Thanksgiving: always more fun spent in the Hospital!

Love Thanksgiving..Emergency Appendix surgery 
makes it even MORE fun!

We had planned on joining up with the rest of the immediate family in the area for Thanksgiving day. Full of football..eating..kids running everywhere..but our plans changed slightly.

Ben had lower 'stomach' pain all day wednesday..and by midnight there were tears..no no i take that back...as he says..he sneezed and his eyes were watery..haha. but sophia was sleeping and ben being the macho man he was decided to drive himself to the hospital to see what it was. by 3 am he was diagnosed as having pendicitis and was scheduled for emergency appendix surgery at 6:45 am. I slept about an hour that night..i was up on the phone with him..or cleaning the house because i couldn't sleep until i knew what was going on. my mother-in-law who was visiting at the other house full of family here drove over and took me and sophia to the hospital at 5. i got to see him before surgery..he was in a lot of pain.

The surgery felt long but it is a standard surgery i guess and the surgeon came out and said it went great! he also said ben was cracking up the nurses..they thought he was just the funniest thing. he kept saying it's from the medicine and i was like no he is just like that. hehe. Not wanting sophia to get germs in the hospital..some awesome friends watched her for the day. i took her once to see daddy because he missed her. this family was so amazing and i can't thank them enough..they even served me up a plate of their thanksgiving dinner! ben hates turkey..i'm pretty sure he made this happen just so he could avoid eating it! ;) but no this family was such a blessing. sophia loves them so it made it easier for me to know that she was happy while i was at the hospital with ben.

the babysitters during the craziness. they asked me to take some family shots for them a while back..these are two of them.

after surgery, as soon as he got back to his room where i was waiting, he mooned me. yeah. nice huh? he was funny..he learned all the nurses names..inviting them to our young adult group at church that we started up.. he asked them while i was out of the room if he was allowed to cuddle with me in his bed..glad i wasn't in the room for that one! haha..

but overall it was a thanksgiving to remember. he finally came home today! It made me so thankful for all of the amazing family and friends we have close to us..and thankful for the great staff at the hospital. but most of all i'm thankful to have ben home and recovering.  this will be a thanksgiving we won't forget. we took a family photo though with his i-phone just to make sure we never do. :)

she wanted to go "nigh-nigh" like daddy. holding her chex mix.

I hope all of you had a wonderful thanksgiving!..and that everyone stayed safe and healthy! :) 

Bargain Shopper - Gifts under $15

GIFTS UNDER $15

I wasn't going to post anything to do with Christmas until atleastttt afterrrr Thanksgiving Day..but all the black friday commercials have got me going! haha. I started looking online and was like oo look at this! oo look at this! i love a good deal! some of these are black friday deals but most are the everyday price so no rush. please don't be one of the crazies tomorrow haha....last year i went just to watch them..i bought nothing we just watched the hilarious frantic people...depicted so well in the target commercials. hehe. 

i especially love this commercial because i talk with my hands..not as bad as her though i promise!! haha.

Here's some gift ideas i've come across! No need to stress out about burning through your wallet this year. They are all under $15! except the snowflake candleholders...but splurge with the extra 95 cents! hehe. 

Gifts under $15

Old Navy - Women's Sherpa Pom-Pom slipper Boots 15.00

Target - Games 5.99-9.99

Forever 21 - Elegant Feather Headband 5.80

Forever 21 - Metallic Leopard Wallet 7.50

Crate and Barrel- Snowflake Candleholders Set of Two $15.95

Ikea - Mala Easel $14.99

Home Depot - Husky 2-Pack Hard Case Tool set $9.98

Etsy: Saffronbarr's Shop-  Cool Water Natural Soap  $5.25

Shutterfly.com - 5x7 Photo Book 12.99

Ikea - Damast Lantern for tealight $12.99

Old Navy - Women's Diagonal Stripe Scarves $12.50

Etsy: In Honor of Design - Vintage Gold and Pearl Necklace $13.50

Barnes & Noble - Love: The Words and Inspiration of Mother Teresa $5.38

Have fun gift giving to the ones you love and be sure to remember the true reason we celebrate Christmas..

My Thankful Photo Journal

(best graphic i can make...i'm sleepy. haha.)

MY THANKFUL PHOTO JOURNAL

Reading all of my favorite blogs...I see them posting about what they are thankful for and it really does make me want to sit down and think about it. Have you ever really done that? In prayer every night with my husband we thank God for various things but i've never sat down and written exactly what i'm thankful for..the serious and the silly. So i'm excited to be able to journal this. Thanks for viewing my thankful photo journal. you should try it! i feel very organized in my thoughts and heart..haha..if that makes sense. (i'm a list person. ask my hubby..i leave lists everywhere.. "things to do before i go into labor"..."things to do before i put the house up on the market" "cleaning to do list by room" i'm nuts i know.

1. I'm thankful for Jesus loving me so much that He died on the cross for me. I strive everyday to love like him...in the suffering moments and the joyful.

2. I'm thankful for my amazing husband who not only eats whatever i cook..even the wierd looking things.. he makes me laugh and keeps me strong. he is helping me get to heaven, encouraging me in my prayer life..he is the most amazing father to our baby girl. he supports me in whatever i set my crazy mind to and he knows how to make a bad day better even if its just grabbing me and spinning me around our family room aka our dance floor. i'll stop with the mushy-ness here. haha.

3. I'm thankful for my daughter Sophia. She has transformed my life..i never knew i could love someone so much..i love seeing her grow every day and i love everything about being a mommy the good the bad the ugly(that means the wierd colored diapers) There are always the days where i realize it's almost dinner time and i've done nothing on my list just chase her around and keep her entertained/alive haha...but when she runs to me and kisses and hugs me it totally makes it worth it. i even love the brushing"hitting mommy in the head with the hairbrush"my hair. i especially love the "mama!" when she see's me. i even love the early morning wake-ups because she is extra cuddly in the morning. She has taught me how to love..and to sacrifice joyfully. she is squeezy cute.

3. I'm thankful for all of my Family and Friends..everyone who inspires me..encourages me.. makes me laugh! I am so blessed with great people in my life. My mom and dad are so amazing and although i always knew they sacrificed a lot for me it wasn't until i had my baby girl that i truly realized everything that goes into parenting! I love all the friends who even when we don't talk for months because our lives are crazy busy...when we do talk it's like it was yesterday. i'm thankful for all of the fun memories i have with all of you.

3. I'm thankful for Mother Teresa's Witness.. I had the opportunity to meet her when i was younger..i worked with her sisters all growing up. I am so thankful for her amazing life and the simple conversation she shared with me. She sparked in my heart the desire to serve the poor..which we are hopefully going to be able to do in a hugeee way if our soup kitchen comes along! (so far so good! i'll keep you all updated. :) But she really was an amazing woman who showed so many people how to love in the little ways. I'm thankful for her life and that i was able to meet her. I was 10 years old..and she was the same height as me. and i wasn't exactly a shy child..i told her i wanted to be a sister..i wanted to be just like her. she laughed at me because i was so young and told me to pray 3 hail mary's a day for my vocation..what God wanted of me in my life... and i did that ever since.. and then i discerned i was to get married through lots of prayer..and then i met ben...and we prayed it together for our marriage..and we still pray it every night for sophia's vocation and one day i'll teach her to say it every night as well. She helped me to see that God has this amazing plan for me in my life..i just have to be open to Him and his will..and to say a pray to his mama for her to intercede for me every night. :)  i remember her soft wrinkly hands and i'm thankful for the blessing she is and was to so many people.

(i'm the girl with the blue headband to her right.)

4. I'm thankful for Jon McLaughlin. For his music...and the fact that it is the only thing sometimes that will make my baby girl fall asleep in the car. haha. When the hubster and I were engaged we went to a concert of his before he was big..and we sat up in the front..ben told him we were engaged and getting married soon so later he gave us a shout out and said "this song is for the love birds in the front" haha. he's awesome..go check out his music! your babies will love it! and so will you.. (atleast the first 5 times you loop it..then you might need a break. ;)

5. I'm thankful for the Roof over my Head.. The food on my plate..my job with a great boss and pastor. being alive.. being free.

i could sit here and go on and on i feel like i have so much to be thankful for. But it's time for bed. 

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

What are you thankful for??

Top Mama Picks - Download Free Holiday Cards

Download Free Holiday Cards

i know so many people who are already done with this. ordered and printed. but i...am not one of those people. Here are some great options where you can diy your christmas cards and save some money. 

I'm hoping to get some family shots taken over Thanksgiving (Yay for having a professional photographer in the family! ;) Then i'm going to make ours up in Photoshop..get them printed at Target most likely but there are a variety of places you could print them off at! Do you know any other free holiday cards out there to download?? 

1. Free holiday cards at beckyhiggins.com 

You can download the template you like...and then plug in your own photo! here's my sweetie. 

i love her little teeth. not so much the part of them coming in.

  

2. More free holiday card templates

 at Memory Makers Magazine 

 

3. Photoshop kitchen also has a free holiday card template available to download.

 

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If you have some skill with photoshop you can use these free downloadable brushes to create your own holiday card! here are some that i found. let your creativity run wild and send something truly original this year. 

 

 

Our $100 dollar Getaway to the Mountains with Friends

We're finally home from our fall vacation (first one ever!) and i thought since i had a minute i would post something.

Ben and I have been so busy lately with just life in general. We were so excited when we decided to take up our friends on their offer of letting us use their mountain house for the long weekend! we escaped early..wednesday night.. let sophia sleep through the night. and met up with friends of ours from philly. they have a baby boy 3 months younger than sophia. it was soooo fun..and relaxing.

I was very proud of our budgeting for this trip! we ended up only spending 100 bucks.

$30- gas there

$30- gas back

$15- grocery store there

$15-pizza parlor

$10- coffee to keep ben awake

CHANGE = VACATION MONEY!

We have the habit of ending up with tonssss of change..and we put them in a jar in the 6th bedroom i turned into my closet. haha. we empty our pockets in there. so before we left for vacation ben and the baby took them to the coin star machine at the grocery store and came home with a tank of gas! every few weeks we do this and it is awesome. sophia loves to watch it gobble up the coins.

Our friends and I brought tons of food so we didn't have to eat out for every meal.  i went grocery shopping in my own kitchen..loading up a box full of food for the long weekend. It ended up being perfect. We played wii all weekend...went for walks..played at the playground. the boys went golfing. we cooked..ate.. vegged. my kind of vacation. the kids were able to run around the house and play..sorta..sophia avoided him at all costs till about an hour before we left when they reversed rolls and she wouldn't stop trying to hug and kiss him. but overall the mountain air did us good. and another awesome part about vacation....besides being cheap....we came home to a clean house!! best mama tip ever...clean your house before you leave. :) no i just have to tackle the piles of laundry...blah.

us girls with our babies! and the boys had a competition........

This is how sophia and tommy interacted most of the weekend. . . . . 

we went to this local pizza parlor

side note***I was just trying to get sophia down for a nap..and of course as she was dozing off all of the dogs in the neighborhood decided to start communicating. the across the street dogs started it first..barking at all the little woodland creatures running around..and then i kept hearing dogs from farther and farther away. seriously? at the exact moment of nap time?? but she was so tired and i worked my mama magic and got her to sleep and all was perfect in the world. then i went downstairs to turn down the food network that she had clicked on by accident....but...the remote was nowhere to be found. of course. i searched everywhere and then remembered earlier this morning seeing her pretty much standing on her head looking under the couch. i thought she was just being snoopy but i was wrong...there was the remote! all the way in the back.. haha. ***

Home Renovation - Dining Room

This room was sooo bad when we first bought it..i didn't even take a photo of it to show friends. haha. that's how bad. but i found this photo from when we bought it that they posted online.

BEFORE:

don't you just love the giant prickly christmas wreath they left us???? lovely.....

So in this space we had a contractor friend help us out with most of the dry wall projects. we got rid of the drop down ceiling..re-drywalled and insulated the window wall...tore up the thick brown carpet. took down the paneling..painted the fireplace..stenciled the wall (michael's stencil) (i did it twice because the first time i was halfway it was crooked. haha.-i laugh now..) we put built in's from ikea. still want to finish them off with crown molding throughout. we were in desperate need of storage like most old houses. i needed a place to store all my pottery barn dishes from our wedding! sophia has her stash of stuff at the bottom as well. still need to get some baskets for the bottom area..not there yet. we were also going to put doors on parts of the cabinets to hide away some stuff.

we knocked out two walls in the space to open up the floor plan..it's great for parties.

Wanting to do something cool over your fireplace??

Check out Michael's for some great stencils! i even saw some cool decals at Joann's the other day that you could put up and paint over..peel off and wala!