Looking Forward to 2012

Happy New Year, friends! This year was FULL of ups and down. I just wanted to post some photos so I can both remember and reflect on this past year.



{went to the Sugar bowl; celebrated Tyler's 26th birthday; met Pioneer Woman}



{Tyler's Meme went to be with Jesus}



{met some wonderful blog/twitter friends}



{my friend, Sarah, had sweet baby Charlie!}



{we went to Shreveport for the wedding of Greg and Carly}



{my friend, Rachel, had sweet Bella. And I was there the whole time. I was the 2nd person to hold Bella, she's got a special place in my heart}



{we went to the beach with our family}



{I told Tyler he was going to be a daddy; after we lost our sweet baby, my friend sent me a gorgeous memory pendant}



{we vacationed in Maryland}



{and Washington DC}



{our wonderful nieces were born!!}



{Lauren came to Arkansas!!}



{celebrated Halloween with some of my funniest friends}



{built a fort with my awesome class, I love my job!}



{worshipped together at the Hillsong Live concert, it was amazing}



{went to see the lights at Garvan Garden!}



{had coffee with Becky! Love this girl}



{decorated for Christmas with our little tree}



{celebrated Christmas Eve and morning with our awesome church, and Bella boo made an appearance}



{enjoyed Tyler having Christmas day off!}

Here's to a wonderful 2012! I truly can't wait to see what this year holds.

My verse this year is Lamentations 3:22-24
"The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in Him!"

Don't Judge Me, pretty please.

For real, don't judge the before pictures of what I'm about to share. :)

A little backstory, I may have shared this when we moved in, but I can't remember. Our renters were filthy and quite destructive. But one of the worst spots was my kitchen stove. It was black. The problem? It's a white stove. We have SCRUBBED this thing with everything we could think of. We scrubbed for 2 straights hours when we moved in. Tyler has taken SOS pads and knives to this sucker. It's bad. I finally gave in, I knew it was sanitized and decided I was just going to have to live with it.

Until today. My friend Ashley posted on Facebook and on twitter this "miracle" cleaning helper. I figured it wouldn't hurt to try it out. And I'm posting here in case someone else is as in the dark as I have been.

This miracle? Baking soda and hydrogen peroxide. Now for the stove, I used baking soda and water because I wasn't sure if HP was flammable, but decided not to risk it. Without further ado... Here is the result!





Now I know this is not exciting to everyone, but for us it's amazing!

I decided to also try it on my mixer, this yuck is not left over from a year. Ha! It's just been the last week. I baked A LOT recently and it got filthy.


I feel like my life has been changed!! My most important "job" is as a homemaker, and anything to make that job easier is such a blessing!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

12 Days of Christmas: Husband Style

I wanted to do something special for Tyler for Christmas this year. I got the idea to do a year worth of date nights this summer and it transformed into the 12 days of Christmas. Tyler has loved it! I am so glad. Ive been searching for awhile for things that came in packages, but I knew a few things would be baked in my kitchen because this sweet Love of mine has a sweet tooth like no other. Here is the list of Tyler's 12 days of Christmas!



{a sweet tree under our tree- this was a truffle from a local boutique}



{2 bicycle socks}



{3 cookie dough bites- I found a package of Mrs. Fields cookie dough bites in the Target dollar spot and they just happened to be in a set of 3}



{4 Reeses trees}



{5 razors- the boy needed new razors, I usually put a pack in his stocking, but since I found a 5 pack I made it work}



{6 ice cold beers- here's where we made a detour into the redneck days of Christmas. Ha! Fresh Market let's you mix and match beer, so I got him 6 different beers I thought he would like}



{7 reasons I love you- goodness knows I had to be cheesy at least once}



{8 nerf gun darts- this day came with a bonus}



{day 8 was by far my favorite. He had the day off and pretty much all we did was have nerf gun wars, it was SO fun - and I won}



{9 gold coins-boring, but it was a 9 pack}



{10 snowflake cookies- I made rolled sugar cookies}



{11 chocolate chip cookies- his favorite}



{12 days of date nights- the big one! It took me so long to come up with 12 different and unique date nights. I printed up "coupons" with a little poem or joke to go with each date and then included a gift card for said date night}

He loved it all. He actually just said "I want to formally give you two thumbs up for the 12 days of Christmas." haha!

Tonight I'm excited to celebrate the birth of our Savior with my church family and tomorrow with our immediate family!

Merry Christmas from our home to yours! Remember what the season is all about!

Proud.

We've had a tough year. This is no secret. We've tried our best to be above it all. And we've gotten through, barely. A lot of the year, I just kind of felt like we were being, not living. Does that make sense? We lived in the same house, yet rarely slept in the same bed at the same time. I can count on one hand the times we've had dinner together in our home in the last 3 months. Tyler has been working away from home at least 70 hours a week, most of it for school. His actual school work has taken up every other ounce of free time he's had. He's worked his booty off to do well and it has paid off. He's graduating. Finally.

I really can't tell you how good it feels to say he's done. I am so excited to have my husband back. I need him here with me. He needs me.

Proud isn't near strong enough a word to say how I feel about him today. He's pretty amazing. And I'm glad the Lord made him for me.

"Commit to the Lord, whatever you do and your plans will succeed." Proverbs 16:3