Merry Christmas!!

Finished the tree today. The house is all ready for Santa now!

Thanksgiving

We just rolled in from our Thanksgiving trip to Canton. We love meeting there and hanging out in our cabin in the woods. We spent 3 days just relaxing, eating, napping, brutally competing in board games, watching lots of football and loving on the dogs.

This is the favorite spot at the cabin, the two red chairs that look out over the lake:

Playing Taboo. Whoever was on Mom's team won. Whoever was on Carol's team cheated.

Leigh made me a birthday cake-Peanut butter banana- Yummy!

Yea for presents!

I still cannot believe my parents bought me a houndstooth scarf!

Dad found a 100 year old glass jar that had my birthday imprinted on it. Its going in my kitchen!

It was a great trip. Amazing how tired you get when all you do is sleep and eat. Time to unpack now and get ready to finish wrapping a few more Christmas gifts!

Casey's Birthday Season

My birthday season officially started this weekend. Yea!!! We headed to Tuscaloosa last night with Jim and Tara (and of course Ruby) to do some more Christmas shopping and get some japanese food. We had a great time and came home tired and full of good food! Thanks for coming with us, Blakes! You are great friends! Thanks for my gift too :)

I cold not resist looking like a total dork and putting these glasses on at Charming Charlie's. Ha ha, oh well.

Happy Birthday to me!!!! More celebrating to come.

Picnik Edits

Typical Saturday morning. Stephen playing xbox. Casey playing with her Macbook. Decided to edit some pictures on picnik this morning. Enjoy:

In honor of Camp Carol starting next week. This was taken 4 years ago! Right after we got engaged. We met the gang for Camp Carol to celebrate Thanksgiving. Excited to see the gang next week. Unfortunately we will be missing half of our group. Ill post more on that later.

Fiddle Dee Dee

So my friend, Tara is launching a new business called Fiddle dee dee. Isn't that just the cutest name ever?! Her motto is "Inspired by you. Created by me". She is creating custom art and vinyl designs for your space. Check out her facebook page here. Or you can email her at fiddledeedee1@yahoo.com. Hurry and get those Christmas orders in before it is too late!
Santa is coming soon! Ho Ho Ho :)

Tea for Ruby

I helped host Tara's first baby shower today. We had a Tea for Ruby based a children's book by that name. Many, many pictures to follow (Mom, these are really for you :))

Me and the little mama. So glad to call her my friend!

Brooke, Tara, Me

I got to make the cake:

Liz and Mrs. Linda did a great job with the food:

We had punch (that actually did not have ginger ale in it! Yea!), water, hot tea and coffee:

Jim's grandmother's silver and china was used at the shower:

The hostess:

Time for gifts! I made this tutu for Ruby. I made it weeks ago and was so proud of myself for keeping it a secret from Tara for so long!

Ruby will be the best dressed little girl at the Bama games next year. Jim's parents got her this adorable outfit.

The hostess got her the nap nanny

The parents-too-be with all the goods

It was such a special shower. I cried several times which is no surprise since I cried as much as Tara did when she told me she was pregnant. I started thinking about that moment again at the shower and cried all over again! Goodness, I'm a mess! I don't know how I will make it the day Ruby actually comes. I cannot wait to hold that sweet girl in my arms in just a few weeks! We are so blessed to call the Blakes our friends and get to share in this special time with them. They are going to be GREAT parents! Ruby is a lucky girl! Love you, Tara!

Hoppin' John's Soup

Photo from Recipe Corner

I made this tonight for supper. This week is REALLY really REALLY busy. The only way I'm going to make it is to stay on top of everything and plan plan plan. I have so many list on my phone and reminders set to go off. So yesterday, I knew that if I did not plan meals for the week, and get the shopping done, we would end up eating out all week. I did not want to spend that money or the calories. This was what I had planned for tonight. I cut up the sausage last night when I was making last nights meal. This morning, I threw it all in the crockpot and ran out the door. All I had to do tonight was make some cornbread, and we were ready to eat! I followed the recipe as written except I used cajun smoked sausage instead of turkey sausage because that is what I could find. It made a ton, so I was even able to freeze half of it for later! Yea for being productive!

Click here to the recipe

Trunk-n-Treat 2010

Mt Vernon hosted Trunk-n-Treat again this year. We tried and tried to think of something to do but again waiting until the last week to plan so we decided on a SEC tailgate with Bama, MSU and LSU represented. The kids had a blast. Brooke and Brad brought some footballs and a net for the kids to throw the balls into. It was a hit. And they loved the goodies that Brad brought! Even more than the candy. Good job, Brad!

The Richards representin': LSU and Bama SEC championship shirts

We sent the boys to pick up supper and Jim brought back every possible condiment for Tara. He wanted to make sure little Mama had what she wanted. Ha ha!

The girls handing out candy

Jim and Brad

Stephen sampling the candy

Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls

Not the best photo but the steam from these yummy cinnamon rolls were fogging up my phone. I made these a couple weeks ago. I have been wanting to make them for awhile but could not find a reason to make 7 pans of very sinful cinnamon rolls. I decided to give them a try to see how they would be for Christmas presents/goodies. They are supposed to freeze really well so I figured, why not?Well, I did not have any left to freeze. I gave all but one pan away. So good!! It was also the first time I have made anything that required yeast and letting it rise. I was intimidated by it but I did it! Yea! To see the recipe click here. Enjoy!