15 Years ago . . .

Today, 15 years ago, I was dressed like this . . . .

Today is our 15th Wedding Anniversary!

Wow, the years sure do fly by fast. I met Jason 16 years ago in May 1995. He was in the USAF and had just been stationed in England. I met him after he'd only been there for one week - the rest they say is history! A year later in September 96 he proposed to me after he'd come home from working in Greece - AND he'd bought my diamond solitaire while he was there. I was 33 and he was 25!!! To say I was shocked (and deliriously happy) is an understatement :-)

Like any marriage, life hasn't always been easy. But over the years, you mature (and I thought I was mature at 33!!) and you grow together. You respect each other, you keep on communicating, and life just gets better, life isn't the same without each other. I hope the next 15 years don't go by as fast, but I do hope (and I know they will) they just keep getting better and better and better.

Happy Anniversary, to the sweetest Man I know. I love you Babe! x x x x

These pictures were scanned into my computer a few years ago and I re-sized them! They aren't the best quality, but I thought I'd share them anyway!

and just for laughs, here's a picture of the two of us, ONE YEAR later, on our first Wedding Anniversary!

My gosh, I look so young! But I was actually 34!!! And Jason. . . ha ha, he looks gorgeous - and still does ! Can you see my beautiful rose bouquet behind us :-) We were married in CA, where Jason's mom used to live (before she moved here to TX with us), and a year later we went back again for Christmas. We actually stayed in the same hotel again, just for that night, it was compliments of the manager, because we weren't completely satisfied with our stay on our wedding night!

Jason is off work today, but we have no plans, other than to stay home and be together ALL day, along with our precious Princess and Boo of course :-)

Have a great day. It's raining here, so it will be a cozy day at home I think.

When things don't go as planned . . .

It is a little yearly tradition of ours to decorate a gingerbread house after school breaks up for the holidays. Yesterday was our last day of school (for two WHOLE weeks :-), so today we got out our gingerbread house. It's usually just a bought one, I have yet to take the time to try and make my very own and glue it all together with icing. I don't even buy the house that you have to glue together, the one I get is already assembled and we just have to stick the candy to it.

I also make a little extra icing, so I got started doing that, and Kristen opened all the candy packets. THEN, we took the house out of the box . . .

 

This is the first time this has ever happened to us. At first I was going to just put it back in the box and take it back to Target (it was still in cellophane at this point but we could obviously see it was all broken. Then I realized Kristen had opened all the candy that came with it! So, I thought I would try to glue the pieces together, yeah, urmmm that idea lasted about 5 seconds. I glued one piece together with the icing I had made, but there were too many broken pieces, I really didn't feel like messing with it all.  What to do?

Ahh, yes, let's make sugar cookies instead :-)

and decorate them with the icing and candy we had from the gingerbread house!

and while we're at it, why not decorate ourselves - to look like Rudolph !!

So, our afternoon wasn't a total disaster. In fact we've had a great time, the Christmas music is playing, and I've now got Chex Mix baking in the oven. The kitchen smells delicious.

And yes, that is the same Santa Hat Kristen is wearing in the top 'header' picture when she was just 1 year old!

Another Party!

Happy to say I'm feeling a little better today, but still very congested and I have a stuffed up nose and head! Thankfully I'm still managing to do a little shopping here and there so I am not really behind on my Christmas stuff.  As promised I am sharing more pictures (especially for my Sis) ;-). Last Saturday night we celebrated Cheryl's Mom's 65th birthday, with a cocktail themed party!

Remember I showed you this dress a few weeks ago that I bought for the night . . .

here it is . . . and I love it!

 

and here's a few more pictures from the night

Connor and Kristen

I was taking some pictures with Cheryl's camera, I nabbed these ones from her FB page

The birthday girl - Seera

Cheryl and her sweet Mom and Dad

Kristen in her new black and red top, it's about as 'girly' as I can get her!

Hubs and me, being silly :-)

I think that's all the partying we'll be doing til Christmas! School finishes on Friday, then we have all next week to catch up with things, bake cookies, make Chex Mix , decorate gingerbread houses, and all that good stuff. I still want to take more pictures of the decorations this year, and the outside too, it's just finding the time to do it. Hopefully over the weekend I'll get a chance.

Party Pics

Hi everyone,  I'm sick :-(  Urghhhh, just what I don't need at this time of year! (who does?!). I started getting a scratchy throat after my book club party last Thursday night, then the next day I didn't feel too bad. Thought it might just be allergies, I was a little congested but that was about it. On Saturday my throat was a little scratchy again but by the afternoon it seemed fine. By that night though it was feeling a little 'raw', but I thought it was because I'd been talking all night!  Well Sunday found me feeling worse, really bad cough, very sore throat and my face and nose were really  hurting. I think I've got a sinus infection too.

Anyway, hopefully I will feel ok in a day or so. I wanted to share some pictures from last weekend, when we were over at Cheryl's celebrating her 9 yr old's birthday ;-)  Later this week I'll share the pictures from this past weekend when we were celebrating her mom's 65th Birthday.

Unfortunately the only one of me and Jason turned out blurry! But the rest came out well . . .

These girls are the best of friends.... and growing up so fast too!

I'll be back soon with more pictures from last weekend. Jason left today to go to Denver for the week. It means I can rest up for a few days not having to have dinner made for him when he comes home from work ;-) It might be just chicken noodle soup for me and Kristen tonight!

The winner!

Hi guys,
Sorry I didn't get to post a winner last night. I think I'm coming down with something, or fighting off something, I'm really congested and my throat has been scratchy for the past couple of days. I'm also more 'wheezy'! I'm hoping it's just allergies, but I'm thinking it may not be.

Anyway, thanks to all those who entered my fun little giveaway, I used the Random Number Generator, and it picked. . . #12

So, congratulations to Middle Child, from 'Living in Pleasantville' please email me your address so I can have your prize package mailed to you.

Still time to enter!

Hi Guys,
I didn't mean not to post all week, it just happened that way ;-) I'm off out to my Book Club Christmas Party tonight. I kind of 'run' things for the group and I've been putting together some fun stuff to do tonight. There's prizes for 'Book of the Year, Best Attendance, and this year I'm doing a Trivia Quiz too - should be a ton of fun.

Things have been so busy this week, and gym time is taking up a lot of my time but I'm loving it. I'll try to post tomorrow or over the weekend and catch up with you all too.

In the meantime, there's still time to enter the Chex Mix Giveaway - wouldn't you like an extra $20 in your pocket to go buy some goodies with ;-) I'll draw a winner tomorrow night, so if you haven't left a comment yet you can do it on the post before this one or click HERE

A New Spin on the Cookie Exchange - Host a Chex Party Mix-Change + GiveAway!!!

Hi guys, I hope you all had a good weekend. The weather here turned really cold, and when I say cold I mean a 'high of 40 degrees' cold!!! We had fun this weekend at our neighbors, celebrating Connor's 9th birthday. I'll share photos later this week.  Today I have a GIVEAWAY for you :-)

Confession time - I had never heard of Chex Party Mix until I moved to the US (some 13 yrs ago now) but it didn't take me long to realize that this fun snack is a must around the holidays! I've been making it during the month of December for some years now, and like many other families it's a holiday tradition  of ours now.  I was thrilled when MyBlogSpark invited me to have a Chex Party 'Mix-Change'.

I've only ever made the 'original' recipe, but if you check out the CHEX Party Mix-Change website HERE, you'll see there are so many wonderful combinations and flavors to make!

How about . . . 

Hot Buttered Yum Chex Mix 

Chex Pumpkin Pie Crunch

Chex Caramel Chocolate Drizzle

Chex PB & Chocolate Blast

 

All of these great recipes can be made in just 15 minutes in the microwave! I must admit, I've always made my original mix in the oven, because I love the smell of it while it's baking, but I'm definitely going to try the microwave way too.

I can't believe it's December 5th already, many of you may already be starting your holiday baking, or hosting Annual Cookie Exchanges. I've actually never hosted (or been to, for that matter) a Cookie Exchange, but I do plan on having a Chex Party Mix-Change with our friends very soon.  I know the kids will love making up some fun packages and trying all the wonderful varieties.

You could host a Chex Party Mix-Change too.

Enter to win a prize pack from My BlogSpark and Chex Mix!

 Your prize pack will contain:

• 2 boxes of Chex cereal to create Chex Party Mix recipes
• 5 featured Chex Party Mix recipes
• 10 takeout containers so your guests can take their Chex Party Mix to-go
• $20 gift card to purchase recipe ingredients and decorating supplies

 I like to keep things simple, so to enter, just leave a comment on this post. Tell me a favorite way you would package and share your Chex Party Mix, or just simply say hello :-) Your name will be entered in to the drawing. Drawing will take place this Friday DECEMBER 9th!

“Disclosure: The Chex Party Mix-Change product, information, and giveaway have been provided by Chex through MyBlogSpark.”