Oh, How I have waited for this day

This is not just any entryway table. Don't let its simplicity fool you. This is the replacement table for the I love it - gotta have it - wanted it since this summer - its the last one - Dustin's a procrastinator - its discontinued - table. Did you get all of that? 

I love this table too, not as much as I loved the other, but I do love this table. After taking this picture, I've since hung up our wedding photograph. I wanted to reframe it in a larger, thicker frame, but the frame I want at Hobby Lobby is a little pricey...so I'm gonna have to save up some deniro for that. I also need something to put between the lamps...maybe a decorative platter or bowl...any ideas???

So what, I'm a little late?

Happy New Year!

We headed to the great state of Missouri for New Years Eve, which also happened to be my grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary. We had a great time at Uncle David's as usual and it was great to see all of the fam. We headed back to AR to watch the bowl game on Saturday at Luke and Tiff's. They had some buddies over and and since the piggies won, everyone had a great time! Way to win one for us Tejada! Thatta boy!

Me, Mom, and Luke

It's impossible to get a picture of these two with their eyes open at the same time sober, much less after some cham-pag-ne.

Uncle David's Basement Bar

Grandpa, Grandma, and Addi

My cousin Ryan and Addi

Addi wanted me to get a picture of her with her puppies.

All of the men at Luke and Tiff's

Hope everyone is getting a safe, happy, healthy start to their new year! We can't wait to see what excitement 2010 holds for us!

Help!

I know most people who read my blog do not blog themselves...but seriously people, I need some help. I inserted this pretty new banner and wanted a picture in the little blue frame. So...after I downloaded the pretty new banner, I couldn't do anything with it in iPhoto, so I copied it to Word. I went to "format">"fill">"picture">"choose a picture"...which sounds perfect, right? Nooooo....it has to not fit in the picture frame. So for the last 3 hours I've tried cropping the photo, resizing and resizing and resizing the photo, setting it to tile mode....nothing is working. I'd also like to put our blog title onto it, and that's a whole other story....let's just say textboxes don't work and you can't just "add text" to the photo. There HAS to be an easier way! 

UGH!!! Can you feel my frustration through the computer screen?

So unless you people help me figure this out, you'll just be looking at my teeth and one side of Dustin's face. Deal with THAT!

Christmas with the Collyges

The unpacking is finished, the house back in order, and the decorations are back in their tubs (9 tubs and a Christmas tree box to be exact). I'll be swiffering glitter until next Christmas I'm sure...I can't believe it's all over! It comes and goes quicker every year. Here's a recap of our holiday.

I headed to Fayetteville on Wednesday to have Christmas with my buddy Hayley. We always exchange gifts and do some after Christmas shopping...which normally gets ugly. This year though, we met before Christmas so my wallet was saved. We didn't get a picture : ( but we had a great time as always. 

We spent Christmas morning with Dustin's family. Corky and Debbie went all out with the snacky lunch, my favorite Christmas meal. There were dips, chili, stuffed mushrooms, cheeseballs, and shrimp gallore...plus my favorite peanut butter balls. We ate ourselves sick. Here are some pics from Christmas morning. Isn't that a great pic of the tree?

Emilee, Morgan, Drew

Me and the best baby ever...I told everyone if they wanted to hold her they would have to pry her from my cold, lifeless fingers.

MoMo and her new baby doll

Dustin's gift from Amber and John

Dustin always get the best hog stuff

Early Christmas evening, we headed to the lake to have Christmas with mom and Johnny. As yall know, we had a beautiful white Christmas, so we tried to head out before it got too dark and everything refroze. We made it to the bottom of Snake Creek, but had to be picked up on the mule because the mountain was in no shape to be driving on. It was a bitterly cold ride on the mule, even with me hiding under 3 blankets...and Rudy, who travels really well in cars, was pretty flipped out by the loud ride up the hill.

Mom and Johnny got a Wii for Christmas, so we played for hours on Saturday. It was one of those weird days where time doesn't exist and you feel like you just woke up when it's time to go back to bed. Dustin was a Wii pro showing all of us up. BTW, who know bowling was a work out? My arms, abs, and behind were pretty sore the next day!

I won the best Addi gift prize for the "barbie in the water" as Addi calls it. I kind of planted this seed back at Thanksgiving and she didn't let go of the idea, so I just had to find a "barbie in the water".

Addi wanted to play in the "snowmans" 

Me and Addicakes

What idiots want to drive without a windshield in this weather? Us!

Before we headed back Sunday, we got to at least see some of my Fort friends when we went to eat at Rolando's. We missed the annual seniorita Christmas because it fell the same night we were doing Christmas at mom's. The good news is Christie's bachelorette party is coming up in February, so I should get to see the girls then. Yea!

Thank you to our family for all of the wonderful Christmas gifts! Thank you friends and family for sending Christmas cards our way. I love getting Christmas cards and always enjoy seeing everyone's pictures!  I hope you had a very merry holiday!

Merry Christmas from Our House to Yours!

Weekend Wrap-Up

Time flies when you're having fun...and this weekend flied by! My school Christmas party was Friday night and our good buddies couples shower was Saturday night in Hot Springs. I didn't get any pics at my school Christmas party, but do wish I had some pictures of hostess's house. It was a beautiful, massive home right on the water. Their backyard was the lake and they had steps leading right down into the water. It was gorgeous, but I guess you'll just have to take my word for it.

Dustin and I both had our own handful of errands to run Saturday morning, then we decided since Matt and Jessica's shower was in Hot Springs to just go ahead and stay at the trailer at Ouachita. The shower was nice and since I'm one of Jessica's "new" friends, it was neat to meet the girls she grew up with. We headed downtown afterwards for a little after party and I slept in Sunday morning....which was sooo nice! It has been too long since I've done that!

The bride and groom to be

Me and my buddy...isn't she lovely?

And.....for my fellow readers out there...I finished The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins this morning. As are most of the books I read, the main characters in this book are younger, but I like to proofread a lot of books before they meet the hands of my innocent youngins. It was an action/adventure story, which I'm beginning to learn that I really like. It's somewhat futuristic as well, which I would not normally like, but the futuristic stuff doesn't overwhelm the storyline and isn't totally out there. 

It's takes place after the United States has collapsed post-war and is replaced by a a country named Panem, which is separated into 12 districts and a capitol by wealth. "The Hunger Games" are a gladiator type reality show entertainment that Panem puts on and basically forces everyone in the country to watch. On "reaping day" a boy and a girl from each district's names are selected in a drawing to participate. Each district's participants are required to kill their opponents to survive. Katniss, the main character, is from one of the poorest districts. The odds are against her when she'll be facing kids from the Capitol who have been training for the Games their whole lives. But of coarse, there's a twist... a love story nonetheless. It was a really good read and yay for me!...It's a triology! I'll be starting the sequel Catching Fire tonight. Bubble bath here I come!

Hope ya'll had a great weekend! I'll leave you with a picture of our house all lit up thanks to the hubby. After going to look at some really big house's really big lights Friday night, we realize our is very 'widdle' as I like to say, but it's ours and we love it!

Let the Holidaze begin...

This time of year just comes and goes so quickly before I get over the "It doesn't seem like it's time for Christmas yet" feeling. Things get super busy with school, visiting family, Christmas shopping, decorating, yada, yada, yada...I'm already behind on the blog posting of everything that's been going on, so here are enough pictures to make your computer freeze.

After our Weatherford Thanksgiving in Missouri which I previously posted about, we headed to the Fort for our official Thanksgiving festivities. We started off at Corky and Debbie's, but it just didn't seem quite like Thanksgiving this year because we were missing some V.I.P.s....Amer, John, Morgan, and Baby Riedel on the way....they were at DisneyWorld. I guess we can forgive them. 

Here are the Brasuell's with their new edition Miss Emilee Katherine. I had the pleasure of being her first person to throw up on. I feel very honored.

Drew and Dust playing games

Next we headed over to Tenkiller to my parents' house. The girls helped mom decorate her tree. Mom and I had picked up lots of lakey themed stuff last year on sale and I love how it turned out. We used feathers on for the tree topper and it looked awesome. We still need some more though. What were we thinking? More is always better!

What a winter view!

I wanted to take a pic with Addi and when I tried to squat by her, she was telling and showing me how to stand. I had no idea she was cheesing it up so much down there...what a cutie! She's talking sooo much now. She is very excited about Christmas. She wants a "barbie in the water" and her Aunt Carly has already checked that off the list. 

Riding with Daddy, Papa, and Uncle Dust on the mule...BRRR!

Columbia jacket (check), side swept bangs (check), poofed hair (check)...the girl is ready for Fayetteville. 

Remember my school's float I posted about last year? Well....we won again! Our theme this year was "The HCE Express" inspired by "The Polar Express". Put a bunch of teachers together and you get a pretty creative float. I know it's not Macy's parade worthy, but believe me, it's pretty darn fancy for the Bryant Christmas Parade. Most floats are some stuff put out on a trailer or people riding in the back of trucks. We always get lots of "ohhs" and "ahhs" and people wanting to take their picture by our float. We're just that cool. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!! Well...it's been looking like Christmas in our house since November 8th, but we didn't decorate outside until this weekend...you know, so people wouldn't think we were crazy. Dustin hung up lights outside this weekend and I made a couple of wreaths with bows. I REALLY, REALLY want to do the big garland, mesh ribbon, huge ornament thing, but I just don't have the money to do it this year. I plan on doing some clearance shopping so I can next year though. We can't have it all in the first year, can we? At least that's what my husband keeps telling me.

I got all of my Christmas shopping done today except for 2 gifts! I'm surprised the bank didn't think my card was stolen. Mom, Tiff, and I are shopping in NWA next weekend so I can't wait to pick out some new clothes! YAY!

Hope you all are beginning to have a Merry Holiday season.