A Weekend of Randoms

We had a relaxing boring weekend. We didn't do much of anything and that is fine by me. Its nice to have those low key weekends every now and then. Friday night we had a birthday party to go to for Todds cousins little girl. She turned 1! She looked so cute in her little outifit and had so much fun diving into her cake. I think that is the best part about a first birthday party. I always love to see them just dig into their cake. Unfortunately I left my camera at home and no pictures were taken. : ( I need to get better about taking pictures. My SIL and niece were in town for the weekend so we got to spend lots of time with them. I can't believe how fast Anna is growing. She is getting too big, I told her this weekend she needed to be a baby again and quit growing so fast. She quickly told me that she was a BIG GIRL!! She is at such a fun age though that I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Saturday I laid around the house and then had a Stella and Dot party that evening. I was excited that my party was a hit! Ya'll the new spring line is gorgeous!! You should check it out. I'm anxiously waiting by the door for the mail to come because I just ordered a few more pieces from the spring line. I can't wait to put them on :) We went to a retirement party that night and then I was in bed by 10. haha. I couldn't help it, I was tired and I love going to bed early. I guess I am officially getting old.

I always dread Mondays, don't you. It just seems like the weekend always flies by and I can't ever seem to get everything done to feel completely organized for Monday. I hate that feeling. What makes Monday better though is when I get off work at 1 o clock. Oh yes, it was so nice to leave work early today. I came home and cleaned out the refrigerator, let me just tell you, it was LONG OVERDUE!! I feel so much more productive when I can get off work early and come home and do things around the house. Now I just need to clean and finish laundry. Does laundry ever end? I feel like our laundry just stays piled up. UGH!! It seems like I can never get it all done.
Hope you all are having a good week. Happy Monday!! Oh and in exciting news around here it might snow on Friday!! That's right, that is exciting for East Texas people!! I just love the cold weather. It was in the 70s this weekend and its supposed to be in the 20s-30s the rest of the week. Now that is more like it. I love winter weather!!

Getting back to normal

Well this past weekend we finally took down "most" of our Christmas decorations. Yes that's right I said most and not all. We put up so much Christmas stuff it takes us a while to get it all down. Plus we like to enjoy it through January and now we both feel like our house looks empty. I think our house looks the best at Christmas, it makes everything look so warm and cozy. I just love the way our house looks during the holiday season. But, on the other hand its so nice to have my house back and get back to normal. I feel like I have still been in this post holiday rut and have not quite gotten back to routine. So, finally maybe this week I can feel like I am getting back to normal. Don't get me wrong I love the holidays and everything that comes with it but it seems to take me so long to get out of that mode and back to NORMAL. We still have one tree up and plan on taking that down sometime this week. I also have to give all the credit to my husband because while I was in Houston shopping with my mom on Saturday he spent the whole day taking down Christmas decorations. Yes I am one lucky and spoiled girl. I took down my black and white Christmas tree yesterday but that was nothing compared to our big living room tree. Bless him for taking it down and he puts it all up too! :) I hope now I will get back into the swing of things and get back to our routine. We have been off for quite some time now.

Tonight we are headed to comedy night to see Tom Green. Remember him from Road Trip and he dated Drew Barrymore at one time. I am excited to have a night out with friends. It should be a fun night!

Also I just realized I have never posted about our ski trip. I will be doing a post with lots of pictures soon!!

New Years 2011

Todd and I are not big New Years people, never have been. It always feels like just another day to us, so therefore we never make any big plans. We usually do the going out to dinner and come home maybe have a glass of champagne or 2 and hit the hay. Haha. I think the past 2 years we were in bed before midnight. This year we actually stayed up though. We went to one of our favorite restaurants Manhattan and had a delicious dinner and visited with friends.Todd had been craving rack of lamb all week and Manhattan is the only place you can get it in Lufkin. He was so looking forward to it but since it was NYE they had a special menu. We both got filets but they were just as delicious.  We ended up staying there until midnight and had a champagne toast. It was the perfect low key night, just what we needed. What did you do? Did you do anything fun or were you just as lame as us? haha.

The owners of the restaurant 

Christmas Tree downtown Lufkin

On New Years day my parents drove up for the day. I cooked a big meal for us including pecan crusted chicken, cheddar grits, strawberry salad, rolls and my mom brought black eyed peas. It was delicious if I do say so myself. We actually ate at our dining room table and we used our Christmas china. I loved getting to use our Christmas china since most of the time its just out for decoration. We had such a nice day and just enjoyed their company. 

I am not a huge New Years resolution person, mostly because I never stick to them. This year though I am making a few achievable goals.

1. Read more books. I love to read but I have really been slacking lately. I have a whole nightstand full of books waiting to be read. I vow to not buy another book until I finish all the ones in my night stand. My goal is maybe 10 books this year.

2. Save, Save, Save. I know I say this every year but once again I’m going to try to really put some money away in savings. I just cleaned out my closet and I don’t need any more clothes or shoes!! (Now if I can just repeat that to myself every time I want to shop- ha)

3. Continue to strive to be the best wife I can be.

4. Work on making weekly meal plans and sticking to it.

5. Increase my Stella and Dot business by finding more stylists that our interested in a wonderful opportunity and hosting more trunk shows. PS: Our new spring/summer 2011 line just debuted and its GORGEOUS!! Go take a look. :)

6. Write more handwritten notes to close friends and family. There is nothing like getting a simple card or letter in the mail.

7. Start studying the bible more and learning more about our Lord Jesus Christ. Grow my faith and spiritual journey.

So there you have it, there are my resolutions, maybe yall can help me stick to them. I know this is going to be a wonderful year for us. I am so excited to see what 2011 will hold for Todd and I. 2010 was a darn good year for us so I can only imagine what 2011 will be like. God has truly blessed us. I would also like to say I am so thankful for this blogging community. I have truly met some wonderful people and am so thankful. Here’s to hopefully meeting many more of you in 2011. I have found some of the greatest friends here!!! Love you all.

 

Christmas Part 2

The Sunday after Christmas we headed to parents house to do our Christmas with them. They spoiled us as well and we had a wonderful day. It was sad that we only got to spend a day but with it being Sunday and Todd and I having to work on Monday that’s all we had. My mom cooked a delicious meal and we all sat around and opened gifts. As you know my Nana passed away this year and I had a special gift from her under the tree. My mom gave my brother and I a picture of my Nana with her dog and then I got the DVD The Proposal and my brother got my Nana’s auburn socks. Our family is a huge Auburn fan since my uncle played college football there. I got The Proposal because one of the last times I spent with my Nana where she was lucid and knew what was going on I took her to the movies to see it. It was and will always remain a special day to me. We had so much fun and she kept thanking me for what a great day it was. It was her favorite day.

I love how I caught all my moms expressions. :)

My parents have the worst towels and I have been joking with my mom how I was going to get her towels for Christmas and I FINALLY did. These will actually fit around your body. haha Kate opening her Stella and Dot jewelry. Everyone needs a little S&D in their life. :)

I was so excited to get a Keurig. I have been wanting one forever and I LOVE IT!!

My brother got my Dads ordination letter framed :)

 

Family Photo Time :)

I am so sad that Christmas is over. Both of our families spoiled us entirely too much!! We are truly BLESSED!! We still have our Christmas decorations up in our house. We won’t take them down until probably the middle of this month. LOL. We like to enjoy them a little longer. We did take down our outside decorations though. Next post up is New Years Eve and maybe a few resolutions. I’m catching up :)

Christmas Part 1

We had a wonderful Christmas this year with both of our families. I think it was probably my favorite Christmas. God has blessed us so much this year and it was nice to reflect on that at Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day here at home with Todd's family. We had a wonderful Christmas Eve service at our church and Todd's parents joined us there. It was nice to have them with us that night.    Its tradition in Todd’s family to eat pizza on Christmas Eve, so we continue to do so. We ordered Dominos and after church headed to his parents house for pizza. Todd’s sister and her family weren’t coming into town until Christmas Day so we didn’t open presents on Christmas Eve like we normally do. Todd and I did get to open one present and it is one of our favorite presents. His parents got a HUGE wine aerator. Its really neat, definitely a conversation piece. It makes a huge difference in the wine and we love it. 

On Christmas morning Todd had to wake me up. I was sleeping good but I guess he was ready to open presents and see if Santa brought him anything good this year. :) If we are at home on Christmas we always have our own little Christmas together on Christmas morning. Just the two of us. I love that time of just the two of us opening gifts together in our home. Its a special time for both of us. I must have been a really good girl this year because my hubby bought me a new camera. I had been begging for one for quite some time but never in a million years think I would actually get one. I was super excited and surprised!! Its a Canon Rebel X5. Now to learn how to use it. :)

We then headed over to his parents house for lunch and presents and to see what Santa brought Anna. It was so much fun with her this year because she now understands what is going on. She wanted to open every gift. Al the presents were hers according to her. haha. :)

   Todd's parents house.

 

Anna running to see what Santa brought to Gigi’s house.

I think the trampoline was her favorite. She LOVES to jump!!

That night we headed over to Todd's extended family and had dinner and a little gift exchange. Overall Christmas was wonderful for us and we could not be more blessed.

All of the cousins having a tea party.

Sweet Macy

My brother in law with his “BIG CATCH”  

Working on my photography skills :)

Christmas Part Two with my family coming up next. Yes I am so behind on blogging but hoping to get all caught up soon. :)