It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas!

I LOVE decorating for Christmas! I have pictures of most of my decorations, hope you enjoy!

I got this tree this year for all of my Hallmark ornaments. It is an alpine pine and I love that it doesn't look fancy!
Up close of the tree. I love the star garland.
Present candle sticks that were wedding gifts.

I got the beginning of the Willow Tree nativity as a wedding gift as well. Need to get the rest soon!
Up close of my main tree in our living room.
Love the detail of the ornaments.
Even have red/gold packages!
The finished product! I worked so hard on this tree, I just love it!! Too bad it can't stay up year round!

Now time for Jeremy and I to cuddle up and watch Christmas vacation, my favorite :)

Just Romeo and I

As it's getting close to Thanksgiving I realize I have MANY things to be thankful for. I feel so blessed with a great life. My husband has been saying for months that the month of November will be crazy busy for him. That was an understatement. I have only seen him for about 30 minutes to an hour every day for the past week. Like I said, I am more than thankful that he has a great job, and he will finish his MBA next week. But, he has been working soooo much lately, and Romeo and I miss him sooo much!

At first him being gone was okay, I put out my Christmas decorations, shopped, cleaned, did laundry, and watched lots of television. Well, for the past 3 days I have just been plain bored! I know it's selfish because he is working his tail off, but by golly I miss having him around. So does Romeo, he sits at the top of the stairs and just waits on Jeremy to come home at his normal time. Hopefully by Thanksgiving his work will slow down and we can enjoy a LONG weekend together. I'm sure looking forward to it!

Tonight I did get a surprise visit from my parents! My grandpa had an outpatient procedure done and forgot his wallet at the hospital. So, I got to go the hospital and retrieve his wallet, then my parents came up to my house to get it.

After that, I decided to take some pictures of Romeo in front of the Christmas tree. He was sooo good. He sat in a chair in front of the chair for at least 15 minutes without jumping down. He definitely got a treat for that :)

I am definitely looking forward to the rest of the week. Tomorrow night I'm going to my in-laws house to see them and my sister-in-law and sweet little niece! We are going to attempt to make hair bows for Gracie. I watched a few You-tube videos on it tonight, and I think its possible. Then this weekend I am going to my parents and we are hosting a wedding shower for a close family friend. It's going to be a fun weekend!

Fun Weekend

This weekend Jeremy and I headed down to my parents. Friday night my Mom made chicken and dumplings, mashed potatoes, etc. and it was amazing! One of my favorite meals! On Saturday went to Memphis to the Dog Races. Mom and Dad had been before, but Laura, Jeremy, and I hadn't. It was so fun to get excited about our bets! The first time I only won 20 cents, but I got super excited! After the races we went to dinner at Texas de Brazil, it was awesome! Once again, Mom and Dad had been, but the rest of us had not. I love food, so this was definitely a treat! Today we went to church, lunch at one my favorite local BBQ joints, then decorated a Christmas wreath for my sister's apartment before heading back home. It was such a fun weekend, I love going places with my family :)
Visiting with Mom's kindergarten class on Friday afternoon. They love making silly faces!

Photo shoot before heading to Memphis.
Laura and Romeo

My wonderful parents :)

Laura posing with the wreath we decorated! Can't wait to help her decorate her tree!

Happy Halloween!

Tonight we invited over Jeremy's parents, sister, brother-in-law, and our newest addition, our niece Gracie. Gracie was born on October 11th, so she was a little young for trick-or-treating :) I made taco soup for dinner and we all sat out in the front yard and passed out candy to the trick-or-treaters. We went through many bags of candy in less than 2 hours. I would guess we had around 200 or so little ones. We eventually had to go inside when we ran out! It was so much fun getting to see all the costumes.

The treats for our visitors

My cupcakes, I was impressed with my icing abilities!

Me and the sweet little pumpkin princess, Gracie :)

The aftermath of trick-or-treating! These are only some of the empty bags.

Trick-or-treating wore Romeo out!

50 Free Cards From Shutterfly!

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I've never ordered Christmas cards from them, but have ordered other products and have always loved them. Plus, they have tons of designs to choose from.

Hope you get in on the deal too!

SUYL Dining Room

This week is show us your life, dining rooms. We moved into our first home in August of 2009, and I love our kitchen/dining area. Our home doesn't actually have a designated dining room, but we do have plenty of room for a large table separate from our work area in the kitchen. Eventually I would love to have a formal dining room, but this definitely works for now. I love our table, it is counter height. We eat every meal at the table, which I also love. The flower arrangement on was made by my Mom's best friend, and the painting and sconces were wedding gifts. I can't find a before picture of the room. It originally had a fruit print wallpaper, which was the first thing that was changed the day after we moved in! Here are some pictures from my iPhone, not the best quality, but you get the picture!

Where did summer go??

Well, it has been quite some time since I've posted. This summer has been extremely busy for the Townsend family, Romeo included :)

We started off June with a few trips to the lake and a trip to St. Louis for my birthday. I got to shop 'til I dropped then we headed to dinner at the Melting Pot. My amazing husband told them it was my birthday when he got reservations, so there were balloons and a package of chocolate fondue to take home. Hello, heaven, it was just as amazing at home.

The following weekend we headed to Norfork Lake with my family, it was a blast. Love everything about that lake, except it is 5 hours away from us :( We also went to lake a few other times that month, and my mom, sister, and I took a shopping trip to Memphis! My Mom is a super shopper! My sister and I could barely keep up! Jeremy, Mom, Dad, and I also went to a Cardinals game in July, with free tickets from my boss in the Redbirds Club, what a nice guy :)

August has been equally busy for us as I am the type of person who never wants to just stay home. We've been to the lake a few more times and I made a trip to St. Louis last weekend to visit 2 of my best SEMO friends. We had a blast, stayed out until 3 a.m. just having fun! This weekend, Jeremy goes on a bachelor party/canoe trip with some buddies, and Romeo and I are heading down to visit my parents.

And...next Saturday morning we are leaving for a much needed vacation to New York City! I can't wait! I haven't taken a vacation day since our honeymoon in January. So when I say much needed that is definitely the truth! We have so many things we want to do and see and eat! I'm so ready for this trip! We didn't book it until the last week of July so luckily I haven't had to wait too long. I have a feeling next week will drag by due to all my excitement!

This summer has definitely been a fun one, and one I will always remember since it's our first summer as husband and wife! We have done many fun things and we will continue to throughout the year as we have weddings, my sister's 21st birthday, and the arrival of our first niece, Gracie!! I can't wait to meet her and spoil her like no other! I have a feeling she is definitely going to give me baby fever :) However, as much as I have enjoyed the summer of going many places on a whim, hopefully we will fight the fever for at least another summer...we shall see...