McGraw Family Reunion

So this weekend was my gigantic extended family's cousin reunion. I really mean gigantic.. My great grandmother was the oldest of 13. In the next generation (my grandmother's) there's around 54 people (plus spouses) and in the 3rd generation (my mom's) there are around 105ish people (plus spouses) and then in my generation there are already 60something people.

Every year on Labor day the family gets together in Dothan, Alabama at one of the cousins' houses and it's pretty fantastic. 5 of the original 13 siblings were there.

On Saturday, they had this couple who played a ton of different instruments and were dressed in colonial garb. I got to play is violin.. It was fun. :)

His name was Chuck. He was excellent. 

Creepy face on a tree...

I also found some gems in the old family albums:

1989. Yes, that is my mother in the middle with the poodle hair.

From left to right: random cousin (ha), my mom, my aunt Teresa, my dad, and my uncle Keith.

1993, I believe (the year before my brothers were born).. I'm the one in the front on the far left with the ginormous bow.

Little Whit helping put the chairs away.

The horse, I mean dog, Rudy

The kids all went out and had a mud fight in the river... I missed out on that one. OH well.

Baby Chloebelle.. Her feet didn't quite touch the ground in her walker. Haha.

My great-great uncle Joel giving a devotional on Sunday before lunch.

And the McGraw family wall. HUGE family.

I hope everyone else had an excellent Labor Day weekend! 

"Interview With Reality"

My cousin, Susie, has finally started a blog. It is going to be awesome. She will be posting "Kayla-isms", as well as random funny things her two kids (Kayla & John Riley) say and do.

Check it out: Interview With Reality

Me & Susie

Kayla 

John Riley

(pictures my visit last October)

Easter, 2011 Style

So the dress I bought for Easter ended not being quite dressy enough for my mom, so I ended up wearing the dress she bought for herself because it was too small and short for her. Without further adieu, here is my dress!

 It's from Modcloth.. The shoes are Gianni Bini. And in case you were wondering, turquoise and purple TOTALLY go together. Just saying..

Closeup of the shoes (if you enlarge it the color shows up better):

Here are some more pictures of my crazy awesome family from yesterday:

 The Herndons

Bright shoes this year!

 My family.

 Me and my dad

And Mom..

I love laughing pictures

 My cousin, Edwin and myself. He's probably the closest person I have to an older brother. (We're just a year apart)

No Easter baskets.

All the grandkids (Gunter side).. We are serious.

Aaaand we lost it.

 Edwin and his girlfriend, Adrian.

Haha.. This is my mom's brother and his wife (Keith and Teresa) and my cousins Collin and Edwin.

We are normal......

Just kidding.

Okay, serious.

And this is my 74 year old grandmother in my 5 inch heels. Be impressed.

Hope you enjoyed my crazy family's Easter pictures! It was such a good day.. We all had a wonderful service at church.. I ate soooo much at lunch. I still wasn't hungry when I woke up this morning. It was hot and humid and totally Mobile weather. We all jumped in the pool as soon as my mom gave the okay that pictures were done.

St. Patrick's Day!

I am definitely one of those girls who dresses up and goes all out for random holidays.. St. Patrick's day happens to be one of my favorites. First off, I LOVE Ireland, my mom and I visited in 2008. Secondly, I love green. Thirdly, I'm part Irish..

Anyways, this year I decided to cook an Irish meal for the family.

Here is the recipe for the Steak and Guinness Pie I made.

This is what goes inside the pie (steak, bacon, onions, peas...). The Guinness makes an AMAZING gravy. Let me tell you..

Here I am with the finished product..

Here it is on the table.. I must say, this pie was scrumptiously delicious. It was hearty. It was yummy. It was Irish. I highly suggest you try it out. The only downside was that my family gobbled it all up and there were absolutely no left-overs.

I made Whisky cookie balls for dessert. They were also fantastic. (I'll post the recipe at the bottom of this post.) We had Bailey's Irish Cream with dessert as well.. So I guess we had the three most popular Irish drinks at dinner (Guinness in the pie, Jameson whiskey in the cookies, and Bailey's).

Here's my green for the day:

Shirt: Express
Cardigan: Express
Jeans: Miss Me
Shoes: Anthropologie

I just love these shoes. I bought them on sale last year and have only gotten to wear the once, so I decided St. Patrick's day was the perfect day to air them out.

And here's my whole family decked out in their green. We're nerds together, at least. :) And I kind of forced them to wear it....

Well, I hope you all had a wonderful St. Patrick's Day!!


Here is the recipe for the cookies:

Recipe: Irish whiskey balls (no-bake cookies)

Ingredients

• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 2 cups vanilla wafer cookies
• 1/2 cup Irish whiskey (preferably Jameson)
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon corn syrup
• 1 1/2 cups pistachios
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• Optional: green food coloring

Preparation: Grind together white chocolate chips and vanilla wafers in a food processor. Add powdered sugar and process until combined. Add the whiskey and corn syrup and process until crumbs form a mass. Add pistachios and pulse until nuts are coarsely chopped and throughout mixture. Optional: Add a drop or two of green food coloring to give the balls a St. Patrick's Day holiday color.

Form 1-inch balls. Place sugar in a shallow bowl and roll balls in sugar. Store in wax paper-lined airtight container in a cool dry place. Let balls sit for a few days before eating for best results.

Makes 48 balls

A Date With My Dad

This past Saturday night my dad took me on a date to Biloxi to see Frankie Valli.. If you don't know who he is here are some of his songs: "Grease", "Sherry", "Big Girls Don't Cry", "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", "Oh What A Night", and many more awesome songs from the '60s and '70s..

Here is the outfit:

Dress: Express circa 2006ish; Tuxedo Jacket: Ben Sherman ($15 at Hudson's!!); Shoes: Jessica Simpson

You've gotta love a good hair day. :)

Here are the blessed shoes again (the ones from my dad for Valentine's)..

The self-manicure.

It was great fun. The show was at the Imperial Palace Casino in Biloxi, MS (a little over an hour away from here). We at ate the restaurant at the restaurant, "Tien". Oh my GOSH it was sooooo good.. My dad's brother's girlfriend works at the casino and she comped everything, so we had lobster on the hibachi. :):):)

And here's me and my dad!

Frankie Valli was so cute.. I mean, he's like 76 years old I think. He still has the high voice and at the end of the show all of the old people ran up to the stage to shake his hand. It was hilarious. He had 4 backup singers called "The Four Seasons" and they were all around 30-ish. There was one lady behind us who was really excited for one of them. When they sang "Grease" they took off their jackets and flexed and she started screaming like a maniac. It was quite entertaining..

My hair still looked good at the end of the night! Yay!

Anyways, I am off to Orlando to visit my cousin for a few days! There will be many many MANY pictures taken. :) Have a good week!