HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

My cousin gave birth this afternoon to a beautiful (so I'm told) baby boy!!

Welcome to the world, Hendrix Croy Bosch!  He was born at 12:30 this afternoon and weighed 8.5 pounds! BIG BOY! : )

I cannot wait to meet him! 

I praise You, little Hendrix is "fearfully and wonderfully made!"  

   -Psalm 139:14

back to school!

Spring break has already come, and gone. It went by so fast! 

I got the chance to go back home to Orlando over the break and had such a great time with my family. I guess I have a bit of a bias opinion, but my family is the greatest!! My parents are two of the most loving, gracious, giving, encouraging, and supportive people I have ever known. They are such a delight to be around and they are great examples of what God calls us to be. 

While being home I was able to see and catch up with family and some old friends of mine. One of my best friends since Kindergarten, Kayley, came over to visit with her four month old precious baby girl. It was such a joy to be able to see them. Kayley is a wonderful mommy! I was also able to go to Disney and lay out by the pool, soaking up all the Orlando sunshine! I look so forward to returning home again, and to spending the entire summer with my family. 

two and 1/2 weeks till easter break! THANK GOD! (schools getting pretty hard now)

the creativity in me!

In the past couple of years I have developed an enormous passion for baking and

cooking. I have no idea where in the world this passion came from but it has been very fulfilling and a ton of fun! : ) But because of living in the dorms without a kitchen or any appliances, my baking and cooking has been very limited. So in the meanwhile, I have developed another passion!

I have recently become somewhat obsessed with baking/cooking websites, magazines, and books. I love looking at different recipes and pictures of foods, and dreaming about creating it myself one day. This has actually become a little activity of mine that I enjoy doing when I feel completely overwhelmed by all the stresses of life! I have a folder in my room, specifically titled "Recipes I Want to Try", filled with ripped out magazine recipes, printed off internet recipes, and names of fun cook books that I have come across. 

Well, just the other day I was at a local book store in downtown Chattanooga and of course, went straight to the cooking and baking section of books. After thumbing through several really cool ones, I came across one that totally excited me!! I saw the book,immediately grabbed it off the shelf, and began to browse through it, dreaming of trying to create everything I saw. I wrote down the title of the book, Hello, Cupcake!, and was determined to get online (find it for cheaper!) and buy the book!  

The book finally came in the mail the other day and I couldn't stop showing it off to all the girls on the hall. 

Hello, Cupcake! has dozens of really great decorating ideas for creating anywhere from the cutest cupcake to the scariest cupcake! The book is great. There is even a section in the book with ways to decorate cupcakes that actually "fool the eye", and look like dinner meals!

This book has definitely been my excitement and stress-reliever for the past few days! : )

 

cold, rainy day at the tennessee aquarium!

Saturday was an absolutely miserable day, weather-wise. It was freezing cold and rainy the entire day. The mountain was so foggy it was hard to see right in front of you. So, Lauren, one of my roommates, Brian, and I decided to go to the aquarium! For the month of February admission to the aquarium for college students was half off, so we got in for $10 each! We had such a great time. We spent a little over 3 1/2 hours there. Brian was such a trooper putting up with Lauren and I for the whole day. Lauren is SO COMPLETELY into animals, their anatomy, their origin, their behaviors, all of that, so she wanted to read every bit of information on every single sign! She was too cute. The joy on her face was unexplainable. 

After our time at the aquarium, Brian treated Lauren and I to yummy ice cream at Coldstone Creamery!! Lauren was so excited to get mint chocolate chip ice cream, her favorite flavor, from her favorite ice cream parlor, but soon she was reminded that she gave up chocolate up for lint : (   She settled with just mint!

A gross, cold, gloomy Saturday ended up being a blast! 

(enjoy the pictures!! I got a little camera crazy and took pictures of just about everything, so here are a few of my favorites)