Christmas 2011

This year, Christmas started on Saturday, December 17, when we exchanged gifts with John T.'s granny.

We had yummy snacks, and she spoiled us with lots of gifts!

I made these cuties, and they were so good! A little time consuming...but fun!

Here's what you need:

Melt candiquik. Dip Oreos in candiquik. Decorate.

I melted my chocolate chips & poured them into a plastic bag, cut a small hole in the corner & piped the eyes & mouth on.


When we left Minnie's, we headed to John T.'s mom & dad's to exchange presents with them. We did it a little earlier than normal this year because of John T.'s work schedule, but it worked out great!

Jayden got some Justice outfits from us & the game Operation

Taleah...the Kentucky fan of the family with her Tervis Tumbler :o)

{The picture of John T.'s kindergarten graduation on the wall cracks me up!}

Christmas Eve morning, John T. & I exchanged presents with each other when he got home from work. My favorite gift was my new Pandora bracelet & charm to add to my collection!

 Later, we went to my aunt & uncle's house to celebrate with my family. My aunt Sharon always buys the best gifts, and I got my first pair of Toms! I love them!

This yule log is one of my favorite things about Christmas at Sharon's! It is so good!

We had burgers & baked potatoes...

and salads

Me, mom, Sharon & Ashley

The whole gang: Dad, Mom, Antione, Ashley, Daryl, Sharon, me & John T.


John T. had to work on Christmas Eve, so I spent the night with my mom & dad. When he got off work Christmas morning, he came to my mom & dad's, & we had breakfast & exchanged presents with them. This was the first time we have done this, and it was so fun!

The yummy breakfast my mom fixed!

John T. was excited about his bike from my mom & dad!

We had a wonderful Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Card design by Leslie Duffield

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

Week of Parties

This past week/weekend has been full of Christmas parties/get-togethers! On Wednesday night, my crew from work met at Brazeiros in Knoxville for dinner. Their food was amazing! It is a Brazillian steakhouse, and they have all different kinds of meat from chicken to lamb. Their salad bar, sides & desserts were great, too!

On Thursday, we met with a few of my high school girlfriends and ate at Texas Roadhouse. I'm sad that I didn't take one picture! It was fun to see everyone & play with Brayden & love on Addy. :o)

Then, finally on Saturday, we went the hospital Christmas party at the Tellico Village Yacht club. I was super excited to get to wear this dress from Riffraff!

{back of dress}

I saw it when we went to Fayetteville last month and couldn't decided whether I needed it or not, but I ended up ordering it through their facebook page when we got home, and I am so glad I did. It was perfect!



It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

In keeping with tradition, I started decorating and put up our Christmas tree this past Saturday (we always start decorating the Saturday after Thanksgiving).

I bought a little tree a couple of years ago at an after Christmas sale & last year, I gave it a Colts theme. This year, I did an SEC theme, since the SEC rocked this past football season. I found the idea for the fabric scrap lights from, you guessed it, Pinterest! It was so fun to make, but by the end, I was ready to be done tying fabric on a string of lights! I got the football ornament at Target & John T. had the idea of printing the SEC logo from Google & attaching it to the top. I thought it turned out pretty cute.

SEC Tree

 Our big tree 

 Love this chevron ornament from ella minnow pea!

 Fabric scrap wreath...another idea from Pinterest

I bought this sign last year from etsy {You're That Girl Designs}

Thanksgiving 2011

This year, we spent Thanksgiving with John T.'s mom's side of the family. We had lunch, & afterwards, the girls went for a little hike. It was a very low key day with lots of yummy food!

Me & the sis-in-law, Taleah

I made these cupcakes, and they were yummy! I got the recipe from Pinterest.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple Frosting

 

John T. had to work Thanksgiving night, so I spent the night with my mom & dad and worked today. No black Friday shopping for us this year, but I didn't really miss it. Most of our shopping is done, and my goal is to finish everything by December 1st! 

Meeting Addy

Last night, Whittney, Ashley & I took dinner to the Knobloch's & met Miss Addyson Paige, who was born on November 10.

I brought baked spaghetti & drinks, Ashley brought bread & dessert and Whittney brought stuff for salads. This was so fun to do with friends, and I hope they enjoyed it!

We also got to play with Addy's big brother, Brayden, which was fun, too! Addy is so tiny & cuddly...she slept the whole time we were there!



Love this little family!

Fayetteville

This past weekend, we headed west (10.5 hours) to Fayetteville, Arkansas, for the Vols/Hogs football game!

We left on Thursday morning after John T. got home from work. I drove most of the way since he had worked all night, and it felt like the longest drive ever! We drove through Nashville, Jackson, Memphis, Little Rock & finally we made it to Fayetteville around 6:00 p.m. The drive through the Ozarks was so pretty!

After checking in to our awesome hotel, we drove around to look for food! : ) We were craving pizza, & the first pizza place we saw was Pizza Hut, so we pulled in. I think it is so funny to drive 10.5 hours and eat at a place that we have just down the road, but it was delicious! 

Friday morning, we slept in & headed down to breakfast. Then, we drove to the Fayetteville square & went to Riffraff. John T. kept joking that we drove 10.5 hours just to go to this store because it is all I talked about on the way there...oh, and Rick's Bakery (more on that later). I got some cute, cute things at Riffraff & have ordered a couple of things via facebook since then! : ) Santa (aka mom) also received a wishlist from there!

After shopping at Riffraff, we headed to the mall for a while & did some more shopping! Then, we drove to Bentonville, which was just about 25 minutes away, to see the home of Wal-Mart! They had a cute little town square, too, but we didn't get out because they were having a Veteran's Day program on the square and there was lots of traffic & no parking.

We then drove through the Duggar's hometown of Tonnitown & then to Springdale to see one of Josh's car lots. This was so stalkerish, but fun! Hey, if you drive all the way to Arkansas, you might as well!

We were starting to get hungry by this time, so we started looking for a place to eat. We decided on Sassy's Red House BBQ, but before we ate, we stopped at Rick's Bakery for a treat for afterwards! I have seen so many cakes/petit fours from lots of NWA girl's blogs, so I had to stop. I ended up getting a petit four & John T. got a cream horn.

A little bite of deliciousness! 

Finally, we made it to Sassy's. This was by far the best BBQ I have ever had! I loved trying all of the sauces, and everything I got was just amazing!

Saturday was gameday! The game wasn't until that night, so Saturday morning after breakfast, we got out and did a little more shopping (big shocker!). The weather turned really cold, so I needed to go to Old Navy and get a black turtleneck to wear under my jersey. We drove through the UofA campus on our way back to get a few pics. We spent the rest of the day relaxing & then headed to the game around 5:00.

I loved seeing all of the tailgaters on our walk to the stadium. There is nothing like gameday in the SEC!



The game turned out to be horrible for our VOLS, but we still had a really great time. Our goal is to go to all of the SEC stadiums within the next few years, so we can mark Razorback Stadium off the list! I would love to go back to Fayetteville. It seemed like such a small town, but they had everything, every store you could possibly ever need. I loved that Target & Chick Fil-A were everywhere you looked!

Traveling back through East Arkansas/West Tennessee, we saw lots of cotton & I thought it was so pretty!

I heart the South! There is nothing like it!