Happy New Year!!

I hope you rang 2010 in in style! Dave and I had a ton of fun starting off a new decade with good friends. I am really disappointed in myself though...I didn't take a single picture at dinner and Laura and Tim left after dinner. I promise they were there!!

But here are a few pictures of the good times that followed....

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Lynch, me and Bradley

Dave in his party gear...those hats are just wrong! HA! We decided Dave looked like a cone head and Ryan looked like the Tin Man...

Dave and Ryan sending 2009 out with a BANG!

Black eyed peas for luck!

I'm looking forward to 2010. I have set some goals for myself and I'm looking forward sticking to it. It will make for a great year.

1. Loving others- I really want to love others more and myself less. Whether it is a friend in need of a card or note when they have something going on, or the custodian at the church that deserves a hello and someone taking the time to stop and find out a little bit more about them. Christ calls us to love above all else, and I think that means thinking less about myself and how I feel and what I have going on and focusing more on others.

2. Healthy living- Is this on every one's list?? I need to make a conscious effort to work out, make wiser choices, and take care of my body. I know I would look and feel better.

3. Finances- Dave and I are starting Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University in a couple of weeks, and I know it will be great for us. I am not one that usually gets fired up about setting budgets and I certainly don't get fired up about sticking to them! ha! But I am really praying about my attitude and my interest. We are simply stewards of what God has given us, and I am praying that FPU would be really beneficial for us.

4. Being a better wife, friend, daughter- I think this goes hand in hand with #1, but I don't want any of my friends or family to not know how much I love and appreciate them. I am so lucky to have such amazing support and I want them to know that.

5. Grow in my relationship with Christ- For me this is taking the time to learn about God. I praise Him and I love Him, but i don't always spend time in the Bible learning more about Him and the desires He has for my life. If I earnestly do that, I think #'s 1-4 will come naturally....

Thank you, thank you, thank you for reading this silly little blog. I started writing it because a few friends encouraged me to do so. It was mostly for telling stories for my friends and family and now I am having so much fun reading your comments and getting to know some of you through the Internet!! Who would have thought. So THANK YOU for reading about my life and my friends. It truly means so much to me and is so much fun when I hear from you. I hope you and your family have a wonderful 2010!!

XOXO,

Tiffany

Tis the Season...

Christmas was great at our house and I hope it was wonderful at your house too! It was pretty crazy because we were missing some family and it just didn't feel the same. We have a very small family on my mom's side. My mom has one brother, Mike, and he is always a part of our Christmas festivities. On Tuesday the 22nd, we got a call that my uncle had a heart attack and was in surgery in Dallas. It sent us all for a loop and mom, my nana and papa headed straight for Dallas.

Unfortunately, he spent Christmas in ICU but I am happy to report that he is at home now and recovering! We spent the last 2 days in Dallas celebrating Christmas with him and we are so glad to see him moving around and feeling better. Praise the Lord he was in Dallas, near his doctors, and got help so quickly!

As for the rest of Christmas...we had a wonderful church service on Christmas Eve and I have to tell you...it was SO darling to see all of the little ones in their fluffy dresses and patten leather shoes! The little boys had on their sweater vests and I could just eat them up! I love the Christmas service for many reasons, but one of the main reasons is because the families bring their children into the service instead of child care and hearing them ask questions and sing along is just precious to me.

After church we headed to my parent's house and had dinner and enjoyed some time together. Then we opened the gifts we had gotten each other. 2 of my favorite gifts I gave this year were the photo book I gave my mom, sister and Coleen for our 3-Day walk, and the video my brother, sister and I gave my dad. We got pictures from his mom of him as a child, and we looked through every single photo of his life that my mom had and we made a video for him of his photos set to music. He LOVED it!! My grandad passed away 10 years ago and I think he loved seeing all of the photos of him and his dad together. It was pretty fun to give that to him!

The funniest part of the night was my brother coming downstairs with his huge backpack filled to the brim. We wondered why he had it, but we soon learned it's purpose. As each person opened their gifts from my brother we realized he didn't have boxes for anything he bought, so he just wrapped random things from his room. My nana unwrapped his personalized/autographed baseball from Nolan Ryan only to have it snagged out of her hand and a wrinkled shirt to be pulled from his backpack. We had to laugh each time as golf shirts, running shorts and wine glasses appeared from his magical backpack. He never ceases to amaze us!!

On Christmas day we headed Southbound 35 to spend Christmas day with my in-laws. It was so fun, and Dave finally got his Turkey!! My MIL made a wonderful lunch right up Dave's alley, so he was a happy camper. We opened our presents and it was pretty uneventful this year because the presents were actually labeled!! Only one person opened a gift that didn't belong to them! ha! We spent the evening playing Yahtzee and decided we need to take my MIL to Vegas because she rolled FIVE Yahtzees!!! In only 3 games! She is an impressive individual.

In all, it was so wonderful and I can't believe it is over!! As I told you guys yesterday, I got a camera from Dave and I am so happy!! Several of you asked what kind I got, and it is a Nikon D5000. If any of you have any tips or tricks send them my way!! Here are like 2 pictures from Christmas at my in-laws. I didn't take any pictures this year because I was so busy charging my new camera! I'll have to get pics from my family and post later. XOXO

"It looks like you STOLE your gifts!" ~ My sister to my brother as he was pulling gifts out of his backpack

Wrap, wrap, wrap, wrap it up...

I meant to post this on Wednesday but the time just got away from me. One of the things I love the most about Christmas is giving everyone presents that I have thought through and I know (or hope) they will love. I pick out a new style of paper each year and have fun tying bows and making everyone's packages look pretty.

This year I couldn't find paper that I was really crazy about so I decided on a red and white stripe pattern and red ribbon. When I started wrapping and tied the first bow I knew I loved it! I was so happy the way everything turned out. I ran out of tags and Hobby Lobby was completely sold out, so I just made my own initial tags on more than half of my presents. That's why you see a couple of different tags in the photos.

I have funny Christmas stories...so stay tuned!! I hope your Christmas was wonderful!!

We Walk Alike, We Talk Alike, Once a Year we Even DRESS Alike...

The family Christmas card picture. Ahh...the Thanksgiving weekend tradition dating back as long as I can remember. Mom would spring it on us as close to last minute as humanly possible so that even though we knew it was coming, we could hold out hope that this year she may have forgotten. When we were all at home it was one of those things where she would literally wait until 1 hour before photo time and then hand out outfit orders so she would only have to argue with us and listen to us gripe and moan for the hour before the pictures were taken. Now it poses more of a problem because for the last 10 years at least one or all of us has been in college or now live in scattered areas across the US. This means she has to show her cards 5 days early so we can all travel with the appropriate black or white top to make the photo a success.

This year was no exception. The chosen color was black, and even though (as we point out EVERY year) we are all creeping alarming closer to 30 and have no desire to dress alike, it is a losing battle. In her defense, it is her card and her picture to blow up above the mantle, but in our defense it goes out to a lot of people WE KNOW TOO.

We all know I have a black turtleneck (or 4) for just such an occasion, but Dave only has one lonely black item in his closet and it is short sleeved. Mom pulled out one of her button downs and offered it to Dave but he kindly declined. Apparently she had made a call to Nana informing her of our wardrobe woes and she came down in due time with a MOCK turtleneck for him from her closet. He gave that the kindest capital "H" no he could muster. In his defense, I do think it was 80 degrees, but now we'll know to find something black and long sleeved for him for future family portraits. :)

When all was said and done we made Danny Tanner (A.K.A mom) very happy. She was pleased with the way the pictures turned out and one will be appearing on our mantle before Christmas...rest assured.

Here is a sneak peak of some of the photos because I know you are dying to see! Because Nana came down with her mock turtleneck we put it to good use and took a "girls" picture. And the last one is the picture I used for our Christmas card! (Which many of you will be getting alarmingly close to Christmas since I just ordered them on Saturday...oops!)

And while we're at it, let's call a spade a spade...I will probably have my family dress alike at some point for the sheer fabulousness of a uniformed picture. I am my mother after all....

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree(S)...

I've given y'all a sneak peek of my trees this year, but The Nester is having a "Christmas Tour of Homes" day and I thought I would join in! As most of you can gather, I LOVE Christmas! I love the music, the traditions, giving gifts to others, spending time with my family, getting your Christmas cards and seeing your precious families, and celebrating the birth of my Lord and Savior, Jesus!

I am always so excited for the Christmas season and I tend to jump the gun with putting up my decorations. I pretty much had everything done a couple of days before Thanksgiving, but only because when we were done with Thanksgiving I could turn everything on and enjoy it for an entire month!!

We have our main tree in our living room which has all of our personal and special ornaments. Like the wedding cake my sister game me right after I got engaged on December 17th, 2005. And the ornaments we were given when we got married. We got married on January 6th, 2007, so we received several ornaments at wedding showers. I also have the ornament my mom got me, my sister, and herself after we completed the Komen 3 day in November!

The tree in my dining room is my "pretty tree". The decorations match my curtains and furniture. Dave has labeled this the "Red Raider" tree since he is a proud Texas Tech graduate, but it SO isn't a homage to Tech!! Not from this Texas Aggie!!

Our bedroom tree matched our bedding, but it has some special ornaments too. We were given a set of ornaments as a wedding gift and they are wedding blessings. Each ornament symbolizes something different. Love, faith, health, prosperity, etc. What a wonderful gift! We enjoy getting out our ornaments each year and remembering all of the special events where we collected each ornament. (It didnh't photograph very well...it looks much prettier in person! ha!)

Finally, I have my kitchen tree. It is tiny and just for fun, but I have found some fun food related ornaments over the years and so it has grown into a tree of it's own. My favorite is the cupcake my sister brought me from New York! We LOVE the Magnolia Bakery and her apartment used to be WAY too close to it! ha! I am sure going to miss visiting her and getting in the Christmas spirit in Rockefeller Center! (But I am so glad she is back in Texas and closer to me all of the other 364 days of the year. :)I know I have already shown many of you this, but I just had to put in this picture of my favorite elf...Santa's little helper...

And just in case you're wondering why I put up 4 trees...let's just say I not only get it from my mama...but I don't hold a candle to her!! Check it out...

Food, Football, Five dollar games and Skinny Jeans...

Well, it's official. Thanksgiving is over, Delilah is playing Christmas music, my trees are lit and I am in Christmas mode full-force. We even had a cold front move through last night and the high today is only 55 degrees. I might even be able to bust out a jacket!

We had a great Thanksgiving and for once it actually seemed like I had time off! We didn't travel this year because we spent Thanksgiving with my family, so it was 4 days spent sleeping in our bed and we even got a few days to sleep in. Glorious!

I had a few duties for Thanksgiving lunch and I took those duties seriously. Which is why I called on the Pioneer Woman for help. I was in charge of rolls, a side, dessert and a dip for the evening hours of football and laziness. I decided that the buttered rosemary rolls, green beans, and the pear crisp would be my contributions. The fact that these famous rolls would have to rise for 3-4 h0urs was not lost, so I popped out of bed at 7:30 to get going in the kitchen. I'm such a domestic creature...this I know. By 8:30 I had rolls rising, pears peeled, coffee brewing and I was watching Snoopy float down Broadway. Does it get any better?

Pioneer Woman Buttered Rosemary Rolls (click the links above for PW recipes)

Green Beans: wash, snap stem, season with olive oil, salt and pepper, arrange on a baking sheet and roast at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes (until desired tenderness)

The next dip is SO good. My friend Meredith introduced me to this. It is a can of black beans (drained), a can of corn (drained), 1-2 avocados sliced (depends on how big your avocados are and how much you want. I like a lot of avocado!) and a jar of salsa. Serve with tortilla chips.

Pioneer Woman's Pear Crisp

After letting the rolls rise for what seemed like an eternity I started baking them. I began to wonder if they were really all they were cracked up to be since it had been a 4 hour project. Let me tell you sister friends...it was worth every.single.minute. And truth be told, they are SO easy. You just have to give the yeast time to do it's thang. After I did my share of attempting to cook we headed over to my Nana and Papa's house for lunch. As usual, Teeny outdid herself and we were over served with fabulous dressing, ham, PW's mac and cheese, mom's creamed corn goodness, green beans and then...well, then we had a roll....or 3.

As Thanksgiving's go, we capped off the day with back-to-back football games. The Cowboys provided our afternoon entertainment and then the Longhorns were the nightcap. But I would be withholding information if I didn't throw in that there were 5 of us who felt bad for the poor schmucks having to work Thanksgiving at Old Navy. We didn't want them to be working in vain so we decided to give their $15 jean sale a whirl. 3 pair of skinny jeans later we were headed home for kickoff. Don't judge...

The Aggie's sure put up a fight. We had a few that were really tightly wound at our house. Thank goodness the Horns pulled it out and Thanksgiving 2009 wasn't lost. After the game we charted out our Black Friday plan of Attack. There were $5 board games and drum sets calling our name. The family we adopted has 3 boys and just about everything on their wish list gave us a reason to justify standing outside of Target with 500 of our closest friends at 4:30AM...

If you're jealous now, you don't even want me to throw in your face the fact that we capped off our shopping trip with breakfast at IHOP. I know, sometimes life's not fair. You just slept in and made fun of those of us standing in lines 55 people deep in the name of a discount and a $5 off coupon.

When all of the hoopla was said and done I came home and finished my Christmas decorations. Rookie was highly involved....Ho-Ho-Ho! Now I'm ready for Christmas shopping, gift wrapping, and ornament exchanging! Merry merry!

Coffee Talk...

Is it dressing or stuffing?? Talk amongst yourselves....

For the record....it's DRESSING to me. :)

Turkey Turkey Gobble and Turkey Turkey Giggle...

I wish turkey only cost a nickle...

I'm telling you, Adam Sandler - The Thanksgiving Song never gets old! I am looking forward to Thanksgiving! My Grandma gets into town today, my sister, uncle and family friends get in tomorrow and then the festivities begin!

I broke the news last year that we're not a turkey family...I am unapologetic in my request for chicken and dressing and an overload of carbohydrates. But I do feel slightly sorry for my hubby who remembered, as we were driving down the road yesterday, that he would not have turkey this year. He let out a slight agonizing sound and moaned that my family is denying him the ability to eat "turkey sandwich leftovers". I told him that I will make it my personal responsibility to go to Rudy's and get him some turkey. No one wants to sit next to pouty pants crying in the giblet gravy!

We have a wonderful (and generally chaotic and funhouse) time together over the holidays and I cannot wait to see what Papa says at our pre-Thanksgiving Mexican food dinner tomorrow night...in case you missed it last year, familiarize yourself! This is the same guy who wore a snuggie last week for a photo-shoot...don't be surprised!

In honor of Thanksgiving I wanted to list a few things I'm most thankful for. Some serious, some silly, all complete blessings and I could never express enough gratitude. I'm thankful for:

• The joy in knowing that I am saved by the blood of Christ and can rest in the peace that I will spend eternity in Heaven because of His sacrifice. Thank you, Jesus!
• My wonderful husband and family. I've said it a million times, but I am so lucky. My family is so close and if there is one thing we know for certain, it's that we are loved abundantly. We have fun together, laugh together, and pray together and I honestly could not have asked for more.
• My crazy Rookie Bear! Who would have thought that a mis-guided Christmas gift could be so fabulous! Ha! Oh how I love that dog.
• I have a roof over my head, clothes to keep me warm and food to keep me fed. I know this is not something to take for granted, but I feel that lately I have been more reminded of what a privilege this really is.
• Friends who love dance parties, queso, Glee, SYTYCD and dessert...and me.
• Super sales at Bath and Body Works because they bubble bath is some of the best foaming bubble bath...and when it's on sale it is CHEAP!
• Delilah playing Christmas music starting Thursday night!
• Dave helping me with the dishes and many other household chores. He just digs in and helps and doesn't expect that any one thing will just be done by me....except for putting up the Christmas decorations....
• Yoga pants...the best moments of my life are the ones where I take off my heels and dress clothes after work and put on my "stretchy pants". :)
• Diet Coke, Iced Tea, all things chocolate, potatoes, and a good steak....
• Sunny, 70 degree Texas days!

I could truly go on and on, but in the event of time and your sanity I'll just say "Thank you". Thank you for reading about my life and getting to know me through the blog world. I hope and your family have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving.

XOXO,

Tiffany

Boo Y'all!

It's starting to look very scary at our casa! The pumpkins are out and the fright fest is in full force! We love Fall at our house and I love any opportunity to get out holiday decorations and liven things up. The picture above is because I had asked y'all back in May what we could put on either side of the TV because it was SO boring to me after we got this TV and TV stand. So this is the update...I got the table to the right of the TV stand from my in-law's "extra furniture" room and just put some frames, pumpkins, a vase, etc to fill the space.

The picture below is for my MIL and SIL because I took the mirror as well. (Remember this was all part of the raid of the back room with extra furniture.) I spray painted it, Dave hung it, and this is what we have so far....
This weekend we hosted a party for our young adults Sunday school class and we had about 45 people (approximately 25 of those were kids) over for pumpkin carving, chili pies and hot dogs. I went into complete nervous mode on Friday when I got up and heard the weatherman enthusiastically announce our drought would be over with a "90% chance of rain now in the forecast for Saturday." Fantastic. Just in time for 25 little rug rats under the age of 7 to be carving pumpkins, consuming chili and confined to the walls of the house.

Luckily, my mom and dad came over and we had a "gutting" party on Friday night and we cleaned out all of the pumpkins in advance. On Saturday we prayed that the bulk of the rain would hold off until after the party, and it did! Praise the Lord. It was still a bit wet for the kids to play outside, but Dave cleaned out the garage and we were able to use that area for the pumpkin carving. Unfortunately our garage is the backdrop of many of the pictures, but it kept the house in one piece, so we'll roll with it!!! It was a great time, the kids seemed to have tons of fun, and look at these fabulous pumpkins....

Q: Why did the vampire subscribe to the Wall Street Journal?

A: He heard it had great circulation...

Well I'll be Yankee Doodle Dandy!

The 4th of July is my fave. If it doesn't scream family, fireworks, freedom, patriotic music, homemade ice cream and time at the lake then I don't know what does. I honestly LOVE July 4th and have since I was a little girl. My parent's best friend have a lake house and we have literally grown up going there. We have spent many a July 4th watching our dad's shoot fireworks from the dock and singing America the Beautiful and God Bless the USA at the top of our lungs with Beth as our ringleader. For one reason or another we haven't been able to go to the lake for July 4th since Dave has been around, so he had no idea how special this place was to me. Thankfully, this year we were able to go!

We left last Thursday and headed to Cedar Creek Lake outside of Tyler, TX. We got there just in time to witness Beth moonwalk across the living room....she's quite the entertainer! The next morning the women went to Canton while the men went fishing. As usual it was a good time. I actually left only buying a necklace! Mom was a little more successful.....

She proceeded to be the butt of a lot of jokes from the men when we got home...

One of my favorite events of the weekend was when mom, who is VERY afraid of heights, decided she was going to jump off the top deck. I was literally shocked that she actually did it, but as usual I was ready with the camera...

In keeping with tradition the men made their July 4th last minute trip to the firework stands to wheel and deal and get their loot. Dave joined the crew (it's a bit of a right of passage) and they put on quite a show for about 45 of us who were at the house for the celebration. They thought they were pretty cool. :)

It was so fun and fabulous! I am very thankful that Beth and Rick and Jaye and Cathy invited us to be a part of their celebration. I hope you all had a wonderful July 4th too!!