New Year, New Me

I am not a huge believer in New Year's resolutions because I never follow through with any of them! This year I plan on trying a little harder to try different things!

I want to get into a better workout routine. Not only do I feel better when I am working out every morning, I also have tons more energy to get me through my day! Plus my brother-in-law is getting married in May in the Cayman Islands and that means wearing a bathing suit!!

I want to spend more time with my hubby doing new things together. When we first started dating we would go hiking on the weekends or drive around and explore. Now we just watch tv or do things separately. We are going to take a few trips this year to places we've never been.

I want to volunteer somewhere, either at a hospital or an animal shelter.

I am going to start taking my photography classes so that I can get started on this new career path! I am very excited about this decision and about what the future will bring!

I am going to blog more and hopefully gain some readers. I enjoy so many other blogs out there and I hope one day that people will enjoy mine. If not, at least I have a record of things that I have done or felt!

I want to take horse back riding lessons. I did it for a few years when I was a kid and I keep talking about doing it again. I think it will be a good way to be outside and get in a decent workout!

So these are not really resolutions, but rather new things to experience to hopefully make me a better person!

no pictures this year!

So normally every Christmas Cameron and I will take a picture in front of his parent's Christmas tree. Last year we were actually in Vail, Colorado over Christmas so we did not take one. I was so excited this year to take one but Cameron got sick and was running a fever Christmas Eve and Christmas day so I could not toture him with this.

So no pictures from Christmas so far, but on New Years Day we are getting together with my sisters and nieces to celebrate and I will definately be taking pictures then!! I am so excited to see them and to eat some more yummy food!

Hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas with their families!

Sleep

This bedroom is beautiful! Not so fond of the mirrors but I love the curtains. And boy oh boy do I love the fullness of the bed! I would never want to get out of it!

Christmas times 3!

Since I started dating Cameron, I have been celebrating Christmas 3 times a year...lucky me!

Today, we will celebrate Christmas with my father-in-law's side of the family and I am excited! Cameron's aunt Melissa makes the best macaroni and cheese in the world! Not to mention her chocolate pie....yummy! Plus we really only see everyone once a year, twice if we're lucky!

Christmas eve will be spent with my in-laws. Every year my mother-in-law makes chicken winder stew for Christmas Eve and it is very good. Then we will spend Christmas day with them as well; a home cooked breakfast and dinner followed by a trip to the movies, which is a new thing we are trying this year!

Sometime after the new year we will celebrate again with my sisters! If you know me and my family you know that my dad passed away 6 years agao and my mom lives in Tallahassee and doesn't get up here that often so it's just us. My sister's will be spending Christmas in Indiana with my dad's side of the family. I'm jealous but I had no time off work.

Hopefully I will have pictures from some of these celebrations!

Sick Day

I get migraines every month. Sometimes just once and sometimes 3 or 4 times and they usually last 24 hours. Yesterday afternoon, one came out of nowhere and it was BAD! So I called into work for today. I still have my migraine but the pain is subsiding as the day goes on. Yay!

So, I decided to spend my day off getting things done around the house. Enter the laundry!

This is 3 loads of clean laundry just waiting to be folded and hung up...AHhhhhh!!!

Now everything is hung up...looks better!

But there is still a load in the dryer and one in the wash...it never ends!!

So my day off turned into a day to work around the house!! Blah!

Christmas at our house!

I Love Christmas time! I love the music and the food and the decorations! So here are some pictures of our decorations. It's not much but I love walking in at night and seeing it all!

Our tree!

This is the ornament my mom got us for our first Christmas. I had to zoom in to get it right.

The back says "I found the one my heart loves"

This is one side of our fireplace. I love the garland!

The small red and green stockings are for our dogs, Belle and Puppy. I have not been able to find stockings that I love yet so we just keep buying from Target. Maybe next year!

Caileigh's Crusade

The following post is from my sisters blog but I took it to pass along. My niece has Muscular Dystrophy so it makes it hard to play on playgrounds...Please read on!!

Caileigh's Crusade

After much debate we decided to do it... To petition all city and county parks and rec. to install at least 1 handicap playground in the community. We are going to begin to do this nation wide eventually. I am spreading the word that it is unfair for my child, your child, or any handicap child to not have the option to play at the park.

My daughter is 5 years old and sadly has only played at the park a handful of times. Due to her muscle deterioration she is not able to climb on the equipment at a standard playground. So sadly we tell her "NO" because the risk of injury is way to great. She lacks the muscles in her neck and joints and if she were to fall in jsut the wrong way she could be more critical than she is now.

I have e-blasted this all over the web. I have added it to facebook, cafemom, and even her website. All it takes is one person to make a difference. Please help Caileigh be that person.

http://caileighspage.info/Welcome.htm

More pictures...

Here are some pictures my sister took of me and Cameron! I photoshopped them to the best of my ability.

We don't have alot of pictures of the two of us. We have random holiday ones and our wedding pictures but that's about it so I was very excited to have this chance!! Cameron not so much!!

I love this one even though Cameron's eyes are closed!

Caileigh

Just because she's cute! I love this picture!!

red or brown???

So I have a hair appt on December 5 and I have no idea what to do. The above picture is my current color...very light brown with alot of highlights.

I adore Kate Beckisales look...her hair color and her makeup. It's obviously a darker brown...probably closer to my natural color!

However, for about a year now I have wanted to go red. I don't know why...I guess because I might as well do it now in my 20's when I can get away with trying new things. Plus I tend to have red undertones in my hair anyways.

I am so torn...brunette would be easy upkeep while I hear that red tends to fade easily. Please grace me with your opinions!!

PS: The above picture is kinda silly...we were playing in leaves like little kids!!

Pictures!!

Aha...I figured it out!!

So here are some of the pictures I took. I only included a few because uploading the pics is a pain in the rear! I am no good at photoshop but I did the best I could!

Todd, Shauna, and Caileigh! Don't you just love Cai's pose?!

Taia and Caileigh...they were striking a pose!!

Rachel and Taia!

Rachel is not too fond of any of the pictures but I really like this one!!

I know that I need alot of help with photography but this was just practice and I am proud of myself!

ugghhhhh....

I am so mad right now...our internet is not working correctly so I can not upload any pictures. I have a few from last weekend when I took pictures of my family but I can't get them on here. Hopefully Cameron will be able to figure it out!

What to be when I grow up....

How on earth do people know what they want to be when they grow up? I am 26 years old and I think I have only just now figured out what I want to do for the rest of my life.

I am starting school, again, at the end of March to be a photographer! I love taking pictures of children and I think that I do a good job at it so I am very excited about this!

This weekend I am actually going to take pictures of my sisters and their girls for Christmas cards. This will be the test to determine if it is truly what I want to do. They are being very trusting by putting this in my hands! I am sure that I will have plenty of pictures to post afterwards!

The girls...take 2!

I have 3 sisters; Rachel, Shauna, and Brianne! I saw Brianne at the MDA walk on Saturday. That was the first time I have seen her in 5 years. Her mom keeps her away from me for some unknown reason, so I was very excited when I found out that she would be at the walk! I took the time to get a few pictures cause I have no idea when I will see her again!

Me and Brea


Rach and Brea

Shauna and Brea

I also got a picture with my nieces because I have very few of those!

Me and Cai

Me and Taia

MDA Walk of Hope

Today was the MDA Walk of Hope at Zoo Atlanta! It was alot of fun to be around people who all share the same goal of raising money to find a cure for muscular dystrophy! $175,000.00 was raised this year and that is very exciting!

Shauna pushing her daughter, Caileigh, who has muscular dystrophy. Caileigh is holding our niece, Taia.

Andrea doing the YMCA at the table. It was a warmup song! She's just crazy!

Caileigh and Sparky the fire dog!

Shauna, me, and Andrea modeling the backs of our shirts!

work

Work, work, work! That's what I have been up to lately. Not anything great and exciting.

The family I work for is getting ready to move so things have been pretty hectic at their house. I am a nanny for 2 wonderful boys who keep me on my feet.

This weekend is the Muscular Dystrophy Association walk at the zoo...getting pretty excited. My sister made half the shirts and I am going to make the other half this week...I promise!

I am very boring this week but this weekend I plan on updating with some ideas of what I want to do to the house!

working out

I did it! Well I did day one of the 30 day shred! Yay for me. It kinda kicked my butt this morning but it's a step in the right direction! Let's hope I can keep it up!

Costumes

What oh what should we be for halloween? We are actually attending a party next weekend and I am so confused about what or who to be. Cameron could really care less so I think it is up to me. At first I thought we could be vampires but then Cameron mentioned the fangs might get old after a few drinks.

It was so much easier as a kid!

IPhone

I got an Iphone today! Yay! It's actually my husband's old one. He upgraded to the new one so I got his. I am still excited. Now if I could only figure out how everything works!?

Pumpkins!

So, every year my husband's family comes up with a competition for all of us. Most years it is a cook- off of some sort. Cameron and I are the reigning champs! This year was different. My mother-in-law decided that we would have a pumpkin carving competition.

Cameron, Molly,my future sister-in-law, and Angelia, my mother-in-law, just getting started!

Cameron, hard at work transferring the pattern onto the pumpkin.

Me, concentrating very hard!

Angelia doing the same!

Molly working very hard!

It got rather dark outside so we had to hold flashlights up. This is my brother-in-law, Andrew!

I was holding a flashlight for Cameron!

This is the in-laws finished pumpkin!

They claimed they came in first place but they did not!

Our pumpkin!

We won first place!

Andrew and Molly left before I could get a picture of them and their pumpkin!

Overall, it was alot of fun even if the competition got a little heated at times!

By the way, we live in Georgia and it was in the 30's last night! Very chilly!

MDA Walkathon

My beautiful niece, Caileigh, is 5 years old. She was diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy a few years back. Every year, the Muscular Dystrophy Association hosts a walk-a-thon through the Atlanta Zoo. These pictures are from last year's walk.

We all wore shirts supporting Caileigh!

This is a picture of Taia, my 3 year old niece!!

I think they had alot of cotton candy...just what they needed!!!

This year's walk-a-thon is on November 7th! We are all very excited to go and support everyone with MD but especially Caileigh! My sister has a website dedicated to her and MD research! Please feel free to visit it!

http://www.caileighspage.info/Welcome.htm

The girls!

I do not get to see my family as much as I would like to. I have family in Indiana, Texas, and Louisiana. I also have family here in Georgia that you would think I would see on a normal basis but all of our lives are so hectic these days. I wish I could see everyone more often.
This is from 2 years ago. My mom came up from Florida and we all went out to dinner.


This is a picture from July of Shauna, Rachel, and me. We don't have that many pictures of just the 3 of us.

This is Caileigh on her 5th birthday!

This is Taia, Rachel's daughter.

I hope they know how much I love them all. Hopefully we can get together soon! Cameron and I will cook!!