25 Days of Christmas Blogshare!

I am so excited, I have joined with 24 other bloggers to bring you 25 days of Christmas  posts.  Each day, I will let you know what blog to visit to see what fun Christmas ideas they have to share with you (I will be on Dec. 24th).  So, make sure to check back here every day in December!

Beginning December 1st, join us on Parga's Junkyard for a 25 Days of Christmas Blogshare!

25 amazing bloggers have joined forces with Parga's Junkyard to bring you the ultimate in Holiday goodness.

 

There will be recipes, gift ideas, tutes, stories, stocking stuffer ideas and much more!

Be sure to check the Christmas Blogshare post of the day everyday in December, beginning December 1st. New friends are the greatest blessings any time of the year...

 

 

December Blogshare LineUp!

December 1st - Tots and Me -

December 2nd - Vodka and Motherhood

December 3rd - Your Mama Said What

December 4th - Happy Go Lucky Harvey

December 5th - Bleak 2 Unique

December 6th - Pargas Junkyard

December 7th By the Brook Designs

December 8th - Radcrafter

December 9th - Pounds 4 Pennies

December 10th -. Smitten by Abigail

December 11th - Empty Nest

December 12th - Tiaras and Bowties - Think Smink

December 13th - The Freshman Cook

December 14th - The Bunnies of Christmas by Mary Ellen

December 15th - My Simple Walk

December 16th - Clipper Girls Saving Spot

December 17th - Musings From a Sahm

December 18th - Larissa Hill

December 19th - Coupons for Wisconsin

December 20th - Allergy Free Cookery

December 21st - Liz Finding My Own Life

December 22nd - A is A Family

December 23rd - Lee Me and the Girls

December 24th - My Crazy Bliss

December 25th - Golden Reflections

Christmas is my favorite time of year and I am so excited to be able to share a little of the excitement and fun with you!

Do you have a Christmas blog post you would like to share with our readers? Sign up on our linky below to share your posts! If you are one of our readers and would like to see more Christmas posts click on the Linky below!

Merry Christmas to All!

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Owl Themed Baby Shower

I love baby showers.  Especially when it's one for any of my sister's first baby (babies).  She is due in February with twins and I wanted to share the cute stuff we did for her at her shower. 

Once all the guests arrived, we had them go to a seperate room to decorate onesies.  My sister is going to need ALOT of onesies, so we thought we'd help her out.  We had some material scraps and patterns like footprints, an airplane, little hand, bear etc. that everyone could trace onto the material and then cut them out.  Everyone was able to then iron on the shape with transfer paper to the onesie.  Here's a few that turned out SO cute!

My creative and talented sister Chelsy made all the decor:

And the YUMMY food:

We had: veggies & dip

               fruit & dip

               chocolate cupcakes with a caramel cream and toffee topping

               crackers & dip

               chocolate covered apples sprinkled with coconut and almonds

               pink lemonade from glass jars with striped straws

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I'm Back!

I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend.  I know I did and I'm excited to share what has been keeping me busy this weekend.

I just back from a short trip to Utah.  It is so cold there (I know I'm weak) and I am glad to be back to the 60 degree weather!  I am so excited for Christmas and all the fun crafts and food. 

Right before my trip up to Utah, I found out my sister-in-law had her baby (3 1/2 weeks early).  So, it was perfect timing because I got to see her when I was up there:

This is not a glamorous picture of me.  I had been driving all day, and I just didn't care!

The kids got to play with their cousins who they haven't seen in 2 months:

And, I got to help out at my sister's baby shower!  She is expecting twins (a boy and a girl) in February.  I am so excited!!  I also found out that my other sister will be expecting her first baby in July.  There are so many fun baby things I want to make: 

I'm the one in the purple...

It was such a good weekend!  Now back to the routine and finding some ideas on using up the rest of the turkey.



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Happy Turkey Day!



I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving.  I am grateful for this time of year to reflect on all that I have been blessed with.  Most of all, my family and the gospel.  I'm grateful for my children and all that they teach me and for the support and companionship of my husband. 

At times, I want to pull my hair out and wonder why I'm given the challenges that I have, but I know the Lord loves me and that I am truly blessed. 

Have a good one everyone!

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Kids Say the Darndest Things!

My Monkey #2 is my character.  He says the funniest things and is always making me smile.  This morning he was watching Robots the movie (for the 200th time).  At the beginning of the movie, it has the robot parents opening up a box of parts to "make" their robot baby. 

I was helping my son get dressed as he was watching this and he asked,

 "Mom, who put glue on my ear?"  

I looked at his ear and didn't see glue on it.  So, I asked him,

"I don't know who did?"

He said, "Was it Jesus? How did my ear get there" (melt my heart)

Yes son, Jesus "glued" your ear there.....

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Thanksgiving Frame

Here is another idea for a cute and easy Thanksgiving printable.  It comes as a    4 x 6 printable that you can download.  I then just added it into a frame I already had.  I found the quote at

Simple As That.

I really like this saying....

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Our Thanksgiving Tree

Here is my version of the Thankful Tree.  I had a hard time finding some good, bare branches.  There is still a lot of green on the trees here. 

 I cut out some circles with a circle punch and I sat down with the kids to think of some of the things we are grateful for.   I put the branches in a glass bottle with some river rocks as a filler.  I added some rafia around the bottle tied into a bow.

 I hope this will be a good reminder to them of all that we are blessed with!

Linking up with:

                

                                                     

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Sweet Baby of Mine

I love this sweet little baby of mine....

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Book Review - Lilies in Moonlight

I had the chance to review the book "Lilies in Moonlight" by Allison Pittman.

Overall, I would say this book is mediocre.  It was somewhat slow at the beginning, but I really enjoyed the last part of the book.  I have a hard time getting into a book when the beginning is slow.
Lily is a young woman trying to find herself and she is running from her problems.  She does not have a good relationship with her mom, which is why she has runaway.
Cullen is a young man who is also trying to discover himself and who is hiding from his past.  His father died young, which has left Cullen to help care for his mother who is suffering from dementia.
They come together and eventually fall in love.  Along the way, their love is tested.  They both must overcome individual hurdles that are preventing them from growing as a person. 

I think the end of the book just ended bluntly.  I know every book shouldn't have a "happily ever after", but I feel like this was a rushed ending.  Nothing was ever resolved between Lily and her mother.  Although, with a mother as stubborn as hers, that could be difficult.
I really enjoyed the last part of the book, but the beginning was quite slow.  It was a good book, but one I would not highly recommend.

 I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.  All opinions expressed are solely mine.

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Thankful Tree

I'm going to be making one of these this weekend:

Love it!



Each day/week have your family write down on each cutout circle things that you are grateful for.  It will be a visible reminder of all you are blessed with!

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Thanksgiving Subway Art

If you like subway art like I do, you'll want to check out Blooming Homestead.  She as some great ones to print out like this one:



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Pumpkin Bread

Here is another recipe I want to share.  I really wanted to make some pumpkin bread and I found a great recipe.  I found it here at Simply Sweet Home.  The bread turned out really good.  It was moist and just right. 



Photo Courtesy of Simply Sweet Home

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Bacon & Cheese Chicken

This recipe was really nice because it was made using my crockpot.  It turned out really good too.  The only thing I would change would be to add the cheese a little before you eat.  That way it will be nice and gooey.  I ended up using 9 chicken tenders.  Click here for the recipe.

I served it with Lemon Rice.  The rice turned out really well too.  I added too much lemon zest though, so it was Super tangy.  My kids didn't enjoy it as much as I did.....

I've found a neat new food blog that I really like.  Its' called Favorite Family Recipes.  Click here for the rice recipe.

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Good Stuff - AmeriSciences



I've just got back from an AMAZING weekend conference for AmeriSciences.  I have met some wonderful people and made some wonderful friends.  I have been SO impressed with the products and the results people have from using the products.  The products TRULY work and change lives.

I was introduced to these products from my husband.  He went to his 1st conference in 2008.  Since then, he, along with his brother and father, have opened up the state of Utah for this market.  Recently, my husband and I have made the decision to move out of state to Las Vegas to open up this area. 

I have previously sat in the background while my  husband has done this.  I've believed in the products, I just didn't have the vision.  They are the BEST stuff out there!  After the conference, I have been extremely motivated to start helping him get this business going here.

During the conference, speakers talked about how if you are not happy with your current situation or job, it's up to you to make a change.  You CAN change and make your life better.  People who have a VISION are going to go somewhere in life.  I believe God loves each of us and has a plan for each of us.  We can make whatever plans we want in life, but if God's plan is different, we have to accept that. 

These past few years, I have felt God's love strongly and have seen His hand in my life.  I know He places people and experiences in our path that will help mold us into the people He wants us to be. 

I TRULY believe He wanted us to move here for a reason.  I am so ready for a change.  I know there are changes I need to make in my life to be truly happy and be the person God wants me to be.  I have been doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

So, anyways, after all this- I am going to, along with my husband, focus on this business.  I want to share with everyone how wonderful these products are.  I want to help people.

I have decided to start another blog in addition to this one, that is solely on AmeriSciences.  I will post information about products, news, updates, etc.  I have seen the products work in my life and know how great they are.  I have seen proof and studies of the benefits of using them.  If you'd like to get more information, here is a link.

Anyways, I am very excited and wanted to share with you......

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New Changes, New School

I've made a very hard decision.....I enrolled Monkey #1 in public school.  It is a bittersweet thing.  I loved homeschooling him, but since we moved, the new online school we were going to use required so much time.  I also work from home and it was very difficult to fit everything into the day without getting behind on my hours or never getting any housework/errands done.  I turned into a major stress ball!  I believe in homeschool and everything it stands for, it's just difficult right now.

I visited a lot of schools (charter and public) and found that he would be happy there.  He started yesterday and loves it.  There are 3 kids in our ward in his class, along with a neighborhood boy that he plays with.  His teacher is SO nice and I really like her.  I am so excited for him and I feel like so much pressure has been lifted off of my shoulders.

I still plan on doing extra things with him (because I feel he is a smart kid!) along with doing some homeschool with Monkey #2.  So, that is the plan we will stick with for now. 



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Happy Halloween

The kids had a lot of fun this Halloween. They got WAY too much candy!

Monkey #1 was Spiderman

Monkey #2 was a Dinosaur

Monkey #3 was a Cow

(In case you couldn't figure that one out on your own!)



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