In the spirit

We have been super busy getting ready for Christmas! Sorry I haven't posted in so long! Time flies when you have a baby, for sure. I tell Harps to stop growing every day but she doesn't listen to me! 

We've finished all of our shopping, wrapped all of the presents, done all the baking, and now it's time to enjoy the next few days and the spirit of Christmas! 

We are taking Harper to see santa today so we will see how she does! 

Harper is getting a few fun things this year for Christmas; 

Pajamas

Christmas books

A shopping cart cover

Jumper

Wooden blocks to play with when she's older

It's kinda hard to get anything for this little baby girl, as she has everything she needs and more! 

What are you giving your baby this year?? 

Our Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of family and love! Most of our family was able to make it. We had it at our house which is my favorite! 

Eric deep fried 2 turkey's for us that turned out delicious! 

Here they are! A little uglier than a traditional oven roasted turkey but way more delicious! Excuse the mess on the counter... Things get hectic when the turkey is done! 

Here's a few decorations I had out on the big day! The burlap print is from Dolce Ave on etsy. 

Harper of course had a special Thanksgiving outfit hand made for her. Spoiled little beauty! :-)

Look at that happy girl! I love it! 

Our dinner was fantastic with plenty of leftovers! 

Black Friday went exactly as planned on my previous post! And we put up our tree and did a little decorating! 

Harper absolutely loves the lights! She laughs and wiggles! Cutest thing I've ever seen! 

We put up lights outside too. Not like Clark Griswald but more than last year! They are hard to see.... But it's the best I could get! 

We do the old style huge colored bulbs just like my grandparents used to do.

We hope you had a great Thanksgiving like we did! Bring on the Christmas season! 

Giveaway!

Since I'm totally super thankful for all the love on my Facebook and Instagram about my blog, I've decided to give away (3) Thanksgiving paper garlands that I've made myself! 

I have been in the garland making mood, and I'm thinking about making them for every holiday! I absolutely love them! 

So here's how you can enter:

~Comment on this post telling me your favorite holiday and why. Also, are you a garland fan like me? 

~Comment and like my Facebook post regarding the giveaway

~Comment and like my Instagram post regarding the giveaway

And of course my family can enter as well! 

Each one you do will enter you once. So therefore you get 3 chances! 

And there will be 3 random winners! I guess I'm feeling the #3 tonight! 

I will ship you the paper garland if you win! 

The giveaway ends tomorrow (November 19th, 2013) night at 8:00 pm. 

Ready, set, go! 

Why is Black Friday so awesome?

Black Friday is my favorite day of the year! The whole weekend including Thanksgiving is my favorite actually. 

It's because for as long as I can remember, it's been our "family day."

It's full of soo much fun Christmas activities that include our family! I love every second of it! 

Black Friday usually starts for us at about 5am when the deals start! (Even though this year it starts much, much earlier. I'll talk about that in a bit....) 

We get up and most often just stay in our pjs or comfy clothes and head into town. We will grab a yummy holiday drink from Starbucks on the way. Normally it's just Eric and I on a mission to get what we have already decided what we are buying from the ads, but this year we will have a probably still sleeping little Harpie in her car seat coming along too! 

We don't normally go all crazy buying a bunch of stuff. Just a few things we cannot pass up because of the crazy low price tag! 

Except for 2 years ago. 

2 years ago Eric got a little out of hand. We had just moved into our home 3 months earlier and we were waiting to buy certain things that would be cheaper. I don't even remember all of the stuff we got, but I do know we had to call Eric's aunt and uncle (the most awesome people on the face of this earth) :-) to follow us around and haul our stuff home cause we didn't have a truck then. It was overkill. But we got some great deals! 

I don't know what we will get this year, maybe nothing at all, but we always go. 

We usually get breakfast somewhere after we go shopping before we head home. 

When we get home, we unload all of our goodies and more often then not, take a nap. Hey, it's hard work doing all of that eating and shopping! 

When we get up, it's Christmas tree time! What I've been waiting for all year! Since the very second we took it down the previous year! I love it! We play Christmas music and put it up! I can't wait to see what little missy thinks of it! 

We might make a leftover turkey sandwich to share..... Maybe we will be too stuffed though! 

Later in the day we will head downtown for tons of more fun! Every year there is a craft fair and Christmas parade the day after Thanksgiving in our town. We walk around and sip hot cocoa, and maybe a beer or two! Love it! So festive! 

After the parade is over we come home, throw on our comfys and put on a Christmas movie. Christmas vacation of course! The greatest Christmas movie of all time. I know every word. I could watch it 50 times this season and not get sick of it. And I just might! 

I just love Black Friday! It is the best tradition of holiday festiveness ever! I cannot wait for it! My sister will be home to tag along also! Double score! 

That weekend we hang our Christmas lights! Also listening to Christmas music! Usually we just do a few strands of the big lights, (because that's what my grandma and grandpa used to do) but this year, I'm feeling like goin' all Clark Griswald on the neighborhood! So we will see what I can get away with! 

We will watch more holiday movies we love including... Elf, The Grinch, A Christmas Story, Four Chritmases, and Christmas Vacation eight more times! 

Ok..... Here's my rant about Black Friday. The only thing I hate. But I will not take part, so it won't ruin my day. 

What the hell is up with "Black Thursday" now??? It seriously pisses me off that most stores are opening at 6 or 8 pm on Thursday! Retailers are just being greedy and it's all a big competition who will open first. 

What happened to Thanksgiving dinner? Now you have to eat earlier and cut your time with family short in order to get to the store to save a few bucks? Don't get me wrong, I love shopping the next day. But I absolutely refuse to take part in the Thanksgiving night crap. 

I believe in family time. And going out to shop that night is totally eliminating that. So I think everyone should boycott stores on Thursday and head out on Friday morning with me! Trust me, you're not gonna miss anything. 

My mom and Eric's mom both work in retail. So they will be at work at 5pm and 7pm on Thanksgiving. 

I'm hoping that next year they choose to open on Friday morning again like old times. And let their employees have Thanksgiving with their families. 

Comment and let me know what you think of Black Thursday or Friday! Tell me what it means to you! 

And thanks to everyone who takes the time out of their day to read my blogs! It means so much to me! Love you guys! 

Enjoying Our Family

We've been surrounded with family lately. And we love it! 

Eric's mom Lori and her boyfriend Dave came to our house for a visit last week and they headed home on Sunday. They live about 7 hours away so we always love when they can come see us!

We had a lot of fun with them, as always! We went to lunch and did some shopping and just had dinner at home every night. Then on Saturday, we went to a local tasting room that brews their own hard apple cider. The place was beautiful and the cider was delicious! We got to tour the place and learned how they make it. That night we decided to have a mini Thanksgiving since they wouldn't be here for the real one! My sister came home this weekend too so her and my mom came too! We had some other family there as well!

Eric always deep fry's our turkey. It's soo delicious! It's not oily at all. If you haven't tried one, you should! But don't just go trying to fry a turkey if you don't know what you're doing. Cause people blow up their houses and what not! So let someone who has done it before, do it! 

We went to breakfast on Sunday and they were off. The worst part of them coming. They actually have to leave. It's terrible. I hate it. We hope to see them around Christmas time so we are looking forward to that! 

On a different note, as I write this, Harper is doing her high pitched squeal that we have labeled her "elk calls". It's soo cute. She makes all sorts of crazy noises lately. But we don't mind! 

Eric had Monday off for Veterans Day so we took a drive. And stopped and had some lunch. It was a beautiful day! 

We don't really have too much going on this week, just trying to clean up our house because we will be having Thanksgiving here. 

I hope everyone is having a great week so far! 

One of my favorite pictures of Harper ever! She's getting so big! I can't believe it! 

What's goin on!

So what's goin on over here in the Everhart house? 

We took our Halloween decorations down the day after Halloween and now we are thinking about Thanksgiving! It is my favorite holiday of the year. 

I like Christmas too, but it just seems like it's over so fast! Know what I'm sayin? Thanksgiving is so fun with all of the food and family and being thankful stuff, and the next day is the best day of the year for me! I'll post all about Black Friday when it gets closer! But it's full of fun Christmas things! Well then you have all month of December to prepare and look at lights and put up your own lights and get gifts and just enjoy the Christmas spirit. Then..... BAM!!! Christmas is here and gone.

It only lasts a few short hours and you spent so much time preparing for it!

That's what it seems like to me anyways! But don't get me wrong! It's my favorite time of year! October-December! 

And I cannot wait for this year! Harpers first Christmas! I'm so excited about it already! I'm sure she will give me some Christmas hope! 

I think that Christmas is just a lot more fun when there's kids involved! When you get older Christmas just isn't the same, but now we get to start over with Harper! 

Yeeeeee!! 

Ok got a little scatterbrained! So I hope you understand what I meant by all of that. Holidays really are my favorite though! 

Anyways, Eric's mom is coming this week! (Insert tons of fun, here)!!!! I can't wait for her to get here and see how much Harper has grown since she was here last! I'll post about all of the fun stuff we do later! 

I hope everyone is as excited about the holidays as we are! No seriously, I really am! 

Happy November! 

Halloween 2013

Halloween isn't my favorite holiday, by any means. I don't like scary stuff or bring scared or watching scary movies. I hate spiders. I don't get zombies. I don't really like blood. It's just kinda creepy to me. Sorry if that all was just the same thing over and over, but basically I'm just not into all that.

I am, however, into the fun part of Halloween. Like dressing my little cutie up. And all of the non-scary costumes. And getting candy. And seeing family! 

Last Halloween was one to remember because we found out that we were going to have Harper! I was surprised out of my mind! Even though it's definately what we wanted, and planned, it's still a shock when it actually happens. It was so exciting! 

So this year, our first Halloween as a family of three was pretty non eventful, but it was perfect for me! 

Me and Harper just stuck around the house until Eric got off work, when we planned on going out. 

We made a batch of pumpkin spice scones to take with us to give to our family. 

And we dressed up little miss Harper into a leopard "costume" which was really black tights with a leopard onesie and headband that one of her grandmas made her.

So. Much. Cuteness.

I loved it! I thought she looked soo cute! And definately not scary. I was thinking about drawing whiskers on her face and a little leopard nose, but then I realized that Harper doesn't sit still and moves way to much. So even if I did get them where I wanted them, she would no doubt rub and smear them everywhere and then I would have a mess to clean up.... So anyways, we went just like this. 

We went and visited my mom and grandpa, our aunt and uncle and cousins, then tried to visit with Eric's papa but he wasn't home. The man is 78 years old and was out doing something on Halloween night! At least he was having fun I guess! Then we stopped at Eric's dad's aunts house. So Eric's great aunt and Harpers great-great aunt. Get the picture? .......ok. 

I'm sure you don't care about the details. Basically we went and showed off our little leopard to family because she's too young to trick or treat. And she slept most of the time anyways. And she doesn't walk or eat candy so that would have been a little ridiculous. It was kind of a long night and didn't get home til late. 

I'm glad that Halloween is over because my 2 favorite holidays are coming up! I cannot wait for them this year! And I'm so excited to share them with Harps! 

I hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween!

Happy Friday! Woo hoo for the weekend! 

Easy Oatmeal Cookies (Carb. Free)

Hahahaha just kidding. Carb free.... Yeah right! 

But you know you are still going to make them anyways! 

In a mixer cream together 1 cup of butter, 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of brown sugar until thoroughly mixed. 

This is what it should look like. 

Next, add in 1 teaspoon of vanilla and cinnamon. Add a half a teaspoon of baking soda. 

Add 2 eggs, one at a time. 

Then dig through the mix and pick out all of the shells that you just accidentally dropped in while you were trying to take a picture while adding the egg at the same time, just to do a post about oatmeal cookies on your blog that probably everyone already knows how to make. 

Then gradually add 2 cups of all purpose flour. And then 3 cups of old fashioned oats. I just stopped here because I didn't have any raisins or walnuts or anything, but you're welcome to add in whatever you'd like. 

Make the dough into balls, and line them up on a cookie sheet. (Excuse my cookie sheet, it's a pampered chef stone and that's how they look when you use them for everything!)

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes depending on how big your cookies are. 

In the meantime, take a picture of your adorable baby......

And watch out the window while it rains......

And then, by that time, they should be ready! 

Here they are! Yumm yummm. So simple, yet so delicious! 

I like to let my cookies cool on a cooling rack. But you are all done! 

Oh wait, don't forget to clean up your mess before your husband gets home! 

We took these cookies to Eric's papa for his birthday! 

I hope that you enjoy them like we do! 

Harper's Room

Here's a few pics of my baby girls room. I did all of the painting and decorating by myself while I was pregnant. I couldn't wait to meet her when I was preparing her little space for her. 

Eric and I repainted the dresser that we got from his aunt. We put new knobs on it as well. 

I painted the letters of the alphabet. Her name is Harper Mae, so that is why the "H" and "M" are different. The girls at my work bought me my glider and ottoman from babies r us. To the left of it is a bookcase full of children's books. At my baby shower instead of everyone bringing a card, the guests signed their names on the inside cover of a book, so we have plenty of books for Harper to read! 

Here's the wall that her crib is on. I painted the canvas to look like animal prints and I made the chalkboard. The crib was $100 from Target. And her bed spread is Jungle Jill also from babies r us. 

I bought the letters for her name from hobby lobby and simply spray painted them black! 

I made these curtains too! I just bought the fabric from Joann's and sewed them. They were super easy to make! Then I tied them off with some giraffe ribbon I also bought at Joann's. 

These pictures were taken before she was born, so now her room has more clutter in it. Headbands. Baby bath. Car seats. Clothes. Diapers. Wipes. Blankets. Toys... And much, much more. 

I can't wait til she gets older and can actually play in here and do anything other than sleep and get her diaper changed! 

Hope this gives you some ideas if you are "stuck" for a baby's room! 

Holidays

I look forward to the next holiday the second that the current holiday is over. Sometimes even before. I'm constantly looking forward to all the festivities! 

I'm pretty sure I've used that word at least twice in each blog I post. But that's ok, cause that's what I love. 

When I was growing up we always did fun things for each holiday. We always had great Christmases and Thanksgivings. And now that I have my own family, I'm determined to carry this tradition with my daughter. 

My favorite part of holidays, especially Christmas, is giving. I don't even care if I get anything in return. I really don't. I love picking out gifts for people. Trying to find special things for them. It's my favorite. 

And of course, being with our awesome family. Eric's mom lives about 7 hours away so when we get to see her and his siblings it is so fun! Like I said before, I have the best mother in law ever! 

We really don't have any plans for the holidays yet, but we are trying to figure out what we will be doing, and I can't wait. 

I do know that I plan to teach Harper the true meaning of Christmas and Thanksgiving at a young age. It's not about all of the toys and food. Even though all that stuff is fun. It's about Jesus. Giving. Family. Being together. Compassion. Happiness. Love. 

We are going to also try to do as many random acts of kindness this year as well, and I cannot wait. I love doing things like that. It gives me a happy heart!  

Stay tuned for fun ideas and some of our holiday traditions! 

The most fall-est of weekends!

We had one of the best weekends that we have had in a long time!

It started on Friday when our cousin Whitney was nominated for homecoming queen at her high school, so I did her hair in the morning and then Harper and I went to watch all of the festivities that she was in. Rally, parade, pictures..... Here she is holding Harps after the parade. 

Soo beautiful! 

We went home to met Eric, and my mom said she had a suprise for me and was going to meet us at our house. When she got there, my sister walked in! She came home for the weekend from college. I was excited because that meant she would be joining us for our fun weekend. We visited for a bit, then headed to the football game! 

Here's a pic of little miss with her beanie that her grandma made her. 

Notice the 2031. 

Class of 2031.... 

I will be 42. 

Starting to feel old now. 

Moving along, here she is with Eric watching the game.

Oh my goodness I love them both so much. 

Turns out, Harper was pretty tired so the pic above didn't last long, and this is pretty much her rest of the night. 

On Saturday morning we went with my mom, sister, and brother to a ranch in town that had a hay maze, pumpkins, petting zoo, and train rides. We had a blast and picked our pumpkins to carve later that night. 

We went to lunch at one of our favorite places, Diamondback.... Yummm.

Then the fall festivities began.

We baked pumpkin spice muffins with cream cheese frosting. Then we made dinner and Harper went to bed. We carved our pumpkins and laughed at each other for what everyone had decided to do. It was already dark so we put candles in them and put them on the back patio. 

First one: Gabie's moon and stars to take back to the Bay Area where she can't see the stars. 

Second one: Mom's classic jack-o-lantern. 

Third one: Joey's Coors light mountains. Go figure. 

Fourth one: mine. A bird with love.

Fifth one: Eric's classic jack-o-lantern.

We had so much fun! Then we turned off all the lights and watched Hocus Pocus, the greatest Halloween movie of all time! We could still see the pumpkins glowing outside. Soo Halloween-like! 

Sunday was pretty relaxed. Grocery shopping, and watching the football game of course! 

Harper is a Niners fan, obviously. 

Today we are looking forward to a yummy beef stew that is in the crock pot. And more football tonight. I'm way more of a baseball fan, but I will watch whatever Eric is watching. 

I hope everyone had as good of a weekend as we had!

Happy start of a new week! 

Which means closer and closer to Thanksgiving........

 and Black Friday of course! 

Thankful Heart

Lately I've been thinking about how lucky we are. I think about this often but it's been really weighing on my heart recently. I have been truly blessed in this life. I could go on and on. 

It started out with my career. I always knew what I wanted to do for work. Be a cosmetologist! Ever since I was little and would go to the salon with my mom I knew it's what I wanted to be. I took the class in high school and got my license before I even got my diploma. I have been working ever since. Until I had Harper of course. And I'm soo soo thankful for my amazing clients that have made me so successful. I have the best clients that always stand by me and make me laugh! I love all of you, and I will be back to work soon! 

I met my wonderful husband and I know how lucky I am to have him. He is always supportive of everything I do. I'm so lucky to have him by my side. He has the best family too. His mom is the most awesome mother in law I could ever ask for! Better than that even. She has always just loved me, because he loves me. No questions asked. And the rest of his family are totally awesome as well. They love all three of us unconditionally. And spoil us like crazy! I'm so thankful. 

I have a healthy baby girl. Who is beautiful, funny, and most importantly happy. I cannot wait to see where life will take her. She is our everything. Also, she sleeps through the night. Again, thankful! 

I, we all, have an awesome God. Who loves us and is forgiving. Even when I fall short, He is still in control. And for that, I am the most thankful. 

Great friends. Most of them are my clients, so I guess I already mentioned them. Even when I'm not the best friend back, they still love me. It's hard when life is busy. And having a baby makes doing much else then taking care of that said baby, nearly impossible. But I really do have great friends and family. Love you all! 

I'm just spending my Monday thanking God for this wonderfully happy life I live. Thought I would share with you. 

I hope everyone has something to be thankful for as well. 

Happy Monday! 

Our Weekend

So, we had a nice and relaxing weekend over here at the Everhart home. Our little babes developed quite the personality the past few days. She is just as cute as can be. She found her voice I think. She loves to do this high pitched squeal, sort of like some animal call or something. It's so darn cute and she thinks it's funny so it sends her into a laughing fit for a while. It's just a cycle. Squeal. Laugh. Stare at us for a minute. Start over. 

She's really getting fun. Smiling and what not. Grabbing for things. Including my hair (insert sarcastic smile here). But seriously she's awesome! And she's soo stinkin cute! 

Here's my little stinker! It's hard to get a good picture of her with my phone because I am obsessed with taking pictures of her with it so she knows what I'm doing and just stares at it. So all I get is a scared out of my mind look when I try to get her laughing or smiling or being the little ham that she is. And as soon as I put my phone down, she's back to her goofy self. Smiling it up and being the cutest thing ever! 

We also made home made pizzas this weekend! One of Eric's favorite dinners. We do a spread of toppings and everyone makes their own personal one. Then Eric BBQ's them on our pampered chef pizza stone. Soo yummy! My brother came over and had pizza with us for a while. Harper loves him! Here's a pic of what we had going on.

Better.

Before I got pregnant with my girl, life was different. It was Eric and I. And Archie of course!

Hi Archie! 

He probably didn't read that. Cause he is a dog. And he doesn't read my blog. 

Archie

Ok, back to what I was saying. My blog should really be called miss easily distracted. 

We just had each other. Nothing to worry about but ourselves. So when I got pregnant I knew that it was going to change. Like change forever. But I didn't really understand what that meant. We prepped Harper's nursery and put the car seats in and everything. We were totally ready, thanks to my AMAZING family and friends at my awesome baby shower. 

Then she was born. I never knew this kind of love before. She was the result of mine and Eric's love for each other. It was the best feeling in the world. Unlike anything I could have possibly imagined when I took that test last Halloween morning. When my doctor told me it was real. I am so lucky to be her mama. We are so lucky to be her parents. 

Which brings me to better. 

Being her mom makes me want to be the best. I want to be the best wife I can possibly be to her daddy. I want to show her an example of love that she will remember forever. I want her to grow up happy and without any worries. I want her to know that she is our whole world. I want to be the best mama I can be for her. Constantly checking myself to make sure it is the right thing for her, and Eric. Better. 

Things We Love

Here is a list of a few materialistic things we are loving this season!


Travel mason jar tumblers from The Mason Bar Company. They fit right in your cup holder and they make drinking your iced coffee so fun and easy because it has a BPA free lid. I absolutely love mine and they make great gifts. Plus the owner of the company, Bobbi is such a sweet person. Go buy one for yourself, then for everyone else you know too, here.

For mom and dad, we like to drink pumpkin spice anything! So this hits the spot on a chilly morning. Tazo pumpkin spice chai tea concentrate. You can find it at the grocery store or Starbucks. All you do is mix it with milk and pour over ice, or warm it up (our fav.) And you have a yummy latte in the comfort of your own home! You can also purchase it here.

This super cute deer onesie from Old Navy! Harps is going to wear it closer to Christmas time! You can find it for sale here.

We also love these yummy lip balms from eos evolution of smooth! Sweet mint is my favorite! You can purchase them here, or at Target, Walmart.... Etc. Perfect for keeping your lips from getting chapped this cold winter! 

Super cute Jammie's to keep our little one warm this winter! Also from Old Navy, the fox ones are too stinkin cute, right? You can find the Fox Pajamas here.

About Me

Hello world! My name is Alex and I'm going to give everyone a glimpse of my life. My family is the most important thing to me. I married my amazing husband, and love of my life, Eric in April of 2012.

6 months later we found out we were pregnant with our girl Harper.  She was born in July of  2013, and she gives our life a whole new meaning! She is Little Miss Everhart! Here's our little booger! 

We both love to have a good time! Holidays are my favorite! If Eric would let me our whole house would be decked out to the max for every single holiday there is! I try to pull out my fall festiveness earlier and earlier every year. It's definately the very best season! I'm also obsessed with  black friday, camping, candles, coffee, country music, drinking beer (Michelob Ultra of course), fishing, gardening, going for drives with my hubby, a good sunset, rain, pumpkins, and my faith in God. And not really in that particular order. I love to cook and bake. I am a licensed  cosmetologist. And I love to do nails. It's my passion!  I also love to be crafty! Thanks for following my journey through life!