Polar Express

Polar Express! Today, I'm just showing you a few Polar Express pics! We had a great time, and Drew did wonderful! (I was worried) However, when we got home that night, he was breathing heavy, and running a fever. Back to the Dr. yesterday and ear infection still isn't clearing up. Hubs faxed in the paperwork to have his tubes put in, as early as next week! :(  I'm not the least bit excited, but we've gotta do it!

Anyway.....All Aboard the Polar Express!!

My little Santa babies! Sitting on my parents laps.

               We had a bottle disaster with Drew's santa pajama top...so onesie it is! My sweet boys!

                                         Both boys getting their tickets punched by the conductor!

                                                            Arriving at the North Pole!

                                                                      Cole and Santa

                                                                  Drew and Santa

                                                         Drew's favorite part of the ride!

And the hubs and I....he actually smiled a little!!

We all had a good time!!

Santa Picture Fail Linkup!

After going through these pictures today, I'm not sure if Santa is the reason for the fail, or Moms awesome photography! wow. Some of these are pretty rough! Let it be known that the ONLY professional picture we have of Cole with Santa, was his first Christmas. He HATES Santa. We have santa pics from every year but just not all from the mall. We will do the mall thing this year though, since it's Drew's first Christmas!

Christmas 2009: Cole's First Christmas

                                    See what I mean? Wow awesome job with the camera Mom!

                                             I had to add my little Santa baby in! So sweet!

Christmas 2010:

Another great photo moment for Mom. This was at my hubs work Christmas party....He was working that day, thats why he's wearing his uniform lol...and if you look closely, Cole is climbing him! Did I mention he's not a Santa fan?

Christmas 2011:

                                            

                     Come on Cole, take a picture with Mommy on the Polar Express!.....FAIL! and holy dark hair! Yikes!

            Wouldn't go to Santa, Santa had to come with him....while sitting on Grammy's lap!

Christmas 2012: We don't have our Santa pics yet....bad mom....but here is a santa hat disaster from Drew....I hope this isn't a little preview of our Santa pics!

Polar Express pics coming tomorrow!

I got nothin'

Last night Mickey's Christmas was on.....Cole and I watched, kind of. He's not real into Mickey Mouse, never has been. Odd? But, we had it on....and watched most of it...but the best part, drinking hot chocolate with my little man! He drank it with a straw....and his was more like "luke-warm chocolate" Which is probably why he wasn't a big fan! :)

Tomorrow we board the Polar Express for the second time. We went last year as well. Cole loves that movie even though I think it's absolutely the weirdest movie EVER! Drew is going with us, which should be interesting since he wants to be down all the time now. We'll see how that goes!

I have yet to post pics of our Christmas decor! I think about it in the evenings but then I always think my house isn't clean enough in the background for the pictures! lol. We'll get there....maybe.

On another note: I had my VERY FIRST email with a question in it! I was so excited, lol. It was a makeup question. I'm flattered because I basically do nothing to myself during the week, what I do is very simple. So I'm going to run with that question, and do a WHOLE POST, lol....why? because I'm so excited that someone asked! haha.

Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday!

Home Hair Salon

So after our family pictures were taken about 2 weeks ago....I didn't like the way my hair looked under those lights. It was looking red. When it's really dark brown. (We color it that way.....my natural hair color is actually close to black). Anywho.....I used to highlight my hair completely blonde for YEARS. But, my hair is VERY grey. I'm talking every 3 weeks I have a skunk strip where I part my hair and my hairline, and temples are a grey mess! I've had it since I was 17, bad genes I guess.

I have a lot of hair, so to color the roots, and then highlight...we're talking over $100 every 3 weeks! I can't afford that! So a year ago, I started coloring my hair at home. Costs me $6 for hair color and developer at Sally's! Can't beat it! And, another little unknown fact....my hubs colors it for me!! ssshhh!! one more little secret, he has cut it for me for the last 7 years also! Bet the guys at the Fire Department would love that! lol.

So after seeing those pictures a few weeks ago, I decided I wanted to go blonde...again. It gives me a little face lift, and it covers grey a little longer. So I bought a highlight kit to try at home. I was scared! I don't like the word "bleach" especially when doing my hair myselfl,...but we did it! I've had it done enough times to know what I'm doing, I was just worried about the outcome....bleaching dark hair to blonde can go bad quick! But, we did pretty well I think. And by we, I mean my hubs! yep that's right, he highlighted it too!! LOL.  I'm sure he's going to love that I just posted this!! :)

We pulled it through a cap, because we are not skilled enough to foil it! Then my friend who is a hair dresser told me I should put a plastic bag on it while it sets, to hold in moisture....walmart bag was all I had! LoL I look awesome right?

The before and after.....keep in mind the pic on the left was edited with instagram....and I actually had my makeup done, and I was smiling lol. The pic on the right was just to show the color, and ended up looking more like a mug shot! The hubs didn't do too bad!

Christmas Photo Dump!

Today, I FINALLY got our Christmas cards made! I will have them in my possession in an hour!! I usually have them in the mail by Dec. 1! I'm slacking this year! It took 2 nights of trying to get cute photos, with Drew screaming....and turns out....I still didn't really get anything good with the ones I took! But, the card looks cute....and that's all that matters! Here are some of the pics I used.

Pretty rough, except for my cheesin Santa Cole! But, I used them anyway! What's a Christmas card without a crying baby anyway, right?

Here are a few pics from the studio we had taken last weekend

I swear, Drew does smile! You put the camera in front of the kid and he freezes!! Cole has been Mr. Photogenic from the beginning! Drew doesn't dig picture time! We'll get there......maybe! ;)

Not a whole lot going on with this post today, just a bunch of my favorite subject in the whole world.....my babies!!

Happy Thursday!! It's ALMOST FRIDAY!!! Woot Woot!

Pay It Forward

I only have 12 followers.....all of which I'm thrilled to have! But, I am a dork and look at the page views I receive each day. Even though there are only 12 of you following, there are many more reading. So if I can inspire even 1 person to help, than I consider that a success.

You've heard of "big ballers" These are the girls I refer to as the "big bloggers" when talking about one of their posts to the hubs. You can visit their blogs to view stories of people who are in need this holiday season. If you choose a story that you would like to help with, you can follow the directions on their blog....on how to help.

Mama Laughlin  , Holly ,  Aly

All these ladies have different stories on their blog, so make sure you check them all out. I'll be trying to figure out who I'm going to help today! Some of the stories break my heart, and I can barely make it through reading them! But, as I finished my Christmas shopping for my boys yesterday, I can't help but think about those, who really need some help. I could benefit from taking a step back EVERYDAY and thinking about those who need some extra help. This is a great thing these girls are doing! No, I don't know these ladies personally...but I feel like I do! I read their blogs everyday, this is legit....it's not a scam. I have emailed, commented, facebook'd, instagram, and probably some of other form of communication with all three of them many times. They are real people, I promise! :)

So if you are able, please help!!

Christmas in Full Swing!

I just finished both my boys Christmas shopping!! I feel a slight bit of relief. It was ALL done online. I never have the chance to go shopping without the kiddos with me, which makes Santa's job tough! I can breathe easy about that now.....but there is still the other 18 people we buy for! ugh. lol It's a crazy amount. But with 6 nieces and nephews, grandparents, parents.....it adds up! and that's not even including anything for my daycare kids yet!  It's going to look like a loading dock on my front porch soon!


I did most for my boys on amazon (except 3 things) and since we are prime members....I paid $0 for shipping and my order was $300! I'm pretty excited about that!

I still have a long way to go with the shopping stuff, but at least now if my kids are with me when I'm out...it's not a big deal because they are DONE! did I mention that I am DONE shopping for my boys? :)


This weekend we had family pictures done. My plan was to (like I always do) have our cards made right then and there at the studio, with the pics we just had taken. The studio we go to, prints your pics within 15 min and off you go with your pictures. It's awesome. But this year, I could not stand the way I looked in any of our family pics....so I didn't get ANY of them. The ones of my boys were cute and I got lots of those....but, I wanted a family pic on our card, and since I didn't get any of them......no card. So sometime this week, we need to take some pics of us in front of the tree, so that I can get the cards made...and sent out.

Do you do Elf on the Shelf? This is our first year. Cole named the elf, Richard. Which cracks me up! Richard is Cole's middle name (named after my dad). I can't help myself from laughing each time Cole is on the hunt for "wichard" as he says. So funny. He's really digging this elf stuff! But, we must have an elf that lives on the wild side.....because "wichard" moves multiple times a day! I think Daddy enjoys the little guy a little bit too ;)

Drew is getting into the Christmas spirit as well. He can't seem to leave the Christmas tree alone! I take him away from it, and he goes right back! He seems to have found a favorite branch! Same one every time! Although it's super cute to see his little fingers go for the tree, I've had enough buddy. Leave it alone! :) Probably no chance of that happening right? Oh well, it's cute!

Hoping to get some good pics of our decor tonight. Love seeing all the tree pics! I'm a sucker for white lights, and I swore as a child I would have colored lights as an adult! My Mom always had white lights, and I wanted colored so bad! Well, look at me now. Every light on the outside of my house is white too! I had good intentions, lol. :)