Our Sweet Southern Life

Love Week Recap!!

2015-02-19T12:39:00.001-05:00

I love Valentine's Day! Really, I love any excuse to dress my child in holiday themed clothing and give each other special things!! Last Monday we didn't have such a great start to our week so I decided after school we definitely needed a special trip to Krispy Kreme and to Barnes and Noble to read some books and play with the lego table.

We made special Valentine's to send to our family in the mail and then for Audrey's class we did Olaf Valentine's with hugs. I said I was never going to send candy to school with my child for Valentine's day (boy the things you say you will never do) but Olaf is her absolute favorite. So, warm hugs it was. Not to mention I had already printed off and cut out color my world labels for her to take crayons to her friends. Oh well!! She was able to help me out with these by counting out her hugs for each bag. For her teachers, we did the EOS monster valentines, lotion, and some Hershey hugs as well.

On Saturday morning, we had chocolate chip pancakes and exchanged gifts. Audrey got some books, The Little Mermaid, and pajamas. She and I gave Ray a new pillow and some of his favorite chips that you have to order online because nothing says love like a bag of potato chips. They gave me a new family charm for my Pandora bracelet.

"Here Daddy, so you can sleep good!!"

Later in the day, Audrey and I made some Valentine's cupcakes and a heart shaped cake. She acted as if the cake was her smash cake and went to town on the icing.

Saturday afternoon I met Casey for a Galentine's Starbucks latte and a pedicure. We also went all over the place looking for some gloves and snow pants for Audrey in preparation of the ice storm, but apparently stores around here are ready for Summer because all we found were bathing suits.

We took a fun family Valentine's date to get Audrey's first hair cut when I got home. She did great with the actual hair cut but she was not about to let them shampoo her hair or wear the "princess cape."

....and then we celebrated with a trip to Monterrey's for some "chips and cheese" as Audrey would say, going out to eat chips and cheese may be her favorite thing to do these days!!

Circus!!

2015-02-04T11:03:00.002-05:00

This past Saturday the circus was in town, so we headed to the 11 show that morning. We made a pit stop at Krispy Kreme. This was Audrey's first Krispy Kreme trip and I think even her first Krispy Kreme donut! She may have liked it just as well as she liked the circus! It was such a fun morning, her favorite was the dog act, I think this may have been because they also played Shake it Off during their performance, haha, she is obsessed with that song!

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Insta January....

2015-02-03T10:58:00.001-05:00

So the other night I caught my blog up on Ray's ipad. He was just checking up because I said I was going to start blogging again, haha. Well.....I managed to blog once in the month of January which I guess is better than not at all. Now it's February and here I am, progress slowly but surely right? I really can't believe how fast the first month of the year flew by, usually I feel like January is a bit of a drag. Here is our recap in instagram fashion of course! :)

Ray and I have been going on date nights on Wednesdays while Audrey spends some time with Nana and Papa. We have fallen in love with Dave and Buster's since Greenville got one. We ate there twice and then had the grand idea we could have dinner elsewhere and then go there after for games. So. Much. Fun.

Audrey and I enjoyed a little date for some jumping fun to Gravitopia one random day when we had nothing better to do!

Daddy finally gave Audrey her very first bowl of popcorn!! We took a trip to see Meme and Daddy B. to give them our couch for their playroom.
We spent MLK day with Jami and Paige at their house. The girls had so much fun playing together!
Fridays have become family movie night and pizza at our house! Times are getting crazy I tell you!

....and on a school related note, we celebrated the 100th day, only 80 more to go!!!

Recap of 2014....

2015-01-07T11:03:00.002-05:00

My full intention and main resolution for the new year is to get back to blogging. I honestly haven't blogged in months because our computer all but crashed. But thanks to Santa and Daddy B. we now have a brand new one so maybe that will be incentive enough to get back into blogging. I love looking back and seeing what was going on in our lives. We definitely had a busy 2014. Our very first house in Pendleton went on the market in October of 2013 and we started off the year with our house selling, very bittersweet. I didn't realize how sad I would be when that day came or how complicated and frustrating it can be to house hunt. I always thought that would be the most exciting thing every and I am sure it may be to a patient individual, but that is one thing this girl could use a little more of.

It was also a very cold winter for South Carolina and we were lucky enough to be out of school a few days in January and almost a week in February. This gave me time to start packing up our house and some extra snuggle days with Audrey of course. We had a snow day on Valentine's day and Audrey and I celebrated with a lunch date to Chic-Fila. We moved out of our house the end of February and into my dear friend Casey's townhouse in Mauldin for a month and a half.

Luckily, not long after we moved, we made an offer on our house! March also brought warmer weather around here and tubes for Miss Audrey. Everyone kept telling me how tubes would be the best thing every but I didn't realize how true those words were. She had about 12 ear infections before the tubes went in and we haven't had one in almost a year now!

We moved into our new house in April at the beginning of my Spring Break, so that was consumed with unpacking and a trip to IKEA for playroom shelves. We spent Easter in Dillon and Joy, Julie Ann and I went to see Darius Rucker while we were there.

May was a little quieter with school winding down, thank goodness. I think the only thing we really did in May was some strawberry picking and Mother's Day celebrations! Oh, and we spent Memorial Day weekend with Jami and Paige on the lake. Joy, Audrey, and I went on Saturday to play with them and had so much fun we took Ray back on Sunday.

Summertime included our family beach trip and lots of fun resting and relaxing with Audrey. We definitely enjoyed our summer out of school. We took lots of trips to Hollywild, the children's museums, and enjoyed lots of lunch dates.

In July, I also went to Vegas with some girls that I work with for the National Kindergarten conference. We had so much fun!!

Right before school started back in August, we went to Dillon for Grandma Russie's 97th birthday party and Audrey also spent a week in Dillon with Meme and Daddy B. while I attended a training for work. Joy also moved from Charleston to Greenville and moved in with us for awhile to get settled in her new town and start looking at houses.

We also celebrated Audrey's second birthday in August. Ray and I took her to Atlanta for the weekend and went to the GA aquarium and took a trip to Babyland General CPK Hospital. It was so much fun and Audrey enjoyed her first over night stay in a hotel.

Her actual birthday was on a Sunday and we were at home. We had a little party with Nana and Papa and Rachel and Charlie. The next weekend we went to Dillon where she had a little party there as well. We basically celebrated for three weekends in a row! Her big gift from us was her Kidkraft kitchen which she loves!!

Our highlight of September was a trip to Skytop Apple Orchard. I love this place and look forward to this outing every year and of course they have the best apple donuts around!!

In October, Ray surprised me with tickets to see Garth Brooks in Atlanta! We had a fun over night baby free date that was absolutely amazing!!

We also took our annual trip to Denver Downs right before Halloween to pick pumpkins.

We also went to McArthur Farms with Daddy B. and Meme for Daddy's B.'s work family fun day!!

Joy made us matching candy corn costumes for Halloween. They were absolutely precious and we took a trip to the zoo for Boo in the Zoo. It was so much fun! On Halloween night, we stuck around the neighborhood and Audrey had a blast trick or treating!

In November, Audrey and I went with Ray to our only football game of the year and we had so much fun!! For a second I thought maybe we should have accompanied him to more for the season, just for a second.

We hosted Thanksgiving for the first time ever and it was actually so nice being at home. Ray's parents and Rachel, Charlie, Halle, and Cannon came. Thursday night I actually got to go shopping with Casey for a little bit which was a rare treat since we normally are in Dillon for Black Friday shopping. On Friday, Audrey went to Meme and Daddy B.'s and we all went to the Biltmore house.

My parents came up on Sunday after Thanksgiving to bring Audrey home and also stay for my birthday! We got to make our first trip to Hollywild to see Christmas lights! Audrey definitely made the Christmas season lots of fun this year. We kicked off the season on my birthday with a North Pole breakfast, Audrey came obsessed with all things Elf and Rudolph, and she was so excited for Christmas morning because Santa was going to bring Thomas! Anytime you asked her what Santa was bringing her she said "just Thomas." We also had a Christmas play date at our house with Jami and Paige, made lots of Christmas goodies, and went to see lights several times. Audrey and I went to Dillon on Tuesday before Christmas and Ray came on Wednesday. He was able to stay until Sunday, which is probably the longest he has been able to stay and it was really nice.

For New Year's Eve, we had our friends Erin and Dave over for dinner and just to hang out and watch the ball drop. Audrey went and spent the night with Nana and Papa and we just had a relaxing old folks evening. It was so much fun. We started the New Year off right with lunch at P.F. Chang's before they went back to Columbia.

2014 was definitely an eventful year for us, I can't wait to see what 2015 has in store!

Children's Musuem Play Date....

2014-05-23T09:23:00.000-04:00

The last weekend in April Jami and Paige came to see our new house and we took a little trip to the Children's Museum. The girls had so much fun. Audrey had woken up way too early that morning so by lunch time she was ready to go home and eat lunch and take a nap. I will just let the pictures do the talking for most of this post.

Checking out each other's groceries. Audrey did not want to leave the grocery section!

Audrey wasn't a big fan of the water area.

Afterwards, we came back to our house and had a spaghetti lunch on our kitchen floor since our breakfast table had not arrived yet, Audrey took a nap, and Jami, Paige, and I played outside for a bit before they packed up and headed back to Greenwood.

Easter...

2014-05-23T07:58:00.001-04:00

I know Easter was a month ago and I have just now posting about it but I am slowly but surely getting caught up on our happenings the last couple of months. Maybe come summer this blogging thing can become more of a habit, we will see if I am successful at that summer goal. We were in Dillon for Easter and Mom's birthday. That Saturday morning Ray met us there.

My wonderful sister made our dresses this year and even made Ray a matching tie. We love dresses from Tanta.

The Easter bunny came to Mimi's after church on Easter and then he had made his way to our house before we got home.

In Mimi and Daddy B.'s Easter basket she got the cutest Mudpie giraffe dress, two sippy cups, snack containers, bunny ear, puffs (which were probably her favorite thing in her basket), and some books.

In the Easter basket at our house she got bubbles, a lamb, her beaufort bonnet of course, sand toys, crayons and a coloring tablet, a new bathing suit and sun hat, and flip flops.

Spring Break....

2014-05-06T09:10:00.002-04:00

I am really trying to get caught up on blogging because I really miss blogging about everyday things yet I feel like I can't do that until I get caught up on the things I really want to document! Our Spring Break started with us finally moving into our new house!! We are so glad to finally be in but still have to much to do. I didn't realize how long it would take us to actually get settled. We still are waiting on our breakfast table which will be here Thursday!! We are also waiting on a tv stand for the den, right now we are using our old coffee table. Sooo needless to say I haven't taken pictures of the inside yet to share. These are a few that were on Zillow when the house was listed.

I am so excited about our backyard. Right now it looks pretty bare but my goal is to make look a lot like the previous owners had it!

My parents and sister came up on Friday, April 11th to help us start moving. We worked all weekend with the exception of Ray and I going out to dinner for our anniversary on Saturday night!

On Sunday, Audrey went home with my Mom and Dad to spend the week in Dillon and Joy stayed to helped me unpack for a few more days. Monday came around and we decided we needed a break from doing things in the house so we headed to Charlotte for a trip to IKEA. We also ate a yummy lunch at P.F. Chang's. It was my very first trip!!

We were able to get Audrey bookcases, baskets, and a table and chairs for her playroom. The only room in the house that is somewhat like what I have in mind for it. I still need to get a chair or some sort of seating in there and I am going to put her birthday posters on the wall.

Tuesday was my Mom's birthday so Joy and I headed to Dillon for the rest of the week. We had birthday dinner at Outback and then my Dad threw her a little dessert party once we got home.

The rest of the week we just relaxed, ate way too much, and did a little shopping.

Joy's roommate Julie Ann came up on Friday and we headed to Fayetteville for the Corey Smith, Eli Young Band, and Darius Rucker concert.

School Days.....

2014-04-30T08:50:00.001-04:00

Audrey's teachers have started sending me pictures of her having fun at school. I absolutely love getting pictures of her throughout the day and she is having a ball at school these days. She only has about a month left at her current school and we are going to be so sad when we have to move her, but since we moved we are driving over an hour out of the way each day so she could finish out the school year where she started school in August.

They had an egg hunt on our moving day! She had a blast and I was a little sad I couldn't be there but Miss Autumn took plenty of pictures!!

March Playdate....

2014-04-28T11:14:00.004-04:00

The weekend before St. Patrick's Day, Audrey and I headed to Greenwood to play with Jami and Paige. The girls had a great time playing outside almost all day, especially Audrey who was so excited to be outdoors in a new place. Our outside time is just a bit less than Paige's. We got to see their new house and have a yummy lunch and just let the girls play. It was very nice and relaxing!

Tubes...

2014-04-28T09:41:00.003-04:00

Audrey got tubes on March 27th so we have had them exactly a month now and have not been to the dr. once for an ear infection. This is a big deal for us, I would say they are definitely doing their job. Her speech has gotten so much better in the past month as well. I know this could also be the age, but I definitely think the tubes have helped in that area as well.

While we were waiting they turned on Disney Jr and she was just fine!

That afternoon we were able to have a lazy day at home. The recovery was definitely very quick. She was back to her old self not long after getting home from the hospital. We even went out for yogurt that afternoon!

St. Patrick's Day...

2014-03-18T12:28:00.002-04:00

Our St. Patrick's Day started with a visit to the ENT yesterday to have this little girls ears examined since we have had about seven ear infections in the last year. It was decided as we all knew it would be that she should probably go ahead and get tubes. She goes Friday for a hearing test to make sure the fluid hasn't made her hearing muffled and then we will schedule a date for the tubes. Ray met me there and thank goodness he did because Audrey didn't want to sit still and so I entertained her while he filled out all the new patient paperwork. We had a wait a good little while, but when we finally got into the office, she was happy to sit in the cool chair.
After her appointment, she went to school for a couple hours and apparently had a big time. Her teacher has been sending me pictures lately and I love it when I get them throughout my day.

Once we got home, we made a little St. Patrick's day handprint that I had been meaning to make for a couple of weeks now and then had broccoli and kiwi for our green dinner!

Once dinner was done I told Audrey to go find a book for us to read and I would be there in a minute. When I walked in the den I found she had climbed onto the couch, book in hand, already reading away! Makes my heart happy!

The Weekend...

2014-03-18T11:10:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, Audrey and I headed to Dillon to visit Mimi and Daddy B. Joy came home too and we had a great time. Friday night we were supposed to go to Shuler's to eat dinner, but about an hour from home, Audrey threw up everywhere! This was her very first experience throwing up and doing it in the car all over everything was no fun. I pulled over, we somehow managed to get clean, and finished our trip. When we got to Dillon, poor girl pretty much went straight to bed. She seemed fine though when she woke up Saturday. She had watched a movie in the car for the first time ever and this happened right after the movie went off so I am thinking she may have gotten car sick.

Saturday, Joy and I went and had lunch while Audrey stayed with Mimi. After her nap, Katharine and Emmy came home and we got to meet Emmy for the first time! I will add pictures of their first meet up after Katharine post them because of course I didn't take any myself. :)

Saturday night we went to Shuler's to celebrate my uncle's birthday. Audrey had a big time looking at the ducks!!

.....and then we came home and just hung around for awhile until it was bedtime. It was definitely a nice relaxing weekend.

After church and lunch on Sunday, Mrs. Susan and Dorothy came to visit for a little while and then Audrey and I packed up and headed back to the upstate.

5 On Friday...

2014-03-18T11:02:00.000-04:00

***Just realized today that this was somehow never posted on Friday...so here it is....

This week has flown by to me and I am definitely not complaining about it. Not that it has been a bad week but Audrey and I are heading to Dillon this afternoon and we can't wait to get there. Here are a few highlights from our week.

1. Monday it was so nice out, Audrey and I headed to a park that will be near our new house when we move in and had a great time. We ended our date by picking up Chic-Fila for dinner!

2. Cowboy Casserole: Tuesday night I made this yummy recipe from Taste of Home. Not the healthiest of casseroles but oh so good and Audrey loved it. I will definitely be making it again pretty soon.

3. Wednesday was the most windy day we have had ever I do believe without it storming. Audrey had a hard time standing up when we went to take Layla out!!

4. Last night we went on a little date with Ray to eat dinner at Red Robin and then to Lowe's to look for a new refrigerator. I think we have narrowed that down. Audrey had a big time running around the appliances.

5. Audrey has gotten two new teachers in her classroom in the last month that we absolutely love. This is one of them and she sent me this picture of her and Audrey making their "stank" faces this morning!!

Happy Friday!!!

February......

2014-03-10T12:20:00.000-04:00

*I went to the new Blowdry bar in Greenville for my very first blowout. It was definitely something I will be doing again! I was able to go two days without doing anything to my hair!

*My parents came up for a visit and Mom, Audrey, and I went shopping and had a lunch date at California Dreaming.

*We continued our search for a new house, put an offer on one, and it was accepted!! Now we are just waiting to close on April 4th!

*We had another big snow for the south and were out of school for almost an entire week!!

*We celebrated Valentine's Day at home with a snow day! Audrey and I enjoyed a lunch date to Chic-Fila where she got her first ever kids meal.

*Joy came up for a visit and we enjoyed a nice Sunday outside. The weekend after the big snow it was 70 degrees!

*We spend our last week in our very first house and then moved to Casey's for the month of March!!

January....

2014-03-05T12:36:00.003-05:00

We have been busy busy this year so far selling our house, buying a new house, and moving and it is just March!! In January we....

*Sold our very first home! Audrey and I had gone to Dillon for MLK weekend and we knew there was a possibility that a couple would be putting an offer on our house that weekend. Ray called us on Saturday night with the offer and we accepted!! Our house had been on the market since the end of October, but we were in the mindset that we didn't really care how long it took to sell so we feel that it sold pretty quickly!!

*We had our first delay of the Winter and not because of snow but because of frigid temperatures. I love living in the South!!

*Audrey got a big girl pillow for her crib.

*We went back to the doctor because of yet another ear infection.
*Audrey got to see snow for the very first time! We had two snows within weeks of each other which never happens around here! The first one being at the end of January. We got out of school early on a Tuesday and didn't have to go back until Thursday and had a delay then!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

2014-02-13T20:42:00.001-05:00

A couple weeks back we went on a Monday afternoon (first sign it was a bad idea) to a Valentine mini session. Well, Miss Priss decided she didn't want her picture taken that day apparently and didn't really cooperate so we didn't get very many great pictures for Valentine's Day cards this year.

This probably would have been a great picture, but at this point I had called it a day and given in the the pacifier.

The Great Clean Out...

2014-01-09T11:19:00.003-05:00

Right after Christmas while Joy and I were still in Dillon we had the great idea to clean out our old playroom and the storage areas in Mom's house that were filled with our old toys and obviously stuffed animals!! I don't think we realized what a job it was going to be before we got started. It took us three days of nothing but cleaning, throwing out, and organizing!! We threw out around 40 bags of trash, 5 or 6 being nothing but old magazines and gave aways 7 boxes to a thrift store in Dillon and 2 huge bins of books were taken to the library. We decided that there is such a thing as a house having too many storage areas. We cleaned out two of her storage areas that are the size of small bedrooms, one small dormer area in my bedroom, and a dormer storage area the length of the playroom which is pretty long as it is the room over the garage. There is still a whole lot of other areas that were left untouched!! But once we finished we had a nice new playroom for Audrey and we actually had a pretty fun time at some points looking at all the stuff we found!!

The pile of stuffed animals and dolls was massive!! We actually kept a lot of them and then made bags of the other for Mom to take somewhere to have them shipped over seas for kids.

We found Kool-Aid kid and Pee Wee, yep we were pretty cool.

Joy couldn't party with her puppy surprise dogs. Anybody else remember these. They have puppies in the belly and you never knew how many puppies were inside until you bought one!!

I found this classic picture of Kristin and I from a spend the night party many, many years ago!!

.....need I say more..We did put this in the giveaway or maybe even trash pile, but don't worry I kept my New Kids sleeping bag.

the due box from a club.....too bad no dues were in it.

I also ended up cleaning out my closet and realized when our house was renovated a couple years back the painters so kindly painted around Kristin writing on my closet wall once upon a time when I was grounded from playing with her for a whole month!! We of course thought we could be sneaky and get away with her hiding out in my bedroom. Yea, we definitely got caught!

This is just one of the piles of trash that was taken off. The first pile got picked up the day before!!
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Audrey thought her new playroom was better than Christmas morning!!

New Year's Eve....

2014-01-07T20:42:00.003-05:00

New Year's Eve this year was spent in Dillon. Ray had to work and we didn't have any plans so Audrey and I decided to stay and hang out with the family a little longer. You know it is a sign you are getting old when you start your New Year's Eve evening with a trip to the small local movie theater to see Madea with the parents. I haven't been to this theater in soooo long, actually not at all since they have renovated and re-opened, but you can tell it is definitely in a small town just from looking at the pictures. If that's not enough for you we got a large popcorn, two medium drinks, m&m's, and a water for $10.73. I was so shocked I took a picture! That would have been like 50 bucks anywhere else.
While we were at the movies, Joy, Julie Ann, and Dorothy were so sweet as to babysit Audrey and put her to bed so when we got home we could ring in the new year with s'mores and hot chocolate...yet another sign of old age, but I wouldn't have had it any other way!!

My Dad's first s'more ever!!

Joy, Julie Ann, and I actually made it until right before midnight sitting out by the fire and then we decided we would go in and watch the ball drop before heading to bed!! Crazy night I tell ya!!

Our Christmas...

2014-01-06T20:54:00.003-05:00

We had a great two weeks off and enjoyed every second of our Christmas vacation. We even got in a routine of sleeping in until around 8:30-9 and so you know this morning was a definite rude awakening in our household. Luckily the cold weather came in and we get to stay in bed a little later in the morning as well so we can ease back into the real world.

Our Christmas started on the 22nd with Ray's family. Sadly we didn't get any pictures that night, but we definitely had lots of yummy food and it is always a treat to get to spend time with Rachel, Charlie, Halle and Cannon. Audrey loved playing with Halle, I really wish I would have taken a picture of the two of them, they were too cute together.

On Monday afternoon, Audrey and I headed to Dillon and Ray came shortly after work. Christmas Eve morning, Joy and Audrey had a book opening session. We had gotten a little behind on opening a book a night when Audrey was sick and we were in survival mode so we had a couple to open and read.

We also did some last minute stocking stuffer shopping around town and then got ready and headed to the Christmas Eve service at church. Sadly, this was the best picture we got as a family all Christmas break. Luckily Daddy B. took lots of video on Christmas morning.

After church we got in our pjs and Daddy B. read Audrey The Night Before Christmas in his office.

Christmas morning we woke up around 8 and Santa had come!! We opened gifts for quite awhile, took a break and ate breakfast and then got back to opening gifts and stockings. Audrey loved every minute of it and had a hard time deciding what to play with.

One of my favorite gifts we got was matching dresses from Aunt Joy. Ray even got a matching seersucker tie and Audrey got bows as well to go with each dress!! She had been hard at work sewing for us.
The day after Christmas Joy, Julie Ann, and I did a little outlet shopping at the beach and then the next day Joy, Mom, and I went to Florence. Mom and Audrey had a big time riding the train at the mall.

Audrey also had lots of fun getting to play with Layla!! She misses her puppy, although I am not sure Layla feels the same. She is staying at Mimi and Daddy B's house while our house is on the market and I think she is probably liking the vacation from the toddler.

One thing Audrey got in her stocking was bubble bath and so she took her very first bubble bath in Mimi's bathtime while we were in Dillon!!

We spent lots and lots of time in our pjs too. Audrey had a great time lounging around just playing and Joy and I were busy cleaning out storage spaces at Mom's after Christmas...a whole post is coming on that!

Sick, Sick, Sick...

2014-01-03T23:27:00.002-05:00

The week before Christmas, Audrey woke up on Tuesday morning not feeling well, (Dec. 17). I left school early to take her to the doctor and it turns out she had pink eye and RSV which put her out of school for the rest of the week!! Wednesday and Thursday I stayed home from work with her and she was pretty pitiful. She has been sick her fair share, but I think this one really knocked her down more than the rest.

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It didn't stop us from dressing up in her sweet Christmas outfits though!!

....Thursday afternoon she seemed to be feeling a little better and we were able to get some Christmas painting in!!

....and even though she ran a fever for a solid 6 days, by the weekend she was feeling much better and apparently ready to go shopping!!

My Christmas Wish List..

2013-12-13T21:05:00.000-05:00

Ray and my Mom both have been asking for a Christmas list and since Ray and I are going shopping tomorrow, I decided I better get on it!!

1. Hunter Rain Boots: I feel like these would be a nice staple to add to my closet in a basic color.

2. Gold Monogram Necklace

3. C. Wonder Monogrammed Tote: A nice, better priced alternative to the Burberry purse

4. A Nice Blue Topaz Ring that has silver and gold incorporated

5. David Yurman Pearl Cable Bracelet to match my ring

6. Burberry Purse

7. Lilly Pulitzer Puffer Vest in Tropical Pink

8. Gift Cards are always good....

9. and one I forgot to add are Pandora charms for my bracelet

PJ Party Link Up....

2013-12-10T08:46:00.001-05:00

Today, I am linking up with Darci, Ashley, Jenny, Natasha, and Julie for their PJ party link up!!! Go visit one of them to link up as well!!

I absolutely adore Christmas pjs and we have a ton. I was going to do pictures for this post, but of course didn't and so some of my favorite pjs didn't make the cut. I am sure you will see them before it is all said and done. So here are some of my phone pics of pjs....

I really, really, really love our Blanks PJ's I got for both Audrey and I this year. I really wish I would have bought the matching pants for Ray and made him suck it up and wear them on Christmas Eve at least for a picture, but of course I didn't. Next year though!!!

My Mom got her these from Belk and they are so soft and I love the way they look on!! I think the brand is Little Me.

You can barely see these and please excuse her tree, it is definitely a work in progress. I paid next to nothing for it at Kohl's last year after Christmas, but I would have been not a happy girl if I would have paid full price and got this, because original price was not cheap! These pjs are from amazon and they are Leveret....Love, love, love this brand!! In case you can't tell, they are gingerbread.

Just reading in our bed in her sleep sack and penguin pjs from Children's Place.

These present pjs are also from The Children's Place.

Both of the two pictures above are Carter's pjs I got after Christmas last year. Casey and I went shopping and racked up on the Christmas pjs at the outlets in January. I think it is going to become a tradition. We already have our shopping date for this January picked out!

These are Old Navy and I love them as well, she is getting more Old Navy pjs from Santa I believe.

.....and finally more Carter's!!

The Weekend...

2013-12-09T12:27:00.002-05:00

This past weekend, Audrey and I packed up and headed to Dillon once again. We actually left on Thursday afternoon and made it just in time for Daddy B.'s employee Christmas part at our house. Audrey had a big time playing the piano and visiting with everyone.

On Friday morning, we woke up and went to the beach for some Christmas shopping with Mom, although Audrey was the only one that ended up getting anything.

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She had a big time in Barnes and Noble playing with the train table.

Saturday morning, Ray sent me this picture to let me know our order from Beaufort Bonnets had come in!! To say I was excited was an understatement. I love, love, love these and their customer service is unreal. I ordered two monogrammed bonnets last weekend and even in the midst of fufilling Christmas orders, they still got them to me in less than a week!

Saturday night, Mom, Dad, Grandma Russie, Joy, Audrey, and I headed to Bennettsville for another Christmas party for Dad's work. Audrey definitely wasn't too impressed with their Santa, although she even got a toy from him!

When we got home, she opened her advent book and her and Mimi read it together before bedtime!!

After church and lunch on Sunday, we put on our pjs for the drive back. It was just a rainy, dreary kinda of pj day, so I decided we should wear them for the drive.

....and as soon as we got home we had to try on one of our bonnets that had arrived on Saturday!!

Our Thanksgiving...

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We had such a great Thanksgiving week. I know three days off for Thanksgiving is probably more than most people, but I really think we should have the whole week. I actually think Thanksgiving and Christmas Break should be combined and once you are off for Thanksgiving, you don't have to go back to work until January. Not sure why nobody else has picked up on that memo yet. Last week was an extremely cold one for SC in November, we usually have pretty nice temperatures still lingering at this time of year, but this year the week started out in the 30's with rain and a chance of snow and ice Of course, we never ended up getting any of the good snow, but were thankful by Wednesday the rain was gone and Audrey and I were able to head to Dillon. We arrived around two and my sister was already there. Ray came in around 7 and then his parents came in Thursday morning.

Thursday morning of course started out with a little parade watching...

We had a big Thanksgiving lunch and then Audrey, Mom, and I went over to my Grandmother's to visit. They have tons of Christmas decorations over there and shes loves to look at all of it!!

Of course a good part of Thursday afternoon also involved looking at the sales papers. When we realized that Black Friday shopping apparently started at 6pm this year we decided to be part of the naughty crowd that took advantage of it. I have never been one to get up at 3am to stand in lines before now so I had no clue what to expect getting to places before they actually opened. Oh my goodness, it was crazy!! Who knew people would have all out fights over boots that were on sale for $19.99. Seriously, people! We fought our way through Belk without even stopping it was so crazy. We went to Old Navy and picked up a few things and although we had to wait about thirty minutes to actually get into the store, they were doing it right by not letting everybody in at one time. We also went to Wal-Mart, Babies R Us, Target, and Best Buy. Ray wanted to buy a new tv for our bedroom and had his eye on one from Best Buy, but decided he would pay a little more and get it from Sears so he wouldn't have to wait in a crazy long line and then not be guaranteed the tv. So basically, we were out people watching instead of doing serious shopping.

We got home about midnight and then woke up at around 7:30 and headed to Raleigh where our biggest purchases were jeans from Nordstrom Rack, we each got two pairs for quite the deal! I also got a new black coat from Loft that I have been needing and love it.

Joy was really excited to buy some new candles from Bath and Body Works!! Ray was just being a good sport.

Joy and I always end our shopping trip by buying matching pajamas from Old Navy to wear on the car ride home.

Audrey also did a little Black Friday of her own, picking out her wishes from American Girl. She really hopes that Santa brings her a bitty baby.

We ended our Thanksgiving weekend by going to Sheff's to eat seafood on Saturday night for my birthday and of course wearing our first Christmas outfit!!!

Halloween Week....

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Halloween is definitely a much busier holiday for us now that we have Audrey around. Even though I don't love Halloween and really don't even want to think of it as Halloween but Fall Celebrations, I was excited to make her teacher cute gifts and pick out a cute costume for her. I know as she gets older she will probably refer to the holiday as Halloween just because that will be what she hears at school but I prefer not to celebrate Halloween, especially the evil of the holiday. We will definitely always be surrounded by happy costumes and treats instead of witches, ghosts, and evil spirits in this house.

I went shopping on Sunday night for our things we needed for the week and while at Target picked up Audrey's goodies from "The Great Pumpkin."

One of my sweet students mama's who does all of Audrey's appliqued and monogrammed stuff for the most part made her this bucket and then at Target I just bought her the Biscuit book, which she absolutely loved, the cabbage patch doll dressed as a bunny, and a set of keys because she likes to play with mine so much. Of course, she still prefers mine even though hers make noise and everything.

That Monday, we met Casey downtown for a nice walk and dinner at Audrey's favorite, Papa's and Beer.

I also went ahead and got her teacher gifts ready for Thursday!! I of course found this cute soap idea and label on pinterest and got to work.

...on the back, I put these labels on the bags that I found on Etsy.

I also made these caramel apple mini muffins for Ray to take to work. I used this recipe. They turned out really good.

Wednesday night we went with Ray's parents to their church Fall Festival. Audrey had a lot of fun, but just wanted to run around all by herself so that made for chasing her around all night! After that we decided we would stay in on Thurday, take a stroll through the neighborhood, and hand out candy and that is just what we did.

All ready for school on Thursday morning, right after opening her treats from "The Great Pumpkin."

Thursday afternoon, I did take her to Westminister so Tiffiney could take a cute picture in her costume. She was doing free Halloween pictures at her studio. I thought her turned out so cute:

...and that was our Halloween week....

I took this picture a couple of weeks before that, but just wanted to post in here because I thought her facial expression was just so funny! :)