Bryant Christmas Parade

The Bryant Christmas parade was Saturday morning. Our school always participates by building a float. Usually, it is the "Parade of Lights" and takes place at night, but this year it was in the morning...so no lights...no sparkle...no magic.

I didn't like it, can ya tell?

We took Duke-a-lukie with us. The woman who took this picture took a picture of Duke with her grandkids. It is amazing how many people want his picture as if he is some freak show. We should start charging. $5 for a picture with the dog horse! I guess he does look really big to other people, but to us, he's just normal. Other dogs look weird and dwarf like.

Duke and D

Duke didn't like the incessant sirens. He was rather perturbed by them.

There were two people in these little mini carriages with mini-horses. They were so cute! The lady rode over toward us and shouted, "Your dog is bigger than my horses! We should put the reins on him!"

Our school's principal, one of our secretaries, and one of our secretaries' sons leading the HCE float!

There's the #1 Stunner! HCE Float 2010

Our Grinch was better than Santa...no exaggeration here. The Santa was dingy and so not real looking. He wouldn't looked better at night, perhaps...another reason to go back to the night time parade.

Our Dr. Seuss theme...

Welcome to Whoville!

She's a beaut!

These old men were shouting to get Duke on the fire truck....guess they thought he was a huge Dalmatian.

The parade was short and sweet this year! A lot of people that usually participate didn't because of the change to daytime. We didn't have much competition this year at all, but I think our first place trophy was still well deserved! I didn't work on it near as much as I have in years past, so I can't take much credit at all...I only helped the Friday night before to put everything together. I'm more of a hard worker than creative worker anyways, so it worked out well!

After the parade, D and I went to lunch and then Christmas shopping. Saturday night, we went to Hot Springs for a date. We went to Garvin Gardens to look at their light display (over 1.8 million lights) and it was absolutely amazing! We'll definitely go back next year! After that, we went to Cajun Boilers, one of our favorite restaurants in Hot Springs, for some grub. We got some chocolate cake to go, came home to our puppy and kitty to cuddle on the couch and eat our cake...and we ended up falling asleep to a movie. It was the best day we've had in a long time, and the quality time along together was much needed. I got a little emotional (possibly from the PMS) at the end of the night. I was just so happy I got teary eyed. Just one of those moments that I felt so thankful and blessed for everything we have.

Hope everyone else had a great and restful weekend as well. Tis the season to be thankful! Remember your blessings!

Thanksgiving with the Fam

Here's some of our Thanksgiving the Collyge's. Everyone made it this year and it was our first Thanksgiving with four little ones running around.

Here's Corky doing his thing.

Dustoni getting some practice in with Braelyn.

Dustin and his ornament from when he was a little boy. I had to get a picture to show you because he looks exactly the same. Chubby cheeks...check. Crooked grin...check.

Braelyn and Emilee....and Braelyn doing what she does best, pulling hair!

Morgan, Braelyn, Emilee, and Drew

Gosh! It is so hard to believe we have 4 nieces and newphews on Dustin's side of the family now! They doubled so quickly!

Morgan and Drew putting out the place cards they made.

Our seats...too cute!

Thanksgiving with my family was a little different this year. We had a seafood feast and it was sooo yum. We had crab legs, boiled shrimp, grilled shrimp, scallops, and cheesy potato casserole. My step-sister, Whitney, and her husband made it with their new son, Easton who was born the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Whitney looked great and Easton was such a cutie. See for yourself...

Nana, Easton, and his mommy, my step-sister, Whitney

Love this sweet picture.

Dustin got some more practice...

On Saturday, Playing some Baggo before the big game...

Addi had to have a picture cheesing by her Daddy, who was cooking the grilled shrimp.

And to top it off, Mom found a Red Lobster recipe for cheddar biscuits. YUM!

Sassy.

So precious...yet so devious.

Mom's pretty front door...now we just need to get her some big ornaments!

Hope everyone had a great Turkey Day! I definitely enjoyed the break from school and some extra time with the family. It was just what I needed to get through these next few weeks of absolute mania at school until Christmas! Let the countdown begin!

Productive Sunday

It was great to have a weekend at home to check off some to-do's and honey-do's off the list. Dustin and I ran errands all afternoon Saturday, slept in this morning, and got a lot of things done today.

I got the Christmas itch early (as usual) and decorated the tree and some things inside 2 weekends ago. I like to decorate early for 2 reasons: (1) I like to enjoy it for awhile and (2) it gives me time to arrange and rearrange.

Here is our beautiful tree!

This WAS on the entryway...I've since taken it down to use outside. I don't want to spend money on garland for our outside door, so I'm going to use what was on the entryway table.

the guestbathroom

our Razorback tree in the kitchen

Dustin hung up our new curtains today! Don't they look great? I absolutely love them! They had some elegance to our living room, which needed more of a feminine touch to it.

Dustin also started hanging up the Christmas lights today and almost finished before running out of lights and daylight. I made a wreath for our front door with ornaments and ribbon I already had. I'll post pictures of outside decorations when it's all complete. What about y'all? Have you gotten the decorating itch yet? I love looking at other people's houses and Christmas decorations. It is definitely where I get my inspiration and ideas. I'm so not original!

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving this week! I'm excited about a two day work week and dinner tomorrow night with Christin and Sarah, two girls I interned with at the U of A.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING AND HAPPY SHOPPING!!!

Winter Weekend at Tenkiller

It had been awhile since I had seen my mama, so Dustin and I went to Tenkiller last weekend to visit. It was a great, relaxing weekend of catching up, feeding the deer, and riding on the mule. Mom and I put up her Christmas stuff and I took pictures of a few things we decorated...

Here is the "woodsy" tree that is on the stairs

The entryway

The fireplace

The tree

And here's our puppy posing perfectly on the deck

And I'll leave you with this...the morning fog over the lake...beautiful!

Too Cute Not to Share

Bummer...

Well Corky and Debbie didn't come in as planned. Instead, they took a trip to the ER Friday night! Debbie is no stranger to the ER with her gallbladder/pancreas/diverticulitis issues. Poor thing. She was in a lot of pain and obviously not feeling up to shopping! It was a bummer for sure, but we'll see them soon and she is feeling better!

I won't leave this post picture-less though...instead of pictures from our fun planned weekend...here are some pics from Amber of us finally about to get into the car after we got drenched at the Arkansas/Ole Miss game as promised....and couple of us when we were dry!

Holiday House Brings in the Friends and Fam!

It's only Friday and I'm already having a great weekend! Bryant schools were out today for AEA day and it just so happened to be the Little Rock Junior League's Holiday House (I'm betting a woman was in charge of scheduling AEA day...just sayin')!

My buddy, Hayley, and her mom, Robin, took off work and drove down from Fayetteville to come spend the day shopping with me (well....they had other people to see, too). This is the only picture we got, but its been awhile since Hayley and I had a picture together, so I'll take it!

Dustin parents, Corky and Debbie, are coming in tomorrow morning. Dustin and Corky built some shutters for our front window and they are going to stain them and hang them tomorrow while I take Debbie to Holiday House. Lucky me! Friends, family, and new shutters on my house! I'm feeling very blessed this weekend!