Catch Up

I am sorry I haven't blogged in so long! We have been very busy! So this blog is going to be a potpourri of things. All summer Kellen and I (well, I will admit, mostly me) have wanted to paint our kitchen cabinets white. I liked the natural wood color okay, but I thought the white would made our kitchen POP! I dreaded doing them, between the mess and all the time and hassle..but dare I say, it went very well! From start to finish including prep it took us 26 hours. And the best part: Kellen and I never had an argument over it! haha They turned out pretty well; not professional or anything, but I think they look really good. Plus the pride that we did it all on our own with two paint brushes is really satisfying.

Let the mayhem begin!

MESS everywhere

Ta-Da!

Doesn't it make the kitchen look totally different?! I love it!

Well, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! It is so fun to have our year traditions as a family. I always enjoy hearing everyone else's too. We always go and cut down our town tree. I love the smell, but it doesn't come without a price. Two years ago we had spiders in ours (ICK!)...about two weeks after having it up, I started noticing little black things everywhere and Vera was going nuts around the tree. Then I noticed they were MOVING! OMG it was horrible. Then just yesterday I was under the tree watering it, and I'm not kidding you, the entire tree fell over on top of me. SO I am starting to contemplate getting a fake one this year! I doubt Kel will let me though ;) Grant me patience! Here are some pics of us with our (hopefully spider-free tree).

On our way to the farm! So excited!

Preparing the 'kill'

Auntie Mallory came with us too!

This year Kellen got his big C7 colored lights. This is a little point of contention with us! I grew up with white lights, and Kel grew up with the C7's. So we decided that we will alternate every other year with 'our' lights. I got my white lights last year, so Kel get his this year. The compromise of marriage ;)

Proudly putting the star on top!

And of course one of the most fun parts of Christmas is decorating!


Kellen and I got stockings with our names on them as a wedding present from my friend Amy Black. It was such a thoughtful idea and I always enjoy getting them out and thinking of our friendship, as well as memories from our wedding. Notice the two stockings in the middle..the little white one has a gold 'V' on it for Vera, and the bigger one behind it is for Captain!

These are some feather trees I got down in Nashville when we went for our one year anniversary trip. It is always so fun to reminisce the memories when getting out different decorations.

First snow of the season

This picture cracks me up. I had a Christmas brunch with some of my amazing NICU girls. It is funny how we have evolved... our first year I think we only had 1 baby and look at the 'group' now!

And finally...my little Evangeline! I was her primary in the NICU for 104 days last year (not that her parent's weren't counting ;) ) She was born on December 2nd at 26 weeks gestation. She has grown into such a sweet baby, and I have the privilege of being her God Mother! Her first birthday party was last weekend and of course I didn't miss the fun!

Beautiful birthday girl

She was 1lb 12oz when she was born...now she is 17! She is slowly catching up!

Poor Evan, she was a little overstimulated at this point.
It's my party I can cry if I want to!