Hello, 1st Day of Winter

It's December 21st.

The OFFICIAL first day of Winter.

So far, we have built our first snowman of the season...

 And by "we", I mean Dannika and Nick, cause EVERYONE knows that this girl doesn't play in snow!

 AND YES...OUR SNOWMAN IS A DALLAS COWBOYS FAN!

BOOYAH!

My "punkin" had her last day of school for 2013.

I absolutely can not fathom the fact that this time next year, she will be a Kindergartener.

Seriously.

When did this happen?!

Last night, we put the kids in their Christmas jammies, got hot chocolate at Dunkin Donuts, turned on Christmas music on Pandora, and drove around town to different neighborhoods to look at Christmas lights.

 Unfortunately, I can not take credit for this idea, but I'm glad we did it!

On a side note, people in Orange County are so over the top with everything, and I was expecting the same out here (not knowing any better). 

While we did see some gorgeous lights, and Dannika thought ALL of the houses that had any sort of light was "beautiful and amazing", none of them really compared to the lights people put up in Southern California.

I blame the weather.

No one wants to spend hours outside in the freezing cold (like my husband did) to put up lights. 

I get it, New England...I forgive you, cause I sympathize with you and hate the cold too.

 After we got home, we sat in the living room and just hung out as a family watching TV.

 It was a perfect evening.

I find it harder during the holidays to find the motivation to work out daily.

I have managed to get my butt off the couch AT LEAST 5 times a week to crossfit and spin.

So we are renting our home here in Massachusetts, because we have no reason to ever want to move back here once the military takes us away from here again.

I forgot how nice it was to own a house, until we became renters again.

In the home we own in California, we had granite counter tops in every room in the house, and it's a little luxury that we took for granted until we moved to a home without one.

If you've never had the pleasure of having granite...it will seriously change your life...

Ok...maybe not your life, but it is really nice.

Thank God that our landlord wanted granite put into our house.

She let us pick out the granite, the sinks, the fixtures...everything.

She just wrote the check.

Oh, how we've missed you granite.

Lastly, my daughter and I wanted a "mommy/daughter" day.

She packed her little purse with lip gloss, bracelets, toys, and other knick knacks, and she couldn't wait for it to be "just us girls".

We were going to go to Michael's to buy arts and crafts suppies, then head to Ben & Jerry's for milkshakes.

WEEELLLL....

I forgot it's the last weekend before Christmas.

The traffic was crazy....horrendous....

And after 30 minutes sitting still, we turned around and headed home.

Dannika was so heartbroken, and I felt so bad.

So we ended up stopping at the CVS next to our house to get her a candy bar.

And in my best twangy Texas accent...

"People have dang lost their dang minds out there!"

I hope everyone's done with their Christmas shopping, and are getting to enjoy these last few days before the big day!

Merry Christmas!

The Legend of Ranger Book Review

I've been blogging since 2009, and I've been asked to do many book reviews for my blog.

I've always kindly turned them down, because to be honest, I don't really have great things to say about a lot of the books I read (when someone else recommends it to me). 

Also, my blog is really more about my personal life as an active duty Marine (and now Marine wife and stay at home mom), and book reviews doesn't really fit into my "niche".

However, when I was contacted to review a children's book, it perked my interest right away.

First of all, I have a four year old who LOVES story time, second, the book is written by a veteran, and last, ALL profits from the sale of the book goes to the Antonia J. Giallourakis Endowed Fund in Art Therapy for Children with Cancer at Massachusetts General Hospital.

I received "The Legend of Ranger: The Reindeer Who Coundn't Fly" by Alan Salisbury in the mail this week, and couldn't wait to read it!

Did you know that Rudolph has a little brother, and that Santa has more reindeer besides his "famous 8"?!

Neither did I!

This book is an amazing and heartwarming story about one of Santa's "non flying" reindeer, Ranger. Although Ranger does not fly, he has an important job of hauling toys for Santa on the ground.

He dreams of being able to fly like his older brother, Rudolph, and learns from other reindeer and elves that the "secret lies within".

He sets off on a journey to figure out the "secret" to flying.

It isn't until he is faced with a big challenge that he is forced to find his "secret within".

You have to check out the book to see what big challenge he is faced with, and to find out if he learns to fly or not!

I loved this book because I could use it as a learning tool for my kids about important life's lessons.

This is the perfect book for the child who is just beginning to read chapter books because it's not incredibly long, and flows very nicely.

 It's also the perfect book to read to a child over a period of several days.

I read a chapter a day to my 4 year old, and it gave her lots of anticipation for what would happen in the next chapter.

Lastly, the illustrations are absolutely beautiful, and perfect to hold a child's attention. 

This is a book that should be in everyone's "Christmas library" right next to the classics like "The Night Before Christmas" and "the Gingerbread Man".

You can find the book at most major retailers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or on Dr. Salisbury's website!

Disclosure:

This book was given to me for free to write this review. I received no monetary compensation. All opinions on this book are my own.

Disclosure: I received a sample of a product to facilitate my review. No other compensation was provided and all views and opinions stated on this post are 100% my own. ...

Read More at www.onesmileymonkey.com/reviews/book-movies-dvds/the-legend-of-ranger-the-reindeer-who-couldnt-fly-book-review/ © OneSmileyMonkey.com

Just Dance

I had a long post planned for today about things that were bothering me.

It was mostly about military life and how civilians just didn't get "our life"....

I'm glad I didn't post it.

Tonight...

My family and I blared Texas country music....

I danced with my 4 month old son to Reckless Kelly...

I drank Chardonnay...

I watched my husband teach my daughter to two step...

I thought about Texas...

and after both of our kids were pooped, tired, and ready for bed...

I danced in my living room to George Strait and Alan Jackson...

with my best friend, lover, and husband...

We slow danced while our 4 year old was passed out on the couch...

while our son was swinging in his swing making an occasional fuss...

We ignored it all...

We just danced....

Sometimes...you just gotta dance...

Christmas Party Fun

Saturday night was Nick's unit's Christmas party/hail and bail for one of the Lts that is leaving soon.

It was held in Boston at Nick's XO's house.

The one thing I am loving about this duty is that it's a very very VERY small unit, and everyone is pretty tight knit.

Nick and his Major are the ONLY two Marines in the entire NROTC department staff, and the rest of the staff are all Navy Officers.

The party was a lot of fun, and I'm glad that we went!

Because of the little snow storm that was coming in Saturday night, we were contemplating on whether or not we were going to attempt to drive, but Nick insisted that we would not be stranded.

The party was an "Ugly Christmas Sweater" party, and Nick and I were total party poopers.

We did not dress up.

I think Dannika had the "ugliest" sweater in our family, and it wasn't even ugly.

It was an adorable holiday colored sweater from the Gap, and a Hello Kitty reindeer shirt from Old Navy....yeah...not ugly...

We just kept telling everyone that the "Romer's don't do ugly cause we're so good looking."

(you can laugh...I just laughed typing that)

Again, we put our son in Christmas reindeer attire....not really ugly....but adorable, right?!

So, I won a game called "Beanboozled".

Basically, there's a bunch of random jelly beans flavored like things like skunk, barf, centipede, etc.

These grossly flavored jelly beans are mixed in with good tasting jelly beans like coconut, chocolate pudding, banana, etc.

You randomly take turns eating these jelly beans out of a box, and you can't drink or eat anything afterwards.

If you eat or drink anything during the game, you are out.

If you've never had a skunk or barf flavored jelly bean, you're seriously missing out! 

UGH!

But I won two bottles of wine :-)

We also came home with a giant basket of chocolate (just what we need) and a Duck Dynasty lawn gnome from a white elephant gift exchange.

So we survived our drive home in the snow storm, and like any normal person who has never lived anywhere that snows, we decided to do a photoshoot in our driveway.
Wait, what? You don't do that?!?!
Well we did....cause we're ridiculously good looking...and that's just what good looking people do.
(yes...don't feel bad if you're laughing again)

My Jeep Wrangler Unlimited's 4 Wheel drive definitely got some use that night!

I'm finally sitting down and catching up on all of my favorite blogs.

I love reading everyone's posts about what they are doing in different parts of the world during the Christmas season.

I love looking at your kid's art projects, your Christmas parties, the gifts you're buying...I. love. it. all.

As y'all already saw on yesterday's post, we got our first big snow for the season.

That meant that I had an overly eager 4 year old who just couldn't WAIT to go outside and play in it.

I did manage to get outside in the freezing cold with my DSLR to take photos of my adorable kids and hubby.

I had to dust the DSLR off since it's just been sitting in my camera bag!

Poor camera.

Never gets much use anymore thanks to my iPhone5. 

It's ok little guy...you're just like your mama. We don't like snow or the cold.

My lovely family :-) 

I'm the only one that does not own snow pants or snow boots.

Maybe...MAYBE...I'll invest in some this year so I can get out and play with my family....maybe not. 

Snow Fun

Today, I am thankful for a husband, because without him, my driveway would stay covered in 7 inches of snow until it melts.

 I'm also thankful that he decided to invest in a snow blower this year!

Our next door neighbors agreed to go in on one together this year, and it's become the neighborhood snow blower.

And of course Dannika is LOVING the snow.

By the way, all of these photos were taken from the comfort and warmth of my house through the window.

Again...this Texas girl does not do snow and everything else that comes with it!