My favorite time of year!

I love having a Christmas tree up, that's why as much as I love the thought of having a real one [they smell soooo good], we'll probably always have a fake one. Because they can stay up longer. I usually wrap it with red garland and have a red tree skirt but this year I'm doing something different:

Burlap.

 And I loooove it!

We have a few more big things in our living room this year so its extra squished with a Christmas tree added in. But its working. :)

I love everything about our tree. Our Moms used to buy us ornaments every year [we even have Steven's first one! Mine was lost during one of our million moves :( ] and they gave them to us a few years ago. I do the same for the kids. We also have stuff that we made when we were kids and even a few from when my Mom was a kid. I love putting candy canes on the tree, I haven't been able to the last few years because of the rodents.

Everything on our tree is special.

Comfy, cozy. :)

Tuesday.

I know I talk about 'Parenthood' like a million times a week but seriously, its SO good. I just finished and ugh. I get teary every episode but I was crying practically the last 30 minutes tonight, too much! I'm always so bummed when its over. And even more bummed because its not on next week. And even more bummed because tonight was the premiere of 'Tori and Dean' and we don't have Oxygen- waaaah! :( I love that show.

The kids had been doing so well with the tree til today. They kept pulling off ornaments and they ripped up this one I made when I was little. Rian broke two candy canes, which I don't get because she doesn't even like them.

This was one of my favorite meals my Mom used to make. Italian [turkey] sausage sandwiches. When I moved out, I made them all the time. Good thing Steven liked[s] them as much as I do!

Rian cracks me up, she loves everything I wouldn't ordinarily think kids would [well, Aiden anyway.] Like blue cheese, feta.. etc.- things with strong tastes. My salad had feta on it and she was so excited when she saw it, so I gave her some and Aiden wanted some too. I made him open his mouth instead of handing it to him [because he'd smell it and refuse it] and he chewed it then made a disgusted face. Then he said "Feet cheese!" haha. He got that from my Mom. It made me laugh so hard because he knew the distinct taste and knew he'd heard it before from Nana.

The last few hours of the day were CRAZY. The kids were sooo naughty, seems to be the pattern lately. Usually after baths we give them strawberry or chocolate milk and a snack. Since they were being buttheads, they didn't get a snack and had regular milk. When Steven brought out a fudgesicle, all hell broke loose:

Hahaha!

Earlier in the day I almost felt bad for deciding not to buy them Christmas presents, this is the first year Aiden's excited and understanding everything. But by the end of the day, I was back to knowing I made the right decision. I'm on a mission to go through everything to make another huge pile of stuff for Goodwill. We have too much crap! What's crazy is that I'm still excited to buy Rian a few birthday presents and them a few things from Santa. Maybe we just need to organize, get rid of the toys that are too "young" for them? I don't know. We'll see...

Pennant love

I made a flag pennant for Rian's room earlier.

burlap & lace

Pretty.

I want there to be a different pennant on each of her walls. Tomorrow, when I can go to the store, I'm going to get stuff to make one out of doilies. Then probably a third one will be made from the pom poms I make for her birthday... if I ever get around to it. :)

There's 60+ hours of shows on the dvr and still there's nothing I want to watch on it. Thank God for Nick at Night!

Such a happy fat girl at night, all cuddled up with my food and blanket. :)

[I love taking pictures of every little thing and blogging about it.]

A lot of times when I watch tv, I find myself paying more attention to the "houses" than what's actually going on. Why does everybody on tv have to have such awesome houses?! No fair.

Some of my favorites are:

-Monica's apartment on Friends.

-Zeek and Camille's house on Parenthood.

-Reba's house on Reba.

-The Duncan's house on Good Luck Charlie.

This list could probably go on and on but those are the ones I love the most.

Happiness in a glass.

I meant to get some red Moscato [had it for the first time last week!] today while grocery shopping but since I forgot, I'll settle for Pinot Grigio with strawberries.

Yuuuum.

Can't wait til the kids are off to bed so I can enjoy the QUIET.

My little spoiled princess. I can't believe she's going to be two in just a few weeks! Friday morning she woke up dry and peed on the potty! So exciting. :) Since then she's either woken up dry or with just a little pee but no success. She's too stubborn and doesn't want to sit. Aiden was two years and almost 3 months when he was potty trained and everybody swears girls are so much easier, so I'm hoping she gives in and we get this done. Especially since last week she started peeing through her diapers. Everytime that happens, I move the kids up a size but I don't want to buy size 5- that seems HUGE. So I gave Huggies size 4 a try and they're working better. I can't wait to not be buying diapers anymore!

My wild and crazy boy. Explaining to him why we can't listen to Taylor Swift or Justin Beiber anymore on the Ipod was funny. Now all he's talking about is that somebody took it and we can't find it. He's sad without all his music in the car. So am I. The radio's lame. Time to move the huge annoying book of CD's back in like the old days. I miss my Ipod. :(

Christmas jammies!

Giving thanks.

This has been one of my most favorite Thanksgivings. But everybody pooped out on me, so here I am- blogging.

My only task for today was deviled eggs. Easy enough, but it was my first time. I always get nervous when I make food for other people, what if they don't like it?! Soon I'll be added into the Thanksgiving loop, so every year that I get asked to just do a sidedish- I'm so happy! I'll be a wreck when most of the meal is on me. Eek!

I tested one. They were sooo yummy!

My brother-in-law came into town as a surprise to his parents [and his grandparents.] Its been sooo long since he's been here. It was emotional standing back and watching all the reuniting. So happy for everybody.

Rebecca and Ryan are here!

We ate tons of delicious food then just hung around talking and laughing while the kids ran around like crazy.

Its fun seeing them together. Look how hard they're all concentrating. :)

Best Friends.

We came home and got in our jammies, I love pajamas- duh!

All in love. Plus drinks, popcorn and movies.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Know what I love?

When packages arrive earlier than expected. My shoes came today!

I got an email Monday that said they were shipped so I wasn't expecting them til next week with Thanksgiving and all.

I looove them. I think they're growing on Steven, he keeps saying things about them.

Everybody knows I'm a cheap ass. Today I got some mock Tom's! They do the same thing too- give a pair to a kid in need, awesome.

 Of course, they're not as cute as Tom's, but they're cute enough for me. :)

 Before kids, I bought a pair of shoes almost every payday. I love shoes!

Okay and for real this time, I'm done spending money.

All about Pinterest.

On Pinterst I saw a "Toddler Buffet" using an ice cube tray so I did it today for the kids' lunch.

It might look like a lot of food but its really not. It took two spots for only one strawberry. The spaces are so tiny.

Aiden loved it! Rian did too, but mostly she just copies what Aiden says so who really knows.

Every year I say I'll wait til after Thanksgiving to decorate for Christmas... and every year I get so excited and do it early. I decorated yesterday. :) At least I wait to put the tree up til the Friday after. Can't wait!

When we moved in, my inlaws left their old Christmas lights. We used them the first two years then last year finally caught up with the times and bought some LED lights. I still had all the old ones in the shed outside and saw this idea on Pinterest, where else?!

[before and after]

Pretty! Only thing is the silver color turned out more purple than silver after they dried. Oh well.

Since I've started using Pinterest to help in meal plans, I don't dread it as much anymore. Tonight we had hot ham and cheese sliders with a poppy seed sauce. Yummy. And homemade coleslaw.

And for dessert, pumpkin muffins. Or cupcakes- whatever, same thing. Its the easiest recipe ever, spice cake mix and a can of pumpkin puree. The batter is sooo thick though so they don't turn out too pretty. Guess thats what icing is for. I made them last year and the kids gobbled them right up. I let Aiden taste the batter this morning and he spit it out so I thought he'd be over it. But nope, they both loved them.

The last few hours with the kids were nuts! Aiden is something else lately. Such an attitude. And Rian's in the "no" phase. I'd always heard it came around age two, but Aiden didn't do it til well after he was two. Its in full effect with Rian right now. I was very happy when bedtime came. Now almost time for my favorite show and relaxing. :)

Proposals.

Last night I was watching Friends, the one where Monica and Chandler get engaged. I remember watching it back when it aired and thinking of Steven, being a cheesy 15-year-old. Ahhh. I clicked the info button to see the date '5-18-00.' Even though we've been married for almost 4 years, sometimes its still so crazy to me that we ended up together. I used to always say, "What's meant to be will always find a way"- guess its true.

Back then, Rebecca and I had these notebooks we'd write back and forth in. I remember writing about that episode so I pulled one of the books out. I said it was sooo beautiful and made me cry ha. [Last time I actually went through one of them was probably close to when they were originally written, its been years. Funny, also on that day I wrote about how when we grew up, even if we didn't live close by we'd always visit each other. So I could see Caitlynn and Ryan and she could see Rian and my other kids. haha!] That episode gave made me teary-eyed and goose-bumpy for years. It finally doesn't, probably because I've seen it a million times. I actually just watched it on a different station last week!


Steven's proposal to me wasn't crazy romantic like that, but it makes me smile everytime I think about it. We found out I was pregnant December 15, 2007. We both knew we wanted to be married before the baby came. In a way I guess you could say we got married because of him, but it would've happened anyway and it was important to us to already be an established family when he was born. We had my Grandma's wedding set but I didn't wear them yet. For me, its weird that I don't remember the date it happened or have any pictures- I take pictures of everything.

I don't have any of that stuff, but I know it was in January- probably around 7pm. We lived in a little studio with hardwood floors and I wanted our "living room" area to be more homey so we decided to go buy a rug at Walmart. He was acting weird, kept giggling and fidgiting with stuff. I was standing by the dresser, wiggling my feet into my shoes when I noticed his head in the reflection of the mirror was by my waist. I was like "What are you doing?" then I turned around and he was on one knee, holding the ring. :) He asked if I'd marry him, obviously I said yes! And off to Walmart we went, where we paid $80 for an ugly red shaggy rug that was a pain in the ass to vaccuum. When we moved here, it stayed in the front room til it became Rian's room, then it was under the kitchen table for awhile but was so gross with dog hair intertwined in it and food being dropped all over. Eventually it ended up outside then thrown out. Me being me, sometimes wish I would've kept it or at least cut a piece off of it. We bought it the night we were officially engaged. Its proably better that way, I keep too much stuff.

Here we are, a month later, the day after we got married.

We had breakfast at Denny's then went to my parent's house to pick up our gifts.

Girl's Weekend!

Steven's Dad came over at 2:00 to pick up the boys. That's about the time the kids normally wake up from naps so we had to wake Aiden up and he was grumpy.

Haha he was especially pissed because I wanted to take a picture and made him wear a hat.

So off they went. I'd been out running errands earlier in the day and was SO grossed out. It was so crowded but we had nothing else to do and still had a few more things to get, so Rian and I headed out again- it wasn't so bad the second time. After that we went to my Mom's, my Dad was also out of town so it was a girl's only party- Mom, Rae, Ri and me. We had pizza, went outside to play then got in our jammies for wine, movies and lots of laughing- seriously, my Mom's one of the funniest people I know!

Rachel was putting curlers in her hair so my Mom put them in Rian's. Didn't last long but she looked way cute.

We planned on going out of town [about 45 minutes away] to a mall on Sunday but I bailed out after my experience on Saturday. Also, the only store I had interest in going to was Forever 21. I know myself- I get sooo excited to go, then once I'm there, want to leave. I get so overwhelmed, I'd much rather shop Forever21 online. When did I turn into such an old lady?!

She was pooped out from all the fun, passed out two hours before naptime.

So Rian and I had a quiet day at home. I did my crafting while she napped then we snuggled almost allllll day. She's so different without Aiden. I'd forgotten how simple and stress-free it was only having one kid. But I missed him a lot!

We went on a dinner date to Taco Salsa then did some more snuggling before she went to bed, love her milky smile.

How I spent Sunday movie night alone- Twilight marathon!

[Mmm just looking at this makes my mouth water.]

I had such a fun weekend with Rian and of course, the boys had an awesome time camping- Aiden was mad to be back home. When the got here, Rian was having lunch so I let her out of her chair and when I opened the door to the garage, Steven was already in. She ran right to him with her arms open wide. My heart melted. She missed her favorite guys too.

Kitchen crafting.

Yesterday I did a little crafting for the kitchen. I'm planning on putting shelves up on the wall I just painted, hopefully it won't take me a year to do it!

I was looking at a Pottery Barn catalog Saturday night, that's where I got both the ideas. I love that place, too bad its sooo expensive.

It was so teeny tiny on the top of the page, but I spotted it- a rolling pin wrapped in twine! Also hanging from twine. Perfect for my kitchen.

And wine bottles wrapped in burlap. Love!

I also want to make a sign like this [saw on Pinterest, of course!] for the wall:

This quote on distressed wood.

The Mommy who stole Christmas...

Well, sort of.

After thinking long and hard about this, we've decided not to buy the kids any Christmas presents, from us. They'll be getting a few from Santa though. Let me hear it, "Oh. Em. Gee. Is this lady for real?!"

They have everything. And the last thing we need in our small house is more toys. And beyond that, they're at such an impressionable age, its the perfect time to do it. I don't want them growing up with a "Gimme, gimme" attitude when this time of year rolls around [or any other time.] Christmas is about so much more than presents and I want that ingrained in their little brains. I don't want to raise a bunch of greedy brats!

Everything is becomming about presents these days, its so ridiculous. People think they need a gift/reward for everything. Recently I read on facebook that somebody bought her husband a "Sorry for being a raging bitch for the past nine months present, a guys' version of a push present." Oh geez. Push presents are so stupid. Isn't the gift at the end of all of that the BABY?! At least that's what my push presents were. :) Anyway...

I'm guilty of it too, I get the kids stuff for Valentine's Day, etc- times when its unncessary. I do fun things during most holidays [fun foods, crafts, etc.]- that's what I want them to remember, not what was given to them. I read this in Parents magazine this morning and it gave me the assurance that I'm doing the right thing, "If you're building Christmas around shopping for gifts, that's what your child will think the holiday is about" -Dr. Kasser. It says to instead emphasize with traditions that don't cost money, which is exactly what we'll be doing this year.

Its not going to be like this every year. But right now, while they're so little and learning what everything's all about- its the best time to do it. And all the stress of thinking of what to buy them is gone! Plus I don't have to waste a bunch of money on useless crap. I think its a great decision. What I really want to do when they get old enough to comprehend, is donate gifts every year to the places around town that take donations. I want my kids growing up not only knowing how blessed they are, but actually seeing it.

Christmas isn't going to be ruined, they're going to do everything else we'd normally do, except open a million presents from Mom and Dad on the 25th.

Shoes. Beer. Shoes.

I big time splurged on myself today! And I don't have the least bit of guilt. :) I've been going back and forth for weeks on three different sets of shoes and today I finally decided... mostly because after going on a bunch of websites they were the cheapest, which to me is still pretty expensive. I've never spent this much on a pair of shoes- $55. To some its probably nothing!

I can't wait til they come! I hate that we have to order everything though, this place sucks. Steven thinks they're hideous but I'm in love. Maybe I'll eventually order the other ones, but in different colors. The other two I was deciding on were a pair just like this but with laces or fringe boots. I want them all.

I get soo lazy this time of year. I just want to lounge and eat junk.

Today was the first day I put my contacts in and kinda-sorta did my hair. [Pssh barely.]

I had to get a few things at Walmart and ended up with beer in my cart, huh how'd that happen?! :) Steven wanted to go to dinner tonight since its our "last family night" for a couple of days but going out is too hard with the kids so he brought home In-N-Out- fatties!

:)

Relax- easier said than done.

I've been trying to ignore my feelings about this weekend's camping trip but the closer it gets, the more I start to silently freak out. For a number of reasons.

For starters, in my opinion, a Dad's mentality is sooo different from a Mom's. [Don't get offended, babe.] Most guys are more relaxed, thinking "Ooh that'll never happen" and women [at least me] are totally opposite- thinking of every little scenario that could possibly happen. "What if he trips and falls into the fire?! What if he gets bit by a snake?!" and so on. Horrible thoughts, but I have them. I would love to be as chill as Steven is when it comes to the kids. And who knows if they'll have phone reception- eek! I'm going to be worried the whole time.

Another thing, not only am I bothered by my not being there when it comes to safety, but I won't be there for one of Aiden's "firsts." His first camping trip! I won't be there to take a million pictures, capturing every last detail. I'm so sad about this, I'm a crazy Mom like that!

Also, I'm a chicken- 100%. The last time Steven was gone over night was Novemeber, three years ago when him and his Dad went to Colorado. Aiden and I stayed at my parents' house because I didn't want to be here at night. I get scared as it is when Steven's here. I'm way too paranoid to be alone. I'm still unsure if I'm going to be a big girl and sleep here... I don't want to be regretting that decision in the middle of the night. We'll see.

I'm happy they're going to have boy-bonding time and Ri and I girl-bonding time. I just need to relax. I know he'll be fine, but I'm a worrier. I can't help it. I'm going to be worried about him til the day I die.

Christmas cards. Keys. Snowman jammies.

Today we had a photoshoot for our Christmas cards. This isn't the one I picked for them but its my favorite:

Kisses!

This is going to be a popular look for cards this year. Its such a cute idea though, I had to do it! And they did soo awesome.

The end section on the lights don't work and when I was putting them back on the shelf, another section shorted out so I decided to hang them from Rian's curtain rod instead. I'd decided to do that anyway but I was going to wait til after Christmas. I always plan to buy a bunch when they go on clearance after Christmas but there's never any left, hopefully I can get some this year.

I pinned a picture on Pinterest that had keys and one of my friends commented that they had a bunch in the dollar section at Michael's so I went by today, they only had 4 left. Boo. I just threw them in a mason jar- love it!

Matching snowman jammies! Cuzzy Ryan has some too. Maybe we can get a picture of all three of them in a few days. :)

Girls Night

Saturday Steven got tickets for a monster truck show from work so he took Aiden and us girls had a party at home!

Excited for his date with Dad!

She made me read "Oh the Thinks You Can Think" like 10 times. Then we played dress-up with her Halloween costumes.

Then we painted our toenails! It was even more perfect because it was raining.

We're on our own all of next weekend while Steven and Aiden go camping. Booo. They get to have all the fun!

Sock bun & Lunch.

I've been seeing them everywhere lately, so today I gave it a try. The tutorial I watched made it look so simple. I'm horrible at doing my hair but I got this on the first try, its that easy!

I love how messy mine came out.

For lunch I made shrimp quesadillas stuffed with fresh jalapenos, green onions and cilantro. Mmm. Would've been perfect with some guacamole.



Lazy!

At this time last year I was already done Christmas shopping and basically done with Rian's birthday stuff. I feel so behind because I haven't started anything yet. And like I said before, this year I want to do an actual party for her and that's going to take lots of crafting. Eek I better get busy! I'm thinking I'm not going too crazy with gifts this year, they already have so much junk. I say that, but knowing me, I'm sure that'll change once I get to shopping.

I do feel a little accomplished today though because I organized Aiden's huge mess of a closet. He has the biggest one in the house, its basically our storage area -besides the shed outside but stuff gets too dirty out there. I keep all the Christmas stuff in his closet, along with a ton of baby crap that I'm not sure why I'm keeping around- it takes up soo much space. But I got it all organized, threw some stuff out and made a pile of stuff for Goodwill. I always take our stuff there, I'd love to make money by selling it but I'd rather just take the easy way and donate it.

Slippers!

Aiden had some last year that they were always fighting over and now they always fight over mine. I wanted to save them for Christmas but I'm too impatient for that. So cute.

Rian's been fussy today but other than that- so far, so good. I can usually count on having a good day after one like yesterday. And Jeanette is the best, best ever. She stopped by with a pretty new crockpot for me. Thank you soo much, Cochina! [and G!] Love you.

Two years ago today my Papa passed away. Of course he held on til the day after the Marines' birthday, so his style. My family is full of Veterans and I feel so much pride every day for them. There's never enough anybody could do to thank them and all the other men and women that have served [and are serving] our country.

Happy Veteran's Day!

Oh and...

Only two more weeks til I can decorate for Christmas!

Whine, whine... wine? Yes please.

I just realized I didn't publish my post from last night. Duh.

Today has been so blah. I love that its cool now but I'm soo dried out! I'm going to be a raisin by the time it warms back up. The kids aren't listening to me at all today. I have to get on them about stuff every day, doesn't every Mom? But then there are days that they are nonstop. I can ask nicely, say, "Stop" "Quit" "Don't do that" -whatever it is- a million times, raise my voice, YELL, and they still ignore me. I need to tape record my voice so I don't have to repeat myself constantly.

Its 4:30 and I'm ready for them to go to bed! I'm guessing since they're 100% back to health, they have to make up for the past few days they were recovering and sleepy. They've been full of energy since they woke up. They've already had baths because we were outside and Aiden turned on the hose, after I already told him to stay away from that part of the yard 500 times, so they got all wet and muddy and cold.

I was so excited for a new recipe tonight til I was taking the crockpot down and the lid fell on my head then shattered all over the floor. Omg it hurt so bad! At first I was scared to touch it because I thought it split my head open. No blood thankfully but I have a nice little bump- good thing for my bangs! I'm so clumsy. There goes dinner because everything else is frozen, except the other new recipe I was going to try which also needed the crockpot.

And Pinterest is being a butthole today! How sad when I include that into part of my bad day haha.

Blah blah blah.

Just another day in paradise.

Adding character

While the kids were gone I had nothing to do so I went to Goodwill. I looove lanterns and there were a couple there so I got them for the backyard.

I still need Steven to cut off the tops where they'd ordinarily be connected to the ceiling, then add a longer chain so the smaller one hangs down more. Hopefully I find a few more so they're all bunched together.

I also got some twinkle lights. For now they're on the shelves but who knows where they'll end up.

I got some other crap too, I never leave there empty handed.