Merry Christmas to All...

Well, the time is finally here. We are drawing upon the 13th hour of Christmas Eve and can I just say I can't believe it's here! All of this preparation and finally only hours away from being able to enjoy Emma and all of the Christmas Magic over the next few days.

I got this email today that I thought I'd fwd on to everyone. scrapnfonts has this gorgeous free font (http://www.scrapnfonts.com/searchdetail.php?psku=12133). I personally def. plan on using it for next years cards/gift tags.

Most of all I just want to wish everyone a wonderful and safe Christmas with your families and loved ones. Enjoy every moment! And let's celebrate Jesus birth!

I am going to be gone probably until the new year, but will be back full force then! I wish you all a Happy New Year too!

ME = Been M.I.A

I feel like it's been forever since a post. I totally went MIA this week b/c my laptop had some major issues going on with it. I still don't have that fixed, but did hook back up the desktop and got that working, so I'm a happy mama again!

I promise the next few days to return the comment love that I've gotten this week.

So, a couple week's ago I called our portrait studio - and to my amazement they were already booked solid until after Christmas. I mean really how did I let the time get away from me that I'm missing out on our yearly family picture and getting Emma's pictures. I swear it's like an addiction I love taking her and looking through all of the great shots they get. But looks like we're doing without our family picture at Christmas this year, perhaps at Easter we'll do one, and the hubs and I decided we could try and take them ourselves. We took about 20 of them and the last shot was the keeper! My little girl is growing up, I mean yes I knew that, but man she just looks so grown up to me in this picture.

Today the hubs and me spent the day cleaning up the house some and baking. Yes, I was actually able to convince him to help me with pretty much all of the baking. We made 4 different cookies, peppermint bark, baklava, and there's still a dough in the fridge being chilled which will just have to wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow left to do - make fudge, last cookie batch and gingerbread house. Needless to say, I'm sick and tired of washing dishes, I felt like I was always washing a sink full of dishes. Put away clean one's twice and there's another set out drying now. Bleah! Why can't this old house have a bigger kitchen for me to get a dishwasher?

Tuesday Tidbits

The little one and me are just hanging around the house in our pj's today. Well, until I need to get dressed for work tonight. It's crazy weather outside, in the past 5 minutes it went from rain/sleet/snow mixture to just snow now. I really hope it stops for my commute tonight, am not looking forward to that.

Kimba is having a Holiday Open House. Go on over and check out all of the great holiday link up's.

And last night we made an impromptu trip out to Candy Lane, that Hershey Park puts on every year. It was in the 50's so why not take advantage of the nice weather for some outdoors christmas fun. Tons of gorgeous lights and they had 30 rides open throughout the park. Emma wasn't that into the rides, we did the Merry-Go-Round and she hated it. She's gripping that horse like there's no tomorrow, and we didn't even have one that moved up and down. We went up the kissing tower, where we got to see the whole park, as soon as we went up she kept saying down, down, down. It was cute. We did do the antique cars and she most defintely loved that the most. Hopefully when we go back in a couple years she'll like it more.

She looks so tiny at the one sign of lights.

Looks like I'm getting kisses, but she didn't want to let go of me.

She's gripping that pole on the horse.

Here we are moving on the ride. She hated it. The hubs said everytime we went by he'd hear her say "mommmmmmmmy". I couldn't help but laugh and try and soothe her

Picture of us.

We got to see the reindeer.

Daddy and Emma, looking over the bridge at the ducks.

Christmas In Bloggyland Tour!

Muse Swings: A Christmas In Bloggyland Tour! Everyone - and that means you - is invited to participate and share your holiday spirit with your bloggyfriends - however you wish - on the 15th.Show your decorations, your memories, stories, pictures, recipes, music, art, poetry, nature - anything -whatever you like on your Christmas in Bloggyland post for the 15th.

Jingle Bells..."HEY"!

Emma loves saying HEY at the end of every line for Jingle Bells, so decided to tape it this afternoon after our pictures of the tree. :o)

Christmas Tree Craft

Yesterday I pulled out this little craft kit I had picked up a couple weeks ago. I assembled the tree during her nap time. Then when she woke up, put the glue dots where she wanted them and let her adhere the ornaments. Then we let those dry some and put some clear glitter on the ornaments. I think it turned out beautifully!

Friday Fave's

My first edition of doing this, thanks Deann for telling me to start doing this. No real theme for these, just my fave's for the week.

1. OMG to these candies! Candy Cane Hershey Kisses are here to stay! I have 5 left, so that means I've eaten a bag of these yummy goodness in a week & two days time. I will say to my defense Emma has gotten into them a handful of times, it took her all of 2 seconds to unwrap one and pop it in her mouth.

2. This stuff has been out for a while, but I had avoided it like the plague for crafting. Why? I don't really know. But yesterday did two crafts with Emma with it, and it's one of my favorite mediums now. So easy to cut and sticks well. Craft foam is one of the greatest things!

3. I love good smelling laundry. I have started using this new Downy Total Care. The one thing I love about it, is that my clothes keep the scent. Before didn't really matter what I used and you'd have to get close to smell it. Now I can just smell it's yummy goodness wafting up to me when carrying the basket of clothes. Even the hubs has commented on the smell.

4. I had loved this stuff before, but they keep coming up with new kinds for different things you need for your hair. My hair has never been more silky and smooth. And it smells good to! LOVE IT!




5. This months issue of Scrapbooks, Etc. I always love getting the lastest issue. I read it cover to cover and love seeing everything the have in their and that other fellow scrappers are doing.

Sugar Cookies, Snowflakes, & Tree's - OH MY!

So, here are a bunch of pictures that I've been uploading throughout the week, and have been wanting to share...

Emma and daddy prepping the dough to be rolled.



Watching.

She loved playing in the flour.

Her new "cheese" face with a wink thrown in.

Getting ready to help daddy push down the cookie cutter.




The end results, yummy! Emma decorated them all.



Taste Testing - I think they got two thumbs up!



Enjoying some homemade chex mix and smiling at daddy!



Snowflakes that the hubs and me did. He did the Emma one, which I think turned out awesome!



Playing around with my camera trying to get a night shot of the tree.



Look what I figured out to do. It was lots of fun! :o)


Tuesday night I swung by my mom's to pick up some craft stuff and she surprised me with having this christmas ball tree for me that she finished earlier in the evenings. Isn't it gorgeous?




And had to try out the fun light shot on this too.

Friends Award

Earlier in the week Michaela gave me an award. Totally made my week. Thank you again Michaela! So, now to pass on the award love.

"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

I'm passing it on to these 8 amazingly awesome women, go visit them if you want to find some new reading :o) -

Designs by Deann

StampinMom

Zen Ventures

Our Happy Nest

Trying to Stay Calm

The Acting Mom

God Speaks Today

Crimson Cropper

a good reminder

One of my new blog friends Shuana @ Trying to Stay Calm has such a bright cheery blog and she gives some of the best comment love. She posted this story about what a Santa told her boys a few years ago and I love the meaning of it all so wanted to share. He was wearing a JOY pin and said:

The J is for Jesus

The O is for Others

The Y is for Yourself

He told them to find true JOY in your life...

You should think of Jesus, Others and of Yourself to truly find Joy and happiness!

I want to meet this Santa because I think it's a great message.

In other news, I'm feeling so done and over with cleaning. Have cleaned the house up a bajillion times this weekend it feels, plus cleaning out the basement which really, need I say more? So, today is a fun girls day in our house. Lounging in our pj's all day. I just finished painting Miss Emma's toes. And I'm about to go cookie recipe searching and we're going to be baking some cookies. I seriously love Monday's so much!

Happy Holiday's from the "R" Family!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Decorations are all up

and I've finally got the pictures all ready to share. First lets start outside of the house, the wreaths my mom and me did that I showed last week are finally hung on the house.





And we get to enjoy the trainset we got on clearance after Christmas, it's my favorite!



Come inside for a little visit and as you pass by look at the pretty wreath I got over the weekend.



Many years ago my mom made these for the family, a santa, the base is a clorox bottle cut in half, felt and lots of yarn.



And here's my nativity set, that the FIL has made. This year I'll get the final 3 peices, the wise men, where am I going to fit them all I have no clue yet, but they are pretty!



SalVal finds that have been spray painted and tons of goodies hot glued on for my new holiday centerpiece. The pine cones are the ones we found on Thanksgiving day.



Come into the living room and take a gander at all of the goodies on my shelving unit.



Our christmas tree all done.



Here's the top of the tv console.







End table - as Emma would say the daddy snowman, mommy snowman, and baby snowman.



As your heading up the stairs watch out for all of the pillows.



Here's a better view of them lining up the staircase.

Thanks for looking around the house! :o)

Some Scrappy Blog Candy

Another giveaway that I read about on Deann's Blog, Andrea @ Blueprint Sketches is giving away some blog candy b/c her son is turning 18 and she's in the giving mood. Go on over and enter for your chance to win!

Any other Wednesday

Well, SITSmas is over. It was tons of fun. I was able to participate much more than I expect, I visited 50-60 blogs and spread the holiday and comment love. I'm hoping to squeeze in some more the next few days. Congrats to all of the winners from yesterday's prizes!!! Enjoy them! And I just want to say thank you to everyone who visited yesterday/today!

One of fellow SITS-tah's, Sandy @ God Speaks Today, that I visited yesterday is having a giveaway. The prize is a $25 gift card for CooperSong. They have beautiful stuff. Go visit Sandy and leave a comment for your chance to enter. Also, please say you heard it from me so I can have some extra entries. If you want some extra entries, send your friends!

Anyone need some great ideas for making ornaments. Go check out Jamie @ StampinMom, how adorable are these glitter ones! I love me some glitter! Good thing I'm going to WalMart tomorrow and perhaps a quick stop into Michael's also. Looks like I have my weekend project.

And in other news, our microwave is officially broken. Which saddens me to no end. I don't think I realized how much I used it until this morning when making us some toast for breakfast. I always zap my butter a couple seconds to soften it, so instead I had to think of some way to soften it without melting it. Trickier than you think. But alas, I came up with something, holding the stick over the toaster, bu watch your fingers if you get get too close to directly over the toaster, those things get hot! And must rotate the butter or else just one side will melt.

Now I must do the normal cleaning stuff around the house and play with the little one before lunch & nap time comes.

Merry SITSmas!

The day is finally here! It's SITSmas over at The Secret is in the Sauce. The comment love and holiday cheer is a flowing and they are giving away a prize every hour! The grand prize is out of this world!!! Featured as Friday's Favorite FB (featured blogger) and a $200 gift card to Target! Really do I need to say more?

Here's a little holiday love from the little one.

The Crafting Bug

has really hit me the past month. I saw this Ragamuffin Garland over at Nesting Place. And I fell in love with it and decided that I needed one for this holiday season. I raded through my mom's fabric scraps, leftover material from pillows we just covered, and some heavy felt for some different textures, spent three nights cutting up material and here's what I ended up with. Fortunately I only used 1/3 of the fabric I have cut up, so looks like I can make some smaller ones for the doors around the house. Here's my final project. You know you want to go make one. Go scrounge around for some fun scraps of fabrics or things you are done using and busy your hands while enjoying a show.


Sorry for the poor quality on this, the light in the background threw it off some.



Closer view of the garland.

24 Hours later...

and we went from this, the little one's prior room and nursery decor, to our finished adult room! I'm completely in love. We did switch rooms a couple weeks ago but have been so busy with other projects that we haven't been able to pay much attention to our room. Saturday night around 10 pm, the hubs started priming the room a last night at 10pm we finally finished and were ready to crash into bed. I'm in love with these curtains I got yesterday, they are lined in the back, energy saving and gorg-e-ous more in person then the pictures show. Now to go on the hunt for room decor and the perfect bedding!