Buddy is HERE!!

No, we didn't get a puppy or kitten :) Our Elf on the Shelf arrived last Saturday night. 

Meet Buddy.. Isn't he cute!

At first Gracie did not know what to make of this little elf. He must have flown in during the day when we were gone because he was sitting on top of the curtains. Gracie immediately wanted to touch him- but the rule is no touching because he will lose his magic. Every night he flys back to the North Pole to rest, drink hot coco and tell Santa if Gracie has been good or not. If Gracie has been bad that day he will stay in the same spot the next day. So far she has been very good girl.

DAY 1: He is here!

He has been getting into things such as toliet paper. Hoping he doesnt make a mess, but you never know what he going to do next. Each morning Gracie runs around trying to find Buddy because he is always in a different spot.

Day 2: Riding Nestor the Christmas Donkey- Gracie said "That's silly Mommy"

DAY 3: Got into the Toilet PAPER!! Oh no!!

Gracie has this little snowman that plays Jingle Bells and she is always playing it for Buddy:) That's his favorite song. She is also always telling Buddy- "I'm a good girl"... hehe she also tells him what she wants for Christmas.

DAY 4: Reading a story about a ELF to Gracie's toys!

DAY 5: Caught him driving one of Gracie's dolls around the house

During the month of December I will be posting Buddy updates!! He sure gets around... Must be all that magic!!

Love,




P.S. Check out The North Pole:

http://www.elfontheshelf.com/NorthPole.aspx

Thankful November 2011

Thanksgiving is always so much fun but also so exhausting at the same time. We love seeing family we havent seen in awhile, and the food is always delicious too!

We visited with Stephen's mom and dad at the beginning of the week. Aunt Crystal and Uncle Micah were there also. Gracie loves having one on one time with her Nana and Papa!! She loved swimming in their pool and watching Cartoons on their BIG TV. Pat (stephen's mom) also took Crystal and I to a cute little store in Sebring that has the prettiest crafts. We bought a few Christmas things!

Then we ended the week visiting Mamaw Ray. She had the house to herself because Uncle Yancey and Papa Ray were in the woods. We had a great Thanksgiving dinner with her, Gigi, and Papa Mcnair (Great Grandparents). I made mac and cheese, pumpkin & apple pie. My mom always out does herself. Let's just say we had left overs for a couple days. We went and saw Happy Feet at the Theater and we did BLACK FRIDAY shopping at Wal-mart. We got there at 9:30pm in hopes of getting a $99 convertible car for Gracie. They were only giving out 15 and guess what--- We got number 15 :) It was a lot of fun and Wal-mart did a great job with crowd control. We didn't get bed until 2:30 AM!

Black Friday Ads EVERYWHERE! Ahhh

 

All the Food..

So Thankful for a loving Husband and my little Best Friend Gracie. I love my life!

When we got home Buddy had arrived. You can read about him here. Gracie was so excited.. I love Christmas Traditions... I'm all about that!

I will do an extra post on Buddy's Adventures so far. He has been a very busy guy!

Until Next Time,

The Pine Cone

Ah the lovely pine cone. I don't know what it is about them, it could be that they are so fun finding or just the fact you can do anything with them. You could make bird feeders with them (just add peanut butter and bird seed) or you could dip them in all different color paint and display them in a glass dish or if you wanna get really crafty you could make name cards for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners. The endless possibilities,

 Today, Gracie and I had so much fun finding Pine Cones in the yard and then painting them. She loves to paint and always tell me so:) We decided to paint them red and green mix then put red and green glitter over them. I found a really neat way to tie them together with ribbon and let's just say it adorable on my front door. I made an extra one for my mom and she loved how chic and country it looked.

My finished creation. I added a red jewel to the top to finish it.

PINtastic Ideas...

I love Pinterest! I have found the most cutest crafts and projects for Gracie. I especially love their Christmas Ideas. I thought it would be fun to share with you some of the top things that caught my eye. Who knows you may be seeing one of these as a gift:)

How darling- Snowman Donuts!!

 These are powdered donuts with candy corn for the nose and black icing for the mouth and eyes!

Nutter Butters covered in chocolate!

This idea is smartest thing! I can't believe I never thought of it!

You need a can good that has a pull tab. Open it from the bottom- clean out contents. Remove paper wrapping. Dry it well. Put what ever candy you love, cookies, gift cards, jewelry.. Anything small enough to fit inside. Hot glue your favorite scrapbook paper around it. Then hot glue the bottom closed.

Add embellishments, jewels or ribbon and a gift tag that says "Pull my tab"... LOVE!!

Crescent rolls with cocktail sausages made into a wreath!! How cute!

Felt tree I made Gracie. She had so much fun taking the ornaments off and putting them back on.

Hot Chocolate stir sticks!! Find the recipe here.

..

Cheese Ball Snowman. You can the recipe here.

There are many many more ideas!! Check out Pinterest and follow my board!!

Have a fun crafty/cooking day!!

Here Comes the Princess...

I recently thought about selling my beautiful wedding gown. It just takes up too much space and the dress weighs a ton! I thought this would be the perfect time to sell it. I've tried in the past but I guess people do not want a used dress!

I found this really awesome site called Pinterest. If you have not checked this cool site out- do so now! There was a Pin for a cute idea to do with your wedding dress- dress your little girl up in it and give it to her as a gift on her wedding day. I know what your thinking- wedding day?!? Yes- time will pass by before I know it and we will be planning that special day.

Tonight I dressed my little Gracie up in my Wedding gown! It was such a special moment to see my own daughter in my veil. Stephen and I have been married for 6 years- Can't believe that dress is 6 years old- I really can't believe I have a daughter who is wearing it!!

I figured Gracie will not want to wear my dress- because lets face it the way Fashion is changing I know for a fact this will be "Old fashion":)

I pray all the time for Gracie to find that right person who will be a Godly man and leader. My mom prayed for me at an early age and the Lord has blessed me with the man of my dreams- my prince!

Gracie loves looking at my wedding pictures. She tells her Daddy "That's when Momma became a princess" and I say "Look, there's Daddy- my prince".

Hope you enjoyed these pics as much as I loved taking them:)

Gracie Post!

Gracie you are 2 1/2 years old.

You are still in diapers but I know your almost ready to potty train!

The smartest little girl I know.

You can count to 15 and know all the ABC'S

You know some Spanish words- like abre (open) and you usually tell us vaminos (Let's go) when its time to go!

You know a lot about different animals and just the other day surprised us with saying a Puma was chasing you:)

You are learning your colors. You love to paint, draw, do anything crafty!

You no longer take the binky (YAY) I told you 2 weeks ago that Binky's are for babies and that the Princesses don't have them, so if you wanted to be a Princess you had to give it up and you were fine with that.

You say the cutest things and sometimes I forget to write them down. I'm thankful I have this blog to post your cute sayings!

The other night while Stephen was at Sunday night church, Gracie asked me where he went. I told her "church". She said "Why" I said "To help people". She said "Like a Doctor" :)

Tonight while changing Gracie's diaper and she tried to move and get down. I told her Santa is watching- she says "What- my butt" hahaha

Gracie was looking through her bible one night and said "Mommy, I don't see Jesus anywhere- there are no pictures" :)

You love to dance. Usually every afternoon before Daddy gets home we have a dance party, where we turn the music up- loud and dance around the house in our PJ's!!

She is becoming a little me. I catch her sometimes saying her back hurts-LOL. You also love to wear your Pj's all day and I let you, otherwise it would be a huge battle and some things I let you win.

Bella is your most favorite. You get so concerned about where she is when I let her outside. You ride her like a horse and she basically lets you do anything you want to her as long as you share your food with her.

You are a daddy's girl and I love it! Your face lights up when he gets home!

You love to help me clean and cook. Tonight you helped me make brownies and tea!

We call each other best friends and I hope we always are!

I look at you sometimes while your watching tv or playing and think how blessed I am to be your mommy. You are becoming a little girl and it kinda scares me. I want you to be little forever but know that this will never happen. I get so excited to share new things with you and see how you just soak it in.

Your so so smart. You love Jesus. You love hearing how he was born. You love church and your friends. This makes us smile!

You are a joy!

Our Fun Week.. and Weekend!

Last week was full of playdates and fun! I have to admit that I was exhausted from all the "FUN"... Gracie loves her BFF- Elly! They play so well together and love each other so much. They are almost like sisters, which makes my heart smile. Elly's mom, Jessica is one of my dearest friends and I'm so thankful that the Lord put her and her sweet family in our path- almost 2 years ago!

Not only did we have lots of play-dates we also started watching Christmas movies! I LOVE claymation movies. A few years before I found out we were pregnant, I bought all the claymation DVD's- dreaming of the day when I could share them with my little one.. This past week has made me smile so many times, seeing Gracie's excitement over the Christmas movies. Her favorite was Nestor- The long Eared Christmas Donkey! We watched it so many times!!

Here is the Part 1 of the movie!! Take a look...

We also had fun setting up Gracie's Little Pink Princess Tree in her room. She loved it so much, It was the best $5 I had ever spent!

We got a chance to make some cute glitter ornaments for Christmas gifts too.... Getting into the Christmas spirit was so much fun this past week! Gracie also loves Santa and reading the Christmas Story is a favorite too. She knows all about Jesus and Mary and Joseph.. Her memory amazes us sometimes. To see her learn about Jesus and the true meaning of Christmas Blesses my heart beyond words. I just know that she is going to great things one day for Jesus.

We ended the weekend baking cookies. We were going to get pictures made with Santa but Gracie got sick in the Wal-mart. We think it was a 24 hour bug because she is better today. We prayed it was not the flu and she seems to be over it. She was so disappointed to miss Santa, but we told her he is making a special trip to see her again next weekend. She wrote him a letter and everything.. Poor baby girl :/

Gracie sick- watching Youtube videos!! She loves Stephen's laptop!

Love, 

Kim