I decorated for Halloween! With a tad of fall thrown in!

It's almost time for Halloween. While I love fall, it's no secret how much I dislike Halloween. Most of you already know that about me - I think it's one goofy, silly 'holiday'. However, my children love it & that's what's important, so I do what I can to make sure they're happy & having fun.





I've recently discovered that when I decorate, especially seasonally, I prefer groupings. I don't really care for a candle here, a pumpkin there - I like to keep my decorations together & uniformed.



I also prefer 'pretty' over 'cute'. But again, my kids love cute, so some cute it is!



I had my camera settings incorrect in this one below & the backlighting is too bright. I think it turned out pretty, so I kept it!



And alas, I'm home! Get it? The witch is in? Me? Home? Heehee.



So there you have it. Other than a few cute candles I put on the back of the toilet in the bathroom, that completes my fall decorating. Whew.

Next up? Christmas!

Destin, Florida photos!

Be still my heart...



My cuties!



Lets all wave!







Bents & Mercedes in hamster balls! They were down more than they were up!



Audi & Jags on the bungee things! Audi did nothing but go up & down. LOL Jags did back flips!





Every time we go, I find one of these! Ew!



I cherish our time in Destin. I have never, ever been so in love with a city & state before. There's just something about Destin. It gives me a magical, peaceful feeling I can't explain. Some day, one day, I hope to live there. ♥

Vacation!

Saturday morning we headed to Biloxi, MS for vacation! Our first day at the beach, we were sorely disappointed. The water was icky & full of jelly fish! Ew. So, I recommended we load up & drive the 3 hour drive to my most favorite place on earth - Destin, Florida! So, we did! And now, we are here:



This photo takes my breath away! Incredibly beautiful! I took this yesterday, early evening. Some people like to go to Disneyworld. I like to go to Destin! And my entire family loves it as much as I do!

I'll be back soon with new posts. I'm excited to get back to blogging, with a variety of topics!

If interested, you can 'like' my Facebook page and/or follow me on Instagram! (I love Instagram!)

Click here for my Facebook page & my Instagram profile is: truesimplegirl.

Have a happy week! Life is a choice - choose happy!

Smashbox - Lip Enhancing Gloss.

I love shiny lips. I've tried drugstore brand glosses but they're so sticky, I just don't use them.

I ran to Ulta a week or so ago to purchase my 14 year old niece a box of different Smashbox glosses for Christmas. She'll love them! The other day we were out & close to Ulta again, so I thought I'd buy myself a Christmas gift (ahem) - a Smashbox gloss. I mean really, an $18 (just for one!) lip gloss surely won't be sticky, right?



Wrong. Ew with a capital E. Oh good glory. The color (Pulse) is divine, but the texture is like glue! I applied the gloss & looked at my husband, while pressing & unpressing my lips together. The stuff is so gooey, when my lips were unpressed, the gloss pretty much stayed stuck together. Ha! (I think his exact words were "yuck".) But hey, on a positive note, I really like the brush you apply it with. ;o)

Sheesh. I'm hard to please, yes. That's why I love to offer product reviews (even if they are my own personal reviews) - I just can't justify spending a hefty amount of money on beauty products (or any products, really) unless they just blow me away!

Hope Ulta has a return policy. 'Cause this sucker's going back, right after Christmas. Ü

Speaking of Christmas:



I hope you can slow down a bit enough to enjoy the holiday before it's over. I've simplified a lot this year & it's been so great to enjoy, versus panic. I wish you & your family a beautiful Christmas, full of love, laughter & happiness. ♥

Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours! ♥

The Gingerbread House.

Actually, it's a Graham Cracker House. Ü

Gosh. It's been so crazy, I haven't blogged in a week? I need to get some things under control. Can't abandon my blog. :)

My husband was out of town last week, so it 'twas just I holding down the fort. Also last week, I apparently od'ed on caffeine. We think. No one knows. Not even the EMT's. Ahem. I didn't partake in Black Friday a few weeks ago (except for what I bought me - heehee), so basically, I have NO Christmas gifts. Panic mode is in full force. No Christmas cards purchased. No Christmas photo of 4 little cute people because the weather has been gloomy & gray. Did I mention I have hardly any Christmas gifts? I made some (very little) progress today, but it's difficult to shop toting a little 3 year old with me. The three oldest have Christmas parties (yes, Christmas - not 'Holiday') this week, which means 1 book exchange, 3+ different items/products/supplies for fun party foods & 3 teacher gifts. Are you aware Christmas is in 13 days? Am I aware Christmas is in 13 days? I hope this blog post finds you in much better shape than I'm in! Have I mentioned I have purchased hardly any gifts?

Tonight I said forget it all & we had 2 cooked frozen pizzas (but I had my MckDonald's salad) & played games. It was great & relaxing! I think we'll do that more often. Lots more often.

It'll all get done. I always seem to panic because I always wait until last minute (for most things anyway, swearing I'll never do it again) yet always, everything works out perfectly. And I sure am banking on that very thing happening again. Ü

Christmas decorations!

I love how my decorations turned out this year! I tried to keep it simple & not overthink things, like sometimes I tend to do.

I was going to go with all silver & white ornaments on my new flocked tree, but now I'm so glad I didn't, because those two colors are difficult to see against the white flock. I love traditional Christmas colors, so I stuck with those. This is my favorite tree to date. I think it is absolutely gorgeous! ♥





The white dresser is a thrift find I found at Goodwill for $30. It's been in the foyer, waiting patiently to be refurbished. Because I put my tree in the foyer, I moved this to the kitchen area, since I sold my black server. At first, I just began getting out my decorations & placing them here until I distributed them - but the more I added, the more I loved it, so I just rearranged them & added some snow. To the floor, too.





This is my formal dining table:



And my new shelf ladder (love!) - for now, in the dining room:



My children's tree:



I think that sucker is a little crooked due to me knocking it over last week. Oops!

I am completely done decorating, except for the stockings. I have been searching for new stockings for years & was finally prepared to pay an ungodly amount, just so I could end my frustrating search. Friday night, I found them! And they were on clearance! And I love them! I need some hooks so I can hang them on the mantel & then I'll add that photo. They are too darn cute! ♥

It has been cold, rainy & gloomy here all day (in other words, it's been wonderful!) & now it is thundering, loudly. Off I go to comfort Bray! Poor guy. Have a super week!

Embracing Halloween.

Remember? Remember how I detest Halloween, so much so that for the last 4 years, I have attempted to bribe my children with a monetary exchange in hopes of avoiding Halloween? Remember how my great plan was always responded to with an "um, no!"? Though one year, I must say, my little people did actually toy with the idea before shouting "um, no!" at me. So this year - I have just decided to let it all go. ☺

I don't dislike Halloween because of the "satanic" image it portrays. Personally, I believe that is such nonsense & hogwash. Good grief. I'm not sure exactly why I dislike Halloween. Strong possibility though that it's a combination of the following: finding costumes (& the amount of time it entails), paying for the costumes, trying to capture at least a few photos of completely hyped up, giddy w/ delight children, scrambling around to eat dinner & get everyone ready & out the door by dusk, & did I mention paying for the costumes. If one has more than one child, Halloween is certainly no inexpensive little diddy. And we do all the above for what? Approximately 2 hours. (Though, uh, the candy is like, totally worth it.) ☺

This year I am starting anew. My goodness, if my children adore Halloween so much, who am I to rain on their parade? If they decide to deny themselves of a monetary gift that certainly lasts a lot longer than Halloween itself does, who am I to try to change their minds? I mean heck, every year that I beg & plead (&, beg & plead) for them to accept the money along with a trip to Toys-R-Us instead of participating in trick-or-treating, I have upped the bribe amount by $10. At this rate, it's cheaper to buy costumes anyway!

So this year I am embracing "Hallowing", as my Jaguar calls it. ☺

Speaking of Jaguar, she has requested to be a "Mitten" for Halloween this year. Now. I have to be honest here. I was really wondering how in the world I was going to pull that one off. She was adamant, too. She was going to be a Mitten & that is all there is to it. Until. Until, that is, she spotted a fluorescent green skeleton costume (which costs only $17, mind you) @ Wal-Mart. Bingo! By george, a skeleton costume it is for my curly haired little girl. Now won't she look just precious dressed as a skeleton, carrying her princess bucket? ☺

Trick-or-Treat!

Easter.

We had a great Easter, & I hope you all did too! Well, ours didn't start out great because two little boys were up @ 6:00 a.m. searching for the Easter baskets. New rule - no baskets will be handed out until Easter evening. :) Anyway, because of their shenanigans, we got a little off schedule & had to kick it into high gear to make it to chuch. Photos had to wait.

I do believe we have found a new church home! We left our previous church, over one year ago - we took Mercedes when she was 2 weeks old & heard some inappropriate comments (you might remember that) about us adopting another child. With somewhat hurt feelings, I told hubby it was time to move on, after 7 years. We had left a few times before (briefly), but ultimately returned. Since that time, I hadn't returned to church because we soon discovered Mercedes' thyroid issue, as well as her severe reflux. Hubby & the boys (& Jaguar, periodically) have been visiting a few churches during the lull.

I decided that today was the day for both Mercedes & myself to return. What better day to choose than the day Christ rose? Perfect. I was skeptical leaving Mercedes in the nursery; I prepared the attendants that she may not go for it, blah, blah, blah. I set her down & she never looked back. I stood there stunned. She made it 30 minutes before she realized her siblings weren't in there with her, nor were mom or dad. They came & got me when she began to get upset & she was headed to distress. The two of us then finished the service in the ladies lounge where they have couches & a monitor. ☺

We also happened to run into about five other couples we know from our previous church! That was a sweet surprise. They have all joined the church that we are contemplating joining. In Audi's room, he stated there was some 'hitting' transpiring with the attendants not really paying attention or addressing the issue - we will talk to the attendants next week & see how it goes. If all goes well, then it's probably a go we will transfer our letter.

It's all about the shoes:

Mercedes cracking up at her daddy:

And my favorite - without the munchkin that will not sit still:

This afternoon, after naps, we got everyone dressed again for some photos. I noticed that Jaguar had on some bloomers that matched her dress. Um. I dressed her this a.m. & there were no matching bloomers. Well, isn't that interesting! Come to find out, the bloomers had been attached to the inside of her dress - I didn't know it - & she wore her dress like that, to church! Holy pickles. I noticed when I put her dress on this a.m., one of the sleeves was crooked. I yanked on it tad & it fell into place. Now I know why that sleeve needed a yank - it had some bloomers attached! LOL

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This week is a busy week. I'm not particularly fond of busy weeks. Monday we go out to lunch w/ my mom. Tuesday is free (more like, cleaning). Wednesday Mercedes has her 15 month well check up. I will be discussing her 'size' - as I am now quite concerned with how big she is. Now that she is walking & running, she is not slimming any. The dress & sweater she wore today are both a 2T. Granted, they are a little big on her, but not much. I'm guessing she weighs at least 35 lbs. (& to put it into perspective, if you recall, Jaguar didn't even weigh 20 lbs. until she was 18 months old - I know I reference back to that often - but it's all I have to compare Mercedes to). She is so heavy, hubby & I both have a difficult time holding her. Should be an interesting visit with the pediatrician. Thursday, Audi gets his cast off. Yay! Friday I think is clear. We'll need it.

Have a great week!

(All photos taken inside (boo! It was raining outside but the sun appeared later in the afternoon), manual, no flash.)

The cake!

I'm telling you, I have found my calling! Look out Rebecca - girl, I'm going to give you a run for your money! I had no clue I had such hidden talent. ☺

Happy Birthday, hubby! Happy 13th Anniversary, too! You are so lucky to have me I am so lucky to have you! I hope you had a great day. And I'm glad you liked your unbelievably unique, beautifully decorated cake. Yum, huh? ☺ Now puh-leeze quit acting like you're 46 or I may just have to trade you in for a newer model. ♥

Love ya! xoxo

Santa needs a vacation.

Sometimes I think I am Wonder-Woman but with four wee ones, two dogs (one being a puppy) & a husband that is swamped at work, I am quickly reminded that I am not. I am so exhausted it's not even funny. We had a fabulous Christmas & I hope you & your family did also. ☺

Side note - for years I celebrated Christmas without knowing the reason for the season. It was just Christmas. It was not CHRISTmas. At age 41, I am still quite angry & irritated w/ my parents because personally I find it unexcusable, as well as sad, that they cared none to teach myself & my siblings about Christ. And that I didn't know the truth until later in life. I hope some day my children realize how blessed they are that they are being raised knowing the truth, knowing the true reason for Christmas. I do believe teaching our children about Christ is the most amazing & meaningful gift we could ever give them. Without Christ there would be no Christmas.

Now then. In no particular order -

Divorce was mentioned briefly when I discovered my husband still working @ 1:00 a.m. Monday & we still had so much to do before his family arrived Wednesday. He kicked it into high gear though - how he accomplishes so much on so little sleep is beyond me. The only little mishap he had was when I discovered he had cleaned the wooden toilet seat with the wrong cleaner. Innocently he ruined it - it ended up all streaked & looking dirty when in actuality it was sparkling clean. The bad thing is I didn't discover it until after everyone left on Wednesday evening. I was horrified as they all might have thought the toilet seat was dirty. Ack!

Mercedes decided to have a bad sleeping night Tuesday. At 1:45 a.m. Wednesday I finally pulled out the chocolate donuts & sat there wondering how in the world I was going to get everything finished in time for family the next day, when I had had little to no sleep. When she got up Wednesday morning I discovered the culprit - she had a severe cold. Obviously when she laid down she got stopped up therefore resulting in no sleep. For either of us. I felt so bad for her & she hates having her nose wiped. Poor baby.

However, Mercedes did decide to take some steps alone! On Saturday the 20th, my sil & I caught her taking two steps without assistance. Christmas Eve my bil counted as she took three! Everyone was there & saw it so we all did the clapping & "yay"ing. She couldn't have cared less. LOL ☺ She may be our earliest walker yet. Audi walked @ 12 1/2 months, so we'll see.

Piper was a big hit & bonded quite well with my nephew who's 14. She got plenty of attention that day which made us both happy as I didn't really want to crate her all day. :)

Our dinner for Wednesday was supposed to be Mexican & Tamales. Did you know Monday was a Mexican Holiday? We didn't either. LOL We ended up with pizza & salad (& tons of other goodies) & actually it worked out perfectly.

I drank me some alcohol on Christmas Eve. Oh yes I did. :) In the past, I have tried to drink wine like all the big folks (quietly I was cringing at all the wine/beer/alcohol being brought into my home - typically I do not allow alcohol in my house. That said, husband's family members are not alcoholics, they social drink at family gatherings. Felt the need to point that out. LOL). I'd love to look all sophisticated even though I'm not. But...yuck. I attempted it again Wednesday & I thought I was going to throw up. :) Wine ain't for me. So I drank some hard liquor (haha) & thoroughly enjoyed it. LOL After 1 1/2 I realized I'm just too old to drink. Not to mention, uninterested. ☺

It dawned on me that this is about the 8th year I have not celebrated Thanksgiving or Christmas with any of my family. (Except for the Christmas in 2006 that we brought my dad back from the Valley.) It's really beginning to wear on me. I don't see my family often but for Thanksgiving or Christmas every now & then - come on now. Is that asking too much? Honestly, it breaks my heart for my children. I feel so bad for them. I know they don't understand & I'm thankful they don't question why we always see Daddy's family & never mine. I know a lot of people become depressed during the Holidays & I can see how that can happen. It's just sad.

Why is it so much easier to shop for girls than boys? I totally overbought for Jaguar so her birthday gifts are taken care of. Yay for me. Ü Now I need to take care of Audi & Mercedes' birthday gifts & we'll be on our way for birthday celebrations next week. Thank you God for my babies, but couldn't you have spaced their birthdays out just a bit? Heehee. ☺

Pink feather boas are so cute! Jags hated it. Piper loved it. My carpet looks (looked) as if we killed & cleaned our own Christmas dinner. Boa gone. Below is a Christmas gift I made all three. I stole the idea from Gayle. The kids love it! The sand is actually cornmeal. I don't do sand. Ha!☺ The marbles make me nervous w/ Mercedes so unfortunately this has to be supervised digging.

I'm so thankful I did Christmas shopping on Black Friday! That helped tremendously but next year I need to do even more tweaking. I do way too much at the very last minute. Like Halloween, new plan next year. :)

I was so tired Christmas morning, no one got dressed (something that is not allowed here unless one is sick). No cute, Christmasy clothes. No bows. No nothing. No one minded. :) My husband even cooked an entire Christmas dinner without any help from me. Not that I'm a great cook, but that's a lot of work for one person. It was awesome & I'm so grateful for my husband. :)

Now I'm off to bowl with him on the Wii. He challenged me, so it's on. ☺ I'll be the first one to throw the hand thingy thru our tv. Just wait. It's gonna happen.

Merry Christmas! xoxo

Christmas cheer.

Scroll down & click off the Christmas music before playing video! ☺

Heehee. I/we have heard many of these. ☺

Where are all the Christmas cards this year? For the first year ever, I did not mail out Christmas cards. I ran out of time. :) Instead they will be 'Happy New Year!' cards. ;o) Typically we receive about 25+ Christmas cards. This year, thus far, we have received about 8. LOL Ü

Snug as a bug in a rug.

If you think about it, that little saying is a tad ick. Ü

A few weeks ago we braved the cold & attended our Town Square Christmas Tree Lighting. First year we have ever gone. I was truly disappointed. Bummer. But, I do have high expectations which means it was probably just fine. Ha! They did bring in a 'snow hill' & the kids got to slide down it in a tube. That was fun. Bad thing is, by the time Mercedes & I got back around to where I could take some photos, they were already sliding down so the photos I did get are horrible. :( They loved sliding down the snow hill, though. Yep it was real, packed snow! Right out of a truck! Heehee. Ü

Other than that we watched a lame 'parade of lights' (I call 'em as I see 'em & it was pretty lame ;o). Ü We literally froze our patooties off & unfortunately, we couldn't wait around for Santa to show up. He decided to walk up as we were walking out. I have no idea what took him so long as the parade had ended quite some time prior. I guess the chunky guy is just getting too darn old & probably has severe fibromyalgia. LOL I felt bad that my miniatures couldn't talk/sit with him but the line was unbelievably long & we needed to scadoodle.

Here are just a few photos from that lively event.

Mercedes in the car ready to go - she loves her little Gloworm. We leave her Gloworm solely in the car so every time we head out somewhere, her little face just gets so excited to see it. So cute. :)

Below photo she is actually smiling at the camera. See her right dimple? :) Check out those eyelashes too. She is just now beginning to suck a pacy. I don't think it compares to her two middle fingers though. No topping those for comfort! Plus they are easy to locate in time of need. But she looks cute w/ pacy. :)

Here are four of six waiting patiently for the parade. LOL Cracks me up to call it that - I reckon it was cute. Ü

I thought this was cute of husband in his beanie. I'm sure he'll be thrilled to know I have a photo of him in his 'hat' (plastered on the internet) which I refer to as a beanie. Ü If he's reading this - get off my blog & get to work!

And here is Merc playing with her newly discovered toy. She loves the dishwasher. I let her play with it - heck what do I care. If it makes her happy. :) And she's getting really risky & brave yet quite talented in how she handles all the knives. Heehee.

Time to discuss her hair. O.M.G. At this age (11 months), Jaguar's hair was just now starting to blossom & it was completely controllable & precious. Not Mercedes'. Holy pickles. It doesn't know if it wants to be curly or straight. So it's a bit of both. It doesn't know if it prefers smooth or coarse. So it's a bit of both. It doesn't know if it wants to lay flat on her head, or fly like the wind. So it's a bit of both. When it's wet, the back is actually about 3" down her back. I do believe I'm going to have to kick the hair products in early & pray for the best. ☻♣♦☺☺☺☺ Oh look! I accidently found smileys (& a few others including a deck of cards LOL) when I hit the wrong keys! LOL Yay!! ☺ ☺☻☻♥ ♥ Oh a heart! ♦♣♠•◘○♀♪♫☼►♫↕‼§▬↨↓→↑←∟↔▲

Ok, I got sidetracked. Anyway, if you click on the photo you can see her flyaway hair. Very frightening. And yes, she's still quite...large. Ha! Ü

All photos are taken on Auto with flash. In other words, they're all crappy. ☺☺☺

I do believe we are fixing to receive some freezing rain, so I'm off to peer outside. My life is just one excitement after another. Ü