bow giveaway is here!!!

It's finally here-the Christmas bow giveaway in honor of my 300th post about my daily life...although this is officially post #301 :-). I'm thankful to those who have stuck around for the ride and if you are new to my blog, feel free to stay. Lets be friends :-).

I'm having a hard time being creative SOOOOO I'll use a number generator thing to select the winner. To help give direction to your comments you can leave one telling me:

1. what Christmas means to you

2. your favorite Christmas song

3. any fun traditions you do with your family

4. do you prefer a fake tree or a really yummy pine smelling one?

5. do you have a color scheme or theme for your tree?

Feel free to leave a comment for every thing I've listed. This will give you more chances to win. Yay! If I were you I'd come back every day or so and post an answer to help spread out your comments...that's IF anyone even enters to win this bow.

Now, take a look at the prize:
It's a multi-layer bow with all kinds of Christmas involved.

Contest ends Saturday, December 12th. One full week folks! Good luck!

P.S. Feel free to tell your blogger friends!

blog make over

So, how do you like the new blog look? I wasn't going to redo anything until I got new pics of Isabelle on Tuesday but I couldn't resist. This will be the second year that we don't have a traditional Christmas tree and it kind of puts a damper on my Christmas spirit. I grew up with big and fun color coordinated trees every year, sometimes two trees, and so it stinks not to do that with my family. I gave our tree and decorations (that were my mom's to begin with) back to her when we moved here so I don't have anything Christmasy to put out :-(. We actually don't even have stalkings. How sad is that! ANYWAYS, BECAUSE I have no visual, homely Christmas decorations to call my own as of now I decided it was totally time to bring Christmas to my blog. I'm so glad I did. It makes me feel tons better.

On another note, what a nice feeling to wake up and know I have absolutely nothing I HAVE to do today. I mean, I obviously have my normal wifely/motherly duties to tend to but other than that it's just a day of football and snacks at our home. I love that my hubby is already up with me and the tot is still sleeping. I'm going to start on a menu for this week and go to the store. I really do enjoy that when I get to go alone. And usually I even enjoy it with my gal BUT some days the grocery store is just not for me. I'm sure we're all like that from time to time, right?! I think mainly I don't like going when I'm pressed for time or in desperate need of something because then I feel rushed and when I'm rushed it seems like everyone in the world isn't cooperating with MY time frame. HAHA! I'm sure I'm not the only one to have ever thought this.

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I feel so much better now that I have a fun Christmasy thing to look at that I totally did on my own. It's mine. I did it. I own it. Awww, Merry Christmas.

One more thing, guess what this post makes?!! Anyone?? 300! That's what. CHRISTMAS bow giveaway coming very soon! YAY!

hot chocolate & Baby "Elno"

Two nights ago the hubby and I enjoyed our first cup of hot chocolate of the 'season' together while we watched a Christmas movie-Four Christmases=hilariously funny. It was so nice to just sit and relax and be on the same schedule. (heeeey Isabelle :-D)

AK has been obsessed with her Elmo lately. She puts him in her little stroller and pushes him around the house allll day long. When I have the door open to the extra room where the baby swing and infant carseat are being stored for the time being she'll get him out of the stroller and put "baby Elno" in for a swing. It's the cutest thing ever and the closest thing to 'mothering' that I've ever seen her do. She's not interested in baby dolls but baby Elno instead. Below is a picture of her AND baby Elno swinging together.
Yeah, so she's about 7 pounds too heavy for that swing but oh well. Fisher Price did a dang good job when they made that sucker.

Not liking baby dolls and the sorts leads me to discuss AK's Christmas presents. She's not getting dress up clothes, purses, dolls or fake jewelry this year. No. She's getting the Mack truck from the movie Cars, a race track to drive her cars on and I'm pretty sure Daddy will be tossing Mator and Doc in the mix as well. How funny is it that we're buying BOY toys for our little girl. Wow. When we go visit the toy aisle it's ALWAYS the aisle with all the firetrucks, cars, bulldozers and the likes. Actually, the other day she sent this one car a singing and she was in the middle of the aisle waving her arms in the air and spinning in circles. I love that girl. I wouldn't trade her for ANYTHING in the whole wide world!

Well, that's all the updating I have for now. I'm off to sit by the window with a cup of hot chocolate waiting for the snow to fall. Yes, it's supposed to snow here today in Texas and I'm so excited. We'll see if the big T can pull it off.

family pics

While we were in MO Sean's cousin Teresa took some family pics for us. I can't post my faves because they are Christmas present surprises but I'll show you some of the others.

AK cooperated pretty well thanks to her Uncle Kevin, magnets, ice and some extra beanie hats that I threw in the air like a mad woman all so they could come down and hit me in the face. Yeah, that's some humor my tot has there. Whatever, it totally worked and that was my goal.

Isn't she just scrumptious! I sure love that little girl.

MO pics

I've started two different posts this week and haven't completed either of them. I think I'm in a blogging funk these days. I just don't feel like doing ANYTHING! BUT I must. I don't want to forget these days before they're over and gone.

So, here's a little picture collage of our time in Missouri. They are mostly pics of AK, of course. I did toss Isabelle in there once.


AK enjoyed playing with cousin Teresa's pup, Annie. She loved that little doggie.

While we were traveling, AK would call out "Cece" whenever she thought she saw her car or felt like we were even close to her house. Which is funny because Cece only lives and hour and 2o minutes away and the only time we're in the car for that long is just to see her. I guess she figured since we had been in the car so long we MUST be going to see her Cece. It was actually kind of sad because she would get REALLY excited and I'd have to tell her we were not going to be seeing Cece. We did call her often, however.

The whole time all she wanted to do was play outside. It was kind of hard to manage because it stayed on the cool side and I didn't want her to get sick. Mostly it was just the wind. I hate the wind.

She napped and slept like an absolute angel the whole trip. It was incredible. Now we're starting completely over here at home since she got used to rooming with us on her blow up mattress.

As I've said before, the trip was good and it was GREAT to see some fam.