Snow in Tennessee, a Winter Blowout, and rain in the desert

I can not believe that 2009 is almost over, which means we are so close to not just a new year but a new DECADE!! Wowzer! We had some beautiful snow a few weeks ago. It was wonderful. I took some pics of the house because its not often we get a good covering. Alas-it was gone by afternoon.

Scott and I had a "winter blowout" party at his garagement. We decided to throw up some twinkle lights over the tables...it sort of reminded me of a school dance, but in the best way. When we turned the lights out toward the end of the night it was really very pretty!

I could not stand the thought of having a holiday party without a tree. Scott compromised and brought this beauty in. With lights its fairly festive.

Extra lights went into the bathroom.

As the evening progressed we decided a group shot was necessary. Here is most of the crowd around Scott's jeep. I actually think this photo turned out really well.

Last Sunday I headed out to Vegas to celebrate the holidays with mom, dad and Shaun. This always involves three things-SHOPPING, CASINOS and COOKIES. Sometimes we manage to combine a few of these by shopping in a casino or eating cookies on the way to shop. You get the picture. It might not be the same as Ohio but it does have its own excitement;) Vegas has a new gazillion dollar shopping center called City Centre on the strip. We decided to take a look and see what all the fuss was about.

Here are some fancy stairs...this was a mosaic like effect-but I could not figure out what it was made from.

They had these towers of water that you could turn into a water cyclone by rubbing the top. Here is Shaun checking them out.

Close up.

Here is a shot of the flower beds, floating staircases and one of the many high end retail shops.

We frosted cookies, LOTS of cookies.

I was particularly proud of this Santa.

Mom made quite a few matching mittens.

No-your eyes do not deceive you. I can not escape the rain...even when I travel to the desert. Here is proof that it rained while I was there;)

I returned the day after the cookie project to find this in the cookie box. Yes-the gingerbread lost his head. And no-there are not any small children in the house to blame this one.

The Beach, Pasta and Cupcake Party, and the Garagement Part 4

It has been some week. Over Mothers Day I went with the ladies down to SanDestin. While we had rain and crappy weather here in Knoxville we had nothing but sunshine and pina coladas in Florida. It was so much fun. Here is a picture of us at dinner on our last night. The time down there was too short-but hopefully I will get back to the beach soon:)

Then last Thursday I had the second edition of the Cupcake Party. This time instead of chili and cupcakes I did a pasta buffet and cupcakes. I aspire to be as close to Giada from the Food Network as possible. This was her pasta ponza recipe which seemed to be a hit amongst the ladies. I wish I had a pretty picture before we dug in-but it didn't last long in the untouched phase;)

On to the main event-cupcake decorating. Here is Jen and Patterson doing what they do best-for Jen taking pictures for her blog and for Patterson being in charge of icing the cupcakes. That's not really accurate-Jen is also very good at detail work and Patterson can decorate with the best of us.

Our first project-corn on the cob cupcakes. Seriously-don't they look just like corn??

Me and the faux corn.

Me and the faux corn take two. Jen is a demanding task master when it comes to photo ops. I wanted to show how similar these are.

Next we tried monkeys. Here is me and my monkey.

All the ladies decorating the monkeys. This is the best kind of monkey business,

Close up of my monkey.

Jen and her monkey.

The whole bunch of them. Jen was upset I didn't have bananas to pose the monkeys with. It would have been adorable.

We then attempted lions. Here is my little lion.

The ladies prepping the lions....

The pride...

Here is the whole batch of cupcake cuties. The flowers are courtesy of Amanda (a new friend at the cupcake party.)

Jen and I striking a pose.

Scott is coming along nicely on the garagement. Here is a close up of the island top. I really think it turned out beautiful.

Side view of the island.

Here are the kitchen cabinets installed. The area above the sink will house open stainless steel shelves. What do you think of the color??

This past weekend all the doors went in. I gave them all a coat of stain (staining being my job if you will:))

The building inspector required Scott to cover the walls and ceiling in the entry way. Previously these were just roughed in walls. I am really impressed with how the entry way turned out. Here is a view from the top landing down the stairs.

View from bottom to top. Scott and I have been discussing what, if anything to do with the stairs. I think a painted runner in black or painting the stair treads black would be cool. Keep in mind that they are going to get lots of wear. Thoughts??

That's about it. I am taking it easy this week to gear up for the big Memorial Day weekend. Have a wonderful week:)

The Garagement Part 3, Cassady Lee arrives, and the Easter Bunny comes to visit

Much has been happening around these parts. On April 1, 2009 Patterson gave birth to a beautiful little boy named Cassady Lee. Her and Brad could obviously not be more thrilled. Jen and I went to visit him at the hospital and then just the other day to see his progress. He is a DOLL BABY!!!!

Little Cassady at the hospital...just a day after his birth.


Proud mom Patterson and Cassady. Yes I know-Patterson looks sickeningly well for just having given birth.
Jen and tiny Cassady. Since she has just recently found out she is having a baby boy this is perfect practice.

And then finally me and Cassady. I am only practicing for babysitting...but doesn't my hair look nice;)????

Here is Jen holding Cassady the other day. He has grown some, but he is still the cutest doll baby you have ever seen. Lottie Sue wanted to hold him BAD!!! She was really pretty good about it, and she is at the age where she is completely distractable. Unfortunately now that she can walk shes a HANDFUL to keep up with. I don't know how Jen does it. There are adorable pics of LS giving Cassady a kiss but I don't have any on my camera-Patterson help a sister out when you get a chance.
Here is a close up of the adorable Lottie Sue!!!
Her adorable smile...and seriously look how cute her HAIR IS!!!!!!

I took Molly to see the garagement. Unfortunately I picked a bad day for the visit because Scott was using his air compressor nail gun thingy do. Molly hates tools that make noise-and this one made plenty. She found the perfect space to hide-the corner of Scott's closet. It took my 5 minutes to find her-but then I let her hang out there until it was time to go. Note-the pic doesn't show that it was very dark in this closet too.


This is Molly before the nail gunning started. She seems happy to be there:)

A week or two later Bailey got another turn to visit the garagement. It was cold (that's why he is wearing his coat of course.) I wanted to photograph the new bathroom counter top, which seemed the perfect opportunity for a posed Bailey pic.

A wide angle shot.

Here is the kitchen with the island built, the counter tops on, and some of the top cabinets installed.

Side view of same.

And then this was too good to not share. Scott agreed to dress up as the Easter Bunny for all this friends children. This is his third year straight, and he was EGGSLENT at it:)