All Dolled Up

I've been promising to post pictures of our house all decorated, and now I'm finally getting around to doing it.  Beware, this is a long one!

First off, the outside.  I LOVE how the outside of our house looks.  It's so pretty.  Jake says it's the prettiest house on our road.  We're not biased at all! :) 

And I think my FAVORITE part of the whole house (inside and out) is our front door.  This is a picture of when we had JUST put everything up.  I need to get an updated picture.  I now have a poinsetta in each of my earns by the front door.  Oh, and "Bully" has a bow!  If you'll look just left of the left column, you'll see him in all his glory (minus bow).  We had to spotlight him after State's glorious victory at the Egg Bowl!

Here is a close-up of the "gift" on the front door.  I could have sworn I saw this online somewhere, but for the life of me can't find it anymore!  So if you've seen it, please let me know so I can give them credit.  If not, well, I guess I can be pretty creative, huh?  I really like it and hope to use it for years to come.

So next stop I guess is the Dining Room/Office.  This is our first year for a live tree, and I think we did pretty good for our first year.  There is definitely a learning curve though, and I'm already looking forward to next year.  I really wanted one with the lights showing, but it turned out so blurry.  I wasn't going to post it, but decided to anyways.  I love it, and I love walking in the house every day and smelling it.   

 

I also decorated the desk in the Dining Room.  A few years ago Jake's mom gave me a Nutcracker for Christmas.  And this year, with it being my first year to actually have room, I've put him out and enjoyed him, and decided he needs some friends.  I'm thinking they might need a few more next year as well.

Oh and there's one more tree!  It's a small one in the living room.  We have used this little artificial tree since we were first married.  One thing that has been tradition in my family for years, we always get a few ornaments every Christmas.  This year, I decided to make Jake his own special tree for the Living Room because he said he wanted to be able to sit on the couch and look at our Christmas Tree.  Mom really helped me out on this and gave him his ornaments for this year a little early.  It is very cute (sorry Jake, I know you don't want your tree to be "cute")  and I'm thinking of leaving it out for a while.

I think my second favorite area is the mantel and fireplace in the living room.  We've had the mirror up there since we moved, and I knew I wanted to leave it up there, I just wasn't sure how to decorate around.  Mom came to the rescue again.  I hope she is rubbing some of this creativeness off on me!  It turned out great!

Here is the close-up of the Santa.  He is made out of a cypress knee.  You see a lot of them in the lakes and bayous around the Delta.  After my Grandfather ("Choctaw") died and my Grandmother was moving from their home, my Mom & Dad found a bunch of them that they had.  Every year since then, someone in my family (Mom, Grandmama, and me) has gotten one painted as Santa.  One of the ladies that works with my Dad does them and she does a WONDERFUL job!  I would love to have tons more.  It is so neat and unique, and everytime I look at it I'm reminded of our Choctaw.  He would have loved them!

Here is our Nativity Scene in the Living Room.  Jake started this for me the first year we were married, and he adds to it every year.  I love it because the figurines are some type of plastic.  Meaning little ones can play with them all they like and we don't have to worry with them breaking!  So glad I thought ahead.

Hope you enjoyed the tour!  I'm joining the 960+ others out there and linking up with the Nester to show off our home!  If you have time, go there and check it out, there are TERRIFIC pictures (and lots of great ideas)!  Plus the Nester is just great!

Girls' Night!

First, I am so excited that I can finally make my blog Chirstmasy!  The house has been decorated and I'll post pictures soon, I promise!  But first.....

Jake left for the deer camp yesterday afternoon, so last night I called up a friend from church and asked her to go eat supper with me.  We had nothing in the house and I didn't feel like eating by myself.  It turned out to be three of us for dinner- Jennifer, Katie, and myself.  We had so much fun!

I had forgotten how fun it is to go out with just the girls.  I don't think I've done that since college.  We had so much fun sharing stories and catching up with each other.  Katie is also expecting, they are due in January.  We were trying to talk Jennifer into joining everyone else (there are currently about 6 girls in our church pregnant) but she is content with being an aunt first! Well, we tried! :)

So we need to plan something else, and we need to get the other girls our age to come.  Only problem is, babies will be coming from January through April.  Maybe after then we could do something.  I'm thinking let the guys babysit and the girls could have a night out again? Sounds good to me!  Any other takers???

Busy Busy Busy

We have been busy this past week (and last), and it doesn't look like it's going to slow down anytime soon!  Let's see if I can catch you up and let you know what's coming up.

Thursday (12th) we had our 22 week Dr. appointment.  Anna Kate is doing great and growing like a weed.  Her heart beat was around upper 140's.  She's grown so much since 18 weeks and looks like she might get her height from her Daddy! Although, as my sister pointed out, I'm not sure how I will feel having to look up to my "little girl" one day.

Friday (13th) and Saturday my Dad was in town.  We saw Ole Miss win in basketball and football!  And ate some great meals at places Dad used to frequent when he was in school here.  Was a great weekend for us and for Ole Miss!

Tuesday (17th) we had our friends the Byars over for dinner.  They have the cutest little girl, Taylor, who is 4 months old now.  Brian and Jake went to school together and Brian was a groomsmen in our wedding.  Liz is becoming my "go to" person on all things baby!  Before we go register I really want to sit down with her and find out what we really need!  We had a great visit with them, and are so glad that they live we all live in the same town.

This Friday (20th) my whole family is coming into town for the weekend.  Mom is coming to help me decorate for Christmas (I know it's early, see previous post for the reason).  Dad and Rachel are going to see Ole Miss vs. LSU (hopefully another exciting game for them).  I can't wait to have my house all decorated for the holidays, even though I will be a little early!

Thanksgiving is next week and we will be traveling to Baton Rouge to spend the holiday with Jake's family.  Our Homebuilders (group at church) Christmas party (at our house) is on Dec. 12th; Christmas with my family on the 19th; Christmas Eve with Jake's family; and Christmas Day with my mom's side of family in Brookhaven.

Then we will be ringing in the New Year.  Is it bad of me to hope that we will ring the new year in with a quiet night in our house, just the 2 of us, and maybe asleep by 10?  Anna Kate will need to rest because Jan. and Feb will be BIG months for us all - time to get ready for her arrival in March!!! 

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

I can't believe it's almost that time of year!  Just a few days ago, a friend asked if everyone had finished their Christmas shopping.  My response:  Haven't even STARTED!  Nor had I even thought about it!  And then I realized that there's only about a month a half left.  So I've started my shopping.  Have one family member completely done, one person halfway done, and lots more people to think about! :)

  My mom is coming next weekend, and we will be decorating the house.  Yes, my house will be decorated for Christmas BEFORE Thanksgiving!  In my house growing up, we always went and got our Christmas Tree the weekend after Thanksgiving and we started decorating a little then and just did a little each day.  Since Jake and I have been married, we have done very little decorating, so I waited until December.  This year will be different for a few reasons.  Jake and I are having a Christmas party the first Saturday of December, so I knew I wanted it decorated for that.  And we will be gone the weekend of Thanksgiving, spending that holiday with Jake's family. And I like to get decorations up fairly early so we can enjoy them.  So next weekend made the most sense.  And I'm so glad my mom is coming to help!  Although she will probably never admit it, she has great decorating ideas!  She always has touches of Christmas in every room of the house, and I am hoping to at least attempt to copy some of her great ideas!

I went home to Mom & Dad's last weekend for Cleveland's Holiday Open House.  We had a great time. Two of Mom's sister's were also in town and we hit Paul Michael's on Saturday before the Open House Sat. night and Sunday.  For anyone who has never gone to a Paul Michaels (there's one is Arkansas, Louisiana, and 2 in Texas) you HAVE to go! I LOVE that place.  It is like a huge warehouse filled with home decor.  And for Christmas, they do it up BIG!!  Jake worries every time I go, he's afraid I'll wipe out our checking account and max out the credit cards.  And I could!  So between Paul Michaels's and the Open House, I've got all my ideas of what I want to do, and pretty much everything I need to do it with, if only next week would come!

Thankful Thursdays - Family

I know, I skipped last week.  Sorry!  So to make up for it, this will probably end up being a longer post.  But only because we have SO MUCH to be thankful for. 

Jake and I are very lucky people, we come from great families!  We both have a set of parents who still live together and love each other (which is becoming fewer and fewer these days) and a younger sister each, and one brother in law.  We also both have big extended families and are pretty close with our families as well.  We live fairly close to both families (within 2 hours drive) and get to see them a lot! 

We are so lucky to have such a great family.  Our parents and siblings all live fairly close by (all are within a 2 hour drive, some not quite so far)  and we see each other fairly often.  One thing I love is having our family together.  It's so great to sit down at a table to share a meal, and look around at all our family.  Not only that but we have several "honorary" family members (Ms. Beverly) who just happen to live close by.  It is so nice to have an extra "mom" close by if I were to ever need one! :)  I mentioned earlier our big extended families.  Between the 2 of us, we have 25 aunts and uncles, and about 42 first cousins (and spouses).  I HOPE I didn't leave anyone out, but it's hard ot keep track of that many!  We are all pretty spread out and don't get to see each other too often, so we love the holidays when we can get together and catch up..  There is always a big group at any family function!  It is so nice to have this big family unit, so many people that we know love us and are there for us. 

And the other part of our family that I can't forget, is Daisy.  She has really been a blessing to us.  When we were looking for homes around Oxford, Jake had 2 dogs that lived with his parents (we couldn't have fit 2 grown labs in our apartment).  We (especially Jake) were extremely excited to have our dogs with us again.  But before we closed on our house, both dogs died.  It was very hard on us, we lost 2 family members.  Duke, the older dog, was like a brother to Jake.  After a few months or so, we decided we were ready to start looking for another dog. And then came Daisy.  She was ADORABLE and I fell in love with her the first time I saw a picture of her. (I also fell in love with at least 1 of her brothers and sisters, but Jake said we should do this puppy thing "1 at a time.")  I can still remember the day we got her, and I love looking back at pictures of her.  Watching her grow up has been so fun for Jake and me, and we love seeing her personality develop.  She is our first child and is spoiled rotten.  And I'm sure, even though there will be some adjusting, she will remain spoiled rotten!  She's just too cute to resist!

And the last piece to our family, our little "Butterbean" Anna Kate who will arrive this March.  I am so thankful that she has this wonderful family that she will become apart of.  All the aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents who are just going to love her.  We're so ready for her to arrive. These past 21 weeks have flown by.  And although I wish they'd slow down just a little (Mommy is a planner and she's not getting all her projects done fast enough), I'm glad they're not dragging by!  We are so excited about Anna Kate's arrival!  Anna Kate, we don't want to rush you too much, but as soon as you're ready to arrive, we're so ready to have you! :)