All I Want for Christmas...

We have been in our house over a year and a half now. We have been slowly getting things done in the house...painting the walls, re-arranging furniture. But there is one part of our home that is still the way it was when we moved in.

With the exception of a small orange tree by our bedroom window, our backyard is still a dirt pile. I just want a place for my kids to run around, besides inside the house, and I don't have to worry where they are. I just want some green grass to look at instead of a dirt plot when I open my kitchen drapes in the morning.

So I am foregoing all Christmas gifts this year in the hopes that my wish of a finished backyard will come true.

Cupcake Madness

I saw this link on my sister-in-law's BLOG and I can't get enough of it. I want to make everything on this site! I am going to try the basic red velvet cake pops first and see how it goes:
http://bakerella.blogspot.com

Good Deals!

I love it when I find a bargain on something that I am looking for or need. With the new Target open near us, I like to go and just browse the $1 bins and other isles looking for good deals. This is what I found recently:

1. Cute pillows that match Katie's room theme, which is Dick and Jane. The colors match perfectly and the circles match some of the fabric on her crib bumpers. These pillows were marked down to $1 each!! The orginal price was $9.98 each.

2. Katie is growing so fast and with the cooler weather she was in need of shoes. I found cute shoes for $4:

3. The $1 bin at Target has mittens, hats, scarves and other cool weather items. I got these for Katie for $1 each!

I couldn't leave Colin out of the deal, so I let him get a Slinky for $1. Target also has Hello Kitty stuff for $1 (if one of my kids pick my 7 year old for niece Christmas this year...I am totally going crazy with that one!)

Night-time Visitors

So recently I have been finding all kinds of scat in my front yard and back yard. I thought it might be a fox, someone even told me it could be from the toads (which we have a ton of and I can't keep the dog from licking them...but that is an entirely different story!). With the recent rains, and a backyard full of dirt that has since turned to mud, the mystery "scat-layer" has been solved and explains why my dog goes crazy every night. Can you guess which animal this print belongs to? I am just thankful they haven't gotten into my garbage!

Such a Big Girl!

Katie will be 11 months old on the 7th. I can't believe that in 5 short weeks, she will be 1! This first year of her life has just flown by. She is standing by herself, kneels by herself, likes to put toys away, waves bye-bye, opens and closes her hand to indicate that she wants more to eat, loves to clap to music, has made it very clear that she hates wearing shoes, and has even taken a few short steps.