What a year!

BIG post warning!!!

Here is our year 2009 in picture form :)

January:

It is hard to believe that at the start of this year, we had not even met our sweet little Caleb yet!  Here I am, 60 pounds ago (I only gained 60 pounds!!!) This is the month that we went through a huge ice storm in Kentucky and didn't have power for 7 days!  I was 2 weeks away from my due date.

February:

We met our little Caleb Easton for the first time!

March:

Caleb's first trip back to Virginia to meet the rest of his family

April:

Our first Easter and Caleb's first time meeting his other side of the family!

And Paula and Percy Peacock are born :)

May

My sister gets married!

June

We went to the Armor Ball in Louisville- very fun

July-

Celebrated 2 years of wedded bliss :)

August

My parents and brother came to visit and we had a "staycation" and went to the Kentucky state fair:

September:

Family vacation to visit more family!

October:

Seth's promotion ceremony and the pumpkin patch.

  We also dressed up as Popeye, Olive Oyl and Sweet Pea for Halloween!

November:

Flew to Louisiana for Seth's grandad's funeral :(

Had Thanksgiving with our little turkey and Seth's parents!

December:

This was a BIG month!

We moved from Kentucky into our first house!  Seth turned 24, then we traveled to Virginia, through a terrible snowstorm, for Christmas. Tonight we are sharing our new years resolutions, drinking sparkling grape juice and eating homemade salsa and Mexican food to celebrate a new year and a fresh start!

This and this and this...

After I feed Caleb, I am getting up to make this (broccoli cheese casserole):

I will be eating this (roast sirloin):

and this (my nanny's black walnut cake):

And a lot more!

We always do Christmas Eve with my mom's family and I love it!  We have an ornament exchange and eat and eat and eat.  I am so excited about what I got my nanny for Christmas.  I wanted to keep it for myself (I will post picture later in case she checks my blog today)  I hope you guys have a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas Day :)

With All My Love,

Paula Kathlyn ;)

Happy Birthday Baby

Today is my big baby's birthday- my wonderful husband!  I have been secretly selling mustache mugs so that I could get him a nice present and a cookie cake (which is his absolute favorite!!!)  This is his 1st bday as a daddy.  Caleb already sang him the birthday song at breakfast and tonight we are going out for our first family of 3 birthday dinner!  We LOVE him so much!!!

You HAVE to see this!!!

I found this on my friend, Kristen's, blog.  It is HI-LAR-IOUS and looks like it took a lot of hard work.  Make sure your sound is on (this is one of my most favorite songs)

 Enjoy- and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Searching for MELANIE!!! And a little bit of Christmas excitement :)

Dear Melanie,

You have a lovely nursing cover awaiting you.  I emailed the address listed on your profile, but haven't heard back from you.  Please email me at retrogalusa@aol.com.  I really want you to have your gift!!!

In other news, I am finally getting excited about Christmas.  This is where I will be spending Christmas morning!!!

P.s.  Dear Mama, I know we were supposed to skype when we got home from Walmart, but Caleb was almost asleep in the car so now he is napping.  We will call when he wakes up!  Sorry :(

Do any of you guys do "Elf on the Shelf" ?  My mom and sister have been doing it with my little adopted sister, Cammy back home.  Cammy is 4 1/2 and calls herself Calebs sister.  I was talking to my mom on the phone the other day and she told me the most hilarious story ever.  I will have to set this up for you a little bit.  If you know anything about the Elf on the Shelf,  you know that the Elf will come to your house and watch to make sure you are being good.  Then, he will dissapear to go talk with Santa.  Magically, he reappears in a new and different spot to watch you again, and this continues on until Christmas.  This year, my mom purchased the book with the Elf but last year, she had two elves already and kind of did her own version using those two elves.  Cammy was at my parents house and she was taking a bath in their bathroom.  My mom was in the bathroom doing her makeup and she heard Cammy talking to herself (which is the story of Cam's life, she is ALWAYS talking!!!).  So she hears Cam say, "I wish I could have two more elves!" Now, the tub is around the corner from the mirror, so Cammy could not see my mom, nor did she realize that my mom was listening in on her pretend wishing game.  My mom remembered the two elves that she had from last year and ran to put them out in the living room with the other "Elf on the Shelf".  Cameron got out of the tub and (as always) ran to "check the elf" to see if he was still there or if he had gone to see Santa.  You can only imagine her surprise when she finds two more elves by the tree!  She was so excited that she couldn't even talk.  She finally sputtered, "KK (that's what she calls my mom) This is jsut what I just wished for!  TWO more elves!!!" 

I can not wait to do Santa and the Elf on the Shelf with Caleb.  My mom still has letters that I wrote to Santa when I was little.  I remember laying in my bed and listening as hard as I could for the reindeer on the roof.  I would leave Santa notes begging him to come wake me up and let me ride with him to all the other houses.  I remember that some of my presents were from my parents and some were signed "Love, SANTA".  Later I realized the strong resemblance between Santa and my dad's handwriting.  Even when we were all grown in highschool and college, we would still have presents under the tree signed by Santa :)

 I am also looking forward to buying Caleb a nativity that he can play with and being able to tell him the story of Christ's birth and how we celebrate his birthday on Christmas day.  I want to be able to tell him that even though Santa Claus is a lot of fun, the real reason for Christmas is Jesus and that if Christ had never come, we would have had no one to die for our sins and no way to Heaven.  On that note, I love Target for putting "Merry Christmas" on the windows of their stores and not "Happy Holidays".  It is sad that other stores feel the need to be politically correct.  My late pastor back home (Dr. Jerry Falwell) founded Liberty University, the college I attended and for a long time he had a sign made and put at the entrance of the university that said, "Politically Incorrect since 1971"  Oh how I loved that man, and that school.

 This Christmas is going to be so much fun.  It is our first Christmas with our little baby boy and even though he can't understand any of these things yet, I think he will enjoy trying to eat some wrapping paper and climb in and out of the boxes.  Do any of you have Christmas traditions?

  After Seth and I got married, I mentioned something to him about having oyster stew for breakfast on Christmas morning.  He looked at me like I had three eyeballs.  That is when I realized that apparently, our family must be the only ones who do that! Haha... but if you do too, please let me know!!!

Where will you guys be spending your Christmas?

The colors Max- the COLORS!!!

We painted- yes we are crazy.  But I love the colors!!!

The kitchen is yellow, historical tea room yellow to be precise and I am trying to figure out curtains.

I love this one from Paula Prass over at Michael Miler fabrics:

or

It is called Avocado Dandy Damask (don't you love that name? Makes me want to eat it :))

Orrrrr this fabric from Heather Bailey always makes me drool!

Today is rainy and a high of 41 degrees.  Makes me want to bundle up and head to Starbucks!  Tomorrow the high is 61 degrees though, I am already looking forward to it.  A girl could get used to this fine Georgia weather :)

Boxes

Still unpacking- be back soon!  In the meantime, be happy that your living room doesn't look like this!!!

Caleb was figuring his way around in his new house

Can you find Caleb?

The best way to get things done :)

Giveaway winner!

Random.org chose #12- Melanie!  Congrats and thanks everyone for playing :)

Updation

We are almost to our new home!  Still in transition though.
In the meantime, don't forget to enter the nursing cover giveaway!  I will choose the winner tomorrow :)
Happy Weekend,

Right on the Walls

I don't know about you guys, but I LOVE the wall decals that are so popular these days.  I especially love the faith based ones and the last name and monogram ones.  I came across this company and I just love them!  Etsy also has loads of sellers who specialize in these as well.  I thought I would share a few of my favorites!

This one is great for wedding getaway cars as well as for anyone for everyday.

I especially love the "EST'D 2004" on this one.  How cute is that?

I like the FAITH circle on the wall.

For the front door!!!  Great for making rentals feel more like your own :)

Wanna win a $40 gift card to "Right on the Wall?"

Enter here.

Here is a little update about what is going on in our household this week!

We have been frantically organizing the house for our big move.  Let me just tell you, this last month has truly been the fastest of my life!  The moving trucks will be pulling in our driveway tomorrow morning!!!  They plan on moving us all in the same day.  Then we wait for the carpet cleaners to come, do our walk through with the rental agent and then spend the night on an air mattress so Seth can do his final outprocessing thingy.  Then we get in our cars and drive to Birmingham where we will stay the night and maybe do some shopping at their awesome shopping center!  Saturday, we will have baout 2 1/2- 3 hours left of driving until we get to our new house.  Our fridge and washer and dryer will get there on Sunday and our household goods will be there no later than Thursday.  We are hoping they will get there more like Monday or Tuesday.  We budgeted for 3 days in the hotel, so the other nights we will spend in our new house on an air mattress (chances are we might end up back in the hotel).  Our new house is new construction so there are no blinds!  I will bring towels and blankets for some rigged up temporary blinds, but we will just have to see how well those work.  Plus, Caleb only sleeps through the night when he is in his crib.  The pack in play just doesn't cut it (he is his mother's child).  All in all though, we are very excited to begin this new phase in our lives.  Goodbyes are always hard.  The hardest was saying goodbye to my best army friend ever, Kristen.  I took some silly pictures of us the other day that I plan on posting soon :)  She is expecting her 3rd baby and I am bummed that I won't be around to watch her belly grow and see her tiny little bundle.  I know that God placed her in my life at just the right time and maybe one day we will get to live near each other again!

So, with all of that being said, I am off to do a weeks worth of clothes packing and to clean out the fridge- fun times!  Then we are going to get Caleb his new Britax big boy carseat, just in time for a lot of traveling!  Talk to you guys soon!!!