Wagon Wheel

Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show

If you have not heard my favorite song of all time ...
(with the exception of Carrie Underwood's rendition of "How Great Thou Art" of course) 

then you need to go listen to it real quick by clicking below ... 

Ok now that we have that out of the way ... I will point out a few facts:

1. I am from Bristol VA/TN and lived in Johnson City, TN for a while and lovvve it there

2. The lyrics in the song "but he's a headed west from the Cumberland Gap, to Johnson City, Tennessee" is my favorite line, for obvious reasons.

3. I have always loved this song and play it frequently and now Ella and Ava know every single word and love it, so we blare it and sing super loud which sometimes drives Chris crazy hahaha

This weekend we went back home and took them with us for the first time ... it was an adventure let me tell you! 

They got to experience my favorite place to eat on the planet ...

Pal's!

I got some Pal's dollars from my Aunt Cathy too because everyone knows how much I love it there!

We went to the Bristol Motor Speedway

Where the Nascar Races are ... and we drove through the light show, which was supposed to be one of the best in the country and it really was awesome! 

We were surprised to see that we actually got to go down on the track and DRIVE around the track ...

You would have thought Chris died and went to heaven ha! It was pretty cool I will admit, even though there was a good chance our car was going to tip over it was SO steep on the track! 

We hung out with my Papaw .... SO fun! 

We took the kids to his house to play and it was hysterical ... 

Ava discovered the "organ" from 1929 haha and literally brought the house down and blared it  ;) 

My Papaw collects coins ... he has his whole life, like hides them in walls and safes and such ha it's insane ... but Jake saw some on his walls and said 

"Ohhh papaw collects money? He must have one THOUSAND dollars!! I want to collect money too"

haha we were cracking up! He was mesmerized by the money. 

Ella saw a real rotary phone for the first time, and thought she was in a museum.

She was trying to call our phones and kept dialing the wrong numbers ha she said it was WAY too hard to use that kind of phone, lol bless her heart. 

We went to my Aunt Cathy's 60th Birthday Party!!

Def doesn't look 60 in my opinion!!

It was a great party, so good to see her! 

Papaw was ready to eat ha

We had a great time!

Happy Birthday again Aunt Cathy! xo

Maybe the sweetest part of the trip ... 

I got to meet up with my cousin Anna and meet baby Henry!!

Obsessed with him! He is the cutest ever. So cuddly and sweet! I could have held him all night!

And he looked pretty dang handsome in his new UGG boots I got him for Christmas ;) 

Ahhh love him!! <3 

We had an awesome trip ... it was too short! 

Lastly, I went to get my Mamaw's Bible 

because I wanted to use it in our wedding for something... and when we were cleaning it out I found this piece of paper with a great little paragraph on it ... 

Isn't that good?

I want to hang it up somewhere I will see it every day! Great reminder. 

Well, it was a great trip and we had an awesome time!

Can't wait to go back sometime soon!!

Until then, we will just keep listening to Wagon Wheel hahaha 

Sorry babe ;) 

Happy 2013 and Recapping Christmas!

Happy New Year Friends! 

Today I am taking the day to be lazy, work on some wedding stuff, relax from the CRAZY last couple of weeks I have had ... and finally catch up on blogging and everyone else's blogs! :) 

I have so many wonderful things to share from Christmas ... so this will be a long one ... then I have some other Christmas posts coming this week just to do a little recap! But I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year and got to spend lots of time with their family and friends! 

Our Christmas was PERFECT!

I was such a bad blogger and didn't even get to share our Christmas card this year ... 

 Sorry had to take a picture of a picture, so it is a little blurry :(
But we definitively had Christmas Bliss this year!

If you are in Lexington ... our Christmas pictures were taken by Mary Maldonado and she was awesome!
Then our Christmas cards were made on Tinyprints.com

My work Christmas Cards were ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE, 
and created by the fabulous Mary Ellen Designs...

How cute is that?

I gave her kind of my vision for what I wanted on the card ... and then she actually hand draws these things!

She exceeded my expectations beyond belief :) Love it! Cutest Real Estate Christmas Card of all time!

We had a great Christmas!

We literally had 4 Christmas's and they were all so special! 

Frankie received a special gift from Santa in his stocking ...  

 HOHOHO!
hahahaha
A little Santa hat and heard ... which he wasn't very excited about but made for a cute picture ;)

He also got a new cute Woolrich coat ;) 
He is so so handsome! 

I am kind of sad to take all of this down this week :( 

This was my favorite tree we've ever had! 

I had a fun time with the present wrapping this year and all my fun litte taggings ;) 

We got a surprise visit and literally one of the best cakes I have ever tasted, from Ginny our wedding planner! Love her times a million. She is the BEST! 

If you are local check out her website by clicking here ... she is awesome! 

On Christmas Day we had a blast ... 

The kids and their new robes ;) LOL

Chris and I opened some and bless his heart he did an amazing job this year! 

I am so blessed and lucky ... he remembered things I had just said in passing from months ago! 

So sweet and we were both very blessed this Christmas! 

I think one of my favorite things I got 

(besides my new cross body purse and gold monogrammed necklace! hehe) 

was this ... 

My little gold ring with Chris's initials on it ... obsessed with this. I have wanted one for a long time and it is even cuter in person than it looks in this pic! 

My other favorite thing is my new Marmot vest that my dad picked out all on his own lol ;)

He did good! I have worn it every day since Christmas, it is warm and cozy! 

We celebrated with our families and had a blast! 

Me, my Dad, my brother Chris and my Mom

I think it can all be summed up by this picture of Jake ... 

Best Day Ever!

(shirt from Nordstrom children's department)  

I have an awesome kid's Christmas Party to blog about...

our trip to Bristol, TN to see my family ... 

AND ... 

my 30 before 30 List that I have been compiling! 

Happy New Year! 

Hope your holiday's were blessed and fabulous!  

Xo,

Give Away!

It's A Give Away Day!

Would you like a chance to win?
Of course you would!
What's even better? There are 15 other prizes you can win also! 
So hop click on over to Living in Yellow and enter to win!! 

Happy Wednesday!
Xo,

Weekend Update Link Up

Well it's Monday .. Wah Wah Wah!

Ha ... today is super rainy and dreary and I am just really wishing I could stay home and be lazy and wrap Christmas presents, but unfortunately that is not happening today :(
Too much to do today, and then tonight is my Christmas dinner/Ornament swap with a few of my girlfriends!

Today I am linking up with Sami over at
Sami's Shenanigans for the ... 

So here goes my weekend ... 

Which was very kid-packed and fun might I add ;) 

Our Elf, Mr. Jingles, was up to no good this weekend! 

His sister however is the good one :) 

He TP'd our Living Room and it was a mess, which he didn't clean up haha

It was funny to see the kid's faces when they woke up and saw what he did! We were a little shocked ;)

Next on the agenda... 

We surprised the kids with "Pajama Night" on Saturday and left their PJ's on their beds with a note that said "Meet us in the car" ha and then Chris and I had our pajamas on too, along with Frankie of course, and we had snacks in the car, blankets, and Christmas music playing ... then we drove around and looked at some awesome lights for over two hours ha! It was SO much fun for all of us! 

We found lots of Christmas lights and then went to Fire Station for them to run around and play, and then to Orange Leaf for dessert ha! 

(Which happened to be packed, and we walked in with our PJ's on lol, oh well!)

Next on the weekend front ...

We got ready and took a few pics ... 

 Love this picture of Ella & Ava <3 

Then ... 

We saw Santa!

Pose 1 ... the smile pose

Pose 2 .. the "I'm thinking of what I want for Christmas" pose 

And... Pose 3 .. the Reindeer Ears Pose, lol 

It was funny, but they all were so excited and couldn't wait to tell Santa what they wanted, which actually was ALL different from the things they already told us they wanted ...? We were like say what?? I thought you wanted blah blah blah .. "no we changed our minds" ha. Gotta love that. 

Looks like Chris will be the one fighting traffic and doing some last minute shopping ;) 

(jk babe, I know you're not the shopping pro like me, we will do the "you drop me off at the door and I will run in while you circle the parking lot" number! lol) 

Lastly, 

WE GOT TO SEE OUR ENGAGEMENT PICTURES!!

Oh.My.Goodness.

The talented Alicia @ Aesthetiica Photography took the most beautiful pictures, more beautiful than I could have imagined! 

PS. Be sure to check out her blog, she travels ladies ;)

I know this will be a tease, but because we haven't picked which one we want to use for our 

Save the Dates,

I can't share them all yet :( 

But these two I have to share ....

I love this one with my love ...  

And this one with my other love ... ;) 

hahaha

 We should get our disc in the mail this week and once we pick a Save the Date pic, then I will be able to share the rest of them! Can't wait!!! Ahhh!! So exciting!! :)

Ok I am off to do some work and run errands today ... 

Please don't forget ... 

On Tuesday, December 18th, there will be a blogger day of silence. 

We will post the button and that's it. Please try to not post anything else that day if possible.

We are also raising money that will go to an organization in the memory of this tragedy. The organization is called The Newtown Family Youth and Family Services. Here is the official description of the support service we are donating to: 

"Newtown Youth and Family Services, Inc. is a licensed, non-profit, mental health clinic and youth services bureau dedicated to helping children and families achieve their highest potential. NYFS provides programs, services, activities, counseling, support groups and education throughout the Greater Newtown area.

ANY DONATIONS MADE TO NEWTOWN YOUTH AND FAMILY SERVICES WILL BE DONATED DIRECTLY TO THOSE EFFECTED BY THE SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SHOOTING."

Please visit THIS PAGE to make your donation.

We can't imagine how they must be feeling, especially this close to the holidays. We would love for you to spread the word on your own blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Let's make a difference and use blogging in a positive way. Thank you in advance for participating.

Love,
The Blog World 

p.s. If you would like to, copy-paste and repost any part of this, please do. Share on.  I copied from Living in Yellow :)