Walker Christmas

Well, Christmas has come and gone and I am still cleaning up the after math. You can't even see my dining room table right now because it is piled high with our presents. Our parents really out did themselves this year. We are really blessed to have such amazing families to spend Christmastime with.

This year was a little bit different since it was our first Christmas as a married couple. The Saturday before Christmas, my family came up to Little Rock to have Christmas with us at my brother's house who just moved to Maumelle this summer. It was fun to do something different. And I know my sister in law enjoyed having us all at her new house for the first time. Here are a few pictures from last Saturday celebrating Christmas with my side of the family.

Conner helped Daddy open his presents

Our family (minus the cats, of course)

The yummy pot roast my brother cooked!
My mom and dad opening presents

My brothers, my hubby, and our dog, Conner

Our kiddos at Christmastime

Christmas wouldn't be complete without a picture of our 'children' by the tree. Since it is impossible to have all three of them pose, I have posted separate pics of each of them.

*Side note: yes, I do realize that we are obsessed with our animals but I figure I could be doing a lot worse things with my life than taking entirely too many pictures of our pets...so just humor me and let me post my pictures! :)

Merry Christmas!!Conner rests his head under the tree

George thinks he's hiding from us

Hazel loves the lights and playing with the ornaments!

Conner takes a nap in his favorite chair by the tree

Christmas is coming!

Christmas is coming and our house is feeling more and more like it. I absolutely LOVE our new stocking from William Sonoma. They are perfect. The animals' stockings are from Pottery Barn. Here are a few pictures from around our condo. Happy Holidays! Enjoy!

12.07.77

Today is first time celebrating my husband's birthday as a married couple! Actually last year on his birthday we weren't even engaged yet. So...Happy Birthday, hubby! Born on Pearl Harbor Day in 1977, today he is 31 years old.

He is the most generous, most considerate person I could have ever married and I could go on and on but I'll spare you all the details. :)

I got tagged

Julee tagged me with some holiday questions so here goes.

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
I love a good cup of hot chocolate and I've never had egg nog either actually.


2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
Growing up Santa used to leave all the presents unwrapped but now all presents are wrapped nicely under the tree.

3. Colored lights on house/tree or white lights?
White lights usually

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
No not yet but I may have to go get some for our first Christmas together and start a new tradition!

5. When do you put your decorations up?
This is the first year I've put up my own tree that wasn't just a table top tree and I put it up before Thanksgiving so I was proud that I got it up so soon. Usually I'm not one to push Christmas but Thanksgiving came so late that I wanted my tree up for as long as possible. :)


6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
Probably sweet potato casserole made with (gluten free) yellow cake mix. It's not an actual dessert dish but it might as well be because it is so sweet. It's so good!!!


7. Favorite holiday memory as a child?
We used to alternate lining up by age to see what Santa brought. There was a door separating our bedrooms and the living rooms and we would have to wait until everyone was ready before we entered the living room. One year we would go youngest to oldest and the next year we would go oldest to youngest. Craig, the middle child would obviously go in the middle every year so it didn't matter to him. :) But my oldest brother, Chris, used to always mess with me and say it was his turn to go first. Being the youngest I was always picked on by my older brothers but I loved every minute of it. My mom always had to film us opening our presents and I love going back and watching our expressions! :)

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I think I just kind of figured it out from kids at school, but still remember the conversation I had with my mom about it. We were driving to Shreveport and I told her I knew who Santa was...it was her and dad... She said i was right. :)

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Yes, Dad reads the Christmas story from Luke then we usually hang out as a family for a while and everyone opens one present Christmas Eve.

10. How do you decorate your tree?
This year I'm doing a vintage theme because my MeMe (my mom's mom) gave me a lot of her ornaments and I also got some of my dad's mom ornaments that are handmade. All of my decorations are handed down from my great grandmother, my grandmothers and my mom. I love how my decorations are not only vintage which is in style now but they are sentimental and are a part of my heritage.

11. Snow! Love it or dread it?
I love snow! I have to make a snow angel every time I see snow which is not very often.

12. Can you ice skate?
Well, I've only done it like twice and I sprained my ankle both times so I think I'm cursed!!

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
A couple of years ago I got an hp laptop that I am still enjoying.

14. What is the most important thing about the holidays for you?
Hanging out with family and making memories. This year Buie and I are going to start a new tradition of helping out a family in need. Hopefully it will be a tradition we can continue doing for years to come.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert?
Hmmm... I'm not really a big fan of pies and I'm allergic to most desserts but I like any kind of gluten free cookies. :)


16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
I would say the reading the Christmas story out of Luke. It is very important to our family to remember the real reason for Christmas. This is a tradition I want to keep on doing with mine and Buie's family.

17. What tops your Christmas tree?
A white metal star

18. Which do you prefer-giving or receiving?
I love shopping for other people! It's so much fun getting something for someone that you KNOW they will love!

19. What is your favorite Christmas song?
I love Michael Buble's Christmas CD! I've got it playing right now!

20. Candy Canes-yum or yuck?
Yum!

21. What do you want for Christmas?
I really want the Martha Stewart School for Cooking Cookbook.

22. Do you attend an annual Christmas party?
Well, last night I helped to host a Tacky Christmas party that was really a lot of fun and we might just have to make it an annual event! Everyone wore tacky Christmas sweaters and we played a dirty Santa game.

23. Do you dress up on Christmas or wear PJs?
Christmas morning I usually wear my PJs.

24. Do you own a Santa hat?
Of course! And so does our dog, Conner

25. Who do you normally spend Christmas with?
This Christmas will be a lot different because it's our first Christmas as a married couple. I'm excited to say that I'll be at my in-laws house for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning this year. So I'll be waking up there Christmas morning! We plan to switch out every other year.

I tag Angie and Jessica

Houston: We HAVE a (stocking) problem!

Ok. So if you know me, you know I LOVE Christmas and you know I LOVE to have things just right! So it is absolutely driving me insane that I have not found the perfect stockings yet for Buie and I.

Here are some possible options:

from Crate and Barrel

I also really like this one from Crate and Barrel: I only wish our names could be put on these stockings. This is why I probably WON'T order these stockings. I like personalized.

Moving on...
I really like these from Ballard Designs but I do not like the top of it. I'm not a huge fan of cheetah print. (Sorry, Hilary.)

Ballard Designs even has Personalized Pet Stocking, which you know is a MUST for me. They even have bones or fish on the stocking, depending on whether you have a dog or cat...in our case we would need two fish and one bone. :)

I am very tempted to order these for Buie and I (and the animals) and either tuck in the cheetah print or take them to get the top part taken off (because goodness knows I will screw it up if I try to sew.)

Another option from Ballard Designs, but once again...cheetah print. What's with the cheetah print??

Williams Sonoma Home has a super cute one and it goes with our vintage Christmas theme this year:

I think the last one might be the one I am going with for Buie and I, but then what should I buy for the three animals? Decisions. Decisions.

.......... after internet searching, I believe I have come to a conclusion.....

Pottery Barn offers a solution for the pet stockings that is still classy and coordinates with our stockings (that is, if we choose the William Sonoma stocking above). Here are the stockings I believe we will go with for our three animals and yes, I will have them personalized to say Hazel, George and Conner. :)
If I had to choose today, I'd pick the William Sonoma ones for Buie and I and the striped Pottery Barn ones for the animals, but they're all so cute! What do YOUR stockings look like this year? Do you get new ones every year or do you invest and personalize like I do? I can't WAIT to hang our stockings!

Our First Thanksgiving

Well, our first thanksgiving has come and gone. My pants are a little more snug, but we had a good time hanging out with family. This first year we went to Louisiana and ate Thanksgiving meal with my family. We had gluten free turkey and cornbread dressing, sweet potato casserole made with gluten free yellow cake mix that is too DIE for! And mom made her amazing gluten free dressing. Over the last two Thanksgivings, my mom and my sister in law have perfected the art of cooking gluten free for the holidays and my belly thanks them. I contributed an easy dish: green beans with brown sugar and bacon! Yummy!

Since Buie works retail, he drove back for "Black Friday" and I stayed through Saturday and rode back with my brother and sister in law. I LOVE that they live in Maumelle now! It was weird being without him for a few days but it was good hanging out with my family. We went to my highschool's state championship football game where my oldest brother is a coach. They ended up losing but we were proud of their team.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend:

in the car of the way to Louisiana for our first Thanksgiving together!

Of course we brought Conner, too!

Our new Family pic - Buie is in it this year! :)

My best friend, Lauren, her husband, Wayne and their son, Trey

Trey West - he's so strong! ;)

our little family - minus the cats (they don't do road trips)

Craig, my brother, and Buie, about to dig in

Hope everyone had a great holiday with family and friends! I'll post our Christmas tree pics soon!

It's beginning to look a lot like MARRIAGE!

This past weekend we took the next big step after saying our "I Do's" .... setting up a JOINT CHECKING ACCOUNT! AAAHHH! That's right after 4 months of procrastinating the joint account is finally set up. We have ordered checks that say Mr. Brent Buie or Mrs. Cara Beth Buie. It's so weird but exciting all at the same time. I got my driver's license changed about a month ago right before I went to vote. It now says Cara Beth Buie....also exciting...but weird. Before the wedding, I was having a hard time with letting go of my maiden name. That had been my name for 25 years and in a way, it felt like I was giving up my family. It made me sad almost to think about NOT being a "Walker" anymore. But now after being married for a few short months, I am excited to announce myself as Mrs. Buie. Yes, it still feels strange but I am looking forward to starting our own family. We all know that this can't happen without money. So here's to saving money to start a family during one of the toughest economic time in history. No one said marriage would be easy but they didn't say it couldn't be fun. :)

Here is a recent pic of us that I particularly like:

hanging out with the grandparents

If you know us, you know we love our animals. Conner, our dog, is our child. We take him anywhere he is welcomed. We would probably take our cats too but they don't like leashes too well. ;) This past weekend Conner went to his grandparents on the Buie side in Rison, Arkansas. It was a short car ride...about an hour or so. Conner had so much fun meeting a new friend, Jill. Mrs. Carole cooked an amazing meal for us, we went to church, played in the back yard with the dogs, and watch a lot of football! I LOVED taking pictures of the dogs and of the Buie's beautiful yard! I can't wait until we have a yard for Conner to run around in.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from Brent, Cara Beth, George, Hazel and most of all Conner, who we force to wear these ridiculous outfits...but isn't he so cute???

We have pumpkins!

This past weekend we had a great time with friends carving pumpkins and really getting into the season of things.

Our wreath on our door. The "B" for Buie, obviously. I was pretty excited about finally putting this "B" on our door. I bought it several months before the wedding. :)

Our first pumpkins we've ever carved! Yup, that's right... the whole time we dated (for three years) we never carved a pumpkin! Technically I carved the face, he just cut out the top. It took a huge knife to cut the top out and I don't think he trusted me to do it. :)

Our pumpkin in the dark. Doesn't it look great?

Our door complete with a new doormat and plenty of pumpkins. (You can see that we need to paint around our door... oh the many projects with a new home!)

HAPPY FALL!!!