The Real Reason for the Season and a Ugly Cry

   I had an ugly cry last night. I am not sure if I am just overwhelmed or the fact that I was cleaning up after the stomach bug hit our house AGAIN Sunday for the 3rd time in a month but it was UGLY and Tex was the witness. I just had a moment where I lost it, for some reason I have just felt so behind this Christmas season, total Mommy Slacker! My Christmas cards JUST went out today (GASP!), presents still need to be wrapped, the fridge is all but empty with my parents coming in 2 days, teachers presents aren't finished, the house needs a major cleaning overhaul and then I realized in the middle of my ugly cry that....

He doesn't care if all of that "fluff" stuff is done and really no one else does either. I think sometimes we I can put a lot of pressure on myself to try to do a million things that in all reality just aren't really that necessary and really if they didn't get done it wouldn't make a huge difference. The important thing this season is to remember the true meaning of Christmas which is Jesus. To spend time with my family and children without worrying about the 50 things I "should" be doing because in the end all that really matters is the time spent with each of them. I love that my kids are learning about Jesus in church and school. Annie is OBSESSED with Jesus's Major (aka manger, she calls it major though) she LOVES it and wants a nativity scene so bad and wants to hug and kiss baby Jesus all of the time.

So this year I might not win any awards for best teachers gifts and my Christmas Cards will definitely be the last to arrive and my presents might look like a 5 year old wrapped them but these are such insignificant worries compared to what Mary and Joseph must have felt that night!

So, for now I am going to sit back and take a deep breathe and try and remember the important things rather than all of the other things that can get in the way! I hope everyone has an AMAZING Christmas filled with JOY, LOVE and PEACE this year! Merry Christmas!

Out of Steam

Buddy's first day at our house 2011

I don't have it in me... Trying to be clever, funny and creative right now is totally out of my league so I am going to let someone else do it. This blog is freaking hilarious and this post about Elf on the Shelf is classic. I share many of her same sentiments right now! Tomorrow is Friday right? :)

http://peopleiwanttopunchinthethroat.blogspot.com/2011/12/over-achieving-elf-on-shelf-mommies.html

Read it you won't regret it!

Moving on Up!

So, I am moving away from Christmas topics for just a day! I have been a BAD blogger lately! The stomach flu hit our house for the 3rd time in a month! Seriously? At least this strand was thankfully really weak! We had a good weekend minus the occasional sickness. We did some more Christmas activities and went and looked at Christmas lights, baked cookies, went to a church Christmas play, etc... I am telling ya after this Holiday we are going to be lost for things to do! ha! Oh and we painted Palmer's room, he is SO excited! Pics to come...

So off Christmas topic... I consider myself semi-girly. I am not trendy but I like clothes, I don't read fashion magazines or know the latest styles but I keep up and am ok with my every day look :) I am basically most comfortable in a black shirt (ok turtleneck) jeans and boots and maybe some big, cute earrings. One thing I am horrible at is beauty products! I LOVE them but I think I am too cheap and feel too guilty to buy a bunch of new beauty products even though secertly I wish I could buy all of them!  Now if someone gave me tons of money to spend and showed me what to buy I would be a kid in a candy store!

One of my friends is the QUEEN of all beauty products. I am talking I walk into her "getting ready" room and don't want to leave because she has so much stuff to go on your face, in your hair, on your body! haha I have to ask what everything is, even taking a shower at her house is heaven because of all of the amazing products she has! So with a little help from her and mainly me going blindly into Sephora last weekend. I have now offically replaced all of my maybeline, revlon, cover girl make up with new make up that has sassy names and costs a lot more money :) I don't know if it is the placebo effect but I LOVE my new make up, so I wanted to share in case there are any other beauty product challenged women that read my blog :)

First off is Mascara. I LOVE mascara if I could only pick one beauty product to ever wear it would be this! I think it does wonders! So I had originally been given a sample of the badgal lash and I loved it! So when I went to sephora I bought the big bottle of it! It is not clumpy and thickens and legthens your lashes, I love it!

Lip Butter, I LOVE this stuff! I am ocd for chap stick, lip balm, etc... and this stuff is amazing. It is light, non greasy and a light color that you can wear day and night. It is called Lip Butter by Korres in Jasmine.

That Gal by benefits has a face primer? What is a face primer? I probably still don't know but it makes my skin glow and I swear it keeps the make up on longer and better! I only have a sample of this stuff but I plan on buying the big size when it runs out.

Next is foundation... I mean look how pretty this bottle is! Fancy, huh? :) This is called Two Faced and it is an oil free liquid foundation with spf. I LOVE it, it is full coverage without the weight! The sales lady at Sephora probably picked up quickly on my deer in headlight eyes as I combed the store and she headed me straight to this, it feels awesome every time I put it on!

I stumbled upon this little gem at my friends house that has all of the beauty products. It is an eye liner from stila. It is amazing and amazingly permanent, be careful! I love it and it stays on forever, a little goes a long way!

Love Sugarbomb by Benefits. It is a blush/bronzer It gives off an iridescent glow and is really natural!

Next is my new MAC eye shadow. If I had been a few hundred dollars richer that day I would have picked up about 15 of these little round jackpots and some of those ridiculously expensive brushes you put it on with. I mean why are those things $36? That is crazy to me, I just use my finger. I am not even joking! I know it is terrible, I am almost embarrassed to admit that but it takes baby steps for me :) I love MAC eye shadows, they wear great and last forever so it is definitely worth the money!

So these are my new found beauty products that I love. It is so fun to buy and put on new make up, maybe I am more girly than I thought. Too bad I don't have something that would give me an instant tan and make me look 15 pounds lighter but for now these products will help get me thru the winter blues!

Wordless Wednesday!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

A Christmas Kind of Night....

Well, dad had to work late last night so I decided to make it a fun night for the kids and do MORE Christmas stuff :) We are really getting all we can out of this holiday! ha! I love to watch their faces and how excited they get, but I must admit Palmer's questions are becoming harder and harder to answer! I think there needs to be a guide book on Santa, elves, which one is the "real" santa and not the "mall" santa, etc... He has stumped me a few times. I hope I still have a few more years before he realizes I have no idea what I am talking about :)

I have been under the weather but am starting to feel better thanks to my good ol antibiotics! It is pretty bad when my whole face is chapped and peeling from blowing my nose so much! Last night made me feel a lot better, I think I enjoy these nights just as much as the kiddos!

First we made Frosty Cookies. I know bribery is BAD but it WORKS :) The kids ate their WHOLE meal and asked for seconds because they wanted to eat Frosty Cookies! Heck YEAH!

My dear friend sent the sweetest gift to the kiddos! The Classic Christmas Movies! I am SO pumped about it too, I love these! The kids and I had a picnic dinner and then ate our cookies on the floor too and watch the movie!

I think the MOST exciting part of the night was the fact that BUDDY came this morning! I am SUCH a bad mom but somehow in the move we have misplaced buddy's hat and book, I know they are somewhere :) So I told the kids since Daddy wasn't going to be home he called Buddy and asked if he could fly down tonight to watch over us

Christmas' Past

One of my most favorite things to do is to go on my shutterfly account and look back at old pictures! It is so bittersweet I love seeing how little the kids are or what color my hair was! ha! I just can't wrap my head around how fast time flies... So today I was trying to think about Christmas' past, how many Christmas' we had with just Palmer, how old was Ann Mason on her first Christmas and I found these... Oh shot to the heart! How did my Palmer bear get so big! He will always be momma's boy even if now he wipes my kisses from me! And Annie went from baby to acting like she is 5! Thank goodness for pictures! I can only imagine what things will look like 10, 15, 20 years from now!

Here is some pictures from Christmas' past!

Our very first Christmas with Palmer 2007

Tex, Palmer and I!

Papaw Myke and Palmer 2007 Love this dude's hair :)

Our last Christmas pic without Annie 2008. I was due in February.

 Palmer with Santa 2008

Love this smile!

Chiquita Christmas Palmer dressed up for Christmas 2009!

Neenie with her babies Christmas 2009

This is just last year! Annie was just 19 months old?!?!  She was already dangerous! ha!

My sweet niece was just about a month old! Loved Belle in her Christmas gear!

So as you can tell Palmer didn't mind Santa last year but Annie straight up hated him!

Annie and Palmer in their Christmas outfits before our Red Lobster/Church tradition! Have I mentioned how much I love that tradition!

And here we are 2011! They have gotten SO big and rotten!

Our Family 2011

It's December 2nd people that means 23 days until Santa comes! Let me tell you that is all that is on the brain at my house 24/7!

Happy Holidays, let the games begin!

The Dreaded Family Christmas Photo Shoot

So you know how as an adult we have a lot of things that we have to do that we don't necessarily want to do? ha! Well, Christmas pics is in that category for me! I realize that no one is twisting my arm or telling me I HAVE to take them but I feel like it is my duty as a mom to take that annual happy family picture that we can look back on and laugh about in years to come!

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE pictures. Tex even asked me when we moved if I thought people would think it was weird that we had so many family photos hanging up but I love them and the bigger the better! What I am talking about is the hidden world behind the scenes of family photos. The begging, pleading, the sweating (me), the bribery, the crazy whisper voice threatening your children's life! haha! I hope you all know what I am talking about :)

This year we had a sweet family friend who was nice enough to bring her camera down and snap some photos. I might have had a coronary if we had to pay for a sitting fee and pictures this time because things were BAD!

Is anyone paying attention besides me? haha! These are the GOOD ones! Seriously Tex and I almost peed our pants because he ruined 80% of the pictures not the kids! He was looking in the polar opposite direction of the camera in 95/116 pics! WTH? :)

I was starting to sweat about here.... My mind was churning with things that I could bribe my kids with. Just PLEASE freaking look at the camera!~

Annie was starting to come along in some of these although she was too busy swing around the pole and I SERIOUSLY hope I never have to make that statement again concerning my daughter!

We both have tense smiles in this one I think I am starting to grind my teeth realizing this whole thing is a bust and not going to work!

Cute but Palmer looks disgusted!

Cute, right? Ok, what you don't know is Annie was banging herself into the door about 10 times disturbing EVERYONE in the coffee shop that I was forced in. We just happened to capture a brief pause.

Again, who is everyone looking at? Are there people around us that I don't see?

And I will end with the precious fake smiles that they LOVE to give as I am behind the camera saying please just smile like mommy said something funny, relax your face! I promise I am not a toddlers and tiaras stage mom, I just want a normal smile!

By the end of it I was tired, sweating and SO glad to be done! I don't know if any 20X24 canvas' will be going up this year but I do know this is what life is all about. This is the stuff we will laugh at when the kids are home from college and want to go thru old photos and I can exaggerate even more and tell them what heck they put me thru each year just trying to get a good family pic!

As much as I dread the prep and what happens at these photo shoots (meaning the crazy person that takes over myself and my kids) I love, love, love that we put ourselves thru it each year because I couldn't think of anything more precious than to look back and see the growth and changes as each year goes by and to think about all of the blessings that came with each stage!

Redneck Ice Skating and Santa!

Here are some pics from one of the most fun days of our Thanksgiving break! I call it redneck ice skating, I haven't seen anything like it but I also think I have been ice skating 1 time in my life when I was 12 :) ha! We have a really nice place called the riverpark center here that has an outdoor ice skating rink with a huge movie screen and inside they have shows, etc... and that is where Santa and Mrs. Clause are at.

Well, we decided to go and thought it would be packed but to our surprise there was hardly any one there! We had an absolute blast and the best part it was totally FREE! The kids had a great time, I am sure it will become more packed as the weeks passed but we definitely hit the jackpot this past weekend! Here are some pictures!

Ok this is why I call it redneck ice skating. Notice A. No skates :) and B. We used Milk Crates to keep us stable! How great is that! The kids could pretend skate and hold their balance with the milk crates!

Ann Mason skating in her lepord dress and boots! We just got our family pictures taken.

We actually were there twice in one day! Ann Mason got a little braver at night!

This sweet kid was in heaven, I think he could have stayed out there for hours! He loved every minute of it and even liked falling on the ice!

Oh this picture kills me! Look at their hands. I know other siblings love each other more than anything but I am biased and I have to say that these two just love each other so much it breaks my heart. I mean they fight like cats and dogs but they can't do anything without each other, I love it! I want them to go to college together and buy houses next to each other and live happily ever after! ha!

The family on the ice skating rink! It was so much fun, we can't wait to go back!

Here is ONE of our family pictures! I will save these for a whole other post. We may look happy but I am telling you they were a disaster! haha!

Palmer telling Tex everything he was going to ask Santa for on the way in!

Um, last year this girl was SCARED to death of Santa like convulsions and screaming! This year she picked Santa's brain, gave him her toy list and even asked him if he had his "underwears" on! I about died and so did Mrs. Clause! Oh, Annie what are we going to do with you?

The kids with Santa and Mrs. Clause. I LOVE Palmer's face! What a perfect age for Santa! He really, really believes! To be that age again, priceless!

It was a perfect outing and a perfect weekend! Wish every week was 3 days of work and 4 days of play!

Don't Miss Out!

DON'T MISS THIS DEAL IF YOU HAVEN'T GOTTEN YOUR CHRISTMAS CARDS!!!!

I had to share the love because my friend Elizabeth at All About the Adkins shared it this weekend on her blog and it totally SAVED me!

This website is awesome and ALL of their cards are on sale for .49 cents each! I am talking about the nice $2 + cards that fold, have multiple pics, story lines, etc... I placed my order this weekend and the original total was going to be $156 and it came down to $42!!! Now that's a deal! Love this site! Go check it out at www.cardstore.com!

Thanksgiving Weekend Part I

Man, I am SO bummed to be back at work and back to Reality! We had such a good family fun weekend I didn't want it to end and neither did the kiddos! I swear they get funnier and funnier and we had such a good time with them this weekend, they just make me laugh non stop! I was on picture overload cause I got a new camera!!! Woohoo! I will post more about it later but I LOVE it and it is AWESOME!

Thursday we woke up early and ALL (everyone and Molly the dog) piled up in the mini van and headed to Georgetown, KY to my dad's house. My sweet sister in law hosts Thanksgiving every year and even though we don't always get to make it, we enjoy it so much when we do!

We all spent the night at my dad's which is just hilarious. My dad has not had any people spend the night in 20 years! I think he was pretty excited to have his house filled with dogs, kids, noise, clutter, etc... ha! Good thing it was only for one night. We will break him in for Christmas.

Papaw with a "hat" as the kids call him before we left for Thanksgiving Dinner.

Dawn (dad's fiance), her daughter Emily and dad

Jillian and Mia

Love, Love, Love this picture! The kids had SOO much fun playing. We are missing Piper and Belle so we will have to get another one soon!

Myself, Mia and Dawn! I didn't get any pics of Tex or me hardly!

The cutie kiddos! They just were SO happy being with family and playing with their cousins!

My sister in law was SO sweet and watched the kids so that Tex and I could both see my papaw in the hospital! We took him some Turkey Day food but he wasn't much on eating but got really excited about chocolate ice cream! I am happy to report that he is finally back home. He has a long way to go and a lot of decision to be made about his care but he is SO happy that he is home and that is all we care about!

Thanksgiving this year was definitely a blessing and an awesome day! It is easy for me to get down about the  things that I don't have or prayers that haven't been answered but if I turn those thoughts to everything that I have been given and prayers that have been answered my gratitude is immeasurable! God is GOOD!