Happy New Year!!

My, oh my, what a year we have had. I must say that 2010 has been quite the wonderful year. We are blessed beyond belief. We are blessed day in and day out by our wild woman. She keeps us on our toes and is so entertaining. You can't help but smile or laugh while observing her or playing with her. Katie is most definitely "feisty" - the first word the doctor used to describe her. She is loving. She is hot-tempered from time to time. She is perfect.

This year Brad passed the CPA exam! That is such a huge accomplishment and I'm so very proud of him.

I'm still working my 16 hours a week from home. Sometimes it is very hard, but it is so rewarding and I love what I do.

We experienced the whirlwind of putting our house on the market, finding a new house, and moving into the new house. Our hold house selling after 4 days on the market was definitely God's work. And our new house is perfect. It is much more convenient to Brad's work and we enjoy having the extra space. I will admit that I do miss our old house - we had such great, important memories there. It was our first house as a married couple. It's where we brought Sadie home. It's where we set up Katie's nursery and brought her home. We lived a mile from Brad's mom (which we definitely miss!)....but I can't wait to have great memories here in the new house.

And of course, living in middle Tennessee, I can't mention 2010 without mentioning The Flood in May. It is still hard to fathom the devastation that was experienced during that disaster. As we were driving around Opryland Hotel looking at lights, I had to keep telling myself that all of that was under water. Unbelievable. I love the spirit that the city of Nashville and others across the state have - supportive, determined, and solid. Three words sum it up best - WE ARE NASHVILLE.

This year and last year I made photo collages of Katie and our family to give everyone. I thought this year's turned out quite cute. Our family in 2010. I think it will be neat to do one each year and be able to look back at all of them and see how our family grows and changes.

Many blessings for the new year - should be a great one! I can't wait to see what 2011 brings us - I'd love it to bring another kiddo, but only time will tell! (And no, to answer the question going through your head right now, I'm not pregnant!) We will be ringing in 2011 with some of our neighbors! Should be interesting - great food, good people, and I hear there may be some karaoke involved. From our family to yours, Happy New Year!!!!

Morning After Christmas

After getting all kinds of fun toys, I always wonder how kids decide what to play with first. I was so excited to see which toys Katie would go for after eating breakfast the morning after Christmas. Well, this is it.....

...the little purse that came with a doggy and the baby in the stroller. Oh, we've definitely got a girl on our hands!!

Last Coupon Trip of the Year

This week, I decided to hit up 3 drug stores for some deals. As I looked through the lists, I found lots of things that we use often. I think this was one of my better coupon shopping ventures to date! I did one night, and it was SO nice to have that time out of the house to myself. Anyways, here are the picture of what I got and the spent/saved/$ for next time!

Walgreens

spent: $36.52

saved: $46.25

RR for next time: $8

CVS:

spent: $38.95

saved: $47.76

ECB for next time: $16

Rite Aid (my first time there!)

spent: $58.61

saved: $44.16

+UP Rewards for next time: $14

The House Tour

It took me a while to finally feel at home in the new house. Well, I think I have finally achieved that feeling. Decorating for Christmas helped a lot, I think - all of the decor makes a home feel so inviting and cozy. In some of these pictures, you may have to excuse a pile of laundry or stack of stuff - just a warning :) And in my efforts to try to tidy up before the holidays, I was going to wait to take pictures of the guest room until all of the presents were wrapped and out of there. Needless to say, that didn't happen. Oh well :) There are pictures of the guest bathroom though!! Enjoy the picture tour!

When you walk into the front door, the dining room is on the right hand side.

This is the view when you look as you walk in.

And to the left is the office. It also served as the "tree room" this year so we could close the doors!

As you continue in, you walk through the foyer into the den.

Den.

Another view of the den. We are going to do built in bookcases on either side of the fireplace. In fact, we are working on getting some estimates for that project!

This is the "Katie room". It is really a sun room off of the kitchen, but it works wonderfully to have Katie's toys there. And it allows her to be close to me when I'm in the kitchen!

A view of the kitchen from the sunroom.

Kitchen/Sunroom

View of the kitchen as you walk into it from the den. (Sorry these are a bit out of order)

And now on the way upstairs, this is a picture of the den from the landing on the stairs!

The view as you walk to the second floor. (My mom did that art - she is quite talented!)

Once you get upstairs and turn to the right, this is the view. This is the side of the house where the guest room, Katie's room, and extra bedroom (for when we have another bambino) are.

A view of the bonus room, from our bedroom door, which is on the left when you come up the stairs.

When you walk into our bedroom, this is sort of to the left! I love our nice room :)

This is the full view when you walk in.

A view of the bedroom doors.

Our bathroom - Brad did such a great job painting!

Another view of the bathroom. (The half bath downstairs is also this color -as I'm going through these pictures I'm realizing I forgot to take a picture of that too!)

Probably my favorite feature - our closet!

Guest bathroom

One of our wedding pictures in the guest bathroom - for some reason, I just love this picture of a picture! Weird? Probably :)

The extra bedroom - houses all the clothes and toys Katie has outgrown. Oh, and the glider!

Another view of the bonus room!

And more of the bonus room!

Walking into Katie's room, this is what you see. Her room and the extra bedroom have a Jack and Jill bathroom - they each have their own sinks and share a toilet and shower.

Katie's sink area

Katie's room - closet door, bookcase, window.

Another view - also shows the door that leads in and out of her room

Katie's dresser and crib - I love how her room turned out!

She had just gotten up from a nap, so of course I had to take her picture too!

Katie Loves Fire

She always wants the fire on.

She likes to get uncomfortably close.

She leans in and blows at it.

I think she likes fire. But hopefully just in the fireplace :)

Christmas Day: The Ferrell family

After Christmas with my Mom's family, we headed to my aunt & uncle's house for Christmas with my Dad's side of the family! It was so nice to get there, visit, have a glass of wine, and yes, eat again. Whew! Everytime I see my cousins, I am amazed at how old they look and how grown up they are becoming (I am the oldest grandchild - on both sides!). Katie took a special liking to a big stuffed gorilla named "Amy" when we were there on Thanksgiving, so they brought the animal back downstairs for Katie to play with again. Katie loved sitting in Amy's lap! So funny. After visiting and eating and football-watching for quite some time, we got together and began the festivities. My favorite Christmas tradition is when we all sit down and are quiet while my grandfather reads the Christmas story out of the family Bible (it is from pre-Civil War times) and lights the same candle that he has lit for the past 40+ years while doing this. I actually captured a picture this year just as he was finishing! What a wonderful, very blessed Christmas we had this year. I love seeing family and taking time to remember the real reason for Christmas.

Brad took a quick picture of me - not too bad!

Katie sitting with Amy :)

Hilarious!

It kept snowing while we were there - Katie loved watching it out the front door!

This is about the best picture I could get of Katie's whole outfit!

I love this picture - Owen finishing the Annual Reading of the Christmas Story

Katie wore Nanny's necklace on her face and looked like Santa!!

And on the way home, we had one very, very tired baby girl! When we got home, she got her second wind and was running around like crazy though! Oh, the excitement of Christmas!

Christmas Day: The Young Crew

After we got ready for the day at my mom's house, we then headed over to have Christmas with my mom's family at my Grandmother's (Meme) house! We got together and visited and ate a delicious lunch. Then we headed into the living room where her beautiful tree was to open gifts. There is never a dull moment when that group gets together - they are quite entertaining, with stories of their days of growing up, funny jokes, etc. We tried to let Katie take a nap, but she wouldn't do it - I think her adrenaline was pumping because of all the excitement! And she wouldn't eat lunch either - just some more goldfish and a roll! Here are some pictures - I must do better next year of getting pictures of the family rather than just Katie. Oh well, enjoy!

Pretty tree with lots of gifts!

Katie loved playing the piano again!

Opening gifts - I love the look on her face trying to figure out what this box is!

Another hug for Cee Cee

Another family photo

Dancing around the room with Cee Cee - I absolutely love this picture. You can just see how much Katie is loving that!

I love this because you can see her profile in the background of the picture! I really want to get a silhouette done of Katie, but I know she's not old enough to sit still and have it done. Maybe next year!

Cutie patootie.

Trying to be sneaky and head up the stairs. Silly girl, Mommy is on to you!