Christmas Fav

Picture from Uggaustralia.com

For Christmas I received a pair of these lovely slippers.  They are wonderful!  Coming from someone who goes barefoot while at home slippers can sometimes be sticky and too warm.  These are comfy and perfect for running to the garage, grabbing the paper or even driving to get coffee.  And seeing as how I have been blowing my nose and sneezing all day yesterday . . . I may be living in these today.  Thank you Mom B for the great Christmas gift!

A Night to Remember

Baker and I celebrated our 8th anniversary this week. 
I decided to share how incredible our evening was with you. 
(Aren't ya'll on the edge of your seats now)???

First, he brought home these beauties.  Flowers are a very rare treat in this household and I love, love, love it when they are a surprise.  Why I wasn't expecting flowers for my anniversary, I'm not sure, but anyhow.  Probably because he surprised me by making reservations for dinner.  This meant not just traveling down the street to a local place.  Reservations = forethought.
HUGE BONUS POINTS!  HUGE!

Then, he gave me a wonderful card.  Baker gets the BEST cards.  He can walk into any store, with a minute to spare and find the most absolute, wonderful card fit for the occasion.  Probably my reason for scoring him bonus points with reservations.  He actually planned ahead.  Moving on.  Oh yes, my card . . . had a picture of two bare feet on the front. 
The caption read:
I love the days when we never get around to shoes . . .
When all we get around to is us.
(Ahhhhh . . . sniff, sniff - (told you he picks the best cards))!!!

Then we had reservations on the waterfront at McCormick and Schmicks. 
They personalized our menu's just for us!

By the way, I had the chef's recommendation and boy was it tasty!  So much, that I inhaled my dinner and waited while Baker proceeded to eat the remaining three quarters of his plate.  No kidding.  I think I made olympic record time.  So, I decided to use the restroom.  At which point I ran into a family friend that goes way back.  Probably since I was born way back. 

HUGE Hugs. 

I can't believe it! 

How are you?

Why are you here?  We are celebrating our anniversary!

Which anniversary? Our 8th.

It's Mr. M's 50th birthday and so we are celebrating together. 

And so to conversation continued.  In the restroom. 

Until our men were wondering what on earth had happened to us.

So we parted ways with promises of whomever was leaving first to stop by the other's table to show pictures of my little girl (who's middle name happens to be the same as Mrs. M's).

We got dessert. 

We got the bill.

We paid the bill . . . or so we thought.

And then our server came to our table.

Those really, really nice people, she says as she looks over her shoulder, just paid for your dinner.

Baker and I just stared at each other in shock. 

Oh my goodness! 

Are you kidding me?

So of course there were more hugs.  Huge thank yous.  And lots of showing pictures of my babies.

It was an unbelievable evening.  One we will never forget.  An evening that was truely heaven sent!

To My Husband

You are passionate and insightful.

Loving and discerning.

Wise and purposeful.

Hardworking and genuine.

You are a strong leader.

You are a caring father and your children adore you.

You were made for me and I for you.

I love you and am so incredibly grateful for our 8 years of marriage.

The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.  My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest. 

Isaiah 32:17-18.

Fast Food Diet

I saw this commercial and no kidding. . . yelled at the tv.  ("NO! NO!  Are you KIDDING me?") I didn't know  whether it was for real or a joke and kept waiting for the punch line.  Well folks.  It's no joke.  If you're lookin' for a diet to jump start your weight loss, then perhaps you could consider this one.  I present to you . . . The Fast Food Diet.

Just A Wii Story

Luke and I are in the playroom.
I am playing the wii.

Me: Man, this level is hard! (I kept losing).
Luke: I played this one last week. (Very nonchalant).
Me: You did?
Luke: Yeah.

Put in my place by my three year old.

More Chocolate Stuff . . .

I saw this flip calendar at the Chocolate Factory "store" at the beach. I laughed out loud and had to take a picture.

Hope you all have a great Tuesday. I'll be workin' my chocolate off. AGAIN.

Chocolate or Gym. Or Chocolate.

Yesterday went a little something like this.

Gym.
Kids haircuts.
Lunch.
Make coffee.
Eat a cookie. Yum. Eat another cookie.
Throw in some laundry.

Natalie finds one of my empty purses. Luke and Natalie fight over who gets to play with my purse. Luke yells, "NO! That's my PURSE!"

Read to kids. Have an awe...I love being a mom moment.
Nat goes down for nap.
Eat chocolate.
Put Luke down for nap.
Finish my coffee and eat more chocolate.
Shower.
Eat some chips.
Dinner.

Find some Junior Mints it the pantry. Bust open the box. Share ONE each with the kids. Put them in the freezer.

So if you wonder what I'm doing this morning it had better not be rummaging around the freezer for Junior mints. That's for sure. Hopefully not.

Shooper Winner!

Thanks to all who participated in the shooper shoes giveaway! Thanks to the handy dandy random.org a winner was chosen. Number 16 - SCRAPIN' MAMA!!! Congratulations!

LAST CHANCE!

Last chance to enter the shoopers giveaway!

NOW CLOSED

Visit Shaunna's cute Etsy shop - Mom's Blankies and leave me a comment which size and print would be your shoe of choice.

Giveaway ends tonight @ 7pm PST.

GOOD LUCK!

A Tad Late . . . and Other Stuff.

I know I'm a bit late with my New Years Resolutions list, but I'm still compiling it. This is just my rough draft. (smile)

• Go to bed earlier. My bedtime was ridiculous. Seriously. Midnight. 12:30 am. So my resolution is to go to bed by 10:30. So far . . . havin' a little trouble. So I may adjust it to 11pm. Still much earlier than I was previously ending the day.


• Be on time to my classes at the gym. I notoriously get to my class while everyone is warming up. ANNOYING. Much of this has to do with getting to bed earlier. Last week I did okay. I actually arrived before class started! But, I would like to have all my weights set up and ready to go.


• I would like to see some stomach muscles this year. I can feel them . . . but I can't see them yet. I still have my "baby love" hangin' around and I don't need that anymore.


• I want to read at least 12 books this year. Some parenting/marriage/spiritual and some fiction. The fiction is easy. The self help books are harder to follow thru to the end. I would love some suggestions. Anyone have some recommendations? BTW - this has to do with the going to bed earlier = reading before bed. I will have to be purposeful, as it is much easier to watch tv and be on the computer.


• I already shared the memorizing scripture with the kids in this post.
  

I'm sure I have more resolutions, but I have a little boy who just woke up @ 11:30pm. Which reminds me. . . I should be in bed already.

Happy Birthday Shell!

Happy Birthday Aunty Shell! I hope it's one of your best yet.
I love you sister! ♥

First Giveaway of 2010!!!

GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED

It's my first blog giveaway of 2010! That's right!

I'm pleased to introduce this super cute Etsy shop called: Mom's Blankies.

I came across her shop a few months ago and was so impressed with range of adorable little shoes she makes called, shoopers. The sizes range from newborn to size 10. And the prints that she offers are awesome. From plain, to cordoroy, camo, polka-dots, John Deere, Buzz, to Minnie Mouse or even personalized little shoopers.

Shaunna, the powerhouse behind the store, Mom's Blankies is offering a pair of shoopers to you! The winner will choose any print and any size shoopers of their choice. What an incredible opportunity!!!

Here's how to enter:

• Visit Mom's Blankies Etsy store and tell me which pair of shoopers is your favorite.
• Become a follower by clicking on the FOLLOW Google tab on the right hand side of my blog.
• Twitter, facebook or blog about this giveaway and leave the link in your comment.

For every entry please leave a separate comment.

Giveaway will close Wednesday, January 13th @ 7pm PST.

A Resolution

When compiling my new years resolutions, I think of the things I want to change, improve, learn or just start doing (don't we all)? While coming up with my list I also like to also make a list of small steps to help me reach my goal so I don't get discouraged, quit and feel like I failed.

This year, I wanted to incorporate my children into my new years resolutions. One of my new years resolutions is expose my children to more of God's word by helping my children memorize scripture. When I was young, my mom had an alphabetical book of scripture. So with every letter of the alphabet I had a verse that went with it.

For instance,
A: All we like sheep have gone astray.

B: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
C: Children obey your parents.
You get the idea.

I decided that if 25 years later I can still remember those verses then what better way to teach my kiddos and help them keep God's Word in their hearts and minds. So, I found this book at the Tree of Life outlet while we were at the beach.

I'm excited to go through this book and seeing has how there are 26 letters in the alphabet that gives us two weeks for each letter. Rather a long time for each verse, but I figure if we miss a week, go on vacation or whatnot . . . 26 verses in one year is exciting to me. The only thing now is to figure out when we can be most consistent in going over our verses. I'm thinking before bed or at breakfast.
Have you made any resolutions that include your children? I'd love to hear your ideas. I might just have to steal a few ;)

PS - Tonight is the premiere of BIGGEST LOSER!!! If you are looking for motivation for your new years resolutions this is a great show to follow!

Monday Musings

I hope everyone's New Year is off to a great start. We were at the coast for the extended weekend with Baker's family. We had a fun time, all the cousins yelling and running around the house playing together with the occasional fighting or rough housing match. Now, we are home and facing the reality of putting away Christmas.

I have NEVER had my Christmas decor up this late and am trying to find a way to incorporate the soft white lights that I love at Christmas into our everyday decor. For Christmas, I ended up staging a small tree on the countertop in my kitchen. It's my Starbucks tree :) Now I'm thinking I may turn it into a Valentine's tree. The picture doesn't do the tree justice. At least in real life you don't see the strand of lights. It was a magical coffee tree ;)I have some new years resolutions in the making that I'll be sharing with you soon and a giveaway coming up on Wednesday. You won't wanna miss that! Happy Monday!

GO DUCKS!