Christmas Cards and Cake

This afternoon my friend Abby came over to do our family picture for our Christmas Cards. She is such a great photographer! (Thank you Abby!) I think the pictures turned out great! I ordered them tonight from Shutterfly, I can't wait to get them back to send them out. Sending and getting Christmas cards are my favorite part of this season!

Here is one of the pictures that Abby took of us this afternoon.

We had our friends Dan and Jenn over tonight for pizza. Brock made his first cake for our dessert. It turned out really good!

For our family Christmas pictures I let Brock and Ava choose whatever they wanted to wear. Ava wore the new Christmas dress she got yesterday when we went shopping. Her dress also came with a dress for her doll, how cute!!

Here's a picture of Marty (Dan and Jenn's daughter) with Ava, they have so much fun playing together.

I got our dog Daisy a jacket to wear when we go on walks. I found this one at Old Navy for only $8.50! I wanted to get a cute picture of her with her jacket on, I took about 20 and this was the best one.

I love this one of her with her eyes closed. Poor thing, I don't think she liked the flash.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Today Ava and I went Christmas shopping. We spent all day going to different stores getting everything we need. I think we are almost finished! The stores weren't too crowded today and for some reason we always got the best parking spots! I got a little present for myself, this platter at HomeGoods. This is my 100th post!! I will have to think of another fun giveaway to do to celebrate it.

Friday I spent all day decorating our house for Christmas. It took all day!! I forgot how much Christmas stuff we had. It is so fun going through everything and looking at old ornaments and decorations. My favorite ornaments are the ones that Brock and Ava have made at school.

I love this ornament that Brock made at pre-school.

Here is an ornament that Brock made in the 1st grade.

I put up this little tree in our dining room! I am going to save our two big trees for The House Tour on December 15!

Ava wanted a pink tree for her room. So here she is with her pink tree. She decorated it herself, her favorite part is the High School musical candy canes!

Tomorrow we are going to Church and then we are headed to Wal-Mart to pick up groceries and a few other little things that I need for Christmas. Graig and I are going to work on our outside lights and I want to start wrapping presents! Before dinner, my friend Abby is coming over to take our family Christmas picture for our Christmas card so it will be a busy day.

Blog Makeover!

Last night I decided to give my blog a makeover! I did the header using Scrapblog. My header is one from their templates and was super easy to do, I would like to play around with it a little more to see what else I can come up with because there are a lot of neat ideas on there.The picture of Brock and Ava is the only one that I could find of them together! I wanted a Christmas background and I found this one on http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/, I love it! The only thing I am not crazy about is the holly berries and other stuff where you read (Does that make sense) I wish that wasn't on there.

Anyway, we had a fabulous Thanksgiving!! We ate lunch at Noon and Grandma Jan came over to eat with us. After lunch we cleaned up and Grandma Jan, Ava and I headed to Wal-Mart while Brock and Graig stayed home to watch football. I got a lot of cute Christmas decorations and a new tree for our living room. Ava picked out a pink tree for her room. It's so cute!

Brock and Ava spent the night at Grandma Jan's so we took our dogs for a long walk and then I took a nap(which was so heavenly!) and we ate some Thanksgiving leftovers and then we went to watch the movie Four Christmases. It was really good!Today I am going to stay home and decorate for Christmas and watch the 90210 marathon on Soap Network! It should be a fun, relaxing day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving Day filled with family, friends and good food!

Turkey Time!

This morning I worked and Ava and her friend Mary went with me. Since I was the only one at work, they had the whole building to themselves. They had a great time going up and down the elevator and playing the piano. I actually got a lot of work done! At lunch time I picked up Brock from his friends house and we all went out to lunch.

When we got home Brock took a nap and Ava and I got to work making things for our Thanksgivning feast! We made stuffing, sweet potatoes, cookies and a pumpkin pie! We also decorated our table for tomorrow. We have lived at our house for 4 years and this is our first Thanksgiving at home. The first two years we lived here we went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the last two years we have been in Illinois visiting my family. So it will be nice to be here on Thanksgiving Day!

I am going to put our desserts on this table in our dining room.

Ava brought home the the cutest turkeys yesterday from school. I think they look so cute!

Sweet surprises!

Tonight when we got home we had two surprises waiting for us in our mailbox! The first one were the cards that I ordered for Brock and Ava. I loved the way these turned out. I also got some "Mommy calling cards" for myself which are really cute with our names, phone #'s and address on them. I loved the way they came all wrapped up, it was a nice treat! I ordered them from Cute Cat Designs and I highly recommend them if you need anything. The best surprise today was a card and pictures from Scott and Erin our best friends from Illinois. They got married the same summer that we did and for the first two years of our marriages we lived in the same town. It seems like we did everything together and we had so much fun hanging out and doing couple things together! Anyway, we don't seem them that often anymore since we live so far away. They have two of the most adorable kids ever!! Owen is 2 and Emma is 7 months. They sent us this card and these pictures today. I am trying to get Erin to start a blog so we can keep in touch and see more pictures of their cute kids!!

Weekend update and urgent prayer request!

This weekend was our town's Christmas Parade. Ava was in the parade with her dance studio, She threw out little candy canes, she looked so cute in her Dalmatian costume from last year's recital. The girls were suppose to take off their jackets but it was way too cold so they left them on. My friend Abby took this picture of her. Thanks Abby!

This picture is from my craft night with my friend Sabrina. While we crafted Ava was "babysitting" Eliza.

I love this picture of Eliza with Sabrina's sweet tea.

This morning I made Brock's favorite-Monkey Bread! The recipe is listed below, it's super easy and so good! This is one of the first recipe's I got when I first got married. Graig and I would get together with our friends Scott and Erin (who got married the same summer that we did) and play Euchre ( a really fun card game) and eat Monkey Bread. Erin gave me the recipe and every time we eat it I think of them.

Here is the recipe

4 cans refrigerator biscuits (about 40)

1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon

1/2 cup butter

1 cup white sugar

Cut each biscuit into 4 pieces.

Pour sugar and cinnamon into a plastic bag and mix. (this is in addition to the sugar/cinnamon listed above)
Add biscuit pieces, several at a time; shake to coat well.
Place pieces in a buttered tube or Bundt pan
Bring brown sugar and butter to a boil in saucepan. Cool , then pour over top of biscuits.
Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool before you flip the pan over onto a serving plate

This afternoon I heard that Fern ,who is like a Grandma to me, is in the hospital with ovarian cancer. She went in last week because she complained of a stomach ache. The doctors say the cancer is in her ovaries, stomach and lungs. Fern's daughter, Judy, called me to tell me the news. Fern lived next to me when I was growing up, she babysat for my sister and I and since our Grandma lived in Florida, Fern was like a Grandma to us. We have always been so close with her. I called her tonight to talk with her and she sounds so weak. I may be leaving in a few days to go to Illinois to be with her. Please pray for Fern and her family, they really need your prayers tonight.

Friday project

Tonight I went to my friend Sabrina's house and we started working on our next project. It's not finished yet but you can see what we started working on.
When I got home I got caught up on the blogs I liked to read. On Kelly's blog I found this, I think it will be fun to participate this year!

Tomorrow is our town's Christmas parade! It is only suppose to be about 20 degrees so it's going to be freezing cold. Ava is going to ride on a float with her other dancers from her dance school. She is going to be in her Dalmatian costume from last year's recital. It should be cute!

We are also going start decorating a little bit for Christmas. My Dad gave me a Christmas village for our house and Ava and I are going to put it up tomorrow afternoon. When are you going to start your Christmas decorating?

Thursday shopping spree

Tonight after work I picked up Brock and Ava to go to the mall, which is about an hour away from our house. Ava really needed a new winter coat and I really wanted to stop by Homegoods to look at their Thanksgiving stuff which is all at least 50% off. I bought the cutest placemats and napkins for Thanksgiving! The placemats are green so I can also use them for Christmas too! They were only $5 for 4!

I love this platter, it was only $3.50!

I got these napkin rings from Target tonight, I love them and I can use them anytime of the year!

I found Ava the cutest coat at Target! It is black with hot pink lining and hood. She loves it! She also got a couple of new outfits because she has grown so much since last winter that almost none of her clothes fit anymore!

We went out to eat at Cracker Barrel, the only thing poor Brock got was a little pop gun toy in the Cracker Barrel store. On Black Friday we are going shopping again so I will have more time to shop with Brock. He is getting to the age where he is so picky about what he wears!

Muffins with Mom

Today went to Ava's class for Muffins with Mom! I went and read stories with Ava and had muffins. It was so fun reading with her. Here is a picture that her teacher, Mrs. Andrews, put on her blog!

Tomorrow night my friend Sabrina and I are going shopping to get stuff to make this great project. Isn't it cute? She got the idea from this blog, it has tons of great, simple ideas for projects! It has been so long since we have done any craft projects, I am really looking forward to making this!

http://pinefeather.typepad.com/pine_is_here/2008/08/my-entry-1.html

100th post giveaway!!

Monogrammed Chick is doing a great giveaway in honor of her 100th post. She has the cutest stuff on her blog! Anyway, you can go to her blog to sign up for the giveaway she will do the drawing this weekend!

This and That

I found this while I was cleaning our basement over the weekend. Ava loves to put on "Dance Shows" for us and she always makes a list of what we can buy to eat during her show. She is so precious.

I got my ornament from the Ornament Exchange that I signed up for that Pampering Beki organized. I love my ornament, it is so cute!! It will look so cute on our Christmas Tree!

Tonight at work we had our annual Pageant. I coordinate this pageant and I am always a little nervous before it happens. Luckily, this year I had a great group of students that worked on a committee all semester to make sure the pageant was a success, here is a picture of the student committee with the winners. I am so glad it's over! The "Mr." winner, Jordan, works in my office, Brock loves hanging out with him when he comes to work with me.

Oprah and Cute notecards

Oprah is starting a Clean up your Messy House Tour. I just watched the episode that I DVR'd last week. This is just what I need!! I wish she would come to my house, our house looks neat but our closets and drawers are a mess! She says spend 10 minutes a day cleaning out a drawer or a closet and you can have an organized house. Every week there will be different challenges to make your house "homey" and organized. I can't wait to get started this is just what I need!

I just found a great new online store and ordered some adorable note cards for Brock and Ava. The prices are so reasonable and they have so many note cards (and other things!) to choose from!

I hope everyone had a great weekend!!

Saturday!

Today Ava and I had a Girl's Day because Graig took Brock to a basketball tournament. This morning Ava wanted to make cookies with her Easy Bake Oven.

I took Ava to ballet and then we went to a Christmas Bazaar at a church in town. I love pretty bowls and I found two today at the Bazaar. The green one was $5 and the clear one was only $2!

Tonight, my friend Allison is taking Ava to see a Hypnotist at the College where she works. Graig and Brock went out to dinner after Brock's games (they won 2 out of 3!) and they are going to see a movie, so I have the night to myself!

Girls night...IN!!

Tonight my friends Allison, Angie and Sabrina came over for a girl's night. We haven't gotten together in a long time so it was good to see them and catch up.

On the way home from work I stopped at a bakery and got these sweet treats for us to eat.

We wanted to make these ribbon ornaments but we spent the whole night talking and never got around to making them. I would like to try to make these. Aren't they cute?

Here's Ava with Angie's girls Bella and Miriah. Ava calls these girls her "cousins" because she really wants cousins and so far she doesn't have any.

Tomorrow Ava and I are going to have a Girl's Day because Graig is taking Brock to his b-ball tournament! It should be fun.

Thursday turkey

Tonight Ava and I went grocery shopping and we got our Thanksgiving Turkey! Actually, it's just going to be the four of us plus probably Grandma Jan so we got just the Butterball Breast. It's so delicious! I can't wait to cook it!

Even though we are having a small Thanksgiving I still want to make our table and house look pretty for Turkey Day! I have been getting some good ideas on line. I love this idea, I would love to put these candles in front of each place setting. Aren't they cute?This basket of fall goodness just says Thanksgiving to me. I am going to make something like this for our house over the weekend. I love these place cards from Martha Stewart. You can download them here. I would love to have our Thanksgiving table look like this.

We went to Wal-Mart tonight for grocery shopping and I was a little annoyed because they have all the Christmas stuff out and they have almost nothing for Thanksgiving, everything is switched over to Christmas already. I love fall decorations. I wanted to get some pretty bowls in fall colors and a few other things for Thanksgiving.

Brock and Ava don't like Thanksgiving food, they are so weird! So since we aren't having a lot of people this year I am going to let them pick out whatever they want to eat on Thanksgiving day. The only thing is what they pick out to eat, they have to make! It will be fun to see what they come up with! Don't worry, Graig, Grandma Jan and I will be chowing down on turkey and all the sides!