End of the Year Vacation!!!

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

2009 was a great year...

I think the most life changing thing that happened was I graduated from college!

The best "first" was that Me & Mike had our first anniversary!

Yay for 2009! Bring it on 2010! A brand new season of my life and a new decade!

We are in St. Louis visiting some of Mike's family ringing in the new year...

we went Ice Skating

we played in the snow

we shopped til we could shop no more

we enjoyed each other's company

& we laughed... a lot... and mainly at each other!

Here are some pictures!!!!

the beautiful St. Louis Arch in downtown St. Louis! Outdoor Ice skating rink in St. Charles so fun! :)Mike, Morgan, me & Ryan ice skating. We got Morgan to come on the ice with us and slide. it was pretty fun. it was Ryan's 1st time ice skating, and he took right off & did great!!! The morning it snowed, Mike found this snowboard with a string on it to board down the hill beside the house! I was the first to wipe out on it, and then Mike did too! (notice the next picture of Mike's jeans with the wet mud on it that he fell on)We all built a snowman, (way to go Britt & Mike for the awesome snowman building skills!) I found a sombrero in the basement to put on the snowman! It turned out cute!

In the morning we are traveling from St. Louis to Tulsa to visit one of my best friends Christina!!!!!!! I am so excited! They moved to Tulsa in June & I miss them so much! We are going to celebrate her daughter(Ella)'s birthday and I couldn't be more excited!

Christmas Cheer :)

I just wanted to wish everyone a very

Merry

"Pretty In Pink"

Christmas!!!! I hope you enjoy my little pink tree as much as I do! :)

I painted all of the ornaments and I actually finished 4 zebra ones on the tree!

I think next year I will add polka dot ones to the tree, and maybe a little tree topper!!

(Wal*Mart $15 for the pink tree)

grad party & baking goodies

My mom threw me a very graduation party last week, and I wanted to share all the pictures from it!

Here I am in front of the graduation tree that she decorated in honor of me graduating. It has CSU blue and gold graduation hats all over it! Me and Rylee
Kirsten, Megan, and Savannah GraceMe & my little brother JacobyMe holding Jack(my nephew) with friends Garrett & LaurenKelli Hohm(new friend who just moved from Minnesota!) & myselfYay! CSU grads! Allison, me, Beth, & Anita w/baby Mac! Brittany, my best friend in Middle & High School, now she is in Pharmacy School! My cousins came in town for my party!!
Blair, me & Meribethme & Ashley!
Very good friend & she my hair stylist!! :)Finally..... my mom totally surprised me with my very own Kitchenaid Stand Mixer for my graduation present!!! I made brownies in it the other night, and this is me setting it up!!!

Thank you to everyone who came to my graduation party!!! I had so much fun!

p.s. my sis-in-law found out yesterday that she is having another boy!!! Yay! I'm so excited to now have 2 nephews! His name is going to be Tate Cohen Singleton!

college grad

I can't believe that I actually did it! I'm a college grad! wow. I'm still in the stage that I'm not quite sure it's real yet, but now as I look at my diploma in my living room, it's so fun to say that I'm done! Here's some pictures from the big day!

Receiving my diploma from Dr. Hunter, the President of CSU

The college grad: Hilary Blaire Surratt

Bachelor of Arts

Me & my hubs- he's so proud! :)

{he's seen me shed many tears over this degree!}Me and my wonderful dad! :)My brother, sis-in-law, & Mike with me!

We are all now CSU graduates!!!

Show us Your life.... Christmas Decorations!

Here's Mike and myself at the Holiday Festival of Lights with our small group! I love how this picture turned out of us, and I wanted to finally show everyone a pic of my jacket that I got a couple of weeks ago for my birthday! How cute is this jacket?!?!?! Love it! :) Ta Da! Here's our Christmas Tree, and oh it is so pretty! Please excuse all of the colored balls at the bottom of our tree, I was painting them, and that is where I hung them to dry! I didn't realize they were like that in the pic until I uploaded all my pictures, so I'll have to post the final product of my homemade Christmas ball ornaments! {They turned out so cute!} Here are a couple of decorations throughout my shelves, I love the mixture of red & blue! :)

Our little table when you first walk in our apartment!

{This was my little Christmas tree that I had in my room growing up as a kid, my mom would decorate it with me every year! She gave me these really cute circular christmas lights to go on it! I love them!}

Christmas Dishes that I got last year for Christmas, I absolutely LOVE them!

{and the snowman salt and pepper shakers}
Christmas in the bathroom!

Stockings!

Finally.... our cute cookie jar and "Dress me up plate"!

Christmas sneak preview...

It's been a crazy week... I have been extremely busy decorating for Christmas, doing school work for my last week of class, and now getting ready for my exam and project due, and also getting ready for GRADUATION!!! So I wanted to reveal to those of you who were curious about my tweet last week about getting this package in the mail:

Merry Christmas to Mike and me! :) We got eachother our new Nikon D3000 camera! We bought it on black friday so we got a really good deal, and we decided to do it online because Walmart was offering 20% cash back, so that was awesome! We absolutely love it! We got a special deal and got a camera bag and an extra lens that is 55-200mm zoom! It's so fun to take picture with! I can't wait to use it more so I can get some awesome pics! Here is us with our new camera, {Mike doesn't look as excited as me} lolHere is a preview of our Christmas decorations... taken with our new camera!!! We are still learning all the fun stuff on how to work it well, but it takes really good pictures! My house has been so messy from our busy life, that I haven't taken pictures of my house that is decorated!!! I will this week, I promise, because I can't wait to share with yall all of my colorful Christmas decorations! Plus, I've been painting some awesome ornament balls to complete my tree! :)

NEWS!!!! I'm going to do a Christmas hairbow giveaway, so come and check back tomorrow at my blogstore: www.paintbakeandcreate.blogspot.com to enter to win some Christmas hairbows, and maybe even a customized ornament!!!

**Speaking of pictures, I ordered our Christmas cards this week for FREE because of this awesome site {which most of you know I love} www.southernsavers.com. Jenny shared on her site about this awesome deal that was going on over at photoworks.com! They should be here this week, and I am so excited to give them out!

If you are not following Southern Savers, you are missing out on great deals, and not everything is for groceries!! Check her site frequently for great deals going on! :)

one week to go...

until I'm completely done with my college classes!!!

then I have 3 days of exams(which are mainly just projects)....



You have no idea how excited I am about this!

zebra party recap

On Tuesday, My mom & Brittainy's mom threw us a birthday party! It was a lot of fun, and I can't believe how many people came! We are truly blessed with so many friends & family!

Here's Brittainy (Mike's sister) & me

We had light up birthday pins!

It was a zebra themed gift present from my mom!!!! I love her!!!

Silly boys at the party... they made a pact about something?!?!?

Some of my girlfriends at the party

My nephew Jack got changed into his cute jammies.... he is so sweet!

Mike & me

Jack gave me lots of birthday hugs!

Friends!

Allison, me & Beth

Party decorations!

Zebra balloons!!!

The plate my mom got me for my birthday!!!! :)

cute cake!

happy birthday to me!

Today is my birthday! I'm so very excited, but I can't believe that I'm 23!!!! I'm getting up there!!! I'm having a joint party tonight with my sis-in-law Brittainy who wasn't in town on her birthday, so we're celebrating!!!! I love when my birthday is here, because that means it's also Thanksgiving!!!! {Every 6th year or so, my birthday is on Thanksgiving!} It's fun like that! My wonderful hubs bought me this REALLY cute jacket for me, so I will be sporting it all day long! I also have a test today, I can't believe that I have a test on my birthday! Well, after that test though {it should be pretty easy} I'm just doing fun things for the day! {Maybe going to target or something?!?!?!} If anyone didn't know, that's my FAVORITE store ever! :)

I did want to say thank you to everyone who gave me wonderful & sweet birthday wishes on my facebook & twitter for me when I woke up! I hope everyone has a wonderful day just like I will! :) Be safe for the holidays!!!