m.i.a.

i've been m.i.a. for a week now ... as exciting and wonderful as the holidays were, we've had a lot of catching up to do. i have many, many posts about november birthdays, thanksgiving, and our fabulous Christmas tree find - but real life has interrupted. decorating my home for Christmas, present and grocery shopping, allergies, and just plain exhaustion ruined my plans for extreme blogging last night.

this is just a side note, but, after a saturday trip to the allen outlets, i don't plan on going shopping in public until after the 25th. can't handle it.

shopping online for the next month will include: comfy pajamas, my pups, and coffee in hand!

i'll finish up the great month of november with a few things i'm loving right now:

-this precious wreath i plan to make asap and hang in my dining room

-the new anthro in the university shopping center in ft. worth.

love.it.

-this iphone case

-referring to my new "niece"

-having half of my Christmas gifts ordered/purchased

if you know me, you know i'm not really in to having them all bought before the month of december

-this candle

started burning it two days ago!

-decorating with rosemary

southern living style

-this dress (thanks rachel zoe). we have a wedding on january 1st... think mr. b would spring for it?
get real. it's definitely not in this normal girl's (or her hubby's) budget

-my new Christmas cd.
that's right... i'm obsessed

-Christmas has arrived in abilene! mr. b and i are looking forward to celebrating a new "tradition" with great friends tonight with dinner downtown and the Christmas parade!

we'll be missing our sweet jeffrey's...

hope you and yours have a wonderful last day of november!

it's a...!

this is one of the most exciting blog posts that i’ve gotten to post so far. i’ve been waiting for a few months, and i’m thrilled to announce that…

i’m going to be an aunt!

and…

it’s a girl!

my precious sister and brother in law, rebecca and ryan, are expecting! this is an exciting time in anyone’s life but i feel especially grateful – little baby hunter is the first for the belcher/hunter households (as well as my own side of the family). i’ve been praying for a little niece or nephew for quite sometime and we are all so thrilled about this new addition.

little munchkin will make her way into the world early april. there is no doubt in my mind that many future posts will include sweet little baby girl items, including this pug that i absolutely had to get a few months ago. if you know rebecca, her two loves (other than ryan) are max and mia, the pugs.

i have to admit, i wrote this post 4 days early (before we knew baby's gender) in anticipation…

i'm so excited!

we're traveling east tomorrow. love to all. have a happy thanksgiving!



give thanks

in honor of the approaching thanksgiving holiday, i thought i would do a little post on the things that i am thankful for…

first and foremost, i'm so thankful for reminders that God is always with us... the beautiful blessings within our lives are because of Him!   

i'm thankful for my husband… and pretty much every thing about him.

except when he tries to floss in bed.  :)

the “i’m thankful for my husband because…” post could be a post of it’s own...

i'm thankful for family

i am thankful for the unconditional love that we receive from our families. they are all very precious to both of us and they let us know daily how much we are loved.

also very thankful for online shopping. i live in abilene, 'nuff said.

i'm thankful for my job and my sweet, sweet coworkers and volunteers.

these ladies are SO fun! love.them.

i'm thankful for my charlie and bailey.

i love these little monkeys…

i'm thankful for friendship!

i’m so blessed by these gals!

and this one...

 i miss you!

and I'm thankful for these gals (including the new little pumpkin in the middle!)

i'm also very thankful for God's protection and comfort in our little home!




these are just a few very important things that i am so grateful for; i'm sure i've overlooked some! hope your week of thanks is filled with many blessings, family, friends and yummy food!

happy saturday!

hope your weekend is off to a great start. mr. b and i plan to get down our Christmas items from the attic and i couldn't be more thrilled!

also, we're planning on a real tree this year. any abilineans know of a great place to buy? i would love to cut down our own...

we played bunco on wednesday night at julianna's. the theme was crazy hats. i kinda looked like a hobo.

i'll leave you with this pic:

haha, it was such a fun night.

hope yours is a wonderful, richly blessed weekend!

california part 4

okay, i promise. this is my final post on california. on the second to last day, we traveled along the russian river to the coast. we ended up in the small town of jenner.

this was our view...

balcony view...

this was my awful attempt at self photography. i setup a ghetto makeshift tripod and this is what came out:

the color and angle are awful but i guess it works!

on our last day, we drove through bodega. i love this church -  it's called St. Theresa's. it was the one from the alfred hitchcock film, the birds! 

we toured and tasted at a few more wineries in the russian river valley.

this amazing landscape was from arista winery.

this fun pup belonged to porter creek.

great pinot noir by the way... 

isn't God great? we spent a lot of time reflecting on the beauty that is His!

we had a fabulous trip! i'm so thankful for my sweet husband, and all of the rest and relaxation that we received during this great vacation.

happy tuesday; hope you have a wonderful week!

california part 3

on saturday, we visited sonoma...

which we loved...

buena vista was another favorite. it was tucked away in sonoma.

the trees were huge!

we finished up the day at korbel.

hope you had a fabulous weekend!

california part 2

let me start off by saying that with everyday, our trip got better. it was a complete blessing that we didn't lose our luggage (i'm notorious for losing luggage), found our hotels easily, never hardly got lost, and didn't have weird reactions to the food (because we for sure ate and drank a little differently out west). after spending two nights in san francisco, we rented a car. i didn't get a pic, but i believe this stock photo will sufice...

image from here

this blue baby got us where we needed to go for three days. we felt really cool pulling up to our hotel, restaurants, and wineries. mr. b, being the toyota nut that he is, loved it, of course.

as we pulled out of san fran in the rental car, we drove through the ghetto historic area and drove our way through golden gate park. warning, it is kind of hard to take a left turn in sf. like, there are lots of signs like this...

image from here

...when you reeeeallly need to go left. so we spent extra time cruising the streets of the haight-ashbury area. interesting to say the least.

plans to return to the golden gate bridge to take pictures were ruined by daylight savings time. i'm sure my own would have looked just like this anyway:

image from here

once we made it across the golden gate bridge, we ventured north to the sweet little town of santa rosa. loved it. i hope to go back someday and stay there for a few days. we stayed at a senior quaint hotel called the flamingo. think kellerman's from dirty dancing or the senior living center from cocoon. they were holding water aerobics when we arrived.

if you know either of us, you know we loved that environment as well :)

image from here

that afternoon, we made our way to napa valley. these cuties greeted us in our blue corolla. we stopped to take a shot...

pretty sure this is one of the most beautiful places either of us have ever been...

mr. b posed for me again

amazing view as we reached the edge of the napa valley

first stop: darioush winery along the silverado trail in napa

clos du val in napa valley

clos du val 

silverado vineyards, napa

we ended the day at silverado vineyards.

best.view.ever.

more to come tomorrow!

have a great day!

california part 1

mr. b and i are back from california and are attempting to adjust back to normal. i apologize in advance - i will be sharing multiple california posts because i got a little crazy with my mama's camera during the trip and there is just too much for one sitting (for both myself and the reader!)

but first, i must give a little shout out to my brother, joel, and his wife, molly (and little mabel), for hosting us in their home on the night before our trip. we love them and miss them very much. also, i'm very excited that mrs. molly has begun a blog of her very own about one of my personal favorite topics - food! she's super cute. you must check it out! 

so here i begin the deets on our california vaca. the first two days of our trip were spent in san francisco. we arrived on the BART (bay area rapid transit) at union square literally FIVE minutes after the huge giants celebratory parade. it was pure chaos. a little sad for the rangers fan, but also kinda cool.  

mr. b lugging my almost 50 lb suitcase. he was obviously thrilled.

we checked into our fancy and fun hotel room at the hotel frank... 

and if you know me, you know i love me some frank!


and headed out to china town

mr. b is really into canes

on day number two, we made our way down to fisherman's warf (by san francisco cable car, of course!)

i love how these little guys push the cable cars to it's starting point in order to get them moving! so much fun to watch!

visited the infamous lumbard street...

mr. b posed for a few pics...

and we ate a yummy lunch (no, not the crab!) at this little street vendor. mr. b had fish-n-chips and i had a great big bread bowl filled with clam chowder. delish!

saw the little sea lions at pier 39. they kinda made me miss our little bailey dog while we were away...

ps they smell awful!

we had a great view of alcatraz...

and enjoyed a nice little glass of wine down by the pier.

i loved this cute little orange cable car!

stayed tuned for part duex...

happy wednesday!