Oh Christmas Tree...

Last night we tried the infamous kids with lights pictures.  They didn't come out as great as I would have liked, but I got a couple of ok ones.  I'm going to try it again tonight and see if changing some settings will help a little!

 

 

 

 

 

We'll see what happens tonight, but I can tell you Alyx LOVED playing with the lights! haha

 

This morning I dressed Alyx up in her new dress, that I am just beyond in love with!  And decided to take some photos with the Christmas tree.  And can I just tell you having 2 cats who absolutely love to screw up our Christmas tree skirt is a pain in the butt!  I had just fixed it and they both came running through slidding on it.  Ugh.  Oh well!!

 

 

She is such a ham!  She has this cheesy little smile now and wrinkles her nose.  I love it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I tried soo hard to get one of her looking at me with the Santa hat but she just wouldn't do it.  Oh well!!

 

Happy Tuesday all =)



Weekend Recap

Happy Monday all!  Hopefully everyone had a great weekend!  I worked all weekend, so this is my last day in before having a couple off.  Even though I worked, we still managed to have fun!  Emma had her first day of basketball on Saturday.  She loved it!  I asked her what her favorite part was and she said, "We got real jerseys this time, not t-shirts" haha =)  I'll take lots of pictures next time and share =)

I finally got all my Christmas cards mailed out.  They were a little later than normal this year, but that's because I was being super picky and couldn't find just the right card.  I've been  holding off on posting the picture, but since everyone that was getting one should have it by now, here it is...


I pretty much love this picture =)  And you would never know that it was cold cold cold outside!  We had the girls photos done a couple of months ago and I had planned on using those photos for a card, but they weren't Christmasy enough.  So one day after work I took the girls, and Gunner outside and snapped about 200 photos, and finally got a good one!  =)

So what's our Elf "Patch" been up to lately? 

 Well, he was very sick one day.  Some meds and a good nights rest and he was all better.  Emma loved this!

I saw a pin on Pinterest that I fell in love with.  It involved a golden ticket for the "Minivan Express"  Dress in pj's and go look at Christmas lights.  Patch had a hand in this one.

 A golden ticket, a new kids size travel mug, a bucket for popcorn, some candy and a new pair of Christmas socks.  Emma totally freaked when she saw this.  She LOVED it!  So last night we went out looking at lights. And there were definitely some people that went all out with their lights this year! =)

Last night Brian and I along with my father in law went and delivered our neighbors across the street an early Christmas gift.  She just recently lost her job, and her husband is fighting a battle of cancer.  It felt so good to give to someone who truly needed this gift we gave them.  We all cried and hugged.  Sometimes we forget that it's people so close by that need extra help during this season. 

I hope everyone had a great weekend and has a great Monday!!

Secret Santa * Mommy & Me Book Exchange Reveal *

Back in October I signed up for the Secret Santa Mommy & Me book exchange.  I love me a good swap =)  And this swap was fun, because it didn't just involve me, it involved the girls as well.  My secret Santa was Jenny from The Chronicles of We =)  I have been reading Jenny's blog for a while now, so I was super excited to find that she was my Secret Santa! 

Jenny and her daughter Callie sent Emma & Alyx "Snowmen at Christmas".  We LOVE these books!  Emma's favorite last winter was "Snowmen at Night", and now this is a new favorite.  If you have kids, you need to add these books to your collection.  They are great!!!  Thank you Callie & Jenny!

 

For my book, Jenny chose "Gone Girl".  I have sooo been wanting to read this!  And see the movie too =)  I haven't started it yet, but I can't wait to! 

 Thank you Jenny & Callie for the books!  We love them!!! =)
 

I was Secret Santa to Jess from Being Mrs. Beer =)  I can't wait to see if Jess & her little girl Abbie enjoy their books.  I've been reading her blog since finding out I was her "Secret Santa" but haven't commented on any of her posts so she wouldn't know I was paired with her, hehe =)  Jess has the cutest little girl!  I hope they enjoyed their books!
 

Thanks to Jenny, Courtney &  Elizabeth for hosting this great swap!!  =)

HUGE Mom Fail...

This morning was the worst Mom fail ever.  Just thinking about it makes me sick to my stomach.  Uggh.  So here it goes.  For Christmas Emma has been asking for one thing, and one thing only.  Every time you ask her what she wants for Christmas this is what you hear, "An Xbox 360."  For an entire year she has asked for one.  So what did I do on black Friday?  I stood in line at Wal-Mart for 2 hours in freezing cold 14 degree weather just so I could get it on sale for $99.00.  Every day Emma asks for one.  And every time she asks I just giggle to myself, and think "It's already been purchased".  Well this morning Brian calls me at work, and tells me that Emma found it in my closet.  My heart sank and I instantly started to cry.  Wondering also why she was in my closet, apparently she thought her ski pants were in there.  And so upset at myself that I hadn't wrapped it yet.  And mad at myself for even putting it in there in the first place.  I've beaten myself up over this all morning long, thinking why didn't I put it in the upstairs closet, or down in the basement, or at my mother in laws house?  I could do this all day, but it's over and she knows about it. And there is absolutely nothing I can do about it now.  She just has another 16 days before she can actually get it and open it.  Well, now that i'm done crying over here about this i'll share a photo from our Christmas Party yesterday.  I'll do a whole post on this later, but I couldn't resist sharing this picture of Alyx =)



 

Looking at this face puts me in a much better mood!  Hope everyone has a great Monday!!

We Have Teeth

Well we had a good day yesterday and night with Alyx!  Thankfully!  She has 5 teeth on the top that have come through but not all the way down yet.  So hopefully the most of her pain is gone now.  Her smile is so funny right now because you can see the whites of the teeth on top =)  She's too cute!

It is sooo hard these days to get a good picture of Alyx.  She is on the move constantly.  She's doing really well with walking.  She takes quite a few steps and then eventually sits down very quickly.  She is still doing a lot of crawling =)

Since she is hard to get a good picture of, i'll settle for sleeping pictures.  Seriously, is there anything cuter than a sleeping baby??

I just love when she falls asleep in my arms in the evening =)  She has been going to bed around 6:30-7:00, and then until 8:00, it's me and Emma time.  We've been watching some Christmas movies and cuddling in the recliner.  As much as Emma loves being a big sister and loves Alyx more than anything, it's still super important that Emma get one on one time with us.  So I make sure that happens every evening. 
Miss Emma goes to school today, and then she has the rest of the week off.  She and Brian are going to camp tomorrow night, and staying the night with all the cousins and their dads.  It's a tradition the night before Thanksgiving that Brian and his brothers bring all the kids out there and they stay the night.  Thursday morning i'll pack up and head out there and we'll do our Thanksgiving lunch out there.  Wednesday i'll spend the evening baking in the kitchen, one of my favorite things to do =) 
Happy Tuesday all!!

Weekend Recap

The weekend is yet again over and done with.  We had a pretty low key weekend around here.  Friday night the girls and I, and my mother in law went to dinner at Applebees.  And then a little shopping at Wal-Mart. 

Saturday we packed up and headed to a Christmas Fair that was about an hour away.  They had sooo much stuff that I honestly could have bought.  But I settled for 3 Christmas signs to hang up around the house.  When I get them up, i'll be sure to take pictures.  Saturday night we celebrated my MIL's birthday with pizza and cake.

Sunday was spent with a fussy fussy fussy baby.  Did I mention fussy?!?  Oh my word.  Alyx is teething, and has about 5 of her top teeth coming in all at once and she's not happy about it.  We did manage to get our Christmas tree up.  And so far she has stayed away from it.  But I'm sure she will get much more interested in the days ahead. 

So there is our weekend recap.  I'm hoping that this teething thing that Alyx has going on doesn't last too long.  She didn't sleep hardly at all last night, so that makes for a very tired momma this morning.  Hope everyone has a Happy Monday, and a good start to Thanksgiving week =) 



TGIF

It's Friday!  This has been a long week, and I am so glad the weekend is finally almost upon us!  So recapping this past week.

It has been C-O-L-D this week!  But i'm thankful for the cold rather than all the snow a lot of the country is getting!  

Alyx went from smiling, laughing and being a goober to sound asleep the other day in literally 2 seconds.  It was so funny.  She just looked at me and plopped her head down and went fast asleep!

My house is completely decorated for Christmas except for our tree.  I kinda love our mantle this year =)

I made this cream cheese pound cake the other day, and it was amazing so i'm sharing the recipe with you!

3 sticks of butter, softened

1 (8oz) package cream cheese, softened

3 cups sugar

6 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

3 cups all purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 300°F

Use an electric mixer to mix the butter and cream cheese until creamy.

Gradually add sugar and beat for 5 minutes.  Then add eggs one at a time.  Stir in vanilla.  Add flour and salt gradually to the mixer.

Pour batter into well greased bundt or tube cake pan.  

Place 2 cups of water in an ovenproof container on the rack in the oven next to the cake.  

Bake the cake for 1 hour 30 mins.

Icing: 

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon milk

You can thank me later for sharing this recipe! haha  My father in law tried it and said it was the best cake he's ever had.  I would make this over and over again!  The only thing that I did different was I squeezed a fresh orange into the cake mix and then used the remainder of the juice from the orange and squeezed it into the icing.  So it had a hint of orange flavor to it.  So So good!

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The other night before bed Alyx made herself comfy on her new couch she got for her birthday =)

She is too funny!  She looks like she just had a full meal and now she's taking a rest! 

And lastly, last night Emma and I went to Target. She had a little fun there...

We laughed and laughed at these!  So cute!

Happy Friday all, Enjoy your weekend!!!