Wii Fit is Fabulous!

On Tuesday, I got my Christmas present early from Andrew. I have been wanting Wii Fit since I saw the very first preview advertisement over a year ago... and it is finally hooked up in my living room!

Of course I tested it out as soon as I opened it. It took me through a few set-up questions and then it tested my balance, weighed me, and told me my BMI. After the balance test, it asked me, "Do you find yourself tripping a lot?" At that moment, I knew I would have NO problem staying motivated with my Wii Bully! :) Then I had to set my goals and select my trainer, and finally I could test out the exercises.

It separates the exercises into 4 categories: yoga, strength training, aerobics, and balance. I'm pretty much terrible at yoga (tripping a lot probably has something to do with it), strength training is painful (but that means it is working!), aerobics are fun and really make you work up a sweat (step aerobics are tricky for me, but I LOVE the hula-hooping!!!), and the balance games are hard but fun (my favorites are tight-rope walking and ski slalom). I'm trying to find the perfect way to balance the fun and pain. Last night I started with the running (ouch), did some strength training (more ouch), then did 5 balance games (don't trip!), and ended with super hula hooping! I'm telling you, that hula-hooping is the best calorie-burning exercise in the world! Then I redid the body test and somehow my BMI had gone up, but my balance was just a smidge better. The game also has 2-player running, so I'm hoping to get Andrew off the couch a couple times a week. ;) If not, maybe Morgan will come run with me!

One of the other things I love about this game is that it uses all of the Miis that have been created on your Wii. I've done step aerobics with my Ma and sister, bounced soccer balls of my head with Andrew as the referee, and even had my Pa leave me in the dust while running! It is so fun to see who is next to you or cheering you on (or kicking your butt!) on the screen!

If you have a Wii, definitely think about getting this game!

This past Sunday was my Sister-to-Be, Allie's, first bridal shower! She and Jake are getting married in less than two months, and we are so excited to have her (officially) be a part of the crazy Lalla family!

The cake, with little Allie & Jake snowmen:

Allie with her Mom and sisters:

Candid gift-opening shot... nice gift! ;)

Allie with her shower hostesses:


Ma, Aunt Patty and I had a great time being with Allie and her family. The hostesses planned some fun games... my Ma and I both left with prizes. I finally got to hear all of the plans Allie and her mom have been working on for the big day, and I can't wait to see it all come together! She picked out beautiful navy dresses with champagne sashes for her bridesmaids. And Jake, my Pa, Dan, Matt and Andrew are going to look very spiffy in their tuxes with navy vests. I can't believe there are only 60 more days!

Turkey Day 2008!

Andrew and I had a great Thanksgiving! We left Wednesday night when I got off work and stayed the night at Jake and Allie's new house. Their house is really nice, and we enjoyed staying up late watching StepBrothers and playing old school Super Mario on the Wii. We went to Andrew's parents' house Thanksgiving morning, and enjoyed the day with them watching the parade. I really enjoyed putting up Christmas decorations with my sisters-in-law, Mara and Anna... it was a blast! I always feel right at home with them and feel so lucky to have 2 additional sisters. Later in the day, we headed to my parents' house (when I finally remembered that I had my camera!) to enjoy some Turkey Dinner!

My Aunt Patty and My Ma... and Dan sneaking around in the background!

My Ma and Pa teamworking in the kitchen!

A shot of the family at dinner.

Precious Maddie waiting for her Turkey Dinner

My Pa's amazing homemade Toffee Crunch Cheesecake with a gingersnap crust... YUM!

Andrew, me and Kitty Bug in front of our Christmas tree this past weekend.

We missed out on seeing Andrew's extended family, but I'm hoping we'll make up for it when we head to Lake Lanier with them to see the Christmas lights next weekend! They are all a fun bunch and I can't wait to see them! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Uh-oh, I'm already having trouble keeping up with this!

Andrew and I are making our way to Cartersville after I get off work today. We're stopping in Kennesaw tonight to stay with Jake and Allie at their new house- which I can't wait to see! And then tomorrow morning we'll be in Cartersville hungry and ready for two Thanksgiving meals... Ray Family first, and Lalla family second! We'll be heading back tomorrow night because I've got to work Friday (oh, the joys of working at a mall!). But, I am looking forward to getting our tree and house decorated this weekend.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Turkey Day!

The Dollar Tree saves Christmas!

Andrew and I have been so excited to celebrate our first holiday season in our first house during our first year of marriage... decorating, our first real tree, yummy food! But then we realized that all of those things don't come cheap! Aside from raiding my parent's attic for extra lights, we don't really have any holiday decorations or ornaments... a tree with no ornaments? Now THAT would look silly! So I dropped by the Dollar Tree on my lunch break a couple of days ago to grab some cleaning supplies and sandwich bags (random, I know), and saw that they had a huge selection of ornaments! They had a 9-pack of pretty clear figurine ornaments for $1, pretty glittery snowflakes, bulbs, clay ornaments... tons and tons! Granted, these are not going to last forever, but they will fill up our first tree without making it look gaudy and cheap (I hope!).

We do have 4 very special ornaments we've gotten since the wedding day that will stay with us forever:

1. For our wedding night, Andrew's parents rented a cottage at Barnsley Gardens for us. It was absolutely beautiful and charming. We walked the grounds for a little while the next day, and while we were in the museum, a woman who worked there came up and started talking to us. As it turned out, she lived just behind Mission Estates- and had lived there for years. She started talking about this sweet black and white dog that used to come out and play with her dogs all the time, and would sometimes come with another red dog. She knew they had a home because they were well-fed and always left in the evening, so one day she tied a note around his collar with her name and phone number on it so the owner would know where he was going. Well, it was my family's dogs! Our sweet Lewy who was only with us for a couple of years, and our sweet Cherokee who just passed last September after 16 happy years! I told Andrew that I still remember riding in the van with Mom to pick up the dogs from her house! Anyway, back to the ornaments... while we were talking to her, another woman came up and handed me a tiny wrapped package, telling us we left it behind in our room. I looked at the tag on it and it said, "Love, Fairy Godmother." Inside the wrapped package was a beautiful pewter Barnsley Gardens ornament! And that's where it started! :)

2. While we were on our Honeymoon cruise, I told Andrew we could not leave the Bahamas without another ornament for our tree. He helped me pick out a Christmas angel made out of seashells that says, "Bahamas 2008" on the back. The tradition continued!

3 & 4. A couple weekends ago we had absolutely no plans. It was our first weekend since we moved into our house that I didn't have wedding things to work on or we had no visitors. For some reason, instead of sleeping our Saturday away, we both woke up early in the morning and decided to go to Cracker Barrel. It was so much fun just taking our time and talking about our plans through the holiday season. I know it wasn't a big life-changing event or experience, but sitting there and just enjoying my husband's company made me want to make a memory out of it. So, lo and behold, we left Cracker Barrel with 2 more specially picked out ornaments for our Christmas tree! :)

Tuesday night I got our four special ornaments together and put them with our Dollar Tree ornaments to get ready for our first tree. Although our special pile is small now, we're excited to see how it grows each year!

A Look Back...

Well, since I'm brand new at this blogging thing, I thought I'd use today's post to take a look back at the past year and a half or so. My life has changed so much since graduating college, buying our first house, marrying my best friend... I'm so amazed at what we've accomplished and what we still have to look forward to!

My Amazing Brothers, Jake and Dan, with me at my graduation

from Wesleyan College in May of 2007:

Andrew and me celebrating his job offer-

becoming a Project Engineer for Reeves Construction!

Andrew and me just after he proposed in downtown Savannah by the river,

October 5, 2007:

Our new home in Macon, GA.

We closed on it May 30, 2008:

Just after cutting the cake on our wedding day,

October 4, 2008:

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, I just have to mention how thankful I am for my life and everyone in it. I am so blessed to be married to such a wonderful man, have such an amazing family, and the best friends a girl could ever ask for. It's hard to believe how fast time is flying by! At least we're kicking back and enjoying the ride... :)

Mac 'n Double Cheese Soup!

Andrew hasn't been feeling very well the past couple of days. The sore throat and sinus thing that is going around finally got him. I've been popping chewable vitamin Cs every night at dinner in hopes of avoiding any illness before the holidays, and every time I offer him the bottle he shakes his head no. (I hate to say I told you so!) Anyway, he took it easy after work yesterday, and I wasn't up for cooking a big dinner, so I looked at my trusty Kraft Foods website and clicked through some soup recipes- and that's when I saw it... Mac 'n Double Cheese Soup! We had all the ingredients at home already, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

The ingredients are:

• 3 cups water


• 2 cups milk


• 1 pkg Kraft Deluxe Mac 'n Cheese Dinner


• 2 cups frozen vegetables (ours had carrots, green beans, peas, lima beans, corn and more! I added an extra cup- I love veggies!)


• 8 oz. Velveeta cut into cubes (about a 1/4 of the package)

And it is so simple! You just bring the water and milk to a boil, add the macaroni and veggies, return to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 12-14 minutes. Then you add the cheese packet from the Kraft dinner and the Velveeta, and keep stirring until it is smooth creamy cheesy goodness! Andrew chose a grilled ham and cheese to go with his, and I made myself a grilled turkey wrap. Yum! It was simple, a few ingredients, and we were both stuffed! (And we've got plenty of leftovers for tonight... well, lunch today!)

I highly recommend this recipe for an easy dinner night! And the Kraft Foods website... it's amazing!

It's Bandwagon Time!

Thank you Trisha for the blogging idea! I think this will be a great way to keep in touch with our family and friends as we build our life together in good ol' Macon, Georgia! (And another great way to procrastinate...) I've been needing an excuse to take more pictures, and I think this just might be it. I look forward to playing around on this thing and figuring out how it works, leaving silly comments for Trisha, and looking back to these posts as we get further down the road. 1st post, done!