Brand New Ride!!

We got a new car this weekend!!

We were NOT planning this anytime soon but my '99 Honda Civic's check engine light came on on Thursday afternoon and we took her ( yes shes a girl! Her name is Cher!!) in and they said it was going to be 2,000 $ to fix her so we decided to go look and see how much we could get for her as a trade in. Plus we had started to save for a suv because we are planning on lots of kids and we know were going to need the room! Ha! Well we ended up getting 2500$ for my car and buying this Toyota Highlander!! These are not good pictures I will post more later but its so exciting to have a new car!! I will miss my little civic though! I loved that car! It was the first car I bought and paid for myself.

I still cant believe I have a new car!!!

New Christmas Tradition

When I think about the holidays my mind immediately thinks of fun, food, FAMILY, and excitement!! I have great memories of the Holidays growing up and I want to create that in our family for our kids some day.

I have so many things planned for our family as it grows and through reading blogs I have added so many new ideas! One GREAT idea that I have seen is this advent calendar. All you really need is some scrapbook paper and a muffin tin! I got mine for 4.50$ at Walmart!

Each day leading up to Christmas you have a fun activity that you do as a family. It may be sending a Christmas card or baking cookies or maybe watching a holiday movie. I decided to do this for Jimmy and I and I modified it to fit us since we dont have children yet.

Jimmy and I made a list of 25 fun holiday activities that we could do together and we randomly drew them out of a bowl and put them into our muffin tin turned advent calendar. Go HERE for step by step directions on how to make your own muffin tin advent calendar!

(None of these pictures are mine! I havent taken a picture of ours yet!)

Tonight is our first activity and we are going to take a drive to look at Christmas lights! I am excited because the whole point is to do fun activities together and spend QUALITY time together (not sit in front of the tv! Which we love to do! Ha!) I know that we will continue this tradition in the future with our kids someday!!

Thanksgiving Recipes

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with family, friends, food and fun! Jimmy and I had such a relaxing weekend! Its the first Holiday in awhile that we havent traveled and although I missed my family ALOT it was soo nice to relax and get things done around our house.

We spent Thanksgiving day with Jimmys Mom and her inlaws. I brought the pies! I wanted to share a new recipe for Turtle Pumpkin Pie that I tried and everyone loved!!

Turtle Pumpkin Pie

1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp carmel ice cream topping divided

1 Graham Cracker pie crust

1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp chopped pecans divided

2 pkg vanilla instant pudding

1 cup cold milk

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tub cool whip thawed / divided

Pour 1/4 cup carmel onto crust sprinkle with nuts

Beat pudding mixes, milk, pumpkin, and spices until blended. Stir in 1 1/2 cups cool whip. Spoon onto crust.

Refrigerate 1 hour. Top with remaining cool whip, carmel and nuts.

I made this one and a pecan pie. It was really good and its so funny because we are having a family dinner tonight over at Jimmy's Mom's and she called and told me that Jimmy's grandfather said that the only way he is coming to dinner is if I make another turtle pumpkin pie! So I guess he liked it! HA!

I also made these bacon poles that I saw on the food network! (Paula Deen!)

These are soo easy! All you do is wrap bacon around pretzel rods and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Then roll in Parmesan cheese and let cool. My Hubby really liked these and would barely share them! LOL! So if youre looking for a quick and easy appetizer try these! Who can go wrong with Paula Deen?!?! HA!

Its kind of sad that we have to go back to work tomorrow after having 5 days off.. but I am so thankful for the rest and time I got to spend at home these last few days. I am so looking forward to this Holiday season and all that Jimmy and I have planned!! Cant wait to share it all!! We are planning on starting some awesome family traditions to celebrate the season!! Well I'm off to a special dinner at my in-laws!!! I'm just going to soak up this last night of vacation!! Hope y'all are too!! Night!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!!!!!  

Blessings Overflow

My Cup runneth over! I am so so thankful for my life and all the wonderful blessings I have!

I am thankful for my amazing husband!! He was worth all the heartbreak I had to go through to find him! GOD CHOSE YOU FOR ME!

I am thankful for my wonderful family old and new! I love you more than I could ever say!

I am thankful for my job! Being able to touch and mold young lives is such an amazing privilege!

I am thankful that I live in a FREE country and I am thankful that there are selfless men and women fighting for that FREEDOM.

I am thankful for Friends old and new who just completely enrich my life.

I am thankful for my fur baby Riley! Who continues to teach me patience! HA!

I am thankful for my Health!!

Most of all I am thankful for a loving God who sent his son to save us.  God has truly blessed me and my family and may we never forget our blessings and give DAILY thanks to him.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

The Good List

I am in such a good mood!  I am coming off a wonderful weekend and have a lot of fun things coming up! 

• This weekend we went to see this movie and it was so FANTASTIC! I went under protest because what I really wanted to do was go home and take a nap but my Hubby told me he really really wanted to go so I did and I LOVED IT! I left the theater with a smile and good feelings so I definitely recommend it!
• I have a TWO day work week with one day down and ONE to go! WooHoo!!  This week in Kindergarten land we are making turkeys with toliet paper rolls and writing about what we are thankful for.  It warms the heart to hear what my students are thankful for.
  
• I got our Christmas Card pictures back and I am in LOVE with them!!  Here's another shot that I havent shown yet

Now I just have to decide which card to go with!??!  I have a couple options picked out but cant decide... choices.. choices.

• I've got the Christmas tunes in full force at our house!! My Mom called and said that she found an old Chirstmas Cd that I used to listen to all the time that I couldnt find anywhere and she bought it and is sending it to me! Thanks Mom!
• On Wednesday I am going to have coffee with my best friend!! I cant wait to LISTEN and hear all the great things that she has going on in her life.  Oh and I'm excited to try this :

• Thanksgiving is on THURSDAY! YAY! We are spending it with Jimmy's Mom and family.  I am making two pies and an appetizer. I will share some recipes and pics in a future post!
• I try to live my life with DAILY Gratitude but with Thanksgiving coming up I am again reminded how blessed I am.  I am SO thankful.

Happy Monday! Tomorrow is my Friday!! YAY!

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

Since we have to wait another 8 weeks for our wedding and Engagement picture digital negatives I had to come up with something else for our christmas cards this year.  Lucky for us one of Jimmy's best friends girlfriend is a photographer so we asked her to take some shots of us.  I love the way they turned out!  Here are a few of my favorites.....

I like these better than my engagement pictures!! These are going to be priceless to show to our future children of how in love their parents are.  LOVE IT.