O Christmas Tree!

Woo Hoo!!!! Hellloooooo Christmas season!  Josh and I (along with A.LOT. of folks) got our Christmas tree this weekend.  The past years I've had an artificial tree.  It was a great deal I found at target about 5 years ago.  She was great and reliable.  Despite the fact that some birds made my tree its home in my mom's basement last year...Josh was determined to get a live one.  I'm fairly certain our family will be a "live tree" family.  It is just a little bit more fun, it makes your house smell nice, and it gives the man something to do when it's time to decorate (not that arranging the garland on the mantle just right isn't Josh's favorite...).

last year our tree was somewhat "small" considering it barely went over Josh's head...but this year, we changed up the location and were able to get a much taller tree!

(I'm sure this is one of those points where Josh wishes I would be more helpful instead of taking pictures the whole time...but it looks like he's doing a great job).  and see...perfectly straight...great job babe!

900 lights and some ornaments later...

We lost all our outside decorations in the flood so we are having to re-think what we want it all to look like.  Josh's is fine to go all Griswold on the roof, I'm more of a keep it classy all white lights look.  We'll see how it goes!

thanksgiving

At church on Sunday the pastor read this segment from Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation on October 3, 1836:

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.


His words are convicting, humbling, and ensue an attitude of gratitude.  May we all be truly grateful for Jesus Christ and His sacrifice so that we may have eternal life.  What a gift to be thankful for.

the bed

we have our bed ladies and gentlemen!!!

I told you about our bedding HERE and we actually have all of it now :)  well...we need some down comforters to put in the duvets AND pillows to put in the pillow cases, but for the most part, we've got it all.

speaking of our bedding...apparently it has sparked a new love for the color GREY.  Well...it will be used in my wedding (shhh! don't ruin the surprise) so maybe that sparked it...but it will also now be in our bedroom AND also in the bathroom!  I'm in LOVE with these towels from target...

I think grey accents will go nicely with josh's black and white tile bathroom floor, and greenish-blueish wall color.

anyway...this post is about our bed.  Josh and I both have double beds.  Which are great for one person.  Even one person + a dog.  But when you add and additional one person + dog to the equation, you get 2 people + 2 dogs = too many for a double bed.  So, we knew a queen bed was in order.  Once Josh got the new TV bedroom he quickly understood the need for a comfy headboard.  So, here is what we ended up with, courtesy of American Signature...

it's brown and leather and pretty!  I'm sad I don't get to sleep on it for another 4 months and 3 days ...oh and the fact that we don't have queen mattresses yet either...or sheets for that matter (baby steps people). 

Cody, 2 year old portraits

I know you are all familiar with this cute little face...but this time, he's 2!!!  He wasn't too keen on sitting nicely and posing for the camera but we certianly had a fun time running around and climbing some stairs...and hopefully getting some good shots in between!

sweet silver cups..and pups

I rented a lens this past weekend to take Cody's 2 year old pictures (coming soon).  the day I got the lens I also got the cutest little mint julep cups I've ever seen.  I've never had a mint julep...I don't really know what it is...something about drinking it at horse races...but I however, will not be using them for horse race punch but instead for a certain big event in March!!!  seriously...they are so cute! 

and while I was playing around with the lens...these two were just begging to be models!

(ummm can we take a second to notice Bauer's grey beard...such an old man)

lil' pumpkin shower - part 2

the food.  this is the good stuff. gotta love a good fall morning shower!

Keeping with the pumpkin theme we had a few pumpkin flavors but mainly stuck with yummy fall foods. From top to bottom:

Apple Walnut Salad

Homemade Quiches (Morgan went above and beyond!)

the cutest veggie display ever (Margaret Jane went all out!)

Pumpkin Ginger Bread

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Sausage and Cream Cheese Casserole

(this is the best casserole ever, I was super happy Sarah made it!)

Hashbrown Casserole (I could eat this all.day.long.)

Cheese Grits (Lele, you can come to my house and make these any morning you want!)

Mango Chai Tea, it's Ryan's favorite!

It was all so yummy.  Seriously...if you need any of this food, I can give you names and numbers of all who contributed.  It was great.  Josh was sad there weren't very many leftovers.

lil' pumpkin baby shower - part 1

my friend Ryan is having a little baby girl, Olive, in February.  soooo...of course we needed to shower her with some love and decided November was the perfect time to throw a Lil' Pumpkin Baby Shower.  If you ever need to throw a shower might I suggest having wonderful helpers like these lovely ladies...

hellloooo fall boots!  but seriously, such fun women to work with (and fabulous cooks...more on the food later).

Here are some of the decorations we had at the shower...

pumpkins...naturally

diaper cake - duh! caitlin helped me put this one together! 

The top is always something I stress about but I love how this bow came together. 

happy girl!!! that means bows!

Lele made these adorable letters (seen in the group picture).  it was her idea to hang them from the mantle by a branch...super cute!  AND look at her sweet little fabric pumpkins.  lele, she's a keeper!

and for little "thank you" treats I made one of ryan's favorite treats, pumpkin chocolate chip muffins!

check back later for more of the food and highlights from the shower!

family photos

tis the season...for family photos!

This sweet family works at TBCH with me.  They, however, are the ones that actually do ALL.THE.WORK. and go out there, offer up their lives, homes, jobs, comforts, and schedules to be parents to children in need 24/7.  They...are houseparents.  What missionaries.  Talk about "looking after orphans in their distress" (James 1:27), these folks do it EVERY.DAY.  What a cool way for their sweet boy to be raised...seeing everyone as equals, learning to have an open heart and open home when it comes to helping others in need, and always having a house full of friends to play with :)

Besides showing you some recent pictures I took, I wanted to use this post to remind you (and first and foremost myself) that as the holidays grow closer and as we get excited to be with family and eat big meals...there are those who don't have that to look forward to...and there are those like that just down the street from you.  literally.  TBCH has campuses in 6 locations across the state, there are missions and shelters all over...plenty of ways for you to give to someone who needs it this year!

tis the season...to give back.

embrace fall

oh to be a kid again.

happy baby surprise!

remember this super cute family?!  well...since baby boy #2 will be joining us NEXT MONTH we decided to surprise them with some "Happy Baby!" gifts.  naturally for me...that means a diaper cake!  (I'm pretty sure new born diapers are the cutest little things).

Josh got his first lesson in diaper cakes.  He was a huge help - you just gotta have two sets of hand folks.  I decided to make a front and a back so that it's cute all the way around...

and baby cason's wardrobe would not be complete without a little commodore love:

Brian and Christine also joined in on the fun.  She made the cutest little cupcakes (sorry I failed to take a picture) and they looked JUST like the master's cupcakes too.  Christine used pumpkin cupcakes and they were delicious!!!

Happy Baby Whitehursts!  Hope you enjoy your treats!

pumpkin puppies

Oh dogs in costumes...it will always be funny.

I got Bauer a pumpkin t-shirt for Halloween...so his girlfriend got a pumpkin costume to match.

and for the record...they really do love each other...

Now, when Halloween rolled around we felt like Rosie Bell was maybe feeling a bit left out (this absolutely not how she felt, but our desire to have all the pups dressed up won out over her desire to never conform to what the other two are doing).  Luckily, Luna had a set of Halloween pajamas (naturally...what dog doesn't have an extra set of Halloween pajamas).  I know what you are thinking.  Luna is a SUPER small.  Rosie is fairly average...is this going to work?  well...why don't you be the judge of how it worked out...

ummm, hello adorable!!! (poor rosie...she was a trooper, it was a wee bit too small)

now...if you remember our HUGE pumpkin that we got at gentry's farm...Mom REALLY wanted to put Luna IN it.  HA!  maybe next year. We'll just settle for all around it. But putting her next to it does help you see just how big it really is.

hope you all had a happy Halloween! 

next up is Thanksgiving and on to Christmas! 

What a wonderful time of year!

carving pumpkins

last year josh and I carved pumpkins AFTER Halloween...so the fact that we did it ON Halloween this year was a big improvement.  Hopefully next year we can get our act together since we'll be all married and such...WEIRD!

anyway....we carved our pumpkins with these kids...always a good time when large knives are involved.

between our HUGE pumpkin from gentry's farm and scait's pumpkin, caitlin got busy cooking batches of pumpkin seeds...(one batch salted, the other with cinnamon!)

scott set the bar high while he whittled away at Frankenstein...

while josh and I kept it pretty traditional with ours...

check back tomorrow...the dogs want to show you their costumes!!!

oh...and just because certain people get upset when they don't have a picture on the blog...here is a picture of me and Josh from downtown Franklin's Pumpkin Festival!