Happy Thanksgiving Y'all!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS!!!

I probably won't be blogging for the next couple of days because I will be eating, spending time with family and watching Christmas movies! haha We are so excited, we can't wait for the long weekend!

Christmas Parade 2011

It's Tuesday which means tomorrow is MY FRIDAY! I am SOOOO ready for a long weekend spending time with my family! I am envisioning lots of good foods, naps, LOT of Christmas movies (my dvr is filling up at rapid speed with all of the best Christmas movies) and just good ol quality time!! I haven't made many plans other than Thanksgiving day and I just want to relax and enjoy time with Tex and the kiddos and our families! So blessed and thankful this year for what God has done in our lives!!

This past weekend was just plain AWESOME! We were busy but it was tons of fun! We had a birthday party, went to see Happy Feet 2, ate ice cream at the new Orange Leaf here in Owensboro (way to go Owensboro!) I had girls night and the most fun of all was the Christmas Parade 2011!

This was my first Owensboro Christmas parade and it was SO fun and hilarious. Because you know, everyone in Owensboro knows everyone! So, my "crew" was screaming at everyone going by on the floats and waving, I loved it! You know who else loved it? PALMER! The kid was nearly shaking with excitement I totally got teary eyed in the middle of the parade watching his sweet face, those are truly life's moments!

My sweet niece and I!

The start of the parade with firetrucks and police cars! Palmer was in heaven!

My happy, happy boy!

Annie and Mamaw! She was talking the whole time, too busy to watch the parade!

Love him! So proud of him, even last year Palmer fought with a lot of anxiety and loud noises would really upset him and make him panic, he has grown up SO much and his anxiety has decreased dramatically I couldn't be more happy!

Waiting, waiting, waiting.... how fun is this kid going to be in Disney if he is this excited about the parade? ha!

KK and EE the kid's sidekicks!

My sweet babies!

Our whole "crew" we were told we were definitely the loudest section there!

So, miss thang didn't exactly LOVE the parade. So I took her to the restaurant downtown where we were having girls night later on and luckily it wasn't crowded and they let us sit at the big table and we ordered an appetizer together!~ Annie's request fries and ranch, so healthy! She looked at me and said, "Mom, we're having girls night!! Just me and you!" Probably one of the best moments ever. We just sat and ate fries and ranch and talked like old friends, I love this girl!

So, as a side note I guess the link up was a bust! haha I guess I didn't know how it would work until I tried? Maybe next time, right?

I don't know about you but I am super pumped for this long weekend and it can't get here soon enough!

Christmas Card Showcase Mondays!

Ok guys it is my VERY FIRST LINK UP! Christmas Card Showcase!!! I already gave a preview of our previous cards for Christmas so here are some of the cards that I have found for this year that I think are TO DIE FOR! LOVE THEM!

Please link up and show us your Christmas Cards or ideas for new Christmas Cards for 2011! I can't wait to see all of the awesome cards and ideas!!!

The first two cards are from tiny prints, GREAT website for ALL cards!

LOVE this card and what it says!

This next card is one of my fav's! I am LOVING the tri-folds this year! I think they are an awesome way to add more pictures and the design is great!

This one is from Shutterfly. How can you not love this card?  I mean that cute little face, seriously? I also love the "We Believe"! I think it is magical!

These next two cards are from aNEW website I just found tonight, Pear Tree Greetings. I think this may be my favorite site for Christmas Cards so far! I am sure there are thousands out there but this site is original, creative and reasonably priced!

I am loving the cards that tell a little story about your year! We have had SO many life changes in 2011 it would be nice to update all of our family and friends. I think this is an awesome way to do it!

And this card is not only cute AND has text but the packaging gets an A+ in my book! Too, too cute! 

I could browse websites and Christmas cards all day! I can't wait to see your Christmas Cards and ideas! Link up and share with us!

Operation Christmas Card 2011!

FYI- I am working on MY FIRST Link Up EVER!!! I will be having a link up every Monday - Christmas Card Showcase Monday's!!! You can link up your past and present Christmas Cards and any fun and new ideas that you have seen for the most AWESOME Christmas Cards of the season! Get ready for the link up coming this Monday....
I LOVE Christmas Cards! Love them, love them, love them! I am just as guilty as anyone about sending e-greetings, emails, posting birthday messages on facebook! I have tried so hard to get better at sending out actual real cards but I fail :) Now Christmas Cards, that's the one thing I always am on top of! Um, except for this year. I don't know why I feel so behind! I keep seeing all of these amazing cards but I don't have a picture!

Luckily we are having a family friend take our pics on Sunday! I can't wait to get them back and start creating our 2011 Christmas Card. I wish I had the extra money to buy all of those AMAZING cards they have come out with this year. They have tri-folds, books, time-line cards, etc... Just plain awesome!

Some of my favorite websites for cards are Shutterfly, Tiny Prints,Mixbook and storkie just to name a few! I can't wait to pick out our card for this year! I love getting them just as much as I love sending them. There is nothing better than opening the mailbox to find Christmas Cards with all kinds of adorable pictures and designs from people that we LOVE!

Here are our Christmas cards from the past two years! I love looking back and seeing the difference in the kiddos with each year. They are getting too big!

What will this years Christmas Card look like? I can hardly wait!

Day 5, Five Foods!

Ok, ok this is the HARDEST challenge by far. I have always had a love/hate relationship with food!  I am a lover of foods and a hater of what it does to my body! ha! There are days when I just think about what I am going to eat my next meal and I have to STOP :) I am just being honest, right? I have gotten better but I LOVE to cheat and go crazy deciding on all of the bad things I want to put in my mouth! It is terrible! The weekends are the worst, during the week I can usually hold myself together and eat semi-healthy but the weekends take a lot restraint which I usually don't have!

To try and save money the fam and I have all but quit going out to eat! It was one of our favorite hobbies! haha But now that it has been a few months it doesn't seem near as bad and when we do go out to eat I get all huffy when the bill comes and realize how much money it is to feed four people :) So we are taking the money we save on not going out to eat and getting a family membership at the Y! Baby steps, right? I think we will all enjoy being active over going out to eat (or at least most of the time we will! )

So here is the MOST random list of 5 foods ever created! ha!

1. COLD STONE CREAMERY ALL LOVIN NO OVEN (I substitute the fudge for caramel) the cake batter ice cream is TO DIE FOR! My mouth just waters thinking about it!

Cold Stone is A-MAZING!

2. CONDIMENTS!! I will eat anything if I can dip it into something! Some of my fav condiments include: Restaurant Ranch, I mean how good is real, true restaurant ranch? Chick-fil-a Honey Mustard, give me 12 please! Garlic Butter and Marina sauce at pizza places! Arby's and Horsey sauce from of course, Arby's. Tarter sauce, Ketchup, Mustard, Mayo, Miracle Whip, Horseradish, the list goes on... You name it, I would probably love it!

3. I go to the movies just for this stuff.... Movie Theatre Butter Popcorn! I know at least a handful of times the hubs and I have literally gotten sick from eating so much popcorn at the movies, we LOVE it! The more butter the better!!! So BAD for you!

3. CHEESE!!! All kinds, Any Form, Anywhere, Any time on Any thing! I mean it, if there was one food I couldn't eat and cheese was it I would be devastated! I can pretty much say that I would give up anything else before cheese, it makes everything better!

And last but certainly not least, SUSHI! OMG, I could eat this stuff by the pounds! I love it all, mainly the rolls! I even got Tex to like it years ago which for a meat and potatoes kind of guy was amazing! To me fresh sushi is one of the best things in the world!

So now that I just listed my favorite foods I probably need to hit the treadmill :) This whole post is pretty much about over indulgence! ha! Hopefully I can restrain myself thru the holidays, man all of the parties and food get me every time! ha!

Christmas Tour 2011!

MY CHRISTMAS TOUR 2011

I KNOW it is WAY early but when you spend two weekends in the house with a sick family you get bored and I decided to throw caution to the wind and put up my Christmas Decor! There is truly NOTHING better to me than turning out the lights and sitting by the tv or in front of the computer with nothing but Christmas lights on, it totally gives me warm and fuzzies.

So, I probably don't have to mention that I searched Pinterest high and low for ideas that were A. Reasonable in Price B. Reasonable in not being too difficult and C. CUTE and FUN!

I chose to go with Lime Green, Red and a small amount of Gold!

It started out with my table looking something like this....

And this....

One of my very favorite things in my whole Christmas collection is my Waterford Crystal Christmas Collection. My dad started buying us the Waterford Crystal Christmas piece of the year when we were probably 19. I have about 9 or so... and then they stopped making them :( I don't think I appreciated them at 19 quite as much as I do now but to me they are priceless!

Small Christmas centerpiece/decor on our kitchen table. I already had the vase with cranberries to I just added the runners and trees.

Each year since the kids have been born we have put up one "formal" tree and one "kid" tree. My mom stocks up on personalized ornaments for the kids and they go Gaga over them each year! Here is their tree and they LOVE it! It has multi color mardi gras beads, personalized ornaments and a few ornaments that date back to the 80's! Yikes!

So my friend Jenny and I got together this weekend and tackled the Poly Deco Mesh Wreath! We had a great time but laughed because our Pinterest inspiration and our finished product looked a little different. We were still proud and happy with our creations! We definitely decided we couldn't do it for a living!

One of my fav additions this year was my more "formal" dining room table. I use "formal" loosely around this house because let's get real with a 4 and a 2 year old we aren't really all that formal period :) but this is as close as it gets. I got red and white polka dot fabric and lime green and white polka dot fabric and made some no sew table runners.... Then I scored big time and found the same lime green and white polka dot plates for $1 at Hobby Lobby, added chargers I already had and my awesome glitter trees from Trees and Trends and voila, I love it! I also tied bows around all of the chairs which you can't see. I think I need to add napkins and glasses one day....

My picture quality is so poor :( My camera is broken and I HATE it! I have to do the pics by phone for the time being. I have to say this is my all time fav Christmas tree I have ever done! I went Poly Deco Mesh nuts and added a lot of 3D elements to the top and in the tree! It is totally fun, funky and exactly what I was hoping for. I don't know how I did it but I just kept adding and stuffing and finally it worked!

The tree all lit up!!

It was definitely fun decorating this year and to see the kids faces as I was putting up all of the Christmas decor! I also found buddy (the elf on the shelf) while I was unpacking. I am already thinking of ways he will make his debut post Thanksgiving! I hope you enjoyed the Christmas tour, there may be more to come if I get motivated.

Oh, How Pinteresting Wednesdays!

I am doing my first link up over at The Vintage Apple which happens to be one of my new favorite blogs I stumbled upon in this great big bloggy world. Guess what? She LOVES Pinterest just as much as I do and apparently so does everyone else! So she is hosting

Here are some of my recent fav finds on pinterest! The possibilities are endless....

This is to die for... I so want to do this with Ann Mason. What a special gift to give her on her wedding day. Take pictures of your little princess in your wedding dress! Melt my heart!

How adorable, clever and amazing is this? This is a paint chip Chandelier! So cute, this is on my to do list for Annie's room in the NEAR Future!

I think I laughed out loud and peed my pants at the same time! Right up my sense of humour alley...:)

This SCREAMS heaven! Sugar Cookie, Chocolate Chip Cheesecake and Cake Batter Dip all on one platter. I would hate to see what this would look like after I got a hold of it! I haven't made it in fear of  eating it all by myself!~ :)

So as you know I am Poly Deco Mesh CRAZY this year! I LOVE any and everything that shows me how to work with this stuff, this is great bow tutorial!

Ann Mason WILL be wearing this around Christmas! How easy! Ribbon, ric rac and a glue gun! Hobby Lobby here I come!

And Last probably one of the coolest ideas ever. White plate, Martha Stewart paint pen and some tape to keep your words straight. You can write anything around the edges, wedding vows, Christmas songs, Quotes, etc... Cheap, easy and amazing!

Follow Me on Pinterest @ My Pinterest Page to find more AWESOME ideas I would have never come up with by myself! ha!