Erin Akin Carroll

I have three huge sales for you today, so read the two little blurbs below and click on over to their websites!

Southern Tots Cyber Monday Sale

Lots of holiday styles on sale at Southern Tots and Ashley will also be posting and selling on her Facebook page all day!

Southern Tots Facebook Page

Monogram Chick Cyber Monday Sale

Some of the most adorable gifts and accessories! And today you get 15% off!

Stella & Dot Cyber Monday Sale

With a $99 purchase, you get a free ring! And the sales on the site are just great today. Visit Karah’s Stella & Dot site and then click on the “Sale” tab for all the great deals.

We’re enjoying our week in Texas and TC will join us in a couple of days. We miss him so much!

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday (that may or may not be because of the amazing food), I’m going to tell you the significant and less significant things for which I am so very thankful. I did this a couple of years ago, but I know my list has probably changed a lot since then!

1. My Savior, Jesus Christ, who died for me and gives me everything for which I am thankful.

2. My loving husband, TC

3. My little Hud Bud and his little sibling that we’re so excited to meet.

4. My supportive parents who are two of my best friends and my brother.

5. My loving in-laws and grandmother-in-law.

6. My extended family

7. Boudreaux and Fiona for being the most loyal creatures in my life. How special that I know they will never hold a grudge.

8. My best friends and the best friends that I’ve made through blogging

9. Our warm home

10. Our wonderful church family

11. A great football season from the Gamecocks- it has made my husband very happy!

12. Freedom, safety, and security

13. My fortunate ability to stay home with my son, which also allows me to see my family more frequently.

14. The curl down method and my sweet friend Amy for teaching it to me!

15. My Olivia Garden hair brush

16. A wonderful thing in Columbia called 256togo.com because it has made this pregnancy so much easier!

17. A real message in my email inbox or a hand-written card in the mail. I love being connected!

18. A quiet house

19. An inside joke between TC and me

20. A great well-planned vacation or a spur of the moment dinner out of town

21. Knowledge and information

22. The smell of a real wood-burning fire

23. Fresh laundry

24. Naps

25. Great movies and songs. We know them by heart and have no shame in quoting and singing along.

26. A long phone call with a great friend.

27. The beginning of the Christmas season and the spirit and joy that is alive in others during this time of year.

Greetings from Dallas and happy Friday to you!

After an eventful time at the airport and start to our flight yesterday, Hudson and I made it safe and sound. I wanted to share some fun things that I’m loving today. I hope you all have a great weekend!

Fisher Price Little People Nativity

Hudson has been playing with this adorable little nativity scene by Fisher Price. It’s so cute and he loves all of the characters.

Today Goes Viral

My mom and I were watching the Today Show this morning and watched Jenna Bush Hager’s piece on a viral video made by Canadian university students in one take.

The Today Show staff, and I mean everyone that works for the Today Show, recreated the music video in one take. Before the end, my mom and I were both teary-eyed! It’s not a sad video, we don’t know those people, but I guess the whole thing just made me so happy that I started crying.

I know, I know. (I also cry every single time I watch the You Tube video of the wedding where they came down the aisle to Chris Brown’s “Forever.”)

I also loved seeing so many of the staff members that are never ever on camera. So much fun!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Hey, friends! Life has been so crazy this last week and I’ve completely abandoned my little blog. But I’ve gotten a few emails asking if I’m okay and I would imagine that when a blogger just disappears for periods of time, people might start to wonder if something is the matter.

Fortunately, everything is going great! We just have a lot on our plates and we’re trying to get it all done. This is my absolute favorite time of year and I am always so sad at how quickly it flies by and at how jumbled up it can get with obligations, responsibilities, and stress. I can’t back out on any of my commitments, but I can try to simplify my life as best as possible in other ways. One of those ways is to do a little less blogging if I don’t actually have time to blog that day.

But right now I’ve got some time and I want to catch up!

Birthday

I had a fantastic birthday. My handsome groom and sweet baby boy brought me my cards in bed. Hudson gave me a trip to get a pedicure that morning. In the card, he indicated it was because he wanted to spend some time with his Daddy. So off I went to get my pedicure.

I came home to a cookie cake- yes!- and my boys sang to me. TC went off to work and Hudson and I had fun hanging out until we met our friend Emily for lunch. Emily brought cookies and they were delicious! I finished the last one yesterday and was so sad to see them go.

That night, we met our friends A & J for dinner and enjoyed great conversation and good food. TC and I made it home just in time to watch The Apprentice together before falling asleep on the couch and dragging ourselves up to bed at 1:00 a.m.

The Gamecocks Win the SEC East!

We didn’t go down to Gainesville this year even though we really wanted to go to see Kristin, Robert, and Georgia Kate! But we stayed home because we had a few activities going on at church. But I so wish we could have been in The Swamp for this historic victory for the Gamecocks.

I’m not going to be able to go down to Atlanta for the SEC Championship against Auburn, but TC will be there. And we played a really great game against Auburn earlier this fall, so I’m thinking we can do it again.

We’re already getting excited about our possible New Year’s Eve plans in whatever city we’re playing in a bowl game. Maybe New Orleans? Maybe Atlanta?

Holiday Market

The reason I’m not going to be able to go to the SEC Championship game is because I’m the Tickets Chair for our Junior League Holiday Market. This week has been really crazy with our various responsibilities. But I am looking forward to the market to see what fun gifts I can pick up this year.

There are a couple of great events that I highly recommend attending with either your girl friends or your children if you’re in the Columbia area or are within driving distance. Ladies Night Out and PJs With Santa are both so much fun and reasonably priced for a fun night out. Visit the Junior League of Columbia Holiday Market website to find out more.

TC isn’t coming to Preview Party with me this year because I’ll be too busy to get to spend any time with him, but I am searching for a dress. It has to be a maternity dress and I’d like for it to have sleeves. I’m thinking I’ll go with black because I don’t need the dress to be anything special- I just need it to make me look skinnier than I am and be semi-comfortable.

I found this Olian dress from Nordstrom. What do you think?

Thanksgiving Plans

Hudson and I are leaving tomorrow to go to Dallas for Thanksgiving. TC will join us later, but I needed to get on to Dallas because I’m helping host a baby shower for one of my best friends in the world. She’s having her first baby and it’s a little girl. I couldn’t be more excited.

This will be Hudson’s first time flying where he has his own seat and doesn’t have to ride on my lap! We’re both really excited about that. My friend from Magnolias, Marriage, and Manhattan sent me the link to this great item called the Cares Harness. It makes it so that I don’t have to haul Hudson’s car seat onto the plane, but he is still securely strapped in. I’m so excited to use it and so excited that he’ll be comfortable and safe in his own seat.

NOT HUDSON! This is the child from the Cares Harness website.

Did I mention I’m excited? Think I could come up with another word? Does anyone have a thesaurus?

Pregnancy

I’m feeling okay. Still not great, but I’m hanging in there. If I stay really busy I feel a lot better, but then I end up really tired. I’m going to try to post the 14 week bump picture tomorrow– I just have to take one!

Fun Night in  Greenville

TC and I love Greenville so much. He went to Furman, we got married in Greenville, and we try to make it to Greenville once every couple of months for a fun night away. The restaurants are amazing, it’s beautiful up there, and we always find something fun to do.

We have tickets to The Peace Center’s Broadway series and so far this year we’ve seen Wicked and Dreamgirls. On Sunday night we went to see White Christmas. White Christmas is one of my favorite movies of all time and I had never seen the stage production. It was really cute and we both had a great time.

Before the show, we went to dinner at Rick Erwin’s Nantucket Seafood Grill. Oh my word. I think we’ve found a new Greenville favorite. I can’t wait to go back and meet up with Anne and B at this amazing restaurant!