Have yourself a Merry little Christmas, Let your Hearts be Light!!

Somehow I think singing these Christmas songs will make the world a better place, imagine everyone in the whole world singing in unison oh holy night, or the first noel or silent night and then have yourself a merry little christmas! So this past weekend the dreaded packing began, why do I dislike packing you may ask? Well it is a love hate relationship, I love it because it means we leave in 2 days, but I hate it because I can NEVER fit everything I want, and when flying you have to be so picky about what you take because otherwise you could end up paying the same amount on baggage as on your ticket!! It is absolutely pathetic...so 95% of the packing is done and the suitcases are about to rip they are stuffed so full! Last night we did our little "Christmas" since we will be in Michigan, so callie(3) woke from her nap to discover a small pile of presents underneath a santa hat(because he moves so quick he left it behind ;)...charlotte(1) woke up soon after and they were entertained for the rest of the night with their new things. I must say I am completely impressed with the Melissa and Doug brand of toys, they are wooden which is spectacular and the girls love them! We have been so blessed this Christmas season and it isn't even over yet, you can just feel it in your heart, it really does make it seem that "next year all our troubles will be out of sight".

Oh the Weather outside is Frightful....

I must say as much as I am disliking this extremely cold front that has come to the Sunshine State, it almost makes me get into more of the Christmas spirit. I grew up in Michigan so this is my first December with no snow and weather above freezing! But cold weather makes for a great time for staying inside and enjoying Christmas songs, baking, snuggling up to classic Christmas movie, etc. So today is a wonderful day, my darling little 3 yr old, Callie, and I are going to be doing some Christmas baking(my 1 yr old Charlotte will be the taste tester ;)...think puppy chow(or muddy buddies), sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and whatever else we can find time for!! I really want my daughters to grow up cherishing these times where she loves helping out her mommy baking. It really is the most adorable thing when Callie comes up to me in her little apron and her own little oven mitt and says "the cookies are done!" I am feeling so blessed this CHRISTmas, leave it to a child to remind us of what it's really about. The other day Callie was on the phone with her Grandma and she was asking Callie what she asked santa for this Christmas, she said a bike. Grandma asked anything else? Callie responded, I want a little gift for Trent*(name has been changed, one of her friends) and he can come over and we can share a present. I loved this, because we all could use the reminder that even though it is okay to want things for yourself, it is so much more rewarding to give and share with others!! I saw this amusing quote the other day and thought you might enjoy it...
"When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?" ~G.K. Chesterton

Tis the season to be jolly!!

Tis the season to be jolly!  Today was just a nice and relaxing saturday so I thought it would be fun to catch up on my dvr list.  Somehow this show, the HALO awards show was recorded so I watched it where I learned this devastating fact about human trafficking(child slaves).  Now I have been aware of this discusting "business" for a while, but I guess I never realized how big it really is.  I can't remember the exact number but we're talking this is billions of dollars made every year(think more than Google and Starbucks COMBINED) on these poor children forced into slavery.  It showed pictures of some of the poor children who hardly have any clothes and are being made into child prostitutes and slaves.  This got me thinking....here we are stressing out about things that just look small and petty compared to this when we should be happy and grateful for the things that we do have!  It's amazing how little things can just turn your day and mind set right around!  So this holiday season if you find yourself thinking, I wish I had more money, more this and that...Please think about this and be appreciative you have a nice warm home, food, clothing, family, friends and LOVE because some of these children may never live to experience having any of the above!  Tis the season to be jolly for all the wonderful people/things/etc you have in your life!

Baby it's cold outside!

Okay so I'm addicted to listening to Christmas songs..sue me! So this past week has been freezing for south florida, we had a frost and wind chill advisory for today and tomorrow! Maybe its time we move further south, bahamas anyone?! ;) Well we are officially going(DRIVING) to Michigan for Christmas to be with family/friends and have a wonderful time! I was all excited and wanted to start packing immediately even though we don't leave for another 2 1/2 weeks, but turns out I can't even start packing because we need all our cold weather clothes because it is frigid here! Anyways, I'm sure I have mentioned my love for Christmas and when I thought I couldn't love it anymore I recently discovered something that made me appreciate this time of year even more...Christmas for my daughter Callie equals most importantly Jesus's Birthday but also equals Santa Clause and presents. Let me bring in a Christmas song for this...Santa Claus is coming to town :) haha. So every time Callie decides to act up, there is a new way to end it immediately...You better not pout you better not cry Santa Clause is coming to town! Oh i know your probably thinking how could a mother do this to her daughter, its evil and blackmail and totally against the Christmas spirit...well until you have a little 3 year old who is having little spunk fests on a regular basis then you have no room to judge besides whats a little blackmail when the end result is a happy mother and daughter! :D My daughter Charlotte however is too young for this idea(unfortunately), and lately I wish she could understand because she has turned into the queen of drama, example..I am on the phone with my mom and Charlotte wants to not only talk to her but hold the phone as well, and when I don't let her(because of chewing on the phone and whipping it across the room) she starts this crying screaming fit until I give in and let her have the phone. Immediately she quits crying and says "hi"! happily to my mom :P So here's to hoping for a festive drive up to Michigan(29 hours..anyone want in?) with as little drama as possible, and that goes for me and the hubby too ;)

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Christmas...Absolutely my favorite holiday!! What other holiday can you get thousands of songs just about that holiday? Plus an excuse to totally pig out on the most amazing bakery and food before you have to start making New Year's resolutions, I really wonder if the person who officially started New Year's resolutions was in one of those week-long bloat fests from eating too much on Christmas and was like I'm not going to eat like that for a whole year?! I am on cloud nine right now...my favorite thing to do all year, baking Christmas cookies/other bakery items while listening to Christmas music and then eating that bakery while watching Christmas movies, It's a Wonderful Life anyone?! My daughter loves baking with me so yesterday we made some sugar cookies as a start to my holiday baking, heres the recipe if you feel like trying them....
Sugar Cookies
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract(or almond extract works too!)
Red and Green sprinkles

1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
2.In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls. Combine red and green sprinkles on a plate/bowl and roll cookie dough balls to cover and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3.Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

Sit down with one(or two or five who cares its the holidays?!) with some delicious hot cocoa/coffee and you'll be in the holiday spirit in no time!!

Hearing

Lesson for husbands: Always think what the consequences will be when you are about to say something to your wife that could come back to bite you in the behind!
Example: Today my darling husband comes home from work beaming, why you ask? Well I will most certainly tell you. He is very excited to inform me that they had a hearing test today at work. I then interupt him saying how I knew he listened to everything way to loud and that the test must have proven he was deaf since he claims he never can hear me. And this is where he went wrong...deciding he wanted to prove how it doesn't matter how loud he listens to things he then informs me he has close to PERFECT hearing!! Hahahaha, now that is the evil laugh going through my head as I start to picture how nice it would be now that I KNOW he CAN hear me and if he even thinks of pulling some excuse out of thin air how he was daydreaming so he didn't hear what I said to him when I was sitting right next to him can only lead to him in deep trouble...hahahaha(theres that evil laugh again)and then i start to realize the power that came with these test results..visions of me asking him to take out the garbage and him responding immediately or better yet the next time I come home from shopping and he gives me the stink eye about what all I bought, I can sweetly respond, "but dearly I told you before I left what I needed to buy and since you have close to perfect hearing I knew you heard me and thought it was a fantastic idea to fill the empty spots in my closet!!" All these ideas have me wanting to write a personal thank you to the hearing tester guy!
So to all the husbands out there, in the spur of the moment when you think you might win by pulling out some information, please remember to say it to yourself first to make sure that it won't be used against you for the rest of your life. Now I've given fair warning so if you choose to open your mouth to win an argument, prove your wife wrong, etc do not say you haven't been warned and be prepared to deal with the consequences!!!

3 years!!

Today my daughter Callie turns 3...its hard to believe that it has already been 3 years, but she has grown so much! She is just this beautiful little girl with a whole lot of spunk! It is unbelivable how much information one little girl can store! Example, one day when she didnt want to finish her lunch she threw most of her sandwich in the garbage...i told her that was wasting and i couldve put it in a container in the fridge for when she was hungry later(aka like 20 min later). So today she comes up to me and says I put my food away for later, I tell her to show me, she opens the cupboard where I keep my storage containers and there was what was left of her sandwich in a ziploc. Definetly a pround mommy moment..she actually does listen to me! :) So we are heading out to be with family for the next couple of days, should be fantastic! Small bday party for the girls tonight plus Thanksgiving tomorrow. I predict I will have a swollen belly...but definetly worth it! I have so much to be thankful for..hubbys job, amazing family/friends, and the list goes on for miles! God definetly has blessed us! I hope your thanksgiving's filled with lots of love and good food -Happy Thanksgiving!

Who will I marry?

So it has gotten to the point with my 3 yr old, Callie, that we need to start being more cautious with what she watches so she doesn't get any ideas at her next playdate : P Something was on and there was a couple kissing, so she asks me "Mommy what boy do I kiss", I was like oh no where is this going, so i respond "You dont kiss any boys until your married like mommy and daddy" hoping it would end the conversation. Of course that wouldn't satisfy her curiosity so she proceeded to ask,"Who do I marry?" I stated "I dont know". "Trent?"(a friend of hers, name has been changed) I said no, so she asked again "Who will I marry?" I told her "Some lucky guy", she didn't look to impressed, and reasked the previous question, who will I marry? I repeated the same answer and this time she said "Daddy?" I said mommy is married to daddy. Then to finally get her to stop asking the questions that are way past her age range I had to bribe her with some leftover Halloween candy and let her watch Dora, hoping that this conversation would not be repeated for a very long time.. I then realized I better enjoy the fact that she actually loves talking to her mommy about everything because 10 years or less from now I might be so lucky as to get her to say one word to me and if i am so lucky that one word will probably be delivered via text message.. :(

Charlotte

Today my baby Charlotte turns 1, i guess that means she's not really so much of a baby anymore. :( It's funny how in the moments of her crying all night, cutting new teeth, just being anal in general, etc. I was thinking this is never going to end! But looking back it did really go by faster than I expected. My little 8lb 4oz little mush has turned into this beautiful 1 year old who is walking and talking with her big sister!! So happy birthday my darling Charlotte, I love you through and through yesterday today and tomorrow too! We might do a small cake tonight or I'll make up some cupcakes to celebrate with the hubs family tomorrow or sunday and then we'll do a dual birthday (my other little mischief maker callie turns 3 on wednesday) on wed or thursday with my family :)! Got to love the holiday season, the girls birthdays, thanksgiving, christmas, and my golden birthday is in january, that equals fabulous times with worn out credit cards and a giant dent in our bank account!

Life

So just found out that my brother in law is pretty much going to be joining the Marines. THAT SUCKS. The hubby is not taking it too well, his only brother leaving for who knows how long. But of course he's too "manly" to voice his concerns to his brother, maybe he will in person. Also worried about my almost 3 yr old(her bday is next thursday) she is really attached to her extended family because they all have been so involved since she was born. He's going to be coming up here this weekend to say bye, and I need to prepare myself for the waterworks to erupt not only from my daughter but from my husband and then once everyone else is crying watch out, i see tears and i am sunk, i'll probably be crying worse than all of them! We've known he's wanted to join for a while, but kind of thought it might be a phase he would grow out of, boy were we wrong. I mean I give full props to all the people serving our country, but when it comes to my family I'd prefer them stay as safe as possible. My baby turns 1 on friday so hopefully the excitement will overshadow the sadness in our house this weekend. Wish me luck as I try to talk some sense into this stubborn headed bro in law of mine, I'm going to have to pull out every guilting option possible...how could he leave his nieces, family, friends, then on top of that risk all the mental problems that have been showing up with all of our soldiers. There's going to be some deep praying tonight!

Good intentions or pervy old men?

So I'm grocery shopping with the hubs and my girls, when not once but on two separate occasions older gentlemen(by older i mean 70+) stop and say "can you give me a ride?".  Now I'm sure that they were saying that with the best intentions, but my hubs was like "I sure hope I'm not that pervy when I'm old".  Well we do live in an area of Florida where the majority of the population is over 70, so I guess I need to start preparing myself for the Viagra popping gentlemen of south fl! 

Starbucks!

This weekend, November 18-21st from 2-5pm, at Starbucks they are offering buy one get one free on all of their holiday drinks!!!  Also if you text 12DAYS to 29943 you'll recieve one Starbucks deal per day starting on December 1st!  Im thinking catching up with a good friend, and having amazing coffee sounds fabulous, and the sweet deals are like the whipped cream on top of it all!!!

Kindle

While since our budget right now doesn't have me getting a Kindle anytime soon I was excited to discover that Amazon has this program that you can download that allows you to read Kindle books on your PC! : D  Not only that, they have lists of free Kindle books that they are constantly changing!  So maybe if your lucky you could find an author that you are familiar with, otherwise you could change it up a bit and just pick one that looks interesting!  I'm starting to read "Love on a Dime" by Cara Lynn James, I'll let you know how it turns out.  The best part about e-books is.......my daughters can't get ahold of them and rip the pages!  Check it out if you have the time, definetly worth it!

Here's the link to download the kindle for PC program

me

So this is my first blog,  I guess its a good way to express yourself, or so I'm told.  Here's a bit about me...  I have been happily married for three years this past September to a simply wonderful man aka Brett.  I am also the mom of two beautiful girls who are one and three. This blog is to capture this crazy thing called my life and maybe make someone out there feel like their life isn't so crazy after all!  So here's to living and loving life!