I love this week.

Let me tell you why:

I've been listening to a lot of Christmas songs, and that always puts me in a great mood. Our favorite local radio station has been playing Christmas music nonstop, and last night I may have downloaded 55 Christmas songs... Here's the ones I got: A Very She & Him Christmas by She & Him (after listening to it for months on Spotify), The Christmas Sessions by MercyMe (maybe my favorite... it's got all the classics), Hey! It's Christmas Vol. 1 and 2 and Carol of the Bells by BarlowGirl (my favorite version of this song right now).

My sister came up for a surprise visit last night and was able to spend the night with us. We ate really good food, drank coffee (umm... three times... I'm a little embarrassed to admit that) and had really good conversations. And tomorrow, I get to drive down to her house to stay a couple of days.

On Friday, my love and I are going out of town for the weekend to visit some of my very favorite people. I'm so excited. Our weekends at their house are usually spent around the campfire, making s'mores and eating great food, shopping and thrifting, discovering new movies, talking about old times and having really wonderful late night conversations.

Tonight my little sisters, our mom and I finally saw Hugo. I thought it was brilliant and so beautiful! And it was the best 3D movie since Avatar, if you ask me. I can't wait to see it again already.

On Saturday, we spent the morning serving our city's unfortunate families, providing Christmas gifts and food to help them make it through the holidays. Serving others is so important to me, and the whole thing was very humbling. After, we met up with my Grandmother and lots of ladies from her hometown at Crystal Bridges, and then Mom, Richard and I discovered a really great new coffee place. I'm obsessed with their vanilla honey latte!

I hope your week is going as well as mine! I'm so happy and thankful right now. It's a good point in time for me. :)

It's been 13 days since I last posted? How did that happen? I guess time flies when you're as busy as I've been these past few weeks. I've been busy with school work and finals, family events, Christmas shopping, Christmas decorating, a short road trip and just all the things that go along with day to day life.

Tonight I downloaded 54 Christmas songs. I guess you could say I'm really in the Christmas spirit this year. Last year, it just seemed like Christmas snuck up on me and then flew by. I loved it, of course, but I just didn't get very into it. So I'm making up for that this year by keeping up with old traditions, starting new ones, spending every day with loved ones and making every moment special. There are so many things I want to do this season! It feels like it's moving by so quickly, but I'm determined to squeeze in everything I want to do. I'm really, really happy right now.

Here's a peak at my Christmas tree. I never thought I'd be one of those people with a themed Christmas tree, but purple and silver sounded like a great idea, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I'll show you the details of our tree and some other Christmas decorations around our apartment soon!

Red cup.

I'm officially in the Christmas spirit, thanks to this little red cup and A Very She & Him Christmas. We've finally started our Christmas shopping, and I love bundling up, grabbing some coffee and heading out into the cold with my love to shop for our family and friends. It's such a happy time of year!

If you're wondering why I haven't been around lately, let me tell you. I had four tests and lots of homework. I have been working on three articles for the paper. My best friend came to visit for the weekend. We went to the opening of a world-class art museum, which opened in my town last weekend (more about that later); went to Eureka Springs; ate lots of good food and shopped for books; spent hours in my bed, talking and laughing about old times and reading David Sedaris stories to each other and drinking wine; and just had a really great time together. Basically, I've been super busy. It's that time of the semester when everything starts getting really stressful, and hard tests/projects/papers become a daily occurance. Sigh! Thankfully I will be done with this little thing called college in May.

How are you?

Happy November!

Can I just say how happy I am that Halloween is over? I never get really into Halloween, but this year, I was feeling it even less. I didn't dress up or put up any Halloween decorations or do anything exceptionally fun. But I can't tell you how happy I am that it's November! That means Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away, which means I'll get time off from school and get to see my wonderful family. That also means that Black Friday is soon, and I'm one of those weirdos who gets sick enjoyment out of that. It means the end of the semester is coming up! And most importantly, Christmas is right around the corner, which means I can finally start listening to the She & Him Christmas album loud and proud without worrying about being judged. 

1. Driving home from Branson, Missouri last weekend.

2. My poor little panda sister sprained her ankle the day before Halloween.

3. Pretty leaves and watching the sunset from Mount Nebo.

4. Scattered leaves on the Senior Walk.

5. Sparkly pumpkins and homemade caramel apples.

6. The entrance to my parents' neighborhood is gorgeous right now.

easter weekend.

i think i'm even more tired after this busy weekend than i was before it started.

on saturday, my baby sisters had a convention for church in which they performed in a play & received gold medals for pretty little sculptures that they've been working so hard on! after the convention, my family headed down south to grandmother & grandaddy's house to eat lots of good food & celebrate such a special day. i went to richard's church, & it was easily the best church service i'd been to in a loooong time.

after a huge lunch on sunday with both sides of our family, my cousins, siblings, richard & i played with guns & grenades, watched my cousin robert play on the roof in a ghillie suit, & had a full-on brawl with confetti eggs in the garden & in the street. my family is crazy. i love them.

my funny valentine

i love love. all kinds of it!
but i won't lie, i'm not too fond of valentine's day.
i'm all for continuously displaying affection 365 days a year rather than obnoxiously exploiting it on february 14th with over the top jewelry gifts, giant teddy bears, chocolate hearts, and especially roses.

my love and i are having a tiny celebration with my sisters, brother, and cousins. tonight we're going black-light bowling and to play laser tag.

richard DID buy me my dream yellow coat, though, and i'd love to get some pretty flowers. no roses though! seriously, no roses.

{photo via weheartit}

happy new years eve!

what are you lovelies doing for new years eve?
richard and i are hanging out with my sister
and lots of people at our friends jaime & ben's house.
all i want is cupcakes and champagne!
so excited!

in the past decade, i celebrated three
big birthdays,
graduated from high school,
fell in & out of love,
started college at
missouri state university & university of arkansas,
moved from arkansas to texas to alabama to missouri and back to arkansas,
became an aunt (twice!),
met and became best friends with the funniest people in the world,
and experienced a million other beautiful things.
it was a decade of struggles, too,
and definite growth.
i'm so excited to see what 2010 and a new decade
have in store for me.

i hope you all have a lovely new years eve!
be safe! have fun! kiss somebody!

halloween.

halloween is probably my least favorite holiday,

but each year i try to make the best of it.

this was the first year in so long that i didn't go to a showing of

the rocky horror picture show

or go to a party with friends.

instead, i dressed up as dorothy from the wizard of oz

(complete with toto in a basket!)

and played with my little sisters and their friends!

it was so fun.

we went to a carnival at church and played games,

went trick-or-treating under a beautiful orange sunset

(seriously, it could not have been more halloween-ish),

and stuffed ourselves full of candy.

my sister maci was a birthday girl,

and hali was perry the platypus from one of her favorite cartoons.

they made their own little costumes!

i don't know how they came up with either of those ideas,

but are they not just adorable?!

i also had some spooky fun with my dad, rachel, and my dad's now wife becky.

ghost hunts scare me. i swore i'd never go on another,

and this time i really won't.

how was your halloween? what was your costume?
i heard about lots of lady gagas!

billy mays and bob ross were also pretty popular. hilarious!

happy 4th of july!

My favorite thing about Independence Day is that my family celebrates it literally for days. The weekend long celebration started last night and will continue going strong until Sunday.

I made yummy patriotic cupcakes for a picnic.

We bought a ridiculous amount of fireworks which I could not get to fit into one picture. I wish I would've taken one of all the debris from last night's 2,500 dollars' worth...

I hope you all have a happy and safe 4th! The rest of mine better include a hot dog, more fireworks, and a long afternoon at the pool.