Baby it's cold outside...

 ...but it is warm and cozy in here!

this is where i cozied up for a cat nap or 2 last week when we had snow!

one day sbj and howey even joined me!

yep, the fire sure was delightful!

Merry and Bright

so i feel like i need to lighten up a little.

my last few posts have been pretty heavy...

and although that has been what is on my mind,

it is not the only thing going on!

so let me lighten the mood a little 

with a few snap shots of my holiday faves

around the house...

our first monogrammed ornament, Christmas 2007

our ornament from Christmas 2008...

SBJ's 1st initial ornament from aunt al, Christmas 2009

SBJ's 1st Christmas ornament from us...snowman!

go bulldogs...

 i have so many ornaments i love.

those were just a few of my faves.

we always buy one as our vacation souvenir...

so our tree is full of memories!

 

i just love this little guy, he even bounces, so fun!

"Clark"

i am still trying to determine if this should be considered lying to my child?

undecided, but he does like the story and looking for clark every morning.

SBJ's tree and nativity...

 we always had a tree of our own in our bedroom.

brother's had turtles, mine had angels...

SBJ's has SNOWMEN, 

there are a few other snowmen displayed in his room too.

fun Christmas toys and books

giving love to my Florida roots...

yes, that is a sand-"snow"man!

i just bought this cute tree, it even lights up. still trying to find the perfect spot for it!

meet me under the mistletoe! xoxo!

 we always had mistletoe and i was juuuuuuuust thinking i wanted to get some.

thankfully i snatched this up at ornament exchange:

mistletoe and bling!

there are still a few decorations i am searching for...

even one or two i am contemplating making,

but really i am not that crafty so i will continue my search!

celebrate stacy, fight als

i have had a heavy heart this past week.

do you have any friends that end up being more like family?

we have a group of friends like that...

we have grown up together.

our grandparents were friends...

our parents are friends...

so we are friends...

last week my beautiful friend-more-like-family 

Stacy passed away.

(that is hard to type bc it still seems unreal.)

she battled ALS 

(Lou Gherig's Disease)

for almost a year...

 

my heart is broken...

broken for the friend we lost,

broken for her husband,

broken for her mother and sister,

broken for her aunts, uncles, cousins,

broken for our other friends-more-like-family, 

broken for so many people she touched...

i will be walking in the local ALS walk

in April 2011

and every year after that...

i will walk bc i can.

i will walk for stacy,

for her dad, "uncle" jimmy,

(he lost his battle with als 14 years ago)

and for all those i do not know 

that fight this disease...

Going on Strike...

no, i am not really going on strike....

but we did go bowling as a family
and it was a BLAST! :)

Empty Basket

i have been in a bit of a funk the past few days.

we have so much going on,

so much to do,

so much to take care of.

and yet i am feeling a little empty...

i dont know what will fill me up or make it better...

Balancing Act

ever feel like you have so much going on you cant even hold it all?

sometimes you have to grasp what you can and stack the rest up...

then try to balance it all.

phew. 

sometimes the balancing act is tough!

TechTime-out

my time at the "Treehouse" is always a nice technology time-out.

it used to be a real get away...

now we can get on the internet, use our smart phones, and watch tv...

but i still like to take a little break.

while we where there, i got on as little as possible.

and that got me thinking....

it would be nice to take a tech time-out at home too.

so...i may have my new year's resolution...

have at least one day a week as a time-out from technology...

no facebook.

no email.

no blogs.

now i just have to pick the day and stick to it.

good luck to me.

glad i have a month to figure it out! :)

thanksGIVING

it feels so good to give....

and i am so proud to live in a community that cares

and be a part of a group that gives so much...

 

at our annual Golf Tournament we raised enough money 

from mulligans and tee-busters to purchase 

924 canned goods for Hope Station!

and just this week our members brought food and money 

to purchase Thanksgiving dinner for 3 local families!

Happy Thanksgiving!

tonight i am thankful for all that we have

and feel so blessed that we can give back.

no matter how small, every little bit helps...

It's all in the details

i am still thinking about this blog....

this will be more about the little details of our life...

a chance for me to share some of the photos i take and get creative...

i use facebook for the fun-family-cutest-little-boy-in-the-world pictures...

so this will show our life from a different view...
but still show the important things...

for instance these blocks...

i recently pulled out them for SBJ
and i am so happy that he enjoys playing with them!

my granddaddy MADE them...how awesome is that....

just the thought of my granddaddy makes me smile,
but the sight of SBJ playing with his blocks gives me perma-grin!!

so, sometimes it is the little things, the details, that are important...
that is what i look forward to sharing...

new at this...

I am new to the blog-scene...but I think it will be a fun way to share our life...through pictures

(which everyone who knows me knows that I LOVE to take...)

so here we go...

here is what we do...

and what you see is what you get!