Catching Up...

How did it get to be the middle of December already? I guess the same way I lost the whole month of November. We had a great and cold Thanksgiving. It snowed before Thanksgiving and then was about 10 below the whole week. We are loving all things Christmas in our house right now. The gals were so excited to get the decorations up this year, we started before Thanksgiving. We have been trying to really get the true meaning of Christmas into the gals heads. They love talking about Baby Jesus. Gracie's birthday is on the 20th and we keep asking her whose birthday is coming up and every time she says, "mine and Baby Jesus." I bought a gingerbread house kit and we had a blast creating it one night. There was also an awesome live Nativity that we went to. It was a real spiritual experience to me to walk into a barn and see the scene and there in a manger Baby Jesus way laying. He really was born into the most humble of circumstances- how blessed we are to celebrate his birth this season!!

Gracie cracks me up. One night she put 2 of our stockings on and was walking around the house saying she was Santa.

The live Nativity was rainy and muddy but we had a blast. Thanks Keith, Shawna, and girls for going with us. I have to explain the picture of Sean- he came straight from work and had barely gotten new, white shoes that he had worn once maybe twice- so he covered them with grocery sacks. The gals thought it was so funny and were kinda embarrassed by it. They also talked us into going on the hay ride- it was a fun night!

One night after we had gone to the Nativity, Gracie wrapped her blanket around her and said, "Look mom, I'm Mary." She also had a complete and total meltdown one day. She said she wanted to go and see Baby Jesus again and I told her it was over. And she started crying as hard as I have seen her cry- huge tears were coming down her cheeks. She then said to me, "I just miss Jesus so much and I just love him so much." I got tears in my eyes as my 3 year old testified of her love for her Savior.

The house is all decked out and we are LOVING it. We went to Preston on Monday for FHE to see the Hollingsworth's house. If you have never made the drive up there to see it, you really should. They have a couple field's filled with wood painted scences from Disney shows, Shrek, Mickey. This is a tradition that my parents did with me and now we are doing it with the gals. They LOVED it and we drove through it 3 or 4 times. (Up next, Gracie's 3rd birthday!)

9 Years

Happy Anniversary Babe- I Love You!!
(We will be celebrating tonight by taking care of sick kids- very romantic)

Bow Giveaway

I have an amazingly talented friend named Chantel that makes the most adorable bows!! She sent an email out last week asking if anyone would be willing to do a giveaway on their blog for her bows. And I thought why not?

The Darling Daughter is the name of her company. Check out the website. She makes awesome boutique looking bows, way cute fabric flowers, the cute knit hats (my gals LOVE these), cute headbands for little babies, and she has started making posh petals. These are a new twist on the flowers that you see everywhere. These are interchangeable! So you pick the colors you want and then you build your own flower to match the outfit your little one is wearing. How great is that? You reuse, rebuild, and create lots of different flowers. I LOVE this idea!

Posh Petals

Another great thing about Chantel is that she will custom make any of the bows to match your daughters outfit perfectly. She has made a lot of my gals bows to go with their Easter and Christmas dresses! If you aren't sold yet, the prices will sell you on these bows! I have seen similar bows to the ones she makes sell for double or more of what she charges!

BUY IT

Head on over to The Darling Daughter and buy your favorite bows. (You will have a hard time choosing.)

WIN IT

The Darling Daughter is giving away a $20 GIFT CERTIFICATE for hair accessories to one person from my blog!! That is awesome!

MANDATORY ENTRY

Visit The Darling Daughter website and tell me what your favorite bow is.

EXTRA ENTRIES (leave a seperate comment for each entry)

1 Entry: Become a fan on THE DARLING DAUGHTER facebook page

1 Entry: Update your Facebook status with a link to this giveaway

2 Entries: Add The Darling Daughter button to your blog. Code at the bottom of the page.

4 Entries: Post about this giveaway and include a link back to my blog (please put the link to your post in your comment)

Giveaway closes December 12th at Midnight

Winner will be chosen using Random.org & announced the following day

(Open to U.S. Only)

GOOD LUCK!

(Remember to include your email in one of your posts or have it available on your profile so we can contact you of your win)

If you would like to add The Darling Daughter Blinkie to your webpage here is the link

http://www.thedarlingdaughter.com" target="_blank">http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj278/pocketposies/updodarlinganimated.gif" border="0" alt="The Darling Daughter Ad Blinkie" />

Shutterfly Chirstmas Card Giveaway

I have been thinking about my Christmas cards for quite awhile now. I was excited a couple weeks ago when I was looking at one of my favorite hair ideas blog and she had a post about an AWESOME giveaway from Shutterfly. This giveaway is for bloggers you go here- and follow the instructions and can get 50 free Christmas cards!! Who doesn't love getting things for free and I usually end up spending quite a bit of money on my Christmas cards. Although I have never used Shutterfly I am excited about this website because there a lot of choices to choose from. It is going to be super hard to pick which one I am going to use for our Christmas card. They have other great products to- like calendars and cute invitations.

In the things I have been seeing lately, bright colors are really in for Christmas cards- I love this one.

I love browns and I thought the presents were so cute!

I love the folded styles they had!

Fun in the Leaves

A couple weeks ago, when it was still warm, the gals got the rake out and played in the leaves. I have so many fun memories of playing in the leaves. My parents have a big maple tree in their yard and we would get a lot of leaves from it and our neighbor Donna had an awesome leave tree. My sister and I and the Christiansen gals made some epic houses out of leaves. We would make walls and rooms and have so much fun. The gals had a ton of fun playing, raking, and jumping in the leaves.

A 6 Year Olds Declaration of Love

My little Brooklyn is so boy crazy- I don't know what I am going to do with her. This is her conversation with me on the way to dance.

Brooklyn: "Mom, I have a boyfriend and it isn't even Justin. His name is Peydon."
Me: "He isn't in your class, how do yo know him?"
Brooklyn: "We chase each other all the time at recess. He had another girlfriend before me and she broke up with him. I told him I am SOO not breaking up with him."
(Imagine her using a dramatic voice, head bob, and rolling her eyes and such)
"And mom this is not just a crush- I like like him. And when we pass each other in the hall I'm like 'Hi, boyfriend' and he's like 'Hi, girlfriend'"

Heaven help us!!

HaLLoWeeN

We had a great Halloween this year! We started our festivities on Tuesday when our Ward had a Trunk-or-Treat. Then on Saturday we went to Sean's parents for a little party, did some trick or treating in Wellsville, and then ended our night at my Aunt Paula's for the annual party. The gals decided on what they wanted to be this year. Gracie wanted to be Tinkerbell (and we already had the costume- score!) Brooklyn wanted to be Dorothy and my good friend had the cutest Dorothy costume she let us borrow. All I bought this year for costumes was Brooklyn's shoes- yay!! The gals looked so cute and are loving all the candy they got. Sean looked awesome in his mullet wig and I told the gals I was dressing up as a mom (I am a dud and don't love Halloween)!