Christmas Eve will find me...

This year, we are spending Christmas with our little family and loving it! I spent most of the afternoon baking with help from my boys. First, we made a birthday cake for Jesus. I let the boys decorate, if you were wondering:)



Last year I found this great recipe for the BEST fudge EVER. Well this year I made the same recipe but did walnuts instead of the candy canes. YUM! You can find the EASY recipe HERE.

And since I didn't do the peppermint fudge, Ryan requested some white peppermint bark.

I am a sucker for Chex mix. And popcorn. And caramel. I found this AMAZING recipe for Carmel Chex Popcorn HERE. I did however change up the baking process a bit. I think that baking it in the oven gives it a MUCH BETTER taste! So... Heat up your caramel ingredients on the stove until melted. Drizzle over popcorn, chex mix, and peanuts. Shake in covered container. Bake for 20 min @ 250 degrees, turning mixture every 5 or so minutes. Viola! So good!

Our card wall is FULL of cards! I just love walking by looking at all of the pictures and cards that our friends and family have sent us! It reminds me of all of the wonderful people in my life and how I am thankful for the wonderful gift of great people!

And... Our tree is up and finished. We decided against lights this year. Don't ask me why I only bought lights for our two bushes outside (one of which burned out already) and didn't get an extra strand for our tree. Oh Well. Today, I finished it off by adding the matryoshka doll handmade by my friend Nikki. She is SO talented and amazing might I add. She does ornaments every year and I am very happy to see mine on my tree again this year! Cute, huh?

 (I just can't seem to get a good picture of the tree, but we found these really pretty brown ornaments at Hobby Lobby. LOVE!)

I think I will call her Patty

Grandma Kathy sent cards and gifts. This is my most favorite card of all time. And it made my baby girl smile:)

WHEW! Well, there you have it.

Merry CHRISTmas to all and to all a good night!

Braided Updo

Thought I'd share a quick, simple updo of mine with you! Rosa is getting married in September of next year so of course she is looking for the perfect wedding "do". Thought we'd have some fun. This is more of an everyday up-do, but good for getting some other ideas!



(maybe soon I will start doing some tutorials!)

Hairspray

            Have I EVER posted about hair? Hmmmm... I think I need to do something about that! I have been finding some awesome hair blogs recently that have inspired me in the hair department. Since I have been inspired lately, my hair has been looking a bit better:) I have been accustomed to doing my own hair since I am usually so busy with the kids. I must say, I WANT to get my hair done by someone else. Recently, I had a friend from work trim up my horribly uneven layers. THANK YOU Rosa! Much better:)

Here is what I came up with today:

don't mind the visible bobby pin:)



Products I used: Big Sexy Hair- Blow Dry Volumizing Gel, Root Pump foam, Spray and Play hairspray

Sexy Hair

(Round Brushed)

The Lotion and Williamsburg

This past weekend I was able to take the kiddos on a trip with my sister's family. She lives a couple of hours away, but we thought it would be fun to do a "mini" vacation to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg. Ryan has finals this week, so he was able to get a quiet house all to himself!!! (And by the way... he has earned A's on two of the six finals so far! YAY Babe!)

On our way to Williamsburg we decided to keep on driving to Virginia Beach. Why Not? It was SO cold! But SO AMAZING! We ate lunch at a great little pizza place a block away from the beach and then walked over to take some pics. My brother-in-law is a great amateur photographer, and it's hard to choose just a few, but here ya go!

 This is my cutie pie nephew!


(And by the way... My boys call the Ocean the Lotion:))

Beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

This week we are putting the final touches on our home Christmas decorating. We set up a couple of light strands to the front of our town home and I also made a simple rope hanger for all of our Christmas cards. The card hanger is filling up with more cards everyday and it is nice to walk by and see pictures of our friends and family:)

Here is a sneak peak of what I started... More to come!



A house, A home

We have been in our townhome for about 4 months now and things are starting to feel like home. I found this artsy canvas project on Pinterest that I just loved, so I decided to try! I did change up the colors a bit to fit our color scheme, but overall I am pretty pleased:)