Happy Halloween!!

I love Halloween. There's something magical about getting to dress up and pretend you're someone else for a day. I've always loved going all out on costumes and I've never been one to repeat what I've worn before.

In honor of this great day, I've decided to take a trip down memory lane and look at some of my favorite costumes over the years. And of course, end at present day with my own little Bubba man. What was he this year? Guess you'll have to keep reading to see :)

Pebbles 2007

Pepto Bismol 2007

Snow White 2008

Pumpkins 2010

So onto 2012... Bam Bam! I made this costume; I don't know how to sew to save my life, so this is compliments of my hot glue gun :) We tried to get him to say "Bam Bam" and it wasn't happening... so I'll take "Mama" and little squeals...

BAM BAM!

Happy Halloween! :)

Sponsors and Sandy

Hope everyone survived Frankenstorm and is reading this in a warm, dry place!

Snuggling during Sandy

After the huge hype up here in New York, it was pretty uneventful. We had crazy winds and a ton of things close early but other than that, we're all fine. No power outages or flooding or anything. 

Unfortunately, some of New York wasn't so lucky and my thoughts and prayers go out to those who were affected by this crazy biatch of a storm. 

Bubba and I are slowly on the uprise from our sickness this past weekend; but hubby woke up in the middle of the night and got sick a few times. So unfortunately, it's probably going to be a viscous cycle for awhile. Lots of hand washing, orange juice drinking, and snuggling seems to be in our forecast. 

I cannot believe it's almost November! Why didn't time go this fast when Z was deployed?? Anyways, a new months means... 

SPONSORS!!

Since I JUST started charging a fee for advertising space, it's super cheap. Like really, really cheap. However, I want to give my loyal followers an affordable way to have a place on my blog... so if you are interested in sponsoring Hooah and Hiccups this month, head over to the Sponsor tab and get hooked up by Passionfruit! The stats will be up-to-date by the time I publish this entry so hopefully they will make you want to take off your shoes and stay awhile :) 

I am so humbled by all of the amazing friends and followers I've made on this journey. I started this blog to document my experiences during deployment and can't believe what it's grown into. I cannot WAIT to see what the future holds!

Stay warm and safe loves :) 

October Cara Box REVEAL!

I don't think I could explain how much this box meant to me if I tried. Let me give you a little background on this...

Kaitlyn from Wifessionals was one of the first girls I "met" when I started blogging. We began emailing back and forth and getting to know each other and I really enjoyed talking to her and feeling like someone in this big blogging world had my back.

She's also married to a soldier in the US Army so I know she understands some of the things I go through on a daily basis. It's crazy to think that we've never met in "real life", but if I ever needed anything, I know she'd be there for me.

When she approached me about joining in on her new venture, Cara Box, I was SO super excited! As I've talked about before, I sometimes lose myself in my "job" as mommy and wife, and this is something that I could do for myself.

If you want to learn more about it, make sure you head over to Wifessionals and read the Cara Box Exchange tab for details. Basically, you are paired with a fellow blogger each month and you exchange little gifts and a letter of encouragement.

This month's theme was The best of FALL <3

The world works in mysterious ways because for me, this letter of encouragement couldn't have come at a better time. After the week I had last week, I began to question a lot of things; my life in the blogosphere, things that make me happy, and that good people still exist in the world.

Well, I can assure you, Kaitlyn reassured me of all of those things. The time and thoughtfulness that went into this little arrangement of gifts and kindness leaves me at a loss for words. She's so sweet and creative and I am so thankful for our friendship and our pairing this month.

So now onto the fun stuff!

It has arrived! 

I pulled out the little wrapped package only to find...

A TON of little wrapped packages!! My letter of encouragement was across the back of those little circles :)

Each item was wrapped individually and had a little "theme" if you will:

To add some sparkle

Clearly she knows me well... I was looking into placing an order for these elastic hair ties and Voila! They show up in my box this month! They are SO fabulous and I couldn't be more obsessed with these colors.

banish dryness

A chap stick WITH a tint?! Every girl needs one of these. It's so subtle and perfect... and my husband won't want to steal it and share with me :)

shine

It's seriously hard to pick a favorite gift this month, but I absolutely LOVEEEEEE these. They're so trendy and classy and I love everything about them. I had them on before I even finished opening my box. 

to accessorize

And this necklace, absolutely gorgeous. I am not sure how this girl stayed within her $15 budget but I know that she must be a damn good shopper. Is this necklace not super beautiful??

indulge

Yummy melty caramels, in my mouth before I opened the next wrapped gift...

to cozy up with

Starbucks Instant Pumpkin Coffee! Saved my life the other day after we used the last one of ours!

to decorate with

Thanksgiving window clings! Also, already up on our windows! :)

Seriously, this package and her letter of encouragement meant the world to me. I absolutely loved everything I received and she knows me SO well!

I hope you'll join us next month in this great opportunity. I've already started shopping for my next Cara Box partner..eek!

Thank you Kaitlyn; You're an amazing woman and over the past month you've been my rock in some hard times (you know what I'm talking about) and couldn't be more thankful for you. Just because we're no longer partners, doesn't mean the fun gifts and letters of encouragement stop here... so watch your mailbox ;)

Sick Mama and Baby

I apologize for being off the grid yesterday; Bubba has a middle ear infection and bronchitis and I have some sort of bug :(

I can't remember the last time I had a fever and felt this crappy but I can tell you, it's WAY worse when you have a sick baby simultaneously.

However, I wanted to leave you with a few pics of our weekend (pre-sickness). We had a freakishly warm day, I mean I'm talking shorts and tank tops here... so what did we do? Played naked in the leaves of course! Don't worry, I wasn't the naked one... but doesn't this little baby booty just make you laugh? So precious :)

We also attended a haunted hayride and fall event and had such a great time. They had cookies, hot chocolate, a bonfire on the beach (with s'mores) and we were also able to check a few things off our fall bucket list!

Admiring his first pumpkin

Bubba's girlfriend, Riley 

In line for the hay ride

S'mores at a bonfire

Only a few things left! 

More to come this week...it's finally Halloween!! :)

High Five for Friday

This week, I am extremely thankful for so many things. As we know, I had a copycat attempting to steal my blog title and posts verbatim, and as soon as I posted something about it on facebook, I had an overwhelming response to help me take this crazy down.

1// So surprisingly, despite facebook and I having a love hate relationship most of the time, I am thankful for all of my friends and family on facebook and the ability to figure this mystery out because of it. 

2// My baby boy playing in the leaves...hard to believe he's so grown up!

3// My hubby leaving me cute little love notes on our board

4// My relationship. I never expected to be married at 24 let alone an Army wife. Is it hard? Absolutely yes. But, I'd do anything to spend my life with my amazing husband.

5// Hubby leaving the last coffee for me. Saved. My. Life.

What are you thankful for this week??

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! 

Trick-or-Treat, smell my feet...

...give me something good to eat! We all said this as kids on Halloween, and if you didn't, I guess I'm just a weirdo...

Anyways, I saw a variation of this on Pinterest and had to do it for my little guy!

Who knew you could get quality glassware at the Dollar Store?! This project really only cost me $1 since I already had Acrylic paint and Sharpie markers.

Halloween Decorative Plate

Materials:

Plate from the Dollar Store

Acrylic Paint

Sharpie makers

Stencil (if you don't feel comfortable enough to free hand)

1. Write out Trick-or-Treat and Smell My Feet (I decided to free hand this part, but you can certainly use a stencil if you want)

2. Dip your little one's feet in Acrylic paint and press down firmly.

3. Bake in the oven at 150 degrees F for 30 minutes.

Voila! You have a beautiful Halloween keepsake :)

I haven't used it for anything other than display, so I can't promise if you wash it that it will stay intact. Baking it is supposed to make it permanent (according to the internet, of course) but I don't want to take my chances and wash it regardless. I'll use other bowls and plates for actual Halloween snacks and keep this one in the decoration category :)

What fun Halloween crafts have you done this season??

Baby #2...

...is not happening anytime soon. Or today at least. We go back and forth every other day on when we want to have our next baby.

Do we want to have our kids close and be done with diapers, bus stops, and Santa all at once? Or do we want to spread them out so we have little helpers when the going gets tough.

I've been a babysitter, camp counselor, after-school caregiver, playroom supervisor, you name it. I've babysat kids ages 0-12 and I thought I had a handle on things.

Recently, not so much.

The kids that I've watched for my friends have been SUCH angels; which thankfully, I haven't had to experience any demons in my presence. But just the fact that there's more than one mouth to feed, diaper to change, or shoe to tie changes everything. 

How will I ever balance more than one kid? And an even better question for my mommy friends out there, how do you love each child equally?

You all know I'm obsessed with my Bubba; I literally devote every single second of my daily life to him. What happens when Number 2 comes along? How will I split my attention, love, hugs, and kisses and have two centers of my world?

Did you have your babies close together or a few years between? Do you like it that way? Would you recommend we have them close?

Bubba will be one in January (tear) and originally, the plan was to have them two years apart...which means getting preggo sometime early next year.

But am I ready for that? I just lost 50 pounds, had my husband return home, and am chasing around a new walker. Am I ready to be pregnant again? Am I ready to be a family of four?

I'd love to hear your personal opinions and experiences...help a girl out!

Fall Fest

I'm not going to lie, after all the drama yesterday of some crazy ripping off my blog, I'm a little discouraged. How do I know it's not happening somewhere else, and that I just happened to stumble upon one of the culprits?

Blogging is supposed to be fun. It's supposed to be an outlet, as it was for me when my husband deployed to Afghanistan. It was how I handled the emotions and the changes and the scary things happening 3,000 miles away.

I wrote for my sanity, I wrote for my husband to stay involved, I wrote for my extended family, and I wrote for other women, other military wives.

To find out that it was another military wife, stationed at the same place as me none the less, copying my work and using it as her own...just disgusts me.

Hopefully, I can move past all of this and never have to deal with it again.

Anyways, my love for fall continues... sigh, I can't get enough of it!

Last Saturday, we attended a Fall Fest that my community center hosted. Unfortunately, we didn't find out about it until it was almost over, but we were able to join in on some of the fun activities none the less!

Daddy and Bubba being silly 

Fall craft 

Bean bag toss!

Candy Corn bowling

Digging for ducks and pumpkins