Holiday Family Time

This is Alex. He is SO cute. Alex is my first cousin (making my total count now 3). Alex and his mom and dad (my uncle John and his wife Jenni) live in Mississippi, so our family had Thanksgiving and Christmas while they were in town in November.
This is my favorite photo from the entire Thanksgiving weekend. How cute are these boys?!
My brother and the other two cousins. These girls are my FAVORITES!! I love both of them to pieces and was SO glad to have everyone in one house even if it was only for one night. What a great time we had!

Going back in time...

Out to dinner for Johnathan's birthday in October (I know the posts are out of sync chronologically, but at least I'm able to upload photos). We traveled to Greensboro to spend the weekend with Matt and Erin. It was such a lovely time!
On his actual birthday, we ventured to Boone to see the leaves during Peak Weekend and spend some time with Wes and Cameon (who I think we saw in all total for maybe an hour). But Boone is so pretty in the fall!
This is the view from Wesley's deck at his townhouse. Check out how blue the sky is!

More Updates

I have filled up our kitchen space with my grandmother's kitchen table that is doubling right now as a buffet-type server. There is now a place to display our formal wedding china on a plate rack. I also took the same baker's rack that was in our rental (it was my aunt's) and painted it a glossy black (it was green). It was almost like getting a brand new piece of furniture for free!!


In the background of this silly photo, you can see the Christmas lights. I hope to have a more formal Christmas photo done in the next week or so for card-sending purposes. We were SO happy that day!!



The MASSIVE tree we have this year. Last year we were taller than the tree (and neither of us are that tall!). So, I'm definitely making up for that this year. We have lots of gifts under the tree for friends and family and that makes this time of year even more exciting!

Visual Cues

FINALLY!! I loaded some photos to Picasa (via Google) and have managed to "trick" blogger into loading my photos without having to go through the whole posting process. So, without any further ado, some new photos of Christmas decor...the images are small, but at least viewable!

The holidays is one of my favorite times and least favorite times of the year. It's been an amazing experience to decorate our own home this year. In fact, rumor has it that my family may actually be coming to our house for some Christmas fun! I can't wait!



I heart my Willow Tree Nativity. Johnathan and I have been working on getting it together for 2 years now. It looks so great on our sofa table!

I was really concerned that we wouldn't have a place to put our stockings this year because of our lack of a fireplace and therefore mantle. It was Mom's idea to hang them here over the newly framed kitchen cutout. We love our UNC stockings!

In the world of Renovation Station, we have FINALLY painted the guest bathroom. It's sage...and gorgeous! Johnathan did a great job getting the painting done so quickly (1 afternoon!).

We also furnished the office after Thanksgiving. It's so nice to have a space to work and have some quiet (or music) to work without so many distractions. It's a bit of our homage to our beloved Alma Mater. You can almost hear the sound of Charles Kuralt's voice...

I am SO excited about what's happening around here. Another post coming soon!

Test from Picasa

Our dining rom table set for Christmas. I LOVE this time of year because of the burst of color!

Coming Attractions

We are decorating the house for Christmas (it is, after all, the day after Thanksgiving!). Check back later for updated photos of the house AND my decorations. =0)

An overdue update

Whew! Time has FLOWN by on us! It's almost NOVEMBER (fall is my favorite season by far)! But, I must catch up on the end of the summer and some of our latest antics. For my 3 readers, here's what we've been doing:

1. Renovation Station: most of our home projects are on hold for right now until band season ends and the weather (finally) cools. It has just been too hot and the house is livable. We have finished painting the office so our next task will be to start moving the millions of boxes into the house and sorting them. I still have a guest bed/bath to paint before we can start having guests. We hope to resume around mid-November. Johnathan and I will also be hosting my parents and family for Christmas this year!

2. Band: we are moving right along with Marching Band this year. The kids are being successful and it makes the long days and nights TOTALLY worth it. The show is exciting and I LOVE working with band students. I will also be helping with the revival of indoor percussion at LHS this winter.

3. Work: I have settled into the rhythm of school and teaching. My new crop of students is challenging but fun. I really enjoy talking with them and getting to know who they are in order to help them learn.

4. Antics: We haven't done much since our adventure over Labor Day, but that is about to change! For Johnathan's birthday we ventured out to Boone for the day, and we will be in BEAUTIFUL Chapel Hill for UNC Homecoming 08! Excitement!

5. Other: we have actually been discussing a dog...Johnathan doesn't seem to mind what kind we get but he really wants one. We both LOVE beagles but I am afraid that we are too busy for a dog with that much energy! I really like dachshunds too, but I don't know what we will end up with or when. Only time will tell.

Basically, everything is going well and we're having a great time.