Merry Christmas from the Leonard Family

Since we can't mail everyone a Christmas card, I thought I would share it ours on my blog. (I had these printed on Shutterfly, totally recommend it) We hope that everyone has a wonderful holiday season. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Decorations Leonard Style...Simple

I finally got around to posting some pictures of our Christmas decorations...enjoy!

There was a game in Boston? I thought I was there for the Cannoli!

Over Halloween weekend I traveled to Boston to host an event for Young Alumni the night before the Clemson vs. Boston College game. While the game didn't turn out like we had hoped, I had a great weekend. Below is a recap with pictures from my weekend away.

Thursday night we went to dinner with a big group and had amazing food. I got pumpkin ravioli (it was heaven).

The first full day we met with the fundraisers at Boston College. I loved getting the chance to meet people at other schools who are doing the same thing I do and to see how they run the show up there. They showed us around their athletic facilities and drove us over to Harvard. Over at Harvard we toured the beautiful campus. I think I felt smarter just being there (just kidding)! The picture below is on Boston College's campus.

Friday night we hosted our event at the Black Rose near Quincy Market. It was a great Irish bar and we had the entire upstairs. We were so nervous that no one was going to show up and we ended up having around 350-400 people come through the doors throughout the entire night. The event was a huge success and it was great to be surrounded by so many Tiger fans so far away from home!

Saturday we attended the Clemson game and came away with a lose. It was a rough game to watch in the stands especially when it was FREEZING and the wind was blowing hard!

Saturday night Elizabeth, Kimberly and I went around Boston to do a little shopping, dinner and then a late night stop at Modern Pastries to try a cannoli. We heard about them the entire weekend and they did not dissappoint! I suggest Modern Pastries if you are even in Boston!

Guest Bathroom Complete!

We finally completed the guest bathroom awhile ago and I am just now getting to posting pictures. The first thing we did was paint the bathroom but after we painted we weren't too sure if we liked the color or not but once we put the finishing touches on the bathroom, we decided to keep the color. Below are a few pictures of the finished product. At the bottom I will also list where we got everything for anyone who is wondering.

The first picture I had to include because Zoey wanted to have her picture taken and I think she is pretty cute!

Where we got everything:

Shower Curtain- Target

Shower Rod- Target

Towels- Target

Bath Mat- Target

Framed Shell Pictures- Home Goods

Glass Containers- Home Goods

Shell- Colin's Mom

The only think that we are missing that I want to find is a small lamp to put on the counter and to change the hard ware on the drawers to match the colors in the room.

Paris Mountain State Park Hike

Colin and I actually had a Sunday were we both were off and it was a beautiful day so we decided we wanted to do some sort of outdoor activity. We had heard about Paris Mountain State Park just outside of Greenville and decided to check it out. When we got there we decided to visit the welcome center so that we could decide which trail to hike. Neither of us had any idea which trail to pick so we decided to go for the longest trail (we also thought we could get a workout while enjoying the outdoors). We hiked the the Sulphur Springs trail which was 3.5 miles. It had a note that it was easy to difficult, which we thought it couldn't be that bad. Click here to see the trail map, it was the yellow trail. We were surprised that the trail did indeed get difficult. It was VERY narrow/steep in parts and was a great cardio workout. For awhile we thought we would bring Bella back to walk the trail with us but once we got to the harder parts, we decided against bringing Bella on that trail. We decided that we want to go back and try a few of the other trails sometime. It was a nice Sunday doing something with Colin that we don't normally do. Below are some pictures from our hike.

Shutterfly Christmas Cards

I've used Shutterfly a few times for various thing, but not photo cards. We just started to do a photo Christmas card last year and I was so last minute that I had to do 1 hour service somewhere just to get the cards sent out in time. This year I have been planning so that I can have plenty of time because I had already decided that I wanted to order my Christmas cards off Shutterfly.There are so many Christmas cards to choose from but below are a few of my favorites. I have no idea which one to choose so I guess I will just have to wait until we take a few pictures at Thanksgiving.

I love how the focus of this card it the picture and that it has the traditional Christmas colors of red and green.

I think the text of Peace, Love and Joy is super cute on this card!

We don't have children yet but I still think this card would be perfect to put pictures of our "furry" children. We have 3 cats and a dog so this card has the perfect amount of pictures to showcase our family!

This card is perfect for those who like to include a

Christmas letter with their card. They can

do it all on the card, I think it's a great idea!

Click here to see all the different options there are for Christmas cards this year!

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery

I have used Shutterfly for creating photo books and they have always come out great. They are a perfect gift for the holidays! For information about photobooks, here click .

I can't wait to create our Christmas card from Shutterfly! I also can't wait to get everyone's Christmas cards in the mail...make sure I am on your Christmas card list!!

P.S. Click here for a great promotion from Shutterfly!

A Celebration for Emma Claire and her Mommy!

Several weekends ago ( I know I am behind in posting again) I co-hosted a baby shower for Kari (my friend from my office). I co-hosted with another one of Kari's friends, Charli. Charli did a great job hosting and even made little chocolate bottle suckers, so cute! We had an ice cream sundae party. It was great and everyone seemed to love it. I have to admit I stole that idea from Kate's (Our Sweeten'd Life) baby shower. I just thought it was the cutest idea and Kari has been craving ice cream, so it was perfect! We had a great time and Kari looked amazing for only having about 2 months left in her pregnancy. Kari got some great presents for Emma Claire from family and friends. I am attending another shower for Kari next weekend and all I can say is little Emma is going to be one spoiled little girl. Below are some pictures from the shower!

Love you Kari and can't wait to meet baby Emma!

Wedding Weekend in Charleston

This weekend we were in Charleston to celebrate the

marriage of Mackenzie and Nic. It was a beautiful wedding at the Magnolia Plantation on Mount Pleasant and we are so excited for them to start their

life together. They are a great couple and you can just see how much they adore and love each other.

We stayed in a house on Isle of Palms with a bunch of the other guys and their wives that were attending the wedding. I would first like to say that I could live there forever. 1. the house was amazing. 2. it was right across the street from the beach. 3. it had an infinity pool (had only seen them on TV until this weekend). and 4. it had the most amazing shower in the master bath! Below is a picture of the house where we stayed (thanks Laurel...I stole it off your FB)

Saturday night they had the rehearsal dinner at

the house and Nic's dad cooked some amazing BBQ. It was a dinner full of southern comfort food! Sunday night the wedding was at the Magnolia Plantation, which was beautiful. I told

Colin that sometime I would love go to back and actually get to tour the grounds. We dined on amazing food, wonderful cupcakes and s'mores over a fire pit! It was perfect. Below is a picture of the guys at dinner Saturday night and a picture of Colin and I at the wedding.

The only downside to the weekend was my car drama, which is happening much more lately and has become very annoying. Since Spring every few months I will go to turn on my car and it won't start. The past 4 times I have been able to leave it over night and it will start the next morning. Well this weekend, not even 10 minutes after we arrived at the house my car died again. It was dead the whole weekend even after repeated attempts to start it. So Monday morning we had to get it towed to a dealership in Charleston where (of course) the car started right away and every time after that. We are pretty sure my car needs a new started but they told us they won't replace it without knowing for sure and since the car worked for them, they couldn't fix it. So we wait until the next time my car dies.

Even with the car drama we had a great weekend with all of Colin's friends!

Fall Decor

I just wanted to share a few pictures of my fall decorations. I don't have a ton but it is my favorite season and I think they add a few nice touches to the house. Two of the pictures are on our table in the living room and then the other is a picture of our fall wreath on the front door.

I love decorating for holidays but it can be so expensive so I tried to bargain shop! The wreath looks very expensive but was only $25 from Walmart last year, the flower arrangement was 50% off at Hobby Lobby and only cost $30, the fall blocks from TJ Maxx last year for $5.99, and the pumpkins and fall foliage inside the vase were $12 from Better Homes and Garden at Walmart.

Happy Fall Y'all!

What's in my...

What's in my DVR...I thought that I would let everyone in on my not so secret obsession, TV. I am a TV junkie and it's OK with me. TV premiere week is like Christmas in the Leonard household. Our DVR is SO full right now (side note: I don't know how we lived without DVR for so long). I thought I would give everyone a run down of my weekly night shows.

Monday:

Dancing with the Stars 8PM

House 8PM

Castle 10PM

Tuesday:

Glee 8PM

Biggest Loser 8PM

Wednesday:

Survivor 8PM

Law and Order SVU 9PM

Thursday:

My Generation (new) 8PM

Bones 8PM

Grey's Anatomy 9PM

Sunday:

Amazing Race 8PM

Desperate Housewives 9PM

Brothers and Sisters 10PM

Not only do I watch the above shows but also added to my DVR is any Real Housewives show on Bravo (currently DC, soon to be Atlanta), Project Runway, Rachel Zoe Project, Thinervention with Jackie Warner, Top Chef ( I bet you can see the Bravo link in here), Oprah and Weeds.

Colin and I DVRed the first episode of Boardwalk Empire and I have heard good reviews so we are excited to watch that show as well.

That is my DVR confession to you. I know I watch too much TV and should be doing something else, but I just can't stop.

What TV shows do you watch?

Tigers vs. Tigers

This past weekend we went to the Clemson-Auburn game in Auburn, Alabama. We were lucky enough that our friends the Chason's had the weekend off and were able to go with us. They so graciously let us stay with them this weekend in Atlanta. The game was a heart-breaker...losing by 3 in overtime! The Tigers played a HARD game and looked really good. I think (crossing my fingers) we could have a promising season! Below are some pictures from the game!

This weekend is our off weekend and then we play Miami in our Homecoming game. Colin's parents are coming down for the game and we are so excited to have them as visitors. October is a busy month for us, so check back for more updates!

New Obsession

My new obsession EBAY!

Oh the glorious orange clothes that are listed. I have already won 2 items :0)

Our House Wish List

Ok, I've caught the bug to work on our house again...bad! I've been reading so many house design DIY blogs and I can't wait to start working on our house. We will have to go in stages for budget reasons but there are so many things that I want to do that are DIY that I think I can really do some stuff for super cheap. So below is my "wish list" and we will see how many we can cross off the list!

1. Guest Bedroom- We haven't done ANYTHING to this room yet but are actually starting it tonight by painting it yellow! I have an idea of what I want to do with this room so it is the first project to tackle. Some of the big projects include painting, refinishing an old dresser we already own and paint it white, and hanging curtains. I will also need to accessorize the room but I hope to do that pretty cheap. We already have the bedding luckily. I will sure to post before and after pictures when finished.

2. Guest Bathroom- We haven't done anything to this room either. All we really need to do is paint, get a new shower curtain and rod and add a few accessories. Should be an easy, quick, and cheap room to fix up.

3. Repaint our Master Bedroom- Colin never liked how we painted it the first week we moved in so we found a color in a Crate and Barrel catalog that we both like and hope that Lowe's can match the color. I have a few other things I want to accessorize our bedroom with but it is pretty much done. This should also be a pretty cheap fix.

4. Hire a painter- We need to have our living room, entry way, wall going upstairs and our upstairs hallway painted. We have vaulted ceilings and so we can't do it ourselves. We want to paint it very neutral. So hopefully we can find some money somewhere to get this done.

5. Entry nook- We have a nook right by our master bedroom and the door from the garage. I really want to get a bench to put there with baskets underneath for shoes and put coat hangers above.

6. Laundry Closet- I want to add some things to make it easier to organize. I also saw a great idea on a blog to paint plywood and put it over the washer and dryer to make it a bigger, even surface. This should be super easy and cheap to do in a night.

7. Headboards- We need headboards for both the guest bedroom and master bedroom. I think I want to do a cheap DIY fabric headboard for upstairs I just have to find fabric. We still can't decide what kind of headboard we want for the master.

8. Handle Hardware- I want to change the hardware on ALL of our cabinets in the whole house. Just waiting for the ones I want on Anthropology to go on sale!

9. 1/2 Bath artwork- We have finished the 1/2 bath except for a piece of artwork on the big bare wall. We have been looking for awhile and have had no luck. This will be easy once I find something I like.

10. Kitchen- This is the biggest room we want to tackle and will probably be the last thing due to budget. My wish is to paint the cabinets white, get new counter tops and a new sink. We also want to find a cool backsplash that will match the new counter tops. To top it off we still need to paint this room too. I REALLY want to update the kitchen but know it is going to cost a lot so it will be on the back burner until we can save enough money.

There you have it, my wish list for my house. Hopefully throughout the next year we can refer back to this blog and cross off some of the things on this list! Be sure to hold us accountable. We tend to get lazy/busy and don't end up doing all the home improvements that we have big dreams for!

Well I am off to get the walls ready to paint in the guest bedroom (at least we are starting on our list right away). Wish us luck!

New Design and a Summer Update

So I have been MIA from the blogging world....AGAIN! So I thought to refresh my blog with a new layout to hopefully inspire myself to blog more. Below is is a quick update of what has been going on in the Leonard house so far this summer...it could be long because of pictures so stick with me :0)

1. Jevin graduated from Purdue with his undergrad! I went home for the weekend to spend with my whole family to celebrate Jevin's graduation. I am so proud of how well he did in his undergrad but even more proud that he is going straight on to get his PhD at Purdue (smarty pants). Below is a picture of my family after Jevin's graduation. Can I mention how much I loved being back on Purdue's campus while there, ahhh Boilermaker country!

2. Two weekends later Colin and I flew home for Justin and Allison's wedding. We had such a great with with our family and friends from high school. The wedding was beautiful and we wish Justin and Allison years of happiness! Below are a few pictures from after the wedding at Jakes.

3. The morning I got back to work from the wedding weekend, I accidently passed out at a work presentation at an outdoor memorial on campus (not to mention in front of the WHOLE athletic department) and cracked 3 of my front teeth really bad and cut open my chin. This has been a summer long ordeal. I went to the ER that morning and got a stitch in my chin then the next day my dental work started. Because of my fainting episode I ended up getting 1 root canal and have had a temporary piece to "resemble" teeth for over a month now. It will finally come to a finish on Thursday when I get my three crowns for my teeth. Cross your fingers they will look like my old teeth, because I have really been missing them! Oh, I also just found out this week that it was all getting covered by workmen's comp (a wonderful day in my house). Below is a picture that Colin took the day it happened, Ha!

4. Colin went on a week fishing trip to Grassy Narrows, Canada with his brother, step-brother and step-father. They had a great time and caught a ton of fish. I would like to add in there that this happened to fall the week after my accident and the week I got all my dental work (root canal) done and they didn't have cell phone reception. I was laid out on the couch all week while Colin was living it up in Canada, ha! He still owes me :0) Below is a picture of Colin with the biggest fish he caught while he was there.

5. Colin and I went to Columbia a few Sundays ago so that I could go to Kate's baby shower and Colin could hang out with the daddy-to-be Wes. Wes was one of Colin's roommates during his freshman and sophomore years at Clemson. I'm so thankful they are still friends because that means that Kate and I get to see each other. Kate is Wes's sweet wife so I'm so glad that I have become friends with her. They are expecting their first baby in August, a little girl. We couldn't be more thrilled for them and can't wait to meet little Ellie! I'm so mad that I didn't make the boys take our picture, ugh!

Speaking of friends having babies, I have never had as many friends as I do now who have either already had a baby or are expecting. It is a very exciting time in so many of our wonderful friends lives!

6. Besides all the exciting events above Colin and I have just been busy working this summer. I've spent a couple days at the pool and a day on the lake. We have been trying to sell all of our stuff in the garage on Craigslist and only have been successful selling our old riding lawnmower. People need to buy my stuff so someday I can park in our garage! We are driving back home on Indiana on Saturday and taking all the animals. The ride home could be a blog in itself being that it is 10 hours long and we will have 3 cats and a dog....wish us luck! Hopefully I can blog from home to recap all our of days events while we spend time with family and friends!

Show Us Your Life: Hometowns

I don't normally participate in Kelly's Korner's "Show Us Your Life" Fridays but today I wanted to because it is to show case your hometown. I have only really lived in two towns my whole life and have been very lucky to love them both.

I grew up in Lafayette, Indiana and lived there for over 20 years. Lafayette is about 60 miles north of Indianapolis and is home of Purdue University! Go Boilers! Growing up with Purdue in my backyard was my favorite thing about my hometown. There was always something to do whether it was a sporting event, shows/concerts or camps..Purdue keeps you busy!


Downtown Lafayette has really grown since I was little. They have done a great job at getting businesses back into downtown along with amazing restaurants. Some of the best places to eat are in downtown. Two of my favorite things to do downtown are to go to the "Gallery Walk" on Friday nights where all the shops stay open late and they have live music and during Halloween to go on "Ghost Tours" of downtown where they tell you all kinds of true stories from Lafayette's past.


Fun Fact about Lafayette: They have the most restaurants per capita than anywhere else in the country.

My new town is Clemson, South Carolina. Lucky for me another college town, home to Clemson University. I have lived here the past three years and love the south. I spend most of my time on campus and attending sporting events. I haven't been to a campus that rivals a football Saturday at Clemson.


Another favorite of mine here in Clemson is it's super small but very cute downtown. I had never seen a downtown that is just one street until I moved here. It has everything from places to eat to high end clothing boutiques.


Fun fact about Clemson is a city of about 12,000 people that grows to over 80,000 on a football Saturday.

Hope you enjoyed taking a peek around where I have lived!

Our Favorite Family of 5!

Our favorite family of 5 has also decided to join the blogging world and I couldn't be more excited! We don't get to see them much and hate that we are missing our nieces and nephew grow up but now with them blogging we will get to read all about it! I can't wait to read funny stories about what the kids did and see pictures of them (hint hint Dylan and Beth, I like pictures). So I would like to welcome the other Leonard's to blogging. You can check out their crazy world with 3 under 3 at www.theleonards5.blogspot.com.

Colin is officially a blogger!

Colin has decided to join the blogging world. Not as a guest blogger on my blog but actually start his very own blog (insert reactions here)!

To check out his new blog visits www.c54leonard.blogspot.com. He actually needs your help. He wanted to start the blog to find different challenges to do but he doesn't know what challenges he should do. That is where you come into play...go to his blog and leave your comments on different ideas you have for a challenge. Just remember I have to live with whatever challenges he decides to try!

Thanks for your help and I hope that you find my husband's first blog as funny as I did!

Happy Birthday Jess!

Just wanted to wish my bff Jess a happy 25th birthday! I hope that you had a wonderful day! You deserve it!

Love you!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my wonderful Mom's birthday! She is not only a great mom but also my best friend. I hope that when I become a mom that I am half the mom she is. I don't know a kinder, more patient, giving, loving and stronger woman than she is. I love you Mom! Wish I could be with you today to celebrate!