Red belt....

It was that time again, taekwondo belt testing!

 

They had to break boards with their foot, so he's wearing his kicking boot.

 

 

It was a special night because one of our old instructors came back just for the testing, we loved Mr. Ginther:

 

 

So proud of Alex!!

Chevron love...

I am on the chevron bandwagon, I LOVE it, especially with my new fave color combo: grey and yellow.

 

What fad are you loving?

 

Super Bowl....

Yes, I know I'm a little behind!  We had some computer problems and then the camera cord took a vacation.  So here we are on Super Sunday.  This is how we did Super Bowl celebrating:

Daisy's favorite thing to do is lay in front of the fire.  She will put her head on the stone, we've joked about getting her a pillow.

 

 For those who don't know, Andy's NOT a drinker.  I made this martini (Whipped vodka, oj and sprite) and he actually drank one!

 

We finished off the night with some yummy cupcakes from the grocery bakery:

It was a good night, don't know how Alex escaped getting in the photos, little stinker!

Uncle George....

I am so lucky to have had 2 awesome great-Uncle Georges (one on each side of my family).  I found a bunch of old photos and will start scrapping them for my album. 

 

I wanted to write some memories of Uncle George, so on the back I put this envelope, cut it open and journaled: 

 

So very happy to have found such a treasured photo!

Pinterest Made me Do it #10...

Here's my first layout in AT LEAST a year and a half:

It felt SO good to scrapbook!

 

The inspiration came from this layout on Pinterest:

photo source





 

Pinterest Made Me Do It #9....

I was so blessed with wonderful Christmas gifts that I needed some sweet lil thank you cards.  I saw these on, you guessed it, Pinterest and knew they were perfect:

 

photo source

 

 This one's mine:

I loved how they turned out!

Spive/Baskette Christmas....

We went back to Sweetwater for one last Christmas celebration (we celebrated with my Dad and Leah, but got NO pictures, boo.).

Here's the whole group:

 

This is Nannee's newest grandbaby, Gavin:

Isn't he THE sweetest?!  He's such a good baby.  I kissed on him and was going to stick him in my purse, but I adore his sweet momma too much to do that.  Will have to go to DC to visit them soon with stops in Centreville and Fredricksburg!!

(I forgot my camera, but thankfully Andy's cousin Lucy is an AWESOME photographer!)

Cabin Christmas...

After our delicious brunch, we headed to my sister's cabin.  There were presents to be opened there too!

Alex not only got Madagascar 3 but the circus wig to go with it!

Andy got lots of John Wayne goodies!

 

Grandma and Tom got Alex a bow and arrow set (camoe of course!):

Uncle Stevie strikes again with THE coolest gift, it's a gun that you snap your ipod/iphone into and play a game thru, super fun:

 

Got to have a short visit with my momma and Tom:

 

Me with my blondie loves:

Family Tradition...

Love this man!

He and his parents started a new family tradition of going to Calhoun's (Lenoir City) for Christmas brunch.  Alex and I got to join them this year and we LOVED it.

Alex ate ribs and had bbq sauce everywhere, but he enjoyed it and that made his Nannee & PawPaw Bill happy!  We sat on the patio under heat lamps and watched the huge carp swim right under us.  SO fun!

 

I'd love to keep this family tradition, it was nice, relaxing and delicious! 

Santa Was Here...

Alex was a good boy this year, he got lots of goodies:

 

A good book:

 

An iPod touch (he called it a phone and still does at time!):

  

Bigs got some awesome TN antique gifts!

 

 

Santa knew Nannee and PawPaw Bill were VERY good:

 

 

Alex got a Duck Dynasty Duck call, it made him "Happy, Happy, Happy":

 

 

 

 

 

Nannee got Alex a new bathrobe (the one she got him a couple of years ago he outgrew, but LOVED) and Electronic Monopoly - she knows her boy and what he loves!

 

Such a great Christmas morning!

Cookies for Santa...

We headed to Andy's parent's house in Sweetwater for Christmas Eve/Christmas morning.  It was very fun for Alex to have Nannee and PawPaw Bill all to himself. 

 

Nannee got Alex a super cool cowboy hat (trimmed in camo, his fave!).  He let Bigs borrow steal it for a photo (Alex is trying to give Bigs bunny ears, he LOVES to give bunny ears!):

 

 

Alex and his Bigs picked out cookies for Santa:

 

 

Santa also got some eggnog to go with his cookies because Alex is an "eggnog-a-holic" so Santa should love eggnog too:

 

When we went to bed after, Alex wanted me to leave the wreath in our room plugged in so Santa would be able to see us sleeping, so sweet!

Buhl Family Christmas...

I am so thankful that all of our family is close enough to see when we go home.  Alex was able to be with his dad for a couple of days with their side of the family.  When we went to pick him up, I got pictures of him with his sister (her super CUTE new hairdo is SO her!).

The day before these pictures were taken, she and I were able to sneek away for a nice dinner filled with lots of girl talk! 

She left on the 26th for a mission trip to Honduras, so unfortunately my family didn't get to see her - hopefully next Christmas we can get her back up to the cabin.

She's starting her last semester of undergrad at Vanderbilt this week.  Alex and I are SUPER excited to go down in May to see her graduate.  We love you Haley and miss you SO much!

 

TN Christmas...

We headed south for a beautiful Tennessee Christmas!  (Pictures coming soon!)

School Fun...

We had a fun week at my school before leaving for Christmas break.  We had an ugly sweater day:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course I don't have an ugly sweater, so I went to the Dollar Tree and spent $5 to make one out of a felt tree skirt, 2 packs of garland and 2 stems of glittered poinsettias!  I had a little leftover so I made a headband to match.  It was very fun!

My coworker Laurie and I had cute headbands - hers was a tiara and mine was just a lil Christmas hat (hard to see, but cute!):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm so blessed to work at FES, I love everyone in that building, big and small!

Pinterest Made Me Do It #8...

 

We love snow globes!  Over the years with multiple moves, I've lost a few, but here's what we have:

 

Alex mentioned that he wanted to make his own, so thanks to Pinterest, I found a "recipe".  I had read that instead of the glycerine, I could use baby oil.  I love these cute lil mason jars, but they turned out to not be tall enough, oh well.

 

 

We glued then waited for it to dry.  Alex and I played some cards: 

 

And we waited some more: 

 

Finally, they were dry and ready to finish: 

 

This one is Alex's creation, the penguine is holding his scarf because he's a ninja and he's using it as a weapon against the snowman: 

 

This one is Andy's: 

 

They're cute and we're enjoying them!