Happy Birthday to me!

Yesterday I celebrated the 3rd anniversary of my 29th birthday (right Tiff?).  December 26th...I mean really who has a birthday on December 26th?  My family have always made it very special so it's really not that bad.  When I was little we would always go to a place called "ShoGun" which was hibachi style fun.  I remember one year that they were closed I think it was a Monday and to our surprise we didn't figure it out til we actually were at the door.  DEFLATED to say the least...I remember I cried like a little brat (Sorry, mom and dad).  When we moved to DFW we always did Mama's pizza but now we are in Maryland (no Mama's)...so hibachi it was.  We had a great time!  We all had so much fun..the kids even ate their food- imagine that?! 
Since we were snowed in yesterday my mom and I are headed out now for our traditional birthday shopping...I mean how bad could it be to have a birthday on the biggest sales day of the year.  I was a born to shop!
Thank you to my family and friends for all the text, calls, facebook messages! 

 

 

Winter Wonderland

For the past 3 days I have been at total awe at God's beauty...I mean seriously what is more gorgeous than this?  and right outside my front door.
 

 

 

What I love about Christmas in Pictures.

 

 

 

 

'Twas the night before..

Snow was falling, worship was on, reindeer food was made..

Joy to the World!

Rollin' 4 deep!

Casey and Sam are at a wedding tonight.. So we are Rollin' 4 deep! 4 times the fun..(I'm sure Corey was thinking that while he cleaned smashed marshmellows out of the carpet earlier).

We went Christmas light looking, we did craft time- lil deers (note: we morphed a picture of Michael and Keekee and this is what we came up with.. Cute right?! No name Baby Coon will be here very, very soon!!), and we made snowmen in the bath tub(note: Annabelle ate the carrots so the didn't have any for their bath time.. Opps!), now they are all sound asleep, Corey is at poker night...
Awww! Silent night!

Kids in a bubble and the great panic!

So Tuesday Corey was very sick. Stomach bug sick, horrible, no fun! This was the first time this week that I needed a bubble to put the kids in! One week before Christmas-there is surely no time for it to hit all of us... Then crap, it hit Annabelle and then yesterday it was me. Boo!

Another moment this week where this bubble would have come handy ....We made Christmas cookies (again). We decorated in them all Christmas-y and it was a good ol messy time! The next morning while packing Jaxson lunch he begged to take a cookie and out of 2 dozen cookies he chose the one that said "Jesus" on it. He even said "I want to take Jesus to school and show my friends" and BAM! I need that bubble again..I need the bubble because I am not sure of the beliefs at school and it scares me that it wouldn't be 'cool' to love Jesus...or like Santa someone might tell him it's untrue. Only one semester of school down for the boy and I know it's out there.. It happens.. Kids are mean and others are bad and then there are some that just don't believe what we believe. OMG, what's a mom todo? For now I just keep on keeping on...teach them what's right and wrong, share my beliefs and morals and hope and pray that they follow suit! One thing about living in the North East is that it is very diverse! Coming from bible beatin' Texas it is not so often you meet someone from another religion. Being my second Christmas here I am finding it even more so that Christ is not part of the season like he should be. Very few people in the school system or in the business world will reply back with a Merry Christmas...it is so weird! I mean hello!? Jesus is the reason for the season...what is everyone hustling and busting around for if they are not celebrating Christmas?! Anyway, I preaching to the choir here because I think all 3 of you who read my blog are Christian... Just venting!

Let's talk about panic for a minute... This year 90% of my shopping was done the weekend of thanksgiving. Yay me! So really I got to sit back and relax the rest of the time.. In my case I had some time to get sick. Even though I was done this week I still had the panic a few days before. the kinda panic where your in a store and you just start picking crap up because your not sure why but you might need it?! Ugh- yeah that was me today.. Can you say annoying?!

Lastly, there are a couple more days to "light someone up" (good deeds that is-see previous post). We have done some and it's fun, it feels good and it a great teaching tool for the kids. Big or small just do it!

2 days until Christmas! Only 2 nights left to hide Elfis, super sad about this! We really enjoy have that little brat around!

Ready for school mom.

Annabelle dressed herself...so thankful for my funny kids!

Happy Monday, y'all!

Dear Santa,

Annabelle and I stopped in at the mall today. Macy's participates in letters to Santa..each letter written Macy's donates a $1 to the Make A Wish foundation.
If your by the mall soon, which if I had to guess you will be-stop by Macy's and let your kids write a letter.

Patty cake, patty cake...

Getting in the Christmas spirit 'round here! Gingerbread houses and cookie decorating contest while we waited for the fat guy in the red suit to arrive on the fire truck!

Favorite Things...

I love to entertain.  Last night I hosted my 2nd Annual Favorite Things party.  Such a fun party.  The idea of course came from Pinterest.  Each guest brings 5 gifts- same item, unwrapped and between $4-8.  Each guest explains there gift and then draws 5 names out of the bowl to receive their favorite thing.  Everyone leaves with 5 different things.  We had some very creative things this year- makeup, slippers, drinks, bird feeders, aprons, scarves, nail stuff.

We ate our favorite things- buffalo dip, meatballs, brie w/fig, hummus w/ veggies, caprese salad, chocolate covered strawberries, snowball cookies and Christmas crack...chased down with Poinsettia drinks (shout out to Lauren for making half of this stuff).

A picture of some of my favorite peeps.

Is Santa Real?

Sadly, Jaxson is 6 years old and this year he did tell me that the "mall Santa's" are not real...I immediately started panicking ..Oh gosh, is he going to ask more?  I felt horrible, like I had just lied to my parents or something...or wait..they lied to me!?  This Santa thing is tricky.  Gratefully, the conversation past and I think he watch Elf or Polar Express one too many times which in both refer to "mall Santa's" not being real.

Okay, so he's a smart guy and he realizes that Santa can not be in that many places at once BUT he still firmly believes that Santa is at the North Pole preparing gifts for the one big night...because of course to a mature brain is not hard to believe at all -right?!  In the mean time we have "Elfis" who watches us each day and the kids anxiously run down stairs each morning to see what mischievousness actions he has done.  It's only a matter of time until I am faced with this hard issue.  I found this letter and I just love it...it is simple but it gets the perfect point across .I'll be using it!

Furthermore, Ms. Clause is done shopping for them and I am terrified to take them to see Santa this year in fear that they will ask for something they are not getting..Aye yai yai!  Last year I ended up buying a freakin' $50 shark ship last minute that he played with for like a day...not doing that again!

Let's Light Up Others With Kindness!

I would be interested to know how many of my sentences begin with "I saw this idea on Pinterest..." If you didn't noticed I am madly in love with this site...(and no, I still love you more Corey)!  

I found an idea today...it's on my "Super Like" board.  We are so doing it in this family and I encourage you to do it as well.  Check it out... Light 'em Up and then check back here for pictures on our progress   Not sure if we will get to 1 or 100 but even if doing just one make someone smile, I am in.  

Let your light shine, y'all!

Priceless.

Celebrating Baby Coon

Michael and KeeKee are quickly approaching dooms day... Opps I mean delivery day. I joke. This weekend we also celebrated Baby Coon..due in just 5 short weeks! Kristin is quite the trouper.. Went out with all of us Saturday night preggers but as cute as can be. I kid you not-she's adorable! She hung with us crazy kids and then had a big shower on Sunday.. I can.not.wait! To get my hand on that baby!!!
They are going to be great parents..just you wait and see.
Annabelle was so excited that she was included in "the girl party"..girls rule boys drool! I wish I has got more pics.. Here is a couple...

Friends Forever.

This past weekend we had a visit from some dear friends-Jacob and Adrienne, from Texas. We had the best time..sad that it went so fast.
On Saturday, my parents took all their grand kids so we could have an adult night just like old times...we headed out for drinks, dinner and ice skating. Freakin' fun! We were just as good as ever (wink,wink) and no one broke a bone or went to jail...
Annabelle just loved Adrienne maybe because she resembles a Barbie.. Each day Adrienne would spray her with her perfume and she thought she was the coolest thing. At some point she talked her into leaving it here because this afternoon she decided should would spray the whole house with this lovely scent. Thank goodness it smells good.
Jacob and Adrienne-thanks for coming. We had a great time just like always.

In awe.

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas around here! I love it! All the kids were very curious to see what Mr. Corey had up his sleeve.

Corey- I adore you. I am so very thankful for an awesome guy like you! You rock my face off!

The brat is back..

Our Elf on the Shelf -"Elfis" is back and more destructive then ever! It's a joyous time of year when we can bribe the kids with Elfis.. Because of course he reports back to Santa each night.

Hot date.

Jaxson had a play date with his main squeeze during the break. He now wants to be a gymnast... No joke. While Sydney is adorable he caught a glance of these guys that were practicing like flips/breakdancing and he was hook line and sinker...

Gobble, Gobble!

We had a great thanksgiving this year! We hosted for the second time...I still escaped preparing the bird. Can't stand raw meat and especially of that magnitude... One thing easy for me to delegate! The food was delicious, I ate too much and the scale showed it. Boo the 30's... Gone are the days I eat what I want and don't gain.
Here's a picture of my favorite turkeys!

Kickin' It, Turkey Style

For years we ran the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning but last year we started a new tradition...Kickball baby!  It allows more fellowship and fun.  Truely thankful for each of these faces.
faces!   

Keep running!

At the beginning of this year I started running... I have always hated running and never ever been good at it. I still am not good at it... But I like it! I haven't ran much lately... About once a week the last 2 weeks and I feel so blah! Its cold here! My ears are really sensitive so they hurt in any degrees under 65. My chest hurts when cold air hits it. I leave in a sweatshirt and strip while running then I gotta go pick all that shit back up. It gets dark earlier and I'm scared to run in my pitch dark neighborhood. I can't wake up earlier than I do.. Because I just can't. Sooo all these excuses I am realizing are just shits and hand grenades ... (or something like that right Corey?)

Corey and I talked briefly the other day about the first time I set out for a run... We had been stuck inside for a couple days last winter, I had already eaten us out of house and home when I had an urge to run. I got all bundled up and out I went. Snow on the ground, ice in many spots.. It was freezing. I ran and I almost died... I ran a whole half a mile, I then came back inside and seriously thought I was going to die! I couldn't catch my breath my chest was killing me.. I laid on the couch and vouched to never do that again! Until beautiful Spring came and I found a running buddy and we could gab for over 3 miles running and talking not stopping once! Now that's success!
All this to say I have felt like crap lately and I am sure part of it is that I am not running... So today I will dig out my ear muffs and suck up the rest of the excuses and JUST DO IT!

Thanksgiving-Round 1

Thankful for food, family and friends! Nothing like your momma's food.

"Schooler"

School pride!

Nerd Alert!

So I play this little game, just me myself and I. It's the sock challenge.. I go to bed at night with ankle socks on.. In the morning if they are both still on my feet .. I win. It's the simple things in life. I told Jaxson about my little game a few weeks ago. Fast forward to this morning he randomly asks me if I won my "sock competition".. Confused I asked him what he was talking about.. He says, "you know the game you play at night." BaaHaa! See someone appreciates my game.
Man, I love my kids. I'm mean just look how sweet they are when they sleep..