2010 in review

2010 was a great year! Eric and I began the year with an obession with the new Super Mario Bros for Wii. We played that thing nonstop almost until we beat it. On the second day of the year my big sister got engaged which gave everyone something to look forward to later on in the year.

I began this blog in April setting a goal to post once a week. Seems like a reached that goal except for in the months of September and October. Pretty impressive since I never had anything too exciting to talk about :) Eric and I hit two years of marriage at the end of April! Yay! In May, my third graders won the tug-a-war competition at Field Day which was the most awesome accomplishment for them ending my 2nd year of teaching!

At the beginning of the summer, it was time for Paula and JP's pharmacy school graduation festivities. Fun times, as my sister was the valdictorian! In June and July, I spent a lot of my time at the salon which was not as much fun as the past, but I made some money! Made me even more ready for the school year to begin :)

Beginning of August of course started with my b-day. I turned 25! The day after, work began again showing me how much I just love my job and the people I work with :) I was blessed this year with a pretty cool group of kiddos. Labor Day weekend rolled around pretty fast, and it was time for the Barefoot On The Beach Wedding! The wedding was very pretty and everyone had a blast on their mini-vacation get-a-way.

October began with me taking a pregnancy test, seeing it was positive, and being in disbelief! Eric and I had only been trying for a little over a month. After the initial shock and excitement wore off, we were able to share the news with our family. Something (someone) very exciting to spend the seconf half of 2011 with :)

Thanksgiving and Christmas rolled around faster than ever. The holidays were busy and fun as usual. Plus, I had an excuse to eat more :) Tonight is New Year's Eve, Eric and I will be spending it at Paula and JP's house playing games and eating snack foods ending 2010!

Christmas Festivities!

Christmas this year was both busy and fun! Christmas Eve, JoJo and I headed to my parent's house for me to make cookies and him to play with Lacie. Lacie and JoJo had a blast playing with each other for two and a half hours while we decorated cookies. Later on that day, we all headed to Hope for the Christmas Eve service which was very entertaining. I always love the music. There was a cute baby girl sitting in front of Eric and me and we enjoyed watching her throughout the service. Can't wait to meet our baby! After church, it was time for shrimp and other goodies. Dinner was awesome. Then we played Imagine Iff together and headed home to open our Christmas presents. Eric and I spent very little on each other this year since we are paying for all this school and trying to save for the baby. He got me the only item I asked for which was a Snuggie, and I am using it as I type this :) I got him a heating pad, a Titans flag to hang in his office, and a new Mountain Dew shirt. We got JoJo a squirrel house. It is a toy that holds three toy squirrels in the inside. He has to try to get them out. He seems to really like it.

Opening his present!

Trying to figure out what to do with it :)

Christmas morning we headed back to my parent's house for the tradition of breakfast and present opening. For breakfast I had scrambled eggs, one fried egg, one biscuit, one and 1/2 pieces of wheat toast, three pieces of bacon, and grape juice. It was delicious and very filling :) Opening presents is always fun, JoJo seemed to enjoy running back and forth "helping" people unwrap. I got some great gifts. I think my favorite presents from my mom are my boots and my pea coat. They are so cute, especially together! I loved all my gifts, and I think everyone loved the gifts I gave them.

Joey and his new "indestructible" froggie toy

Mama and her favorite Christmas movie of all time

Me and Paula with the gifts I gave her. Glad she liked them!

Daddy with his pillow and shirt I gave him

After my parent's house, we headed to Eric's parents for lunch and presents. We had ham, dressing, deviled eggs, and a couple of casseroles. Of course my favorite part was the cheesecake for dessert :) For presents, we always receive cash which we actually love. This year, the majority of our cash went straight into our "baby jar" where we are saving up money for big baby items like the crib.

Us :)

The Faughts :)

Christmas night a new tradition was started! We headed to Paula and John Paul's house for dinner, presents, and games. We had ham, corn, sweet potato casserole, grape salad, and desserts. I loved the sweet potato casserole and grape salad. They were delicious! Eric and I got tervis tumblers from the "Adams." Eric is super excited about his Memphis tumbler since he has been borrowing my ladybug cup since August. We love our mini Memphis tumblers. They are going to be very useful around the house! I only have one pic from Paula's and that is of me and Em in front of the tree :)

This Christmas was a success and next year will be even more fun when Eric and I get to start new traditions with our child :)

Family Christmas Party

Well, our family Christmas party proved to be a success for the third year in a row! Everyone that came seemed to enjoy themselves. We had a great table full of food and another table full of desserts. Plus, our "famous" taco soup which actually more people ate this year than ever. Eric was proud :) I didn't take pictures at the party, but here are a couple of pics of the food preparation that Eric, Em, and I did!

Taco meat full of onions and peppers

All the yummy colorful veggies

The cookie platter with cookies from my school cookie swap. They were a hit!

Christmas Break!

Woke up to my first day of Christmas Break with a little bit of snow on the ground! That was a surprise! JoJo can't seem to stop staring out the window. He is a curious little fellow. Definitely enjoyed sleeping in this morning. I slept till about 9:30 which is actually pretty late for me. I am usually up in the 8:00 hour on the weekend. My body was exhausted from the last week of school excitement!

For the third year in a row, my Christmas break has begun with Emily coming over to spend the night to help me with the family Christmas party that Eric and I will host tonight. It is fun having my sis over to hang with! We hit up Starbucks on the ride to my house. My first visit to Starbucks since becoming pregnant. The boy working there probably thought I was a little bit crazy. I asked for a Peppermint Mocha Frap, Grande, Low Fat, Decaf, w/whip cream and cinnamon sprinkles on top.

It was my first peppermint drink from Starbucks, and it was pretty good! Can't wait to go back over the holidays and try what Em got. She got a Caramel Brulée Grande Frap (with no crazy changes like me). I got to try a small sip and it was very yummy! Like a creamy caramel :)

My next post will be a recap of the Christmas Party! Happy Saturday!

Milk Cartons, Graham Crackers, Icing, and Candy

At school this week, I had my students make gingerbread houses. The kids saved their milk cartons at lunch for the foundation of their houses. My ever so kind assistant took the time to hot glue graham crackers to the 20 milk cartons. We hot glue the graham crackers so the house will be more sturdy. The kids brought in all the supplies to create the houses. We had plenty of white icing, gum drops, candy canes, peppermints, life savers, M &Ms, Red Hots, Twizzlers, colored Christmas marshmallows, hard Christmas Candy, and mini Hershey bars. We were ready to roll. They had soooo much fun making them, and I really enjoyed helping/watching. Each student was very creative in making their houses that they all turned out so cute! 5 days left until Christmas Break :) More crafts to come!!

Sick Saturday Blues

I barely have a voice b/c of the combination of my cold and my job requiring me to speak all day long. On top of that, my poor Eric got food poisoning and can barely get out of the bed. He ate some food at work last night that a co-worker had given him. Apparently, it had sat out all day causing some kind of bacteria to get on it that was not good for the human body b/c at 3:00 last night it hit him. Poor thing :( Needless to say, our Saturday has been even more lazy than normal.

On a happy note, I went to the doctor yesterday and got to see our sweet baby. In the ultrasound pic, it looks like the baby is sucking on his/her thumb. Everything is developing as normal and the baby is just looking too cute. The ultrasound tech asked if I wanted her to take a guess at what the baby might be so I said sure. She explained to me that the way everything was developing, it looked like a baby girl but not to start buying things yet. Now with the ultrasound tech saying so and the Chinese calendar saying so, we just have to wait and see if they are right :)

Brrrr!

Cold weather has hit Memphis this week! I had to bust out my heavy coat, gloves, and ear muffs for recess, car duty, and of course JoJo's walks. I am not a big fan of cold weather, but I am excited about the holiday season kicking into full gear :)

Today has been a day for of sneezes for me. I can just feel a cold coming on :( Colds always start with sneezes for me. My throat also feels a little scratchy. It was only a matter of time before this group of 3rd graders got me sick :) When we came back from Thanksgiving Break Monday, about 1/4 of my class was coughing and blowing their noses.....guess the baby and I caught it! Hopefully, the cold will not turn out to be too bad of one. Since I am preggo, there are not many medicines that I can take to make me feel better.

On a happy note, I go to the doctor Friday to see my beautiful baby again :) We are even going to attempt to record some of the movements and the heartbeat on a DVD. Yay! I have officially entered my second trimester (13 weeks), which is supposed to be where I feel the best out of the three. I am supposed to gain my energy back and loose any nauseous feelings, and I have to say I am already feeling the boost! my stomach is starting to poke out a little bit more, but it is still not really noticable. The baby is about the size of a peach and he or she can hear things going on around me now. Too cool! Better start reading to him/her soon so that my baby comes out smart :)