One of my favorite decorations

I love getting the kids pictures taken with Santa every year. And instead of having them out for the current season only, I put all of them out every year. They are one of my favorite things to look at during Christmas time! I love seeing how small the kids used to be. I love seeing the picture of Maddie who just got done crying. I love seeing EJ's first visit. Or Lucas staring at Santa like they're having a big talk (and he was only 7 months old). I think next year I'm going to need a bigger place to display them though...or split them up.

EJ's been begging to go visit Santa already....so hopefully this week, I can add to my display.

Top 10 reasons to be a daddy in my next life...

Ok...I love being a mommy. But here's some pretty good reasons to be a daddy next time around!

1. Daddy can come and go as he pleases because the kids are always with mommy.
   
2. The kids always go to mommy and leave daddy alone when they want something.
3. The kids are so happy to see daddy when he gets home.
4. Mommy is always the bad guy...daddy says the "right" things.
5. Daddy can go out...like to doctor appointments and for coffee. Alone.
6. Daddy doesn't have to do any shopping...and if he does, he comes home with all the "good" snacks.
   
7. Daddy doesn't even have to cook...unless cereal is considered cooking.
8. Daddy is deaf and never hears the screaming kids...even if they are right beside him.
9. Daddy can go the bathroom and take a shower without a kid busting in.
10. Daddy gets to do all the playing with the kids while mommy does the work.

Do you have any more to add? I know you do!!!

Love these hats!

Last week...I was linked over to Ally's Boutique from We are That Family's blog. I entered the giveaway but then saw these ridiculously cute beanie hats and had to have one for my daughter. So I bought one. And it came to me in 2 days! Super fast. And it was supercute! Look for yourself! Cute, huh?

Anyways...please keep this etsy shop in mind when doing your shopping this year...especially for the girls in your life!

12 Days of Christmas Giveaway

Ok...I'm a little late on this one but I just found it! Thoughts from the Mrs. is having a 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway!

Lots of great things being given away...Go check it out!

And the winner is...

Congrats to Cee! Random.org picked number 19 for the Walk Away the Pounds Book & dvd. It will be on it's way soon....Enjoy it!

Honey Butter Recipe

Here's the recipe I use for my Honey Butter....so simple (and loved by all!)

2 sticks butter
1/2 c. honey

Bring butter to room temperature and blend with honey.

See? Easy!

Make it beforehand and keep it in the fridge. =)

Friday Fragments #3

1. You know what I hate more than my husband not leaving me soap in the shower? Not leaving me toilet paper in the bathroom. UGH!
2. I'm trying to be more positive this holiday season (so ignore #1). All the people around me who are downers annoy me...and I don't want to be one of them.
3. We are cleaning out our barroom downstairs this weekend. It will be nice to play some pool or chill down there again! (and the kids will be locked out!)
4. If it's going to stay in the 20's around here....at least give me a little snow to make it pretty.
5. Our Christmas tree is going up next weekend....we have a fake one now so it can go up early!
6. And after the tree is up....I'll try and get some nice pictures for our Christmas card.
7. And...I'm going to print out Santa's letter and get it mailed to the North Pole so the kids get it back soon.
8. And lastly...today's the last day of my WATP giveaway. Come enter now!
   

Thanksgiving Menus

Thanksgiving is a mere week away folks! I went and did most of my shopping today. I still have a few things to pick up but I'll get those next week. Got my turkey last week...the kids named him Rock n Roll..... "Rocky" for short. What? You don't name your turkey? That's just silly.

Anyways....here's our menu for the day:

• Rocky the turkey
• My mom's stuffing
• Mashed taters
• Corn in butter sauce
• Green Bean Casserole
• My super yummy gravy (I put milk in it!)
• Baked Butternut squash
• Rolls and my homemade honey butter (and btw...honey is SO darn expensive! geez!)
  
• and my mom is bringing turnip

For dessert I'm making:

• Apple Streusel Pie w/ vanilla ice cream
• Pumpkin Pie (from scratch for dh)
  
• and other family members are bringing desserts

What are you making? What's your signature dish??

Do you have 15 minutes? (and a giveaway)

Then you can walk a mile! I love Leslie Sansone's workouts. She has many 15 minute 1 mile workouts. FIFTEEN minutes! How can you not squeeze 15 minutes into your day? How great would it be to say "I walked a mile today!" or 2 miles? I love that I can pop in a dvd and know I'll be done in 15 minutes. Not that I'm lazy or anything. (ok maybe a little somedays) One of my favorite dvds of hers is "Five Day Slim Down". I got mine at Target. You can do the whole workout at once (HA!) or you can break it down into 5 days (which I do). Fifteen minutes goes by so fast. So if you're looking for something new to do to workout...check her out. I'm sure the library has dvds you can borrow...or she's got some stuff On Demand with Exercise tv.

Here's a little snippet of her workouts:



And you can win it! I'm giving away a copy of Leslie's Walk Away the Pounds book and it comes with a free 1mile walk dvd inside! Yippee! How do you win?

• Leave a comment and make sure there's a way for me to get in touch with you.
  
• You can enter until 11:59pm, November 21st. I'll randomly draw a winner on Saturday, November 22nd.
• US Residents only please
• You must respond to my email /check back here by Monday, November 24 or a new winner will be pulled.
• Earn extra entries by Stumbling or Tweeting this post and leaving another comment.
• Earn another entry by following me or subscribing to my feed and leave a comment.
  

That's what Works For Me today!

Super cute ornaments!

Are you looking for some unique Christmas ornaments? You should check out these hand painted personalized tile ornaments from Perfect Match Boutique. Lots of different designs to choose from! My favorites are the Angel Hand Painted ornaments...you can even choose the color hair and skin tone! The Family Home ornament is great for someone in a new home this year too!

While you're there...check out the super cute hand painted plates too. Since we're close to Christmas...my pick is the Cookies For Santa plate!

You need to hurry though....for Christmas delivery, you need to order by November 23! AND you can save 10% automatically when you spend $50 or more! (orders over $150 get free shipping too).

bad Hallmark

Raise your hand if you collect Christmas ornaments for your children....... Yea...me too! I've bought the Hallmark Child's Age ornaments for each child up to age 5. Maddie has the kitten series. EJ has the train series. We started Lucas with the puppy series. I went to the Hallmark store yesterday to get Lucas' next one, 3 for his third Christmas. They didn't have it. So I asked the lady working there and can you guess what she told me? Yes...they discontinued it! What? How unfair is that? Why wouldn't they let me know that last year when I bought 2? I was very annoyed! So I came home and luckily found #3 on ebay for $6.00 with free shipping. #4 was $12.99 with free shipping. Now I'm searching for #5....and I'm not going to pay $59.99 like someone on ebay thinks they can get! (really!) That's just crazy! lol If all else fails, I'll buy a dated one and get rid of year on it. =)

A fun night....

Admission to Edaville Railroad Saturday: $0 (free admission for residents this weekend)
3 umbrellas because it's raining: $15.72
2 fried doughs, 1 popcorn, 1 water, 1 gatorade: $18.50

Seeing the smiles on these kids faces: Priceless

Did someone pee all over the floor?

I'm having a book party tonight. (It's really just an excuse to get my friends over here and we can sit around and chat. Oh and I'm making my magic punch. yum!) Well...I decided I should clean my wood floors in the livingroom since I'm having company. I used all my floor cleaner up the beginning of the week when I cleaned my kitchen floor so I went to Walmart and bought Wow! Wood & Laminate Floor Cleaner.

It was all they had.

I wish I had left it there.

It stinks.

It smells like urine. Like my cats peed all over the floor. Or like my 2 year old's diaper in the morning. Not just a quick "oh this smells but the smell will be gone soon". But a smell that will linger next day...and never leave. I sat on the floor to change Lucas this morning and almost passed out. (I feel bad for the kids since they are shorter than me and closer to the stink.)

I went out today and bought the Orange Glo floor cleaner that I love. Bought 2 so I had an extra one. One had a newfangled "soft touch spray". Yea, great!

No! Not great!

It fell over in the car on the way home and the top opened up. Why it doesn't screw on like the other bottle, I don't know. Yes, whole bottle now gone all over the rug in my car. Great....there goes $6.

But at least my livingroom doesn't smell like urine anymore.

A good day!

It's so nice when my kids are being nice to each and helping Mommay out. Especially since daddy is gone hunting. After they got done with the dishwasher, they sat and watched some tv. Now they are all downstairs playing. 2 of the 3 have already come up with "injuries" but they are fine. And out of my hair while I make dinner. Thanks kids!

Elf on the Shelf

I bought the Elf on the Shelf set last year at my local hallmark store. It's a great idea and it works like this: The day after Thanksgiving, the Elf (ours is named Eldon) appears along with a book about him. He sits on a shelf and watches over the kids every day and reports back to Santa every night to let him know if the kids have been naughty or nice. The next day, he's in a new spot...ready to do his watching!

The kids loved to look for him all over the house every morning. It was also great to tell the kids "the elf is watching...watch out what you do!" lol

If you see one...grab it and try it out at your house this year! That's what works for me today!



PS. I'm so glad I saw this in the Twittermoms holiday catalog...I would have forgotten about it!

Houseparty.com

I'm very excited! After spending the day letterboxing with the kids...I got home and saw an email in my inbox from 10am saying that I was a finalist for the BHG Cookie Swap but I needed to be one of the first 1000 people to sign up. I thought "oh great..it's almost 3 now!" But I logged in and was able to do it! Woo hoo! That means I get a little goody box of stuff for the party with coupons, ziploc containers, bookmarks and recipes. That will be a great addition to my cookie exchange that I'm doing on December 12 (not to be confused with my virtual one December 5th! lol)

It's my very first HouseParty to host! Go check them out when you get a chance and check back frequently to apply for different parties to host at your home along with other people across the US! It's beginners luck that I got chosen for the first party I think because I've heard they are hard to get into!

Have you ever gotten chosen? What was it for??

Coupons

I clip coupons. Generally for just the things I think I'll buy soon...not every single coupon I see. My problem is that I'm so unorganized with them. I have coupons on my kitchen island, in my car, thrown in my purse. They are everywhere! And when I want them....do you think I can find the one I want? Nope! I need a good coupon organizer. Or a good system for them. Anyone? What do you use for your coupons?

How to Behave and Why

I checked the book How to Behave and Why by Munro Leaf out of the library the other day. I just read it to my kids. I was shocked. Not bad shocked but good shocked. The book talks about how to be a good person. How to act nice towards others. How to listen to your parents. How it is to be an honest person. How to have manners. You know...it talks about most of the things that it seems lots of kids lack these days. The book made me reflect on my own actions and think about ways *I* can improve and be a better model to my children. This is a must read book for all kids (although my daughter says "wow, that was a long book!). I think I'll be buying this book and adding it to our library. And I'll read it again and again to the kids so hopefully there will be a few more kids who know how to be Honest, Fair, Strong and Wise.

Bambi, where are you?

Starting Sunday I'll be a single mom. Just me and the three kids for a whole week. Why you ask? My hubby is going on a quest for Bambi. Yes, people....he's a hunter. And he's leaving for hunting for a whole week. Lucky me, huh? Do you think *I* get to disappear away from this place for a whole week by myself? Nah...it will never happen. Me...go away without kids for a whole week? A few days even? Yea right! But I digress...
Hubby used to go for 4 days. This year he's taking a whole week to sit alone in the woods and sleep hunt. And I use the term "hunt" loosely because in the last, ohhhhh...I 'd say at least 6 years, he hasn't gotten anything. I think he just says he's hunting. It's really just an excuse to catch up on his sleep and sit around and drink with the guys. Maybe I should take up "hunting" with my girlfriends?

I feel pretty...oh so pretty....

Last night I went out with the girls for dinner and shopping. While we were out, we went to Old Navy and beside it was Ulta. Dh got me a gift certificate for there last Christmas when he bought my my Bare Minerals starter kit. So a year later I thought I should use the silly thing. They had a Bare Minerals Topaz kit with eye shadows, a blush and a lip gloss. I was debating it (since I knew I had a coupon at home) and one of my friends said to "just buy it" since I had the gift card. Ok...fine. So I did. The kit cost me $6.70. =) And today I used it and made myself all pretty! So I took a new profile picture. I must say...it came out good. (And if you don't know about Picnik for photos...run and check them out now!)

Lazy Snot head

I'm so lazy. I don't know what it is but I've just been so lazy lately. I don't want to get out of bed in the morning. Don't want to get dressed. Would really just be fine sitting on the couch all day. I think it's this damn head cold/congestion thing. Some day I'll get tested for allergies because I'm always stuffy, always have post nasal drip and I always have a cough. And I'm always making lovely snorty type gross noises. I know you all want to hang out with me now. Maybe I'll try exercising more (HA!) and taking a multivitamin. Maybe that will help. Oh, and I'll do some allergy meds too. Check on me tomorrow.

Wordlesss Wednesday 11.5.08

Cookie Exchange

Every year I have a cookie exchange...This year makes the 5th year! It's so much fun to do around Christmas. What is a cookie exchange you ask? Well...you invite some friends over and each friend brings either 1/2 dozen or a dozen of a cookie for each guest along with the recipe. (It's handy to invite early and find out what type of cookie each guest is making so there's different ones and to give your guests a head count on how many cookies they need to bake) It's fun to see how each girl packages her cookies...the boxes & bags have been getting fancier & fancier at mine! Oh, and don't forget to have each guest bring some cookies to sample that night too! It's a nice girls night out! Here's a link to some more info from Kraft Foods.

Also...I'll be hosting a Virtual Cookie Exchange this year for all my bloggy friends. I'll post it on December 5th. You'll just have to post your favorite cookie recipe on your blog and come back here and add your link! Simple! And we'll end up with lots and lots of yummy recipes for your holiday baking!