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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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

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!

An InLinkz Link-up

 Linking up here

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

$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.

Linking up here 

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!

Linking up here