The Toy purge

This weekend I am hoping to get through all the toys and hopefully some will leave our house starting today I am pulling all the toys from the Girls room and dumping them in the liveing room floor so when Mary comes home we can start to sort out  what they play with and what the don't.  I am hoping to make a large dent in what we have here so there is room for the new stuff it is amazing how quickly things can get out of hand.  Hopefully putting everything in the living room will help me stick with it and get thing sorted the right way.  I had hoped to get the girls to give up a toy a day during advent this year but that has not happend we started out with one really annoying thing going in the box and nothing else has followed so hopefully we will make up for it this weekend.

Teacher gifts

One of the joy's of having school age kids is buying teacher gifts.  This is something I struggle with every year especially since my sister who is a teacher told me not to buy the bubble bath sets at walmart.

Avon does have some great items for $10.00 and under












Everybody can use a nail kit and the car set is just perfect for the guys, the car mouse works great I have one the only problem I have had with it is my 3year old tries to drive it off the desk.  Hand cream and lip balm always make great gifts and also filler when you need just a little bit more for somebody or those unexpected gifts.  Many of these Items make great stocking stuffers for teens and adults also.

I hope you will take the time and browse thourgh the Avon site you might be suprised by what your find.

Please let me know what is your favorite Avon product.

Tree Lighting

Sunday was the big day we went and saw Dad's tree at the Governors Mansion.  It was really quite impressive.  The grounds keeper gave us a mini tour of the grounds they are beautiful if you are ever in Atlanta I highly recommend going on one of the tours.

The tree is a female apparently if a cedar tree has brown berries it is a female and red for male, she is 48 feet tall and 28 feet around weighing in at 7,000 pounds.  I guess maybe she got some of that chicken litter over the years.  They said it took 74,100 lights to cover her.  She was so pretty it brought tear to my eyes when they turned on the lights.  This is also the largest tree to ever be on the grounds.

I have to brag on the Governor and Mrs. Deal a little also they stood in the basement and had there picture taken with everybody who wanted that evening, everybody who worked or volunteered that we talked to spoke of how important it was to them that the people of Georgia feel they are welcome to come and visit the house.

I did not get any pictures of the inside of the house, a little hard to take pictures while holding a baby hopefully I will get some later form family members every room and tree was just  beautiful I can not think of a better way to get into the Christmas spirit.

Here are the girls as we get ready to go

Mom and Dad with all but 2 of the grandkids in front of the fountain

some of the grounds

The tree

The family with the Governor, Mrs. Deal and the grounds keeper who picked the tree.

Have you ever noticed that the important pictures are when your kids decide to cry or look at the floor.

Happy December

Wow it is already December, I can not believe how fast this year has past It seems like in a flash.
This morning it was only 27 degrees out I thought I was going to freeze while Mary and I waited for the bus, she tried making frost angles (it does not work with a back pack on).  The girl is always thinking of something.

We had another Family project for school this time we decorated a Christmas Tree she seemed to have a good time doing it not sure if it is as good as the Turkey was but she is happy.   We have 2 more weeks of school then she will before Christmas break, I think some times I enjoy her time off more than she does.  It will just be nice to have some down time.

Jamie has been fighting a cold this week I do think we are on the winning side of things now Tuesday night was the worst it is so hard to give her anything because she is small for her age so even if it is okay for a 3year old they don't always have a dose set for her weight. 

We are looking forward to Sunday they are saying it is going to get up to 60 degrees with a few clouds so hopefully it will not be uncomfortable watching them light the tree.  I must say I don't understand why the Macy's tree gets so much media attention and the Governors does not seem to get any.

Good bye November

I can not believe it is already the last day of November and only 26 days until Christmas.   I am hoping to Finnish up most of my shopping on Saturday when I go with my Mom and Sisters  hopefully I will be able to find a unicorn Happy Napper I was able to get Jamie the lady bug on Thanksgiving  when Walgreen's had them on sale buy one get one free I also bought the penguin thinking that it can go the Grace or Mary depending on what else I can find.  I realized the other day that I don't have much for Jamie she is to small for most of the kids items that Avon has and to big for the Tiny Tillia things at least she is happy with pretty much anything you give her and really loves Lady Bugs right now.  Mary is a little harder to buy for she seems to want everything that is advertised on TV  they both want those Stompiez slippers but I just can't justify over $20.00 for a pair of slippers.  

I am having a little trouble typing today Jamie is on  my lap and keeps touching the key she claims to only touch the old one though.

Decorating the tree

We decorated our Christmas Tree this weekend It turned out pretty good James picked up a pack of shatter proof ornaments at Home Depot so we don't have to worry about the girls and the tree as much.  They are really quite nice and Grace has discovered that they bounce on the kitchen floor.

I was wondering why it was taking so long to empty the box of ornaments when I realized that Grace was taking them off the other side of the tree.

you always need a cookie break when decorating the tree.



A couple of weeks ago Mary and I decided to try out the star Christmas tree cookie cutters that Avon is selling the it turned out really cute in the end though the bottom layers were a little hard to get from the cutting board to the cookie sheet.

We decorated them simply with butter cream frosting and sprinkles.

Cyber Monday

I have been looking through Amazon trying to find the perfect baby dolls for the girls, it is amazing that people actually will pay $70.00 for a doll for a preschooler.  They are beautiful but I am looking for something that is durable also my little one play with there toys.

There are a lot of good deals out today Avon has free shipping add that to the special set they have out this year and you have some really nice gifts for a great price that are easy to wrap.

There are gifts for every body this year like a Kenneth Cole watch for the man in your life

Perfume or cologne sets



Make up and nail polish


great stocking suffers

decorations for around the house


young men

Gifts for her


Do you need a party dress?

Little girls
My daughter has the snowflake hoodie dress and Love's it.
help keep the little ones ears and hands warm

all the colors you could need and easy to transport

I hope you find some great deals to day as you do your online shopping and keep Avon in mind we do have some great products at amazing prices.

If you need a rep I would be happy to serve you
www.youravon.com/mtatro

11 years

Today is my 11 anniversary some times it seems like yesterday, then I think about some of the things that we have been through and it seems like a life time.  We are truly blessed though for a while I was doubting that I would ever find some one to share  my life with, just one more thing that took me a little longer to do than most I was 29 when we married, then it took us 5 years before having out first child. Now eleven years later I cannot help but feel truly thankful for all that we have been through and all that we have mostly these three little girls.


Now that most of the crazy shoppers have hopefully gone home I think I am going to brave Kmart and see if I can get some of those dress/coat sets for the girls to wear to the tree lighting.

I hope if you went shopping this morning that you were able to get every thing you wanted with out injury.

Oh Christmas Tree

Yesterday started out quite exciting the grounds keeper from the Governors Mansion told Dad they would be there at daylight and the saw would start at 8:00 AM. and it did they hooked a crane to the tree so it would not fall then lifted it into the air and started to lower it in the truck that is when things became a little more interesting.

After many tries they called for another truck.

It seemed a little short to us.

They did get it to fit with lots of tie down straps and a little after 12:00 PM they were on there way.

one of my Sister-In-Laws friends saw it on I-20

We hope it made it okay.  They did assure Mom that the tree would look beautiful and she would not be able to tell if there was any damage done.