January Begins!

Our year has made a banging start. Two of our very best friends got engaged a week from Saturday! Kari and Matt will tie the knot in June and we are so happy to be a apart of their big day!! We got to meet them for dinner on Friday night to celebrate and check out the new bling...it was SO much fun. Tal and I wish SO badly that they lived a little closer so we could do dinner dates more often. I got to spend some of the day Saturday beginning wedding festivities with Kari. I know these next few months will be full of good times. Cannot wait for these two to see what a blessing marriage is!

 This Saturday was also a super special day for our most precious niece....

That's China on the left. She turned 14 on Saturday! So hard to believe she is getting so big. She lives in Texas so we couldn't actually celebrate with her but we did send her a little something to commemorate the day. Here's an iPhone pic she sent us of her wearing her new unicorn ring (p.s. she picked it out). Happy Birthday China! Talon and I love you so so so very much!!

Monday was a work holiday for me. Talon's an accountant so no holidays until April for him. I got to spend the day finishing up projects and hanging with this angel....

I hope every one's weekend was just as wonderful as ours!



Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year! We sure did. It was so relaxed and uber laid back. Which made it all the more wonderful! Here's a few photos of what our Christmas Day and Eve looked like....

My parents and I on Christmas Eve.

Our nephews ready to open presents....

 Creed Baby.

The whole fam on Christmas morning...

  

 Santa was very good to Tils:) We were blessed with an amazing Christmas! After the holiday shin digs were over we did manage to use the rest of our time off work to be VERY productive. SO many house projects to share in the next week!!



Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I hope you all have a safe and blessed Christmas!

Merry Mini Christmas

We had a very mini Christmas at our house this past weekend. My brother, Grayson, will be spending Christmas in Colorado this year...so we had an early Christmas celebration for him at our house.

 It was lots of fun with lots of yummy food. See that cake...its Alton Brown's Red Velvet cake recipe...so delish. Those are Chocolate Crackle Cookies in the back. I found the recipe here. They were also yummy and made excellent Christmas gifts for the neighbors.

All of this baking was made possible by our new favorite toy....Merry Christmas to us:) Thanks Dad!!

 Along with the food there was excellent wine...

 And a goodie box of treats for our guest....

 These two were the center of attention the entire night....

 The lab is our nephew, River. Tillie is not so sure what to think of her much younger but way bigger cousin.

 

 For the most part you could tell she wasn't happy with any other furry animals in our house. This is her hiding behind my Mom...avoiding River like the plague. At times though she did warm up...

I hope everyone is enjoying all of the fun Christmas gatherings going on this time of year! We loved having our family over to celebrate!

December Activities

A short post to let you know what we have been up to in December...it's been busy but probably the least stressful holiday season we've ever had. We've enjoyed every minute of it...I think because we finished our shopping in November. Reminder to self...do that every year. Here we are at Talon's office Christmas party...

We've baked SO many delicious goodies this year. This specific day I was baking red and white sugar cookie pinwheels. From the recipe I found here. They are definitely not as hard as they look...just a little time consuming.

We celebrated this big guy turning one...so fun to watch him grow:)

  We've also made several attempts to drag Tils along for the ride where in the end every single time we decide it's best that she stays at home. This is her seating on the console in between the drivers and passenger side seat because she is insane in the car... 

I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season as much as we are!

Year Two.

Tal and I are celebrating 2 years of marriage today:) Well, we've been celebrating all weekend but today is the official day of matrimony. We decided that the best way for us to celebrate would be to do something together. So on Saturday we headed to Atlanta for a day trip. We had so much fun just hanging out together all day...

 In true Woods family form...we made a stop at IKEA while we were there...

Where we loaded up on lots of goodies for the hizzy...

  It was a day of celebration which was an obvious excuse to eat terribly unhealthy food and drink lots of Starbucks....

 Tal's basket of goodies he was semi-surprised with this morning {note: your husband can view all of your instagram photos that you post} which he more than deserves for being such an amazing husband.

Here's to many many more happy years of marriage {like fo-eva}....

Thankfulness.

First - So thankful that we worship such an amazing God. He has blessed Talon and I so much over the past year. To God be the glory!!

Second - These two. Sweet Tal and Tils. They make my world go round:) Third - Such loving parents.Fourth - My big ol' family that always produces a good time.Fifth - Great friends. Especially ones that will dress in awesome tacky Christmas attire.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Small Prizes

I hope everyone had a fab weekend. Ours was pretty busy with family and such. I did a lot of cleaning to get ready for Christmas decorations next weekend --- CANNOT WAIT. We celebrated a family birthday on Sunday. I threw together a tiny gift for the birthday girl before we visited. I made a fresh batch of cookies {using the Nestle Toll House recipe on the back of the package} and bundled them in this adorable box....It's a generic gift box. I buy them in large quantities after Christmas every year for super cheap. I added a card with the Happy Birthday message and tied it all together with twine. Simple and sweet.
This would make the perfect gift this Christmas for co-workers and neighbors. So easy and inexpensive!

Hump Day

A little something for the middle of the week....



That is our nephew, Dylan, he wanted Tillie to jump over him:) Happy Hump Day!!

Eight.

Meet our nephew, Creed. He turned 8 over the weekend. Talon and I started dating when Creed was ONE. So hard to believe. We celebrated his big day with a birthday party at a park where we had a pick up baseball game. Grandparents included. His little buddies came to help him celebrate. They were all excelent baseball players.Uncle Tal was the first baseman for the birthday boy.Creed was showered with lots of prizes.Including a new BIKE. Everyone was jealous of his new ride.
It was a great day filled with lots of family and love. Happy 8th Birthday Sweet Creed! We love you SO much!!

Happy Halloween!

I'm a day late but I hope everyone had a very Happy Halloween! This was the first year that we were home long enough to give out candy...it was a blast. Halloween makes me want to move to a huge kid filled neighborhood where everyone (including myself, Talon and Tillie) would dress in awesome costumes to give out candy and yards are decorated to the nines (you know just like TV!). Unfortunately, most of the kiddos in our neighborhood are tiny babies...so we didn't have to many trick or treaters but the ones we did have were precious. Our sweet nephews were first.... Don't they look crazy creepy?? These guys didn't get to trick or treat us because of a few hundred miles in between us (they live in Texas) but my sister sent me this picture of our sweet nephew and niece before they loaded up on candy....Makes me miss them terribly! While Tal and I were handing out the goods Tillie was rebelling in our bedroom {we made her stay in our bedroom for the night out of fear she would lick one of the kiddos to death}. Here she is hanging out on our dresser....what the heck she was doing up there I have no idea. I guess she was pissed she didn't get to partake in the festivities.
Sad that Halloween is over but I guess it is on to Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Yard Sale'n Saturday

Saturday morning my Mom and I got up bright and early - not really we left at like 8:00 - and set out to do some yard sale'n. We were both yard sale'n newbies but I had heard from a friend that the thing to do was to grab the Saturday newspaper - and find the yard sale section in the classifieds. This was a GREAT tip. They specify whether or not it is an estate sale and also mention the type of items that are going to be at the sale. For example, I was mostly interested in furniture so we detoured away from those that didn't indicate that they had any furniture for sale. So, a little Starbucks and the newspaper we were on our way....We completely hit the jackpot on our very first stop. It was a semi-estate sale. Which I assume means their just trying to get rid of a ton of stuff but not actually emptying out the entire house. This huge old ladder was our very first score....I'm completely obsessed with how amazing it is.Part of our yard sale loot at the end of the day....I've already started working on all of the transformations - can't wait to share them!It was a very long fun day of yard sale'n. Afterwards, we were pretty beat - a lot of walking and bargaining for one day. At the end of it....football with this gal and guy.
Until the next one....

A few of my favorite things...

Just a little post about things that I currently love. Beware - this post is slightly materialistic. So, I will preface it by saying that I love Talon and Tillie way more than any of this junk. Got it, yo. I got the new iPhone this week. Wow it's amazing. Needless to say I am most definitely loving it... I am also loving a few perks that come along with the iPhone. First, the Instagram app. The camera on the phone is great but this app makes your photos look uber special. I especially like the Instagram photos I've taken of Tils....2nd in the world of iPhone perks...the My Fitness Pal app. Greatest thing since sliced bread. Promise. I'm way passed obsessed. Ask Talon. I've sat at the dinner table calculating the calories in our meal for the past 10 days. He is annoyed to say the least:) But it is such an amazing tool to help you watch your calorie intake, reach weight loss goals, keep up with how many calories you've burned, etc, etc. It's great!On a cheesier note...my Snuggie! My Dad gave it to me last week and it was just in time because it has gotten quite chilly in Alabama. Now to get Talon the Alabama one so we can make an awesome photo like this...Christmas Card?? I think so:) Last but most definitely not least....our church added a 7:00 service on Sunday nights {it's the same sermon as Sunday mornings}. Talon and I have loved having all of Sunday to rest and play then ending the day by worshiping our one and only. It's a wonderful way to start the week.
Have a wonderful weekend!