the blessing box

I'm linking up with the lovely Natalie!

Today I'm blessed.....

with my wonderful my family.

to have great friends.

with the opportunity to spread the light of Christ to 22 kiddos each day whether I can use my words to do so or not.

with a husband that sits down and just talks things out with me when I just can't figure things out on my own.

that God pursues me into an intimate relationship with Him and he doesn't give up on me.

with blogging friends that inspire and encourage me.

a warm home.

love and laughter.

What are your blessings?

sentimental much?

I'm such a sentimental person.  I cherish and adore memories.  I love to capture moments and hold onto things that I can look back on and say, "Oh..remember when?" I'm pretty sure I can thank my mom for this (Hi, Mom! It's not a bad thing.) So with our most recent vacation to Disney we have started a couple traditions to capture vacation memories.

Our first new tradition is making a photo book of our vacation photos instead of developing the pictures in a set.  This way we will have photo books to look at and all the photos are in one place.  Bonus...I don't have to fill an album and I was able to add captions.  (Easy scrapbooking in my opinion!) I used Walgreens.  However, I know there are many other options...such as Shutterfly and Costco.

 

A second tradition we have started was something I saw on Younghouselove.  The idea is to send yourself a postcard when you are on vacation.  You can add information like where you stayed, your favorite places to visit, favorite restaurants, and anything else you want to look back on and remember.  Except we tweaked this a bit. To save ourselves the postage, we just bought the post card and then filled it out when we got home.  It was a fun way to talk about the trip and reminisce.  We are keeping these in a great little green trunk I found at Homegoods.

Can't wait to add to our collection! How do you preserve vacation memories?

And the winner is...

Callie Nicole 

from

Through Clouded Glass!

Congratulations sweet mommy-to-be! You're the winner of the Mommy Hook! Please contact me asap with your contact information so we can ship your prize!

Happy Sunday  y'all! Don't forget to play along here and here for other fabulous giveaways!

12 Days of Christmas link-up--Coming Soon!

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The Fall link-up was so much fun, that I just had to organize a Christmas link-up! However, we do Christmas BIG in my family...so this link-up is going to be done (bad grammar?!) BIG as well!

Starting December 1st, I will host a link-up each day through December 12th! Link-up each day...link-up a few days...link-up all 12 days! It's up to you! I'll provide the topic, you grab the button.  Share your thoughts, heart, and creativity! No rules...just Christmas fun! (And I'm not opposed to you linking up with mine and another link-up party! Don't want to take away from those other fun link-ups!) Mark your calendars, blog ahead, carve some time out of the busy holiday schedule, and join us for some fun holiday cheer! The topics?

Day 1 (December 1st)-What does Christmas mean to you?

Day 2 (December 2nd)- Christmas Traditions

Day 3 (December 3rd)- Christmas Gift Ideas

Day 4 (December 4th)- Christmas Memories

Day 5 (December 5th)- Holiday Recipes and/or Entertaining Ideas

Day 6 (December 6th)-Christmas Crafts/DIY projects

Day 7 (December 7th)-Favorite Holiday Movies & Music

Day 8 (December 8th)-Letters to Santa (Your Christmas Wish List)

Day 9 (December 9th)-Wrapping Tips

Day 10 (December 10th)-Christmas Decorations

Day 11 (December 11th)-Thrifty Christmas Tips

Day 12 (December 12th)-Christmas Musings (anything else you wanna share)

Looking forward to it! Let's count this as our Christmas Party via Blog Land! See you December 1st!

Thankfully Thrifty Baby Shower Giveaway-Round Three!

This is your final giveaway chance here at theblessedlife for the fun baby shower celebrating Ashleigh from Thankfully Thrifty and her first little one. If you are from Ashleigh's blog, welcome back! If you haven't stopped by to see her first, you can go here for more details about this fabulous giveaway and others going on!

I'm excited to host another part of the baby shower for you to get a chance to win a $15 gift certificate to the Express Yourself! Creations Etsy store!

via

 
Jill is a mom herself and knows how busy life can get with little ones! She has a large selection of day planners (agendas) to plan all those doctors appointments, sports games and practices, or play dates.  She also has a large selection of swaddle blankets and burpies/bibs for you moms of little ones (or little ones on the way)! They look so adorable and fashionable for the sweet little ones in your life.  And news to me, but Ashleigh let me in on a little secret...swaddle blankets are larger than receiving blankets, meaning extra cozy to snuggle up and swaddle your sweet baby.  Jill has many colorful fabric options! If you would like to see more fabric options other than what you see on her site, send a message to Jill and she will be happy to send more pictures your way!
Okay, time to play!

GIVEAWAY:

One $15 gift certificate will be awarded to one randomly selected person.

HOW TO ENTER:
Game time! The first mandatory entry is to play along with the baby shower game right here in the comment section!

How it works...

In the comment section, let us know your best swaddling and/or burping tip! (This is only one entry...I can't wait to read your tips!)

EXTRA ENTRIES:
You can earn one extra entry for each of the following.  Please leave a separate comment for each entry in order for each to be counted and make sure to leave your email address with at least one of your comments so that I can contact you if you win.

1. Visit Express Yourself! Creations and leave a comment letting me know which item you would like to have if you win this giveaway!

2.  Add Express Yourself! Creations to your favorites on Etsy.  Leave a comment letting me know you did.
3. Become a follower of Thankfully Thrifty on Twitter here and tweet about the giveaway
4. Grab my button for your site and/or add me to your BlogRoll on your blog
5. Grab Thankfully Thrifty's button for your site and/or add her to your BlogRoll on your blog
6.  For three extra entries, purchase something from Express Yourself! Creations and come back to let me know what you purchased!

This giveaway will end on Saturday, November 27th at midnight (eastern time).  The winner will be randomly selected and posted on Sunday, November 28th. Have fun and good luck! Make sure to check back by Thankfully Thrifty to find out about other giveaways going on!

(And don't forget to enter the Mommy Hook giveaway here that ends tomorrow and the Boogie Wipes giveaway here if you haven't already! It ends November 21st!)

what i'm loving wednesday

So excited to link up with the lovely Jamie @ this kind of love.  Check out her link-up.  It makes this "middle of the week" day even a bit more worth celebrating.  [The other term for Wednesday makes me cringe.  Do any of y'all feel the same way?  Or do I just need to get my mind out of the gutter?]

one.

I'm loving how my hubby looks with his new guitar.  It was a birthday/graduation gift from me.  I can't wait for him to take lessons. He's super excited.

two.

 

I'm loving these three finds from my election day shopping trip with my mom and grandma.  We shopped all the "best deal" places...TJ Maxx, Home Goods, Marshalls.  This great basket was only $14.99...it's housing shoes in our foyer.  The adorable pillow was something I could not put down.  It was on clearance for $6.50 and is now snuggled in the chair in the corner of our living room.  (Seriously, this pillow just may be something I design a little boy's rugged nursery around one day.)  And this awesome "Happy Birthday" plate was used for the first time for hubby's bday celebration this past weekend.  It's a new tradition in our bungalow...bday person gets to eat their dessert on the special plate!

three.

I'm loving that since my prof was "throwing up" (his terms exactly in his email) and canceled class Monday night, I had one extra afternoon to spend on a walk with this cute guy.  He loves going for a walk with his momma.

four.

I'm loving this recipe my friend Kendra shared with me for Oreo Ice Cream cake.  Move over Dairy Queen...this stuff is fabulous!

Ingredients:

-a half gallon of vanilla ice cream (I use one and a half 1.5 quart containers)

-2/3 container of Oreos

-1 container of cool whip (I use light)

To make:

-Let ice cream and cool whip sit out until soft

-Crush Oreos in large bowl (I prefer my potato masher)

-Slowly add in ice cream and cool whip, gradually mixing it in

-Fill a 9x13" pan with the ice cream mix

-Let freeze

I used the extra Oreos to decorate the top of Justin's cake.  It was a big hit! (And the best part is there was extra left over in our freezer.)

five.

Today was an early release day at school, meaning a couple hours without kiddos.  I love my kiddos but after conferences taking place over the last couple weeks, a break is nice.

 

six.

We rearranged our living room furniture! Love it!

Happy Wednesday to you!

just for you

via

1.  Yesterday. 
Yep, a hug for you.  You sweet blog readers you.  No, for real.  Thank you for your amazing and kind comments on my post from yesterday.  Your encouragement and prayers are beyond thoughtful.  Thank you for sharing your heart and lending a sweet word to me through commenting.  Your words have been Jesus to me.  Thanks for sharing what God prompted you to.  My prayer is that I can be a similar word of encouragement to you through commenting some words of encouragement.

via

2.  Free food.
Seems like you ladies like your free meals.  Um, who doesn't, right?! Many of you want to know just how you get on this "free dining plan" thing at Disney World.  Three big details...you have to go to Disney when they are offering it, you have to buy at least a two day base ticket to Disney (meaning it can just be for one park, and it doesn't have to be park hopper ticket), and you have to stay at one of Disney's resorts for three consecutive nights.  (It can even be their least expensive, but still super-nice, value resorts.)

We did what was called the "Deluxe Dining Plan" since we stayed in a moderate resort (Port Orleans Riverside).  For each day we were there, we each received one counter-service meal (think ordering at a counter...no waiters...still great food) that includes an entree, drink and dessert, one sit-down meal (think waiters/waitresses) that included an entree, drink, and dessert, and one snack (popcorn, drink, ice cream, etc.)  This was more than enough food! Some places offer an all-you can eat dinner too.  Amazing! You do have to watch because sometimes dinner shows and character dining meals take two of your meals.  Also, if you stay at a value resort, you may have to pay a little to upgrade your dining plan to be deluxe to include sit-down meals.

All together this saved us close to $600:
-$25 (because we wouldn't buy dessert w/o the dining plan) for each lunch
-Between $80 and $100 for each dinner
-at least $10 a day for snacks (I'm sure we would snack even if we didn't have the plan)

Right now they are offering the dining plan through September 2011, but at select times.  The way I got the code to use to get our free dining plan that our travel agent (aka my sister-in-law) used when she booked our trip, was to sign up on Disney's website to get their special email offers.  I would highly recommend using a travel agent to help you book your stay to get all the best deals and details.  Off to Neverland Travel is a great option for assistance in booking your trip.  (If you're in my area and know me outside of blog-land, let me know and I can get you in contact with my favorite travel agent, my sis-in-law, to help you out!) Finally, if you do get the Deluxe meal plan, make reservations at the restaurants way ahead of time! And for much more information, check out MouseSavers.com.

Okay, I think that covers it.  Email me or leave a comment if you have further questions!

So there you have it.  Two treats just for you!