December, already?!

I absolutely cannot believe it is December already. Am I the only one who thinks this year has gone by insanely fast?

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving at my Aunt and Uncle's house in Liberty, TX. First time having them host the holiday and they did a fantastic job. The food was amazing and the atmosphere was calm and relaxed. They set up tables in their garage and we ate outside, which was a nice surprise. The boys had a fun jam session at the school my uncle teaches at - he's got some really great recording equipment that he wanted to try out. Dad and Jason loved it.

 

Jason and I went to my company's Christmas party this past Saturday night. It was a fun time and the food was great. I got a Christmas bonus equal to one week's pay - so I'm excited to decide what I want to spend it on! Definitely helps me wake up every morning to head into the office. ;)

Then we made a Thanksgiving #2 meal with our friends, the Schobey's yesterday. The food was delicious and the company was awesome. The boys played Xbox and the girls watched Felicity (we're almost done with Season 2). It was a fun relaxing day and a great end to the weekend.

Last weekend Jason and I finished all our Christmas shopping, so we'll work on wrapping all our gifts this week. We're getting excited because we'll be in Florida for Christmas this year! It will be fun to spend several days with Jason's family and enjoy just relaxing with them. My sister-in-law, Courtney is due with her very first sweet baby girl January 7, so my mother-in-law and I are hoping for an early baby so we can be there to share in the excitement and fun! I had so much fun buying cute little clothes for Miss Kylee Grace - can't wait to meet my sweet little niece!

 Justin and Courtney in September 2010

Courtney and the excited Grandma's-to-be at her baby shower in November 2010

So if Courtney doesn't have Kylee while we're visiting, we'll be scheduling a trip to Florida sometime next year to meet and love on our very first niece.

The day after Thanksgiving I found out my best friend is engaged and getting married in April 2011. I am her MOH and am SO excited to help her celebrate the most exciting day of her life, thus far. We have been friends for over 10 years. Wow, that makes me feel old!

Lots of vacations coming up for the Smiths in 2011, and lots of celebrations and milestones for our friends and family.

Let's Go RANGERS!!!

Last night we camped out on the couch and found the game online. We had Herb-Roasted Cornish Game Hen and it was amazing! So flavorful and delicious. I even got out our Rangers souvenir cups to show our support.

It wasn't the best game ... 11-7 Giants. It's a bummer they lost, but that's the beauty of the World Series, best of 7. We'll be watching the game again tonight at our house - let's go Rangers!!!

Updated House Photos

So it's been a while since I've posted an update of our progress in our new house. We've been living here about 5 months, and are no where near done with all the things we want to do, but we have come so far! If you haven't seen the "before" photos, take a look here.

We have GRASS!! We hired TruGreen to take care of our lawn, and it has made a HUGE difference.

Look at all that pretty green grass. :)

The view when you walk through our front door.
Kevin (the gnome) and our kitty doorstop are keeping our IKEA furniture company...

View from the front door into our living room.

View from the front door down the hallway to the bedrooms/bathrooms.

Love those elephants...

Kitchen...

More kitchen...

View from the kitchen into the living room. I LOVE that the kitchen is open to the living room.

We have a mantel!! Only, we haven't finished the tile on the wall yet, but it's at least on the wall!

Living room, dining room, kitchen...

The extra bathroom.

If you saw the before pictures, this change is HUGE. These rooms are currently our Xbox/workout/guest room and our desk/music room. In the room with the blue wall you can see all our picture frames stacked up on the floor ... it's a work in progress. Still haven't decided what I want to do with these.

This is our bedroom! So homey and relaxing. :)

We really haven't done any more work since it's been so hot lately! These 100+ days do not make for productive attitudes! On our list of things to do once it cools off outside...

• Repaint our master bathroom a light blue color and install a new vanity and ceiling fan.
• Build custom shelving in the laundry room - it will be the house's main storage area since there are no linen or coat closets in the house.
• Repaint the laundry room a deep brown/purple color.
• Replace the fence around our yard - the current one is rotten and barely hanging on.
• Finish the tiling around the fireplace and complete the mantel area.
• Decide on fabric for curtains and sew myself.

Pantry ... I'm in LOVE!

Absolutely LOVE this post on a pantry re-vamp. Definitely my kind of project - check it out.

Grow, hair! Grow~!!

I have had some very bad haircuts and very bad experiences at the "salon." Growing up, I would always get my hair cut at Great Clips or the equally sucky equivalent, because I had a basic hair style. It was long, with long layers. I mean, how can you really screw that up? I was fine with these $15 haircuts until a lady got her rings tangled up in my hair while she was washing it. I mean she tugged and pulled to free her gaudy rings from my hair - to the point that tears ran down my cheeks. That was the last time I paid less than $50 for a haircut.

Then I went to college and found Nathan. He was a very good stylist, and gave me a scalp massage first thing every time. It was Ah-MAZ-ing. However, I don't really want to drive 45 minutes there and back AND spend over $50. I don't need a day trip, just a trim.

So, I tried Beauty Brands and got the cutest angled haircut ever. I mean, it was so cute. It was high maintenance, but so worth it - so cute! Then ... there was Bertha. You laugh. You think I'm kidding. No. Her name was Bertha and she butchered my hair. There is photographic evidence, but I refuse to share. It was just bad.

So, I've been growing my hair out ever since and still have yet to find a stylist who I trust and like and doesn't live in Timbuktu, and I feel is worth the $50 I shell out. Any referrals, ladies??

Here's the look I'm going for. Connie Britton from Friday Night Lights. See how long and flow-y it is??

LOVE those big, flowing curls. Curling iron?? Hot rollers??

Now, just 10 more inches to go. Grow, hair! Grow~!!

We went to Arizona ... in April...

So back in April Jason and I went to Arizona to meet up with one of my best friends who lives in California, and then met up with Jason's family for a good old fashioned Smith Family Vaca. It was a full week off of work and a great time away with lots of people we love. Tayler's parents own a house in AZ just outside of Phoenix that was within walking distance of this super cute little town square. They let us stay in the house, which was so awesome. It was so beautiful and I totally love her family's decor tastes. It was a nice way to relax and feel more at home than to stay in a hotel. I just wished we could have seen her family - miss them. Maybe a trip to CA is in order for sometime next year.

Tayler and Alina - friends for 10+ years (since high school)

I'm so jealous of Tay's long hair - isn't it beautiful??

This is Tayler's boyfriend, Brett. Super cool guy. Jason and I totally approved. ;)

Me and the hubby.

We also got to eat at In-N-Out while on our trip. LOVE this.

This is Jason and me enjoying a delicious dinner at this cute pizza place.

This is Jason on our hike up a AZ trail. There were TONS of people hiking and it was a weekday mid-morning. It's like just another way to exercise in AZ, just drive up to the trails and hike for some extra cardio. It was the most intense trail there, which we didn't know until later flipping through a magazine. Ha! It was BEAUTIFUL, though, and the weather was perfect.

These are Jason's parents posing next to a frog statue in Sedona. Lots of pretty scenery, but it was a little overcast and chilly. Still very breath-taking and a wonderful experience.

Barry rode with us for one leg of the road trip and Jason caught this photo while driving.

Me and Jason on the road - my camera got this weird fleck in the lens (you can kind of see the blurry spot), so I kind of stopped taking pictures after this. We fixed it later at home, thankfully.

All in all it was a great trip and we got to spend a lot of great time with Jason's family. We hardly ever get to see them, so it was nice to be able to spend so much time together just hanging out. We got to see a lot of sights, including the Grand Canyon (my second time), the Hoover Dam, and Las Vegas. It was a great experience, and hope to do another road trip sometime next year, too.

Time to finally breathe...

So, we've been in the house for over a month now, and it's been great. Most everything is unpacked and has a place ... but nothing has been hung on the walls yet. Our color schemes have changed, so we may need to rethink what we have/what we need. We still need to install the ceiling fan in the kitchen and get the mantel/tile installed. We've been to IKEA and gotten some ideas for some pieces of furniture we're wanting. It's all the fun stuff now. Finally!

So ... photo time?

Jason painting KILLZ on the big cat pee stain on the concrete so Stella didn't think that was her new place to go.

Chris painting baseboards - he did practically every door frame, baseboard, and shelf in the house. Which was a HUGE thing for me. I couldn't seem to get the hang of it, and he did AWESOME!

Kylee painting some doors. That was the quickest process EVER.

Jason carrying the boxes I brought home from work up to our 3rd floor apartment. Gotta love those long arms! Ha!

Painting the walls in the pantry green. So pretty. And Jason's idea, might I add. :)

Mom helping out with the cutting in... I was too tall.

Our BEAUTIFUL blooming Bradford Pear tree.

Dad pulled weeds for 4 hours ... and we had so many that you couldn't even tell where he had gone over. So that's when we decided we needed professional help. The first step is admitting you have a problem...

APPLIANCES!!!

Finished pantry. So pretty.

The whole family helping out. This was so fun to open - it was like Christmas. :)

The boys reading the instructions ... momentous.

Everyone helping out ... okay, this was posed, but they kept working too fast for me to snap pictures of the process!

Setting the time on the microwave.

Appliances!!!  :)

Okay, so that's as far as my pictures go that are uploaded on the computer. But it gives you an idea of what all happened at the house right before we moved.

We made it!

What.a.weekend.

Saturday morning ... was D-day. We had a U-haul truck all ready to go, friends and family on their way to help, and rain was falling from the sky. Didn't look too pleasant, but we persevered. Everyone came as promised and the rain stopped mid-morning, and so we continued! The weather got cooler and cooler, and it was windy - which actually turned out to be a good thing. I hate moving when it's hot, and it was definitely cool enough! We were completely done by 3:00pm, and had the rest of the evening to relax and unpack.

I've got tons of photos of the remainder of the renovations, and of some of our moving process... and of course photos of what we're living in now. We won't have internet at the house until next week sometime, but I'll post them as soon as it gets hooked up. It's been a great experience, and there's still work to be done, but at least now we can head to bed when we get tired, and no longer have to trek it back to the apartment.

Home, sweet home.

25?!?!

So, I turned 25 on March 6 and I seriously can't believe how fast my life is going by! It was a great week of celebrations with my family and friends and I definitely feel like a very blessed girl. Here are some photos:

Jason and I went to CPK for dinner and he gave me presents! He's so good to me. :)

Opening presents wrapped in birthday hat paper. (Jason wrapped my Christmas presents in this paper one year because he thought they looked like Christmas trees. LOL)

Friday night we painted at the house just the two of us. It was really fun and we got a LOT done.

Check out the finished product - lots of cutting in, but so worth it. I LOVE the green!

Celebrating at my parent's house. My mom made ham, dressing, broccoli casserole, mashed sweet potatoes, homemade rolls, AND chocolate cake. She deserves the Mom of the Year award.

I got my very own CROCS! AND they are pink!

Cut in cabinet wall. We're getting our appliances on Monday. We are SO excited.

Here we are at The Melting Pot with our best buds. Jason took the picture, but didn't make it in the photo!

The best husband in the world with the birthday girl.

This picture is AWESOME. LOL!

Our sweet friends, Chris and Kylee.

Jason is excited for the MEAT.

Kylee being mischievous with the lobster tail...

Look how red it is!

The waiter totally called her out - but admitted he's done it too. It was SO funny. But you had to be there.

Chris cut the tiny sliver of cheesecake in half and it was hysterical. He's a skilled knifist.

So these are the updates from this past weekend. Lots of fun and I'm a year older. YAY!