Today is the BIG day!:)

Today is the day that we leave to pick up our new little family member!:) It's 1:56 in the morning right now and we are getting ready to drive to Springfield, MO. I'm both so excited and nervous about meeting him! I really hope that he likes us! I know that sounds silly. lol. I've got his crate all ready with his bed, blanket, pillow, and toys so hopefully he'll have a comfy trip back to Alabama. I'll be taking lots of pictures of our trip and will share our adventure when we get back! I hope that everyone has a wonderful day!
-candace

Adopt an Angel

I'm so excited about this Christmas! I get to play Santa Claus to a sweet little 8 year old girl!:) Kendall and I decided to adopt a Christmas Angel through the Salvation Army's Angel Tree program. If you have a little extra this Christmas season please consider adopting an angel. You could really help make this a special Christmas for a little boy or girl. You can go here for more information on the Angel Tree project and other ways that you can help out this Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving

We hope that everyone had a happy and safe Thanksgiving! Now go take a nap after all that turkey!:)

love always, candace and kendall

One spoiled little dog....

Oliver is going to be one very spoiled little doggie. I just wanted to post some pictures of some of the goodies that I have collected for him.

His basket full of goodies!
I've had the best time making him bandannas! I made all of them except the striped pirate one.
This one is my favorite. This is what he is going to wear for Christmas!

I saw these on etsy and just had to have them. Oh, how I love to get stuff in the mail!:)
a cute football jersey I got in the $1.00 rack at target, some cute bows, a cute fall sweater, a toy and his leash and collarhe has more brushes than me! lol!
yes, this boy even has his very own blankie. I thought he'd enjoy snuggling with this on the way back.

Meet Oliver!

We are getting a new addition to our family! His name is Oliver and he is a little Maltese. We are driving to Missouri to pick him up on December the 9th! I can't wait! It's going to be a verrrryyyy long drive but so worth it when I see this sweet little face! I have a big box of cute doggie things that I've been collecting for a while now. I'll have to post pictures of all the cute stuff this little fellow will have when he comes home!

Here's the 411 on our new "furbaby"

• he only weighs a little of 4 pounds right now-he's so little!
• he is 5 months old.
• His full name is Oliver Paddington Taylor.
• He looks like a little teddy bear-that's where Paddington came from:)
• His nickname is 'Ollie. We think that it's funny because my sister's maltese's name is Molly....'Ollie and Molly
• He has more stuff than any little doggie could possibly need...and I'm adding to the collection.....:)

Our little teddy bear.

Branford Marsalis rocks!

I'm trying to get caught up on my blogging. So I had to tell about the AWESOME Branford Marsalis concert the other night. He played with the Philarmonia Brasileira. I have to say that I was interested in his jump from jazz to classical-he really did a great job...not very many saxophonist can successfully make that jump. He had a nice dark,rich tambre and the music was beautifully interpreted. Kendall and I are such music nerds. He played a piece that I've played ("Fantasia" by Villas Lobos) and the "Scaramouch" (by Darius Milhaud) which Kendall has played, which delighted us to no ends. Afterwards, we had dinner in some waffehoushish type place in 5 points. We were in our concert black and got all sorts of funny stares.

Vacation 2008

I'm sorry to say that we've been back from vacation for over a month and I'm just now putting it on our blog. On Sunday I had my very first performance in the AWS-yea! Then Monday we left for Panama City. Around Montgomery we went right past the famous "flea market-Montgomery"-ha! Do you remember that? It was also around Montgomery that we missed a turn somewhere and ended up going waaaayyyy out of the way....but we got there all the same just a little later than we had originally planned. Our hotel was so nice-Our room was on the 21st floor and had the most awesome view of the ocean.

This was the view from our room.....see why I didn't want to come back???

We celebrated our 2 year anniversary on Tuesday-we slept in and lounged around in our pjs-then we got all fancied up and went to eat at The Old Florida Fish house. It was a great anniversary!:)

On Wednesday we went to see Ripley's Believe it or Not! I've been wanting to see one of these ever since I read an old copy of the book in 5th grade. It was quite interesting. I'd have to say my favorite part was either the animal/human abnormalities or the optical illusion section-way interesting! Afterwards we went shopping-another favorite past time:)

Thursday we drove to Destin and....went shopping again! what fun!

I'm pretty sure that we just rested on Friday.

This is a shot I got of a lady at sunset.

Then Saturday we began the drive back. We decided to take a bit of a detour to Mobile. Kendall is applying to USA for physical therapy school and he wanted to check out the campus. It worked out great because I got to see Dauphin Island. My family always went on vacation to Dauphin Island when we were kids. I haven't been in a few years and wanted to see how it looked after all of the recent hurricanes. It was so sad-there was sand everywhere, houses were missing, and the houses that were still there were standing in water. Afterwards, we went to one of my favorite places-U.S.S Alabama. Perhaps it's the Glenn Miller music that plays throughout the ship, maybe it's just the fact that it's living history-but I love that boat! We only had an hour before it closed for the night so Kendall and I had to book it to our favorite places to check them out. I'm serious when I say I can spend a couple of days on board reading all the information and touring all the nooks and crannies.lol. Then, we began the long ascent back to north Alabama. I've really missed the late night walks on the beach, and waking up to the crashing waves, and just being with my wonderful husband 24/7. However, my hair is happy to be home. It wasn't so much on the water or wind there.

Yay for Vacations!:)

Tuesday marks 2 years since Kendall and I got married! To celebrate, we've been planning a vacation for the last few months. We are going to Panama City for a week starting tomorrow!:)

I can't believe that we've really been married 2 years-it just seems like yesterday that I married my best friend. I love you so much Ken and I'm so very blessed to have you in my life.

Today was the season opener for the Atlanta Wind Symphony. It went pretty well-I'm just so excited that I found a group of people who truly love to perform music like I do. Well, I'm worn out-it's time to watch a movie and lay in bed and do nothing!:) Have a wonderful week!

My Cousin got Hitched!

This past weekend my cousin Jeri got married. The wedding was down in Columbus and it was so beautiful!:) I got to be the "official" photographer-ha! I had a great time doing these pictures-however, if I ever do a wedding again I would rather split up the bridal shoot from the wedding day itself. By the end of the day I was so tired! It was all worth it though-Jeri was such a beautiful bride and so very photogenic! I just had to post a few instant favorites. I still have a ton more pictures to edit. I think that I took in the neighborhood of 550. Well, hope that you enjoy!

One of my favorites!

I love the idea of this one-however, it did not come out very good.:( Just thought I'd post anyways.

Fun with Type!

As a graphic designer I am obsessed with typography. I am lucky enough to have studied under an amazing designer who was IN LOVE with typography and taught us all to be "typography snobs." ha! So you can imagine how excited I was to find wordle. You can type in the link to your blog and it will supposedly sift out the most typed words and create a hierarchy of them. It was quite fun...looks like I talk a lot about hair on here..;) Go on over there and try it out.

Rants and Raves

Just a quick rant. Tonight I drove over to Atlanta for practice-just as I always do on Tuesday nights. I left with just under 1/2 a tank of gas. When I got to practice I had about 1/4 of a tank-not so bad. "No probelm" I thought, "I'll just fill up on the way home tonight." WRONG!!! When I got back in the car my gas meter had dropped to E and the gas light was on. Yikes! When did That happen? So I went on my merry way to get gas. There was none in Roswell so I went over to Marietta thinking that I might get lucky and find some there. I did. So I manovered my way into the long line of other cars thirsty for gas. I waited...and waited...and waited.....and finally got up to the pump only to be shooed away by a gas station employee...they had ran out of gas just as it was my turn. AHHH!!! So i cruised around on fumes for what seemed like forever-no one had anything. I decided that I would just get back on the interstate and pray that there would be some near...very near. A hour and a half later I finally found gas at a tucked away cheveron in Smryna for $4.39 a gallon. God must have REALLY heard my prayers-because I drove around for 30 miles on E.

On that note, I would really love to shoutout how wonderful the people in the Atlanta Wind Symphony are. I have never met a group of people that were so nice to one another. I am the only member driving from Alabama and I have had 2 people offer to let me stay at their home for the dress rehearsal. That just really touched me. Also, one member even burned me several copies of past performances. Everyone is just so kind and takes the time to talk to me and tell me that they are so glad that I am performing with them this season. It just really warms my heart that there are still people like this in the world. Just thought that I'd share!:) Have a wonderful day!

Hair DISASTER!!!

I had to blog this before I forget this. {Although I really don't think that I will!}
I love dark hair. My hair is a lighter/medium brown and it's blah. I have always dyed my hair a nice dark brown. The other night Kendall's allergies were horriable and so we went to wal-mart to get some medicine. While we were there I decided that my hair was looking quite brassy and dull so I went to check out the hair color section. Instead of picking up my usual I decided that I would be adventrous and try a new color-so as I was comparing the hair on the boxes Kendall was ready to go. "Which one do you think looks the best?" I asked holding up two boxes with dark haired girls on the front. "That one!" Kendall said. "Now let's go." [his allergies were really bad-poor guy] The next day I was way excited to dye my hair. I looked at the box and to my surprise it said "natural soft black." 'It's ok," I thought,"the girl on the box has dark BROWN hair not BLACK hair." So I dyed it and to my horror it was jet black! The worst part was that I must have royally screwed up putting it in and there were large spots on my hair with my natural hair color blaring through. I looked like a cheata! AHHH! So I called the hairgoddess herself-also known as Leigh. She told me to wash the silliness out of the hair and hope that it fades. I washed it 8 times. It did fade....a little bit. We went on an emergency run for more hair dye and got a darker brown that did the trick filling in those pesky cheta spots. So now it just looks like I have chesnut brown hightlights. Sorry no pictures for this one. Ha! I can laugh at myself now. But from now on I think that I'll stick to hair dye with BROWN on it and not dye it myself anymore...I just don't think that I trust myself after this. LOL.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I really hate birthdays. I think that I started to hate them when I turned 16. Before that I LOVED them. ha! This year's birthday was a lot of fun though. Last Sunday, my parents celebrated with me a little early-[my birthday is on 9.16] they cooked a great lunch for us at their house-complete with a birthday cake. Yummm! They gave me 5 days of their time share. So we are going to Panama City Beach on October 13th! YEA! The place that we are staying is super nice-it's right on the beach and has a huge balcony to sit on! :) We can hardly wait-we've been planning on an anniversary vacation for some time now. Originally we were going to Dauphin Island but we'll go there next time. On Monday Kendall surprised me with a new PINK Nintendo DS. I had one of the older models and LOVED the thing-until about a year and half ago the top screen messed up.:( We are both total nerds and love to play Brain Age on it. ha!
Then on my actual birthday Kendall had to work so Kat celebrated with me by taking me out to lunch. On my way to symphony practice several of my friends called to wish me a happy birthday. It was just so sweet! I have the BEST friends! Then this Sunday we celebrated with Kendall's family. His parents have the same birthday 9.21. So they cooked dinner and his sister brought an awesome bunt cake. I love Kendall's family-I'm such a lucky girl to have great friends and family. So I guess that that concludes my 25th birthday. It just doesn't seem like I should be a quarter of a century old.

bored.

So I'm still up thinking of cute names for my {hopefully} d0ggie! So here they are:

• Dawson
• Lawrence
• Alexander
• Oliver
• Paisley
• Marley

Someone out there, please help me decide!:) Pretty please, I'm terrible at decision making!

Such a Sweet Boy!

This is my dream dog! I have wanted a dog for a very long time now. Kendall isn't very keen on dogs-he' a Cat lover. However, after watching Molly he has definitely begun to warm up to her! It really is cute to see her laying on him! I'm pretty sure that I want a Maltese. Brittany's is so sweet and well tempered. Plus, she LOVES to lay in my lap-my very favorite thing! I was looking online tonight for dogs and came across this sweet face! He's at a shelter in SC-about 5 hours away. Kendall told me to call them tomorrow and get all of the details. I hope that everything works out-I'm absolutely head over heels in love with him. My birthday is in 5 days and this little fellow would be the very best birthday present I ever got. I've had a list of favorite pet names on my computer for awhile and have just about decided on Dawson. Just look at that sweet little face-don't you just love him too?

9.10.2008

it's kinda sad that I haven't posted in such a long time. Sooo, guess this one will just have to recap what I've been up to lately!:)This is my sister's Maltese and I'm absolutely IN LOVE with her! Her name is Molly and I have got to dog sit her a few times over the last couple of weeks. We have had such a great time! We watched a couple of movies, she hung out with me while I edited photos, and of course we did a makeover and a photo shoot!:) (sorry that these are kind of snapshotty)

She's a hello Kitty girl!

She even let me give her some wacky hair!

I also got to have some photo-fun with this sweet little girl! and this sweet boy! He was eating watermelon.

Thanks so much Judy for letting me take pictures of your sweet children!

I was going through my files of Sophie pics when I found this one. I think that I have a new favorite! Just look how much she's grown in these past few months! I'll have the rest of the pics for you soon Judy! My program has decided to be a meanie lately! :(I'm so behind on my photography and graphic design stuff! My computer has decided to start acting up and that has really put me behind. I also had a fun time taking pictures in Gadsden the other night! I contribute pictures to the LongLeaf Magazine and went to take pictures of these great vintage cars! It was so much fun!

In other news,

On Saturday my friend Kat and I went horseback riding with a good friend of ours. More on that and pictures to come soon!

I made the Atlanta Wind Symphony!!!! I found out that they were auditioning a few days before and didn't think that I could make it but Kendall talked me into it. We've had a few rehearsals and I'm having a wonderful time! I'm just so thankful that this ensemble exists! I didn't want to quit playing forever.

Whew! That made me tired just thinking about the last couple of weeks! :) Have a wonderful day!

My B.F.F:-)

I'd like to introduce you all to my very best friend: my husband Kendall. I found a husband survey on a friend's myspace and thought that I'd share a little about my "Mr.Right" :)


You and Your Husband

{Dating Period}

Where did you meet?:well...I actually knew of Kendall my senior year of high school when one of my friends at JSU told me of this "awesome Marine saxophonist from Dallas, TX." I saw him the very first time at a Chamber Winds concert. {I wanted his autograph...for real!} However, we didn't formally meet until band camp in the fall.

How long did you date?:
3 years almost to the day-our wedding was the week after our 3 year anniversary.

Were you friends first?:
yep. we were "those nerds" who would be practicing late into the night in the music hall. We would usually end up walking back to the dorm together.

Who asked who out on the first date?:
I guess in a weird way I did. Anyone who knows me knows that I can be incredibly shy about liking a boy. However, for some reason that I will never understand I marched up to Kendall and told him that I liked him...and not just like..but like him. ha!

Where did you go on your first date?:
Gosh, this is about to REALLY prove how nerdy we really are....:)
We rode together to the Cobb County Marching Exhibition that we were performing at.

Where was your first kiss?:
in his truck....it doesn't sound so romantic...but it was!:)

How was your first kiss?:
it was sweet.

What is the sweetest thing he did for you while you were dating?:
hmmm lets see...he made me several sweet cards-drew them and everything-:) Oh, and he serenaded me with the saxophone!

Did you ever break up?:
No


{Since You've Been Married}

How long have you been married?:
2 years this October 14th! :)

What is your wedding date?:
October 14, 2006

Where did you get married?:
Parker Memorial Baptist Church

Do you still kiss (and enjoy it)?:
every second of it

Do you love your in-laws?:
very much so-I'm very blessed!

Does he love yours?

I think that he does. He enjoys visiting them.

Do you have children together?:
Not yet.

What are their names and ages?:
Well we don't have any yet...but I'll tell you the names I have picked out-{when we do have kids this should be interesting to see if I stuck to them-haha} I like the name Chloe, Emerson, and Allie Grace for girls and Eli and Jackson for boys.

Did/Does he help you change diapers?:

I think that he will.

Who is the head of your household?:
We share responsibility

Has he changed since you were dating?:
not really.

Have you changed since you were dating?:
I think that I'm more mature.

What does he do that annoys you?:
he has a habit of being sucked in whenever a TV is present-lol

What do you do that annoys him?:
Probably several things.

What does he do that makes you fall in love all over again?:
He smiles at me.

What do you do that makes him fall in love all over again?:
Hey Kendall, What do I do that makes you fall in love with me all over again? :)

What makes your relationship strong?:
Our faith.

Are you still friends?:
Kendall is my very best friend-I can talk to him about anything.

Does he provide well for you?:
yes, very well.

Do you still love each other as much as the day you were married?:
Very much so.

Are you planning to have more children?:
One day we would love to start a family.

Where do you see your family in 20 years?:
A house full of love and happiness is all I ever hope for.

08.08.08

It's so funny how you can be totally burned out on something one minute and then eager to dive right back into it the next. Graduation was kind of like that-it made me realize that everything I did to get out of college was so worth it. Maybe one day I will go back and pursue my Master's {of course after Kendall gets finished with his:)}. Just a thought.

Anyways, graduation was tons of fun! :) I didn't fall, trip, my hat stayed on, AND they called my name-so I guess that quelled all of my fears!:) After graduation Kendall and my parents threw me a party! Kendall had a "Math the Magic Dragon" cake made for me. I'm sure that most of you are wondering to yourself-"who is Math the Magic Dragon?"---Well, to answer that question-when I was taking my first math class at JSU it was held in the basement of the library. I began to call it the dungeon because that is what it felt like and the story goes on from there.....I guess you can tell that I was an art major and not a math major! :) Anyways, here are a few pictures from the night! My dad had my camera and could not figure it out so there are only a few:'(

Here's the dragon cake!:) Notice there is no head....'cause I "slayed" it. Oh, and the inside was red velvet alla Steele Magnolias!

yummmmyyyy!!!!!!

My sister got my the most wonderful gerber daises!!! :)
Thanks for reading!

Today is the day!:)

Today is the day that I have been waiting sooooo long for: graduation!:) It has felt like it would never get here and here it is! It's been a very long journey. After high school I got a scholarship in music to attend Jacksonville State University. All of my friends were going there, they have one of the best music depts in the southeast, and they were going to foot the bill for me to go. Win/Win situation right? Unfortunately, I never really wanted to be a band director-I wanted to major in music performance. They told me that they were trying to bring the music performance degree back-that I should declare general music as my major and the performance degree would just be a few more ensembles, applieds, and recitals. No big deal. I waited for a year and still no performance degree. I practiced really hard-I was usually in the practice room for about 8 hours a day. I played in 5 ensembles and took applied (which is individual lessons with a professor on your instrument/voice). I talked with my applied professor about this and told him that I wanted to change my degree maybe to interior design or meteorology. He told me that I would be making a mistake-that he really thought that I should stay in performance-that if JSU wouldn't get that degree that he would help me prepare to audition for another school. I stuck it out. The weight on my shoulders just kept getting heavier and heavier. I didn't want to got through the pain of transferring. Another year later I switched my degree to Art with a concentration in graphic design. It was one of the best decisions that I have ever made and I have never looked back on it. The moment that I declared Art as my major the world was lifted off of my shoulders. I would one day still like to pursue something in music performance-there is nothing better than the adrenaline rush that you get from a performance. It's what I do-it's what I love. My senior show project for art was dedicated to music. I can't believe that it is all over now. It seemed like such a long time--- yet looking back it doesn't seem that long at all. I'm going to let Kendall use my camera at graduation-so I'll post pictures of the night later!:)

Graduation Invite

I didn't know that I was graduating until today so I had to throw an invitation together really fast!:) It's not my best work but I wanted to include it in the blog. I sent it out via myspace and e-mail-Emily Post would have a heyday with me!:) ha!

Have a great day! -candace

It's Official! I'm Graduating!

I'm so excited! I found out today that I am definitely going to graduate on Friday! Yea! I had a really bad feeling about that Math final and just knew that somehow I was not going to graduate. I have been in college way to long and am ready to move on with my life. Today was a great day! I got to do a photo session with one of my very best friends! This is Lora-one of the most photogenic girls I've ever met! Before the photoshoot we went to the Thrift Store! :) Sadly we didn't find anything...this time.........This is the "drama tree." It stands outside the drama dept. and all of the drama majors hang in it. Lora graduated with a degree in Theatre last Spring.

Cute, Adorable Dresses!

I've really been in to wearing cute dresses lately. They are just so easy! There is no real planning involved-just pick out a dress, shoes that match, and pair it with either a really cute chunky necklace or some fun earrings and BAM! you've got your outfit for the day! :) Not to mention that a dress is just so much more comfy than pants. I just recently discovered forever 21 and I so in love with their styles and their prices! If you haven't been there check them out! They have cute things like this:

or how about this cute thing?

Oh, and I couldn't leave out this sweet dress from Gap

Have a wonderful day!