Year in Review: 2010

I started out with each month and each great thing that had happened and that was overwhelming!! Between weddings, engagements, babies, birthdays, vacations, friends, etc., I've been so blessed this year with friends and family.  So, I'm just going to include a few pictures to tell of the extra-special memories from 2010!

My wonderful husband and I took a bunch of trips {our favorite!!} to Louisville, Savannah, Hilton Head Island {twice!}, Asheville, Cincinnati, and of course our amazing honeymoon to St. Lucia!

{I totally put this pic up to motivate me to find that weight soon...yikes!}
Each of the girls in my Life Group got married this year as well!

We also welcomed 2 new nephews this year~ Cooper and Cameron!

My family and B's family stayed healthy this year ~ PTL!

Started my tiny but fun little Craft Store website. {and totally needing a better name...any suggestions?!}

and...Of course my absolute favorite moment from 2010 is our Wedding Day!!

I've SO enjoyed reading back through old posts and seeing pictures of what all we've done and reading about the silly things I post about! Thanks for reading {and hopefully} it's been slightly entertaining to you!
I've loved year 2010...so...2011 you've got a lot to live up to!

Here's to ringing in 2011! :)

*Check back tomorrow for my Resolutions for 2011...
*Don't forget to play in my Give-Away! Drawings will be held tomorrow afternoon!!!! :)

I.Love.Being.Home

I mean, I do. I really do. I've had the best 2 and a half {thankyousnowdays}weeks off! I got to see my 2nd nephew being born, we went to HHI for the first part, Christmas of course, and then I've just enjoyed being at home! Brian is amazed that I haven't been bored yet...and really I haven't! I've gotten to cook every night {yum!}! And most importantly my teacher friends can appreciate this~I've enjoyed staying up past 9:00 and actually being awake and fun!

Playing with Colby and his awesome Santa present!

organized my pantry-YAY!

organized the fridge and all our sauces according to use, ha! {there's 2 more rows of sauces not even showing...problem?yesImayhaveone!}

loving my new kitchen table pieces

Although I always say I'd be no good at home due to the amount of money spending I may do; it's not  helpful when your husband comes home and says, "Thanks for shopping honey...the new stuff looks great!" Aww, but for real, he did say that! I should probably count my lucky stars on that one and assume it won't always be like that, right?!
My sweet hubby also got me a renewal subscription to my Martha Stewart Living mag. for our 9 month anniversary. :) Again, bonus points for you, dear!

*Don't forget to enter in the Give-Away!! below! :)

{Kat-I'm working in the shelves and will have a pic posted soon!}

My {2nd} Give-Away! {Now Closed}

Ok ~ here's my second free Give-Away!

In honor of a new year {and some fabulously fun new Cricut items}, I'm giving away one coffee travel mug! 
I hope a few people want to participate!!!! :)

Here's the Mug:

Here's the Choices of backgrounds:

And you get to choose what font you'd like if you win! {I'll have the font choices up and loaded soon!}

Here's how to play:
1. Be a follower of either this blog or my Craft Blog
{if you don't know how to follow, just click the 'follow' button to the right. if you don't have a google or twitter account, you can follow anonymously}
2. Leave a comment under THIS post ~ can be anything just want to make sure I'm giving this away to someone who wants it! ha! {to leave a comment, just click on the word 'comments' at the end of this post}
3. You can comment as many times as you'd like
4. I'll use the Random Number Generator online, and the number it chooses will be the person who left a comment in that spot. Get it??
5. Once you've won, you can contact me through email and tell me which background and what font choice (and monogram or initial) you'd like and I'll ship it to you for free! :)

**Give-Away ends on Saturday morning and I'll choose the Winner Saturday afternoon to bring in 2011! :)

Have fun!

Christmas Cocktail

Ok, I swear this is my last Christmas post! ha!

On Thursday we had our 5th Annual Christmas Cocktail with my college girlfriends.  It seems like every year it's harder to schedule this; so quite a few girls missed, but it was still so fun!

Thanks Sarai & Kelley for hosting! :)

Sarai's cute wine charm tree

brownie pops! yum!

the girls

girls + hubs

Mandy and I with the hostess, Sarai

Afterwards we... went out dancing till 2am....ha! Just kidding! Maybe about 3 years ago we did this, but now we are old and were perfectly content with playing Catchphrase all night long!

Our Christmas

Our first married Christmas together was so much fun!

Christmas Morning ~ excuse the roughness

B's new running shoes!

Silver Monogrammed necklace from B - how perfect for me!

My hubby tries to make me stylish :)

I ended up making scrambles eggs with cheese, biscuits, and bacon for breakfast {remember this post}. I wanted to do something fancy, but when I asked B he said he'd rather have a 'normal' breakfast that I usually cook. 

Now today {Sunday} we packed up all our Christmas right after we spent time with B's dad and his wife.
It's been a really great season of spending extra time with family, friends, and each other!

Christmas Day! {Christmas Post 3}

Christmas Day began with me gently waking, begging, pleading, annoying B to death to get up to do our Christmas together. :) That post will come later...

My dad's side of the family gathered to Mom and Dad's house for a big traditional Christmas lunch.  Then we had a brand new tradition this year with Secret Santa gift card exchange. We've never done it this way, but with all the new babies my sister keeps popping out {ha, ha} and adding in new people to our family, it was decided this would be the best. Then as usual, the men played Rook with Uncle Doug and Michael being the champions. :)

Dad's Side:{l-r} The Burton's, The Giles', The Hobson's, Granddaddy Brown, The Giles', The Wilhoit's

me and Granddaddy

Christmas night was SUPER different, too! We went to the movies with Mom and Dad to see Little Fockers. And guess what? The movie was packed! Who knew people went out to movies on Christmas Day? I'd never heard the like, but B thought it was great. Do I smell new tradition? Probably not. But, I am SO overly proud of myself handling all this change-especially the Christmas traditions change- this year. I guess it's just time to start making new traditions and realizing things aren't going to be the same each and every year and that's ok. I'm sure I'll still get that tight-in-the-chest-feeling every year around this time...but at least I can say I did it our first year! :)

Christmas Eve! {Christmas Post 2}

Christmas Eve was spent at my Mom and Dad's house with us, them, my sister's family, and Granddaddy. We basically spent all afternoon and most of the night opening presents, eating a big meal, opening our stockings, and playing Uno.

Colby was much more fun this year with Christmas. He was really getting in to opening the gifts and wanting to play with each gift ~ which actually worked out for the best! We were able to let him open the gift and play while the rest of us went around in our traditional circle opening one gift at a time!

Of course while I know Christmas is not all about receiving gifts, it was still fun! Mom {and Dad} got us a bunch of awesome horse/jockey-themed items for our house. Is it sad that I get more excited about home furnishings than clothes now? Wow.

Here's just a few favorite pictures from the day...

Mommy under Colby & Cameron's gifts!



Festivus! {Christmas Post 1}

Well, the holiday has started! :) B and I just returned from sunny Hilton Head Island for Christmas with his Mom and step-family. Christmas has been off to a great start with lots of family time, food, and very thoughtful gifts!

Festivus is the annual gathering of all B's family and Mike's family (B's mom's hubby).  The first year we were together we all met at Isle of Palms, SC in a large beach house. Last year, we stayed in KY, and this year we got to have it at th MIL and FIL's new home in HHI!

We flew out Saturday and returned late Wednesday night. We had such a blast between walks on the beach, Wii games, bowling, golfing, and definitely lots and lots of eating!!  My MIL always has everything prepared so well {which I can imagine is a feat with all the people she was housing in her home!} and I took some really yummy recipes which I will share soon {remember bacon pasta?! Mmmm! Just one of her recipes I've shared.}

This year the Johnson 5 were in attendance, Jenny & baby Danny, and us.  B's sis and her family weren't able to come nor were the FIL's son and his family.  Maybe next year!
Here's a few pics of the trip ~ although we didn't get a big family photo {Grrrrr!!!} I got a few!

The Beach! :)

My MIL monogrammed my new placemats while I was there! Don't forget to visit her Etsy site!

I continuously am thankful that my hubby and I both enjoy spending time with one another's families. It truly {at least I'd imagine so} makes everything a lot easier! I love that both families are Christian as well.  During our walk on the beach, hubby and I reflected on this past year and how incredibly blessed we are in our lives. B and I spend a lot of time together, and while it's awesome and what is best for us, nothing is like being away from work! It helps re-focus us so much better!

And yes, I am handling the off-traditions of our Christmas this year! Look at me~I'm actually growing up. :)

PS- Festivus is from that Seinfield episode...get it?!

Modern Christmas

Watch the video above. We saw this at church in HHI with the in-laws. It was pretty cute, very creative, and a great reminder about the true meaning of Christmas! Happy Birthday, Jesus!

PS- While it's snowing at home, it's 60 degrees and sunny here! :)

Enjoy!