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!!!!