Stephen's Third Birthday Party

Yesterday was Stephen's third birthday and I can't believe how big my little brother is getting. He has come such a long way from where he was 3 years ago, when he was born as a micropremie. The party was a small family get together since it was the day after Christmas. It was minion themed which I thought was perfect since Stephen looks like a little minion himself! His favorite present was his bright red tricycle he got from Nana. We took him outside so he could test it out and he was so excited, laughing and smiling the whole time! Being away at college from Stephen is sometimes hard because I miss some of his awesome moments as he's growing up, but I'm very lucky to have been able to celebrate his special day with him while I'm home. It was a very happy day for me and my little bundle of joy!!

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Sweet Baby Stephen

A Holiday Tradition

Every year my cousin and I make Christmas cookies at my Nana's house. We've done this for as long as I can remember and it's one of my favorite holiday traditions! We spend all day decorating and baking while listening to Christmas music. I know almost all the words to every Christmas song there is so I'm usually singing along and eating all the cookie dough. They say that the cookie dough is 10x better than the actual cookie and I couldn't agree more! If eating a whole roll of Toll House cookie dough was a normal thing, than I'd do it all the time. Most years we drink hot chocolate, but since it's still 70 degrees in Florida, we decided against that. My absolute favorite type of cookie we made this year were the sugar cookies. I have always loved the decorating part and even though they're not that pretty, they've come along way since I was younger. The cookie I found to be the most delicious were the double chocolate crackle cookies. Chocolate is my favorite food (if that is even a thing), so you could say that was heaven in my mouth!!

{ Betty Crocker Sugar Cookies }

{ Betty Crocker Lemon Bars | Betty Crocker Peanut Butter Cookies }

{ Pillsbury Chocolate Peppermint Cookies }

{ Ghiradelli Ultimate Fudge Brownies | Ghiradelli Double Chocolate Crackle Cookies }

Merry Christmas Eve!!

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Firecracker Cake

Christmas Lights

Christmas is by far my favorite time of the year. I love being able to take a break from my busy life and just spend time with my family and friends. Since Ole Miss has a winter term, my Christmas break is 6 weeks long...so that will give me plenty of time to be with the people I love!! Last night was my first time truly hanging out with all my girl friends since we've been away at college. It was such a great time and reminded me how lucky I am to have made such true friends during high school that I know I will be able to count on my whole life! We went to eat at a great BBQ place called 4 Rivers and there was constant conversation the whole time. We even sat there talking for at least 30 minutes before even ordering our food! We told each other about our friends at school and the experiences we've had so far. I really enjoyed being able to hear about their lives and what college has been like for them. Afterwards, we went to Dorothy B. Oven Park to walk around and look at all the Christmas lights. Even though it was 80 degrees, it felt like Christmas was finally coming. We took some fun pictures to document the night and to remember how special our first time back together was. There was so much laughter and a lot of joy being back with my people.

{ Our personalities captured perfectly }

Sorry for the bad lighting...it was really dark, but these are a few of my favorites!
Happy Holidays! xoxo

Thanksgiving Break

This past week was my first week home since I've been in college. It was great to be home for Thanksgiving break to spend time with my family and to relax (even if I did have a lot of homework). I really enjoyed my time with Stephen. He has gotten so big and has matured a lot. I was also really excited to see my best friends. We went to an annual basketball game at our old high school, and nothing has changed. It felt like we were all back together in high school again. Clark visited his family from out of town, so we didn't get to see each other. We've only seen each other once since school started so that kind of sucks...but we will see each other soon over Christmas break and we both couldn't be more excited! I also can't wait to see some of my other friends that I didn't get the chance to visit with.

On Friday, my family and I went to a Christmas tree farm to pick out our Christmas tree. We have done that every year since I can remember. It was almost 80 degrees that day, so it didn't feel anything like Christmas time, but it was still fun to continue our family tradition.

I have been driving back to Oxford all day yesterday and this morning and I'm finally back at my home away from home. I am so thrilled to be back with my Stew5 family. We have exams soon so we are enjoying watching Christmas movies all day today. Although I'm happy to be back, I'm excited to go home again soon for a long Christmas break.

Sweet Home Kappa Gamma

Hey ya'll! I've been super busy with everything college life has to offer that I haven't had time to post in awhile, so I'm going to try and catch ya'll up with what's been going on in my life!

The end of November/ beginning of October was rush week here at Ole Miss. We don't have recruitment before school starts like most universities do. I really liked this because I was able to make friends on my own and really get my everyday routine down. Recruitment was a really long week for me because I had to balance my school work and classes with everything else that was going on. Surprisingly, it wasn't as stressful as I thought it would be, mainly because all my friends were going through the same thing. Lucky for me, I got a bid from my favorite house, Kappa Kappa Gamma. I always felt at home when I was there and the girls were so welcoming. My roommate ended up going Kappa too so we still get to spend a lot of time together! Our theme for Bid Day was the color run which I LOVED! We were covered in paint and had a big party on the lawn while meeting all our new sisters. Later that night we went to a small farm where we ate and played games to get to know each other better. We also got a bid day bag with lots of Kappa goodies inside! It was such a fun day and I'm so happy to have become a part of something so much bigger than myself and to share such an amazing sisterhood with all the girls.

 { KKG Pledge Class 2015 }

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Gameday in The Grove

Gameday in The Grove

Ole Miss is known for its over the top gameday tailgating. The famous Grove is packed with people and their tents which are filled with delicious food and Ole Miss decor; some people go as far as hiring an interior designer to decorate their tent. People really put a lot of work into planning their tailgates, just google pictures and you'll see what I mean. Most of the food is served on a silver tray and some people even hang chandeliers in their tents. Hotty Toddy potties sit along the outskirts of The Grove as well as red and blue trashcans which are put out Friday mornings on "trashcan Friday" (the students get really excited for this). The attire for football games is not your average team t-shirt, here we wear dresses and wedges (sometimes boots) and the guys wear khakis and a collared shirt, some even wear a button down and sport coat. So far we have had three home games so I have been able to experience this famous Ole Miss tradition first hand and I have fallen in love. We truly are the definition of southern hospitality here at Ole Miss. Something about tailgating in the South with people who love your school as much as you do is pretty awesome.

Hotty Toddy!

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Freshman Dorm Room

After 5 long days, my roommate and I have finally finished setting everything up in our dorm room and that's mostly because we can't keep it clean for a whole day... We are staying in Stewart Hall at Ole Miss and although this dorm wasn't my top choice I'm so happy that we live here! We're really close to the center of campus where most of the popular places are for students to hang out.

{ My bed }

We decided that we wanted the Lilly Pulitzer Sippin' and Trippin' bedspread and that our color scheme would be navy, pink, and turquoise blue with burlap accents. We ordered the bedding from Garnet Hill as well as the monogrammed lumbar pillow. The burlap Hotty Toddy pillow came from Etsy and the bedskirts came from dormroombedskirts.com. They have tons of colors to choose from and two different styles, gathered and flat panel. We went with the flat panel because we liked the clean cut look best. We decided that instead of ordering expensive headboards that I would just make them! Find out how I did that at DIY Dorm Room Headboards. The burlap curtains came from Bed Bath and Beyond and the rug and white pouf came from target. We ordered our cute wooden monograms from MonogramLane.com; they have good prices which was awesome compared to other prices that we saw! We hung everything up with either Command Hooks or Strips since we aren't allowed to nail anything into the walls. Because there's little storage in our dorm we decided to put plastic drawers under our beds for clothes and I also keep my shoes and laundry hamper under there.

{ My desk }

I ordered the blue storage bins as well as the white desktop storage from The Container Store. They have a lot of options when it comes to storage for any part of your home. I always enjoy shopping at Hobby Lobby and never leave the store without buying something. So of course that's where I bought the burlap storage bins and bulletin board, the pink mirror, the jewelry hanger and my count down until I see Clark (my favorite desk accessory)! I was in desperate need for a place to put all my jewelry because I wasn't able to bring my standing jewelry box from home. I had to down size to a smaller one from Pottery Barn, but it actually holds a lot and fits on my desk perfectly!

We bought the mirrors and the curtains at target. We did however, have to cut the curtains to make them the right size for our half closets.

{ My roommate's bed }

The storage cube and drawers came from target and they are super helpful for storing food, plates, cups, etc. I got the pink Keurig MINI Plus as a gradation gift and we use it everyday! It's just the right size to fit on top of our microwave. My lamp came from target and I love it because it gives us the option to have little lighting in our room for later at night. The Texas and Florida state pictures came from Etsy. We did have trouble hanging them up with Command Hooks because they were too heavy and they fell. We tried again with the strips that stick directly to the back of the frame and to the wall. This has seemed to work great so far, but unfortunately you can see some of the strips coming out of the sides, but we still think they are adorable!

It took us the whole summer to plan every detail of our room and it was worth because we are both in love with it! We have gotten so many compliments from other girls in our dorm and we may be biased but we both agree that it's the cutest room on our floor!

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DIY Dorm Room Headboards

After searching Pinterest for numerous hours looking at cute dorm rooms, I knew from the beginning that a headboard was a must for my room. Many websites that I found sold headboards for more than it would take to just make it myself. I have found out the best way to make your own headboard after making one for my roommate and myself. Here are step by step directions and the materials you'll need!

Materials:

{ All materials shown from Joann Fabrics }

1. 1/4 inch Plywood
2. 2 x 4 wood
3. Sheets of foam
4. Batting
5. Spray Adhesive
6. Fabric
7. Staple Gun
8. Siccors
9. Jig saw

Steps:

1. Trace your headboard design on poster board. I traced the top of a chair to get the curve at the top and a trashcan to trace the cut outs on the sides.
   
   
   
   { Poster Board | Joann Fabrics }
   
   
2. Trace the poster board onto the ply wood and cut it out with a jig saw. My headboard measured 36in wide and you can make it as tall and as short as you want depending on the style.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Trace the cut headboard onto the foam. I put the two sheets of foam together since one sheet wasn't tall enough. 
4. Cut out the foam with an electric knife and hot glue gun the two pieces together.
   
   
   
   { Clark being the sweet boyfriend that he his helping me with the electric knife }
   
   
5. Nail the wood 2 x 4's to the back of the board as a stand and then nail two more pieces (horizontal) to the top and the bottom of the back of the headboard, this will keep it sturdy for when you lean back against it.
   
   
   
   
   
6. Use spray adhesive to glue the foam to the headboard.
7. Lay out your batting and place the headboard face down. Pull the batting tight and staple gun it to the back of the board to hold it in place. Cut off any excess batting.
   
   
   
   
   
8. Lay out your fabric just like you did with the batting and cut the fabric so that you have about 6 inches hanging off all the way around the headboard so you will be able to attach it later. My fabric was wrinkly so I steamed it before I started stapling. 
9. Start by putting one staple on the bottom and two staples on each side, make sure to keep the fabric pulled tight. This will give you a good hold on the sides but still allow you to pull when you're working on the top. This is definitely a two person job.
10. This is where it gets tricky... At the top of the headboard, cut slits on the fabric on the back. Make sure to cut perpendicular to the curve, this will allow you to pull the fabric back in different directions to keep the curve smooth. 
    
    
    
    
    
11. Play around with the fabric to see which way to pull each piece until you get the look that you want and staple it down. Start with the cut out curves on the side and do the top curve last.
12. I stapled a white sheet on the back to cover it and make it look a little prettier.
    
    
    
    The final product! See how it looks in my dorm room.
    
    
    
    
    

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Bible Verses to Pray For Your Relationship

Earlier this week I decided that I wanted to give Clark something special that he could take with him to college, something that he would actually use. I wanted to go along the lines of something that would make our LDR easier! So I thought I'd share with ya'll what I came up with. Prayer is definitely the most important thing to help us make this transition. Time spent in prayer will help keep God at the center of our relationship and to trust His timing and plan for us.

{Kate Spade Notebook | Walgreens Notebook}

I bought a small notebook and divided it into 6 sections (loving, forgiveness, commitment, encouragement, be slow to anger and our future). I wrote 28 verses to pray for our relationship in the different sections and I left a few blank pages after each one in case Clark wanted to add anything else. Here are a few verses that I used:

On Loving: 1 Peter 4:8

On Forgiveness: Ephesians 4:32

On Commitment: 1 Corinthians 10:13

On Encouragement: 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Be Slow To Anger: Proverbs 14:29

For Our Future Together: Romans 8:28

I was very pleased with how it turned out and Clark loved it! I was so thrilled that I even bought my self a cute notebook so I can make my self a prayer journal!

For more LDR gifts, check out the care package I made for Clark!