Christmas with the Smith's

Christmas started this year with the Melvins and their Misfit Christmas Eve because we couldn't leave for Houston until Christmas morning. The Melvins are awesome and we had a great time. When we got home that night we opened our Christmas gifts. I am very thankful for a great pair of slippers that are super cute and a new camera! Stu received a new 21 year bottle of scotch that tastes amazing and the correct type of glasses to drink it out of...

Mister G. and Daisy wore matching attire.

Christmas morning we started off early for Houston...sadly couldn't find an open Starbucks.

Final stop: Will and Dani's House. There we had breakfast and that much needed cup of coffee. Then we waited for Luke and Morgan to get there to open presents.

Daisy and Mister wanted in on the action, mostly because there was a lot of candy involved! Gene also stopped in to open gifts with the little ones. After gifts and lunch we went outside to enjoy the nice weather.

Luke and Morgan have adopted a duck, Lilly. Lilly lives in the small pond behind their house, but she is sort of like their pet. Lucky little duck is enjoying some tortilla this Christmas morning!

Then we took a few pictures, which the boys hated....but what is Christmas without pictures!

Mister was sad that he was locked inside the gate while everyone else was outside it.

Will, Dani, Morgan, and little Luke.

And an almost complete family picture of the smiths, we were missing Stephen and Star's little zoo.

The last stop was a visit with "Lee-La" or Mrs. Ruby Lee, Stuart's Grandma. Stuart and I had some coffee, which was yummy, and a little sweet snack (or if you are me, three brownies). Had a great time with this sweet and very funny lady.

We hope that your Christmas was awesome!
~with love,
Stuart and Nicole

some funny pup pics

Daisy is a sleepy little lady.

It's always fun to dress them up and watch them...they don't like it very much.

Mister HATES when Daisy is getting any sort of love, or attention. He always goes for the ears or he pulls her extra neck fat.

And from way back when Mister was still a sweet little puppy, he has shown his true colors!

'Tis the Season

to be jolly!

This is SOOOO funny. I have spent my morning being very productive, I added our faces to this and have watched it a few times. I love that Daisy has the biggest head out of the four of us. LOVE IT!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Can you believe that it's already November?

We certainly find it had to believe. Halloween is over and the stores have already started decorating for Christmas and the music is playing. We are about 3 weeks away from Thanksgiving... that is crazy!

Where has the year gone?

So far the year in the Smith Household has been interesting. Within the last 10 months we have:

~ gotten a new puppy: he goes by the name of "Mister G."





~ completed the annual Smith move, this time to the 78704

~ I finished school (and finally we hung our degrees up on the wall in Stu's office)

~ we had developed a great love for french pressed coffee every morning. (I have slowly turned Stu into a coffee monster!)

~ Whole Foods had become 'our grocery store' and we love it!

~ we have passed the three year marker in marriage, and it has been such a blessing to be married to my sweet Stuart!


~ Stu's business only continues to grow :)

~ we have taken our first real vacation to San Fran and the wine country... yum


~ we had the chance to go to Turkey, to see and experience, to love on and pray for the Turks




~ we have found a home church that continues to challenge us to be better

~ Stu has been blessed to play in a band with some really great guys

This is the guys playing in Bodrum, Turkey with Umut, in September.
Kendall, Andy, Shaun, and Stuart

Andy and his wife, Anna, Kendall, Shaun, and the Smiths in Antalya, Turkey

~ I have finally found a job just down the street at West Elm, a fun and dangerous store for us


I am sure that there is more, but I can't really think of them right now.


I am excited to say that Fall has finally reached central Texas! The temperatures are no longer in the 90's and 100's but in the mid-70's. It's a beautiful thing when you can walk outside in the early morning or evening and you can (most of the time) feel the cool air slowly starting to appear. I love the fall. By the end of November or the middle of December I hope the the air is chilly. We'll see what happens, Texas weather is so odd at times and never really predictable.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies that I made last week.... really yummy!

Now it's time to gear up for the holidays, the season of the 3F's (family, friends, and good food).

~n

Happy October!

Fall is slowly approaching...even though the calendar may say that it has been fall for about a week, we are starting to see and feel it. Once the temperature drops to at least 75ish I will really start to enjoy the holiday coffee drinks, the fall scented candles that have popped up everywhere and the pumpkins at the store.

I love the fall! I hope to get a pumpkin for our back door and I love to mini pumpkins for the kitchen. The best part of cooler weather....sweaters! I love sweaters and I am really excited to add a couple of new ones to my collection, a few of the ones I have right now need to be retired from circulation. Oh and closed toed flat shoes... LOVE LOVE LOVE! I have spotted a few really cute pair so far but can't really go for them yet. I am still sporting my summer flip flops, but soon... 2 to 3 weeks they too will be taken out of circulation.

I really miss seeing the trees change colors. Here they change from green to brown, there are very few golds, reds, and oranges...but that is what happens when you live somewhere with a couple of seasons... Texas just simply doesn't care if there are four calendar seasons.

~more later!
n

This week I am loving...

...the rainy weather.

It may only be off and on, but right now I am sitting enjoying my morning coffee, wrangling the dogs and its cloudy with a little sprinkle every now and then.

...our comfortable bed.

The night we got back from Turkey, and the 28 hour-ish travel day we were so happy about our bed. After having slept in a few plane chairs and a few different beds we loved coming home to our 'cave'. The 'cave' is our bedroom. (There are no windows to bring in the natural light and it is about 5 degrees colder than the rest of the apartment.) Love it!

...West Elm is opening down the street tomorrow!

I will be there! Last night Stu and I went to the frozen yogurt place down the street for a sweet little treat and watched people at the West Elm store put the sign on top of the building. The store itself looks really big compared to the Houston West Elm. We also heard a rumor that they'll be giving a discount for the first few days that it'll be open (I hope so because I LOVE that place...it's a modern Crate and Barrel on a budget!).

...my crazy pups.

Even though Mister has been awaking up at 6am crying because he is ready to go outside, I love watching them 'battle' each other. Thankfully Mister decided to sleep in today until 8am! I missed their cute little faces while we were away. They are really like our children. Right now they are playing tug-a-war with a stuffed elephant, Herbert II, that has seen better days (And by that I mean all that is left of this poor elephant is his outside skin...Mister ate all of the cotton stuffing).

...opening a new bag of granola and a new toothbrush!

We're back!

..and by 'back' i mean: back to blogging (.... i will really try to be better at this....) and 'back' from Turkey!

We're going to go through pictures in a little bit and we'll fill you in about the beautiful culture, the Turkish people, and God's presents there...(and the coffee & food)!

~n

Random Things I Love...

There are a few odds items that make my day a little better....

I LOVE:

when I open a new toothbrush!

• why? Stu thinks that this is weird, but really it's awesome! I am pretty rough when it comes to brushing, I push the bristles down hard on my teeth ( I know this is very bad for your gums...but I am sort of a perfectionist when it comes to brushing my teeth. ) So after a while all of the bristles are angled different ways and it feels funny. When that new one comes out of the package all of the bristles are straight and beautiful! Oh I love new toothbrush day in the Smith household.
  

opening a new package of granola.

• it's fresh and crispy. Fresh granola is my Brown Cow Vanilla Non Fat Yogurt's best friend.

the smell when a candle is blown out.

• Stuart thinks that this is awkward. But when you blow out one of our vanilla candles the smell that comes right after you blow the flame out is one of my favorite smells. Weird I know.

a can of Scrubbing Bubbles.

• why should I 'scrubble' the bathtub if these little guys will do all of the hard work first? I know that this is not very "Green" of me, but I love the Nature's Source from Scrubbing Bubbles. This is an awesome SUSTAINABLE cleaning product that works really well... I use it everywhere! *note: Sustainable is a much better term than "Green", "Green" is over used and sort of abused.
  

~more to be added later!

The Month of June

We are starting to get settled into our new apartment...there are still a few pictures to be hung on the walls and we are still on the hunt for an entry table that we can fix up and blend into the Smith style.

Within the last month Stu and I have celebrated our Third Wedding Anniversary. June 8th we had a great dinner at Ranch 616. It was soooo good!

Here are a few pictures from the last couple of weeks:

Mister G. chillin' on our bed.

A box can be an entertaining toy/house for a little dog(cat).

Mister G. likes little spaces that Daisy can't fit in to...

This is where Mister and D can be found most any time... Daisy likes the sun light and Mister likes to bark at anyone that walks by.

June 8th 2009. Three Years.

Stu's gift to me.... retro velvet green chair.



And a few of my favorite pictures from June 8th 2006.

The Smiths and close friend John Weaver.

Lighting the Unity Candle

My Sweet Husband.

John Weaver and Allison Jones (now Mrs. Weaver)

The Smiths

It would not be complete without a silly face!

Married at the historical Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Miss Maddie... flower girl.

...we got to stand on the staircase...an architectural mystery...

Making it official to the State of New Mexico.


The last 3 years has been amazing and a true blessing. We are looking forward to the future. (with Daisy and Mister G.)

Blog MAKEOVER!

I was bored with the old one... and Stu has been too busy to make a new banner for the top.... So, here is the work of art that I tried to make .


IT'S BRIGHT AND CHEERFUL!

The Smiths have moved....again!

Hello!

Hope all is well with everyone! The Smiths have had a very busy and exciting couple of weeks. I finished a 5yr college career from Texas State University. My mom and a family friend came into town from Albuquerque and Gene drove up from Houston for the day. It is good, no, it's great to be done with school! And more importantly no more homework or textbooks!



Then.... we had to start packing up the apartment!

We we're technically hired as event coordinators {Me & Stu} and designer {Stu} for a new apartment located down the street. We started the move from 300 North Lamar to 300 South Lamar. While packing we discovered that we have more stuff then we really need. We moved out of one awesome apartment into an amazing apartment, Cole, a 2 bedroom 2 bath {it's the Aranzas} apartment. We are truly blessed to be living here.

We have almost finished unpacking at this point, but there is still lots to do, mainly in Stu's office. The pictures need to be added to the walls and then it will for sure feel like home. We went to a home improvement store last night and picked out a paint color for a kitchen island. I was very surprised when Stu picked a Martha Stewart color called Chardonnay Bottle. I love it and think that it has turned out very nice. It is sort of a yellowish retro green. Side note: We have furniture that is either black or chocolate brown. For the past three years we have loved a Restoration Hardware color called Silver Sage....but {I} have recently decided on the changing to green! {This started with a lime green tray that Stephen and Star, Stu's brother and sister-in-law, gave us this last Christmas} We are also going to be getting an area rug for our seating area and will be getting new covers for our throw pillows, all will be green. ....so our living room is mainly dark with accents of the green....

{Pictures to follow at a later date}