Christmas 2011! (Warning: PIP heavy!)

We were so blessed this year for Christmas. We are so grateful for all of our family and friends, and of course for all that we have!

This year was so much fun with Charlotte because she actually showed an interest in opening her presents from Santa and family!

We started off the holiday weekend by going to my parents house. Charlotte was immediately obsessed with her new table and chairs from Grandpa.

She was a very lucky little girl, and Santa had stopped by Nana and Grandpa's house just in time. She loved all of her new toys and clothes, including her new Chica doll, her easel, her Zany Zoo, and her new play house! What more could a girl ask for??


Then Santa made a visit to our house!

Santa was very good to Charlotte! She was very content and happy. She must have been a good girl this year!

However, Charlotte was NOT pleased with the clothes that Santa left in her stocking. She was not a fan, and it showed.

Christmas day was spent with Brian's family, and Charlotte was again surprised with a Santa visit there. This kid now has her very own, personalized, VW Bug. She's rollin.

She is still warming up to the idea of the car, but she has a few years to practice her racing before she lands herself into the competitive field. We will have her good and ready by the time she is 8. Have no fear.

All in all, it was a great Christmas. Charlotte was a trooper with the long hours and car rides. She was a little mad though when we wouldn't let her have dessert. Although, I think Grandpop Ecks sneaked her some ice cream somewhere in the mix. Hehe.

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!!

The Santa Express!

Instead of bringing Charlotte to the mall to see Santa Claus, we decided to take her on the Santa Express. The Santa Express is a train ride at Allaire State Park in which the families take a ride around the park 3x and Santa comes and visits all of the children in the train during the ride. How did Charlotte like it, you ask?

SHE DIDN'T!! She cried as soon as Santa popped his head in the car we were in. She was not liking the experience at all. She just wanted Santa to go away, and fast.

Even though she was not thrilled in the slightest, it was still a nice afternoon with our parents and Charlotte. As soon as the whole Santa experience was over, she was back to having a blast. Hopefully next year she will enjoy Santa a little more, but for now, we will keep a distance.

I also know that Charlotte is going to love opening presents this year. How do I know? Well, she found a few presents and decided she wanted to test her unwrapping skills. Her skills are accurate and ready for Christmas morning. Now, off to hide the presents a little better.  :)

Nothing but busy...

As always, the holiday season has proven to be very, very busy. Charlotte and I have been doing a lot of Christmas shopping, so we have seen our share of busy stores this year already. I definitely prefer to do my shopping online, but for some things, you just can't avoid a store. Every year I am more amazed at how crazy the stores get, and how zoned-in shoppers get while shopping for gifts. It's amusing and scary at the same time.

Our tree is all decorated, and our house is ready for Christmas! Yay!!

On the morning of December 6th, St. Nicholas visited and left Charlotte a wonderful new Gymboree ball in her shoe that she left out for him. If you are not familiar with the celebration and feast day of St. Nicholas, read here: St. Nicholas Day. I have been celebrating this feast day since I was a little girl, and always loved the excitement of finding something in my shoe each year. St. Nicholas is also my Patron Saint, so it has always had a little more meaning for me. I love December 6th and hope that I can pass on that excitement to Charlotte as well.

I am also very, VERY excited to say that through Scentsy, I was able to donate 7 Sasha Bears to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). I am so thankful for all of those who have donated to the cause, and cannot wait for the children to be able to hold these adorable stuffed animals. I am so unbelievably happy that so many others were able to participate and able to give back to the children with me! Thank you so much everyone!

We are eagerly awaiting Christmas, and counting down the last few days until the big day arrives! We have yet to go get our pictures taken with Santa, but it is coming soon. Well, it better, because we are running out of time!! Haha!

Happy December!

The holiday season is my favorite!! I am so happy that it is December and that the songs, decorations, and movies are in full gear!

I have also deemed it OK for Charlotte to start wearing her Christmas themed duds. We have a few really cute Christmas outfits, and I want her to get as much use out of them as possible! I cannot wait for her to wear her Christmas PJs. They are absolutely adorable!! We ordered the following set from Smocked Auctions:

We have been busy shopping for Christmas and getting everything ready for the holidays. I really hope the tree can outlast the curiosity of a 15 month old. Wow. 15 months old!! I cannot believe it! Just a year ago, she was so itty bitty. It has all gone by way too fast!! Here is a look back at this time last year:

My baby isn't a baby anymore.

Let the Christmas season begin!

If you know me, you know that Christmas is my favorite time of the year. Everything about this holiday season is absolutely amazing and I get so excited for it every single year!

Charlotte and I have started decorating today and I am so happy to have all of the great decorations out again. I may have to pick up a few more in the coming weeks, but the house is looking great! However, it is 65 degrees today, so the decorations and weather make it seem a bit out of place. Oh well! It's still fun!

I also have the holiday Scentsy bar Fesitval of Trees melting in two of my warmers right now. It smells AMAZING. It totally adds to the Christmas feeling and makes the house smell great! There is still time to order some Scentsy items before Christmas. Any orders placed on or before December 19th will arrive in time for Christmas!!  Festival of Trees Scent Bar

Although it is officially the Christmas Holiday season, I cannot forget about Thanksgiving! We had a great day celebrating with family and friends. Charlotte absolutely LOVED Thanksgiving dinner, and made sure to clear her plate at dinner time! Thanksgiving is such a filling, yet fun holiday. It's always very enjoyable and such a great day to spend with our families!

We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! We are thankful each and every day for all that we have <3

Happy Thanksgiving

I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!!

I am so thankful for so much in my life. We are truly blessed in so many ways. Our family and friends are beyond amazing, and I cannot express how lucky we are to have them in our lives.

I hope you have a healthy and happy Thanksgiving!


And for good measure, here is a picture of my cooking assistant  :)

A "first" I wasn't ready to experience...

We have been keeping very busy lately!! The past few days have been go, go, go! Charlotte and I have been scoping the stores to find Christmas gifts for our family and friends. I cannot wait for the Black Friday sales! I think I am actually going to brave the crowds and go out that day! It will be an exciting experience, I'm sure.  :)

We had another first this week. Our first ER visit with Charlotte. I will start off by saying that she is absolutely fine. We are extremely lucky and happy that our hospital visit was short and sweet. As I was going through some mail on Monday morning, Charlotte was hanging out with me in the kitchen/dining room. I was no more than 2 feet away from her. Well, as I turned around for 2 seconds to read a piece of mail (apparently that's all it takes), Charlotte had managed to pull down on the flap of the garbage can. We keep our Kitchen Aid mixer on top of the can. When she pulled down, both the garbage can and the mixer came falling down. The mixer hit Charlotte right in the head. Now, if you don't know, those mixers are heavy. I saw the last few seconds of it happen in slow motion, yet I couldn't get there fast enough. Poor Charlotte :(

I immediately took her to the ER. She was acting fine and in a great mood. They discharged her quickly after an examination and said that she seems to be A-OK. Thank goodness!!! Like I said before, we are so very lucky that she only walked away with a few bumps. What a scary moment!

On another note, we have been enjoying the Fall season! We have been playing inside, outside, and having so much fun! Rain or shine, we like to have fun!

A busy week, and lovely Fall weather :)

There is no doubt about it, Fall is my absolute favorite time of the year! The weather, the colors, intro into the holidays. Every bit of Fall is amazing, and I am so happy that we have finally transitioned into the typical cool and crisp weather of Fall. However, this Fall we faced a challenge with Daylight Savings Time. Charlotte seems to still be on the previous time, and is continually waking up at 4:30am. It's tough on  us all, but we are hoping that her body will eventually adjust, and begin waking a tad bit later in the day. If not, we will be buying stock in coffee.

Charlotte and I have been on the go this week. We have definitely done a great job at keeping busy. We have visited family up north, had Gymboree class, visited daddy at work, shopping, lunch with Grandmom, and we also were able to get some pictures for our Christmas cards this year! We took the pictures at a local flower shop that decorates a little spot specifically just for pictures!! It looked absolutely adorable, and resembled a little Christmas village. It was the perfect spot for pictures! Charlotte was not necessarily feeling the need to sit still, so we had quite the number of outtakes! Haha! Below are a few that are not being used for the card.

All in all, it was a great day and we landed a perfect picture for our Christmas cards this year! I cannot wait!

Scentsy Launch Party!

I was recently introduced to Scentsy, a product line that focuses on wickless candles. The warmers are beautiful and the scents smell absolutely amazing! I began selling Scentsy, hoping it would allow me to remain in some type of work atmosphere, while still being a SAHM. I have joined the Scentsy team about 1 month ago, and could not be happier with the experience so far. I love the product that I sell, and the overall experience is great. I have already gotten to reach out to so many different people and enjoy doing so every day! I cannot wait to take my business further and have it grow more and more!

To kick off my new business venture, I had decided to host a Launch Party. The party was a huge success, and I had a great time with my family and friends. It was great to introduce the Scentsy product to everyone and to see all of the different scents that everyone seemed to like. It was a great day, and I'm so glad that everyone was able to come out and support me at the Launch Party.

Scentsy products can be purchased online, through a party, or directly through an Independent Consultant like myself. Visit my website: https://necks.scentsy.us to browse all of the amazing products that Scentsy has to offer!

Also, if you are interested in purchasing from the Launch Party, I will keep that link open on my Scentsy page until Wednesday at noon!

Week 1 as a SAHM

Well, the first week as a SAHM (Stay at Home Mom) has come to an end. It was an amazing week, and made me realize that Brian and I have made the right decision. I am so happy to be able to enjoy the days with Charlotte again, and to be able to experience so much with her.

We have started Gymboree classes again as well. We were able to get into a class with the teacher that she had from 2-6 months, so it was great to see her again! However, I will tell you that a Gymboree class with a mobile child is MUCH more exhausting than one with an infant that just sits there. Mom needed a nap after that one. Did I get one? Probably not, but it was still a really fun day and so great getting back to classes! I cannot wait for next week's class!

I am that person that always starts my Christmas shopping early. Usually it is around September, so this year I am WAY behind. I FINALLY started yesterday. It makes me so happy to have Christmas on the brain, and to start getting into the holiday festivities! Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday, and I just cannot get enough of it! I think I may have to get the Christmas CD's out soon, very soon.  :)

And yes, this is still my favorite Christmas CD   :)

Well, here's my attempt at a blog

I have always wanted to start a blog, but never really had the time due to work and everything else going on in life. Well, as of Tuesday, I am a SAHM, and I couldn't be happier. I do love working, but right now Brian and I have agreed that I will stay home. I am looking forward to this new adventure.

Halloween came and went this week, along with a quick little snow storm. We were fortunate and only had about a half an inch of snow accumulation. I am not a fan of snow, so yes, that was a good thing haha. Charlotte was a cow for Halloween, and an adorable one at that! Brian and I were able to go see her in a parade on her last day of daycare, and it was so fun to watch her walk around in her little cow costume! All of the kids had great costumes, and the parade in general was a great addition to the Halloween festivities. We didn't go trick or treating since Charlotte was already tired, but we did enjoy the afternoon together as a family!