No matter the distance, family is still family

Mack in the snow

"Separation exists only in human mind." - Rinon Hoxha

Me and my Aunty from New Zealand at my house

No matter what age you are, Nike's are cool

I finally got the photos from when my family was here from New Zealand for christmas. I have to share just one photo for now. My favorite one... Me and my cousin Jade posing in our Nike's.

Guest Blogger Week: Meet Elizabeth @ The Writer Revived

Please Welcome Elizabeth from The Writer Revived
She is a writer and currently working and editing on a book. She has a cute daughter SB and she lives in Florida. If you want to hear her brag about florida, her daughter and her book. Follow her tweets and blog.

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Hello! I’m Elizabeth. I live in Florida with my husband and our two year-old
daughter. After she was born, I made the surprising (to me anyway) decision to
become a stay-at-home mom. In that first year, I was immersed in motherhood.
But as my daughter grew from an infant to an increasingly independent toddler, I

realized I had neglected to nurture myself. Most importantly, I needed to get back
in touch with my creative side.

Shortly after my daughter’s first birthday, following a long hiatus, I rediscovered
my passion for writing and jumped in headfirst. I developed an idea for a
nonfiction book (about motherhood), wrote a proposal and began querying
literary agents. That proposal is currently with two agents for consideration.
My blog, The Writer Revived originally started out as a way to detail my writing
journey.

As the blog evolved, I also began to write about motherhood. It became a great
release for me to share about my experiences as a new mom. It also connected
me with tons of other moms and enabled me to develop a strong support
system. And it is the subject of my book, so it made sense to take the blog in that
direction. At this point, about half my posts are about being a mom, and half are
about being a writer. Please stop on by if you’d like get to know me a little better.
And help me get to know you! I love making new connections!


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Let it Snow?

I moved to Florida to get away from snow. After 30 years in the Midwest, I'd
had enough. However, 80 degrees year round did not particularly appeal to me,
either. So I settled in Northeast Florida, where we do have a change of seasons.
It goes a little something like this:

December = Fall
January = Winter
February = Spring
March - November = Summer

OK, I may be exaggerating a little. But I like that it can get cold here, albeit for a
short time. I get to wear sweaters and build fires in the fireplace. It can even get
really cold. But I don't ever have to worry about the white stuff. Or its very nasty
cousin, ice. Which is more than fine by me.

As much as I do not enjoy snow as an adult, I can appreciate how much fun it
is for a child. Now that I have a daughter, who turned two yesterday, I want her
to be able to experience it. When she's a little older, we will plan a trip around
seeing some snow (perhaps we will visit Kristina and her family in Tahoe!). For
now, we had the opportunity to witness it right here in the Sunshine State.

Don't get too excited. I'm talking about the machine-generated kind. America's
oldest city, St. Augustine, plays hosts to Winter Wonderland Florida, where you
can count on snow every night at 7:00 during the holiday season. Earlier this
month, we took the String Bean (SB for short) there to get in the Christmas spirit.
I'm not so sure she did...

Guest Blogger Week: Meet Jessica @ Straight Take Jess

Please welcome Jessica from Straightalkjess.
She has an awesome blog, and needs Mountain Mum readers support. Please go and check out her blog and leave her some love.
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I'm started blogging almost three years ago and since then my blog has evolved to be a little piece of me.  I use it as a sounding board, I complain, I talk about my kid, work, fashion victims, and anything else that strikes my fancy at the moment.  I've been married 8 years and we've got a 5 year old daughter and another baby due June 2011.

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December is a busy month in the "Straight Talk Jess" house.  To be fair, being a lawyer, with a {now} 5 year old Princess and a baby on the way {coming June 2011},  2 stinky dogs that always seem to be hungry, and a partridge in a pear tree, things are always busy in our house (you can check out the random craziness and my two cents on anything and everything at my blog).  We have the celebration of our sweet baby girl (who was born early and saved us from spending Christmas in the hospital 5 years ago).  We also fill our December with decorations, Christmas parties, cookie baking, and the trek home to spend the holidays with our family.
Here are a couple highlights of our busy month:

1)  Christmas decorations!  Now that my sweet girl can fully appreciate them (more than just staring at the lights in awe as a baby), I love having her help decorate the tree. It's so sweet and something I remember being such a special thing for me and my family when I was younger.  We put the Christmas music on and I let her go to town on the ornaments.  Of course she gets a little help from mom and daddy to make sure that there are some ornaments towards the top of the tree too.

2) Santa!  We have  to visit Santa.  It's tradition!  It's awesome to watch her grow from year to year and see her go from cautious, to crying, to bribed, to more-than-happy to see her with Santa.

3)  Birthday time!!! It's hard having a birthday in December.  So we don't let hers get lost in the shuffle.  This year we celebrated "Ava Day" with a couple celebrations that started with these delicious cupcakes at school and ended with a day spent doing what she wanted over the weekend. I think it's definitely a new December tradition in our house!

4) Home for the holidays.  Another big part of our December is family, of course.  We don't live close to family so we make the trek home to share our Christmas every year.  Luckily, both of our families are in the same city so we don't have to worry about visiting families in alternating years or spending one weekend here and the next there.  It's a lot of visiting {we have THREE big celebrations in one day.  And that doesn't even count what Santa brings on Christmas morning!}, a lot of family and a lot of food, but we couldn't imagine it any other way.

Hope you enjoyed the sneak peek into our whirlwind holiday month.  Thank you Mountain Mum for letting me join you!
From the "Straight Talk Jess" house to yours, I wish you a beautiful month and a very MERRY CHRISTMAS filled with joy, love and family.

Family from down unda

I'm been slacking on the ol blog this week due to family in this week. 

** Stay tuned next week, I have 5 awesome bloggers that are taking the stage **

So, thus far I've been staying up pretty late, since I have to work this week to hang out with family. 

Their America bucket list

* try a twinkie --> my uncle thought they were awesome. He even tried a Ho Ho

* Drink our Local Beer

* Tour Lake Tahoe --> I heard the hubs was a really good tour guide

* Watch NFL football

* My cousin Jade wanted an American Hot Dog --> she ate the whole thing

* My Aunty calls potato salad, freakish looking salad

* My Aunty doesn't like tater tots

Today, I believe they are headed up to the ski resorts to go snow tubing and check out the villages at Squaw and NorthStar. I'm having lot's of fun with my 4 year old cousin Jade. So damn cute. 

* Christmas Update * 

I've actually pretty much finished my christmas shopping. Just need to wrap up and print some photos from the family photo shoot. 

Are you ready for Christmas?

Ice Skating Adventure

At the local resort, NorthStar @ Lake Tahoe, they have an ice skating rink. I really didn't have any intention of going out on the ice at all. My daughter is only 2. Once we got there, Mackenna immediately went to the ice rink and want to go out there with just her boots on. I figured if she was that interested that we would go rent skate's and give it a go. We walked into the building where they were doing the ice skate rentals and the line was almost out the door. Mack gave me a look like she didn't really mind. She waited in line with me for over 20 minutes and we got our skates. Once I put them on, she couldn't wait to get on the ice.

I held both her hands and put her in front of me and skated the both of us. It was a little nerve racking because I didn't want to fall or anything with me holding her. That would have been bad. 

She loved it... she was screaming wooohooo and yeah mummy! The entire time. 

Also, this weekend was pretty eventful. Friday night was a pretty chill night... sorta. I dug a friends car out of the snow at work and then chilled at home and went to bed pretty early. Saturday was the big day of my party for work at the Ritz Carlton. It was a great night and lot's of fun. 

My aunt Danya, Jeremey and Jade made it to the great ol U.S of A on saturday. I went down Sunday morning, through the most ugliest weather ever to see them. I played with my cousin Jade.

Here is the restaurant we built out of blocks.

Great weekend, partied, snow and family. How was your weekend? 

365 Days in Pictures 

Family Photo Shoot

A couple of weekends ago we had some family photos taken on Lake Tahoe for our Christmas Cards. Every thing was going pretty well that day. Mack fell asleep on the way over and I thought perfect she should be fine when we get there. She was so crabby the entire time and only wanted to sit with me and have me hold her. So, with a bunch of patience from my friend Cody that took them and 12 or so good photos, we successfully finished and here is what we got... 

Which one would you choose for your Christmas Card?

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

Weekends come and go so quickly it seems like. You get home on a friday night and a blink of the eye is monday morning. What the eff?

First of all Friday was my brother's 18th birthday. We watched movies and ate pizza and even gave him a beer. A christmas brew. I went to bed early and woke up the next morning with no intention of doing much and then all of sudden my brother and I are pulling in christmas boxes to the house from the garage. 

And then.... a christmas bomb went off in my kitchen and living room. My mom started putting things up and then we moved to the kitchen and starting dusting and cleaning the pop window in my kitchen. Oh, and then let's clean the blinds, and pull the coverings off the light fixtures and dust and clean them. It started to get a little crazy, but it looks real good now. 

Sunday, we went to go and get the xmas tree. We have high vaulted ceilings in our house in the living space, so we got a 12 FOOT TREE! It's a bit ridiculous, but I love it. I had to use a tall barstool to decorate most of it. Mackenna handed me ornaments and watched Christmas movies on the couch. 

Here is the final product. Kind of a bad photo. (Disclossure, I don't have the world's crappiest camera, I just use my droid phone a lot. It's so handy not too.) 

Mackenna Monthly Update

Mackenna is two years and 4 months old this month.

* Count to almost 20 (with help after 10)

* Sing the entire ABC's

* Sleeping 8pm - 6:15amish (what time we wake up for school)

* Brushes own teeth

New Words:

* Tomorrow

* Come on

* Good Morning

* Night Mommy 

* She is getting really good with names

Really into:

* Toy Story

* Tinker Bell

* Walle

* UP

* Cooking in her kitchen. She is starting to make things for us to eat

* Trains 

  

Wordless Wednesday

The Drive to work

My Front Yard

Another shot of the front yard

Temp this morning.

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Baking... Tis the Season

Since it was snowing out I thought making sugar cookies would be fun to make. They were so good and Mackenna had a lot of fun frosting and the sprinkles.... were a hit with her. I think this evening I will make the christmas cupcakes. I can't help it. Im already in the christmas spirit.

We got another foot of snow last night and its still snowing outside. I think today im going to break out the paints and sneak out on Mack's nap and head down the hill to go see Harry Porter. I hope the movie is awesome because I will be driving in a storm to see it. : )

What are you doing this sunday?

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Playing in the Snow

We played in the snow for an hour this morning. Mackenna loves snow. I was starting to get cold but Mackenna wanted to still play outside. I took her for a sled ride down the street. I think she ate about 4 cups of snow. What a great start to a Saturday. We going to spend the rest of the day cleaning up the house, baking sugar cookies and painting. 

Eat your heart out

I woke up this morning....

Mt backyard this morning.

My Front yard this morning...

And.. for kicks I had egg nog coffee this morning..

So far 9 inches of snow of the expected 3 feet of snow till Sunday. I will update later with some more 

photos of the snow. I'm so excited that we might take the snowmobile down the street. haha! enjoy

and no drooling on my blog. 

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McFatty Friday: Snow Dance, Snow Dance

Weekly McFatty Friday post is coming at ya. I've been going to the gym for 17 days now. (not the weekends). Although, I'm giving up my hour lunch everyday, I'm so happy that I'm going everyday, and I'm not taking any time away from my family in the evenings. So, its like win, win for me. 

Everyday before and after my workout I walk by the scale. It's right in front the frackn bathroom. I always look at it, but never get on the damn devilish thing. Is that weird...

Here is why... first of all I'm just stoked for myself that I've been going to the gym every week day for the last 3 weeks. I don't want to get discouraged that I haven't lost any poundage. I'm going to the gym to get in shape, be healthier and loose some pounds. However, I'm not going to be down on myself because the scale isn't moving. 

Sooooo... I will not go near that damn digital butt face. :)

I feel better with more energy. I'm not as sluggish in the morning and I feel like I can go forever and that is my goal for going to the gym to have a healthier lifestyle that I've lost track of the last 2 years. Kids do that I guess. ; )

On another note... we are expected to get a huge storm today. 3-4 feet in the sierra mountains and greater Lake Tahoe Basin. I'm jumping and typing at the same time. Snow brings a smile to my face. I love to run outside with Mackenna and stand in the dumping snow. I like to be inside working on a craft project or coloring with her or even reading and watching the snow fall outside the windows. It's just a happy content feeling. Also, with the snow we at least have one day together, just me and Mack, while the hubs goes out and snowmobiles. These are also some of my favorite weekend days when it's just us girls. 

See the purple spot by reno. I'm right at the point. We are in purple zone baby.
12" + tonight! Winter Storm warning in effect from Today-Sunday 4pm PST

I mean I love Ian, but sometimes we just need some time for just the girls right!!?! Did I mention that I would rather him go on Sunday's so I don't have to watch football. ha!

Hope everyone has a safe and fun weekend. I will upload some photos of the dump progress this weekend, if we still have power!!!