Christmas 2010

We had a FABULOUS Christmas. I loved every minute of it from delivering our Christmas presents, the candlelight service on Christmas Eve, my grandmother being with us for the first time EVER on Christmas, finding out my sister is PREGNANT, waking up early to see what Santa brought, and getting to spend lots  of time with our families! I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking!

The Jones' gave us a trip to Orlando to the Alabama bowl game! I am looking forward to getting away for a few days and hopefully to a place with warmer weather. Richard and I are absolutely loving our time off together. Monday is going to be rough but we sure are thankful.  I can't remember the last time we were both in bed at 9am!

Christmas Festivities

Whew! I'm so glad to be sitting here on Thursday afternoon having time to blog. The past three weeks  have been CRAZZZYYYYY...especially the past few days. It has all been good just a lot going on with work and Christmas events! Rich and I are both off until 2011, and I could not be more excited!

We are all ready for Christmas in this household! I finished one last gift today. Richard and I made a couple of our gifts this year. I know people who make ALL of their gifts and I'm impressed! While we are excited about the gifts we made, I can't imagine making all of them. I'll share these gifts with you after Christmas morning. I love giving and receiving gifts :) Oh,and call me weird but I LOVE wrapping presents!

Last Saturday, we had Christmas in Birmingham. A great time was had by all. We added a little spice and played a few Minute To Win It games. It was so fun!

 My small group girls spent the night on Saturday to get ready for the Girls Cookie Bake. It's really a cookie decorating party because we baked 200 or so cookies Saturday night! I have a few pictures from Saturday night but pictures of the actual cookie bake are on my computer at work. I'll have to post them next week!

Richard and I are celebrating Christmas tonight!  Our annual Christmas date which always takes place the night before Christmas Eve looks like this - dinner at Olive Garden, look at Christmas lights, and exchange gifts! This is year number 7. I can promise that I love him so much more today than I did 7 years ago. We are exchanging stockings with a $25 limit. Richard went shopping this afternoon :)

I want to leave you some of my favorite lines from Christmas hymns.

No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground; he comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found. -Joy to the World! The Lord is Come

Come, thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free; from our fears and sins release us; let us find our rest in thee. Israel's strength and consolation, hope of all  the earth thou art, dear Desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart. -Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus

Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay close by me forever, and love me, I  pray; bless all the dear children in they tender care, and fit us for heaven, to live with thee there. -Away in a Manger

Good Christian men, rejoice, with heart and soul and voice; now ye heed not fear the grave; Jesus Christ was born to save! Calls you one  and calls you all to gain his everlasting hall. Christ was born to save! Christ was born to save! -Good Christian Men, Rejoice

Merry Christmas!

It's Beginning to Look

A Lot Like CHRISTMAS! Our tree is up and decorated. We went last night to get our tree and I put the lights and ornaments on it today. Richard sets up the tree and I decorate. We work better that way :) I turned on Chris Tomlin's Glory in the Highest and had the best time except for when all the lights went out on the tree. That was a just a little majorly frustrating. No worries we got them working after a little reconfiguring. I had an ornament shower before we got married and it was my favorite shower. I LOVE pulling them out of their boxes and remembering who gave us that ornament. All the tree needs now is presents! Can't wait to wrap presents and put them under our tree.

22 days till Christmas! I hope you are enjoying this Christmas season.

Thanksgiving Happenings

Richard and I had a great and eventful Thanksgiving break. We were on the road a good bit traveling to Birmingham and Dothan, but the majority of our time was spent at the farm. To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of  my Mamaw's typical Thanksgiving spread - dressing, green bean casserole, creamed corn, ham, and yams, but I must give her credit for cooking most of the food. Friday we watched the Iron Bowl at the farm and be glad you were not there! Saturday my family went to Dothan to spend the day with my mom's side of the family. I'll leave you with pictures from T-day and beyond.

I LOVE my mamaw! She did make a killer mandarin-orange cake. Richard especially loves her cake. She made three of them to have at our wedding.

The guys camped out at the farm on Wednesday night. I think that would be fun, but when the house is 20ft away I would rather be inside.

Uncle Richard fried a few turkeys and they were OUT OF THIS WORLD DELISH!!

Post lunch nap. I think they were full after lunch.

My sister and brother-in-law got tickets for the Iron Bowl so I offered to keep T-Man. He spent the day at the farm with us. I love this picture.

Maybe we are biased but Rich and I think we have the CUTEST niece and nephew. I mean look at those faces. LOVE.

Tripp and  Ben acting like they are on a roller coaster. Tripp LOVES Ben!

Meet my sister, Andrea. She is such a  DIVA. I'm not really sure what the definition is for DIVA, but I'm calling her that anyway. She's a DIVA to me! 

I don't know what I would do without them. And no Ashley and I did not plan to match.

My uncle Fred is a peanut farmer near Dothan. One of his workers took Tripp on a little ride.

I love the holidays and the opportunities they give to spend  time with family. Richard and I are extremely blessed. Thanking the Lord for each other, our families, and most importantly his son.

We Are Off

Richard and I are officially off work and are ready for Thanksgiving. I have been looking forward to these two days off work for quite some time! Quality time with the hubs and our families is in order for the next several days. We plan to eat well, relax a lot, watch a little football, enjoy the farm, spend Thursday in Birmingham, and most important be THANKFUL! My heart is rarely thankful for all the Lord has given to me. May the spirit enable my heart to be truly thankful to the Lord. I'll be back with all that I am thankful for in life. I gotta get packing!

By the way, that sexy boy asked me to be his girlfriend 7 years ago today :) I said "YES" and never looked back!

Mr. & Mrs. Neal Pettus

Erin became a wifey this weekend and she was a beautiful bride. The entire weekend was wonderful as all of my best friends from Auburn were in town to see Erin walk down the aisle! Also, the weather was absolutely perfect. Richard and I took advantage of the wedding being in Montgomery and had friends stay with us for the weekend. We felt like we were back in college!  Time with all of these girls in the same place is becoming few and far between. I laughed a whole lot and even though I'm tired today I feel refreshed from being with them. I took a TON of pictures.....enjoy!

After a wedding day brunch, we walked around East Chase and found ourselves at Chick-Fil-A catching up on life over a glass of sweet tea :)

Erin's cake was beautiful! She wanted the flowers on her cake to match her dress.

We danced and danced and danced. So much fun!

Erin and Neal are honeymooning in Big Sky, Montana. I hope they have the best week and am looking forward to them being back in Montgomery!

What Not To Wear

Don't worry I was not on TLC's hit show What Not To Wear, rather I held an event at church in which we called "What Not To Wear." This event was for 7th-12th grade girls and their moms. I started thinking about this idea back in August, but boy when Sunday morning came around I was super, suuuupppppppeeeerrrr NERVOUS. Talking in front of one hundred moms and girls is not my favorite thing. The good thing is I only talked for 10 minutes and the rest of our time interviewed a panel. The best part is that the Lord is completely in control and he carried me through the whole thing.

Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans. Proverbs 16:3

There were a couple of things I wanted the girls to take away from the morning:

1. We are all born into this world with a sense of shame and we are now trying to hide that shame. In relation to what we were, we hide our shame by either wearing very little or wearing several layers of clothes.

2. To start thinking about the clothes you wear and why you wear them.

3. We can't change on our own. We are in great need of a Savior who can enable us to find our satisfaction in Him, not our clothes.

The pictures show some of the details and fun I had planning for "What Not To Wear."

 

One afternoon, I got together with some girls to paint. They did a fabulous job and made great decorations!

This card was placed on every chair and I encouraged the girls to put the card somewhere they would see it when getting ready. I'm pretty sure I need and will put it up for myself.

The panel did an INCREDIBLE job! One the panel was a college-aged girl and guy and a mother of 19 year old twins. I prepped them with the questions I planned to ask and it was great!

You can see my sweet husband standing in the back :) He was most supportive and being able to look back there at him calmed my nerves.

Lastly, what would be a girl's event on modesty and dress without little dress cookies!

To God be the Glory.