CSN winner!

Congratulations to "Ann On and On" for winning the 35 dollars at CSN, as chosen by random.org



The winner has been contacted by email and has 24 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.

Christmas Preparations & A Special Birthday

Christmas is almost here. And I am happy to say, I am READY! I have a few last minute things to pick up, but at least I know what I need, so it should be fairly simple. I just hope the things I ordered online, show up in time to be wrapped and found under the tree Christmas morning.

The Christmas tree is UP! No decorations yet, but it’s up, so it’s a start. Hopefully we can decorate tonight and then I will have some pictures to post! We just need to hope that the cats leave the tree alone and don’t try to climb it this year!

The presents are WRAPPED. At least, most of them are. I still have a few more to go, but at least they are mostly done. Samantha’s are wrapped. Wanna sneak peek? I’m sure you do!

She really made out this year, huh? Such a special little girl deserves a great Christmas.

Christmas cards are addressed, stamped and MAILED! Well, they will be as soon as the mailman gets here and picks them up.

As far as plans for Christmas day, I only have half the day planned. I’m still not sure what’s going on for the other half. But so far, we are going to my parents house as soon as we wake up to open presents over there and spend some time with them in the morning. Then we will head back home, where we will find the gifts from Santa under the tree along with a few from mommy & daddy. The rest of Dustin’s family will also come over to enjoy present opening and maybe a late breakfast. After that, who knows?! It’s all open right now. I’m not sure what anyone else’s plans are. In the past, we have gone back to my parents house (I guess I’m glad they live about 3 minutes from our house!) and had dinner, and then back to our house for another family late night dinner.

Another fun fact about this time of year? Tomorrow, my niece will be THREE. Three. It’s amazing. So it’s time to take a look back at the past 3 years… or at least a few sections of the past 3 years.

The day she was born… I was one PROUD auntie (still am!)

Look at her head of hair! oh my!

And now she is old enough to make cookies? With little to no help!? She sure is growing up FAST!

And how is this for cute?!

Yup, this post was jam packed full of pictures. Hope you enjoyed them.

Happy third birthday Mariah. Auntie loves you so much!

Wordless Wednesday and other hops

Baby weighing in at 4 pounds, 4 ounces. 31 weeks, 4 days

Tuesday Blog Hops!

 

And make sure you link up…

 And then here are some more hops I’m participating in!

Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree!

How much I really want to put one up!

But I will wait… because I would rather wait, then have to deal with the cats climbing the tree and knocking it over every day for the next 2 1/2 weeks. Really? Only 2 1/2 weeks until Christmas is here!? Uh oh! I better get a move on with the shopping!

I did however, order my Christmas cards! And I’m really excited to get them! They are gonna be so CUTE! Here’s a sneak preview of the cover:

I am so happy with the way it turned out!!! I kept the inside really simple and sweet.

Time to get shopping I guess! Oh! And if YOU still need to finish up YOUR holiday shopping, I have a giveaway that is perfect for you! CSN is giving one of my readers $35.00 to spend at any one of their 200+ stores! Find the little picture on the right sidebar and click on it to enter! It ends December 17th to give the perfect amount of time for shipping before Christmas!

Wednesday Hops!

First of all, if you are visiting my site from the blog hops, welcome!

I hope you will find this blog entertaining and interesting enough to follow :-)

I am hosting a giveaway right now, and would love for you to check it out here.

Here we go!

 

Also, wordless Wednesday, which I cannot seem to find a button for... oops. Head here to link up!

Edited to add a few more I found:

Tuesday blog hops!

I love post it tuesday!   So come link up and join in!     and this one!

A GIVEAWAY FROM CSN STORES!!!

 

Are you rushing to finish up your Holiday shopping? Well, stop! CSN stores offers 200+ stores to shop at, all in the comfort of your very own home! Whether you are looking for toys, bedding, leather messenger bags, furniture, or cookware, CSN has it!

How awesome is this?!

They have so much to offer, I just KNOW you will be able to finish up your holiday shopping quickly and easily!

CSN stores is offering one of my readers $35.00 to spend on anything they want at ANY of their 200+ online stores, in the way of a promotional code!

Here’s how to enter!

You must do the mandatory entry, or all other entries will be deleted. Please leave a separate comment for EACH entry and leave an email address so I can contact you!

Mandatory Entry

-Follow my blog publicly via GFC, or remind me if you already do!

Extra Entries

-Head on over to CSN.com and tell me what YOU would do with your $35.00 if you win!

- Share this giveaway on facebook, linking back to this page and give me the link

- Follow me on twitter, and tweet this giveaway! (This option can be done once daily)

- “Like” CSN stores on facebook and let me know your facebook name

- Add my button to your blog roll and let me know where I can find it!

- Blog about this giveaway (3 entries!!!)

 

*This giveaway will end December 17th at 9pm CST. I will choose the winner via random.org and the winner will be notified by email. You will have 24 hours to respond to the notification email or a new winner will be selected.*

Best of luck to everyone!

Monday Blog Hops

 

Question of the week: Are you done Christmas shopping?

Answer: NO! Not even close! We have our daughter finished, and my niece, but haven’t even really started anyone else yet!!!

Have fun hopping!!!

It’s December!

And it’s snowing! What a fun and joyous time of the year! I love December. It just makes me happy.

But first, I wanted to post about Thanksgiving. I have so much to be thankful for… a healthy, wonderful family. A job that I do not absolutely hate. A roof over my head, and food on my table. I truly have so much to be thankful for.

Thanksgiving was a blast. We spent the day with my parents, sister and niece. And my grandma came over for a little while too! And while I took the cutest pictures of my little turkey girl, they are still on my camera and since I’m stuck at work, I can’t do anything about that now. So pictures will come soon. After dinner with my parents, we headed back home to where all of Dustin’s family was. We hung out for a little while and took care of our Christmas Secret Santa drawing. I’m thrilled with who we chose this year, and am planning on having lots of fun shopping for them!

Christmas shopping… we are DONE! With Samantha at least! And my niece. We still need to buy for everyone else though. Sounds easy enough, right? Yeah, not so much.

But at least I can share a few of the things we got for Samantha!!! It’s mostly clothes and little dollar item stuff, like some new Elmo plates and bowls! Or a Kazoo! And there is also a new coloring book, an Elmo car seat cover, and a few other things :-) We decided she doesn’t really need much this year… she is still so young and doesn’t really know the difference. She will enjoy it just the same, plus I already KNOW that she is getting spoiled rotten by grandma and papa.

Okay, on to some other topics… like BABY stuff! This baby will be here before I know it, and I’m definitely nesting now! I have been cleaning out the room, and Dustin has been deep cleaning our rooms, so we can make space for the baby. I’ve been keeping busy trying to get as prepared as possible. I have been going through clothes, trying to figure out what we still need, and making a mental shopping list. I made a gift registry at Wal-Mart that is being used as the “mommy, we need to have this before I get here” list! haha. There are a few extras on there, but it’s mostly the necessities.

We have been given so much already. I have tote bins FULL of clothes ranging from newborn to 2T. Most of it is 0-3 and 3-6 and 2T though. Not really too much in between. But there is some. And some is better than none!!! My next project will be to get all the newborn and 0-3 month clothes all washed and put away in his dresser!

I have been going through babynames.com trying to come up with a list of name options as well. We are not actually choosing a name until he gets here, but we want to have a list of options for when the time comes. So far, I have 10 names on my list, and no, I will not share what they are!!! Everyone will get to be surprised when he gets here! My family is not thrilled about the fact that we won’t even share our name option list, but oh well. Particularly, my mom and sister. :-) But they will find out soon enough… This little one should be making his debut in just 2 months :-)

I cannot believe how fast this pregnancy is going compared to Samantha’s. And just how different they really are. I was blessed to not have morning sickness for either pregnancy, but this time around I was feeling more nauseous. And there is definitely a lot more back pain. And just pain in general. Contractions have already started, but nothing consistent. And the Dr. doesn’t seem concerned at all. I am still going to have ultrasounds every month, and my blood sugars have been crazy. They have changed my medications so many times. I think I might finally be on the right dosage… at least for now. As the baby gets bigger, the amount of insulin he needs from my body goes up. And since my body doesn’t make much insulin, my medication needs to be increased to keep me at safe levels.

At my last ultrasound, they told me he was weighing in at 2 pounds, 13 ounces. He is already so big! And he just keeps growing!!! My next ultrasound is scheduled for next Monday, so I will have new pictures to share then. But for now, here are a couple from my last session.

His profile

Can you see his little foot below?

These were taking at 27 weeks, 4 days.

And this picture was taken literally 2 minutes ago…

Hope you all enjoyed my updates!!! Sorry it was so picture-less and boring. Hopefully I’ll have something exciting for you all soon!!!