Almost Over!

So... the holidays are almost over and all I can say about that is THANK YOU GOD!!! lol

For all you Moms and Dads... I bet you are just counting the days until the kids go back to school. If you are saying "not me" then you are LYING! :) It's okay... I was in denial for a while too but then I came back to Earth and realized I get ME time again! Yay!!!

I gotta say, I cannot WAIT until I can take a shower longer than 5 minutes and not have to worry who is killing who & who is doing what. Like right now, as I am typing up my new blog post... my daughter is walking around in my heels... We buy all these presents for you to entertain yourself with MY shoes? Geez! It's like when they are still really small and they hide in the boxes their gifts come in instead of playing with the toy... seriously Why don't we just get smart and buy these kids boxes for gifts and be done with it all? lol.

With the New Year quickly approaching... PLEASE remember: Do NOT Drink & Drive! You love your kids and we want to educate them to do the right thing... so be an Example of that!

"Making the decision to have a child is momentous.  It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body."  ~Elizabeth Stone
-Your children are your heart but remember you are their heart as well!



Olivia modelling Mommy's shoes... ALL THE TIME! lol



Trouble... lots of Trouble!

New Year... New Me! :)

One last thing before I go...
For you parents who are about to clean out your children's toys to make room for the new... Please, Please, PLEASE don't just throw them away. Please donate those toys to either a church or local Salvation Army or even ask your school! There are so many children without... we could all do a little more to help out! :)

I hope everyone has had a blessed Holiday season and an even more blessed New Year to come!

xoxo,
Heidi :)

Christmas is almost here!

I bet your children are counting down the days now huh?

All I hear is "Santa is coming in 3 DAYS!" Which just reminds me that I only have 3 days to get my act together and finish up all the little details that no matter how hard you plan, you just never get done in time. Which ends up with you awake until 3 a.m. trying so desperately to finish so you can at least an hour of sleep before the wake up call.... "SANTA CAME!!!"  

I so love their faces Christmas morning! Their innocent faces with their eyes so wide that they seem like they will ultimately fall right out of their heads... it's really the greatest feeling!

One thing I am looking forward to this year is my cat Peach's reaction to the whole day. This is her 1st Christmas and she makes an adventure of everything! I can already imagine her chasing the wrapping paper as it's ripped and thrown all around... like in one of those movies where the people end up with a lot of money and roll around in it on their beds, she'll do the same. Or she'll just end up helping the kids by unwrapping everything under the tree before they even wake up... because she's a little nutty! Hopefully, I won't be too sleep deprived so that I can capture all of this on my camera!

Before I end this post... I just briefly want to touch on something. The holidays are usually where people spend a lot of money and that's fine but... PLEASE Remember the environment this holiday season. Don't just throw away pieces of wrapping paper that seem too small to wrap a present! Get Creative! Get Festive! Make use of the paper! The more we do for our environment, the more it can do for us!



My little wrapping area!

 



I used 2 scraps to wrap a stocking stuffer! (came out cute huh? :) )




Recycle and Reuse!

 If you have any other ideas for recyling your wrapping paper, please feel free to post or link to me! I would love to hear some of your ideas and possibly put them to good use!

Love,
Heidi

Christmas & Tantrums

For all the parents with children over the age 6...  you made it out ALIVE!!.
For all the parents with children under the age of 6... HANG ON!

Christmas time seems to really bring out the best behavior in our kids. And when I say "best" I mean the absolute worst when they are under the age of 6! The "I want that" and the endless crying over the toy commercials seem to really peak at Christmas. Don't you agree?

My absolute FAVORITE has to be bringing these kids into the stores at Christmas... why? haha... Because that's when all the toys are placed right smack dab in their faces. Hear me out for a minute... you are driving in your car having a good old time... singing Christmas songs, playing games... whatever it is you do in your car... everything is Happy-Go-Lucky... then you get in the store and "I WANT THAT ONE!" and it's all over. Even when you explain... "Well if you are good Santa might bring you one" they still throw themselves to the floor or bring on some big scene, so that other parents who were smart enough to leave their children with babysitters will stare at you like they have perfect children... HA! And if you are anything like me... at this point you'll do ANYTHING to stop the screaming... so distract them with candy. Which I am starting to learn only quiets them for moments and then the SUGAR RUSH kicks in and things get far worse!

My advice... leave the children home until after New Years! Even if you are going grocery shopping!! And rest easy... because after the holiday is over you get to stand on line for Returns!! :)

And for the best part... I leave you with a video of my beautiful Olivia singing Santa Claus is Comin' To Town (she's so good at PLAYING innocent! :) )

Love,

Heidi 

Oh the Holidays...

I am a big fan of the holidays... but who isn't?

You get to spend all your money... stress over the trendy gifts... worry about the kids finding those trendy gifts (because those little rugrats can't wait another 2 weeks)... wrap the gifts... and then you snuggle those gifts safely under the tree for the next morning. All of this for the 10 minutes of pure Joy of ripping the presents open, 20 minutes of playing with the new found toys...

followed by "I'm bored" and BAM there goes your sanity... RIGHT OUT THE FREAKIN' WINDOW! All of this, just to have the cycle repeated the next year. Over and over... again and again... and yet we wonder why we end up getting greys so early?! lol

Anyway..............

So, with this holiday fast approaching, my Olivia has been doing more and more Christmas crafts in school. Today, she made a "gingerbread" house. (It's really made with graham crackers not gingerbread).

 It's really adorable (as you can see) and her first. The BEST part of this house is... I DID NOT HAVE TO CLEAN UP THE MESS! Usually when you make these things... you get icing everywhere, sticky gumdrops stuck to your table and candy bits all over your kitchen that you find for days and days wondering, "Where the hell do they keep coming from????"

...Again, there goes the sanity! lol

I really do love the Holidays...
I love the warmth of Family,
The crisp white snow,
The hustle and bustle to find the Perfect gift,
and most importantly... the Love.

So, while you are out there chasing after that perfect gift, running over that Grandma to get the last game, and standing on lines that take hours just to checkout 1 item... remember one thing... there is someone else doing the EXACT SAME THING somewhere else! (I bet that made you smile... =) ) Rest assured you are not alone!

Happy Shopping!!

Love,
Heidi

Olivia's first Christmas concert

I am SOOOOO beyond proud of my Olivia!!! These are the moments that make parenting and dealing with those crazy, make-you-want-to-rip-every-strand-of-hair-out-of-your-head moments so very worth it!!

So, today was my daughter Olivia's first concert... ever! (BONUS: that it was a Christmas concert!) So after watching the video clip... I bet you are wondering why it's a Hanukkah video when we celebrate Christmas?!

As always... things never go according to plan because if they did people would be smarter and more organized instead of "winging it".

Days before the show, I kept telling my husband, "we are DEFINITELY recording this!" I kept telling Jim how excited I was to see her perform and when she gets older, she'll be able to watch it and really appreciate the things that she had done. HA! ... Why is it people insist on making their hairdo's HUGE especially when they know they are going to sit in a crowded auditorium? I mean you KNOW you are going to block someone's view... but do they care? Nah. Because people can be really selfish... I mean doesn't anyone care that HEIDI WANTS TO RECORD HER DAUGHTER'S FIRST PERFORMANCE... EVER?! lol

Yeah, I guess I'm a little selfish... but I love my kid and I want to be one of those stage mom's that's right there doing it with them! But I cannot do that if people and their huge hair are in my way!

Anyway... I got off into a tangent... I know... back to the story. The reason why you are seeing this clip of the song about Hanukkah is because when my husband Jim FINALLY found a spot to record Olivia... this is the song they were singing. As you can see in the video he still has a little trouble keeping Olivia in focus. And of course once the song is over... my memory card is FULL! Again, you plan and plan... and things are still out of control!

All in all... we had a blast. And even though we recording basically only a song about Hanukkah, I know that when the day does come that she sits down and watches home videos... she'll be glad we caught this.

So my advice to all you "stage moms and dads"... 1. Get to the event WAY early so you get the best seats in the house and to set up way before anyone else does! 2. If you happen to get caught behind the ladies with the big heads and even bigger hairdo's... make sure you stand in the aisle right in front of them to show them whose boss! :)

When all else fails... do nothing and complain like I just did! :) lol



Proud parents with our lovely daughter! :)

 Love,
Heidi :)