Happy Birthday, Fuzzy Love of Our Life!

A Happy Happy 4th Birthday to Dallas/Cubbie/Cubbiebear/Stinker-bean/bubba/little bear/booger/sunshine bear/baby bear/blonde bear/bozie-bear/fuzzy butt/chicken noodle/bubbles/my cub/ BIRTHDAY BEAR!

Ask and you shall receive - a boat load of snow!

Once again, Brad and I were glued to weather.com in hopes of snow, lots of snow. Well boy oh boy we got snow and then some!


Here is my afternoon in a nutshell:

- Spend 3 and a half hours in the car trying to get home. Mostly due to some major traffic and a top speed of 5 mph. Lovely. And a side note, I really really needed a bathroom break.
- Finally out of traffic and my 4Runner ran straight into a ditch. I suppressed my FREAK-OUT emotions and pulled myself together and got out of the ditch.
- Had an internal celebration for my bravery.
- Got a little too excited and quickly humbled again. Couldn't make it up the hill to get home, now I'm in another ditch.
- Brad couldn't come rescue me because him and the neighbor couldn't get their 4x4 up our street. Sweet Brad packed a rescue kit and was going to walk the mile to come save me.
- Wonderful people stopped to help me and gave me a ride home. At this point I didn't really care who they were, as long as they would take me to a restroom.
- I finally made it HOME! Brad and I sat down to relax and eat dinner....and the electricity goes off!
- Argh!
- We finally have heat and light, and now I'm about to curl up on the couch and watch the best Christmas movie of all time, Home Alone :)

Check out the pics so far. It is supposed to snow heavily all night, which means an early wake up call from Brad and Dallas for some play time in the snow.

Let it Snow!

It's a good thing we got snow, because I was going to be TICKED if Houston, TX got snow and northeast Tennessee didn't! I am also thankful we got snow because Brad would have been pouty-pants all weekend if the snow didn't come through. He was watching the weather every day and had our entire weekend planned around playing in the snow / building fires / and eating soup.

So...I was more than happy when Brad and Dallas were dragging me out of bed early Saturday to bundle up and play outside. A happy Brad = happy Alicia :)

Taking a peek outside


Dallas and Kelso. Kelso lives next door and yes, she is wearing an adorable coat.

Here are a couple quick videos of Dallas enjoying the snow. The first video is Dallas bolting towards our neighbor - she is currently his favorite person.

The second video shows what Dallas likes to do in the snow. You'll notice the strange streaks in the yard, courtesy of Dallas's patented slide move.

giving thanks

Happy late Thanksgiving everyone! Brad, Dallas, and I had a pretty low key Thanksgiving in the new house. This was our first holiday without any family, therefore in order to distract us from being completely homesick, I cooked a huge Thanksgiving meal for an army. We spent the rest of the day in our pjs watching football :)

This may sound a tad corny, but we reflected all day on all that we have to be thankful for. It was this time last year when Brad started traveling to TN for work. At that time, the possibility of moving to TN seemed like the most far fetched idea. Don't you just love when God proves that HE is in full control and it is His will, not ours.....and life works out beautifully.

I give thanks everyday for our loving family and our faithful Jesus, and here are a couple recent additions:

A place to call "home"

Lots of quality time with my boys

p.s. We're still out in the country, but in a small neighborhood where Dallas and I can get back to our walking / occasional running routine like we had in TX. The nice view of the mountains is a new little perk I'm enjoying.

And I'm thankful for the most wonderful time of the year!

p.p.s. I'll go ahead and admit that I've been listening to Christmas music for a month, and I cry like a baby every time I hear "I'll be home for Christmas".

Don't agonize, organize

Excuse me, where has November gone??? Time flies when there is so much organizing and decorating to do! Brad's mom stayed with us for a week and helped us get all organized. It was WONDERFUL to have her help because quite frankly, I didn't even know where to begin. She has taught me that life is so much easier when things are labeled and in their spot.

Even Big D needed a label :)

We also got to do some furniture shopping in between organizing the house. Is it just me, or does everyone feel like they need all new furniture when moving into a new house? All of a sudden I really don't like some of my old stuff. I've also noticed my style has changed since Brad and I were first married. I used to like more modern design, but now I am more drawn to a traditional/southern look. Maybe living out in the country in Tennessee is rubbing off on me.

My mom-in-law Yvonne and I had so much fun visiting this one furniture store (twice) because they greet you with a cold bottle of Coke when you walk in the door. Now that is some fantastic customer service! Also, the sales lady gave me her home phone number in case I needed to get in touch with her. The people here take friendly to a whole new level.

Drum roll please . . . . .

We picked out new gorgeous dining room furniture and it should be here before Christmas!

Isn't it pretty!

And a front porch just isn't complete without a couple of rocking chairs.

THANK YOU Momma Hatton for taking such good care of us! I'm really missing our girl talks and your home cooked meals after work :)

Well, I've still got a lot of unpacking and decorating to do, but I'm loving every moment! I want to get things more situated before showing blog pics of the inside of the house.


Side note, the beautiful fall leaves have come and gone, but here is a small taste of what it looked like around here.

mi casa es MI casa!

WOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOO !!!!!!!

We did it! We closed on our first house last Friday. I would have blogged sooner but I have no idea where my camera cord is....or anything else for that matter (nice to know I could have used the memory card this whole time -oops). The house is just perfect - perfect for us and perfectly ours! Here are some pics of the house closing and moving events:

I was surprised that Brad was pretty tense during the whole closing meeting and I was the relaxed one.

It's official. We're home owners!

We love our Remax realtors that my mom referred for us, Teresa and Julie. They LOVED picking on Brad! Julie, festive in the witch hat, is telling the story about when her and Teresa knew this house was "the one" for Brad. It wasn't the big yard or basement......it was the built in mood lights in the master bedroom! Ha-ha!!! Julie is describing the awestruck look on Brad's face when he realized this unique perk. This has been the on going joke. Our fantastic realtors are convinced this will help in the baby making department. They sure know how to make Brad blush!

We were all set to have the movers come the next day, Halloween. We couldn't wait until then so we drove to the new house and had a picnic on the floor. Sweet Bradley carried me over the threshold.

My boys!

Saturday was a very busy moving day. We had to finish packing and the on and off again rain made it very interesting. Saturday morning Brad yelled for me to come look outside. It was the most beautiful full rainbow I have ever seen. A nice parting gift from our little rent house.


Even though we had only been in our rent house since February, we got to know our neighbors very well. I wish we could have taken them with us, but I know they will be lifelong friends of ours. Here is Dallas with the horseshoe champs, Katherine and Allen.

While the movers were hard at work, and Brad was supervising the whole operation - I was goofing off. I have always worked crazy hours and I've never been home for trick-or-treaters. I was pretty pumped to finally get to be a part of it, even though the movers had packed Dallas's bumble bee costume I specifically laid out for him. I thought it was pretty special that the first person to welcome us to the neighborhood was an 8 year old Storm Trooper.

Home Sweet Home

Stay tuned for a tour of the house. Hatton mom is coming to visit and help us get the house put together and organized. Believe me when I say, no one can organize like her! It will be a very fun and productive week.

Nighty night!

Bad Dog Mommy - Bad!

I'll explain the title in just a bit.

What a crazy busy week! How do you moms with real children do it?!? After a hectic day at work for both of us, Brad and I were going to meet our realtor at the new house to do the final walk-through. It was such a crazy day and I knew there was a lot we needed to do with packing, setting up utilities, house closing, yada-yada-ya. We were all smiles and so excited to go through the house and really know it was ours.

Then I got the phone call.

I forgot to pick up my sweet fuzzy baby from doggie day care. Geez Louise! What is wrong with me! They were kind enough to wait for me, but I'm pretty sure Dallas has been giving me sad looks all evening because he knows...oh yes...he knows.

Poor little guy. So mistreated.

Almost there!

If all goes as planned (dear Lord please!), we will close on our house on Friday and spend Halloween with the movers and boxes galore! Brad and I are excited, stressed, and surprisingly a little sad to leave our colorful rent house. We call it our "wing and a prayer" house. We moved far away from our family because it was clearly God's will for us - even though we weren't sure where we would live! In comes the bright blue rent house way out in the country with gold glitter painted walls. And it has been PERFECT! Nine months of quality time, camp fires, mountain views, laughter, and love. Our God provides!




This should be a pretty crazy week - look at me- I'm blogging to avoid having to pack and clean ;)

Camp Ruff n' More

Check it out! The doggie day care Dallas goes to during the week has started a blog:
www.campruffnmore.blogspot.com

The very first pic is Dallas on the diving board : )

Happy FALL You'ins*

Pumpkins, apple cider, colors of fall, new TV season, smell of autumn in the air, sweatshirts, college football, bowl of chili, fire in the fireplace, fall mums, toasting marshmallows, Christmas is on its way, no more mowing the lawn, smell of baked apple pie, bird hunting (for Brad), fall decorations, warm blankets, SUNDAY FOOTBALL

... and these are a few of my favorite things

* FYI...Folks around here do not say "you guys" or "ya'll". They say "you'ins".

So about that football. Brad and I are thrilled to have family just 4 hours away in Nashville. Last weekend we drove to Nashville and stayed the weekend with Brad's cousins. What a sweet and amazing family! We got to tag along and watch the girls go to their Homecoming dance and bonfire. Since Brad has never been to Nashville, we were going to drive in to downtown and check things out - that is, until I got super dooper sick. Yuck, but no sickness was going to keep me from going to the Titans vs Colts game that night! WOW! What an incredible experience!

Brad and the girlies


SMOKIN' HOT!


We were very excited to see Peyton Manning :) I learned something new - Peyton played for the University of Tennessee. What a good ol' boy!




I was just a little excited to be there ;)

On the way to our seats, we passed by Trace Adkins! He was headed to sing the national anthem. The guy in the black sweater is NFL hall of famer Eddie George. Trust me, I was freaking out and I wanted to ask for a picture, but I was trying to act civilized.

Best seat in the house!

Brad is such a smart and wonderful husband.
He declined having his picture taken with the lovely cheerleaders.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU Underwood family for such a wonderful time!

A couple of weeks ago Brad and I headed up the road to check out the changing leaves. They weren't changing much then, but the beautiful colors are starting to come out now. I had no idea that fall could be so beautiful.

Dinner and a college football game with our friends Matthew and Michelle.

Oh and one last update, we found little kitty a great home! Dallas tried to look for her for several days after she left, but he is back to his life as an only fuzzy child.

12 more days until we close on our house! WOOT!