just a tribute: to fall

Things have been pretty busy here with Skedouche season creeping up on us, so I have kind of put my tributes on the back burner....woops! Luckily I have still had time to enjoy the beautiful fall season!

I wish fall was the longest season of the year!

just a tribute: to my birthday 3.0

The last day of my Birthday celebration was a day for the books. My good friends Savino and Susan planned a little Vineyard "crawl" in Leesburg. It was so much fun! I think after the day was done we had been to 4 vineyards, and had consumed enough wine to last us a week. But, with the perfect weather, delicious wine, good company, and of course amazing cheese, this was one of the best birthday celebrations in awhile!

I have the best friends a girl could as for :)

 This was at the first vineyard, Breaux. If you know us Kelliher's, you know it's tradition to take a jumping picture

 I have the prettiest friends!

 My handsome man :)

This was at the second vineyard Hillsborough!  

Yea, we took one of these kinds of pictures. 

We enjoyed some amazing cheese and bread to go along with our bottles of wine :) 

Was so happy that my sisters made it, they are the best! Danny K and his hair eventually made it as well.  

Loved this old vintage truck at the last vineyard we went to, Sunset Hills!

 Roommates for three years in college, and best friends since then!

 Amazing views at Sunset Hills!



Doing what we do best



 Perfect sunset at Sunset Hills to end a perfect day!

The only bad thing about this day was that it was Sunday, which meant that after all that wine drinking I had to go to work the next day....not fun :/

just a tribute: to my birthday 2.0

Birthday Extravaganza Day 2:

Day 2 started out by me waking up at 8:30 in the morning to an obnoxious jack hammer right outside my window. Needless to say, I was not pleased. However, I took it as an opportunity to get up, make a delicious egg breakfast and catch up on my reading :) Around noon John and I went over to visit my dad and his girlfriend Ally. First we sat in front of the fire and had some tea and cookies and I got to open their gifts...a gorgeous designer handbag and shoes!!

Afterwords, we took off to bike ride the C &O canal into Georgetown. We parked about 6 miles outside of the city and biked in where we then enjoyed some lunch and cocktails :) It was such a gorgeous day and I am so happy to have spent it with such special people. Here are some photographs of my special Saturday:

This picture was taken when we finished biking into Georgetown and walked around the waterfront.

How handsome is he?

Nothing like sugary cocktails to counteract all the healthy bike riding :)

I can never have too many pictures with him :)

Papa Dukes!

My boys!



What a gorgeous day!

I love Georgetown.

Beautiful sunset.

Saturday night John and I had plan of going out for a romantic birthday dinner, just the two of us. However, when we got home from biking at around 7:30 we were absolutely exhausted and we both fell asleep until about 8:45 when our romantic evening turned into sweats and Chinese take-out....I could not have been happier!

Stay tuned for my 24th Birthday Extravaganza Day 3...the final day!

just a tribute: to my birthday

What a whirlwind birthday I had this year! I feel very blessed to have spent it with almost all my close friends and family.

For some reason my birthday celebration always ends up being a few days long (not that I'm complaining). Therefore I have decided to write a blog post for each day I celebrated (three days)!

Birthday Extravaganza Day 1:

My day started with a strange family tradition that I have done my entire life. Us Kellihers wake each other up and butter the birthday individuals nose. Come to think of it, Ive never received a concrete reason why my family does this, but it wouldn't feel like a birthday without it. Later on that day John treated me to a birthday lunch at Seasons 52. If you've never been there the food is amazing and I highly recommend it.

After work I drove home and opened the door to a gorgeous bouquet of flowers, a delicious bottle of wine, and a present the size of a jewelry box, all from John-Pants :)

After opening my present from John, the two of us hopped in the car and were off to my mom's house to celebrate with my 4 siblings, Andy, and Katie O! We grilled chicken kabobs and veggies, had a delicious funfetti cake, and then opened up more presents :)

Shannon was playing with my new iPhone 4s that I bought as a birthday present for myself :)

My best friends.

Out of 24 years of birthdays, this was the first year Katie O got to bring my cake to me!

Nine candles are harder then you think!

 All in all, day one was absolutely amazing and I could not have asked for anything more.



just a tribute: to reading

Let me just start out  by saying I never thought I would ever go from reading a tangible book to an electronic one. But ever since John bought me an iPad, I have been hooked on reading books off of it. I usually start off a book by reading it every night before I go to bed, but once the plot thickens (and depending on how good it is) I could easily spend hours in the morning and afternoon consumed in the book. I have recently read some really good books, and am always looking for some recommendations for more! Some of the books that I have recently read and recommend are:

I most recently finished reading The Help. At first, I wasn't sure I wanted to read it, but then I kept on hearing about all the rave reviews that the movie was getting, so I thought I would give it a try. I was not disappointed, it was a very well written novel that shared an important part of our history. Luckily, The Help was still in theaters when I finished reading and John was gracious enough to take me to see the movie!

If a movie comes out based on a book, I always try to read the book before I see the movie. I didn't see Water For Elephants in theater, so I thought I would read the book before it came out on video. I am so glad I did, it was such a romantic book! I definitely take after my mom when it comes to reading, because I love me a romance novel ;)

This was another book where I read it first, then saw the movie. It was a very cute, light, and easy read. I also recommend the sequel to this, Something Blue.

I am sure the majority of you reading this have at least heard of this AMAZING series. But if not, I am honored to have been the one to introduce you. They are great books that once you start, you just cant put them down. Luckily when I first started these books I was on vacation in Cancun with John and had plenty of time to spare! I am so excited for the movies to come out!

This is a picture of me reading the second book in Cancun! 

just a tribute: to great danes

If you want to know something about me, you should know that I love dogs, specifically Great Danes. For me, the bigger the dog, the cuter it is. As soon as I get a house with a yard, a Great Dane is going to be the first thing I purchase (maybe even 2...but I'm still working on approving this with john)

I recently had two Great Dane encounters that just validated my love for them even more so then before. The first was at a bridal shower for my girlfriend Karie. I met a female Great Dane that was according to the owner, technically "small" for the breed weighing in at 115 pounds! I made my friend take a mini photo shoot of me with the dog. Then I put her in my car and drove away....not really, but I wanted to.

My second encounter was at Clifton Day where I met a 150 pound male Great Dane. He had to have been one of the sweetest dogs I have ever met. I crossed paths with him a few times and each time one of my friends had to snap me back into reality. I was so upset when John finally arrived and I couldn't find the dog anywhere to show him! I am also regretting not taking a picture with him. However I will post pictures of other Great Danes that I have found online :)

 A dog can never be too big !

My favorite are the tan Great Danes with the black faces and I love floppy ears (ears that are not cropped). But, no matter what color Great Dane I get, I will love it just the same!

 My dog won't be allowed on furniture, but this picture was too cute to pass up!

My. Heart. Just. Melted.

If anyone reading this knows of any Great Danes needing rescue, let me know! Until then I am checking daily at all the local rescue shelters!

just a tribute: to reality tv

Laugh all you want, but watching reality TV is a guilty pleasure of mine. I don't know about you guys but watching the people on reality shows, like the Real Housewives, is truly a self esteem boost.  In an odd way, seeing all these people with all these ridiculous problems helps me to appreciate what I have and who I am surrounded by. I've also discovered that "Mo money equals mo problems", but don't quote me on that in about 10 years when I will actually have some money saved up.

My second favorite type of reality shows are talent reality shows. Currently I enjoy watching the X Factor. John laughs at me almost every single week because I cry almost every single episode. As embarrassing as this is, I have a habit of putting myself in that persons position or one of their family members position and I react how I would have felt if I or one of my family members accomplished what these people accomplish.  Why couldn't my Grumpy pass down his singing talent to me?

The last type of reality TV show I like to watch, and another tear jerker, are the heart felt make-a-world-a-better-place reality shows. The two I watch that fall into this category are Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Surprise Homecoming. I made the mistake of pulling up little clips of surprise homecomings on YouTube at work one time and I lost it. Luckily no one saw me, but I wont be doing that again anytime soon.

That's all I have for now on reality TV, plus The Biggest Loser is about to come on! Until next time.....