My Sister's Beautiful Family

Weekend.

This past weekend I went here... Pilot Mountain... "home" and I enjoyed the peace and quiet of the country side.  I am totally jealous of my parents sometimes because they have such a calm and "in slow motion" place to live. And I am also jealous of them because they have a nice window in their kitchen that I desperately long to have in our teeny, dark, little apartment. I woke up Sunday morning to the sound of rattling pans and the sweet smell of bacon coming from the kitchen, my Dads famous spot in the morning!  He is always mixing up something (that smells amazing) for breakfast.  We spent the afternoon celebrating my sister and little nephews birthdays.  We ate way too much pizza and topped it off with some cake!

What a nice vacation from the sound of honking horns and trains roaring through the city.

...and, of course, I took advantage of my parents lovely kitchen window in the photograph below:

Kelley Christmas

We had a great time celebrating Christmas up in Pilot Mountain with my family!

We drove up Friday night... late Friday night... to visit my Mom at work at the Hospital.  We surprised her! :) ...we ended up staying there and visiting with her until about 3:30 am (I haven't seen 3:30 am in a looong time!) Then we decided Steak & Shake was the right thing to do on the way home before hitting hay until noon the next day!

We spent the rest of the weekend in Pilot Mountain and had a great time together!

We did all our normal Christmas traditions: Christmas eve dinner, Christmas eve presents, Christmas morning stockings & presents for the kids, Christmas morning breakfast casserole, a huge Christmas day meal, Christmas family pictures in front of the mountain (of course), and then to end all the craziness... Jill's birthday celebration!

and to top it all off... we even went shopping ALL day the day after Christmas!  Exchanging stuff and spending the rest of our Christmas money... it was an eventful weekend! (I am so proud of my husband for making it through a whole day of shopping... thank goodness my dad was there to look at "manly stuff" with him)

I love spending time with family and am so thankful for the amazing family that I have!

timeless.

a photo is worth a thousand words... and this one is no exception.

October 22, 2011 - Photo by Lauren Mack

blueberries.

this past weekend i went to pick blueberries for the first time with my dad...
& i've never seen so many blueberries in my life!

but of course we only picked the biggest and bestest berries we could find

:)

4th of July.

the Kelley's and the Mack's got together again for

the 4th of July

in surry county!

for some pool lounging, visiting,

grilling out, Wii sports, and of course

FIREWORKS!

both families under one roof...

it was a good time!

color.me.HAPPY.

a.neat.house

source via  original.source. 

country.living

country.living

anthro.PINS

amazingness

Fluffy.PINS

1.rounds 2.purple 3.purple.flowers 4.white&cream  5.yellow.flowers  6.burnt.round

♥

wedding wednesday.

Do It Yourself:

Save the Dates and Envelopes

I designed my own photo strip save the dates

for my wedding in

17 Days!!

and after getting all 150 of them printed out

i realized that there was no existing envelope

(that i could find) to fit these photo strips.

so i decided to take on hand making envelopes to 

the PERFECT size to fit these save the dates!

a great idea at the time...

BUT

not at 3 am while my mom and i were still up

cutting, gluing and stamping.

How To:

make the perfect photo strip envelope.

Step 1: Buy a pack of card stock paper

Step 2: gather supplies & buy this expensive, but

well worth it, scotch glue.

Step 3: Create a template

warning

this step will:

*cause 7-10 failed template attempts

*require concentration

*waste paper

*cause you lots of frustration

*make you want to quit this project

Step 4: Fold the paper

using your hand and a metal ruler

warning

this step will:

*cause the side of your hand to become raw

*may require you to wear a glove on your left

hand so that it doesn't hurt as bad

*attract weird looks from family members due

to the previous warning

*cause you lots of frustration

*make you want to quit this project

Step 5: glue the envelope together

warning

this step will:

*take an extremely long time

*cause you to have stinky fingers

*test your patience

*cause you lots of frustration

*make you want to quit this project

Step 6: decide that your envelope doesn't look handmade

so you should hand stamp each one of them.

warning

this step will:

*prove that you are O.C.D

*cause you lots of frustration

*make you want to quit this project

Step 7: decide you want to add a little color

to your stamped envelope.

warning

this step will:

*once again,prove that you are O.C.D

*cause you lots of frustration

*make you want to quit this project

Step 8: admire your work

and

 take your completed save the date and

custom made envelopes to the post office

to send them off to your lovely wedding guests!

warning

this step will:

*teach you to check on a "standard envelope size"

before starting a project like this

*make you feel accomplished

*make you happy that you didn't quit

*cause you to have some awesome quality time

with your mom :)

home.

Another weekend at home and another weekend

to remind me why i love home so much!

beautiful country.

there is always a place to wash your car!

4 Wheelers!!!

Mom jumped on the 4 wheeler... and this

is the look Jill got! hahaha

i am IN LOVE with this picture of Jill!

as you can tell from that 

big smile she has plastered on her face

behind her helmet...

SHE LOVES HER 4 WHEELER!!

:)

***********************************************

Although we played hard this weekend...

we also worked hard!

Yeay for getting all the decorations for

the wedding finished this weekend!!

19 Days!

easter wknd.

 A day outside...

a little work

a little play

Jill loves her dog!

The men at work.

Weezy.

The future married people!

<3

---

26 days!!