Cain's Birthday trip and The Stringer's Christmas!

The Christmas ship set sail this past weekend! It started with a Christmas/Birthday party for Cain Friday night. It was wonderful having a lot of our family over to our home to celebrate Cain's birthday. Although not everyone could make it I'm so truly thankful for the Birthday wishes to Cain :) 

Saturday morning we woke up early to make a quick trip to Chicago! This trip was a gift to Cain (and me!) from Scott and Ruthie. When Scott first called me a few months back asking what I thought about this trip to Chicago for Cain, I loved the idea.... but was jealous, because I wanted in on it too! But as he finished out the plan and ideas I realized.... he wanted ME to take Cain... I was pumped!

The gift was to go see Christopher Titus on his tour! Who is Christopher Titus? Well you're crazy if you haven't heard of him ... or you just don't like to laugh! :p For real, look up his stuff on YouTube. When Cain and I started dating Cain would listen to Christopher Titus in the car on road trips. I sat there listening to him and ended up crying it was so funny.

So a long story short, he told Cain on Thanksgiving and we were both extremely excited for this Saturday to come! 

But if I was going to be in the chill town I HAD to stop in at Crate and Barrel. It's only my favorite place to go (There and Target!) So we did some shopping and eating while town down. So much fun :)

Here I caught Cain making his "Thinking" face. 

The show was amazing! We will do this again.

Picture before we walked in ...

This birthday trip felt more like a anniversary trip! The time spent away with Cain was so great. We both agreed we need to do more weekend get aways! THANK you so much Scott and Ruthie for the trip, will never forget it!

On to Christmas at the Stringer's! 

Growing up and getting married is amazing.... you get a extra set of families and more Christmas parties... BUT you have to fit all the parties into your schedule around this time of year and we can't be the only ones who have a hard time making sure you make it to every party?!! Are we?! 

My mom decided to do our family Christmas before Christmas this year. Seeing how Cain works Christmas day it didn't leave many more options! 

It was great Christmas with the family. We opened gifts, had a great dinner (Thanks mom for cooking amazing, healthy foods!) and even played a game. 

My dad made each of us kids a handmade "Aggravation" board game. It really was a amazing gift and he did awesome on the board. He can make others if anyone is interested! - Lenny Stringer

Now we are taking a break on the Christmas parties and family get togethers and both had to go back to work today! But we will be at it again tomorrow for Christmas eve!

More Christmas things to come :) 

Hippie in me

Something I forgot to write in the post about our goals for the new year is going completely natural with everything else in our life besides food. Hair care, skin care and cleaning products! I have a whole year so I'm not going to dive into everything at once, but slowly turn over to the other side... the natural pure side of living! Aka, a hippie.

I swear I won't go without a bra, but if I could I probably would!

So I already switched my shampoo, but haven't found something I love yet. I've used the baking soda for almost 5 months now. And am trying honey right now, but am not liking it as much. So that's something I will be working on the next couple of weeks.

The next thing is deodorant! I wasn't aware of the dangers in deodorant. They are linking it to breast cancer and prostate cancer in men! Why risk it when you can easily make your own, or buy a natural kind in either a health store or online.

I'm a cheapo so I'm going to make my own for Cain and I both! I haven't told Cain this yet, but he will find out soon lol he is normally always on board when it comes to being healthier and safer. So I think he will be game. And it will save us money in the long run also which I'm excited about!

Here is a video explaining some of the dangers and also a way of making your own!

VIDEO  <<<<

I am going to do this deodorant  from the Wellness Mama!

Here is the list of all the other things I will be going natural on this year.


Foundation
Blush
Lip balm
Eye linger
Eye shadow

Lotion
Makeup remover
Soap
Nail polish

All kitchen products
Bathroom products
Laundry detergent

Phew! That's a lot of stuff, but think that's a lot of toxins and chemicals that we are using on a daily basis! Here is a list of things you can do for a more natural home with cleaning and organizing, also from the Wellness Mama :)

Once Cain and I find a house we have some goals that we would like to try and stick with.

In our love nest there will be ...

No plastic
No smoking
No wheat (or very limited)

I want to live in a clean area and know what I'm breathing in and what's going into my body as much as I can while at home. Also for the future I want to know that when we have kids it's a clean environment! I hope to stick with these things or even add to it every new house we get. Which could be many due to the Army!

A goal of mine would be to leave a garden at every home we lived in. In hopes that the next family can have nice area for them to keep up the garden for there own use.

That's future talk about hey, I can dream can't I?!

Do you have any goals like these? Do some research on the chemicals we are intaking and the affects,  might want to change things up too!!

Lanette