Holiday Prep and NEW MOON

Obviously, I've been in a bit of blogging slump. Really, a bit of a slump in general. However, I have made the concious decision to count my blessings!! I won't lie, it has been a daily battle! I put my tree up early with a Thanksgiving theme as a beacon and a reminder to remember my GOBS of incredible blessings and remember how blessed and fortunate I am every day. So far it has been working, and I had no idea how much I would need this glaring reminder! I love it, though, and it is helping me feel more festive and ready to tackle the holidays.

I was able to put this tree together with almost nothing I didnt already have, minus a few bushes on clearance at Hob Lob and donations from my mom :D Yep, that is a turkey on the top! It looks really pretty in real life :) I have loved having it up, and I will be making this a new part of our holidays!


My main focus this year is to hand make a lot of gifts, keep things minimal in order to keep stress minimal, and most importantly to do the really meaningful activities with my family that "make" the season, and I am really looking forward to all of the fun things we have planned that have become our traditions.

I am unusually ready for Christmas this year. Mark and I went today and got some of the stuff for the kids that are the must-haves, that the younger ones are counting on Santa to bring. I get nervous, because I want to be sure that Santa can find just the right thing. So far we are in good shape. We are also starting early in order to spread the spending out over a longer period of time since things are tight this year as usual. I basically will continue to trickle things in as I do hair/popcorn. I have been very blessed with lots of work over the last few weeks!

And of course, I have to recap NEW MOON!!!!

Honestly, I really want to go see it again!! LOL It was really good and we had so much fun! Sadie and I went with Casey and Hayley to the midnight show. I know the girls were loving a super special night out with their cool moms that let them stay out till 3 am! We got our seats at 8 so we went over to native and got some fries and killed some time. Our shirts were so cute, I can't believe we didn't take pics of them! I'll take one of Sadie in hers later I guess. Sadie and I put lots of Goth-y eyeliner (heh-sort of) and got all fixed up. It was a fun night and the movie being so good really made it awesome. Thanks Casey and Hayley, it was super fun! We'll do it again in June!

How adorable are these girls! SO grown up!!

Ahh! Mutant arm!!! LOL!!