Friday Favorites! {Christmas Wishes}

Happy Friday!!

{Favorite Christmas Wish 1}

This North Face fleece. I have the black one but I would like to have one with color and I love the plaid on this purple one!

{Favorite Christmas Wish 2}

These Classic Tall Uggs in chestnut. I have the Classic Cardy's in black. I would like this pair because it's a totally different style and color!

{Favorite Christmas Wish 3}

This Nike Gear! 

1. Hyperwarm Dri-Fit tights

2. Fuel band( this band records how many calories you burn per day...running, walking, climbing a flight of stairs...you burn a calorie, it records it! And it's a watch. )

3. Nike Swoosh sweatshirt

4. Hyperwarm Dri-Fit running shirt

{Favorite Christmas Wish 4}

This LORAC collection. It has eye shadows, cream liners, and lip tints! 

*Here is a fun fact about LORAC...do you know where the name came from?? It's actually the creator of the brand's name spelled backwards! Yes, Carol. *

So those are some of my Christmas wishes! 

And one more reminder about the giveaway...only a few more hours left to enter! Go HERE.

Linking up with Ashley for:

Don't forget...

Don't forget to enter my giveaway that's going on right now!!

Go here to enter!

And here are a few Santa pictures from the Capitol Christmas that was on Monday. This Saturday we are going to see another Santa so we will see if Rowen can flash us a smile this time!

 {Rowen and I are on the bottom left. Listening to the Governor and First Lady read w/Santa.}

 { A little unsure of Santa!}


{The Easley's with Santa}

{My favorite picture I took that night}

Loving, Pinning, & a GIVEAWAY!

It's that time of the week again...linking up with Jaime for WILW and with Michelle for Oh, How Pinteresting.

 and

Jaime over at This Kind Of Love( the host of WILW )had her baby boy on Sunday. He is just the cutest little thing ever! 

I'm LOVING...

that on Monday night we got to see a reindeer! A real reindeer! He, Comet, was at the Capitol Christmas. He was very calm and kind of shy. He kept lowering his head and hiding behind his owner. I don't know what it was but I just loved looking at him. I think it was because that night was just full of Christmas-y things and reindeer are a huge part of Christmas time. 

( not the greatest picture but there he is! )

I'm LOVING...

this collage I made. It's Rowen...newborn to 12 months. I am going to get a large copy printed out for us to keep. Love that I decided to get the onesie month stickers. They made for great pictures and memories!!

I'm LOVING...

that slowly but surely we are getting our Christmas decorations up! I put this garland up a few days ago. It's a little lopsided. I keep forgetting to fix that! Oh well. It's still fun and festive. Hopefully I can talk Brent into us going to pick out our tree this weekend!

I'm LOVING...

these holiday burlap pennant banners that I made yesterday! I love crafty projects and this one was super fun!!

I hung them right above our kitchen entryway but I think that they would look good anywhere in the house! 

I'm LOVING...

that Whole Foods has their white cheddar cranberry cheese in stock! This is my most favorite cheese and it is only available during the holidays!! I buy some every year and it makes me think of Christmas and all the festivities that come along with the holiday. If you like cheese, you must go get some of this kind!

I'm LOVING...

these 2( of course )!!

"Oh, how Pinteresting" pins from this week...

{My weekly some-ecard pin}

{I use to want to ask Santa this when I was younger!}

haha.

{This just fills me with the Christmas Spirit. Love it.}

{ Just plain awesome! A "White Christmas" with marshmallows!}

**Now for the giveaway!! Who liked the burlap pennant banners?! If so, this giveaway is for you!!

2 lucky winners will get to customize the banner of your choice. Choose from "joy" or "peace" and choose the colors for your word and the border of each pennant( white, dark red, or dark green )! I had so much fun making my own that I can't wait to make more for 2 of y'all!! Just enter through Rafflecoptor below! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

{Giveaway will end on Saturday, December 1st @ 12:00 am CST. If you have any questions about the giveaway please email me @ rachelsimons82@gmail.com}

First Santa experience and much more!

I don't know what it is about babies in cute pajamas but I just love it! I love pajamas and especially if they are cute. Rowen has some really cute Christmasy pj's!! And everytime I go to say...Target. I just have to wander through the little boys pajama section. I will admit that though I wander, I have not purchased any there yet. These little Christmas penguins are super cute. 

 Even though the pj's are really cute, I think it's the baby in the picture that makes them precious! Don't ya think?! 

Everytime he wakes up from his naps, he walks over to the corner of the crib that's closest to his book shelving and tells me all about his books...including pointing. He's such a happy boy. Big smiles all the time! 

Tonight we went to the Capitol Christmas Tree Lightning Party. It's open to the public. We went last year and got a precious picture of Rowen and Santa. And y'all this is the most real looking Santa I have ever seen. The tree lightning kicked off the little party last night. Santa, Gov Haslam, and the First Lady flipped the switch. The tree is huge and has ssoooo many lights on it. 

Before we got a picture with Santa, He along with the Governor and First Lady read Twas The night Before Christmas to all the kiddos. I sat Rowen on my lap and he paid attention pretty much the whole time. He loves stories! 

Before we left we had to get a picture with Santa. This was the first meeting with Santa for Rowen in 2012. There was no kicking, no screaming, and no crying but he wouldn't look at Santa. Not even a quick peek! It's strange...he loved looking at Santa from even 5 feet away but once he hit his lap, he refused to look at him! haha. 

He just kind of whimpered the whole time! There was a professional photographer there and I'm pretty sure she got a good shot! And we took a family picture too. It will be a few days before those are up. But don't you worry, I will definitely share them.

We ended the night with a large lasagna made by moi and a yummy salad. 

I'm linking up again with Lauren @Life Love Lauren to share my Tuesday Topic & With Helene for Tell Me About It Tuesday!

       

Today's Topic:

 If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?

This one is easy for me! I would hands down go to Bora Bora!! Crystal clear water, hammocks that swing over the ocean, and "hotel" rooms on stilts in the water...yes please!! 

How could you not want to go here?! I bet the food is amazing and I love snorkeling and this would be the perfect place to do that.

Bora Bora looks like true paradise here in Earth and I want to see if it is with my own eyes..haha! Look, you can even sit at a table and eat lunch in the ocean! So cool! It's a bit steep..like $5,000.00 per person steep. But maybe one day. Who knows?!!

**Tomorrow I am having a pretty good GIVEAWAY!! So make sure to come back!**

Rest and Ornaments...lots of both!

                                        

I'm linking up with Leeann, Sami, and Dana again today for my Weekend Update! And I'm also linking up with Meg for Mingle Monday.

Friday:

Friday looked like this...

I stayed in my "jingle jammies" the majority of the day!! Brent and Rowen did too. We were all worn out from Thanksgiving and laid around and relaxed the whole day. We watched movies( Deck the Halls and It's a Wonderful Life )and ate leftovers. Leftovers, for me, are just as good as the original meal the day before! Around 5pm we decided that we wanted to get out of the house for a bit so we headed to Target. We needed to pick up some things and figured it wouldn't be packed since all the shopping madness happened hours before. I got these socks for the race that I am running with my friend Meredith on Saturday( December 1st ). I can't wait for December! 

I saw a few people with these socks at the Boulevard Bolt Thursday and I just had to get some for this Saturday! I think Mere is going to get some crazy socks too. Here's to a fun 6k run in 5 days! Pictures to come...

We also picked up some invitations for a party that we are going to be having in a few weeks. I think they are so cute :)

We ended the night with another movie! 

Saturday:

Brent headed to his boot camp class @ 10am and while Rowen was napping, I made an ornament wreath! I saw a lot of these last year but never got around to making one so this year I decided that I definitely would get around to it! I had already bought everything that I needed so I was ready to go. I never imagined it would take about 100 ornaments to make the wreath!! Yes, 100 ornaments make up this wreath. Good thing it turned out great! haha. 

Before starting and in progress...

 A few pictures of the wreath inside right after I finished it. It turned out just like
I imagined. I got the ornaments @ Walmart. I figured they would have them for pretty cheap and they did. They also sell the ornaments in boxes of 50!

On the front door! It looks great out there and I love seeing it before going inside! It puts a smile on my face! 

Saturday night we headed back out to Lebanon to have another little "Thanksgiving meal" with Brent's uncle and cousin who couldn't make it on Thursday. We had two of my favorite foods...ham and mac&cheese!! And Brent's grandma made homemade biscuits which were so delicious. My granny makes homemade biscuits too! We are lucky to have grandmothers that are great cooks!! We ended the night with Home Alone!

 I love that movie. It will never get old! I can't wait to watch it with Rowen when he gets a bit older. 

Sunday:

We always head to church on Sunday morning. I remember my alarm waking me up at 7:30am. I turned over to look at the monitor to see that Rowen was still sleeping and then I told myself I would lay there for 5 more minutes before getting up to get ready. I opened my eyes to look at the alarm again and it was 12pm!?! What??!! I slept till 12pm. At this point I realized that Brent had gotten up to get Rowen up and feed him breakfast and had put him down for his morning nap. And then he continued to let me sleep. I obviously was exhausted and I'm not going to lie, it felt good to get 4 1/2 more hours of sleep than I usually get in the mornings! When I got up, I had some coffee with Brent while Rowen was still napping. Then Brent headed off to Home Depot to pick up a very large load of hardwood that we bought on Friday. We have been talking about putting hardwood down in our living room and dining room and when we went to Home Depot on Friday, we found a great deal that we couldn't pass up and we bought Hickory hardwood! 

It's getting installed on Saturday morning and I can't wait! I think it is going to look really good. Rowen had a yummy lunch of spaghetti, peas, and applesauce. And after lunch we played and played and read books. He usually gravitates towards books first and then he'll play with toys. I love looking at books with him and hearing his sweet little voice say" was this?" while pointing. 

Showing me the animals in his "Animals: A-Z" book.

I went to Michaels Sunday evening to grab one thing and I ended up having to go get a shopping cart b/c all of their Christmas stuff was on sale! All of it! So I ended up buying some ribbon, a wreath, a poinsettia arrangement, an ornament, and a few other things. I finished the evening putting up a few Christmas decorations. There is a lot more stuff to be put up though...including our tree...which we have to go pick out!

 Hall bathroom decor

Poinsettia arangment

We hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!!