Mmmm Mardi Gras

One of the best things about Mardi Gras.....King Cakes!

Yes I realize the baby is sitting on top!

It was deliscious!

We have been a couple of years to Mardi Gras in Mobile...I can not find the pictures on my computer though.....and we love it!  It is so fun to see what you get at the parades.  We have seen Halloween and Christmas candy thrown out before.  The Joe Cain parade is fun because the black beads are the coveted prizes.  Renea and I have even been thrown Mardi Gras panties before!  When I say panties I mean the cheap kind that are printed and would fit your baby doll!  What fun!   We really really wish we were going this year but with a wedding coming up we are not going to go and pay for a hotel room at Mardi Gras prices........Happy Mardi Gras!

The Wrapping Paper He Will Never Forget

We all know Men are not into gift wrapping, cute bags with tissue and especially not bows!  In the past the step-brothers have wrapped their gifts with whatever Mary (their mother) has left over.  Well now that one brother is getting married and he has a woman to point out such holiday things you should do so he was sent out to buy their own wrapping paper and get their presents wrapped before he arrived to the house!(she was at her parents since she had to finish up some wedding details)

Said brother is on the right....

So while perusing the tree my Dad points out that Christie has him wrapping gifts and to go check it out.....mmmm ok sure.

One of them is right begind that snowman gift bag.

Notice? Stellar Wrapping Job :)

I will tell you that this paper provided some laughs to other brother in the left of the picture above!  He said he just walked into Wal-Mart and grabbed a roll!  I am pretty sure their is still half a roll left for next year!

(This is in no way, shape, or form to offend anyone)

Christmas Is For Those With Four Legs Too

We treat our pets like our babies so they also get Christmas presents and have stockings! No one role your eyes!

Excited to see what Santa brings!

Twas the night before night before Christmas Eve and Maggie was all snug in her jammies and 4 cats piled on Cas's side of the bed

While visions of pigs ears and cat nip danced in their heads

All the stocking were laid out with care

Cause Santa had been there

On Tillie

On Snittens trying to dig his catnip out

On Snoogans

On Possum

(notice her wrapping paper and bags~they were from the $ section at Tarjay and they had Weenie Dogs on them!!!)

And Maggie!

They ran through the house excited about it all!

Now dash away dash away all!

They sprang through the house with their news toys and treets until the were lost from their sight

They wished everyone a Merry Christmas~now if they would only let us sleep at night!

Good-Bye 2009 and the Whole Decade

As this is probably my last blog for 2009 because I have a lot to blog about and catch up on but frankly I am not going to do it tonight because Cas and I are about to be planted on the couch I just wanted to wish you all a Happy New Year and decade!  I hope you all are enjoying the ones you are with and having a great night!  Cas and I picked up Chinese take out because I have been dying for it and now I am sitting in some pants with elastic in the waste because I ate too much!  We spent part of the day puttting Christmas decorations away and now we are about to relax on the couch and watch some New Year's Eve specials and provided I am not already asleep because I love to sleep and will fall asleep is I sit still for long at midnight we will ring in the new year and decade with some wine and I am sure a ton of the neighbors fireworks that will send Maggie into a nervous breakdown!  Ah then off to bed to prepare for the next 365 days that are for sure to send me into a nervous breakdown!  More on that this week!  I have been in a blogging funk due to "things" but I will be blogging a lot more hopefully!  Hope you all have a happy evening and a blessed 2010!

A Christmas Photo Shoot of Sorts

Last week we had a friend come over and snap a few pictures for us so that I could use one or more on our Christmas card this year.  I just picked them up today......yes a week before Christmas!  Let's not judge others during this Christmas season....K?  Thanks!  Anywho I thought I would share a couple of the out-takes....unedited mind you!  I will post the actual card after they have been sent out!

 

Trying to get Maggie to look in most of them was a chore!  Also, as you can see the color on most of them came out looking terrible!  So off to bed I go to start addressing envelopes! 

A Christmas Funny

It was a romantic full moon when Pedro said, "Hey, mamacita, let's do Weeweechu."

Oh no, not now, let's look at the moon!" , said Rosita.

Oh, c'mon baby, let's you and I do Weeweechu. I love you and it's the perfect time," Pedro begged.

"But I wanna just hold your hand and watch the moon." , replied Rosita.

"Please, corazoncito, just once, do Weeweechu with me."

Rosita looked at Pedro and said, "OK, one time, we'll do Weeweechu."

Pedro grabbed his guitar and they both sang.....

"Weeweechu a Merry Christmas, Weeweechu a Merry Christmas, Weeweechu a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year."

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!

Gold and Green

I finally picked this up today!  I know a Christmas CD a week before Christmas, right?  I don't buy many CD's but I LOVE Sugarland so I had to get it!  I highly reccomend it! Any other Christmas CD's you have to have or reccomend?

My Life~My Trees and My Cookies?

OK Bloggy Buds and Peeps I know I have missed last Friday and currently am missing today for Show Us Your Life at Kelly's Korner because well frankly if I show you my life it will look like a HOT HOLIDAY MESS!  So once I get back from Cas's family Christmas and I get a few things picked up and have some time to upload pictures and make you think my like is peaceful and organized then I shall share the Christmas Love!  I do have some cookies to share with you and a a tree or two or 6 with you.  So Happy Friday and Merry Christmas from a Howard, a Smith, a four legged Princess, two Siamese, a Momma cat and her wild child cat!  Maybe the cats that have taken up outside wish you the same too but frankly it is too cold for me to go ask them so just assume they sent you Cat Christmas Wishes too or Bah Humbug!  Ah let the Christmas Chaos begin!

Five Question Friday

Five Question Friday

1.  Does Santa wrap the presents he leaves at your house?

When I was growing up all my "Santa" presents were left on the fireplace or in a group at my Grandparents house depending on where we were. Santa even brought my presents to the beach one year as my parents decided that would be a good place to spend Christmas?????  We don't have children yet but Santa will leave the presents unwrapped......may we have a fireplace by then!  Dear Santa could you bring me a house with one?!!!

2. When is your "Big" Christmas Celebration?

Well since Cas's family is so big we always have Christmas at his family's a differant weekend so we are actually in the midst of baking, wrapping and packing as I type look I took a 10 minute break okay.  We have an all day family Christmas party at his Granny's on Saturday.  Everyone eats all day and most of the kids go on a Scavenger hunt to get them out of the house.  Then afterwards we will open presents.  It starts with the youngest to the oldest. There will be about 30 (and growing with two babies on the way) people there so you do the math on how long that will take.  Then we will have Christmas at Cas's parents and Sister and Brother-in-Law and their two boys on Sunday.  Then on Christmas Eve morning Cas and I do our Christmas and then we travel to Birmingham to my Dad and his wife's house.  Our big meal and opening presents in on Christmas Day once my two Step-Brothers make it to the house!  I can't wait til one of us has children so we will have some little ones.  Ahh that tires me just typing all of that...

3. Are you big on keeping tradition every year?

Well I would like to but as we have so many Christmas's and we just started our hom last year our Christmas traditions are slowly changing and/or evolving.  Once we have children I will for sure start traditions and try to keep them up!

4. Colored or Clear lights?

Well we have a couple of trees. All of them have clear lights except for the Peanuts/Snoopy Tree and colored lights are more fitting for it!  I think clear lights are more elegant and I love them but then on fun or childrens tree I think colored is cute

5. Do you decorate outside?

Yes.  I have wreaths on the windows and on the door and I have a sleigh with deer and a Santa and the I have two more snowman on and some lit up trees on the other side.  I dont have anything big for the yard. I have been looking for something pretty but have not found anything I like.

Happy Friday

Operation Christmas Child Stories

I meant to share this a few weeks ago but I have not gotten a chance yet.  You all know we participated in Operation Christmas Child for the second time this year!  We went to drop off our two shoe boxes on our way to Birmingham for Thanksgiving.  Our drop off point was a large church in Auburn and I asked the ladies if I could take a few pictures while I was there and they were so nice and said "of course"!  So I wanted to share with ya'll and show you.

These are boxes that are full waiting to be picked up to travel all over the world

 

Checking my two (green boxes) o.k. so they are a little full but she had rubberbands to go around them

My boxes with some  others waiting to loaded up to start their journey to make a child smile

Discard my face!  I just wanted to show you my stickers.  This was early and I did not fix my hair nor apparently had I fixed my face! at this point.  This is real life people and as I blog this I don't have time to edit this photo to make me look better nor do I think there is a program that would help!  This location said that they had recieved over 3,000 boxes on the day before the last day when I dropped off.  Last year they had reacieved over 5,000.  They knew they would be down some because of the economy.  I had blogged before that I am going to collect things as I see them on sale or have coupons for toiletries (you can normally get most free with coupons especially the travel size) through the year that way we will not have to go buy around the holidays.  Hopefully all of you will join in next year!

I also wanted to share this email with you.  My Dad's wife who works for the Board of Education in the county where I went to school sent me this.  This is from the High School I attended.

Chelsea Students Help with Operation Christmas Child Project

A group of 44 National Honor Society members from Chelsea High School, eight parents, and teacher sponsors Carlene Hooper and Nancy Stroup traveled to Atlanta, GA on December 4 to work at the Operation Christmas Child distribution center.  This ministry, began by Franklin Graham, enables thousands of children in some of the world's poorest countries to receive a Christmas box filled with joy and hope.  Over 850,000 shoe boxes prepared by civic clubs, churches, and individuals had been packed for children.

Students processed each box, removing donations made for shipping expenses.  They also removed items that cannot go into certain countries and   replaced those items with other suitable items.  Finally, they helped tape and pack boxes into crates to get them ready to be shipped all over the world.  The Atlanta Distribution is one of six located in the United States.  This was the third annual trip made by Chelsea High School's National Honor Society. 

"It's amazing to think that what we did here today will make such a big difference in a child's life," said student Lauren Swee.

 "Everyone was overwhelmed at the generosity of so many Americans, and, indeed, agreed that they discovered  the true meaning of Christmas in a huge, drafty warehouse in Atlanta," said teacher sponsor Nancy Stroup.

Cas's Mom also said the had a lady in a local church (his Dad is a preacher) come to some of the churches and speak to try to get some involvement from the members for this charity. She had been a recipient of a shoe box when she was young and the thing she was most grateful for was a wash cloth and soap that she received!  Wow things we all use everyday I really hope!  Hopefully this will inspire you ahead f time for next year!  Merry Christmas!

The Bussiest Time of the Year!

Really I still blog!  I swear I do will!  We have just seemed to have become very busy with little things to do during the holiday season!  We had so much to get done for Thanksgiving and it has not stopped  yet!  My great friend Sus even emailed to check to see if we were still alive since she had not seen a blogging obituary on me!  I still have decorations that have not been put out and I keep moving things around and there still is even one tree that is not put up and it is one of my favorites so we shall see if it comes together!  I still have yet to blog any of our Christmas decorations, Thanksgiving or even some of the things we did in the fall!  Ahhh one day bloggy buddies.....one day!  I do have a lot to share I just have to find time to sit and write it!  We had a friend come over and take pictures for us tonight for our Christmas cards.....yeah I realize we are a little late on that too!  We always do Christmas in Macon (where Cas's family lives) a different weekend that actual Christmas and we are having that this weekend.  That is right I have a crap load of presents to wrap AND NONE.....NOT ONE FREAKIN ONE of them is done yet!  Then there is the baking I have to do before we go.  All the women bake or cook like 5+ things to bring to Granny's Christmas so when I get through blogging I have to go and look through some books to finalize what goodies I will be making therefore I shall be going back to the grocery store tomorrow.  We are supposed to be going to a Christmas play tomorrow night too.

Sigh........As Clark Grisswold says......"Tis the Season to be Merry"

Thanksgiving

I have posted and shown my Fall/Thanksgiving decor and shared about Thanksgiving but I am going to post the links to each because I am linking up with The Bunnie's Bungalow and Its So Very Cheri

~My Fall/Thanksgiving Decor Post~

~My Thanksgiving Traditions Post~

Thanks for stopping by!

It's Starting to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Well really it just looks like this right now!

Maybe by December it will look like this!

Yea right I wish!  I wish I had a fire place and mantle.

We started pulling the Christmas decorations out tonight so that I can get started because we will be gone the next two weekends and I want to get it all done.  Cas put ALL the trees together.....umm that would be 4 of them!  A 5th and 6th stay put together because they are small.  We have a live tree in the den so we will make our annual trip to pick that up the first weekend in December!  So yes there is a tree in everyroom!  Whew a lot to do!  Our tree in the den was a GORGEOUS 9!!! foot tree last year.  We had to open both of the back doors to bring it in and still had to cut some of the top off and it still touched the ceiling!  That was a few months after we moved in and we didn't have as much furniture as we do now so I won't get to bring my 9 foot beauty home this year!  Don't worry I will have my sites set on 8 1/2 footer! ;)

P.S. those ugly curtains are gone and I think I am going to try something new with the gold in the tree this year.  It just didn't have enough umph!

Operation Christmas Child

Have any of you ever heard of this or participated?  This program is part of Samaritan's Purse.  It is where you fill a shoe box up for a a child somewhere in the world that otherwise would not receive anything for Christmas, much less anything all year?  I included a video at the bottom that shows the gist of it.  The website will show you much more!  We have participated in this before when our friend Renea was challenged to do this as a project for a college class to receive extra credit.  Yes it helped her but we did it for the fact that a child would get something for Christmas!  We did two boxes a couple of years ago and we will do two boxes this year.  One for a boy and one for a girl!  You decide if you want to do a girl or a boy either ages 2-4, 5-9, or 10-14. Here are the exact guidelines! We have the boxes that Samaritans Purse provided to us but you can use any standard shoe box out of your closet or you can even use a plastic shoe box that you can buy at ant Dollar Store or Wal~Mart.  Some of the things that they say the children love are toothbrushes, toothpaste, and soap~all personal hygiene items.  Things that we walk into our bathroom everyday and use some of these children have never had.  I know you can especially get some of these items close to free with coupons.  They also suggest pencils!  The kids love them!  Any kind of hard candy, toys, maybe even something to wear.  You could spend $10-$15 and have your shoe box full of stuff that would mean so much!  The Dollar Tree and the Target Dollar Section would be great places to find things for your boxes.  I was watching a video on this program earlier and there was a little girl that looked to be 6-7? and she received a doll in her box and she said that "she had prayed to God for a doll and had always wanted one"!  I am pretty sure all of the ladies reading this had numerous dolls growing up.  I know I did.  If you think you would want to participate in this I would encourage you to!  You can go to their link that I posted at the top and you can print of labels for your box and it will tell you everything that is suggested and not suggested for your boxes.  You are also to include $7 to help get it across the world!  Also, on their link you will need to look up a drop off location.  You just give them your zip code and their should be a local place to drop your box off between November 16-23.  I am in no way suggesting that you do not participate in local charities as well.  We have participated in Giving Trees and Toys for Tots in the past as well!  We are on a budget at our house but for $15 we can make a child smile with stuff that we would take for granted!  I hope all of you participate!  If you need to know more or what to do leave me a comment! If you participate in this leave me a comment also!

Show Us Your Life~Thanksgiving Traditions

This week at Kelly's Korner everyone is sharing their Thanksgiving traditions.

Every year we have two seperate Thanksgiving's.  One in Macon, Ga where Cas's family lives.  His Mom and one of his Aunt's(nurses) and Brother-In-Law(cop) all have the same weekends off so it depends on the weekend they have off.  One year we didn't make it because we had Auburn/Alabama tickets!  They have Thanksgiving and Christmas other weekends than the actual holiday since the family is rather large and that way everyone can go to the other side of the family on the holiday.  At Cas's family Thanksgiving we have tons and tons of food.  So much that you will feel full just looking at it.  Everyone is assigned dishes to bring and it is an all day long buffet!  You eat until you look like they Turkey in the Thanksgiving Day parade!  There is one Granny, 5 sisters, their husbands, 11 grandchildren and their spouse/signifigant others, 3 great grandchildren and two more on the way!  That equals lots of people!  There is never less than 30 people in one house.  We take turns eating at the tables.  You must wear your deoderant cause your gonna be close with one another for the day!  I don't have many pictures :( but I do know this picture was taken for us last year.  We had a cousin-in-law do a mini photo shoot for us so I could send out Fall cards with our new address on them!

This was us last year in Macon on his Granny's front porch

Then we go to Birmingham for actual Thanksgiving to spend time with my Dad and his wife.  We have a much smaller crowd there!  2 parents, 3 children (me and my two step-brothers), Cas and my step-brother Tom is getting married so that is one more.  We also have a family friend that joins us so usually we have 6 and now we will have 7!  We all fit around one table in the dining room.  We have the usual turkey, green beans, sweet potatoe casserole, etc.  We also have two types of dressing.  One is a southern dressing and the other is more of a northern dressing.  The guys watch football all day of course.  I like to get up and watch the parade and I start scouting the sale papers for the best deals on Black Friday.  I make my list of where I have to go 1st and what is most important to try to get for fear they may go quickly.

This was us last Thanksgiving in Birmingham

 

Cas setting the table

My Dad cutting the Turkey.....the skin is my favorite part!  I know it is fattening!

 

 This is Calico.....she literally came up to the dining room window while we were having our Thanksgiving meal two years ago.  We were eating and I looked over and there was that extremely scrawny, at the time, kitty sitting in the window out in the cold.  Luckily for her there was turkey leftovers and I with a soft heart for animals!  I snuck her some of the goods!

That is right you go ahead and thank me......."Thank you for convincing those parents of yours to take me in and spoil me...meow meow.......I am sorry for the times I have bitten you and clawed you....I shouldn't do that you fed me and these people gave me a forever home.....meow meow!

This year the Auburn/Alabama game is on Black Friday so Cas will be with the boys and I shall be hunting for deals or window shopping!

This is just a few weeks away!  We are doing Birmingham Thanksgiving and Macon Thanksgiving all the same weekend this year. Lots of driving!

What is your favorite thing about Thanksgiving?  What is your favorite recipe?  I just love some southern sweet potatoe casserole with the brown sugar and or marshmellows!

Happy Halloweenie!

We hope you all had a Happy Halloween!  Here is what Halloween at the Howard-Smith's look like!  A little like a funny farm? Hmm maybe

I just had to do it!

Her sooo cute Halloween dress!

 

Our little pumpkin!

This was already in her wardrobe

 

And because Old Navy had them on sale for $2 and I love Bee things

Tillie says Happy Halloween

So does Snittens

The only holiday he likes is "Snoogan's Day" and since Hallmark has not officially recognized that as a holiday yet he hissed something about Halloween......but I am not sure it was happy

And after alot of scratching and fur flying we finally got this little guy Possum to pose!  You see he is a little skiddish of Halloween after the great incident of Halloween 2008 where his brother (one of the 4 kittens we had during the Summer, two already had homes) we were trying to find a good home for him and I know the home he went to was not suitable since he has probably been dropped from high places and shot at with redneck devices was given away not be me because I thought it was heinous to a trick or treater the only trick or treater we had and he came a night early mind you!  After much a fuss screaming, crying and yelling by me I would hope this little guy knows I won't let anything happen to him!  I have his extremely furry back!  I only wish I was making this up folks!

O.K. maybe a little funny farmish........sigh

Cas's Pumpkin

My Pumpkin
This is the 1st year in a long time we have not carved pumpkins with Jason and Renea :(

And to top it all all this would be Shadow who has so graceously made her home right smack dab in the middle of our front door mat.  She was apparently abandoned and I guess she decided we were the suckers to prey upon.  Wonder why?  She just wants to be loved and fed.  Fed she is and loved also until she starts drooling on you. Ugh!  I do feel sorry for her on cold nights.  I am going to have to come up with a kitty house for her!
O.K. fine we are THE funny farm, but it does make for some good laughs every now and then!
 We didn't do to much today other then run a few errands and I had to go use some great BOGO coupons for cleaning products that were expiring today.  We also went to Sams and enjoyed our lunch of food samples!  Today is our anniversary.  Is today the day we met???  Noooo......but that is a whole other post blog!  We turned down Auburn tickets due to the rain and went to Logan's for dinner and luckily we were finishing up as all of the football fans coming from the game poured into the restaurant!  This evening we had 4 trick or treaters.  Three belong to a co-worker of Cas's and one little girl stopped by.  We don't live in a neighborhood so we don't get much traffic. 

 All this has worn Maggie out!

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!