Family Christmases and Bowl Games

Christmas time, the best time of the year!! And having our first married Christmas has been the best Christmas yet by far! We are finally together for real for Christmas!

So Christmas for us basically started December 8th and went through the 28th (We like to spread holidays out in our family).

So starting the weekend of December 8th, Cody and I finished buying family gifts, each other's gifts, and started wrapping them all. We kept our presents for each other under the tree for weeks to build anticipation ;).

I was surprised at how well my honey can wrap gifts and how much tape you can possibly fit on one present #went through 3 rolls lol

While caught up in the excitement of wrapping presents I started to smell something funny. I knew I was in the process of cooking Cody supper but I looked over in the toaster oven and saw black and popped the toast out and quickly made another lol. Does it look burned to you? I don't know it might still have been ok....?🙊🙈

So for the week of the 12th I went to Walmart and bought cookie supplies and decorative boxes for Cody and I's Christmas gift for our family. Since this is our first year being married, we wanted to give back to our family for all the support and help each of them have given us this past year of planning and helping us set up our little place. I don't know what we honestly would do without family. So as our Christmas gift to them (which we hope to continue for our tradition every year as our own small family) we gave them a box full of four different types of cookies: 

Peanut butter kiss cookies which are our favorite.

Sugar cookies with icing in between and rolled in sprinkles.

Red velvet crinkle cookies (another family favorite)

And my unique recipe of marble swirl cookie of half chocolate chip cookies and the other half brownie cookies. 

The night before we left for our Nana's Christmas to kick off the festivities, we made rounds to all of our family members in Chattanooga, visited, and dropped off the cookies. 

So the next afternoon we picked up our cousin Nathan and made the drive to Gatlinburg. On the way there as we entered the back roads of Pigeon Forge we passed the most breathtaking church with the gorgeous sunset setting behind it.

Besides Nana, we were the first ones to arrive at the casbin and toured the three story cabin quickly claiming our room (ours had a door directly to the porch and the hot tub, perfect for us!). It was so neat, the married grandkids got an entire floor to ourselves. The top floor had two bedrooms overlooking the living room, the main floor had two bedrooms and a nice living room, and the bottom floor had a pool table, separate living area, porch/hot tub, and two bedrooms. Within the next two hours everyone poured in and we were having an absolute blast together catching up and helping Nana cook dinner. And of course we used this time to set up our first annual prank for the older adults ;). Before most of us got here, me, Cody, and Nathan went around the cabin hiding pictures of Nicholas Cage pictures (such as below) all around the cabin. We plastered it on the inside of the toilet lids, inside the shower wall behind the curtains, underneath the covers in their beds, and inside the microwave to scare the poop out of people! It was epic. BEYOND EPIC. Easily the best prank year yet and it had just begun. So all through the weekend we heard loud gasps as each picture was found (oh and by the way the pictures were the size of a standard copy paper sheet of paper :):)) The first few found were found in the toilet and under the sheets. We designed it slowly that way so the surprises could last all weekend. *evil laugh

So night time rolled around and we all got in our pj's and I came up with one of the best surprises, my shirt. Everyone loved it so much. Cody found this at Walmart and had to get it for me for our Dyar Christmas because I've never seen a family Christmas more like the Griswolds than ours!

We then iced our cookies which is one of my favorite things about Nana's Christmas. I always make two of the colors and try my best to make civil beautiful cookies now that I'm older, but one always sneaks in like that camel. It is a camel that stepped on a land mine and the blood splattered everywhere on it. I promise I'm not graphic, it is tradition for us and you should see everyone else's ones! I was just proud I only did one this year!

This is Cody's cookies and he is still learning how to do the family graphic cookies so he did a scuba diver Santa. We are working on that ;) Still really creative though!

So after cookies, the older adults started going to bed one couple at a time until it was just us grandkids left at 3:30am. We used this window of opportunity wisely because we knew our uncle Wade wakes up an hour later and we started operation prank #2. So we gathered around the pool table with a bunch of gag gifts strategizing which older adult gives these gifts to the other. See, our prank is us gathering random gag gifts to give to the older adults from other older adults such as: From Nana to Jody, From David to Wade. And when our Nana passes them out, the person "giving" the gift will start to silently panic inside thinking oh my goodness I didn't give a gift but I don't want to take it back because it looks bad to do, and I'll just go along with it just in case someone else got it for me to give that person. So they sit there silently anxious to see and own up to their 'gift' while the person receiving the gift silently panics because they didn't give that person a gift and feel really bad. So if you can follow that, it really is genius. So for the next hour we wrapped these fake gifts and practiced forging their handwritings and placed the 8 gifts under the tree among the rest of the gifts. They fit right in and no one suspected a thing. The reason that aspect worked because when we all came to the cabin, we always put our own gifts under the tree for people so it didn't look suspicious. So we went to sleep with so much excitement and anticipation and woke up at 8am.

So after our yummy sausage balls breakfast, Nana sat us all around like usual and started passing out the presents. The first phase was for Nana not to be suspicious or recognize the forged

"To and From's" handwriting and it worked! Nana didn't even hesitate! So the gifts were successfully passed out to their new "owners" and we started opening gifts. The first gag gift opened was my aunt Jody opening her gift from "Nana". It was a necklace box with hand sanitizer inside. Aunt Jody was immediately confused and looked at Nana and asked what the story was behind this hand sanitizer and Nana was like, I didn't give you that. Then Jody was like, but it has your name on it. And we were dying laughing inside but tried to hide our composure. So she just set it down confused as Nanas attention was pulled to something esle. Luckily there was so much chaos that no one noticed the odd exchange. The next fake gift opened was my uncle Wade opening a gift from my dad. His expression was priceless. He told me later that he was a little panicked because he and dad agreed not to do anything for each other that year, but the most surprised look was when he opened the army men first followed by the silly putty. It literally took him 5 minutes to decide dad really didn't give it to him. Luckily dad was across the room so he couldn't confront him or ask him what the heck it meant lol. The next gift was for my sweet daddy from sweet Jody. Man she is such a giver. She apparently wrapped up Nana's car keys and gave them as a gift to dad. Wow an entire car! And Nana's to be exact! Such a sweet gift. LOLOLOLOLOL. You should have seen the look of pure shock and surprise on Nana's face when she realized her car was a gift to dad hehehehe. I mean, the best "present" yet 😂😂😂😂😂. The next "gift" was to Tonya from Nana. It was a Dora the explorer puzzle. Tonya was so sweet and thanked Nana for the gift (but couldn't figured out why Dora, ironically she loves puzzles and Nana has actually given her puzzles in the past) and since Nana was so busy she didn't look at what she was holding and said you're welcome and went on. (Don't worry, 30 minutes later we told her it wasn't from Nana). The last "gift" from Nana was to Jody. It was a ring box with a Hershey kiss inside. And poor Nana since she was so caught up in the gifts and everyone opening the real gifts she never really picked up on the prank and when she opened the Hershey kiss from Jody she just looked at her super confused then thought we had gotten a hold of it and switched it and we all had a good laugh. See that is what I'm talking about loving pranks so much, but they are harmless and so much fun. They bring people closer together. That is the key. Well maybe they were all harmless besides us giving Nana's car away. 😂 (of course dad really didn't take it). So that started off our day just incredibly exciting and with lots of good laughs. And on a serious note we LOVED all the sweet thoughtful real gifts Nana got us. My favorite gift is the stadium chair she gave me so I can sit in for all of Cody's games!! I can use that for the rest of my life so many times a year.

So after presents, we all cleaned up and headed to our event, the Dixie Stampede!! We loved it so so much and ate our weight in chicken! The riders were so tallented and the show was so amazing! It really put us in the Christmas mood!

Pictures and videos weren't allowed but I managed to snap this photo before the show started. The Dixie Stampede was truly amazing and I highly recommend it to everyone!

Big group pic of the Dyar clan!

After the Dixie Stampede we went back to the cabin and played games and told stories until the wee hours of the night!

The next morning we all ate at our favorite resturant, Applebarn! I was so tasty and amazing! They always have birds inside the restuant an I just couldn't help but stare at these cute little lovebirds! They never left each other's side!

We all went our separate ways after breakfast, some going back to Chattanooga, some going back to the cabin, and our car visiting the Christmas store!! Cody and I (along with Nathan) were on a hunt for an angel to top our tree! We didn't even have a star so of course our preference was an angel so we scourged around the huge huge store, tying our hands to not want to buy everything lol and found our perfect angel! We then went back to the cabin to find everyone packing up which was odd because we were scheduled to leave the next morning. Apparently there was a predicted snowstorm coming and we were on a steep hill. In order for the working folk to make it back in time the next day and for our safety, with heavy hearts left a day early. Me, Cody, and Morgan stayed at Nana's house from Monday until Wednesday to spend time with our dad before he headed back to Atlanta since we only see him a few times a year. On Thursday we went home, unpacked and repacked for Gigi's Christmas, and after, went to Cody's papaw's assisted living homes Christmas party which was really sweet. After the party we left for Knoxville again that night. 

We arrived at Gigi's house and were greeted with a big wet kiss from Sasha! Sweet doggie! We all trickled in as dinner time approached and ate stew and got into our matching pjs. We played family games, watched the adults open their presents, and went to bed at 4:00am. My family doesn't sleep y'all and I love it! Poor Sasha was so confused! She probably thought she missed bed time and it was the next day because she stayed up late with us all and she has a strict strict bed time of 9:00pm and has never in her 9 months of life gone over that time. So she was walking around all 15 of us very baffled. 

The next morning we wake up at 8:00am to Sasha jumping on all of our beds! She beat us downstairs as all of us grandkids lined up on the stairs waiting for Gigi to let us down to the living room. We started with stockings and moved to the couch for the other presents. Gigi and Granddad are so sweet and always work so hard to think of us grandkids and what we need. Cody and I got our long wanted nightstands from them!! They are so beautiful and are a chocolate brown color! They are my favorite gift from them!!  

Hey even Sasha got nice gifts! This is so priceless! She got her very own UT football jersey and even wore it for us! She ran around the house like a little football player! She fit right in!

And hey when push comes to shove and you've had a little too much fun, you might become a little sick from all the excitement. Poor Sasha (she was ok!)

Our matching pjs! The girls had matching ones and the guys did. It was so cool to be the married grandkid at Christmas! Times are changing!

This was the chaos of all the leftover trash from the present boxes and all of us 10 grandkids. The best part of this picture is Sasha! If you look really close you can see her with a panicked, what's going on face right in the middle of everything lololol.

I love the socks!! It seems like I always need socks lol.

So after we opened presents, we ate our morning rice breakfast Gigi made and left to the Raborns Christmas around 2:30pm. 

As we traveled the trips back and forth between Gatlingurg, Knoxville, and Chattanooga, my little riding buddy Max (from the Grinch who stole Christmas) of course had to come along to double as a soft buddy, a comfy pillow, and a holder of my headband :).

We got to Cody's parents house around 7:00pm after our churches Christmas Eve performance which was amazing by the way (and Cody's first time going to church on Christmas Eve (I know, how did they not do that growing up, it was my family and I's favorite!)). We started off the night eating a big feast my mother-in-law made and then opened gifts and played a game and left early unfortunately................yeah. 

Cody and I were exhausted and a little grumpy from lack of sleep and over stimulation of family and travel. Don't get me wrong, we wouldn't have it any other way but this was our first time home in over a week and our first time alone in the same room in over a week. So we settled down in our little 'home' and enjoyed each other's company and started our own traditions we wanted to implement for our little family for the years to come. Oh and I of course had to document my Christmas Eve outfit! I loved the Christmas leggings so so much! So me! (pic above)

So now at this point we were relaxed and ready for just our very own fun Christmas stuff just the two of us! I tell you, there is nothing better than married Christmas!! So late on Christmas Eve night, we started our thing. We got into our comfy pjs (and my fluffy new slippers which I love!) and watched The Christmas Story, "You'll shoot your eye out kid!" while we made our gingerbread house! Neither of our families have ever had the tradition of gingerbread houses so I though that would be a wonderful thing for us to start and have our future kids do!!

We then went to bed and woke up early because we were too excited about each other opening our gifts for one another!

(Closer picture of baby Cody!)

So we opened each other's presents and loved everything we got for each other! It was so much fun! Cody was so thoughtful with his gifts and we finally got to use our stockings!! For breakfast we had sausage balls that Nana left for us and we played with our presents and put them together (I got Cody a stationary bike that he had been wanting), and played football plays with Cody's new football game he got in the picture above! I love how he can now visually teach me his favorite plays so I can be the best coaches wife I can be!  

One of the awesome gifts Cody got me was floam! It is a squishy slime that I love to play with! It came in like a painters pallet thing with different colors and glitter. (I am such a kid ;))

One of my favorite things is the clothes Cody ordered for me! (I made him a list because I like clothes!) I loved the shirt and the lace part in the front so much! Below is the cutout back and the cool lace features of the tank top underneath! We finished the day off seeing a movie and making brownies for dinner and watching Criminal Minds.

The next morning was my mom's Christmas at her house! It was so much fun!!! Cody and I got over there at 9:00am and all ate sausage balls with mom, Nana, and Morgan and then opened our presents. I made mom a huge Shutterfly picture book of my graduation, wedding showers, bridesmaids luncheon, rehearsal dinner, and the wedding. She loves pictures so much so she loved it which made me really happy because she is almost impossible to shop for. Mom made this Christmas so amazing and welcomed Cody into our little mix! It was so special. Mom takes so much time and energy to surprise us with the things she gets us and really goes the extra mile to listen carefully throughout the year to what we have been needing and wanting. Because of that we got really neat things including that really pretty hot pink rip stick that I had secretly been wanting for over 3 years. I am a stunt junkie and crave learning anything challenging like that or things like unicycles (which I can ride expertly!). Later that day, we all ate lunch together, bonded over family games, made hamburgers, and left around 10:30 at night. It was a blast!

A few days later we went to my uncle Wades house to watch the vols music city bowl game. *grumble growl, I'm trying to be positive about it because we should have been in a much bigger bowl game. But we had a blast together spending time with dad and having soup Jody made for all of us and playing board games! The Dyars are fun to be around! Even cousin Nathan was there! It's always a party when hes around!

And of course, I had to wear one of my favorite gifts from Cody, my UT alumni tshirt. Uncle Wade was so jealous lol. But I love it so much and it means so much to me! I can't wait to wear it to a game next season!! I was the most shocked person ever when I opened it up because I had looked so long for one online and couldn't find one! He is a sweetheart!

With so much love,

Kayla and Cody Raborn

1-22-17

Job Hunt and First Snow

*I wanted to post about Christmas and New Years first to be in order but it seems like there aren't enough hours in the day sometimes, so I will post what I have now! :)*

Hi everyone!! Not to jinx myself on the job hunting process, but I just wanted to update you guys on how it's going. Yes you are probably thinking, "What?! You still don't have a job.!?!" I know, I know, but it is actually a LOT harder than you think right now to even get an interview. I was told apparently I started my job hunt right when the job market slows down for the holidays (in September!?!). I didn't believe it until it actually happened and now that the holiday season is over I literally got 3 interests immediately. I had a job interview this past Friday and will have another one this coming Thursday. I am excited for them both and will tell you more about it when the time comes. 

Life can be so nerve wracking sometimes especially since we don't know what the future holds. It adds another aspect to life and job hunting when you are married because you have to take into account another person. Me and Cody's goals are to eventually move away (not too far) from both families to gain our own "independence" and time to build before we have kids in 5-6 years and to move back in time for convenient babysitting ;). Also Cody and I believe it is the most important thing in the world to be close to family and I am a living testimony to say this is true. I grew up my first 8 years of life with about a 2 days drive to any family members whatsoever. It was NOT fun to be that far away. So we want the closeness for our kids. Also another factor to take into consideration with job hunting and where we would eventually like to end up is whether or not Cody wants to go the college route and coach there. If he does that would be fantastic because I know that is one of his biggest dreams and passions but that would mean we would never be in one place for long or could ever build our own house or station ourselves in one place. Anyways, sorry, I am a big planner but have to often remind myself that God is always in control and his plans are bigger than any of ours. 

Back to the job hunt, sorry. So yes, I should hear from both of them by late next week and if they both don't go as expected then that is that and I will continue on! :) I am very hopeful. The only thing is that it is extremely vital I have a job by May because that is when a big surprise is happening. CODY IS GOING BACK TO SCHOOL!  I couldn't be more proud of him as he is going to be getting his masters in education online! His plan has always been to get his masters degree but he wanted to wait about a year. It will be an almost 2 year journey and it is going to cost money. And a lot of it. So now you see my big push. Now that we are married and 96% financially independent, we have to cover the costs unlike how our bachelors degrees were. (By the way, I am eternally grateful for that mom and dad!!!)

So actually on the interview day it snowed and Cody got off of school! It was a wonderful day! We both went home after the interview and took 3 hour naps and watched Criminal Minds the rest of the day and I played in the snow for hours! It was like a white blanket on the ground; so beautiful. 

If you can see, I drew a face on the car like the cars in the movie Cars. I had fun with it. The next morning I woke up with a note written in the snow on the car saying Jesus loves you. Now that made my whole day! 

After playing in the snow my hands were numb so I made a warm bath that turned out to not be warm unfortunately. We are having trouble with our apartments hot water and can't wash clothes, the dishes, ourselves, hands, etc. in hot water because it runs out after 5-7 minutes. So I didn't think about that when I made my bath and sat shivering. Cody came in and realized I was absolutely miserable and sweet thing, ran and pot by pot heated water to pour into my tub for an hour. He even stopped his football game on TV each time to do that. He is such a sweetheart guys! Marry a man who doesn't think twice to inconvenience himself to make sure you are happy and ok. I was so grateful for a warm bath. We will have to fix this water situation for Cody's sake lol, jk. Oh! and the bamboo thing across the tub is a Christmas present I got from mom along with the blue bath bomb and shower jelly. (They are all natural lush products and are so beyond cool!) 

On another note, my post-workout exhausted face! I am on my last month of the T25 cycle and have completed 150 days so far with 24 left to go. I have lost a good little amount of weight and have my last goal to lose 12 more pounds this last month. I am very motivated right now and am excited for the positive changes. At the end of the month I will still be 15 pounds away from my end goal but will still continue the workouts just a lot less strict and only every other day. 

Another exciting thing coming up for the Raborn family is our marriage retreat this weekend. Cody and I are excited out of our minds for this! It is an FCA (fellowship of Christian athletes) marriage retreat for all of the FCA leaders and their wives! Since Cody is the leader at his high school we get to go! It lasts from Friday to Sunday. And sadly, that Monday, MLK day, we take down the Christmas tree. Sad day. We stretched it out as long as we could!! 

Thank you so much for checking out this short little post and all of my posts to be exact! I appreciate your time into our lives everyone! Have a fantastic New Year!

Love,

The Raborns

1-11-16

P.S.- Today is Cody's 23 1/2 birthday and tomorrow is mine. It is the hardest thing in the world to believe we are now closer to 24 than we are to 23. That just can't be possible because we just turned 23 a few weeks ago right? It was just July like a month ago! Right?! Man time does fly doesn't it.

Thanksgiving and Christmas Decorating Time!

Thanksgiving time! Christmas time! I absolutely can't believe my favorite time of the year is here! Lots of joy and lots of cheer! Sorry, couldn't help myself because it is very true! 

So as you may know or not, Cody and I very happily hosted our very first Thanksgiving! It took place in our apartment and it was extra special because we were able to show our place to family members who had never seen it before! We had also one day before, just finished putting up all of the wedding pictures and made our place 100% perfect (to our standards). We had different family members bring their ''famous'' dishes and Cody took care of the ham, turkey, and gravy. It was the best of both worlds. We basically custom made our own Thanksgiving with our favorite Thanksgiving food! Every single person helped pitch in and we are so grateful for that! 

The week leading up to Thanksgiving we cleaned our apartment top to bottom, even the bathrooms! ;) but seriously! We were so proud of ourselves, we changed burned-out light bulbs, scrubbed the toilets, mopped the floors, washed the washcloths, made the bed for the second time in 6 months, and vacuumed the floors! And that's only the beginning! We decked out our place with Thanksgiving paraphernalia, thanks to mom, and welcomed everyone in Thanksgiving morning! The day started off a little rough with family threatening to cancel their plans (for no reason whatsoever) left and right, which i'm going to be honest brought a few internal tears from my side because we had worked so hard and were so excited, plus had food to feed 20+ and only a few showed up, but it all worked out, everyone eventually showed up and we welcomed them with open arms. It was especially frustrating because the day before we were promised 25 people total and in that morning and into the celebration, we only had 5 INCLUDING Cody and I and that was going to be it. Anyways, like I said, it all worked out and our celebration lasted from 12:45pm to 8:45pm! Just what I envisioned it being for years! Cody and I have always dreamed of having family over like this for over two years! It was so incredibly fun! Everyone came in two waves, the first wave ate food food with us and had 11 people, and the second wave had 10 people and ate dessert with us. We won't be doing this again but were so glad we decided this, we may reconsider when we get our first house!!:)

12:00pm waiting for what we thought were going to be a crowd of 20 family members.

The night before! We were good to go! I love the turkey holding the flowers!!

I felt so proud of our little collection :)

From Cody's mom we had the green stuff (yes it is really called that and is amazing), cranberry sauce, and dressing. From my mom, we had the decorations, rolls, green beans, festive paper plates and napkins. Form my Nana we had the sweet tea, sweet potato casserole (my absolute favorite), more cranberry sauce, and dad's recipe mashed potatoes. From Cody's Nana, we had the deviled eggs! Of course, Cody's gravy, turkey and ham, Oh and I made the mac n' cheese! My very first time to make it!

Original Dyar girls!

When people started to trickle in, this was one of the first things we showed them! Our blown-up wedding pictures above the bed! Cody and I love how they turned out! The only thing we worry about is having 13 pound frames fall on our head in our sleep....well Cody's not worried but I am a little. Don't worry, he hung them really well with 50 pound capacity hooks. The picture on the right reminds me of our BlueBird Hill venue in Knoxville on our wedding day! The wood matched the barn and the blanket and bird pillow on the bed just brought it all together. Turquoise was a big theme for our wedding!

Our first wave of visitors, from front to back, left to right....Me, Morgan, aunt Jody, my cousin-in-law Laura, Nana, top row, mom, Cody, cousin Nick, Laura's brother DJ, Edgar, and uncle Wade!

Our second wave of family, from left to right, Tyler my bro-in-law, me, Amy my sis-in-law, Nana, Travis my brother-in-law, Miles my father-in-law, Kaden my Nephew, Jamie my mother-in-law, Cody, and Papa. 

It was so much fun talking, laughing, telling stories and carrying on good conversations. We also played some board games with both groups!

Once everyone left we basically collapsed. A special thank you to my mom for helping clean everything up! Cody and I went straight to bed at 9pm and woke late the next morning so so excited! We were going to put up our Christmas tree and decorations! We got up, cleaned up the Thanksgiving decorations and got out the tree and everything! Above is a picture of our Christmas tree handed down from Cody's mom since she got a new tree this year! We are blessed to not have to purchase our first tree! Each ornament we placed on our tree has a special story to us and I love them so much. Each one has a sentimental value and were usually collected at places we went over the 5 years we dated. The first ornament we started to collect for our future apartment and tree, was at our first Christmas. We had only been dating for 8 months at the time and it was a picture of Cody and I holding a football together; perfect for us right 😂 ;)

We also excitedly hung our stockings I designed for us last year on our "fireplace". That was so cool to see my vision last year come to life! (And why yes that is a guitar hero in the background you see 😁it is the only 'musical instrument' I can play)

On our island which is our kitchen table, we put up the tin Christmas tree box that had held my engagement ring for over a year in Cody's room. I didn't know at the time but it became an important box! Also, if you can see closely, next to the box, that is a picture of Cody as a kid at Christmas time when he was probably 4 or 5. He was SO cute dressed up in his little superman costume he got for Christmas holding his little superman action figure (yes I had to refrain from calling it a doll #onlysisterslife). If our kids even look 1/4 as cute as Cody did as a kid...wowza, I can't wait!

So fast forward to this past weekend. Cody and I went to Knoxville for the weekend to help out with a church event at my previous church. What a wonderful way to celebrate our 6 month anniversary! I can't believe we have been married for over half a year now! Time sure does fly. I can honestly say these past 6 months have been the best 6 months of my life 

Friday afternoon my sweet mama and I had a mother-daughter day and shopped for Christmas presents for Cody and other family members. The picture above shows the little park with lights we went through. I am so thankful my mama loves to go on walks just as much as I do. I could easily walk 3 or more hours a day, there is just something about it that just calms my mind and body. 

We later had a delicious dinner at Gigi's house, played with the dog and went to Nana's house to watch the Farragut game in the state championship! It was the most exciting football game since UT vs. Florida this past season! I lost my voice the entire day after from yelling and screaming with joy at the TV with Nana. And the very best part is that we won! Farragut high school is very important to my family. My late grandfather coached with and was very close with the head coach therefore knowing our entire family, and my mom, dad, and both uncles graduated from there. Also Cody student taught there and helped out with their football team last year if you remember!

So the next morning rolled around and me, Nana, and my mom, made our way to church for the breakfast with Santa for the little kids. We were in charge of running the welcome table. I of course had to wear my cute ugly sweater and my TN Santa hat! The breakfast with Santa was a wonderful success and it was such a joy to see all the little kids so excited to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what they have been wanting for Christmas. One little girl cracked me up, when Santa asked her what she wanted, she replied, "Gosh, I've already told you at the mall AND at the fantasy of trees festival!" 😂 Made my day!

Me and my beautiful mama at the breakfast!

Me and gorgeous Nana helping out as Santa's little elves!

In between Nana and I is pastor Ann. She is and has been such an incredible blessing in me and Cody's life and was the one who married us! In this very church! She has the biggest heart and follows her calling of sharing God's word with such grace, knowledge, and passion! She is awesome!!

After the church event, Cody and I went to the UT vs. Georgia Tech basketball game and had an absolute blast! Thank you Nana for letting us borrowing your season seats! We won by 20 points which is much needed for the UT basketball program. I love so much that Cody and I love sports equally. I just love to play and watch most sports! Fun fact: I played basketball for 4 years and loved it, I was just never tall enough. 

After the game, Cody and I visited our favorite restaurant which happens to be where our rehearsal dinner took place. We hadn't been back since then so it brought back so many memories. We got lost in conversation throughout the whole dinner. Cody is such an interesting person and I feel like I get to unwrap a little more of him every day. I love hearing his heart!

The next day, Sunday, after church we helped Nana with her Christmas decorations and planning for her Christmas which takes place in Gatlinburg again in less than 2 weeks! We watched criminal minds, made sugar cookies, and played Rummi kub! I won one game!!! Huge surprise!

Nana's Christmas tree was the only thing getting me through rough times last year around January before I started my last semester in college. I was dreading it more than anything and was a little down especially since the holidays were over and it was time to go back to the torture at school. Nana had kept her tree up until mid January and the day before I went back to school and Cody was back at Martin, I stared at it alone in the house for over 2 hours. It brought back my joy and hope. Christmas time means so much to me because it lets me re-live the beautiful and happy memories of the past 22 years worth of Chrismas' in my life. So before we went back home this weekend, I took one last look at this beautiful meticulous tree with the biggest smile, grabbed Cody's hand and made our way to the car back to our apartment in Chattanooga. Life is good y'all, life is good. 

Stay tuned for the blog posts to come! I will be elaborating about Nana's Christmas', Gigi's Christmas, Cody's parents Christmas, my parents Christmas, and Cody and I's very first married Christmas together!! Tis the season!

Love,

The Raborns

12-7-16

P.S. Hello to my friends in Texas! I hope all is well and you have a wonderful Christmas!!! Thinking of you!

Fall time and Biltmore Trip!

Fall time is my favorite time in the whole world! October, November, and December! I could live with those months repeating over and over, taking out the other months. I mean, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas is during fall time! Especially since in Tennessee it doesn't get really cold anymore until January. During this time of the year, God shows us his beauty all around in nature, the leaves are changing and everything is more relaxed and things are slowed down. I couldn't help but go on a walk at least once a week to the local greenway! This image below is a little nook along the trail where the path goes over the water but under the running train tracks so when you walk along, the train sound is deafening above but the turtles are so cute in the pond below!

And just look at those trees! This along with the rolling mountains (hills) makes Tennessee the best state in the U.S. in my opinion!

We also managed to attend the UT vs. Tennessee tech game and had a blast! Morgan and Edgar were there too just 14 rows below us! It was so much fun joining up after half time to watch the rest of the frigid game together! Also right before the game, I took Cody to my Engineering alumni tailgating since it was the homecoming game. I have to say, my first time as an alumni at the homecoming game was so special. All that hard work, all that time spent, all that tuition :/ to sit here and say I am apart of the greatest school. It's great to be a Tennessee Vol! #VFL

We are continuing loving our new church and married bible study class so incredibly much! It really brings us together as a married couple strengthening our marriage every week keeping our focus on the true center and focus, God! 

Our church also has different beautiful flowers by the podium every Sunday and most Sundays I just have to go down after service and just gaze at the beauty!

There's nothing I love more in this world than date nights with my hubby! A few weeks ago we went to Red Robin for dinner and man oh man, just look at that magnificent sky! Only God could paint something so amazing! Date nights are such a blessing to be able to re-connect after a long week with the man of my dreams.

By the way you have to try the triple cheese mega grilled cheese at Red Robin. Easily the best thing I have ever tasted in my entire life!

Two weeks ago Cody told me he had an early Christmas present for me! So all week he told me he couldn't tell me but he could tell me what to pack. So Saturday morning rolls around and we leave my Nana's house and I still don't know where we are going. The only hint he gives me is that I had been wanting us to go since we started dating. So the wheels started turning and still I couldn't figure it out. Eventually I saw this Biltmore sign in front of these pretty trees and it clicked! I freaked out and asked if that was it and it was indeed! I have always wanted to go back to Biltmore and especially during Christmas time with the decorations!! I was ecstatic to say the least!! He is so sweet and thoughtful and always thinks of me! I haven't mentioned the Biltmore house in years! So I enjoyed seeing the beautiful scenery through North Carolina at 8am and we finally arrived at the entrance pictured below. 

We drove around the seemingly billion acre land to park and walked around the grounds around the mansion/castle, my face full of joy!

We even bought the listening phones to walk around the rooms and hear the back story! Best $13 decision EVER! (I'm a big facts/numbers person if you hadn't already figured that out ;)) And the Biltmore house has like 246 rooms and 76 fireplaces!

Cody insisted taking my picture with the mountains in the background. It was so windy it was actually moving my body *hence my toes being off the ground :)

We then visited the gorgeous gardens! We loved seeing all the different types of flowers that were able to survive the cold weather in the greenhouse!

Another one of Cody's works. He always makes me feel so beautiful and compliments me frequently. Also isn't he like a professional photographer or something?!? I mean this picture!!!!😍

Once inside the house, the amazing-ness began!

This room is 7 stories high and was where the Vanderbilt family ate their 5 course dinner! I would just make it my entire house!💖 After the two hour tour, I enjoyed pretty much just as much, touring around their property drinking warm hot chocolate from the cafe, exploring the toy shops, and Christmas shops. The Christmas atmosphere really put us in the Christmas mood. The temperature was just right being 50 degrees. We ate in this cozy little stable where the Vanderbilt's horses used to stay. The food was so delicious, Cornish hens for Cody and this chilled olive oil cous cous salad with a pimento cheese grilled cheese for me! Pretty good! The whole atmosphere was so cozy, I couldn't help but snuggle up with Cody walking around the "farm" part watching horseshoes being made and rocking in rocking chairs near the store's fireplace with Christmas music in the background. HEAVEN. So incredibly at peace💗

The drive home didn't disappoint! Sunset and red trees make for a fun drive home. Oh and of course with Christmas music!!

Later the next week we celebrated an early Thanksgiving at the assisted living place Cody's grandfather lives. He was so happy to see all of us and we had some decent food and sang and danced! It is so much fun to spend time with family! 

Stay tuned for the next post to hear about our Thanksgiving and early Christmas decorating!!

With so much love,

Kayla and Cody Raborn!

12-5-16