Merry WHITE Christmas

I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas and enjoyed it as much as I did. Who wouldn't have LOVED having a WHITE Christmas......
However, I am thankful to be able to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. God has been so good to me and my family and I can not imagine having my own son  and watching him die on the cross in front of me for all the wrong doings of other people. I know that Mary had strong faith in the Lord and I have realized this Christmas season how much stronger my faith in the Lord needs to me.
I have had such a great food selection this week with all the cookie baking with my Nana and this year, Rhett and I cooked a Honey Baked Ham for his grandparents and it was surprisingly very good. I have enjoyed this Christmas by spending time more time with God, spending time with my love ones, singing Christmas carols, doing some last minute shopping, wrapping presents...perfectly, watching Christmas movies, and most of all reminisicing on the main reason for this Christmas season.

This is why I love Christmas.....

-Decorations-

CVS Pharmacy is where this cute little reindeer came from.

-Ornaments-

Anna and I also have a new sister/daughter Hallmark ornament every year.

-My LOVE-

Christmas Eve, Eve: headed to The Pope Christmas

-Presents and Gift giving-

Rhett got a new pullover to add to his collection.

Our FIRST game for our house...Taboo! We love that game.

-My sister-

-SNOW!!!!-

It was a WHITE Christmas for us in Alabama!!!!!

-Grandparents-

The Farm

-Family-

Merry Christmas from the Pope's!!!!

This was my LAST Christmas at my house. I have spent 21 Christmas's in my house and I cannot believe that it has finally became my last one.No worries, Mom & Dad I will be back next year to collect my gifts from Santa. I know Santa still thinks I live at home so be ready and have that BIG Christmas breakfast prepared for one more person than normal. haha! We can't leave Rhett out.haha!!! I can't wait to decorate my house next year for Christmas, it is by far my favorite holiday. I can't wait to start all those new traditions with my very own family. I have had so much fun and cannot wait to share it with Rhett.

Merry Christmas and God Bless!

 

In The Beginning....

Rhett has officially started on "our" future FIRST house. I am so excited and cannot wait to see the finished product. We decided to start with something small and this first house will eventually be a pool house/workshop for us until little kiddos are in the picture. Since we have been on Christmas break, Rhett has been giving this house 100% of his time and with his hard work I know that this house is going to be absolutely perfect for us.

This is "our" front porch

Winter Vacation

Happy Holidays! I have been out of town this past week to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee with my family. Oh my, was it an adventure. Here, in Alabama we have had bad weather and just think of that times 10 for the weather conditions in the mountains. Last December, my mother and uncle rented a cabin for all of us on my mom's side to stay in and to celebrate my grandparents 50th anniversary. Needless to say, I think it will be an anniversary to remember.
We arrived in Pigeon Forge Monday afternoon, after it being around 15 degrees all day and a nice stop at Cracker Barrel we finally arrived. We plugged in the address to our cabin into the GPS and Rhett led the way up the mountain with the car in 1st drive and my parents, grandparents, and uncle& aunt was behind us. We hit several bad spots in the road that were covered in complete snow and ice. We couldn't make it up the mountain so we turned around and was headed to an Auto part store that sold chains for tires. My uncle and aunt decided to follow us and going back up the mountain got us into some trouble. We slid and my uncle and aunt ran off the road and got stuck in the ditch. Taking pictures didn't even come to my mind, I was a nervous wreck, and I was praying that we all just make it out safely. It was horrible. They finally got a wrecker to pull them out. We all decided to stay in a hotel for the night.

We settled for the lovely and cheap, Comfort Inn. That night we got in the hot tub, stayed up late watching television, and playing board games, like Taboo! It was fun but we all were aching to get up to our cabin.
The 2nd day we finally got a taxi with chains and four wheel drive to take us all up to the cabin, thank goodness for this or we would be staying another night at the Comfort Inn. The cabin was absolutely wonderful. We were stuck up at the cabin for the next three days. I'll let the pictures finish the winter vacation story.

The wonderful taxi that took us to the cabin, thank you Mr. Roger for the lift. He was great!

Anna was posing and I loved waking up to this view every morning.

All of our luggage, haha! Only for 5 days and we had this much. Thank goodness we had all this since we were stuck and couldn't go anywhere so all the cute winter outfits were useless.

All the boys played pool, air hockey, Xbox, and cards. Anything they did they had a competition and a bracket for the winners and losers, it was funny! They loved it.

I enjoyed the sauna but every time I got in mom would somehow want a picture, need me upstairs, or etc.

 We got the opportunity to celebrate my Grandparents 50th Anniversary. We surprised them while they were in town. Because on Friday we got to go down and get our vehicles and the weather was warmer and there wasn't anymore snow and ice. They went to breakfast together and shopped a little.

I am so blessed with such wonderful Grandparents. They are such great role models individually and relationships. I can't wait to celebrate 50 years with Rhett. I love you Paw and Nana! God has been so good to us.

We also created a slideshow of pictures of Paw & Nana throughout their life until now. It was so sweet, every shared memories with them.

Having some fun in the kitchen!

Headed back to Alabama... even though we had a GREAT time up in the cabin there is nothing like HOME.

Rhett's the Birthday Boy

Happy 23rd Birthday to my wonderful fiance, Rhett Houston!

Friday was a very special day, it was Rhett's birthday. I am so thankful to have gotten to celebrate another birthday with him. I mean this time next year we will be a married couple, a whole new route to celebrating birthdays together. I called and reserved us a table at the local restaurant, Courtyard Cafe. It is Rhett's favorite place to eat dinner. My family along with his went out to eat and celebrated his 23rd birthday together. I had planned on making him a red velvet cake but my plans had changed that morning, I had to babysit. My dear sweet mother was kind enough to make him one when she got off from work. I had told her I would do the icing so she could get ready, nevertheless mom being "mom" had to go ahead and ice the cake. She did a great job but iced it just a little to early because the cake was still warm; therefore, the icing melted. But who cares about the looks of that cake, it was delicious. Rhett was very pleased with the outcome of the cake and I am pretty sure everyone else was too.

If you want the recipe, just email me: jpope1@jsu.edu (haha) :)

I am looking forward to my future with Rhett. His love for me has guided me even through some stressful times to say the least. I am looking forward to spending the rest of my life with him, I can't wait. He is definitely the best. God has really blessed me with such an amazing guy like Rhett. 

Happy Happy Birthday, Rhett! I love you.