Blessings of Thanksgiving

Happy December, y'all! I hope everyone had a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving. I cannot believe it's December 1st!

 The first recipe I made from Pioneer Woman's new cookbook was cranberry sauce. It was so simple. Anyone can do it! I made it two days in advance and chilled the sauce in the fridge, so it had time to thicken. Plus, I wanted to get it done ahead of time. :)

We left for South Arkansas on Wednesday and decided to make a quick stop to see special friends....

 I got to see the new baby, Ezra, and the proud parents Chad and Mandy. They are such good friends of ours and we are so so happy for them!

 My "pre-Thanksgiving" lunch. What is better than Braum's? Yummy.

We were so glad to see our sweet family.

 Lauren is 11 and we are so much alike. It's so crazy. We love to have fun, of course, as y'all can tell.

 My sister, Kelly, is so talented. One of her many talents is making homemade sugar cookies with yummy icing. It is a "labor of love" for sure. Lauren was a good helper.

 Logan is growing up so much too. Love my nephew and niece lots.

 See? What did I tell you? Wonderful cookies. MMM!

 Belle and Marcie loved hanging out at KK and BA's house.

 I also made brie en croute. So easy and tasty

 Kelly made parmesan rosemary crackers which were eaten up quickly.

 I am so thankful for him!

 Colton and Logan playing basketball while waiting on the turkey.

 The final result of the cranberry sauce. I love that Pioneer Woman. :)

 Yummy food!!!

 Kerrstyn, Colton, Logan and Lauren eating Thanksgiving dinner.

 This may or may not be my plate. :)

 On to dessert! Kelly made chocolate pecan pie. Divine!

 Mama made Italian cream cake. Heavenly!

 

So did you do any "black Friday shopping?" I did NOT go to Walmart, Target, or any of the "super stores." But Kelly and I had a sister adventure and went to Home Depot.

 We love fresh Christmas trees, wreaths and swags. So festive! We were afraid that Home Depot would run out of greenery, but they had plenty for us. :)

 Kelly got wreaths and I got a swag and poinsettias.

We also stopped at Spudnuts doughnut shop. The best doughnuts in South AR! Our family was so glad to enjoy them.

 Mama and Lauren!

Russell and I had a great Thanksgiving on Friday night with his family. We finally got to meet sweet and happy Eve, who just turned one a few days ago! Oh, how sweet!!

The Prices and Lawson's had plenty of food and family together! It was so good!

 

So that's pretty much our fun time in Camden, El Dorado, and Magnolia!

So ready to now celebrate Christmas and the reason for the season!

 

*Side note: We are finding out our sweet baby's gender on Saturday! Just for fun, I added a little poll to the sidebar of this blog. Feel free to cast your vote! We are going to be THRILLED if it's a boy or THRILLED if it's a girl. This is strictly for fun. :)

 

They will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness. Psalm 145:7

November Tidbits

Thanksgiving is only a few days away! I don't know about y'all, but I am looking forward to turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, green bundles, chocolate pecan pie, and MORE! Baby Price will love it, too. HA! Most of all, seeing family is the BEST! I decided to do a little "November catch-up" post today since it was pretty eventful. I just wanted to document it, of course!

It has been raining babies in our Sunday school class. There are not one, not two, but FIVE expectant mothers! That means baby showers, of course!

My dear friend, Mandy, is expecting a baby boy any day now. We threw her a shower earlier this month. We are looking forward to meeting Ezra soon!

 She got some cute things for him. It was fun to be together.

 That Saturday, we had another baby shower! Kelsey is expecting her little girl in February. She is also one of my dear friends. Love her lots! Look at this huge cake!

 Yes, here are all FIVE of us! I'm due in May, Rhyanne is due in March, Nicole is due in February and Kelsey is due in February also. Mandy is due in December! Kelsey and I are both expecting our first babies. SO exciting for everyone!

 Kelsey had a photographer take pics of the shower. Here's one of all of us who attended. Love this picture lots!

I usually update about Operation Christmas Child every year. This year, we bought things for a little girl. We kept finding cute "Hello Kitty" things at the store, so it turned into the theme for this year's box.

 Will all this fit in a shoebox?

 Yes! We got it to fit! We hope this little girl enjoys all the goodies, but most of all we pray that she knows the love of Christ and follows Him.

 I admit it. I have been slowly adding to Baby Price's collection of goodies. And family has also given us sweet goodies, so we added that to the collection. We are finding out gender in about two weeks, and can hardly wait!

 

Stephen Curtis Chapman was in Bentonville! We had to see that awesome concert at our church. I did not get many good pictures, but did get a few.

Laura Story was on tour with him. She always travels with her sweet little girl. I love Laura Story so much because she has such a wonderful and heartfelt testimony. Her husband, Martin, had a brain tumor about 7 years ago, early in their marriage. Laura wrote several songs about their trials, but mostly, how the Lord pulled them through. Now they have a two year old little girl! Amazing!

 We are having a Christmas theme gender reveal at our house next weekend, so we have been decorating for Christmas. Yes, we actually decorated some before Thanksgiving. Shocker, I know. Hey, y'all, Thanksgiving is late this year, so it's okay. :) And yes, I am somewhat addicted to Christmas Tree Spode. On to the next subject!

 Last night, Bentonville held their annual lighting of the square. We usually go every year. IT WAS FREEZING outside!!!!  I think next year we may go after the official lighting because we don't want our baby to freeze. Ha!

We love our town so much!

So there y'all have it. November in a nutshell. Well, most of November, anyway. :)

Happy early Thanksgiving!

I must end this post with a cute children's poem I learned from my sister.

 

Dinner's ready, don't be late,

Mr. Turkey on my plate!

Dinner's ready, don't be late,

Mashed Potatoes on my plate!

Dinner's ready, don't be late,

dressing is on my plate!

(Just keep naming the foods you eat on Turkey day.)

 

This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 2 Corinthians 9:12

My Friend, Ree

First of all, I am sorry I have neglected this blog for a few weeks. It's been a busy time of year yet again! I just have to say I cannot believe Thanksgiving is less than a week away and Christmas is just around the corner as well. Wow!

If you really know me, you know I ADORE Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman. I received her very first cookbook as a Christmas gift back in 2008. Little did I know that it would be the most used cookbook I have ever used. Seriously. It is literally falling apart because of the use of it!

Once we heard Ree was coming to NWA, we planned it right away. Of course we wanted to meet her. AGAIN! :)

 Russell and I got to Walmart at 8 a.m. last Saturday. We knew the line would be insane and once people started lining up, it would only get more crazy.

We were one of the very first people in line. Can I just tell you how excited we were? Oh my goodness, there is no way to describe it.

 I love, love love my husband. He is such a good sport for coming with me to these events. But I will let you know on a little secret. I think he enjoys it as much as I do. :)

 

 These ladies were THE first people in line and were so excited too. We had such fun laughing and visiting with them! We were all ecstatic together!

 Books! Her newest cookbook, "A Year of Holidays," is the best! Love the stories and pictures, along with the 140 recipes she shares!

After about an hour and a half, we knew we were halfway in with waiting in line. We did not expect her until 11. But at 9:45, Ree Drummond herself walked up to the line and said, "Hey guys! Thanks for coming! Great to see you!"

I. was. so. thrilled!!!!!! She was an hour and fifteen minutes early! Plus I realized within moments, we would get to meet her in person again. We first met her in April 2012. Surely she would remember us. Umm...maybe not. She has only "met" billions of fans around America. Of course she will remember me! HA!

 So close!!!

 OH MYLANTA! The moment we have been waiting for!

I told her we met her in Bartlesville, OK last year and she responded with, "I remember you guys!" I thought she was joking and she told me she was serious and she really did remember us. Yeah, we are officially friends. HA! I shared with her that we are expecting a baby and we talked a little about that. We also talked about the famous "egg in the hole" recipe from her first cookbook and the love we share for butter. She was just awesome.

Oh my gosh. HA!

"Excited" is not the right word to describe this moment. Since she signed a few books for us, we had a little more time with her to chat. It was probably a two minute conversation but it felt longer. She really is a true and genuine soul. So real. And that, my friends, is one of the many reasons I am such a huge fan. She has a Charlie book coming out next April called "Charlie and the new baby." You better believe it's on my list to get! :)

That's the long story about meeting Ree....for a second time. Will there be a third time? Hopefully!

 

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Psalm 107:1

A Bunch of Hocus Pocus

Happy Halloween! I thought I would share a few "throwback Thursday" pics in honor of today's holiday. I probably have shared these before, but oh well.

 Here I am on Halloween night 1994. I was Miss America.

 October 2005. Russell and Mer's 1st Halloween together! We started carving pumpkins together and did it every year together since then!

 This is also from 2005. We were on a hay ride and it was freezing outside. We were all bundled up. Fun night!

Fast forward to this Fall...

The other night we carved pumpkins and had a yummy dinner of what else? Jack-o-lantern pizza from Papa Murphy's!

 A pumpkin for baby!

I usually write or draw on the pumpkin what I want it to say and then carve over the markings. Russell likes to use carving kits with patterns and we really love it!

 Our pumpkins!

 Baby Price due May 2014!

I am almost 13 weeks so that means 1st trimester is almost over! Yay!

I hope y'all have a fun Halloween either trick-or-treating with your kiddos, or just watching Hocus Pocus with your sweetie. Just make it fun!

 

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Psalm 91:1