Happy Birthday Husband.... and family pictures of our weekend away to celebrate the birthday boy!

My sweet husband is 28 today! He keeps saying he feels old, but I think he looks great and is seriously only getting wiser and better with every day. I know I am partial, but he is the best guy I know and I am incredibly stinkin' blessed he choose me to be his forever.

Since he is feeling so old, and because I did this last year, and because our little one should be here in 11 weeks and because I hope she looks like her daddy {obviously in girl form} and has lots of red hair, here is my man roughly 27 to 28 years ago...

Isn't he a cutie :)

Over this past weekend Jay and I traveled to Boone, NC for a mountain weekend with Jay's family. We decided to rent a house together for a long weekend instead of exchanging Christmas gifts and I think it was a wonderful idea! {Always love an excuse for a weekend get away or a vacation of any kind}

It was fun to have the whole family together and to get to celebrate my birthday boy a little bit. We also decided that since it is hard to get the whole family together at one time we would take some family photos.

 We tried outside first, but we were too impatient to wait for decent lighting...

 So we moved inside and were able to fit everyone on the stairs {including Jay's Uncle Tim and his kids, and Jay's Mema}

And of course we had to take a few funny ones, and of course jay climbing on the railing involved kicking his poor Mema in the head... poor thing

 Leah & Jason

 Jeremy & Keylan 

Lyndsey & Chris & Baby Gavin

Me and Jay

I really love this picture of Jay and his siblings

and I love, love, love these of them just being silly together :)

Our whole family - {Jay's parents, his siblings, and all the wives/husbands & our kiddos... notice baby girl in my ever growing huge belly}

How cute is 4 month old Baby Gavin? 

Love this little man! 

A rope / vine swing was also discovered in the woods behind the house where we stayed...

 I am really in love with this picture of Jay's cousins Bekah & Eli

28 year old Jay swinging on a vine in the woods... pretty sure he can't classify himself as old just yet...

And for some strange reason no one was in favor of allowing the pregnant lady on the swing.. haha ;)

Happy Birthday Husband! I love celebrating your life with you! 

My Baby Changing Table Project

Back in November Jay and I went with our friends Dave and Alison to an Antique store near by to help them haul their new kitchen table back home. Now, really Jay does know that it is pretty difficult for me to just "visit" a massively huge antique store without finding something {and honestly he isn't much better - he really likes unique furniture and jokingly claims to be a decorator}.... Anyway, I was describing to Alison how I really didn't want Baby Girl's nursery to be super matchy-matchy, and right about that exact moment she spotted an old Dry Sink and we all fell in love. It is perfect for a changing table!

Here is the before pictures of the beauty in our garage:

Are you wondering why in the world i would ever want to change the color? ha!

In case you can't tell it was a hideous shade of teal... it was just screaming out to me to be painted and I loved every minute of fixing it up for the nursery.

After sanding it down, a coat of primer, and 3 coats of paint it looks much more suitable for Baby Girl Hawkins....

My sweet friend Rachel gave us her daughter's old changing table pad and it fit perfectly! Thanks Rachel :)

I also have something different in mind for the shelves. I found these pink tins at Target in the dollar section, but I think they are 1.)too small and 2.) make the whole table seem more like a gardening center or something along those lines. I might use the buckets to organize her closet? I want something more like baskets on these open shelves though... any suggestions? 

I used some left over paint, so the whole project just cost $68! I love that price way more than the options at Babies r' Us and I think it is something we could use later in a playroom as a bookshelf. 

More nursery projects to come as we prepare for little miss thing :) 

my prayer over you baby girl

"Above all else guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. Put away perversity from your mouth; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead, and fix your gaze directly before you. Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; keep your feet from evil."                        Proverbs 4:23 - 27 

Sweet Baby Girl,

I pray this scripture over your life, and desire nothing more than for you to fix your eyes steadfastly on Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith. I pray that you know what it means to guard your heart and that you experience the unmatchable love of your Father. Baby girl I promise that this love if far greater than anything else you will ever find. As your mama my prayer is that I am able to trust the Lords guidance as you grow and that with his mercy and unending grace I am able to be an example of the kind of life described in proverbs for you. I know too that when I am weak He is strong and when I fail, baby girl He will guide you. Look to Him.

Love, your mama

Breaking Baby News: Hello 3rd Trimester! {and a few other Baby Updates}

Can't believe I am 28 weeks Pregnant! Reality check for sure. Baby Girl will be here in 12 weeks or less. I keep telling myself I am ready, but then I get nervous... hopefully thats normal! God gave us this sweet baby, and I am so excited, but also a little anxious. Just being honest here. 

So here is a 28 week Belly Shot...

Not sure about the face, but pretty typical face for me to give Jay or so he tells me

Baby Girl better be getting big in there!

Our sweet friends Ian and Rachel sent us this precious baby gift in the mail this week...

 I am in love. Ian was one of Jay's roommates at Clemson, and he and his super talented wife Rachel {a.k.a The Nanny who Knits} live in Oregon. If you ever need a great idea for a baby shower gift or really any gift because she has some cute stuff for adults too then you need to check out her blog. Thanks again Ian and Rachel! 

Also... we hung this chandelier in the nursery. It makes my heart smile. 

And we ordered the crib... So glad to be checking things off the nursery list!

{I have different bedding... the monkeys are cute, but not quite what we had in mind}

One last thing.... Have y'all heard about these Information Blankets? So Neat! Every blanket purchased also sends one to a new Mama in Africa with information in their language about basic baby care. I can't imagine the idea of welcoming our little girl without the help of books or pediatricians or my computer to look up every single question. I think they are an awesome idea and a great reminder to mama's here to pray for other mama's around the world. 

Our Christmas Recap

Okay... so still playing catch up a little bit but enjoying looking back over our Christmas celebrations and travels!

I loved decorating our first house for Christmas this year! I didn't do a ton, but we did have trees on our front porch and I made this wreath for the front door...

I was really into light green with red and white this year, so a moss wreath was perfect, simple, and easy to make. ALSO, please take note that we now have a black front door, black storm door, and new lights. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see these doors instead of the awful maroon {a.k.a. worst color ever or university of south carolina colors} door every day upon returning home. 

Here is a reminder of our old door... eww! 

Okay... back to Christmas...

Its hard to tell in this black, shapeless maternity dress, but I am 25 weeks prego with little miss thing in this photo. As much as we enjoyed our Christmas tree this year, I think I know a certain little girl who will be about 9 months old next Christmas that will like it even more. We discussed several times how our tree probably won't have many ornaments on the lower half next year :) 

I also got the awesome joy of planning our Chick-fil-A employee's Christmas party  again this year. I love our people so, so much and its always fun to get to cook / bake for them! My sweet Mama came up for the weekend to help me with everything and brought BBQ from our favorite carolina style BBQ {the only good kind of BBQ there is really} place in Greensboro. She was a huge, huge help and its always fun to be in the kitchen with mom. 

We snapped this photo at Chick-fil-A in our Santa Chair.

Here is a look at all our yummy food & desserts: 

 Our Menu included:

BBQ

BBQ Slaw

Greenbeans - cooked over several hours with chicken bouillon {p.s. use bouillon cubes in your green beans. trust me. they will be amazing}

Hashbrown Casserole - I am planning to make another hashbrown casserole this week  to take with us on our mountain weekend with Jay's family, so I will share the recipe. It is loved in our house, and 4 pans of it were consumed at the christmas  party.

Homemade Cornbread - another easy recipe I promise to share!  

White Wine cake - My mama's specialty! 

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Browned Butter Frosting - This frosting is so easy to make and really yummy! 

Sugar Cookies with this Cookie Glaze - they were a hit and the glaze looked great... you really should give this a try on some valentine cookies!

White Chocolate covered Pretzels

Brownies - you got to have chocolate!

Oreo / Peanutbutter No-Bake Dessert - Oh My! It was gone in 2.1 seconds. Seriously amazing. enough said. 

We also played the Gift exchange game where with the night before Christmas story {except I changed ours to the Night Before Christmas at Chick-fil-A of Waynesboro Story}. It is always a great way to do a gift exchange quickly without stealing gifts... i've always hated that part. 

The best gag gift was a frozen chicken! ha! 

I made these Sea Salt Caramels to give as Christmas gifts, and they were to die for. Make them today.

Happy Saturday everyone! Our goal is to get the Christmas tree down finally....

And I also am working on a couple of projects for Baby Girls nursery today. We may or may not be hanging a super cute, super girly chandelier in her room ;)

Our New York City Christmas Trip!

** A little preface: yes, i am WAYYYY behind on all that I wanted to document on our blog from the last month. I feel like I am still recovering from all that we crammed into a few short weeks in December - and baby girl isn't even here yet... man, I am going to have to step up my game to keep up with how fast life is about to speed up! ANYWAY, I still wanted to share our fun NYC trip... and I have a holiday recap and some new years goals to share in the coming days, so bear with me while I catch up with myself. This little blog just seems to get neglected at times in place of actually living in the day... anyone else ever feel that way? **
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About 3 weeks ago {before the holiday craziness} Jay and I traveled to NYC with our good friends Dave & Alison for a long weekend. We crammed in lots of eating, lots and lots of walking, and lots of fun!

Jay went to New York back in October on a "food tour" with several other Chick-fil-A operators after reading Danny Meyer's book about his restaurants. He is a specialist in great hospitality and some yummy food too. Jay took us to 2 of his restaurants and they were delicious.

The Shake Shack is seriously the best hamburger ever, and their peanut-butter milkshake was simply amazing. 

Lady Liberty herself at sunset

The Blanco's about to enjoy dinner in Little Italy 

We decided Bella would NOT like living in NYC one bit {lucky girl spent our weekend away with her grandma}, but she would actually probably love all the people / dogs / smells / walking that is Central Park

Sunday Morning in Central Park before we headed to church at Tim Keller's Church Redeemer Presbyterian -- it was awesome! 

Spider Man in broadway -- it was also amazing! 

whew, busy, busy, busy Times Square actually made us all very thankful for little old Waynesboro 

We saw the Rockettes' Christmas Spectacular! 

And we visited the 9-11 Memorial. It was very powerful and humbling to stand where the towers fell 10 years ago. They are still working on the Freedom Towers, and Museum, but there are two huge pools in the exact spots of the North & South Towers with the names engraved of all those who lost their lives. So, so many heros and such a great remembrance of the power of what it means to be an American. 

I loved this little tree that could! It was alive in the exact same spot between the towers and survived the whole attack, and it still alive. Such a symbol of hope for all of NYC.  

We had a wonderful, chilly, and fun-filled trip! Christmas is the best time to visit the big apple in my opinion :) 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay - back to today... just because I love, love, love our Bella girl, and because today {Jan. 4th} is her "birthday" and because she was so dang cute {and pitiful} on Christmas in the sweater my mom made her wear I have to share the pictures....

What a sweet girl -- she is two today! We celebrated this morning with her favorite - a scrambled egg!

Now I am off to eat Chili, make these Cream Cheese Cookies from my sweet friend Heather's Blog, and pull for my Clemson Tigers in the Orange Bowl tonight! 

More yummy recipes and our Christmas recap to come...