Happy Birthday, Chris!

I just wanted to take a moment and wish my husband a very happy 28th birthday! He was just 22 when we met- boy how times have flown!

Happy Birthday!

Sneak Peak

For those interested, we had our family pictures taken on Saturday. We always have the BEST time doing this, as do the people watching us. With nine of us there this year, it took awhile to fit us all in. Every year we pick a "theme". These have gone every direction, from bright colors, to sweaters, to suits, to Sunday clothes, to scout uniforms and so on. This year, we did black and white with the girls adding in touches of red. If I must say so, we rocked it.

Our Christmas card last year went out with my older brother kissing a rubber duck with the rest of us holding other props. Spinning off of that, we decided to each take a sport and dress accordingly. (A HUGE thanks to Leah for loaning us the BEST ones!) After a quick change for each of us, we reassembled and snapped some good, fun ones.

Here's a sneak peak of what is to come... Enjoy!

Through the Years...

I have always loved my family. Just the right number of kids that if you get in a fight with one, there is always someone else to play with. We had a blast yesterday. We had a Wii bowling tournament, followed by several tennis matches and a little practice on the Wii fit balancing games. Needless to say I am sore. Not only from all of the games, but the one unfortunate disaster which ended with me cascading to the floor in one of the most graceful displays of uncoordination and unbalance ever. That's a whole new story that I'll save for later. Right now, I wanted to share a little bit of a lot of us with you...

This picture was taken at Christmas exactly 21 years ago. Please note that we all fit and the stockings have plenty of room.

This was taken yesterday, prior to several of the day's events. Please note that not only do we not fit, we have certainly grown over the years.

Mom and Dad's poor house is busting at the seams with all of us, expecially with two dogs. The best thing about us is that we pick right up where we leave off and keep going. What a great Christmas this has been. And we still have the flag football game and biannual family picture session left to go!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Save Me!

After all the wrapping paper, the singing and the pictures, we're done. Our school Christmas party is over. We had a wonderfull time and are now enjoying the games we swapped.

So where do we go from here? We snack, we play, we watch movies. And wait. Until the bell rings and we can go home.

What do I want for Christmas? My break. It can't get here soon enough!

Best School Christmas Recipe Ever

Here's the recipe for what I call a crazy few weeks:

17 excited homeroom students
8 hours at school a day
14 reading students
4 Santa sightings in the hallway
586,756,385 Christmas lights filling the hallways at school
78 Christmas trees in the school building, somewhere
230 parties of some sort or another
4-5 craft projects or Christmas coloring sheets of some kind, average per child
6 major tests to give- 2 math, 1 reading, 1 language, 1 writing assessment, and 1 DIBELs
1 week left to go
1 stressed-out, data-maxed, stretched and worn thin teacher

Mix it all together with the love and cheer of the holidays, and what do you get? One great big holiday season with a side of classroom management and loving discipline.

Best of luck to those with children- I hope you all make it this last week! Merry Christmas!

Deck the Halls...

Okay. I love wrapping presents. I am extremely particular, so I love the crisp corners and tight folds. I'm crazy, okay, but it gets better. I have wrapped gifts I bought, gifts my mother-in-law needed help wrapping, and even gifts that were being given to me. Yes. I have. Chris put them in boxes and I wrapped them. But this year, I have taken it a little too far.

Holiday Market came and went, and we did good knocking out a lot of gifts there. But it wasn't that accomplishment that I love, but the wrapping paper I got. I adore it. I have always wanted matching and coordinating paper under my tree. This year I did just that.

Let me take it one step further. All of my shopping is done, with the exception of Chris' stocking. All of the gifts are wrapped and under the tree. I put the tulle on them today. But my favorite part? There are no tags. No names, just gifts. And how do I know what is in each one?



Drumroll please...


They are color-coded. Yes, I have them wrapped according to families and where each gift is to go. To make it even better, the tulle on the top separates the colors.


Call me crazy, call me a dork, but my color-coded, gift-wrapping, finished-for-the-season self is finished.


Merry Christmas!

Winter Sale

For those of you that don't know, I sell Southern Living at Home products. I just wanted to let you know about our winter sale we are now starting. We have some GREAT items at GREAT prices! To get any of these awesome deals, all you have to do is purchase one item at regular price for at least $29.95. I'm not normally one to advertise, but just wanted you all to have a chance to get some wonderful Christmas presents and deals.

Click here to see the sale items and prices.

Click here to see our online catalog. Go to Our Products and View Online Catalog.


Let me know if you are interested! I can check to make sure the items you want are still available.

Merry Christmas and Happy Shopping!