Meet Buttons

This is Buttons. He is our elf on the shelf. I heard a lot about them getting your child to behave since they think Santa is going to hear about all the naughty things they're doing. So we went out last weekend and picked ours out. You choose the skin color, eye color, and hair color of your elf, then bring him home and name him! Gavin chose the name Buttons (not sure where it came from, but I kinda like it!).

Gavin is all about Santa this year. Last weekend, he got the Toys R Us ad out of the newspaper and clipped out all the toys he wanted, he put them in a Ziploc bag and took them to Santa so Santa would know exactly what to bring him. Yeah, my kid did that. He likes to be specific.

Back to the elf - so at first, he was totally into Buttons, he believed everything we told him (every night he goes to the north pole to tell Santa if you've been good or bad, he watches you all the time, don't touch him or his magic will wear off, etc.). But lately, he's been getting a little suspicious. Yesterday he said to me... "Mommy, I think Santa and his elves made Buttons in their workshop, and they put him in the stores so we would buy him." And today he got his doggy stuffed animal out and hid him, then told me to "find him, but don't touch him or his magic will wear off!"

The kid is smart. I don't know how I'm going to keep this going.

But he does get a kick out of finding him every morning. It's the first thing he does when he wakes up... he goes on a hunt around the house looking for little ol' Buttons.



My husband on the other hand... not so clever. I bought a pair of jeans today. I said to him on the way home 'Oh my gosh, babe... I had to buy a size 30.' He looked at me in disbelief and said "What??? Didn't you used to be a zero? How is that possible?"

Uhh, yeah. I had to explain to him that a zero is equivalent to a 24, a one is equivalent to a 25, a two is equivalent to a 26 and so on. 'Thanks, honey. By the way... that was back in high school, before I had two kids.'

PS- I added pictures to the French Apple Pie post (below) just to make you drool a little more ;)



Good company & shopping

That's what I've been up to lately. I feel like I've been out of the blogging loop for ages, even though it's only been a few days. Granny Mam came over Monday afternoon and spent some time with us. We watched movies, played games, went shopping, laughed a lot, ate good food, and had great conversation. I just love when she visits us. She also took a great picture of the four of us for our Christmas cards, but you'll have to wait to see those ;) She had to go home this morning, she is such a busy lady. We're gonna miss her and will hopefully see her again soon.

I didn't get to do the black Friday shopping I was hoping for. I looked through all the ads about a hundred times and had a list of items I was determined to buy that night. But hubbs got his paycheck two days late so I had to postpone my shopping spree. I was relieved when I heard about cyber Monday. Needless to say, I did some damage to our bank account Monday. I got some serious Christmas shopping done. Here are a few things that will be under our tree on Christmas morning...

This is a great toy for Kenna, I think she's gonna love it.

Got this for Gav, with a case and a toy story game.

Kenna loves to color, and loves music... how perfect is this!

Can't forget the hubbs... He wants this new gaming headset (he doesn't read my blog)!

I got a lot of my shopping done, but still have a little more to do. & now I'm off to wrap some gifts before Gav gets home from school. Last year I put gifts under the tree as I got/wrapped them but I think it would be more fun if I hide them and put 'em under the tree after the kids are in bed on Christmas eve. That way they are surprised when they wake up Christmas morning. What do you do?

Our Thanksgiving

I am the type of person that loves to lounge around in my pj's on Thanksgiving, with all my family around me, cooking up a huge feast in the kitchen with all the ladies, and watching football after a full belly. But this year my FIL invited my husband and I (and the kids of course!) to a nice hotel for brunch with him and his parents. Since we haven't seen his parents since 2007 (when Gav was only a year old! & they hadn't met Kenna yet) we decided not to decline. We went to a super nice resort style hotel nearby and had the biggest most delicious brunch ever, then we walked around the hotel and took pictures. Here are some pictures from our day:



Daddy & Gavin at brunch




My mini monster!




Our attempt at a family picture.




My babies




Kenna & Uncle Conner





A better family picture!



Hubbs and I :)

Four Generations.

The whole group

Me & my man



She fell asleep on the way home





My little man with Santa's elf!



After brunch, we went home and relaxed, then had another big Thanksgiving feast with my MIL. I think I gained at least 10 lbs this weekend. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday too!

Visit Kris' Grandparents.

I'm thankful for...

I am incredibly thankful for my wonderful husband who works so hard to provide for us. I'm thankful to have two happy, healthy children. I'm thankful for all of my wonderful in laws, they are all so good to my husband and I and they treat me as if I were there own. I am thankful to have a roof over my head, for my husband to have two good jobs, and that I am able to stay home with my babies and watch them grow. I am thankful Gav has started pre-k this year (3 hours for mommy!) and that he loves it so much! I am thankful that my husband's grandparents came to visit us for Thanksgiving, they were so happy to see the kids and we were so happy to see them! I could go on and on, I am thankful for so many things in my life right now. I am one blessed lady :)

I am also thankful that we've finally gotten the cool weather! It was in the 40's today!! Yesssss

I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday & if you're planning on going black Friday shopping... be careful & safe!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Holiday Cards From Shutterfly

There is no question Shutterfly has the most gorgeous (and reasonably priced!!) Holiday cards! I get all of our Christmas cards, birthday cards, invitations, announcements, everything from them! I have been ordering cards from them since Gavin was born. You're sure to find a card you love in their huge selection. Here are just a few of my favorites this year...

 How cute are those?? As you can tell, I like the black backgrounds with a pop of color but if that's not your thing, Shutterfly has tons of other styles to choose from. You can get folded cards, flat cards, stationary cards... There is an endless amount of designs. And you can get them for as little as $.32 each, you can't beat that! Now I just need to get some adorable pictures of the kids (that'll be the hard part ;)) So what are you waiting for?? Go order your Holiday cards from Shutterfly!

Happy Halloweeeeen

While Halloween is not one of my favorite holidays, it sure is at the top of the kids list. They absolutely love getting all dressed up and going trick-or-treating. Then they come home and are on a sugar rush for the next week! What's not to love, right?!

Here are some pictures from our Halloween filled weekend...

The creepy pumpkin Gav carved with Daddy

My little NINJA!!!



Playing games at his school's Fall Festival



My pink skeleton munchin on some candy



Finally time for trick-or-treating. The ninja & the cheetah



I love how Spongebob is the only one cheesin' in this picture....

Scaring his sister with the bat.



 Haha I love the last picture, Kenna did not know what to think about that scary skeleton. She stood there and stared at it for the longest time.

Hope you all had a fun-filled Halloween weekend too :)

Fourth of July

Happy {late} 4th of July!!!

We had some crappy weather here on Saturday, which totally messed up our plans for going to a local festival and having a good time. But yesterday we did cook out {love that!} then watched fireworks! It was fun :) Here are a few pics...