This still melts my heart

Hayden fell asleep on my chest this morning while I was on the computer (which by the way has like 30 viruses on it---I'm not kidding!!). It is so sweet when they are sleeping on you.

p.s.---I promise Christmas "highlights" to come soon, but with the computer problems, I haven't been able to do much. But keep checking!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

To better enjoy the video you may wish to turn my "Christmas Music" off in the red box on the right column. The "stop" button is in the top left hand corner of the red box.

Happy Birthday Jesus

Here is Mari Cate singing Happy Birthday Jesus at our Christmas Program on Sunday. I was so proud of her!!

Youth Presentation at Church

Yesterday, we had our Christmas service at church and the younger kids did a program and the youth did a presentation. We may have a small church and a small youth group but they are very dedicated to the Lord. They care about each other and pray for each other and are a very close to each other. They practiced very hard on this presentation that our youth leader Adrian directed. The first boy is a friend of Conner's that he has gone to school with since Kindergarten . We have prayed for his and his father's salvation probably since we met them! Since October, we have gotten to see he and his dad accept Jesus as their Savior! Praise the Lord!! The second boy that comes out is Conner and since the video is not the greatest, I will explain what he is doing. After he walks up to the front, he starts swinging his arm around and around. He is pretending to have a sling to knock the giant down. The music is "Voice of Truth" by Casting Crowns.

I hope you enjoy it. I will post Mari Cate's video this afternoon.
Oh, yeah, you will probably want to turn the music player off, to hear the music.

And the Build-A-Bear Gift Card Winner is...............

BRYNNA!!

The winner was chosen using the Random Number Generator. Thank you to those who read my blog and entered the contest! I really appreciate it. Be sure to check back often for other offers that I receive from MomSelect.

A VERY Quick Giveaway--Don't wait!!

I was given the opportunity by MomSelect to review the new new holiday storybook, "Holly and Hal Moose: Our Uplifting Christmas Adventure" from Build-A-Bear Workshop. The story is a very sweet story of how Holly and Hal Moose help Santa after they think Christmas might have to be cancelled. It is a great story about working together and helping someone else.

Right now you can buy Holly and Hal Moose™ together for only $24 and get their storybook for free ($15.99 value, while quantities last). Or you can buy them individually for just $12 each. Check them out at a Build-A-Bear Workshop near you or go here to find them online. Holly and Hal Moose even have a website that you and your child can check out. I can't wait for Mari Cate to check it out, too!!

Now for the really good stuff!! They also gave me a $10 Build-A-Bear Workshop Gift Card with it's own little "Cub Condo" to give away to one of my readers!! How cool! I want to be able to get this in the mail by Saturday morning, in hopes that you get it before Christmas and can possibly give it to a special child in your life! So I will be picking a winner on Friday, December 19th, through a random number generator. You will have until NOON on Friday, December 19th to enter. I will announce the winner tomorrow afternoon on my blog and with an email to the winner.

So here is how to enter: Leave me a comment on this post and just for fun tell me something special you are doing for someone else this Christmas.

Good Luck!!

10 Months!!

Oh my goodness...how has time gone by so quickly! Last year I was getting bigger and bigger by the week and slower and slower, however, I still kept up with the kids parties and extracurricular activities pretty well, if I do say so myself!

December 2007

But here I am now with a 10 month old baby!! It just happened too quickly!! I must say I have enjoyed all my time with him so much...he fell right into the routine with Mom and me and is such a trooper with us always providing us with lots of smiles and kisses.

He is babbling ALL the time now and every once in a while something sounds like a word, so we claim it as that for sure!! : ) He walks along holding on to the furniture and gets brave and lets go sometimes (of course he falls down pretty quickly--but he is not a whiner about it). Soon and very soon I am sure he will let go and be able to stand there on his own, and then we will be walking!! One of those things you want to see so badly (so you know that they have/can accomplish that milestone), but oh my goodness....you know what you are in for (if you have other children) when they do!! Hayden has the sweetest personality. He absolutely adores Conner and Mari Cate...anything they do is hilarious to him--unless they take his paci away (and even that is for a minute).

I took him to the doctor for his check up last week and he weighed 18 lbs. and was 28" long (I think that is what it was). So he had not gained weight (he had been very sick last week too), but had grown almost 3 inches!! He was in the 90% in height and 10% in weight---tall and skinny!! But you should see what he eats! Everything--like a bottomless pit! He loves all "big people" food, but still eats his baby food well too.

I wish all of you (especially my family who live far away) could have the chance to be around him and he around you more!

So he liked him for a minute...

Yesterday, on the spur of the moment, we decided to go to the mall and see if Hayden would sit on Santa's lap. When we walked up, he looked at Santa, and acted like he was anyone else standing around us. So I went over and put him in his lap and he was doing just fine, even just about to get a smile (which is what we caught in the picture), until he turned around to see whose lap he was sitting in...........then it was all over. If only we could have captured that moment too!!

My Deal of the Day!!

Ok, you all know I am beginning to get into this "couponing thing". So this week Walgreen's has Coffeemate on sale, buy one for $2.49, get another free (this includes all those yummy holiday flavors too!). So if you go on www.coffeemate.com you can a coupon for $1.00/1, you can hit your back button and print more than one coupon out too. So I took my 2 $1.00 coupons into Walgreen's yesterday, purchased my coffeemate and paid 49 CENTS plus tax for BOTH bottles!!! What a deal!!!! Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!

Land's End Contest

Here's a chance to win $100 from Land's End. Who couldn't stand to win something right now?? Click here to enter the contest.

This contest is sponsored by MomSelect.

Good Luck!!

Conner's Christmas Band Concert

Be sure to turn the music player off before listening. This is just one song from the concert. You can't see Conner in the video, but I did a close-up on my niece playing the bells.

He's cute even when he's sick...yes, we have been dealing with the stomach bug at our house this week. Praise God I haven't gotten it...yet. Be praying for me not to get it and Hayden and Frank to continue on the road to feeling better soon!!

15-0

This is my blog, so I guess I have the right to brag sometimes...right?? And Momma's are allowed antway!! Conner won his wrestling match last night 15-0. He won by what is called a technical fall--which means, he was 15 points ahead of his opponent, so an automatic win. I only got part of the match videoed (due to operator error--duh!), but at least I got the best part!! Conner is the one with the yellow head gear on, if you can't tell.

And a picture of my winner!

And little bit pretending he is big brother!

Couponing 101

Tonight we are having a Coupon Class at our church. A friend of mine is a "Coupon Queen" and she is going to teach us some of her tricks! We are all so excited about this!! My friend, Denise, saves mega bucks and is even able to share some of her savings with others! This is so neat!! She bases her "class" on the book, Shop, Save, and Share by Ellie Kay.

You can check Ellie Kay's website out here. I can't wait to come back and teach you some of my new secrets!! Stay tuned!! And if by chance you live in this area, and would like to come to the class (it is open to everyone!), please send me an email and I will gladly give you directions!!

A Different Kind of Thanksgiving

Well, our Thanksgiving was a little different this year. Mom was sick today so she and Daddy didn't get to join us for the meal. Actually we were supposed to eat at their house, so we had to shift gears this morning. Mom had cooked the "big stuff" (the turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, and the yummiest coconut cake you've ever tasted!), so we went and picked up all the food and brought it to Frank's mothers and had to eat without them. I felt so bad that they didn't get to join us, but I guess better safe than sorry. But I do want to thank them for preparing all the yummy food for us to enjoy.

And Conner wasn't with us today either, at least not until later. We had a group from church that went and served at the Salvation Army's Soup Kitchen for Unity in the Community, and he decided he wanted to go with them. I was very proud of him for giving up some of his day to help someone else out. It was definitely something he had never experienced before and I am proud of him.

My First Thanksgiving

I got to eat "real" food today too--

and it was goooood!!

Hope you and your family had

a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I'm 9 months old!!

I just love my sister!!

p.s. These are a sneak preview of our Christmas pictures---they turned out great!! (And that was a big accomplishment working with two kids and a baby!!)

I won something!!

I never win anything!! But I won a $25 Gift Certificate from Arbonne this past weekend. This contest was sponsored through Fun and Frugal a great website that I visit daily. Gloria from Fun and Frugal is having two contests every day until December 12. Some of the contests are sponsored by local vendors, but many of them have websites that you can order from, so be sure to go on over to Fun and Frugal to check out her contests and all the other "frugal" fun from Gloria!!

Just me Hayden

dropping in to say "hi" and "bye" for the weekend! Hope you have a fun one!!

Pinned!

**Link wasn't working for the video earlier....I think I got it fixed. Let me know if you can't view it. Thanks!**

Congratulations Conner on your first match of the season, your first win of the season, and your first pin EVER!!

The score was 13-0, with 6 points added to the team score for his pin. Conner is the one in the black singlet...just in case you can't tell!

Oh, and excuse the shaking of the camera at the end....I got a little excited!!!

A Big

to my Mom for taking care of Hayden and me while we have been under the weather this week!! I love you Mom, you're the best!

Free Coupon Book

Want a free $10 coupon book? Go to Betty Crocker to sign up and receive yours!!

Please excuse

the "Photobucket" box floating around on my blog. I haven't quite got it figured out why it is there. If anyone has any suggestions, please email me!! According to my photobucket account, I have NOT exceeded the bandwidth, so I don't know. Help!!

Playing Catch Up

My "simpler life" has been non-existent for a while now. Wrestling, Play Practice, Dentist Appointments, Doctor Appointments, Relatives Visiting (which by the way, it was great to see you Johnny and Linda!!)...and all the little "extras" that pop up!

Weddings, Halloween and Crawling...all things I have meant to share, but haven't had the time.

So anyway, the kids were in a wedding and looked so beautiful and handsome and did an awesome job being a groomsman and flower girl!! Here are a couple of pictures.



And this is what Hayden did through almost the entire wedding and reception!! And of course Nanny is always happy to hold him!!

On Halloween, we usually go to our local mall and participate in the Fall Festival sponsored by Westwood Baptist, our former church. Conner decided not go with us this year, instead went with our neighbors. Here are a couple of pictures of Mari Cate and Hayden. Mari Cate was a kitty cat and Hayden was a pumpkin. Most of the night he clung to Granddaddy---I think all the people were just a little overwhelming to him!

And in the last week Hayden has started crawling. He still does a funny crawl, but he gets wherever he wants to go and gets there FAST!!

And isn't his little doggy hat just adorable?? But just for the record, he HATES hats!!

Looking for that simpler life!! : )

A New Look...

for Conner! He got his braces on Monday.

BEFORE

AND AFTER

Brotherly Love

This is how I found them after they both got their baths tonight.

Shhhhh....It's A Secret!!

We'll see ya in February 2009 Mickey!

Christmas Photo Cards

Just about every year I do photo Christmas cards. I usually do them myself, simply because it saves money and I am able to do it. But sometime I would love to have one of those fancy places do up our photos on one of their fancy cards. So I am going to enter another contest to see if I can win. So you wanna try to? Check out this post at Simple Mom to see how to enter! Here is some of her work at Chickpea Designs. Pretty cool stuff!!

And by the way, here is last years Christmas photo...I was 8 months pregnant!

Hope you have a wonderful day!!