Favorite Christmas Song

Now that Thanksgiving is over it is really starting to feel like Christmas is on its way. It would feel even more like Christmas if the weather would cooperate and start getting colder, here we are one day away from December 1st and the temps have been in the 50's and 60's.
Here is a video of my all time favorite Christmas song, "Mary Did You Know" by Kenny Rogers and Wynonna. What is your favorite Christmas song??

Black Friday!

So I did it I got up at 7:20am and was out the door by 7:30am to hit the sales. This was my first time of getting up that early to try and get some door busters and all I can say was it was an experience. My mom and I had talked about meeting up with each other, like we do every year, however, usually my mom starts at 7am and I meet up with her around 9 or 9:30am. When I was on my way to Target I called my mom to tell her I was out the door and see where she was. Come to find out she was already at Target, done and gone, she got there at 6:15am and had already bought everything on my list of things to get. Let me tell you I was more than happy to not have to enter Target, just pulling into the parking lot I was like oh my this is going to be CRAZY!! So off to meet mom at Kohl's to get a few things that I had seen in their ad. Once we were finished there we headed back to Target to exchange a few things that mom had bought, I thought better to exchange it now while the lines were still in the checkout and not the return. Then we stopped at Toys R Us on our way to the mall. WOW is all I can say, I got a few things I wanted and then stood in line for 40 MINUTES, that is right 40! After Toys R Us we headed to the mall and once we found a parking spot (we drove around for probably 10 minutes) we headed inside to shop for presents for ME! Yeah, mom still needed a few ideas so we went to The Limited where their jewelry was 40% off and then New York & Co. where their jewelry was 50% off. We had so much fun just doing girl things like trying on jewelry and laughing with each other about some of the jewelry we saw. We had lunch at Panera Bread and then went to Macy's and got some things for Cory and my brother in law. By 1pm I was starting to drag and was definitely getting to the point that I had, had enough. By the time we left the mall my mom shopped for 8 hours and I was getting close to hitting the 7 hour mark! It was a lot of fun and was worth it as I got some REALLY good deals especially at Macy's, I am just glad that I don't have to shop like that except for once a year.

What did all of you do, anyone else hit the sales early in the morning, did you find any good deals???

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope that you all have a great Thanksgiving with your families. I have so much to be thankful for that I couldn't possible list it all for we would be here all day. However, on the top of my list would be my wonderful husband, beautiful girls, friends and the health that surronds my entire family! We have been so blessed over the past year especially with everything that has been happening with the economy. I could go on and on all day, this is barely scrapping the surface. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, what are you most thankful for?

And Thanksgiving wouldn't be Thanksgiving without Adam Sandler singing us out!

New Moon Review

Like many of you I went and saw New Moon over the weekend with some of my girlfriends and thought it would be fun to do a little review of my own. We went to a 1pm showing on Sunday, first we grabbed lunch at Panera Bread and discussed our thoughts of Twilight and what we hoped to see in New Moon.

As for the movie as a whole I thought it was very good, much better than Twilight. I don't know if it was because there was a different director or if they got wind of how many people (especially the 30 year old moms)were upset with the differences from the book Twilight and the movie, whatever it was I am happy with the delivery of New Moon.

I thought Taylor Lautner did a fantastic job as Jacob! He played the role just how I had pictured it from the books and he is very easy on the eyes, even if he is only 17! Can we say hello abs, he looked great for the part and was very believable that he could change into a wolf!

Robert Pattinson did another wonderful job as Edward and sucks me in every time with those eyes and jaw line. I did miss him terribly in this movie, he is too gorgeous and needed to be seen more but that is do to the writing in the book, we will see more of him, LOTS more in Eclipse.

Then there is Bella played by Kristen Stewart I apologize now for any one out there that is a Kristen fan, but I really don't care for her. Of all the actresses they could have pulled from, they picked her? She just does NOT pull off the role of Bella as I and so many others I have talked to see her from the books and her chemistry with Rob, ahh, terrible! They are suppose to be deeply in love with one another and I just do not see/feel it at all. Throughout most of the movie, in the few scenes they had together she hardly ever looked him in the eyes, she always has her head down and looks at his chest. Hello he is the love of your life and you can't even look him in those beautiful eyes! I think what bothers me the most is she makes it seem, to me at least, that she is afraid of him more than in love with him, she wants to become a vampire so she never has to live without him but seems intimidated by him at the same time, am I making any sense?? I do have to give her credit though for the scene with the Volturi (which didn't happen in the book, but we all know they threw it in there for an action scene) when she was screaming for Aro not to hurt Edward, the girl can act, she just isn't pulling off the passion she is suppose to feel toward Edward enough for me. Her scenes with Jacob (Taylor) were much more believable, I could tell she actually cared for him, byt moving on enough about the actors...........

The special affects were really cool and I LOVED the werewolves. I would have liked to see more of them actually and was a little disappointed in their lack of screen time. They should have plenty of screen time in Eclipse though especially at the end when the Volturi come to fight!

If I were giving out stars it would definitely get 4.5/5 stars and if I ranked it out of 10, I would give it a 9! You really should see it on the big screen, the special affects are great! I was so excited to see it and had the count down going everyday, it definitely did not disappoint me!!

A few of my favorite scenes where when Jacob and Paul fought, when Bella saves Edward from stepping out into the sunlight in Italy (now I do have to admit there was some passion there) and the ending when Edward gave Bella that look and said "Marry me Bella", hello how can any girl in there right mind say no to Edward!! Did you see it, what did you think, what were your favorite scenes??

Cole over at All the Small Stuff is also doing a review today of what she thought of the movie, so once you are finished here, hop over and see if Cole agreed with me or has a different opinion.

What is wrong with this picture?

No Tuesdays Tasties today just can't think of a good recipe to share and this was too good not to share! So tell me what do you see wrong with this picture? You may need to click on the picture itself to make it bigger so you can see it a little better.

Thanksgiving Feast

Today was the Thanksgiving Feast at Claire and Paige's preschool. It is always fun to go watch all the kids sing the songs they have been working so hard on in music class for the last 4 weeks. Only the 3 and 4 year olds sang today but they did bring the 2's in so they could watch. Paige was so cute sitting there watching all the big kids sing. I kept trying to get her attention, I could see her looking around for me. Her teacher saw me waving, trying to get her to see me and even said "There is your mom Paige", Paige replied "where" and Ms. Susan kept pointing and trying to help her find me in the crowd. It was too cute and took her awhile but....

Here she is looking for me:

Ah, now she sees me, she gave me a bigger smile at first but I wasn't ready so here she is still giving me a little smile!

Claire was so excited to finally get to sing her songs that she has been working on and to wear her Indian Vest along with her Indian Necklace they have been working on in class over the last few weeks.
As you can see she found me much easier than Paige and I was ready!!

Claire eating her feast with her friends!

Claire and her friend Skylyn

After we got home I had the girls stay outside so I could take some more pictures of them. I can't remember the last time I got out my camera and took some pictures of them (which is not like me) I think they turned out pretty good!

Oprah and Twilight

Did any of you watch Oprah last week? I TIVOed the show with the women who got attacked by the Chimpanzee and could not bare to watch it all. I think I only watched 10 of the 30 minutes she was on. I felt so sorry for that poor women and when Oprah said that before the show was over Charla would reveal her face for the first time ever to the public, I just had to turn it off. Is that horrible of me to not watch and to turn it off? Hearing the 911 call was disturbing enough, why in the world didn't the women who owned the Chimp start beating it with something? She just stood there and watched as her friend was being attacked/eaten by her monkey, hello!! Yes, I understand that she was probably in shock or afraid that if she grabbed a bat or something and starting hitting it that the Chimp may then turn on her and start to attack the owner but too bad!! If you are dumb enough to have a wild animal as a pet then you need to be willing to get involved if something like what happened with Charla happens.

Oh a lighter note, Twilight comes out tomorrow or for all you die hard fans tonight at midnight. I am going with a few of my friends this Sunday to see it and I can't wait! I do have to admit that I hope New Moon is better than Twilight as I was disappointed in how much they changed from the book with the first movie. After I watched it I wished that I would have had a way to contact Stephanie Meyer and ask her why she allowed so many changes from the book. As far as I can tell from the few different previews I have seen New Moon is more in tune with the book but I have already seen some differences just from the previews. When Bella see's Paul turn into a wolf for the first time, in the book Jacob is standing right next to her and in the movie Bella is by herself and Jacob is in a house, huh?? When Alice returns to talk to Bella about Edward, they are talking in Bella's truck and in the book all their talking takes place in Bella's house or in Alice's car, why change something so simple??? One more example of change would be at the end when they go see the Volturi and Aro snaps that guys neck, what?? In the book they just pass by the group of people coming in for a tour and Bella knows that is going to happen to them, especially the women who is pleading in another language.
Okay, okay I will stop going on and on now! All in all I know that it will be great, I can't wait to see Edward and Jacob. I have to admit that I was a die hard Edward fan all through the books, but now that I have seen previews for New Moon, Jacob sure is easy to look at, isn't he? What team are you on, Team Edward or Team Jacob.

The Wall

I have been trying to decide what to do with the big empty wall in my living room for at least 2 years now and still haven't found anything to fill it. I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do it is just finding the right picture frames that is the problem. Here is a picture of my living room as you see it when you walk in from the entry foyer.



As you can see I have two good sized windows on the left wall and a sofa table with a picture hanging above it.



Then there is the wall on your right, empty!


I saw Candice Olson on her show Divine Design tackle a similar size wall in a dining room in one of her makeovers. She had a template that told her the different size frames to buy and how to lay them out on the wall. She then took a bunch of the families pictures and had them printed in black and white to put into the frames. It turned out great, so that is what I have been looking for. I did find some frames that came along with a template at Michael's, however, the frames were black and as you can see in my pictures I have no black in my living room. I would like to either do silver or brown frames.



What do you think, have any other ideas that I could do on that wall besides a bunch of family pictures???

Tuesdays Tasties

Wild Rice Soup




What you need:
* 1 can cream of chicken soup
* 1 can cream of potato soup
* 1 pound hamburger
* 1/2 pound bacon
* 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
* 1 can evaporated milk
* 1/2 cup cooked Wild Rice
* onion (optional)
* 3/4 cup milk

Let's Make it:
-fry bacon, cook meat (if you want to add the onion I added it at this point about half way through the meat being cooked) and cook wild rice.
-Drain any grease from the bacon and meat and pour into crock pot.
-Add soups, cheese, rice and evaporated milk.
-cook on low, after a few hours or so add 3/4 cups milk. If it is still too thick when you go to serve the soup you can add a little more milk to the mixture in the crock pot.

This is my sister's recipe, I made it for the first time this past Sunday and let me just tell you it is DELICIOUS!! I love new soup recipes especially easy ones you can do in the crock pot. What is cooking in your kitchen any good/easy soup recipes?

Family Photo Shoot

Back in October we had some family pictures taken with a photographer we used 18 months ago when Claire was 3 and Paige was 1. We almost had to cancel our session as Claire was not feeling 100% that weekend. She was a trooper though and both the girls did great for Kelly. When I look at the close of shots of Claire I can tell that she wasn't feeling herself as she looks tired, but she hung in there. Here are a few of my favorites from the session.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Christmas

Before we know it Christmas morning will be staring us in the face. I am trying to get as much of my shopping done now as I can. I am pretty much done with Claire, they are so much easier as they get older because they ask for certain things and have interest in specific areas. The one big gift that Claire is asking for this year is a Leapster 2.

Santa will bring this for her I am sure. She also would love some games to go with it which is a great gift idea for grandparents/aunts and uncles.

Claire LOVES art so she also is asking for some Pixos.

Now I don't know anything about Pixos, meaning if they are a good present or not. My sister has bought them for my niece who is 7 and said they are kind of a pain in the butt, we will see.

Have any of you heard of these new things called Zhu Zhu Pets?? They are the new thing out for Christmas this year if you have children in the age range of 2-7 years old. They are IMPOSSIBLE to find, but only if you don't have a sister or mother like mine. :) My sister stood in line every Tuesday morning, with my dad in tow at Toys R Us for 3 weeks to get tickets so she could get these little hamsters. My mom has been stalking Target and Walmart for a month being the first one to arrive on the days that they got their Zhu Zhu shipments in. So needless to say, both of the girls will be getting two Zhu Zhu's each, each a house for their Zhu Zhu to live in as well as toys for the cute little hamsters to play with.



I also have bought the Hungry Hungry Hippos game which we all had as a child. I remember my sister and I sitting around playing that over and over again, hitting the handle that opened the hippos mouth so hard that the marbles would go flying across the room.

That is basically all for Claire along with a few books that I bought her through her Scholastic Book order from school.

Paige is REALLY into baby dolls. The gift that she will be asking Santa for is an American Girl, Bitty Baby Doll. Cory and I got one for Claire last Christmas when she was 3 1/2, come to find out Claire never really got into baby dolls at all and hardly ever plays with her Bitty Baby. Paige plays with Claire's doll all the time, making Cory and I realize how much she would LOVE her own.

So again I am sure that Santa will bring Paige her baby doll which she has already named Suzie Mae! Again with Santa bringing Paige her doll this leaves good ideas for grandparents/aunts and uncles as to some gift ideas that could go along with Suzie.

As soon as American Girl has their free shipping which is usually some time during the month of November I will order her doll and the Bitty Baby Snack Set to go along with it.


As I said earlier in my post both the girls are getting two Zhu Zhu pets and a house, however, I don't really have any other ideas for Paige. I guess I will head to Toys R Us next Monday when both the girls are in school and wander up and down the aisles looking for ideas.

What are your kids asking for Christmas this year? Any ideas for a 2 year old little girl???

Tuesdays Tasties

Ham and Cheddar in a Loaf

I thought that it would be fun for all of us to share some of our favorite holiday recipes over the next couple of months. It can be something that you make for Thanksgiving or Christmas. One of your favorite brunch recipes, appetizers, salad, main dish or dessert. The first one I am going to share with you is my Ham and Cheddar Loaf recipe which I like to make on Christmas morning when we have my in laws over to visit, see the girls and open gifts.


What you need:
* 1 lb. frozen pizza dough, thawed
* 1 pkg. Oscar Mayer Deli Style Ham
* 1 cup Kraft Shredded Cheddar Cheese
* 1/4 cup Mayo
* 1 egg beaten
* 1 tablespoon Parmesan Cheese

Let's Make it:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Place dough on lightly floured surface, then roll into 12 x 8 inch rectangle.
- Top dough evenly with ham, overlapping slices slightly, leaving about 1/2 inch around all sides.
- Mix cheese and mayo then spread over ham.
- Moisten edges of dough w/ water. Start at one long side and fold one third of dough over filling, then repeat w/other side.
- Firmly pinch ends of dough together to seal.
- Place seam side down on lightly greased baking sheet.
- Cut 3 diagonal slits in top of dough
- Brush evenly with egg, sprinkle with Parmesan Cheese
- Bake 35-40 minutes or until golden brown
- Cool 5 minutes before cutting into 6 slices to serve.

What are some of your favorite holiday recipes??

Our Weekend

The weather was absolutely gorgeous this weekend so we spent a lot of our time outside. I wanted to take as much advantage as I could of the 70 degree weather because that will probably be our last warm weekend for quiet a while.

Friday night Cory the girls and I went out to dinner at Chevy's Mexican Restaurant. We got the Chicken Flautas if you haven't had them I strongly recommend you trying them next time you go. The rest of the night was quite we went home, put the girls to bed and then Cory and I caught up on some of our shows from earlier in the week.

Saturday we went over to my sister's around 4pm to celebrate my mom's 61st birthday (sorry mom). It was really low key, we opened presents, sang Happy Birthday, had cake (from Dairy Queen, one of those ice cream cakes), visited for a little while and then left. We then got some dinner and headed over to Dave and Lori's house to see Madeline. A few months ago I threw a baby shower for my friend Lori and Madeline made her grand entrance into this world last Wednesday 11/4. I of course couldn't wait and had to go see her on Thursday the 5th while they were still at the hospital. My dad came over and watched the girls while I ran to the hospital and she is absolutely beautiful from head to toe. Congratulations Lori and Dave!

So Cory and the girls got to meet her for the first time on Saturday night. The girls were SOOO excited and did great with her! Claire is at that age were she understands how important it is to be careful and gentle.



Paige got so excited and was so wrapped up in the idea of "holding" Madeline. All she wanted to do was look at her.

Sunday we played outside, I worked with Claire on riding her bike in the street. She is fine on the driveway but she needs to get more confidence about going faster, stopping on her own from a faster speed and steering. Later in the day Claire and I went to my nephew's soccer game, that was fun. We then came home stayed out until dark, 5:20pm, Cory BBQ some chicken and then got ready for the week ahead.
How about you, what did you do this weekend?

From Curly to Straight

August of 2008- Claire was 3 years old

July 2009- 4 years old

November 2009- 4 1/2 years old



Over the past few months I have noticed that the curls that Claire once had are slowly starting to disappear and it has been harder for me to make her hair look cute! I have been throwing around the idea of blowing her hair out straight to see what it would look like for a month or so. Today when my sister was over she asked if I had thought about drying Claire's hair to see what it would look like, so after she left I decided to give it a whirl and it looks really cute. I think she looks more like me with the straight hair and Claire LOVES it!!
I remember when I first realized that she was going to have curly hair I was disappointed as nobody in my family has curly hair and I had NO idea how to style it. With help from a few friends and neighbors who have experience with curly hair I quickly learned how to style it and it was ADORABLE! However, now that she is older the tight little curls are turning into more loose wavy curls and her hair just look wild all the time no matter what I tried. So I think we will go straight for awhile and see what happens, I know Cory is going to have to get use to it as he isn't a fan of change and he really loved the curls as did I. However, I think the straight hair looks better and makes her look older, what do you think?

Is it bad, Part II

Is it bad that:

* while the girls were at school this morning I raided their Halloween candy for chocolate?

* I have gotten a laptop through work and now I am even more hooked (if it is possible) on the computer than before?

* I lay in bed in the mornings and listen to Paige call for me to come in her room to tell her she can get up and the whole time I am laying there I am trying to block her out and praying that she doesn't wake up Claire?

* I have already started buying Christmas presents?

* While I was checking out at Target this morning some lady ran her cart into mine and even though she said sorry and I said that's okay I was told my look said something entirely different. (It was actually a friend of mine who hit my cart with her cart on purpose and she said my face told exactly how I truly felt)

* I can't hide my feelings better and that even though I may say one thing my expression says another?

* I forgot to put candy in Claire's lunch box today and all her other friends mom's didn't.

* I could not help one of my students last night with an Algebra problem? Seriously, it was a word problem and of course he didn't have his book and I am HORRIBLE with Algebra!

* I totally forgot to help Claire do some "homework" for school today so when the other kids were turning in theirs, I had to admit to the teachers that we didn't do hers yet?

* when I was walking into the mall today I saw a women walking out who seemed to be shooing a bug away from her head, she seemed to be having trouble as she kept waving at it and then I think she thought it was on her somewhere because she was wiping at her arm and all I wanted to do was yell "OMG it is on your head and it is HUGE!"

Tuesdays Tasties

Pumpkin Pie

It is definitely that time of year to make this pie. Pumpkin is Cory's favorite pie and to be honest I never really cared for it until now. My mom would always make pumpkin muffins or pumpkin bread when I was growing up, but never pumpkin pie. I know that Cory likes it so I decided to surprise him with it one day when he got home from work. I too tried it and am now a huge fan, along with Paige! I have made probably 4 pumpkin pies over the last month I think. Wow, that sounds really bad when I say it out loud like that! So far Claire is the only one in the family that isn't a fan, but you never know what the future holds. While Cory, Paige and I are having the pie, Claire is having a bowl of Cool Whip cause you can't have pumpkin pie without it!!

* I'm sure that everyone has their own recipe for Pumpkin Pie so I will not type out mine. If you don't have a recipe I just follow the recipe on the back of the can of pumpkin. My mother in law did share a little something that she adds to her pumpkin pie, 1 and a half tablespoons of whiskey. It turns the pie more of a brown color verses your usual orange and gives it a little bit more pop.
Do any of you add anything to your pie???

Halloween!

Happy Halloween! I hope everyone and their kiddos had as much fun as we all did. The rain finally quit and we had sunshine and 50 degree weather. By the time we headed out around 6pm it was definitely getting cool but we did not complain, there was NO rain and we just wore a couple extra layers!
This was the first year that we went over to my sister's house and went trick or treating with them. Claire asked Cory and I if she could to go with her cousins (Lauren will be 8 in Jan. and Adam will be 6 in Feb.) this year. We have 3 families in our neighborhood who we have gotten to be good friends with and have always spent Halloween with in the past, however, our neighborhood isn't as big as my sisters and we have quite a few party poopers. So we packed up and headed over to Aunt Amy's and Uncle Jeff's for dinner, trick or treating and a bonfire with treats for the parents too! :)

I love this picture! The girls and Cory carved the pumpkins together. Claire LOVED it she stuck her arm right down in that pumpkin and pulled the "guts" out by the hand fulls.
My pumpkin with her pumpkin, yes even though we went over to my sisters we still carved a pumpkin and took it with us!
Paige was acting so silly and would give us great smiles but her eyes would be closed.

Lauren was so sweet to the girls. I was a little nervous about Lauren and Adam running ahead with their neighborhood friends but Lauren didn't she stayed with her cousins the entire time. Even after Paige was done with her trick or treating, she made it to about 15 houses and then was ready to head back to Aunt Amy's, Cory continued on with Claire and said Lauren stayed with her the whole time. I love my niece to pieces (my nephew too of course), all four of them get along more like siblings than cousins.
Here is our Clone Trooper!! My handsome nephew, I didn't see too much of him last night as he was SO excited and on a mission, but I know that he had a great time!
Trick or Treat, Paige and Claire waiting patiently for their turn to get to the door. The bigger kids did tend to push the little ones out of the way, until Lauren stepped in and stuck up for her cousins and told her friends to let the little ones go first! Have I said how wonderful my niece is and how much I love her???
Back at the house, checking out her loot
Claire seeing what she got.
Warming up and snuggling with Papa (my dad) and Daisy, my sisters 8 month old mini Schnauzer. My dad just decided to grow a beard, he hasn't had one for over 30 years we are all still getting use to it.