Shhh its s Secret



 



I have been thinking about a Secret Pal/ Secret Sister swap for w while now and with the new year approaching I thought I better get on that. So if you are interesting in this Secret Sister swap just let me know.

What is a Secret Sister? How does it work?

Once everyone is committed I will draw names and you will receive a secret sister. Then I will email you their information and you can go from there. You will mail them a little happy with a limit of $20.00 for their Birthday and Christmas. At Christmas when you send them their gift you will then reveal yourself. That is mandatory how ever if you want to send them a little treat for Valentines, Halloween or just because that is up to you. The deadline to sign up for this is December 27th and it will start the January 2015.
As far as gift you can do whatever you want. If you are creative you can DIY it or if not you can buy it. When you mail the gift you can decorate the box/ envelope its up to you. Just have fun with it.
Holidays Happys or just because...what is this you ask? here are some examples that I would probably send. I am always finding awesome stuff at the dollar section in Target.

If they were having a rough week or I felt I wanted to just cheer them up I might would send this

 

 

 

or  for Valentines day

or make this cute little jar



You kind of get the idea. So if you are interested you can find my email on the side and email me your mailing address, all of your social media info so if your person doesn't already know you they can get to know you, and if you have any allergies.
Also if you have any suggestions please feel free to let me know due to this is my first time starting a Secret Sister exchange.

Christmas Traditions

 

 

My favorite things about Christmas is the traditions. When I was a kid I looked forward to them and to this day we still do them and my parents and when I had Maci I knew I wanted to start our own.

 

 

 

H5 Christmas Traditions:

Trees: I take my ornaments off each year but never take apart our fake tree we take it straight to the storage building and it stays fluffed and ready so each year all we have to do is put ornaments and plug in the lights. Super easy and makes it so much more enjoyable. For me the part I hate is fluffing out all the branches and that is why I leave it up and store it up all year. I know some leave their ornaments on it and store it that way but I love placing the ornaments on the tree.

My kids each have a tree that they have in their room and they put the ornaments they make at school on it. When they all leave the house I will combine all the special ornaments into one big tree.

 

 

Ornaments: we place our names is a bowl and draw names and have an ornament exchange. It's so much fun to pull out the ornaments and remember who got this for you and what year and the reason. This actually came from my childhood. My mom would buy us an ornament each year and now she buys the grandkids an ornament each year.

We also pick up an ornament wherever we go on vacation. M&M one from Vegas M&M factory, Hot Pepper with sombrero from Mexico (which you can see in the above photo), Minnie & Mickey from Disney World, Taxi Cab from New York, Seashell from the Beach these are just a few. Hopefully one day I will have enough for a travel tree.

 

 

 

Stockings: you can read all about our Stocking tradition here

these are not my stocking I was just to lazy to get up and take a pic of ours

 

  

 

Christmas Eve:

 attend candle light service at our church

 

We also food prep for Christmas morning brunch. All of our breakfast casserole and quiches are assembled. We do everything the night before to make our morning easier. Sometimes we will make homemade cinnamon rolls and if that is the case its must we make them in advance. If we are having sausage balls we roll them up the night before. A week or so before Christmas we all sit down and decide what we want for Christmas brunch and make a menu so each year the menu has some changes depending on what we are craving from year to year.

 A little secret we recently found from a blogger about 2 years ago
. These cinnamon rolls taste just like homemade ones and they are to die for and so easy.
So why do all that work when you can just grab these:

 

 

 

After all of this if finished we set out cookies and Dr. Pepper for Santa because once he has gotten to our house he is just tired of milk he is in need of caffeine to get him back home. We then open up our ornaments who we drew names for and our gifts to each other.

 

 

 

We check out all of our neat things we have now days and track Santa to see where he is and when we need to go to bed. We def do not want to be awake when Santa is near our house.

 

 

While we took Maci to see Santa for the first time we stopped into a store in the mall and they had a Christmas book with the true story of Christmas, fun Christmas Stories and a few songs. We purchased it and every Christmas Eve before we go to bed we read the book and the story is based in these verses Luke 2: 1-20.

 

 

Christmas Morning:

We sleep in... no waking up early for our crew except for Rhett. Once everyone is up we open our stockings then the kids open up their gifts from Santa.

About 7/8 years ago while discussing Christmas traditions at church a very smart lady mentioned that since she never get use of her China that she adores her family sets the table all fancy and uses china for their Christmas breakfast. I thought that was the best idea I had ever heard so ever since then we have been using China and fancying the table all up. Yes we eat from a fancy decorated table off china in our pjs and hot mess hair but its what we do. I have solid white china and currently looking for Christmas China. Last year I found theses and used them and have leftovers so I am going to use them this year as well. I know I know the plates and napkins are paper but I am in the process of finding the perfect Christmas pattern.

 

 

 

While searching for Christmas china I came across this pattern and really liking it.

 

So there you have the H5 Christmas traditions.



What do you think?

I have been obsessing over these acrylic clear makeup organizers for a while but didn't know if I wanted to spend that much on a makeup storage organizer or not. I have bought a plastic Wal-Mart drawer organizer and put my makeup in it as a trial to see how I would like it. I have been using it for about 6 months now and love it. The only issue I have is it is 3 drawer and I need more drawers.

This year I put this on my Christmas list and if I don't receive it thought I would use my Christmas money to purchase it. I have YouTube them and read reviews on them and thinking this is going to be great and I am looking at the 5 drawer with a tray at the top for my perfumes.

Do you have one? What's your opinion? Purchase or Pass? Is 5 drawers enough?





As being that I am talking about makeup storage and organization:

I have been trying to get better about makeup storage and when I saw the MAC pro palette dou I knew I had to get it. How perfect is it to be able to place all my MAC eye shadows in one tray. Isn't that why we all love the Naked palettes? I got one for my eye shadows and one for my blush and I would add a bronzer in it as well. I got the double sided so I could add an insert to each side for a total of 30 eye shadows and  12 blush/bronzers. The pallets are only 8 bucks and the inserts are 2 bucks how cheap is that? Here is what it look like:

 

I had to depot them so here is what it looked like. I found a video on this on you tube super easy

Eye shadows in the pro palette



 

Blush in the pro palette

 

I was in Ulta picking up a few Christmas presents and while checking out the lady at the register said you have money to spend due to your reward points adding up plus I had an additional 5.00 off so I grabbed this Naked on the run for cheap using my rewards money and 5.00 off.





 



PVA Homecoming 2014

Homecoming week is always so much fun.

Who doesn't love to dress up.

 

Color Wars Day:

Mauri's Class: RED

Maci's Class: BLACK

Rhett's Class: GREEN



 

 

Disney Character Day:

These girls planned their outfits accordingly.

Last year they did: Minnie, Mickey, Donald, & Daisey

 

 

Maci and Mauri were Alison and the Wonderland

Rhett was the old man from UP

 

 

Rock & Roll Day

Mauri was a version of Pink

Maci and her friends were the Pink Ladies

Rhett was just lets throw together what we can find, he wasn't a fan of Rock & Roll Day I think cowboy would be more fitting for him



 

 

Merica Monday

 

 

On Friday before the Homecoming PepRally they had a parade and each class decorated a float

We were playing the UCA Lions

Maci's class was Freeze the Lions

We did a frozen theme and had the kids put on winter clothes while playing Let it Go



 

 

Throwing candy

My two littles loved their sisters float so they hoped on with her class

 

 

Becka...Where do I begin?

When Maci first started she did cheer camp and Beck-Beck was her cheer teacher and ever since then she has been her person. This cheer camp was special because it was Becka last one being a Senior and Maci's  last no being that she will no longer be in elementary.

Thank you for your kindness, wild and crazy antics, and always being there for my children it truly means a lot. 

 

 

 

I am thankful for the small little private school my kidos attend even though my biggest pet peeve is lack of organization up there. My children have became very close to a lot of the high school kids and have made a huge impact on them.

 

Rhett's Footbal games

I'm a little behind of blogging a few post so I am adding them to the rotation of posts.

Rhett wanted to play football and at school but PeeWee school football doesn't start until 3rd grade.

Since we live out and don't have a league sign up I called the nearest city and signed him up.

I must say I didn't know what to expect but we went with it.

When we first started the main Coach was throwed...or should I say I wasn't pleased that's probably a nicer way to put it. None of the other parents didn't care for him either. But after a few games this Coach stepped in to help and he was great and the kids loved him.

 

 

Daddy side line Coaching his son.

I loved seeing these two bond, talk and demonstrate football.

They would get in the living room practice plays and give tips. 

 

Rhett played center on offence and defensive end on defense.

He loved every second of it.

I will say he was probably the one of the few kids that knew right where to go and where to play each time without the coach having to tell them.

 

Coach congratulating Rhett for making a touch down.  

He was so excited 

 

Rhett playing Center 

He is hooked and I see another year playing city league football until we will be able to play PeeWee football for the school.