Manny

Willow has made a new friend, and if she plays her cards right she just may land herself the role of girlfriend! His name is Manny, and at 9 years old he's much wiser and calmer than Willow.
She loves it when he comes over with his mom (my friend Janie) and she can't seem to tone down her excitement! In fact I can't even get a picture of them together because Willow moves so fast he's often scared into hiding from her! It's super cute when he's relaxed because his tongue just hangs out the side of his mouth, just like the first Chihuahua I ever met (RIP Emma Walker, I loved you so!)
Hopefully as the relationship progresses I'll get a picture of them together, it's so precious because she's twice his size! Isn't he so cute???

Merry Christmas!

We hope your day is filled with joy and love!

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Christmas Eve

This Christmas Eve has been absolutely wonderful for me! My whole entire family has been here and we were able to do my absolute favorite Christmas tradition! Nothing makes me happier than attending the Christmas Eve service with my whole family, and this year we did it in style! My favorite part is always the end as we sing Silent Night and light up the sanctuary with candlelight!
Emmy helped Uncle Brad blow out his candle after we sang Silent Night. She was such a trooper during church! She and her sister Hayden had the cutest matching Christmas dresses!
After church we always go to my Uncle Mark and Aunt Linda's house for a big Christmas Eve dinner with my Gramma Rowe and a bunch of family friends. It's so fun to see all the kids in their Christmas attire, & there's always tons of good food so we really have a great time!
At Mark & Linda's house there was no shortage of attention for my nieces! My cousin Laura and a few of her friends had a GREAT time playing with Emmy and practically held her hand everywhere she went!
Karo and Ava, doesn't she look so cute all bundled up and ready to brave the cold weather? Also, check out Laura in her cute dress! She was excited to stay up late to attend the midnight church service, a tradition for her immediate family. It's crazy to see how grown up she looks, I can remember her being Emmy's age like it was yesterday!
After dinner at Uncle Mark & Aunt Linda's house we headed home to get the nieces to bed. Greg, Gina, Ava & I stopped at Walmart to pick up a few things for the one child who was left at my hospital for Christmas Eve. The child wasn't going to be able to go home so we decided to buy a few gifts, fill a stocking, and leave them at the hospital room door in the name of Santa. I meant to get pictures, but got so wrapped up in the process that I forgot. Mom & Dad accompanied me back to the hospital and we went up to the Pedi floor to drop off the gifts. It was nice to be able to give back to someone who wasn't having the merriest Christmas. After all, this holiday is all about giving, and God gave the biggest gift of all, a Savior named Jesus!
Hope you are able to enjoy some time with your family this night, and that you get to celebrate the ultimate gift that's been given to you, life in Christ!

Snuggie Time!

My secret Santa has really made me happy! Sitting on my porch was the most ridiculously adorable piece of clothing that's ever been gifted to me. A dog snuggie! Willow isn't so sure about the snuggie yet, but I think on a really cold January day this garment is going to be very handy!

Fun with wrapping!

This may not be all that exciting to my readers, but I had lots of fun this year wrapping the gifts I bought for friends and family. I tried out some new looks with tulle, organza & ribbon, then made all my own name cards using cardstock and colored ZIG pens. The best part is that I only spent $10 on all the supplies! I had wrapping paper left over from last year and only bought one new roll of black and white velvet patterened paper from Target. Pretty cute if I do say so myself!

For my niece who is learning to read I made tags that I thought she could read. Each tag had an initial for the person that would receive that specific gift, so for example shown above it read "E is for Emmy". Below I decided to use part of my cousin's gift as a part of the bow! She wanted this giraffe webkin and I knew her face would light up when she saw it sitting on top!

More presents on my doorstep!

For those of you interested in the secret santa saga going on at my house, I've received more presents!

Yesterday I think Santa was helping me gear up for celebrations because they brought my some sparkling grape juice and two little adorable cups to toast with!

Today when I arrived (after a stressful day I might add) I found a box full of Hershey's Golden Almond Chocolate bars. I was really good and held off from tearing into that box to relieve my stress, but I have a feeling that box is coming open tomorrow!

Thanks so much Santa, I'm enjoying this more than I can say! I hope you enjoy the muddy buddy's I left out for you today! Every good Santa deserves a tasty treat!

Another Christmas party!

This year for our singles Sunday School Christmas party we went with a Christmas morning theme. Everyone showed up in their jammies, we ate, opened gifts and played games! Dinner was tasty mexican, we did the white elephant/nasty Christmas gift exchange, and the game was lifesize candy land!

Here's the gift I brought for White Elephant, turns out I wasn't super creative with this because two other guys brought blue Snuggies. Oh well! My friend Sheresa ended up with the pink snuggie and was pretty excited about it since she's got a newborn and spends a good amount of time cuddling! Jenni ended up with this organization pack of notepads, and I got an ornament and some hot chocolate. I kind of don't know if everyone else understood white elephant implied it was supposed to be tacky or unusual gifts...anyway...


After the gift exchange we moved into the church gym where some of the girls in our class had put together a lifesize candy land game board! I was excited about this idea since I play this game lots at work, and couldn't wait to see what the girls came up with! The decorations were really cute and we had a great time playing the game!




Jenni and I were paired up and moved our way through the board slow and steady, and in the end our baby steps paid off as we drew the coveted green card that took us to Candy Land's castle, crowning us the winners!
We were awarded some yummy snacks and more hot chocolate, we're starting to have a massive hot chocolate collection in this house! After the game we settled into a movie area with Starbucks hot chocolate & Christmas desserts to watch The Star of Bethlehem. I wasn't sure what to expect but was told the movie would be encouraging to my faith and that the guy who made the video had used astrology and stars to prove the timing of Jesus' birth was indeed true. I'm not sure how exactly to explain the film even after watching it, but I did really enjoy it and definitely was encouraged by the things that have been found to be both scientifically and Biblically true about what went down when Jesus was born. I highly recommend this film!
You can check out the website here: The Star of Bethlehem Movie
Netflix also is supposed to have the film, but as of today it's the bottom spot in my queue with an 'unknown shipping date'.


As we left we were given free hoodies and t-shirts with our single's ministry's logo on them and they're super cute! We were definitely spoiled at this party!
By the end of the night we had all had a good time celebrating the birth of our Savior! I'm glad to have met so many people over the past few months that are fun, who encourage me to grow in my faith, and who just live life with me!

Santa's canine helpers!

Last week our Tender Loving K9 therapy dogs showed up at our hospital in super cute elf and Mrs. Clause costumes! I managed to get a quick pic of Gracie- an Australian Shepherd, and Luke- a Golden Retriever. Luke is a ball of energy & fur, which you can see peeking out the front of his elf shirt! Gracie is exactly that - a smart, sweet, graceful gal with super soft fur!

This week two of my favorites came to visit. First was Toby - a cockapoo who brought with him Bandit - a pug who is always out of breath! They're absolutely adorable in their Christmas garb!

Toby had the same costume that Luke wore, and he was patient enough to keep his elf hat on!

Bandit was super festive with a ribbon and bells bandana complete with a light up Christmas tree! I absolutely love our therapy dogs, and these costumes made their weekly visit even more exciting!

Sorry the pictures are kind of blurry, these dogs were too excited about Christmas to hold still for silly pictures!

I have a secret Santa...

I'm being incredibly spoiled by a certain sneaky Santa! It began last Sunday, December 13. I was home doing dishes when the doorbell rang, and by the time I dried my hands and got to the door I found nothing but a pan of brownies on the porch with "Merry Christmas Sarah" written on top.

I smiled, looked around to find I was alone, assumed it was a neighbor dropping off the tasty treat and took the pan inside for safe keeping. Those brownies were delish and definitely disappeared faster than is healthy.
Two days later on Tuesday I came home to TWO large Bath & Body Works glass candle pots with a note that read "Merry Christmas Sarah, sorry we missed you yesterday" I was really excited to have found more gifts on the porch, and began to wonder who dropped the gifts off, and wondered how long this might go on. Since this began on the 13th, I've received gifts for each day, and I'm thinking someone is treating me to 12 Days of Christmas! I have felt abundantly blessed this year, and these gifts each day have all been the icing on the cake! I can't wait to find out who is treating me to all these surprises so I can give them major thanks!
Here are snaps of the sweet and thoughtful gifts I've been enjoying...they obviously know me well, each day it something I LOVE! I somehow deleted the picture I took of our Day 1 gift but the rest of the days have been as follows:

December 13 - Chocolate chip brownies with caramel drizzled on top!

December 15 -

Two Bath & Body Works candles! Cinnamon Stick & Vanilla Shortbread-They smell amazing!

December 16 -Woof chewy stocking for Willow!

December 17 - Ooh La La Choco Choco cupcake!

December 19 - Fudge Hot Chocolate mix with super cute mugs!

December 20 - Twilight action figures and collectable tin with journals!
I'll keep you posted if more things appear, and if you're the one playing Santa I hope you know how much joy this has brought me! Merry Christmas!!!

Most wonderful present!

I have this brother, let's call him Brad. He currently holds the coveted "Brother of the Year" title...which I won't elaborate on for fear of rubbing it in the faces of my other two brothers. Let's just say it helps that he lives close and does TONS of helpful things for his sister. This year his Christmas gift is an example of why he currently takes the prize. He got me something I would never splurge on for myself, but that I am now obsessed with!

For weeks now both Brad and my parents have been mentioning what an awesome gift he found for me, and have been saying how much I would enjoy it come post Christmas season. I was no doubt intrigued, but my main reaction was that of fear. How would I come up with an equally cool gift for my brother? I'm older and a bit controlling so I wanted to hold the upper hand, but now that I know what he got me I realize he plain wins this year.

Last week Brad called me at work, anxious and unable to wait any longer to see my reaction to his gift. He called maybe 8 times that day begging me to move our gift exchange up to that evening and I had to delay since I hadn't yet picked up his gift! Finally I made it out the door at work, swung by the Ford dealer to pick up the hood ornament he wanted for his truck, and quickly wrapped his gift. I got to my parents house and after some shaking I opened the box with my name on it. Sneaky he was, for it was a piece of paper that instructed me to check the dog's crate to find my gift. Inside I found a large box which I quickly tore open to find....

A Blu-ray Player!! Not just any player, this machine lets me instantly stream movies from Blockbuster & Netflix, and also allows me to play my Pandora radio stations via the TV. Wait, there's more! I can also surf YouTube from this thing! It's amazing!! Brad came over that night to install it in my living room, and opened my eyes to the many HD TV channels I've been paying for that I never knew I had! I couldn't believe I could have been watching such a better picture all that time! Since last week I got my first Blu-ray movie, Julie & Julia, and I've constantly had Pandora playing while I'm home wrapping gifts and cooking!

I absolutely LOVE this gift & cannot thank my younger bro enough! You win Big Bad!!

Most Amazing Christmas Lights Ever!

Saturday night we started out at a friend's house for dinner, then made hot chocolate to go and packed in the car to drive around Houston to see Christmas lights. We had heard about a few houses that were supposed to take the cake, and luckily one was only a mile or so from our starting point! We were obsessed with the show going on at this house!

Hope you enjoy this as much as we did! We were less impressed by everything we saw after this house, but we had a great time and enjoyed seeing everyone's style! Happy viewing!

Open House Christmas edition

Last December I shared a few of the items that I'd collected to help me decorate my home for Christmas. This year I dug out all the same stuff, and added a bit more! I can see how people grow weary of the Christmas decorating job when they've had many years to collect decorations, but for now I love finding each thing a place in my home. As I mentioned last year I have a mental connection between the words Christmas & sparkly, so there's lots of glitter right now! Hope you enjoy peeking at my decorations as much as I do!Lighted garland for my door, and my little log reindeer made it a whole year in the flower bed without rotting! He just needs new antlers, and is quite happy under my little red berry bush!

Entry way snapshot, including new lamp that I waited forever to get! The little green tree was my only tree in college, and the wire tree on the bottom was my secret santa gift this year!

Even the piano needed a little sparkle!



I've become obsessed with the etched mercury look I started last year with the purchase of a couple of candle pillars. This year I added these oversized ornaments from PB, laid my sparkly garland and a few ornaments to another glass canister. This looks really good at night when the candles are lit.

Below is a new lit star I got for the wall, I just can't pass up a good Texas star!

The kitchen table is a perfect home for my flocked hydrangeas, and I added some votives with mirrors that make it a sparkly centerpiece when the candles are lit!


Now on to my favorite room of the house! Last year the Christmas tree was in a different place, visible from the street. With new furniture this year it didn't fit in the old place but I absolutely LOVE the new layout. It's such a happy room!



Come visit soon, we have lots of tasty treats and Willow would love to cuddle with you!