Hilarious Outtakes - i heart faces

It feels like forever since I've participated in i ♥ faces weekly challenge.

When I saw that this week's theme was "Hilarious Outtakes", photos that are just funny or humorous or just make you smile. I knew I had a few pictures I could post!

1. This picture is from 2007 when I was trying to get a cute Christmas picture of my girls.

2. Here's one from this fall when Sunshine got her braces off! I brought my camera in to the office, and she wouldn't let me take her first picture with NO BRACES! LOL

3. This one cracks me up.....Sunshine is giving me "that look" like "Seriously? She's kissing Leo?" LOL

4. My sister-in-law is going to kill me for this one! This was from her Birthday party, she looked so cute in her boa and hat, but I could NOT get a good picture of her, she kept shutting her eyes just as I would take a picture (or I got several of her eating! ....Linda, just be glad I didn't post one of them! LOL)

5. This last one is another one that's going to get me in trouble........... Over the summer, Sunshine's blond hair turned GREEN from the pool water. So we covered her in tomato sauce and plastic wrap! (it did NOT get the GREEN out of her hair)

Go check out i heart faces this week to have a good laugh: everyone can enter FIVE (5!) photos!

Following my Bliss

Follow Your Bliss

"do something that makes you happy"

That is the theme of Blissdom 2010

Blissdom is a fabulous blogging conference that brings bloggers from all over together face to face, to get new ideas, tips and inspiration to take your blog to new spheres.

My blog doesn't really fit into a particular niche.

It's just my voice.
I'm not just a stay-at-home mom who loves to bake, craft, photography, bargain shopping, or a housewife who obsesses over keeping things tidy,
but also a woman with multiple interests, a little creativity,
and her own unique perspective.

I write about what I know and love,
with the hope that my readers will like me for who I am,
and want to come along for the ride.
THAT my friends, is following MY BLISS.

Blogging, being on Facebook and enjoying Twitter
give me the opportunity to meet other women I might not have otherwise met.

Bliss would be meeting many of them in person!

Kimberly of Mom in the City is offering a FABULOUS Giveaway!

She is not able to attend Blissdom 2010 in Nashville this year
due to family scheduling,
so she is
GIVING away a Blissdom Conference Pass
so someone else can go!!
How amazing is THAT?!

While I am still working on finding a conference sponsor,
a FREE Conference Pass would certainly put me one step closer to Nashville.

Thanks again to Kimberly for the chance to win!

Merry Christmas to all........

...may your Christmas be Merry and Bright . I'm wishing it's filled with love and joy and I hope you are able to spend a wonderful peaceful time with your families.

May the spirit of Christmas bring you peace,
The gladness of Christmas give you hope,
The warmth of Christmas grant you love.

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

Cullen turns One!

One of THE BEST things that happened to me this year was ♥Cullen♥

My family surprised me with him for my birthday! I know they are reading this and laughing because they tease me that the day they went to get him I told a friend "Gosh, I hope they are NOT getting me a dog!" LOL

You can see all of my Cullen posts here

Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.

~Roger Caras

He's my best little bud, he's always by my side!

He waits for us to get home

He's always ready to play

and he sits up like a pretty boy when he wants attention

He turns ONE on Christmas Eve!

♥ Happy Birthday Bud-Bud!! ♥

Cullen is a full-size Yorkie with floppy ears, he weighs about 11 pounds.

He is my fur-baby.

Cullen is passionate about squirrels

He loves to chase them, and retrieve them when Dad hunts them (Mom thinks this is YUCKY)

He does NOT like car rides, and gets sick every month he goes to the groomer.

He knows how to ring the bells on the door when he wants out, and will bring you any of his toys you ask him for.

He loves to share food with Dad and cuddle time with Mom.

Sticks! how could I forget sticks, he LOVES to find sticks in the yard and run as fast as he can with the wind whipping his ears behind!

I have been blessed to have such a dog to love..........and one who loves me unconditionally!

Garlic Chicken Puffs & Christmas Party!

We had a GREAT time at a family Christmas party on Sunday.

I have to share my aunts home with you all!

She decorates for Christmas in Turquoise and Red,

and their finished basement is St. Louis Cardinals themed.

Don't you just love all the little touches, the ornament balls on top the votive candle holders? The Santa hats lined up on a shelf, the baseballs mixed with ornaments! That white tree changes colors, well the lights change colors, she also has these adorable red feather wreaths that I didn't get a good picture of to show you, but they are adorable with a turquoise bow and turquoise ornament hanging in the middle!

We snacked, we drank, we played a White Elephant Ornament Exchange, this year all 17 people played!

and we laughed.....

Everyone brought an appetizer.

I brought something I had at my nieces house a few months ago, so I called her for the recipe.

Garlic Chicken Puffs!

These are a rich creamy garlic chicken mixture inside a croissant and baked to form yummy puffs. A big crowd pleaser and great for gatherings!

They are a little messy to make, and I think I filled mine a little too much, so some of the chicken mixture oozed out, but still tasted DELICIOUS!

Garlic Chicken Puffs

Printable recipe

yields 32 puffs (I made a double batch)

4 ounces cream cheese

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 cup cooked shredded chicken*

2 cans refrigerator crescent rolls

Mix cream cheese, garlic and chicken until well blended.

Unroll crescent rolls and cut each triangle into 2 triangles (when you unroll the crescent rolls, 2 triangles are attached making a big square, I just cut from there following the perforation for one cut and made another cut from the other corners = giving you 4 little triangles)

Place 1 tsp of chicken mixture on the center of each triangle and fold the corners in over the creamy mixture.

Place on cookie sheet and bake at 375 for 12-14 mins.

I used 2 cookie sheets at a time, and had to bake 3 batches to get all of mine baked (so allow for that time if you're making a lot)

Also, mine were ready in about 11 mins, so watch for how your oven cooks.

*For cooked chicken, I buy those big bags of frozen chicken tenderloins, I just threw 6 of them on a cookie sheet and baked for about 25 mins.

I'm sharing this recipe at Tempt Your Tummy Tuesday, Dining With Debbie , Balancing Beauty and Bedlam and Tuesdays at the Table , Blissfully Domestic recipe exchanges and Kimba's DIY Day.

Holiday Tips (Wrapping, Picture taking and more)

Can you believe that Christmas is now only 5 days away?

Are you starting to panic like I am?! I have done a little wrapping, and plan to start cookie baking today.

I thought I'd share some helpful Christmas Tips I've seen in the last week or so!

Check out HGTV's daily tips


Good Housekeeping has wonderful ideas on how to create a Gift Wrapping station!


Photo by rachel r

Digital Photography has several great Christmas picture taking tips



GREAT video tutorial for making FABULOUS bows for your packages from Happy Housewife.

How Does She shares a GENIOUS idea for reusable beautiful fabric gift bags!

Do you have a tip you'd like to share?
Leave me a comment telling me about it!

Christmas Memories & Traditions

Welcome to Day 5 of the Holly Bloggy Christmas Bash! I'm flattered to be chosen to host the Christmas Traditions & Memories portion of the event! (Thanks, Jerri for hosting this event and asking me!)

Christmas is such a special holiday filled with traditions and memories.
Some of the happiest memories of my life were made during the Christmas season

Putting up the Christmas tree, always brings back memories of Christmas' past.

Like the year my husband cut down a tree off a friends property, it was a nice big tree and FREE!.......It was big alright, when we got it into the house it's branches stretched across more than half of or family room! It just wasn't going to work, and taking it back out of the house proved even more difficult! We still laugh about that tree to this day! Which is probably one of the reasons we no longer get a real tree.

This was our FIRST Christmas tree, our first Christmas we were married, and our only Christmas that we were not parents.

(oh, I think he's going to shoot me for posting some of these pictures! LOL)

Each year as we fill the tree with ornaments, we play Christmas music and reminisce about each of the girls ornaments. Mama buys them an ornament each year, and every year Sunshine get's upset that her older sister has more ornaments than she does! LOL
Each year the same angel is placed atop the tree.

Santa wraps gifts at our house, and each girl has her own Santa paper. One is green the other is red, that's how they know who's gifts belong to who.

For many years we went to my parents house for Christmas, and as we would get out of the car, their door would open wide and Bruce Springsteen would be singing Santa Claus is Coming to Town so loudly over their Bose system, I'm sure the neighbors could all hear it! That song is STILL my girls favorite Christmas song.

Every year the grandkids would assemble, awaiting their stockings and gifts from Grandma and Grandpa.
Look at the look of excitement on my nieces face!

Of course we have the tradition of taking pictures, you know the kind........
the family picture,
usually in front of the tree

(OH NO! did I really just post that? LOL)

These pictures are VERY special to me........
They were taken the last Christmas we spent with my Dad

This is my family -
Me, my Dad, my Mom and my Brother

My Dad passed away from Lung Cancer just a few weeks after these pictures were taken.

As silly as taking all of those pictures may seem some times, I'm SO thankful I take them.

There is also a picture with the grand kids every Christmas.

Milk and cookies are still set out on Christmas Eve for Santa, along with a carrot or two for the reindeer.

As our girls have gotten older, we have let some traditions go (no more trips to the mall to see the Big Guy...)

and have started some new traditions, like shopping together on Black Friday, and this will be the second year that Hollywood will host Christmas Eve at her house!

It would be wonderful to hear about some of your Holiday memories and traditions ! If you don't have a blog, tell me about them in the comments!

Please feel free to link up below so that we can all see your Christmas Memories and Traditions . The linky will be up thru Monday! Don't forget that if you link up on this post you'll be entered to win some fun prizes over at Simply Sweet Home. Hope you join us!

Find more holiday posts at The Inspired Room's Holiday Linky Friday.