Merry New Year!

Did you miss me? I've been on a MUCH needed 12 day vacation from work spending time with my husband, my wonderful inlaws, my family, friends and my precious pups. I'm pretty sure I gained about 10 pounds since Christmas. I have been eating ham, gumbo, chili and black eyed peas non stop.

So, in case you're wondering... here's what you missed over the holidays...

Conner and Scooter are still just as spoiled as ever.

my oldest brother, Chris, and his wife, Amanda, are having a GIRL! yay! our nephew Landon is still the cutest thing ever.

Buie and I rang in the new year in style....on our front porch with sparklers. :)

Merry New Year to you all!

2010 Christmas cards

Merry Christmas from the Buie Family! These are our Christmas cards this year. They definitely are not my favorite cards but we didn't get our pictures taken this year so our cards were sort of thrown together last minute. I DO love the top 10 list but I wish we would have taken a pic with our pups. I decided next year I will fork over the money to get our pictures professionally taken (or at least I can set up my tripod). :)

Anyway, so from our family to yours, I hope your year has been as wonderful as ours! What are your top 10 moments from 2010? Have you made your list yet?

Discount Code!

Where do you do most of your shopping? Are you one of those shoppers who seeks the thrill of Black Friday? Do you LOVE the crowds and the traffic and fighting for the best price? Or are you like me, on the other hand, who prefers to do all (every. single. bit.) of shopping online? Like down to the socks and boxers that will inevitabily be in my husbands stockings every single year - I buy EVERYTHING online. It's just so wonderful to have someone out there in neverneverland preparing my packages just for me and then have a wonderful mailman (I pretend that they are little elves) dropping off my goodies on my doorstep. It's magical! What is most magical is that I never have to step foot in a single store or curse at one single person for cutting me off in traffic. Life is really just better this way.

One of my favorite places lately is Overstock.com. They have been so kind to offer YOU, my lovely readers, a discount code just for being so wonderful. Take a look at some of the things that I have my eye on.

So, for the good stuff. Go to Overstock.com, check out their fabulous sale items and when you find something you can't live without, enter discount code: 121728. This is good for 10% off ALL Overstock.com products.

202234 ** - free shipping promo code for electronics.

Happy Shopping and thanks so much for being loyal readers! :)

*All the ideas and opinions expressed are my own. No monetary compensation was received for doing this post, however, I was provided with a discount code.*

Buie's Birthday

On Friday night we went to David's Burger, a new restaurant that just opened up in Conway. Our best friends, Jessica and Alan, are the proud new owners. :) We are so happy for them! When we drove up the parking lot was packed and the line was out the door! I squealed with delight in how well their restaurant is doing and to see it that packed was just a perfect way to celebrate great friends, life successes, and Buie's birthday.

Baby David (above) and our nephew Landon (pictured below) were our entertainment for the evening. It's crazy to think about how different our lives are now. What entertained us even a few years ago on a Friday night is so very different than what entertains us today. ;)

David's Burgers are AMAZING. They are 100% Grade A meat that are ground on site and the fries are sooo good and are freshly peeled from Idaho potatoes. Yum!

We finished off the meal with a gluten free cake made by Kelli Marks. Isn't it cute?
My husband is 33 years old! I love him!
Here's the gang! We had so much fun eating and talking and playing with the baby boys. We are so blessed with wonderful friends.

On Buie's actual birthday, which was Tuesday, I took him to Sonny William's steakhouse in downtown Little Rock and we ate to our heart's content. I can't wait to spend 100 more birthdays together with B! :)

Wish List

My mother in law requested that I make my wish list again because it was so helpful last year. Also, it helps my husband earn major brownie points in my book because he gets me just what I want! :) He usually surprises with one or two things but my wish list helps him with a bigger item. And as I mentioned before, Christmas on my side of the family is pretty much taken care of because we are helping out a family in Nicaragua. We will still buy something for my parents and of course for my little nephew Landon and for the one on the way! (My OTHER brother is expecting. We find out December 19th if it's a boy or a girl!) This will be our first Christmas will a little one running around! ... well, maybe not running quite yet. ;)

Alicia Silverstone's The Kind Diet book

Fugi Film Camera

Getting it Together Kit

Modern Family Season 1 on DVD.

a nice toaster

Pet Ornaments from Pottery Barn: One for Scooter and one for Conner, of course. :)

J.Crew.com

Vintage Pajama Set (sz. L)

cozy J.Crew slippers (sz M)

Cats Playing Patty-cake,

This was too funny NOT to share! hahaha!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

The Buies have been doing what most people have been doing this time of year... putting up Christmas decor. We have been doing ours in shifts since we don't have a lot of time off together. Earlier this week, B had a night off from work so I put him to work on the garland and lights outdoors. We had them up in no time thanks to some hand little stick on hooks I found at Target! GENIUS! :)
We picked the coldest night thus far to hang the lights but Conner and Scooter stayed snug inside as they watched us work.
I LOVE this pic I snapped while peeking through the garland and the ladder. They were so interested in what daddy was doing.
This is our second Christmas in our home and our first year to put lights on the outside. We might add some more to the columns. What do you think?
Tonight I put up the tree. I kept going back and forth about our tree. Last year we had one tree we put in the front window in B's office. But something was missing in our living room. It didn't feel Christmasy enough last year. I always think that a Christmas tree should go by the fireplace. So I was debating on whether we should have one in the window and one by the fire or just move our one tree by the fire. And then another question: IF we do get a second tree, do we get a real one or a fake one? So many questions!? Anyway, I took the easy route and just moved our one and only tree from the window into the living room and voi-la!
This was a grandmother's tree so it is so special to me, but I have decided that if we are going to have a tree by the fireplace (which we are) then next year, we MUST have a more full tree. This pencil tree is just not cutting it. This tree will be moved to the dining room next year or perhaps back to the window in B's office. :) But for now, it has found it's home here next to our fire and I love it!
And yes, all four of our animals each have a stocking that will be full of treats for Christmas! :)
And I couldn't resist snapping this one. LOVE.

Domino- Pet of the Week.

Our little foster dog, Domino, was Arkansas Democrat Gazette's Pet of the week. I'm like a proud mom... or I guess I should say AUNT since we aren't keeping Domino. But I WOULD if we could keep her. She is precious! Domino is so friendly to everyone she meets! She wants to play with everyone and everything! She loves dogs, cats, bones, balls, treats, basically anything you give her she is happy with... but especially if you give you attention. That is all she really wants.

Domino came to me through the program C.A.R.E. that my husband and I work with. C.A.R.E. found Domino as a stray in Cabot. She was wandering the streets after (we suspect) that someone dumped her when they found out she would have to have surgery on her little head. She did have a tumor on her head a few months ago but it has been removed and it was benign! Thank the Lord! There is a scar on her head but her soft hair is covering it nicely. :)

Domino is full of energy and would love a house with a playmate or several or just a faithful owner who shows her lots of love and exercises her plenty. We call her "wiggle butt" because she is ALWAYS wagging her tail and it literally shakes her whole backside. We love her so much and hope and pray she will go to the perfect family.

If you have any questions about Domino, please don't hesitate to ask. To apply for Domino you must go through the application process with C.A.R.E. Please visit their website to apply.

trash to treasure

I saw this amazing video on this blog and it excites me to know that this is where our future is headed. Please watch and pass it along. Maybe it will let you look at trash in a different light. To read more about this, click here.

things I'm loving right now...

our fireplace. The first thing I do in the evening is put on my yoga pants, a tshirt, my slippers and turn on the fire. I live in the leather chair in the winter. Between me, Hazel and Conner, this fireplace and leather chair is WELL used. And the funny thing is, it's actually Buie's chair he had before we were dating. But what's yours is mine, right? ;)

Dave Barnes' new Christmas CD. It is playing all the time at the Buie household. :) It makes me happy!

vintage ornaments. I picked some up while I was in Canton last month. Can't wait to show you my display.

Country Living

these adorable stockings. I'm not sure why but I have a slight obsession with stockings. If I could hang them EVERYWHERE and it still be acceptable, then I probably would! :) And yes, our pets have their own stockings, too. :)

Garnet Hill

this picture of my little Landon nephew. I took this picture of my brother, sister-in-law at Motley's tree farm a couple of weeks ago. It has been ordered in a 5x7 and will soon be on my wall in my house. I LOVE his doggie hat!

red and green M&M's. At Christmas time at my parents house you could always find red & green M&M's. Me and my daddy especially loved them. I like to keep them around our house to carry on the tradition and to have something sweet to nibble on this month. It's always a challenge to see if we can make them last til Christmas.

What are you lovin' this season?

the big game!

Well, the big game has come and gone and in case you don't know, LSU lost the Battle of the Boot, but that doesn't mean I'm not posting about the game! Despite the score at the end of the 4th quarter, the LSU/ARK game was so fun! I actually wasn't planning on going at all. In fact, I avoid crowds. At one point in my life, I seriously thought I had like social phobia or something. I would get overwhelmed and claustrophobic. But that seems to have passed thankfully. I still don't enjoy large crowds so I just thought I would watch this game at home. B had to work until 4 on Saturday so I knew he wouldn't be able to go to the game. We DVR most big games and watch them later together. It's kind of our thing during football season - it's our date night. :)

However, this year my cousin, Lindsey, and my brother, Craig, were planning on attending the game and came by and picked me up. I'm so glad they did. We didn't have tickets but Lindsey was sure we would find some at the game... and we sure did for a great price! I brought my good camera and took about 250 pictures and loved every minute of it! I was thinking the whole time how cool it would be to be a sports photographer. In high school I was yearbook and newspaper photographer and would often take pictures of the football and basketball games, but that is my only experience. Wonder how I get into taking pictures for games like this? Anyway, a girl can dream right? ;)
We tailgated with my best friends and even met up with some old friends too. Lindsay & John David went to elementary school with Craig & I, so we had to get a sibling pic. :)

I sat behind this guy the entire game. Suprisingly I actually liked his hat but purely for the creativity that went into making it.

I also sat behind this guy who again I must give credit where credit is due. Those are some nice pants. Wonder if they make some in purple and gold...
Like I said I had a blast taking pictures! Also, I discovered that if you have a zoom lens then you don't need binoculars. :) But we didn't need binoculars anyway because we managed to score 4th row tickets!

My brother and I got tickets together on the 4th row but my cousin, Lindsey, found a ticket at face value in a separate secion from us. We were texting each other and when he told us what section he was in, we looked over and spotted him immediately. He stood out like a sore thumb in the sea of red!


But after the half the people next to us left their seats so Lindsey came to sit with us. By the 4th quarter, Lindsey had pretty much given up on LSU. He is the biggest LSU fan I know and he was actually calling the Hogs! ha! We made friends with the people around us and they LOVED seeing the LSU fans call the Hogs. (I would like to state for the record that I, in NO WAY, called any Hogs... However, I might have danced a little to the band music.)
The Battle of the Boot trophey. I hear that thing weighs like 150 pounds or something crazy like that! Congrats to the Hogs!
and the LSU fans were still smiling, believe it or not. Despite the outcome, we had a blast!
Maybe next year I'll finally see a game at Death Valley in Baton Rouge...