This Man

This man who loves his family enough to get up and go tirelessly to work to provide us financial stability.
This man whose chest is the perfect pillow for a stuffy nosed child and strong arms comfort when the world seems dark.
This man who has worked hard the last six months to apply for graduate school.
This man who is committed to devoting himself to family and work is once again a student.
This man is officially a member of the Fall 2011 UGA Executive MBA program. 
And I could not be more proud of him.

This family is now committed to doing what we have to do to get him through these next few years.

Because it what is right for us and our future.

Congrats my love, we are so very proud of you.

The Great Holiday Stress Out

I have a love affair with the holiday season. I absolutely love everything about it, the traditions, the decor and even the cool weather. Christmas trees should be accompanied by a fire and hot cup of cocoa.
 However, I don't need the snow. It's pretty and all but I prefer to not feel like my limbs are going to freeze off. A few years ago, Craig and I spent Christmas in Colorado and let me tell you I had quite the perfect picture in my head about how wonderful a white Christmas would be. I was dead wrong. It is not for me. It was down right cold and I did not even leave the condo on Christmas. Not to mention, we did not exchange any gifts. We did it before we left so we wouldn't have to travel with them and it really felt like any other day. It was downright weird. It was not a favorite memory at all. I missed my family, I missed the hustle and bustle of waking early making coffee and cinnamon rolls and opening gifts. This Southern Gal likes "her Christmas" cool but not frigid and full of family.

My only complaint with the holidays is undoubtedly there is stress. Presents for friends and family, getting the decorations up, parties and Christmas cards. Last year, I failed at Christmas. I ordered pictures too late so I had to come up with new presents literally the day before Christmas. I was wrapping at the final hour and the Christmas cards resulted in me staying up way too late one night texting friends for current addresses and addressing envelopes. I am pretty confident that most got there card after Christmas. It was nightmare. I vowed to never repeat it.

This year,I started coming up with presents early fall and by December 1st my gifts were bought AND wrapped. We put up our tree and I immediately placed all the gifts under it. Santa is in hiding. Our decorations are out and this year I am having fun with the holidays. Baking cookies, watching movies and relaxing. Relishing in what should be done this season not stressing out. And when I realized we had no good pictures for the Christmas card and that we would need to take a few and then that would mean cards arriving too close to Christmas to not cause stress I came up with a new plan. The New Years card. I think its fantastic and it just may be our family's thing. It will arrive after the masses. Not to mention NYE is a very special night to me. It is the night not too many years ago I met my dashing man sporting a bow tie and the rest is, well, history.

And the holiday season will be low stress because I am not ruining the season over a card, presents or decorations ever again.

A perfect day

Yesterday was a perfect day. It began with quiet cuddles, eggs and a warm cup of coffee. EJ and I let Daddy sleep in while we lounged in our pjs and did laundry. Later, we got dressed and headed to the mountains in quest of the perfect Christmas tree. Winter arrived just in time for us to step out of the car and realize that our trip would be brief but completely worth it. After checking the selection we picked our tree and bought it, grabbed a quick cup of cocoo, a few family pics and headed home.

We decorated the tree, relaxed and watched football. While EJ and Momma naped Daddy blew leaves and after the babe was in all snug in his bed for the night we built a fire and relaxed together. By 10pm we had both dozed off and headed to bed. It was quiet day of family fun. But it was perfect.

Farm Boy

I am pretty sure that within the next few years the boy will be begging to go to the Farm constantly. Its a good thing he is the apple of my parents eye. I have sneaky suspinion that all it will take is a phone call to Gammie and farm bound he will be. He is right at home in the dirt, mud, puppies, tractors and ducks. Needless to say he is all boy.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

EVERYWHERE YOU GO!
Stores are decked to the nines, carols are softly playing and for me the mental list is ticking...

Top of my list is of course presents. And with a highly photogenic little boy I know that a cherished gift will of course be one with his handsome face on it. I am big fan of personalized gifts. I think it shows you care. There are some great gift ideas out there that one can personalize and places like Shutterfly are a mecca for these items. They have an array of goodies that will satisfy even that person on your list that has everything.

They have the cutest desk calendars I have ever seen. The design process is super user friendly and the quality is unmatched. I was so impressed with my purchase.
This summer one a dear friend of Reel Daddy got married and they had the cutest rehearsal dinner invitation . The event planner in me quickly turned over the invite to see who the designer was and I was shocked to discover it was Shutterfly. I had no idea that they were doing print material and was very impressed. They have some great designs this holiday season for the ever important Family Holiday Card.
I love canvas art. I mean LOVE.IT.  I love the clean lines and the look on wall. Plus I love looking at pictures that we took. It makes me happy. It makes it home to me. And you can not go wrong with shutterfly's canvas prints. Yes, they are more pricey than some sites out there. But let me tell you the quality that I have seen is superior. Bite the bullet spend the money and trust me you will not be sorry.

I hope this helps your christmas shopping and if you want to check out my fav's see below.
Christmas Cards
Desk Calendars
Canvas Wall Art



**disclaimer** Shutterfly is offering bloggers free holiday cards for promotional reviews. However, all these thoughts are my own & am great believer in their products. 

Manic Meal Planning

I have been doing it on and off for the last few months... Meal Planning that is. And when I do it successfully I am always so thankful. Yes, I stay at home and one would think I would have plenty of time to dream up meals on the fly.
But guess what? My child ate my brain.
It started off slow with bouts of preggo brain. "Oh I forgot to renew my car tags." "Oh I forgot to clean the bathroom before company." Minor things that were fixable, not a huge deal. However, it has progressed into full on motherhood dementia. Like I left the water running in the sink and left the house for 2 HOURS. You read that right, for 2 hours the water in my sink ran NONSTOP. Awesome.
And guess what my least favorite time of the day is around 430... its EJs cocktail hour. And normally results in him being fussy which makes Momma fussy. And the strong desire to throw my hands in the air and yell "I just don't care.. Take-out it is" results.
Which completely counteracts my desire to be waistline and budget conscience. I started slowly with making lists on Sunday when the sales come out. Planning our meals accordingly and attempting to shop ONCE each week. No daily 20 dollar runs for dinner. I am by no means an expert but its been working. Yesterday I score $150 worth of groceries for 90 bucks by sale shopping and using coupons. And no I do not buy a bunch of junk. I am big on staying away from processed foods, the result of growing up in a Cardiologist's family. I grew up believing that salt was the devil's dust.
Because I am nice I thought I might start sharing some of my easy recipes that work great for meal planning aka if you so choose you can make ahead and heat up. But in return please share some of the goodness you make. Variety is key. I have a spreadsheet going of all my meals and it helps me lots.
Our dinners this week looks like this..

Sunday- Gumbo and Cheese toast
Monday- PW's 16 minute Beef and Bean Burritos (I use ground turkey)
Tuesday- Ginger Chicken with Zucchini and Onions (a throw back to yummy goodness that is Benihana's)
Wednesday- Kabobs (its predicted to be 80, seriously fall where are you?)
Thursday- Night out
Friday- Meat Ball sandwiches (turkey and homemade rolls)
Saturday- Deconstructed Chicken Pot pie

And that's our week, you should also know I make the husband breakfast (breakfast sandwiches) and his lunch every day. His coworkers know when I fail to send breakfast because is mood is that bad and if left him to eat lunch on his own he either skips it or eats french fries. Which is a no go when trying to diet, which he is. So my family eats ALL its meals for around 120 a week. Pretty good, huh?

So if you want specific recipe let me know and I will post it. Do you meal plan? What are your tricks?

Halloween Photo Playdate

EJ and I are members of a wonderful playgroup here in Atlanta. One of my favorite aspects of the group is, of course, hosting my own play dates. Craig and I love to entertain and with my past life in the event industry I have to put my best foot forward. Not to mention I love doing it. 

It was supposed to be an afternoon in the back yard with all the kids decked out in their Halloween gear for a photo op and some playtime. As fate would have it Atlanta got hit with some horrid storms that day so I moved the play date inside. Space was a bit more limited, but we did the best with had to work with and I know EJ had a blast. 

We snacked on pumpkin muffins, fruit, and pumpkin dip with ginger snaps. The kids played with EJ's ball pit and millions of toys and the moms were able to visit. 

Here we have a homemade cupcake tower. Yes that is cans of soup with scrap booking paper and cake plates with scrap booking border glued to it. Affordable and easy. I made the muffin toppers with the same paper and border. Easy, easy and very cute if I do say so myself. 

Homemade sign. An hour with some glue, paint and paper. A nice quiet nap activity. If you want instructions on how to make your own let me know. 

 Photo Op set with a black sheet tacked to the wall and some homemade poms. I moved our planters from outside and Voila cute photos. My kid wasn't interested in posing so my pictures leave a bit to be desired but there were some cute ones of the other less squirmy kids.