Holiday Fun!

Well we sure have been busy around here getting ready for the holidays!  I think that we can finally say that we have all of our shopping done and we have been very excited to decorate our new house and put up our Christmas tree.  Here are a few pictures of our decorations!

Our mantle with the nativity scene that my grandmother made and our Christmas tree!

AJ's Christmas picture!

Last night we also had our staff Christmas party for school.  We all went to a local golf club and had dinner and did some dancing.  It was a lot of fun to get to see everyone outside of work and spend time together!

The kindergarten team...well those of us that were at the party atleast!

"The guidance girls!"

Our principal...a.k.a Santa!

James with Mr. Wright our custodian...Mr. Wright was lookin good and his "pimp hat" was a hot item at the party!

James and I have had a really great start to the holidays so far and we are excited to get to spend one more week at school and then have three weeks off to spend with our families!

Final Project

I had my final level 1 cake decorating class yesterday so thought I would post a picture of my final cake for the class!  Let me know what you think!

My Newest Hobby!

Well that's right about a month and a half ago I was walking around in Hobby Lobby with James and just as we were going out the door I saw a sign for an upcoming Wilton cake decorating class...so what did I do?  I signed up of course!  I mean I did have two free nights during the week so why not fill up one of them with something fun!  I am taking the class with my friend Jeanne that I work with and we have had a lot of fun doing it together so far!  Here are some pictures of the cakes that I have made.  My last class for this session will be this coming Tuesday so stay tuned for pictures of my "final project"!!  Oh boy!

This was the first cake that I made...we were pretty much able to choose our creation and it was definitely fun!  I was very proud of having a filling in the cake which I had never done before!

This was the second cake that we made in class when we learned how to make clowns.  I thought they were super cute and fun to make, I really enjoyed this one! 

Keep me in mind as your official cake decorator for the next clown party at your house!!

This guy was my favorite with his legs hanging off the side!

Finally I just finished up a cake this evening for a friend of ours on James's grade level who will be celebrating her 60th birthday next week!  We are having a few people over tomorrow to celebrate with her so James thought it would be a good time for my cake debut!

I had fun getting creative with this cake and making the roses...James insisted on having black roses for the cake!  I think it turned out pretty good though I will definitely be working on my cake writing skills!

This was the first rose that I made in our class...it's supposed to be the hardest thing to make for cakes!  If anyone has a sweet tooth just stop on by our house because after these last few weeks I think I am done eating cake for a while!

Sunset Beach

Last weekend my wonderful hubby surprised me with a trip to the beach for the weekend!  I came home from class on Thursday and was told to pack my bags and that we were leaving the next day!  We went to Sunset Beach which is about 3 1/2 hours from our house and just relaxed and walked around the beach and enjoyed spending time together...it was FABULOUS!  We had both been really busy with work and classes lately and it was nice to just get away and leave all of that behind!  I'm one of those people that the sound of the waves crashing is instantly calming for me so it was great to just walk and talk with the man I love and have been married to for 16 months (he said the trip was for our 16month anniversary)!! 

I thought it was pretty cool looking at our footprints in the sand...so I took a picture of course!

We both tested out the water and didn't get much farther then our toes...it was COLD!

Beautiful scenery and crashing waves...a perfect combo!

Welcome To The World Baby Rayna!

We are so excited that our great friends Brian and Melissa had their daughter Rayna today. James and I went up to the hospital to visit them after work and she truly is a little blessing and absolutely adorable! I know that Brian & Melissa are so excited about the newest addition to their family so we wanted to share a few pictures on here for everyone to enjoy!  

A picture of her precious little face! She slept the whole time we were there but I saw some pictures with her eyes open and they are beautiful as well!

James and I were both very excited to get to hold her. Neither one of us has ever held a baby the day that they were born so it was pretty great!

We took one last family picture (minus Molly of course) before we left to head home.



Congratulations Brian and Melissa we are so excited for you both and Rayna truly is a little blessing from God! We love ya!

Pumpkin Carving!

James and I spent a great Halloween day together yesterday shopping, carving pumpkins, and handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters!  The weather was so nice that we were able to take some chairs and put them on the front porch and sit outside while we handed out candy.  We got to meet a lot of people from the neighborhood too which was nice!  Here are a few pictures from our pumpkin carving!

Scooping out the guts...

Cutting out the "Power T"...look at that concentration!

The finished products!

The lit up Power T pumpkin!

Above is my pumpkin lit up from this year and below is my pumpkin from last year...I'm beginning to think I need to expand my pumpkin creativity for next year!

AJ watched all the fun from under the table...I think he was trying to hide so we didn't dress him up like a pumpkin again...I think he made a cute pumpkin last year though!

While we were handing out candy James decided that he wanted to be the "cool house" so we had some music and sound effects playing out the office windows for when the kids came up!  Someone even told his son that we must have been torturing someone in the basement!  ha! 

Team Courage!

This past weekend I traveled to Knoxville to take part in the Susan Koman walk for the cure to fight against breast cancer.  I have to say it was a very humbling experience to see so many people (about 14,000) just from the Knoxville area all out to fight this cause.  Not only to see the people supporting it, but the survivors as well.  I know that seeing all of those survivors had to be somewhat comforting to my wonderful cousin Natalie who is undergoing her chemo treatment right now. 

Mom and I went out and bought our "team scarves" the night before which were a hit with everyone at the walk.  Next year we will have to start early and create a team shirt that will compete with the others as well!  My wonderful husband James surprised us all by sending us a good luck gift from edible arrangements that is pictured above.  I have also included a picture of the note he attached as I thought it was incredibly sweet...yep bonus points for James!

This is a picture (from the side) of all of the breast cancer survivors that were at the walk.

A picture of our team before the start of the race...the only thing that would have made this day better is if our team captain Shelly would have been there, she was home sick with the flu :(

Real Men Wear Pink! Little did they know these scarves came from the princess section at BigLots!

Brady cheered on her Mom by dancing with her dance team during the walk!

A picture during the race of all the people in front of us!

Our team picture at the end...WE DID IT!!!

We all went out to grab a bite to eat after the race and enjoy those delicious strawberries James sent us!

I thought that this song was fitting for this post because of the chorus of the song...it was also one that they were playing during the race!  I think that we all loved being a part of this race for a fabulous cause and can't wait to do it agian next year!

Happy Birthday Molly!

Well I am definitely being a picture theif for this post but I just had to take them and put them on our blog since they are SO adorable!  As many of you know Molly is one of our favorite little people in the whole wide world and this week she will be turning 2!  James and I won't be able to make the birthday party since we will be out of town so we decided to go over this past weekend and giver her the Elmo gifts we got her!  Even though she has been a bit under the weather I think she enjoyed them and it was great to get to see her as always.

I had to include this picture from our visit as well to show you what a sucker James is for Molly!  I think he would have done just about anything that sweet little voice asked him to while we were there.  James enjoyed having a birthday tea party with Molly and her little Lamb and even got offered some "pizza" at the party as well!  Happy Birthday Molly!

Race For The Cure!

As many of you read before I am doing the Race For the Cure in Knoxville this year on Saturday October 24th.  We are all walking in honor of my 41 year old cousin who is currently undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer and will hopefully be diagnosed cancer free in January!  Our team goal has been to raise atleast $500 and we are only $30 away from that goal!  Please help us to reach our goal and go above and beyond what we have hoped to raise.  Thanks to those who have helped and donated so far! 

If you would like to donate on my page you can go to http://komenknoxville.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&eventID=506&participantID=3124

Everyone in our family has taken this as a time to talk about and realize how important it truly is to get your yearly screenings so make sure all the women in your life that you love are doing the same!

You Know You're In The South When...

You go to the "local" hamburger joint and order sweet tea with lemon and a burger with "slaw"! 

OK so I do realize that the pictures in this post may grose some of you out but when we were out to lunch today Melissa convinced me that this moment was "blog worthy" so here it is!  Duke's grille is a local hamburger place that is right across from our school and is one of those hole in the wall places that is ALWAYS packed and serves great food!  They also only take cash which definitely is different from most places now days!  Anyways when we went out to lunch I had my first officially southern hamburger after living in the south for six years now...and I have to say it was pretty good too!  In fact I think I may have to take my pocket book and go to the wal-mart and get me a buggy to buy some slaw and soda...oh yeah and I can't forget a toboggan to wear on my head since it's getting cold outside these days!