Our Merry Christmas!

Whew - I need a vacation to recover from our Christmas. Or a spa day. Hubs, are you listening? Our little man is wild, let me tell you! But these are some pretty fun times, I must admit. Connor starting walking just after Thanksgiving and he hasn't slowed down. When he walks, he still kind of waddles like a penguin. He also squeals and screams and shrieks as he walks, and it's so cute. And so loud - we're going to be deaf here pretty soon! I need to get a video of this, but I swear he's camera shy. Every time I press record, he freezes up. We're going to have to work on that.

I digress. Christmas was fun and filled with lots of family and friends. We headed to North Louisiana to see my dad's side of the family, and then back home, and then off to BR to see the Fords'. Connor got more than we could have ever asked for or imagined. This is one spoiled rotten boy. The third carload of gifts are coming back to Houston from BR this weekend. And I'm not kidding.

So, here is an overload of pictures from Christmas.

A picture from his Christmas card.

Throwing his annual Christmas tantrum after the Christmas Eve service at church.  

Adams cousins in matching shirts! Beck (1), Elizabeth (1.5) and Connor.

Checking out his new chair from Santa on Christmas morning!

Look at all of his presents from Grammy and Paw Paw. Like I said - spoiled rotten. He was mildly interested in tearing the paper off of the gifts, and VERY interested in putting the paper in his mouth. 

The theme of Christmas for my family was tacky sweater!

The Ford cousins. Look at C's expression! So funny!

My favorite picture! Big boy is riding on his new Buzz Lightyear car! Thank you Nana & Pops!

Hope you all had a blessed Christmas!
Brittney

A Christmas Tradition: Texas Trash

As long as I can remember, my family has made Texas Trash for us to snack on at every Christmas gathering. It's a Gibson family tradition, and one that I want to continue with my own family. Every time I eat it, I'm taken back to Christmases spent with my grandparents and extended family sitting around a Wahoo board. I can just hear the sound of the dice being slung across the room when it didn't roll the number my mom wanted it to. But no one sat down to play Wahoo without a bowl of Texas Trash next to their 10 lucky dice!

Ingredients
1/2 cup of butter, melted
2 tablespoons of worcestershire sauce
2 cups chex cereal
2 cups cheerios
2 cups of pretzel sticks
1 cup of mixed nuts
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. garlic powder

Heat oven to 300 degrees. Combine the butter and worcestershire sauce in the bottom of a 13x9 pan. Add in the cereals, pretzels and nuts and mix well so that the sauce mixes in. Sprinkle the salt and garlic powder on top. Bake in oven for 30 minutes. Let cool before serving.

Pictures from December Festivities

Sorry for the picture overload....these are some of the pictures from our Christmas festivities this year! As you can see, I was one busy girl!

Me and Hannah at the Chapter Chicks Book Club Christmas Tea!

Our first annual girls Christmas Party! The theme was scarves! We did a "white elephant" style exchange and then learned new ways to tie our scarves!!

Jeremy and I hosted our first big Christmas Party - here I am with the "Fab 4" - Kim, Carl & Josh

Some of my work BFF's - Kim, Leah and Hannah

My BFF's - Jenna and Jessica! We were reunited for the party!

I had a blast performing in the Really, Really Big Christmas Show at Second Baptist Church! I was a towns-person (dancer) and it was so much fun! Especially loved meeting new friends and spending lots of time with one of my favorite friends - Joy (front row, far right)!

Me and Leah! So glad we did the show together!

J and I's attempt at a family photo! Eh...not so much.

The same weekend of the show, we hosted my Louisiana side of the family for Adams Family Christmas. Here I am with my dad, and brothers, Jack and Hall!

The couples posed by the tree! Meet my beautiful sister-in-laws, Katherine and Misti (Katherine is due with the first baby for the Adams family in April - and it's a GIRL)!
I set the table all fancy for our Adams Christmas Dinner! So much fun!
A close-up of the place settings
Ahhh.....let's all take a moment and drool over my Christmas present from J! He totally outdid himself this year and completely surprised me with this Tory Burch purse! I wanted it, but never in a million years did I think he would get it for me... I teared up when I opened it. I'm in love...Me and my FIL at the Ford Family Christmas Eve Party!
Jeremy and his brother Kevin (they got matching paintings from Collin & Melanie for Christmas...we later found out it was a "joke" gift from their wine and painting night...whew!)

Me and Brayden (our nephew and godchild) hanging out with Pops :)

Brayden loves for you to read to him! And he loves his Uncle Jeremy!

And, I'll leave you with pictures of our house all decorated for Christmas! J did a great job with the lights outside!

Love our Christmas tree!

Hope you all had a blessed Christmas!
B

Well, hello there....

I know you don't want to hear any lame excuses about my lack of blogging lately, so I won't bore you with them. I will give you a run down, however, of what I've been up to lately, and just some of my random thoughts! Then, I'll follow up with some pics over the next few days!

- Christmas with the Adams' family (hosted here at our house) last weekend; lots of cooking, catching up and laughs!
- Christmas with J's family in Baton Rouge this week; lots of fun, gifts, parties, people and great memories! A little exhausting....
- Performed in the Really, Really Big Christmas Show at Second Baptist Church and had a blast! I'll post pictures of it, it was such a moving experience and I got to hangout with/meet really great people!
- Hosted our first Christmas Party at the house and it was SO fun! Lots of fun stories from that night, and got to show off our new casa to our friends and family!
- Training for the 1/2 marathon still (absolutely NO pictures will be posted of it) - farthest run so far is 8 miles....less than 40 days to go! Boy, is it a lot of work and time!
- Obsessed with reading on my new Kindle (I think I'll actually have my book club book read before our meeting this month!)
- Studying to get my CDL....don't laugh! Someone has to drive my cheerleaders to away games, people. I'll be spending the better part of my week, unfortunately, at the DPS.
- Also obsessed with scarves....my answer to the daily dilemma of "what necklace should I wear"
- Also majorly obsessed with the Tory Burch purse J surprised me with for Christmas! L-O-V-E it! He got lots of brownie points for that one!
- Loving the color gray this season - it just seems to go with everything!

....more to come, later.

Continued to be blessed beyond measure.
B

2009: A Year In Review

I got this blog idea from my friend Sara - enjoy!

January: Got my first new car, which 4 days later I managed to ding up by hitting the air conditioning unit outside our garage. It's getting fixed this week!

February: Had a romantic Valentine's Day seeing Legally Blonde! Went to Dallas with junior and senior cheerleaders for playoff game and had fun! Took Dog Training 101 with Charley and he graduated with honors!

March: Traveled to NYC - had a blast with our cousins Brian and Erin, shopped, drooled over a Coach bag I thought I needed (but alas did not get, and that's okay), saw Wicked, went on fun movie and TV tour of NYC. Didn't see any celebrities, but maybe next time! My beloved blind Pomeranian I got in college, Bruiser, passed away unexpectedly. First devestating animal loss for me.

April: Went to Boston for the first time for a marketing conference with fabulous co-worker Shari and we had a blast! Loved the city!! Started scrapbooking again! Joined Twitter!

May: Turned 25! Went to Sedona with our friends Sara and Cliff and had a wonderful time! Such a beautiful part of the country! Went to see my boy Kenny Chesney in concert! Joined a Sunday School class at our church and started making new couple friends!

June: Went to float the Frio River with a group of friends and had a great time and minimal sunburns. Our nephew and godson Brayden was born a month early! Just before Father's Day!

July: Had our first anniversary! Celebrated Jeremy's birthday on vacation in Boston! Went to Red Sox game, Cape Cod, Plymouth, Duck Tour of Boston and much more. Had a great time! Went to Scrapbook Village with my BFF Jenna and was blown away by all of her new scrapbooking tools. She became my scrapbooking hero! Took my first cake decorating class!

August: The girls dominated cheer camp once again, started my 3rd year of working at SBS, went to George Strait concert with my BFF, my Mom.

September: Started traveling for LSU football; had fun tailgating and winning games again! Brayden was baptized and I attended my first Catholic baptism ceremony.

October: Fell more madly in love with my husband! Struggled with decision to go back to school (specifically Law School), realized that's not where God wants me now, so I'm sitting patiently and obeying his plans! Dressed Charley up for Halloween as a bumble bee - I loved it, Jeremy rolled his eyes, the dog was indifferent, he just liked the excessive attention! Hired a fabulous assistant cheerleading coach!

November: Experienced my first cheerleading drama - and hope to never go through any again! Glad I survived! Thanksgiving in Houston, then headed to BR with my parents in tow to watch LSU beat Arkansas :) Finally!

December: Took cheerleaders to first competition and they won 1st and 2nd place! Enjoyed a busy Christmas with our families, had a nice break off of work (which I'm still enjoying), stepsister Heidi got married, Charley ate his first chocolate candy and got a Cherry Eye in the same week, and got to play in the snow in Houston!

Had a blessed 2009 and I am looking forward to a great new year!

A Very Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas this year - it was SO busy! But we were blessed to be around all of our families this year, and that was perfect for us! Instead of detailing out our Christmas, I'll show it to you in pictures! Clever, right?

We headed to Shreveport first to celebrate with my dad's side of the family. We had a blast staying with Jack and Katherine and visiting with the Adams' side of the family!

Yes...I got a snuggie!
Jeremy with Katherine and Misti - my awesome sister-in-laws!

Then we headed back to Houston and hosted our very first Christmas Eve Party for my family. It was really fun! We did presents, played Christmas Bingo (and had gift cards as prizes), had tons of yummy food and of course played Rock Band. Some of Jeremy's family stopped by the party, too! It was definitely a fun tradition that we started!

Alex and Drake had a blast at our party - check out my hat - it makes me a "pro" chef!

Me and my girl, Bailey (my 10-year old niece)Playing Rock Band!


After the big party, we had our own Christmas, just me, Jeremy and Charley. Here are two of our favorite gifts! The scrapbooking machine is mine and the framed newspaper front page is his.

The next morning, we headed to the Bull house for Christmas with my brother's family. It's so fun to have Christmas with the kids - their excitement is truly what this season is about! It's so exciting! After we did presents, we had Christmas lunch with lots of the family. It was great seeing everyone!

Just showing off my wrapping job on Mom's present (I got her several kitchen things for her newly redecorated kitchen)!Bailey got a new Bible cover (and she's wearing her new Abercrombie jacket we got her)!

I got this amazing new cookbook - The Pioneer Woman - I seriously feel like me and this lady are friends! I'm excited to cook some of this yummy food!

The morning of the 26th, we went to Baton Rouge to have the Ford's Christmas. It was really fun - Jeremy has a really fun family! We opened gifts, ate dinner and played games! We had a great time!

Mr. Charlie (my FIL) got an outdoor heater! He's holding our new nephew Brayden!With my Christmas money from Mimi, I bought this fabulous new purse! I'm in love!

Whew...Christmas was fun, but a little exhausting! In the middle of it all, Charley ate M&M's, spent one night throwing up all night (now we have a taste of what its like to have a baby...we'll still hold off on that one for awhile, thanks Charley), and then to top it off, he got a Cherry Eye. I'll spare you the photo of his eye - it was disgusting! We thankfully avoided $500 eye surgery, and now we put drops in his eyes everyday. Sweet dog...

Hope you all had a blessed Christmas!
Love,
B

Christmas at the Ford's

I'm so proud of our Christmas decorations! Jeremy is a great helper, and we are really excited about Christmas this year! It'll be our first married Christmas to be at home together.

To celebrate, we will attend church on Christmas Eve, and then we are hosting a Christmas Eve party for my famliy which we are super pumped about. Once they leave, we will open our gifts (except our stockings). On the morning of the 25th, we will head to Deer Park for more celebrating and Santa with my family! We will open our stockings when we get home that day! It should be a really fun time! We will also squeeze in heading to North Louisiana to see my dad's side of the family before Christmas, and to BR to celebrate with Jeremy's family afterwards.

Here are our decorations that we are so proud of! Humor me and comment on them :)

My Christmas dishes! I'm in love with them!

Our beautiful tree!

My Southern Living decorative stocking and the greenery I added to it!A close up of our tree and some of my favorite ornaments!Our banister wrapped in garland, poinsettas and lights - J helped alot with this project!

Our stockings hung by the fireplace :)

Merry Christmas! 11 days until Jesus' birthday!

Shopping for Christmas Cards

I'm on the hunt for our Christmas card! What websites do you use for your cards? I'm always looking for something really cute, pretty or clever. I'm a little obsessed and love nothing more than receiving all of your adorable cards in the mail!

This was our 2008 card (sample from the website, obviously).
Any suggestions?