Our First Christmas

36 weeks & 4 days.

Christmas this year wasn't our first time to celebrate it together, but it is our first Christmas together since we got married. The weekend before Christmas we had planned to do a photo shoot with my big prego belly. This was something I wanted to do for quite some time, but never really figured out when we were going to do it. Because it rained all day Saturday we weren't able to do photos of hubby & I together, but I still got a few photos inside of me & my baby belly.

Our first Christmas together in person!

Last year was our first Christmas together and we had just gotten engaged earlier that month (December 6, 2012). Autry proposed to me just before we watched the Park Hills Christmas Parade pass by. We had hoped to go to that parade again this year, but had to settle for one a little closer to home.

In case you don't already know,
that hang signal is "I love you" in sign language.

The year before that we celebrated Christmas in different states: he was in Mississippi and I was in Oklahoma. I made him a grey crochet hat (which he still has & wears) and cookies and I printed off the above picture and mailed it all to him!

I’m so glad that we are able to be together today and I’m excited that next year we’ll have Little Man to celebrate with us too!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas 2013 | Decorate a Real Tree

Growing up I always had a fake Christmas tree. Hubby, on the other hand, always had a real tree. Because this is our first Christmas as a married couple we wanted to start a new tradition of having a real tree each year. Because we are new to the area I had a hard time finding a tree farm for us to get a tree from so instead we just bought our tree from Walmart. They had a great selection of trees and I’m quite impressed with how beautiful ours has turned out.

If you’re planning on getting a real tree for the first time make sure you have a proper stand for it. You’ll want one that holds water so the tree wont dry up and become a fire hazard. You will also need to buy or borrow a saw or heavy duty limb cutters to cut off the end of the tree so it’s able to start soaking up water. Your tree will need to be watered every day to keep it from drying up. Ours ‘drinks’ about 8 oz. of water each day so I just add another glass of water to the tree stand each morning and so far its doing great!

As you can see, the tree fit pretty good in the back seat!

As I mentioned above, we got our tree from Walmart this year. We have a small 2 door car and weren’t really sure how we were going to get our tree home, but it ended up fitting nicely in the back seat with only a little bit of the top hanging out the passenger window. I will say that I made quite a mess on everything though!

Bringing the tree in the house.

Because the tree was all tied up I thought it wasn’t going to be very big, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it poofed up nicely once the bands were cut. Thank goodness! A small tree would’ve been awful. Autry told me the tree we picked out would be plenty big. He was right.

Notice Demi in the background sniffing the bits that had fallen off the tree.

It took both of us to get the tree in the stand. I held the top while Autry worked on the bottom to make sure it would stay in the stand. Demi was quite interested in the new object in the house.

This was taken right after we untied the tree.
I was a little worried it was going to stay looking like this.
But obviously it didn't, and it looks beautiful now!

The branches took a bit to fall back to where they were supposed to be. I guess it’s a good thing we decorated the tree the day after we bought it. That gave it plenty of time to fluff up. The cats ‘helped’ with the bottom branches. Both of them wouldn’t leave the branches alone so they really fell into their proper place. The cats still mess with the branches, though I try to discourage them from doing so.

I am quite happy with my yard sale ornaments!
Who says new is better anyway?

Pulling out the ornaments was fun. Earlier this fall I found a bunch of ornaments at a yard sale so of course I picked them up since I knew we were going to have a bigger tree than I had previously. We wouldn’t of had enough ornaments if I hadn’t picked up the boxes of glass balls. The red ones are my favorite! Autry pulled out all my Precious Moments ornaments. I haven’t used them in years, but I’m so glad he got them out because I forgot how pretty they are!

Same photo as the first in case you were wondering.

I think our tree turned out quite pretty. We had fun decorating it and I love that it’s simple. No beads, no ribbon. Just some lights and ornaments…and of course a few boxes of candy canes too! Not saying I don’t like trees with beads and ribbon, I’m just not good at putting those things on the tree and Autry doesn't care for them so we just didn't do them.

All the beautifully wrapped presents!
P.S. Check out my How To Gift Wrap A Box tutorial!

The day before we both wrapped the presents we had gotten for each other. Autry took over the living room and I took over the bedroom. I bought the wrapping paper last year in the after Christmas clearance sale and picked out rolls that had the same colors. I thought it the wrapped presents turned out beautifully! And do you remember the thrifted post I did back in September 2012 where I found the lace tree skirt? It adds a nice touch to our tree (though the cats love playing with the ties in the back and that’s frustrating since it never looks like it’s supposed to).

Well that’s all I have on our tree decorating for this year! Having a real tree is a new experience for me. I'd have to say that if your OCD about having clean floors then the falling needles might drive you a bit insane, but they don’t bother me too much. I just vacuum them up every few days and that works just fine for me! :)

Date Night | Card Games In Bed

To have a date night doesn't mean you have to go outside of your home. On many occasions Autry & I have a date night in and they are quite fun. Over the summer Autry worked a shift where he would get home around 11:30 or 12 at night. Many times we were both tired and didn't really feel up to doing much but still wanted to spend time together. The solution? Play a few rounds of a favorite card game while laying on our bed.

Some games you can play with a deck of cards:

Speed

2 Man Spades

Rummy

Poker

Go Fish

Crazy 8's

Of course don't limit yourself to a deck of cards...

Here are some other two player card game ideas:

Uno

Phase 10

WalMart usually has odd card games you can pick up for around $5 a set. Rules & Cards included. Just an idea if you're feeling adventurous and want to try something new!

We've also done nights where we play a board game together.

Here are a few ideas:

Scrabble

Monopoly

Risk

Candy Land

Operation

Sorry

Clue

There are a lot of board games out there so pick your favorite and start your stay in date night!

Our favorites are Rummy, Phase 10 and Scrabble.

What are your favorite games to play together?

Date Night | Go to a Pro Baseball Game

Autry was given a set of tickets to a Cardinals Baseball Game awhile back. It had been YEARS since I last went to a Cardinals game so of course when he called me to tell me he got tickets I was surprised! (After I realized he wasn't going to chaperon kids, but would actually be able to take me with him!) Immediately I was making plans for the game. Of course I couldn't go without some cherry Twizzlers, and since Autry doesn't like those we had to make a short trip to the grocery store a few days before the game to make sure we had plenty of snacks to last the game.

Here are some photos of St. Louis & of course the famous Busch Stadium!

I wanted SO bad to walk the 3 blocks or so to see the Arch with Autry, but he told me I didn't need to walk that far since we had walked 10 blocks to get to the game, and then over half the stadium to get to our seats. By the time the game was over and we had walked back to the car I was SUPER glad I had not insisted on walking over there.

Autry has a habit of wanting to be places early, going to the game was no exception...so I started snapping pics of the guys smoothing out the field. This was turned out pretty good, don't you think?

I remember visiting the Old Courthouse when I was 16. Its a really neat building. I'd love to go there again sometime, hopefully with Autry.

Another shot of the arch. From the stadium there weren't a lot of places to get a really great pic of it, but I did what I could.

I took this picture with the camera zoomed in, only I didn't know that until I looked at the camera. The pic didn't turn out all bad though. I still tried taking a pic of us together in the stands.

A pic of us in the stands.

I didn't notice this right away, but do you see the arch cut out in the grass of the outfield? I thought that was really awesome!

I'm not really sure why I took this photo.

Some of the players standing around of the field.

The players in action.

They put some of the players up on the screen when they were up to bat. This one is David Freese.

Another one: Yadier Molina.

Sunset at Busch Stadium.

Lights on in front of the Arch.

Another shot of dusk at the Busch Stadium.

One final shot of the field.

So if you plan to go to the Busch Stadium, or any Pro game you might want to know that snacks at the conesssion stands are OUTRAGEOUS! If you don't plan on spending a small fortune on concessions then you'll want to plan to bring your own snacks & water. Just a heads up. Oh, and don't wear flip flops...wear tennis shoes. And bring extra cash to pay for parking. It's anywhere from $5-$20 depending on how close you park. Crazy, but true. I'm just glad we happened to have cash on hand when we went to the game.

This is a super fun date idea, and it could also be a good double date idea too! Or at least I think it would be.

Louisiana Homemade Gumbo

Autry, my husband, is from Mississippi. He has Cajun blood in him and on occasion wants to make something up that I've never heard of before. Now I have heard of Gumbo, but as far as I know I've never seen it before August. I am allergic to seafood and when Autry & I were shopping for the ingredients I told him I didn't think I'd want any of the gumbo once it was made up. He said, "Wait until you smell it and you'll want some." I didn't think so, but when the process was almost finished I was starting to wish I had taken him up on his offer of making me some without the seafood in it. Anyway, this recipe has a fairly long process to it, but it's worth it and MUCH better the next day. If I had been in my right mind I would've taken photos of the process, but really I worked hard on the directions so hopefully that will work. Of course you can always leave a question in the comments and I can ask him about it.

Ingredients

3 frozen boneless chicken breasts

2 15oz. cans chicken broth

2 13oz. pkg. Hillshire Farm Beef Smoked Sausages

2 8oz. pkg. frozen celery

1 16oz. pkg. Pictsweet frozen okra

1 12oz. package frozen extra small shrimp

2 12oz. packages Flake Style Crab Flavored Seafood

2 4.5 oz. boxes Zatarain’s New Orleans Style Gumbo Base

Salt & Pepper

Cayenne Pepper

1 Tablespoon Onion Powder

Directions

1. In a 3 gallon pot place the thawed out boneless chicken breasts. Add in the cans of chicken broth and then fill the pot to a little more than halfway full with water. Place on the stove and bring to a boil over high heat. Cook the chicken for 30-40 minutes or until, when cut open, the inside of the chicken is completely white. Remove the chicken from the broth and put on a plate to cool.

2. While the chicken is boiling, slice up the sausage into chunks and put in a bowl. Let the frozen celery, okra and shrimp thaw out. Once the chicken is removed from the broth pour in the sausage, celery, and okra. Cook until each one is tender. This might take about 10 minutes in boiling water.

3. While the sausage/celery/okra is cooking, shred the chicken up. You can do it in big chunks or really shredded. Add this to the pot when the other three are finished cooking.

4. Stir in the thawed out shrimp and add the crab meat to the pot by breaking it off in chunks and stirring it in.

5. Take some of the boiling water and put it in a large bowl. Using a whisk, slowly pour the gumbo base into the bowl of water, and mix. This is to help keep it from clumping up, because it will clump up if you pour it straight from the package into the gumbo pot. Once you've dissolved both packages of gumbo base in the bowl, pour it all into the main pot and stir again.

6. Add in the salt, pepper, cayenne, and onion powder to taste. (I put 1 Tablespoon as a recommendation for the onion powder but you might like more. It’s all about flavor!)

7. Stir the pot of gumbo up really well. Cover with a lid and set it on a cool burner for 1-2 hours to let the flavors blend. Enjoy!

Notes

~Sausage: the brand of the sausage really doesn't matter, that’s what we were able to find at our Walmart so that’s what we used. I wrote down the specifics so it’d be easier for someone else to find if they were looking for it.

~You can use fresh celery and okra, but you will have to cook it up in a separate pot before you add it to your gumbo pot. We used frozen because it seemed easier in the long run. I put the brand name on the Okra because that’s the only frozen okra we could find that wasn't breaded.

~Crab Meat: As I said with the sausage, this is just what we found at Walmart and used so if something looks better or you have fresh crab meat, by all means use it!

~Gumbo Base: It took use awhile to find the gumbo base, but we eventually did find it on the rice & beans isle. There’s a small section with different boxes of Louisiana foods and the gumbo base was by it. Don’t be confused with the regular gumbo base (which we used) and the gumbo base with rice (which we didn't use). Those are both right next to each other. You’ll want the one without rice if you’re following this recipe.

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Road Trip: Mississippi

Autry drove practically the whole time, and that was just fine with me!

In May Autry & I took a little road trip to Mississippi. I had only met a handful of people from his family this past February when we got married & I was anxious to meet the rest of them. He has a HUGE family! He always told me that, but for some reason it didn't really sink in until I started to meet them...one by one. He has a lot of family! :) Not saying that's a bad thing either. I really had a good time with his family. We played phase 10, went shopping at thrift stores and ate a lot of great food too.

We crossed several state lines. Arkansas was the one we stopped at on the way down. We missed the Tennessee state line when we were headed down because of car trouble. We were too focused on trying to find somewhere to get the car looked to even think of getting a photo at the road side sign.

I think I look pretty good for hopping out of the car the second we saw the sign.

Autry didn't want to take all the pics, but I finally convinced him. I like photos. They're nice to have. We didn't know I was pregnant yet. It was sure an uncomfortable car ride though. I've had rough car rides before, but this one felt different. I kept telling Autry I wasn't sure but I was sure ready to find out.

One more snapshot of the sign before we got back on the road.

We drove across a lot of really cool bridges in Arkansas. This is the one of the few pics I snapped that worked out. I love these bridges! I think they're really pretty.

I snacked on homemade mini chocolate chip cookies & crunchy Cheetos on the way down. To this day I don't understand why I ate those things together. Until I got pregnant I don't think I liked mixing sweets & salty together? I honestly can't remember.

This photo didn't turn out half as good as the real thing, but the trees. Oh my gosh! The trees! There were so many of them! Autry always told me about the trees growing right along the road, and when we got REALLY in the south (where he's from) they do.

One of the first places we stopped the day after we got in was to drive by where he used to go to high school. It was really interesting seeing where he went to school. We didn't go in past the gate or anything, but it was still neat.

One of the first days we were there we went and saw our niece, nephew, his sister, mom and grandma. I had met them all previously at the wedding, but it was still nice to spend time with them again. We had pizza that first day I think. She was trying to be shy, but didn't really have far to go before I snapped a pic.

Nephew had a hard time with the flash on the camera. I couldn't get him to keep his eyes open long enough for me to get a pic, but I thought this was cute.

One day Niece came over to where we were staying. She got quite tired and feel asleep in the bed. It was so precious!

Nephew & Autry spent a good bit of time swimming in the pool. I would've went swimming but it was MUCH too cold for me!

These delicious looking tacos were made by Autry's aunt. They were SO good!

Notice the Phase 10 cards? We played that a lot while I was there.

One night Nephew & Autry we sitting together watching a movie. They used to do this all the time before Autry moved up to Missouri.

While we were there, Autry's cousin's Chase & Mallory had a craw fish boil while we were there. Let me just say that I didn't try it because I'm allergic to shell fish. I have TONS of photos from this event which I might write a separate post on it.

Of course on Mother's Day we announced that we were expecting our first little one. Everyone was really surprised & equally happy. It was a fun way to tell everyone.

Autry's sister bought a cake for my birthday. I was quite surprised! It was pink & camo. :)

Chase, Autry's cousin, made some of his famous spaghetti. It's really soupy & has some spice to it, but really wasn't too bad. (I hate spicy food, but I was brave and tried it.)

My birthday was May 14th. Autry bought me the stuff to make Italian food (my favorite).

A pic of me on my birthday. Autry bought me flowers and a teddy bear. :)

This is me and Autry's cousins little boy. He called me Aunt Helen.

This is Autry's cousins little boy. He is a sweetheart.

The boys giving me goodbye hugs & kisses. Nephew was really sad I was leaving.

Before we headed home we made one last stop at Red Bluff, Marion County, MS. It's SO beautiful, but I was scared to death of getting too close to the edge because it's a pretty far drop down there.

First Stafford Family photo. We were both really excited. (still are!)

On the way out we drove past this 'swap-like' place. Autry said it wasn't a swamp, but it sure looked like one to me.

Another photo of a bridge on the way home. I really like these bridges!

Back in Missouri: a beautiful Missouri sunset.

Our Missouri trip earlier this year went really well and we had a lot of fun. We didn't get to do a lot of the things we had planned on doing, but we sure had a good time & I am looking forward to our next trip to the south!