Opening presents--the davenport way

One of the things I love about being a new Davenport, besides all the love they give me, is that they love to savor the "present opening" process. 

They start with the youngest person and then go clock-wise---they watch everyone open presents and exclaim how wonderful they are! 

Robin, Cody's mom loving her "moose munch" we got her

Vanessa loves Marilyn Monroe--Robin and I found this book for her

Mark, Cody's Dad, loves Pecan Pie-we got him "Pecan Pie in a Jar" for the times I'm not there to bake him one. 

Robin got noah this box of costumes for "boy dress-up"

Cody finally got a really nice winter jacket

Travis loved his new ESV Study Bible we bought him

Cody's grandma is one of the biggest Cleveland Cavaliers fans i've ever seen---we got her a personalized jersey this year!!

Vanessa got a necklace from Mark and Robin she'd been eyeing

Every year Mark gets his two "daughters", me and vanessa" jewelry from this great little store-last year we got necklaces and this year we got matching earrings!

NOah was tearing into his guitar

we got Cody's grandpa pictures of all of us together

Me and grandpa; the four of us; cody and his grandpa--all from our wedding

These are just a few of the HUNDREDS of pictures that were taken---sorry so late!! 

Hope you all had a great Christmas, too----i can't seem to let it go! :)

Good thing Valentine's Day is only a few days away, I need another holiday!! :)

The Christmas we saw Trans-Siberian Orchestra

After we celebrated Christmas in FL--we headed North for the winter! Ohio here we come!


This was our first Sunday at a church besides our own--it was so nice to just be a church member and not have to do ANYTHING!!

This is after the service--we hadn't had a picture with just us three in a while!

Later that afternoon we were so enticed by the Davenport's cute tree they let us each open up one gift!


Cody got this great Study Bible he's been wanting--ESV Study Bible




I got a sterling silver ring engraved with my new monogram!

A few days later, we had lunch at The Barn with Ash, Matt and us!

Cody enjoying the decorations

More pictures to come!

Love ya,
LaRae

Christmas in Florida

On Christmas night, we headed to the beach--Cody's one request this visit to Florida. He thought it would be so cool to put his feet in the ocean on Christmas day! So, he got his Ohioan wish...



Cody and my mom strolling on the beach, right after sunset...


After we left the beach, we came back to the house to open presents with my brother, his wife, Brooke and my niece Jordan!

Nana and Papa got Jordan this huge remote controlled car!


Justin got a tree stand he's been wanting

Dad got this shirt from Justin and Brooke!

Family picture after presents!

The day after Christmas we just VEGGED! It was so great!
We set-up and played Wii the entire morning!

Then we went shopping for our new bed at Haverty's

We found a keeper, so we were pretty excited!

Later that night, we headed to the Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre to see "White Christmas"

Mom and I were pretty excited for the show!

Waiting patiently for the curtains to draw



Great show!

Recipe of the Week!!

This week's recipe is inspired by the incredible blueberries I bought at the grocery store on Sunday! They are delicious--Cody and I have been snacking on them ALL week and we still have so many left! I stumbled across this recipe at the blog A Recipe A Day

Blueberry Orange Bread

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 cup orange juice
1/3 cup water
2 tbsps butter, melted
2 tbsps grated orange zest
3/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 350º.

Combine the first five ingredient in a large bowl and set aside.

In another bowl, combine the egg, orange juice, water, butter and orange peel. Add to the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Fold in the blueberries.

Pour into a greased and floured 8×4 loaf pan.

Bake for 65-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes then remove from pan to a wire rack to finish cooking.

Makes 1 loaf.

ENJOY--Let me know how yours turns out!!

OUR NEW BED!!!

Today our new bed was delivered!! We finally settled on a great bed set from Haverty's! It's called The Highlands--I can't wait to put our new sheets on the bed and snuggle in our king bed tonight!!! YAY!! Thanks mom and dad for an awesome Christmas present!!

Christmas Festivities

Christmas Morning in Florida finally came--we had Orange Rolls, Breakfast Casserole, Orange Juice and Coffee!! It was delicious!


Cody was relaxing as we waited for Breakfast to finish!

Mom and Dad preparing the food and getting a little kissy kissy!

All the stockings hung by the fireplace with care! (slightly blurry)

Mom's Stocking, Dad's, Cody's and Mine!

In honor of Cody's love for the beach, mom got him this stocking!

Before opening our stockings and presents, we all read portions of Luke 2 (The story of Jesus' birth)

Cody reading his section

Mom and Dad reading theirs!

Excited for his stocking stuffers!

Excited for theirs!

My mom got me these glasses that you put on and all the lights turn into snowflakes--my dad stole them from me!

This is the view from the snowflake glasses!


Cody got lots of goodies in his stocking--gift cards, candy and guitar strings!

I bought mom a cookbook from the staff at Virginia Tech--she loved it!

Dad opening his candies!


Mom and I bought the same present for Cody and Dad
-she got Cody the John Adams DVD series and we got Dad the DVD series as well.

Mom and Dad bought cody a remote control helicopter--it was hilarious!

I got a new pair of GLOVES!

showing off her new booties and jam!

Dad got an electric smoker from mom!

We have tons of other pictures, but there are just too many of the presents to put up!

We had quite a generous Christmas, this year!! My parents main gift to us was a King Size Bed, but it had to be shipped to us--so my mom couldn't stand us not opening up a few things on Christmas morning, so she got us some wonderful little goodies (clothes, gloves, mini helicopters, gift cards, bibles)-- we are insanely blessed!

We got my dad a pen and pen stand made out of deer antler and a shotgun bullet (it was very cool and so my DAD!--sorry for those who are PETA supporters!)

We got mom lots of other goodies, as well, some jewelry, booties, pictures from the wedding and a cool serving dish with fun napkins for their North Carolina house!

We had a very Merry Christmas in FLORIDA, hope everyone had a great one wherever you were!!

More pictures Christmas in Ohio pictures to come!!

Love and Blessings,
Cody & LaRae