Thanksgiving and my Birthday Post

I have been a huge slacker and didn't blog at all last week. We had a very busy week. Last Tuesday was my 27th birthday. I worked that day and then went out to dinner with family. I was off of work for the rest of the week. Wednesday I cleaned the house and started preparing our Thanksgiving meal. We had it at our house this year. It was so nice to be able to have both of our families over to eat. I made a 21lb turkey and it was freakin AMAZING! There were no leftovers!
It is a family tradition for the women in our family to go "black Friday" shopping every year. This year it was only my mom and I that went. My Aunt's husband was in town ( he travels for work ), my other aunt didn't want to go and my sister wanted to go with her "boyfriend". ( Not cool ) but owell. So my mom and I started out at the outlet mall at 10pm and shopped until about 4pm Friday. We got a lot of good things! Most of my Christmas shopping is done, and I got myself a couple of goodies. A new HP laptop and a new flash for my camera. I have been wanting one for a looooonnnng time so I am super stoked that I finally got one. I am still learning how to use it.


I had a great Thanksgiving week and am so blessed.

I heard someone say this and I don't think it can be more true:

" I may not be blessed with everything I want, but I am blessed to have everything I need"

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving.

My turkey. I am so proud



Gracie and I posing with the turkey. Look at Gracie staring that thing down.



Faithie helped make the salad.




And she helped eat it. LOL



That turkey didn't know what hit him!



The pups are so tired after a long day of football, family, friend and food.



Faith goofing off on Friday. I was trying out my new flash.



Cute girl

Still on a mission

to De- Clutter our lives. And boy oh boy are we doing just that.
I am so proud of Damian and I. We are really doing a good job, going through stuff. Keeping what we need, and taking the rest to Goodwill.

One BIG problem that I have had is that I can't get the laundry done. I have lived in this house for two years and have never gotten caught up on our laundry. We have so many clothes. Let me take that back, Damian has so many clothes. It is insane how much stuff he has. And not to mention, he changes clothes several times a day.

I told Damian that I wanted to pack up all the clothes in the house and take them to the laundry mat and get them all done at once. We did just that tonight.
We packed up everything and took it to the laundry mat here in Kyle. we used 13 washers, but we got all of the clothes, washed, dried and put away.

Nice Friday night date HUH?
I am so happy that it is all done. It is 11pm and all my laundry is done. I don't have to worry about anymore of it for the rest of the weekend.

I love Shutterfly!

I really love Shutterfly. Why? Because it is a place that I can upload the million pictures I take. I can organize them, edit them and purchase them. They always have great promotions going on. My mom is a super shutterfly queen. She is always creating new stuff. I love it.

Busy weekend.

We had such a busy weekend. We de-cluttered our lives.
We have lived in our house for almost two years now, and we are finally turning our house into a home. We are painting, putting in crown molding and decorating. It is exciting, but stressful at the same time. WE have crap stuffed in all sorts of places. We are finally fixing that. Cleaning out and throwing out things we don't need. We cleaned out three closets this weekend, and have a couple more to do this next weekend.

Because on Thanksgiving we are having dinner at our house! Both my side and Damian's side of the family will be coming to our house this year. I am so excited, but have so much to do..


Check out before and after pics of the pantry. I am embarrassed. :( But hey, when you work full time and have a toddler, two dogs and a husband to take care of, things get shoved in places.
BEFORE



AFTER

4 months until she turns 2

Really? How did this happen? I can not believe it. 20 months old. WOW. In just 4 short months Faith will turn 2 years old. In 4 short months we will start trying for Cuellar number 2. I am freakin out.

Everyday this little girl amazes me. So days she drives me crazy, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. She is so smart, and funny. She is just a good girl. We have had our fair share of tantrums but nothing as bad as some of these poor moms in the store that I see. wowza!

She really wasn't feeling the photo shoot today. She cried and cried, and finally pulled the bow out of her hair and signed and also said " all done" and walked out of the room. Can we say Sassy pants????

She still eats like there is no tomorrow. She LOVES green beans. She would eat them everyday, all day.

She is wearing 18-24 month clothes. She needs this size only for the length. Good things she is cloth diapered or all of her clothes would fall off. LOL

She wears a size 5 shoe.

Says soooo many things. Still signing, and learning new signs. Her new one is MONKEY and I almost peed my pants laughing the first time I saw her sign it. ( you scratch under your armpit and make monkey noises ) LOL

She takes an hour nap in the morning and about a two-three hour nap in the afternoon. She goes to bed at about 8pm and sleeps until about 8am.

She is such a sweetheart. She is growing and learning so much. Too fast. :)


Here are a couple of pictures from our failed attempt for a 20 month shot

she didn;t want to have her picture taken


dancing.


after her bath, we got one more shot

Family vent

I love my family. I really really do. But I am beginning to think the way I love is so much different than what I receive. I am not talking about Damian or Faith. I am talking about extended family.
I am not going into detail about everything that has gone on, because that would take way too long. BUT I will say that I don't appreciate when my daughter is the one who suffers because of other people's selfishness. Two times in the past two weeks, Faith has gotten the shit end of the deal. Not happy.

But again, I love my family, and I will probably continue to let them walk all over me. I just wish they would treat others the way they would want to be treated.

Brrrr It's getting cold

and you know what that means?! It is time to start getting fall/winter clothes for Miss Faith.
I am looking for comfy clothes she can wear to Ms. Aimee's.

Some of our favorite places to shop are:

GAP
OLD NAVY
Target
WalMart ( sometimes they have cute stuff )
Carter's
Gymboree
Kohls

What are some of your favorite places to get affordable clothes for your active toddler?