New Year! New... nope, same old me. :)

Okay, so obviously it is the same old me or I would have updated a long time ago. Sometimes new years come in with a bang, but this year has just kind of snuck in quietly. Aaron was working on New Year's morning, so he went to bed early on New Year's Eve. I stayed up doing random things around the house, just to say I "rang in" the New Year. I gave Aaron a kiss, looked in on my sweet sleeping boy and then hit the hay myself. Exciting, right?

Well, not really, but it was perfect if you ask me. Anywho, since I know Landon with his adorable face is probably the only reason anyone reads this blog anyway, I'll deliver, with pictures and video! (You can thank me with a comment hehe).



"Awake" and ready for daycare. Poor kiddo was still sleepy!



Took this picture with the Instagram App on my iPhone. One of my most favorite pictures of him!





Just in case you missed this one on FaceBook - This boy can put down some donuts!
(also taken with the Instagram App)

He was NOT a happy camper. I had to walk backwards in a circle the whole time he was on this thing. Note to self: Don't wear flip flops to Chuck E. Cheese.

Wheeeee! At least he isn't scared of the slide!

Yummy for my tummy. Yes, that is a corn dog. He LOVES them. And he will EAT them. 'Nuff said.



Buzz!

So... now that you've had your fix of Landon... guess what?! I've lost weight! (Okay, don't get too excited yet...) I refuse to tell my starting weight just yet, cause I am still mortifiied and not comfortable sharing it. Just know that it is too much. I am working on counting calories (I suck at it) and just having more self control when it comes to eating sweets. I think I got more than one sweet tooth when they were handing them out. Anyway... I've lost (drumroll please) 8lbs so far. It's been about 3-4 months, but I would lose 2 lbs, gain it back... lose 3 lbs, gain 2 back, lose another 2, gain 1...so yeah. It is slow going...but I'm "winning" the war on fat. :) My clothes are getting loose already, and now that I will have fitness release time from work (2 hours a week, woohoo!) I'll have no excuse for not getting at least a little bit of exercise in!

I'm not drinking caffeine -- and also no carbonation. In fact about 90% of the time, I am just drinking water. I don't even miss coke (and by coke, I mean Dr. Pepper). I do have an occasional glass of juice with dinner, and I do love a nice tall glass of skim milk every now and then. So maybe I am a little bit of a "New Me." -- I'm just not quite the new me I wanna be yet.

In other news -- planning a trip to Vegas!! So excited, and can't wait to share pictures (although, with my track record and sharing pictures in a timely manner.... we all know how that goes)! Anywho...  that's all for now. I'll be back... soon-ish. :) Oh, and have a Spectacular 2012!!!

Thinking about Christmas Traditions...

So, reading another blog got me thinking about Christmas Traditions, and what our little family might start to do to make Christmas a more memorable and happy time than it already is.

There are lots of things I remember from childhood about what made Christmas great. First off was all the time spent with family. We would spend Christmas Eve at my Grandma and Papa's house, and then Christmas morning at our own home before heading over to my Gigi (Granny) and Papa's house for presents and Christmas Day lunch.

At my Grandma's house, we always read the Christmas story straight out of the Bible. Once the grandkids were old enough to read, we each read a portion of it. I can't wait until my nieces and nephews are old enough to read so we can implement that tradition again (We no longer live close enough to go to my grandparents houses, so we have had to start new Christmas traditions within my side of the family as well). Then we'd open all of our presents and see what everyone got. Many times, we'd all pile into cars and go look at Christmas lights together. Then it would be back to Grandma's house to play board games and/or watch movies until our parents felt it was time for us to get to bed so Santa could come.

On Christmas morning, we always woke up bright and early (well, usually I was dragged out of bed by my older sister telling me what I got from Santa) and headed into the living room to see what Santa left by our pair of shoes that had been set out the night before. I love going back and looking at pictures of those Christmas mornings. Santa never wrapped our gifts. I remember one year, my sister got a Barbie House. It was all set up with the furniture inside of it... We played with that house A LOT. My brother got this awesome GI Joe tank looking headquarters thingy... we played with that too! (Yes, girls can play with GI Joe!)- Oh, and there was the year that I got a whole stack of Nancy Drew books- I was in bookworm heaven! We would get in trouble if we woke our parents up too early, so we would look and play and talk in excited whispers until they came in the living room. I'm sure they were tired from the night before... cause, you know, they had to stay up to make sure us kids didn't try to catch Santa in the act of leaving our presents... :)

At Gigi and Papa's house, we opened presents pretty early, and then played or whatever until lunch was ready. And we always ran down the street to my Aunt Kay's house to see what my cousins Dani and Rachel got from Santa. They usually had gotten a really fun new board game to play, and we would take it back down to Gigi's house to play it. If it wasn't too cold, sometimes a trip to the park nearby was in order.

One year, as we got older, we started the tradition of going to a movie on Christmas Day. It was pretty much the only thing that was open... I wanna say the first one we went to was Little Women, but that was a while ago, so I could be wrong. We sometimes keep up that tradition, but it is harder now that I have a husband who works shiftwork, and isn't always off for Christmas (and of course, we all have kiddos, not all of whom are ready to go sit in a theater for the length of a movie). That tradition might have to wait a few years.

Anywho, all this to say, I want to start creating traditions with and for my kiddo and future kiddos (whenever that may be)... I just gotta decide which ones are important I guess. What are some of the traditions you do with your family? Leave me a comment with some of your favorite (past or present) traditions!


Landon is not a fan of Santa just yet. :)



Last year he didn't mind so much though...



Forever Treasures - off the ground

So, remember forever ago when I posted about my Forever Treasures? 

Well, I am finally going to post some more. I have actually already made quite a few sales, and have more blocks ready to go. I have even participated in some vendor shows, and while they weren't very lucrative, they were good events to "get my feet wet." First off though, I had a logo and business cards designed by Queen Mab Designs (Check her out if you have a chance!). I LOVE my logo! She created exactly what I had in mind! See:

So, now for the picture dump of some of the blocks I have created:

Butterfly blocks for a co-worker and her sisters to remind them of their mom who passed away.



This one is one of the more popular ones!



Hello Kitty!



Those are just a few of them. I am now working on a Disney Princess block, a Star Wars themed block, and a Lightning McQueen block. I also have a few that I took pictures of on a different camera, that have not been put on a computer yet. I'll get to them eventually. (I know, I know, "promises, promises")



My "booth" at one of the vendor shows



The shows didn't go great - in fact, at one of them, I didn't sell a single block. I got pretty discouraged, but have since received 3 more orders for different blocks. And some people order more than one. I believe these blocks are reasonably priced ($15 for the 8" blocks, $20 for the 10" blocks), and they are all very unique - not a single one made exactly the same (at least, so far hehe). I think Market Days will have a better "audience" if you know what I mean. Market Days is where a bunch of vendors set up in the Square downtown and are there for the whole day. It is a really fun atmosphere, and usually draws a large crowd. For now, I'm working on special request orders, and the "generic" blocks I've made up will stay in my inventory until they sell. I'm excited that I've sold any at all, and feel like I'm "on my way." I was worried this business venture of mine would never get off the ground, but things are looking up! I have so many more ideas, but would like to make a little bit more money before I splurge on getting the materials I'll need for other projects.

Anywho, it's going to be a busy holiday season, and it's my favorite time of the year! -- Gotta get started on my Christmas shopping...eeek! 'Til next time everyone!

Aww, twinkly lights!

Smash Cake



I know, I know...it's been a while. You should be used to this by now :) Recap -- The weather was SOOO yucky that we were stuck under a pavilion for all of Landon's party, but he had a great time anyway! Here are some more pictures from the day:



Hangin out.



Yummy!





The SMASH Cake





Happy Birthday to you...





A little timid at first....



First taste... Now...that's pretty good!



Digging in...



Umm... Why is everyone staring at me?




Check out those lashes.. I'm surprised he didn't have cake in them!



I need both hands for this cake!





They are sooo going to regret giving me this cake!

All done!

 

Even though he didn't get himself super dirty during the cake smashinig, we still had to get him all cleaned up so he could open presents... (Please pardon the blurry pictures. I was not the one taking the pictures :) hehe...)

 

 

 

 

 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LANDON!!

(By the way, keep your fingers crossed, and maybe I'll pop in with pictures from Halloween next week! -- If I get 5 comments on this post from 5 different people, I PROMISE I'll have them up by next Friday :)... Have a great weekend everyone!)