Sunday, December 23, 2012

Where has this month gone!?

I am feeling pretty bad that I haven't blogged in almost 3 weeks! Geeze! I didn't even realize how fast these weeks were flying by and every time I sat down at the computer I got distracted with something else and thought "I'll get to this tomorrow". Yea right

Anyway.. It has been a crazy/fun month so far and I am beyond excited for Christmas!!! As I said a few weeks back I knew even though I got a great start on shopping I would still end up last minute finishing and I was not wrong! I still have about 3 more presents left to buy but all are for family or friends in FL and we're not leaving until after Christmas so I have decided at this point I will wait until Wednesday to finish up! Maybe I'll catch a sale?

We had our Marine Corps ball on the 15th. It was in Myrtle Beach so my Mom came to stay with Bailey and it was the first time I left her overnight! I expected to cry but I didn't! I think I was ready for a little getaway even if it was only one night! We had a beautiful room on the beach and really enjoyed our time away! We were kicking ourselves for changing our reservations last minute from two nights to one! 

I forgot my camera which NEVER happens so we only have Iphone pics from the night


My Mom stayed a whole week so we had lots of fun hanging out with her! We put our Christmas aprons to good use and baked some cookies one night! 
 

This was the first time I let Bailey help this much and she had SO much fun! We laughed so hard at her :)
 

That sweet face melts my heart <3 
 
 
This is when she decided to add some extra ingredients! haha! Good thing the cap was still sealed or we would have been eating detangler cookies! 
 
We also went to see Santa and went on a hay ride through Christmas lights while Mom was here! I will share pics of those experiences later! 
 
Hope you all have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! 
 
 





   

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Mail is so much fun!


Looks fun right?! 
 
Bailey got a box from my Mom and Dad (Nana and Pa Pa) today and she could not have been more excited! It was ah-dor-a-ble watching her dig through the box! She would say "Party" every time she threw a bag or tissue paper!


Elmo got left at Nana and Pa Pa's when we were down there last time so he jumped in the box! She was like "Hey where have you been?" lol 
 
She got a ton of Christmas outfits and Pj's and a Christmas apron hand made by Nana! 
 


How cute is she in her little apron?! I love it! Ready for some Christmas baking! 
 
Mom made a matching one for me too! 
 

Maybe I'll share a pic of us in them together later! 
 
I am even more excited now for Christmas morning after watching her open this box! She's going to have so much fun!! 
 
 

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Happy December!

Although it's after midnight I'm going to pretend it's still December 1st! 

I had a fabulous day to kick off this holiday month which included some Christmas shopping ALL.BY.MYSELF.! 

I can proudly say I am pretty much done with Bailey's gifts! Crazy right? 

I'm the one who finished shopping for her last year on Christmas Eve when there were just a few random people running through Toys R Us as they were closing! 

Don't get me wrong, chances are good I will still be a last minute shopper this year but I am very excited to have gotten such a great start! 

I almost hate shopping early though because I am way too excited for her to open everything it's going to be hard for me to wait! 

I will wait though! 

I can't believe how fast this past week flew by! We are finally well in our house and things are starting to get back to normal

I have been playing with the new camera and I'm starting to understand more about it but still have SO much to learn! 


This is one of my favorite ornaments I made a few years back and it was a fun little model for me to take pictures of while playing with settings! 
This year I am having trouble decorating. I threw out a lot of old decorations last year that I was so tired of and thought I would buy new this year but with being sick and having lots of other things to do I just haven't gotten to it yet so I am left with a half decorated mantel and random decorations around the house! 
I have a lot of DIY Christmas decor projects I want to tackle also just have to find the time!! 
In other news... Patrick's recruiting package was approved so we will be moving somewhere within the next 6-12 months or less. More on that later. 
Lots of emotions for me with all of this. 
  

   
 

Sunday, November 25, 2012

New Tradition!

This year we welcomed Elfie into our home and family! 


This is a tradition I am so excited to start! I watched friends do it last year and couldn't wait to start it for Bailey! She is still a little young and doesn't have a full grasp about what's going on but she likes little Elfie and I was excited to see her looking for him this morning on the tree which is where he was yesterday morning!

This morning I had to lift her up to find him.... 
  
He was enjoying a nice dip in a bowl of giant marshmellows! 

Cute little guy, isn't he? 

For those of you who aren't familiar with this tradition, it's called Elf On The Shelf. A little Elf that you adopt. He (or she) was sent by Santa to watch over your little ones the month leading up to Christmas. The Elf flies back to the North Pole every night (using magical powers of course) to report back to Santa. When he returns the next morning he gets into some kind of mischief!
Sounds fun right?! I thought so! 
The fun part for the Mommies and Daddies is coming up with the "mischief"! I think our Elf, Elfie will save some of his really good mischief for later when Bailey is a little older! ;-)



Saturday, November 24, 2012

Sick, sick, sick! Thanksgiving and Black Friday!

I have been sick for 4 days now and am absolutely miserable! :-(
Sinus infection, and possible bronchitis. I ended up at the ER on Thanksgiving and they said they don't really treat either so they sent me home with cough drops. I was not happy. I went to Urgent care the next day and was told I am not sick enough yet to be treated so to come back in a week! Ugh! Really? Why can't you help me now!?! Again, not happy! This Dr. did prescribe a good cough suppressant and tell me to take mucinex. 

I am only getting worse so I guess I will be seeing the Urgent Care Doc again in a week. Grrrr! 

Even though I am feeling like I am I still did my best to enjoy Thanksgiving! I spent all of Wednesday afternoon baking! Pumpkin bread, chocolate cake, cheesecake, rice krispie treats, and potato salad! 

All morning Thursday I did my best not to sit down because I knew that would be it! I cooked and cleaned all morning. We ate turkey around 3:30 then I finally sat down and that's when it all caught up and we headed out to urgent care which turned into the ER since they weren't open! 

This is our Thanksgiving photo... 
Not too bad considering how I actually felt! 

My friend and I headed out to catch a few Black Friday deals around 10 Thurs night! Probably a bad idea since I was already super sick! We got back around 12:30 I think and I went straight to bed!! 

The next morning I was paying for it. I was seriously miserable ALL day yesterday :-(  I did a lot of sitting around and napping! Patrick was great doing stuff with Bailey all day! 

Patrick was excited to get out a little so we did all head out for a bit. We bought my Christmas present!! 

A DSLR CAMERA!!! Wooo hooo!!! You will be seeing some wayy better pics from me soon as I learn how to use it! I will share this journey with you all! 

After another nap yesterday evening we went out and picked out our Christmas tree! I got through it much better than I thought! It is beautiful! We plan to decorate it Sunday when Patrick is home! He is on duty today. Blah! 


  I love this picture! Even though it's blurry, it captures the excitement and fun she was having running all around looking at the trees!


Well, that's what's been going on around here! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Christmas is coming!

I am getting very excited for Christmas decorating, shopping, baking, music and crafts!! 

As soon as the Turkey has been eaten, it's ON!!

I have been noticing all of the felt ornaments lately on Pinterest and on some other blogs I follow! I love it! I have been making felt ornaments for YEARS and it's fun to see that they are so popular now! I considered selling them years ago but just never got around to it but I may add some to my ETSY soon, we'll see! 

I thought I would share a few of my favorites I made a while back. {when I say a while back I mean a lot of years ago, haha I was in my teens!} 





So fun! I have a few projects ahead of these but I'm excited to make some more this year to add to my collection! 

What fun Christmas crafts are you making this year?

Friday, November 16, 2012

Busy Bee!

I've been such a busy bee lately I have completely forgotten to blog! ..Fail! 

I do have some cute new things to show though! These are all up on my ETSY!

The snowmen and Santa owl are garden flags made from burlap and hand painted! The necklace, earrings set in the bottom corner are rosettes and really cute on! The picture doesn't do them justice! 

Patrick was in the field for 3 days this past week so I turned my kitchen and dining area into a craft work zone! I made a huge mess but had fun doing it! 

I started some other projects also that I haven't finished and as always made a couple things that didn't make the cut! haha! 

That's it for today! I will try to get back to blogging everyday again! 

Happy Friday!! Have a great weekend! 

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

How to decorate your home for fall for under $20.00!

The answer my friends is...

CLEARANCE SALES!! 

Yes, I hit the clearance sale at Michael's this week and got everything for 75%-80% off!

I don't know about you but for me once I take down my Halloween decor there isn't much just fall stuff left until it's time to put up Christmas so this year I wanted to work on my fall decor so I thought I would run to all my favorite places to find a few things, Ross, Kirklands, Pier 1, Kohls, etc.. 

At Kirklands I ended up buying Christmas decor (that I love!) but that didn't help in the fall decor department, at Ross I got a cute dish for $3.99 that matches a cake stand I bought earlier this year! 


Isn't is cute? I love that I can change the ribbon to go with anything! 
The pumpkins were included in the clearance sale items I got from Michael's!! 

I headed to Pier 1 next and although I found lots of stuff I wanted, nothing really fit the price range I was trying to stay in so Michael's was my next stop and..

JACKPOT!!

I got everything pictured below for $18.00!! 



I grabbed a couple handfuls of the silk leaf stems, eucalyptus, and some other pretty stems to mix together. They were about $.70 a piece (approximately), A net bag full of pumpkins, and pears (around $2.00), the silk leaf garland ($3.ish), an individual pumpkin (dirt cheap), and the super cute straw girl (only $3 something!) 

I used some vases and burlap I already had around the house to pull it together! 
  
It really makes my house so warm and fall-ish, I LOVE it! 


 I'm really not sure why the quality of this photo looks so bad :-/ I'm sorry about that! 
A nice camera is on my Christmas list!! These are all Iphone photos now. 

I light my sweet cinnamon pumpkin candle from Bath and Body Works and voila! Fall! 



Even though my clearance method won't help you before the whole fall season begins, it will definitely help now and save some $$ for next year! 

Can you believe it's almost Thanksgiving?? 

I need to come up with a couple Thanksgiving projects! Hmmm...




     

 

 

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Goodbye Halloween Decor

We got back from FL early this morning (around 2:30am but with the time change it was 1:30.)

 My sleepy baby girl and crazy eyed puppy watching Dora during the last hour of the trip
 
 We got ourselves in bed pretty quick after unloading the car. Today was supposed to be a lazy, watch football all day kind of day but I can never do that when we get back from being gone for any length of time so I was a busy bee taking down all of the Halloween decor around the house.

The house seems so bare now. I always hate taking down holiday decor!

 Tomorrow I will be putting my fall/Thanksgiving up though {hopefully!} so it won't be bare for long! Might not get it all done tomorrow, I have a long list of to do's after being gone!

One exciting thing about today was picking up my mail from my neighbor and getting my necklace I have been waiting for! 


Please excuse how exhausted I look! The necklace looks great though! :) 

I must get some sleep now so I can get life back to normal tomorrow! 

Maybe soon I will get my new blog up and running! I am super excited about it just haven't gotten to do it yet. 

It will happen soon though and then hopefully I can get more organized with my blogging as I learn more about this world that still confuses me! 


Thursday, November 1, 2012

Happy November!

Wow! 

I can't believe it's November already! It has been a whole year since we closed on our new house! We had NO idea then we would already be thinking about selling it now. Still sad about that and still no final decisions have been made.

This was last year on Halloween when we did our walk through


Ok, I got completely sidetracked looking at pics... I'm back now though! 

Look at the difference in Bailey in just one year!
 

Amazing how fast they grow isn't it? 

She is talking SO much now. We've been in FL a little over a week and it's crazy how much more she is saying in just the week! She is talking like a 2 year old already! 

Ahhhh!! Where'd my baby go??!

This was tonight at dinner


She looks like such a big girl!

 My Mom and Dad eat at Tijuana Flats almost every Thursday so when we're in town we join them! It's yummy and Bailey always has fun there!

Ohhhh....!!!!

I almost forgot... 


I went on a shopping spree on Tuesday! I NEVER shop for myself and seriously hate it usually but something got into me and I went crazy! I am so excited to have new clothes!! I actually love fashion but just hate the shopping part and the trying on part! If I had personal shopper I would look adorable all the time! Ha! 

Who doesn't want that right!?

Tomorrow I am going shopping for a gown for the Marine Corps Ball so wish me luck!

 




Monday, October 29, 2012

On Vacation!

We're in Florida visiting our family! 

We drove for the first time with Bailey in almost a year. {I usually fly with her.} She did AMAZING on the ride!! I was so nervous about it since the last and only other time we've made this drive with her did not go well. We borrowed a DVD player from some friends for the ride and chose to drive overnight hoping she would sleep most of the trip. 

The DVD player- the BEST thing EVER! 

Sleeping most of the trip- Not so much. 

We left about 9pm and she watched Dora for the first two hours until I decided to turn it off so she could sleep. It took her a little while but she fell asleep and slept about 3 hours then woke up. She asked for more Dora so we turned it back on about 3am. She was wide awake and having so much fun in her own little movie theater! I decided again around 5:30am to turn it back off and she whined a little this time but then she fell back asleep until we pulled into my parents driveway at 8am! 

We only stopped 3 times the whole drive, the first time we all got out. Patrick walked Hershey a little and I changed Bailey's diaper. The last two times just Patrick and I took turns running into the bathroom and pumped gas but that was it.

The drive overall went much smoother than I ever thought it would!! The worst part was that Patrick and I were both up well over 24 hours by the time we got here so not only were we tired during the trip, we were also very tired and had to sleep the first half of the first day we were here. 

On the drive back we plan to leave mid-afternoon and see how that goes!

Our first few days have been busy busy as usual but we are having a blast! Bailey has been spoiled by both sets of grandparents already! 


Miss Thing above in her new cowgirl boots from Nana and "Pa Pa" {She re-named "Grandpa" this trip, he is now "Pa Pa"} She was prancing all over the house the first day loving the boots!! 

One of my favorite parts of being home is all the beautiful scenery around FL and the gorgeous sunsets! 

~~ This photo above has not been edited at all! It's just THAT beautiful ;-)~~

It has actually been cool enough {cold actually} for Bailey to get to wear her Halloween outfits! I thought we would get all the way through this October and not get to wear this adorable outfit! Glad I was wrong!  


 These two love to walk! They were on their way our with Nana! 

LOTS of more trip pics and stories to share later!

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

I HATE flies!!!

I just went on a fly killing spree around my house, got 3 and thought I was done and now I sat down there are 2 more! Ugh!!! 

When we first moved in our house there were no lie, at least 30 {we counted!}. We got the fly traps and my Mom {who was here to help with Bailey while we moved} went crazy with the fly swatter but it seriously took dayyyyysss to get them all. My Dad says they are attracted to the dry wall in new houses which makes sense I guess since they were all just sitting {I guess flies don't sit but you get what I mean!} on the ceiling.

I have seen a couple tricks on Pinterest about how to keep them away but none have worked for us. 

Anyone have ideas?? 

We don't keep our doors open they just sneak in when we let Hershey in and out. Grrr!! 

Ok enough about flies! 

I have decided for now {I think} that I am going to stop stressing out about the new blog and just wait until I get back from FL to figure it out. Maybe. I'll probably keep stressing and trying while we're gone but I'm going to try not to! 

In other news.. I just checked the mail and no necklace :( I'm hoping it was the mail from yesterday but I'm pretty sure today's mail just came early. Super bummed! Now I have to wait 10 days!

If you haven't noticed, I am not a very patient person. Something I am always working on. 

Back to packing! 


So far Bailey's clothes are packed but that's it!
 





Tuesday, October 23, 2012

At a loss..the blog world confuses me!

I am definitely at a loss about what to write tonight. I have a few topics in mind but at the moment my mind is completely consumed with.. well.. blogging! 

Ironic I know. 

I bought my own domain last night and I am trying to get my new blog up and running. {I will be transferring these posts over if I ever get it up.} but, I am completely confused. :( I have been at this for hours. I'm reading everything I can but still not able to figure out how to customize it? I guess I have to pay to upgrade. From what I've read and heard so far I have been under the impression that I can customize it however I want but so far that doesn't seem to be the case!

I want it customized!! 

How frustrating! 

Any tips?? Help please!

I REALLY need to be in bed right now or at least packing or doing anything productive towards leaving tomorrow! We leave in less than 24 hours for FL and I have not packed or set out anything nor have I cleaned out the car, finished the laundry, cleaned out the fridge or added the "extras" to Bailey's Halloween costume that I plan to. 

Talk about LAST minute!! 

I work well under pressure so, bring it on!  

This new obsession with blogging has taken up any and all free time I have had today. Plus, writing up my new policies for my business. I have been closed for close to a year but I am finally re-opening next week when we return from vacation so I needed/wanted to get things in order! 

Basically you could say I have been avoiding packing! Hah! I just like to make it sound more exciting. 

Ok, I am actually going to go to bed now I think. 

Ah, one last thought.... I am keeping my fingers crossed that I get a little package in the mail tomorrow before we leave!! I ordered an adorable rosette necklace from The Polka Dot Posie
 and I really want it to get here before we leave so I can take it with me!! I learned about their site from a blog I love, House of Rose. Mandy has a couple that I have seen her wear in some photos and I think they are so cute! It is probably something I can make but I decided I would support their business and order from them! :-) 

I will share photos when it arrives! {hopefully tomorrow!!} 

Eeee, so excited!!