Hartville

It's becoming a family tradition to travel out to Hartville every December. For those of you that don't know what's out there or what it is, it's basically a Amish market and restaurant. There are thousands of vendors, knickknacks, homemade clothes, food, candy, pretty much anything you could imagine! It defiantly takes an entire day to walk through. After the long day of shopping we always go over to the Hartville Kitchen. It's as down home cooking as you can get!
This year Aunt Diane, Uncle Ted and cousins Brittany and Jessica joined us as well. Unfortunately Chris had guard this weekend and missed out. So yesterday was another great day spent with the family.

Jen and I stopping for a pose!

Bella enjoying a sucker

Doesn't Bella have enough stuff?!

Kevin....need I say more, LOL! :-)

Dad and Uncle Ted taking a break from shopping

Awww....Bella giving Papa a kiss!

Aunt Dee Dee and Bella

Mom, can I get one of these?! :-)

What a great looking family!!

Girls Only.....

With me having the day off of work today (it was great by the way), Jennifer, Bella, my mom, and myself all enjoyed a 'girls day out'! We all went out to Summit Mall to do a little Christmas shopping and of course pick out a few things for ourselves along the way. We enjoyed lunch at the food court and even cookies and brownies from the Cookie Store! We also ventured to a home decor shop and Old Navy (where we had some good savings). Another long day of shopping....don't you love the holidays?!

It was an all around great day and I got to spend it with 3 of the most important people to me. Thanks Jen, Bella, and mom for a great day off of work. Hope it's not too long till we can do it again! Love you all so much......

Busy Weekend!

This weekend was super busy for me. I got so much accomplished, I wish every weekend was a 4 day weekend! :-) Not only did I celebrate Thanksgiving with my family and hit the crowded stores on Friday with my mom, I also got a few more things done. Saturday started yet another....busy day. My parents came over to lend a hand at a few jobs around the house. Even though Chris and I have lived here for a little over a year now, all my pictures and things in the hallway have never got put up. Most of that is my fault because I was really slow at getting our wedding pictures enlarged and framed! Another thing that never got done was our curtains. Yes, we've lived here for over a year with just blinds in our living room!
So while Chris and dad did a few small things, mom and I hit the stores yet again for curtains, hooks, and rods. Thanks mom and dad for my early Christmas present! Once we got home we started on the hallway. We got about half way with the hallway and the curtains and that was about the end of our evening. I, on the other hand stayed up till 12:45 and did some Christmas decorating.

This morning, I got up and started all over again. I finished all of our Christmas decorating (at least inside, outside will be next weekend)! Mom came back over to help me finish the curtains and the hallway. Everything turned out so nice, I'm still getting use to it all. You go a whole year without this stuff, looks kind of weird to me...but I love it. Thank you SO much to both mom and dad once again for lending a hand. I couldn't have done it without you. You guys are the best! :-)

So during my long weekend, I celebrated Thanksgiving, got more Christmas shopping accomplished, decorated our whole house for Christmas, put up curtains in the living room, hung pictures throughout our hallway, cleaned, and did laundry. WHEW, just typing all of that made me tired! :-)
Hope you enjoy the pictures!

P.S. Chris came home today from work with beautiful flowers for me....and he didn't even do anything wrong! :-) It was such a wonderful surprise. Thanks Bay, I love you!

Hallway

Living Room

Hallway window

Chris helping separate branches

My beautiful flowers!

And now for the finished product.....

Living room

Fireplace-Living room

Dining room

Going up the stairs

From top of stairs

Black Friday!

Today is a day I love! For some, it's a day to relax at home on their day off of work, others may decorate for Christmas, me, I go SHOPPING! :-) HaHa, I know, you're all thinking I'm crazy! Who would want to go out in that traffic, deal with those crowds, and stand in line forever? LOL, I would!
It all started a couple of years ago. My mom and I decided to go out one year really early, I'm talking 5am! I had SO much fun. I not only got some great deals, but I got to spend 'girl' time with my mom. So, every year since, I like to go out. Well this year, I got mom to come out again!
For me, it all started at about 7am. I decided to hit the mall first. Really I only wanted to go to Old Navy. I'm a frequent shopper of Old Navy and get a lot of coupons from them. So with $85 in coupons, I went shopping. Not only did I find great deals, I also got a few things taken off my Christmas list and even bought myself a few things along the way! Walking out and saving a $118, who can beat that?! I hit a couple more small stops and then it was off to Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart didn't have as many good deals, but I never walk out of Wal-Mart empty handed....a couple more things off my list!
By this time it's about 10am and I'm on my way to pick up mom. Once mom was along for the journey, the real shopping started! Our first stop, Kohl's. HOLY COW, it was a mad house!! The line literally wrapped completely around the store. Both mom and I found some great deals, more gifts and even a present for ourselves. Now it was time to get in that line. From start to finish and waiting in shifts while the other walked around for more deals, we were in line for about 50 minutes!
Off to Target we went. We didn't do so well here, they weren't having a great sale...at least not by the time we got there. But mom got a few gifts for people and for once I can say I walked away with spending no money! Our last stop was Bed, Bath & Beyond, where I wanted to get my favorite Mistletoe candle by Yankee and mom got a few more gifts.
By this time it was about 4pm and I was out of gas! :-( I was starving, my back and knee hurt, and I had a splitting headache. Dropped mom off and home I went.
All in all, it was a great 'Black Friday'! Not only did I get more accomplished off my Christmas list, but I got to spend quality time with my mom. That's defiantly....Priceless!

Our deck at 6:30am...First snow fall, that stuck!

Our front yard!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Today is a day to be thankful. Everyone has different things they are thankful for, but me, my number one....my family! Everybody thinks they have the best family...I know I do! One thing that I love so much about my family is, that we're all so different. There's no where in the world I'd rather be on the holidays, then at my parents house.
While I was helping my mom today get dinner ready, I asked her if she had any candy or chocolate? She said no (which surprised me cause my mom is the biggest chocoholic I know) and my response to her was, "Why, you're the mom, moms are supposed to have this stuff on hand"! All she could do was laugh! But the more I thought about it, the more I thought, that's why I love coming here. Mom always has everything. I just feel so 'at home', at home! :-)
We had a very enjoyable day today. Chris and I went over a little early. While Chris and my dad watched football, mom and I were in the kitchen getting things ready for the feast! Jen, Kevin, and Bella arrived right a 4 o'clock and we all sat down to eat. After dinner we all gathered around and watched Shrek the Third. Very cute I might add!
Here are a few pictures from our day...enjoy!













So even though I'm all grown up and have a house of my own...there's no place like 'home'! Hope everyone had a very Happy and Safe Thanksgiving, from my family to yours!

Rained Out!

The last few days of last week were pretty good. It's getting colder here, which this time of here in Ohio, you can't expect too much. But why does it always have to get yucky for the weekends?! It's like the weather knows everyone is off work and gos out and about....so lets give them yucky weather! :-(
Anyway, Saturday, Jen, Kevin, Isabella, Mom, Dad, Chris and I were all heading down to Medina to visit the square. They were having a Christmas lighting, Santa, food, and fun. On our way there it was drizzling, we all had umbrellas so it wouldn't be that bad. We had planned to stop for an early dinner at BW 3's and then head down to the square. After dinner, it was raining a lot harder and it had gotten colder. So we decided to try and drive through the square and at least see some of the lights. Lets just say, that didn't work very well! With Christmas being my favorite time of year, I was a little bummed we didn't get to go, but what can you do when it's raining!
So off to Summit Mall we went. With us already being in the area, we decided to just hit the mall and let Bella see Santa there! Seeing Santa wasn't a huge success, but we still had a great time.
In fact, Jennifer, Mom, Bella and I planned to go back on the 30th of this month for a 'girl's day'! Even though we didn't get to do what we set out to do, we all still had a very enjoyable afternoon/evening together.

Babysitting Bella

Saturday afternoon, Jennifer and Kevin dropped Isabella off at our house. I like to tell Isabella that we're having a slumber party! Chris and I had said that we would babysit Bella overnight so they could get some R&R!

Chris and I like to take Bella out to do something so she's not stuck in the house all day and night. So we headed up to Chapel Hill Mall. While I was on a hunt for new black boots, Bella had some fun too. We of course rode the Merry-Go-Round, we had cookies from the cookie store, pet the bunnies and talked to the birds at the pet store, and even shared a smoothie with Aunt Julie! After the mall we headed to Wal-Mart to get a couple things for Christmas and then stopped off for something to eat at the Riverside Kitchen.

Once back at the house we changed into our PJ's and played for a little while. By 8:45 Bella was ready to head to bed. By 5am she had me up! As most of you know, I love to sleep in on my days off, so 5am is really early for me on a Sunday. But that's okay, I wouldn't want to get up for anyone more then Isabella. After I changed her wet diaper and her sheet and blanket, she was ready to head back to bed. Back up by 9:30, we ate some breakfast, played, bathed, and headed to Grandma's and Pappa's. She was so excited to see her mommy and daddy....but all in all I think we had a pretty good time. We usually do! Bella, you know you're always welcome to come stay with Uncle Chris and I, we love you.