Hey y'all! We took a break from posting this past week because it seemed like we were celebrating Thomas' birthday all week, but we are back to our regularly scheduled programming and here to tell you all about it, from Thomas' point of view, if you'd like to hear...

We started celebrating on Thursday night with my family in downtown Chattanooga. We went to Tony's, my favorite Italian restaurant that overlooks the river and has the absolute best garlic bread and oil with cheese for dipping. I got my usual pesto cream sauce and spiced it up a bit by adding mushrooms. Go big or go home, right? Speaking of big, their portions are huge so there's always going to be leftovers to take home. See why it's my favorite place?

After Tony's, we went back to my brother's house and had cake and opened presents. I plan on sharing what I got tomorrow, but in the meantime, can we all appreciate this delicious (store bought) cake my younger sister got me? I'm a sucker for white cake with white frosting so this hit the nail right on the head. Is that how the saying goes? Regardless, it was glorious.

The next morning I woke up to find four cupcakes from Cupcake Divas waiting on me in the living room. PJ knows my weakness for cupcakes and knows how Cupcake Divas are my favorite cupcakes in the whole world, with their perfectly moist cakes and ginormous amount of icing on top. It just doesn't get any better than this.

Also included: a sweet card with my name on it (seeing McKay come after my first name is still something I'm not totally used to and gives me butterflies every time) and my present underneath it. Any guess to what it was? Haha. There's actually a funny story behind it and I'll share it tomorrow.

We then went out to PJ's dad's farm for a bit to see his sister and our nieces and nephews as they were just getting into town. It was the most beautiful day we've had it what seems like forever, so we soaked up the sunshine with the kids as much as we could. It's also hard not to enjoy the day when you see three little kids running around on a great big farm laughing and screaming. It gets us thinking.... :)

Our friend Kyle from Nashville came down Friday night and stayed with us through the weekend. TBH I didn't take very many pictures after that because I'm trying this new thing where I don't take so many pictures and really try to live in the moment as everything is happening. It's a little experiment I'm doing and so far it's going really well. Just trying to be more present was one of our New Year's Resolutions and it honestly feels good. Have you tried that this year? How's it going for you?

By Saturday night, everyone that was coming to stay for the weekend was here. So we had our friend Kyle from Nashville, our friends from Chattanooga (also named Kyle, both of them), and our sweet friend Golden (who takes most of our pictures) at the house ready to celebrate with us. We took them all out to the land to see it since none of them had before. When we got back home, we made a bunch of different homemade pizzas and ate charcuterie, a word we just learned last year.

Again, I didn't really take pictures that night, but I was able to get one of my guy making a pizza. He always puts so much work into everything he does and this weekend was no exception. He is a perfectionist, so he doesn't stop until the job is done and it's done right. It can be hard sometimes, but I wouldn't have him any other way.

The next morning my family stopped by unexpectedly after they got back from Mass and ate our leftovers from the night before, thankfully.

To top it all off, when I got home from work yesterday, I found a little box waiting for me on the front porch. It was a box of chocolate truffles from our new talent managers Alix & Denise all the way from California! How sweet are they?

All in all, I am feeling so blessed and grateful for family and friends this weekend. In my 27th year of life, I am learning that it's definitely not perfect and almost never goes the way you plan. I am learning to let go of small things and understand that the people in my life are the most important things in it. It's no secret that family is everything to me, and I am realizing that more than ever this year. Thank you to everyone for all the sweet birthday wishes. I won't soon forget this one. xx