My New Favorite Christmas Song!

I have been waiting for TobyMac's new Christmas song to come out and today I finally heard it! I LOVE IT! Have I ever told you he is my Fav!!! Love Toby! ;0) Hope you like it!

FREE SHIPPING TODAY ONLY!

Today Only I am offering Free Shipping on the 4 Christmas Hats that I have left. Go here to read more.....

Their Almost Gone.........

My Christmas Hats are almost gone! I have 1 small hat that will fit infant-toddler size 2/3, and 3 hats that will fit toddler-7/8. I am working in some infant Christmas Hats since they are selling like hot cakes, but I will not make anymore larger hats. I also have 2 prs. of gloves left. Make sure you stop by Cutie Patutuz's to see what I have left. Don't wait around if you see something you like because it will be gone, gone, gone :0)

Happy Thanksgiving!

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever." (Psalm 107:1)

Hope Everyone Has A Great Thanksgiving !

Our Week

I'm sure this week is a busy week for you with traveling, or getting ready for that big Thanksgiving Dinner! This week I will be getting our Thanksgiving Dinner ready, but we will not be traveling. It is so nice not to have to worry about packing up the family to travel. The kids have to finish up their last 2 days of school this week, then the rest of the week they are off. They are very excited! Lilee and I finished up our 1 day of preschool for this week, this morning. Tomorrow she and I will finish up the shopping for our big dinner. Then Friday the boys have already planned on us getting up early for some Christmas sales. Then, this weekend we will finish putting up all our Christmas Decorations. The guys put the lights on the house last weekend when Karlton cleaned out the gutters. Then the rest of the week I have been adding a few things hear and there but not to many because I want to leave the Fall decorations up through Thanksgiving.

So what are you all doing this week? Traveling, hosting dinner, or just staying home with your family and cooking like we are?

UPDATE

I am finally finished making all my Christmas Hats and Glove Sets and posting all the pictures! Yay!!!! So...make sure you stop by and look through several post to see them all! Cutie Patutuz .

If you see anything you like or want to place a tutu order e-mail me at Mary Ann .

FFF- Rock Climbing

While up in the mountains last month we were exploring a 2nd water fall when the guys found a cave.

The wanted me to make my way over to them to see it. They waited...... while I had to jump from rock to rock with a camera in tow.

Then I had to do some of this ...........

 I finally got there and was pretty proud of myself for not falling in the water! ;0) But.... on the way back I lost my balance and my camera was heading toward the water, I caught it......but I fell in the water. One shoe at least... It made for a squishy rest of the day. While my camera was falling and catching it, all my batteries fell out and I lost them in the water. But  a least my camera was safe. Whew that was a close one!!!!

I was standing in front of the cave but you can not tell because of the angle the picture was taken.

Christmas Hats and Gift Sets

I have posted more Christmas Hats and Glove Sets on Cutie Patutuz, so make sure you stop by and check them out. I will be posting more pictures today. I made 12 hats yesterday and I sold  about 1/2 already. If you see some thing you want let me know quickly at karlton5@juno.com.

This Polka Dot and Stripped Hat set is $14 (+ shipping). It comes with a removable Hair Bow. It fits age 1-5 yrs old. This hat is the  perfect accessory to your child's Christmas outfit or the perfect Christmas Gift!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

This picture is not that good but I don't get to many of me and my girlie's. This was taken at an Apple Festival up in the mountains of Waynesville, NC after we had been hiking all day.

Sanctus Real - Lead Me

I heard this song a few months ago and had goose bumps as soon as I heard it! I had to call Karlton and tell him about it as soon as it went off. If you have not heard this song you need to listen to it,even with out watching the video. It is powerful! LOVE THIS SONG!!!! Hope you all enjoy it too!

FFF

Wordless Wednesday- Waterfalls

A Little Of This And That

Sorry guys this post is going to be all over the place. Just thought I would post about some things that we have been up to recently...... So bare with me!

These are some cupcakes that we recently made..... Pumpkin Cupcakes......Mmmmmm! I got the idea from another blog that I read. Actually Josiah mostly made them. He even frosted and decorated them. These were made for the boys Cross Country dinner. I made extra for us to all have one too ;0)

They are very simple to make. Buy a box of classic yellow cake mix, we already had some cream cheese frosting so I did not have to make any.( But I am sure they would be even better if you did.) You will also need a can of Pumpkin. Replace the pumpkin instead of using water. There you have it! They are very moist and easy to make! These would make a great dessert for Thanksgiving Dinner! 

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This week was Super Double Coupons at Harris Teeter. I LOVE Harris Teeter!!!! I Love Super Doubles....I really Love Triple Coupons too but I have not seen that in a long time. I can clean house with triple coupons. I guess a lot of people can too, that is why they have not had them in a while! Anyway back to this week..... I bought $543 worth of groceries for $91.74. That is an 83.5% savings! That means I only paid 16.5%. I know you all can do math....sorry! I am just excited. Now this took me 5 trips to Harris Teeter on 4 different days. You can only use 20 coupons a day per VIC card so that is why it took me so many trips. But I have a buggy full every trip! I have a pretty good start to our Thanksgiving dinner now, minus the turkey.

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I haven't posted about my mileage (running) lately. So I thought I would give you an update.... I know you guys probably don't care, but I love seeing it written down and keeping track of what I have done so far. The last 2 weeks I have finally hit the 20 mile mark! Wooo Hooo! That has been a long time coming. I would / should have been doing this a long time ago but I changed over to training for my 2 races for about 6-7 weeks and wasn't worried about working on my mileage as much. So hear is what I have run in the month of October...

WK 1 - 19.4
WK 2 - 18.7
WK 3 - 18.6
WK 4 - 19.3
WK 5 - 20
WK 6 - 20 (1st WK of Nov.)
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Total = 116 miles

This week I will not meet my 20 miles. I had a stomach virus that took me out a day from running. I know I should be thankful it was only a day! It had me down 2 days but one of those days was my off day. Miss Lilee started out with the stomach thing on Thursday night and then by Saturday morning I had it! Praise Jesus no one else has had it! I am praying really hard that no one else gets it!!!!

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Last but not least can you believe their is only 45 days until Christmas???? Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? I haven't on the kids yet but their big present is easy and only has to be ordered on the Internet! They are all getting the same thing this year. Well.... we all are. They want Season passes to Carowinds this year. It's Lilee's dream to ride on a roller coaster.... since that is all she talks about! So that is what she/they will be getting. I know this is very sad but the girls have never been to an amusement park yet. Sara Ava used to be terrified of anything dressed up so I was waiting for her to grow out of that first and she has. I really want to get them to Disney World since the boys have been many times. We used to take them every year. But, with 5 kids I haven't had the desire or energy yet. But I am working on it ;0) lol!  I thought starting with Carowinds would be a start....  I have some smaller items I still have to get them but nothing major. The family shopping is almost done ! Thank goodness, we have A Lot of family so it takes A Lot of shopping.

I know I posted about my Christmas Gift Sets last post but I am working on a lot of new hats. I am already almost sold out since yesterday but I am taking orders. The picture below is a set I have left... I also have 1 newborn hat left. I am still taking a few tutu order infants up to size 6/7. So let me know if there is anything you want. It flies goes quickly!  You can stop by Cutie Patutuz  to see what I have left. I will be adding more thing soon... so keep checking back.

BTW...... I have no idea what I did to change the style of my letters...but I like it!

My Christmas Sets Are Back!!!

They are going fast! I am working on some more but the ones I do have left you can see over on Cutie Patutuz

These are the perfect compliment to your little one's Christmas Outfit or Winter Coat! They make great Christmas gifts too! I do take special request ....... I am also taking a few more Tutu orders! Don't forget my infant tutu's! They make great gifts or the perfect accessory for Christmas Pictures!

Another Freebie For You

I am excited to tell you about another new sponsor that I just picked up. I think you guys will like this one. I am excited to try this one out, and I think you should too!

Julia Taylor from Digeus sent me an e-mail asking me to write a post about her product for blogger's...Snap It 3.7. It is a very cool program for blogger's like us.

When you write a post on your blog and you need to capture and crop images from different sources this is the tool for you. Why? Here is what the Snap It 3.7 does...........

~ It supports hot keys, auto-saving, clipboard.

~ Automatically copies screen shots to the clipboard.

~ Tracks captured history, auto-saves captured images.

~ Saves files in BMP, GIF, JPEG,PNG, TIFF formats.

~ Auto-names captured images.

Sounds Cool Right????  Wanna try it out? If you write a review on your blog or facebook you can e-mail Julia and send her your link to your post and  let her know you are helping her get the word out about her product and she will give you a full version too! So what it stopping you????? It is easy enough......

Julia's e-mail is julia.taylor@digeus.com

Also if you want to read more about this product you can go here:

http://www.digeus.com/products/snapit/snapit_screen_capture_3_5.html

Let me know what you think!!!!

A 5K In The Eyes Of A 6 Yr. Old

These are pictures that were taken by Sara Ava (our 6 yr. old) from our last 5K, 2 weeks ago. The boys Cross Country Team had a fundraiser called "Run with the Bruins". I entrusted my camera into her small little hands for about 35 minutes and told her to take pictures of all of us as we ran by her and Lilee who stood with the boys Cross Country Wife ( who was actually timing everyone). I didn't know how or if any pictures would  turn out, but they did. I think she did a pretty darn good job! I had my camera on the easy button so that she could just point and shoot. The only bad thing about that is it has a delay and when you are taking pictures of runners, they may be gone by the time the picture is taken. ;0)  So here are my little photographer's pictures.....I have to teach her a couple of things though.....

 like never take pictures facing the sun ;0).....This picture was of Karlton, Joel, Aunt Glenda (who came to walk/run) and myself before the race started. Who knows where the 2 big boys were?

She got a great close up of Jordan, who blew us all away........ She just cut his head off.....but hey when your only 3 1/2 ft. tall......

Here comes Josiah running with some Cross Country girls ;0)

Here I come in my Hot Pink shirt.....lol..... At least the girls knew who I was ;0)  ( I know I look stupid running :0) ! This is why Karlton says I look like a bunny hopping down the road!

Jordan crossing the finish line...... He came in 11th over All 120 people who participated....

Josiah finished 23rd over All......

Karlton ended up beating me in his first 5K (darn).... He never has beat me.... Karlton came in 16th for the men! Pretty good for a first race!!!! So I owed him lunch....

Here I finally come......Lilee ran out to meet me when I had to stop and throw up at the 30 mark on the wall....Nice I know!!!!! I had to throw up twice during that race. It was 36 degrees that morning and my asthma was Horrible with a capital H... I could not get air into my lungs at all!!!! Plus I had a really bad sinus infection.....What does all that equal???? Me throwing up twice, and I almost could not finish the race....But it is just not in me to not finish!! So if I look like I was in pain in those pictures. I was!!!! I came in 6th for the women over all though.... which makes me sooo made because until the 2nd mile when I had to stop to throw up the first time I was in 2nd place (for the women) grrrrrrrrr! Plus I was on Karlton's heals the whole time too. I was going to pass him and blow him out of the water in the end when he was tired, and when I was not because I am used to running more then 3.1 miles. But it did not work out like I planned. Oh well... Can you tell I have a competitive nature! Well I do and it is mainly only with myself! Right on the last leg I was taking it easy until the final stretch and this girl thought she was going to pass me and I was like.... Oh No You Don't!!! So I turned it loose and blew her out of the water.....but that is when I had to stop to throw up for the 2nd time. She ended up beating me by 1 second....Grrrrr. I was trying to be a lady and not let the whole world see me throw up...but if I had to do it over again.... I would skip the being a lady part and have kept going! ;0)





My little Joely (9 yr old) who trained for 2 weeks before the race, came in about 2 minutes after I did! Which I was in shock, because I could never get him to run more then 2.7 miles and he would stop to break and rest while I would finish running. The little booger came in 27th for the men!!! Good job Joely!!! He was suppose to be staying with our friends from church who are new runners. But he beat them both....

Aunt Glenda did really good too! She beat her usual time by about 2 minutes, and Allison my friend from church did better then her usual running time too! Good Job everyone!!! Thanks for helping the boys Fundraiser!



You all stay tuned....... I will be posting about a new Sponsor on Monday!!!!

FFF - God's Amazing Handywork

These compacted pressed leaves were in a stream at one of the waterfalls we went to in the NC mountains. It looks like someone stacked all these leaves perfectly to make a little damn in the stream.

Wordless Wednesday

Halloween Fun

 Saturday was a busy day for us! It started at 6:30 for the big boys. They had to get up and be at school by 7 to leave for Columbia with their Cross Country team, for the State Finals. Jordan ran but Siah had to go to cheer the team runners on. Only the top 7 boys and 7 girls had to run. I felt really bad for them because it was 36 degrees that morning. Jordan said his time was off because of the cold , it made his ears hurt really bad. The girls team came in 3rd for the State! Not sure about the boys team yet.

Then at 9:30 I had a hair apt. What do you think about my new do? It's the shortest I have ever gone!!! I was a little freaked out at first about the back being so short...I love the front!!! Believe it or not I did go running last night and was able to put it in a pony tail. That's all that matters to me ;0)

The boys got back at 11:30, so Karlton had to pick them up at the school, I was not finished with my hair apt. by then. But... I had to be home by noon to pick them (Jordan and Josiah) up and take them to church. They were helping set up our Church's Carnival that day! My boys worked 7 hours that day setting up, running stations, and cleaning up the Carnival! I was told they are really hard workers! They had a lot of fun! It is really sad to me that they are working the Carnival and not dressing up to participate any longer :0(

Next year will be Joel's last year to dress up....if he still wants to. Then I will only have 2 little ones dressing for Halloween!

After we had lunch and the girls took a (or was suppose to take a ) nap. It was time to get them dressed for the Carnival! Hooray! They had been waiting for this all day!.....

Here is my Barbie Princess, Minnie Mouse, and my Ninja.......

The Princess and Minnie in front of their Castle.........

The Ninja was protecting it..........

The girls all ready to go.......

But, first a few more pictures while we waited on daddy....

Then we arrived...... The kids got tattoo's, their face painted, played games, bounced in a bounce house, played on an obstacle bounce course, they scored lots of silly bands and candy! Oh the candy!!!!!!! The big boys were paid in Candy for all their effort! I can assure you they were happy! They said that is the most candy they have ever gotten! With all 5 kids we have enough to last us until next year! ;0) Maybe a week and a half for Josiah anyway...lol

And one last picture...of Lilee with her buddy Abby...

So you can see that we had a really fun day! We carved our pumpkins on Sunday, Halloween. We have been so busy that we just had not had the time... At least they burned one night! Their pictures are below in the next post.......