Respecting my Husband: His Friends

I'm doing a 31 day series about Respecting my Husband! To read about why I should respect him and go to a list of all 31 days, please visit my 31 Days of Respecting my Husband post.

Day 6: Respecting His Friends

Girls seem to get a bad rap for hating on their man's friends. Like the moment he gets married he is dragged away from his friends and his wife owns him and keeps him locked up never to be seen again. We'll discuss respecting his time away from me on another day, but let's just focus on his relationship with his friends for today. :)

I think sometimes that stereotype can be somewhat accurate depending on the situation, but also a lot of the time the guy just WANTS to be settled and ends up not hanging out with his friends as much. I get that. (The friends don't usually get that from what I've observed.) 

But, his friends are his friends for a reason. Some of them he has been friends with for as long as he can remember. They're a part of him! I want him to be able to talk with them, to help them out, spend quality guy time, and instead of always referring back to the good ol' days, continue to HAVE the good ol' days right now. 

I had a tough time at first when it came to Jordan's friends. We started hanging out, dating, and got engaged relatively quickly. (See love story here.) Being Jordan's first girlfriend, his friends were rather surprised (understandably). They are a great group and have been together since they were very young, so it was kinda weird and VERY intimidating entering into that mix outta nowhere. I am honestly JUST now starting to become comfortable around all of his friends. Lest you think it's their fault, I assure you I am not the easiest person to get to know. Opening up around new people is not my specialty. 

But did that mean I shouldn't respect them? No way. Jordan loves them, and he loved them way before he loved me (it's different, obviously, but still). If they're important to him, they're important to me. I shouldn't talk badly about them or try to take control over what they do or make them my rivals. I want him to have those friendships and I want to get to know them too. And show them respect as well.

See you tomorrow for Day 7 - Respecting my Husband: His Desire for Me (Sex!)

A Vintage Baby Shower!

I hosted a baby shower for one of my dear friends back in July at our church. It was a lot of work but fun to do, especially because we have the same kind of decorating style - vintage/shabby chic! So I knew I wanted to incorporate that into the shower. 
A lot of the decorations came from my home and my mother's home, so it was nice not to have to go buy all of the decor. The ladies at our church brought different food items so I didn't really have to worry about that. I just took care of the cake - yum! (Made by Carlie C's - NOT me, haha.)
My goal was to use a lot of coral and mint, but just know if you want to use those colors that it is VERY hard to find exact shades that match. You can just do what I did and incorporate variations of coral, mint, pink, peach, and aqua! It all flows together beautifully in my opinion, especially with a mixture of shades and textures. 
Hope you enjoy the pictures!

To start off, here is that aforementioned 10 layer chocolate cake by Carlie C's. SO good. The platter and cake plate are from Target this past spring. You can find them sitting on my kitchen table on an every day basis. :) The cake topper goes with the pennant banner below and is from the Etsy shop HEMdesign. I was so pleased with my purchases from that shop! 

The chalkboard is made from a vintage crib by Kim Woodall whose pieces you can find at Suzanna's Antiques in Raleigh. 

I made the name banner with scrapbook paper from HomeGoods, a hole puncher, and twine. SO easy and quick. 

The aqua and coral fabrics you see in the pics are from a thrift store. Basically my mom is a genius and helped me figure out how to add the colors in while also covering up the stains on the wall. :) That coral fabric behind the chalkboard on the window ledge is a SCARF with the tassels tucked under. Like I said, she's a genius. 

The lace around the jars is ribbon from Michael's that I hot glued - but not to the jars. That way they slip right off and can be used again later!

The puffs hanging from the ceiling are Martha Stewart brand from AC Moore.

Antique scales, jars from Target, burlap balls from TJ Maxx. Psalm 127:3-5 is what Sydney's husband read at church when they announced they were expecting. So sweet.

Also a hand painted ceramic booty by my Nanny. :)

Gorgeous wooden monogram from Thanks A Latte in Holly Springs. That was my gift to Lilly!

I made this corsage with a burlap flower, small fabric flower, and burlap ribbon all from Joann's. I also added leftover lace from Michael's that I used for the jars. I VERY easily hot glued this stuff together and to a pin. It was seriously not hard in the least bit and anyone can do it.

The picture above is how it all happened! Hee hee. :)

Me after my mom helped me set up. Yes, I kinda matched the decor, haha.

The beautiful mama Sydney!

One of my bestest friends! So thankful for her!

Blogs You Probably Aren't Reading, But Should!

I've realized that I follow way too many blogs. They're hard to keep up with. I'll pop over to one that I haven't checked in on in a while and notice that I've missed some crazy life circumstance that happened to the blogger. Like if someone switched their blog address, or got a new job, or brought a human being into the world. You know. Little things like that.
But guess what? That's not changing any time soon! I love reading blogs WAY too much to cut back. Usually I read them on my phone using Bloglovin' (the app is so great!) whenever I have a few minutes to spare. I try to "like" them and then go back and comment later when I'm on the computer, but I frequently forget to unfortunately.

The BEST blogs are the ones that I can relate to, that are authentic, that uplift me spiritually, that are encouraging, that share both good and bad, that point me to Jesus, that remind me of what truly matters. And I like ones that make me laugh, too. :)
With that being said, there are some blogs that I love that are not well known yet, but should be. They're mainly my friends whom I know and love in real life, and who are FAR better writers than I'll ever be! So here ya go.

1. Renee at Life More Abundant - I've been friends with Renee since 2nd grade and she's ALWAYS had a way with words. She loves the Lord, loves marriage, and is a huge inspiration to me. Right now she's talking about a spicy topic - sex! (Which I may or may not have had a part in helping her write...but you'll never know...) She also took our 2 year anniversary pictures!
2. Whitney at Whitney Writes - Whitney and Aaron are one of my favorite couples EVER. Their love for the Lord and each other is awesome. He's a children's minister and a hilariously animated person, and Whitney is one of the wittiest people I've ever met. Love following their adventures.
3. Lauren at The Merry Mrs. Mobley - Lauren has ministered to me SO much through her blogging in the past year. She been through some extremely difficult times and has continue to praise and trust the Lord through it all. God is truly using her for His glory.
4. Amanda at The Brandon and Amanda Story - Amanda is one of the cutest pregnant women in the world! I'm so excited for her and this new stage of life. She also loves to stay healthy and fit and definitely inspires me to want to do the same. 
5. Kellie at Just Me - Kellie (that sounds weird to me...she was my teacher) has been impacting my life since 2nd grade, because she taught me 2nd grade! She's one of those amazing teachers who stay in touch with their students and continue to reach out to them 17 years later. :) Her heart for the Lord and joy are contagious. 
6. Bethany at According to His Purpose - This lovely girl shines for the Lord in spite of her recent cancer diagnosis. Along with taking a look at her blog, please take a moment to pray for her and her husband as they are going through this trying time. She's been another one of those ladies who's touched my heart since elementary school. :)
7. Megan at Coffee and Turquoise - This is another girl I grew up with and is absolutely beautiful inside and out. Her blog is about "all things natural and organic". She discusses recipes and making the right food choices - on a budget! 

I could go on, and probably will another time, but I'll stop at seven. I'm thinking about doing posts every once in a while that highlight some of my favorite recent reads. We'll see. Hope y'all had a great Monday! Go check those blogs out! 

Our Christmas 2012

This was probably the best Christmas of my life. I think it may be tied with the year Blake and I woke up to tents by the Christmas tree with our presents inside. I got a Beauty and the Beast one, he got Toy Story. I got a typewriter that year too. Anyway.

We had a fantastic Christmas! One thing that was so great was that our days off came right after a weekend, so it ended up being 5 amazing days in a row. I'll just tell you what we did with pics. LOTS of pics. All from my phone because this is as good as it gets right now with blogging. And I understand if you don't want to read all the way to the bottom, but I didn't want to leave anything out!

No Christmas decoration pics today...maybe tomorrow. I know, I know...everyone is done with Christmas but I want to post it for my own future reference. :)

I went Black Friday shopping with my sis in law Anna and her friend Rachel and we had a BLAST. We went at 11:00 Thursday so that was an ideal situation for me. I'm definitely more of a night owl than an early riser. 

At Target the line was WAY too long so we hid our stuff and came back later. I kept wondering if I should feel bad about that or not. Oh well.

Jordan topping our real tree with the star. :)

We had a fun night with my BFF Ashlee and her fam at my parents' house.

(Yes, I'm kinda short. 5'4''. I don't think I'm short until I'm around my friends/Jordan's friends. Their average height is pretty tall.)

How crazy pretty are my parents' Christmas lights? My mom is a master Christmas decorator.

Christmas at Grandma's included her classic holiday desserts: boiled custard, banana pudding, pecan pies, and chocolate layer cake. YUMMMM.

My sweet cousin Kayla. :) Who was also one of my flower girls!

Grandma & Grandaddy's tree ALWAYS has colored lights. 

My grandparents are the coolest.

We always play outside in the yard at Grandma's. This is probably one of the 9 times in my life that I've played with a soccer ball. The rest of those times were in PE.

With my man at Grandma's!

We had our annual AshRitArah Steel Club Christmas shindig (it's a club we started in 9th grade), and looky what I got from Sarah!! We said YES!!

I didn't take any pictures at Jordan's 6th annual Christmas Whobilation at our house. :( It was SO FUN and so much better than cramming everyone into our little apartment. All night I kept thinking howww did we do that last year??

Then we had another Christmas party at our house with some of my best friends & their men. (Can you tell we had a LOT of events this Christmas?)

We celebrated my bro's 21st birthday in the midst of all this Christmas hullabaloo. My mom had a very talented 13 year old make a Hobbit cake for Blake. Yeah, it was impressive. 

We then made our way to Greensboro (Jordan's hometown) for the weekend before Christmas. We were seriously SO GIDDY about going and hanging out with the Shelley side of the family. Mainly because we were ALL together! Jordan's brother Josh and his family got to come from Memphis. For the past 5 or so Christmases they've been in China so this was a HUGE treat.

We had the traditional night of looking at Christmas lights, eating downtown, and going to Krispy Kreme.

I got hot chocolate instead of a donut of course. I just had a really weird moment because it underlined the word donut for me to tell me it was misspelled. I had no idea that it's actually spelled doughnut. Even though it says that in the picture above. Further evidence of the fact that I hate them and would rather eat anything else.

One of the best things about Christmas this year was being reunited with our precious nephew Harvey! He is 19 months and at such a fun age. We LOVED playing with him and being constantly entertained by him.

We went to Jordan's friend Dillon's house for some dinner and Just Dance. The guys gave me their best blue steel pose.

These three handsome brothers played O Come All Ye Faithful at church that Sunday morning and it was beautiful as expected. Jordan on guitar, Josh on piano, Joseph on violin. They are SO talented.

And then that Sunday night at church ALL of the Shelley kids sang Go Tell it On the Mountain together. I was nervous since I hadn't sung in front of people since um..my senior play in high school? But I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the Shelley ensemble.

We also went caroling as a family that night which was really special. I pray that it was as much of a blessing to the houses we visited as it was to me!

Here's me & my beautiful sister in law Danielle. You can check out her blog for more Harvey adorableness.

Jordan made Harvey an extremely cool play board thing for Christmas. I love this picture of them so hard.

That smile and that sweater just kills me with the cuteness.

We had the Shelley Christmas morning on Christmas Eve. I got some Pampered Chef stoneware and other wonderful gifts. I was even in tears due to a gift from Joseph. He gave everyone picture frames that he made that said "Thank You For Your Example" and a letter from him inside. He said lots of nice things about me that are mostly fabricated because I'm not that cool. But I was very touched that he thinks so. :)

We then headed over to Jordan's Granma's house for a gathering of 32 Shelleys. Or 33? I'm still not sure.

She has a tree filled with all the initials and pictures of her grandchildren. I LOVE this.

Close up of me & Jordan!

Yeah, that's a lot of stockings. This was the first time ALL of the Shelleys have been able to get together in...a long time? Ever? 

Isn't that a nice little tree?

But wait. Look closer.

Bahahaha. That's the man I married.

Jordan got a giant tool box which was the perfect size for Harvey to fit in!

Uncle Jordan, will you put on my new shoes?

Jordan got a set of his favorite thing to drink out of: jars with handles. We were so excited to have these for our house. :)

Jordan sold his car, "The White Blur", to his cousin Luke. We had a ceremony. It's making its way up to Wisconsin as I type this. Hopefully.

After the Christmas Eve festivities, we made our way back to Raleigh. We watched Home Alone 2 (we had already watched the first one a few days prior) and wrapped gifts because we had wrapped ZERO gifts beforehand. There was literally not a spare minute to do so before that night. We sat back to back so we couldn't see what the other was doing. :)

Christmas morning we woke up and exchanged gifts just us two. :) I gave Jordan a Dewalt miter saw that he had been longing for. He was a little happy. I actually picked it out without his help (I did text his friend to make sure I was in the right ballpark). I was so pumped to give it to him, I could barely sleep Christmas Eve! Clearly I will be a basketcase when I give our future kids gifts.

Jordan surprised me with a tennis racket, balls, and lessons from him. He must truly love me, because I have attempted tennis only one time in my life and it was not pretty. Picture me swinging with a huge softball style upper cut. Yeah. We're going to try to play tomorrow so we'll see how that goes...

Jordan made us breakfast which we ate on our nice dishes and toasted sparkling grape juice with our little crystal glasses. :) We did that last year too, and it was one of my favorite things about Christmas. 

Then we went over to my parents' house and had the Hamilton Christmas morning. 

(Can I just insert here that having THREE Christmases is really awesome.)

After a fabulous time with my fam and playing with our new toys, we went to visit my other grandparents at the nursing home they are in.

My Papa got this nifty cash present. How cute is that??

We love this man!!

The only picture of us on Christmas Day 2012!

These are the movies I got for Christmas. Such perfect choices for me.

The day after Christmas (Boxing Day?) we had my family and Jordan's family over for lunch. This was seriously a dream come true. Jordan and I were BEAMING the entire time because it was exactly what we wanted ever since we got the house.

Jordan and some of the fellas grilling some yummy burgers!

We played one of our new games - Reverse Charades. SO. FUN. It's our new favorite group game. And also the story behind these ridiculous looking pictures.

It was tough to say goodbye to the Memphians and our nephew. But we were so happy to have spent such quality time with them!

So now that Christmas is over? Jordan has moved on to some intense table making! YAYYY

Nothing like a picture of my manly man crafting me a table to make me wanna go pounce on him. Sorry that was TMI. But hey, we're married.

Hope you had a fantastic Christmas! If you made it to the end of this post, I congratulate you!