Winter Bucket List Review

I just realized that I never posted our finished Winter Bucket List. Silly Tax Season makes me lose all track of time. Anyway, it's a little late, but here are all the things we were able to accomplish this past winter!

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Like always, we weren't able to complete every desired activity for the season, but we thoroughly enjoyed getting to mark off each of the ones that we did! Maybe, eventually, I'll get around to posting about some of those events (ahem, Christmas!) when I get some time.

I have compiled a list of Spring things we'd like to do, but I haven't been able to actually create the pretty version of the bucket list. You may not actually see it until it's all completed! (Read: After Tax Season.) I hope your springtime is off to a beautiful start!

Learning Early

I just love Layla. Don't you?

You know who else does? Jesus. And Layla is learning that precious truth already. This is the sweetest version of "Jesus Loves Me" I have ever heard.

Oh my goodness, my heart just falls right out. I simply can not stop watching this.

I can't wait to teach my own baby about Jesus' love someday! What a wonderful blessing! (The love and the baby!) ♥

Safe and Sound

There are three things I'm currently obsessed with. Taylor Swift is, of course, one of them. The other two you may not know about: The Civil Wars and The Hunger Games trilogy. Seriously, if you've never listened to The Civil Wars, do it. And if you've never read The Hunger Games, do it. You'll thank me for both.

Back in December, I was thrilled when Taylor announced that she was collaborating with The Civil Wars on a new song. (Holla!) Adding to the excitment, the song was going to be for the first movie adaptation of my new favorite book series! And finally, yesterday, (only one day after she brought home two new Grammy awards) she released the video for one of the best songs she's ever done. Prepare to see and hear Taylor like never before. Behold!

Get More: Taylor Swift, Safe and Sound, Music, More Music Videos

What do you think? I absolutely love it. I have to be honest, though, when I first heard they were collaborating, I had a couple doubts of how well Taylor could keep up with the haunting melodies of The Civil Wars, but her voice in this song is more beautiful than ever. And visually, the video matches the tone and feel of the book series perfectly. This gives me high hopes for the film's approach to the material, as well.

Taylor meets The Civil Wars meets The Hunger Games? Yes, please!

Happy Valentine's Day!

My honey surprised me with a dozen roses and some chocolate covered cherries! After our big date night over the weekend I would have been pleased with just the card!

Hope you get to experience some form of love today!

This old dog is learning some new tricks

Everybody say "Happy Birthday!" to Chester! Today, he turns 6 years old. That's even more than a whole paw!

He has gotten entitled in his old age. Lately, he has started straight up asking for treats. Seriously. He walks right up to the closet where we store them, and he impatiently waits. If we don't pay him attention, he rudely scratches the door and shifts his weight to make sure we know that his focus is on the door. Oh-ho no, sir. Not gunna fly in my house, Mr. Mess.

I figured that if he thinks he deserves these treats, he's going to have to earn them, by golly. So this week, we started practicing playing dead. It's one of the tricks we never fully attempted, because he got so confused between it and rollover. But look how great he is doing after only a few days! He's such a smart dog!

Take a look at the birthday boy performing all of his tricks just for you! (He still hesitates a little at the "Bang!" but he's figuring it out.)

Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?? Six seems pretty old to me, and he's obviously a champ. Now, we just need to get him over his phobia of us touching his paws, so he can learn to "shake." (Every time we try, he slowly pulls his paw back with a confused look on his face, as if he's clearly offended by our audacity to grab it.) If we can tackle that challenge, who knows? We may eventually even move on to Jesse level tricks!

Happy Birthday, sweet boy! You're the best gosh darn dog in all the land! 

Why, hello there.

Oh my goodness! I have missed you so much! I can't believe it's been over a month since we've visited. Seriously, this is inexcusable. Please accept my apologies. Generally, I get a chance to blog about our Christmas festivities before the new year begins; however, this year, Brad and I took off the entire week between Christmas and New Years to travel and visit with family. As a result, I had no chance to blog before January 1st, aka, Tax Season began.

Boooooo!!!

I've been so busy at work preparing for our busy season, that I haven't had a single minute to dedicate to my blog friends! Not cool at all. I have so much to talk about and document in my digital scrapbook here. Nevertheless, February is just around the corner and my days will only get busier. I can't promise that I'll have time to provide regular or frequent posts, but I wanted to at least let y'all know that I haven't forgotten about you! As soon as I can steal away some time, I'll be right back on here fillin' ya in on our lives!

In the meantime, how are you guys? I hope you had a great Christmas and have enjoyed the start of 2012!

Ready for Christmas

There are few things I love more than a Christmas house. And in addition to our award winning exterior decorations, the inside is all ready for the holiday as well! This is the first time we've celebrated Christmas twice in the same house, so it was kind of weird to decorate and already know where everything went. Thankfully, the addition of new Christmas cards and new ways to display them has added a little variety from last year. And Brad and I found some new stockings that we like better, so our mantle looks a little different, too.

Our tree is mostly the same with a few new additions. And my good friend, Kristen, made me a wonderful green, red, and silver ornament wreathe to hang on the wall, that features a happy Noel the Gnome in the center of it. She knows me very well.

Of course, we personalized our annual Mehaffey ornament for 2011, but we also added some fitting NYC ornaments to our collection. The adorable Mindy and Brad initials are another gift from Kristen, the other M is for Mehaffey and each couple in the family has a matching one, and the "Faith" precious moment one was a gift from my mother-in-law, encouraging us to keep our faith in the Lord as we continue on through our fertility process (so thoughtful!).  I love that we add to our tree's "trimming" each year.

But wait, did you notice all of those presents??? Many of those are for other people that we love, but some of them are for Brad and me, too. Holla!! I'm dying to see what's inside them! (I'm really just anxious for some nice slippers. One of those wrapped boxes under the tree better have a pair of slippers for me! Ahem, Bradley.)

Of course, Christmas is so much more than slippers gifts under the tree. I hope you all get a chance to spend time with your family and those whom you love this weekend!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

PS. I'm praying for many of you who are especially reminded of losses over the holiday season, or may be celebrating Christmas for the first time without that certain someone who is missed dearly. My heart is with you. God is near.

Christmas Card Displays

One of my favorite activities during Christmastime is sending, receiving and decorating with Christmas cards from people we love. Last year, I proudly hung them all on our door. But this year, I saw this cute idea on pinterest for displaying cards that I simply couldn't wait to do in our own home.

So I ran to Big Lots and bought 50 feet of red velvet ribbon for $3 and a package of clothes pins for like $1.50 and got my cabinet doors ready for cards. As the Christmas mail has come in, I've immediately pinned it to the awaiting ribbon.

I really like how the decorated doors not only display the love from some of our favorite people, but also warm up our entire kitchen. (And, as an added bonus, there's no tape to peel the paint off of our garage door. Lesson learned.) I'm definitely going to miss the eye candy when we have to eventually remove them.

However, just because the cards will be taken down from our kitchen cabinets doesn't mean that they'll get thrown away. I found another creative way to showcase cards from Christmas past. You just punch a couple holes in the edges and then bind them together with metal binder rings to make a little booklet that  you can set out as a coffee table book for the holidays. Brilliant, right ?

So, now I actually have something to do with the old cards that I just couldn't bear to throw away at the end of the season. I'll make a new pack each year and just toss them on the  table when I set out our Christmas decorations. And it's really fun to casually look back through them and see how people have changed over the year(s).

And speaking of Christmas cards, here's a virtual version of our 2011 card, just for you! Of course, it features a picture from NYC! Did you send out any this year?

Thanks to both of these new tricks, I have a fun and creative way to show off both current cards and past ones. This makes me love my Christmas cards even more! Do you display the ones you receive? Let me know if you use these same techniques. They're really cheap and easy. Hope you have fun decorating with your Christmas mail!

Tastefully Griswolding it

I interrupt this just-begun NYC series to bring you our Christmas House for 2011! (The series of posts regarding our Thanksgiving trip will continue at a later date. I make no promises for continuity. But eventually, all six days will definitely be documented. Guaranteed.)

Oh! I just love Christmastime! And I love coming home to our festive Christmas house!! I really enjoyed our outside decor last year, but this time we upped the ante with lights!! Lots of lights! (That we bought in after Christmas sales, last year. Sneaky.)

It took an entire weekend to complete, and we joked that our house was going to look very Griswoldian when it was all finished. But I think Brad was able to pull it off in a more tasteful, classic way than the classic vacationers. I love that there are wreaths, garland and bows to enjoy during the daytime, as well as pretty lights to see at night! (The bows on the mailbox were Brad's surprise touch. He pretends that he does all of this for my benefit, but he totally loves it, too!)

And look at these super adorable, super cheap, super easy little Christmas trees I made out of upside-down tomato cages, some garland, and a coupld strands of twinkling lights. I'm not generally crafty, but I really like the way these turned out! And they oh-so-conveniently hide our very occupied outlet by the front door. [Thanks, Pinterest!]

And now, the grand unveiling of our Christmas House at night! *Drumroll* Isn't it just magical?? Brad decided to add lights even to the garland draped on the railing, and Charles had some extra net lights for the bushes to complete the whole scene.

The lights go all of the way back on both sides of the house. Thanks to our automatic timer, this is the pretty view I get to see as I drive through our neighborhood to our house every day. Ahh...

I really like how our entryway turned out. I feel like it's so warm and inviting. I love the glowing lights outlining the house and the twinkling lights on the mini trees and the fact that you can see our Christmas tree through the window, as well as the shadows of the bows. What a very happy, pretty time of year. :)

And to be honest, I'm really glad the exterior decorations all turned out so well, because it was a pretty scary process to hang them. Brad climbed all of the way to the very peak of our steep roof and down each side attaching lights every few inches. I could only watch long enough to take these few shots, and then I had to go in before I got too nervous. Kris volunteered to throw boxes of lights up to him, and even to "catch him if he fell." (How very kind of him.) Even with his fear of  heights, he climbed out onto our porch roof to provide some assistance. I guess he was just returning the favor from last year (and again, this year). Thankfully, another friend brought some extension ladders the next day to finish off the sides of the roof where it was too dangerous to venture from the shingles. Good friends are good to have. Jussayin...

Tonight, our HOA is hosting a community walk to view all of the houses in the neighborhood, and then they're awarding a $50 gift card to one winner with the best decorated home. Our fingers are crossed that we'll make the cut!

**Update: We totally won! Holla!!!

NYC Day 1

Brad and I got to spend the the entire week of Thanksgiving in New York City! I can't wait to (finally) tell you all about our trip! Since we did so much throughout the week, and took so many pictures (over 1,000), I'm going to do a separate post for each day that we were in the Big Apple.

Please. Indulge Join me as we sit down together and go through our vacation pictures! :)

This was the beautiful view from our hotel room, which was tiny. Literally, Brad's knees hit the wall if he sat on the toilet. Ha!

This was our first picture together in the city. The fountain behind us, located right outside of Central Park was filled with tons of lit Christmas trees for the season!

Our first stop was 5th Avenue. We wanted to get any shopping / visiting of shopping areas done early in the week so as to avoid Black Friday craziness. And it was wonderful. We saw all kinds of fancy stores that were way out of our league: Gucci, Prada, Bergdorf Goodman, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Chanel, Dior, Amani, Saks, etc. I had to stop outside of Tiffany's to flash my own bling. And they all had everything decorated for Christmas, which made me a very happy tourist! Look how pretty that Cartier store is, all wrapped up like a present!

One store on the strip, however, was precisely up our alley. I declare that FAO Schwarz has got to be the best toy store in America. The toy soldier guard even took a break from his cheerful song welcoming people to the store to pose with us!

Seriously, Brad and I were like little kids in this place. I was all wide-eyed in wonder looking at all the toys. And they had an entire floor that was just a big candy store! It was called FAO Schweetz, and they had candy the size of your head! I'm talking a pair of 1/2 pound peanut butter cups, people!

We hung out in FAO for hours. Literally. We played with every toy and posed with every prop. There was an entire Harry Potter section where you could buy real quidditch robes and wizarding hats. I was very tempted to buy this Hufflepuff scarf. (Yes, I was sorted into Hufflepuff. I've come to terms with it.) But our favorite parts may have been all of the gigantic lego sculptures! They were pretty amazing. 

Once we were finished playing in the toy store and mocking strange window displays on 5th Avenue, we ventured over to the Radio City Music Hall. Thanks to our pre-purchased New York pass, we had access to the backstage tour. It was interesting to learn of the history and see the secret VIP rooms in which celebrities during various awards shows. But the best part was definitely the opportunity to meat a real Rockette! She told us all about the show and the the routines and the audition process and the height requirements. (They're all between 5'8" and 5'10", and they create the illusion of being the exact same height by placing the tallest in the center and very gradually placing the shortest on the edges.) All I know, is standing next to her not only demonstrated our height differences, it also demonstrated how to pose for pictures to look awesome by having your front leg bent and tilting a little to the side. Tricky, tricky.

One of my personal favorite aspects of NYC was the presence of all of the hot dog vendors! They were literally everywhere you looked. On this one intersection alone, there was a stand on all four corners of the street. They were such a cheap and convenient solution to hunger with a busy schedule. And these guys were super fast, too. They'd trail mustard on the dog one direction, drop the container, pickup the ketchup, and squeeze it out going the opposite direction. (And it's "mustard and ketchup" not "ketchup and mustard" in NYC.) I think the entire process from order requested to the exchange of food and cash was less than 90 seconds. Nice.

We stepped into the massive, beautiful, free public library to take a look around. The whole place was like one giant work of art. The never ending hallways, stairways, and rooms had incredibly high ceilings with murals on many walls and ceilings and gorgeous scroll work and carved woodwork throughout. Naturally, in such an overwhelmingly beautiful building, I had one mission: to find a copy of Harry Potter. Mission: Accomplished.

Right outside of the library was this giant area with various booths and stands surrounding a pretty fountain. (The only fountain that we saw all week with water still running, even into the winter months.) One of the little shops had pet souvenirs, and I was this close to buying Chester a shirt that said "I Ruff NY."  But alas, Brad vetoed the decision. We did, however, purchase our annual 2011 personalized ornament here.

As evening approached, we walked over to Grand Central Terminal. Sadly, we did not see any flashmobs during our visit. To cheer ourselves up, we got super-touristy and enjoyed a little audio tour of the famous landmark. Yeah, we're that legit.

Like I said, we wanted to get any shopping / stores done early in the week. I couldn't be in New York City, and not visit the festive Macy's! I was pretty pumped to be standing on 34th Street, where miracles have been reported. (Full disclosure: All but three of the pictures featured in this collage were actually taken later in the week when we came back during the daytime. Shhh....)

The entire department store was decked out for the holidays. I loved it! They even had a special section for writing letters to Santa and putting them in a special North Pole mail box. We went all the way up to the 9th floor (!) to see all of their Christmas merchandise. A whole floor of nothing but Christmas stuff! It was like magic!

After I had purchased my authentic "Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 2011" ornament to commemorate our trip, we penetrated Times Square for the first time. Wow. It was like sensory overload! So many giant billboards and screens and flashing lights and people! We loved it!! In the midst of all the chaos, we stood there for a few minutes, just holding each other and taking it all in. What a cool thing to experience with my favorite person in the world!

Our Times Square visit this night (we went back often) consisted of another toy store; Toys "R" Us. (Don't judge us. We love toy stores.) They have a full sized ferris wheel inside the store! Every car was different and awesome. They had the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo. They had Toy Story characters and Nickelodean characters. They had a Barbie corvette and a Monopoly car. You weren't able to choose the one you rode in, but I had secretly been hoping for the giant Fisher Price car, since I watch Charlie and Layla have so much fun in theirs all the time, and I just have to watch since I'm too big. And guess what, that's was the next car that came up as we were loading! Holla! (In your face, girls! I can ride in one, too!)

Whoa. Did you even know you could pack that much fun into one day?? I sure didn't! But NYC has endless possibilities! By the end of the night, we were so exhausted and had terribly sore feet from walking around so much. Even though I was half asleep, I couldn't neglect taking some pictures of the city at night from our hotel room window. So pretty.

We fell into bed with a sense of accomplishment for successfully completing everything on that day's itinerary. As well as a sense of apprehension for the tiring days ahead. One day down, five to go. Bring it on.

Catch up on the rest of the week:
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6

[Entire NYC Day 1 Photo Album]