Look who's back!

Last night our favorite "little" visitor arrived!  Abby has been so excited for him to come she has been asking for weeks when he would be here.  Wyatt is still excited he came and for now the tradition lives on with him also!  Besides he knows the drill you don't believe you don't receive!!

Check him out on his first morning with us.  Atleast he felt a little at home since it was a chilly 20something outside this morning.

Here's a  closer view if you weren't sure who I was talking about.

Well it's Jingles of course!!!!

I have on good authority that is is gonna be extra watchful this year (certain people haven't been on their best behavior here lately).  They know he even knows what they do at school all day, luckily this is the least of my worries considering they are both complete angels at school and wouldn't dare get in trouble there!!  Also I think Jingles has made a bunch of new friends since he was here last year and is gonna be a bit more exciting this year.  Seems as though Jingles has been a boring fuddy dud just hanging out on the mantel and Christmas tree when he could have been:

Tp'ing the Christmas tree

Making "snow" angels

Or sneaking cookies-I am doing this soon I just put out our xmas cookie jar!

Maybe your elf will decide to spice things up this year also.  Check out Pinterest there are TONS of ideas on there. What you don't know about Pinterest? oh your poor thing, email me & I will send you an invite but be warned you will get addicted.

Getting a head start on Christmas

Well now that Halloween has passed you know what that means, Thanksgiving barely gets a mention and we are straight on to Christmas. So that means I better get started now or I will be so behind I will never be ready in time.


My first priority-Christmas Cards! Last year I used Shutterfly and I absolutely loved how my cards turned out.

They have tons of Christmas cards to choose from. You can get folded cards, flat stationary cards or photo cards.  I usually can't decide on a favorite picture so I always pick the type that I can add multiple photos to here are a couple of my favorites.

    

But they don't just to cards they also have tons of gift ideas. Like photo mugs, Stickers (which are a great way to label all those things they take to school with them), & shopping bags just to name a few. You can also make calendars and come on what grandparent doesn't love 12mths of different pictures of their favorite little boys and girls and they also have photo books, which I have done more than once & they always turn out great.

Also right now if you head over to their Special Offers page they have some great deals on tons of items. So head over to their sign up page and you will get 50 free 4*6 prints just for creating an account.

*EDITED to add

I finished up my card today wanna sneak peek? Hurry and order yours, today is the last day to save 40% off holiday cards!

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Dreaming of a white Christmas

And we got One! Sure it was small but it snowed! I am sure most of u wouldn't consider what fell here a real snow but we do here in the south, where schools close for an inch or less of the white stuff.

I would post picture proof but I am playing on my newest gadget and haven't made it that far in figuring this thing out. I will say though from the little bit of playing on it, it is realy awesome. Thanks to hubby for getting me a Nook. It even came with my cookbook I wanted. Southern Plate, and FYI I made the baked macand cheese tonight and it is Yummo!

Wordful Wednesday-The Rockettes

Saturday Me, Abby and my MIL headed to see the Rockettes. Abby was all excited to get to dress up in her pretty dress. The night before I rolled her hair up in foam curlers and made her sleep on them so that her hair would be all pretty and curly.

She looked so cute all dressed.


A close up of all those curls


Posing with Mommy


She really loved the show and sat and watched the entire thing with barely moving.

Wanna see some more Semi Wordless posts?

Last minute gift

ok so we are in the home stretch now, the countdown is on. Are you done?

What about that hard to shop for friend, or the teacher, or the babysitter-you didn't forget them did you?

Well I almost forgot Wyatt's teacher. Last week I realized I was behind and had to get her gift bought. I remembered a post that Semi-Slacker Mom had posted a while back. Her friend, Amber makes these super cute canvases. I took a chance and emailed her, her friend got right back to me and had it in the mail the very next day!! It arrived here today!

It is SOOO cute I love it-Blue/White are my son's school colors and R is her last name initial.


$15 plus shipping for the smaller size. She makes bigger ones also and I plan on getting one for my front door soon. I have her email and can get you in touch with her if you are interested just leave me a comment.

Maybe they will be mailed in time

So remember my post about how great the Shutterfly Christmas card selection was this year?

Well I got them ordered and they arrived in no time at all and they look great!


Now lets just see if I can actually get them all in the mail in time. Which considering my Palm died and took all my addresses with it to electronic heaven this may be harder than usual!

Merry Christmas

Santa must have gotten good reports from Jingles

Because OMG he spoiled my kids.

They got so much stuff and I took so many pictures but I don't think I got it all, it was a bit crazy around here. There was paper flying everywhere and Wyatt tore thru his stuff in a matter of minutes.


Wyatt's 2 biggies were a bike and a Bearded Dragon-his name is Spike:)


A few of her with her loot-notice the Vera Bradley purse? oh yea daddy also spoils her.

the dogs even got a little xmas surprise

they all got huge bones!

Then we were onto clean up and trying to clear a space for the grandparents. We had an awesome late morning breakfast with them (Abby was my big helper and cut up fruit for fruit salad) and then they unloaded with their loot.

Abby got some dress up clothes, movies, an easel, a Cinderella's castle snow globe and lots more


Wyatt got a tv, legos, an alarm clock and tons more!

The fam

notice the jammies? yea we stayed in them all day!! it was great. After the grandparents left we sorted thru the chaos and tried to see what they had gotten. We laid around and were lazy for the rest of the day, well until dinner time. We started a new tradition a few years ago of just us four having a nice big dinner. This year Wyatt had requested crab legs:) Sounded good to us so I made those with some yummy steaks, home made mac and cheese, mashed potatoes and rolls. It was SOO good and we were so stuffed afterwards.

Oh yea and Christmas also holds a little extra special place in my heart. It is the night that Shane and I met 15 years ago!!

We had a great 2009 and can't wait to see what next year hold in store for us!

So Christmas is Over

and my house is finally starting to resemble a house again! It took many hours to get their rooms back to a semi normal state of where you can actually walk in there but I finally did find a place for it all.

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We went to Shane's aunt and uncles on xmas eve. There were some extra family members this year and it was great, lots of loud kids running around and lots of pics were taken.

Almost all the Great Grandkids with Granddad this was the first Christmas without Nano, missing are Shane's sister's 2 boys



Shane left a few minutes before us so that he could run by his moms house on the way home and pick up the gifts we had stashed there. He got home, promptly hid them and sent me the all clear text. I picked up the pace and we got on home so that we could get going on Christmas eve fun.

First we fed the reindeer


then were hurried in to track Santa with Norad


we all got new xmas jammies, every year this is the only gift they get to open on Christmas eve.


Shane read some Christmas stories that of course ended with The Night Before Christmas.


Cookies and milk were left out for Santa and a cookie for Jingles and off to bed for them. Threats of do NOT get out of your bed until we wake you were made.

We waited a few minutes for them to be all snug in their beds and then the elves scurried around trying to prepare for the awesomeness that they would find when they awoke the next morning. Unfortunately for us threats weren't taken seriously and we were seriously close to being busted. Wyatt woke up and luckily Shane heard him just as he was unlocking his door (yes I locked them in their rooms, don't judge!) and he ran back to intercept him just in time. He said he thought it was morning, it was only 10:30! THANKFULLY we had not sat his big gift by the tree yet and everything was still in the kitchen, the stockings were down and we had already disposed of Santa's cookies but we don't think he noticed, at least he didn't say anything. So Shane decided it was best if he sat lookout while I the lone elf finished everything. Which actually meant he would sit in his chair and watch Christmas Vacation, which just happens to be the best Christmas movie ever!

Not sure what time we finally made it to bed but I do know it was late. we vow every year we will have the stuff ready so we don't have so much to do that night but every year we are up til the wee hours trying to finish it all.

We woke up super early because I was scared they would wake up without us and come out of their rooms. They were surprisingly easy to wake!

Santa had come!!





more to come later

Merry Christmas!!

Have you come down from the Christmas high yet??

My kids are are in a toy/chocolate coma as we speak. I think my house will never be the same not sure where all of this stuff is gonna go but I do know that it has to get out of my living room and find a place that is out of my sight cause I am getting a headache looking at all the STUFF.

I am excited to say that this post is being typed on my very own brand spanking new laptop!!! I am still playing with it trying to figure it out and it will take me forever to get all my stuff moved over but I am just happy that I don't have to share and fight over my computer anymore and Wyatt and Abby can have free reign (well to an extent) with the other one.

So no pictures I haven't uploaded them yet but I did take tons! so those will be following soon.

U still have time!

It's is not quite time for panic just yet, you still have a couple days so don't freak out.

I love making goodies to give away this time of the year and this year has been no different. I haven't fished all my goody making just yet, gotta make a couple other things like those all important cookies for Santa, that will be done maybe tomorrow. Wyatt's school xmas party was Friday so I had to get some of the stuff done so I could put together a little basket for his teacher and her TA, both of which we LOVE.

Abby was my little helper last week during the treat making.

First we made these cute little chocolate jollies, recipe was courtesy of Southern Plate

Super Easy and super cheap! especially if you buy the chocolate chips and dried cranberries on sale and with coupons:)


Once the chocolate chips are melted (in the microwave) dump in a bag of dried cranberries and stir it up. Drop spoonfuls into cupcake papers and let sit til dry-I mean seriously could it be easier?


bag them up tie with a ribbon-BAM you are done!

there are lots of different ways to make these and she gives some other ideas, I may try some with milk chocolate and something else.

Then I made some peanut brittle, I didn't let her help with this one cause truthfully I was worried about some serious burns from it, but she did watch. I take that back I think she dumped in the vanilla but that was it, well until it needed to be dipped in chocolate.

I found this recipe a couple years ago on Kraft Foods it is also a super easy one. Just need to be a bit careful with the molten lava that is the sugar and corn syrup when it comes from the microwave:)

once it sits and gets hard I break it up into bite size pieces then dip it into chocolate. Yes chocolate makes everything better!

here's Abby my helper in the chocolate department. The recipe I have tells you to put some creamy peanut butter into the melted chocolate.


then dip away and yes you must wear your super cute apron that is courtesy of Aunt Michele

set them on wax paper and let it dry

I put some tissue paper down into little chinese take out looking boxes that I bought from Target $1 spot, very cute and once again easy and cheap.

now the next one is also easy. Buy some pretzel sticks they can be big or small what ever you like. I went with these medium size ones this year. Dip the ends into melted chocolate-yes chocolate again, I told you it makes everything better! Then the possibilities are endless. Crush some Oreo cookies (I used the Christmas ones with red filling), any type of cookie sprinkles, chop some peanuts, or drizzle white chocolate over dark chocolate.

it is messy and fun! you will have sprinkles sticking to your feet for days!


also wrap these up into some of those clear treat bags (I have tons because I buy them on clearance after the season because I use them so much).

Still to make:
Your run of the mill fun Christmas sugar cookies-I mean what is Santa gonna eat if I don't make these?
and these ball cookies that I make every year. It is just a roll of sugar cookie dough, cocoa powder mixed together. Then roll into balls, dip into powdered sugar and bake. While baking throw some red and green sugar into the powdered sugar. When they come out cool for just a bit then roll into the sugar mix again.

I always get lots of compliments on all of this and everything is so easy and cheap. Great last minute gifts or if you just wanna make yourself some goodies.

Some favorites

OMG he was so tiny and so cute


once again we have some serious cuteness


new one from our trip to Outer Banks, NC this past summer


beach trip 09, I get one every year we go:)

These are just a few of my favorites. There are many, many more including ones that were mine when I was little.

A favorite is a porcelain shoe from my first Christmas. The funny part is that it says Baby (insert my maiden name) 1978. Which is VERY weird on many levels-I was born in October did I not have a name by Christmas? Or did who ever make this for my parents just not know my name? They were close enough to them to make me an ornament for my first Christmas but not close enough to catch my name in over 2mths?? Really