Moving on.....

I decided to move my blog....I felt like I needed a change, so here it is "Solace in Simplicity"

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

For New Years Eve we stayed home and had some fun with just the kids and I. Gilbert got home at 11 from work......just in time to ring in the New year with us.

First we has some yummy food....Cheese, sausage, crackers, lil' smokies, shrimp, chips and dip. We has sparkling grape juice to drink and cheesecake for dessert.

The littles had fun trying on Papa's hat that he brought back from work.

We counted down to midnight with Dick Clark and then we blew our horns and shot off our poppers and confetti!!

My whole living room floor looked like this....

The kiddos had SO much fun...they said they can't wait till next year...:-)

Well, on Monday we have to start school again and get back on a routine. As much fun as all the Holidays were (Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years) I am glad to get back to reality...hee..hee. I still need to make my list of Goals that I want to TRY and accomplish this year. Still got some cleaning left to do...I also need to get the kids schoolwork ready for Monday!!

Our Christmas 2008

We had a simple relaxed Christmas....which is fine with me :-) On Christmas Eve we went by Gilbert's parents house. We ate tamales, pozole and the desserts that I made. We just hung out and the kiddos opened presents at midnight...then we went home. On Christmas morning we woke up late and the kiddos opened their presents..they were VERY happy with everything they received. The kids and I got Gilbert some things he needed...work shirts, work pants, socks, pajamas and new gloves (his old ones had a hole) and Gilbert got me a Gift card. After we opened presents and ate some cinnamon rolls we went back to Gilbert's parents house and ate left overs and later had some Tinga tostadas....Simple yet fun :-)

Christmas Ramblings

Well...we had a wonderful Christmas!!! For those who were wondering...I got all the stuff done on my list except that I didn't get the Fridge clean!! Last night I cleaned up the living room and tried to take most of the stuff out of the packages so we could throw out all the garbage. Today the house is still quite messy...I have a lot of catching up to do...aahhh well..the joys of Christmas :-)

Usually I start taking down the Christmas decorations the day after Christmas but this year I am going to wait till after new years day. The time before Christmas just went by so fast that I felt like we didn't really have much time to enjoy every thing. So we are still going to pretend it is Christmas for another week..hee..hee.

The two eldest children are upstairs playing with their new Lincoln Logs, 3 yr old is watching her new Barbie movie (Barbie and the 12 dancing princesses), the baby
is sleeping. I am still very tired from staying up late for so many night in a row so I am not getting too much done today..but tomorrow I am going to a major cleaning.

I am looking forward to the new year ....it always feels like a "fresh start" for me. I usually make a list of goals for the year..so I will be doing that soon. Tomorrow I will share some pictures from Christmas...I am not sure where my Camara is right now. Ok well since I am just aimlessly rambling right now I am off :-)

Baking Day!!!

Today I have tons of baking to do. I am going to be making a variety of things..here is what I am going to be baking today:

Gift of the magi bread Done
Cobblestone brownies
Jam Thumbprints cookies
Triple-layer mud pie
Chocolate Crinkles
Candy Cane cookies
Neapolitan Cheesecake Done
Gingersnaps Done
German Chocolate pie (this one is a maybe)
Sugar Cookies (that we rolled, cut out and baked yesterday...we just have to decorate them).

Later on today I have to get a bunch of presents wrapped still, bathe the kiddos, iron the clothes for tomorrow, clean the bunny cage, clean out the fridge and straighten up the house...whew...I don't know if I can get all that done..LOL.

Well...I am off...maybe I will update later on how I am doing :-)

Oh yes...I forgot to mention it is snowing here AGAIN!! On top pf the 14 or so inches that are already on the ground, we are supposed to get 3-6 inches more today and 4-7 inches more tomorrow.....It will definitely be a white Christmas here!!

Just to clarify.....

just because I have Santa decorations in my house doesn't mean we "do Santa". The reason I don't do Santa is because I don't feel comfortable lying to my children...I also don't like the greediness that comes from thinking Santa will bring a child anything they want. My sister-in-law felt like she had to buy (because she didn't want to disappoint her child) a $130 remote control dinosaur because that is what her child requested ( and she told me they could NOT afford it) Yikes!!! No I am not making a judgement on those who do feel it is o.k. to do Santa.....that is not my place ;-) For us Santa is just a fairy tale.....that is pretty much it.

So Much Snow!!

Since before Thanksgiving we started getting snow....and it has been snowing ever since. Good thing last week it rained and melted all the previous snow or we would have tons of it out there by now. Thursday night we got about 13 inches of snow and we are expecting another 4-7 inches tonight!!! On top of the snow, tomorrow with the wind chill factor it is supposed to get between -20 to -34 below 0.....now that is cold...brrrr. So I will share some of my pictures from our snowy weather for those that might not have snow and actually want some..hee....hee.

All bundled and ready to go play in the snow (even if it was only for about 15 minutes)

This one LOVES the snow!!

Work before play.

Even 3 yr old was helping shovel ;-)

"Mommy..I NEED my glasses so the snow doesn't blow in my eyes"

Now it is time to play.....hmmm..what are they building a big hill for?

And why are they now up in the tree?

Why to jump out of the tree on to the pile of snow below of course!!

"Hey Mama....need some ice??

A Christmas Tour of My Home : Part 2

Now I will show you the "Pink Princess Palace" where the two little princesses reside, of course ;-) I didn't really have too many Christmas decorations that went with the girls room so I had to be a little more creative here.

This is a view with both of the beds in it so you can see how it is set up.

This is the jar of lights that is on the bookcase. I just found an old vase and took the left over lights from the window behind it and stuffed them inside. Then I took some old ribbon that I used on the Tree a few years back and tied it around the top.

I put some lights around the window and used the same ribbon I used for the jar to make a swag....I did the same thing to the other window. There are also some cute window clings on the windows but they didn't show up.

This is my 9 yr olds side of the room.

And my 3 yr olds side (can you tell she likes Cinderella)

Above the closet I just put up a simple white garland.

Here is the Christmas tree. It is actually a white tree with pink lights....decorated with lots of princess ornaments.

I will try to get the Kitchen and Living room posted BEFORE Christmas...hee hee.

A Christmas Tour of My Home : Part 1

This is my 7 yr old's room.....I just used stuff that I had from years past and some things that were my dads that I had stored in the basement. My children wanted to name their rooms so we called 7 yr old's room "The Wilderness Lodge" hee..hee. We are silly..but hey, it is fun :-)

The pictures did not turn out great so a lot of the "details" are lost but....aahhh...well. His sheets have snow flakes, pines trees, cabins and moose on them. The tree is a rustic looking Winnie the pooh tree that 7 yr old has had since he was 3.

This pic is kinda dark...but the lamp has a moose,a bear and pine trees on it. There are also cling-ons on the windows but they really didn't come out in the picture.

Here is a close-up of his bookcase ...a Winnie the pooh snow globe, a moose that was my dads, and a little wooden box with a duck on the top that was also my dads. That is it ...nothing spectacular but my little guy loves it :-)

Now on to my room....here I kept it pretty simple.

The sheets are the same a 7 yr old's (they were on sale for really cheap ;-) Every thing else is just stuff that I have had for years.



Above the curtains I hung a simple swag of pine cones, greenery and such.

This is the other side...just a stuffed mickey mouse Santa that I got from Gilbert the first year we were together. And a vintage looking Santa on the dresser. I will try to do the rest of the rooms later this week:-)