Fun new Christmas (or NYE) tradition!

So my brother surprised the family with the following as a fun new Christmas tradition this year... but I think it would be a great NYE tradition as well!



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On Christmas eve after dinner, he brought out a box of Floating Sky Lanterns and half a dozen permanent markers and presented each couple with their own lantern (the kids all shared one as well). We were given the instruction to write down our wishes/hopes/goals for the upcoming year on them.



Uncle Andy helping the girls with their list

 The kids list included a trip to Disney, the beach, visiting cousins, Busch Gardens, and other fun excursions. The couples' lists had some more "grown up" hopes and dreams on them. The first item on our list was a NEW HOUSE! PS... we have had an offer on this one house for A WHOLE YEAR. Granted we have looked at other houses in the meanwhile, this house seems to have come full circle so we are hoping with everything we have that this house goes through... and soon! Hubby wanted some more solid expansion plans for his business, and I just wanted to have more date nights and family date events.

Once all the lists were completed, we headed down to the dock to light them off.

How it works is you swing the lantern around (carefully) to get a little bit of air in it and then you light the wick at the bottom and wait until it inflates.

Once you begin to feel the lantern "pull" then you are ready to let it fly and you just let go.

It was a really neat and fun family thing to do!

Elizabeth is HERE!!

After seeing my {revised} due date of December 6-8th come and go I was scheduled to be induced on 12/12/12... how fun is that?! Fortunately... or unfortunately (my mom was really looking forward to 12/12/12/) I started regular contractions on the 11th, so when we got to the hospital at 6pm that night to prep for the following days induction, I was already "halfway there" and having regular contractions.

So instead of hanging around all night, my doc came in and decided to break my water to get the ball rolling.

A couple hours, one Christmas movie (Last Holiday), and one too-late left-side-of-body epidural later, our Lizzie decided to join this world at 10:29 pm on 12/11/12.

The next day was full of the typical boring hospital stuff...

... but the girls got to come and meet their new baby sister! They were thrilled!

After staying in the hospital for a total of 24 hours, we left on 12/12/12 at 6:30pm to head home as a family of 5.

I'm hoping these girls become the best of friends!! So far so good.

It's hard to believe I have a (few hours shy of a) 1 week old!

And here is the last belly shot of this pregnancy :)

Waiting on baby... and crossing off some Christmas to-dos

Here we are... on the last day of my due date range (Dec 6-8)... and NO baby! It's so funny how babies come on their own terms. My 1st was 1 days early and my 2nd was 4 days early. C'mon rugrat, lets go... I've got Christmas to recover for!

Although, my original due date was the 12th... so I think my doc just goofed in updating my due date.

WHILE we've been waiting, we've been running around running errands and knocking some items off of our Christmas To-Do list. We have:

Mailed Christmas letters to Santa at Macy's

Gotten all festive and taken pictures with Santa (and around the yard)

And Decorated some cookies (I have to admit, I am such a perfectionist when it comes to my Christmas cookies I have a hard time letting the girls help... this way they can get as creative [Read: messy] as they want!)

One of these days #3 will make her appearance!

Decorating? Just add greenery!

Ok, as I am STILL waiting for baby to arrive (ok, ok, I'm not even at my due date yet but both other girls were early, so I'm impatient!), I am finishing up some decorating and I wanted to share another small tip!

This year is different; we are in limbo with moving (although we got an update yesterday) so a lot of our stuff is in boxes from when we thought we were FOR SURE moving, so I don't have my usual stuff out. So I was a little worried that my mantle wouldn't look right for Christmas.

Also, we took down our HUGE wall unit where I put my Christmas village and various other Christmas decor is no longer available. AND since we didn't take all of our Christmas decorations down from the attic I am missing some of my prized decorations, bleh. 

That said, here is our mantle (PS, this is the picture from the "Stocking Hanging tip" post). I have a mixture of red and gold glass balls in a globe vase, some red candles, and shiny gold reindeer.

Not too shabby. Actually, somewhat festive.

BUT, just add some live greenery and look what a difference it makes...

 

Here is our full mantle, I don't have a lot of Christmas stuff up, but with the greenery it looks super festive. Plus, it smells awesome and then after the holidays we get to burn the trimmings in the fire place. Win-win. 

 

 

I used the trimmings from our live tree, but you can either go buy some trimmings from places that sell trees OR run by lowes and go through the dumpster by their trees (I did that last year to get some extra trimmings).

Linking up: Our Delightful Home , Sarahndipities, Keeping it Simple

Stocking Hanging Tip

So as I am starting to decorate for Christmas... and as I wait for our little one to arrive (T- 6 days.... Any. Day. Now), I decided to share a little tip I use for hanging my stockings.

Here we are, a few of our stockings are hung up straight from storage...

In my opinion, they look wrinkled, flat, and well... really empty (minus the far left, it's already "fixed")! I know, I know, Santa doesn't fill the stockings until Christmas, BUT I think these stockings hang kind of blah.

So, what I do to fix this is to simply stuff some crumpled news paper or tissue paper in the stocking to make it look full...

See, much better, fuller, and not less wrinkled...

Voila! I simple, easy fix for flat, blah, pre-stuffed stockings.

Linking up: CRAFT , Our Delightful Home , Sarahndipities , Keeping it Simple
 

39 weeks & a sort-of meal plan

I'm still here! Rather she's still here... as in, in my belly!
39 weeks!

Since I'm about to go into labor any day now, the meal plan is kinda iffy...

Sunday was...
Take out; our power was out until 8pm

Monday was...
Bacon Wrapped Pork tenderloin with mashed potatoes and corn

Tuesday
I have a meeting so bacon, eggs, and toast for the girls, steak for daddy

Wednesday
Italian Sausage, Spinach, and Ravioli Lasagna

Thursday
Encrusted Tilapia

Friday
Pizza Night

Saturday
... no more football :( I don't know! We'll find something to eat

38 weeks

So went I went in for what I {thought} was my 36 week appointment my doc said, "ok 37 weeks". I was like "wait what? I thought I was 36 weeks!", and he looks at the chart and says, "well... 36,6... so... 37". So it turns out it was my 37 week appointment!

THEN I realized that I was full term, what what! Go me! If I went into labor that night, little one would not be considered premature.

Anyway, that was last week, so NOW I'm...

38 weeks

 I have packed my hospital bag (about time huh?), wrapped baby's presents to the girls, and washed and put together the car seat...

... AND the bouncy

... AND the swing

Washed and organized the clothes

... AND the burp clothes/swaddling cloths

I'm feeling pretty good about myself here!!

Weekly Meal Plan #51

SUNDAY was... 
Lemon Garlic Shrimp and Grits

MONDAY 
Chef Salad

TUESDAY 
 Florentine Chicken Soup

WEDNESDAY 
 Ranch Pork Chops

THURSDAY 
THANKSGIVING
- Turkey (with gravy... me)
- Ham
- Mashed Potatoes (me)
- Sweet Potatoes
- Eggplant Stuffing
- Cold cranberry jello (me)
... that's all I know of so far...

FRIDAY 
Hubby's birthday so either leftovers at my mother in laws OR Lemon Shrimp Pasta

SATURDAY 
FOOTBALL! mmmm pizza night?

Recap

 Hamburger, Veggie, Mashed Potatoes

 Chicken & Spinach Stuffed Shells

 Breaded Tilapia

 Pancakes, Eggs, Bacon

 

New semester = new books

Heading back to college after Winter break was always a fresh start in my mind; new classes, new teachers (not to mention new fun and exciting adventures on weekends), but it also meant new books to be bought for those new classes and teachers.

How I wish we had a site like Campus Book Rentals when I was in college. I mean, seriously, books are expensive!

So let's say I was taking one of my um... not as favorite classes this upcoming semester, Algorithms and Data Structures (did I mention I was a computer nerd programmer in my former non-mommy life). The book required for the semester is Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis in C++ by Weiss, Mark Allen with a brand new price of a whopping $138! (can you say YIKES!)

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Let's say you run over to Amazon to see if you can find it cheaper... well Amazon sells it for $112.39. Pretty good savings off of $138, right?

BUT if you RENT from Campus Book Rentals (and keep it through the end of Spring Semester, May 31 ish), you only pay $56.41.

No brainer if you ask me!

Weekly Meal Plan #50

I missed last week... woops :)

Sunday was...
Feta Topped Chicken

Monday
Steak for daddy, mac n cheese and chicken for the girls... mama has a meeting

Tuesday
Mashed Potatoes over Hamburger, veggies.... kinda like a Sheppard's Pie but you don't bake it

Wednesday
Lemon Garlic Shrimp & Grits

Thursday
Chicken & Spinach Stuffed Shells (from the freezer)

Friday
... daddy has drill so something low key

Recap

Italian Ranch Pork Chops

Andoulli Sausage, Red Beans, and Rice

Chicken, Sun Dried Tomato, Broccoli, Ricotta, Mozzarella and Basil

Panko Crusted Tilapia

Tricia Yearwoods Chicken Tortilla Soup

Chicken Parm