Joy & Love… or something like it…

We’ve been talking a lot about pictures recently.  We talked out my Aunt Uncle and cousin’s pictures, then we saw the shots that Elizabeth took of me and Joe.  And today I thought I’d share some shots from a little photo shoot with Julie’s girls.

Thanksgiving weekend the girls came over one afternoon for a little impromptu photo session.  Now we obviously don’t have children but I have experienced the impossible task the challenge of getting a photo where everyone is smiling, looking at the camera and seem at least somewhat happy.

But all that being said – we actually got some pretty good shots.  Yes there are some where everyone is smiling but they’re even better ones that truly show the girls’ personalities’.  Some really fun ones!  Julie made the call to go with those “real” ones which made some super fun Christmas cards!  Let’s take a look at some of them!

   

**priceless**

 

 

he-larious!

And the final card:

Beautiful precious girls!  But can I just say… when did they get so big?!?!  Ellie’s wearing one of my hats – can she really be that old?  And sweet Emily and those pigtails- be still my heart!  I love these girls so much!  I can’t wait to see the Christmas card in the mail – a perfect way to say

Merry Christmas!

Banner Holiday!

I wanted to show y’all how I made our banner for our Christmas cards.

Remember these uber cool inspiration pictures:

I really liked this banner idea but couldn’t find one in a store so…  what do we do when that happens?!?!  We make our own!

So I grabbed some supplies from Michaels:

Letter stickers, tags, and leather string

I applied one sticker per tag.  Then cut short strings and tied them with a split knot.

Next I attached each word to a long string – attaching them to their own string

Super simple right!

And just in case you didn’t see some pictures with the banner – here’s how it turned out…

Love this shot!  She’s such a kooky girl!! Love her!

Oh and I’m sure this cute little banner will be making into our Christmas décor!  Score – double duty!!  Merry merry, happy happy, ya’ll!!

Holly Jolly Photos

So…  I’ve decided to take the plunge and send out photo Christmas cards.  I feel a bit silly sending out a picture of just me and Joe…  I know, it’s probably not weird but for some reason I think couple shot = just married or engaged.  And obviously we are neither of those.  But I got over it and decided to take the plunge. 

I needed to do some research on ideas for poses.  Nothing that looked too “we just got married.”  So off to Pinterest I headed…  making a board of ideas.

Here are some of my favorites… (click on the photo to take you to the source)

So with these ideas in mind…  we headed outside after Thanksgiving lunch with my sweet cousin as our photographer. 

And the winner:

I’m hesitant to show the actual card cause I want it to be a surprise for those who will be receiving it in the mail!  So what do you think?  Does it look like we’re trying to be a newly engaged couple?  Ok good!  Have you taken your photo yet for your cards.  Check back for our adventure of taking pictures of Julie’s girls for their card!  Too fun!!

So thankful!

What a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I am so blessed with a wonderful family!  I have to say that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  No pressure of presents just a wonderful reason to gather with family and friends and take a moment to remember all of our blessings. 

We had an amazing meal at my mom’s house.  So MUCH yummy food!!

Then we did a little photo shoot for Christmas cards.  We got some super fun shots of my Aunt, Uncle and cousin!

I’ll share with y’all some of our shots that Elizabeth took of us later this week.

What did y’all do for Thanksgiving??  What was your favorite dish?  Are you enjoying the leftovers as much as I am??  Oh and by the way…  I’m thankful for you as well…  I appreciate all of you that read this little blog!  Thanks for being here!!

Thanksgiving 2011

The time is here to celebrate FOOD, oops I mean Thanksgiving.  But really people…  what would Thanksgiving be without gathering around a table with your loved ones and celebrating the bounty of our blessings?  You know I love all things food.  And a day that is centered around food =  Happy Katy!  My mom is hosting Thanksgiving this year and we’ve been discussing the menu for a couple weeks.  She’s in love with Pinterest as much as I am, so we’ve been pinning all kinds of recipes via Pinterest.  So…  Let’s get to the goodness – the MENU!

Appetizer: Jamie Cook’s It up – Cranberry Cream Cheese Dip

via

Main Event:  Alton Brown’s Turkey

via

Sides:

Roasted Green Beans w/ Mushrooms	Memama’s Super Yummy Corn
Mashed Potatoes	Roasted Spaghetti Squash with Brown Butter
Sautéed Carrots, Parsnips & Onions	Sweet Potatoes
Lime Ginger Cranberry Sauce (a MUST)	Gravy
30 Minute Rolls

Desserts:

PW’s Apple Dumplings

Berry Walnut Upside Down Cake

Super yummy  - huh?!?!?!  What are your must have items on the table?  I love this cranberry sauce – I’ve made it the past three years and it’s a keeper!  The leftovers the next day on my turkey sandwich will make me happy all over again!

If you have all that delicious foods to partake in – you’ve got to have a beautiful table as well.  Here’s some examples from Thanksgiving past…

Cindy’s House 2011

Mom’s Thanksgiving 2011

Our House 2010

And as always blog land gives us lots of great examples!  Check out these lovely ladies examples:

Katie

Michelle

Some great ideas from Kate

Megan

 

I can’t wait to hear all about your Thanksgiving plans…  what are you serving, where are you celebrating??  Do tell!

Thunder Road Half Marathon

 

We’ve made it to race day!  I can’t believe I’ll be running 13 miles this morning.  We’ve been in a 12 week training schedule.  I can’t say that I’ve made every run because I have NOT! But I have made every long run and I’m pretty excited to have accomplished this!  I’ve also added in cross training at Ultimate Crossfit.  I’ve really enjoyed these workouts.  They are HARD but rewarding.  I can feel my muscles getting stronger and my recovery time getting quicker.  Here’s the workout schedule I did – modified from Hal Higdon’s plan.

Week	Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
1	Stretch & Strengthen	3 m run	Crossfit	Rest	Crossfit	Rest	4 m run
2	Stretch & Strengthen	3 m run	Crossfit	Rest	Crossfit	Rest	4 m run
3	Stretch & Strengthen	3.5 m run	Crossfit	Rest	Crossfit	Rest	5 m run
4	Stretch & Strengthen	3.5 m run	Crossfit	Rest	Crossfit	Rest	5 m run
5	Stretch & Strengthen	4 m run	Crossfit	Rest	Crossfit	Rest	6 m run
6	Stretch & Strengthen	4 m run	Crossfit	Rest	Crossfit	Rest	5-K Race
7	Stretch & Strengthen	4.5 m run	Crossfit	Rest	Crossfit	Rest	7 m run
8	Stretch & Strengthen	4.5 m run	Crossfit	Rest	Crossfit	Rest	Rest
9	10-K Race	5 m run	Crossfit	Rest	Crossfit	Rest	8 m run
10	Stretch & Strengthen	5 m run	Crossfit	Rest	Crossfit	Rest	9 m run
11	Stretch & Strengthen	5 m run	Crossfit	Rest	Crossfit	Rest	10 m run
12	Stretch & Strengthen	4 m run	Crossfit	Rest	Crossfit	Rest	Half Marathon

If you want to check out how I’m doing you can click on this link to see where in the race I am.  I’ll be back this week to let you know how it went!!