Miscellany Monday

Once again I'm joining 'Miscellany Monday' hosted by Carissa over at Lowercase Letters. Head on over to her blog to check out every one's random Monday musings.

1} I miss the blogging world!! I was sick last week for 4 days, it was MISERABLE! I don't know what is going around, but I NEVER get sick, and so far I've been sick twice this fall/winter, what gives?

2} I'm STILL not done with my Christmas shopping, eek! We've been done with the girls for a while, which is a relief, but we still have a few odds and ends to pick up, and I kind of want to get Gerrad another thing or two, but he is a nosey hubbs and reads this blog so I can't mention anything here ;)

3} Saturday night we had a Tacky Sweater party that we attended, it was one of the FUNNIEST nights ever! I took tons of photos, and will post them tomorrow! We played a few 'Minute to Win it' games as well, which was a hoot! And we got to snuggle sweet little baby Delaney so that was another plus as well!

4} I'm super pumped for Christmas this year, not that I'm not every year, but this year its extremely exciting for some reason, I think because Addaline is at the age where everything is SOOO thrilling for her, it makes me laugh. I can't wait to watch the girls open all their gifts Friday night/Saturday.

5} I'm looking SO forward to 10 days off with my family this weekend/next week. There is nothing better than good, quality time together!

6} I am praying for a white Christmas. If its going to be cold, PLEASE at least let us having something pretty to look at :)

Hope ya'll had a wonderful weekend! Stay tuned for lots of silly photos tomorrow!

A Baby Changes Everything

Today is the day, some of our best friends will be welcoming another sweet little girl into this world. I cannot tell you how excited I am! Our friends Melisa and Adam are on their way to the hospital as I type, to be induced and welcome baby Delaney into the world.

Here's to hoping for a speedy delivery for the parents to be, and a wonderful first meeting for the big sister too :) We love you Adam, Melisa, Makenna and Delaney too!

The big sister and mommy to be!

Bunch 'O Randoms

I kind of feel like I took a little unintended blogging break this week after the 12 Days of Christmas challenge that Aly and I did, apparently it wore me out, ha! Anyhow, I'm back! I just realized I haven't shown ya'll anything I've made in a while (again with the lack of blogging). Last night I decided I wanted to try my hand at making new stockings, I got 1 accomplished before I got called off to motherhood duty, but here's the one that I did make...

 Not too shabby for my first time. I figured I could put initials (monogram) at the top in an  accent color, what do ya'll think???


Here are some Christmas tree shirts I made for some cutie sisters, one of which is set to arrive Monday morning if her mommy doesn't go into labor before then! I cannot wait to meet that precious baby girl!

Boys ornament shirt.

This weekend we actually have absolutely NO plans, which I'm pumped about. Next weekend we have something going each and every day/night, so this weekend will be nice to just chill before a hectic week/weekend!

Last night while I was trying to make the stocking, Addaline was running around crazy as usual acting like a perfect angel, and knocked over the Christmas tree in the kitchen, SERIOUSLY! Not cool! She got some time alone in her room for a bit, while I put the tree, and my attitude back together. I knew it was bound to happen, I was just hoping it wouldn't.

Aly and I are thinking about starting a weekly blog hop idea, we're looking at Friday's but can't quite figure out what we want to do/or what we want to call it... So stay tuned, hopefully we come up with something SOON :-) And thanks again to all of you gals who participated in the 12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge, we had such a blast with that! 

Johnny the Elf showed up in Addaline's room last night, and this morning when she woke up, it was pandemonium! She is not a fan of Johnny the Elf, she likes looking for him, but is a little freaked out about it, so when he landed in her room, first thing this morning she saw him and started crying. I'm guessing Johnny won't go in there again, but I think he probably thought she needed a little extra supervision :)

The Sing Off

How many of you watch the show 'The Sing off??' We LOVE that show, like everything in our world stops so we can sit down and watch it (we're pathetic I'm aware). So back to the show, Monday night we watched it, and there is a group of guys from Yale on there, called The Whiffenpoofs, HA-LARIOUS! These guys are all so funny, and the guy singing in this video is SASSY! I literally rewound it and watched it about 10 times (no lie) and cracked up every time. I love this song, but this guy singing it takes it to a whole new level. If you want a good laugh, watch this video, his motions are SOOO funny!

(Don't forget to mute my music player at the bottom of the page first)

P.S. Dad- You know you're going to watch this and laugh a little :o)

Christmas Decorations

*UPDATE* Kelly over at Kelly's Korner is doing her annual Home Christmas Tour, so I thought I would join in on the fun!

Better late than never right? I didn't put up all the snowmen that I usually do this year, I'm still in transition mode in the basement and can't decide what exactly I want to do, so I didn't want to clutter it more because I was nervous it would make it harder for me to decide (which I don't need any help in that department right now).

So here is most of our decorations (mainly trees are my decor this year)....

 The tree in our kitchen

 Johnny the Elf (the girls named their Elf on the Shelf Johnny, ha!)

 I thought it would be fun to make the plates look Christmasy

 My wreath which I'm still loving!

 Small ornaments that I found at Target that I couldn't live without, fun splash of color for the kitchen table

 Our main tree. Its kind of a hodge podge of ornaments, which I love about it. The 'main' ornaments are all red and silver, but we've got so many handmade ornaments, and each year we let the girls pick out an ornament to add to the tree as well.

 Addaline's tree. It has small cupcake ornaments on it, and she LOVES it! I used my cricut for the first time to make the signs for above 3 of our trees. Macie is kind of going through a 'I'm not so sure Santa is real' phase so I wanted to remind her to 'Believe.'

 Macie's tree, pink and silver!

 The countdown is on, and have I mentioned I haven't finished my shopping?! Looking at this countdown every day makes me a little nervous

 Homemade ornaments are the best!

Can't forget this plate!

So there is our decorations! Not much, but just enough I believe. I plan to get some more decor the day after Christmas, for CHEAP! Which I'm super excited about! Next year I want some fun topiaries next to the front door, and garland around the door as well. I'd also like to make a BIG ornament wreath to hang on the outside of the house.

12 Days Of Christmas Blog Challenge- Day 14

Day 14: Oprah's Favorite Things: What item(s) would you want if you were in the audience?




First of all, I just want to thank you all soooo much for participating in this blog challenge with Aly and I. Like I said before, we never dreamed we would have such a wonderful turn out. You ladies rock! I've met some awesome new bloggers and also gained some amazing new followers! Thank ya'll SO much :o)

Now on to the topic at hand... Oprah's Favorite Things!!!

I would gladly take anything of monetary value that Oprah would have to give I'm sure. My top picks would be a vacation to some amazing beach destination, a designer handbag of some sort, any sort of cash donation I definitely wouldn't turn down either! A car, not because I don't love my car, but because it would be paid off, and who doesn't want to get rid of car payments?! HELLO! It would also be amazing if for once, Oprah would give the audience some type of money/item to turn around and pay forward; like money to go buy things for families in need. The woman has got more money than she knows what to do with, how amazing would it be for her to just shell out some cold hard cash and see what her awesome viewers did with it to make a difference in other peoples lives?? Maybe she has done that and I've missed it? Anyone know?

Off the topic, if you're one of my newest followers (or even an old faithful, silent reader), stop and say hi! I would love to meet you all!

12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge- Day 13

So I think I should totally be fired from this blog challenge. I am the WORST weekend blogger ever. Obviously our family is busy on the weekends, and I don't get to the computer much. I fully intend to post photos of all my decor tomorrow. Hope you all will forgive me :o)





So these are obviously not cookies, but they are delicious all the same!!!

Paula Deen's Cake Balls

Paula’s own version of this trendy sweet!
Serves: 36
Cook Time: 20 Minutes
 Ingredients


◦1 (18.25 ounce) package cake mix
◦1 (16 ounce) container prepared cake frosting
◦6 ounces of chocolate flavored confectioners coating disks or bar (available in white chocolate, dark or milk)

Paula's Favorite Combinations:

◦*Red Velvet Cake/Cream Cheese Frosting and dipped in white chocolate coating
◦*Strawberry Supreme Cake/Strawberries and Cream Frosting - Dipped in Chocolate Coating
◦*White Cake/Mint Chocolate Chip Frosting - Dipped in Chocolate Coating
◦*Caramel Cake/Chocolate Mocha Frosting - Dipped in Chocolate Coating
◦*White Cake/Wild Cherry Vanilla Frosting - Dipped in Dark Chocolate Coating
◦*French Vanilla Cake/White Chocolate Almond Frosting - Dipped in Chocolate Coating
◦*Dark Chocolate Cake/Cream Cheese Frosting - Dipped in White Chocolate Coating
◦*Spice Cake/Cream Cheese Frosting - Dipped in White Chocolate Coating
◦*Lemon Cake/Lemon Frosting - Dipped in White Chocolate Coating
◦*Confetti Cake/Vanilla Frosting - Dipped in White Chocolate Coating


Steps
Prepare the cake mix according to the directions on the box. When cake is finished baking allow to cool for 30 minutes. Crumble the cake into a large bowl using a stand mixer or a hand mixer. Add the frosting and mix until well combined. Place the bowl in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours or overnight.


Line a baking tray with wax paper. Use a melon baller as a scooper to form balls with the cake mixture. Place on wax paper. Once you have used all of the cake mixture, place the baking tray in the freezer for 1 hour. Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl of the microwave, stirring every 5-10 seconds until smooth. At this point you can add a bit of food coloring if you are using white chocolate.


Remove the balls from the freezer. Using one toothpick, pick up the balls one at a time and dip in the chocolate. Use a second toothpick to slide the ball off the first toothpick onto the wax paper lined baking tray.
 Once you have covered all the balls in chocolate coating place the tray in the refrigerator until the chocolate coating is set. At this point you can drizzle other chocolate on the balls for decoration.

*You can modify this recipe however you see fit. I did NOT put the mixture in the fridge for 3 hours or overnight, I simply placed it in the freezer for about 45 minutes, then got it out, balled it up and dipped it in white chocolate. I was kind of in a hurry, and lets me real, I have no patience!

12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge- Day 12

Hey Ladies!

We're on the road taking Addaline to ride a train with Santa so I can't post my decorations from my phone. Check out Aly's blog for the linky.

I'll update my post later today.

12 Days Of Christmas Blog Challenge- Day 11

Day 11: New Year Resolutions

Today's topic is pretty simple for me. I don't really ever make New Years resolutions. I kind of feel like, if I'm going to do something, I just do it. I don't wait until the first of the year to make a promise to myself, and then be upset when I fail.

Ok so after I posted first thing this morning, I got to thinking and wanted to add, change my post, I'm allowed to do that right? I am allowed a do-over occasionally aren't I?!

So after thinking about New Years resolutions, I came up with a few, none of which I'm sure are typical (as in non are weight loss, although I NEED to make that a priority to eat healthier and be more active). Back to the resolutions... my goals are going to be as follows- Be a better Christian, a better wife, a better mother, a better friend. I'm not necessarily bad at any of those things, but we're never as good as we can be. I'm a total control freak, so I could also stand to let go a little, and live a little more.

I feel like I've come a LONG way this year with myself. Learning to love more deeply, spending more quiet moments talking to God, being a better friend and spouse to Gerrad, being a more loving and attentive mother to the girls. Letting things go and realizing I am NOT the one in control. I'd like to spend the next year continuing on with my personal growth, and I know I will succeed! (Is that better Lacey? ;))

So what are your New Years resolutions? Do you make them? Do you even think twice about them?

12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge- Day 10

Day 10: Favorite Christmas Songs/Caroles




So I already told ya'll the other day how much I LOOOOOOVE Christmas, everything about it! The lights, smells, traditions, the true meaning, and especially the MUSIC!

So here are a few of my favorites...

1) Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime- Paul McCartney (Don't even make fun, you all know its catchy) (Here)

2) It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas- Bing Crosby (Here)

3) Baby its Cold Outside- Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson (Here)

4) Mele Kalikimaka- Bing Crosby (Here)

I just asked Gerrad what one of his favorite Christmas songs is, this was his reply (OH MY)

5) Last Christmas- George Michael (Here)

Back to MY list...

6) Celebrate Me Home- Kenny Loggins (Here)

7) Carol of the Bells- Trans-Siberian Orchestra (Here)

12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge- Day 9

Day 9: Favorite Holiday recipe




I'm going to step outside the norm on this recipe today... I'm sure everyone is going to be posting main dish type foods, or maybe some yummy casseroles, but I'm going to share THIS recipe... Its delicious as an appetizer, and healthy too!

This recipe is wonderful for all your holiday parties, and colorful too!! (Thanks Lindsey)

FRUIT SALSA

Ingredients

2 kiwis, peeled and diced
2 Golden Delicious apples - peeled, cored and diced
8 ounces raspberries
1 pound strawberries
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
3 tablespoons fruit preserves, any flavor
10 (10 inch) flour tortillas
butter flavored cooking spray
2 cups cinnamon sugar

Directions

1.In a large bowl, thoroughly mix kiwis, Golden Delicious apples, raspberries, strawberries, white sugar, brown sugar and fruit preserves. Cover and chill in the refrigerator at least 15 minutes.
2.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
3.Coat one side of each flour tortilla with butter flavored cooking spray. Cut into wedges and arrange in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Sprinkle wedges with desired amount of cinnamon sugar. Spray again with cooking spray.
4.Bake in the preheated oven 8 to 10 minutes. Repeat with any remaining tortilla wedges. Allow to cool approximately 15 minutes. Serve with chilled fruit mixture.

*Feel free to leave off any of these fruit ingredients that you don't like!

Don't forget: Cookie recipes are coming soon, so get excited!!

12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge- Day 8

 Day 8: Least favorite thing about the Holidays

As cheesy and cliche as it sounds, there isn't really anything I DON'T like about the Holiday's. Christmas is my FAVORITE time of year, hands down! I love spending time doing fun Christmas activities with the girls, teaching them the real meaning of the season, spending time doing holiday activities with friends, all the time spent with families, seeing the girls tear open their gifts on Christmas morning. LOVE.IT.ALL.

Tonight 'Santa' sent the girls a package in the mail, The Elf on the Shelf. Let me just tell you, they ate it up. It was the cutest thing ever seeing them sit SO still and listen to every word I read from the book. They named their elf 'Johnny' and we registered his new name with the website. They were so excited to see that 'Johnny' joined the Hall family, too sweet!

OK wait, I did think of ONE thing I don't like about the holiday season, the TRAFFIC! Most of the shops/mall are on the West side of our town, that side of town is always INSANE during the holiday's, which drives me nuts!

What are some of the things that you don't like about the holidays??

Because Who Doesn't Love Free??!!

So remember when I told you all I was going to participate in the FREE Shutterfly Christmas card giveaway blog promotion? Well here is my post :)

So I'm all about free, who isn't? Lets be real here, I'm sure this post is obnoxious for you readers (seems like all my readers are in the Christmas spirit so I don't think I'm offending any of you) that don't care about Christmas cards, sorry in advance to you folks. Shutterfly is doing an awesome promotion that if you blog about their amazing Christmas cards, you get 50 of them for FREE, YES PLEASE!

Here are a few of my favorites...

 This is definitely one of my top favorites, I just love all the colors with the black background!

Christmas Cards can be found HERE

They also have some adorable birthday invites found HERE and birthday cards found HERE

Have many of you blogger gals received your cards yet? How happy were you with them? I can't WAIT to get my code and start designing my card, YAY!

12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge- Day 7

Day 7: Holiday Craft/DIY (If you don't make anything, what do you WISH you could make?)




A while back I posted about some fun Holiday wreaths that my girl friends and I made. That is definitely a Holiday craft, and one that is not too difficult. I didn't take any step by step photos for directions when we had our girls craft night, but I'll give it a shot at giving a brief description of how to make them!

When I made mine, I purchased a wreath from Michaels on clearance for $2. I purchased a roll of 2 inch ribbon, some tulle (can be purchased on the spool or by the yard at Hobby Lobby), any decor small enough to put on your wreath- maybe a welcome sign, or pumpkin, Christmas ornaments, etc.... Hot Glue (wire if you don't want to permanently attach your decorations).

 For this fall wreath I made, I started with the tulle. I tied about 20 in pieces (around 5 or 6 of each color) randomly around the wreath, then I also tied about 10-15 in pieces of ribbon around the wreath as well around 6-8 pieces. You can intertwine the tulle and ribbon throughout your wreath to make it look 'full.' After you've got most of the wreath covered, you can start decorating it with the accessories that you bought. On this one above I bought a few leaves/bead sprays, a sparkled pumpkin, a scarecrow and the sign to hang in the middle/top. I either super glued the accessories, or stuck them into the wreath with the sticks that were attached to them (cut to size).

 This Christmas greenery wreath was simply made by just hot gluing the ornaments down, and then cutting the bead sprays sticks down to size, to simply stick into the wreath. SOOO easy!

 This is the Christmas wreath that I made at our girls night. Again I just added the tulle and ribbon to make it look full, and then hot glued my decorations as I saw fit.

Another Christmas wreath made by just hot gluing the ornaments on!

I'm sure this is the worlds WORST tutorial EVER, so if you have ANY questions please feel free to leave a comment (make sure your commenting profile format is set so that I can email you back). It would have been so much easier to explain if I had step by step photos.

Cannot wait to see what all you girls come up with for your Holiday Crafts/DIY! This is one of my favorite topics!

12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge- Day 6

Day 6- Gift Ideas (This would be one of my favorite days if I could figure out what I want, ahhh)




For some reason this year I've had a REALLY hard time figuring out what I want. I wanted a Cricut and a necklace with the girls names on it really bad, but Gerrad found an awesome deal on a cricut for me through a friend who upgraded to a bigger one, so we bought that. And I was lucky enough to be blessed with an amazing friend who graciously gave me a Lisa Leonard gift card in exchange for some kiddos clothing made by me! So, that left me with wanting a whole lot of nothin'. I've been browsing for what I want for the last weeks, and have only come up with a few things, this is a first, write it down! Ha!

Here is one of the things that I would really like to have! Its a Jessica Simpson handbag from Ebags. LOVE the color, its just perfect! My friend Melisa sent me a 30% off coupon but its only good until today. Hopefully another steal like that comes out again before Christmas so I can pass this along to Gerrad!

 I also LOVE these new 3 button Ugg boots, but I refuse to let Gerrad (or any other family member) pay $200 for them! They're still pretty though :)

 I'm still lusting after this Silpada sterling silver bead bracelet. I'm going to check online to see if I can find a similar one for cheaper.

I wouldn't mind some random accessories for the cricut (vinyl- black and/or white), maybe a cartridge. I'd also like a new bible, something small enough I can fit in my purse, there was a great deal at our local Christian book store for one yesterday for $15, I should have just bought it :) There are a few books I'd also like- 'Crazy Love' and 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.'

So that's my list, sad huh?! HA! Maybe I'll get some good ideas from you ladies! Can't wait to see all your lists!

12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge- Day 5

Day 5- Favorite Holiday Movie/TV Show Special



I have to start out this post by saying I was a big fat failure yesterday, seriously gals! If you need to unfollow me, I'll understand, ha! In all seriousness, I left to go shopping at 2:30am, got home at 8am, and then went BACK out with Gerrad and Addaline (we were shopping for Macie so we sent her with the grandparents) until about 3pm. Granted we ran some errands, ate lunch, and goofed off, but I was BEAT. I didn't make it to the computer to blog at all. I owe ya'll :) I told Aly to call me out on her blog, but she was nice enough to forgive me!

Today's post is one of my favorites. I'm obsessed with Christmas movies, and could watch them over and over. Can't wait to see what movies/tv specials ya'll love!

This movie is HANDS DOWN, my favorite!!! I think I can recite the whole entire thing. Gerrad despises watching it with me because I won't shut up about it! If you haven't seen this, you need to RUN, not walk, and get it ASAP!

I consider this an old classic. I remember watching it as a little girl and loving it, now I watch it with my girls and still feel the same

Loved this when I was younger as well.

Pretty much anything with Vince Vaughn I LOVE, this movie is no exception!

Childhood classic as well!

Another one of my 'newer' favorite holiday movies. Its not necessarily about Christmas (in a way), but its set during Christmas, and I adore it!

12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge- Day 4

Hey ladies! So I'm actually out black friday shopping as we speak. I wanted to get the mcklinky up so you ladies could join in. I promise I'll have a proper post up as soon as I get home :-)

Hope ya'll had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

This past weekend, we went out with 2 other families to take some Christmas card photos. We all have about the same camera so we just took turns taking each families photos. It was so much fun, and FREE since we used our own cameras. We got some amazing shots, I couldn't be more pleased with how they turned out!

 Macie and Addaline cheesing it up, I LOVE their dimples!

 One of our family shots

 This is my favorite photo from the shoot, I just love the colors for some reason

 Similar photo, just black and white

 I just adore this photo as well, so precious! Addaline is definitely a daddy's girl

 This is typical, these 3 are SO goofy!

 Love this one as well

 My other favorite of just the girls

 On of our other family photos, this isn't my favorite one

I love this one for some reason, its just so cute, and captures their innocence!

Beware... In the next few days I'm going to do the Shutterfly post that tons of you have been doing. I know its obnoxious, but I can't pass up 50 FREE CARDS! Feel free to ignore my post, you won't hurt my feelings ;)