A million reasons to....BELIEVE

On Saturday we delivered our letters to Santa in the Believe Santa Mail Box at Macy's. This is such a great tradition. For each letter that Macy's gets they will donate $1 to Make-A-Wish-Foundation. Remember to address and stamp your letter to Santa at the North Pole. The smiles on your kids faces when they drop their letters off is nothing short of making you BELIEVE!

Until next time...
Lynnae

Our Elf arrived....

Yep our Elf arrived under our tree on December 1st, and let me tell you the squeals I heard from the kiddos first thing in the morning, it was priceless! After a whole day of figuring out a name, we ended up with good old Chippy...yes it's the same name as the Elf from the movie, but the kids just kept coming back to that name (my name of Pixie was voted out!) So Chippy is officially apart of our family! He has showed up on our tree, over our pictures and today he was in a tea pot (which the kids got a kick out of). Taelor has grown to really love him and talks to him all the time and wants to sit by him when she can, I love it, I love the innocence of a 3 and 4 year old, it's what makes the holidays even that much better. I will keep you posted on Chippy's whereabouts around the house, if you have any fun ideas I would love to hear about them!

Until next time...
Lynnae

Sunday Sweet's

This weeks treat comes from my hubby's gradma Pat its a microwave peanut brittle. Every year I would buy my dad a box from sees candy, now I am hoping to learn to make my own in his honor.

Ingredients
1 Cup Sugar
1/2 cup white corn syrup
1 Cup peanuts
1 tsp butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda

Mix sugar and syrup in micorwave safe dish place in microwave on high 4 minutes
Stir in peanuts micowave 3/5 min until light brown
Add butter and vanilla blending well microwave 1/2 minutes more
Add baking soda and gently stire until foamy

At this point work quickly to get brittle to a lightly greased cookie sheet spreading as best you can it sets up quickly! Allow to cool for an hour break and enjoy!

yummy!

<3 rosette

Christmas Tree Day!

The smell of christmas trees makes me very happy...which is why I will never give up the live tree. Today Matt and I went to pick out our tree.

Home Depot not the most festive environment but the best prices

7ft-9ft tree!!!!

naked tree :P

 lights!

tada!

<3 rosette

Heel Friday!

This week heels are a pair I bought at Tillys and I love them they are a suede pump with a more rugged looking sole. Super comfortable totally affordable. :)

<3 rosette

Elf on the Shelf

OK so I think we will be adopting an Elf this year! I had no clue about this Elf on the Shelf  thing until I started seeing a few ideas pop up on Pinterest and it caught my attention. Then after this weekend when "An Elf's Story" (an animated Christmas special) was on, I was sold and tomorrow I will be out getting the Elf on the Shelf for my kids! They loved the little 30 minute special, they have watched it over and over again. If you have never heard of this, well, in a nutshell, you "adopt" an elf from the North Pole, you name the Elf so he gets his magic, he watches over your house "observing" and reports back to the North Pole to Santa every night. Each morning he is in a different hiding place so the kids can find him. He is not allowed to be touched as he will "loose" his magic (what a great idea so that the kids will not "love" on him too much) and on Christmas he goes back with Santa till the next Christmas! Sounds like a fun tradition that we will have to start this year! I will keep you posted on how it goes....my only problem would be remembering to move him each night!!!

If you want to know more about Elf on the Shelf go here.

Till next time...
Lynnae

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

A family tradition of ours is the Fashion Island Christmas tree. I love this tradition, it is always a fun night of ohhing and awwing over the tree, then a visit with Santa, dinner and Starbucks of course. I love this night, I look forward to it every year, seeing the joy and excitement on my kids faces and the meekness when they sit on Santa's lap, just makes you see a little bit of magic in their eyes!

I was wondering what he was doing under the tree....

And this is what I found....ornaments hanging underneath....I kept them there...it made me smile!

As for our home, fall stuff is down and Christmas decorations have come out. Our tree is up and the coziness of Christmas is around. I LOVE this time of year, I especially love seeing Christmas through my kids eyes. Growing up, Christmas was so magical and I want my kids to experience a whole month of it! I try and make it very special, each year I buy them and us an ornament, something that reminds me of them for that particular year. It will be fun years from now to look back at all the different stages in their lives. In years from now when they are married, I plan on boxing them all up and giving it to them on their "first" Christmas ( I know I am such a sappy mom like that I can't help it). Tonight we decorated the tree and since I had kids I gave up on the "perfect" tree with all the ornaments in the right place. I do move some but I try to keep them where they put them it makes the tree look "perfectly imperfect".....but Ethan made me smile when I saw him under the tree a few times and I realized he had hung them underneath, such an Ethan thing to do. Being the nice mom I kept them there :)

December I will be doing my December Daily project which I am so excited to share with you our daily activities, so check back for some fun ideas to do during the month of December as we are counting down the days till Christmas! What are some fun things you do for the holidays??

Till next time...
Lynnae

Thanksgiving

My little helpers peeling potatoes

Turkey.....they said it was delicious

My favorite dessert...English Trifle

Homemade pumpkin pie

Place cards made by my kids from last year

Taelor's centerpiece....Apple turkey

Thanksgiving has come and gone WOW!! This year I had the honor of hosting the Williams family at our house (of course with the help of my Mother- in-love....OK she did most of the cooking). Our fun started on Wednesday night baking pies and preparing the turkey. Well let me tell you, I don't think I will ever be able to prepare a turkey. Being a vegetarian and preparing turkey and all the yucky things that come along with that did not sit well with me. So needless to say I know how to do it but doing it is a different story, hubby will have to take that reign from now on! I think I will just stick to baking and all the other side dishes. The morning of started off with french toast and coffee, then it was straight to cooking. I even had my kiddos peeling potatoes and brussel sprouts while the hubby sat and watched hours of football! After a long day of cooking, baking, cleaning, cooking and cleaning some more (I don't think my dishes have ever been washed that many times in a day), we sat at the table 10 minutes ahead of schedule, both Sandie and I exhausted looking forward to that much deserved glass of wine. Dinner was perfect, they all said the turkey was delicious ( I will take their words for that), but most of all I enjoyed the dessert and the great conversation. By the end of the night we were all exhausted and full but most of all Thankful!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving.....the next morning was BLACK FRIDAY (and yes I was up shopping in the wee hours of the morning!)

Till next time...
Lynnae

Christmas Card Wreath

Usually sunday evenings I am posting Sunday Sweet's however this week hubby wanted pre made store bought just bake cookies  (really boring). So I decided to craft instead....I found the idea on pinterest for a wreath to hold christmas cards. Basically you need clothes pins and a needwork loop. I bought the loop at micheals for 1.49 and the clothes pins I had and I also had the green paint handy too.

Paint the loop and the clothes pins add a pretty ribbon bow and a little hot glue

Finished and hanging on the wall.....waiting for the first christmas card of the season!

<3 Rosette

Birthday Banner

Since getting my first cricut about 2 years ago now ( thanks hubby) I have loved to make decorations. My friend eneyda is celebrating her daughter first birthday next week and she asked for some help with jaydens birthday banner...she picked out the paper and what she wanted it to say and then cricut and I did the rest!

happy birthday jayden!

<3 rosette