A semester long project, two presentations, a test, one mild freakout, a Christmas Tree and a lingerie shower later...

Well, this is about a week later than I had intended, but I had to share details from our busy week, last week! (The title pretty much sums it up for me!) Derek, had two papers to write on top of that! Needless to say, we've been awfully busy! On the plus side, Derek and I just finished our finals yesterday, so we're officially on Christmas Break today!! What a great relief for both of us! For me, this was my LAST round of finals!! Next semester I have ONE class, my senior art show, so there is no final in that class! I am looking forward to graduating and being done with school completely. I am kind of sad that I won't be graduating with some of my friends on Saturday, but can you imagine?? I did not want to make things extra stressful this Christmas since our graduation is 5 days before Christmas! So now, Derek and I both will be graduating May 9, 2009! Just around the corner! Derek will be getting his Masters and so he will still be in school until August of 2010. Not too bad to be a master! :) I am so grateful for Derek! He really deserves something special, not just for putting up with me... but also because he has really had to pull some extra weight around here! Derek does all of the cooking, cleaning, laundry...and whatever else he finds needs to be done- all while watching Anna-Kate! I hate to admit it, but that's just the way things have been around our house! My school work demands so much of my time! I know I constantly have talked about all the work that I have to do, so I hope to be posting my portfolio soon, just so I can show you what all they have interior design majors do! I did decide to put up a picture of a room that I had to draw in sketch up.

It may not look like much, but I had to draw this bedroom in 3D! This is the foundation I use for my renderings. What I do is just print this off and then lay a piece of paper over the print out and trace it, softening some of the lines and adding a few details where needed. Then I apply color and shadows, to make the space seem more realistic. I had to do four of these for my project last week, unfortunately, I do not have any final products to show.

Last Friday, I helped host a lingerie shower for one of my good friends that is getting married in June. It was so much fun! Of course I loved the chance to host people in our house! Plus, we decided on a Christmas theme so all of my holiday decor went along with the party!!

Here are the petit fours I ordered! I thought they turned out perfect!

Derek actually came up with the idea of decorating ginger bread men!

I did a few to show what to do

I also got to try out two new recipes! One was for a hot chocolate mix and the other was for Christmas pecans!! I loved both of them!! The pecans were fabulous!! I have already got the stuff to make another batch before we leave for Franklin!!

These are the girls at the party- we decided to get a goofy pose too. (I was the photographer, convenient, I know ;)

Well tomorrow is Harding's graduation and I have to say goodbye to several of my friends for good! It really is going to be hard for me! Luckily, I still have a few close friends around, but when they leave, it's going to be hard! But it does give me a great excuse to travel! After graduation tomorrow we have Christmas with Derek's grandmother and then Sunday is a Christmas party with some of Derek's dad's cousins. Monday we leave for Franklin and we will be there for a whole week! I am looking forward to Anna-Kate's second Christmas with us! It's going to be fun!

I forgot to mention this, but Anna-Kate and Derek went to a Christmas party on Friday night, while I had the shower here. I found this purse that I used to carry when I was little and it has been a hit with Anna-Kate! Here's baby cakes all ready for her Christmas party!! Derek said she was so proud of her purse, that she had to prance it around!

Thanksgiving and More!

Let me just say, we've got a little miss priss on our hands!! A couple of weeks ago Anna-Kate learned how to say 'bow' and she's been demanding one ever since! One particular morning, I had three bows laying on the changing table. One I had just pulled out, intending to put in her hair, however, once she saw the other two, she said, Bow! Bow! and motioned to put it in her hair... so we ended up with 3 bows in her hair!! Here's a picture of what that looked like:

Let me just say, sorry it has taken me so long to post the pictures from our Thanksgiving break in Franklin!! As soon as we got back, I had to throw myself into my school work! Last week I had a test and a paper along with trying to finish up work on my FINAL Interior Design project which is due on Tuesday of this week. I am definitely feeling the pressure the teachers at Harding like to lay on us that last week of classes! Right now I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!

So on to our Thanksgiving break!! What a wonderful time we had! I am always so impressed with how well Anna-Kate manages all of the trips! It's not easy traveling with a toddler! Anna-Kate did good getting toted along to see all our family, despite not feeling her best! Here are a few of the very few pictures I took at Thanksgiving!

In the car on the way to Franklin, for the first time in FOUR months!! Notice the tiara...

Playing with Cousin Miles- He's 4 months younger than Anna-Kate


So cute and happy!


I love her cheeks!!

We had fun with Cousin Bryant

Pretty Cousin Greer on Thanksgiving Day! She had a toy she kept teasing Anna-Kate with...

Anna-Kate saying "Hey! Give me that toy!"


Pretty Greer

Eating at the Kids "Table" like a big girl!!


I love all of their faces!

Eating her first (home cooked) Thanksgiving meal!


Anna-Kate's 2nd Annual Black Friday Shopping Spree! She woke up at 4:30 this year to go with us girls!

She HAD to carry a bag!

Driving home! Well... taking a break on our way home because little bit got stir crazy!

I love my Daddy!

Derek and I brought back so much furniture! We felt extremely blessed to finally be able to fill every room of our house! I can't wait to post pictures! We've started decorating our house for Christmas ( our school work has slowed us down a little.) I will put more pictures up VERY soon!! But for now here's a few pictures of Anna-Kate getting into the Christmas Spirit!

Practicing posing with Santa Claus

This is her new favorite place to sit!

"MOM! No more pictures, Please!"

Happy Holidays!!

Thanksgiving

Sounds strange to say it but this is my last Thanksgiving break. Since Nicki and I will be part of the "real world" next year we won't have the luxury of a whole week off to travel and see family. That being said, we are taking full advantage this week.

Nicki hitched a ride yesterday with a couple of friends and took herself and the baby to Franklin, TN where we will be spending the break. I have a dinner to attend Monday night plus regular weekend preaching duties so I will be following her early Tuesday morning. I can' remember the last time I spent four whole nights away from the two of them. It seems like forever but I hope it flys cause I love being with them, especially in Franklin. I am looking very forward to seeing that side of the family since it's been four months since the last visit.

In the mean time I am working on moving some stuff out of my parents attic and into my attic....kind of makes me wonder why I even have all of that stuff but I'm sure there was a reason at one time. I got so geared up last night moving it all that I kept going and got to a lot of projects that I had been putting off for lack of time and motivation. Today I hope to get to the leaf raking and maybe cleaning out my shed (future man cave...stay tuned for more on that :)

All in all this a much needed break and I am ready for every second of it. Pictures of our Franklin adventure should be up in the next few days. Till then....farewell.

Baby's First Haircut!!

Well I finally broke and decided that little miss Anna-Cakes needed a haircut! I had already cut her bangs a little bit to keep them out of her eyes, but I decided taking her to a professional was the best bet! Unfortunately, today was a busy day, so Anna-Kate only got in an hour nap! So she was not too happy about someone messing with her hair! (If you've noticed, I've not really been putting her hair up in the little pebbles do, or attempted the pig tails again, because of this)Anna-Kate would not sit in the chair, so I ended up holding her. Which might have been okay, only Anna-Kate got food in her hair during lunch and we didn't have enough time to get it all out before her hair appointment! So, if you can imagine, she screamed and cried when her hair was combed through. But we were able to get her calm enough to trim it up a bit and Anna-Kate even got to comb the hair dresser's hair! Since I was the one holding Anna-Kate and Derek's not quite the photographer I attempt to be, I don't have the usual overabundance of photos to choose from... not that I'm not grateful! I actually thought it was really sweet that Derek wanted to go with us today!

About to get my first haircut!

Not so sure about it...

But these snacks help!


Here's the lock of her hair we saved for her baby book! haha

The back's done, now we just have to do the bangs!

Here's what my new haircut looks like! Not much different, but I like it! I've learned how to say 'bow' today! Even though I don't like it in my hair for long!

By the way: Thanksgiving break is only a week away and we are SO excited about it!!! :)

Picture Update!

It's taken me a while to find the time to put the Halloween pictures up! So here you go!

Here's Kristen, Ben and Anna-Kate! I love this picture of them!

Anna-Kate says "Wait, I'm not ready..."

Sitting on the pumpkin!

Not sure what to do about the step...

I love the tutu!!!

We trick-or-treated at the neighbor's house! They were so cute!

Anna-Kate got to eat a blow pop!

Here's a picture of Anna-Kate this week at Ryne's game:

As you read on Derek's post, we decided to take a walk today! It was so nice! Here's some pictures I got of Miss Anna-Kate:

Waiting on daddy

I tried pig tails for the first time! They were a little crooked, but I couldn't get over how big they made her look!!

Picking up acorns

Sitting on the step

Still waiting.,.. C'mon daddy!!

We let Anna-kate walk next to us! She loved that!

Taking a break

Holding mommy and daddy's hand

"Hmm... which way do I go?"

Not sure what to think about sitting here

Dinner break: My first PB&J, I loved it!

Heading home before church!

This one is my favorite!

Now, here are a couple of video's so you can see a little bit more of Anna-Kate's personality! She has been shaking her head 'no' at just about everything! It started where she would say yes all the time, but then she liked saying no better! So we decided to try our best to catch it on camera... don't worry we were just playing with her. Then I decided to try to catch her playing peek-a-boo, but that didn't work, so I tried another one of her tricks! I love the anger expression on her face!

More house updates to come!!