Friday, December 23, 2016

Friday Favorites #98

Happy Friday Foxy Friends! Officially my first day of winter break, yay! Yesterday I took PTO, but today...I'm on company time, which makes this "I only have 30 hours of vacation girl" very happy.



 So onto my favorites from this week:


Monday: $10 Target Haul
Tuesday: Our 2016 Family Pictures
Wednesday: December Cozy: My favorite Cardigan
Thursday: How To Celebrate Your Christmas Baby's Birthday



This weekend we celebrated Christmas with my cousins, I have 12 cousins and most of us are married and have children so it gets pretty crazy, but we wouldn't have it any other way. We grew up almost like brothers and sisters and I am so happy that we don't need our parents coordinating us any more to grew our relationships with each other.



Everything always ends in a dance party around here...





 Last night I went out with some friends for a Mom's Night Out, had a blast talking and laughing it up. Of course no picture, but it still deserves a #3 spot.

 

I'm getting a new Cricut for Christmas so I joined a group on facebook that shows people the crafts they've done and a place where you can get help. One of the suggestions was to get a Treasure Box from Cartridges and More. It's a mystery box that you pay $34.99 and you get about $215 worth of product! You don't know what's in the box, so it's super exciting opening the box. I might be addicted! Like I need more crafting supplies in my house! I decided to do an unboxing, since it's the first time I had gotten one. Go see what I got for my $34.99!

 
 
Only 4 things today, off to drive 300 miles round trip to see my grandma. If I don't talk to you before then, Happy Holidays...and Merry Christmas for those celebrating on Sunday. Maybe Santa get you everything you want/need and may you be surrounded by love.
 
 Linking up here
 
 
 

Thursday, December 22, 2016

How To Celebrate A Christmas Baby

Hello Foxy Friends! Back when I was pregnant with Baby Fox, I never in a million years would have thought he would be born in December, let only Christmas Morning! Seriously, my due date was in January, therefore I am having a January baby right? Wrong. When Baby Fox was born on Christmas day we knew we wanted to make it extra special for him. Funny enough Mr's best friend was also born on Christmas, and he said he always, always felt jipped. I knew I definitely didn't want that, so we created some traditions just for Baby Fox.

ONE:

We have a Birthday Tree. Yep it's a Christmas Tree that we decorate with birthday things, streamers and whatever theme Baby Fox wants that year. This year was Power Ranger Dino Charge (let me tell you how hard that was to find!)



2015 was Batman


2014 was Power Ranger Super Mega Force (apparently there's a difference)



2013 was Dinosaurs


2012 - I guess I forgot to take a picture of it that year...but here is it in the background, for the life of me I can't remember what the theme was....I think it was just birthday stuff, no real them other than finding fun birthday stuff at Party City.


 
2011 - The first year we did it was Cars theme, why? Because he was only 1 and he really liked toy cars, so why not.
 
 
Two
 
We decorate the kids door and leave it up for however long they want, who cares that it's not Christmas decorations. We like to decorate the door so when they wake up it's on their door ready to go.
 
2015
 
 
 
 
2014
 
 
2013 - I think the first year we did it, previously he was still in a crib and we didn't think it was as fun.
 

Three
 
Stop Christmas celebrating and do a birthday cake. Yes there are a ton of other desserts out there, but stop everything and sing Happy Birthday, have a special cake just for them.
 

This is last year to go with the Batman theme of course.




Four
 
We do a half birthdays. Every June/July we host a half birthday party, because honestly who wants to take time out of their precious, limited Saturdays or Sundays before Christmas to go to a kid birthday party. Plus what would they do, too cold to go swimming. Since we have a pool, we take advantage of the free entertainment. 
 


Same cake as Christmas time inside.

 
So those are 4 tips on creating a special day or two for your Christmas Baby. Plus I think Baby Fox likes that he gets to celebrate his birthday twice a year.

 
Linking up here  

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

December Cozy: Cardigans

Hello Foxy Friends! We're still talking about December Cozy with The Blended Blog ladies, and today I'm bringing you my most comfortable cardigan EVER!  Like this thing is so warm and cozy. I can walk outside in the 40° temp (I know that's warm for some of you, but it's cold for me) in just this sweater and be totally warm.

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Softest Cardigan EVER

Also styling my hair in a bun, for the life of me I CANNOT figure out the perfect messy bun, seriously why is it so hard?!


It's also the last Wednesday of the month which means I'm linking up with Shay, Mel and Sheaffer for What's Up Wednesday. Woo hoo, I actually remembered!



What we're eating this week:

I just got an Instant Pot, does anyone else have one? It's AWESOME! So far we've made two pork roasts, some shredded chicken and brown rice, everything was done in way less time, super easy clean up and tasted yummy too

Why everyone should buy an instant pot

You can even sauté in this thing, it's a one pot stop.

What I'm reminiscing about:

I can't believe that I'm going to have a 6 year old in 4 days! Where did the time go? Back 6 years ago, I had no idea that I was going to have a Christmas Baby in 4 days, I was happily going along that I was due in January.

This was his first visit to the pediatrician at 5 days old.


Trying out food for the first time...it didn't go well.



Santa picture, not crying just yet...



What I'm loving:

All of the Christmas festivities, the lights, the decorations, the crisp cool air, and all of the love that everyone seems to be feeling.





What we've been up to:

 It seems like we have something every weekend, weekend before last it was Legoland



Last weekend we had a cousin party and it was so much fun! Looking forward to next year already!





What I'm dreading:

Driving 300 miles tomorrow...with two kids by myself...wish me luck. At least I'll get to see my grandma and my cousins. It's been almost a year since we've seen them (this was taken last Januaray!)



What I'm working on:

Trying to get my house in order to host Christmas dinner for 24 people. Currently the place we are going to eat is a disaster! Taking today off of work so I can get errands done and prep.


What I'm excited about:

Having 11 days off of work, woo hoo! And we're going to see Chill at the Queen Mary, which we haven't done before. I hope it's super fun, and not too cold.


What I'm watching/reading:

I finally finished a book! I actually have been wanting to read this for a long time now...Woo hoo, I can't believe I actually finished a book, well we were on vacation, but still, I read it in only a few days, it was The Husbands Secret. Really good, but I totally called it towards the beginning of the book. But enjoyed reading it and see how everything unfolds.
What we've been watching lately, we picked up West World on HBO, have you seen it? Awesome! Stop and go watch it right now.


What I'm listening to:

Found this girl randomly on YouTube this week, I just think she's so cute, and has a great voice. I've really enjoyed all of her covers.




What I'm doing this weekend:

It's Christmas! My in-laws are coming to town, so we get to spend some quality time with them, and then doing the whole Christmas thing. Plus we're celebrating Baby Fox's birthday, so I'm going to be making this cake for him, except for the zebra stripes on the top, that's just going to be a picture edible overlay of Power Rangers. Fingers crossed it turns out, not doing a test run.

What I'm looking forward to next month:          

The start of a new year, new beginnings and maybe, just maybe getting organized, or something that resembles being organized. Oh and I have a weekend away with my bestie, we haven't done that in almost 2 years, so it's time!





 Linking up here

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

2016 Family Pictures

Happy Tuesday Foxy Friends. Last day of work till the end of the year! Woo hoo...well I'll probably check emails and do small things tomorrow, but from home, so totally counts as not going into work right? Either way, we're knee deep in wrapping gifts after the kids go to bed, so no time to do long intricate blog posts, so I thought I would share our family photos this year. Get ready for a picture heavy post.

Like I said before, this year we took our photos in September, we were still in the 90s and super hot. But the location we wanted, everyone else does too, so in order to get some photos with no other people in the background, gotta get it done early.

This is the one that we ended up using for our Christmas cards.



This is the back of our Christmas Card. I usually like putting the kids faces, but this picture was just too cute not to. I love that they are both in mid air. Too cute.

 

Some other family pictures that we liked:







Then some of just the kids:



And some with us with the kids.




And a picture that I absolutely adore, totally unplanned and didn't even know Baby Fox had done that until we got the pictures back. Melt my heart.


And that's a wrap, we bribed the kids with Swedish Fish and it couldn't have worked out more perfect. I really hope this is the start of smiley pictures and cooperation...that's probably asking too much right?

 Linking up here