Happy Birthday to Me (Again)!

When I returned to work on the 18th, my staff had decorated my office!! When I walked in the office and my office door was shut, I knew it couldn't be good! ;) How cute are the polka dot streamers???

No 30th birthday is complete without LOTS of black balloons!

They had also made this cute poster and put it on the wall. (and it's actually still there because I like it) :)

Birth year of JT...very important fact!!!! Also, the year Prince Charles married Diana AND post-it notes were launched by 3M. BIG YEAR!

Check out these high prices! I wish a day at Disney World still cost this!

Seriously, who knew that Buffalo Wild Wings was 30 years old? Well, NOT ME!

We also had homemade cupcakes which were adorable and yummy (and I forgot to get a picture) AND they gave me a gift card to Charming Charlie (one of my favorite places). I am so blessed to work with people that I absolutely love to be around! I really do have a great job!

Celebrating (or mourning) the BIG 3-0! :)

On Saturday, I turned 30!!!!! I still can't believe I'm 30! I just don't know how this happened! ;) Oh well, you have to embrace it!

We were supposed to spend a long, relaxing weekend at the beach but after the big blizzard (haha) and a bad stomach bug, Rob and I decided to stay closer to home and have some fun! Since we had already planned to take the days off to go to the beach, we kept the days and spent some time out and about! We were going stir crazy after being snowed in so we were just excited to be out of the house!

Friday we headed to Birmingham for a little shopping at the outlets in Leeds, The Shops of Grand River. This was our first time there and they are pretty nice. I hope it grows a little more so they will have even more outlets. After shopping, we headed to the Summit for lunch at Chuy's.

After lunch and a little more walking, we headed to Flip Burger Boutique for one of their famous milkshakes!

Rob tried the Krispy Kreme and I had the Nutella with burnt marshmellows. They were good, overpriced, but good.

On Saturday (my actual birthday), Rob got us a room at the Westin. We checked in and then went to the movies to see The Dilemma. Saturday night we had dinner at Connor's. If you've never had Connor's you are missing out!!!!!!!

Here we are headed out to dinner

We ordered dessert to go....yummy!

Before my birthday, Rob totally surprised me with the Nook Color. I've been wanting one for a while but I was NOT expecting it, at all!! By the way, it's even better than I thought it would be!!!

On Saturday, he gave me a Brighton charm bracelet that he started for me. This is a picture I did on Brighton's website of what my bracelet looks like. They have some really neat charms and spacers and I'm excited to start one as I start this new chapter of my life....my thirties!!!!

I'm 30! I still can't quite wrap my mind around it! I am excited to see what my 30's have in store for me though!!!!

What Nichole at 30 would say to Nichole at 20!

Things that Nichole at 30 years old would tell a 20 year old Nichole!

1. MTV is NOT the only channel on TV!
2. Easy Mac should not be eaten at every meal! When you are 30, you will still gag at the thought of eating Easy Mac because you ate FAR too much of it back then!
3. Go ahead and start loving your alarm clock! It will be a part of your life FOREVER!
4. Sleeping until noon will not always be an option!
5. Working 20 hours a week while going to school is NOTHING! Just wait, in a few years you will work a full time job while working on your Master's! Then, you will know tough!!
6. You will LOVE sushi! There is more in the world than chicken fingers and fries!
7. The lights that you leave on actually do cost money! You will learn to turn things off!
8. As cool as you think you are, in 10 years you will look back at pictures and ask yourself what you were thinking!
9. Cell phones are nothing! Just wait and see what's coming down the pike!
10. Go ahead and learn to LOVE football! You will eventually plan your weekends around the SEC and actually enjoy it! CRAZY, I know! You will actually be a little sad when college football season ends!

But seriously, I wish 20-year-old Nichole would have known and understood these things!

1. God's plan is SO much bigger than your plan. Your path is so much bigger than you ever thought it would be. Life is not going to go exactly as you would like it or as you had planned!

2. All of the heartache will make you a stronger person and make you truly appreciate the one that God finally puts in your life.

3. Learn to love yourself! Everyone has flaws and it's OK!!!!

4. The material things will never make you who you are! Only buy things you can pay cash for!! You will have a LOVE/HATE relationship with Dave Ramsey and wish everyone around you would follow the plan too!

5. 30 is NOT old! 30 is actually a GREAT time because you will finally start figuring this whole life thing out!!!!

6. Don't say you don't want kids because at about the age of 27 your "clock" is going to go CRAZY!

7. Learn to be patient and wait! Enjoy the journey that gets you to the place you want to be! You will literally blink and be 30 before you know it!!!!!!!!!

8. Make meaningful friendships!!! You will need them SO many times!!!!!!

9. Have a REAL relationship with God! Talk to Him everyday!!!!!!!!!!! (Even at 30, I'm not where I want to be with this) He listens!!!!!!!!

10. You will find a husband who loves you for you! He will be kind, patient and your absolute best friend! You will become so much closer than you ever could imagine!

11. Go ahead and try new things!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You will be happy you did!

Bloggy Update!

Sorry guys! It's been a crazy few weeks. Rob and I were busy during the holidays and then have been sick for the last two weeks! It's been CRAZY! We had a great Christmas with family and started out 2011 hibernating from the COLD!!! It's been so cold here lately and we have gotten 2 snows! We even had a white Christmas! Here are a few pics from the Christmas holidays!

The Saturday before Christmas we had our "Smith Family Christmas Breakfast." This has become our newest tradition with the ENTIRE family and a HUGE breakfast! YUMMY!! It's amazing how much bigger our family gets each year! So fun to watch the changes!

We headed to Oneonta on Christmas Eve and woke up to a WHITE CHRISTMAS! It was beautiful! This picture is looking out into my parent's pasture.

Christmas afternoon we headed to my grandmother's for Christmas with my mom's side of the family. We had a good time and laughed a lot! :)

Christmas night some of our family came over for our traditional game night. We played Mad Gab which is always hilarious!

We came home the day after Christmas to this! So pretty!

2010 Christmas Tour

I'm linking up to The Nester's Christmas Tour of Homes as well as Kelly's Korner again this year! You should definitely check out all of the links there to see some beautiful Christmas decorations and get LOTS of ideas! Our living room is really done in classic red and green.

The last two years I have had wrapped gifts as my mantle decorations but I was ready for a change. I found this garland at Target that already had green ribbon as well as green and red Christmas balls and it fits PERFECTLY on my mantle. I already had one apothacary jar (that I use in the kitchen) so I bought another one and put them on each end of the mantle. The wreath on the mirror is the one that I made.I got these sets of green and red balls at Target and I love them!I absolutely love apothacary jars. Mine came from Old Time Pottery for VERY reasonable prices!More Christmas balls on the coffee table. My all-time favorite Christmas book sits on the other side of the coffee table - The Polar Express. I have LOVED this book since I was small and I cannot wait to read it to a little one and make it a tradition. For now, the dogs enjoy it! ;)
This church is one of my favorite Christmas decorations. It has fiber optic lights that change and it is SO pretty! My mom bought me this nativity scene years ago and it is one of my favorites! I wanted a nativity scene but don't have a lot of room for a big one. This one is just so simple but beautiful! It's a GREAT reminder of what Christmas is about! I decorate the kitchen too, of course! I LOVE to add little holiday touches to every room! I put my Christmas dishes out along with other decorations!

I found this cute basket a couple of years ago and use it to hold dish cloths

I found this plate a few years ago in Disney World for a few dollars. (Note the Mickey heads in the holly). I never really used it so I got my friend Katie to add some vinyl and I LOVE it!!!

My father-in-law gave me this for Christmas a few years ago and it is so pretty all lit up in the kitchen at night! I LOVE having little lights all over the house and spending nights at home with all of them on. SO COZY! Can you tell that this is my FAVORITE time of year???

I keep this red bowl out in the kitchen for all of the Christmas cards we get! I LOVE getting cards!

This year I even jazzed up our main bathroom! I found this cute frame on clearance after Christmas last year at Target.

I found this Lennox nightlight for a GREAT price a couple of weeks ago. It is SO pretty when it's on!

I found these towels after Christmas last year. They are so fun to me and match the frame!

I hope you all have enjoyed my little tour. As you can see, Christmas is my favorite time of year! May you all have a safe and wonderful holiday season!

"For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6 (NLT)

Ribbon Wreath

A couple of months ago, my friend Karla and I got together for a "Craft Sunday" to make wreath ribbons. Karla made one for her sister's baby nursery so now that her sister has hers and the secret's out, I can share mine! :)

We found lots of different ways to make them but this is the one that we tried first. (I will definitely try more). I decided to make a Christmas one for myself so I bought a syrofoam wreath and coordinating Christmas ribbons from Hobby Lobby.

I cut the ribbons into strips.

You take push pins and loop the ribbon to attach it to the wreath. As you can see, there is no specific way to arrange it. Your goal is to completely cover the styrofoam.

And voila!!! Cute, huh? It took a couple of hours (and a snack break) to complete.

I had an unfinished wooden "A" from Michael's and decided it would be perfect for the center of my wreath. I painted it a bright green and used a paint pen to add the red polka dots.

I used a staple gun and push pins to attach it to the wreath and the project was complete. I was originally going to put the wreath on the inside of our back door. However, I have put it on our mirror over the fireplace and it's really cute. (I'll do a Christmas tour of our house later this week) Here is a picture of the final product (it's a HORRIBLE picture because I realized while doing this blog post that I didn't have a picture of the completed wreath so this is from the Blackberry - it looks yellow and it's NOT - it's GREEN).

Stay tuned for more pictures of our house decorated for Christmas! I will try to get those posted this week! Hope you all are staying warm and enjoying the snow (if you have gotten any over the last few days)! :)

Too Many Pictures...What Do You Do?

If you are like me, you take LOTS of pictures throughout the year and just don't know what to do with them! That's where Shutterfly comes in! I go through my pictures and pick the ones that I want to actually have printed. When you sign up for Shutterfly emails, you periodically get discount and promotional codes which give you GREAT deals on pictures, as well as other items like calendars, canvas wall art, and even Christmas picture cards.

If you haven't used Shutterfly, you are missing out! I have used Shutterfly for the last few years and I love them!!! All of their products are excellent quality and they are SUPER fast getting your orders to you!! I have always had my order within the same week that I ordered it. And if you are like me with limited patience, this is IMPORTANT! :)

Last year, I chose Shutterfly for my Christmas cards and LOVED them!!! I chose the matte finish and they were my favorite Christmas cards yet!

I have narrowed this year's selection down to 3 different designs, but I'm not sharing which ones yet! ;) Once I've mailed them out, I will definitely share them with you all!!! :) One thing is for sure, they will be from Shutterfly!