Love Me Some Michael!

Happy Valentines Month, ya'll!

I don't know about you, but I LOVE Michael Kors' watches!!

I purchased my first MK Watch about 3 years ago, and to this day, I adore it.

Well, in honor of Valentine's Day and my incredible love for all of you,

I'm giving away the Michael Kors Watch of your choice from above!

I've teamed up with Shanna & Kaitlyn and all the other ladies below to bring you this amazing giveaway.

They all voted, and these were their top 6 choices.

1// Kaitlyn 2// Shanna 3// Emily 4// Stephanie 5// Robin 6// Kalyn

7// Samantha 8// Lisette 9// Kristyn 10// Jami 11// Courtney 12// Ashley

13// Erin 14// Hallie 15// Jessica 16// Kim 17// Michele 18// Rebekah

Happy Valentine's Day to you my dear, sweet friends!!!

To enter, please use the Rafflecopter below!

This contest is open to US Residents only.

The giveaway will run from February 7 - February 13, 11:59pm EST.

Winner will be announced on Valentine's Day.

***All entries WILL be verified to make sure the winner has completed what she said she did (:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Christmas Movie

Instead of writing a post about our day yesterday, I thought I'd share it in video form.

Plus I added the beautiful "Christmas Lights" by Coldplay to cover up my annoying voice for your viewing pleasure!  Enjoy!

**Please note this is my first movie... I promise to only get better from here.**

True Meaning

It is snowing outside, my child is asleep, and my husband has banned me to the upstairs so he can finish some last minute wrapping.
I felt this was the perfect time to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas.

I used to have a hard time with this holiday.  Instead of joy, it brought a lot of pain.  If you are in that situation today, my prayers are with you.  To get through those times I tried to focus on the TRUE meaning of Christmas.  We are blessed and loved by such an amazing Father who gave us the greatest Christmas gift... His Son!

My prayer is you find comfort in that today.

Enjoy your holiday!

Best Gingerbread Recipe You'll Ever Find

Every year for as long as I can remember I have made gingerbread men.  I love these cute little guys!
And they make great gifts for friends and neighbors.

After years of perfecting this recipe to make a soft gingerbread men, as opposed to a crunchy bitter ones, I thought I'd share it with you!

So let's start my whisking together your dry ingredients.  Flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves all go into a bowl and you whisk it away.

Then in a kitchen aid (or use an electric mixer) mix together the butter and brown sugar until it's fluffy looking like this.

Before we move on let's talk about molasses. 

That thick kind of nasty looking stuff.

Yeah that... well there are many types of molasses, light, dark, blackstrap.

Don't get blackstrap and don't get light.

Dark is the proper choice for this recipe.

Now that we are clear on that, add the molasses, water and egg and mix it up. 

It kind of looks a little nasty, huh?

But you will soon learn the dough of this stuff ain't pretty.

Now all at once dump the flour mixture into the gross looking mixture and beat until it's combined.

Scrape the sides of the bowl as necessary.

And don't turn your mixture on to high because you might end up in a flour shower.... don't ask me how I know that.

Now keep mixing into the dough starts to form a sticky ball and then divide it into 3 different balls and wrap in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours or for up to 2 days.

(we'll keep this picture small because it's looks kind of nasty... but it tastes good.  Promise)

Now comes the fun part.

Roll it out and start cutting with cookie cutters.

Make sure to use plenty of flour.  This dough has a tendency to stick.

Then call gangster daughter who likes to wear her hat side ways and let her help cut.

Cook these little guys in a 350 degree oven for 8 minutes.  

Pull them add and immediately add chocolate chips and then pull them off the baking sheet.

You don't want them to get crunchy so pull them off that hot sheet ASAP.

Continue this process until you have used up all of your dough.

Check out your cute little army!!!  :)

Now this trick my mom taught me and it is absolutely necessary for this army.

Once cooled, put your men in a big ol tupperware and layer it with wax paper and then.....

add 2 pieces of bread to the top.

Weird right?

But it works.

The cookies take the moisture of the bread and leaves the poor bread all cracker like, while the army ends up all soft and delicious.

Well there you go!

Hope you enjoy!!!!

Christmas at our House

Can you believe it's almost Christmas?

I love this holiday.

This year having a 2 year old made it so much more special.

She actually got it this year.

So I thought I'd give you a quick tour of how our house has gotten all "Christmasy" this year.

Let's start with our good ol Christmas tree.

No it's not real... its fake.  I've found that the dogs have less of a tendency to hike a leg on a tree if it's fake.



Next comes this favorite character of mine... he holds yummy Christmas treats for all to eat.



These little guys were a gift from my mom last year.
Aren't they adorable?
Little Miss likes to pretend they are "horseys" and ride them around the house.



Then it's just little touches of Christmas throughout the house.


Greenery and red berries... a Christmas must if you ask me.



Now this fun calendar, I had growing up.
A couple of years ago, I found it at my mom's house and begged her to let me keep it.
So now Little Miss loves it just as much as I do.



Every day you move the bear closer to finding Christmas.

And then my mom hit a home run in grandma world.
She got Little Miss her own tree for her room.
I'm telling you, she hugs this tree good night every night.

While we were in the Christmas spirit, I decided to Mother-Daughter ornament making was necessary.

More on how we did this soon.

Super fun but super messy!

Well folks, it's a week and before Christmas.  I hope everyone is enjoying the season and not getting to caught up in the hustle and bustle.

Happy Holidays!!

Tis the Season for Giving

At a very early age, most kids learn that if they are good all year long, Santa Claus will reward them with gifts under a tree.  
However, if they are bad, they will get coal in their stocking.
My mom always told us, if we were bad, we'd get pink underwear for Christmas.
This was disappointing to me and my sister, but an outright catastrophe for my little brothers.

Let me first say there is nothing wrong with Christmas, getting presents, giving presents.  I participate in all of this and enjoy the Christmas season.  This post is more meant as a challenge to think just a little differently about the holidays.

I know that I tend to fall into the stressed out mentality of what am I getting everyone for Christmas.
My thoughts very quickly can turn into .....  "What if what I get them isn't enough?"  "What if they get me something that is more expensive?"  "What happens if I can't afford to buy others a certain present?"  You get the picture.  It's all about "Getting"

Instead of focusing on what we are getting for ourselves or getting for our loved ones?  What if we focus on GIVING?



I asked a few people what their definition of giving was and here is what I heard.

"Sharing what you have freely"

"The act of doing something for another without selfish motivation or personal gain"

"Giving is showing compassion for others"

There are so many definitions of the word "giving" but no where in there is a dollar amount mentioned.  I don't see anything about stress, nothing about matching another gift someone has given us.  It is all self-less and has NOTHING to do with us.

This year I want to make sure my motives are in check.  I want us to ask ourselves, "Why are we giving?"  Are we giving what we have or are we getting things for others that we cannot afford?

Also I challenge us to think outside our normal group of people we give to and think of others that have nothing.  Check out this amazing CATALOG.  What if instead of getting presents for each other we all get together and give?  I just wonder what Christmas would look like.

As we go through December, focus on how you can give back this month.  Last month we focused on what we were thankful for, now let's focus on giving to others because of how blessed we are!

Here are a few ideas to encourage giving this holiday season.

  

Shop here for your gifts to others and let your friends and family benefit from the gift of giving.

Focus on doing a random act of kindness for someone every day. 

Donate food to a local food bank. 

Adopt an under priveledged family that can't afford any presents this year.

Get creative!

Let's all make an effort to focus on the giving and enjoy this holiday season.

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving tomorrow!

Enjoy your families, friends and loved ones.

What a great day to remember how many good things are in our lives! 

Can't wait to hear what everyone did for their Turkey Day.

I already know that mine will be filled with lots of firsts.

Halloween Fun

I haven't written much lately.  An explanation for this will be tomorrow's post.

But for now I thought I had to get caught up on the Halloween festivities around here.

And reveal my costume project that turned out pretty cute, if I don't say so myself.

It started off as a disaster but after some minor adjustments, it was a pretty big hit!

So please allow me to introduce to you......

BOO MONSTER!!!

Yes, she is the little girl from Monsters Inc.

               

Editors Note: I even found myself making a DIY tutorial on how to make this costume, but my phone decided to take a swim in the pool and well there went all the pictures.  I guess it wasn't mean to be.

Little Miss had quite the day.

Started off with a Halloween Party and Parade at school

  

Then we finished that night at the Harvest Party at church.

Where we even met Mike Wazowski.

The only time she'd put her hood up all night is when she took a picture with her church friend, Mike.

             

             

We finished the night off right with some Caramel Apples and some bounce house action.

Unfortunately, hubby had to work all night so he missed out on most of the festivities but Little Miss made sure to take EXTRA candy home for Daddy.

I love seeing everyone else's Halloween costumes. It's already inspiring me for next year.

Hope everyone had a great night and the kids have slowly detoxed off of all of the sugar!

I've Officially Lost It

All right folks, hold me back!
I'm going to do something insane!
And not just slightly crazy, this is ridiculous.

This wonderful idea of mine could go one of two ways.
1-  It is the cutest, most adorable thing that you'll ever see
2-  The world's biggest disaster and you will get to mock my creation

So what am I doing, you might ask?

Well.....  I'm attempting to make Blake's Halloween costume.

Now you get it.  Anyone that knows me fairly well, knows that my desire to be crafty is actually greater than my actual crafting abilities.  But I still keep plugging away.  I'd like to think one day I'd get better at it, but if not, at least I can make people laugh!  :)

I can't share with you quite yet what I'm making but here are a couple of the materials I need to start my crafting adventure.

Now give me a couple of weeks and I'll let you know how this project goes.

In the mean time... here are some pictures of Little Miss's previous Halloween costumes.

At least I have a cute kid, so she could probably make my crafting disaster look good!  :)

 Our Little Ladybug at 6 weeks old.

My Pumpkin at the Halloween Party at work.

Hope you enjoyed this now I'm off to mess up make Little Miss's costume.

And the Basket Chirped

I hope everyone had a fabulous Easter.

I know we sure did and now it's that highly anticipated time where I bombard you with cute pics of the kid.... I know you just can't wait.

And then maybe I'll just tell you about my Easter disappointment.

Well, Little Miss had her first cake baking tutorial with Mom.

It was more like she kept trying to lick the cinnamon and sugar, but it was fun.

Her status was instantly bumped up when she got to sit on the counter and watch me bake.

Then I let her lick the crumbs out of the pan after we were finished.

This is what happened, she grabbed the cake pan, wanting more.....  how can you resist that face?

We attempted a self-portrait which ended up in a candid moment because Little Miss thinks she's quite hilarious, and well, I can't lie, I do to.

After church, we took our pictures.

Most people do them before, but not us.

We were running late... shocking, I know

So after church worked perfectly.

It doesn't happen very often that we get a picture together since I'm usually the one behind the camera, but I made Caleb take a picture of us.

I was squinting so you can't see my eyes... oh well, I'll take what I can get.

And then we headed off to our friends house for a wonderful Easter lunch and an Easter egg hunt.

It was GREAT.

She was off... holding the basket and after a brief information session from Dad on how to put eggs in our basket, she was a pro! Such a professional in fact, that on her first egg hunt of her life, she collected a cash prize egg... That's my girl!

Now I didn't buy this basket for Blake.

My mom did, so I was not familiar with the ends and outs of this.

But throughout the easter egg hunt, I kept hearing chirping.

So much so, I thought, someone had actually brought in baby chicks for the kids for Easter.

It wouldn't stop... and Little Miss heard it also.

I just knew that someone was going to whip out baby chicks and I was going to have so much fun with the little cuties.

I waited and waited but no chicks came out.

So Little Miss and I patiently waited and opened her easter eggs.

And as I was digging through her basket, my hopes were shot.

I discovered a small little sound box that was chirping.

No cute baby chicks, just a dang chirping Easter basket.

Aww man, maybe next year.