Cookie time and a home tour!

Warning - really long post ahead!

This past weekend, I hosted a cookie exchange party at my house for close family and friends. It was fabulous! We had over 20 people and about 25 different types of cookies. I couldn't have pulled it off without my great mom and sister Caroline. But I do have to say that Derek was especially helpful in getting the whole house cleaned! Thanks D! We worked all day on Friday baking and preparing. And we snuck a few projects in there too! As if I didn't have enough to do! Christmas just isn't the same without a few crafts!

Enjoy the many pictures from the party as well as a little Christmas tour of the Stephens home.

Mom and me preparing for the party.

The tablescape. We added cute little snowflake ornaments to the tablecloth to spice it up a bit!

This was a Martha Stewart craft that Caroline did. Trees are made out of paper and glitter.
This is my ribbon tree I made. It really is simple and turns out just adorable! I bought a foam cone from the craft store and many assorted ribbons. Then I cut the ribbons all the same size and folded each in half and glued the ends together. After that I hot glued each ribbon to the cone. Add a dazzling ornament at the top and you have a super fun whimsical tree!

Caroline made these cute little stirrers we used for the apple cider and coffee.



Plates for the yummy food
These are my whimsical snow women. They sure are tall compared to my swedish santa.


The Living room
Our mantle
Village display - no I did not make the church, only the houses on either side.
This is a great way to add some life to a wreath. Tie ornaments to the ends of ribbons and attach to a wreath.

We have two trees. This one is in our dinning room.
This is our dinning room where we were displaying all the cookies. But we had so many cookies that I had to start placing platters on the chairs!

I made this cute little frame and it sits on our hutch.
My hutch display.
Our tree in the living room.

Sisters Mom, me, Andrea and Jan
Mom, Aunt Melissa, Caroline Derek's mom - Linda, Emily, Heather - Derek's sister
My lovely co-workers, Jodi and Paige.
Me and Janet
Lauren and Britt
Once we plated the cookies we displayed them on the table and the chairs since we ran out of room. Everyone got to take home 2 huge plates of cookies. What a great turn out!

Miss Piper was such a sweet little guest!
Melissa won the best cookie prize - a cookie jar.

Sweet Caroline

Matt stopped by to show off little Mckenzie...what a doll!

Thanks to everyone that came to my party and brought cookies! I had so much fun seeing all of you and tasting your delicious cookies! Merry Christmas!!

Girl time!

Last week my mom and I got together with our long time friends, Jan and Andrea. We enjoyed just hanging out at my parents house and playing with Andrea's daughter, Piper. She is the cutest little girl ever. Such a trendsetter thanks to her stylish mom! My mom made a fabulous dinner and we enjoyed our apple cider in our fancy glasses. Thanks mom!

Me, Piper and Andrea

Mom and Jan


Its so easy to create these fancy drinks. Take a lemon and squeeze it around the rim. Then dip your glass in green sugar/sprinkles. Add cranberries to your drink of choice. So festive!!

Let the Parties begin!

We have begun the most wonderful time of the year! I love Christmas time. Eventhough its so busy I enjoy every minute of it. I love all the parties and food and fellowship! And especially celebrating our Savior's birth. Without him there would be no reason to celebrate. The weekend before last we traveled to Waco for our sweet niece's 5th birthday party. Such a fun time. She had her party at a gymnastics center and it was such a blast to watch all the kiddos run around and play on the trampolines and equipment. After the party Derek's sister, Heather, had all the family over for a yummy dinner and more cake. The next day we had our church ABF party. We wore our tacky Christmas sweaters and enjoyed food and of course all the funny outfits! Love all those couples in our class!
Here are some pictures from that weekend:

So sweet - Derek and Jackson

Emily loves her brother Jackson!

Such a ham!

Oh so cute! I wish you could see my huge santa earrings I'm wearing.

I'm dreaming of a White Christmas!

We were so excited and surprised to wake up this morning to a winter wonderland! Beautiful! Eventhough I still had to drive to work the drive was so pretty with the big snow flurries falling down on the windshield. I love snow! Growing up, my family would celebrate Christmas in NY every other Christmas. My brother and sister and I would play in the snow all day long and make snowmen, snow angels and slide down Grandma's hill. Those are some of my fondest memories. I hope that we can take our children to NY to see the beautiful white snow covered rooftops. At least it sticks and stays around up there.

View of our backyard

Its a Boy!

We are having a sweet little boy! We are super excited! We were so relieved after our appointment to find that our little buddy is healthy and doing great. I know that everyone thinks of me as only having a girl but I truly do feel honored to parent a little boy. I hear its a special bond! And hopefully one day I'll be able to buy pink sparkly outfits but for now we're sticking with all things blue. I have tons of ideas for this little guys nursery. I can't wait to start planning and decorating!


This is me at 19 weeks

Ryan's pumpkin

Every year my brother, Ryan, carves a very intricate pumpkin. Its something we look forward to! He's so good at it so I have to brag on his pumpkin this year. Can you guess what it is?? Just to protect his manhood: my sister persuaded him to do this!

Boy or Girl???

We have our exciting appointment a week from tomorrow. On November 10th we will find out if Baby Stephens is a little boy or little girl! We can't wait! What do you think? Make sure to vote!!

Our little nephew - Jackson

A few weeks ago we met our sweet little nephew, Jackson Neil Luft! He is just precious and we are thrilled for Heather and Neil and big sister Emily!

Polka-dots and Bows

I'm finally getting a little more energy back and have been able to do a few little projects around the house. I think I've added a bow or polka-dots to almost everything I can get my hands on! If we have a little boy, he will have polka-dots somewhere in his room. I just can't help myself, but he will not be a girly boy - I promise! Derek will not allow it!

Used some ribbon to dress up my glass jar

Derek painted this antique lamp black that was my grandmothers. Then I painted white polk-dots on the shade. I think its pretty cute! Old meets new. I love turning old things into something unexpected. You could probably find something like this at a garage sale and completely transform it.

This is my cute little lamp I found at Ross. I just added some polka-dot ribbon. Its in our updated bathroom. Still working on the bathroom. Will have another post on that!

I added the ribbon and the wooden pumpkin to my wreath. I just thought it needed something extra - Can you tell that I painted polk-dots on the pumpkin??


These are my favorite! I bought a package of assorted small pumpkins at Kroger. Then I added black polka-dots to the pumpkin with a paint pen. I also added little ribbons to the stem (hard to see). They look really cute on our mantel.

Thats all folks! Happy Fall Ya'll!