~The Most Wonderful Time of the Year~

This weekend was packed with fun, fun, and more fun!! Friday night was family dinner, it was nice and yummy. Saturday we went to Market days (see bottom of post for pics) and I got a lot of awesome things. I hope by next year we will be in our new home so I can do some major damage for decor. This year I did small shopping though. After Market Days mom and I went to the mall, where we did damage on her pocket book which is ALWAYS fun! ;) We got most of her Christmas shopping done though. Then she took me to meet Tee and Brody at Marie Livingston's Steak House for Tee's Nanny's birthday. There was yummy food and lots of laughs with family. While we were there Tee told me that Brody said his first words "bye bye". AAHHHHHH I missed it :( I have to admit that made me a little sad that Daddy got to hear the first words before me....but that's ok at least Tee got to experience the special moment! :)

Brody and Daddy ready for yummy steak, and just to let you know YES BRODY LOVES STEAK!
Brody's Nana and all his cousins (I think that is what they are considered :/ )

After Marie Livingston's we went to the Winter Festival Parade. It was PACKED! I got in a fight with another momma...its true when you have children you become a MONSTER to make sure they have everything YOU want them to have! But it was so special to see Brody's reaction to the lights, sounds, and the whole parade in general. Bless his heart, he couldn't hang the whole time and started getting tired towards the end. I dont blame him, the parade was WELL over 1 hr and half. But he stayed awake, laughed, and kicked his feet the WHOLE time!

Kenny and Kelly even came and Brody had fun watching it with them. We were sad Daddy wasn't there but FSU was playing in the ACC Champ game and they haven't been there in years! We understood Daddy's tough decision but next year Momma will have to have Daddy's help with Brody AND Savannah!

Us and Gammy at the parade

Brody was amazed with all the lights!

One of the things I bought at Market Days was a dog treat for Duke. It had icing and sprinkles...he LOVED it!!!

Sunday we went to Qtown to get Brody's tree and some decorations out of the attic and while we were out there we did Brody's Christmas craft with Nana.

Brody was paying close attention to every step.

This finished product, pine cone Christmas trees! Next year I plan to spray paint pine cones wihtout the ribbon and holly for Christmas decorations. I LOVED them before the ribbon and holly, but they are cute too with it!

The sign was another Market Day find! It's all 4 of our stockings...next year will be FIVE! :)

Another find, to hang on the sign above once we get a house and hopefully a fireplace for our "real" stockings.

Savannah's stocking.

Those are our few decorations in our "apartment" until we can get a new home, its the best we can do. And it is PERFECT for us! This is our favorite time of the year and we are not going to let the material things take that from us. We had a great weekend with lots of fun and festive activities and look forward to our first Christmas with our lil man!!

Thanksgiving this year was so special, we had Brody with us! Next year will be even more special because Savannah will be here too! It was so good to see all the family, hold my cousin's two week baby for the first time, eat TONS of food, and Brody got to see his first deer!! The day started off bright an early (5:30 to be exact) when Brody woke me with his "BLAH" that's him saying "mom get out of bed and get me a cup of milk". Then I helped mom get the house ready for our Thanksgiving feast! Before I knew it the house was full of family and food and it was time to eat! The best part was watching Brody play with all his cousins, we had 4 under 2...wasn't that interesting! :) We ate our first Thanksgiving lunch and Brody fell asleep, literally in his plate of turkey! TOO BAD I DIDN'T GET A PIC! :(


Grandma Sandra with Brody
Pepa and Brody (notice Brody's turkey shirt!) After our lunch, it was time to go to QTOWN and see Tee's family. It was great to see family and eat some more! :) Thankfully Brody was able to stay awake and visit everyone. Tee's Nanny gave me this attachment for my sewing machine, I cannot remember what it is called, but it helps sew a certain seam and I can't wait to try it out on Brody's Christmas shirt! :) As people started leaving, it was time for the boys to go to the woods! Brody's Papa got a deer and we couldn't wait to see what Brody would do when he saw it...he was shocked at first but then he "ahhhh" like he was ready to play with it.

The boys and the deer

"what do I do with it Daddy?"

That night Brody spent the night with Mema and Pepa for the first time!! I was worried that he would keep them up all night, but he was great (so they reported). :) Then it was time for Tee, myself and Ann to hit up the early opening stores for black friday! I was so excited and pumped, I have never done the crazy people who shop all night style black friday shopping. LOOONG story short, we stood in line at Toys R Us for 2 hours, didn't get in the store, left (without Brody's slide), hit up Walmart, Kohls, Bath and Body works, Sports Authority, and Sears! I was able to get Tee's Christmas (will post about AFTER Christmas) and we got Brody's Christmas done! In the short, I will NEVER go Black Friday shopping for noon on Friday again! But at least I can say I gave it a try :)

Us in line (on the parkway) waiting to get into the store!

Pine Cone Turkey

Today we did Brody's Thanksgiving 2010 craft project...pine cone turkey!! It was so much fun, but Brody didn't last long. He was out before I could get the tails glued on.

Ready to start!!

Then he was out on Daddy before we finished.

Happy Thanksgiving 2010!!

Mema and Pepa came to visit and Brody enjoyed some extra loving and spoiling today! :)

Brody LOVES lights and sounds. So whenever I take pictures he always crawls over to see what's up momma!! I love it now that he is into EVERYTHING. It is so much fun to chase him all over the living room and keep him out of the many trees my parents like to put up every year.

After to tried, MANY times, to get to the DVD/Blue Ray player that is in the floor, then he was after the Candy Christmas tree! Needless to say the tree won the battle. I was standing in the kitchen and heard a loud BOOM! Went into the living room to see Brody UNDER the tree and glass everywhere from the broken ornaments. He wasn't screaming, but you could tell he was scared by the look on his face! Thankfully he was hurt too bad, just a few minor scratches on his face...to add to the already scratched and bruised cheek from last week! Like I said...so much fun! :)

This coming week adds to my favorite time of the year...the wonderful HOLIDAY SEASON!! I am so excited for all the yummy food to come and shopping on Friday! I hope to get the last bit of Christmas shopping that we have left done!

I also have to go out of town for my job for the first time...I have to admit I am a bit nervous. So if you don't mind including me in your prayers the next couple of days I would realllly appreciate it! :)

What a great relaxing, family filled, weekend I had and now to get ready for a busy beginning of my week and hopefully ending with some relaxing with family, yumo food and shopping like a mad woman! Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving week 2010!!

I love Shutterfly!! Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards!!!

For years I have looked forward to starting my family and our tradition of yearly Christmas cards. We got married in 2007 and our son was born this year, so it seemed like a great time to begin the tradition of our family's Christmas cards. I love photography, always have, but even more so now that our son is here. We use Shutterfly to keep the family updated on his life and the experiences he has. We also have used Shutterfly for multiple Christmas gifts and Mother's Day gifts!! It is awesome to have an easy to use site to upload those pictures to document the memories and share with the family that may not get to see our son as often as others.

A friend of mine told me about this great promotion Shutterfly is offering this year and I had to jump on it! All you have to do is go to http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/ complete the form and wait for an email with instructions. I am super excited to have Shutterfly help start a family tradition I hope to continue for many years to come!!

I hope to take our family pictures tomorrow to use for our Christmas cards this year, but in the mean time I had to browse all the BEAUTIFUL cards that Shutterfly has available this year.

I love this one! I am a firm believer in the saying "the simpler, the better". This card is so simple yet classy too. This one is probably my favorite!

I absolutely love this one too. I am not sure what it is, probably the black and white picture that helped my picking of this card. But it is just so classic Christmas card!

This one was a top pick of mine because I love how different it is with the entire card being the picture and then a simple banner across the bottom. Like I said before, the simpler the better and boy that is true about this card!!

I don't know how I will choose between these three cards because I really do love them all. I think I will choose the picture and make hubby choose the card!! Sounds like a great deal to me!! :)

All this Christmas talk has got me wanting to change my blog layout to something Christmas themed...however I will pay my dues to Thanksgiving and then choose a Christmas theme this time next weekend! ;)

Thanksgiving!!

I look at my blog and think "I need to post its been a few days"....then I realize a "few days" more like a "few weeks"! Crazy how time just flies by and I forget to post. I have some sewing projects that I have completed, took Brody on his first trick or treat and to his first Mule Day. That is pretty much catching you up! haha I will post my fav of the sewing projects at the end of this blog.

So, what's new!? We are STILLL fighting that darling insurance company...I'm sure that will continue for a while. Nothing really new with that! I have my first subject interview tomorrow at work and boooy am I worried sick about that. I have prepared and prepared but I still feel like I am missing something. But I am SOOOO excited about it. I cannot wait to see if I get a confession or not.

This friday is my jewelry party and I am so excited!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE jewelry and spending time with friends and family and what a great way to do both! :) Saturday is my friend's party that I am looking forward to as well to learn about the product. Then it is FSU FOOOTBALL!!! Hoping our Noles have a better game this weekend. Sunday=fun day hoping for some relaxing and doing some laundry...haha the joys of life! :) Looking forward to the rest of this week and what tomorrow's interview shall bring!

Savannah's outfit

Brody's Thanksgiving Shirt

Savannah's Pants :)

I look at my blog and think "I need to post its been a few days"....then I realize a "few days" more like a "few weeks"! Crazy how time just flies by and I forget to post. I have some sewing projects that I have completed, took Brody on his first trick or treat and to his first Mule Day. That is pretty much catching you up! haha I will post my fav of the sewing projects at the end of this blog.

So, what's new!? We are STILLL fighting that darling insurance company...I'm sure that will continue for a while. Nothing really new with that! I have my first subject interview tomorrow at work and boooy am I worried sick about that. I have prepared and prepared but I still feel like I am missing something. But I am SOOOO excited about it. I cannot wait to see if I get a confession or not.

This friday is my jewelry party and I am so excited!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE jewelry and spending time with friends and family and what a great way to do both! :) Saturday is my friend's party that I am looking forward to as well to learn about the product. Then it is FSU FOOOTBALL!!! Hoping our Noles have a better game this weekend. Sunday=fun day hoping for some relaxing and doing some laundry...haha the joys of life! :) Looking forward to the rest of this week and what tomorrow's interview shall bring!