It was a Merry one!

Clint and I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day with his family this year. After a morning full of present opening we stuffed ourselves with a wonderful meal. It was great! (Especially getting to play with our sweet little Ryann!) I missed being in Jackson and spending the day with my family there. But, we will be seeing my mom's family this weekend. I know I say this often, but we are truly so blessed to have such a wonderful family.

I wanted to share with everyone my Christmas gift from Clint. I'm still very excited about my new digital Nikon D40 camera. He also got me an extra lens, carrying case and photo printer. I was so shocked because even though I asked for a new camera (I just wanted a simple SLR) I had no idea he would get this nice of one for me and all the extras! Of course he stumbled on a great deal b/c you know we aren't that frivilous!! Ha! The blogging world will also benefit from this gift because as soon as I load the software I will be posting pictures I have taken with it!

I'm also including a picture of his gift from me: Boss twin pedal looping station...and unless you are a musician you probably have no clue what this is, I know I didn't! But it's a really cool machine that allows him to record a sound (vocal or instrumental) and it continues to play it over and over again (loop) while he plays over it. I like to think of it as a "one man band." I heard Howie Day in concert using one of these and it was very neat.

Love it!!

Simple machine but so cool!

Another favorite: GPS system from Joe and Lo--no more internet directions for us!

Chloe checking out her stocking of goodies!

Happy Birthday Clint!!

Today is my sweet husband's 25th birthday. Yes, I got a younger one so that no matter how hard he wants to be, I'll always be older! Ha! I'm so glad his b-day falls on a Saturday so that we will have the entire day to celebrate. He has been working so hard lately in some really terrible weather. He deserves to have a stress-free day. Clint, I don't know what I would do without you. You are by far the best thing that has ever happened to me. I love you! Happy Birthday!!!

Valentine's Day 2007

MTSU football game


He loves his little Ryann

Crazy Christmas

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December Weather

Lately, we have been having some unusual weather for December. In late November and early December we had freezing temperatures and snow. Now, we are experiencing warmer weather and rain. Blah! I have been anxiously watching the weather channel and more of the cold stuff is headed our way. Thank goodness! I'm one of those people who love cold in December. After all, isn't that the way it's supposed to be? However, Clint loves the warmer temps but I think that might have something to do with him being outdoors all day for work. Anyway, I thought I would post some pictures of some of the snow we got back in November (since that might be all we get for the year). Thanks to Nanaw and Papaw, Chloe will be ready for the next snow!

"We want to wish you a Merry Christmas..."

After sending out over 50 Christmas cards and doing my best to calligraphy each envelope, I am finally finished! I love sending and receiving Christmas cards. I especially love picture cards because in some cases it is the only time I "see" family or friends for the year. Even though it takes a bit longer, I still like writing a little note and personally signing them. Although, I have gotten some pretty cute digital photo cards and might move in that direction eventually.

I mentioned earlier that Brooke was gracious enough to take our pictures again this year. Clint and I could decide on just one and settled on 3 of our favorites. So, if you recieved a card from us you got one version! I thought I would share our Christmas card collection. Happy Holidays!

And below is the one Clint wanted to use! Ha! We should have taken this picture AFTER the Thanksgiving meal. He really would have been straining to hold me up!

Happy Birthday Mom!

December is full of birthdays of people I love. Today is my mom's birthday. Clint and I were so happy that Mom got to come visit us this weekend to help her celebrate. We went to see and movie, grab dinner, have some cake and open presents. I'm so glad that we live close enough now that a quick weekend trip is possible. When I was younger you could say I was def. a momma's girl. And now that I'm older that really hasn't changed. I've always counted on my mom and called her with questions about everything! So, today on your birthday Mom, I want you to know that I'm so thankful to have a mother like you...your the best! I love you, Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday J.Leigh

Yesterday was my sister's 28th birthday! When I was younger I would have thought that sounded old, but since I'm not too far behind that it really doesn't sound too old now! J.leigh has always been a caring older sister to me. Even when we were younger she would look out for me. That's not to say we always got along, because we didn't. In high school I use to get so angry because I was know as "Jessica Bond's little sister." And if any of you have a beautiful blond haired green eyed sister, you will understand why that was! But, now I can honestly say that I'm proud to be the sister of such a loving, outgoing girl. Love you J!

Girls and Babydolls

Teens

Sisterly love

With my mom and maid of honor

Happy Birthday Chloe!

Chloe as a puppy

Getting bigger...

The birthday girl!

Today, Chloe Belle turns 1! I cannot believe we have had her for only 9 months. It really feels like she has been a part of our family forever. For her birthday she received a coat from her great-grandparents (my nanaw and papaw) and a new collar and leash from us. All practical things of course because she is growing so big and has even outgrown her collar!

A Lot to be Thankful For

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with our family. It was so great to see family members that we haven't seen in a while. Although, we missed our sweet Ryann and of course her parents Mandy and Robert. We must plan a trip to Knoxville to visit you guys! This year we had our Thanksgiving meal at Clint's grandparent's house. As usual, the food was phenominal and I'm still stuffed!

Since I will not be able to travel to Jackson this year for Christmas, I was super excited to have the opportunity to see Margaret (for those who don't know--my favorite cousin) and her bf Jason. They were in town for the UT/UK game. I drove in to meet up with them at Litton's. I love that place and had not been there since Margaret and I were there last. It was a traditional eating place for my family when we were younger. Margaret, my sister and I always got to end the meal with one of their HUGE cookies. It was great chatting and catching up with her. Even though Jason was rooting for UK, he still won my stamp of approval (not as though he needed it)!

I am posting some pictures from our turkey day. I forgot to take any pictures with my camera. All of these pictures are courtsey of Brooke Davis Photography and have been posted with her permission :) Thanks again Brooke for being our family photographer!

We didn't get to see Ryann, this is from Brooke's Knoxville visit. It was too cute not to post!

Cheers!

Autumn, Melissa, Brooke, Me--We are excited THAT Melissa Davis will be having a sweet baby girl in February...not this Melissa Davis :) I'm pulling for Feb. 23rd!

Yum!

Wishbone fun

I think this is a sweet picture

My family!

Beautiful Thanksgiving day on the lake

Okay, couldn't resisit this one either!!

Puppy FYI

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

Since finding out that we purchased Chloe from a puppy mill back in June (click HERE to read about Chloe's story), I have been following many stories that pop up in the news regarding other mills. Today, I read on the Humane Society's website that Petland pet store is "nation's largest retail supporter of puppy mills." Click HERE to learn more about this story and find out what you can do to take action. The main thing is to stop shopping there so that we don't support this cruelty!

An update about the woman who sold us Chloe:
(From Channel 5 news, Aug 08)
"A grand jury charges a woman accused of running the largest puppy mill in Tennessee history. An indictment against Patricia Adkisson includes 24 counts of aggravated animal cruelty, which is a felony. She's also charged with more than a dozen other misdemeanors."

Happy Birthday Rachel!

With Rachel and little Timothy (Thanksgiving 2005)

Us at my wedding events

Yesterday was my best friend Rachel's 26th birthday. (Man, we are getting old!) Rachel has been my very best friend since kindergarten. How many people can say they that! It is hard to think of a childhood memory without Rachel in it. Our friendship has survived many different hardships over the years, some to include her diabetics, my parents divorce, a move across the state, and ultimately the lapses that can occur from long distance friendships. But, through it all we have remained friends. We don't talk as often as either of us would like, but we still send cards and letters to each other and I visit her every time I am in Jackson. Now with e-mail, we are corresponding more and I love it! She has a son Timothy who I count as my own nephew and her parents as my second set. When we were little girls we use to tell everyone we were half-sisters. I think we had her neighbors believing us because if I wasn't at her house then she was at mine. We were inseparable. So, Happy Birthday Rachel! Miss you & I love you lots!

I've been Tagged!

This is fun! I was tagged by Lindsey & now I need to tag 4 people to do the same. Go to your fourth picture folder and then go to the fourth picture in the folder. Write four things about the picture and then tag four other people.





Well, how funny that I'm going to add another 4 to the mix because this is my picture from the 4th of July three years ago.


1) This was our first Independence Day together. We are NERDS! And this picture proves we have been nerds from the beginning!
2)This was one of the first years that I wasn't celebrating the 4th at Hatchie Bottom. (I think it was on a weekday)
3) Joey, Amanda, Clint and I piled up in a car and headed to MTSU's campus to watch the fireworks.
4) I love seeing how long both of our hair was back then. This is actually nothing compared to the length of Clint's hair when I first met him. He had long curly hair. It progressively got shorter and shorter the longer we dated :) But, it gives me hope that maybe our children will get some curls!



The 4 people I tag:
1) Amanda Rice (because you shared in the memory of this picture)
2) Brooke Davis
3) Melanie Blair
4) Delilah Powell-Smith

Not Forgetting Thanksgiving...

Just getting ready for Christmas early! This weekend we put up our Christmas decorations. I know, I know, I've fallen into the retailer's trap. For some reason, I have been itching to decorate our new place for Christmas. (Might this have anything to do with all the Christmas decorations being placed in the store even before Halloween??...possibly!) It's really not like me at all. Normally, I am a stickler for waiting until Thanksgiving is over to even break out the Christmas music. But, not this year. Part of it has to do with the fact that there are only 3 weeks in between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Since we were going to have to move around some furniture in the living room to make the tree fit, I wanted to the rearranging to be worth it. I told Clint I wanted to at least have all of the decorations up for a month for us to enjoy. So, it's already Christmas in our home. I will say that Clint was not totally 100% on board. However, after a little nagging on my part he gave in. Wives, you know what I'm talking about and husbands, you understand what I mean :) I think he kinda go into it. I might have even heard him humming a Christmas tune or two!

I wanted to change up our tree just a bit this year. Since we are on a tighter budget than normal (as I assume most of America is now), I had to put on my thinking cap. I'm not really creative, but I was proud of myself for finding things around the house to use instead of spending a ton of money on new decorations. I think you become resourceful when you don't have a job to have extra money to spend!!


So, don't worry, I haven't forgotten Thanksgiving. I'm very much looking forward to seeing some of Clint's family that we only see this time of year.

It was messing up when I loaded these so here are the picture captions:
#1 and 2: Our tree this year with red, green and gold
#3: Chloe's first Christmas
#4: Fireplace downstairs in the "man cave"
#5: My favorite mirror given to me by my grandmother. I think it's so unique!
#6: I call this the "Wedding Gift" centerpiece. Everything used was a wedding present.
#7: This was the little tree I had in my office last year. I added some things from around the house to make it more colorful!