brain dumping + nothing too exciting going on = this blog post

 1. this is how my house looked for a few days early december. big house + not enough decorations = christmas decorating block.

 2. kids + funny faces while decorating the christmas tree = a post on my blog!

3. pretty ornaments + lights = beautiful tree.

4. last christmas + texas = kinda regretting the decision to move.

5. indiana + family = happy kaylee and mike.

6. mean girl + telling the class that kaylee's a spoiled, selfish little girl = something mean girl's mom is probably telling her at home.

7. mean girl +  mean girls mom = us talking to the principal to get kaylee moved out of her current class = no more drama! (she will be moved after winter break)

8. birthday + kaylee = double digits. which has been hard for this mama to take.

9. birthday + ham = even harder for this mama to take. (his is in january)

10. both kids + annoying their mom about opening an early christmas gift =  jimmy kimmel horrible gift prank on the kids.  will post video.

waiting for the happy mail trucks

this year i didn't want to fight any houston traffic/crowds and i also wanted to support small business's  so i took advantage of a few cyber monday sales. a win win in my book.

on Facebook,  instagram and email 1canoe2 stated they would have an hour where they will put everything 50% off. i made sure i was home for that announcement and had everything ready in my cart.

i got ham these 2 prints for his empty apartment. hopefully he will like them.

 he can't hang anything on his walls with nails so for the time being we will find a way to hang them till he gets a permanent residence. then we will frame them up.

i got this download from lindsay letters.  one of my brother's and his family are building a new house and i wanted to get something pretty and inspirational for my three niece's rooms.

 i also got them stain glass stars from kurt knudsen. (no sales from kurt)

these are for me since i'm lacking in the holiday decorating department. i'm going to leave them up year round though.

more of the prints i got for my niece's and kaylee.

i also ordered some aggie gear for ham and my nephew's from a local business but i got bad news that they had to refund me so i'm waiting to see who i still need to buy for.

catching up with pictures

 went to san antonio for a few days over thanksgiving and it was awesome!

 we stayed at the elian resort and spa. this is the back of it and its such a cool place. if i could, i would move here. (san antonio is beautiful with its hills and all the trees!) its a mix of resort and apartment complexes. it also had a restaurant, bar and business's.  see the black and white awning? perfect spot for me to open a home decor/photography business.

 we got to meet ricky williams. he played for the longhorns and the dolphins and he was in town.

made mike's day! (he got the jersey he's wearing signed.)

 while in san antonio, the dad's and kids went to six flags and sea world. while us mom's shopped and just chilled at the resort. again, it was awesome!  we ate thanksgiving dinner at a little place called mimi's cafe. their turkey was very moist and the food was delish but ham and i both think homemade is better.

 making taco's in my new shoes. 

 decorating the christmas tree with funny faces. oh boy- kids are funny!

 went and painted christmas presents for my parents.  reindeers are grandkids.

 my neighbor's house. he does this all by himself every year. 

 friday lunch date 's at her school.

best friend coming over to decorate gingerbread houses.

parent testing

last thursday when the weather was warm 

(whole outfit via target)

1.  see those awesome boots she's wearing, i got 'em for under $6 bucks.  they were on clearance with another 5% off for using my target debit card.

2. we had one of those nights where we got tested as parents and me wondering where did i go wrong?

3. i tell her daily to be kind and to be the kind of friend you want to have. (just because someone else is mean doesn't mean you have to be)

4. long story short, kaylee texted something mean to the frenemy while pretending to be another friend.

5. not sure how that can be done but she is now grounded from going to or having friends come over for awhile and no more texting till the end of year.

6. while the text wasn't nice, it wasn't horrible but what got us was that she fought us the whole time and wouldn't give us her passcode to see what was going on. a lot of wasted anger and time could of been avoided.

7. i tell her daily to be kind and to be the kind of friend you want to have. (just because someone else is mean doesn't mean you have to be)

8. on to other things. had a good weekend. went to lonny's house to see lsu (his team) get beat. aggies ended up losing too. he fixed rabbit with rice. i didn't try it. last week, i heard he made squirrel gumbo. i didn't try that either.

9. sunday we had lunch with urbano so us wives and daughters could get to know each other before our few days together next week in san antonio.

10. tuesday mike beat me by 12 seconds at bootcamp. if there's no running involved, i can usually beat him. (we did some rowing since its been so cold outside)

this and that

1. my close-up selfie after my hair appointment on wednesday. kinda bummed that it isn't the way i wanted it even though i had asked for a CUT and color, she was double booked.

2. i changed my profile pic on fb (wish there was a way to do that without having to announce it to the world) to this one and my funny brother asked if i had short dinosaur arms.

3. then said if i needed help with taking selfies to ask his wife which was funny because over the weekend, i nicknamed her aunt selfie. (she posts at least 1 if not more a day)

4. i'm dog sitting ollie's girlfriend for a week. hope she doesn't poop or barf all over the house. and i wish there was a way to train her to sleep in a little longer.

5. her parents are going to indiana for his work. this will be their deciding factor if they really want to move back or not because its cold and snowing!

6. wednesday night we met up with lonny and his family for some pizza and trivia at mellow mushroom.  pizza is still good and we still suck at trivia but its all for fun.

7. i made it to target twice this week. who am i kidding, i usually make it to target twice every week. (i've got 2 of them 10-15 minutes away in each direction)

8. because i save myself 5% off my total purchases by using the target DEBIT card.  if its stuff i'm buying why not?  tuesday i forgot to check out cartwheel but thursday i didn't and saved myself over $50 bucks! (flannel sheets, board games for christmas gifts etc...)

9. i decided i'm going to get a quote and see how much it will be for someone to come and paint the rest of the house. i've got benjamin moore revere pewter left over.

10. so the master bedroom, master bath, spare bedroom and laundry room will be the same as the rest of the house. they will also need to finish painting most the trim and doors. oh and cabinets in the bathrooms. YIKES! thats a lot of painting!

it's so cold in texas today- high of 55 (has nothing to do with my post)

 1. ummm, not liking this photo booth pic that she did. pull up that sleeve girl!

2. this is more like it and this is what she gets for taking pics like these- ha!

3. we got new furniture from our favorite furniture store.  the owner even knows us by name and gives us awesome discounts! (new tv stand and 2 end tables for the family room and a coffee table for mike's area)

4. we want to get the cool stuff before the move. yes, a garage sale is in the works for spring.

5. we headed up to visit ham on saturday. on the way there we had to make a pit stop at the worlds cleanest bathroom, biggest gift shop gas station- buc'ees! (its tradition)

6. seriously, they are the cleanest i've ever seen and i'm super picky about them and their gift shop is die for!

7. once we got to ham's we took him out for a late lunch at bj's brewhouse. then dropped the boys off at bar so they could watch the aggies win while kaylee and i got ham some groceries. we even got him a plant.

8. i feel bad that his apartments so bare- no pictures or anything on his walls! (his next apartment will be better!)

9. sunday mike left for houma, louisana for training though i'm thinking it was excuse to hang out with the guys because he didn't go to bootcamp last night. (tired and probably hung over)

10. we made it official and told my parents we are moving back to indiana. to say they were happy is an understatement! 

keeping busy, planning and more decisions

 1. i was standing by the counter one day and found ollie staring at me. he does that from time to time and it kinda freaks me out.

2. i've been doing some swaps on instagram. this is my latest one that i sent. it was from your hometown theme. so much fun but so expensive once you add shipping. (that long thing in bubble wrap is a texas shot glass, of course.)

3. for either kaylee's birthday or for christmas, i signed her up for subscription box (poshpak). she loves getting mail and she's always trying to scam my goodies.

4. instead of heading up to indiana for thanksgiving, we're thinking about taking a few days and head up to san antonio with one of mike's co-workers/running buddy+ family.

5. we want to make use of our sea world season pass and hit six flags even though mike's the only one who rides roller coasters.

6. it would of been too busy of a trip to head up to indiana for the week especially since we were wanting to drive.

7. plus, it doesn't make sense to look at houses when they could be sold by the time we put our house on the market. though the houses around here sell a lot faster than back in indiana.

8. ham texted me yesterday that be got admitted into A+M too!

9. he's been doing a semester at a community college up in college station since he's changing his major to commercial architecture???  engineering was too hard and you must be a genius if you are one ; )

10. so now he has a big decision to make. stay at A+M or transfer to purdue.