christmas time is here

Chris and I went Christmas shopping for a little while yesterday. When we had enough of that, we came home, turned on the Christmas tunes, baked some cookies, drank some hot chocolate and decorated the tree! I love Christmas time. It seems like it's come quickly this year, but the season has only just begun. I love the listening to the beautiful music, hanging decorations, giving gifts (I don't love shopping for gifts amongst the crowds, but the giving of gifts is fun), eating sweets and celebrating the birth of my Savior, Jesus Christ. 

 Wreath by Tabitha Bailey. Her pieces are reasonably priced, and she does beautiful work!

happy thanksgiving

I have had a really good Thanksgiving break.  WKU shuts down for three days for Thanksgiving, which is nice.  I don't think I've had a Thanksgiving break like that since high school.  Chris and I went to visit his stepmother, Lori's family in Lexington and Hebron, KY.  I think I finally got to meet just about everyone in her family.  Chris and I have been married for two years, while some of her family did come to our wedding, I don't think I remember meeting anyone besides her mother. That is just because her mother had visited Keith and Lori the same weekend Chris and did once or twice in the last two years. We got spent two days with them, and had a really nice time.  

I love Thanksgiving. It makes you realize how many blessings God has bestowed on you.  I've spent too long fretting about what I don't have.  I need to be thankful and count my many blessings. Lord knows I don't deserve any of them.

meeting Lola

Even though I had hoped my newest niece would arrive on my birthday, she decided that she wasn't quite ready on the 13th, and was born just three days later on the 16th. That's okay, we can still celebrate together, and I since it's near my birthday, I don't think I will ever have any trouble remembering her's.

She was born early Tuesday morning. Chris and I couldn't stand waiting until the weekend to see her, so we drove to Evansville Tuesday night after work.  My other sister got to drive in that night as well. After visiting for just an hour and a half, we jumped back in the car and drove back to Bowling Green to make it home just in time to get a decent night's sleep.

Jamie looked like she had just gone on a walk in the park, nothing like she just had a baby. She's just beautiful. Like mother, like daughter Lola Claire is a gorgeous baby.  She has big eyes, chubby, rose-colored cheeks and a full head of very dark hair. I can't wait to spoil her with attention! All I kept thinking was how much my mother would have loved her! I don't know when I will get to see them again, but it needs to be soon! Here are some photos I took while we were at the hospital.

By the way, the visit didn't help at all with my baby fever, but I suppose there's no getting around that at this point.

happy birthday to me

Saturday, November 13, I turned 26.  That's right, 26.  I truly feel like that is an adult age.  I am now closer to my 30th birthday than my 20th, which feels a little weird.  Luckily, the people I am around most of the time at work and home (Chris) are older than I am. They all keep telling me that I am still young, so I guess I can live with that!

On my birthday, Chris took me on a surprise trip to celebrate with my family in Henderson.  He made sure to include a meal at my favorite fast food restaurant, Taco Johns.  He said that I always complain that we never get to eat there because every time we're in town it's to have dinner with my parents at their home or go to a wedding.  This is true, so it's a rare occasion that I get to eat there since the closest Taco Johns to Bowling Green is in Henderson. It was funny to drive all the way to Henderson for Taco Johns, but it was also very thoughtful of him plan that out.

It was a great birthday. I got to see my parents, sister and brother-in-law (only a couple of days before they had her baby), niece and my two younger brothers that still live at home.

My dad took this photo of me before we sliced into the ice cream cake. The quality of the photo is horrible, but it's the only one taken that day.  The cake was very tasty.

nice relaxing weekend

We had a nice relaxing weekend.   Even though it was his birthday, Chris insisted that I take some time after our lazy Saturday morning to use the nail salon gift certificate that he had given to me as an anniversary gift. I just hadn't had the chance to use it.  I got a manicure and a pedicure. It was amazing!

Thought I'd take a picture since the lady who did my manicure said, "It won't last long. French manicure never lasts long on real nails."

Later on, Chris' dad and stepmother surprised him for his birthday by showing up at Samurai Japanese Restaurant. Chris was playing jazz there with Lopez as he often does weekend nights. It's actually a really good gig.  He gets paid for doing something he loves to do.  It was a surprise for him, but I had known about them coming since Wednesday.  We enjoyed dinner and then came back to the apartment for cheesecake, which turned out to be really good even though, as usual, the top edges of my cheesecake fell apart. I must not do a great job of "loosening the edges."  Oh well...he said it made a perfect birthday! 

Today our church, Burton Memorial celebrated the 160th Anniversary Homecoming. There were a lot of visitors, past members that attended. We had a potluck after church and then a concert of worship songs after.  It was a lot of fun to praise God with a larger group of people. It was nice to see friends that I hadn't seen in a while. There were also many visitors I had never met before.

The way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

Today is Christopher's birthday, so I made him a pumpkin spice cheesecake last night.  I've made cheesecake for his birthday for the last three years. He said his mom used to make one for his birthday, and she lives too far away to do that now. I've never made this flavor before, so it was a whole new challenge. I hope it's good! I can't wait to try it later!

My dearest Christopher is 29 years old. That means one more year until he's 30! He's turning into an old man!

I am so thankful that God gave me such a wonderful old man! Happy Birthday, Chris!

"Statistics show that birthdays are good for you. People who have the most live the longest." - I don't know who first said this, but it's funny.

After a lot of grinding, I finally got graham cracker crumbs.

I've never made graham cracker crust with pecans. I had to make part of this up...couldn't find ginger snaps at Wal-Mart...

Recipe I sort of followed from Real Simple.

Yes, cheesecake sometimes calls for four 8oz. packages of cream cheese. A bit overboard? Probably. Delicious? Usually.

This is where the cheesecake deviates to become pumpkin spice.

All mixed up.

Going into the oven for one hour and twenty minutes.

Let's see if it's done.

Cheesecake always looks puffy and strange when it first comes out. I haven't perfected a "pretty" cheesecake. Is it any good? I don't know yet.

All that work for this guy. You're worth it.