Happy Halloween!

From Wonder Woman and some of the other members of the Justice League.  :)

Olive's 1st Fourth of July

Olive spent her 1st Independence Day at the farmhouse.

this pic was taken when we returned from Houston

Just me and my girl

There was a fire ban so no fireworks this year, but maybe next year.

Father's Day 2012

For Dan's first Father's Day Olive and I made him a coffee mug. It has pictures of just the two of them from the day she was born up until maybe she was 6.5 months old. It reads Papa and Olive. :) He loves it.

I captured these pics of Olive for Dan. It was hard work trying to get her to pose with these letters. I just love the way it turned out! I love her expression and how she is holding the "D" in the 3rd pic.

I wish I had thought about doing a MOM pic for Mother's Day. There's always next year. :)

Just a sweet moment between Papa and Olive.

She never does this. :)

Melts my heart.

Happy Father's Day to a wonderful Dad.

We all love you!

Mother's Day 2012

This year was my 1st official Mother's Day!

Last year my little Olive berry was in my belly and this year she was in my arms. I loved it!

We had a wonderful day.

We spent the day with my mama.

I'm looking forward to many more Mother's Days spent with my little girl. I'm especially looking forward to those little handmade gifts. :)

Olive's First Easter!

We had a wonderful Easter.  Easter is much more fun when you have a little bunny of your own. :) Liv got gifts from her grandparents, aunt, family friends and of course her mama and papa.  This year her Easter basket from us was filled with items to get her started on solids. Oh yeah, she started solids on Easter! A post about that coming soon.

Liv trying to get into her Poh Poh's peeps.  :)

I can't wait until next year when she gets to enjoy her 1st egg hunt!

Olive's 1st Christmas

This was our first Christmas as a family of 5.  And it was wonderful!  Sure it was exhausting at times and most of my day was spent nursing and changing pampies, but I wouldn't have it any other way.  :)

A week before Christmas we had "Christmas" with Dan's family.

Dan made a scrumptious meal of turkey, pork, gnocchi, greens, rolls and pound cake.

She got clothes from her aunt Angie and a beautiful bracelet and keepsake from her grandparents.

 This outfit shrunk a bit when I washed and dried it.  Oops.

Liv's 1st visit with Santa went well.  I know next year will be very different.  :)

I decided to hold her this year.

Christmas Day was spent with my parents.

Dan again made a delicious meal of goose, dressing, turnips (which I now know I love) and carrot cake.

 My girl is so big!  Her looks are changing. Some days she looks like Dan of course, but there are some days or moments in those days where I see myself.  

It's pretty amazing how much she has changed in 2 months.  :)

Olive got an outfit from her Tio Adam, Tia Melissa and cousins.  She also got a Christmas blanket, paci holder, gift card to Target (will be great to use on more clothes because she is growing out of everything) and hair bows from her Nana & Poh Poh.

We got her an outfit, some Dr. Seuss books, her playgym/mat and her learning tower that we bought from a consignment shop.

My dad began to feel under the weather by the end of the night so that is the reason for the no smile.  Olive was exhausted at this point.  :)

 I keep thinking how different it will be next year.  She'll be unwrapping gifts and walking.  Wow.  

All in all it was a great holiday and we look forward to many more Happy Christmases with our baby girl and our families.  

Olive's First Thanksgiving

You can tell how busy Miss Liv as been keeping me seeing as I'm just now blogging about Thanksgiving.

Dan, Olive and I enjoyed a low key Thanksgiving with a wonderful meal. My parents came by later in the evening for leftovers and dessert.  :)

It was very hard to help Dan with Thanksgiving lunch when Little Miss Liv wanted to be held constantly, but we managed and everything turned out great.

Can you tell I had little to no time to put on anything "nice" for Thanksgiving?  Oh well. The day was perfect.  :)

My little turkey

Olive's First Halloween

We weren't prepared for Halloween this year. We've been so consumed with preparing for Olive that we didn't even set out our Halloween decor or plan to dress up the "kids" this year.

Here are just a few pics of our little one:

And this little outfit wasn't bought as a Halloween costume. It's just a snuggle/sleep sack, but it worked perfectly. :)

Hope everyone had a fun & safe Halloween! I can't wait to take Olive out next year. :)

Homemade Christmas Gifts

Like a lot of people we were on a budget this year when it came to Christmas gifts.

We decided it was best to do a family gift basket that was filled with all kinds of yummy goodies.

Here's what everyone had in their basket:

Pear and Vanilla Bean Compote

Onion-Bacon Marmalade

Chimichurri Rub

Apple Butter

Cream Soda Syrup

A handmade ornament

Holiday Spiced Sugar

Candied Pecans (spiced with honey and fleur de sel)

Sugar Palmiers

Cranberry-Pistachio Cornmeal Biscotti

Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

Homemade Country Loaf

Dan’s Secret BBQ sauce

Making gifts this year ended up saving us a lot of money, but it was also a lot of work and took up a lot of time so who knows if we'll be going the homemade route again. :)

Saying Goodbye to 2010

2010 definitely had its highs and lows.

Some of the best parts of 2010 were Dan's first feature film being made and getting to see my girlfriends (Kirsten, Amber, Dani, Janine, Lisa and Shelby)!

I know 2011 will bring more ups than downs. :) But I'll say this, as long as I have my amazing husband by my side, great parents, 2 precious chihuahuas and wonderful girlfriends in my life every year will be fabulous.

Wishing each and every one of you a very Happy New Year!

Handmade Ornaments

I wanted to try my hand at making Christmas ornaments this year. I used plain ceramic ornaments (on sale at Michaels for about 60 cents), scrapbook paper, pictures, stickers and mod podge. :)

Our little personalized Christmas tree.

I just love my new ornaments!

The back of the ornaments.

This year we have decided to give handmade and homemade gifts for Christmas.

Dan and I (yes, I'll be assisting) will be making/baking all kinds of yummy goodies.

I made each family an ornament.

This crafty project was easy, inexpensive and they turned out oh so fabulous.

Go out and make your own ornaments!

Holiday Card Craftiness

This year I wanted to make my own Holiday Cards. I made a little over 50 of them. And every single card is different. I'm happy with the way they turned out although I must say it was a lot of work!

I absolutely LOVED making them! I really didn't think I would love it as much as I did, but once I was done I found myself still thinking about making more and couldn't put the paper down. I just may have found my calling. :D

Happy Thanksgiving, Everybody!

I'm thankful for my amazing husband and our love, my health, my husband's health, my kids (chis), the roof over our head, my amazing parents, family and wonderful friends! This year has definitely had its ups & downs, but without y'all this year would have been so hard to get through. Thanks for being a part of my life and making it fun and memorable!

Wishing each and every one of you a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Halloween!

2010 WILL BE OUR YEAR!!!

Goodbye 2009! Hello 2010!

2009 was filled with both good & bad times. It was a tough year, but it's FINALLY over and we're already starting the year off well! The case (house) is settled and we can now move on! It's been over 2 years of hell and we couldn't be happier that it's all over.

Now we can focus on more important things like getting Dan's film made, possibly opening our own business & making a baby (I can't believe I just typed that!)!

New Year's Eve Dinner-Shoyu Ramen

Happy New Year from us to you! I hope 2010 is amazing for everyone!

Christmas in Atlanta

This year was my first year spending Christmas at the Jackson Farmhouse and away from my parents.

Before we left we had our own little Christmas here at home...

We bought ourselves a ping pong table! Got a great deal at Costco. I love that place! :)

I bought Dan a molecular gastronomy kit. Food nerd!

I also got him 2 Shun knives to add to his set (one perfect paring knife & one Santoku knife) and a marble pastry board for working with dough.

Dan bought me a bunch of things to get me started on my crafting. :) Wish me luck!

He also got me a pink Juicy Couture iPhone case (the iPhone itself was kind of a Christmas gift too). Love!

Dan made the "kids" some Christmas cookies. They loved them!

Baby Dan opening his gifts (one jacket from us and one from my parents)

Just what he wanted...He loves them!

Sissy opening her gifts

Sissy could care less, but she's going to love them when it's cold outside.

Christmas Tree at the Farmhouse

Stockings made by Dan's grandmother (except for mine)

My sister-in-law, her boyfriend and my mother-in-law

My brother-in-law & mother-in-law

In front of the tree

Dining Room

The "kids" got snuggies from their Uncle Chris! Too cute!

On our way home we stopped in Lufkin (city where Dan was born) to take a pic of Rudolph.

For more than 40 years, Rudolph the Red Nosed Pumping Unit has been ushering in the holiday season in Lufkin.

This full size, LUFKIN Mark 640 oil pumping unit is a fully operational unit painted red especially for the season. The working pumping unit is dismantled after the holiday season, repainted and sold to a LUFKIN Industries customer to become a working pumping unit somewhere in the world. After the holidays, the trailer will be utilized by a LUFKIN customer to transport goods across the country.

We had a great Christmas! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!!