december madness

december was a wonderful month. we literally celebrated all month long and i loved every minute of it.

justin's grandma came and stayed with us for 6 days. while she was here his parents, my adorable nieces and their parents, and austin all came to visit. so we had visitors for about 9 days. it was so fun.

while they were here, baby tate was born. he is more perfect than you could imagine. i can't get enough of him. here is a picture from when justin met him for the first time.

the weekend before christmas we drove all across texas.. seriously like 800 miles from friday -sunday. want a recap? friday, justin, austin and i went to fort worth and went to gaylord texan ICE with katie. it lived up to everything i expected. saturday we went to the lake travis state football championship at cowboys stadium. unreal stadium and they won. state record 4 championship in a row. woohoo. then we headed straight to tyler for a wedding. we missed the ceremony but made it just in time for the food and reception. perfect.



Real life Gingerbread house





sunday we stopped by my wonderful grandparents house for some delish food and came home. i was off work the entire week of christmas and it was heavenly. i got to hang out with my sister, hang out with justin, run last minute errands and just enjoy doing nothing.

christmas was wonderful and went by way too fast. we spent christmas eve and christmas morning with my parents and my dads family. christmas day we drove to austin and stayed until monday. love me some family time! we are without a doubt extremely blessed with amazing families and everything we have.

Christmas in Austin

Lane and Amber wrapped everyone's presents this year. It was the most precious thing.

i have monday off work so i can't wait to start 2011 off with a bang! i know its going to be a great year. until then, cheers and have a wonderful and safe new year!

from our family to yours... (a few days late)

posting this a few days late.. but better late than never. not my favorite card we have sent out but it had to do. have a great week and enjoy the rest of 2010!

a precious life

last night one of my best friends welcomed a baby boy into this world. baby tate is the most precious little thing i have ever seen. i just want to squeeze his cheeks and he is the definition of perfection. pictures to come shortly...

speaking of babies being born, there are thousands of babies born everyday. it is such a wonderful blessing but not every baby is blessed to have a wonderful, loving family to care for them and meet every need. there are babies all over the world in need of adoption. one of my good friends, abby, posted about the Cheatham family who is about to adopt a little baby boy from ethiopia. since adoption is not cheap they are holding a raffle to help  if you donate money. this is the perfect season for giving and this couldn't be for a better cause. if you are interested check them out and give a little. and why not try to win an ipad right before Christmas?

christmas on hillary circle

this is our 3rd christmas being married. our first christmas we had just moved into our apartment at the end of october and just started jobs so our budgets were pretty much non-existant. our tree was tiny and i just got some silver and red ornaments from target threw them on the tree and we were done. we were also gone every weekend that year in december to watch austin's playoff football games. that was the extent of our christmas decorating.

last year we had just moved out of our apartment and we were staying with my parents so we didn't have to have decorations because i helped my mom with hers.

and this year... when we got a house i was so excited to decorate for christmas! i had forgotten about our pretty much non existant decorating at our apartment so when i opened up our christmas stuff i was stunned because we had pretty much nothing. depressing.

i asked justin what colors we should use.. you know a theme... and his response was, "i don't care but not gold." why not gold? "i just don't like gold." i figured since he barely ever gives his opinion when it comes to decorating and color schemes i should honor his wish. so silver it was. silver, reds, and whites.

i wish i had the eye to decorate and be creative. i don't. so i don't even know if this looks good. but i don't care because i love it and that is all that matters. christmas at hillary circle 2010...lots of pictures so i can remember years from now.

justin is mr. griswold so he spent hours and hours doing our outside lights. so far, we have gotten at least one compliment a night from someone walking or driving by. i love that it is so sparkly outside! (these pics were taken from my phone because im cameraless-- and they seem to have a yellowish tint to them.. hmm)

dont mind the brinks sticker on the window. we just hung it and scraping the sticker off is on the to do list. and the window looks crooked? hmm....

i forgot to take one of the mantle. oh well. merry christmas!!!!

so thankful!

these past couple of days i have been thinking about everything i am thankful for. i am blessed. we are SO blessed. i am thankful for so many incredible things that i don't have enough room to type everything but i truly am thankful for everything God has given me and the wonderful family and friends i have!

so instead....some random tuesday thoughts (with not many pictures.. boring)--

• i made a pecan pie last night for a coworker. my entire house smelt amazing and now i want to make one everyday to keep that smell. i might not like to cook but i definately know how to make a delicious pecan pie. thanks mom!
• we went to austin last weekend to celebrate thanksgiving with my wonderful in-laws. we had a full feast on saturday. cant wait for another one on thursday! i feel lucky to get 2 delicious thanksgiving feasts. maybe i should start running again?
• when we got home on sunday i had a package in the mail. my precious sister sent me decision points by George W. Bush. i was so excited. the only catch? she wants me to be at page 175 before i see her tomorrow so we can discuss. i am on page 55. i am positive i will get to page 175 because i have so much love for GWB.
• did i mention we are going to oklahoma for thanksgiving? GWB's book should give me plenty to do in the 7 hour car ride. weather for turkey day? high of 40. wonderful!
• we have something every.single.weekend. until after new years. busy? i think so. but i love the holidays and am so excited for everything planned.
• also on the agenda for december? meeting precious baby tate!! i am so ready for him to make his grand debut!

• justin has been putting up our outside christmas lights for the past few days! can't wait to turn them on saturday night. he comes from a family of Griswold's. think im kidding? once i find a picture of his parents house i will show you. don't worry its classy not trashy. :)
• i have a ton of decorations from our old apt and a few things i have bought then 4 months later decided i don't want for our house. what the heck do i do with it all? any suggestions? i honestly don't just want to give it all away but it is taking up one of my guest rooms.
• and last but not least... i still have not picked a christmas picture. since i lost my camera in july and it had march-july pictures on it the only pictures i basically have of 2010 are on my phone. who wants to use an iphone picture for their yearly christmas picture? not me! so we need to take one. asap.

have a wonderful thanksgiving with family and friends! lots of love!

my love for....

CHRISTMAS CARDS!

every year i start thinking about christmas cards and get so incredibly excited. i sometimes wish i had more friends just so i could receive more christmas cards. to say i love them is an understatement. they are definately one of my most favorite things about christmas. i hate checking the mail but during christmas i check it every.single.day. i have not picked out our picture for this year but i have definately been thinking about it. so in honor of the upcoming christmas season and christmas cards on my mind here is last year's christmas card. (i can't for the life of me find our 2008 card on the computer)

the holidays are getting closer and i could not be more excited! happy wednesday!

Voting Day!

Did anyone see the heart touching entrance of the 41st and 43rd president of the United States before the Rangers game Sunday night? Talk about making my hear go pitter patter. I had to stop and rewind so I could watch it again. I dream of meeting them one day.

Don't forget to vote! God Bless America!

happy birthday to you....

happy birthday to the world's most amazing mom! mom- we love you so incredibly much and we are so blessed to have a mom that goes above and beyond for us. thank you for everything you do and i hope you have a spectacular day! i love you more than you will ever know!

be joyful always.

Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Jesus Christ. - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18


love this boy more than anything in the world. he truly makes my life complete.

dinner date with the Farr's. guess who showed up wearing the same outfit? twins.

going to the UT game Saturday with these wonderful people. we started out with 4 tickets then this week we got 2 more tickets so this should be fun! lots of friends will be there! HOOK EM!

speaking of my wonderful bff, mandell-- shes a kindergarten teacher. one of the teachers at her school has breast cancer. she made over 80 of these cookies for there faculty meeting today to celebrate the wonderful teacher. i can proudly say i did assist in the dipping of the cookies. love my bff and her thoughtfulness.

have a joyful weekend! 

crafts.cooking.columbus day.

This weekend was so productive and I am so happy about that. First of all a disclaimer-- I do not like to cook and I am the world's least creative person in the world.

A couple of weeks ago I found a wreath I really liked and I was determined I could make it.  When I told my Mom, Justin, and Mandell my plans they laughed.. some in my face and I know for a fact they were quietly laughing in their head. They know me all to well to know crafting is not up my alley.

Justin went hunting this weekend so saturday night was my night to craft. I got all my materials (had to go to hobby lobby twice) and turned on the LSU/Florida football game. The wreath turned out amazing. i.love.it. Thanks to Emily for this wonderful tutorial. Go check out her blog. I want her house and her amazing talents.

 this is the mess i had after i was done. oops!

Another accomplishment this weekend was making a roast. I do not like to cook. It is boring to me. But this was by far the easiest thing I have ever made. My mom used to make roasts growing up so she gave me her special recipe and it was delicious. It did overflow into the bottom of the oven which led to a little mess but that did not mess up the taste. We now have roast for about 5 more meals.

Other weekend activities--
- went and saw Life As We Know It. It was cute and a great date with my mom.
- Whitney participated in her school carnival dunking booth which provided some great laughter.

- watched a lot of football.
- did about 10 loads of laundry --good gosh we wear a lot of clothes.
- and spent columbus day with Justin. it was fabulous!

big tex

This past weekend we went to DFW to visit my sister and go to the famous State Fair of Texas. I have heard so much about the fair, fried food and Fletcher's corndogs. I.could.not.wait!  I was so proud of my sister for buying her first UT shirt. We put on our burnt orange, met up with our friends, and headed to the fair with the other 97,000 people decked out in burnt orange and crimson. The atmosphere was amazing. However, I did not get to experience much of the fair. 97,000 people makes for long lines and not much moving room. In order to buy anything you have to have coupons so that was our first priority.

   

Whitney, Katie, and I went on the search for a Fletchers corndog while Justin and Joey went to find the big screen to watch the game. We soon found out the waiting line for a corndog was over an hour.. no thanks! I did get some nachos and a funnel cake and I was a happy camper. We found the tv but for some reason there was no volume. We left the fair at halftime and went to a bar to watch the rest of the game. Although the game wasn't a happy ending I am very glad I got to be in the atmosphere of OU/UT weekend. 

Saturday night we gathered some of our Fort Worth friends and went to a bar in the Stockyards. I love Fort Worth. I secretly wish I lived there but since Katie lives there I know we will be back for more.

On Sunday we enjoyed the amazing weather and of course watched football. Katie lives about .2 miles from downtown so we walked all around and enjoyed some people watching.

 The weekend was great and I can't wait to visit during Christmas to see downtown Fort Worth all lit up. Thanks Katie for letting us stay with you.. we had a great time and can't wait to come back!