Holiday

Every year I have delusions of grandeur about the holidays (all of them). I'm going to cook fancy food, perfectly decorate my home, take fabulous pictures, and create lifetimes of traditions and memories for my family. And every year, I do basically none of those things. Y'all, I'm not great at holidays. I have a really hard time keeping up with "traditions." I did salt dough ornaments and gave them out as gifts for a couple of years. Then I skipped a couple of years. Oops. I thought the idea of wrapping up Christmas books for every day of December was such a great idea. But that seems like a huge waste of wrapping paper. Oops. I've had an Elf on the...

This morning as I walked my neighborhood there was a definite crispness of fall in the air. While I happily welcome the cooler temperatures, as the newly fallen leaves crunched under my feet I couldn't help but feel a little melancholy over the change of seasons and the impending holiday celebrations. Don't get me wrong, I really love Christmas. We celebrate the holiday season to the fullest extent. Tree, lights, stockings, cookies; I try to never miss a holiday tradition. The squeals of excitement from my children on Christmas morning, the twinkling of holiday lights and the crooning of Bing Crosby makes my heart happy for a few weeks each year. But the arrival (and completion) of Christmas, for...

Hey Mamas -- Cassie here! Today I'm SUPER excited to share with you a list of some of my favorite beauty splurges. Like seriously beyond excited. We can pretty much all admit that as moms, we don't need a stocking full of trinkets or tons of Christmas gifts under the tree to make our holiday special. That racetrack that he wants every time you're in the store or that Barbie doll she keeps seeing on TV under the tree is gift enough, #amiright? But let's also admit that we actually do love getting spoiled here and there?! I'm not sure about you, but I love LOVE me some good beauty products. From luscious bath products to some of my favorite makeup...

The hubs and I were married nearly 11 years ago in 2006, and we had an engagement period of about 7 months. We're in the South y'all, and you know we love our PARTIES. My side of the family in particular will find any reason to throw a festivity. My sister's in town? PARTY. That family friend of ours we haven't seen in over 10 years, but bless her heart she recently acquired a kitten that was a rescue?! PARTY (okay maybe that last one is stretching it). This baffles my husband ... why all the pomp and circumstance? Like any good man, he's learned to just roll with it.  But back to our engagement period -- the blessed event...

Thanksgiving is over, and Christmas is here! Our tree is up, our boys (5 and 3) already got an early Christmas present (a new outdoor play set) and they're watching Christmas movies. The season is all around. And now, at least for families like mine, comes the seasonal question that I must decide upon: should we play Santa or not? Ours is a blended family, and when I first met my husband and his sons from a previous marriage, they believed in Santa Claus. And me, being simply the girlfriend at the time, played right along. Even after we got married, I continued to play Santa. After all, at least in my experience, stepparents don't exactly get a say on ending...