We wish you a Merry Christmas!!

Our girls talked to Santa, and he told them that he is very busy today. We hope he comes to visit you tonight while you have visions of sugar plums in your head!! Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!

Happy Anniversary!!

Today is a special day for me and my best friend. We are celebrating our 3rd anniversary. I am so blessed to have such a fabulous man that wanted to be my husband. He is supportive, kind, patient, full of morals and ethics, funny, trustworthy, generous, hard working, loving...on top of that he puts his faith in God. We are absolutely two peas in a pod. He "gets" me as we usually are on the same wavelength with most anything. He makes me laugh every day. There is no one on this earth that I would rather spend my time with. Although we have had our fair share of disappointments in these first few years of marriage, we have worked through them together, and we are a much stronger couple because of the things that we have been through together. I hope that I have a chance to spend many more years with this man as I cherish every moment that I have with him. I love you, Mike. Happy Anniversary!!

This was the best day of my life!!

I tried to "be in the moment" as I said my vows. Those vows were spoken from the bottom of my heart.
The church was so beautiful with over 200 poinsettias, the lighted trees and the string quartet. Oh, I can't forget the good looking bridal party!!
Why were we laughing as we signed our marriage license? Maybe we were just smiling big because we were so happy.
A close up of the newly married couple
Look at those poinsettias. It is such a fabulous time of year to get married!! We didn't have to buy any flowers for the church other than the bridal party flowers. One of Mike's members allowed us to use their RV as our transportation to the reception. This is one special RV, and we were so thankful that we had a chance to borrow it for a little while
Our first dance was "Eternal Flame" by the Bangles. Strange choice some might say, but it has been "our song" since we first started dating. Yeah, we started dating that long ago. We might only be celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary, but we dated (with timeouts) for 17 years before we married.That cake. Holy cow. White chocolate amaretto cream center, buttercream frosting topped with white chocolate fondant. It was not only beautiful, but it was delicious!!
This was in front of the club as we were getting ready to leave. It was such a fabulous night. It went by so fast, and I would give anything to do it all over again. Maybe we can someday?? Want to renew our vows in Hawaii (our honeymoon location) in a few years?? Or we could go to Bora Bora and stay in an overwater bungalow with glass bottom floors?? A girl can dream...
...I know I dreamed about this day all of my life. It was everything I dreamed about and more!! Thank you for marrying me, prince charming!!

Get your Glow On!!

I am talking about getting my glow on over at www.chic-critique.com today. I have found a product that will help my pasty skin look a little shimmery in my holiday dresses. Please go check it out and leave me a comment so I know you visited. I actually posted on November 11th and November 25th too, but forgot to blog about it. If you have the time, read those posts too and leave a comment. My comments have been down, and I'm not feelin' the love. Like the economy, I need a little boost. I would link to the actual posts, but I don't know how!!! Can anyone help me with that?? How can I actually be a part of a blog like www.chic-critique.com and not know how to do that??

Thanksgiving and a week of decorating

Although our group was a little smaller this year, we enjoyed having Thanksgiving at our home once again. We don't play around. We feast. We had so much good food...appetizers, smoked turkey, thick ribeyes, tons of sides, and pumpkin cheesecake with pecan praline topping and homemade whipped cream. Wow!! It makes me want to go back in time and eat it all over again.

We like to gather in the kitchen to eat appetizers while the other food is in the oven. We had both of Mike's pros Chad and Luke plus their wives Sara and Clark, our next door neighbors Debbie and Jeff and our other neighbor Tiffanie whose husband is in Iraq (thank you Gabe for working to keep us safe). We missed Daniel and SuSu since they were on their honeymoon. We also missed Michelle and Melanie as they went other places this year.

Chad and Jeff got the turkey carving honor. Messy. As long as I don't have to do it, I'm happy!!
Mike loves sharing our feast with the "house of dogs". Everyone is allowed to bring their dogs, so we had 5 pooches who were looking for any kind of scraps that they could get. Sara and Chad also brought them a container of "pupcorn" which they snacked on as an appetizer before they got the steak and turkey scraps. Spoiled much??

After our tradition of going around the table to tell what we are thankful for and saying the blessing, we enjoyed our amazing feast!! Thank you God for this good food and time with friends!!

We started decorating the weekend after Thanksgiving. I'm still decorating. I know...give me a break. I haven't decorated since 2004, so I am a little excited to decorate again. We have a 9 foot tall fake tree in our family room and a 7 and a half foot tree in the guest bedroom that is on the front of the house. Many of you don't believe in fake trees, but I have bad allergies, we have saved a lot over the years since a 9 foot tree every year would really add up and I have the best smelling Balsam Cedar diffuser ever made hidden behind my tree. Since the tree had not been out of the box since 2004, we had some issues. After a trip to Home Depot, then WallyWorld, then Lowes, then Lowes a day later, we finally have two completely lit trees, 2 large wreaths (one on the front of the house and the other on the back covered porch), 2 topiaries for the front porch and garland for the top of the dining room hutch. Like I said, I have been a bit excited.

Ali decided that she would help us with the tree. I think all her work wore her plum out.

Mike was so excited to help me fluff the 5 strands of garland that would go into making the big garland on top of the hutch. He was so excited that I think he fell asleep while he was fluffing.

Mike stood on a step stool or maybe it was some piece of furniture and the topper was put in place...

...stay tuned for pics of all the decorations in their proper places.

Congratulations SuSu and Daniel!!

We want to send big love and best wishes to our friends SuSu and Daniel. They were married last night behind her parent's home with the sunset and the water in the background. They are so perfect together, and they are just about the cutest couple that I've ever seen. I am so happy that they found each other. It was a beautiful wedding~the flowers were gorgeous, the ginormous tent with little white lights and seating areas with sofas was spectacular, the food was divine {shrimp and grits, crabcakes, grilled quail bites, beef tenderloin, ham and biscuits, potato bar, pheasant, duck and venison sausage, fruit with chocolate dipping sauce}, a super fun band and a glowing bride and happy-as-a-clam groom. The only thing that would have made it better is if I had gotten some better pictures. It seemed like every time that I went to take a shot that I missed the shot. Do you ever have one of those bad picture taking days? Anyway, congrats to the newly married couple!!

What a beautiful bride!!

They were dancing the whole night. I'm so glad that they enjoyed themselves.

They did the traditional change of clothes to leave for their honeymoon. The whole thing was just like "The Father of the Bride" movie. Notice that I once again missed the shot...I hope to eventually get a faster camera because this happens to me frequently. Bummer!
I did not capture the essence of the beautiful outdoor ceremony area. Take my word for it. It was stunning!!

Those flowers behind us were fabulous!!

Our friends Chad and Sara had his parents and sister in town from Illinois, so they were able to join in on the fun...and fun it was!!

Mike got to hang out with lots of his buddies that he doesn't get to see that often. What a downer that we all lead such busy lives that it keeps us from spending time with friends!!

Look at the beautiful tent!! It was beyond stunning!!

Goddaughter Love!!

I haven't been much for blogging lately. I lost my job. Yeah, that one that I just started 2 months ago. Yeah, the one that I have been traveling, training, working my tail off and putting my heart and soul into. Yeah, that one. There were 65 reps let go. Changes in the company. Bad economy. Yada. Yada. Yada. My sales manager told me not to take it personally. Yeah, right. I'm trying to pull myself up by my boot straps, but my arms are feeling like rubber and I can't even find those boot straps because my eyes are swollen from crying. My Goddaughter did her part to try to make me feel better, though. Little Chloe sent the above pic to my phone (check out her little I Love You top) with the message "I love you, Aunt Leigh Ann XOXO, Chloe". That was a bright spot to my day!!!

The worst part is that I had to miss my Goddaughter's baptism because I couldn't take the time off work since I was so new. If only I had known that I would lose my job a week later, I would have been there. With bells on. I'll never get that time with her back. {I'm sorry baby girl. I should have been there. I love you, and will be the best Godmother that a girl could ever have.} Isn't she beautiful? I knew that Nancy and Brad would make a beautiful baby. She doesn't disappoint.



Wednesday night Update:

I missed church this past Sunday. Mentally exhausted is the best excuse I have. My friend Margaret told me that I needed to watch the message online. I finally watched it tonight. It was the first part in a series called "How to Be Rich- Finding God in a Difficult Economy". It was really good. It got me to thinking and putting things into perspective. If you want to watch it, check out www.seacoast.org. Click music and messages under Seacoast resources, then click messages, then click 2008, then How to Be Rich- Finding God in a Difficult Economy. It blessed me. I hope it blesses you. As I looked around on my church's website, I came across the scripture below. It jumped out at me. I thought I would share it in case it might help someone else. I probably should make several copies of this to keep around my house and in my car.

James 1:2-4 (New International Version)

2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Rockin' the Vote in Columbia!!

I don't talk politics, and I for one am going to be glad when tomorrow is OVER!! This election feels like it has lasted 20 years. Smear campaigns, stupid e-mails going around on the internet...yuck!! I had to post about what I thought was absolute craziness, though. Unfortunately, I had to go to the county building last week to take care of some property tax paperwork. I think I would have rather stuck a stick in my eye. That place is madness on a normal day, but when people come to the building to place an absentee vote?? No thank you. Parking is normally horrendous around that building, but add several hundred people trying to vote. Insane, I'm telling you. The line was around the building as people were waiting 4 hours to place an absentee vote. It took 7 hours to place an absentee vote on Saturday. Are you kidding me?? Not even election day?? These pics do very little to show the sheer pandimonium, and I feel sure that it only got worse as the week went on. The news said that you had to have 1 of 17 reasons to be able to vote absentee. I wonder what people came up with?? I'd love to be a little bird in the building...tomorrow should be interesting!!

Happy Halloween!!

I hope everyone has a great time tonight, whatever your plans may be. The best part of Halloween for me is seeing all the cute costumes on my friend's children. I just wish that I lived close to my Illinois friends and family so that I could see all of their cute children!! We started our celebrating by going to the Halloween party on Thursday night at the country club where my husband works. Tonight we are planning to go on a hayride with friends and their children to trick or treat in the neighborhood where hubs works. Be safe and Happy Halloween!!

She was trying so hard to get that cute family pic...her daughter just didn't want to cooperate. You have to chuckle when that happens.

Very cute family pic. I just wish that "Woody" would have been looking at the camera.
This cute frog was hopping around and saying ribbit, ribbit.

"Woody" and the "Bee". When I said hi to "Woody", he said, "No!! My name is Eli."

Don't those three brothers look so cute?? Their Mom tells me to not let them fool me!!

Such cute girlfriends!! Do you think they called each other and said "Hey let's meet at the club for a girl's night out?"

How fun that the princess in the middle would have a grandmother who would dress up as Snow White with her and ride on the hay ride??

A most precious SuperGirl!!

This little bug was the most precious little thing. You should have seen her puffy bum. So cute!! She happens to be the one that I mentioned earlier who didn't want to get a family pic taken.

Without a doubt this is the cutest duck ever!!! He was so darn cute trying to waddle around with his puffy little bum too.

She had already taken off her fairy costume because she told her Mom that it was too itchy, but I was finally able to convince her to give me fake smile.

What a great pirate!! Was he giving me that grrrrr pose?? I doubt it since he is the sweetest pirate that I know!!