My awesome $5 find

I found this fabulous little scale on eBay for five bucks. I am so happy with it I just had to share a picture. I have big plans to redo my kitchen, but of course have to wait until out garage is done. This could be a while, but I went ahead and got it anyway. I think it will be perfect for the vision I have in there.

Now I am off to finish scrambling for the holidays!! Hubby's company party is tonight, so we get an adult night tonight. YAY!

~Nicole

Christmas 2009- Home Tour 1

I thought today that I would do a tour of some of my Christmas decor. These are some of the small things we out out, closer to Christmas I will add the tree and outside decor. (Need more time to get a good pic, hehe) We have so much fun with it every year, here goes:

Our stocking are hung by the chimney with care, hehe
We bought this angel as a tree topper our first Christmas, and since then have replaced her with a bow. Could not get rid of her though she is too pretty.We bought these deer stocking hangers as a set before Lucas was born, and I have tried for 3 years now to find another baby deer to add, but we cannot find one. So next year I plan on making the silhouette tile stocking hangers I have seen around the blog world.I purchased the vase at Kirklands for half off last year. It has the lyrics to Silent Night on it. The snowman was a gift.Got the door hanger at Old Time Pottery for a dollar!
My Grammy gave me her village. I absolutely love it. I wish I had a better place to out it besides my baker's rack. Maybe next year.

Taco Soup

We had this last night and it is absolutely delicious!! Just had to share. Very easy and quick too.

Taco Soup:

2 lb. ground beef
2 can rotel tomatoes
2 can white shoepeg corn
2 can black beans
1 jar salsa
1 package taco seasoning

First, brown your ground beef and drain:

Then add 2 cans of Rotel tomatoes:
Then add 2 cans of white shoepeg corn:
Then 2 cans of black beans:

Next add the salsa:
Then just add water and taco seasoning to make soup! Easy as that!Don't forget to make some yummy mexican cornbread to go with:
...and of course dessert:
ENJOY!!!

~Nicole

Real Meaning of Christmas

Let us remember through all the chaos the real meaning of Christmas. I hope everyone has a blessed Christmas!

Praying for The Duggar's

Don't forget to say a prayer for Michelle and new baby Josie Brooklyn Duggar. She was born months early at only 1lb 6 oz. She had the baby on Thursday, December 10 and she was not due until March.

~Nicole

The Gingerbread Shack

Last night we tried something with the boys that neither I nor my husband had ever tried: we made a gingerbread house. We really like to call it the Gingerbread Shack because, well, look at it. It did not turn out like we expected! The important thing is, we had a blast making it. We all sat down and did it together, so we think it is beautiful in it's own little way!

~Nicole

PS~ I just HAD to add this picture as a treat, because the look on Blake's face is priceless!! He would kill me if he knew this was on here! hehe

Life is good....

Tonight I sit here with the kiddo's, watching a Charlie Brown Christmas, and realize: Life is great!

I have 2 healthy, gorgeous boys, a wonderful, hardworking husband, and we have clothes on our backs and a roof over our heads.

God is truly great!

On top of all of that, my husband just told me to order my Christmas gift. Yes, in about 3 business days I will be the proud owner of this baby:It's the netbook I have been bugging him about for the last 3 months. It's purple, my favorite color. I have a great computer now, but like to be in the room with hubby even when he is watching football, so this is the perfect solution for us both! :)

Aren't I a lucky girl??

Have a great night everyone!

~Nicole

Christmas pics of my boys (or my ATTEMPT anyway...)

One thing you will quickly learn about me is that I am very cheap. I have not always been this way, but I like the cheap me better. I used to work full time before I had my now 2 year old, but wanted more than anything to be a stay at home mom. My husband wanted this also, so we made some cut backs and now, here I am, the queen of cheapness!

This year Christmas has been kind of tight, but I absolutely refused to send out a Christmas card without my boys picture on it. Why do I for some reason feel like I owe everyone I send a card to a picture??

I decided to take my own pictures of the kids instead of paying. Here's the kicker, I went ALONE. Just me and my 8 and 2 year old. Between Blake's totally fake smiles, and Lucas' not wanting to cooperate, I only managed to get about 2 good pics out of maybe 60. Here are some of them:

In this, we have lack of cooperation AND the all time favorite: "The Fake Smile"
Now we have cooperation, but fakeness yet again. Why on earth do kids this age do that? My sister used to do the same thing and I remember my mother being livid about it! It was funny, until Blake started doing it!We finally get a real smile, and then the lack of cooperation comes back. (I do love this though, I think it shows personality).
Finally starting to cooperate...

I took some of the both of them alone. Only a couple though, as they were so over it by then.


This sums this kid up:
This one turned out pretty good:The final product:

I love these kids. They are precious, even if they do give me a hard time sometimes! :)

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

~Nicole

The house as it is now.....

Well, I figure if I am going to take this journey of redoing my 5 year old home, I might as well document it with pics. Of course, right? These are all before pictures, keep that in mind. There is nothing wrong with my house, I just want to make it a home. This is going to be a long post, so please, bear with me. Here goes:

This is what our house looked like (the only pic I can find is a snow one):
We decided we were going to close in our garage. It's pretty deep, so we could get at least 4 good rooms out of it. We want to have another baby in about a year or so, so we need the room. We will make a "man cave", an office/craft room for me, a playroom for the boys, and a mud room which I have ALWAYS wanted!! This is hubby closing in the garage:
In case you were wondering, my house looked like Whitetrashville, USA for about a month or two. We had the hardest time finding the siding that would match, thus resulting in (yep, you guessed it), plywood siding! You're jealous, I can tell!. We tried everything we could think of and one day, by sheer luck, I walked into Lowes and saw it. The angels sang Hallelujah and they glowed just in case you were wondering. My entire month was made!

Now we have siding, but we still have to put up the shutters and paint the door to match. I think we are going to be bold and paint all the shutters and doors black though. I think it would look better than the red they are now.

Here is my hubby's fabulous siding job:I plan on adding some iron art between the window and door. I have one in my kitchen that would be perfect if painted black. :)

Now for the inside. This is going to be my office:

Now for the playroom:

My mud room:I don't currently have a picture of hubby's man room. That's the main reason he is doing this I think. hehe.

That was just the garage. I also want to redo the rest of the house, but I am going to be patient and wait until we are done with the garage first! Maybe I will post some pictures of the rest of the house in a seperate post.

You guys have a great Monday!!

Nicole

Something you should know about me....

This pretty much sums it up.

The Journey Begins.....

Well, here we go! The journey begins.

I am starting this blog having absolutely NO blogging experience whatsoever. So please, bear with me!

My name is Nicole. I am a 23-year-old stay at home mommy and wife. My husband is Cagney, and yes, you guessed it: he is the most wonderful husband in the world! We have been married since September 3, 2005. Cagney has a son named Blake. He lives with us full time, and I have always thought he was practically mine too! In March of 2007, we had a baby boy and named him Lucas. He is my pride and joy and my entire life! We reside in Georgia and love being in the south, as we were both born and raised here!

Introducing my family:


I absolutely love my life and would not change a thing about it! God has blessed me immensely and I am so thankful for that!

The point of this entire process, is to be more organized, make my house a home, and be the best stay at home wife and mommy I know how to be. I figure this will help me to hold myself accountable. I want to be frugal, share tips, gain advice..... maybe I am jumping a little ahead of myself here?

Nevertheless, here I am and here we go! :)