What are you thankful for each day?

Every day you will usually think, I am thankful for this, or I am so glad that I did this for this. Etc, etc, etc. I try to think each day before I go to bed about the great things that have been great to me that day. I am thankful for at least 5 things before I go to bed. It helps me to relax, and go to bed with good thoughts on my brain. I love it.

When you go to bed, do you have a smile on your face? Do you think, I am so lucky I have a bed to sleep in, or I have 4 walls and a roof over my head while I sleep right now. I am so thankful for the little things in life that I can not believe that God has blessed me with. I am so thankful that I have such an amazing life. Is there stress? Of course. I would be lying saying that I live in this perfect lala land.

I hope for Thanksgiving this year, you can start a new tradition, everyone say one thing you are thankful for and every night at dinner continue the tradition for a whole year. Look at how amazing your outlook will turn out to be! I will start, I am very thankful for the amazing life God has given me, and I am thankful for all of you wonderful readers!

Do you think it is too early?

Too early for Christmas that is! My husband having duty means me and the babies get to start getting our Christmas stuff ready for being put out this week! I love putting my Christmas stuff out early, this year we get to enjoy it the whole month of December! I am so thankful for that!

What is you family tradition for Christmas decorating? We always go the day after Christmas and buy our Christmas tree. Last year we had to wait for daddy to come home but you can bet your sweet tooth we did get a tree within 24 hours of daddy being home :) What can I say, We are spoiled rotten by that amazing man!

I got my Christmas music going, my house is freezing even though it is only 53 degrees out side in Beautiful South Carolina. We are all pitching in getting things put away from the week of just throwing things here and there. I am thankful that my children are getting to an age where everyone can help me with chores now. I know that one day I will see how spoiled I have gotten with them helping me. I hope that I am able to make sure they know how much I appreciate all the amazing help and amazing friendship each has given to me.

I look forward to one day being old and gray, and having my babies around with all my family for holidays. I pray everyone will be able to make it home from where they are serving, going to school or living.

I pray you have an amazing day everyone, take a little time to celebrate the fact you woke up today, Just the fact you get to open your eyes each day for a second chance is a blessing in it's self! 

Love saving money!!!

As a military family, saving money is a key component to our survival. To be a stay at home mom, we make sacrifices. I am so blessed that I am able to work from home doing what I love to do and be able to participate with my children with school.

I love finding the best deal, I will shop at stores that double or honor competitors ads.  I went to Bi-Lo yesterday and got amazing deals!  I saved $78.30 and only had to pay $52.21!

Here is a picture of my great score!

What are you favorite deals that you like to use with coupons? I love doubling, it make me feel like I am doing so much more for my family! I only wish I could have an enormous stock pile, One can only wish.....

Thanksgiving is coming fast....

Thanksgiving is my second favorite holiday next to Christmas. I love all the food and everything is SOOOO GOOD!!! Being from Texas, we always have alot of food on our table, I am guessing it is all great southern food. I love our sweet potatoes, I especially love the marshmellows on top. I love the green bean casserole. The best part of our Thanksgiving meal is the Cherry Pie!!!


I can not wait to have our pictures of our wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. What is your favorite part of you Thanksgiving dinner?

Do you have any traditions that are great? Tell me about them! I want to add some more to our family time! Leave your feedback here!

Is your cup half empty or half full?

When I wake up in the morning, I can honestly say, I am happy that I have another day to spend with my amazing family!  I took a picture recently and people commented how happy I looked. I have gotten alot happier since I have met some friends here. It is an amazing thing when you have someone just to say hi, even if they are not your real friend. I love meeting new people and I love having friends. I love to see the good in everything.

I think that smiling will automatically make you feel good about a situation, I will be the first to admit that it is hard sometimes when things are not going my way and I dont know I am going to do what needs to be done. I have to take a deep breath and re-evaluate the situation.  Sometimes in life you have to take a deep breath and re-evaluate how your life is going. Life is not always fair to how we want things to go, but it is how we should live. WE have the power on how we live our life.

Sorry for the rambling today. I was driving home and the weather was great, I rolled the window down and turned the music up. It is a simple pleasure that made me think how happy my life truly is. I pray for you today that you life is as happy and amazing as mine.


So how is it for you? Is your cup half empty or half full?

Here is the picture that I was talking about:

Smith Fish Tacos

I am not a fish fan at all! I love these tacos though! It is a very easy dinner for our crazy family when we are on the go! The recipe is very quick:
Ingredients:
1 bag of BeerBattered Fish filets
1 package of Corn Tortillas
Shredred Lettuce or Cabbage
Guacamole already made or homemade
4 tbs of Ranch Dressing
2 TBS of Sour Cream
Heat up your fish by following the directions on the bag/box. Take your corn tortillas, take 2, and heat them in a pan. Take 2 tortillas, place them in hand or plate. Put  your sauce on the tortilla on half. Then put 1 or 2 pieces of fish on the tortilla. close up the taco and add some Lettuce or Shredded Cabbage on top.   It is Yummy!!!
To Make sauce: Mix the guacamole, ranch and sour cream.  Let sit for a while or while the fish cooks to merry the flavors.
This is YUMMY!!! Pictures to come....

I have a real life prince charming.....

I am thankful for this crazy life that God has given me. I am married to an American Hero. Every year on November 10th, Marines all over the world stop for a moment to celebrate the birth of the Marine Corps. You will hear Marines laughing, sharing drinks and saying Happy Birthday to each other. If you had not known what the event was for, you would think you were at the biggest birthday party for a bunch of people. Everyeone is dressed up, Marines in their Dress Blues or Aplphas, and their dates in their ball gowns with hair up, full make up , or for the male spouses, in their tux. The Marine Corps birthday is a great deal of tradition. If you are lucky enough to attend a ball, you see the tradition with the pagents, the different commidants messages and of course the Fallen Marines Table. That table always brings a tear to my eye. It makes me stop for a moment and remember there are Marines that you pass at the commissary, at walmart, anywhere that will leave on the wives dreaded white bus, and come home in a coffin draped in an American flag. Giving the ultimate sacrifice of their life for our freedom.  Today I hear the National Anthem and it kills me. I sweel with pride and tears start to flow. I know the sacrafices that our country endures everyday for our freedoms and I am so proud to sacrifice for our Country.

I am thankful beyond words that God has given me this life, I have learned how life is so fragile, and I know truly how to make the best of each day with my Marine, even through the grumpy times. I am still thankful during our fights that may occur that he is standing next me, even mad but still standing next to me..... I am thankful that he is at least still next to me. I think it is hard for civillian people to understand the true agnoy that rips through us each night as we lay down to bed.

It is ok though, I am thankful that one day I will have my Marine home every night. I will not glady pass the torch to a new Marine Wife to a new Marine, I want to make sure that the next wife who takes my place in the Marine Corps will be strong and be understanding. It is not her Marines fault he has to work or  I hope they understand that His heart is ripping out of his chest when he gives his wife one last hug before heading to the bus for his deployment time.

This post turned into so much more then what I was going to post.... I guess God sometimes has better words then our plans!

Till we meet again.... <3

School has a way of making me get behind!

Like the title says, School has a way of making me behind. I was recently voted the pto president of dizzles school. I am loving every minute of it and it does make me behind sometimes. I am having to learn a whole new organization for myself. I definetly make sure that I have time for God every morning. It may not be a whole lot of time but I give my time selfless. He is worth the time and more.

With Thanksgiving coming up faster and faster, I am loving the fact that I am going to be home this year for Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is nice that we will be a family for one time. It is far and few between that we are all together for these holidays. Last year, we didnt have daddy with us for Thanksgiving. It was not the way I wanted to celebrate but I had to be Thankful last year that daddy was almost home. I am extremely thankful that this year we got our daddy home this year.

This year I am going to start doing Christmas Crafts and  I will be posting them online! I can't wait. Do you have favorite crafts? Do you have favorite recipes? Share them with me! I would love them!

Fablous Friday

Happy Fablous Friday Everyone!!! In our house, Friday is a fun day. We know that we can kick back after school, watch tv before bed and stay up a little later then we normally do! It is always a fun day for us. Saturday morning is a great day as well knowing that I can sleep until 7:30 without the dog in my face to say "mama time to wake up"

Speaking of dogs, We recently brought a new dog into our family, Maggie. She is absolutely adorable. She is a german shephard/golden retriever mix. She has the cutest ears and a mean bark. She was abused by someone at some time and as a result, she is afraid of EVERYTHING!!!! We have started to build up her confidence again. She is coming along just fine, the on ly thing complaint is that she is starting to have seperation anxiety. She has chewed the following items in the last few days: A Purple marker, my house slippers, Daddys house slippers and a few straggler toys from the kids. Thinking it might be time to maybe get a crate and crate train her. I dont like that but I really dont like coming home to see what she has chewed up next.

I am going to try and make a new recipe up this weekend, Maybe a new cornbread. We are southern and love our corn bread! It is absolutely yummy! God has blessed us with so many blessings in the last week, I an so thankful for that. I can not believe that he loves us so much that he wants us to only have the very best! This next week I am going to try each day and thank Jesus for each blessing I see, I have a feeling that I will be thanking him for everything! :)

Have an amazing weekend and remember, We can do all things thru Christ who strengthens us!

Sonia

17 days and I am 30!

AS I get closer to my 30th birthday, I am realizing that  I have changed so much over the last few years. It seems like yesterday I graduated high school, then got married and had a baby. That baby "A" is about to be 9 years old.  I am starting to be come more picky with my friends, my family and how things are done. I dont want to waste time with petty things anymore. I want to enjoy the life that God has given me so much. I see around me the beautiful place he put me into, he wanted me to be here and there has to be a reason, he has put people in my path that are meant to be met by me. I just need to figure out why! LOL

I am still unsure how to break into the new groups out here, My husband is not a DI or Drill Instructor. The DI families are so tightly knit, that if you are not married to a DI you are not in the cool club. I just dont want to mess with the pettiness of that. I want someone to be my friend becuse they like me alot, they love my company, and they kinda adore my family as well..

Upon looking at my next 30 years, I want to know that my life meant something to many people, I want people to always think the best of me. I want them to remember that I am funny, kinda kooky and just a bit crazy. I also want them to know that I love Jesus with all my heart, and that my family has been my inspiration to wake up every day, endure all the long hours and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I know in my next 30 years, time will fly so I am wise enough to try and enjoy every moment given to me.  For some reason, we forget that time is short, we live our daily lives with problems and forget all the blessings that are so much more important then that.  So in the next month, I am going to try and make a new friend out here and I hope that everyone can find one thing a day that is absolutely so amazing and you never even knew it was right in front of you!

Have an amazing day everyone!


Sonia

Smith Family Buffalo Chicken Wraps

I am not a big fan of spicy. It just doesnt work for me. I have recently tried to start eating alot more diverse things. ONe thing we tried was Buffalo Chicken Wraps. I made the recipe from scratch. Just thinking of using the items that we have.

Ingredients:
Chicken tenders
franks hot sauce
lettuce
cheese
ranch
tortillas


First I took chicken tenders and Franks Hot Sauce and put them in a bag and let them "soak" for about 2 hours. I then took the tenders all bright orange to the grill. This made them even more orange ha ha. I cooked until cooked through.  When all the chicken had been cooked, I started to assemble them!

When assembeling them, take your tortilla. Put in two chicken tenders, a small sprinkle of cheese, some shredded lettuce, and a drizzle of ranch dressing. ( my family doesnt like the taste of blu cheee, just dont care for it!)  Wrap up like a taco. They taste amazing, not too hot for our family.

We also do this same recipe with teriyaki marinade and they taste absolutely amazing, just a small hint of sweetness.

Almost 30 and so excited!!!

 Today is July 15th and the month well the whole year has just flown by quickly! I can not believe how fast it has gone by. It almost seems like when we found out we were moving, time went into fast forward. God has opened so many doors for us this year. It has been amazing. God can open so many doors to you and you will never know it. I have wanted to work for many months. I needed something that I could do from home as it is my husbands desire for me to be an at home mom.  I was offered a position with a popular phone company and I am soooo excited! I am able to make good income while working from home. It is amazing!  I am almost finished with my Associates Degree! I am so excited that God has given me the strength to be able to do it.  I want to be able to show my babies that it can be done to go to school, work and raise a family. I am also showing them that it is not exactly a carnival and it takes alot of hard work!  I have been busy working on new recipes to post! I have about 3 that I have created by myself and I am super excited to share these with you!

Hope that everyone has an amazing day, it is super rainy here and I dont care! Why? Because I know even when it is grey there is sunshine trying to break the clouds!

Smile and keep looking ahead!

Slow and Steady wins the race

Well Hello everyone! I know that I have been a little distant lately, I have been super busy trying to get involved with my new community along with trying to get involved with my new house. It is a weird feeling to just not feel at home in your home. I feel like a visitor in my new home. I am not comfortable yet. We got new neighbors just yesterday. It was weird meeting them and realizing that everything is the same between our families, same age kids, all the same sex as well. The wife is named Casey and so is my husband. The husband is not named Sonia so I guess we are ok there ha ha ha ha ha. God has been good to us here. We are seeing much favor in our new home. We just adopted a new dog this last friday. I prayed for God to show us a new dog and for her to be perfect for us. This was on Thursday. On friday I found maggie and now we have a shephard mix with a super sweet personality. She is very much my dog. Daddy trys to play with her.She just kind of wags her tail to him and then runs back to me. She is a very shy 10 month old. She trys to play with Bella but poor thing, she doesnt realize that she is 45 lbs and Bella is only 8 lbs. ha ha ha. Well I hope to be able to post alot more. Pictures to come with Miss Maggie! She is a cutie! :)

- Sonia

Boxes, Boxes and oh some more boxes!

One thing about a military move is that you learn how to un pack really quick. I had unpacked two boxes in under 5 minutes, the movers were shocked. It only encouraged them to bring the boxes in more quickly! Today is a day of unpacking and doing laundry. I know, please stop it! Please stop being soooooo jealous of me! LOL I totally would! Well I actually do like putting things in new places and it is kinda fun to re decorate a new house. My bedroom here in South Carolina is alot bigger then it was in California. Although we allowed our daughter to have one of pieces, since her room is the guest room. We anticipate alot more guest now that we are closer to our families.  My kids first day of school went great! Lele had a blast, she made two new friends. I am so thankful that she has made them! When we walked in her class, all the little girls waved at her, they couldnt wait to talk to her! I love that!!! Dizzle didnt miss a beat when walking in and just making friends left and right! I love that too! Well, I got to start getting my babies ready, another short post today! Maybe tomorrow I can show some pictures of things we have moved and decorated our home with!

The start of normal..... Well Sort of!

Today the kids start school. They are nervous, I am nervous. It is just like the first day of school. Well I guess it is the first day of school. Ok to stop the rambling now. HA HA HA. I am watching my house fill up with all of my posessions. It is nice to see my stuff again. It is funny though, we are looking at things like, do you remember what that is??? My poor coco, he is looking at things and getting so excited, but he is banned to the kitchen. We are waiting on pizza to arrive, we like to help feed our movers, We feel so helpless watching people move things. I guess that isj ust us. Daddy got a big grin on his face watching his "babies" be wheeled into the back yard. What, why the puzzled look? Daddy has babies- His grills lol. Well todays post is going to be short and sweet, Thank you Jesus for your amazing love and grace!

Moving into a new home is a process for most, For Military families it is secod nature! We know that when the TMO truck comes and all the furniture is taken away it is time for the lawn chairs and plastic tote tables. We are in our new home and can I say, God has blessed us with soooo much more then we could have ever asked for! I am in just shock!!! I am so thankful for all the wonderful moments it took to get to our new home. We stopped in Houston to visit family for Easter.

We then went to Louisana to visit my husbands family! They are so awesome! I am so glad that I married into that family! They are so funny and we acutally realized that my husband is alot like them in many ways! Here is pics along the way!



We then went to Alabama to visit more of my husbands family! We had a blast there too! We were right in the middle of the Tornado warnings. It was scary, my babies were scared out of their mind. The have never been in that situation especially since they have been in Cali their whole life! Or most of it!

Here are some pictures from that leg of the trip:

These are pictures from Georgia, it was so sad to see the horrible devistation that the Tornado had done.  I am sure that God had his hands on us as we were in a very short distance from the tornados that hit in Alabama.

All in all our trip was fun! Filled with lots of family and alot of scared times as we were scared, nervous and waiting for our time to get our house. Our trip ended on Thursday as we drove up to our new house and it was so much fun! Friday we got to go inside and like I have said, it was so much more then we could have ever asked for!

On a side note, Today is my sons birthday! He is 3 today! It is so crazy to think that my family became completely complete 3 years ago!!! Have a great day everyone!! Another crazy day here in the smith family!

Are you ok???

Hhmmmm I had never thought of that till this morning, literally right now. I was looking out my window staring at the cornucopia of trees in Alabama, and my husband said , "are you OK?" I just looked at him a little shocked and said yes, then turned to the window again and the tears flowed. I had never once thought am I OK? I am moving across the country to uncharted territory, well it is uncharted to me ha ha ha. AI had tried to focus 100% on my babies and husband. I was more worried about my dog then myself! Seriously! Isn't that like a mom to always out herself last! I just prayed to God, please lord, comfort me and help me to be OK. I never want to cry but sometimes it is just good to have a good one! It helps to cleanse the soul. Thank you Jesus for your love and comfort! Signing off from Alabama! Hope you have a great day!!!

This post is from last week! Just got the chance to post it today!

Hoppy Easter!

Today we celebrate the fact that our Lord and Savior raised from the death and showed that he could beat death. As our pastor said today, you cant keep a good man down! Amen!!! We love to play Easter Bunny for our babies. We or the Easter Bunny.... excuse me ha ha ha. He brought some great candies that daddy likes. He brought some stuff i like too. Imagine that! But the best part of his gifts was the great childrens bibles my babies got! I got A an adventure bible for 9-12. For B , he got an adventure bible for 4-7 yrs old. They were so excited to see that the Easter Bunny was loving Jesus just like us ;)
Happy Easter and celebrate the living God and Thank you Jesus fo your loving grace and mercy! He is Risen!!!!

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We left our temporary home!

It is crazy! As military families, we are not afforded the luxuriea of having homes in the same home town as our families, often we have to move constantly. We were not moving anywhere a few months back, then one day my husband comes home and says guess what, we are moving to South Carolina! I just kinda look at him and say ok, when? He smiles and says in 3 weeks! Really? 3 weeks? I have done things in 3 weekz but move my entire family of 5 across the country? Oh my goodness. It was an adventure I was ready to do! I will update everyone on our adventure!

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