White Christmas

December 29, 2009

Christmas is the most amazing time of the year. Everyone hangs Christmas lights and sets up Christmas trees, Christmas music fills the air, and I get to eat sweets… a LOT. Well, I already eat a lot of sweets, but I get to eat a LLLOOOTT of sweets. To top it all off, we got to experience our first white Christmas I can remember. On Christmas Eve it was like a blizzard outside, with the snow blowing sideways at 40 mph. It was AWESOME! So, on Christmas Day, everything was covered in white and I had a permanent smile.

We had Christmas at my mom and dad’s house like always. It is totally my favorite thing when we all get up early on Christmas morning and watch the kids run into the living room with amazement on their faces from all the things Santa brought them. I LOVE Christmas. So, I thought I would share a few of the pictures I grabbed on my favorite day of the year.

Santa always puts underwear on the tree. My niece (4) thought that was hilarious!

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Kinzie and Austin

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Austin and my hub

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Pop (my grandpa) excited about a picture of the kids I gave him!

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My mom snagged one of me (please excuse the hideousness). My mom’s dog Darlin is trying to get into my coffee. She must like it as much as I do… lol!

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After presents and breakfast, there was a snowball fight and snowman making.

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My dad is going to kill me for this one….

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I think my mom’s dog looks like a skunk.

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Kinzie helping Papaw roll the middle of the snowman!

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Eric and Austin rolling the bottom of the snowman!

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She got tired…

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The bottom was getting so big that they couldn’t roll it!

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You can see how heavy it is by the strain on their faces!

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The reveal of the snowman!

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The final product: 6′3″ snowman. Wow. And it’s STILL standing.

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Eric and I have not been on a vacation together since our honeymoon to Cozumel 2 1/2 years ago. It’s not that we don’t like to travel…. we do…. but school, work, and finances always seemed to get in the way. I know you understand.

I’m really close to my family…. like I’m literally 4 minutes down the road from my mom and dad’s house. We seriously hang out with them ALL the time. I just LOVE my family and I’ve missed them so much this week. We don’t get to see Eric’s side of the family quite as often, so I was a little surprised when he INSISTED that we travel across the country to see his Uncle get married. I didn’t oppose, since I love to travel and I wanted to see where Eric spent every summer growing up.
So, we’ve been here since Thursday. I have to say, as a “side” note, God is SO freakin’ amazing. Seriously. We booked 2 round trip plane tickets to North Carolina and only had to pay for 1. I don’t know. All I can say is thank you Jesus. In the last 5 days we have spent time with Eric’s family (yes, they are rednecks from Lumberton, NC … which is the reason I fit in so well….) eating some amazing Southern cooked food. I was seriously doing so well on Weight Watchers before I came here. I promise I will get back on when I get home. :) But anyway, I LOVE his family. For real…. they’re all awesome. I’ve had such a great time getting to know them and where they all have grown up.

On Saturday, Eric’s uncle Jonathan got married to his new beautiful bride Renee. Here are a few I snagged from the 3rd row during the ceremony….

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After the wedding we went to eat at an infamous Lumberton restaurant called Village Inn where I experienced the most incredible Hush Puppies E-Vah. And I had the worst somach ache E-Vah. LOL! Oh, and NO ONE could convince me to try the southern specialty “Liver Puddin.”  Yeah, it’s looks as gross as it sounds.

On Sunday, we drove 4 hours to see our friends who are all musicians at NewSpring Church in Anderson, South Carolina. We made it to the 4:00 service to hang out with some of them in the green room and stayed to watch them rock our faces off during the 6:00pm service… Perry Noble (the pastor) also preached my face off. It was all amazing. We were able to stay at the Worship Leader Lee McDerment’s house for a couple days, where he and his roommates Joey and Craig provided and incredible time for us! I seriously love all those guys. Lee is an awesome mentor for Eric - musicially and spiritually - and Joey and Craig blessed us so much while we were there, too… such great friends.by the way, if you haven’t heard of NewSpring Church, you TOTALLY need to check them out. They have videos of their services online that will change your world. PLUS, if you go to StoneWater and want to get a head start on some of the new worship songs we’ll be incorporating, check out last week’s service! :)

Yesterday we traveled to Greenville, SC, which is about 25 minutes away from Anderson. It has this amazing strip of restaurants and shops… plus  a park with a beautiful waterfall. We ate Sushi at Taco Sushi, had coffee at Spill the Beans, and I grabbed a few photos of Joey and Craig at some of the pretty buildings that were there. Oh, and Eric got an $8 parking ticket. Splendid.

Here are a few shots of Joey!

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Here are some of Craig!

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And here are some of all the boys (including Eric)!

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And then, of course, they had to gross me out… just kidding… TOO funny…

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Here’s a quick shot of me and Eric just before we left Greenville!

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And here’s a picture of the the Greenville strip I was telling you about!

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We drove back to Lumberton tonight and we have 1 more day to spend with the family. I can’t believe how much I love Eric’s family. They totally welcomed me in and treat me like one of them. I really hope I can see them more often!

And, hence the title of the blog… sorry about all the slacking as far as business has gone. I thought I would work more on my vacation, but hey… it’s VACATION. Who was I kidding? Back to work on Friday!

Everyone needs friends | Ashley Wilkins Photography: [...] Eric and I have some really awesome friends. Seriously, we feel SO blessed to have made some really great relationships with people in the last several years. Not only do we have amazing friends from our church here in Granbury, but we are so lucky to have a special relationship with some people over at Newspring Church in South Carolina - where we have been able to learn from and be encouraged by in the last few years. Every person that we’ve met from Newspring has been so incredibly humble and gracious in allowing us to come up there and hang out with them, learn from them, and even stay in their homes. The last time we made our way to South Carolina, we stayed with the Worship Leader, Lee McDerment, and his two roommates Joey [...]

Angle Me Right

November 15, 2009

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Homemade Payday

November 6, 2009

Every Halloween I look forward to hanging out with my family, eating the traditional chili-dogs, and giving out candy to all the cute little trick-or-treaters. This year, my mom and I decorated the front porch with orange lights, jack-o-lanterns, pumpkins, scarecrows, cats, skeletons… you name it, we had it. It was lookin’ spppooookkkyyyy. Kinda. Most of the comments we got were about how beautiful my mom’s flower bed looked in the front yard, but hey… it was a SCARY flower bed.

Here is a picture of Romeo awaiting the trick-or-treaters.

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A couple Halloween’s ago, I was introduced to a new holiday treat that I thought would be fun to share with you, especially since all the halloween candy is now on sale! It’s really simple. All you do is buy a bag of candycorn (stay with me, I don’t like candycorn by itself either…), buy a jar of peanuts, and mix them together in a bowl. Then comes the hard part… you have to eat them at the SAME TIME. Yes, I know, this takes coordination to hold peanuts and candycorn in your hand and pop them in your mouth all at once, but it IS possible! When you taste the two otherwise less-than-desirable foods together, you get a Homemade Payday. Yes, I know I could just buy a bunch of Paydays at the store… but that’s not celebrating the Halloween spooky-ness without the candycorn. So next Halloween, try the little concoction and you will find it to be a surprisingly tasty treat! :)

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Earnestine: Ashley, you have to put milk chocolate chips in with the corn and nuts. Then you can't resist. delish

High School Football

October 23, 2009

It’s an obsession really. People go crazy… yelling, screaming, chanting…. They wear their headphones to hear the radio broadcast the game as they watch it happen right in front of them. They bring their stat books and rosters to check up on the latest all-stars. They have on all the gear - Blue and Gold from head to toe. Shirts, socks, jackets, jewelry, buttons, ear-muffs… it’s all Blue and Gold. They bring their propane cans, coffee cans, and paint cans… .all filled with rocks…. shaking them to cheer the team on. Those fans are the ultimate fans. The Can-Fans. Yeah, they have their own name…. and section in the bleachers… What in the world could possibly cause such a stir?  Stephenville Football.

Yes, tonight I will be watching my Alma Mater, Stephenville, take on my new home-town Granbury. Yes, I will be sitting on the Granbury side…. I’ll be cheering for Granbury when (and if) they score, but deep down, it’s hard to shake the old Yellow Jacket Fever from inside. Good luck, Pirates. I hope you come out alive.

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VS

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