Santa Picture success & fail

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Anxiously Awaiting

Ok so I feel like a kid this year when it comes to Christmas. I am so excited. I count the days everyday. No I am not ready and yes I know the closer it gets the more hectic it will become, but I am still excited.

Just thought I would let you guys know.

Happy Thanksgiving

Things I am thankful for...

Health and Happiness
Solid Marriage
Beautiful, healthy children
Church I love
Family that I adore
Great friendships
Part time job that allows me to be a full time mom.
My home

Thank you God, for the blessings in my life.

Super proud of my little guy!

http://www.lukesworld.me/2011/11/climbing-with-gideon.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LukesWorld+%28Luke%27s+World%29&m=1




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Recycled Christmas part 2

Part two-

Doing Shopping this way is not always easy and trust me I have learned that you have to weigh in your time & gas to even know if it's worth the deal.

But sometimes a little work and determination pays off. I love Pottery Barn stuff especially their kids stuff. I have received their catalogs for years even before I had kids. About 5 years ago they came out with a stainless steel kitchen that mirrored the Viking set. It sold for over a $1000 and was a limited edition. I found one on Cl earlier this year and they wanted 500.00 for it with a ton of accessories. So I thought if I bought it I could sell the accessories and only end up paying half that. Wrong. The set ended up getting in a bidding war and went for over a thousand dollars.

About two months after that I found the pink kidkraft set with a Pottery Barn dishwasher for 140.00. So we stowed it away for Christmas.

A couple months passed and we went to my sisters and G loved playing with their set so I told Josh that we should really start looking for a more gender neutral set.

So about a month later I found another set. She had just posted the listing but had included no pictures so I called her and she said that she would send pictures and that I we could pick it up that night. I about died when I saw the pictures and it was the limited edition for 300.00 plus dishes!




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So then we decided to sell the pink set we ended up getting 275.00 for the pb pink dishwasher alone and 100.00 for the sink set. Needless to say we paid less than 75.00 for this set !! It took some work, but I guarantee it would be worth all of it Christmas morning when they see it. FYI- the refrigerator & oven both have a light in them, dishwasher makes a running sound and stove burners light up! Yes I have been playing
with it :-)

Recycled Christmas

Our children have been blessed to have many people in their lives that love them. We both come from big families and have lots of "adoptive" grandparents and Aunts/Uncles, with this being said they have been given lots of things, add having dual income parents, and a mom that loves bargains and the goodwill and garage sales... do I need to say more.

So they want for very little.

This year I wanted to keep Christmas on a budget, a tight budget, this is so simple to do when you are creative and plan ahead. I have a mental list of things we wanted to get them so I have been doing a ton of shopping on CL. I am happy to say that with the exception of a couple things that you cant find recycled, it have been a success. It has taken some work, Josh didnt necessary want to drive to Belleville after work to pick up some things, but when it saves you money my motto is you drive.

Needless to say I am super excited about Christmas. I cannot wait to see the looks on both of their faces.

We have several close friends having major health issues so the more we can save, the more we can help :-) One thing I have been reminded of lately is that life is really short and I never want to take things for granted.

Happy Halloween!

"I liked trick or treating. It makes me super super super happy. It was very cool. I liked saying trick or treat, trick or treat, trick or treat. You get to say Trick or treat, Happy Halloween, Thank youuu!" -Gideon



Our Strawberry Fairy



Our Spooooky Ghost!

Happy Halloween!

We love fall!

We have been busy but wanted to post some recent pictures.




-So it didn't turn out like the picture, but it was so much fun making.




Tonight while daddy was gaming we has a dinner party! It was a great night.




Today G woke up early from his nap I thought it was a great time to make the pumpkin cake while sissy was sleeping, while I was getting everything ready he disappeared apparently he wasn't quite ready!




Grandma got new chairs! Perfect!

Cooling down

At last the hot summer heat wave broke this week, and we have taken full advantage of it. On Wednesday I turned the air conditioning over to heater. Nothing says fall like the smell of the dust and spider webs burning off of the heater.
On Thursday we built a fire in the fireplace. Sylvie was very interested in that, but I'm glad to say her instincts are functional. She came up close with me sitting there, and as she climbed up on the hearth to get closer, she felt the heat and backed right off.
On Friday, we were going to hit the balloon glow, but changed our minds due to weather, then changed plans again and decided to have dinner at Red Lobster, then buy marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers, and head home to use our fire pit. What a perfect night for it.
Then on Saturday we went to the balloon race, and had a great day. We saw the parachuters, and had a front row spot for our blanket. Gideon and Sylvie loved the balloons. I'll post some pictures later.

It's been a great week, and while our lives might be crazy busy, we wouldn't want it any other way.

Happy Birthday Sylvie!!!

It's hard to believe an entire year has gone by, but today you are one year old!!! You've been walking everywhere without help for two weeks now, which also means Mommy has been putting you in some very cute dresses (crawling in dresses is hard work). You are a very happy baby, and you are quick to cheer up even if things aren't going your way. You have four teeth now, all on the bottom, and you love French toast, pancakes, little mandarin orange slices, red or white pasta, hot dogs, peas, carrots, rice, corn, and whipped yogurt. You don't like broccoli much. You sleep most nights almost all of the way through, except for a half-bottle occasionally around 4AM. You love animals, sometimes even climbing up on our giant black cat, Cole, using his fur. He is a very good cat and just says mrrrooowwwlll until someone saves him. You love to play in water, although you don't like bath time lately, but I think that's just from getting water in your eyes a couple of times. You love bath time if Gideon is there too. You splash him a lot. You giggle when you eat something you like, just a little. You've started really played with dolls and your dollhouse, and some pink race cars too. You're stacking foam blocks, nesting toys, and pointing at things you want. You really like playing your little pink piano, the xylophone, and the drums, so I'm thinking you'll be musically inclined. You've also started grabbing dishtowels and carrying them around like security blankets, which is pretty cute. You say mama, dada, and baba, and sometimes you've even said Gideon, and recently, you started saying meow and pointing at Cole. Daddy carries you all over the place still, just because. You love to snuggle up to us, and climb in our laps when you want to take a break, just leaning back against us.

With all of these things you do, you still find time to be so cute that you make everyone smile when they see you, and to melt our hearts all day long. So Happy Birthday Sylvie, we love you so much, and if you want that car when you turn sixteen, keep being Daddy's Girl and I'll see what I can do.