CHRISTMAS | 2016

And just like that our second married Christmas is over! I am so sad to see it go but had the best time with my sweet husband, adorable puppy, and all of our family. This will be a picture heavy post, so get ready!

Christmas "break" started for me early Thursday afternoon once I turned my out of office on and darted out the door. I met my best friend at my house and we went for a Smoothie run and then finished up some Christmas shopping! After that Matthew and I grabbed dinner and then went shopping for our girl...we may have gone a little overboard, but it was her first Christmas!! Some of that stuff was for our other puppy friends, too ;)

Friday morning we woke up and did our Christmas together since we would be spending the rest of the weekend with family. It was the sweetest morning with the fire and Christmas music going. Reagan was our big Christmas present to each other this year, but we decided to do stocking stuffers and of course, we did a little extra. We just can't help it!! :) We let Reagan open her gifts first and it was just THE best. She was so excited and we could not stop laughing at her. We wrapped a couple and then left a couple in her stocking for her to pull out.

 Also, we have completely come to terms with how crazy we are about our girl...no shame!

 Safe to say, girly had a great first Christmas!! She was also spoiled by our families :)

After she opened her presents Matthew and I exchanged gifts. Matthew's stocking was filled with Pred's stuff, some new headphones and candy and my stocking was filled with hair stuff (he just GETS me and I love it!!), candy, and tickets to go see Sound of Music live in February!! Matthew knocked it out of the park again this year and I am so thankful for him. 

After we did our Christmas together I headed for the kitchen to make my cinnamon rolls. I made the Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls this year for our neighbors and loved ones for Christmas, and REALLY enjoyed it.

 I made two batches and had soooo many pans! I definitely see this becoming a tradition. 

They took longer than I thought so I spent most of the day in the kitchen. I also made white chocolate cookie dough fudge and it was fantastic, but so very rich lol.

I had a sous-chef in the kitchen with me for a little bit, but she got sleepy very quickly!

Saturday morning, Christmas Eve, we woke up and finished wrapping the last of the presents and watched Santa Claus and then packed up and headed to my parents house for the day. 

Before we left for the weekend I had to snap a picture of our girl in her Christmas dress ;)

 We spent the day hanging out and cooking the last of everything. Mom had most of it done already. I made a cookie pie for dessert that night and my youngest sister helped me with it!

Matthew with the fur babies!

Christmas Eve with my loves!

After dinner that night we changed into our Christmas pj's my mom got us all and then opened gifts with the whole family. Our families were too sweet and gave us some really nice gifts! After most of my family left we did Christmas with my parents and sisters and it was so much fun!! We were so excited to give everyone their gifts. The best reaction was from my sisters, we made them open their presents at the same time and loved it. 

They loved their Patagonias!! 

My parents bought us a lot of cute coastal decor for our coastal themed guest bedroom and some other goodies. I also got stocked up on some clothes...woo hoo! My parents surprised Matthew with some tools and a huge flashlight that he loved lol.

Our matching Christmas pj's! Christmas traditions are my favorite!! Matthew and my dad also got matching Christmas pj's :) My dad finally has someone to have matching Christmas pj's with lol. Side note about the pj pants...I forgot mine at home so had to improvise with a pair of my dad's Christmas pj's from a few years ago...thankfully they were really similar to the other ones lol. We just didn't want to drive all the way back home for pj pants so those worked. My mom had us these adorable monogrammed shirts made to go with them. These are all iPhone pictures, maybe one day I'll remember my camera ;)

 Aunt Mady

 Crazy aunt Mady!

After we opened presents and made pictures we sat around talking and checking out our new gifts.

We headed to Matthew's parents house later and went to bed after we unpacked our stuff. We woke up early Sunday morning and did Christmas with his parents and brothers and SIL!  We loved giving everyone their gifts and enjoyed our time together.  Our families were too sweet and gave us some really nice gifts. We got the Amazon Echo Dot and are so pumped about it!! We actually got two which works out great because we can have one upstairs and one downstairs. Matthew's older brother got him a really cool gift. His parents have always had a carousel that went around the bottom of their tree and played Christmas music. Well it's a tradition to have it out at their house and the boys love it. They stopped making them the year Matthew was born and they are really hard to find now but his brother searched and searched and found the same exact ones. So now we have one for around our Christmas tree next year...so exciting!

I got an adorable Pandora charm of a puppy to add to my bracelet and some comfy pj's and a cute Vera Bradley bag! We also got some date nights from my BIL & SIL and my cousins!

After we opened presents we got ready and then headed to church. After church we snapped a quick family picture in our Christmas outfits before we changed into comfy clothes for the rest of the day!

my skirt can be found here, and they are sold out, but this shirt is somewhat similar.

We had Christmas lunch and then spent the afternoon hanging out and talking while snacking on tons of delicious desserts. We had the best time with everyone and Reagan loved playing with her cousin, Darcy! Sadly, I hardly took any pictures on Christmas Day. Later than night after everyone left we watched The Help with Matthew's immediate family. My SIL and I never watched The Help when it first came out so we all watched it that night and it was such a good movie!! After the movie was over we all headed to bed because we were just exhausted!

Monday we woke up and had brunch with Matthew's family and then loaded up the car and headed back to my parent's house to get some gifts we left because we didn't have room to load them before we left and to see what all my sister's got for Christmas. We hung out with them for a bit before we finally headed back to our house to unpack everything! Late Monday afternoon we headed to my mema's house for our third and final Christmas celebration. We had a delicious dinner and then gave everyone their gifts. We got them hand painted Christmas baskets while we were on our cruise in Cozumel, and they loved them!

Matthew and I both took Tuesday off to catch up on some rest because we knew we would be exhausted from the long holiday weekend. We had the best day together. We cleaned early that morning and then lounged around the rest of the afternoon watching Christmas movies and playing with our girl! We went to dinner with our best friends, Ethan and Rachel last night to Macaroni Grill, it was our first time trying it! And then did some shopping after since we were at the mall already.

I am holding on to Christmas for as long as I can...I'm still listening to Christmas music and enjoying our Christmas decorations until the end of this week! We'll take it all down by New Years Day. 

I planned on going out the day after Christmas to check out the sales but never made it. We stopped at Home Goods on the way to my mema's Monday afternoon and I found Spode Christmas dishes there for $7 and then they were 50% off!!!! You better believe I was freaking out and bought it all! I had been looking that morning online at the same exact dishes and just didn't want to pay $80 for 4 dinner plates. I am so excited and can't wait to use them next year on our farmhouse table that Matthew built us! I also found a white pre-lit Christmas tree at Wal-Mart and some silver and blue ornaments for 50% off for our coastal guest bedroom next year! 

 We are now at 5 Christmas trees (lol) and Matthew has officially banned me from buying anymore. I got the two main things I was looking for and could not be happier about them or what we spent on them. Talk about a deal!!

 This time of year is so fun, and I love being around everyone and spending tons of time with family. I am already looking forward to next year!

Christmas | 2015

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CHRISTMAS | 2016

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVE!

Merry Christmas Eve, Friends! I hope you all are able to spend this weekend with your loved ones soaking up each and every second. I am so thankful for this Christmas with my sweet husband and adorable puppy this year.

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MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVE!

CHRISTMAS WEEK FESTIVITIES

Whew! This week is flying by and I feel like we are packing as much in as we can. Sunday night after church, dinner and some shopping we came home and watched the movie, The Holiday. It's on of my favorites and Matthew has never seen it so it was a must.

Monday after work we met Ethan and Rachel at our house and then headed to dinner and to look at Christmas lights. Ethan had never had Amerigo's hot chicken pasta, which is one of Matthew's FAVORITE dishes, so obviously we had to go there so that he could try it ;) I always get their lasagna there because it's incredible. The best lasagna I have ever had was on our honeymoon and then I tried Amerigo's and it is almost just as good, but Rachel got a cheese tortellini dish that I tried and it was delicious so I'll probably get that next time!

After dinner we headed out to look at some Christmas lights in the Franklin area. Matthew had looked up a few popular places/houses that we could go to and they did not disappoint! We saw some incredible Christmas light shows and had the best time! The last place we went to was the place Matthew and I found last year, so I was really excited to go back and see it again this year. And this year we got our picture made with Santa ;)

Here's what it looks like when you're walking up to it. It's at the end of a cul-de-sac and most of the neighbors houses leading up to his have a lot of stuff in their yards, not as much, but still quite a bit. Kinda leading up to his lol. 

 and you get to walk through most of it. It's great!

Tuesday night we went over to my best friend's house for dinner and then to look at lights at another place. She made a delicious pot of white chicken chili and we stopped at Sonic before the lights for dessert! Also, our girls got to meet for the first time! Kathleen and her husband got a puppy right around Thanksgiving and we have been dying to meet Miss Molly every since. She is just the cutest thing and is so fun!

It was a drive through light show and there were so many lights!! Some serious work and dedication went into this, it was absolutely incredible!!

 We had the best time and enjoyed all the lights from inside the car with the heat on and our puppies!

Today is a half day at work and then I am free for a few days! I am meeting my best friend after work to do a little last minute Christmas shopping and then coming back home and wrapping presents and watching Christmas movies. Matthew and I are doing our Christmas tomorrow morning and I am so excited to give him his presents.

Also, I just can't end this post without sharing what happened two years ago today..

THE easiest and best yes!

 You can read all about our engagement story, here and our first engagement anniversary, here :)

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CHRISTMAS WEEK FESTIVITIES

CHRISTMAS HOME TOUR | 2016

I am finally getting around to sharing our Christmas home tour! This is our first Christmas in our new home and I have had a lot of fun decorating it and deciding on how to decorate most parts of our home.

We'll start in the entryway...our big Christmas decor purchase this year...it was on sale and we just couldn't pass it up! We absolutely LOVE it! Last year at this time we were going through the house inspection, final walk through, etc. and each time we went in our home we kept saying how beautiful a 12ft tree would look there...actually it was all Matthew's idea. It was literally the first thing he said when we walked in the front door for the first time....that man, I just love him!

and the night time view

y'all know I love my Christmas plaid ;)

We also wrapped the stairway with pre-lit garland. I decided to keep it simple this year with the stairway, and just add the garland, but there are a ton of cute ideas on Pinterest for that, that I might try next year. Reagan can go up the stairs but she hasn't figured how to go down them, so I was able to snap this quick picture when I first decorated the stairs!

Here is the view from upstairs. You can see our smaller tree in Matthew's study. It's our 6ft tree that we used in our apartment last year and I love seeing that each time I pull into our driveway!

We moved our entryway table into Matthew's study for the time being since so I decided to put two small trees on the top shelf and then the small candle holders. The trees are from 

Michael's and the small candle holders are from Wal-Mart!

The side table in our dining room houses our Christmas village that my mema handed down to me this year. I didn't get any pictures of it at night, lit up, but here are some pictures of it.

I love it lit up at night!

Next up is our living room...we found our 7 1/2ft tree for a great deal on Amazon and I was thrilled!

This tree holds all of our meaningful ornaments. The ones we have picked out for special occasions over the past couple of years and the ones we have been gifted. I love being able to see them while we watch tv or sit by the fire.

Our mantel is basically setup how it was last year and we just still love it that way. 

We did get new stockings this year and we both LOVE them, and of course, Reagan had to have one ;) and it matches ours...woo hoo! I have been searching everywhere for a simple red knit sweater stocking that we could have our names added to and kept coming up empty. I knew Kohl's had the red sweater knit stockings but they all had a letter on them. Well I finally looked into them and realized you could get one without a letter on it...and they were half off! I ordered them and Matthew picked them up on his way home from work a couple of days later and we had our friend at church put our names on them. Reagan's stocking is from PetSmart and it already had the paw print on it. 

I have been eyeing these for over a year and saw them on sale last week when I popped in Kirklands to pick up a gift and had to grab them. My best friend has them and I fell in love with them when I first saw hers. There is a gold set that I am hoping to get soon.

Our stocking holders that we found at Target last year, we still love them!

These were made on my iPhone, but I draped the Christmas blankets over our couches in the living room to add a little pop of color. I love these blankets and got them a few years ago at Old Navy. I did this last year in our apartment and even did it in my apartment in Cookeville. 

Our kitchen table is the same setup from last year...and I still love it just as much. Again with the Christmas plaid. I just can't get enough!! I added some pine cones to my favorite milk glass dish and love the way they smell.

Our kitchen has a few touches of Christmas as well! I changed out our fall flowers to some red berrie twigs I found at Michael's and some Christmas greenery.  There is a snow globe with a wedding cake and the year "2015" on it in the background on the window sill that my mom gifted us last year for our wedding year, and there is a green lantern from Target right up under it that lights up at night, and then there are my Christmas towels on the oven door...more Christmas plaid ;)

 These two Christmas pieces are from Target's dollar section. I love them and they fit perfectly on our kitchen counter. 

 Reagan especially loves her treat jar!

And here is our Christmas card display. This is how I displayed our Christmas cards last year in our apartment and it worked out so well with the space we did it in, but this year I haven't been too thrilled with our card display, but just made it work because I didn't really have a whole lot of time to decide on how I want to display them. I'll work on that next year! 

Upstairs in our room there is a very small tree that I have had in my bedroom since I was in first grade, so it just kinda has to go in our bedroom every year :) and in our coastal themed guest bedroom I put some silver and blue ornaments in our lamps and I found that little tree at Wal-Mart and just knew we needed it for our coastal room! That's about it for upstairs this year. 

The only outside decor that we put up is a wreath on our front door, and I made a bow for it with some leftover ribbon from our 12ft tree. I also bought two big gorgeous poinsettias and put in our black planters but this past Saturday night the strong winds and then the ice absolutely destroyed them..and my my bow. Destroyed them as in half of the stems were laying on our door step when we walked out Sunday morning. So no pictures of that lol it's pretty sad!I did put my 'Joy' sign out that my dad made me a couple of years ago, so at least there is that! 

Christmas Apartment Tour | 2015

Christmas Apartment Tour | 2014

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CHRISTMAS HOME TOUR | 2016