SOUP and SCRAPPING!

While I haven't really been scrapping much lately, I did finally clean off my scrap table last night, and find a pile of about 10 pages that were half done!!

I have a scrap night planned for tonight,so I thought I might as well, see if I could find my mojo again, and put the finishing touches on these pages! So here are some of them.

As you know, I am a totally random scrapper. I hope to change that in 2009. Like I want to actually organize my pictures into the empty creative memories storage boxes I have. AND I actually want to put my finished pages into the albums. Poor Brigham only has 3 albums filled and Tatum has just her first year packed. these are both really making me want summer to be here now.

not sure why this came out so bright! not my favorite, but I wanted to get down this little song, daddy started singing to Brig at jammie time!

obviously I am a year behind on both the Halloween and the homecoming. my goal is to at least scrap those same 2008 events tonight!

ETA: I am totally bummed to hear that my favorite scrapping magazine with many of my fellow scrappy friends as their creative geniuses, is going to be no more.

You can read about Simple Scrapbooks here.

I have a serious problem in taking way too many pictures at way too many events. Any of you scrappers out there have tips on how to stay current? I finally got all my files on the computer organized, but when I look at each folder by month for the last year, I am completely overwhelmed by the hundreds of pictures from things we do. I think my problem is that the inner scrapper in me thinks that everyplace we go , and everything we do, should end up on a scrapbook page! thus, the never ending, never happening scrapbook pages. LOL !!
so send your hints my way!!

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moving on to

SOUP!!!!

the last two days have been ridiculously cold here in Indiana. like if you open the front door, your snot sticks to your face kinda cold.

I seriously laughed out loud when the weatherman said the high would be -14.

I again have reminded Andrew that this will be the last IN winter I suffer through!

so since even when you crank up the heat to an insane , going to pay out the butt for it, temperature like 78 degrees. ....

its still to dang cold to want to defrost yourself off the couch to make any kind of in depth meal.

so I thought since much of the Midwest is as miserable as we are, that SOUP could be the answer to get us through the winter months.

the problem, is that I don't have many good recipes for soup.

this is where you come in, fellow blog readers...

I am going to have a SOUP SWAP!

If you're interested, leave me a comment with your email address. (and your name, if I don't know you).

By Tuesday of next week, I will send out the information on how to do this recipe soup swap!

and fyi... "open a can of Campbell's " doesn't count!

By next weekend , I will compile a list of all the recipes and get them out to you on Monday the 26th. It will be just in time to get us through February!
YOU know you want some quick and yummy.. (and don't forget soup makes a lot and you can freeze it, (or just sit it out on your back porch ) for when you don't want to take time to cook dinner!

This will be fun!!

Here's to Brigham...

He's the Helper of the Day!! He will help us with our work, he will help us with our play, Here's to Brigham, he's the helper of the day!! Hooray!
I had one very excited little boy this morning. Today was not only helper of the day, it was also his 1/2 birthday celebration at school!
So I made these yummy cupcake cones.
very much kid approved!! lol

After preK, I let him choose where to go to lunch, since we were kinda celebrating his bday.
We went to Arby's. It worked out well, though most of my lunch dates are with other moms, so I wasn't quite sure how to handle some of the maneuvers and preparations, solo.
Luckily, the place wasn't crowded and they must have some senior citizen discount, b/c the place was filled with grandparents. They probably thought I was the worst mom, for leaving them attended while I ordered , and got up and down to get stuff. But they were always within eye sight, and one particular grandma had quite the conversation with Brigham.
Imagine that?!!

and here is our 1/2 birthday boy after dinner, having the very last cupcake for dessert!
not sure he really deserved it, b/c we had some 'issues' both leaving preschool and leaving gymnastics today.
I seriously walked in the house, tonight(thankfully to a sweet husband, who had dinner nearly on the table) and handed off a stinky little girl, and told Andrew if I could drink right now, I desperately needed the sweet taste of a raspberry smirnoff and sprite.
We are having major problems, getting this energetic 4 1/2 year old, to listen, follow directions, and have a positive attitude, when it is time to leave somewhere...
(school, chic fil et, gymnastics, play date.. church.. whatever).
any suggestions out there?
or any suggestions for a non alcoholic treatment to cut the edge for a frustrated mama??





Well, I am off to watch American Idol. This winter has gotten me holed up at night and tuned in to trash.
Mondays are the Bachelor, though Andrew was home last night, and wouldn't go for it.. I don't blame him.
He did suffer thru True Beauty with me. When I saw the previews, I thought, what another ridiculous reality show. But I saw it last week.. and was kinda hooked. I like the spin on it, and it is amazing to see how rude and stuck up some of them are!
Quite frankly, I can't believe some of them got picked thinking they are any bit of beautiful. maybe for the ratings.. you always have to have those ones that will bring the drama.
ugh.
but I admit, it is entertaining, and I know I am losing brain cells every Monday night..

I have a photo session tomorrow morning, with a very pregant mama. actually since Friday, we've been waiting for a phone call that she was in the hospital... its that close.
but I do hope we can do it, she is really wanting some maternity pictures.

just a bit of chatter

Well , we made it thru the first week of adjusting to the routine. getting up and out the door, running here and there.

Brigham's gymnastics class went well on Tuesday. Last year we just did a half hour and this one is for an entire hour. I could tell a big difference in his listening and following directions than he had displayed last year.. also, he and his little girl friend, spent quite a bit of time running off the mats and back to us moms on the side lines.. now with the babies, we sit upstairs, so they can't come running to us.. lol.

the babies did fine with all the toys.. despite the grossness of them.

On Thursday Brig's preK class was learning about the letter 'P' so they got to wear their pajamas, and they had pancakes for snack. Brigham proudly wore his new frog footie jammies, that Santa brought him. Its so funny how just changing the dress of the kids, threw their hyperactivity through the roof!

I am still getting the rest of the Christmas clutter put away. It always makes me sad, since, it seems like I just put it up, but boy , does it bring me such visual peace to have it gone.. ahhhhh.

I actually keep my greenery and berries up throughout the winter months.. seems to go well with my Valentine Decor(yes , I have decorations for heart day!)

Yesterday we had a great lunch with one of Brigham's preschool friends. Her mom and I became quite good friends last year when Gabby and Brig were both in preschool together. They were not church goers, and visited our new church a few times this summer and they have been regular attenders for the last 6 months or so. pretty cool. The mom works, so we usually try and get the kids together a couple Friday's a month when my friend has off.

Anyway.. we went to Chic Fil Et, and guess it was the place to be! We ended up seeing two other good friends of ours, and 4 other people that we know from preschool. Shows, that we are in a small town.. there are like two choices of places to go with kids.. that or McD's..(and its pretty dirty) So this is pretty nice, now b/c Tatum can go play in the play area with the big kids, and I don't have to entertain her the whole time...

you moms can relate that going on play dates, or lunch dates with kids, is not the best environment for good adult conversation right?

My husband doesn't get it. He has always thought that a stay at home mom's life is just fun and games. I keep asking him to switch places with me. He won't go for it.

Though I am getting the itch to go back to work again.... hmmmmm.

Last night Andrew and I had a much needed date night out. The kids spent the night at grandma's house, so we had the whole evening.

We went to eat at this new place that the moms on my LDS message board had been raving about all week. One of their members actually just opened up the "Hawaiian Hut" on Tuesday.

I have to say it was pretty fabulous. The atmosphere was really cool. Just the tropical paradise escape I needed from the gray bitter cold we've been having lately.

The place was packed and we did see several familiar people from the LDS church. It was very fun. Andrew ordered the macadamia nut crusted chicken w/ coconut dipping sauce and I had the terriakyi chicken.

Each plate came with amazing brown rice, and loads of fresh pineapple. YUMMMM.

We ordered crab rangoon also, that actually beats our favorite from the Chinese restaurant...lol.

So if you are a local... then I highly recommend trying this place out. The prices were very reasonable too.

Our plan afterwards was to go furniture shopping, but the store was closed at 8pm! So we ended up going to the mall for a few returns, and then we went to Starbucks , where we sat on comfy chairs, sipped on wonderful goodness and actually had uninterrupted conversation!

We've had some nasty weather come our way, so we stayed put and basically watched Monk and Food Network all day today!! We did run out to Lazy Boy, where I found 'THE' chair for our living room. I am kinda in the re-decorating mood lately... and with the latest Pottery Barn catalog arriving on my doorstep this week, I am wanting to get a move on it. Have I mentioned that I don't have patience?

ok, so I finished editing the pics from Christmas, and am feeling really lame for it being nearly the middle of January, and I haven't shared them yet... and now I am posting this on Andrew's mac, and for some reason I can't pull off the pics from my pc.

so you'll have to wait.. again. I promise they'll make you smile =).

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

back to the ol' grind

and we were a bit rusty at it...

yep. 30 minutes late for Brig's preK class.

Andrew didn't set the alarm for me(he says he didn't know there was school today) and my other high pitched alarm slept in.

Actually she always does. Over the 2 1/2 week break we were all spoiled (cept the hubby who has to be at work at 7:30. YUCK.) Brigham quietly got himself up and out to the couch for cartoons around 8:30am and my high pitched , very repatitous alarm clock woke me reguarly between 9am and 9:30am.

What a luxery! and I totally know that I am spoiled.. and that God definately gave me the perfect children. Ones who do NOT wake with loads of energy before the sun peaks.

I know that this pattern will not last forever, but for now I am loving it.

I got a little sloppy last semester with the nap schedule, and they ended up overlapping = one kid was always awake = I never got my nap.. LOL.
So we're starting the new year, with them both going down at the same time. I know I am still incredibly blessed that they both take a good 2 hour nap.

So Brig starts gymnastics lessons tonight. He is taking them again with his best friend Hannah. Should be interesting, last year we had the babies with us, and they started out sitting well, in their carriers, then moved to crawling(but we could still keep them on our laps), then Carter started walking and did not want to sit still, and by the middle of March, Tatum had started to become more interested in 'getting away' then sitting still.
They have an upstairs viewing area with a bunch of toys, so hopefully the kids will be entertained long enough.
I am really hoping that Brigham keeps interest in his class. He for sure needs to get all his energy out to make for a calmer evening for all of us =)

Well, I am off to make a meat loaf for dinner, and another one for my brother.. its his bday today, and for a guy who doen's need anything... I say food is the best thing for a bachelor.. LOL !

still working on getting pics edited to post here, and then I got sucked in by Facebook and all the 'pictures from the past' , that people are posting, so I figured, I'd go thru some of my 'oldies but goodies'
.. all you FB friends better watch out... those memories will be brought back in a flash, as soon as I can get them all scanned in!

you have been warned.. LOL !

WELCOME 2009!!!

and good riddance to 2008.

seriously, despite my blog title... this last year was probably the worst year I have ever experienced.

the sad part is that the awfulness of events, not only affected me, but my husband and children too.

I didn't go into any of it on the blog as we were enduring it, b/c that's not the way I roll. Don't like drama. Don't like gossip. Hate to be 'pitied' and don't like to be the center of attention.

Won't go into details, b/c I don't really know who all reads this blog...

lets just say we were completely blindsided and stabbed in the back from people whom we thought were friends.

The kicker was that thru this nearly 9 month situation that ensued, we unfortunately, saw too much hypocrisy, malicious acts, and self righteous and unforgiving behavior coming from men and woman who claim to be followers of Christ.

Deliberate actions taken by these people severed any trust that we had in the relationships. And while Andrew and I repeatedly sought for communication, reconciliation and forgiveness.. the others just pushed for judgement and punishment.

Thank goodness, that during this time, we were attending a series of fantastic sermons at our own church, that spoke directly to what we were experiencing. We were soaking up scripture that only, God could have put in our path, knowing just what we needed.

We felt the power of prayer as others prayed hard for us, (though they didn't know any details of the situation).

It was only through God given strength , that our family was able to endure such anguish and 'bull shit', with out anger or resentment towards those who were afflicting such pain on us.

As we continued to seek God for guidance, we were able to understand why all this was occurring, and have a sense of peace in our hearts. (though not in our minds, as we were forced to deal with new drama , nearly every week!)

We still pray for these people involved(unfortunately, the other parties, made this situation public to many) and hope that they will too feel a sense of peace and forgiving hearts.

Unforgiving can be such a stronghold, that can eat away at one's happiness.

Andrew and I are so very thankful that we have a God who shows grace. This experience was certainly one, in which we were able to extend that grace towards others.

While we have left the door open nearly six months ago to these couples for reconciliation, only God knows the future and what is best for our family.

And so with that, the Miller family is anxiously awaiting to see what things God has planned for our family in 2009.

Most importantly, we want our home to be filled with joy. (thus the stamp on the right of my blog!!)

I hope each of you experience joy in your families as well!

******************

and FYI.. I am still editing the million Christmas morning pictures, and a newborn shoot that I had on the 20th. will share soon!

oh, and some pretty cute ones from New Year's Eve too, (I tried to post ones from last year's celebration, since we were with the same people again.. though it would be fun to see how the babies had grown)....will get to those too.!.

the tradition continues

Christmas Eve dinner at the BEST chinese restaurant in town! Our church didn't hold a Christmas Eve service, so we checked out another church across town. The first two songs were Feliz Navis Dad and Jingle Bell Rock. They never did have a sermon.I'm all for support of the troops away from their families, but seriously, did they need to do a 10 minute video of clips from Inside Edition and youtube, set to "I'll be home for Christmas?"

They did call all the children up front, to which Brigham leaped out of his seat, before we could even tell him it was ok. He of course raised his hand with the first volunteer request, and got to set up the nativity scene on stage. After the kids were released, Brig stayed up having a big old conversation with the pastor. The kid is not shy.


we ate and ate, and ate.

Tatum loved the crab rangoon, eggrolls, and chicken fried rice!

We got back to our house, for our traditional dessert and gift opening. Here is my little brother, Brian. He's not a fan of the camera, but since I hardly have any pics of him, I forced him!!

trying to capture a quick pose in their fancy clothes, before they changed into their new Christmas pj's.

the sugar has set in, and the exitement and anticipation of what is under the tree is too much!

Our little diva. yep. she is all Princess. got the jewels. the wand. the gloves. the purse.

and the belly.

my brother is kinda the scrooge around Christmas. doesn't get into the decorations, festivites, presents or anything like that. He always says there is nothing he 'needs'.

well, I found the home run winner for him.

An English Bulldog bronzed pewter bottle opener.

He is a huge bulldog lover and is quite the lover of fine wines and exotic imports.

The seond I saw this gem in the pottery barn catolog, I knew it would made him smile. YAY!

and here are the munchkins, patiently waiting for grandpa to take off the packaging of their new magnadoodles!

forgot to add, that my diva grabs her cap, any time she can get it. this was Andrew's brand new Broncho's hat.

perhaps she'll have a career in the hip hop industry rather then the modeling one.

we said good- bye

to Frank and Charlie. these devious dudes arrive around the first or second week of December. They are sent by Santa to keep an eye on Brigham and Tatum. They are pretty harmless.. they sleep during the day.. but if they are fed their required crackers and water(which Brigham seemingly forgot, and so dad had to step in..) then they came alive and ruled the house while we were all tucked in bed.

Brigham awoke to find them doing gymnastics from the kitchen chandelier, playing in his toy box, jumping on the couch, driving away in his Diego Jeep, among other activities.

They report back to SC on how the kiddos are behaving and then head back to the North Pole with Santa after he's visited.

I'd been meaning to introduce my blog friends to Frank and Charlie when they arrived, but alas...there is too much to blog about and not enough time, to actually DO it... ..lol.

I had small helpers in the kitchen on the day of Christmas eve, as we baked lots and lots of cookies... snicker doodles, sugar cookies(which are still not iced), choco chip(as requested by Santa) and white choco covered pretzels.

these were supposed to be delivered to our neighbors, prior to Christmas, but with temperatures in the , well.. ONES, TWOS, and ZEROS.. we opted to wait, and now they'll be our Happy New Year treats!

so I am a tad behind....

the Friday before Christmas, we had just a few last minute gifty things to get. and we had never gotten back to the mall to see Mr. C, so Andrew took off a couple hours early from work.. we ate a relaxed dinner at our second favorite place next to Little Mexico, which is Macalister's Deli.
An amazingly large menu (perfect when we all have different cravings =P).... and kids meals are just $1.99!! and they come with teddy grams! and their sweet tea is DELISH. We waited in the smoke infested line with several little brats, ahem.. children waiting to see the big guy.
We always forget, why it is that we don't go to the mall. especially on a Friday night. seriously every hill jack from every little surrounding town, seems to put on their finest Nas(ty) car or Carhardts and crawl their way to THE mall. ugh.
but we do it for the children right?
I went off to scope out a good hiding place from which to use my ultra zoom lens, b/c we were not going to pay those ridiculous prices for the totally awful pictures, that they print out.
Brigham of course ran up to SC , but Tatum clinched tightly to Andrew's neck and started shaking profusely. Um. not the year for her picture with the fat man.

but they were dressed so cute, that I was dying to get a picture of the two of them. So I scoped out a little tree half way down the mall, but of course my 19 month old wanted to no part of it.

I am now losing that perfectly poser, sit -for- hours -in -front- of -the- camera- for- mommy -and loving it, little girl.

I am experiencing what the moms of my 2 year old clients deal with. ah. the joys.

a grin that melt's a mother's heart

YAY!!! I may have scored back some points..lol. I was planning on dressing Brigham up in his fancy clothes to go to school on Wednesday , since he didn't get to wear it on Tuesday. My mom called me early Wednesday morning and said she had talked to a friend whose granddaughter was in the program the day before, and she had thought that Brig's class was singing again.

So I called the church and THEY WERE! I did a happy dance, and ran to move Brigham along and told him to hurry because his program was today!

of course with a 4 year old, a little argument took place about who was right b/c he was sure that his program was the day before and that he had missed it! I excitedly told him that we got a 'do -over' and that he got to sing today.

His teachers let him stay with the other class and then proceed downstairs for the 'party'.
Andrew and grandma both were able to come and we were so proud of our little entertainer!
It is really sweet to see these little faces lit with joy, and hear their little off tune voices singing about the birth of sweet baby Jesus.

The teachers had dressed the kids up , a few weeks earlier and made this video, that played before and after the program.

Last year Brigham was a Shepard. This year he was Joseph. He had been talking about it for weeks.

I am so happy that we were able to see him(He's in the top left).


And afterwards, we went to the union at Purdue to see the BIG tree. This is a tradition for us to go eat in the diner downstairs, and check out the huge gingerbread house!

Tatum met some new friends!





I stopped counting at how many times I told them not to touch. And when their mouths were full, I just gave up! How do have to little ones playing in an edible house, and expect them not to want to take a nibble? Its Christmas after all, so I let them have fun!

and we tried to get some pictures in front of the ginormous, 3 story tree.

I think that the sugar may have kicked in by now!!!

So thank you so much for your sweet comments and encouragement about the program mis hap.

Everything worked out great and I couldn't have had a more thrilled little boy!

We went to a life group Holiday party that evening and he and his little friend Gabby stood on the fireplace hearth and re-created the show for us all. It was awesome to once again, witness the wonder, and belief in these little ones.

Last night we spent the evening with some good friends and their sweet 9 day old baby girl.

We had not gotten together with them since late August, so the kids all played well together and the adults had great conversation and we made Buckeyes and had wonderfully good hot chocolate! YUMM.

It was nearly midnight before we left, and we headed out to a total sheet of ice. Yep. the winter ice warning they talked about, actually came. we drove like 5 miles an hour home. but we made it safely.

So we're off to see that fat man in a red suit, and try to cross some last things off our lists.

Then its our traditional drive -around -and -look-at -the- lights journey.

There are some pretty cool ones , we've scoped out that have synchronized w/ music and stuff.. so with the ice/snow it should be gorgeous!

not gonna get mother of the year award

not that I actually thought I had a chance at winning.. but ya know, I feed them, clothe them, bathe them, keep a roof over their heads... so perhaps maybe a second place ribbon was in my future.. but there is no way.

Not when you forget your son's Christmas program at school.

Nope. and you have the guilt to last a lifetime.seriously, how could this happen?
I have had it down on the calendar for Wed. Dec 17th, for a month.

My kid has been practicing his songs. Every day when I pick him up from PreK , he'll be singing away in the back seat... and he's told me there were some 'surprises' for mom and dad too.

So how does this happen?

My mom and I took Brigham to the Christmas show on Sunday afternoon at Purdue(purdue musical organizations).
I was sang as a Purduette in college, so it was exciting for me to take my child and point up stage and show him 'what mommy did' a long time ago! This was a big year too, they were celebrating 75 years of the show. My dad ( a former Glee Clubber) came back to sing in the shows as alumni.
Half way thru, the poor kid started coughing.. and then his eyes were all watery. By the time we got home, he was sneezing..
so into jammies he went, soup, oj, and medicine, and then we put him to bed.
We kept telling him, he had to be well for his program on Wednesday.
Monday, he slept in, actually we all did. Cept Andrew who went in to work overtime all day.
We layed low, and he seemed to be better, but by dinner time, he was getting a rash all over his face, and kinda felt warm.
We bundled up the kids so we could take a dinner to our friends who just had a baby. (he stayed in the car w/ his germs) and we came home, tried to get him to eat dinner, gave him some medicine and sent him to bed.
We told him he had to be well for his program on Wednesday.
He was seemed a lot better, but I decided to keep him home Tuesday just to make sure he was tip top, and he slept in until 9:45, while his sister did not awake til after 10am!!
It was bitter cold here, so we didn't venture out at all.
stayed in pj's all day.
By noon, I could tell, he was back to his crazy healthy self.
The weather was getting pretty bad, and I still had to get to the store to get stuff to make cookies to take to the program on Wednesday.
My wonderful husband braved the roads home from work, got my list, and headed out again to get the ingredients for the super cute cookies I was making to take.
Just as I was prepping the cookies, the phone rings. Its my friend Sylvia. (also a mom of a boy in Brig's class)
She wants to know if everything is ok, because we were not at the program that morning.
WHAT!!??????
yeah. so the program was Tuesday morning.
I am a total loser.
and then I had to tell Brigham.
and I told me 'I am really sad, that I don't get to be in my program'.
and I wanted to curl up in a ball and die.
and then I called my mom to tell her, b/c her grandson was very excited to have his grandma watch him perform.
and my mom says to me ' what kind of a mom are you? what kind of a mom forgets their kid's program?' are you going to lie to him, and tell him it was cancelled?'

and so then I felt a whole lot better..... (sarcasm).

any ideas out there to win back the sweet smile of your little guy?

Christmas prep recap

*wrote the letter to Santa

he was not being supervised, and when I came into see what he wrote, it read 'Dear Santa,'

and then a bunch of scribbles, like he was writing in cursive.. lol

we told him he better use words, if he wanted Santa to know what toy he wanted!!

*took it with us to the local parade, where the mail carriers were collecting them

It was a bitter cold day, but we enjoyed a front row seat from the coziness of couches in front of a huge picture window in my mom's office. The kids had so much fun, and the adults didn't have to worry about keeping hats and mittens on the kids! It was super fun to see the babies, Tatum and Carter, interact this year. They squealed with delight as the parade marched by!

*the boys went on the perfect tree hunt, while the girls stayed warm and made hot chocolate to treat them after their hard work.. lol

he searched, and searched....

and found the perfect one!

and paid for it all by himself

*traditional tree pics were taken, though these were pretty impromptu.... still want to get the two of them sitting together

*candy house was built.. and unlike last year, when mama almost hyper ventilated b/c of the random- absolutely-no -order-whatsoever-to decorating-the candy house,

This year, my boy was meticulous. seriously, the little yellow gumdrops in the windows, are people looking out!!

Andrew and I had a date night two weekends ago, where we got almost all the shopping done!

just a few more things on our list, and we're done!

We tried a new irish pub that opened in town.. while the atmosphere was super cool(though I couldn't partake in me good ol' frothy beverage)... the service was pretty terrible, and the food was just ok.

My brother works at the other location and it is pretty hoppin all the time.In fact that is where I had Andrew's surprise 30th birthday party last year!

This one, however, needs to iron out the kinks.

We grabbed some Starbucks on the way home, and just enjoyed the quiet of a child-less night!

Over the weekend Brigham and grandma made cookies, and then they were all brought home, so we could decorate them.

I made a cake for someone on Saturday.. a Nemo one, turned out pretty cute.. so I had all this left over icing.. which we put to good use!

Got to bake some cookies for Brigham's Christmas program on Wednesday, and figure out something to take for a party we have Wed evening

This week is gonna be busy.. hope to post some more later on this week..

I can hardly believe next week is Christmas!

Did it sneak up on us this year or what??

and without further delay....

hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, though that seems like months ago.. and to think only 13 more days til' Christmas!!

I am sooo sorry for the absense of posting -a little bit of sickness and then holiday madness set in, ... I know you have been on pins and needles waiting to find out the winner....

I thank you for your patience and so with some much cohersed help from Miss T and her little pink purse, and of course big brother had to be in on it, so he drew out

congratulations Nicole!! send me your mailing address, and I'll get these goodies off to you!

and because it was the start of December, and I love giving better then getting.. so another name was drawn...Summer, send me your address or I'll just bring it tomorrow when I see you!