Pictures from the Pumpkin Patch

And other October funness!

Pictures from Halloween!

This is from October and November of 2009.



Harper was Sloth from the Goonies for Halloween! Hey you guys...
If you are not familiar with the Goonies.... here's a picture of Sloth.

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1. We need baby clothes, baby food, baby diapers and gluten free foods; guess that means I'm going grocery shopping this weekend.

2. Harper was babbling in her sleep this morning and it made me smile.

3. If you want to pay my bills, I will let you.

4. I scrap because I can.

5. Massachusetts has a proposed 5% sales tax on elective cosmetic surgery; I think that might dissuade people from getting cosmetic surgery if they don't need it.

6. Family time, good food, Christmas music, and pictures with Santa makes for a happy holiday.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to dinner with my in-laws, tomorrow my plans include grocery shopping and Sunday, I want to go to church then buy a party dress for Gavin's super Holiday Party in Dallas!

Happy super weekend to everyone!!!

Love,
Gabi

Weekend Wrap Up...

Friday - Gavin and I treated ourselves to a yummy meal at IHOP. We had a coupon for buy one get one free on our meals, it is saved us like $8! Awesome! Harper did spit up a couple of times on me during the meal, but whatever! Haha, we then went home and just relaxed altogether. Harper finally fell asleep and Gavin and I watched a movie, but I can't remember what now. I was tired, so I finally went to sleep.

Saturday - We all woke up early and hung out for a little while. Harper is so happy in the mornings to see us it just brightens my day! She's definitely a morning person like her daddy. Me, not so much. I got cleaned up and Gavin showered, then loaded up my car for my crop. I made it to a crop later than I wanted, but family happens if you know what I mean. I stayed at the crop for a few hours until 3:30, then I left to go to my niece's party. Avery turned 11, and I made her an altered frame to put pictures of her and her friends in. When her and her friends were freaking out over who the gift was from they tore the Prima flower I had on there, :( and didn't read the card I made. Oh well. So I'm doing the homemade gift thing this year with the family (birthdays and holidays), but I'm starting to realize that some don't really care about homemade cards or gifts unless they are crafty themselves (and understand how much time, thought and effort goes into a homemade gift). No thank yous or anything (granted she's a kid). Meep. I still take pride and joy in making these homemade things, but I think I will be more selective as to who I spend countless hours on. So.. no children, pretty much. It's getting to the time of the of the year when the focus is on the presents not on the actual story of Christmas too. It's so hard to buy for kids who have everything, like what do you get for them, especially when they are at a very selective age when they are picky about what kind of brands they wear, things they own, etc. Ugh. I give up!
I'm off my soapbox now...after the party Gavin and I went home; we finished setting up the Christmas tree, made some noodles for dinner, and we laid Harper down. I'm pretty sure we watched the Secret Life of Bees, and that was a good movie. I really enjoyed it. It will be interesting to see Dakota Fanning all grown up in New Moon soon. That comes out this Friday, but Gavin and I won't be checking it out till after next payday. That will be our date night I think.

Sunday - We woke up early for church but we were running late as we headed out the door. I'm so glad that we came to church this Sunday because they talked about a prophecy that Jesus made to some of his disciples when they came upon the Great temple in Jerusalem. It was more of a revelation. The walls will fall, there will be famine there will be natural disasters but this is not the 2nd coming but rather the birth pangs of the beginning. I feel like this applies to our lives right now. Gavin and I are in need of help like so many out there, so we continue to pray, and little things here and there come our way to help us out. Thank God for our loved ones, and we have each other and that's all that matters in this world. We have debt, we have obligations that we can't always meet, but no matter. No worry. We have each other, and there are going to be natural disasters. There will be man-made disasters like the crash of the stock market. The collapse of the economy and we are not the only ones affected. In the last 2 years Gavin and I have taken a $20,000 pay cut, and that is not an exaggeration. This happened right as we got into our house, and although at first it didn't seem like a huge toll or hurdle, as of late we have realized just how much we really have been affected.

We have had a rough and tough past few months. We are barely paying for daycare and this coming week I'm going to have to tell them I can't pay because I don't have enough in the bank to cover the check. I have just enough for gas this week for Gavin and me. We could pay a portion and hopefully they will understand, and we can pay the rest when Gavin gets paid on 11/27. We bought groceries Sunday night but we had to budget all the way down to some coupons that we had, and we spent $30 more than we could afford because Harper needed more diapers for home and school. Gavin and I realize that I need a better paying job, but there are SO FEW secretarial jobs that pay more than $26,000 a year, that have decent benefits and a school discount. I'm about giving up on school so that I can just focus on my family. We won't be able to afford even 1 class next semester let alone the two that I have to take so I don't have to continue paying back my student loans, which we are doing right now.

We are about to take out a very large loan at the bank to consolidate our credit debt and pay it off within the next 5 years, and we will see how that goes. I'm just going to pray. I'm going to put it in God's hands. We pay the bills that absolutely must be paid, electricity, water, mortgage, car, insurance, daycare and everything else can just wait till we have enough. We need money for groceries and gas just to survive, and we've maxed out our credit cards because we are in such a bind these last few months to pay for groceries, gas, and everything. Ugh. Money sucks and money is much of the evil in this world.

I know Harper is just a little baby, but I want to teach her the ways of Jesus and God. How to be good person, make good choices, etc. I want to teach her the meaning of Christmas. Not what will Santa bring... that's just a perk of the holiday season.


Okay I could go on but I won't.

Sunday evening ended wonderfully with a beautiful, funny movie: Disney's UP, and a nice dinner of mashed potatoes, corn bread and buttered corn. Yum.

It was my 3rd time to make potatoes and they turned out great! I finally figured it out! Yay! I love my standing mixer that Pam got me two years ago. It is the best at whipping the potatoes!!!

Friday Fill Ins

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1. The last band I saw live was Ray LaMontagne, he's a musician not really a band to me. That was February of 2009 for my 23rd birthday from my hubby; I was 4 months preggo..
2. What I look forward to most on Thanksgiving is seeing family, eating a lot of delicious food and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!
3. My Christmas/holiday shopping is usually done all on Black Friday. It's tradition, and my favorite time of the year!
4. Thoughts of waking up at the butt crack of dawn fill my head.
5. I wish I could wear a size 2 again, oh the days.
6. Bagpipes sound cool, but are very loud in person.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to IHOP with my family, tomorrow my plans include scrapping with my hubby, Avery's birthday party, decorating the tree, and Sunday, I want to go to church, eat spaghetti and watch Disney's Up!

Putting up the Xmas tree!!

So this weekend.... was fun!

Friday - My sister Megan stayed the night with G and me. She's young and naive and beginning to make mistake in life that could cost her in the future, so I had a sit down with her to make sure that she uses her head. I never scolded her or anything. I'm supportive of the decisions she makes to an extent. I'm happy as long as she is thinking clearly, using good judgment and being safe overall. Friday night I participate in the online crop experience hosted by Tammy, JoyJoy and Mel with Christmas with the Cricut, and I was just so much fun to try and follow the chat and I'm so happy for all the winners. I was the GRAND prize winner for the night, and I couldn't be happier!!! I won the GYPSY!!! Holy jeebus!!! And it's great. I've played wit it a little so far. Tammy brought it to me since I was cropping in Highland Village this Saturday, and she even stayed to crop for a while. She's like a CRICUT celebrity in my eyes; she's so lovely and down to earth!!!

Saturday - As I mentioned earlier I cropped in HV at the Municipal Complex. I don't know why people in that area don't take advantage of this crop area! It was fabulous! It's free, and well the lighting is great, etc. It's nice and open with a TV and VCR/DVD player. Very cool! We each got our own table too because hardly anyone was there. Out of 40 people on the HV email list.. it was Kristi (the hostess), my mom, my sis, me and Tammy! What fun. I made some cute envelopes for my 12 Days of Xmas project that Gavin and I are doing this year. I used the Designer's Calendar from Cricut, and I loved it. I think I may actually have to buy that one in the future. I even used Storybook and some others as well! Great stuff!

Sunday - Gavin and I took part in our tradition of pulling the Xmas gear down from the attic. He made a lovely breakfast of eggy in a basket for us. We watched Sleeping with the Enemy. Can you believe that I've never seen this movie? Kind of hokey, yes, but I liked it nonetheless. There is just something about the way that early 90s films were made. We spent part of the day at Stonebriar Mall in Frisco. Harper picked out her first Xmas ornament. She got the Classic Pooh Bear. It comes with a tag that says Baby's First Christmas. We are going to get Gavin's, Josie's, my ornaments on our next payday. We need to take care of our mortgage, credit cards, and other bills before we think about spending anymore money on ourselves.

Gavin's 26th birthday is this Wednesday Veteran's day, but we don't really get to celebrate much this year. I really wanted to get him 1 of a few things for his birthday. Now I'm going to put these off for Xmas.

He wants a pair of these...

Some of this...

And both of these...

I hope that this year we can pull together enough money just to buy Harper some needs things. She really needs 6-9 month onesies, outfits, pants/jeans, footie pjs, socks, and a little hoodie or sweater with hood. We would like to buy her some other things too to play with but money is kind of low right now, but we will be able to get her what she needs at least! That's what good parents do. Of course Santa will bring something very special for an 8 month old growing girl, and he knows she will love it :D


Tata for now ladies. I will post pictures of my Saturday creations sometime later in the day or this week!!

Merry (EARLY) Christmas!!!

Love,
Gabi from Savannah, TX

Up too late, but I won, woot!!!!!

OMG!!!! I won the CRICUT GYPSY from the Christmas with the Cricut online crop!!!! OMG!! OMG!!! I just had to tell someone!!! OMG!!!