Merry Christmas

I hope you are all full of...

A sweet friend of mine made me this adorable pillow and it couldn't be a better adjective of the season!

While we just celebrated the fullness of Thanksgiving, may we reflect on the joy that Christ's birth brought to us on earth.

Although we haven't been completely traditional in our advent this year, I made an advent centerpiece because it's one of my favorite ways to prepare our hearts for the celebration of Christmas.

and a few other decorations...I know we didn't get a tree, but I still had the 

spirit!

 (another printable from Jones Design Company)

since we have no fire place...

I love to use fresh cedar, magnolia leaves, and pine cones and luckily between my parents and Elliott's we have plenty of trees to choose from!

 (most of these pictures are for me to remember how I decorated for next year!)

We had a wonderful Christmas weekend and are looking forward to the NEW YEAR!

our babies are getting so BIG!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

So it seems that the puppies have taken over our lives. And my house. Daily I am reminded of why Liza and Ruger are outside dogs...but those puppies, I just can't bear to put them out! Which means they need their momma nearby, which means Rugerboy is the bodyguard, which means my house is a disaster and would explain my lack of Christmas decorations.  We didn't get a tree this year and I'm not even upset about it! The thought of having one more thing for Ruger to pee on in my house is too much! Although I will say I had my wreaths outside on my doors and windows the weekend after Thanksgiving!

We FINALLY took our Christmas card picture yesterday which would explain the basket full of puppies! We waited this long so they would be a little bigger. I guess it will be more of a "holiday greetings" kind of card...

This is a sneak peak into our photoshoot..

My bother-in-law Todd's sister Michelle was kind enough to come to our house to take pictures for us! She did a great job and edited the pictures at our house in no time at all! Thanks Michelle!

Oh what FUN!

Despite a constant distraction to play with puppies all day, I have managed to do my Christmas shopping and wrapping which I enjoy a little too much! 

 I may have gone a little crazy with raffia this year...

 brown paper packages tied up with string...

and I got these adorable printable gift tags from http://jonesdesigncompany.com/

(one of my favorite blogs)

Elliott has also managed to find some time to get in the deer stand....thanks to Trey for taking him up to his family's place in Norwood.  Now we will have plenty of sausage in the freezer! 

The boys have taken a new liking to the shuffleboard table at The Bulldog and we had a graduation to Celebrate! YAY Meredith. I know she is so glad to be an RN

Lunch after Mere's graduation

We had our work Christmas party and an early birthday celebration at Ruffino's complete with the Opera performance of "Happy Birthday to You" Everyone should experience it. Really.

Elliott surprised me with tickets to the Nutcracker this weekend for my birthday. It was just as good as I remembered and now hopefully he won't have to hear me talking about how I was in it when I was younger.  

My sister and her fam are coming in this week and we have so much going on! I got a start on some holiday baking today and will have to find time this week to finish up! I can't believe it's only....

Puppy lovin'

1st week recap (do I sound like a mom with a newborn??)

 Eating:

MommaLou's getting the hang of it

Snuggling:

Father of the Year:

Ruger has taken a new interest in the pups. He laid with them licking them for 2 hours today

1st trip to the vet to get tails docked and dew claws removed:

Is that not the sweetest thing you've ever seen??

HAPPY SUNDAY AND GEAUX TIGERS

We are Thankful

We had a very filling Thanksgiving! Lots of great food and even more to be thankful for. My day started with the Turkey Trot 5k in Baton Rouge with my best friend Laura and her sister. Elliott's day started with an early morning duck hunt with his friend Steven.  He cleaned his ducks and I did some cooking and we went to his parents house that afternoon to join the family for an early dinner...

 Elliott's duck bombs

 Meredith made an AMAZING carrot suffle

I think an empty pie dish signifies the end to a great meal!

I made a German Chocolate Pecan Pie and I'll definitely be making it again. It was great...I'll post the recipe later!

On Friday, we were excited to get on campus for the much anticipated LSU vs. Arkansas game! 

but not before a quick pic of MommaLou (any day now, right?)

One of our favorite families was in town from Austin so we met up with them to tailgate. What.A.Game. Rough start but we came back! After the game we hung out with some friends and came home to this...

7 perfect German Shorthaired Pointer puppies

We didn't sleep last night but our hearts are so full of joy! I couldn't be happier to have a rainy, lazy Saturday to put on some Christmas music, do a little decorating, and lots of snuggling with those little angels!

As always, we have so MUCH to be THANKFUL for!

Someone's expecting...

and it's NOT me! (haha...was that wrong?)

I couldn't be happier to announce that this handsome couple is expecting their first litter of pups!!
Elliott and I knew we wanted to breed Liza at some point and with the addition of Ruger (a perfectly good suitor) it was just a matter of time! So finally the time has come and my puppy fever will be treated!   We estimate the pups will be here around Thanksgiving so the countdown has begun!

My skinny Liza has filled out in the last few weeks and has quite the appetite! I tried to get a few pics of her but she has never been a fan of the camera...

oh that pitiful face...let me assure you, she is getting the best prenatal care around!

Now, where's the zofran?? 

Fall weather cooking

Last weekend was a Chicken & Dumplings and Pumpkin Cheesecake kind of weekend.

This weekend is a Gumbo and homemade bread kind of weekend!

Elliott told me there was a surprise waiting for me when I got home today.  I joked "is it a new car?" because he sent me a link to my dream car the other day...well it wasn't a new car, instead it was homemade bread. I have no complaints! Especially since he made that gumbo, too! I'm so lucky.

Last weekend, however, I did the cooking! The chilly air brought with it a craving for chicken and dumplings...a childhood favorite of mine.  I remember helping my mom make the dumplings on an old floured cheesecloth she kept in the freezer.

Chicken and Dumplings

for the dumplings:

2 cups flour

2 tbsp butter

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk

 Combine dry ingredients. Cut butter in with pastry blender. Stir in milk until dough is formed.

 Roll out dough on floured cheesecloth or surface. Cut lengthwise, then across to form little square dumplings. Mine were about 1X1 inches, some will be different sizes, no big deal. A pizza cutter does a great job!

for the rest:

6-8 cups chicken broth

3 cups cooked chicken 

 I didn't end up needing the bouillon cubes but could've used them if I didn't have enough broth.

To make it extra easy, I used a rotisserie chicken! (probably could have used another 1/2 chicken)

After stripping the chicken of all the meat, bring the broth to a boil.  Drop in dumplings, one at a time, until all are cooked (about 15-20 minutes).  Then add chicken. I also like to add a good bit of black pepper at this point.  

I'm not sure how long it's been since I've had this, but it tasted exactly how I remembered! 

and now for that cheesecake. YUM. It was my first time to make cheesecake and I was definitely scared when it came time to open the springform pan latch, but I followed the directions and it came out perfect!  

http://www.thehungrymouse.com/2009/09/29/brown-sugar-pumpkin-cheesecake-with-chocolate-shortbread-crust/

I made a few amendments: I'm not crazy about too much pumpkin or nutmeg flavor so I used cinnamon instead of pumpkin pie spice.  I also didn't have any cognac so I used vanilla extract instead.  

Not sure if my changes made a difference but it was great! I took it to a friend's house where we all gathered to watch the LSU vs ALABAMA game, and along with our team, the pie was a WINNER!

Before & After

I always love to see people's before and after pictures of different projects! My problem is that I get so excited about re-doing something that I forget to take before pictures.  However, for this project I definitely wanted to document our progress! We have been talking about painting our house ever since we moved in! The paint job was fine, it was the colors we weren't too thrilled about...I'll let them speak for themselves...just not our taste!

Before: front door

You can't really tell from this picture how yellow the trim was before but we toned it down a bit!

After:

I would have liked to change out the front door but this was the quickest, least expensive option for now!

Before: back door

After:

We painted all the shutters and trim as well...definitely took us the whole weekend. We still need to change out the door fixtures and get new house numbers for the front door but I'd say all the hard work was well worth it! 

 Ruger decided to help us paint..by sticking his face in the tray.

and just for fun...

a close up of my wreath- of course I snagged the idea from pinterest!

and had to get some LSU themed violas

GEAUX TIGERS!

What a game last night!