Getting ready for Christmas!

It's our tradition to get out the Christmas decorations the Sunday after Thanksgiving. The kids are always so excited!




This is the 2nd yr that we've put the tree in the basement. It's so nice and cozy with the pellet stove going!


Each year I get them (at least one) new ornament featuring a favorite sport, hobby or just something that reminds me of them. This way, they will have lots of ornaments to take with them when they start out on their own.

Kelton got a soccer player. It even was his number from this fall!

Katie got Belle. I had her help me pick it out and it was quite painstaking trying to decide between this and Justin Bieber.


I had a hard time thinking of what to get Konnor because he doesn't particularly have any favorites yet. I saw this bear and thought it was perfect since we call him our little bear.


This was my attempt to get a photo of them all in front of the tree after we were finished. LOL


We also hung up our stockings.



Getting out the tree also means Hartzell, our Elf on the Shelf returns. Kelton reads the story and then we set him on the fire place and don't touch him again until we pack him away after Christmas as not to spoil his magic! {This obviously required matching jammies!}


He's been a funny little Elf this year....



Hopefully I'll remember to take a picture of all our elf antics. I do believe Kelton is becoming at little wise, but Katie is loving it and Konnor just loves whatever Katie loves. It's so much fun!

Giveaway : Reusable Fabric Coffee Sleeve/Cozie {CLOSED}

On Earth Day, I talked about some of my favorite earth friendly products. One of them was my fabric coffee sleeve from Tina Magee Sews on Etsy. I keep it tucked in my purse in case I get a chance to drive through a coffee shop (which is way more often that I'd like to admit).


I know ideally, it's best to bring your own coffee cup. Seriously though, that's just not super convenient. However, using my own sleeve takes no effort on my part and I'm saving tons of cardboard this way! Reusable sleeves save an estimated 10lbs of paper per coffee drinker per year!

I looked all over Etsy forever before deciding which type of sleeve to buy. If you look closely at Tina's, there's elastic. These will fit any cup! I noticed some of the sleeves that didn't have elastic only fit on the very bottom of a venti size cup (and don't we all have those venti days!?).


They are also reversible!

Recently when I was making an order for a Christmas Gift, I was telling this great lady how much I love my sleeve and she kindly agreed to let me give one away! YESSSS!

{WIN IT}

Tina will send the winner the coffee sleeve pictured above!
Mandatory Entry:
Visit Tina Magee Sews and tell me which sleeve is your favorite or if one of her other awesome items strikes your fancy!

Additional entries:(leave a separate comment for each entry)
1.) Follow Coffee Beans and Kisses with Google Friend Connect.
2.) Place an order with Tina Magee Sews and leave a comment for each item purchased.

PLEASE LEAVE A WAY FOR ME TO CONTACT YOU!

US residents only, please.
This giveaway will end Thurs Dec 15th at 10:59 PM CST. A winner will be chosen with random.org and have 48 hrs to respond or a new winner will be selected.

Disclaimer: No compensation was received for this post. The opinions expressed here are my own and may differ from other's experience.

Thanksgiving 2011

Am I the only one who gets grumpy about Christmas encroaching on Thanksgiving more and more every year? Seriously! I think it's so important to stop and really reflect and be thankful for all we have and give to others just as much as we possibly can.

We were blessed again this to year to be able to provide dinner for large family in the area. I really enjoy the day just hanging out and cooking with my family and it makes me smile to think of them doing the same.


Dinner was completely allergy friendly again this year! I even tried my hand at stuffing for the first time and I'm so pleased with how it came out! I used a Namaste Mix for the bread.



Crockpots had pumpkin pie, corn casserole and sweet potatoes!


Our bread was honey corn muffins.

And Eric handled the turkey.

My favorite blessings are these smiling faces!




And we were joined by a 4th this year!
She's a beauty and a fabulous little eater!
It was fun to be able to share Thanksgiving with the Woodles!

The k-kids were super happy to have them with us also.
They LOVE Miss Braylee!



Being insane, I left the house around 8:30pm that night to head to Walmart. It actually wasn't a total madhouse and we got everything we went for! Awesome!

We're putting up the tree this weekend!
These little critters can't wait!

Seventh Generation Dish Liquid Giveaway Winner!

The winner is Jessie C!


Check out my latest giveaway,
Kettle Cuisine Soups.
They are delicious!

Review & Giveaway: Kettle Cuisine Soups {CLOSED}

I was super excited when Kettle Cuisine Soups contacted me about doing this review and giveaway. I love soup and it's that time of year again when I can make it for dinner as often as I like!

Kettle Cuisine was founded by Jerry Shafir and his vision of creating all natural soups for restaurants. When his daughter Kate was diagnosed with celiac disease, he realized how limited options were for this style of eating. There are now 10 varieties of single serve frozen soups available, all gluten free with no artificial ingredients and 6 of them are dairy free as well!

The soup for me to sample arrived on dry ice - how cool is that!?

Let me tell you, these came at just the right time! The kids passed me a little virus which kicked up my asthma and I have been coughing and wheezing like it's my job for a week now!

The first variety I tried was the Chicken Chili with White Beans. I was craving something warm and fulfilling and definitely did not feel like cooking. I got the kids down for their naps and heated up a bowl. The smell was amazing and the taste even better. It was comforting and I was completely satisfied!


Now that the babe has weaned and I'm no longer required to follow a strict diet, I still prefer keep the majority of food in our house safe for everyone to eat. If you're a Mommy, you know that if you're eating something, it's fair game for whatever child happens to walk by. I love that I can share bites of this with all 3 kids! Not to mention these taste great, which isn't always the case with allergy friendly food!

I also tried the Angus Beef Steak Chili with Beans.
Delicious! I was sad when my bowl was empty.

And most recently Roasted Vegetable Soup between inhaler puffs to help me get through the rest of my work day. Very comforting!


See the MSG and all those names
that are impossible to pronounce?

Yea, me neither! :-)
I love the minimal ingredients. It is exactly like homemade! Compare that to a can of soup!

{WIN IT}

The great people at Kettle Cuisine Soups are going to give away a prize pack to one of my readers which will include...

3 free product coupons
cents off coupons to share with friends and family
Kettle Cuisine cooler tote bag

Mandatory Entry:
Leave a comment letting me know which Kettle Cuisine Soup
you'd like to try.

Addition Entries: (leave a separate comment for each)
1.) LIKE Kettle Cuisine on facebook.
2.) follow coffee beans and kisses through google friend connect.


Please leave a way for me to contact you!
US and Canada residents only.
This giveaway will end Thurs, Dec 1st at 10:59 PM CST. A winner will be chosen with random.org and have 48 hrs to respond or a new winner will be selected.

Disclaimer: Kettle Cuisine provided me soups to sample free of charge. No other type of compensation was received. The opinions expressed here are my own and may differ from other's experiences.

We Love Nascar!

In October, one of my sweet friends offered us tickets to the race at the Kansas Speedway. Thankfully, we were able to find a sitter for the younger kids and we were really able to surprise Kelton! We managed to keep it a secret until we were well on our way to Kansas City.






We had a great time (even though there weren't any good wrecks and Kyle didn't win) and I crossed #29 off my 30 year list.

Dillon's Shopping Trip 11/4

It's been forever since I posted a shopping trip, mostly because I don't have time to take a picture! I did snap a quick pic (minus 2 organic green peppers) of last weekend's grocery shopping though because it really shows how I shop.

I don't go out and buy 100 pkgs of ramen noodles or beanie weanies because I can get them free. I don't have 100 deodorants stashed under my toddlers bed. Every closet I own is not full of shampoo, shaving cream or fabric softener.

I stock up when something's on sale. I try to use a coupon for every single item I buy. I try to save my coupons to use during a sale. There are also times, I just buy what I need, when I need it.

I was actually pretty proud of this trip, considering all 3 children were along for the ride. The total was $28.15 before tax, with my total savings (according to the receipt) $53.26. It wasn't the best money saving trip I've made, just normal every day shopping. Extreme couponer, I AM NOT.

Things like the Honest Tea, I got because they were super cheap (.25). Things like the hair mousse and Enjoy Life cookies, I don't even know how much they were, just that we needed them (I did have coupons though).

Happy Halloween!!

We finally got around to carving our pumpkins on Sunday afternoon. Kelton went with the symbol for the red ranger, Katie insisted on polka dots and Konnor's was just a pumpkin face.




Sunday evening, Kelton and I finally BOOED the neighbors. Like carving pumpkins, were a little late getting around to this also. It's always so much fun. It'll be great when the other two are old enough for us to do this as a family.


Monday evening, we couldn't wait to get into our costumes and go get some candy!


Jason, Dolly and Braylee came over to have fun with us!

For as strong of personality as Katie has, she can be surprisingly timid and wouldn't go up to a door without Kelton.


Konnor figured out what was going on immediately and would have trick or treated all night if we would have let him!



Was he not the cutest skunk ever?

I had a little mommy moment since he's my last baby,
so the last one to wear the costume.
Katie 2010

Kelton 2005

These are the yummy treats I made for Kelton's class.

And the pumpkin spice rice krispy treats I made for Katie's class.

I also had fun making these pumpkin lanterns.

I'm actually super glad Halloween is over! Now on to Thanksgiving and then Christmas! With as busy as we'll be, the rest of the year will be over in a blink!