Christmas.

Christmas has come and gone and the new year is just around the corner. Literally... like 2.5 hours away.

Here's the recap in pictures:

9th Annual Gingerbread Decorating Party.

 2nd Annual trip to Opryland Hotel Visit (with dinner at iHop).

Trip to Atlanta with Steven's Mom (where we picked up an art easel for Reanna)... 

followed by LOTS of present wrapping.

 Christmas Eve at Steven's parents... there were lots of presents for the kiddos.

 Opening presents with each other on Christmas day at 12:30 am.

Snow Day!!!

Jay in his funny face protector and with my glove off, it looks like I'm missing a limb... here ya go Mom, the picture you asked for :)

The Maupins :)

Steven and I just got back from 4 days at Fall Creek Falls with his ENTIRE family... all 75 or so of us.

 The bottom of the falls were COVERED in ice and snow. It was gorgeous!

Needless to say, the past couple of weeks have been super busy wrapping up last minute shopping and making sure to squeeze in visits with friends who were in town. I'm ready to ring in the new year and see what 2011 has to offer!

Christmas

I am so excited that Christmas is just around the corner! I have spent hours looking for the perfect gifts and then wrapping those babies. I have spent hours making (yes, making!) decorations for over the fireplace. I have baked until I can bake no more.. that's a lie. I can always bake more.

BUT, the one thing I really want to do is paint. I want to paint my entire house. I want to decorate and my it my home. I want to hang new curtains and fill in all the little holes in the walls. I want to caulk the space between the bookcase and the ceiling.

I guess what I really want for Christmas is time to do all of this :)

homeowners

I've been hesitant to post anything about what Steven and I have really been up to for the past couple of months. There's been some family drama in the past, but tonight I can officially say that Steven and I are homeowners!!!

I've rented the house my grandmother owns for the past 3 years. She fell and broke her hip 3 years ago and had to move into an assited living home, but to keep insurance on her house, someone had to live there. So, my two roomates and I rented the house. Then when Steven and I got married, we continued to rent.

After a couple of months of marriage we began working with a mortgage company to see what we could afford and it turns out that we were able to purchase this home.

While today was a very exciting day, we were REALLY disappointed that TTU sent Steven more revisions on his Masters Thesis. It's due tomorrow and he stayed up till 2:30am last night(this morning) to finish it because we knew we would be closing on the house today and had tickets to the Titans game tonight.

Turns out that the graduate office didn't send him all the revisions and we weren't able to go to the game tonight, but since the grad office didn't call until 5:30 and we had dinner reservations (thanks to the attorney who did the closing for us!) we couldn't find anyone to take the tickets... we are at home watching the game and Steven is killing himself to finish this thing so he can graduate this winter.

Sidenote - He originally turned the thesis in 2 weeks ago and the grad office didn't send it back to him until Tuesday... so he worked all night to finish it.... and the grad office is contridicting itself on the rules of formatting. Boo.

House.

We are this close to being homeowners. And I could just do cart wheels right now. I am excited to start a new chapter in our lives. I'm ecstatic because we've rented for so long. I'm ready to start decorating MY house... and here's something I fell in love with over at The Brick Cottage. 

holidays.

It's hard to believe we are SO close to Thanksgiving! I have been extremely busy the past couple of weeks... dealing with the mortgage company and trying to get a contract executed for the house we are trying to purchase. It also complicated things that I was out of town this past week presenting at a conference for social media. Yes, I presented and it went so well!

Today Steven and I went with his family on a walk to Radnor Lake. Afterwards, he went with his uncles to go rock climbing and I went with mom to visit our neighbors lake house. It was gorgeous! They just finished rennovating and it was stunning.

I am really excited about this coming weekend. We'll be celebrating Thanksgiving with both of our fmilies and then we'll head to Gatlinburg with his family for the weekend.

So ready for a break :)

Working Out.

I have never been the girl to voluntarily work out. NEVER. My dad likes to remind me that when I played soccer in 3rd grade, I played mid-field. I stood in the middle of the field and watched the game. Don't get me wrong. I love to play sports. I played tennis all through high school and was pretty darn good, but I hated (I mean loathed, I mean with all my heart avoided) conditioning.

Fast forward to my sophomore year of college when I was a walk-on for the tennis team. First day of fall practice... run a mile. I about DIED. I was the last girl to finish and I'm sure the coach was thinking "What I have done!" But, over the entire year I worked really hard. I was determined not to be the last girl to finish. By that winter I was running 4 miles... and only have to walk every now and then. By the end of that year I could run 4 miles really easily and was stoked. I didn't continue to play after that year, but man was I in shape. Too bad I didn't keep up with it.

I've never been the skinny girl, but always the athletic tall girl. I am 5'9" and always loved to eat. Last Janurary, I made it a goal to work out at least 5 days a week and get in shape for the wedding. I even lost 3 inches off my waist!!! Then, wedding time came and I was way too busy and dropped the workouts. And then post-wedding time came and I was eating whatever and not working out.

Well, this past Monday I decided to start working out again. Just to get back in shape... and to lose the muffin top over my jeans :)

I'm really proud of myself. I've worked out my 5 days this week!!! I need to focus on eating a little better, but my goal was to start working out and I did it!

Now, let's just see how long it takes for Steven to join me.

Where have I been?

TOO BUSY. That's where I've been.

On a Friday night, I just woke up from a 2 1/2 hour nap. We came home from work, worked out ate dinner and I CRASHED on the couch.

Steven is excited... He has to defend his thesis this coming Thursday for his Master's. Why is he excited and not stressed? Oh, he's stressed. BUT, it also means that he is this close to finishing and getting a raise! And I'm excited because he can't use it as an excuse to get out of stuff :)

Ok, I promise myself I'll start doing better... but for now. A chick flick awaits.

It's Been a While...

It's been several weeks since my last blog and here's why:

A weekend in New Orleans and Biloxi to visit Cage and Sarah. 

He's in the Army Guard and in Air Force school right now.

A little project for Steven... I tried to give him a "manly" house decoration.

A puppy sitting night.

We've decided we are going to wait to get our own :)

 Trying to figure out where they are.

 We had to pull the blinds up because Jethro thought he could climb out... 

and he was messing them up.

 We had to pull the chairs away from the kitchen table because Jethro climbed on top of it... 

trying to escape.

 Jethro finally wore himself out. He fell asleep like this and snored. LOUD.

 Jozy fell asleep at my feet and softly barked in her sleep.

This was at 6am the next morning. Ready to play!

Ben's 2nd Birthday!

Lemon Drop Cake

I am known as the dessert queen in Steven's family and love trying new things. I had originally just wanted to make brownie sundaes for our family dinner this past Friday, but I didn't have any brownie mix... so I resorted to what I had in the kitchen. I'd already been to the grocery and refused to go back.

Here's what I came up with:

Lemon Drop Cake 

1 Box Lemon Cake Mix (Eggs, Water and Oil as directed)
1 Cup Powdered Sugar
1/4 Cup Lemon Juice
1 Container Lemon Icing
1 Container White Icing

1. Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pans). Line 2 (8-inch) square pans with foil, letting foil hang 2 inches over 2 opposite sides of pans. Grease bottoms and sides of foil with shortening or cooking spray.
2. Make cake mix as directed on box, using water, oil and eggs. Pour into pans. Bake 28 to 33 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes.
3. In small bowl, mix powdered sugar and lemon juice. Poke top of warm cake every 1/2 inch with long-tined fork, wiping fork occasionally to reduce sticking. Drizzle and spread lemon mixture over top of cake. Refrigerate about 2 hours or until chilled. Remove cakes from pans by lifting with foil; peel away foil.
4. In small microwavable bowl, microwave vanilla frosting uncovered on High 15 seconds. On serving plate, place 1 cake, rounded side down; trim if necessary so layer rests flat. Spread with vanilla frosting. Top with second cake, rounded side up.  Microwave lemon frosting for 25 seconds. Frost top of cake with lemon frosting. Garnish with lemon drop candies. Store loosely covered at room temperature.

Enjoy!

Wedding Photos.

I officially received some of my wedding photos... ready? Here are my faves from the ceremony and reception.