Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Ours was very nice, I prepared all 5 pies and sweet potatoes the day before. I only had to make the caramel sauce and whipped cream (adding a little sour cream into heavy whipping cream and powder sugar makes a huge difference - very yummy!). We spent the day with Jake & Becky and their family. The girls had a great time playing with Jake and Abby - they said it was the best Thanksgiving ever! :)

Friday I pulled everything out of the storage closet, so that when Bobby got home from work we could set up the tree. Yeah I didn't do the Black Friday shopping. I got the white/pink tree set up in the girls room (so adorable).

By the end of the weekend I had everything decorated and cleaned back up. All that's left is for Bobby to add the lights outside. I've already put up the garland around the front window on the porch...so not much left to do......we just have to wait for the weekend because it's dark by the time he gets home from work...it gets dark so early!

I'll take some pictures this weekend hopefully and upload them. I can't wait to see see how everyone else is decorating this year. Oh big news in our household.....I got to decorate the tree in my choice this year - First time I've had my way in my entire life!!!!!!!!!!!! Wo-hoo! :)
Using our tall skinny pre-lite (clear lights) tree, all I have on is white/silver ornaments - mainly all snowflakes, icicles, silver shiny balls, and starts........it's gorgeous! :) I love it (Thank you Bobby for giving in this year!) Bobby and the girls miss the colored lights, but they can have them back next year! :)

Have a great weekend!!!! Ours is jammed pack hanging out with friends and doing lots of great family stuff.

Thanksgiving Preperations

I've got to run to the store soon and pick up my baking supplies for all the pies that I'll be making, plus my "famous" sweet potatoes with caramel sauce. My recipe was requested my 3 more people this year. I decided to finally make it a pretty recipe card.

I've been wanting to make a mini Thanksgiving album. I want to include my family recipes, pictures, and little blessings that we have every year. One of these days I'll make it!

This year we are celebrating the day with the only family that we have in the state, our dear cousins Jake & Becky and their two kids Jake & Abby. We're looking forward to it, it will be fun, with lots of great food, games, and just visiting with them. The girls enjoy having family here, and they love Jake and Abby so much it's unreal! Around the holidays especially I wish that our girls were closer to their cousins - they have so many.

Enjoy getting ready for the holiday meal - remember to not stress over it and enjoy the whole process. Love to all!

And with Thanksgiving in thought, I did a fun layout using some shabby princess papers to participate in the CALL TO ACT challenge by the Digi Chick. It was fun to create something and share my love for volunteering at the girls' school.

Here's what I said when I uploaded my page...

"When I'm asked what hobbies I enjoy I always reply "Scrapbooking" but my husband is quick to correct me saying "She likes to scrapbook, but she's to busy helping others to scrapbook. Volunteering is her hobby!" I guess he's right. I'm always quick to sign up and help out wherever needed. I'm the PTO President, and I'm on the committee that makes sure every student receives free books throughout the year. I help organize lots of fun activities as well as going into the classroom/library to help out. I volunteer an average of 20 hours a week, more when special events are happening. I have given food & monetary donations throughout the school years. - Way to many to scan and upload! :) Shabby Princess Festival Kit, as well as a few elements from other designers, Tape:Christina Renee

Mid-November

Wow, it's mid-November already! I can't believe how fast this year is going.

We had Parent/Teacher conferences last week....
-Catherine is such a good student through and through. I love going to her conferences because she just gets glowing reviews because she excels academically and she's such a good girl in class that the teachers love having her. Her report card was beautiful! :)
-Abby is doing better. She's making friends, following all the rules and loves school. Academically speaking, she struggles a little. Her teacher said that she just has to find a way to reach Abby because she's a stubborn learner (for example, if she thinks she doesn't know something, she'll say "I don't know that" and shuts off her brain from actually trying to learn it). She's struggling with her alphabet/sounds but on one test about math concepts she completely excelled where the rest of class didn't grasp the content or the way the test was to be filled out (filling in the circles...it was a new concept for the kids). Hopefully, things will click and by next semester she'll be smooth sailing.

Our PTO provides a luncheon and dinner for the teachers during the conferences, so I made some coffee cake and a big thing of potato salad, then I helped set up Thursday morning.

The girls had a LONG weekend (Abby had Wed - Mon off, Cat had Thur- Mon off) The weekend was so busy, we were going and doing things full throttle. We went out to eat, visited with friends, shopped, etc.... Oh, I'm extremely excited that I now wear a size 6 in pants! :) I had to go get new jeans (again) at Old Navy, I found a pair of "skinny" pants on clearance at the Gap - love that! I need new tops though....all my winter clothes are like tents...we got rid of most of them, but I need something to wear! :) I've got to pick up a few at a time though....going from size 14/16 down to 6 in a little over a year costs a lot of money in clothes by the way!

I spent yesterday cleaning up their bedroom - it was a major disaster area. I got interrupted and the job was put on hold, so today I plan to finish it. There is so much laundry to do now, because over half their closet was found on the floor and under their beds . Board games were found all over the place too....this is very unlike me, but I think I'll be throwing them all out and just starting over from scratch (sounds like good Christmas presents to me!).

Ever hear of PartyLite? They make wonderful candles. I went to a party years ago, and fell in love....the candles burn so clean - no soot at all! I went to a party just a few weeks ago, and booked a party off of it. So that's Thursday night.

Friday night I'll be going over to a friends house for a Silpada party. I've heard lots of good things about their jewelry, so I can't wait to see it in person.

Who knows what this weekend will hold, but I'm sure it will be busy, we seem to find ourselves very busy these days.