$10 Target Haul: December Edition

Happy Monday Foxy Friends. Last three days of work before Christmas break, woo hoo! I'm so looking forward to it. It cannot come soon enough, I know this week is just going to DRAG! Anyway, I'm back at it with   Becky, Beth, Courtney. Elizabeth, Rachel, Stephanie, Tif  and Whitney for $10 Target Haul.

Here's what I ended up getting:

When I saw that sign I had images of Baby and Mini Fox in cute PJ's in front of the tree...

I just love how these turned out, and I only had to bribe them with a little ice cream to get it done, hehe.

The light up jingle bells I wanted to add to a wreath but then I got some different inspiration and went another route with the wreath. So I added them to my kitchen window display. You can't really see them in this picture, but they're there, and until I find a better place for the, that's where they'll stay.

As soon as I saw those sparkly clothes pins I knew they would go perfect on our Christmas Card display.

The gel clings are for the kids, and I kept forgetting to give it to them...so they have yet to put them on the windows. I mean I had to get it because it has a fox right?

How did I do? I spent $9.15, pretty darn good if I do say so myself. If played along this month, how much did you spend?

 Linking up here

Friday Favorites #97

Happy Friday! Woo hoo, we're off to visit my cousins for our annual cousins party! Okay so it's the second annual cousin Christmas, but like Mr. says, after two years it's a tradition, so we're onto a tradition here! Last year it took us a little over 3 hours to get there...when it should have taken 1.5 hours. So this year, we're spending the night the night before so that getting there is not a problem! Okay onto my Friday favorites.

In case you missed it:

Monday: Kids Behind the Blog
Tuesday: The Perfect Appetizer Cheese Tray
Wednesday: Kylie Lip Kit Swatches
Thursday: I Am Enough

A bonus post, I'm doing a giveaway for $125 to Kate Spade, don't forget to enter. If you're already following me on social media, it's a free entry, so get to it and enter!

I finally got to volunteer in Baby Fox's class, I surprised him this morning with it. He was super excited, even though he acted like a cool cucumber when I actually got there, it was cute. I just love his teacher she is the best.

It was holiday party time, so they got to do a whole bunch of yummy snack crafts. Which of course Baby Fox ate every single thing.

So happy that I could surprise him, hopefully I can do it again soon!

 

Last weekend was a blast. We started out on Friday with some Christmas light looking, we made some hot chocolate and got in the car. We were actually heading this this neighborhood, it's pretty cool it's a culdesak so it was low traffic.

 

As we were leaving we saw this sign, and I said, hey lets follow this bus, they know where all the good spots are...in theory it was a good idea, in reality it went back to home base...aw well, next time.

Then we hit up the fancy area in town...You can't tell but Santa is in the window.

 

 Then Saturday we hit up LEGOLAND, so much fun.

It's almost Christmas, so I thought I would share two friends who just opened their own online store. One of them is just starting out, like 3rd week open type of thing, but I think what she has is so unique. Instead of having to give friends or family the boring gift card hold that you get from the store, why not get a cute little purse to put it in? The bottom right is 8.5 inches wide, while the other one is about 3 inches wide, you can tell how big it is in my hand.

 

 

Here what it looks like with a card inside the little one. How cute is that? You can go to her Esty store, although it doesn't have much on it yet, she's still working on it, but you can email her at CSMDesignStudio@gmail.com for pictures of her designs.

 

 

  The other shop, is one that I am completely obsessed with, she makes the most beautiful jewelry! She calls her shop BEXO: Be XtraOrdinary.  She has free shipping right now until the new year, take advantage!

From left to right: The Amity Necklace, Endearment Gemstone Necklace and Verity Necklace

 

First these got with everything, and just ad that touch of sophistication. Second, holy batman I wear a lot of strips! Seriously this was not planned...I just happen to wear these things and take a picture, I might have a problem. Help me!

 

So you know my obsession with Kylie Lip Kits, well I had a video I wanted to put out with it, but, that didn't happen, so I'm sharing it now with you :) Enjoy my geeky self.

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You Are Always Enough

This post was inspired by my post I did for Whitney's blog for her Mommylogue series.

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You are their mother, you are always enough.

Let me explain.

My first with Baby Fox was typical one.  I went into early labor about 11am on Christmas Eve, and then labored through the night, I knew that I wanted to labor on my own for as long as possible, because I knew once I got the epidural I would be bed ridden. I lasted until about 4:30am and the pain was too much, so I asked for the epidural and was at 7cm. Phew, just in time, after 7cm, they don't give epidurals at our hospital. The epidural seemed to speed up my labor as I was at a 10 around 6:30am and ready to push. But Baby Fox had other plans, his heart rate was all over the place so I was really only "allowed" to push every 2-3 contractions to get his heart rate back up. Baby Fox was born at 7:19am on Christmas Day. I know, I never in a million years thought I would have a Christmas Baby. Our due date was early January, so it never crossed my mind I would go into labor early as a first time mom.

First selfie as a family of 3

Mini Fox...wow Mini Fox was like a tornado. We had put Baby Fox to bed about 8:50pm, and I had my first contraction while I was putting him to bed. I kissed him goodnight and went down stairs to watch some TV. Mr. asked if he wanted him to start timing the contractions, I told him not yet...then about 15 minutes later I was like maybe we should start timing them. About 9:45, he says I think we should head to the hospital, I was like I just started, it took forever with Baby Fox, let's just wait. He said well I'm going to call your parents to have them come over. I told him I wanted to take a shower, while we waited. So off to the shower I went, while in the shower, probably the warm water in hindsight, I was having so many contractions it took a good 30 minutes to take what usually takes me 10 minutes. Of course I was wearing this really super ugly nail polish (Baby Fox wanted me to paint my nails orange) and I didn't want all of my pictures to have orange nail polish. Mr. said we don't have time for that, let's just get going. Just then my parents showed up and I had a contraction at the top of the stairs, and then another one at the bottom. My parents were certain I was going to have the baby at the bottom of the stairs. Luckily our hospital is only 12 minutes away, but man those were a painful 12 minutes, the contractions are now 2 minutes apart. I'm getting no relief. We get to the hospital ER (since you have to enter through there because it's now about 10:40), and they take one look at me and said sign here, here and here and we'll fill it out later, get her upstairs! We get there and I tell them my contractions are about 2 minutes apart, but I'm talking normal and smiling, I'm sure they didn't believe us. They tell me to change into the gown and get in bed and they'll come and check me. As soon as I change and I am about to get on the bed (literally, one leg on the bed and one leg on the floor) my water breaks. I tell Mr. I either just peed myself or my water broke. Mr. calls in a nurse and she takes one look at it and says yep your water just broke, they change the sheets and clean up and I get in bed. I tell them I want the epidural right away, so can they give me the IV fluid. They check me and I'm at 7cm. The nurse gets the IV in me and I am having contractions on top of each other. Just as she finishes (5 minutes later), the other nurse says let me check you again, and I'm now at 10cm, no wonder I was in so much pain! I ask, so does this mean no epidural...insert sad face here. There are people running around everywhere, I'm screaming in pain...and I just need to push, the nurse says, stop pushing there isn't a doctor here yet. So I wait through one push, the doctor runs in, and catches Mini Fox 2 contractions later. Wow, I just did that with no drugs?! Say what?! That was NOT my birth plan!

See the orange nail polish?

I've been through both sorts of births, both a medicated one and a natural one, so I have first hand experience. Does having one sort of delivery make me a better mother? No. Does having an epidural make me weak? No. Does having a no drug delivery make me a better mother? No. Does loving my children unconditionally, no matter what make me a better mother, Yes! When it comes down to it, that's all that matters, that we love our children no matter how they came into the world. So let's celebrate a new little human coming into the world instead of judging how someone prefers to get that little human here.

Don't forget to enter my $125 Kate Spade giveaway!

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Kylie Lip Kit Obsession

Hello Foxy Friends, if you are hoping over from  Whitney's blog, welcome! I know this months theme is December cozy, but you know what makes me cozy? The Kylie Jenner lip kits, haha. Seriously though, I'm obsessed, Christy first mentioned them in one of her favorites posts and I had to have them, so back in August I bought two...then a couple of months later I bought another two more, then a few weeks after that I bought another and then 2 weeks after that I bought another...seriously it's an addiction. If you haven't heard of them Kylie Jenner has come out with a make up line and one of things in her line is a matte lipstick, it comes with a lip liner and a liquid lipstick that has the most power staying power ever. I'll put it on at 8am and at 8pm, it's still there.

Some of the ladies over at The Blended Blog decided since we are all obsessed with the lip kits that we would do a blog hop showcasing what each of our colors looks like on our skin tone. We all have Posie K, so you're going to get to see it on 4 different skin tones, fun right? Plus get to see all of the other colors everyone has. So lets get started.

I'll start with the order I bought the colors. My first color...was Posie K, love at first sight. For my skin tone, this is an everyday light color for me.

Here I am wearing it over the weekend.

A few friends and I did a Christmas exchange, white elephant (but nice gifts) exchange and I bought the Posie K because I knew it would look good on all of them. Here's my gorgeous friend, Jenn who won and is loving her color too. Crazy how different it looks on her right? Yep I promise that's the same color.

After this I bought Mary Jo K, I was hesitant to buy this, but went for it and am so glad that I did.

Here it is again, I had just gotten it and had to try it on.

I bought this color for my sister as well, because I thought that this color would look great on her and she's been looking for a non bleeding red for a while now...it's perfect on her! Same color, different skin tones, awesome how well it looks on both of us right? (She's the one on the left...see my mom doesn't have a lip kit on and her lipstick is fading after appetizers...she should have one too)

 Onto the next color, I bought Spice, it's a little darker and I love that for the Fall and Winter. The picture above with my sister and mom, I'm wearing spice. Here it is again, when I first got it and just HAD to try it on, yep the same day as above with the Mary Jo K.

I decided I wanted to go a little darker, So I got Leo, for whatever reason I just love dark lipsticks, funny coming from me, when I wore my first bright lipstick I was so self conscious and thought everyone was staring at me, seriously.

And the last but not least it's the Kristin, a lighter pink that I thought I could wear in the Spring and Summer.

 Next up on my I want list...Vixen (another dark one), Love Bites, 22, and Kourt K...I think after that...I might be done, until she, of course, comes out with some new colors. Oh I might mention that I did get KoKo K and it looked horrible on me. It was too light and just washed me out like no other. So I gave it to my sister who it looks perfect on.

Now hop on over to see what the one who started it all, Christy  has in her collection.

So now that you've seen all the colors, does it make you want to buy some? Which color would you get?

Don't forget to enter my $125 giveaway to Kate Spade!

 

An InLinkz Link-up

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Create The Perfect Appetizer Cheese Tray

Hello Foxy Friends! Today I'm participating in a super fun progressive party hop...what you might ask that is? Well, the ladies over at The Blended Blog have put together three weeks of progressive parties. You start at one blog for drinks, then hop on over to the next for apps, then main course and dessert, how fun is that? This week we decided our progressive party theme is an easy after Christmas meal, cause who wants big elaborate meals after all the holiday eating? If you're coming from Deena's blog, welcome, if you are starting here, go back to see what Deena has you drinking before you see what I have for your apps.

Everyone likes eating appetizers right? You show up to a party and you just want to snack on something while chatting with friends, I'm here to show you how to put together a fun cheese tray. I personally like hitting up Trader Joe's, for those that don't have a Trader Joe's, hit up your local grocery store and head to the fancy cheeses.

TJ's has a to of choices, almost too many choices!

This is always the one we get when putting together a cheese tray, it is so delicious, goat cheese, yum! If they don't have any of this particular one, get a goat cheese, you won't be sorry.

These are some of the other choices I would have picked.

I would pick 3-4 because that's what is going to look good on a cheese platter. For Easter this year we were in charge of bringing a cheese platter, and guess what I bought? A cheese tray, I felt so grown up buying my very first cheese tray and knives...I got this these cheese knives, the cheese tray we bought is no longer available, but we picked on that was long so that we could fit more cheese on it...I added some little cards that I made, but these are super cute, or something like this, which I have since bought since Easter. I added some grapes, cause isn't that what you're suppose to do? I bought a variety pack of crackers from TJ's and called it a day.

So there you have it, notice when I took this picture, that most of the goat cheese one (on the right) is half gone. So good, now I want to go get one...Now go see what you're going to eat for your main course at Lana's blog.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for $125 to Kate Spade, click here for that.

Linking up here