Thankful for Old Friends

When I was a senior in high school, one of my good guy friends started dating this girl from another school. This said girl happened to go to UK, which is where I went to college, and despite the fact that she and he broke up, she and me became great friends! This girl happens to be my friend, Traci.  Traci is one of those friends who is laid back and loves you no matter what.  She's one of those friends who you could go awhile without talking to (although I hate it), but as soon as you have a conversation with her, it's as if no time has passed.  Traci and I lived together for 3 years in college and then remained close friends after that. I had the privilege to be in her wedding back in 2005 and I was honored when she agreed to be a part of mine in 2009.

wowzers.  Here's a throw back to 2005...yikes.

Traci's wedding - March, 2005

My wedding, 2009

Needless to say, I was over the top excited last Spring/Summer when Traci told me that her and her husband were expecting a baby.  I immediately told her that I wanted to throw her a baby shower as well as make her baby bedding (if she were interested, I'm not into forcing people to take baby bedding ;-)!)  I couldn't wait to celebrate Traci as a mom and I wanted to do it in every way I could.  You can imagine my surprise when Traci told me a couple of weeks later that she wasn't expecting a baby, instead her and her husband were anticipating the birth of their BABIES in November/December.  Yup. Babies with an 's'.  All the more reason to celebrate! 

Here are some pictures from Traci's shower in October:

I picked these invites up at Target and then printed them off
at home.  Too bad I forgot to add my address and my mom
had to help me write it on the back of each envelope so her guests
would know where to go for the shower.  Oops!

Pregnant Traci and her "pumpkin"s as well as me and her Aunt Gail (the other hostess)

The desserts - cake, pumpkin spice balls and pumpkin spice mini cheesecakes

A close up of the cake - I used the same method as here and here.  

A few short weeks later, those 2 cutie pa-toots came into this world: Hudson and Kate are some adorable babies!

3 roomies together again, this time with 2 little babes :)

Here is their birth announcement picture - how cute are they?!

Here is a more recent picture - I can't handle how adorable they are!

And then this week I had the opportunity to catch up with Traci and the babes again.  I'll never turn down a good dinner with a great friend and baby snuggling time!

I love Traci and I love those two babies!  I can't wait to continue to be a part of their life and see how God uses them to share his Glory with others.  Here's to great friends!!!

Christmas 2011

Yeah, again, I know the date...better late than never, right???  Moving on...
This past Christmas was the first Christmas that I did not leave the city of Louisville since I was in high school.  It made things really calm, which helped balance out the craziness that I was wrapping presents on Christmas morning (are we all noticing a theme here....again, better late than never, right?).  It definitely beat last Christmas when it felt as though we travelled the globe to see everyone at Christmastime!  Unexpectedly, Stephen's mom ended up staying in Louisville for Christmas because Stephen's sister had a baby.  Which meant that we celebrated with his family on Christmas Eve, my family on Christmas day, and then with his family again (when his dad returned from Pittsburgh) later on in the week.  We had a lot to celebrate, and celebrate a lot we did!

So, on Christmas Eve we went to church with Stephen's family (minus his pops) and then went back to his parents house to eat a yummy meal!

Christmas Eve:

On Christmas Day we woke up and headed over to my parents house to enjoy Christmas with my family...unfortunately, we're not good about taking pictures - here's the only picture that I have from Christmas day (I stole it from my sister):

Celebrating Christmas later on that week with Stephen's whole family (Pops included):

All the grandbabies

This picture makes me laugh - Nathan and Ashley are both still such attractive people, even in their outtakes!

Noni and her great grandbabies

4 generations

<3

Jake, getting some loving!

Nona and Nunu with their grandbabies

The whole clan

Somebody (I'm not going to name any names...) got really hot from running around like a crazy woman. Her solution?  Strip.  Ah - the benefits of being a child!

A little late, but I hope you had the merriest Christmas!

Christmas Ornaments 2011

Yeah, I know, it's January 22...I get it, Christmas is over.  My tree is still up in my family room (pathetic, I know), which I believe constitutes me being able to share with you our Christmas ornaments that adorned our tree this year :).  You can check out our 2010 ornaments here.

Introducing our 2011 Christmas tree!  

I'm all for pretty, color coordinated trees that look elegant and really bright up a room, but I'm even more for a tree that has fun, multicolored lights adorning it and filled with ornaments that hold special memories from loved ones or fun occasions.  Maybe one day, when I can convince Stephen that it's not frivolous, I can have both types of trees - until then, the one multicolored light tree is what we'll have!  Here are our special, 2011 ornaments that called our tree "home" for the first time this year:

In March, Stephen and I had a wonderful trip visiting friends and hitting the slopes in Salt Lake City, Utah.  The awesome ornament on the left is made out of salt from the great Salt Lake, and the ornament on the right is in honor of Stephen trying out his hand at Snowboarding and not dying - way to go Stephen! 

This ornament made it's way back from Alaska this year from when my mom and dad ventured there in July and August of this year.  It also reminds us of our great trip there back in 2010.  

 I picked up this great ornament to help me remember a FANTASTIC trip that I took to New York City last December with the besties and Steph-O.  I searched the city high and low for a more authentic New York ornament, only to be stuck buying this sucker at an ornament tent in Central Park...oh well, it does its job!

 Last Christmas I decided that I was going to make Salt Dough Ornaments to act as Gift Tags for friends and family.  This little guy was from my salt dough batch last Christmas. 

 Stephen and I have a Chicago ornament from our first two years of living in Chicago.  This Christmas marked our first year not in our beloved city, but I couldn't bring myself not to get a new Chicago ornament.  When we ventured back "home" in November, I made sure to pick one of these 'beauts up at Holiday Lane in Macys.  

"Santa" brought me this awesome UK ornament in my stocking last Christmas.  Evidently, I have an obsession with Christmas trees and hope to have ANOTHER tree one day in our basement that is adorned with all our sports themed ornaments.

"Santa" brought Stephen this IU ornament last year in his stocking.  The Troy Polamalu ornament was a gift to him from our sister-in-law in honor of his love for Troy.  These ornament would also find it's way onto our future said sports-themed tree that could potentially end up in my basement one day :).

Two years ago I picked up this ornament for my sister and brother-in-law in honor of their first year in their new house.  Since then, I couldn't wait to get my grubs on it!  As soon as I could I had one made for us in honor of our new home.  It has our new address written on the bottom of it.

Just like we picked up a Chicago ornament every Christmas we lived in Chicago, I thought it would be fun to do the same here in Louisville.  This year, I found this fun Flur de Leis at a local store and thought it was perfect to represent our first Christmas back in Kentucky!

So that's it, those are the ornaments that made their way on our tree this year...I know what you're thinking, it's time to go and take that tree down!  I think my tree would agree with you.  In fact, I believe that it's begun to protest that it is still working overtime at the end of January.  So much though, that about 1/3 of our lights have gone out on our tree leaving it to look even more pathetic than a regular tree would look still standing in January.  Here's a peek at our sad, sad tree:

What about you?  When did you get around to taking your tree down?  Anybody still rocking their tree like I am in the end of January?  Come on, speak up!  I know there's someone out there that's still in the same boat as myself!!!

Deck the Halls!!!

It's so funny how decorating for Christmas can make you feel like a kid again!  The anticipation of such a fun holiday, with an important meaning and a time to spend with those you love - it's almost too much to handle!  Stephen and I are both very excited to celebrate our first Christmas back in Kentucky!  With our move, decorating proved to be both fun and tiring all at the same time.  We spent a lot of time trying to find the boxes of decorations, and are still coming up empty handed with some things that we can't seem to find.  Until then, take a look at our Christmas, 2011 decorations:

Our Mantle - I bought an amaryllis to put in the lefthand corner...it's not proving to be exactly what I was looking for.  More to come on that later...

 Our Decked out and Fa-La-La-La-La-ed Family Room

 We decided to park our tree right in front of the french doors leading into the Office.  Our reasoning behind this was that then the tree could be seen from the front of the house, and we don't really go in and out of those doors often, anyways.  So far, we haven't regretted that decision one bit..minus not having a good spot to hide put the ugly much loved ornaments...

 A view of our Family Room with me standing in the corner looking onto the Kitchen.  I made our Christmas pillows last year (ribbon pillow, stenciled pillows, button pillow) and have some other pillow projects up my sleeves!

A view of the bookcase to the left of the fireplace.  I put leftover ornaments all over the shelf, as well as pine cones that I crazily collected on UICs campus in the middle of July :)

A view of the bookcase to the right of the fireplace - again, ornaments and pinecones wherever I could find room

Do you remember our Christmas Card display from our Chicago Apartment?  I found a perfect spot for this in our Kitchen on our Basement door.  It was crazy to put the ribbon on this door and see how much shorter it is than our door in Chicago - our ceilings and doorways aren't quite as high as they were there!

That's all the halls I'll be decking tonight.  I've got to get some sleep so that I have some form of patience for the kiddies tomorrow.  Are you all geared and reared up for this wonderful holiday season???

Take a look at our Christmas, 2010 decorations here.

SUPER belated Happy 94th Birthday, Noni!

So, Noni turned 94 back in July and we celebrated her birthday when Stephen and I moved back at the very beginning of August.  Because things have been so out of whack, I haven't shared with you pictures from her birthday celebration.  Noni is Stephen's maternal grandmother.  She is 100% Italian, having moved to the states from Sicily when she was in her late 20s.  Noni might be one of the cutest and sweetest old ladies that I've ever met.  It might have something to do with her broken English whenever she says things like, "Close the lights" or "You, Eat!" :).  Happy Belated Birthday, Noni - I can't wait to celebrate many more to come!

My sister-in-law, Ashley decorates cakes on the side and so she made this one for Noni's birthday.  The cool thing about this cake is that Stephen's little sister, Cali is pregnant.  Our extended family didn't know what she was having (boy or girl - including Noni), so the cake was colored to reveal which it was.  Watching Noni's face as she found out was priceless!

Sweet Noni blowing out her candles.

She really is so cute - this is her clapping for herself after blowing out her candles.

Noni's going for the cut - as you can see, Stephen's mom (can you tell that Noni is her mom?!) is anxiously awaiting the reveal to see everyone's reaction.  

The cake is pink!  They're having a girl!!!  (If you can't tell by this picture, Noni is crying...this is a normal occurrence for Noni.  When she's happy, she cries happy tears; sad, sad tears; scared, scared tears...you get the drift!)

Stephen and his sweet Noni.  Bet you can't tell they're related, can you (do you sense the hint of sarcasm that I laid on that statement)???

Here's all of us with Noni, including Stephen's cousin, Julie.  We're missing cousin Michael and his wife, Terry, and that would make it a complete picture of Noni and her grandchildren, their spouses and her great grandchildren.

Jake is Stephen's older brother's son.  He was helping Noni open gifts - Jake loves his Noni.

I couldn't pass up this sweet photo-op of Halle (Stephen's older brother's daughter) and her Nunu (Stephen's dad).