Farm Girl

Redeemed. Wife. Mom.

Archives for December 2013

Cheers to 2013: Our Year in Review

I cannot believe another year has come and gone. 2013 went by so fast! We had a lot of big moments and this year was full of change, surprises, love, laughter, fun, excitement, and packed boxes. 😉
As tradition on the blog and before we move on to 2014, I would like to reflect on our year and the wonderful memories we made over the last 12 months.
January:
We had a rough go with Paisley and her 1st febrile seizure and a long road of sickness ahead. We are so thankful for how healthy she has been since the spring! The blog celebrated its 1 year anniversary and we also started building our home.
February:
We celebrated Paisley’s 1st birthday with a Minnie Mouse themed Party! It was a blast and we had so much fun. I also celebrated another birthday and left my job working for an Optometrist to start preparing for Nursing School.
March:
The foundation of our home was poured! A huge milestone to our home building process. We also spent Easter with Zack’s side and I made some yummy and fun Easter treats on the blog.
April:
The metal was put on our house this month! Our place started to look more like a home. We spent a lot of our time buying things for the house and making a lot of decisions about what we wanted it to look like. We had another rough hospital visit with Paisley and her last febrile seizure. I shared the final post of “Our Story” and had an amazing response to all of it. Thank you so much for your encouraging words and love!
May:
May was a big month for us. We officially had our house in the dry and the walls framed up! Our sweet friends were married and we got to see my cousin graduate high school. I celebrated my 2nd Mother’s Day with Miss P and Zack. Our late bloomer started walking and finally got pigtails! I was also accepted into nursing school! 🙂
June:
We spent most of our weekends by the water in June. Zack celebrated his 2nd Father’s Day and another birthday! Miss P loved bathing suits and the pool. I feel like she changed so much this month as far as looks and personality. We got insulation and windows in our house this month too.
July:
I shared a family recipe of ice chest tea on the blog. We celebrated 4th of July at Zack’s parent’s house with a paint war and had one more weekend at the lake. Nursing school began for me on the 16th. We had friends get married and had fun at their photo booth. We finally had drywall up and the house was bed and taped.
August:
I survived my first month of Nursing school! We had a send off celebration for my cousin Ashton going away to college. A paint party happened, painting our entire house in a weekend. Cabinets were installed and my aunt helped me distress and stain them.
September:
We FINALLY MOVED into our new home! Such a neat and sweet experience. I will never forget our first night in the new house. I couldn’t sleep I was so excited and couldn’t believe that we were actually done with it. We also kicked off a new season of OK State football, our fourth season as Posse members. Paisley took up cleaning as a hobby and I shared a fun hospital survival gift for a friend and a DIY project.
October:
We were finally getting settled into our new home. I shared the first part of our Home Tour with the master closet reveal and decorated the porch for fall. We took Paisley to the pumpkin patch and she dressed up for Halloween as Jessie from Toy Story. Our free weekends were spent with family, at football games, and studying.
November:
November was so much fun! We had our family pictures made and beat Baylor in a huge game. Thanksgiving was a lot of fun with family, my Mom and I survived Black Friday, and Zack and I went to see John Mayer in concert.
December:
December was so busy and stressful with school but it was probably my favorite month this year. The blog received a face lift. I shared our Christmas card and letter. We decorated for Christmas and spent time with friends. Zack and I celebrated 2 years of marriage and spent our anniversary on a date to watch the Thunder followed by an amazing dinner. We had a wonderful Christmas and Santa brought Paisley a VW Beetle. I shared more of the house on our home tour and ended the month organizing and getting ready for 2014.
We were so blessed in 2013. I can’t begin to explain how much fun we had and how much I look forward to 2014. I have a lot of goals I want to accomplish and I am blessed to be able to pursue them with an amazing husband, daughter, family and friends by my side. I am overwhelmed with the happiness and joy that blogging has brought me. From sharing fun DIY projects, documenting our home progress and Paisley’s milestones, to meeting the most amazing and sweetest women who have became great friends of mine. This blog has blessed me in ways I can’t explain. Thank you to all who read, comment, email, lift me up, make me laugh, and who have become a dear friend to me. I love you all and pray that God blesses you in many ways during the upcoming year.
Happy New Year!
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Cutest Hobby Lobby Pillows: Living Room Update

I decided to bite the bullet and put up our Christmas Decorations. I was going to leave them up but I only have one more week off and I thought I should enjoy what was left. I still have homework to catch up on for next week as well. Oh, the joys of Nursing School.
The only bad thing about putting everything up is that I am reminded that my living room looks really bare and I am in need of some more decorations. Ha!
For Christmas my mom bought me the three pillows on the left. They are from Hobby Lobby and go PERFECTLY with our decorations. I love that they bring in more blue to our little space. She also bought me the throw from Target and it is so soft. I love their Threshold line.
I also rearranged the furniture a little and it feels like we have so much more room.
I purchased the lights above on sale for $10 at Target last year and have been searching for a space to put them. I am still not sure if I like them here but I thought they looked cute lighting up the curtains and adding a little something different to the living room.
I love the new additions to the couch and if you are ever looking for some cute throw pillows check out Hobby Lobby {or Pier 1}. 🙂
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Home Tour: Kitchen Reveal

I am so excited to reveal our kitchen with you! This is one of the most used rooms in the entire house. A place where we spend the most time with our family and guests. Since our house is smaller, we wanted the living room and kitchen to have an open floor plan to give us more space.
My aunt and I stained all of the cabinets ourselves this summer. It was a long process but I love how they turned out. The back splash is stone and the counter tops are granicrete.
I love how open and how much space we have in the kitchen.
The glass canisters were a steal from Pier 1 for 5 dollars. I bought chalkboard labels from Staples and put them on the jars to label the flour and sugar.
One the things I wanted most in the kitchen was a farmhouse sink. My Grand bought it for us as a house gift and we absolutely love it!
The Mr. and Mrs. signs were actually decorations from my bridal shower and I have always kept them in our kitchen window sill.
I bought the cake stand for our soaps from a boutique in Texas.
I love the double refrigerator and freezer on bottom. You save so much room!
I bought the bar stools from Target. They swivel and can also raise higher.
Our dishes are the Fiesta Wear. My Grand had bought them before we got married. They are so fun and I love mixing and matching.
I bought this wine bottle and glass holder from Paul Michael Company in Canton, TX. They have a lot of neat kitchen and home decorations.
This is the door to our pantry. I am SO thankful we added this to our floor plan. I am in love with old screen doors and I thought it would add some character to the kitchen area. I bought this one from Home Depot for $20.00 and my mom stained it. I will do a separate post for this room. 🙂
This farmhouse table has some sweet history. First, it was my dad’s table when he was growing up, then it went to my great grandmother. I ate a lot of meals here when I was little. When my grandma passed away last year, it was left to me. This is probably one of my favorite pieces of furniture in the whole house and it means the most too. This summer I plan to refinish or paint it along with the china buffet that goes with it. I love this space. I still have to find a rug I like to go under it and I am making burlap place mats for it too.
I am looking for a cute centerpiece to go in the middle but for now candy and Paisley serve the purpose. 🙂 I bought the burlap and ruffle runner from Laurie Anna’s Vintage Home in Canton.
The napkins and rings were from my mom and dad for Christmas last year. I am so happy to finally use them!
The kitchen is still a work in progress and I will post updates when I change things.
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