For my birthday, my sweet Dad made me a beautiful dining room table… I am so in love with it!

I picked out the plan from Ana White.  She is amazing…I mean who doesn’t like a girl who can use power tools and gives you step by step plans on building knock off furniture that looks like Pottery Barn?

My dad and I picked out the wood, screws, and stain (Minwax Ebony Stain), Polyurethane and he got to working! I did do a little to help, mainly staining and applying the poly, so I feel like I contributed a little.

Here is the final product…

We were in the middle of getting the room set up when I took this picture…I will post more of our final table, soon!

I went with a whitish leather/pleather chair…I am loving the final result.

Jason and Dad also made a bench to match, which I helped stain, as well….I will post pics of it when I take them!

It was so nice on Christmas Eve to be able to seat 10 adults comfortably around our table…I love that we made it, and I know I will have it for years to come!!

We makeshifted our lighting because there is no existing overhead light, but honestly, I am totally digging the lights on the ceiling!

After 2 years, my dining room is back….and better than I expected!

A couple of months ago, I found a list online of sites that support adoption. Many are amazing jewelry sites and I immediately added a couple to my Amazon Wish List for Christmas! One site was Hip Mom Jewelry.

I loved this necklace and now am the proud owner….

I noticed that they had an adoption fundraising program for families and I immediately applied… Well, we have been chosen as a January family! I am so thankful and excited.  The details are that any item purchased from their adoption page, benefits our son! We will receive 30% of all items purchased in the month of January if you use our family code, which is 2011JANSte Think Valentine’s Day, birthdays, Mother’s Day….what woman doesn’t like jewelry!! Thanks in advance for walking with us in the journey to bring our boy home! If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment and I will get back to you!

So, I am going to do a quick review of our month…here is our decor!!

Joy seems to be a theme in our decorating this year. I have worked on/made, two, so far. Here is the first one….

Last week, with the help of Jason, I created a little Christmas craftiness!

I had 3 unpainted 10×13 picture frames that i wanted to put to good use.

First off, I needed to paint them. I used acrylic, but only because my white spray paint was in the barn and it was cold…I am a sissy in the cold. So, painting it on with a brush was the first step!

Here is what we ended up with and I love it.  I wanted a font that wasn’t too chunky but still showed up.

I love that we can reuse the frames and I  know we will be coming up with other ways to use them throughout the year.

If you would like these easy printables, please, leave a comment and I will get it to you!

10 And the angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.

Linked up at: Under the Table

This is a must watch video….

What is your role in the orphan crisis? Because we all have one……

I stole this from Jason’s blog because I wanted to keep a record or it and because it gets to the heart of our adoption.

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On this last day of November, I am thankful for my man and my marriage. I simply am a blessed girl. There is no other way around it. He means the world to me and I am truly, madly, deeply in love with him. I can’t remember my life without him. He is without a doubt, this side of Jesus, the best gift I have been given.

One way he has blessed me the last few months is in letting me have the time I need to run. He may not get it, but he has seen the joy it brings me.  On Thanksgiving Day, we ran an 8k in Knoxville. He has not trained much, but we are so stinkin competitive, he took off and beat me by 2 minutes. Kind of humbling, but I have come to understand that part of it is our personalities. He is an all out competitor and I always want to save some for the last minute in case I need it!

Here we are after our 4.97 miles…how gross do we look? It was a warm Thanksgiving run. I always tell him, I am not used to running with the sun out!

Can I say again, how  much I love Knoxville. We ran down Neyland Drive, by the river, the Stadium and the cool waterfront. I loved it!

Thank you, Jason, for all the ways you love me.

Check out this giveaway for a cool Ugandan Magazine Necklace!! These are great Christmas gifts!

http://networkedblogs.com/b9k8O

Last week, Bradley had a little Thanksgiving program and it was just precious! We had such a great Thanksgiving. I am so thankful for our time in Knoxville, visiting

Jason’s family. It was  a much needed getaway and precious time with our family.

Here is Bradley before singing Turkey songs….

Seriously, how cute are those turkey leg hats?  I had a moment when I realized there will be a day when construction paper hats will not be worn by my kids and it made me so sad.

Our little turkey….

He is so cute..we heard his sweet songs all weekend.

We had a sweet time hanging with Bradley.

Poppy got to come watch too!

Me and my sweet boy!

I can’t believe how Christmas is right around the corner and I LOVE it! We were at Jason’ mom’s the past few days and she had our Christmas cards from the last 3 Christmases on her fridge, which was such a sweet reminder of how my babies are not babies anymore! I remembered each photo session, which are usually last minute and it made me thankful we already a have our picture for this year! Each year, I agonize over these cards, search through so many options and then make Jason decide!

Here are our cards and pictures from years past….

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2008

Parker 2007

Emery 2007

Bradley 2007

Christmas 2006

Christmas cards are such a sweet part of the season and this year, and this year, my decision is already made! I am going to be ordering mine from Shutterfly.

The hard part is choosing which one! I really like this one, or this one, or this one!!

I may also be getting the grandparents one of these or these.

Do you want to get 50 free Christmas cards from Shutterfly this year? Check this out!

How do you choose your Christmas card? What about which picture to use? Do you do the whole fam or just the kids?

Happy Christmas Card shopping!!