3 Words a picture - 3/20/15

I have been super sick this week and busy with work so I thought I would do the ol' 3 words a picture post.  Hope you enjoy!!

Drink this cider!

Seriously!  If you can find Vandermill "Totally Roasted" . . . BUY IT!!  It's not cheap I'll warn you now but it's like buying a cheaper bottle of wine.  It has a light crisp flavor and this one has a hint of sweetness and almost cinnamon. I told Mr. J it reminds me a bit of the German roasted almonds you buy.  Definitely worth the money!

Not my birthday!

I ran into a local store to grab a gluten free beer for a recipe and she didn't ask for my id.  I was really kind of upset at first but then I looked at my receipt! That is not even close to the year of my birth. That made my whole night!

Corned Beef Dinner

Like a good Irish girl I made Corned beef and cabbage! This is what I needed the gluten free beer for. I did taste it, it was ok. I used to be a dark beer drinker (see Guinness or New Castle) so this beer I chose was light like a miller lite. Not exactly my cup of tea but it was ok. The corned beef on the other hand . . . YUM!

St. Paddy's Fun

I also took this crazy picture on St. Paddy's day.  I was subbing that day and wore this adorable headband.  

First of Spring

As you can obviously tell by the snow, today was the first day of spring!  THANKFULLY we only got a dusting and it melted quickly!  I'm SO ready for warmer weather!

Running store danger

I ended up at our local running store and was talking to a friend who works there about trail shoes.  The more we talked and I tried on that more excited I got about running trails again.  Well lucky me, all trail shoes were on sale, I got a frequent buyer discount, & I had a gift card.  I walked out with new trail shoes for not much at all and $0 out of my pocket!  It was an all around good day!

Thanksgiving 2014

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  It's that time of year again that we gather together to eat more food than humanly possible and then go try to run over others to save $5 on that stupid movie that your Great Uncle Ned wants! No offense to Great Uncle Ned (I wish I had one!) but I am not going Black Friday shopping this year!  Especially since it starts at 5pm on THURSDAY!!!  It's called Black FRIDAY for a reason! Now I have gotten up at 4am to meet my husbands family at Khols to look for something stupid that someone wanted (I honestly can't remember what it was now?!).  But the older I get the less I care about saving those $5 and the more I care about spending time with my family just being a family and being thankful! Also the fact that most of what I want can be bought online for the same Black Friday price is a big draw to me.  So I'm sure while you are reading this (if it's Thursday or Friday) I'm sitting on the other side of the screen shopping my little heart out!  Bless you Target for free shipping and 5% off with my red card!

This year we are having my parents & Kellie over for lunch!  That's it!  Just the 8 of us! Do you think we will make any less food?  NO!  But it will be special because it is just the 8 of us!  I hope you all have somewhere to go this year!  I tried to make sure all my single and out of town friends had somewhere to go!  I can't stand the thought of people being alone on a holiday. (I am ! crazy today! look at all of them in this paragraph. Apparently I'm excited!) Any ways!  Make sure you follow me on Instagram as I will be posting pictures of our food, the table and our family all together! And wait until you see Miss V's dress!!  I'm kind of jealous!

What are your plans for Thanksgiving? What is your favorite thing to eat?

Love, Lacey

Memorial Day 2014

There is nothing I could say to tell those who are serving, have served, or paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country, just what they mean to me. I come from a very military family. My dad was in the Army, my Grandpa in the Navy, My brother is currently a Marine, and many more that served in some branch or capacity. My Grandpa told me one time we have had someone serve in every conflict since WWI I think is what he told me! So to say that I bleed red, white, & blue is not an understatement.  I can't watch (or even think about) those coming home videos you see so often on the news where a mom or dad surprises their family.  I'm teary eyed just thinking about it.  My brother has served 3 tours in Iraq & Afghanistan and each time we were blessed to have him come home safe. I know so many other families are not that lucky. My heart breaks for them. The men and women who have given their lives for our country are true heroes! Those men & women that came home injured, either mental or physically, are true heroes.  I know it's easy to celebrate Memorial Day weekend as a fun start to the summer.  A great 3 day weekend to go to the lake! But take a few minutes and pray for those families that aren't able to grill out with their son.  The family that isn't able to walk their daughter down the aisle.  The families that so willingly send their loved ones into harms way, trusting that God has a plan better than theirs. Bless our military and their families this Memorial Day. Thank you all for your service, dedication, and humility. And to those that paid the ultimate sacrifice . . . thank you doesn't even begin to say what I feel. But thank you! And to those families of the fallen, your son or daughter, brother or sister, mom or dad, grandma or grandpa, did not die in vain.  Their are plenty of us out there that understand that freedom doesn't come for free and that we are blessed to be protected by our amazing military.

Love, Lacey

Happy Easter 2014

May you find the joy of the risen Savior today, tomorrow, and forever!

Love, Lacey

Valentine's Dinner Recap - 2014

As I mentioned in Friday's post, I  made a special Valentine's Day dinner for our family.  What you may not know is that I am NOT a good cook.  I can bake pretty much anything but cooking is beyond me.  I think it's the measurements.  In baking the measurements are exact.  Add 1/4 cup of this to 1/2 cup of that and stir until mixed.  But with cooking it may SAY 1/4 cup but it really means around 1/4 cup or whatever tastes good or looks right.  And that does NOT fly with my OCD/Type A personality.  So I usually stick to the basics while cooking but I thought you know it's Valentine's day and I'd like to do something special for my family so I decided to get a little crazy and roast a chicken.  Kroger (our local grocery store) had a great sale on whole chickens so I bought one, and then promptly had a little panic attack.  But thankfully YouTube came to my rescue when I searched for "how to roast a chicken" and a video came up with a "fool proof roast chicken".  If you want to watch the video click here. And although he made it look very easy, I have been known to burn water, so I wasn't too confident. So let's go over the other things I made first and then we will get on to what happened with the chicken.  

So first I decided to cook some veggies in the crock pot!  I cut the potatoes in to eights? I don't know? Pieces!, about half the onion and that whole bag of carrots (cut into chunks).  I put a little olive oil in the bottom so they wouldn't stick. 

Then I topped it with salt, pepper, and butter.  Cause butter makes everything BETTER!!

Then this happened!  I stuffed and trussed the chicken.  I stuffed it with garlic, onion, lemon, & thyme. And can I just say that I did set the laptop on the counter while I was doing this so that I could kind of cook along with the video.  Can I also say that I'm pretty sure everything in our kitchen, including the laptop, got salmonella from me touching it.  But I will say I did disinfect everything once I was done!  Thank goodness for Lysol and Clorox wipes!

And while our chicken was cooking I decorated our delicious gf (gluten free) chocolate cake! I just frosted it with pink vanilla frosting and threw some raspberries on the top for looks! Sorry the picture is sideways, I tried to fix it but it just won't fix! And I'm not computer smart.  SORRY! Turn your head to the side and imagine how amazing it looks.  I want to give a huge shout out to Betty Crocker for rocking the gf mixes at a price that isn't outrageous!  Us gf people love cookies, cake, & brownies too! 

I also made a loaf of bread not shown in this post.  It was just a basic 2lb white loaf from our bread machine.  If you want the recipe (not gf by the way) I can make a post about that just let me know!

So then came the moment of truth! It was time to take the chicken out of the oven.  And this is what I found!

WHAT? A perfectly browned, perfectly done, and wonderfully smelling chicken.  The video even showed how to make a pan sauce from the dripping which I did and it was AMAZING!  We un-stuffed the bird, cut him up and ate him!  And it was delicious!!  We have been having left overs all weekend and it just as good the day after and even two days after!  I would HIGHLY recommend this roasting recipe!  It was delicious!  

In fact here is a picture of some left over meat with the pan sauce.  Yum!  I'm hungry just looking at the picture.  Well my Valentine's Day was complete with a new stick roller from my Valentine and lots of love from the kids!  Valentine's Day 2014 was a HUGE success!  Maybe I'm not such a bad cook after all.  Maybe I just need some better recipes and a little more practice!

What did you do for Valentine's Day?  Did you get or give something special?

Love, Lacey

Small Reminders Daily

A few weeks ago I wrote this post about not fat shaming ourselves.  About loving ourselves for who we are and finding beauty and strength in our bodies.  For Christmas a dear sweet friend of mine gave me this necklace.

It's a little hard to see but it's a brass bead with writing on it.  You can buy different beads with different things written on them but mine says BEAUTIFUL.  I wanted to cry when I got it.  It was the perfect reminder that not only do I need constant reminders to find myself beautiful but that God thinks I'm beautiful! Psalm 45 says "Let the king be enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord." And while I'm pretty sure in this verse they are talking of an earthly king, the SAME goes for our Heavenly King. He is enthralled with our beauty. And I don't mean just our physical beauty, the beauty that is inside and out.  He made every piece of us.  Psalm 139:13 says "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb."  God has known and loved us since before the beginning of time; but he handmade each of us in our mother's womb. What an amazing thought.  That the God that created the entire universe, that made giant things like mountains, and the moon, and the sun, used His powerfully mighty hands to knit me together.  That just blows me away!  If he thinks that I'm beautiful and worthy to be knit together by His amazingly powerful hands, who am I to tell Him (or myself) anything different?

What are you doing to make yourself feel beautiful today? How are you doing not talking down to yourself? 

Love, Lacey

New Year's Eve Recap

For the last 11 years we have gotten together with friends on New Years Eve.  Although I was trying to remember but I think we may have missed one year due to having a baby. The people that we have spent that evening with have also changed but for the most part we have spent every New Year's Eve with friends.  For the last few years we have had people over to our house.  The last few we have done nothing but drink wine & play games.  The games vary from year to year.  We have played everything from board games, to Super Mario Brothers on the Wii, and then last year (and this year too) we are playing a card game called BOHNANZA!  If you haven't heard of this game PLEASE go and buy it (here it is on amazon).  If you like card games and playing games with friend this is so  much fun.

The premise of the game is that you are a bean farmer.  YEP! I said bean farmer! And you farm different types of beans.  Chili, Green, Blue, coffee, soy, you get the idea.  And you help others with their fields while you farm yours and try to get the most coins.  Now that may not sound like the most fun game but when you start saying things like "I'll trade you a stink for a chili" and get into trading and helping, you will be laughing so hard.   I would HIGHLY recommend it!

The best part about this year? We decided that we wanted to have a super laid back night.  We promised to wear comfy clothes (aka Yoga pants) and just eat snacky food.  Now you know I love getting dressed up and putting on two tons of make up.  But there is something to be said for a relaxing evening at home with friends.  Love our yearly tradition!

And just for fun here is a group picture which is also a tradition!  

Happy New Years!!

Love, Lacey

The Best Christmas Present is a Memory

There comes a time in your life, or maybe it's an age, where you realize what Christmas is truly about.  I mean for me it's truly about Christ's birth and the sacrifice that he and God made for us.  The whole Christmas story is truly amazing if you focus on it and really think about what it meant to all involved.  When you are a kid it's all about the presents and what Santa brought and the magic of the season.  And to be honest for a long time as an adult it was all about me and what I was going to get.  Even after we had kids I was a bit selfish and wanted specific items from my husband and bless him he always tried his best.  But a few years back my mindset shifted.  It wasn't about me anymore.  I still do love getting presents don't get me wrong but I don't go looking for them or shake them or really care to open them right away.  I want to give presents.  I absolutely LOVE making my Christmas list of who all we get to buy for and what we are going to get them.  I try to come up with special items that they will like.  I don't like giving gift cards unless it's something I know they will love.  And for the last few Christmases that has been my focus.  To find the most special and exciting or unique gifts for people.  Some people like clothing or jewelry, some like kitchen wear, and some like outdoorsy things!  And some people on our list want nothing for themselves and have instructed us to donate to a charity.  For the last 4 years we have given to a charity called World Vision (visit them here). Each year we pick something special that they might like to give.  This charity gives to people in Africa (I believe) different items that you gift.  So one year it was bibles, another ducks, this year it was a share of a donkey.  So many neat gifts that make you feel good, and the people that you are donating for feel good also.

But yesterday I got one of the BEST gifts I've ever gotten.  I got a memory. To make a very long story short both of my grandparents are fighting cancer.  Praise the Lord my grandma's is very treatable and she is going to be just fine! But my grandpa's prognosis wasn't so good.  He was originally told with no treatment he would have 10 months.  Praise the Lord again that we have had about 15 months with him and he got some absolutely miraculous news at the Dr a few weeks ago.  We all pray that we get a little more time with him but know that God could take him at any time.  When talking about Christmas this year we all had an underlying knowledge that this could be our last with him.  So my grandparents did something amazing!  Instead of gifts, they gave us all a memory.  They rented out 4 horse drawn carriages and took everyone in the family on a ride. We had Christmas at their house and enjoyed lots of laughs like always and then we split up and headed downtown for our carriage ride.  It was absolutely freezing out but I wouldn't trade this night for anything.  I took a few pictures of Mr. J & the boys but Miss V decided she wanted to ride with her grandpa (my biological dad) and his girlfriend, my brother and his girlfriend.  I was a little upset at first but it sounds like she was the life of the carriage and I'm thankful for their willingness to have her with them.

I don't normally share pictures of our family but I feel it's important to share this one.  I want to always have this picture somewhere in our house (at least until next year when we take a trolley ride around a park to look at lights!). These two people are the most loving, funny, caring,  courageous, and just generally the most amazing people.  They have been married 50 years and I have learned so much about what marriage is like from them.  Thank you Grandma & Grandpa for the memory.  This is one I will NEVER forget!

Go hug someone you love EXTRA tight. Or call them and tell them how much you love them!  Life is WAY too short!

Love, Lacey

Christmas Traditions

Our tree topper

I was reading one of my favorite blogs the other day and she was talking about making family Christmas traditions. Her name is Janae and although we have never even spoken, I feel like we could be BFFs! She is a runner (although she is FAST with a capital F!), a mommy, and a food lover! We have so much in common!  If you want to check her out you can click right here .  She got me thinking back on some of the traditions I had growing up.  Two I can vividly remember.  I'm sure there are more cause my mom is awesome! But the kids sucked my brain cells dry and I just can't think!  

The first one that comes to mind is that every year when we put up our Christmas tree, we would watch the movie White Christmas.  If you haven't seen this movie go IMMEDIATELY to Netflix!  Do not walk, do not pass go, do not collect $200 (unless you are going to share with me) GO WATCH IT!  It is awesome.  It has music and dancing and a little drama and honors the military!  Just a side note about me, my family bleeds red, white, & blue.  I have countless family members currently serving and retired military.  My brother is currently a Staff Sargent in the United States Marines.  And on my paternal side of the family we have had a solider in every US war/conflict since WW2.  Thank God we have never lost a solider but when I tell you my heart breaks for them I'm not lying!  I'm tearing up thinking about how lucky we have been.  We sent my brother to Iraq & Afghanistan 3 times and thankfully he came home safe each time but I know he has lost friends and seen the unspeakable.  I am FOREVER grateful to anyone who serves or served in the armed forces!  Ok!  So I'm back from the tangent!  Sorry!  I'm passionate about the military so any movie that depicts military (Marines especially) I'm all over it!  White Christmas is just a feel good movie!  But what I remember most is after I got married and moved out of my parents house, my mom would call and sing me a song from the movie.  Or I would answer the phone and would only hear music playing (the tv playing the movie).  It's something special my mom & I did together.  This year I had the kids sit down and watch it.  I doubt they got how amazing the ending is but they like the singing and dancing! I think I will have to add this our family Christmas traditions!

The Second is that on Christmas Eve my parents and I would go to Pizza Hut for supper and then go drive around and look at lights.  I don't ever remember seeing any specific lights or anything too special but I always remember going out to eat and enjoying the evening together.  One year I had gotten a 1-800 number to call and check on Santa.  So I would go to the payphone (This is pre cell phones.  I know! I'm OLD!) and call to see where he was.  You could call once an hr and they would update you on what he was doing.  I thought that was so much fun!  What a cool memory of using a payphone to check on Santa!

I have been trying to come up with some Christmas traditions of my own for our family and our kids.  In years past my mom has come over and we have made Christmas cookies.  It is always a lot of fun but this year just got away from me.  Getting new clothes and getting dressed up for church is a must in our house.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE buying Miss V a new Christmas dress each year.  And the agony of trying to decide which one is always fun. Each year the kids also get a new pair of pjs!  They get to wear them while I take pics for the Christmas cards.  Last year Miss V was tying up the boys with a string of Christmas lights.  They are so funny.  So what are some of your favorite Christmas traditions?  What are some you hope to start?  I will post more of our Christmas tree for you next week!  Just wanted to give you a sneak peek of the topper!

Love, Lacey

Holiday Fun with The Calamity Janes

My Breakfast

What an awesome day! A couple of my besties and I (also known as The Calamity Janes) decided we would get together and do teacher gifts as a group.  It helps that one of us is crafty, one of us is an amazing baker, and I was just there for entertainment I'm pretty sure.  So I started my day with this delicious (and filling) breakfast!  If you buy the Naked juice just make sure you watch the calories.  That big bottle had around 600 calories!!  Not bad if you break it up, but if you are downing it all at once you may go over your daily caloric intake pretty quickly.

2 of my besties

Hey look at those gorgeous girls!  L's husband was kind enough to take this picture for us.  Notice J's awesome Christmas sweater?  Wish I would have gotten the memo I have a pretty sweet Christmas sweater myself.  But I did bring my Christmas apron! And J's Christmas apron was actually her grandmothers! I LOVE these girls!

Chalkboard cookie sheets

This was where J really shined!  She is an awesome crafty person, so she came up with this part of the gift.  That's a cookie sheet that she painted with chalkboard paint.  Then decorated with some stickers (that she hot glued on) and a letter for the teacher's name. She also added a little bow at the top at the end.  I told you she is awesome.  These are so cute & a great gift for anyone!  I can see giving these to family or friends. I would use one in our house!  It would make a great prayer request board or scripture memorization or even your grocery list!

Time to get baking!

Here is where L shines!   She came up with so many cookie and bar recipes that my head was spinning!  I tried to help as much as I could but I mostly just burnt the chex mix. Speaking of chex mix, I decided this is the best gf snack.  It's salty & buttery and I can burn it like anything I cook but it tasted SO good!  But L had so many cookies premade or the dough ready for us!  Just amazed at her creativity!

Time to put it together

This is L's dinning room table.  It was full up with goodies!  We made bags of cookies, bark & chex mix! It all looked SO good!

That is a FULL table

And when I say FULL I mean FULL!  This is not a small table!  And we filled it! This side is the bags that we made for the kids' Sunday school teachers!  Those monster cookies almost didn't make it into the bags.  I wanted to smash a couple and run! But it felt so good to make all this up knowing we would make someone (or their family) very happy!

Finished Product!

And there is the finished product!  These are definitely not "bus safe" so I will be hand delivering these to the schools.  There is also a bird seed ornament that goes on top.  It's really adorable!  I'm sure the birds will be flocking to our teacher's houses to get their little beaks on these yummy treats.

All in all it was such a fun day! Not only did a great gift get done but I got to spend some time with my besties!  I love these girls.  I have never had friends that I knew would love me no matter what. The six pack is the kind of group that we may be closer to a certain person at different times in our lives but as a group we love each other and have each others backs no matter what.   I love these girls like sisters and can't imagine myself without them!  Thank you for all the love & support.  And Calamity Janes?! Thanks for making me look good to the teachers!

Love, Lacey

DIY Candle Sticks

Happy Thursday!  I have been busy putting up Christmas decorations like everyone else across the world! And like most Americans I have WAY too many decorations and a lot of them I don't use.  I wanted to do something different with my mantle this year but didn't want to spend a bunch of money so I started to look at my usual decorations.  I found these candle holders.  I bought these about 4 years ago the day after Christmas for $5 at Walmart!  The red is pretty and for the last few years they have been fine.  But I wanted something different so DIY make over here we go!

Plain candle holders

First I took the candle holders out of the box and washed them up.  They were disgustingly dusty dirty as I'm sure I didn't clean them before I put them away last year!

Painter's Tape

I then put some painter's tape on the base.  I wanted the red part painted but I wanted the clear stem to stay clear.  Looking back I should have taped some newspaper around the stem to make SURE no over spray got on the stem (like it MIGHT have!) 

Microfiber cloth

Next I wiped them all down with a microfiber cloth to make sure I got all the dust and lint off.  If you leave lint or dust on the surface the paint won't adhere and will flake later or go on patchy.

GOOOOOOOLLLLDDD!

Next I put on two coats of this Krylon paint.  I chose a nice gold color to match my decor idea.  You could honestly use ANY color you wanted.  This said it was metallic but it didn't turn out quite as shiny as I was hoping.  It still is a nice gold color but not shiny. 

Finished product!

There is the finished product!  I am really excited how these came out.  I haven't put everything on the mantle that I wanted but I did at least set these up there to see how they looked.  Please excuse those blue screws.  I'm not even sure where those came from?!?  

ANYWAYS!!  There is my super easy Christmas DIY redo! Hope you will take a look around and find something to redo or re-purpose.  

Love, Lacey

Holiday Gift Guide FAIL

Lipstick

Happy  Holidays!! In the spirit of the gift giving season, I was looking for ideas for blogs to make for you.  One of my besties said I should do an affordable gift giving guide.  You know what I mean, we have all seen them!  "2013's amazing gifts for him!" So you click on the link and there is NOTHING on the list under $100!  Now, don't get me wrong if you have the money to spend that is FINE!  I'm not putting down anyone that spends some serious cash around the holidays.  But what I am saying is not everyone HAS serious cash to spend or wants to!  So I decided to put together 3 different holiday gift guides, one for men, one for women, and one for kids.  I thought I could keep everything under a certain $ amount and try to find some really cute and fun things that your loved ones might enjoy.  

So today I sit down, in the 10 min I actually have quiet time, and I decide to look through the newest Ulta catalog.  Now if you don't know what Ulta is, it's like beauty heaven.  If it's make up, hair, skin care, or any other beauty related item, they probably sell it.  I LOVE this place!  I could do some serious damage here.  So I sit down and start flipping through the pages.  I found the cologne I want to get Mr. J (not cheap but smells AAAHHH-MAZING!) I see a few other things I really love too.  The catalog also has broken down into different price points for gifts.  Gifts under $10, Gifts under $20 . .  etc.  Then I see it!  A lipstick for $50!  YEP!  That's what I said, $50!  Now, I've seen lipsticks in every price range. From $1, $8, $20, and even $35 (thank you Chanel for making something I can never afford!) BUT, $50 seems a BIT crazy.  Now don't get me wrong.  I'm sure it's an AMAZING lipstick and if the Lipstick Queen company wants to send me a free tube, I would gladly try it out and review on a makeup Monday.  But I just can't see this being a practical gift.  I guess if that's what your wife,girlfriend,sister,mom, aunt, or whoever REALLY wants and they have been dreaming of it FOREVER (Hello Naked 3 palette!)  And you can afford it.  GO FOR IT!  But just to let you know, this will NOT be making my holiday gift guide in 2013!

I'm off to keep searching the net for great gifts for my guides.  If there is anything or anyone you are looking for let me know.  I will try to put it in!  

Love, Lacey

PS I noticed I have a couple readers in Germany!  Leave me a comment & let me know where you are from!  I visited there MANY years ago and had a GREAT friend who was an exchange student from there.  Would love to say hello!

Thanksgiving Recap

K & I at our Thanksgiving Morning Run

What a GREAT Thanksgiving!  K & I started our day off with our annual Galloping Gobbler race.  It was a balmy 23 degrees, with 8 mile an hr wind & a 30% chance of snow! Our local running company had a promotion that if you got your picture with the live turkey in front of their banner you got a special offer! So obviously we had to do that!   I even pet the hen after we got done!  By the way she was soft and sweet! Although she looked a little creepy at first! I worried about the safety of my eyes!  So after our party with the turkey, K & I got ready to run.  And run we did!  We both got a PR (personal record!).  I was VERY happy with 44:30 on a hilly 4 miles.  I'm not a fast runner but I do love it!

My outfit of the day!

So after our race I came home and got ready to head to my in-laws!  I wore some black leggings from Walmart ($8!), a burgundy bat wing top also from Walmart ($5 on clearance!), a brown & gold scarf from who knows where cause I've owned it so long.  And some brown riding boots from Kohls ($60 about 2 years ago!) For hair and make up I went minimal.  I was so comfy but looked great! So I asked Mr. J to take a picture & then we were off!

View from my in-laws house

Normally I would now insert a picture of my food but I have two problems.  One, my food was not that exciting!  Being gluten free & dairy free there wasn't a lot of the normal Thanksgiving food.  And Two, I just completely forgot!  By the time we ate I was STARVING!! But I did include a picture of the field behind my in-laws.  If you look on the left side of the picture by those bushes, those little dots are actually black Angus cows!  I just love the country.  I love taking a walk around their property because it's so quiet and the view is great!

All in all it was a successful Thanksgiving!  We all ate till we were stuffed!  A few even took naps (wish I was one!).  And at the end of the night we came home, put the kids to bed, and then Mr. J and I watched "Christmas Vacation".  We love that movie and it's always our first Christmas movie of the season!

And just in case you were wondering I didn't really go black Friday shopping.  I woke up not feeling so well so I slept in a bit and then headed to our local running store for some good deals!  I'll try to post tomorrow my super cute jacket! But for now it's time to put up the tree!!

Love, Lacey