Weekend in Review - Busy Mama!

We had a very busy weekend!  After being out of town last week (and being crazy busy while I was gone!) I returned home to a full weekend of George.  I was so happy to be back and my sweet boy was still awake when I arrived home on Thursday.  I worked on Friday but since I work from home (most of the time) I was able to keep him home with me.  Which by the way, I was approved to work from home 100% of the time starting in January.  YAY!

Saturday was a fun-filled day of baking cookies and visiting Santa!  George and I went to Grandma's house and Grandpa played with George while we baked.  We baked a ton of sugar cut-outs, Oreo Truffles, and Wreaths.  Grandma also made Peanut Butter Temptations on Sunday but had made up the dough on Saturday.



We also took a break from our baking and went to see Santa!  The Woodville Lion's Club also hosted a holiday festival.  Santa was there to take pictures and hear all the wishes of the good boys and girls.  George did so well sitting on Santa's lap! I was so proud of him. He didn't quite know what to think but didn't fuss - so I take that as a win!

Sunday, while Adam was finishing up a Tile Project, George and I went over to Pinstripes in Edina to celebrate our friend Jack's 1st birthday.  We had such a good time there.  We ate Macaroni and Cheese, tried a cupcake with frosting, and played with Jack's new toys.  He was so nice to share!

We are coming along on our December goals.  I plan to write an update by the end of the week.  Hope you are getting everything accomplished in December that you set out to do and that your holiday shopping is nearly complete!  Have a wonderful week.

-- Kristen

Christmas Cheer Box Reveal

Rachel over at Floral and Fudge co-hosted a Christmas Cheer Box Linkup and I decided to get in on all of the fun!  The goal was to send a box to a fellow blogger (whose name you were sent) and to spend less than $10.  It was suggested the items be "Christmas Themed" and sent by December 1st.  

Kaitlin over at Little Goodies (who by the way has 2 of the cutest little ones ever!) sent me this box of WONDERFUL goodies :)  She was also one of our lovely co-hosts for the exchange.  

First of all let's just talk about how cute the box is that she sent me. Apparently she must realize how miserable and dreary winters are around these parts because when I unwrapped the package I was brought back to happier (and warmer) days of summer!!

Clearly you can tell this woman is a mama and either stalked me (ha ha - right) or simply knows how OCD organized I like to be when it comes to making lists!  We love list paper at our house!!  So I was so so happy to more paper to make lists on. YAY!  And the chevron journal is lovely.  It will fit in my manbag purse just perfect- likely for me to make a few more lists on.  (I'm embarrassed to say that I use both "notes" and "reminders" for list making on my phone when I don't have paper to write on!)

And who doesn't love some incredibly amazing hand lotion for these dry dry winters!  This one smells sooo yummy!!   Another must for my purse.  (Joking aside, I did find my cross body bag in the mens section at Fossil - and I LOVE it - which is why I call it my man bag).

And to round out the bag, she sent me these cute little Christmas tags and glitter tape.  I love brown paper bag wrapping paper, so it will be so fun to add this glitter tape to the outside to add some excitement!  And these little ties are adorable too!  They are full of sparkle!!  Having longer hair I know I can add these to my hair, but they also work well for binding too!

What fun it is to send/receive Cheer Boxes!!  I know when I put mine together I had so much fun doing it and for under $10 -even better!!  Thank you to Katilin for being so thoughtful with the box you sent, I sincerely appreciate it!

I am also sharing the Christmas Cheer Box that I put together for Nelle over at Simply Love here.

Merry Christmas everyone!! 

Christmas Cheer Box - The One I Sent

My first year of blogging has certainly been an interesting one!  I have followed many different bloggers and am learning my own style and ways as I go.  One of my current charges is to be more active and involved in the blogging world.  Rachel over at Floral and Fudge is co-hosting a Christmas Cheer Box Linkup with other bloggers.  

One of the "rules" of the cheer box is you are to spend around $10 and it must be Christmas related.  A few weeks ago I had seen this pin on Pinterest for the M&M Christmas Poem and I knew this would definitely be one of the items I included in my Cheer box. 

I was able to find the cute little half pint Ball Mason jars at Wal-Mart in a pack of 4. I filled it with regular M&Ms, tied some baker's twine around it and added the poem to the front. I thought I was going to be clever and laminate the poem, but glue and double sided tape wouldn't hold that baby on, so I went with regular paper.    Here is my version of the M&M Christmas Poem: 

Here is an overview of all of the items I put in the cheer box.

1. M&M poem - includes bakers twine, mason jar, M&Ms, and Christmas Poem.  

2. Eat, Drink & be Merry Beverage Napkins

3. Cupcake toppers 

4. Winter Cranberry Handsoap (my favorite!) from Bath and Body works

5. Cupcake Wrappers

6. Cookie Cutters - (to be on budget, I only included one in the cheer box)

7.  Paper straws - these are so darn cute!!  

8. Washi Tape 

This is the box of items I sent - the cupcake toppers are hiding behind the napkins... and I forgot but I actually added candy cane chapstick to the box as well!  How did I manage keeping this close to $10?  I bought the M&Ms in bulk at Sam's, the jars came in a pack of 4, the hand soap was on sale for 5/$18, the cookie cutters and chapstick came in a packs of 3, and I found the bev naps and straws for less than $1.  

This is a great gift idea that can be customized to fit for anyone!  

Weekend in Review - Up North With Friends

Once again it's that time for our weekend in review.  Seriously, where does the time go?!  I sincerely wish my work days would fly by nearly as fast as these weekends seem to do.  This past weekend we went up to Adam's Family cabin in Stone Lake, WI for a nice relaxing weekend.

This weekend was wonderful in so many ways! It has been a long time coming. We started talking about going up North with our friends Jonelle and Chad nearly 2 years ago prior to having kids.  And it FINALLY happened! 2 carloads, several toys/clothes/blankets, bottles, dirty diapers, food, beer and a few stops on the way - we made it!

Traveling with children is simply nothing I could possibly prepare myself for.  While he is such a sweet and lovely boy in the car, it takes a bus to bring nearly all of the things you might need for 2 days with these little people!  My goodness!

We didn't actually do much of anything while we were up North.  Saturday was spent eating well and relaxing at the cabin (chasing kids kind of relaxing).  We headed out into Hayward on Saturday night and to our surprise outside of the candy store we ran into Santa!  He was such a sweet man :)  He offered to take pictures with us (even though he was on his Santa break).  Lucky us!  George was in his Bjorn so I hopped in the picture too!

The guys weren't too into shopping so we dropped them off at Angler's bar... Unfortunately since it's Winter many of the stores are closed for the season.. so being parent's of the year, we went to the bar and had a beer with the guys!  George looks miserable in his Bjorn but he actually does enjoy it!

When we came back from "town" I was just getting dinner started and Adam was trying to get the fire started.. so I set George down in his carseat and Miss Katelyn was already out of hers. It was the sweetest thing because she crawled right over to him and was going to try and help him get out of his seat.  Love that little girl :)

This morning before we left, Jonelle captured this photo of them side by side in their carseats.. George with his tongue hanging out and Katelyn less than amused to have her picture taken.  These two were such good kiddos this weekend!

It's amazing how fast these little ones learn!  Two weeks ago George learned to crawl and now this little turkey is pulling himself up on EVERYTHING!!  Adam saw him over by the stairs and by the time he looked back George was up 2 stairs... so we stayed behind him and he made it to the top all by himself with no issue.  Oh my lovely little boy you are growing too fast!!  

I am off to Illinois for the week for work!  It will be a boys only week for Adam and George.. although I'm sure that grandma will get to see a lot of those two :)