Happy New Years Eve!

Happy New Years Eve everyone!! 

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Now that NYE is officially here, I am busy planning what we will cook tomorrow. I love planning a little menu for a special day and as I mentioned, Stephen will be helping cook as well! He is looking for a beef briscuit today, but if he can't find one we will be doing smoked pork. I think I will make this dip for our black eyed pea fix, serve the fondue {how cute are the skewers above!} and then also make my favorite crock pot macaroni and cheese {I found the recipe in a magazine on our honeymoon and it's always a hit!} We also need some collards so that will be part of the menu as well. 

As of right now we actually don't even have a reservation for tonight {whoops!} so we might end up eating at Stephen's parents. I'm sure Weeks will be happier not being at a restaurant anyway, so that will be just fine. I'm looking forward to celebrating with my sweet, sweet boys and I hope we all have a wonderful, wonderful 2015. 

bhldn

Cheers to you all! 

xoxo.

Christmas and New Years Recap

In fear of being too late for the holiday recap to really mean much, I'm just going to let the pictures do the talking instead of giving details. We had the best Christmas with Weeks...it's so special to see it through a little one's eyes and remember what's really important.

....and a Happy New Year! 

Don't forget to check yesterday's post for a fun giveaway! 

Happy New Years Eve!

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New Years Eve sure rolled around fast, didn't it? I personally am happy to welcome a new year ahead. We had many blessings in 2013 but we also had our share of some heart aches. I finally, finally am old enough to understand the promise of a new year and starting off with goals in mind. I've always done a few but they've never really meant much. So I'm excited about some things on the horizon! 

Let's get down to business- what are y'alls plans for the night? First things first, we will be opening up a bottle of Veuve. Can't wait! We decided to go out to dinner with Weeks and Stephen's parents, and then we are stopping by our good friends/neighbors house for an oyster roast. Stephen's parents will watch Weeks while we visit with our friends, but I want to be home to kiss my baby on the head before midnight! 

As for New Years Day, I would like to wake up sans hangover and lounge around, play with Weeks and munch on some good food. Last year we were travelling on New Years Day and I'm looking forward to relaxation and soaking up time with my two boys!

If you are looking for a last minute appetizer for the New Years festivities, this Roast Beef Crostini looks absolutely divine. We will be making it either today or tomorrow. And, I was cracking up reading this article on the 13 People You Always See on New Years Eve. Ok, I'm guilty of a few from time to time. I love putting on party hats. I can get carried away :) Which one are you....please share! The horn abuser? The time lord?! Haha!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Let's make 2014 wonderful!

A Camera / Christmas / New Years

Better late than never right? Here's a peek at our Christmas and New Years. Stephen got me a new camera and let's just say I played with that thing for two days straight! I still have a ton of learning to do but I am loving what I have picked up on so far. I haven't had time to do much editing either, but I figured you would want to see these in January rather than February.

Prepare for dog picture overload. I ended up using all of the dogs as my muse for the photos- they were fairly cooperative and I loved getting their pictures! 

My sweet niece woke up briefly for Christmas photos...

Dixie wore some Christmas jammies.

And somebody fell asleep again...

Christmas Day we spent some time on the farm.

The next weekend we had a trip planned to Asheville, NC for my last long trip before the baby comes. My doctor doesn't recommend long travel after 30 weeks, I know each doctor varies on their beliefs for that issue. 

The cutest gingerbread house greeted us upon our arrival. We stay at a club that my Grandparents became members of long, long ago. Now my parents are members and we love visiting with so many memories already in place.

You may recognize this tree from a recent bump pic?

 A night out at the Biltmore for dinner...

New Years Eve I wore my first preggo dress! 

I bought this back in November thinking I would need it a lot sooner for parties in November and early December. Stephen clearly loves his hat I made him wear ;)

Dress / Earrings 

If you follow me on instagram, you saw that we took my Grandma to her retirement home party after our nice NYE dinner. This was totally unexpected but totally worth it. Yes, we spent part of our New Years Eve at a retirement community! My brother made sure to tag us on facebook that we were there too, I'm sure a lot of people laughed when they saw that one. It actually ended up being pretty cute to see. My Grandma was on top of the world that we took her! 

You can see the older folks exiting the party at 10 after the "ball dropped"....too much.

That pretty much sums up our holidays in a ton of pictures, are you still with me?

Also, I would love to hear your favorite photography site {user friendly for camera dummies like myself}, your pinterest board for photography tips, and any other advice you might want to pass my way!

To follow my photography pinterest board, see here. 

xoxo.

To 2012

Happy New Year everyone! I hope this post finds everyone enjoying their second day of the New Year and looking forward to all that is to come! Here is a quick photo recap of our New Years Eve celebration. We went out to dinner with a big group of fifteen friends, and celebrated "downtown" after that. We are in a small city, but I actually prefer a more low key celebration like that for New Years Eve. I found a black dress with a little beading on the neckline and painted my nails Turquoise and Caicos by Essie. Mint green is a little out of the box for me, but if you can't have a little fun on NYE, when can you?

Dinner with my hubby

With a few girlfriends after dinner

My friend Jenna and I, we wanted a photo of us bundled up in fur!

Toasting flutes in hand! If you look right above my head, you can see a red crab. This year, our town did a "Crab Drop" and it dropped at the stroke of midnight with everyone counting down in the street. It was actually pretty cute!

Our little cookie jar, I love the chalkboard on it!

So that was our NYE in a nutshell, we had so much fun with our friends! I wont lie, yesterday we were both very lazy and tired, so we hung around the house and napped, but we did manage to take the dogs on a really nice long walk. We also made sure to eat our black eyed peas and collard greens for good luck in the year to come (it's a southern thing, the collards are still growing on me...) So this brings me to a little list of goals for 2012- I'm not going to call them resolutions! 

1. Sometime in 2011 we began to take the dogs on frequent walks and I want to continue that all year long. This is not replacing working out by any means, it is an addition of exercise, but mainly for our dog's benefit more than our own. They love the word w-a-l-k!

2. I have several areas of the house I would like to tackle, but each of those deserves it's own little post so you will be seeing those in the near future. On the top of the list: paint almost every room, organize the laundry room and hopefully add chair rails and bead board in several rooms.

3. Health wise, we are trying to eat better by having salads for more meals. We actually started this last week and had salads for dinner three nights in a row! I feel like that was huge in itself!

4.On a personal level, I would like to see all of my relationships with God, friends, family and of course, my husband, continue to grow even better and stronger. That is always an important goal in my life.

5.This little blog is a great outlet for my creativity and energy and I enjoy it so much. I hope to see it grow and I also would like to finally take some time to paint and sell some of my art locally. I always say I am going to do this and it takes the backseat once we get busy here in the summer. Hopefully this winter I will have some time to do this.

So, how was your New Years Eve and start to 2012? I hope it was fabulous! And do you have any personal goals for yourself in the year to come? I still have a few things I want to recap from 2011 so I will be posting those over the next few days.

Happy first Monday of 2012!

xo.

New Years Eve!

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Wishing you and yours a wonderful New Years Eve and an amazing, happy, healthy & safe 2012! Cheers!