Saturday, December 31, 2011

Happy Last Day of 2011!

What a PERFECT last day of 2011 - the weather here was sunny and around 60, so that meant some definite outside time!  We had a blast at the park and then walked a lap on the walking trail - it was so fun to be there together - and it wasn't too crowded!

Brad and Katie about to go down the "big slide"!
 On our walk - she likes to look for fish in the creek!
 Daddy and Katie walked down to the water to take a closer look...
 And then we headed to a local chicken finger place and actually sat on the patio!  What a fun time...and we were starving!
 While Katie was napping, I took one last load to Goodwill and then hit up Target.  Of course I had to look at all the Christmas stuff - it was 70% off!  I got 5 rolls of wrapping paper (as if I needed more), 15-20 gift bags, and a whole bunch of other stuff I didn't go for.  What I DID go for was rubbermaid containers to organize our laundry room closet!  That project is just about complete and I couldn't be happier!
I hope everyone has a safe and fun New Years Eve!  We are heading to a friend's house for a pajama themed party - can't wait!  Ringing in the new year in comfort :)
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Friday, December 30, 2011

A Year In Review

I wanted to do a brief monthly recap of our 2011 - so here we are! And I apologize if we missed anything - feel free to let me know if I did!

January:
-Happy 2011!
-Auburn won the National Championship
February:
-Our friends Ashley and Andrew welcomed a sweet baby girl, Avery
-Katie had her first trip to the dentist
March:
-Beach trip! We headed to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic with the Plummer family
-Katie and I headed to Phoenix for a long weekend...had to take advantage of Katie flying for free one last time!
April:
-Another successful TABS Conference for Ashley's work!
-Happy 2nd birthday to Katie!  And a fun Elmo party to celebrate!
May:
-Brad's grandmother turned 90
-Brad and I ran a 5K (first and only one this year)!
-Bookcases were installed in our den (another post coming to note the changes we made to the house this year)
-Our friends Jonathan and Melinda welcomed a sweet baby girl, Elena!
-My cousin graduated from the school I went to
June:
-We got back from our tour of the Carolinas trip (got to visit the Fetrows and go to the beach)!
-Brad and I celebrated our 5th anniversary
July:
-We had the cubbies installed in our laundry room/mud room
-We headed to Atlanta for a weekend with Brad's mom - Katie's first baseball games and a visit to the Georgia Aquarium
-Our friends Jenny and Dave welcomed a sweet baby girl, Tenley!
-Katie started swim lessons for the first time
August:
-Brad and I went to the Train & Maroon 5 concert...it was the first concert for us in a while, and it was AMAZING!
-Our friends Brady and Michelle welcomed a sweet baby boy, Nolan!
September:
-Brad and I went to the season opener UT football game!
-We headed to Florida for another beach trip - so relaxing and fun!
-Brad celebrated his 32nd birthday!
October:
-We officially had lived in our house for one year!
-Annual trip to the pumpkin patch
-I found out I was finally PREGNANT!!!!
-Katie dressed up a cute little German girl for Halloween!
November:
-Katie and I headed to Memphis with Amanda and Julia for a girl's weekend!
-We finally had our 4 generation pictures taken!
-My mom and I headed to Christmas Village (a tradition for us - shopping just before Thanksgiving)
-Ashley celebrated her 28th birthday!
-We headed to the annual cabin trip to a local state park
-We celebrated Thanksgiving!
-Sadie celebrated her 5th birthday!
December:
-We ventured out on the annual trolley ride with my brother
-I had my annual GNO Ornament Exchange
-I went to see the Nutcracker with some girlfriends - so fun!
-We celebrated Christmas with all of our family

Looking forward to all that 2012 will bring!

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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Last But Not Least

Last night we had our last Christmas celebration of the year - and we had it at our house! My dad's side of the family (minus my dad and Robbin - they were in Arizona) came over to enjoy dinner and visit and exchange gifts.  It was great to be so informal and be able to spread out the fun of Christmas!  Before we ate, we did our annual Bible reading - this Bible has been in the family since the 1760's...and we always burn a candle that my uncle made when he was 4, so it has been used for 52 years!  My grandfather reads Luke 2:1-14 (the Christmas story)...it is so special!  Definitely one of my favorite traditions ever.
 And of course I wanted a family picture with everyone that was there - us, my brother, my cousin, aunt, uncle, and grandparents!! And of course Sadie had to jump in too :)
 We bought BBQ with baked beans, potato salad, and baked beans - and we also had green bean casserole and squash casserole - YUM! After we all ate too much, it was present time!  Here is the wreath I gave my aunt and uncle - and Katie wanted to be in the picture too! So cute!
 And my grandparents gave Katie the cutest doll! And she talks and interacts too - neat!  Please excuse Katie's face here...she clearly enjoyed dinner :)
Now, let the undecorating begin!  Everything looks so blah once the decorations are taken down and I definitely dread that task.  I guess it makes them more special to just have them out at Christmas time though.  Now, time to wind down 2011 and look forward to all that 2012 holds!

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Tuesday, December 27, 2011

What I'm Loving Wednesday


Happy Wednesday!  Seems like forever since I did WILW...I think it has just been two weeks though.  Anyways, it is good to be back!  Wanna join? Link up HERE!

I'm LOVING Mr. Bubble!  Katie has some and I just love how it smells - reminds me of when I was little and what a treat it was to take a bubble bath!
I'm LOVING this idea for toy bin labels!  For the how-to and more details, visit this blog!  I think I may have to make these, except I may do a different color on the background (instead of white - our storage bins are taupe!).
I'm LOVING that Katie is drawing faces now!! Isn't it just so great?? (I am biased, what can I say!) ... I thought it was kind of early to be drawing faces intentionally.  Katie definitely loves to do art, so I guess I can't be surprised that she's doing this already!
I'm LOVING this little lady and all of her songs!  My friend Tanja got this adorable outfit for her and she just had to wear it.  She used the area in front of the fireplace as her stage and wanted her picture taken and sang Jingle Bells and her ABCs!  SO fun!
I'm LOVING that my "want list" is fulfilled!  Remember the post where I let everyone know what was on my list for my birthday? I got it all between my birthday and Christmas! Now, I just need to make more time to read books on my Kindle and learn to sew.  I can do all that while smelling divine and having stylish feet too!!

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Christmas 2011

I apologize in advance for the number of pictures in this post...I wanted to do a big post of our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day! We had a great time - we celebrated with Brad's family on Christmas Eve and then had a great Christmas Day too - we woke up to find that Santa had visited!  Then after that fun, we headed to Cee Cee's house for Christmas morning there.  Last, we headed to Meme's house for Christmas with my mom's side of the family!  It was a great time and we all got some great things!  We are so lucky to get to spend that time with family.  And this Christmas was especially fun because Katie really got it - I think she started to understand the magic of Santa and really got into unwrapping presents!  I need to go through her toys and store some of the ones she didn't play with before to make room for all of the great things she got for Christmas!  Here are some of the pictures of our festivities...

{on Christmas Eve, we woke up and did an Alvin hunt!  we found him in the laundry room on top of the dryer...he had brought special jammies for Katie to wear on Christmas Eve!  we think he must have washed them for her since he was in the laundry room.  he also brought a special Christmas book to read before bedtime...and he wrote Katie a note!!}
 {getting ready to celebrate with Brad's family - I thought she looked so sweet!}
 {this was the gift she was just dying to rip into!}
 {momma and her girl!}
 {finally!  after we ate dinner, it was present time - this was the first one she got her hands on!}
 {Aunt Paulette and Uncle Darrell did a great job - she loved these Hello Kitty goodies! ... front view...}
 {and the back view...}
 {a family picture}
 {Grandma and her little lady}
 {Uncle Darrell and Aunt Paulette}
 {after we finished, Katie helped clean up the mess!}
 {she got this cute little trashcan for her room - she preferred using it as a drum though!}
 {looking so grown up...love her!}
{I think she looks like me when I was little in this pic...weird!}
 {Katie with Uncle Darrell and Aunt Paulette}
 {she got really excited about putting cookies and carrots out for Santa and the reindeer!  we made sure she left enough carrots for all the reindeer...plus Rudolph!}
{posing with the goodies}
 
 {and my aunt gave me this to start the tradition - it is just oats and glitter! love it!}
 {spreading the magic reindeer food in the yard - really, it was more dumping it out!}
 {wearing her special Christmas jammies that Alvin brought! I just love this picture.}
 {snuggling in bed after reading our special Christmas book - such a special time of the day}
 {SANTA CAME!!!}
 {the first peek on Christmas morning...love this!}
 {looking at Daddy to make sure it was alright to go downstairs}
 {getting a better look at the goods...}
 {and the mad dash to all the goodies!}
 {checking to see that Santa had come and eaten some cookies and took the carrots for the reindeer to eat!}
 {she LOVED the "jumpy thing"!!}
 {checking out what was in the grocery cart...}
 {posing with what she asked Santa for - a purse and a camera!}
 {going through the goodies in her stocking}
{Daddy wanted to wear her Hello Kitty hat - he may kill me for putting this on here!!!}
 {LOVING her trampoline! she still talks about it at bedtime and wants to play on it all the time - Santa did a great job with that one!}
 {she also likes to sit on it and play with other toys - like this laptop that Santa brought!}
 {putting a new ornament on the tree that was in her stocking}
 {reading the card from Mommy and Daddy}
 {Christmas Morning 2011}
 {Mommy and Daddy got her a SUPER soft pink blanket that is big enough to add to her bed between the sheet and comforter if it gets cold enough - for now, using it to snuggle works perfectly!}
{Mommy gets to open a present!! I got my VERY OWN sewing machine from Brad - can't wait to really try it out! Maybe I will get inspired to make some things for this baby closer to time.  he also got me a giftcard to go get more charms for my Pandora bracelet!}
 {we gave Katie a tea set - she loves it!}
 {she was serving us tea that morning!}
 {I got Brad a slingbox - pretty cool! He also got a new UT had and a Preds hat!}
 {starting to open presents from Nanny and Papa!}
 {she LOVES her DoodlePro!}
 {looks like Santa came to my mom's house too!  here are all the stockings!}
 {Katie and April were checking out all the presents under the tree!}
 {she was very eager to open more presents!}
 {sitting with Momma to open the stocking at Cee Cee's house!}
 {is that really my husband?? what a goofball...}
 {April was excited about her stocking too!}
 {Santa brought Brad a Chuy's giftcard and tshirt!  Katie just saw the giftcard and knew exactly what it was for - smartypants!  Brad told her that he'd take her on a Daddy Date with it :)...cute}
 {Will was excited about opening his stocking too!}
 {it's present time! Mom was opening the one from us - I actually wrapped AND made a bow for it!}
 {my mom got this present for Baby Coulter - she is convinced we will be adding a boy to the mix...can you tell?!  the tag says "Merry Christmas to our own Christmas miracle!  To: Cooter Coulter Love, Cee Cee XOXO"  do you recall that when I was pregnant with Katie, we called her Cletus the Fetus...my mom decided Cooter is a good name for this one while it is in utero}
 {this was what was inside - one of my baby socks when I was little, a piece of ribbon from mine and Brad's wedding, and a little matchbox toy that was my brother's when he was little...too cute}
 {Uncle Will gave Katie some Minnie Mouse bracelets!  she LOVES them!}
 {Katie got some neat blocks from Cee Cee - we can't wait to play with them!}
 {momma and her girl!}
 {Daddy and his sweet pea}
{family pic #1 - and a little shot at a beginning-to-blossom belly!  that is a maternity shirt, so it is kinda just hanging on me - which is just fine with me!}
 {family pic #2}
 {family pic #3}
 {Katie was on the deck with Cee Cee - love her Christmas outfit!}
 {she loved watching the birds eat on Cee Cee's bird feeder}
 {LOVE this picture!!!}
 {at the Christmas celebration with  my mom's family, my brother got a hat from my aunt - autographed by lots of the Tennessee Titans players!  one of them is my aunt's neighbor, so he took it with him to practice one day...it is AWESOME!!}
 {these are the players that autographed the hat...pretty cool, right??}
 {I wanted to show that I wore cute shoes! my mom got these for me for my birthday and I thought wearing them on Christmas was appropriate - love them!}
 {Katie playing with my aunt's "whack-a-mole" game that she got from my brother!}
 {one VERY tired little lady on our way home from all the celebrations!}
Even though we enjoyed opening all the presents, we talked a lot with Katie about the fact that Christmas is Baby Jesus's birthday - we even sang Happy Birthday to Baby Jesus before we opened presents...I'm so glad she is started to understand the true meaning of the day. 
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