December 2013 | Page 3 of 3 | Midwestern At Heart

Review Extravaganza – January thru March 2013

First off, let’s wish my momma a very Happy Birthday!!!

Wow, it seems like ages ago that it was January 2013! But sure enough, we’re at the end of the year and it’s time to do our Review Extravaganza!

All you need to do is write your post, link up and you’re on your way to winning wonderful prizes. Plus this is a GREAT way to recap your year for all your new readers! Two birds with one stone! For a complete set of prizes/sponsors please click here. Once you link up your first review, the rafflecopter form will open up. You have all month to go through the list of likes in the rafflecopter.

If you have any problems or questions, please let me know!

Now, let the Extravaganza, begin!

January
As with every year, we start off the month and the year with Tbug’s birthday. This year I gave Tbug an interview. I can’t wait until 2014 to compare her answers!

The start of every year I do a previous picture collage of hubby and my life together. We’re at 3 1/2 years together as of January 2013.

Not that I didn’t already know, but hubby gave me his heart.

We tried scuba diving for the first time at a Try it Tuesday.

I need to do another Day in the life of because my life has totally taken a different turn this year and curve balls are still flying at me!

Snoring is always a big conversation at my house.

Audrey had puppies. Not planned and not expected but they sure were cute while they were here. We found them all good homes.

Some more fun getting to know me….

Gun practice took over Sunday Night Dinners for a while.

February
Friday Night Dinner Conversations… Enough said.

Princess Rio came to live with us at 12 weeks old!

Hubby and I may or may not have issues getting dressed…. I promise this is G rated!

We celebrated my grandma’s birthday with Red Lobster even though she’s been gone since 2007.

I made a King Cake to celebrate Mardi Gras

Because of Moo and AL we all learned about Gluten Free this year.

We were able to get Tbug to a Try it Tuesday as well.

Grandma gave Earl, Moo and me cooking lessons.

I might have compared Marriage to your Engagement….

Moo and Zebra Girl came over one day to cook with Tbug.

March
Gotta love that CRAZY MO Weather.

OMG, the EASIEST and FASTEST cake EVER!

Hubby, Tbug and I made a random trip to KC for a Saturday. Sooo Much FUN! We even went to the Farmer’s Market and Tbug enjoyed it!

I started on the Revolt System.

Little Pi came into our lives on 3.14

We 6S’ed our house pantry.

I did my twice yearly Where Am I Post.

We went to the Baugh party.

Zebra Girls birthday!!

Tbug got a welding lesson from her daddy.

We rounded out the month with Easter. This year the holidays have fell so weird it feels like :).

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10 Things to Smile about November

I really meant to play along yesterday, but I just was so excited to share the surprise that I had to put this post off until today.

I’m linking up with Emmymom for her 10 things to smile about mem.

1. My favorite thing to kick November off is celebrating hubby’s birthday! I love my husband immensely and so it’s always great to enjoy and celebrate his birthday and the whole reason he’s in my life! And you should totally check out his hubbyisms that catch us all up :).

2. Veteran’s Day and the fact that Moo’s school was honoring and celebrating those who have served this great country. Thank you veterans and your families for the sacrifices you’ve made so we can live freely!

3. Princess Rio being the awesome guard dog that she is.

4. Participating in the Chili Cookoff to raise money for the Newton County Children’s Christmas fund. It was also fabulous that Tbug’s chili placed higher than her daddy’s which was her goal.

5. Opening Day of Deer Season and hubby’s awesome story. I actually went out with him the next weekend but we didn’t have any luck sadly.

6. Spending time with hubby and watching Christmas movies. Yes, we were watching Christmas movies in November… It happens!

7. Proving to myself that I do know all 50 states, even though I also proved I can’t quite draw and I got a few states out of order… but in the right general vicinity.

8. Being invited to participate in the Review Extravaganza that is taking place starting this Thursday! Get your posts ready to go because there are over $600 in prizes to be won!

9. A nice get away weekend with hubby and Tbug to Branson and the Showboat Branson Belle.

10. Spending Thanksgiving with my family!

Um…. I think I want to be a rebel and add 11…. yup!

11. So number 11 was getting to see this little Peanut. We heard it’s heart beat, we watched it’s heart beat. It made it seem so real and surreal. We did this the Wednesday morning before Thanksgiving. {If you look below, I have some of the back up links posted. I posted them on the actual dates}

I’m slowly getting pictures added to my back posts about this pregnancy. Here’s what I have so far:
Awkward Moments
Week 1??
Week 2
Week 3
Telling our Families
Week 4
Week 5

Deck the Halls {And a Surprise, don’t miss it}

At our house, our Christmas tree is kind of like a living Christmas tree. I don’t mean we have a real tree because we don’t. And D the Man told me that fake tree fake presents, but we have a fake tree, and real presents. Just saying.

No what I mean is we collect ornaments every year that actually represent our lives/family every year. Trips, big monument things, etc. Sadly I think our tree is 6′ and we almost have it full. There are a few ornaments from when I was younger that I could take off if I needed to, but I don’t want to… so for now they stay :). Maybe one year we’ll have to have 2 trees but I’m not sure where we’ll put them.

Now in my kitchen up toward the ceiling I have these rack things. They were there when we moved in, I just repainted them, but still, when we buy ornaments I actually place them up on these hooks so that come Christmas I remember what I did with them. That’s what works for us. Sometimes we misplace things otherwise :(.

(more…)

Thanksgiving {in one post}

Okay, one post. Let’s get this show on the road. We’re going to do Thanksgiving in 1 post which will make it photo heavy so get your eyes ready, your coffee brewed and whatever else you do! This year’s Thanksgiving we headed down south. My aunt and uncle live in southern Oklahoma and the NCHA Futurity is going on in Ft. Worth. A guy that works for UB had a horse in the futurity show on Thursday morning so UB woke up at 4am and headed to Ft. Worth. He said he’d work his horse and help Shane and then he’d be home so we planned our Thanksgiving meal around that time frame.

Hubby and I were in charge of the turkey. Tbug helped AC with some of the appetizers and sides. I jumped in and helped as well because we all know I love to cook. But mostly I stood around and took pictures and drove my aunt nuts… haha. I guess she didn’t know I’ve gotten into taking pictures of everything. We had a very leisurely morning, appetizers for lunch and ate dinner around 4pm.

I guess now we’ll allow the photos to do their own talking, except I’ll help now and again :).

Don’t worry, I chopped the ‘shrooms after Tbug washed them.

We had eggs and bacon for breakfast Thursday morning.

One thing that I absolutely love is watching the Thanksgiving Parade. Usually I don’t get the chance so it was exciting to see Santa Claus bringing an end to the parade. Let the Christmas season come!

Dad was able to watch all the runs going on at the Futurity because I set my laptop up and he watched the live feed.

Appetizer lunches are the best.

Don’t show AC, she’ll disown me but it was soooo cute.

Happy Thanksgiving!

After we ate dinner we went to help AC set up her Christmas tree.

Tbug kept picking on me and I told her I’d sit on her. She didn’t think I’d do it so I showed her.

One of my favorite comments of the night… This tree has to be like 10-20 feet taller than me. Holy cow! I’ll have you know the tree is 12′ tall. But it totally cracked me up.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and let the Christmas season commence.