Wordless Wednesday

Mom's birthday! (And I got bangs!)

Christmas Decorations

So now that Thanksgiving has past, Christmas is in full swing! I did a little Black Friday shopping, but not til about 11:30 and mainly shopping for the house.

Chris and I put the tree up before he left on Thursday night. We're hoping to get a fatter tree next year, but for now our skinny one will do.

I am so excited to spend our first Christmas in our new home! 

Thanksgiving

I.love.Thanksgiving. Love it! So I was beyond excited to host the entire family at my house. If there is one thing I love more than Thanksgiving, it's hosting. I almost feel it is my calling....anywho. Any and all family that could make it Thursday came over. Hannah and her mom joined us and Chris's parents did too! It was so nice to have everyone on all sides of the family over!

I made pumpkin pie, spinach and shrimp dip and the rolls. Everyone got there from about 10:30 right up to 11:15 and of course we eat at straight up noon. Except, since I was running the show we were blessing the food with 2 minutes to spare!

My favorite memory this Thanksgiving happened just before the blessing. The preface: We had so much food on the counters that after dad carved the turkey and the ham, I put the pans in the laundry room to get them out of the way. So, everything was ready and I went to nudge Dad and ask him to say the blessing. As I looked around I couldn't find Chris. And I asked aloud, "Where is Chris?" Dad jokingly said, "Maybe he is in the laundry room eating turkey." Well wouldn't you know I marched over the the laundry room and the door was cracked. I flung the door open and there he was!! Chris was bent over, shoveling turkey in his mouth!!! Dad just about fell out. He said if jokingly, but sure enough he was in there. And Chris's face!! He got busted! It was classic. Everyone got a could laugh out of it. I did feel a little bad, because Chris doesn't like a lot of attention on himself, but that's what he gets for sneaking turkey!

Three generations- James Robert Cook.  

The Steadmans!

Us. <3

A couple days before Thanksgiving, some couples from BGroup got together for a Friendsgiving. I am so thankful for these friends. I am so thankful God has put these folks in our lives to grow together in Christ and throughout life. 

Spiers, Schiros, Galliens, Hennessees

Baby Brother

Ah, baby brother, more like grown man of a brother. :( A few weekends ago my brother graduated from Louisiana Tech University with his Master's of Accountancy. I can't believe he is old enough to graduate college! And the weekend before that he proposed to his girlfriend Hannah! And the weekend before that he landed a job at a local CPA firm in town. I am so proud of him! Some pics of all the excitement:

Family!!

Graduates. Engaged. Employed.

So proud of both of them! Let the wedding planning begin!

Decorated Home

I have been asked only a couple hundred times to put up pictures of the house now that it has our "stuff" in it. [Shout out Ramona.] You can review here what all the rooms look like empty right before we closed on the house. So without further ado here's our stuff, and if I can remember where we got it:

The mantel/fireplace/shelves before:

 

And after:

I've got my fall decorations up. I found those precious little scarecrows at Tuesday Morning for $6! And the tin pumpkin/lanterns things are from Target. I used candles from our wedding in the pumpkins and in some of the other lanterns on the shelves. I got the tall vases on the mantel from Libby Glass outlet and the grass/branches (I don't know what it's called?) are from Hobby Lobby. The shelves are filled with candles, picture frames, various lanterns and photo albums. The shelves are abnormally large and deep so it takes a lot to fill them up!

The couch and the chair that the hunk is sittin in came from Haverty's. The two little chairs by the window are from Red Door. 

This is the back wall of the living room. The table is from World Market. Didn't find it on sale, but it wasn't terribly expensive. Yes, that is a Pintrest project come to life on the wall.

Chris brought me home a great pallet from the rig. I sanded that bad boy down and then stained it. I We used a French Cleat to hang it up and ta-da! I think I want to stick a little green vine up there and let it grow. I'll get to that one day.

So here is a picture of the living room and kitchen from the backdoor BEFORE: 

And After:

The bird cage on the top left looks tiny in the pic, but it is actually a pretty decent size. I purchased it at Red Door and it has pretty purple and white flowers "growing" in it. The shelves at the top on the right are all LSU decorations.

This is the table we got that is in the little nook in the kitchen. Love the chairs. 

This is the "Dining Room." We use that term loosely, as there is no dining room table. Everything in this room came from the townhouse and was bought several years ago. Maybe I should start calling this the reading room. 

This is the guest bath. Most of this came from the townhouse as well- the curtain, towels and fleur de lis. Mom bought me the little sink set at TJ Maxx. Should have taken a close up of that. 

 Guest bedroom one. Chris has just made himself at home here. This is "his room," or the hunting room. Whatever. It is normally quite clean, but he had just got back from hunting. All this furniture came from his room at his parents.

 Guest room 2, "my room." This is all furniture from my town house. And the pics were in my room at the townhouse. It's like we have a girl and boy room for our children that we don't have. Lol.

And this is our master bedroom (please excuse my 80's Halloween costume on the bed). The walls in here are still a bit bare. But my favorite thing in here are the lamps! I just love them! They are mercury glass with burlap shades and like burlap flowers. Presh! - A Hobby Lobby find.  

So there you have it. That's the major parts of the house. I need to take some more detailed pictures of the little things in the house. I'll get to the one day.... 

Confessional Friday

Confessional Friday 

{Link Up with Blonde Ambition}

1. I confess I am super-duper excited about the LSU-Alabama game!! I also confess I am super-duper nervous. I mean can anyone beat Alabama this year??? If anyone, it will be the Tigers! 

Watch this and try to tell me you're not fired up!? GEAUX TIGERS!

Also, did you see this? There's a lot riding on this game. Haha. 

2. I confess to the neighbor that "Boo-ed" our house, that trick-or-treaters took EVERYTHING you left for us on our porch. By the time I got home, all that was left we the tissue paper. Rumor has it there were some cute hand towels in the basket. Oh well. 

3. I confess I am already stressing about Christmas. I L-O-V-E Thanksgiving, but now that we have our own house to decorate and so many gifts to buy, I have mentally skipped Thanksgiving and am already trying to save for Christmas. I hate that Christmas turns into such a booger when it really begin so simply in a barn in a manger. 

4. That being said about Christmas, I confess I can't wait for Thanksgiving!!! I adore Thanksgiving! I love family time, comfy clothes and food! 

5. I confess I worked my tail of this week and am ready to go home. TGIF

What are your confessions?