Christmas is here!

Goodness gracious, have I been sick! It's been 8 days since I caught some horrible cold and it doesn't want to go away! It started out as a real bad sore throat, and then turned into a cough/congestion.  I'm surprise my lungs aren't exploding with all the coughing i've done. My throat is always swollen though and it itches real bad sometimes. I practically drank the whole bottle of nyquil and it still didn't help at all. It's been three days since i've slept because my coughing wakes me up.  I'm finally taking antibiotics and some prescription strength cough syrup (which by the way, takes like vodka) so let's cross our fingers that it will help me get better real soon! 

Enough of me whining, let's move on to more interesting matters...

We got our Christmas tree this past Sunday!!!! It's quite a funny story if you ask me...I'll try to condense it to the important parts because I could write a novel about it.

So, we drove to Boone with Allen and Alli (our married friends who live in Charlotte) and arrive at Bill's Christmas Tree Farm.  It's on the side of a mountain behind his house and I've been going there for three years now.  He's this cute little old man who reminds me of my pappy. We didn't take a picture with him this year, but here's a pic of my college roomates and him from two Christmas's ago:

We went November 21 two years ago and when we went this year on November 28, there was not a speck of snow to be found.  Here's a few pics of our adventure:

The photo uploader is being super slow, so I'm going to have to wait until tomorrow to post them.  Sorry guys!

I am sooo tired and I was planning on writing a long post but I think this medicine is kicking in-i can barely keep my eyes open.

Tomorrow will be filled with cleaining house, running a few errands, posting a blog about our Christmas tree, and getting the Christmas cards ready to send out! :)

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. I sure did. 

G'night!

Love,

It
is
officially
Christmas
decorating
time.

I can't wait to get our tree tomorrow! We are heading up to the mountains after church to pick out our tree! We are also going to our favorite restaurant, Woodlands BBQ.  I am so excited to get out tree! I have all of our decorations sprawled out on the floor.

I also made some ornaments myself and will show those once they finish drying.  Here is my wreath that I made...it was inspired by pottery barn..tell me what you think! I got the wreath from Goodwill for $2.99 and added the ornaments from the Dollar Tree which were $1.00 for all of them...

The one on the left is Pottery Barn's version.  It costs $79.00  The one on the right is my version.  It costs $4.00  Which one do I want..hmm..let's think.

DUH! The $4.00 version!  Here is it again with my cute little floor mat to match:

Anyway, I must skiddaddle for now.  Seth is wanting to go get dinner! I have been cooking all week and we've have Thanksgiving food since last Saturday so we are ready to eat something different: Chick-fil-a! Whoo Hoo! We have some free meal coupons..so we won't pay a dime<--just the way I like it!

Hope you're decorating for Christmas!! Don't be a bah humbug-decorate!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

I hope you have a wonderful day full of love, laughter, food, and fellowship.

I am thankful for my family. I truly couldn't have picked a more supportive and loving family if I tried. They are so loving and have always supported me in life.  For instance, my mom and dad allowed me to pick up and move 1000 miles away to North Carolina after my second year of college.  They supported me to pursue my dreams and move to Georgia and back in one summer! I also have the best in-laws ever. They treat me like their own daughter, and for that, I couldn't be more grateful. Sometimes I hear horror stories about "crazy in-laws" and mine are FAR from that.  :)

I am thankful for my friends. They are truly some of the best people in the world and we have such great times together.

But most importantly, I am thankful for my savior, Jesus Christ. Without him I can do nothing, and with him I can do all things. If I didn't have him as my savior, I would be a lost soul in this dying world. His love and grace and mercy flows abundantly and I will never be deserving of that. I love you, Jesus.  Thank you for giving up your life, so that I may live.


Lastly, I want to share with you a story about Seth's grandpa.  He passed away the day after Christmas last year and for some reason, today I have been thinking of him a lot.  He was one of the most genuine, sweet, gentle, wisdom-filled man. He was the first to know about Seth's decision to ask my hand in marriage, and he gave Seth my engagement ring (it was made in 1927 from Germany and was a gift to his wife who passed away 4 years ago).  Seth would go eat dinner with Pa and they would have the same thing every single week:  BLT sandwiches on toasted white bread, jumbo boiled shrimp served cold with cocktail sauce mixed with Texas Pete, and Lays Original potato chips. Everytime we would go visit when I was in town, he would give me a big ol' hug and always laugh at my stories even if they weren't funny. Every thanksgiving, we would eat Thanksgiving lunch with him and this is the prayer we would pray:

"For food, for raiment, for life, for opportunity, for friendship and fellowship, we thank thee, O Lord."

Every meal we ate with Pa (and a lot of meals we didn't eat with Pa) we said that prayer. It makes me so thankful for the time we had together and I know he is in heaven eating the best thanksgiving dinner with Jesus and his bride, Ma.

This thanksgiving, take some time to remember great memories with loved ones who have passed away and be ever so thankful for the ones you do have.

We had such a great weekend full of wonderful friends and delicious food.  I won't bore you with stories and will share photos instead.

 Love these girls.

(Elizabeth, me, Alli, Molly)

 The whole group.

 I got this punch bowl for a wedding gift and was SO excited to use it.  I will post the recipe for the Thanksgiving punch in a bit-it was sooo delicious.

 Check out all the food we had! Goodness gracious!

 This photo makes me laugh-I had just lit all the candles and then Justin blew them all out before we started singing to Seth. ha

Happy Birthday Seth!

I think it's safe to say that everyone had a very enjoyable time and we can't wait until our next party-New Years!! 

I have been working on a few crafts for Christmas-they should be done and up on the blog sometime this week! :)

Happy Monday!

Happy Birthday!

Today is a special day.

Today, my husband turns 23 years old.

It's his Birthday!!!

Seth,

I love you.
I love you so much.
Thank you for being my husband.

You are the most wonderful, caring, hard-headed (just like me), supportive, handsome man I know.

I can't wait to grow old with you. I can't wait to have a big ol' family with you. I can't wait to travel the world with you.

You're great. And I love you. (Have i said that before?)

I hope you have a very special day today and I am so proud of the man you've become.

I love your kind spirit. Like that one time you gave your chick-fil-a sandwhich to a homeless man.
I love your drive to succeed. Your getting on the ball with applications when they are not due until March. :)
I love your love for all things tennis. Even though sometimes (just sometimes) I get tired of all the tennis talk.. hehe

I love that you bring me flowers just because.

I love that family time and loved ones are so important to you.

Happy 23rd birthday, Seth.

I'm one lucky gal to have you as my husband.

What I'm Loving Wednesday

I'm loving these two kiddos that I nanny.  They are my world and I love them like my own. (If i had any, that is..hehe)

I'm loving this show:

My favorite dancer(s) from the start were Jennifer and Bristol, and looky there! They are both in the finals!!! Bristol is not near as good of a dancer as Jennifer, but I still love her.

I'm loving that I am going shopping tomorrow! I am looking for a new dress for the winter time. Here are a few I have my eye on. ..

Whatcha think? You like?

I'm loving that CHRISTMAS is just around the corner!!!!!  Here is some of my inspiration for decorating my home this year:

 Don't you wish you could just change your bedding to Christmas sheets every single year?  It would make going to bed so much more cozy and festive.  Maybe one day when I'm rich I can get bedding just for Christmas. ha!

I'm loving  that I'm about to go hop in my warm cozy bed, without Christmas bedding, and snuggle up next to my husband. 

Goodnight!

Tea Party, anyone?

Hellloo!! I feel like I haven't really posted much about the going ons in our household so I am going to try my best to update you.

Today was such a wonderful day for many reasons.  Take a look and enjoy- :)

We started off our day with carving pumpkins-yes, i know it's a little late, but I didn't mind and the kiddos wanted to carve them. Juliana was reluctant at first to get her hands gooey, but after touching the seeds one time, she loveeedd squishing it between her fingers.  Tyler just watched the whole time and said "ewww.'

After carving, I suggested we have a tea party! Juliana's face lit up and she got sooo excited.  We baked chocolate chip cookies, popcorn and had capri sun's and sweet tea.  I taught her that ladies say please and thank you and that you have to pop that pinkie up when taking a sip.  It reminded me of my Terri's Treasures birthday party when I was youger. I think I may have been 8 or so...We all dressed up in adult gowns and strutted around the streets of Atlanta after our tea party.
So, after our tea party by the lake, we went to the front yard and picked up different types of leaves to compare them. We talked about the differences and looked at all the colors.  It was fun!

I love those kiddos and they are so sweet. Juliana kept saying "Kait, I love you" and Tyler kept giving me big ol' kisses.  :)

After Seth got home, we took Penny on a walk and let her run around in the yard a little. She is the most precious pup ever. I then made some homemade lasagna. it turned out really yummy and I just threw it together.  I may post the recipe sometime if i think about it.

Seth's law school applications are in full swing right now. He is writing essays as we speak.  Reference letters have been sent, and now it's just writing the essays that he has left to do. I can't believe that this time next year he will be almost done with his first semester of law school!!  When you have a spare moment, please pray for us as we will be making some big decisions about law school these next few months.

Tomorrow we are heading to the mall to get a few more Christmas gifts and me a new outfit for a Thanksgiving party we are hosting on Saturday.  We only have two more gifts to get for Christmas and then we are FINISHED!  So, about the party on Saturday..we are having a Thanksgiving feast here at our home for our friends.  We are having about 15 people attend. I cannnooott wait. I love hosting get-togethers at our home. I want to get a cute little sweater dress that I can wear with tights...

Hubby's birthday is on Saturday too! I am going to get him an oreo cake (his all time favorite) and still have YET to get his birthday present! We are going to see Harry Potter on Friday night as part of his present but I still have one more thing I'd like to get him.  I can't wait to celebrate him with our friends on Saturday. I love him. so much.


There is a meteor shower in the morning at 3am and I think Seth and I may wrap up in blankets and lay in our backyard for a bit to watch it. Should be fun-i love watching shooting stars.

Anyway...I made a trip to Rite Aid this week and take a look at what I got:

You probably won't believe me when I tell you that I got paid $8.00 to buy these products, but I did.  Not with real money, but with +up rewards.  Those are the same thing as ECB's at CVS, in that when you buy certain products you get rewards back that you can spend on anything in the store. I spent a total of $2.00 (which was all tax) and got $10 in +up rewards.  So, I made 8 "dollars" to spent in Rite Aid.  Pretty cool, huh?  The value of all the products before sales and coupons was $53.11 and so i'd say that's a pretty darn good savings.  :)

 I bought these at Harris Teeter for just under  $1 each.  The price of 1 box of Fiber One cereal is usually $4.89 cents and I got all of this for $6. (2 of those fiberone bars boxes were from the previous purchase from Rite Aid)  I loveeee Fiber One cereal. it's sooo yummy, but i usually never buy it because it's so expensive. So, i love it when I can get a great deal.

ALSO, I ordered a canvas of my favorite wedding photo and it came in the mail today!!! EEEEEEEKKKK!!!!

Haha. Seth didn't want me to post this photo because his hoodie makes him look like he's got a big ol' belly but i posted it anyway.  Just know he is thinner than what the photo makes him look like. :)  But..do you love it?!?!  I lovveee it. I just gotta figure out where to hang it now!  I ordered it from canvaspeople.com and right now they are giving you a $55 credit! If you are needing a photo enlarged, definitely check it out.  It would make a wonderful Christmas gift. The quality is REALLY good too.  I will definitely order from them again.



Goodness gracious, I am so tired! It just hit me that I need to get in bed soon! I also don't want to forget about What I'm Loving Wednesday, so i'm going to make a short post after this one!

Also, I know I've promised some of my DIY projects..ick, i just have to go through my thousands of photos and dig them out. I promise it will be soon!  Stay tuned and goodnight!