Welcome to Our Home!

I thought it would fun to participate in the Nester's Christmas Tour of Homes! Doesn't it seem as though your home is so much cozier when it's decorated for the holidays!? Mine sure does! I love it! We keep the lights on all the time!

I love all of the pretty ornaments from Hobby Lobby. They are so colorful and fun. My most treasured of all though are the ones that Zachary makes for me!


I just love ornaments they are so much fun! I try to buy a few new ones every year!


I love decorating my mantle! Am thinking I may get some new things for next year!




Zachary's elf Marty Mistletoe arrives every year and kicks of the holiday by decorating his room! This year, he left him an LSU Santa hanging on his wall above his bed. He was soooo excited! He also decorated his dresser with some holiday fun!

I really want to get a Nativity Scene for next christmas. We have a small one in Zachary's room on his dresser. I use to have a big one but in all of our moves, it got broken. I think that will be on my New Year's to do list!! Buy one before next year!

Thanks for stopping by! Hope your holiday is full of wonderful blessings!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Hard to believe that the Christmas Holiday is just around the corner! I'm trying really hard this year to teach my 4 year old what the real reason for the season is. As much fun as we have had talking about Santa and his elf, Marty Mistletoe that comes to visit him each year, I want him to know that the true meaning is all about our Saviour Jesus Christ. That he is the real reason for the season! I want him to know the true gift of giving and I so much want his heart to be a heart of love and forgiveness. I love this saying that I came across: "Christmas is forever, not for just one day. For loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away,like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf...the good you do for others is good you do yourself."~Norman Wesley Brooks, "Let Every Day Be Christmas,". I love this time of the year and we have started our decorating and it is so much fun! Thought I would share a few pics! We actually had SNOW this past weekend for the 2nd year in a row!! Seriously, a lot of you are probably wondering what the big deal is.... but for Louisiana that is quite RARE!!








Sending Christmas Blessings your way!

Happy Fall Y'all!

I don't know about you, but I am sooooo excited to finally feel a little fall in the air! Fall is my most FAVORITE time of the year! Pumpkin candles, the smell of leaves burning, fall decorations, the fall fair, just a few of my favorite things! Zachary keeps asking me mommy is it fall yet? He's so cute! I adore that child! He's all excited about going to the pumpkin patch and trick r treat. These are such sweet times and I pray the go by slowly. I LOVE being a mom! God gives us many, many blessings in life, but being a mom surpasses so many things! It can be trying at times, but in Christ alone we make it! That reminds me of one of my favorite songs by Travis Crotrell! Click to listen if you haven't heard it before! It is AWESOME!! How lucky are we than we can know that anything is possible through GOD alone! Even what seems impossible!

Sandy

ALOHA!

WOW! We just got back from vacation in Hawaii and I think I might finally be catching up! The time difference almost killed us! :) I have to say though, Hawaii is beautiful beyond words. I feel so blessed that we were able to visit such a beautiful place. Zachary had so much fun and was not ready to go home! The plane ride went really well, he did great! Now, it is just getting back into the routine of school and everything else! Thought I would share a few of our photos!





Hope you are all having a wonderful week!!

Show us Your Favorite Vacation Spot

This week, Kelly is hosting Show us your Favorite Vacation Spot. My husband Paul and I took our 4 year old to Disney this past March and had a BLAST! It was so much fun... and even more fun for us watching Zachary in absolute AWE of the entire place! Hear are a few pics from our trip!






It was an awesome trip and we are planning on going back next year! Right now we are gearing up to leave for Hawaii next week! SOOOOO excited!

Thanks for stopping by!

The end of Summer and Back to School....

Whew! This summer just seemed to fly by! It seems like the older Zach gets the faster the time goes. He is already 4 1/2. It seems like just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital! We had an awesome summer though! I feel so blessed and am so thankful to be able to stay home with him and spend the time with him that I do. I have an awesome husband who works so hard so that I am able to do that and for him I am very thankful! I haven't been blogging lately because I have been on the run with Zachary. He had a 2 day summer camp this year at our church that he LOVED, there have been swim lessons, play dates.... you get the picture! :) He starts Pre~k next week! We go tonight to meet his new teacher! He is so excited! Here are a few pics of our summer fun! Hope your summer was a fun one!


Zachary and his Best Buddy showing their "P90x" muscles!


The Best of Friends!


We baked cookies one day! Not too bad for our first time decorating??!!

It has really been a great summer! Hope the upcoming school year is just as great!

Well, got a ton of things to do today! Gotta run! Thanks for stopping by!

VBS Week!!

WHEW! It has been a busy, busy week! This has been our week for vacation bible school at church and as much fun as it has been, I am looking forward to tonight being the last night! We have had a large turn out this year, over 200 children! God has sent the children! I decided to help with snacks this year and it is so much fun seeing how much children... including mine.. enjoy those sweet goodies! I do have to say though.... it has been taking some time getting Zachary to wind down after a night at VBS. Last night we came home and he immediately got into a spiderman costume and preceded to believe he was spiderman! Here is a cute pic I snapped of him. Such sweet times and exhausting as well! :)

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you are having a great day!

Summer Palooza!

Summer got off to a fast and fun start this year! It seems like my 4 year old has a busier social calender than I do! Ha! We have really had a fun time so far and we are looking forward to our upcoming vacation to Hawaii! Zach (my 4 year old) has never flown before, so we are a little apprehensive about the long plane ride. I've been gathering things together for him to do on the plane to keep him busy. Any ideas would be welcomed! It seems like you always think there won't be enough to do when school is out.... but then summer gets here and it is non~stop! Wouldn't trade it for the world though!

I love meeting new bloggers and visiting other blog pages so this week I am participating in a Blog Hop! All there is to do is post a favorite pic and put the link! Here is a few of my favorite pictures from this summer of my little man!


A Day of Fun at the Zoo!


A Little T-Ball Fun!


This is Where he Decided to take a Nap!

Such Fun! I love being a mom!

Be sure to visit my other blog simplymorgangifts.blogspot.com! We offer a wonderful like of fun and trendy gifts! We are working on our website and hope to have it up and live online in a couple of weeks. Until then, we are showcasing some of the items that we will carry on our blog. We can even take orders now!

***Replace this line with your content. This week, on TUESDAY, 7/7/09, the theme is A FAVORITE PHOTOGRAPH. Post up one of your favorite photographs and a caption that tells the audience about it. Here is a sample: http://mcklinky.blogspot.com/2009/07/mcklinky-photo-blog-on-tuesday-sample.html Do not change any part of this snippet of code except for this paragraph only.... replace the text that falls between (and includes) the opening and closing asterisks. Be sure to enter your own link to your own blog hop post as soon as the blog hop starts!***

Hope you have a wonderful summer!! Thanks for stopping by!

4th of July Party Favors

July the 4th is right around the corner! I am so proud to be an american and what a wonderful day to celebrate our freedom. I am so thankful to all of the men and women to serve our country every day! They give so much of themselves so we can be free and safe!

I am always looking for cute party favors and have found some really cute ideas for a 4th of July party. Thought I would share my finds with you!


How adorable is this?! I found these on an altered state of mind blog. They are super cute and super easy! Made from lifesavers candy. You just change the wrapper out for some cute paper... check them out!!


These Sparkler Pretzles I found on Taste of Home Yummy!!


Cute Party Poppers from Little Birdie Secrets Easy and Cute!

Hope that you have a fun~filled and safe July 4th Holiday!

Adorable Cookies!!

I am always looking for a cute new creative gift idea.... especially with a 4 year old that gets invited to birthday parties several times a month! I came across this company called Kookie Stationary! They make ADORABLE cookies that you can personalize with your own message. They come with a food safe pen. Totally cute!! They even have some that you can use as tags for gifts. I think that was such a creative idea! Here are a few photos of their cookies!





Don't you just LOVE these??!! I would love to learn how to make them myself! Thought I would share my finding! If any of you have tried them, be sure to let me know! Have a great weekend!!

Delicious Summer Dessert!

OK.....along with loving all the fun stuff to do over the summer, a great tasty dessert tops the list! How about a Strawberry Margarita Cake?! A good friend of mine had made one for a party and it tasted great! I came across this recipe from All-Recipes.com and can't wait to try it out! Thought I would share the recipe!



Strawberry Margarita Cake

* 1 (18.25 ounce) package white cake mix
* 3 egg whites
* 1/2 cup water
* 1/3 cup vegetable oil
* 3/4 cup strawberry margarita mix
* 1 (16 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
* 2 tablespoons grated lime zest

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
2. In a large bowl, stir together cake mix, egg whites, oil, water and margarita mix. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.
3. Frost cooled cake with whipped topping and sprinkle lime zest over top. Refrigerate until serving.

I am starting a recipe blog and will adding this to it! Of course.... this surely isn't on my P90x Food list, but hey.... everyone needs a little treat to be able to keep it going! =)

Hope everyone is having an awesome summer!

Summer has Begun!

Well, I truly thought I was going to be able to blog about my daily experience with P90x, but between exercising for an hour each day and keeping up with my 4 y.o. there has been little time to even think about blogging! I am starting week 3 of P90X and loving it! It is a very intense workout, but I am already loosing inches and feeling so much better. Zach started swim lessons today. I was really stressed this morning because he has been saying the last couple of weeks that he did not want to take this year. Last year he didn't get to finish because he got sick. So, it was kind of like starting all over this year. He had a few moments, but overall did really well! The summer is definitely off to a busy start! I love it though, and am trying to enjoy this sweet time with Zach. I know it won't be long and he will be all grown up! Life is so good and we are so blessed! Hope your summer is going well too! If any of you are doing the P90x program, I would LOVE to hear from you! Also, be sure to check out laurennicolegifts.blogspot.com. She has some AWESOME giveaways!!

Here is a pic of my little man in his swim gear!

P90X......... Trying to Bring It!!!

Ok, so I haven't blogged lately.... but I have a good excuse! HA! My husband and I have been getting all prepared to start the P90x workout program! This is the beginning of our 2nd week..... let me say... this program is NOT for the faint of heart!! LOL! I am really enjoying it, and really sore too! The program uses muscle confusion, so it works your entire body and right when one set of muscles are sore and fatigued, the next workout you are targeting other muscle groups. Today is Shoulders, Back and Ab Ripper.... whew! I am going to take some pics later today and post. You are suppose to take a pic the 1st day you start, then day 30,60 and 90. We are going to Hawaii in 90 days, so I am really focused at this point! I will also post some recipes later today that we have used from the plan that are really good! Let me know if any of you out there are also on the program! Would love to have some online friends to support each other!

Bringing It!!

I love my Life as a Mommy and a Wife!

With Mother's Day right around the corner, I am reminded at how blessed I am to be a mother. It is truly one of God's most precious gifts! I also remember though those Mother's Days before Zach and my heart truly goes out to all women who are longing to be a mom. I know this will be a bitter sweet day for them. My prayer is that they will feel God's love for them and know that he has a plan and his time is not our time. That was the hardest for me.... like everything else in my life I wanted it RIGHT THEN! But during that wait that is the time that I learned the most about myself and my faith. It was truly one of the most challenging times but the most awesome as well. We are truly blessed with a precious child and I thank God every day for him. He has brought so much joy us! Life is a journey and just try to see what it is that God wants you to learn while you wait! I'm praying for all of you!

Thinking About a New Dining Room Table...

I think it is time to start looking for a new dining room table! I've been looking through magazines and some in the stores, but haven't decided on any one design at this point. I love the Mission look, but I don't want anything too trendy. What do you think of this one from World Market? I like the Mahogany! Don't really like the bench... would just use the chairs in place of the bench.

I also came across this one from Pottery Barn, but I'm not sure about the short back on the chairs.

I also love the cottage look. I came across this one from Ashley Furniture. What do you think?

And this is another one from Ashley.

There are so many beautiful styles out there, I am just trying to narrow down my favorites! It has been so much fun looking touring everyone's kitchens on the tour that Kelly set up, it has me motivated to start redecorating!

Thanks for stopping by!