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Holiday Dinner with Friends and Family

Tonight Adeline and I went to a Friends & Family Holiday Dinner! It was so great to see some people I hadn't seen for awhile and it was great for Adeline to get to play with her cousin Lucy who is close in age (8 Months). It's always great to see familiar faces around the holidays and relive the past holidays. It's also a time that you miss the family that is no longer here with us or couldn't make it.

Last year we didn't get to celebrate the holidays (Thanksgiving through Christmas) very much due to Miss Adeline being so new & young. So this year I am extremely excited to celebrate. Tomorrow we are getting Christmas pictures done, heading to a friends birthday party, then coming home to finally decorate! I've been dying to decorate all week but Alan has been busy working for UPS - those guys work hard and Alan is exhausted when he gets home!

I didn't get any pictures of the adults at the dinner party, just the babies! The pictures didn't turn out so great due to the low lighting of the room we were in and the fact that these babies couldn't stay still! While we were there we had a few spur of the moment pictures taken by Mary (Merry Studios), so I can not wait to see them!

Scott and Adeline playing before we went

Pop Sugar Review - November 2012

This was my second month with Pop Sugar. The items in the boxes are great, but don't appeal to me specifically. I'm sticking around for December in hopes of something great, but if nothing appeals to me thus again I may be cancelling my subscription. Just no point getting items I'll never use, and I don't give gifts very often so no point holding on to items for gifts either. Yes Christmas is coming up...but I only have a few people to buy for (thankfully). There are a couple items that may be going to someone on my Christmas List this year.

So on to what I received:

Must Have Fashion - Gorjana Parker Bracelet - Retails for $55. This is a super cute bracelet and I tried it on as soon as I opened the box! Disappointly though you can only wear this bracelet if you are skin and bones I guess. I am a petite person with small wrists and I couldn't wear this comfortably. So sad as it is cute! To get your own - Gorjana

Must Have Beauty - Mor Lip Macarons - Retails for $10. Love it. Smells great and goes on great. I will definitely be using this up. To get your own - Mor Cosmetics

Must Have Home - Snow & Graham Thank you Notes - Retails for $15. Cute, but don't seem very special for the cost. I'll be using these at some point I'm sure. To get your own - Snow & Graham

Must Have Food - La Boite Spice Mixes - Retails for $24.  I do not cook much so these will be a gift for my Mom for Christmas. Sound really neat and can't wait to try some food with these spices in it! To get your own - La Boite

Must Have Food - Stonewall Kitchen Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut Mix - Retails for $10. I really really want to make these! I love to bake. However I do not want to spend $13 on a doughnut pan. Trying to find a friend to let me borrow theirs! To get your own - Stonewall Kitchen

Must Have Fitness - Mandy Ingber's Yogalosophy DVD - Retails for $15. I don't do Yoga and don't plan on it. I'm sure someone will want this DVD! To get your own - Gaiam

Special Extras:
StyleMint - 1 free credit. Supposedly worth $30, but I really hate to give someone my credit card number to get something for free so I haven't tried it yet.

CanvasPop - $30 gift certificate - however if you really want a canvas they cost more than $30, so you still have to spend money to use this. Saving it until after I get Adeline's pictures taken this weekend, so may be ordering then.

So if you think Pop Sugar Must Have is right up your alley - sign up!

Disclosure: You sign up and I get credit towards free months.

Happy Thanksgiving

This is Adeline's first year getting to celebrate Thanksgiving. Last year she was only a week old so we stayed home.

Here is a picture from Thanksgiving last year, and one from this morning. Amazing how fast they grow up!

Citrus Lane - November Box Review for 12 month Baby

This is our second month with Citrus Lane. The theme for the month was Fun With Food and all of the items definitely matched that theme. All of the items will be used, just wish there was another toy.

Plan Toys Fish Castanets - Set of Two - $10.00 - Noise makers, received two and they are cute - but could have used just one.

Green Eats Set of Four Snack Bowls - $6.99 - These will really come in handy, and better quality than some other brands you find in stores.

Goodbyn Small Meals - $6.49 - Nice container to put in two different type of snacks/meals you don't want mixing. This should fit in my diaper bag pretty well. Unsure if they will leak if liquids are put in them though - not a real good seal.

Plum Organics Training Meals - Oatmeal - $1.49 - We'll try this, but seems pretty runny.

Juice Beauty Nutrient Moisturizer - $9.00 - for Mom - I'll try this as soon as I run out of my usual.

Then you received a 20% off code plus Free Shipping to Tiny Prints. Which to me isn't included in the value of the box as you have to spend money to use it!

Total: Approx. $34 - depending on where you shop of course! And you pay $25 - which appears to be a good value. However other boxes I get have a better cost/value ratio. Really think Citrus Lane could step it up to provide a higher value box for their loyal costumers.

Disclosure: This post contains Affiliate Links - you click and purchase, I get credit. Thanks!

Adeline is 1yr old!

I cannot believe Adeline is a year old today! We celebrated her birthday on Saturday, November 17th - which is fitting as it is the day I went into the hospital a year ago to be induced! I was induced on the 17th, and she was born almost 48 hours later on the 19th at 3:04pm!

I decided to go with a Care Bear Theme for her party. Adeline hasn't yet showed preference for certain toys, so I just picked what worked for me! I already had a bunch of care bears and we'd been reading care bear books for awhile.

I found Nestling Designs on ETSY and she had a blog post on her own Care Bear Party - go check it out. She has several different party packages as well available in her ETSY shop. I went this route since Care Bear stuff isn't widely available right now, it was a little expensive (at least more than I wanted to pay) since I had to get everything printed somewehre. I don't have a decent printer. But I also think going with a print-your-own party package that you can do it with better quality and if you have a really big party then it would be cheaper. We just had a small party.

The dessert and gift table. I made rainbow cupcakes and her small cake was rainbow too. I didn't get any pictures of the cupcakes - but here is where I got the directions.

Who knew crepe paper wouldn't adhere to PERMANENT tape? These things drove me crazy.

The Food! We had little BBQ Weiners, Ham/Cheese sandwhichs, Chips & Dip, Chipped Beef Cheese Ball, Fruit, and Veggies. I also had punch, tea, and water (using the cute water bottle covers in the party package - no pic though)

Our little family before the party.

Adeline loves her bus (not a birthday present)! Putting on a show for everyone.

Adeline's Uncle Scott - yes ladies, he is single. Better catch this one fast...

Play time for the kiddos.

Adeline and Clifton

Clifton, Lucy, Rory, and Adeline - all within 6 months of each other.

Cake time

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Adeline, Happy Birthday to you!

Not very excited! haha

She wouldn't eat it, so I ate some of her fingers so she would see she could eat it.

Ended up on my nose and face

Not a happy camper!

At least Clifton enjoyed the cupcake!