Christmas is in the air!

I have been a little bit absent this week. I actually only had like 95 hits this week *shudder. I have been working on Christmas stuff. Family members STOP READING!

Simple Mom was approached by a photo book company to host a give away. They not only gave away 5 FREE books but they also gave her a coupon code to order books for just the shipping cost. Isn't that cool. Oprah and Snapfish did the same thing but I did something wrong and after spending days doing a beautiful book I couldn't get it because I didn't check to make sure I had the credit. Needless to say I was leery when I saw Simple Mom's offer. I decided to give it a try though cause I mean seriously a $30 book for $4.99!!! I did it and I am so pleased that I did. You have to have someone join it in order to use the coupon code but then that person can do one and use the coupon code as well. It is a win win! If you want to do it, I recommend it. Obviously, I haven't seen the finished product but I won't have it before the final date. Hopefully it will be awesome. If you are interested in doing it. I need to invite one more person. Let me know and I will invite you and you can see my book! Oh I forgot the name of the website lol. Inkubook!

If you want a yummy recipe for Peanut Butter Balls go HERE! I posted it over on the Christmas website I blog on. These taste better than Reese cups. At least they do to me!

Wordless Wednesday

Me and my brother!

My brother passed away roughly 14 years ago. He was 23ish at the time and I was three years younger. I am terrible with dates and years and that time of my life was such a blur. I will never forget that night though. My parents woke me up in the middle of the night and said he had been in an accident. We piled into the car before my eyes could even focus clearly. We got to the hospital and the lady in the emergency waiting room just kept saying they didn't have a patient by that name. I didn't understand what that meant at the time. I guess in my mind she just didn't know what she was talking about. Later, what felt like forever, the coroner came out and told us that he had died in the accident. If you haven't had to experience something like this I hope you never do! I remember Holiday Inn was playing on the tv in the background. I don't remember walking to the car or going home. I called my boyfriend (now husband) and a few other friends and they all rallied around me and my family. I still feel the loss of my brother. Mostly in the daily living. Anna will never get to know her uncle. She will never get to compete with him or play wrestle with him or just laugh with him.

Please don't drink and drive! This holiday season it will be tempting to drink and then say oh I can still drive home ~ DON'T DO IT! Don't let your friends do it either!!! You are to important to make a life altering mistake like that!

Must Be Santa Monday

So we know we are going to give her the Jump-o-lene that I mentioned before. That will be her Santa gift. Now we are trying to decide what we are going to give her. Here is what I am thinking and you guys can help me figure it out lol.



1) Tinker Toys - they are aged 3-7 or something and she loves to build with her blocks. I think she would really enjoy them. Maybe not at first but she would definitely be able to grow into it.





2) An inexpensive baby (cause that s all she is asking Santa for!) and then wood blocks.

3) Any other suggestions are welcome! We need to stay around $30.



For more Christmas ideas go to Be Jolly By Golly!

Update!!!

It has been a busy week. We had our first baking play date that was a huge success. We rearranged Anna's room and put her Christmas tree up. We had another play date at the park so that the girls could ride their tricycles around the little sidewalk. We started working on Christmas gifts! Ok well, when you put it in sentences it looks like not so much lol. Trust me though we STAYED busy. Anna's room seriously took all day. Of course that was my fault cause I wasn't happy with the way I did and changed it like 3 times lol. Anywho, today we have had a nice day. We had left over from scratch biscuits and some grits (cause yeah I am southern like that)! (If you want the recipe for biscuits I will put that up on my other blog in just a minute!) We went to Wal-mart to get some stuff for our Thanksgiving dinner at church tomorrow. I am making another cookie cake. After looking at all of the Christmas stuff and the toys we headed over to the flea market to let Anna visit the puppies. She loves to visit them! After that we went to the Bamboo Farm. I so wished I had my camera. We had fun just roaming around throwing sticks to see who could throw it the further than the others. Chris and Anna had some bonding time which they haven't had a lot of lately and it was just so relaxing. No rushing around, no feeling like we should be doing something else, and just us hanging out laughing and playing! Life doesn't get any better than that! I challenge you to do something fun with no pressures and just work on laughing!

Now if you want to see Anna's room!!!

Sleeping Beauty

Works for me Wednesday

Baking parties!

A friend of mine loves Christmas as much as I do! We have decided to have baking parties for our play dates. We typically get together at least once a week. Now through Christmas we are going to use those play dates to prepare our Holiday treats.

We had our first meeting yesterday. I made truffles and fudge. My friend made butter cookies and peanut brittle. It was much more fun doing it together rather than doing it alone.

Next week I want to start on my specialty of peanut butter balls but I want to try some new ideas too. I am going to start a new carnival over at Be Jolly By Golly. It will start tomorrow, if you are interested in sharing holiday recipes come on over. I will be posting my truffle recipe to get the ball rolling. Oh if you go over there today you can get some great tips for black friday!

Baking holiday treats with a friend works for me! For more great tips go HERE

Tackle it Tuesday

I am starting to prep my house for Christmas. I love Christmas and I can't wait to experience it with Anna this year. She is at such a fun age (3). I had to rearrange my living room in order to make room for our tree. We will get our tree (hopefully) the weekend of Thanksgiving! Here are the pictures from my make over. I still have some cleaning to do and I will have to move the yellow chair when we get the tree but that will not be as complicated as what I did. I had to move our computer and our bookshelf and the chair. I only got the before of my bookshelf.

Before

After

Y'all don't mind the walls. They are in the process of being repaired!

Contest!!!

I have just entered a contest y'all! It is a contest that I am dying to win! Look at this dress

Can't you just see how beatiful my Anna would look in that dress! You can enter to win as well. Just go HERE!

I will take donations so that I can order any or all of the dresses HERE ;) I really love the red dress but they don't have Anna's size *sigh!

Success ROCKS!

Today was my most successful Yard Sale EVER!!! I made a grand total of... Are you ready for it... Can you handle it???

$113.00

Yay ME!!! It is all going straight into Christmas!

Good Times and Hard Work!

Yesterday was a whirl wind of fun! We had a play date in the morning. It was with my 2 pregnant friends. I love watching them grow and blossom. I hate to admit I am a little envious too but mostly just thrilled. Anyway, the kids had a blast. They ran themselves until they were exhausted. Anna had a fabulous nap and then we primped and prepared for our girls night out on the town! We went to dinner at our friends house and then headed downtown to see Disney on Ice! It was awesome!! I think I enjoyed it more than the kids lol. Here are a few of the highlights of the night!

Today I was inspired. I started preparing our house for Christmas lol. I know it is early but is it every TOO early to get ready for CHRISTMAS? No I didn't put out decorations but it is only a matter of time before I do that. I did clear out things and move around furniture. I am getting excited as Anna would say. I will post some pictures but probably not until next week. We have a busy weekend ahead of us so I probably won't be around again until Monday. So have a great weekend and keep your fingers crossed my yard sale actually happens this time!!!

Works for Me Wednesday

Toys are overrated. At least that is the way Anna acts. We have a house full of toys and 3 toys have kept her attention.

She got this little 4 wheeler for her first birthday. She didn't really get interested in it until she was about18 months old but she still loves it! I think they cost around $60 and you can get them at walmart. They even have a princess one now!

She got this kitchen set when she was about 16 months. She loved it instantly and still loves to play with it at 3. We have it in the corner of my kitchen and she cooks when I cook. It was $20 from Dollar General. I would love to have gotten her a more elaborate set but she doesn't really know the difference and is very happy with it.

She got her rocky horse last year so she was a 28 months or so. She loves it and as you can see it is great to play with friends on lol. She use to play on her friends horse when she was a little over a year and is still very happy to have her horse now. This one came from Home Depot and I can't remember how much it was but I think somewhere around $60.

There are a few others that work for her as well but those are the major ones. She loves all of her babies and books. She still messes with one of her push toys she got for her first birthday. She loves to color and do play dough. I think the important thing to remember when buying a gift for a little one is to remember:

1. Do you have have a place to put it?
2. Will it inspire creativity or laughter?
3. Would you want to play with it? (Cause we all now we end up playing too!)

For more gift ideas go HERE!

Wordless Wednesday

This Year
Last Year!

Baking from scratch!

I have really gotten into baking. I have this awesome cookie recipe that I turned into a cookie cake to take to say farewell to our friend Jason at church. For the first time ever I used icing to write something. I think I did ok for a first time and it tasted fabulous. I got the biggest compliment of all by not having to bring any home.

Last night we had him over since he was leaving early this morning and we had speghetti and I tried my hand at homemade brownies. He loves brownies and I forgot this at the store and thought well I will just try it by scratch. They turned out yummy! I don't think I cooked them long enough because they were a little gooey but the recipe said numerous times DON'T OVER COOK! So I got paranoid lol. They were very good though goo and all. I think I might start a recipe blog since I seem to be putting a lot out there right now so look for a link soon.

Menu Monday

Tonight is our friend Jason's last night with us. He is going home to his family. We are glad they will be reunited but we are going to miss him terribly. So in his honor we are having speghetti with freshly grated cheese on the side and some garlic toast and if I can manage I might even do him some brownies.

Tuesday - breakfast night! We will have bacon, homemade biscuits, grits and eggs

Wednesday - I will bake a chicken. After church we will either have the chicken in sandwiches or something.

Thursday - chili

Friday - hot dogs and home made fries

Saturday - I am hoping for pizza! $5 from Little Ceasars yummm

Sunday - left overs!

I got a huge compliment at the grocery store! I checked out and I had a good amount of food for $40.00. I was excited I pulled it off and cashier said wow you are a great shopper. Not many people can come in and spend $40 and walk out with this amount of groceries. I did save almost $10 by using my MVP card!

Anyway, for more great menu ideas go HERE!

Yay its OVER!

It was fun while it lasted but boy I am glad it is done. We had our carnival at church last night. We had a huge crowd and everyone seemed pleased. Check out my pics!

oh and Anna won a prize for the children's bake off!!! Go Anna!!!