Christmas Time is Here!!

We put up our Christmas Tree the other night and after wards I decided to start a new little tradition...

To take a picture in front of it right when we were done!

I want to get a cute Christmas frame and put it up in the house every year during Christmas! Here is our first one...

I Linked Up Today!!

 doing what i do best @ 8:00am

October BirthDAYs

Yes the title reads right with DAY all in capital letters. October 30th/31st is a big day in Josh and I's family. It is Josh's dad, my Grandpa, and my cousin's birthday!! This year all of them were celebrated on the same day. We started the day celebrating my grandpa and cousin's birthday at Mimi's Cafe for brunch. I just ordered a muffin knowing lunch was on the schedule for Dave's bday. I made them a Halloween birthday cake. My cousin enjoyed the witch's hat made out of rice crispies. I must say it was almost too cute to eat.

After it was time to head to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch for Dave's birthday! We passed the time while waiting for our food by playing scrabble with Aunt Connie via IPhone and opening his gifts. We got him Big Bang Theory Season 3. He was leaving right after lunch to catch a plane to Dallas so at least he had something good to watch during the flight. I enjoyed my Cajun Chicken Little for lunch and finished it off with some cheesecake. Dave made sure to tell the waiter that it was his birthday so that he could get some cheesecake too haha. He got sang "Happy Birthday" and a nice plate with it written in chocolate. It took me a couple picture to get a nice one.

Happy Birthday Dad, Grandpa, and Skeeter!

Halloween: Family Style!!

I love getting together with our family for the holidays. Sometimes its tough to split the time between both but we do and we wouldn't trade it for the world. Halloween is pretty easy because Josh's family does their annual pumpkin carving party the week before Halloween every year. We always have the same thing for dinner and everyone looks forward to this day (well at least the girls do)! Soup in bread bowls!! Chicken and Wild Rice, Zuppa Toscana, and Broccoli and Cheese. After dinner, we stuff our faces with a bunch of desserts. This year I made mini carmel apples. There were also donut eyeballs, browines, cupcakes, and I am sure I am missing something. The kids all bring their pumpkins over and they do such a great job of carving them. This year we had a Hello Kitty and a Mickey Mouse. Jen then lines them all up for a picture. It takes them a little while but she seems to always get one good one...

 I took this picture from her craft blog. If you haven't already, go check it out... eighteen25! There is lots of fun crafts, giveaways, and recipes on there!!

On Halloween night, we normally head over to my parent's. I go trick or treating with some family friends kids while Josh watches the Bulls game. This year though, Josh had to work and the Bulls didn't play so he didn't get to come. I headed over there early and Kalah and I helped my cousin carve her pumpkin. Us girls then sat around on the couch and watch the Halloweentown marathon on the Disney channel. I may be getting older but not too old to watch my favorite Disney Halloween movies! Brandi, my cousin, decided to stay and go trick or treating with us so Kalah and I put her together this cute little 80's costume! 80's was the theme this year around their house. Kalah was an 80's Madonna. She was off to a Halloween party that night and her costume looked great! Tarin didn't dress up this year. Maybe next year! My mom made us some carmel apples and her traditional Mac and Cheese for dinner. (I just realized that both families have a traditional Halloween meal. How funny!) Then after dinner, I go sit outside with my mom and hand out candy. So many cute little trick or treaters every year. We had tons this year. We went through 16 bags of candy like it was nothing!

 

Now the Holiday Season Begins... Josh and I bought our first Christmas presents today :)

First Halloween at Our House

This was our first Halloween in our house. I loved decorating for the holiday!! I made a couple of new things for decorations, a wreath, ghosts, and EEK frames. Halloween is now my favorite holiday to decorate for even though my fall/thanksgiving decor is pretty darn cute! I was also very excited to put my banner up that I had made a couple years ago...

 

The weekend before Halloween we had our friends over to carve pumpkins. We all went to the pumpkin patch together. It was Josh and Sabrina's first time visiting a patch. The rest of us had been but it had been a while. I thought it was so funny that the pumpkin patch was advertising Christmas Trees already. Can we please get through Halloween and Thanksgiving first? After all the pumpkins were picked, we head back to the house for hamburgers, funnel cakes, and pumpkin carving!! I saved all the chunks from the pumpkins and made homemade pumpkin pie. Making it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I guess it tasted delicious, I don't know, I don't like pumpkin pie haha that's just what I was told. All the pumpkins turned out awesome when they were lit! We will definitely have to do this again next year and next time make sure the Larsens, Mike, Eric, and Racquel's boyfriend, James can be there. Also by that time our group of friends will have a little addition. Jeff and Amber are having a baby boy that is due at the end of this month! We all can't wait to meet him. The first baby of our group friends :)

 

(note to self: if pumpkin rots before Halloween throw it out. it will leave a mold stain on your concrete)