Pregnancy- 11 weeks

Wow- I'm working on 3 posts in one day! Reason #792, to not go this long without blogging. TOO MUCH TO CATCH UP ON!

I'll start off by sharing a couple of funny pictures-
John & I knew that we wanted to tell our Nashville group of friends the good news at the exact same time. We asked each of our friends to meet us for a big group dinner, telling them that since our move, we've missed our big group get-togethers.
We all met for Mexican a couple of weeks ago.
There were about 20 of us (so we were missing about 6-7 from the group)....
We said that we wanted to get a group picture before the food came.
(Our group is used to group pics, so they didn't think anything of it.)

Our waiter was in on the plan, and on the count of 3, John yelled:
WE'RE HAVING A BABY!

Note: The above picture was everyone's reaction when John yelled it. Nothing, we got nothing.
I didn't think that everyone would think nothing of it, since John has been a little prankster before & told people at parties before that we were pregnant (all while I'm over there filling up my wine glass for the 8th time)- Then they come up & say, "Neelley, I don't think you need to be drinking if you are pregnant!"- Then there's been a loud,
"John King, quit telling everyone I'm pregnant, when I'm not!! For that, you are going to have to wait longer for your little dream to come true!!" John's just over there snickering, thinking it's the funniest thing in the world....

Well, fast forward to when it actually is true- No one believed him. (What a great story of, "Little Boy who cried Wolf!" So while our waiter was still taking pictures, I said to the group:

"We really are! We really are having a baby!" Now, that's the reaction that we were looking for! :)

It was so fun!

So, this week, we are 11 weeks pregnant. One more week left in the 1st trimester.
Hard to believe that the pregnancy is 1/3rd the way over!

During my pregnancy, I've had lots of the symptoms;
- Headaches (all day long, & in pregnancy, you need to try not to take any meds in the 1st trimester- BUMMER!)
- Tired!!! I could sleep 16 hours/ day if I could! My energy is g-o-n-e!
- Nausea (however, I've been lucky to never get actually sick)
- Cravings: juicy things- like OJ, Strawberry Lemonade, Pineapple (can't get enough!), Yogurt, grapes, Fruit Tea, some Italian Lemon Ice, mmmm. Or Salty things- Mexican, Chips & Dip, Pretzels.
-Food aversions: Anything dessert-like: chocolate cake, ice cream, cookies, candy, etc....
(which is very strange for me, since I have always had such a sweet tooth!)

My belly is just now starting to get a little bump. Sometimes it looks like I've just eaten a little too much, but it's starting to get a little more round. Clothes are starting to get a little snug (and depressing!)...

They say that this week our baby is the size of a Fig. (just a tad smaller than a lime).
Measuring at about 2 inches. His or her body is straigtening out & lengthening.
Hair follicles are forming. Individual fingers & toes have seperated recently from webbed hands & feet. Baby has distinct human characteristics by now. Ears are also forming on the side of the head. Nose, mouth & eyelids are now visable.

Happenings....

Now that we've got the Christmas post over with, lots of other happenings have been going on in our lives since we last blogged.....

We finally got packed up & moved out of our home in Nashville. Although we were thrilled to have sold our house, Moving Day was a very emotional day. John kept asking me if I was going to break down & lose it while the movers were there. Surprisingly, I didn't. Moving is serious work, even when you hire a company to do it for you... Cleaning the rooms after all the furniture is out & double checking to make sure everything is packed definitely keeps you occupied.

It wasn't until John & I drove back up later that afternoon to grab the last carfull of items that we wanted to keep with us & take to the cabin is when it hit us.

This was the first house that we moved into when we first got engaged. We have had many parties, friends staying the weekend with us, birthday celebrations, bridal showers, holidays, etc, etc in this house. Even though there were tons of times when, "I can't wait til we sell this house!!!" was yelled in frusteration with dealing with an older home, it was sad when that day actually came. We spent our first 3 years in this house...

My mom told me once when I was venting to her about the house, "Neelley, you & John's next house will be better. And I know that you get frusterated with an older home. There are some things that you learn that you want differently in your next house that your current house has taught you. But I promise you this, you will look back one day, & say, "Gosh, that was an awesome house. We used to think that this house was HUGE!" And you know why? Because it was y'alls first house together. Lots of other houses will come & go in your lives, but nothing will ever be able to be compared to y'alls first house, because it will always be the most special."

As we were going through the house one last time turning off the lights in each room one by one, the emotional breakdown came.... I replayed what my Mom had said about this house in my mind & thought, "This is such a great house!" In the car, John & I were talking & I told him I thought the reason why I was so overly emotional wasn't just us selling the house, it's the thought that, 'you can't ever go back'. It won't ever look the same as it did when we owned it. New buyers will come & change things, like we did when we moved in. And that's ok. That's change & it just happens. John grabbed my hand & said, "Yeah, but you have to think that we get to start a new chapter with our next house." And in that, it did make me feel better. Seeing it like John, this wasn't just an ending, but a beginning of something that we wanted---

a move to Columbia to start a family.

Which brings us to our next exciting happening.....

We are expecting a little baby!

Baby King is due to arrive at the end of the Summer....

August 13th to be exact.

I am in for one HOT and looooong summer!

We found out at the beginning of December that we had a baby on the way! I hadn't been feeling good at all. We were planning on going out with friends for dinner the next night, so I took a pregnancy test, just to see if I was in the clear to have a couple of glasses of wine or not... Came up negative. So I thought, No biggie! Just didn't want to be thinking later on down the line- "Oh crap! 'Baby got..... drunk!"

Still wasn't feeling good the next morning, so I thought, "I'll swing by my drs office to see what they say." Long story, short- Blood test came back positive for pregnancy! :)

Now, I'm a planner..... I knew that John & I were getting close to wanting to start a family, and I knew the exact way I wanted to tell him, when that day arrived.

Ever since John & I got engaged, I have heard the story of how his Mom had this wooden rocking horse custom made for John when he was a baby. She looooved this horse. She said John looooved this horse, and that she always wanted John's babies to have it one day. Well, the story gets sad, but to make it short,- the horse fell into the wrong hands at one point & got given away in a yard sale many many years ago.

So, being the planner that I am, I thought, "I'm going to make a happy ending to that story."-

I couldn't find that rocking horse, but I did the next best thing & had one shipped over from Sweden. It's just the most precious thing you've ever seen. And I've been hiding this rocking horse in the laundry room for the past couple of weeks. (Shows how much John is actually in the laundry room- HA---- I will say that it was in a box & hidden)

So, later on that night, when John got home, I told him that I had purchased something for the new house, pulled out this rocking horse & he said, "YOU'RE PREGNANT?!" - It was such a wonderful & exciting thing! John has been wanting a little baby since the day we got married.... So needless to say, HE WAS ESTATIC!!

So, we decided to keep quiet on the baby news (even to our parents!) until the 1st Doctors Appt which was scheduled the week of Christmas. Doctors appointment went wonderfully and he said everything looked perfect! We heard the little heartbeat & it just seemed so surreal.

On to Christmas- We told our families by each giving them a big box at the very end of all the presents & said, ' This is something that y'all have been wanting for your house.' Well, each set of parents all want/need something for their house, so they didn't think one thing about it.

I had gathered sweet baby items that I had seen & put them in a cute basket. Wrapped it up in muslin/ burlap material. Took out some stencils, stamped 'STORK & CO' on the material & tied it with a bow.

As soon as each of them pulled it out, they shot John & I a look of: 'Does this mean what we think it means?' John & I quickly said, "Oh no.... It's just the name of a company.... Keep opening!" It took just one flip of the fabric to reveal the baby items & jumps for joy, tears of happiness & lots of laughs were let out by all!

What the packaged looked like.

(I moved the tag to the inside of the basket, since I didn't want to give away the surprise before they unwrapped it)

I filled the basket with sweet items like:
Baby book, Hand knit baby booties, stuffed animal,

white baby pillow with a silver rattle, & 2 wooden pull toys

Tag that was inside:

I purchased these adorable push toys from Etsy!

We have video of each set of parents unwrapping their gift. However, it's on both of our phones & we can't seem to figure out how to upload them.... But once we do, we will definitely share them on here!

So, from here on out, I'm going to switch up our little blog just a bit.
Mondays will be our baby updates that week
Tuesdays will be recipes- Tasty Tuesdays (I'm copying my friend, Allison, on this)
Wed-Fri will be random things....

Thanks so much for all the love & support!!!

Christmas 2010

After a long one month break from the blogging world, we are back!

However, I don't think I'll ever take that big of a break away again from blogging. So much stuff happens in one month, (even a slow month) and I feel like it's taken me f-o-r-e-v-e-r to upload these pictures as well as get them on here!

But....

It was a much needed break & we got mostly everything moved & unpacked, or put in storage. Still working on some things & trying to find spots for everything.... I hate for things to look crammed in somewhere....

To start off, where we left off~

We had a wonderful Christmas at the cabin

I don't know what made me want to do a Pheasant themed tree last year, but I did. So I carried it over into this year as well. It went perfect with the cabin decor...

Some Christmas cookies for Ol' Saint Nick!

We start off our family Christmas on Christmas Eve with my Mom's side of the family.

We have been doing this for as long as I can remember. We all get together around 5ish on Christmas Eve for fun, food & presents!

Chandler, my cousin's little boy.... Isn't he just precious!!

We have always had a Lasagna dinner on Christmas Eve. Such a different dinner than you would think for Christmas, but so wonderful since it's the exact opposite of what we will be eating on the next day!

Now, time for presents! There are about 15 of us that gather on my Mom's family's side for Christmas. Just immediate extended family. However, it can be chaotic once presents start being opened, so I didn't get hardly any pictures!

A horrible, but one of the only, pictures we got of us together at Christmas 2010

My Aunt M'Lee loves her some Maxine!

On Christmas morning, we awoke to a snow dusted ground. There were ducks on the lake in front of the cabin, so John & Cooper went hunting...

Lunch on Christmas Day is spent with John's side of the family.

Lilly, our neice, loved her Cat in the Hat game!

Allie Grace is all about baby dolls & princess stuff!

The grandkids with Mimi & Papa King

John & his sister, Katie

Katie & her girls!

Later on, on Christmas afternoon, we stop back by my Mom's house to celebrate Christmas with my Bonus Brother, Kenny & his wife Karen. They have 2 adorable kids, Brooke & Logan!

Brooke~

My sister, Blair, got the best picture of Brooke though. (I wish I had a copy of it!). Mom got Brooke some Jeggings for Christmas (3 years old & already at the top of the fashion trend at Preschool)- Brooke loves to pose for pictures, so when Blair went to take a picture, Brooke said, "One, Two, Three- say Jeggings!!" It was HILARIOUS!

Logan is all about some trucks & trains!

Christmas Night we go to my Dad & Phyllis' house. We love this tradition!

Didn't get any pictures of us at Christmas, but I did get a picture of the tree.

I just love all white & silver trees....

The day after Christmas we celebrate & head down to my Nana's house (Dad's mom).

Such a fun time. She recently just got put into an Assisted Living Facility in Franklin, so it was nice to have Christmas at her old house, like always.

John & I with Nana. She'll be 90 this July!

Taking a Christmas Break

Tis the Season......

For everything to happen at once!

We feel so lucky & blessed to have gotten an offer on our house in Nashville! Inspection went great and we are set to close on the 30th....

So in the next two weeks, not only do we have Christmas (and we attend 4-5 different Christmases in 3 days), but we have to:

~Finish our Christmas shopping & wrapping presents

~ I have a 4 tiered wedding cake due this weekend

~ 100+ custom designed Christmas sugar cookies due this weekend

~2 scheduled big dinners (1 with family, and 1 with a group of friends)

~ Oh and just......

PACKING!!!!

We've barely made a dent in our house in the packing department! And I have a fault in packing.... I want to go through everything & throw away junk that's been hiding in the back of drawers, old clothes that we don't wear anymore, make a list of things we need to replace in our next house (like 'Oh, I have hated this old file cabinet for years, I'm going to junk it, and purchase new ones for our next house....) Gives us a chance to purge & start anew...
Call it my OCD-ness, but I love to move, because it gives me a chance to organize. However, not necessarily on the time crunch that we are already in, but as Tim Gunn says, "Make it work!!"

And the worst part about it is, it's not that everything is going to the same place. Some of it has to go to storage that we don't need until our next house, some of it goes to storage, but in an easy accesible place that I will need to get to in the next couple of months, then some of it goes to the cabin that we will need readily available... Uhhhhh! Craziness around here!!!

So, we are going to take a little Christmas break from blogging. We are planning on going away for New Years this year for a relaxing 3 nights in a great hotel with a comfy King Sized bed, wonderful restaurants nearby, ROOM SERVICE!, and most importantly a spa downstairs from our room!! I told John that I didn't want us to get out of our robes except to go to the spa or to dinner. We plan on being completely useless this New Years and have a super relaxing weekend after the big move!

See you in the new year! And I will post some pictures of the holidays when we return, but I will leave you with my all time favorite thing to make for Christmas morning! These are the best things that will hit your mouth all year. I only make them for special occasions because they are the ultimate indulgence!

Neelley's Christmas Cinnamon Rolls
(*Note- These take about 3-4 hours to make from start to finish, but with lots of resting time for the dough to rise)

1 cup warm milk (110 degrees)
2 eggs, Room Temperature
1/3 cup margarine, melted
4 1/2 cups bread flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup white sugar
2 1/2 tsp yeast

_____
1 cup brown sugar
3 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, melted

________
1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
a couple of spashes of milk

-Dissolve yeast in warm milk in LARGE bowl. Mix in sugar, margarine, salt & eggs. Add flour gradually & mix well. Knead the dough into a large ball, using your hands dusted lightly wiith flour. (I pour the dough out, wash the large bowl, dry well, then spray a non-stick spray (Baker's Joy or Pam) in the inside of the bowl. Make sure that the bowl is covered lightly, but well with the spray. Put the dough back in the sprayed bowl, cover with a hand towel & let rise in a warm place (close to the oven or microwave, etc, etc) for about 2 hours or so... Until it doubles in size.

Once you see that the dough has doubled in size, take a small bowl & combine the brown sugar & cinnamon. Have the 1/3 cup of melted butter close by too. Turn out the dough on a floured surface & roll out to a 16" x 21" rectangle. (Doesn't have to be exact, but try to get it as rectangle shape as you can with it being as big as you can get it close to this size.) Spread the melted butter on the dough & sprinkle evenly with sugar & cinnamon mixture. Roll up dough & cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in lightly greased 9" x 13" baking pan. Cover & let rise for about 30- 60 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake rolls until brown, about 12-15 minutes. While rolls are baking, mix last set of ingredients (cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, salt & milk) in small bowl. Spread frosting on warm rolls (not hot!) before serving!

*Note- these make HUGE rolls- probably rolls that you would 1/2 with someone.

Christmas Decor Ideas- Day 2

Back to Christmas decorating ideas....

I love decorating, especially for Christmas, and I love looking at all the Christmas decorations.

Mailboxes~

I love to see mailboxes decorated for Christmas! This is such a wonderful way to give people a hint that your house is decorated just as fabulous on the inside as your mailbox is. Plus, it's people's first impression of your decor for Christmas! They see this before they even see the wreath on your front door (exception: if you have 1,000,000 lights on your house, then I'm sure they will be blinded by those instead of your little mailbox)

My mom always did a very elaborate mailbox display at Christmas when I was little, mainly made with fresh magnolia tree leaves and berries. It was beautiful!
Below are some inspiration pictures of mailboxes for Christmas:

Have you done anything to your mailbox?

Such a simple mailbox. Lowe's sells swags of garland.

Simply purchase 2 of them, and tie them on either side of your post.

Add a ribbon at top of each side to cover your wiring to hold them up!

Bigger is better in my opinion. I love how all the fresh garland is incorporated.


This ribbon is all over Columbia!
Lots of people have them on their mailboxes, wreaths, trees, and everything else!
And I love it!

House update

Well, big news on the house~ We have accepted an offer from a couple that wants to purchase our house!! There were a lot of negotiations going back & forth, but we got it all worked out! Halleljah!!!!

The inspection is scheduled for next week, and if all goes well, then that is the last step for everything! The want to close on December 27th (!!!!!???) However, I'm an impatient person, so this is okay with me. We have started to pack up some little things here & there. The biggest thing is trying to figure out what can be put in storage until we move (or find) our next house, and then what has to come to us while we live at John's parent's cabin for the next couple of months.

So, I'm sure your next question is: 'So where are y'all going?' or 'What are y'alls plans?'

Well, we are heading on down to Columbia. John's business is down there and the hour drive (each way, every day) has really been tiring for him. Plus, all of our family is down there.... (or towards that way.) We are planning on staying at his parent's cabin on the farm for the next couple of months until we decide what to do.

Build or buy? Build or buy?

Both have the upsides and downsides, and we are debating each of them.

Purchasing a home can be such a headache. Trying to find that perfect house is hard!! I have an open mind where I can walk into a house and see what it could be. I can imagine a wall being knocked down to open rooms up, or hardwood floors there (instead of ugly carpet), fresh paint & landscaping, etc, etc... John is not that way. And he's thinking that we will find our perfect house, in our price range, out there that is completely ready to move in to, without having to do any work to it..... (I know it is out there too, however, it's yet to be built by us, yet! :) )

As you can see, I'm leaning towards building, and John just wants to purchase an existing home. We will see where this leads us!

Christmas Decor- Day 1

Since they are lighting the BIG tree at Rockefeller center tonight in NYC, I thought it would be fitting to do a post on pretty Christmas trees. I am always interested in seeing people's Christmas trees. It's such a personal extension of their taste. I find it interesting to see if they choose to decorate with 1) childhood owned ornaments 2) in a theme like all silver & gold, or blue & silver, or all snowmen, etc, etc 3) if they purchase a live or an artifical tree 4) and how they wrap their presents.

We (well, I....) put lots of time into our decorations, and especially our wrapping of presents. I have a "wrapping area" in our house and a closet pretty much full of rolls of ribbon, tissue, wrapping paper, cards, personalized tags, etc, etc.....

You will have to hold out until the end of this week to see our decorations! :)

Below are some pictures that intrigued me:
Very traditional- My kind of tree, and you can tell it's LIVE :)

Love how everything is coordinating and flowing together from the tree to the mantel to the pillows & flowers

I would love to do this in our guest room and have a little tree on the bedside table....

Such a fun Beach tree~

When I was little, I always wanted to have my own little tree in my room that I could decorate however I wanted. When I was a teenager, I saved some of my allowance and bought a small fake one to put in my room. I loved when I turned off my lights at night, I had the glow of the tree in the corner still aglow.

Love this little girl tree

Something more fun for all the kids

Another fun small tree for a girl's room

I have warned John that we will ALWAYS have a live Christmas tree, and that I am wanting a few around the house next year... For the extras, I can settle for fake ones. I would love to do another one in our bedroom in the all white, silver & gold look. So peaceful looking....

Here is to Happy Decorating for Christmas!

Bye Bye November.......

MIA

I have been totally MIA lately. The holidays sure do feel like John & I are campaigning for office or something because we make about 4 stops in different cities in one day, it seems. No, it's not that bad, but it's busy!

This year, we spaced everything out more and it worked so much more smoothly and gave us time to really visit and enjoy the days.

Our Thanksgiving started on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. We went down to Lawrenceburg to my Mom's mom's house. There were about 20+ people there and it was so great to see everyone. We haven't done holidays down at her house in awhile. We usually go to my aunt's house in Summertown since it's 1/2 way between Lawrenceburg & Columbia. But I can't tell you how great it was to be back in her house, to show John all of our secret hiding places we had when we were little, and very old pictures that she still had displayed. SO funny!

The night before Thanksgiving, we started a new tradition on my Dad's side. We go to his sister's house the night before, for a "Wine down to Thanksgiving" on Wednesday. There is lots of appetizers and food and LOTS and LOTS of wine. Gave us all time to visit without feeling rushed and relax!

T-day: We started off the day with going back down to Lawrenceburg for John's extended side of the family. There is 30 people there, I'd say, and it feels like chaos at first, but all works out. John's family doesn't do a huge extended side get together for Christmas, so Thanksgiving is HUGE over there!!

Then that night, we go to my Dad's house for a small gathering of just us for dinner. There is about 8 of us, and it gives us that chance of winding down & relaxing. Ahhhh

So, now on to CHRISTMAS!!!

John & I got our tree last night at the local Christmas tree place that lots of people go to in Columbia, The Satterwhites. They have such wonderful trees!

We have decided not to decorate our house in Nashville this year, so the tree was for the cabin. When I first met John, he told me that his parents didn't really "decorate" that much for Christmas. I was taken aback.... I grew up with over-the-top Christmas..... every year. But I have been impressed with the 'progress' that the Kings have made in decor for Christmas. We've gone from 'putting lights on the ficus tree, the 1st year' then onto Sherry purchasing small trees to put on the dining room table, and now, it's my turn to show how I do it! :)

We've got the tree up, garland all over the mantel, garland hanging over the top of a huge entry in the living room, garland going down the banisters, little trees out on the porch, and live wreaths on the doors! Ahhhh I love it!!! And I hope they do too! :) pics to come.

I know that I always say, 'pics to come' and have a bad follow through rep, but that is soon to end, because this comes in the mail tomorrow:

Yep! We purchased our camera! Can't wait to use it, and SO excited that it's coming just in time for the Christmas season!! We've been needing a camera for a wonderful 2 years!!!

We had a great one until one night we were at a friend's house for a dinner party, and the wine was flowing. We drank and drank and drank. Well, when it was time to go home, I saw that one of our bottles (a magnum) had only a glass or two out of it, so I put the cork back in it (as drunk as I was) and put it upright in my purse. It wasn't until we got home that night that I saw as I picked up my purse there was something dripping from the bottom.... Yep- the wine was flowing all right.... ALL IN MY PURSE. Ruined my phone, Ipod, & Camera.... The first 2 things got replaced and the camera was on hold since I wanted a reallllllllly nice one. So we've used my older sister's hand-me-down since then- Well, fast forward two years, and we've finally gotten it!

Putting up our Christmas tree last night brought back so many great memories of what my family used to do when I was a child. We would make a night out of it by going out to eat, then picking out our tree, then home to listen to Christmas music as Dad strung the lights on the tree, and mom made Homemade Hot Chocolate. We would drink the hot chocolate as we decorated the tree. Now, John & I decorate our tree with lots of the same ornaments that got passed down after we graduated from college and started putting up our own tree.

And even though John isn't that into Hot Chocolate, I find that he asks for 'a sip' and then 'why don't you get yourself a hot cup of fresh hot chocolate since this is cooling down a bit, and I'll just keep this one' usually follows.

The Parkes' Homemade Hot Chocolate

(same as what is on the side of the Hershey's Cocoa box)

1/2 cup sugar

dash of salt

1/4 cup Hershey's Cocoa

1/3 cup hot water

4 cups milk (1 qt)

1 tsp vanilla extract

In a medium saucepan, mix sugar, salt & cocoa together. Stir in water. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until it boils. Boil & stir for 2 minutes. Add milk, stirring constantly until hot (but NOT boiling)- Remove from heat & add vanilla. Stir for another minute and serve.

*NOTE- Make sure that you are stirring constantly. I've left it unattended for just a minute, and it's burned or scalded and it does not taste that great!

Note 2: Double this if you have more than 2 people.... Trust me, you will go through it!!!

Recipes this week

John enjoyed a wonderful anniversary together! We went to The Palm for dinner, which was so yummy, and then home to enjoy a fabulous bottle of wine while we watched our wedding videos. So fun to watch all of that again!

We tried to take a picture that night with our current camera, and we got two results:

1) We looked like Casper the Ghost, because the flash was too bright

2) We looked like an actual ghost because all you could see were our eyes and everything else was black.

Uhhh! So frusterating! So with that, we decided to put our bed on hold, and get a camera. A nice camera. The end of frusterating picture taking!! YAY! The bed will come soon enough, but having such a great camera will be wonderful for the holidays!

Since we are already half way through the week, and I haven't posted a recipe yet, I decided to make up for it and post two recipes.

These are some of the best side recipes, especially for Thanksgiving. I think that I have been asked to bring my corn casserole to every Thanksgiving (and we got to about 4 of them during the week) for the past couple of years. It's a family recipe, and OH SO GOOD!!!

Neelley's Corn Casserole
1 can Cream Style Corn
1 can Corn Niblets, drained
2 eggs, beaten
1 stick margarine or butter, melted
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 cup Cheddar Cheese (grated)
8 oz sour cream
3 jalapeno peppers (seeded & chopped)

-Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Pour in greased casserole dish (square). Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

When John & I were engaged, one of the showers that were hosted for us was a Kitchen & Recipe shower. I just loved it! Everyone brought their favorite recipe written out on a recipe card, then brought a coordinating dish or utensils that I would need to make them or serve it in. SO great!
The recipe below was one of the recipes that I received, from Jen Ball. She's an amazing cook! If you've ever had Cracker Barrel's Hashbrown Casserole, this is just like it!

Cheesy Potato Casserole (or a different verision of Hashbrown Casserole)
1 (32 oz) pkg frozen shredded potatoes
1/2 cup melted butter
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
12 oz grated Cheddar Cheese + some extra
1 (8 oz) carton sour cream
1 tsp salt
1 small onion, chopped

-Combine butter, soup, cheese, sour cream, salt & onion in a large bowl.Mix. Add thawed shredded potatoes and mix until all incorporated. Pour into a greased 9 x 13 casserole dish. Top with additional cheddar cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until bubbly. SO YUMMY!



I have been asked for both of these recipes every time that I bring them somewhere. They are a hit, and even the picky people will enjoy them! They will make GREAT sides if you are wanting to take something to Thanksgiving.
The corn casserole will feed around 6-8 for a heaping side portion. The Hashbrown Casserole will serve close to 8-10.

Enjoy!!

Special Day

2 Years ago today was a very special day:


We were here:

And doing a lot of this:

Getting all lined up:



Even the kids:





As my dad did this:

We had some of this:

And lots of smiles!

We danced for hours upon end.....

And were showered with lots of love!

As we started our lives and "Happily Ever After".....

It's SO hard to believe that two years have flown by from that very special day. We are still living in Nashville in our first home together as Husband and Wife. Our careers have definitely changed. We once were an Insurance Agent and a Surgical Marketing Manager, has changed into two Entrepreneurs, a gun store owner and a baker. (who would have thought?)

This week, I will be posting some of our favorite moments of our first two years of being married.... So stay tuned!