty beer.  my fave is the brown ale.  all boys love the ipa.  oooh, & we tried their new bret pale ale.  very good too.  we ran into one of my favorites in birmy, so it was an evening of all things fun.

for the lsu vs arkansas game, we headed to our favorite chicken wings & patio.  you guessed it - moe's!  for a november afternoon, it was a gorgeous day for a patio full of football, beer, & bbq.  ben & julie loved the redneck nachos.  obviously.  & the wings were fabulous too. 

 {tic-tac-toe in beer foam = awesome}

our friends, matt & ashlee, were in town for the holiday, so they joined us too!  oh, it felt like the good ole days.  we absolutely loved seeing them.  & were very happy matt got out of the shower long enough to hang out with his buds.  {haha.}

once the patio got a bit chilly, we went across the street to the best package store/bar.  oh yes, two in one.  the bar tenders are quite funny with their adult jokes.  always a laugh.  always a good time.

 {little kiiiiiings.  holla.}

on saturday, after we convinced julie byrd & benny boo to stay an extra day {HECK YES!}, we had to watch THE big game.  if you live in alabama, you must know what game this is referencing.  the iron bowl.  alabama vs auburn.  the biggest game of the year, regardless of how bad one of the teams may or may not be.  

so even though i refuse to pick a side, as all say we have to do {i am sooner born & sooner bred & when i die, i will still not cheer for alabama or auburn}... i do love football, so we watched the game at the clyde & enjoyed a tasty alabama beer or two & maybe even a deep fried bratwurst.  & deep fried sauerkraut balls. 

it's the south.  don't judge.

did i mention blake & ben went to a shooting range?  just for fun.  man time.  boys are funny.  

also funny about man time: sitting on the couch.  next to each other.  watching tv.  while each on their electronic device.  somehow equals man time.  boys...

so girl time was a must!  & what do julie & i do for girl time?  make grandma's christmas candy!!!  english toffee & peanutbutter balls are made!  if you ask really really nicely, i might share with you.

in conclusion, we had the most fabulous weekend.  & the final result was...

love love,

kjp.

ashley & cari in birmy!

ashley & cari came to visit us in birmy!!  & we had the most fabulous time. 

i hadn't seen cari since our wedding - crazy.  & had only seen armstrong for about 10 minutes since then.  it had been far too long, friends.  let's not wait that long again.  k?  sweet.

{tanky was SUPER excited he had friends for the weekend!

he slept with them each night.

what a good boy :) }

our first stop in birmingham was no other than moe's bbq!  we, of course, had to take the girls to our favorite patio with our favorite wings & our favorite nachos & our favorite summer beverages.  

& they loved it!  duh.  it's fantastic.  what on earth is there not to love?

 

 {blakey made it out!}

the potters were there too with a few of their visiting friends.  & the mcgowans joined too.  so we pretty much went ahead & took over half of the patio.  why wouldn't we?  we pretty much keep this place in business.  fun fun fun.

 {ADORABLE asher.}

saturday morning, we stopped by urban for a breakfast of my baked goods!  so fun.  & they got to see my awesome work place.  {they loved it so much we decided to have a photo shoot there later in the trip.  more to come on that in another post...}

{buttermilk oatmeal muffin}

 {blueberry scone}

saturday was the FIRST DAY OF FOOTBALL SEASON!!!  which is one of the best days of the year.  so we celebrated.  all day long.  more on that to come in another post too.  we like to take pictures. you'll see all about it.

 {boomer sooner!!!}

cari had to have chicken & waffles while she was in the south, so we brunched at a new restaurant on sunday morning.  ore is taylor hicks' super modern with a rustic twist restaurant in crestline.  there was a jazz band in the bar area playing some fun tunes.  the owner + head chef at little savannah {one of our birmy favorites} was eating brunch there too.  that has to say something.  i have to tell you - the chicken & waffles were pretty darn good.

 

 {my BEAUTIFUL friends}

{& my ADORABLE husband.}

 {how awesome are these lights?!

we need to get one for our dining room "chandelier".

any thoughts on where i could find the rope portion?}

ashley & cari were so happy to learn that piggly wiggly is a real place.  "the pig", as we like to call it, is a local grocery store.  oh yeah, it's not just in sweet home alabama.  welcome to the south, friends.

on monday morning, i drove the girls around to see the sites of beautiful birmy.  we saw campus & vulcan & the gorgeously huge trees & old historic homes & hills bigger than any mountains in oklahoma.  

 {the lovely sites of downtown}

 {love this!}

& we had to end our trip with one more fantastic meal.  so top chef richard blais' gourmet burger joint, flip burger, was it.  my beef tartare burger was fantastic.  cari tried another southern favorite - the lobster roll.  i've actually never had one, but she loved it.  & armstrong had some good ole southern bbq.  oh, & we had fried picles!  yummm.  

 {oh my gosh.

the ridiculously good shakes.

really really good shakes.

nutella & burnt marshmallow.

pineapple upside down cake.

impossible to choose a favorite.}

 {why, hello, huge rain strom.

not only did you make my hair look beautiful,

you also let armstrong stay another night with me!

i'll forgive you for the hair since ash got to stay.

so thank you.}

so so so so so much fun.  these two are the greatest.  excited to show you even more of our fun!

love love,

kjp.