Sunday, November 27, 2011

It's Beginning to Look A lot Like Christmas

Now that Thanksgiving is over we are officially in full Christmas mode! I keep calling Ben, Clark (Christmas Vacation) because he spent all day yesterday working on decorating the outside of our house. I may be partial, but I think it looks really good.
Other than the outside here's a look at our trees. So far I have three up, but I'd love to put one in our bedroom too, so I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Here's our "big" tree in the living room.
Owen's tree is all Santa's. It's pretty cute.
And sister's tree is all bling. :) I love her name in the tree. A nice find at TJ Maxx.
Here's our stockings. I really want new stockings, but I'm thinking I'll wait until the after Christmas sale to get them.
I've also put up my Christmas village and I'm loving my little entryway, although I'm wanting to find a cute tablecloth or something to cover the table.
I just love having all our decorations up. This is the first year in two years that I've really felt like going all out & decorating & I'm just loving it!!

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Thanksgiving & Shopping Extravaganza

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Our's was eventful to say the least. Between taking Owen to the ER to transporting the turkey (while cooking) from our house to my mom's to going Christmas shopping & running on a few hours sleep, it was quite a day. Thankfully Owen is starting to feel better. He's had a bug the past few days, but Wednesday evening thru Thursday he kept running a high fever. It would only go down for like an hour & then shoot back up. After talking to the pediatrician on-call & one of doctor friends, we were advised to take him to the ER. We're not ER goers, but he was just pitiful & I think we just needed some reassuring that we were doing all we could do & we were, so now he seems to be feeling a little better, but I hate that he missed out on some of our Thanksgiving festivities. :(
Here's Ben, Olivia & our nephew Sam over at my in-laws. He's so stinkin' cute! Olivia kept saying last night, "I need to see Sam." :)
We didn't take any pictures over at my grandparents house, but the kids had a ball! I have three little cousins ages 5-10 & Olivia thinks she's just as big as they are.
After we ate, my parents took the kids home with them & Ben & I headed to Paducah to do some MAJOR Christmas shopping!!
Our first stop was Wal-Mart. They had waffle makers for $2.84 & some other goodies I wanted to score. The sale started at 10:00 & we arrived around 9:00. It was total chaos!!!! Ben & I split up so when the workers tore off the plastic we were able to get what we wanted. After trying to text & call one another we finally found each other & made our way to the check out line. It was ridiculous!! I'm a black Friday shopper fanatic, but unless Wal-Mart is giving something amazing away, I doubt I'll ever go back.... way to much chaos!! 
After Wal-Mart we made our way over to Toys R Us, Of course I'd already scouted out the deals & had my list. We stood in line for about ten minutes, but then we made our way into the store. They are by far the best & most organized black Friday store. If you couldn't find what you were looking for they had enough workers & help available. They had people stocking up the shelves as soon as they were emptied. I wish every store was that organized! We only stood in line for about five minutes to check out. It was a nice shopping experience. After we left there we went to our final stop, Kohl's. As usual, it was packed, but they had almost everything I wanted & we got some really great deals!! Other than standing in the check out line for an hour & a half, it was a great trip.
This was the view from the passenger seat in our car on our way home Friday morning. I really wasn't sure if it would all fit.. it almost didn't.
And here's most of it unloaded on our bed. I'm still not sure where we're going to put it all. We got home around 3:30 Friday morning, but our Christmas shopping is pretty much done! Yay!! I've only got to get a couple more little gifts & then I'm done.
After a few hours sleep, we went and picked up these two turkeys. I can't wait until Christmas morning to see the big smiles on their faces. 
Now onto decorating for Christmas.... Stay tuned ;)

Monday, November 21, 2011

Christmas Door Tutorial

So I'm loving Pinterest. I love all the cute, crafty, creative ideas that I find. It helps me get my creative juices flowing. If you know me, then you know that I LOVE to decorate for Christmas! It's one of my most favorite things! However, the past two years I've been either preggo or taking care of a newborn, so this year I'm going ALL out for Christmas. I've had my trees up for a week now, but today I decorated my front door and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out so I thought I would share.
First I attached my garland to the frame around our door. I bought my garland last week at Hobby Lobby for 1/2 price.. $3.50 per strand!
(Please ignore the broken light, it's getting replaced this week ;)
After it was secured to the door frame, I started with my deco mesh. I took one end of the mesh and used floral wire and attached it to the top of the garland. (I started from the top & worked my way down each side). I then made "poofs" & used the garland to secure them.
After I finished with the red deco mesh I interwove the green mesh. I attached it to the top with floral wire & made a "faux bow". I made one big poof & then when I started down the other side I made another big poof & it looks like a bow on the top, but it's just two poofs.

After I got both the red & green mesh attached I then attached ornaments with the floral wire just to give it that extra sparkle.
I've since added more ornaments since this, but it's too dark for me to get a good picture. I'll do a post on my trees & such later this week & show the updated version with all the ornaments.
I hope this tutorial helps. It was a lot easier then I thought it would be and I did it all while the kiddos were napping which makes for one happy momma. :-)
 Happy Decorating!!

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Random Thoughts

I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving!! Where has this year gone?
Olivia now counts to SEVEN in Spanish- thank you Dora!
Owen is getting so big! I can't believe he'll be ONE next month!!
He's now standing on his own!! I figure he'll be walking soon. :-/ it's bittersweet!!
Im really hoping to get my Christmas decorations up this week!! Early? I know, but I just can't help it- I'm in the Christmas spirit. :-)
Not a whole lot going on around here lately. We've just been hanging out and taking it easy. It's been nice. :)
Like the title of this post says, "Random Thoughts." I hope you have a great week!!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Halloween Fun ~ Trick or Treating

We spent Halloween night over at my boss's house, eating and trick or treating in his neighborhood and let me just say it was an experience. His neighborhood goes all out for Halloween and there was people EVERYWHERE!! It was lots of fun. This was our first Halloween with both of the kids and I've always wanted our entire family to dress up and we did just that. We dressed up as characters off of The Wizard of Oz.
I was the witch, Olivia was Dorothy, Owen was the cowardly lion and Ben was the scarecrow. Thanks to Jamie & Shannon (my boss and his wife) for letting us borrow the costumes. I couldn't find ANYTHING ANYWHERE for us to wear so they hooked us up. :)
Here's my two loves. Aren't they cute?
Before we did any trick or treating we chowed down! There was so much food!! I wish I would have taken some pictures of the food. It was all delicious, cute and festive!
Look at my sweet Owie?? He was so adorable!
 I wasn't sure how they would do actually trick or treating, but they did really good. Allie & Austin came with us, so kudos to Allie for taking some pics of us!
Olivia would whisper "Trick or Treat" and then she would say "Thank You." She was too cute. We took the double stroller with us so Austin and Allie kind of tended to Owen and the stroller. :)
Are they not the cutest?
I had bought some glow sticks to put on Owen and Olivia's buckets, but Olivia thought they were drum sticks and she kept acting like she was playing the drums. She would say, "one, two" and then start moving her hands like she was drumming. I think she makes her daddy and Uncle Aust proud. ;)
We had so much fun! It was definitely experience. I can't wait until next year!
Happy Halloween 2011!!!!


Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Olivia's 1st Haircut!!

Last week I took Olivia for her first hair cut. It was a happy and sad moment for this momma. Her hair is kind of crazy. She doesn't have a lot on top, but it's real bushy in the back so thankfully my cousin is a beautician and she could fix it.
Olivia really didn't know what to think about it. At first she wasn't that happy, but she sat in my lap the whole time and all in all she did pretty good.
She just trimmed up the back a little bit and now all of Olivia's little curls are really showing. And I'm not sure who she gets this from, but her hair is starting to be strawberry blond! I have to say, it's pretty cute. :)

Monday, October 31, 2011

Allie & Aust's Wedding

I've been a bad blogger lately. We've been so busy gearing up for Halloween that I haven't had a chance to sit down and post about the wedding. Yes, Allie is now Mrs. Guill!! YAY!!!  I would say it's been a long time coming, but they've only been engaged for FIVE months and on Saturday, October 22, 1011 they tied the knot!!! 
The venue... was AMAZING!!! It's called The Grand Lodge on Fifth. The rehearsal and rehearsal dinner were held there Friday night and afterwards the girls spent the night upstairs in the apartment that's provided. It was so nice. Here's the bride and me the morning of the ceremony. Fixing to get ready. :)
Allie looked beautiful!! I was with her when she bought her dress and I knew it was beautiful then, but wow, I totally forgot how gorgeous it really was.
(Photo courtesy of Britney Deshea Photography)
Britney Hargrove took her pictures and the sneak peeks have turned out really good. She really takes great pictures!!
Here we are again after getting "fixed up". ha. (I'd say we look a little bit different). LOL!
(Photo courtesy of Teris's Facebook Page)
Here's the bridal party during the ceremony. Aren't those chandeliers BEAUTIFUL???? I can't say enough about the venue... simple, but elegant... just perfect!
Here's Ben and I. We didn't walk together, I got to walk with "Jets Fan" (lol!), but I loved that we could actually get a few good pics of us together all dressed up. ;)
(Sorry for the poor quality, IPhone pic)
I think Olivia and her Poppy had a good time.
 I have to give a special thanks to my parents for watching the kids for us Friday night thru Saturday night while we were with the bridal party and to my mom for watching Olivia during the ceremony since Ben, Dad and I were all in the wedding. :)
The father/daughter and mother/son dance.
THE CAR!!!! To the boys who did this... you know who you are... I would've killed you. :)
(Photo courtesy of Britney Deshea Photography)

To Austin & Allie,
We are so happy for you guys! It really seems like yesterday you guys were pulling into our driveway to show off the ring and now, you are husband and wife. Thanks for letting Ben and I be a part of your special day. It truly was amazing. All the hard work really paid off because it was just gorgeous. Friends are easy to make, but true friends are rare. I can honestly say that you two are true friends! I cherish our friendship! Thanks for being there for us and for our kids. We love you both!!
Congrats again Mr. & Mrs. Austin Guill!!!
(Every time I say that, I smile).
:-D

Monday, October 24, 2011

Girl's Weekend

(Disclaimer: Sorry it's taken me so long to post this, I'm just getting around to uploading the pictures). :)
It's no surprise by now (if you read or follow my blog) that our friends Austin and Allie got married this weekend!! (I'll post about it tomorrow). Well, a couple of weeks ago we went to Nashville for Allie's Bachelorette party! We had so much fun!!
We decked the car out with Bachelorette stickers!!
Here's the (soon-to-be) bride holding the car flag that happened to fly out the window as soon as we turned onto the interstate. LOL! It about gave Carly and I a heart attack, but it was hilarious.
When we arrived to the hotel, Lindsey had it decorated in our "Allie Cat" theme. It was too cute!!
She even had goodie bags fully equipped with all bachelorette attire... stickers for the night ("Take Me Home Tonight, Cutie Patootie, Show Us the Gun Show, Moves Like Jagger, Mc. Steamy") I'm sure you get the point. Believe me we had lots of fun with those. Ha! She also gave us a button to wear and some cute bracelets. It was really adorable!! Thanks, Lindsey for putting so much effort into it. It was great!
We "showered" the soon-to-be bride with some must need newly wed attire and also with a snuggie sutra book. (Very detailed). Ha!
Then we got ready for our night out and went to eat at The Old Spaghetti Factory. It was delicious. After we left there, we headed out for our night on the town.
We ended up in the V.I.P. section at this dance club called Chase's where "lover" gave us all massages!!! Yeah it was nice. ;)
We had an awesome view overlooking the river and LP field. All in all is was a great night out with some fun girls.

I have to give a special thanks to my hubby for taking care of the kids and letting me have a night with the girls. (He's pretty great!) Thanks, honey!! :)

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

It's My Party

Sorry for the extreme amount of pictures, but I couldn't help but post them. This past weekend we celebrated Olivia's 2nd Birthday at YaYa's Island. We had been there once before for Olivia's friend, Addi's birthday. Olivia loved it so we thought we'd give it a whirl. Her actual birthday isn't until Sunday, but as you probably know by now (if you follow my blog) our good friends Austin & Allie are getting married this weekend!!! Since they're the kids God-parents and we're in the wedding, we moved her party up one weekend. :)
Here's her cake and cookies from The Cake Lady.  They are absolutely amazing!! I love all of their goodies! They're always delicious and ADORABLE!!!
Here's a pic of the table. Ben cut out the owls for the gift bags. I don't think he would do that for anyone else except his daughter. :) (I think she has him wrapped around her little finger). ha!
Here's the BIRTHDAY GIRL!!! I ordered her outfit from Ribbon Chix. As you've seen by now, we had an "owl theme." It was really cute!!
She had so much fun playing. It was kind of a struggle to get her to sit still to open her presents.
After opening a few, she seemed to get the hang of it. :)
She got lots of Dora stuff... she happened to get two Dora guitars. lol!
Dora...
And more Dora...
And more presents. It was like Christmas!!! I'm so glad so many of our friends came to the party and spent her special day with us, but she got LOTS of stuff!!!
I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!! How cute??????
Blowing out her #2 candle!
Playing with Owie!
Look at my little man!! He's getting so big!
And look at those blue eyes , they make my heart melt!!!!

I can't believe how fast they grow up! It seems like just yesterday we were bringing Olivia home from the hospital and this past weekend we celebrated her 2nd birthday!

Olivia,
I can't believe you're almost two!! It's crazy how big you're getting. You talk all the time. (I'm not sure who you get that from) Ha! And it's not gibberish, but you talk in full sentences!!! Just tonight you told Owen, "Come on Owie" except you said come on in this crazy growly voice. It was hilarious!! You are one funny girl, but there's one thing for sure you sure do love your Owie!! You are my sunshine!! Your daddy and I love you so much!! You make our lives complete!!!
Happy Birthday my sweet baby!!! We love you!!!
love,
Mommy, Daddy & Owie