Meet Mister Tobie Lou Jingles!!!!!

This Christmas Season the giggling girls welcomed Mister Tobie Lou Jingles to our little home! He came from the North Pole and each night he flies back home to give Santa a report on how the girls are behaving and each night when he comes back he gets into some kinda of mischief! The naughtier the girls have been the more naughty he acts! What a fun addition to our Christmas season he has been!!! Each morning Caylee wakes up and runs to look at him and I hear her exclaim "oh Tobie Lou Jingles you a silly silly elf!!! Then she runs to Carleigh's room hollering "waked up sissy waked up come see Tobie!!" So it is without further ado I introduce Mister Tobie Lou Jingles to you!! Named by the girls with a little jingle help from meme!!

And it is almost a wrap!

Let me just start by telling you that 30 30 30 challenged me in SO many ways! and it made me realize that I do not interact with the public as often as I use too!!! and I will admit that I didn't successfully do every single day. It also made me realize that you don't have to spend money although that is a neat thing to do and seemed to be the way to really get the point across! It could have been simple things like holding the door open for each person you came across that day and saying a prayer for them (I just did it in my head, I wish I was more vocal in that area!) or letting someone go before you at the grocery store! I did that a couple of times and it really seemed to make people's super happy! :) I also was more aware of all the little ways strangers bless me! Someone bought me a soda one day, another day a guy let me go first in line because my arms were full! It really is the little things that made me smile! I have a few more days before I am done but as we move into December I encourage you to be aware of your surroundings and the people you are interacting with! Dont' be afraid to tell that poor run down mama that her kids are super cute (even if they are acting like said monsters in the moment) or ask the elderly lady if you can help her to her car! I wanted to be changed this month, I wanted to start my 30's out giving back and in the end I think that I was the one that got the most out of it!! We are never to old to learn a new lesson eh! I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving!! We sure did! Totally blessed in every single way!! AND I scored my most wanted deal on Black Friday Shopping!!! SQUEALLLL!!! (which I may or may not have done rather loudly when the clerk handed me the last two!!!!) We have the house decorated and although I am not 100 percent done it is feeling all festive! The girls are loving all the fun holiday things! We have done the festival of lights and festival of trees already, they are at the prefect ages. I just adore them and all of there excitement. We have many more fun things planned! AND right now we are doing Elf of the Shelf! Definitely more to come on that! But if you don't have one and you have young kids, run out and get one seriously! It is like Christmas Hide and Seek all season long!! LOVING IT! and that folks is me wrapping up two weeks nice and neat into one post!!! I shall be back with Elf on the Shelf details soon!! AND I am going to Chicago with most of my favorite ladies!! so I am sure to have a story or two to tell about that!!! Until Then! Be Merry! and enjoy this hilarously cute picture of my little ladies! I am not that mom who forces my kid to go see Santa and then takes a picture when she cries, I know this photo may appear to look that way, but really I am not that person...........okay maybe I am but no judgement people!

and I promise she was so not crying when she walked up there, she started when I walked away!!!!

30-30-30

I don't know who I was kidding when I thought that MAYBE I would be able to update my blog EVERY day for a month!! HA! This week has been a fun one though!! Yesterday I turned 30, I had a birthday party with lots of the most important people in my life and it was filled with lots of laughter and yummy food! Tomorrow Night I get to celebrate with Tim it should be a fun night! So back to my 30 30 30!! WOW people this requires more thought and planning than I would have expected! It has been a lot of fun though and totally worth it! On Saturday I gave an unexpected person and unexpected gift :) FUN stuff!! On Sunday I didn't leave the house all day, which I hadn't planned for when I was thinking about this because it is very rarely that we don't leave the house!! So for that day I blessed Timmy boy with his most favorite dinner and threw in his most favorite dessert!! Monday I was supposed to deliver hair bows to a friends little girl but I never got it done :( just being real! I have the hair bows though and will be making that delivery so I guess I have an IOU to my 30-30-30 ha! Tuesday I paid for the couple behind me's meal at a drive up and Wednesday, every time I stopped at a four way stop I waved on the people before me, nothing huge but it helps if you are in a hurry I guess! :) SO that should have me all caught up! Overall I love the warm fuzzy feeling from doing this, some days it is harder to remember than others but it is making me very aware of those around me!!!!

We Voted!!! Did you????

I think voting is a huge privilege and I made sure to take the girls today so they could be a part of the action!!! We are proud to be Americans, We are proud to be women and We are proud for the right to vote!!!! You should be too!!!! Get out there and cast your ballad!!!

Day 2

Today's 30 was a simple one! There is a gas station in town that Tim and I use often and they sell .75 cent fountain sodas so today after I paid for my purchase which was 2 fountain sodas and a one dollar scratch off ticket which is something we do every once in a while I went ahead and paid for whomever were to come in for a soda next and bought them a dollar scratch off ticket just for fun!!!! Maybe they will win a little something!!! ;)

Day 1

So for my first day I decided to take a balloon bouquet to one of the clerks at the grocery store here in town. I didn't have one particular girl in mind as there are three or four whom we go to on a regular basis so I just said a little prayer that whomever was at the front when I walked in be the one who needed cheered up the most! When I walked in there was one of the girls up there that is always very sweet I handed her the bouquet and said that it was for her just because she is always so cheerful and sweet. Her reaction was so fun! She said "for me!?!" No way!!!!! And then gave me a big hug!! Thank goodness I am the hugging type!! ;) I don't plan on "knowing" everyone in he next 30 days and I don't plan on each of them knowing who I am! But man this is going to be so much fun!! Seriously you can't have a bad day when you are blessing someone's socks off!!!!

30 years 30 days 30 people....

On November 7th, 2012  I will turn 30 years old, yes I may cringe when I type that number, I may be a little sad to see my 20's go, because in the last ten years every single dream I have had for my life has come true. I met a wonderful man, had a beautiful wedding, gave birth to two prefect miracle babies, I have spent countless hours with my family and friends, gone on vacations and long weekends and really savored what God has given me. Sounds like something right out of a story book right, some days it feels like it but there were definitely some chapters that had the spooky foreshadowing music. We had many struggles, infertility, money, arugments, Tim's mono that I never thought he would live through mostly because I belived I would kill him first, but overall, my 20's, they treated me great. I have been blessed to live 30 years!! THIRTY YEARS! Some people never get that many good, healthy years, and some people have lived more than that and never gotten to do the things I have gotten too. I don't take my life for granted, not a single day, I know that tomorrow every thing could be gone, that life changes in an instant, God has blessed me SO MUCH and so in CELEBRATION of being 30 years old, I have issued myself a 30 day challange! Starting today and for the next 30 days I am going to do something unexpected to (at least) one person everyday! Celebrating 30 years for 30 days with 30 (unsuspecting) people!! AND I am going to document it on this blog in hopes that you will jump on board with me in this month of thankfulness and do some unexpected blessings too!!! My first unexpected person will be surprised tonight! Check back tomorrow to see what I did!!

In full disclaimer I am not doing this to recieve praise so please please do not misunderstand my reason for sharing this. It is hard for me to put myself out there this way, as I would usually just do whatever and move on with a happy heart but I am sharing this in hopes that you will link up with me and do your own kind of spreading of blessings in this month of thankfulness!! Share in the comments of the blog or on facebook, maybe it will be contagious!!

Our First Sock Hop!!

The girls school celebrated the 50th day of school with a 50's sock hop!! That could only mean one thing!! This mama (and auntie and meme) were going to have to whip up so poodle skirts!! Tricia and I used a no-sew tutorial that we found on pinterest but quickly decided that sewing was going to need to be involved!! I didn't like the look of all the raw edges, not only that but the no- sew tutorial didn't really work with my girls sizes. So we did what we always end up doing with any craft project and just flew by the seat of our pants! The outcome was pretty awesome!! Probably one of our most complex craft projects yet! (well Tricia makes quilts so she may object to the complexity's of this project!) But I don't normally use a sewing matching because I believe in the forces that are a hot glue gun!! :) But in the way back of my dusty brain were the many hours of sewing lessons my mama gave me when I was making clothes for 4-H projects! and kinda like riding a bike it came back to me and now watch out world cause I am going to be unstoppable! and Meme taught me how to put in an elastic waist! OH BOY!!! everything is going to be elastic waist! It is wonderfully easy! I would love to put a tutorial on here on how we made our skirts but we didn't take pictures, some day we will get better about this, I am committing to it! But for now you will just have to look at my beautiful models!!

Pumpkin Patch Cuties!!

Pumpkins Pumpkins Everywhere!! We are having a great fall y'all!! Seriously we have done some super fun stuff!! We went to the Candlelight Tour at New Salem which is always fun for this mama! My girls aren't really old enough to apperciate it yet, but Carleigh's interest were definitely more peeked this year than last!! Then we went to pick pumpkins at a local pumpkin patch!!! It is only a couple miles from our house and is super cheap! Close and Cheap are two of my favorite things! LOL! Pumpkins must be the theme for us this year because then we went to the Carve for the Carillon, and The Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular! Both we a lot of fun! The Carve which is in preparation for the J-O-L is totally free and they scoop out the pumpkins for you!! The J-O-L was 16.00 dollars for the whole family again Local and Cheap! LOVE IT!!

on a totally un related note, I hate blogger's set up for pictures! It is annoying that they all line up and I am still trying to figure out a better way!  I hope you are soaking up these fall days too! The colors on the trees are AMAZING! Definitely Soaking up all the sun and nice weather we can before snow balls start falling!!!

Simple Beef Stew

So the Giggling girls contaminated our whole family with a virus!! Not just a little 24 hour virus like a 5 day virus! I AM STILL COUGHING!! Seriously way over it!! So hopefully we have payed our homage to this years sickness and will be healthy the rest of winter! Oh wait winter isn't even here yet.... yeah not looking good!! ANYWAY with sickness comes the need for some amazing warm dishes :) and I tried my hand at homemade beef stew, Now I must tell you that nothing in the kitchen intimidates me, not to brag but I have only made one dish that I burnt that we threw out and ate something else since I have been cooking for Tim, now he hasn't always loved every single dish but usually what he doesn't like I love! Seems to be the way our relationship rolls! LOL! (and now that I read that back it would seem I am bragging but really I am not I just said that so that you would not be intimidated in YOUR kitchen! You really can't do that much damage!)  So back to my warm dish! I have been craving beef stew and it was something  hadn't made yet in our ten years of eatiers! I have done roast, potatoes and carrots in the crock pot and I do all kinds of things with beef rump roast but I hadn't done the stew thing, but I got a craving and we rolled with it and it was AMAZING really I wish I had another bowl of it RIGHT NOW! So I thought I would share because it was truly SO simple anyone could do it!!! and I don't follow a recipe so these are pretty close guesstimations on what I did!! Just do what tastes good to you!

Ingredients

2.5 pound rump roast
potatoes ( I probably diced around ten medium sized ones)
1 can of sliced carrots ( I would have used baby fresh carrots but my picky husband likes canned better! )
7 beef bullion cubes
beef broth ( I had this frozen from my last roast)
water
salt, pepper, and garlic salt
Olive Oil

I used about 2 table spoons of Olive Oil in the bottom of my dutch oven and let that get pretty hot, while it was heating I generously salt, peppered and garlic salted my roast then once my dutch oven was hot I put the roast in and let it get a nice sear on it, I flipped it and did this on the other side, then I poured in my beef broth which was about 2 cups and let that cook for about 2.5 hours (ya know while we ran to the pumpkin patch and Dollar General which may or may not have been dumb because my roast boiled dry and used almost ALL of my beef broth cause I didn't turn it down low enough but I probably wouldn't admit to that...) then I added probably a good four or five cups of water brought it to a boil and tossed in around 7 beef bullion cubes once those dissolved I added my diced potatoes and my carrots and seasoned it with salt,pepper, garlic salt which are my go to spices and I but about 2 tablespoons or so of butter :)  let all of that cook for another hour or so while the rolls were raising and then while the rolls were cooking I thickened it with a little bit of milk/cornstarch and here is what we got!! Served with yummy hot yeast rolls! MMMMMM!

I am a horrible food picture taker person! Those potatoes look huge but really they were diced and there isn't much juice in this bowl because it was Tim's! LOL!!

Little Blue Crew/Homecoming 2012

Go! Fight! Win!

Hello Fall!!!

Pumpkin painting, hayrack riding, first bowl of chilimack!! Welcome Fall we are glad you have arrived!!!!

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GLEETASTIC!!!!!!

Tonight Glee is back after FOUR months!!! All the waiting proved worth it as the premiere episode was fantastic!!!!!! Glee we have missed you and are so glad you are back!!! So much that we had a premiere party just for you! All the cool kids were here!!ya know Tricia, Ashley,and I!! Gleek of the week here I come with my awesome decorating I should be moving quickly up the gleek ladder!!

First day of Preschool!!!

Caylee Girl today YOU started Pre-k, I just don't know how my sweet little baby girl grew big enough to be a big ol' preschooler but you sure have!! You woke up this morning and were so excited to put on your brand new Dora shoes and pretty dress,  Caylee can I tell you a little secret, letting you wear those Dora shoes with your adorable little dress was hard for your mama! But you were so excited about them that I let my fashion hang up go for the day!!

Carleigh was so excited to walk you to your class and you hung up your book bag on your look hook and unzipped your book bag like a preschool pro!!!

Meme and I walked you in and you sat down on the rug like such a big girl! I couldn't believe that you just ran over there, you didn't cry not one single tear!! Mama was so proud of you!

Your classroom is really neat! It is fill with lots of new toys for you to play with, and so many fun things to do I know you are going to learn so much from your teachers and you are going to make so many friends!! Meme and I left and you did great, again you didn't shed a tear!! I waited anxiously to hear how your day went and when Mem got there to pick you up she sent me this picture

You were very busy playing like a big girl!! You called to talk to me and you said "mommy I had a great day! I colored and I drank milk and cookies and we wead books and I got to wead in the weading nook! hey meme where is my bink" and your mommy was a happy lady!!!! Caylee daddy and I love your sass and your spunk and all the cute things you do! We can't wait to see how much you change this year! We love you baby!