New Blog!

I am starting a new blog. The new blog will be about things I love, random thoughts and giveaways. Plus different crafts and random things along the way. I want my current blog to be about my family. It is my journal for things that happen in our lives. It will be printed out as a book so I don't want to have a bunch of giveaways and other things I would like to blog about in it.
If you would like to go check it out its
www.trandomthinkings.blogspot.com
I will post all of the giveaways I find on this sight so become a follower so you can keep up! :)

Giveaway!

Head on over to Little Miss Heirlooms Blog. She is currently doing a giveaway for maternity clothes. I know I have a couple friends that this could come in handy for! Maybe even myself someday soon! We can only hope! :) So go check her blog out and enter to win!
www.littlemissheirlooms.blogspot.com

Beach

On Sunday we went to Clearwater Beach. This is one of the beaches in the area that we have not been to yet. It is a completely different atmosphere compared to the beach by our house.
Clearwater beach is so much fun. There are all sorts of private vendors set up selling their crafts and restaurants and even blow up bounce houses for kids.
This was one of the only 2 nice days we had while Eric's parents were here visiting.
We stay and hung out at the beach for a while and had some lunch. Then it got a little chilly and Brayden was freezing his buns off so we headed back to our house.

Brayden sportin his shades!

At the Pier at Clearwater beach.

Eric's parents at the Pier

On Monday Eric had to go to work, I took Eric's parents to the boardwalk by our house. Eric's mom still hadn't found that perfect souvenir and there are lots of shops on the boardwalk. We went to eat at Bubba Gumps. Here are Eric's parents sitting in the Forrest Gump park bench.
After we ate we explored the shops a little more. I decided that since we are moving I also needed to start finding myself some souvenirs to remember our time here. Eric's mom found a Christmas ornament that said where we live and had a little boy sitting on the beach. I found a little box made of sea shell and a frame.

This was the last day Eric's parents would be here with us so after the boardwalk we headed to the beach again.
It was a beautiful day. Brayden played and we laid out and soaked up some sun!
Of course as always Brayden was sad to leave.

We had a lot of fun while Eric's parents were here. It was nice to have family around for Thanksgiving and we had a lot of fun showing them this beautiful paradise we live in. Its always fun to tell people about where you live but showing people is even better! We hope they had as much fun as we did and we hope that we get to go somewhere as fun as Florida for our next home so that they can come visit again! :)
We love you guys!

Tampa Zoo

Eric's parents came to visit us over Thanksgiving break. They got here Thanksgiving day. We don't have all the necessary equipment to bake a Thanksgiving feast so we ordered from a restaurant here in Clearwater.
I was a little hesitant to eat our once a year meal. You never want things to go wrong or not taste quite right. This is the meal that you wait for and it would be tragic for it not to be all that you hoped for and a little bit more.
Well, the food was delicious. Everything we had was great. Probably one of the best Thanksgiving dinners I have ever had. We made a yummy casserole with the leftovers and had that for 2 different dinners. I would say it was money well spent.
Friday we spent the day driving around showing them the area. It was pretty chilly weather so we didn't get out much to do anything. We ate at a Mexican restaurant for lunch and then headed home for the evening.
Saturday morning we decided to go to Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa. I had heard that this was rated the #1 zoo so I was so eager to see what this zoo had to offer. While I don't feel that it was the most amazing zoo we still had lots of fun.
We went on a boat ride down the Hillsborough River and then we went to see all the animals. We fed the giraffes. I loved it. I love giraffes. I think they are such amazing animals. Brayden however didn't share my love for these animals. He was actually scared out of him mind!

Can you see the giraffes tongue headed straight for Brayden's face? After this he was over the giraffes. I think it scared him away from all other animals for the rest of the day. He liked them to stay far away him.

The Orangutans were so fun to watch. They had babies and it was neat to watch the mother and babies interact. The moms act just like humans with their babies.

We went into the petting zoo where you could pet and feed the goats. After being traumatized Brayden decided that the goats should stay away from him.

I wanted to take Brayden on a camel ride I thought that he would probably enjoy it.

Riding on the tram on the way back from the ride on the Hillsborough River

It was such a chilly day and we forgot to bring a sweatshirt for Brayden so we had to buy him a new sweatshirt. Here he is posing for his picture in his new sweatshirt.

We went into the bird aviary and I let Eric be the one to hold the food. After my experience feeding the birds in Busch Gardens I decided I would rather not do it this time. Eric didn't love it either. He also got pooped on.

Standing in front of the rhinos.

We had a good day at the zoo. We are glad we got to do something with Eric's family that we hadn't already done. Today we are heading to Clearwater beach!

Holiday Wish List Meme

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme
TodaysMama and Provo Craft are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year?
Cricut, Ipod Touch, Jewelry, Boots, Clothes, Coat.
2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received?
Drawings from my sweet nieces.
3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle?
Baby Carseat cover and Baby bedding
4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?
How to choose just one?! Snowboard, American girl doll
5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year?
He isn't old enough to decide yet...thank goodness!
6. What is your favorite holiday food?
Pumpkin Pie
7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays?
Pillow case dresses and shirts for little girls
8. What is your favorite holiday movie?
Elf
9. Favorite holiday song?
Mariah Carey's entire Christmas CD
10. Favorite holiday pastime?
Getting to be with my family every year!

Long post!!!

Where to begin??
We have been praying that another job oppurtunity would work out for Eric where we could make a little more money and where we could be a little closer to home. Well, sometimes you can't get everything you ask for...Part of our prayers were answered though. It looks like a job will be working out for Eric. Everything is not quite figured out yet. We are still working on some of the details. It does look like we might be going to Arkansas next though.
We were planning on staying in Florida for Christmas because plane tickets were to expensive. I was having such a terrible feeling about this. I knew we needed to figure something else out so that we could be with family.
We have decided that me and Brayden will fly home and Eric will take a week off of work and drive our car back to Idaho. Me and Brayden plan to be in Idaho and we will go stay for a couple of weeks with Eric every so often. Eric will also fly back to Idaho during his time off to come see us. We have had so much of this "long distance marriage" since we have been married but really feel that this is the right step for us right now. We have bills that need to be paid off and this is the best way to accomplish that.
I am excited to be back in Idaho. I love Florida so much! But, when you have everyone telling you how they miss you and are always telling you how sad they are that they are missing Brayden it makes it hard to focus on the fun.
But, we will see everyone very soon!
Hopefully we will get some good weather here before we leave so we can soak up some sun at the beach before we leave this beautiful place. My only hope is that we can come back here often because I truly have loved it so much!
Brayden is getting so big. I dropped him off at nursery at church on Sunday and came back to sneak a peak through the window. He was so grown up. He listened to the teachers. He sat around the table to make a little art project and sang. It brought tears to my eyes knowing that he isn't my little baby anymore...He is growing up. :(
I love this boy so much most days he lets me know I have been on the computer too long by jumping on my lap and and trying to push that computer away. He loves to have my attention all of the time.
He is so sweet and loves his daddy. Every day when Eric gets home from work you hear a great big HI! from Brayden welcoming his daddy home from a long days work.
He copies everything we do and is really learning how to say so much. He is one smart little cookie!
He likes to go hide in the cupboard. I do not love it and always tell him to get out of there!
He just looked so cute sitting there this time so I had to take a picture!

When we can't find him we always head into our bedroom and more often then not we will find him sitting and hiding in our table next to our bed.

"You can't see me!"

We live right down the road from a Pier. It has restaurants and little shops and dinner cruises that launch from there. We took a trip down there for some dinner and to walk around. They had live music at many of the restaurants. Brayden loved to walk to the music and watch them sing and he also did a little bit of dancin!

When my mom was here with us she was begging me to cut Brayden's hair. I am loving it though and decided that it needed to grow out longer. I stuck some mousse in his hair the other day and spiked it up to see how long it was. As you can see its getting pretty long.

Just drinkin some juice!

If I leave my shoes just laying around without a doubt they will end up on his feet. He stomps around the house and thinks he is pretty cool. I think he enjoys that same feeling of being a little taller...I love that feeling also!

Blowing mommy a kiss!!

Since we moved into this house I have done a lot of baking. I was soo happy to finally have an oven to bake in. Brayden loves to stand by the oven and watch everything bake.

On a Monday morning I can always find Brayden laying on the floor watching the garbage truck outside.

If you can see Brayden has little devil horns going on in this pic. Eric always loves to style Brayden's hair while he is in the bath. Sometimes he gives him a lovely middle part...

Eric went into the bathroom to shower after work the other day and when he came back out he was sporting a mustache. While I have never really felt disgusted by a mustache before, this time I was. I have never thought of myself as one to prefer or even like mustaches but they never really bothered me either. My dad always had a mustache when we were growing up. But Eric with a mustache is no bueno. I found myself distracted by this thing growing on his face. When we would talk I would even realize it and I was staring at his mustache. Kind of like a woman with large breasts and the men can't stare or focus on anything else!
Needless to say the next morning he shaved it off. I am glad it was only a joke and he didn't really want a mustache otherwise out love life might suffer...sorry TMI! haha

We live in a duplex and the other side is where our landlord lives. We have a great backyard equipped with everything. He has a couple different BBQ's out there and a smoker. He was so kind to bring us all sorts of meat one night. There was fish, ribs, and more. It was soo YUMMY!

Well, that is what we are up to! Hope you all have a
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Recessionista

There is a great giveaway going on at Recessionista!
This blog is fantastic. You can find awesome deals....hop on over there and see what you can find! :)
Just click on the title of this blog post and it will take you right to the website!