Smile.ly—Be Heard. Be Happy.

Smile.ly—Be Heard. Be Happy.

Christmas on Fort Gordon

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

This year we were lucky enough to have two extra helpers the day after Thanksgiving to decorate. Meghan moved down a few months ago and Grandma Pat (Jeremy's mom) was here visiting us and our new baby, Micah. So far the kids have left the tree alone. (Knock on wood!!) I was afraid Lauren would want to play with all of the ornaments. But she looks but doesn't touch. Leah thinks it is very beautiful. Lauren didn't quite get the whole decorating thing. Every ornament that I handed to her to put on the tree she would say "mine!". She was so excited we let her touch them and then she had to put them on the tree? No way! LOL! It was a fun day!

And the winner is.....

Congrats Amanda for winning the $25 American Express card! Keep watching for future giveaways!

Family update

So it has been crazy around here! Sorry all I have posted is ads the last few months!! Okay, so we have moved to a bigger MUCH nicer house. Meghan moved down to Georgia. Micah was born! My mom, my friend Rebecca and her husband and my mother in law Pat came down to visit. I haven't had a lot of time to post. But I will post a couple pictures of the family and such.

Hellmann's Real Holiday Helpings

You all should check out Hellmann's web site right now! http://www.hellmanns.com/promotions/holidayhelpings/# They have a great giveaway!! You could win free groceries for a WHOLE YEAR! Plus they have awesome recipes. One of my favorites for the holidays and really all year round is the spinach artichoke dip.

DELUXE ARTICHOKE DIP

Makes: 5-1/2 cups
Prep Time: 20 Minute(s)
Cook Time: 35 Minute(s)



Ingredients:
1 cup coarsely torn fresh bread crumbs
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (about 4 oz.)
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh parsley
1 cup Hellmann's® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise
1 container (8 oz.) sour cream
1 can (14 oz.) artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1 jar (12 oz.) marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 Tbsp. olive oil



Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350°.
Combine bread crumbs, 1/4 cup cheese and parsley in small bowl; set aside.
Combine Hellmann's® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise, sour cream, remaining 3/4 cup cheese, artichokes and garlic in medium bowl. Evenly spread artichoke mixture in 9-inch pie plate; top with bread crumb mixture, then drizzle with olive oil.
Bake uncovered 35 minutes or until heated through. Serve with your favorite dippers.
Also terrific with Hellmann's or Best Foods Canola Cholesterol Free or Light Mayonnaise.

Happy Holidays and have fun trying some of the recipes!

Oh-also leave me a comment to win a free $25 American Express card!! I will draw a name after midnight tonight!

I was picked to review an awesome album with One2One Network. It is Harry Connick Jr.'s new album "Your Songs". I was very impressed. I haven't heard a lot of his music in the past. But I will definately keep an eye out for future albums now. This cd was something I could put in the player for a romantic evening with my husband to enjoy dinner and dancing. It is very mellow and I really enjoyed his version of some of the songs.

Album Tracklisting (Originally performed by):
All The Way (Frank Sinatra)
Just The Way You Are (Billy Joel)
Can’t Help Falling In Love With You (Elvis Presley)
And I Love Her (The Beatles)
(They Long To Be) Close To You (The Carpenters)
Besame Mucho
The Way You Look Tonight
First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (Roberta Flack)
Your Song (Elton John)
Some Enchanted Evening
And I Love You So (Don McLean)
Who Can I Turn To? (Tony Bennett)
Smile (Charlie Chaplin)
Mona Lisa (Nat King Cole)

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Help Us Help Them!

HELP US HELP THEM
Frigidaire and Jennifer Garner are proud to support Save the Children's CHANGE program, dedicated to providing nutritious snacks and promoting healthier lifestyles for children living in poverty in the United States. For every pledge made, Frigidaire will donate $11 to support CHANGE and Save the Children's work to help children in need in the U.S., as part of their $250,000 commitment to this worthy cause. Also as part of that commitment, for every new Frigidaire Professional double wall oven purchased, Frigidaire will donate $1002 to
Save the Children's U.S. Programs


http://make-time-for-change.com/

Pledge to Win!!

WIN a WASHER AND DRYER!!

Throughout September, you can donate $5 to the cause by texting "KELLY" to 85944 from your mobile phones (standard text messaging rates apply) - or logging on to
www.kelly-confidential.com. Also, every time you log on to the Web site, you'll be entered for a chance to win an amazing contribution to your home - a luxury front load washer and dryer from Electrolux in Turquoise Sky, the color inspired by the teal ribbon of ovarian cancer awareness.

Also during September, visitors to Kelly Confidential can help spread awareness for this important cause by sending a virtual T-shirt to a friend. For every virtual t-shirt sent, Electrolux will donate $1 to the OCRF. Fashion-forward Moms can also purchase a limited edition T-shirt designed by Ripa; 100% of the proceeds from the sale of the T-shirts will go to OCRF.

The Ants go marching one by one..hoorah. hoorah.

So we moved into the new house on Saturday. We have had a few issues. One of the boggest is ANTS! We have an infestation of the things. I absolutely love the place. But the ants are definately making life miserable. Leah is terrified of them. I told her to wear her shoes around and make sure she isnt' getting any crumbs on the floor when she is eating. Well, let me start by telling you all about the mice.

When we were in Michigan we stayed at my Grandpa's vacant house. He has a very old house and being left empty, the mice started coming inside. Well, my mom and I were talking about it one morning. Leah happened to overhear. It was NOT pretty! She sobbed and sobbed and said she wanted the mice to go to their home! LOL! She was so scared. We couldn't even say the word around her for the longest time. Of course my kid is a little OCD. Now her thing is the ants. She doesn't even want to walk around the house at all because she is afraid of the ants. She wants to stay on the living room couch. I guess she thinks ants can't get her there. Little does she know....they CAN! lol! I am just praying that the exterminator comes today and doesn't wait until Friday. They usually only come on Tuesdays and Fridays and I have an appointment for Friday. But, I called them today to ask if her could come today because it is really bad. Plus, I am stuck in the house all day today anyway because we have about 50 maintenence issues to get fixed. This is my list of fix-its for them.
1. garage door wall mount doesn't work
2. flooring coming up in a corner of the kitchen because of previous water damage
3. water leaking in garage from crack in the wall
4. short in the light at the top of the stairs-takes about 5 times to turn it on
5. weird looking worms keep appearing
6. broken mini blind in living room

I think that is it for my issues. One of the things about base housing is that you have to let them know of every little tiny issue when you first move in because otherwise they will try to charge you when you move out. We have one week exactly until we hand in the keys to the old place. I am a little nervous about that. When we moved out of our place in Texas it was spotless. BUT, they still managed to charge us $50 to clean out our already sparkling oven. I hope the move in check list is good enough to get us out of paying anything. A friend of mine was going to be charged the $250 "clean team" charge for her move out. Luckily she had taken pictures when they moved in and had those to prove how it looked when they moved in. When we moved into the old place I swear they did NOT clean it at all. I know they didn't paint. The stove was filthy. It was bad. There was a stream of water in the downstairs hall with a dead cockroach laying belly up when we walked in for our initial walk through. It was really really bad. So I wrote every detail down. I still have a copy too. I am so happy to be in this place now. :) I am really going to miss our awesome neighbors. But they are right down the road.

Thermometer Giveaway

Well, the winner is.....Lindy! Congrats! I will get it to you very soon.

Moving!

Well, we are moving yet again. We applied for bigger post housing way back in February when we found out we were expecting our third baby. I got the call two weeks ago to let us know we can come get our keys on September 2nd. YAY! We have to hand in the old house keys on the 16th. That gives me two weeks to get everything over to the new house and to clean the old place. I am a little sad to be moving though. Our neighbors here are awesome and the kids all play together so well. But, the new place is SO much bigger! We are going from 1250 sq. ft. to 2011 sq. ft. Plus we will have a garage, a fenced in garage and a HUGE walk in closet in our room and a full master bath. Ahhhhh....yes I can't wait. It is just in time too. I can't wait to get settled in and get ready for the baby! I just realized that I haven't put pictures on here in AGES! I will post later and put new pictures up.

Jeremy has been making fantastic progress with his weight! He lost 8 pounds last month and 7 pounds this month. I think that if he continues that, we will be calling him Sergeant soon! He looks really good. I have to be very careful with what I am cooking and what I have for snacks here. Being 8 months pregnant, this is sometimes a very difficult task.

My girls are getting so big! Leah started 3 year old preschool a couple weeks back and she LOVES it. She tells Lauren and I all about it when we pick her up after school. Lauren hangs on every word too. Lauren and I have really been enjoying the alone time together. She is such a funny little thing. Not that I ignore her when Leah is around, but it is fun to really see her personality shining when Leah is at school. She is a jokester. She likes to make really funny faces. But she gets embarrassed if anyone but Mommy sees her. Leah is VERY excited to have her baby brother. She keeps asking me "Mommy, is Micah going to come in 2 days?". She is always disappointed when I tell her no that it will be longer than that. Both of the girls really love babies, so I am hpoing it isn't too hard for them when Micah does make his arrival. We were so worried about Leah acting up when Lauren was born. But she loved her baby sister and thought she was the sweetest baby you ever did see. So, I am hoping that it goes as well this time.

I have decided that I don't want to have any more babies. It may be the third trimester talking. But I am pretty sure that this baby is it for us. We aren't going to do anything super permanent because we could change our monds down the road. But, I am about 99.9% positive that this is it for us. I have been pregnant and/or nursing since January of 2006....with NO breaks! So, I am really ready to have my body back. I love my babies and I just plain love babies. But, this is it. I always wondered how you could be sure about your last one. Now I know how. You just know when you are having your last one. I am a little sad. I love being pregnant and I love sweet newborn skin and watching them grow. But I am ready to raise them up now. I am ready to get my body to where I want it to be. I can't wait until my kids are school age! (Well, I can....but it sounds so good some days!) I am ready to not change any more poopy diapers!! I just have the feeling that now our little (well not so little anymore) family is complete. I have two beautiful girls and now am having my son. A few years ago I would have thought that was impossible. Our fertility doctors said that wouldn't happen to us. They said my tubes were bad and I wouldn't get pregnant on my own. Well, God had a different plan for us! He blessed us with three in three years!! WOW!

My FIRST Giveaway!!!

I am very excited to share a product with one lucky winner. I received a Reli-On brand Temple Touch Thermometer in the mail the other day to share with one of my readers. lol. I don't have very many. SO...if anyone posts a comment I will put your name in the hat to win it!

Here is a link to the website so you can check it out! http://www.relion.com/coughcold/temple_thermometry-product-99.htm

Good Luck!

The Heart Knows Sweepstakes

The Heart Knows Sweepstakes

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Are we done???

Well, as you may know by now...we are having a baby BOY!!! We have decided on a name (for now). I say for now because it could very well change before he gets here. The name we have picked is Micah Joseph. I was in some serious SHOCK when the ultrasound lady told us we are expecting a little boy. I thought for sure this one would be another girl. NOW, the big question is....Are we done? Are we done having babies after this little guy gets here? I feel a little sad about it. But I think I might be done. I always wanted to have four kids. But we didn't think God was going to give us one. Now we are blessed with THREE! Two girls and a boy....is it time to quit? I feel now a week after the ultrasound that my family is complete. Everyone kept asking "Are you hoping for a boy?" and "Are you done after this one, if it is a boy?". I really want to get rid of stuff. I have been holding on to every stitch of clothing my girls have ever worn just in case we had another girl one day. Should I just get rid of it all and if someday we decide we want to go one more round, buy new stuff? The cheap, cheap, CHEAP part of me says "save it! What if!". The practical side of me is saying "Sell it and buy some blue stuff." What should I do?? There is a church yard sale coming up on July 18th. I need to decide before then.

Mother's Day weekend

My Mother's Day present was that Jeremy helped me put in a little flower bed along the walkway in front of our house. It turned out really pretty. Leah loved helping!! He also got me a great hanging basket for the front that I put some pretty flowers in and another hanging plant for the backyard. The one in the back is on my double shepherd's hook with the bird feeder. It has purple petunias in it. It is so nice to have a few flowers to look at now! I had such a nice Mother's Day this year. We went to a German restaurant after church that is WAY over priced for lunch. It was pretty good though. Then we hung out at home for the rest of the day. Leah kept saying "Happy Mother's Day, Mom! I love you!" It was the best. Lauren gave me extra hugs too.





We went to a little park the other day to eat our lunch and we got some cute pics of the girls. They were doing pull ups. :)






Here are a couple pictures from Jeremy's last softball game. The girls had so much fun! Leah is a stinker though. After Jeremy got out once she ran over to him and said "pewee Daddy! You stink!" hahaha He thought that was pretty funny!