Where oh where....

Has MK been?!?!? Busy people, extremely busy!
But now I am back in blogging action! (hopefully anyway) Since my last post, "The day of my birth" we have had lots going on around the Baker Casa. I am going to recap with a few pics to help me catch up:

It snowed (again)

We celebrated a 6 year old B-day

Teddy see what it would be like to have twins :-)

 Playing with this sweet lit guy

MK is back in action with this
Doing 2 sessions this time for the first time. I will let you know how that turns out! 

And celebrated a 40th year old B-day...My brother
Which was a surprise by the way.

Which brings me to what else has been keeping me busy. It was one of the very reasons that I wanted to start blogging in the first place... my "projects". I have posted some of them before but not like I want to. So I am turning over a new and improved "blog" leaf and will really start trying to document all my "projects."
I have been thinking and I think what most stopped me before was just the process of writing all the steps of each project down. That just doesn't sound like my idea of fun. But what does sound fun is the Befores and Afters! So from here on out, that is what I will do, show the glorious Befores and Afters and if you have a question on how to do it, just leave a comment and I can answer. I would much rather know that I was helping someone in particular over just wasting time writing it all out without it being useful to anyone out there in blog land. Which that might even come a new blog makeover! Who knows... Spring just really gets my creative juices flowing!

 With Spring comes my want to organize, clean, change out things around the house to get more color... etc. It seems like I always have a ton of my "To Do" list. So with the in laws coming in town this weekend, I wanted to make sure everything was "spiffed" up a bit.

Photos to come. I have been trying to the past 30 minutes to get them to upload from my phone but no luck... so it will be tomorrow!
 

The day of my birth...

Is today!... Always love a good Friday birthday!
Looking forward to spending some time with some great friends at dinner tonight, a nice relaxing weekend at home with the hubby and Bella Baby and then a week long visit from Mama Jane next week!

Today I wanted to get a bit caught up with sharing some of my favorite things at the moment. Things that make my life easier and I would find hard to live without!

Thank you Teddy for this wonder piece of machinery for my B-day!

My mornings will never be the same.

Umm... thank you cleaning world for this!

I am a blackberry girl all the way... couldn't function without it!

And I LOVE the BOLD.

Sorry but IPhones are so overrated! :-)



Anyone that knows me, knows I am all about VOLUME!!!

Gotta stay hydrated! Love the digital meter at the top that tells you when you need to change the filter!

Have to have something to pour that filter water in to.



BPA Free and Dishwasher Safe. Can't go wrong.

This is my far one of the BEST investments I have ever made. Who wants to guess at how many calories you burn why exercising? Not me! I got this over 5 years ago and I never exercise without it!

The chest strap is not a big deal at all. Just fits right under your sports bra. Can't even tell it is there.

And last but not least, sunglasses that actually fit my face. Having a small face puts a damper on finding cute trendy sunglasses. Sure you could always look at the kids, but when is the last time you saw a 6 year old wearing aviators?

Thanks DKNY for making some that fit my face and thanks to mom and brother for the great Birthday Gift!

New Year's Decor

Even though we weren't home for New Year's Eve this year. I still thought it would be fun to decorate a little bit for it. It is always so depressing taking down the Christmas decor that I had to do something to replace it for awhile. And it is always fun to put out some of my Waterford Crystal. If I am not going to use it, I should at least look at it, right?!?! Ha,Ha!

Here are a few pictures of the dining room set up with some fun things:

These glasses were my grandmother's.

Not sure what they are supposed to be used for but don't they go great with the "New Year's" theme!

2011 off to a great start!

Christmas, Yummy Soup and E-Bay!

So I took a blog vacay but now I am back and ready to roll. Let's back up a week or two and do a little Christmas recap. This was a wonderful Christmas, as it is every year, but it was our 1st White Christmas! Down here in the South that is more than rare so it was really exciting. We were in Cullman for Christmas morning and I just couldn't stop taking pictures. Talk about "magical" as you are watching the snow fall while opening gifts.

And of course, Bella Baby wasn't quite sure what to think!

Our attempt to get a "family" photo. We finally got a decent one.

If this is anything compared to having kids, then we will be in for a treat one day.

(Especially if they take after their daddy! LOL)

We also got to spend Christmas with Ted's side of the family a few weeks earlier. All in all there are 6 kids under the age of 6! (one being only 2 weeks old!)

Of course this makes for one interesting present opening session and my OCD has to go out the window!

We have a wonderful holiday with family and friends!

Really makes you stop and count your blessings.

And what would the holidays be without yummy food! I wanted to share this super simple potato soup recipe I found online a few years ago, back in my "early" days of cooking and I still use it. Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE me some potato soup! I swear I could eat it everyday if I wasn't scare the effect it would have on my physical body. (already gots enough curves)

This is what you will need:

(plus 3 cups water and salt & pepper)

 And this is what you do:

(I think you can read the card)

It will look similar to this:

Top with these:

And you will get something like this:

Yummy to my tummy. Disclaimer: I always think it is better the 2nd day.

And it is great for freezing too!

Enjoy!

And last but not least... my new obsession... E BAY!!!

Oh my goodness where have I been! I have recently bought a purse, flip flops (new of course) and currently bidding on a ring for my mom for Mother's Day or Birthday. More importantly I SOLD my old camera for a great price.

This could get scary fast!

Happy Tuesday! Be back this week to discuss upcoming home projects! Although I love January since it is my birthday month, I wish we could move right on into Spring for cleaning and projects!

Wordless Wednesday

Merry Christmas!

These are a few of my favorite things...

One thing I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE about the holidays is decorating for them! The main reason I love it is all the memories that come flooding back to me as I get out each ornament, or my Christmas Village houses, or even our stockings. All of our decorations are a mix of old and new which I LOVE! (Have I mention love in this post yet?)

One tradition that we started the 2nd year of dating... since we had only been dating a month the 1st year, was to buy a photo frame ornament from Pottery Barn monogrammed with the year to put a photo in it. I thought I would be so neat to see how we change through the years, and how our family changes. Can you imagine after 50 years?!?!? We will have to have a photo tree all on it's own!

Here are the ornaments that I buy year after year. Let's hope they don't stop making them or it will really mess my "uniformness" up! (yes, I know that is not really a word) OCD doesn't go away with a Christmas Tree!

(this is not one of our ornaments, I just pulled from website, but she is a cute little girl!)

Besides looking at each of these ornaments, (we are up to 6 now by the way, meaning our 7th Christmas together) I love getting out all the other ornaments and remembering where we got them, who we where with, or who gave it to us. It is so fun. And since you only get to do it once a year, it makes it all that more special.

Here are a few of my favorites

This one my mom gave us last year for our 1st Christmas in our house.

It is Waterford Crystal and when the lights hit it just right, it is beautiful!

Everyone has to have a peace sign!

I bought this one last year for myself and friend. We always get once ornament alike each year.

(also from Pottery Barn)

Roll Tide!

We bought this on our engagement trip at the Beach Club. 

I love Sock Monkeys! And every tree needs one of these lit guys. 

And this was our 2009 frame (for Pottery Barn) since we got Bella last year.

Mark one year down for a new family member, hopefully some more to go! :-)

Speaking of "No.1 Pet", she has lost her privilege of roaming about while we are gone to work, at least while the Christmas decor is up. She had been doing so good, until one day. Ted came in to find two chewed up ornaments, one of which was his when he was a little boy. A little wooded teddy bear with his name on it. Sad day. I am just glad she didn't bring the whole tree down when she went for the little guy. She was also eyeing sock monkey so he has since been moved to the top. Hopefully she can't see him!

**Side Note**
Because I started this blog OVER a week ago and can't seem to finish all my decor, I will stop this post for now and will be back soon with the rest of our decor!
(Plus everything else I need to catch up on!)

Holiday Kickoff...

Thanksgiving, to me, officially kicks off the holiday season and we had a great one last week! I always enjoying visiting my hometown and being with family! Here are a few pictures to share the love...

 Cute Little Mimi getting all ready!

 A Thanksgiving card for MG that turned into a place mat.

 MG was being too quite in my room so I went to go check on her and this was what I found.

 Followed by my discovering she had gotten in gum that wasn't hers and didn't ask so  proceeded to tell her that she needs to ask and this is the response I got...

heart breaking!

 But, Bubba can make it all better!

And whats Thanksgiving without a little manicure to end the night?

Later that night, we did something that no sane person in their right mind would do, well at least not twice.

Wal-Mart. Cullman, AL. Midnight.

Enough Said!

These people are crazy! I don't know if Ted will ever be the same from this experience!

Moving on to Friday and the dreaded Iron Bowl! Alabama came out blazing the 1st half and went down in flames the 2nd half. Oh well, you can't win them all! 

But you can look cute win or lose. This was my outfit when I was her age!

How cute is she?!?!?

Maybe one day I will have little girl of my own to pass the tradition on to!

Roll Tide! We will be back.

Or in MG's words: "Roll Eagle".

She knows how to play her cards right in a divided house!

Coming up:

Decorating, Crafting and Shopping!