It's Official....Thanksgiving has gone, and it's now time to jump full speed ahead into the Christmas Season!!!!!!

~Nati

OMG, to say that this movie was GOOD would be an understatement!  This movie.....I'm speechless!  It was by far the BEST MOVIE IN THE TWILIGHT SAGA!!!!!!!!!!  After reading "Breaking Dawn," the book, I was left with a lot of questions, thinking to myself, "Really Stephanie!"  Anyway, I was not happy that the book left so many unanswered questions....especially when according to Stephanie Meyer this would be the Last book! 
Well, needless to say, the movie was OFF THE CHARTS!!!!!!!!!  I REALLY enjoyed it and I am happy to say I have closure!  I would like to see it again...yes, I said AGAIN on the big screen, but if not, I will DEFINITELY be purchasing the DVD when it comes out!  And yes, the Soundtrack is on my Christmas Wish List!  Anyway, if you haven't seen the movie yet, and you are a Twilight Fan - go see it NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

~Nati

Mid-year, my husband decided that we would take a ROAD TRIP from Texas to North Carolina.....with not 1 but 2 toddlers.....to say that I was overjoyed is an understatement!  I actually was full of anxiety...and not too thrilled about the unknown...of course I knew the route we would take...we would go through Louisiana, then Mississippi, then stop in Atlanta, GA to stay over night and visit our friend JiMiesh, then get up the next morning, drive through South Carolina, then make our way up to North Carolina, where we would stay the week with Brandon and Beverly.......but still the anxiety remained and got worse as our trip drew closer....
So what did I do about this anxiety?  Well, I did what any mother would do.....I turned on my computer and read every blog I could find regarding Road Trips and toddlers.....a few weeks prior at a friends' wedding, another friend, Gigi, mentioned making a quiet book for the girls, so yes, this required yet another internet search.  Gigi was in the process of making her Oh So Adorable little one a quiet book....Me, I'm not the fabric type, so I did a search on a NO-SEW QUIET BOOK.....and I was lucky in the fact that I found 1 Quiet Book, where the source was PAPER (my best friend), not fabric.  I was ecstatic!  So with that being said, I ventured out, and started creating a quiet book for my Little Pumpkin, who is 3....I came up with a pretty big size book and it was fun to make.  I used websites with fabric and the 1 No-SEW Quiet Book sites as inspiration.  Then upon going to Lakeshore Learning, I found 2 fabric quiet books that I loved....so we ended up with 3 quiet books for a 3 year old and a 1 year old to enjoy!  Yea Mom!!!!  Besides the Quiet Books, I also downloaded movies and favorite cartoon episodes to the iPad and gathered a bag full of favorite toys....
Did I mention I also bought all the snacks a kid could every want!  I decided a week before the trip that in order to make this trip go off without a hitch, I had to have plenty of activities for the girls to have, movies on both the iPad and the portable DVD player, snacks, and most importantly a No Rules type of attitude, meaning the girls could do just about anything they wanted to, as long as they were strapped into their car seats of course. 
Well, I am pleased to announced that our trip was great, even when we headed back to The Lone Star State, making an overnight pit-stop in Nashville, TN to stay with friends Sutton & Pete, and then driving through Arkansas before hitting the Texas State Line.....we had a wonderful drive with very little whining involved.  Leading up to our Road Trip to "Far Far Away"  (what we called or trip, as our Little Pumpkin could relate to Far Far Away since that's where Shrek and Donkey went in Shrek 2 - a favorite movie), everyday before we started our Lesson Time (home-schoo) we prayed added to our prayer that we would have a FUN trip to North Carolina and back home with no whining, just FUN....and we went over the United States map, coloring the states we would drive through, which ones we would be stopping in, and how we were going Far Far Away.....
How did this turn out???
Perfect!  The few times when the Little Pumpkin did start to whine, I reminded her about our deal - about having fun and then all was well.  And she only asked MAYBE a had full of times, the infamous question of "Are We There Yet."  For the bulk of the trip, both girls watched their movies, played with their toys, and ate way too much junk food!  When we entered into each state, we stopped at the Visitor Center and took a long break, and snapped plenty of pictures.  I must say this trip went much better than I expected.  Thank you God for answering my prayers....Now I think I could actually do this again!  :)

~Nati