3cuties4me

Oh boy do I EVER worry about this! LOL! I worry about getting the same amount of presents, spending the same amount of $... I even worry about if their "piles" of toys look even!! CRAZY! I just bought Alexis the new "Dora Pony Place"... she loves Dora and LOVES ponies so this is PERFECT! BUT NOW she has 1 more gift then the other 2... and it was $40 (I had to add on the Diego pack, too)! SO, I went and found the other 2 another $40 gift (which worked out good for Austin because I wanted to get him the Thomas Aquadoodle so bad)! But still - one more gift turned into 3 more gifts and $120! LOL! AND... I'm done shopping! I say this... and then... I find something else one of them just "has to have" and that means all 3 must have something else! It's just enough to about make ya crazy! Haha! ~ Erin (23y/o SAHM to 3 cuties ages 3 and under)

Teeheehee... an old lady's couch! LOL! That's funny! We get lots of compliments on it. I think it looks more "country" - which is definitely the theme of our home! Should be, we are surrounded by acres and acres of corn and beans (well, were - they are out of the fields now... of course... lol)! ~ Erin (23y/o SAHM to 3 cuties ages 3 and under)

They have the castle as a bundle this year, but with shipping you are not saving much... They also have a "furniture bundle" where you can get the 6 sets of furniture for $34.97 (plus shipping)... Just go to walmart.com and type in dora's castle... both of those will come up! ~ Erin (23y/o SAHM to 3 cuties ages 3 and under)

Thank-you all for all the compliments I feel so blessed to have my 3 little cuties!! They mean absolutely everything to me. My husband and I actually lost our first baby at 17 weeks pregnant just 8 months after we got married... we both know how blessed we are to now have 3 precious healthy little ones with us! They absolutely light up our each and every day :) :) :) Sunshyne - Yes, the couch is a blue/green plaid! We bought ours at a K's Merchandise store! I LOVED that store... and they are now going out of business It took me FOREVER to find a shower curtain... that is actually the only one I could find so I snatched it up (I also love snowmen - so it worked perfectly for me)! LOL! I couldn't figure out where to put the stockings! So I figured that would work. Yes, the oldest is up top, the middle in the center and the baby's is down low - all tied on with ribbon. Next year I will have to get a new stocking for the baby. This year hers is pink and says "Baby's first Chrsitmas"! I am wanting to get personalized stockings for each of the kids... but I just couldn't find any I liked this year! Thank-you all again :) ~ Erin (23y/o SAHM to 3 cuties ages 3 and under... hoping to be blessed with 2-3 more little cuties in the future)!

Oh - lol... I do pretty good with just one at a time doing the pics myself! BUT for the main picture of all 3 of them my husband is standing right behind me jumping around making tons of funny noises and faces! LOL! It took us about 10 minutes. I actually took about 50 pictures in that time and then just picked the best out of those (thank goodness for digital... lol)! OH - and my son... we were bribing with candy ~ Erin (23y/o SAHM to 3 cuties ages 3 and under)

Hello! I have absolutely LOVED looking through everyone's pictures of their beautiful homes! I thought I would share some pictures of ours too. It is pretty simple... not a LOT of decorations... but we will continue to add throughout the years. Next year I want to buy another tree for the dining room! And we plan on adding a nice complete nativity scene to the yard! Tonight I will try and get some pics of our house all lit up (if I can get to the bottom of our drive in the dark... it is PACKED with ice)! We have it completely done in icicle lights and then have the porches wrapped and we have 2 lighted deer and a tree out front! We got 15 inches of snow/ice on Friday! We just got dug out yesterday afternoon... yesterday morning my dh spent 3.5 hours shoveling out as much as he could just so he could get to work (LATE... lol)! OH and also included is our Christmas card :) I LOVE taking pictures and this year I made the card too! I had so much fun doing it!!! Not professional, of course... but SO much cheaper and we all enjoyed it so much more Thanks for looking! Enjoy :) http://lovemylifex3.tripod.com/Christmas2006/ ~ Erin (23y/o SAHM to 3 cuties ages 3 and under... and hoping for 2-3 more little ones in the future)!

I love it!!!! So totally decked out for Christmas :) :) :) We do our bathroom too! LOL! Everyone thinks it's funny! It's more of a winter theme with snowmen (so stays out all winter)... but we have the shower curtain, bath rugs, soap dispenser, etc...! Thanks for sharing!!!! ~ Erin (23y/o SAHM to 3 cuties ages 3 and under)

Not nuts at all I bought the huge Thomas set that walmart had (they had it for BF but I just bought it the other day) for my son for NEXT Christmas! LOL! Sounds like a good idea to me ~ Erin (23y/o SAHM to 3 cuties ages 3 and under)!

I love it!! Absolutely beautiful!! How awesome that you have 4 children too :) My kids are 3, 2 and 10 months and dh and I are hoping to have a couple more. I do not have problems with my older two getting into the presents/decorations ---- but my 10 month old ... EEK! I spend all day chasing her everywhere! LOL! You did a great job!!!! ~ Erin (23y/o SAHM to 3 cuties ages 3 and under)

It's coming... only 3 more weeks (well, from tomorrow... but 3 weeks from today is Christmas Eve... so close enough) What all will you do this week to get ready? We have pretty much everything ready, however, this week I have a few crafts planned for the kids and I am also going to have them make some ornaments to put on "their" tree (we have a lot of store bought ones... but I want them making new ornaments every year too for their tree)! We will take them to see Santa this week and will go and look at Christmas lights! I will also go over my baking list and make sure I have everything bought to start "NEXT" Wednesday! I will also make my list of things I need to buy at the beginning of next week (milk, butter)! Okay, so if anyone is interested I thought we could do 'countdown' threads now. Starting at the beginning of everyweek (only a couple more to go... lol Christmas is getting CLOSE)! You can post your list of things you want to accomplish this week to get ready for the holidays! Do you still need to decorate, buy presents (to who and do you know what you are getting), wrap presents, send cards... WHATEVER! Jingle Bells... Jingle Bells... Jingle All The Way ~ Erin (23y/o SAHM to 3 cuties ages 3 and under)

YES I am SOOOOO excited! OMGOSH I canNOT wait!!!! My kids are almost 4, almost 3 and almost 1 (LOL - all January/early February bdays) and this year is just going to be SO much fun!!!!! I can't wait to see their little faces when they walk down the stairs and see the presents Santa left... and start tearing off that paper... and then head to the basement for their BIG surprise (a huge bounce house)! OMGOSH! I'm so excited! Only 3 more weeks from tomorrow! EEK! I can't believe that in 3 weeks from today it will be Christmas Eve!!! YAY YAY YAY! In 1.5 weeks (next WEDNESDAY) we will start all of our holiday baking!! I have the cards made and sent, presents bought and most wrapped (just have the kids stuff to wrap... and USUALLY I wait until Christmas Eve to do that... but this year I am wrapping before)! I have all the hoiday decorations out and our home is totally lit up! We are making plans to go this next week to see Santa and look at lights. We will also go the Friday before Christmas to see Santa again and look at lights!!! I am so excited!!!! :) ~ Erin (23y/o SAHM to 3 cuties ages 3 and under)!

I am about half done now! YAY! Bad thing is that my kids won't stop asking if it's time to open them! LOL! They each have one present under the tree, so far, and I'm just about ready to give in (MUST RESIST)! LOL! I still have all the rest of my kids presents to wrap! So, about... 50 presents to go! I have them in the basement and my dad brought up some huge banquet tables (from a place that went out of business so I "inherited" them... lol) and I have the gifts spread out on those. I have to go down and tally up what all needs batteries... get those bought and put into whatever is needing them (a learned lesson from previous years... lol)! I also have to wrap my dh's presents. I should do that today - he is bad about snooping LOL! Besides, he is complaining that there is nothing under the tree for him yet (lol)! I LOVE LOVE LOVE wrapping presents! Everyone has always told me I should be a professional wrapper! Teehee! ~ Erin (SAHM to 3 cuties ages 3 and under)!

I'm maybe on here 30 minutes/day (10 minutes in the morning, 10 in the afternoon, 10 before bed). I'm a SAHM to 3 little ones ages 3 and under... so most of my day is spent chasing them! LOL! And then there's all that house cleaning, doing laundry and baking that I'm suppose to be doing.... but if it wasn't for all that I'd be on here more ~ Erin (SAHM to 3 cuties ages 3 and under)

WELL, I guess for my mom the good news is that she finally figured out today what she wanted to get my brothers 2 girls. She went to walmart and got them the dora tv/dvd combo that they had on BF (still had like 30 left she said) and she got them the vsmile for $30! LOL! She said there is still tons and tons of stuff. The aisles are all completely packed! I have no idea what they will do with everything... I'm sure most will not sell until there's a bigger discount! Strangely... usually from Black Friday to Christmas ANYTIME you go to walmart there are a lot of people. My mom said she pulled in and got a spot really close to the front - nobody really there. ~ Erin

Still tons of VSmiles left at our store too! ~ Erin

I just got back from walmart and there is still TONS of stuff! OMGOSH - the amount of PJ's they have is CRAZY!!!! They have SO much stuff left... I saw EVERYTHING there that I had ordered on-line We do not have a Circuit City or Best Buy... I'm sure it must have been the whole getting rid of layaway thing that really hurt them here!!! ~ Erin (SAHM to 3 cuties ages 3 and under)!

I went this evening really late and our walmart still had TONS of stuff! I wish I had not ordered on-line now... They had pallets of the VSmiles for $30, tons of the Thomas sets, Cabbage Patch Snuggle Bear things, a few of the Little People toys, push toys, TONS and TONS and TONS of PJ's, the coffeemakers... I don't know - everything was everywhere!! There is SO much stuff! We also had like 18 carts lined up in the front of our store (near customer service) and employee's were sorting out the things that people were returning! I could barely get through! ~ Erin (23y/o SAHM to 3 cuties ages 3 and under)

Last year I sent them out on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving! LOL! I was so excited that I was so ahead of the game! AND THEN... my grandma calls to tell me on THAT Wednesday "Hey, thanks for the Christmas card"! Obviously, our mail guy dropped it off at her house THAT DAY! YIKES! That was too early! Some other family members ALSO got the card that day! LOL! So this year I thought I would mail them the Monday after Thanksgiving. It is not going to happen! I LOVE photography and do all of my kids "professional" pictures... I have the pictures done but have not made the cards yet I have to do that this week and get them ordered (thankfully, it will only take about 3-4 days to get them after ordering). I'm hoping to have them sent out by the 11th of December! ~ Erin (SAHM to 3 cuties ages 3 and under)

Wow... I must be weird (haha)! I like to be done by HALLOWEEN!!!! I shop all year long for good deals, though... I do buy a lot on Black Friday... but not for Christmas! My kids bdays are January 3, January 30 and February 6 so I start working on those now! Dh's birthday is November 9th. Everything (except my bday in June) seems to hit at once!!!! I actually bought the Thomas set from walmart yesterday for my son for NEXT Christmas! LOL! I'll find some pieces "hopefully" on good deals throughout the year to add to it... If something happens and one of them decides they REALLY want something from Santa, though... I can always move one of their Christmas presents back to be a bday present and get whatever it is they are really wanting! LOL! ~ Erin (23 y/o SAHM to 3 cuties ages 3 and under)!

$30 Sears, $275 Gamemasters (broke down and bought my dh the rifle he wants "sooooo" bad... lol... but I saved $100 on it... so that's good), $65 Shop-Ko, $110 toysrus.com, $45 amazon.com, $215 kohls, $80 KMart, $130 walmart.com So I spent $950 and am going shopping this afternoon again with my mom. I need to go to Penney's (ya know - they are having their "biggest sale of the year" this weekend ) and I need to go to walmart... didn't even step foot in there yesterday!! ~ Erin (23 y/o SAHM to 3 cuties ages 3 and under)!

12-15... This year they are each getting 15... their 3 bigger ones will be set up and 12 will be wrapped. Plus their big gift (Sesame Street Bouncer) will be set up in the basement and will be the last thing they see... Plus, stockings. My daughters first Christmas I bought her like 30 presents. LOL! I think 15 presents/child is a good number for us. We would like to have 3 more children... so eventually any more than 15'ish presents each would be way too much for Christmas morning! LOL! ~ Erin (23 y/o SAHM to 3 cuties ages 3 and under)

EEK! I love wrapping presents :) Okay, so basically, I get everything bought (done...) and then after I get our tree's up I start wrapping! I cannot get everything done in one evening after the kids go to bed, though! SO, what I do is I get each of the kids one item out and wrap it. Then I start on all the other family. That can take like - all week! LOL! I'm very much so a 'perfectionist' when it comes to wrapping... I love lots of ribbon and cute little name tags and all that! Anyways, so all the 'adult' presents have wrapping paper that matches my tree (teehee)! This year the paper is silver/gold/white. Everything gets wrapped in that - but the ribbon and everything will not all look the same. Some will be red/gold, some green/silver, some red/green... whatever! Then the KID presents (neices, nephews, cousins) go under the KID tree (LOL - yes we have a "MY" tree and a "KID" tree... teehee) and they each get wrapped in different paper. My kids presents that I wrap and put under the tree 'early' go under this tree... Oh - and I wrap while listening to Christmas music too!! Although, no wine here... I'm a hot chocolate girl! LOL! Okay... and then normally I save all the other kid gifts to wrap after the kids are in bed on Christmas Eve! HOWEVER, last year - I wrapped everything and dh assembled everything that had to be put together..... and I was up until 5am I am NOT doing that again! I was completely exhausted! LOL - but at 5am I was SO tired I was getting to my 'nutty' stage and didn't go to bed. I just stayed up and worked on picking up a few things around the house and made a pie (LOL) and at 8am on the dot I was running around getting everyone out of bed... teeheehee.... SO, this year I am going to slowly wrap all the Santa gifts/the rest of the gifts from us throughout the few weeks before Christmas. So, on Christmas Eve after the little ones are all tucked into bed - all I have to do is bring the gifts up and put them under the tree. Dh will have things to assemble still... but we should be in bed by midnight/1am!!! I'm trying to figure out - if the things I wrap for the kids I should leave in their original packaging (like I normally do)... or if some of the things I should go ahead and open so we don't have to do that that morning? It takes SO much work on Christmas morning to get everything out of their packages! By the end of the day my fingers HURT! UGH! Oh and dh does NOT wrap the gifts. YIKES! The 8 things he gets me takes him about 4 hours to wrap! Teehee! He is not a perfectionist about it - and I do not care... but he knows I am and he tries SO hard! But it's so funny - he will be in our room wrapping and I'll hear the paper rip and then I'll hear him yelling, "DANGIT"! Haha... ~ Erin (23 y/o SAHM to 3 cutes ages 3 and under)

My kids (3, 2 and 10 months) probably don't care (LOL).... yet.... but I try to keep both equal. Definitely they all get the same # of gifts... and I try to keep the $ amount equal too! I always try to make sure I spend the same amount on my neices/nephews. We always get each of them two gifts... we have a limit of $40 total - so if one gift is $30... the other is $10... if one is $20 the other is $20... ~ Erin (SAHM to 3 cuties ages 3 and under)

I cannot wait to wrap all the presents and get them under the tree(s)! Today we are putting up our other tree and I'll start wrapping tomorrow ~ Erin (23 y/o SAHM to 3 cuties ages 3 and under)

They are going to have little 10" bikes with training wheels for 1/2 off (will be $19.99) in the morning! They will have Diego, Dora, Princess and Ariel. I figure it would be good enough for my 2 year old and I need one for my cousin who just turned 2! ~ Erin (23 y/o SAHM to 3 cuties ages 3 and under)