On the twelfth day of Christmas.....

it was Christmas Day!! What a wonderful day to remember! Since we aren't doing family Christmas until next week Dudley and I exchanged gifts.

His mom gave us these pajamas this last weekend when they were in town, and since we couldn't be with them for Christmas, we took a picture for her.

Today we also played the Wii for a lot of the day. Adam and Andrea were kind enough to leave it for us to give us something to do today. Mom prepared a wonderful dinner of T-bones, baked potatoes, and salad. Then the four of us went and saw The Blind Side, and then drove downtown to look at lights.

This is the big light tree downtown Indy around Monument Circle.

Even though it was not the usual Christmas traditions, it was a wonderful day with people I love!

On the eleventh day of Christmas....

I spent the day watching Christmas movies, wrapping all my presents, and then attending our church's Christmas Eve service.

Christmas doesn't quite feel the same this year because it is the first year we aren't all together on Christmas. I know, this is part of growing up, but I have always had a hard time when it comes to change in things our family has done together. I love Christmas and having my siblings, so not having them here to watch White Christmas and sing along to with, or eat all of the Christmas cookies with is something I am going to have to get used to. I know we will all be together next week, but this is the start of new traditions I guess.

On the tenth day of Christmas.....

I made Grandma's Christmas cookies. It wasn't the same this year because I did it all by myself. This tradition was started with my Grandma Reedy. She would have the granddaughters over one day (usually a Saturday if I can remember right) and we would bake cookies to have on Christmas Eve when everyone got together. We would have to hide them or else all the boys would eat them before it got to Christmas Eve. We have always used a cookie press to make different shapes and then sprinkled them with red and green sugar. This year, however, I was unable to use the press because it wasn't wanting to work. Here is a picture of how they turned out this year:

On the ninth day of Christmas...

I finished up my shopping. I didn't have a whole lot left to do, but I did have one person (Adam) left to get because they got me their list late. I don't have any pictures for today because I don't want to give away what I got.

On the eighth day of Christmas......

I watched Little Women with my mom. This has been a movie that my mom has watched with me and my sister for sometime. I will admit....I slept through some of the end...and I am pretty sure she slept through some of the beginning :) It was the first day of vacation for both of us.

On the seventh day of Christmas.....

I got the honor of singing with my parents for a friend of ours wedding. It was a beautiful simple ceremony and reception to follow.

That day I also got to attend my parents small group White Elephant Party. Here are some pictures for it:

This is my friend's son Tait! He was playing with his grammy's phone. His Uncle Ryan would call it so it would ring and Tait would start dancing. It was too cute!

This was at the start of the game. We decided this year that no one would open the gifts until the very end so all you had to go off of was the packaging. It was fun to see who would steal based on the bag it was in. Marty stole the Victoria Secret bag from someone after his original bag was stolen from him. I don't remember if he ended up with the Victoria Secret or not! It was funny to watch him steal it though!

On the sixth day of Christmas.....

I woke up to beautiful snow.....Too bad it didn't last :(


(I know these are all really late...but we have been without Internet since Saturday...I have things for every day I just have to upload all on the same day)

On the fifth day of Christmas....

we had friends over to my parents. My mom and dad had Hugh and Nancy, Mike and Linda, Danny and Eileen, and Nicole and Tait over tonight for food and double UNO. Ever since Nicole and I were little (and our brothers and my sister and Danny and Eileen's boys) our familys have tried to get together at least once a year if possible. There have been years were it hasn't worked out but it is always a good time when it does. The kids would always play, and the parents played double UNO men vs. women. I have always enjoyed watching them play because they get so into it, and Nancy has all the score sheets saved in a file. Here is a few pictures of the night:

Look at all of Nancy's cards.....LOL

On the fourth day of Christmas....

it was Christmas shirt day in my classroom. I didn't really have anything and then we got this idea....I could wear one of the ugly sweatshirts Dudley and I used for our ugly sweater party. I ended up wearing the one Dudley originally wore, and then to top it off I wore shoes that didn't really match. I was wondering if anyone would say anything to me about it. All I got from people were some looks like they didn't know if I was serious about the shirt or not, and one lady told me she liked the shirt. LOL. Here is a picture (I have to say it isn't flattering...it makes me look huge...but honestly the sweatshirt is HUGE):

On the third day of Christmas.....

the class I work with the majority of my time wore Christmas hats. Most of the children came in with Santa hats on. A few had a head band with reindeer antlers on them. One little girl had an elf hat on, and another little boy had a Santa hat on, but it also came with an attached beard/mustache. It was so cute!

On the second day of Christmas.....

I received two gifts from a couple girls in my class:

On the first day of Christmas.....

I finished decorating the tree. About a week ago while Mom and Dad were at the church getting the stage ready for the children's musical, Dudley and I put up the tree and then I put on white lights. That's as far as I got until today because we have been so busy with the adult musical. So tonight I finished it. Here it is:

New Idea....

So I have thought of a way to stay up-to-date this month with my blog......I am going to do the 12 days of Christmas! I have some time to think of some ideas since it is just December 1...but I am going to be as creative as I can with this!


So be waiting for December 14th....that is when I am going to start my first day of Christmas!

Birthday Date with Dudley

I am so blessed to have a wonderful boyfriend! Dudley took me to the Melting Pot for my birthday date on Friday night. It was fun to go there with him because neither of us had been there before!

Here are some pictures from our night (they aren't the greatest because the lighting was low and I didn't want to use the flash):

Before we left.

Can you tell I was excited?? LOL

Our cheese course. We got the Spinach and Artichoke cheese.

Only part of our main entree's

I was SUPER excited for the free chocolate we got. There were 10 to choose from. We went with the Cookies and Cream Marshmellow Dream. It was dark chocolate with marshmellow whip, and then Oreo cookie crumbs. Yum-my!

And this is how we felt when it was all over. LOL! But as you can see.....



It was all well worth it!

Halloween....

This is one holiday our family does not celebrate. We have always either done things with the church or just left the house and done our own thing. This year Mom, Dad, Adam, Andrea, Dudley and I went bowling and then to Taco Bell.



On the way



Thats right! I beat EVERYONE!! Even my Dad! This never happens!!


Dudley is sad because I beat him :)

Trip to Illinois!

My mom and I got to spend our Fall Break on a trip to see Renee', Ryan and Teagan! It is always good to get to go up and spend time with them when we can.

Us girls and Teagan took a trip into Schaumburg (I think thats how it is spelled) to IKEA and Olive Garden.

Then we just relaxed on Friday, and that night we got to go to my cousin Pam's for some time with her family and my Aunt Mern and Uncle Lee.

Teagan turned 5 months!

Saturday was a beautiful day so we went to Rockton and walked around some of the little shops. This is from a kids consignment shop we went into.

2 in 1 day...WOot!

Here is a little glimpse at what I did this weekend:

Friday - Dudley and I went on a date to Chili's and to see Where the Wild Things Are

Saturday - We went to a chili cook-off that some friends from church were having. I forgot to take my camera so I didn't get any pictures of it.

Sunday - We got to hang out with our wonderful friends Nicole and Justin and their little boy Tait. We went to a place called The Incredible Pizza Company. It is between Chuck E. Cheese and Dave and Busters. There were still kids there but it had a lot more for adults to do.

An Update....

This entry is to stop my dad from nagging me about updating :)


There are so many good things going on right now that it would be hard for me to doubt just how wonderful God is!! Since my last post, Dudley has been blessed with a job here in Mooresville (it is actually right down the road from my house). He is working full-time for a man from the church who had heard Dudley was looking for working, and he needed people at his shop. Dudley was part of a play in Georgia and the man was willing to work with Dudley and allow him to start once the play was over! GOD IS GOOD!!!!

Things were looking up more and more, and the only thing we needed to figure out now is where Dudley would stay once he got up here. Well, once again GOD IS GOOD! A family from Dudley's home church has family about 30 minutes from where Dudley is working and they have a house that he can stay in fully furnished for FREE!!! It was the lady's mother's house and they still use it when they visit but no one is permanently living in it! It is a little ways away from everything but it will give Dudley the chance to save up and find a place that he really likes!

This all has to be God's doing because there is no other way that it would have all come together like it did!

Apple Pie....

I got in the baking mood on Monday, so I decided to make an apple pie!




I did it all from scratch. None of that already made pie crust for me. I tried to do the lattice top on it but it didn't turn out as good as I hoped. I think I am too much of a perfectionist to do something that delicate.

Anyway, It turned out delicious and it was gone by Thursday!

A New Beginning....

I finally landed a job, and I am excited to see where it leads me. I am now the Prime-Time Kindergarten Aide. That means I will be spending time with students in small groups and possibly one-on-one. I am glad it is a full-time job instead of having to wonder if I would be called to sub every day. This way I get to know 2 sets of students and actually really get to know them. I get to put my name out there and show how I am as a teacher in hopes of landing a full time teaching job next year.

I know this was all God's timing because I went into Tuesday feeling terrible considering calling and saying I was not going to be able to sub, and I came out with a job. It is just more proof that if we allow Him to take things over it will happen.

As I mentioned before, I am excited to see what lays ahead, and how the year is going to progress!

Looooong Weekend in Georgia

I got the blessing to and visit Dudley and his family in Georgia for almost a week! The first thing we did after I landed was we headed to THE original Chick-fil-a called the Dwarf House.

The next day we went and picked up tickets to the see the Braves Friday night. I took advantage of no one being there and got some pictures:

We then went and saw the movie Post Grad, which we both felt discribed each of our lives right now! Of course, then Friday night we went to the Braves vs. Reds game with our friend Zach, Dudley's brother Noah, and his girlfirend.