2011 Highlights- Here's to a great year!

Happy New Year's Eve!!! 2011 was a wonderful year! Besides the whole marriage thing:-), we made some pretty great memories! Here are some of my favorites:

Becca won the Magnolia Heights Beauty Revue! 

And graduated from High School! (This is my only picture from graduation, sadly. I was very out of it, haha. I had gotten 2 shots that day to help with an awful migraine episode I'd had for several days. My mom said I was "drunk"- I wouldn't go that far!) 

I had my very first wedding shower! The first of several. All of which were so sweet. I couldn't be more grateful to all the ladies who did so much for me and everyone who came. 

Some of my school ladies gave me such a sweet and thoughtful shower! This is a picture of my friend Rachel Tabor and I at her house for the shower.  We wouldn't have made it through our first year of teaching without each other. In this picture, she was almost full term with sweet Anna! 

I had an AWESOME bachelorette party with all my bridesmaids (minus Hannie who was there in spirit!) 

Jim graduated with his Masters in Accounting and was offered a job at Tyson Foods as a plant accountant. 

Jordan and I did some major wedding planning all throughout the year. 

Jordan and I with our Jims.

The BIG DAY! June 25th, 2011

The next day, we jetted off to ST. LUCIA! We stayed at Calabash Cove-it was so much fun. (Jordan and Jim are going next week for their honeymoon and we are so jealous. I wonder if they would mind if we tagged along!) 

I spent Labor Day weekend in Destin with my newly engaged bff, Julie! We celebrated Marg's bachelorette party! 

and then there were weddings.... 

Claire and Zack's April 2011 

Leigh and Josh's September 2011 

Margaret and Drew's October 2011 

Lauran Booth and Kyle's, December 2011 

and Ole Miss Football... 

...and many more memories with friends and family. Happy New Year's Eve everyone!!! 

Merry CHRISTmas!

Christmas 2011 was a great success! Now that we live in Brandon, going home for the holidays was just a bit sweeter. There's no place like home! On Christmas Eve, we had dinner at our house with my parents, sister, grandmother, uncle, grandfather, and Jim's parents. My grandfather was able to come home for Christmas so it was extra special. Now I have a MAJOR issue with change. I hate it. Abosulutely can't stand it. It throws me off. I am such a creature of habit (hence my college friends will tell you they never thought I would live anywhere but senatobia, and send my kids anywhere but Magnolia Heights.) However, God does have a sense of humor. I say this bit about change, because this was not our normal Christmas eve routine! Normally, every year we do dinner at my grandparents (James and Joy.) However, since Gamby's been sick this year, My mom picked up the tradition (which I'm glad she did.) Here are some pics from the evening:

Me and Baby Becca (not such a baby anymore) 

That's us with our Meme. She doesn't miss a beat. She will probably outlive each one of us. 

Me and my hubby! First Christmas! 

Becca and i with our beloved cats. Mine is Eleanor and she is such a DIVA! I love her so much. My mom has to send me pics of her throughout the week so I don't become too deprived. I just can't help it that I LOVE cats! 

A favorite gift- My mom had the end of our aisle runner from our wedding made into a tapestry! It was handpainted by Mrs. Allison Burris, my high school art teacher and more importantly CHEER SPONSOR! haha:) She is very talented! 

Christmas morning, we woke up to see that SANTA had came. I guess you never get too old. Santa even brought me a new phone!! (a very appreciative gift since my phone had gone "missing" at school 2 weeks before Christmas!) After breakfast, we headed to Hickory Flat to have Christmas with Jim's side of the family! We even got our FAVORITE pjs! Every year, Jim's sweet aunt gives Lauren and I pajamas and we just love them. 

Aren't we cute!! 

Some of my Favorite Gifts were also: an AWESOME planner (see here: www.erincondren.com), some of my very own Mr. and Mrs. Jim Simpson enclosure cards designed by Lynn Savage- she did such a good job! and a stamp with our new address on it! 

But most importantly, I am thankful for Jesus's birth, Thank goodness HE came! 

Merry Christmas to US!

Today we closed on our FIRST home! YAY!! We have been waiting/saving for several months now. We are so excited to finally move into a place of our very own. My head is already spinning of things that I want to do. Thank goodness I have this entire break to get started:) I would post more pictures but I always think it's crazy for people to put up pictures of where they live especially room by room. (This is the internet- people will rob you!!!) So everyone will just have to come visit me in person:) This house caught my eye way back in July when I first moved to Brandon. Ginny and I actually drove to the open house and I fell in love! I was so worried it wasn't going to be on the market when we got ready to buy. However, IT WAS! Jim went to look at it in early November and fell in love as well. We made an offer the week before Thanksgiving and closed today. We are moving in this Thursday. Talk about a special Christmas present:) 

Booth's Wedding!

This past weekend we celebrated Lauran Booth's wedding weekend! We were very excited for our LB! Lauran Booth has wanted to marry Kyle since we were about 14! haha. We spent MANY nights in college discussing the possibility of this wedding. Lauran and I also spent a lot of unneccesary time planning this wedding-haha! She always told me she was going to make me wear a TEAL bridesmaid dress! Thank goodness that didn't happen:)

Jules and Fran on the bus from the rehearsal! 

Lelia and I at the Rehearsal Dinner

Since my mom is doing Julie and Andrew's slideshow for the wedding- I have to get lots of action shots! Fran you will look so great in the video:-)

Future Mr. and Mrs. Jeffries!

I know my camera isn't the best (hint, hint) Still a cute picture though! 

Bridesmaids

Lauran and I, She was such pretty bride! LB wore her mom's wedding dress which was in phenomenal condition. It was so special! 

Julie and I! I can't believe she is getting married in 5 months!!

..and Lelia in 7 months!! 

Reunited! 

Stunning Bride, of course!!! 

Julie is so responsible!!! 

Toward the end of the night, obviously!

Congrats Mr. and Mrs. Ellis! We love you:)

Brrrrr

I always get sick in December. Always! I am very "sickly" and typically catch every virus or cold in sight!  However, my juce plus vitamins I started taking last spring have been a lifesaver. Besides my typical migrain episodes, I have felt great all school year! Until now..This week has been long! Sore throat, coughing, the whole nine yards! Not fun. The good thing is I haven't missed any school- I've just come straight home to my bed every afternoon. Hopefully this gets better soon.

Lately, I have been trying to get everything ready for Christmas. Last Saturday, I was very productive.  Major shopping was done and I even had great company!:) My sweet little mini-me, Taylor, joined me in Jackson for the day! Her dad went to Houston for the Southern Miss game and she got to hang out with me all day! We started our day in Highland Village and then headed to Dogwood. We shopped until we dropped!! We finally ended the day buying make-up at ulta then heading back to my apartment to paint our nails and watch a christmas movie- Typical girl's day!  I also attended TWO christmas programs!! My students are very talented! It was a festive weekend.

We even spent our lunch watching some of the Southern Game. I made her take this picture at the resturant, haha. Her daddy and Jordan would be proud! Good thing I have 5 years to covert her:)

We also had a special visitor in Mrs. Simpson's class this week. 

Santa sent us our own special elf named Charlie!! He even wrote a personal note to all of us! This was a big deal. 

We couldn't believe it! 

Now you might notice our elf is a little "plush." That's because when Santa runs out of little skinny elves, he sends the larger ones (which are more fun anyway!) Charlie has been making quite a statement every day. He sketches on our board, writes messages with our magnetic letters and hangs from our t.v. Such a silly elf. 

Pray I get to feeling better- I have Lissa's bridal shower this weekend and I can't miss out:) 

 I hope everyone has a great weekend! Only 2 more shopping weekends until Christmas! Get busy!

New Coach..

After much speculation and talk this weekend (or so my husband tells me) it looks as though Ole Miss will announce their new head coach this week. Now, you would have thought someone took Jim's christmas presents away from under the tree when we found out it wasn't Kirby Smart. I'll have to admit that even I ( a very positive ole miss fan) was a little disappointed. However, the new coach is from Tobie town people!! I mean who saw that coming?! Even though I do not personally know him, I'm sure my whole town does. I hope it is a good change for Ole Miss. Regardless, We'll be behind them all the way! It's tough beging a rebel fan (especially these past 2 years.) But it wouldn't feel right cheering for any other team! So here's to another era of ole miss coaching- Hotty Toddy, let's beat somebody!!!

On the Furniture Hunt...

I am on the lookout for dining room furniture!! I am oh so excited. To me, a dining room is the best part of the house!!! I can't believe I can actually start looking for my own. Ever since I was a little girl, I have loved fancy things- like china. I picked my china out when I was 16! My grandmothers had a huge part in making me fall in love with fancy things! My nana, Joy, and I used to spend hours in her dining room just decorating and playing! Oh, how I miss those days.

While at home for break, my mom and I decided to look at Sheffields antiques. I have just started to look for furniture so I'm not planning to buy until several months from now. However, I knew I would find something. I usually do-

A china cabinet is my favorite piece of furniture. I loved all the display room in this one. 

Adorable corner cabinet! I could find lots of uses for this in rooms other than a dining room. 

The color on this cabinet was to die for- This picture just doesn't do it justice. I loved the side panes, my grandmother's is very similar. 

I thought this table was adorable. Maybe it's just the chair covers but I just felt it was very girly (which I'm all about.) This was a good price as well, definitely a possibility. 

This was another dining room set- I didn't get a good picture of the table. This set was a steal! The chairs had been recovered in burlap-pretty pintrest-ish! 

I loved this piece! However, it was a little pricey. (I do not like to pay full price for ANYTHING!) 

So the furniture hunt has begun..I told my friend Ginny to get ready to hit up the anitque stores once Christmas is over. Any advice would be great:) I'm just a rookie at this furniture stuff!! 

Thanksgiving Break!!

Last week was the first break since school begin!! Whew- It was long awaited. Even though I absolutely love my job, You need small breaks to keep you sane:)

The beginning of the week I played in Jackson (and ran errands, of course!) Ginny and I went shopping to buy wrapping paper, ribbon, and decorations. It was too fun. Wednesday evening, we headed to tobie town for the holiday! We began Thanksgiving day by watching the parade of course! We had lunch at my parents house then headed to the hospital to visit my Gamby. I hated so much that he was still in the hospital on Thanksgiving, but hopefully he'll be home in time for Christmas:)

After visiting Gamby, we went to Olive Branch to eat Thanksgiving dinner with Jim's family. It was a great first Thanksgiving as a married couple!!

Lauren and I went shopping Friday to get a head start on some gifts, which was fun! While home, I was able to go to two of Lauran Booth's wedding parties. I haven't been able to come home for any because the dates have never worked out, so I was excited!

                                  Fran, Lauran, and I at Sara Whitten's house for the couple's shower!

Saturday evening was the bachelorette party!! We headed to Memphis for the evening! 

Getting all her gear ready! 

Heyyy LB! 

The bachelorette and I on the trolley headed to dinner! 

With the other soon-to-be Bride, Jules!! 

Ohh, she was a trooper! The countdown is on. 2 weeks from Saturday!!!