2011 Resolutions

 I'm writing these down because I want to focus on completing these things this year.. Most of them are from my 101 in 1001 Days list. I hope that you will help hold me accountable.

1. Get family pictures taken by a professional photographer

2. Plan and throw Brantley's 1st birthday party (This one is going to be here in less than 4 weeks)

3. Go back to Six Flags with friends

4. Take Brantley to the Zoo

5. Let Brantley spend the night with Grandparents

6. Have some of our wedding pictures printed and framed to hang up in our house (I can’t believe that I’ve let 2 years go by without doing this already)

7. Paint BR's room and redecorate it to be more girly

8. Make a quilt for baby Runnels (It’s going to be SO cute!)

9. Make Brantley another dress or 2

10. Take Brantley to an Auburn baseball game

11. Have a cookout at our house

12. Join and complete a bible study
13. Eat at the Cheesecake Factory because I've never eaten there before
14. Start working again so that we can start the addition on our house. I can’t wait to have it completed!!
15. Have pictures of Brantley framed and hang them in our house (Seriously! You would think that since I love taking pictures so much I would print and frame them much more often.)
16. Get a manicure and pedicure (My mom gave me a gift certificate for Christmas so this is going to be happening soon.)
17. Get a haircut. This long hair has got to go!

18. Go to the mountains for a vacation with friends or just as a family
19. Do something special for our 2nd anniversary since I was 38 weeks pregnant for our 1st    anniversary. We are going to Atlanta for our anniversary. The Aquarium, Stone Mountain, I can’t wait!!
20. Take Brantley and Alyssa to Portrait Innovations
21. Buy and make new bedding for Brantley's toddler bed
22. Get a massage
23. Run a 5K
24. Go to a drive-in movie
25. Go on a vacation with friends
26. Paint our bedroom

27. Start the addition on the house

28. Get in shape (This one should be at the top of the list but I forgot, haha)

I'll be marking these off the list as I complete them. Stay tuned!

Christmas Day 2010

Christmas morning Chase's parents came over early so they could be here when Brantley woke up and saw what Santa had brought her. We hadn't done our present exchange yet so it worked out perfectly. BR was so cute and loved all of her presents. I know she didn't understand why she was getting them but she smiled and laughed a lot so I know she liked it all.

 Chase, BR and I went down to Prattville and Montgomery for the day to see Chase's side of the family. Above are pictures of us at his Granddaddy's house. Brantley with Granny Brantley and her Great-Granddaddy. We done see them enough. They are the sweetest!

This quilt was Chase's Christmas present from his Granny Brantley. The stars and squares were made many years ago by Granny and Chase's mom. Then Granny gave it to Beverly at Thanksgiving so she could quilt it together for Chase. I got to help with that part. The label says it all...

Made with love for Chase Williamson by the women that love him most. (Tears!) We do love him so so much and I know he will cherish this quilt forever and ever. Even though it's not mine, it's probably my favorite gift that either of us got this year. It's so special!

The rest of the day we spent time with Chase's dad's side of the family and Beverly's family. It was so great to see all of them since we really don't make it down there enough. We got to see sweet Meri Ansley again. She is precious and makes me want another baby but we're waiting until the house is finished before growing our family. haha All of Chase's family is so sweet. I'm so blessed to now be a part of their family. 

I missed getting to see my family on Christmas but thankfully we got to see them a few weeks ago for our Christmas lunch. We(I) were pretty bummed that we missed all the snow on Christmas but when we woke up on Sunday morning everything was covered with a beautiful blanket of white snow. I was so pumped!!

We of course bundled Brantley up and headed outside for just a few minutes to see what she thought about it. Unfortunately this was right before her morning nap so she was really tired and didn't care too much about being out in the cold. We snapped some cute picture though. I know I've said it before but I really love living in Bluff Park because when it snows in Birmingham it really snows in Bluff Park. In fact there is still some snow on the ground outside today that hasn't melted yet. I love Bluff Park!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Happy Birthday, Jesus!!

Christmas Eve 2010

Every Christmas Eve since I've been driving, I've gone over to the Bachofer's house to see what the kids got for Christmas. Santa has been coming to their house a night early for years so it's been fun to go over and watch them play with and enjoy their gifts each year.

This year they gave BR her first pair of UGG boots. They also gave Chase and I slippers to match BR. They are really comfortable and warm!

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Christmas Eve we had dinner with my parents, my brother and his family. We had such a great time!

 BR had a great time opening gifts. She mostly liked the boxes and tissue paper. haha!

BR and Alyssa had matching PJ's and they enjoyed playing with each other and toys. They are 4 years apart so playing together is hard but Alyssa loves to take care of BR and wants her to join in her fun so bad. Hopefully next year they will really be able to play more.

They are both adorable! 

We had a wonderful time celebrating Jesus' birthday with my family on Christmas Eve. We were all three pooped and ready for a good nights sleep so that we could be ready for the Christmas day festivities. Santa Claus was on his way!

December 23, 2010

We had dinner at Chili's and when we got home Chase and I made sugar cookies. Those suckers are harder to decorate than we thought they were.

We were so ready to start celebrating Jesus' birthday with our families. Coming up!

BR loves Santa!

Brantley Rae loved Santa Claus! Chase sat her in his lap and she looked up at him with a big smile and scrunched that little nose up. It was so cute! I had been a little worried that she might fall apart but she didn't. Perfection! Santa said that she was the best baby he had had all season. So proud! I'm really glad that she liked sitting with Santa. He said that she told him everything she wanted for Christmas but we needed a bigger house to fit all of it. haha! We're working on it Santa but it's going to be another year or so. Hopefully she will do this good every year we go to see Santa!

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas Eve!

We're Ready

We've received a wall full of Christmas cards, stockings are hung, presents are wrapped and we're ready for the Christmas fun to start. We'll be spending Christmas eve with the Bachofer's tomorrow morning and my parents & my brother's family tomorrow night. Then Christmas day we'll be spending time with Chase's parents and his family & Beverly's family in Prattville and Montgomery. It's going to be so much fun celebrating Christmas this year with all of our family. Especially since it's BR's first Christmas. I can't wait to watch her open present (play with the wrapping paper) and play with her now toys. We're going to have such a great time!

I hope everyone is ready for Christmas. Let's celebrate the real reason for the season while we spend time with family. I saw a great sign in someone's yard the other day. It said, "His men still seek him." That is so true. Wise men and women still seek him all year round, but now is the time when we focus on the birth of our saviour and thank the Lord for his gift to us.

Greatest man in history named Jesus, had no servants, yet they called him Master. Had no degree, yet they called him Teacher. Had no medicines, yet they called him Healer. He had no army, yet kings feared Him. He won no military battles, yet he conquered the world. He committed no crime, yet they crucified Him. He was buried in a tomb, yet He lives today. 

I'm so glad I know Him! Merry Christmas, everyone!

Meri Ansley Burdett

Last Friday (12/17/10), Chase's Aunt Christy had her 3rd baby, a GIRL! They were so excited when they found out they were having a little girl. Christy had been talking about wanting a baby girl for a while before she got pregnant and the Lord gave her the desire of her heart. Meri Ansley is beautiful! We got to meet her on Saturday at the hospital. Her Uncle Glenn was with us so he got the meet her as well. It was so special and I'm really glad we were able to stop by the hospital. Here are a few pictures of her.

The picture on the bottom right I took from Christy's facebook page so that you could see her sweet little face better. She has 2 really great, proud and protective big brothers. Will the one in the bottom picture is so sweet and didn't want anyone other than their family (really just him) to hold her while we were at the hospital. He kept saying "it's my turn" and "she's my sister." Haha It's was so so cute!

Congratulations to the Burdett family on the birth of Mery Ansley!!

Birthday Ideas

 These are just a bunch of ideas I have for Brantley's party. Hopefully it will turn out as cute as I'm envisioning it. We'll see!

I love this invitation from Shutterfly. It's so super cute! I'm thinking about making the invitations myself though but I haven't decided.

What do you think?

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday

 Sunday night we played and played in the playroom and rediscovered some toys that had been forgotten about. BR is so smart and is learning new things everyday. Gotta love her!

 Yesterday morning my friend from college, Tiffany came to stay with us and hang out. This was her first time to meet Brantley. It was so great to see her again and visit for a while. Last night Chase and I went to dinner with his co-workers and his boss so Tiffany stayed with BR for us. They spent some quality time together and they had a great time. BR was such an angel! She is normally a very good baby but yesterday and last night she was perfect!

 Tonight we played, smiled, laughed, walked, crawled and loved all over each other! Brantley loves her Daddy so much! She loves me too and we love her more than we ever thought possible!!

 Below are pictures of BR walking. She is so proud of herself. She's getting better and more balanced each day. Her preferred method of movement is still crawling because it's quicker and safer at this point. I'm thinking she'll be an expert walker by her birthday.

We'll take some video over the next few days and I'll try to share that. I hope everyone is staying warm and having a wonderful start to this week. God bless you all!

Ornaments 2010

 These are our new ornament for 2010. I love our little snowman family ornament. It's perfect since we are "Proud New Parents". I had Brantley Rae's Baby's 1st Christmas ornament made at the Christmas Village a few months ago and I love the way it turned out. So sweet!

And lastly, I found our Little Tiger Fan ornament at the Auburn store in the Galleria. I was so excited when I found it there. It was actually cheaper in the store than online so that was great.

These are our past yearly ornaments. The top one is from our first Christmas before we got married. We received it as a wedding gift from my friend Ashley. The Snowman ornament we bought on our honeymoon to Gatlinburg, TN back in 2009. And lastly, our 2009 family ornament is still my favorite one so far. The expectant bear family! Adorable! It was perfect. There was even a bear for Marley!

I hope everyone is ready for Christmas because it's next weekend! Yay! I'm so pumped! I love Christmas because we get to spend so much time with family and friends. Tis the season for fun!

This is How We Celebrated

Auburn won the SEC Championship this year! It's great to be an Auburn Tiger!

 War Eagle!

Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Most Wonderful Time Christmas Card

Shop Shutterfly for elegant custom Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

This is our Christmas card for this year. I can't wait to get them and send them out. If you don't get one in the mail it's because I didn't have enough.Merry Christmas from the Williamsons!

Christmas Card Photo Shoot 2010

Today we took our Christmas pictures for this years Christmas card. It was really overcast and Brantley was really tired, so they didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped but we're still going to use them. Merry Christmas everyone!

BR and Chase HATED the hats and antlers. I thought it was going to be perfect but neither of them were really in the mood. Darn!

I wrapped this box to use as a prop in the pictures and I think it turned out to be pretty cute!

We were really unsure about how this picture was going to turn out but I think it's pretty cute! I really wish BR had been in a better mood but she was exhausted!

Even though they aren't perfect I'm still calling this a success!

This Month's Recipe: Chai Tea Mix

I was so excited to see that the recipe this month was for this Chai Tea Mix. I love Chai Tea Lattes so this is perfect! I'm thinking I might make some for the holidays and give it to some friends and family members. If you decide to try it out I hope you enjoy it very much!

Chai Tea Mix
For optimal enjoyment of this trendy flavor-packed drink, be sure your spices are fresh.

Prep: 14 min
Yield: 5 1/2 cups mix

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom (optional)
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened instant tea or decaffeinated instant tea
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup nonfat dry milk powder
• 1 cup powdered nondairy creamer
• 1 cup French vanilla-flavored powdered nondairy creamer

Preparation
Combine spices and tea in a food processor or blender. Blend 1 to 2 minutes or until mixture becomes a fine powder. Pour into a large bowl. Add sugar to food processor or blender (without cleaning it), and process until superfine, about 30 seconds. Add sugar to bowl of spices. Stir in milk powder and creamers; blend well. Spoon mix into gift jars, if desired.

To serve, stir 2 heaping Tbsp. Chai Tea Mix into a mug of hot milk or boiling water.

Chocolate Chai Mix: Add 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa along with dry milk powder to the blend above. Follow serving directions above. (We recommend milk here.)

Chai Shake: Blend 1/4 cup Chai Tea Mix, 1 cup milk, and 3 1/2 cups vanilla ice cream in a blender.

White Chocolate Chai: Add 1/4 cup finely chopped premium white chocolate (such as Lindt or Ghirardelli) to 1 cup Chai Tea Mix. Stir well. Follow serving directions above with 2 heaping Tbsp. per cup of hot milk or boiling water.

Christmas with Southern Living 2007,
Oxmoor House, June 2007

Find this and thousands of other delicious 

recipes from Southern Living,  Cooking Light, 

and more at 

BR at 10 Months Old

This sweet pea turned 10 months old yesterday and I can hardly believe it! The time is flying by way to fast. Yikes! I'm so glad we have all these adorable pictures to document her as she grows.

This is going to be a short BR monthly update because she's got a cold again and I'm sure she'll wake up a bunch of times tonight. So I need to get in the bed.

Weight: I'm not exactly sure how much she weighs but I think she's around 16 pounds. She was 16.5 with clothes on the last time we were at the doctor, which was about a week and a half ago.

Diapers: still in 2's

Clothes: 6-9 months and 9 months

At 10 months, Brantley Rae...

-cut her first tooth last week

-has started walking between Chase and I

-loves green beans, mandarin oranges and cheese

-she has gotten very good at eating table food

-really likes looking at touch & feel books. The one in the pictures is her new Christmas book.

-her hair keeps growing

-she has the cutest scrunchy nose smiley face. It's so cute!

-is starting to figure out that I'm Ma-Ma and Chase is Da-Da. Yay!

Brantley Rae is the sweetest, most adorable baby I've ever seen! I know I'm partial, but really she is adorable! I have no idea what I would do without her. I thank the Lord daily for this sweet gift he gave Chase and I. I'm so thankful! She has come down with a cold so I'm praying that she can get a good nights sleep and we're probably going to the doctor tomorrow morning because I'm afraid she's getting an ear infection. She was totally pitiful tonight. Thankfully, I finally got her to sleep a little while ago. (ahh the power just flickered! Yikes!!)  Gotta go!

Iron Bowl 2010

Brantley and I watched the Iron Bowl at my parents house this year. Unfortunately,  Chase had to work during pretty much the whole game so he didn't get to watch it. The game was so intense! Seriously! I was a bit worried and mad at our team after the first half but thankfully they made adjustments and got it together during halftime. In true Auburn fashion they came out after halftime and came back to win the game. 

War Eagle! 

It's so great to be an Auburn Tiger!! #1 in the BCS!

Guess who's walking?...

Well, she's not walking just yet but she is taking lots of steps on her own. It's so stinkin' cute to watch her waddle across the room or rather in between Chase and I. She first started taking steps on Tuesday, Nov. 23rd. We took this video of her walking on Thanksgiving. Enjoy!

She's still falling quite a bit but she thinks walking is really funny. She is really proud of herself. Can you tell?
She is growing up so fast! I can't believe that we'll be celebrating her first birthday in less than two months. Can you believe it? I've started planning already!!

Thanksgiving 2010

 This year we spent Thanksgiving day with my family. Us, my Grandmother, Aunt Mary Jo and Uncle Mike as well as my parents had lunch at my parents house. Brantley had fun playing with her Nana and Pop Pop. They have really fun blocks and a wooden tool set that she thought was really fun to chew on. haha. That brings me to one bit of exciting news to share...BR cut her first tooth on Wednesday!! We are super excited about this because we were beginning to wonder if she was going to be toothless forever. haha! You still can't see it that well but I can feel it. She doesn't like to show it off just yet, but I bet once she gets a few more she'll start grinning just to show off her pearly whites.

 I am totally in love with this picture! Brantley Rae is so in love with her Daddy and they have so much fun together. This picture says it all!

After lunch we headed home so BR could take her afternoon nap while Chase and I put up the Christmas tree. Below are some pictures Chase took during BR's first look at the tree. She was so excited about it and kept saying "Ooo, Ooo!" I did let her touch the branches and one ornament but since then she has pretty much left it alone. Thank goodness!

We have SO so much to be thankful for this year! We have a home, jobs, cars, food, clothes, amazing parents, grandparents, siblings, wonderful friends, a beautiful baby girl that we love very very much! There is so much to be thankful for this year and we thank the Lord for it all!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year! 

Bring on the Holidays!

Thanksgiving Playdate

Last Monday, my Mommy's Lunch Group got together for Thanksgiving lunch. It was so great! Brantley and I hadn't been able to go to the past few playdates because I was working. Thankfully, it worked out for us to go. Brantley had a lot of fun with the kiddos and it was nice to spend time with my friends. It's been so fun to watch these kiddos grow up. Some of them we've known since they were just a few weeks old and now they're starting to have their 1st birthdays. It's crazy! (Brantley's is in less than 2 months! AHH!)

The Listening Room Cafe

On November 17th, Jami and I drove up to Nashville, TN for Lauryn Taylor's show at The Listening Room Cafe. We had a wonderful time and Lauryn did great! The other singers that sang that night were all great also, but of course Lauryn was and is our favorite!

Before the show we hung out with Lauryn at the PCG office and took these silly pictures.

This is Lauryn Taylor during her show. She did so great!

To her left is Megan Redmond and to her right is Taylor Henry. Both of them are wonderful as well! I'm a fan of all 3 of them. They played with one other guy and his name was Brandon Maddox but he didn't make it in the picture because I was making sure Lauryn was in the middle. Oops!

During the second round these great singers sang. On the far left is Gary. He is one of the guitar couches that works with the PCG clients. Next is Chris Blair. He is the owner of The Listening Room Cafe and he also is a singer-songwriter. The young lady's name is Samantha Landrum. She is amazing! At only 16 years old she has an amazing voice and is on track to make it big! On the end is Dillon Dixon. He is a really great song writer and also has a great voice. Lauryn, Samantha and Megan have all written songs with him in the past. Many of Samantha's current songs were co-written with Dillon.

After the show we hung around for a little while and talked with a few of the performers and took pictures with Lauryn. She is so great and I am so proud of her! Here is the link to her Myspace page so that you can listen to some of her music.

Jami and I really would love to go back up to Nashville on Dec. 16th or the 17th for Lauryn's showcase at The Bluebird but I'm not sure that we'll make it because Jami has school and I don't have anyone to keep BR. I hate that we'll probably miss it because I would love to be there for that show. I know it's going to be special!

Jami and I love you Lauryn Taylor! 
Keep singing, writing and following your dream!!