Christmas Cards...

Christmas is right around the corner...I have not done nearly enough shopping yet, and the house is far from being decorated, BUT I have our Christmas card just about picked out! One of my favorite things about Christmas is getting Christmas cards in the mail. My favorite one's are always the one's with photo's. I know some people find it hard to make time to make one, but Shutterfly makes it soooo easy for you! Just take a peek of all the options you can pick from: HERE The designs are to die for! You can have folded cards, flat cards, all kinds of different sizes, your options are just a click away!

I have used Shutterfly in the past to make baby annoucements for my second born. I gave birth to my 2nd child when my first born was just 12 months old, and let me tell you I really appreciated how quick and easy it was to design an impressive card while caring for two babies.

Right now I am debating between one of Shutterfly's options of a collage card such as this one:


If I can find a good one of all of us I'd love to use this style:


While I am at it, I plan to also order make a photo calender of the girls for my husband's grandmother. Check out all their options HERE

Another option for an awesome grandparent gift would be to make a photo mug from Shutterfly's website.

One thing is for sure, since Shutterfly is being so awesome and giving bloggers 50 free cards for blogging about them, I will have more money in my Christmas budget this year to get those special gifts! If your a blogger too, there is still time to get this wonderful deal, just go to this website

Carmel Popcorn

My oh so talented sister in law, (check out her blog here )made some yummy Carmel popcorn a few weeks ago, and shared it at a family gathering. It was sooo yummy, and she shared the secret, that she found it on a blog. This morning I was wanting to make something new, so I gave it a whirl, and put my own touch on it as I didn't have the exact needed ingredients. You can find the original recipe here

To make it the way I did follow this:
You will need:
1 c of brown sugar
1 stick of butter
12 cups of popped popcorn
3/4 tablespoon of cinnamon
1/4 cup of honey
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla

I popped my own popcorn as we own own a handy dandy popper. Seriously, go by one. They cost about $20 and they will last you forever.... Popping your own popcorn is much tasties then microwaving, and MUCH cheaper.... To get the needed popcorn amount I used 1/2 of unpopped kernals.


Here is my popcorn waiting to start poppping!



Once popped, I poured it all in a large bowl



Then in a microwave safe glass bowl I combined the brown sugar, butter sliced up, cinnamon, and honey.



Put it in your microwave for 2 minutes, and stop it about every 15 to stir up. Your stuff will melt together and form the carmel. Then when it is all gooey, stir in your vanilla and baking soda which will cause it to foam up some. I don't have pictures because I didn't want to burn myself or drop my phone in the gooeyness. So sorry. Then pour over the gooey mixture in your bowl of popcorn and stir it. Work fast but carefully to try to get it as coated possible.

Then take a baking sheet lined in foil, and scoop on your popcorn. I may have made a bit too much popcorn or just not have a large enough baking sheet. Whatevers... Stick it in your preheated oven on 250.



Make sure your little ones keep an eye on it...



This process lets it get a bit harder. The original receiepe calls for you to stir it around some, but obviously if I were to have done that, it all would have gone in the bottom of my oven and stunk up the house. So I just let it sit in there for 20 minutes.

Put out some foil on your counter



Then take out the popcorn from oven and spoon it on the foil. I heated up some chocolate melts and then drizzled some over the popcorn.



Let it sit for a while for the chocolate to harden up. My kids went nuts over this. Seriously, after they ate a ton, and I shared a small bag with my parents this is all we have left.



I am saving those for my husband and his friend who have been gone all day fishing in a tournament. Hopefully I can keep the kids away from it!

I think Santa would just put coal in mine anyways....

Oh how I wish my family needed new Christmas Stockings.... These from Ballard's just rock my world. They are currently on sale for $25 and that comes with personalization. I simply love the cheetah detail on the cuff! Ballard's has really cute Christmas decorations this year. Go check them out!

Nearing the end of the week.....

Wooo weeeee, another busy week has come, and it's not quite over! I had my last fall ball softball game of the season, and probably my last one maybe forever. Our team pretty much came in last place, as after having a awesome season last year they put us up two divisions, so we were playing co-ed teams that travel, and compete seriously. Yeah, we won one game this season.... I enjoy playing, but with the kids getting older and having their own activities, and with joining the junior league, I just feel guilty doing it as it takes me away from home even more. My oldest daughter will be old enough to start playing tee ball this coming spring, and I would like to be able to go to her games, and possibly help out with coaching. They are also still loving gymnastics, and Emily will be starting in January with it, so time is just going to be valuable.

Speaking of the junior league, I have really enjoyed it. I have met a lot of awesome ladies, and the good that they do for the community is just unbelievable. As a new member, our class has to do new member project, and we just picked our project, and it has me just so excited! I am a bit overwhelmed with it, as we were given our placements for the rest of the year in the new member class, and I asked to be the corresponding secretary, and I actually got it. I thought it would be fun, and honestly I will just admit I thought it would be easy. It's going to be a lot more involved then I thought, as I have a lot to keep up with the many different committees on our project, and do the agendas for our meetings, and meeting minutes, but I am excited to have an important role. I will share more about our project as it develops more....

I made a good dent in my christmas shopping for the kiddos. I really wanted to get the new Fisher Price IXL for my older girls as their big gift from Santa, but was sad about the price, as well, we need two. I was counting on it to be a black friday special, but luckily, it went on sale at Target this week, AND one target's website they had printable coupons for it too, so I used the coupon with the sale and so I saved $40 total. I had to go to two different Target's to get pink IXL's, but hey they are bought, and I got a good deal.... You better believe it though I am hanging on to my receipt in the event I can get a better deal closer to Christmas....

Speaking of Christmas shopping, I just discovered the amazon.com wish list function. You can download the universal tool bar button, and from any website if you see an item you like you can just click to add it to your amazon wish list. This is pretty nice and a easy way to create a wish list so people know what you are after for christmas! Truth be told my list has crazy expensive items that I will probably never get in a million years, but it's all in good fun haha. You can add comments by your items like the size and color you are after etc.

I have been trying new recipes, been on a pumpkin kick lately...I made a yummy pumpkin log from one of the junior leagues cookbooks, and last night we did breakfast for dinner and I made pumpkin pancakes. My kids are obsessed with pancakes, so they really enjoyed this tasty treat. I got the recipe from http://www.thebrunettefoodie.com/2010/11/10/pumpkin-pancakes/

They are so yummy. We will def be having this again.

Mesh Wreath How to....

After seeing some pretty mesh wreaths I became focused on making one myself... I saw some pretty ones on Etsy for $100. I figured it couldn't be THAT hard, or cost that much... This am I went to Sam's Club and bought two things of mesh. Each cost under $7, and I probably used 1/4 of each spool. I bought some picks and decorations at Michael's, and spent $14 BUT I didn't use three of the more expensive decorations on the wreath (I will figure out something to do with them later). Here's the mesh I used:

And here are the supplies (excuse the poor quality of my cell phone pictures.)

For my wreath base I just used my old fake wreath that has lights on it that don't work. I figured the lights would be covered up so it wouldn't matter. The fake branches on it really helped with holding the mesh. They also held my picks in too. I didn't end up using any hot glue.

I stuck in an end of the mesh in the wreath, and then about 12 inches down I gathered it, and then used some of the braches on the wreath to tie it, and just continued gathering all around the outside, and then I went back and did the other color on the inside. I got the gathering how to from a youtube video found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beNMTZL78DM

She used a different wreath form and floral pins, but the gathering is the same....

After doing the mesh I just jabbed in some decorative picks, and then hung it on the door.... I love it!

I always have so much fun putting up my halloween decorations....putting them away though is not much fun. While my older two were at school this morning I got busy putting things away. Truth be told I have to purchase another tote to store some of the things I made this year into storage in the attic. I have left up some items that can pass for Thanksgiving decor (pumpkins). I also printed some freebies that were made by a blogger. Go HERE I printed the subway word art one, and the Keep Calm and Gobble On one....

More then likely I will start dragging out Christmas decorations while I am home during Thanksgiving. Give or take a few days... I still can not believe Christmas is almost upon us! Speaking of Christmas my girls thought it was Christmas yesterday as I picked up something off freecycle yesterday that I knew would make them happy.... Not long ago we were at my sisters house and they discovered my nieces Bratz dolls. And it was love at first sight. So when someone offered up a crazy amount of the dolls, accessories, clothing, for free, I had to grab them up for the girls. Yes those things are ugly, but my girls have not stopped smiling since I brought them home.

This weekend I have plans to take my wee ones to a fall festival held at our local pool, do oodles and and oodles of laundry, attempt to make a mesh wreath if I can find massive rolls of mesh., and catch up on an extra hour of sleep.

Halloween 2010

This year for Halloween our girls were a princess, Tinkerbell, and a VT cheerleader. Poor Emily wasn't feeling so hot still from her cold, so she wasn't much on trick or treating. That's ok though because her sisters cleaned up shop in the candy department so there is plenty to go around. Several family members came by with little treat bags for the girls, and then of course they enjoyed trick or treating several times next door at my parents house before we even ventured off to some houses nearby.

Laura and Rachel were really excited this year and bickered over who was going to ring the door bell. Rachel really was in Tinkerbell form and kept pretending she could actually fly. They also thought they were pretty hot stuff because I put makeup on them for fun.

I'm dreading taking down the halloween decorations because I will be sad to see it go. I don't have any Thanksgiving decorations besides some pumpkins that we didn't carve. I did print a Keep Calm and Gobble sign off a blog that someone shared as a freebie that I will frame. I never bought any mums because plants die about a week later under my care. I'm horrible with flowers..... But that's ok because soon I will be dragging out come Christmas decorations! I have already had some people at work asking me what I am crafting for Christmas, and sadly I just don't have any ideas just yet.... Hoping I will see some cool ideas on some blogs soon.

I think I have just about recovered from my melt down the other day and I appreciate the nice comments. It really did help me feel not so alone, and not feel so crazy. I realize now that I am burning the candle at both ends too much. My softball games are almost over for this season, and I am pretty sure that I will not be play softball this coming spring, as it will be the easiest thing to give up. Tonight I had a late night at work and all I wanted to do was come home and spend time with my kiddos, but I had to change clothes and leave right away for my game. And I have to do that two more nights this week... But in all seriousness, I really, really, really, really, just want to sit down my 90 some year old grandmother and ask her, how in the world did she keep such a tidy house, have such awesome homemade meals for her family each night, keep up with the laundry and iron EVERYTHING, all while not owning a dishwasher and other nifty inventions. Oh to be a 50's housewife.