~ An Early Thanksgiving ~

 

Fall is my favourite time of the year. I love the smells, the colours, and the holidays that bring us all together.  There were a couple members of the Mangerino Family missing for our Thanksgiving Dinner, but it was still really nice.

Here are a few pictures from the day.

Adam and Blake came to play. They are the cutest twins EVER!!

The trouble makers and best friends

Time to relax and watch some cartoons

goofy Nathan

These girls (including Hannah) had Robert wrapped around their little finger. He did whatever they asked.

Pumpkin Pie has to be my favourite part about Thanksgiving : )

so much food!! 

It was a really fun day with my parents, siblings, and nieces and nephews. I ate way too much food and lost at a pretty intense game of heads up. Now, time to recover before another Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.

~ Week One Update ~

As most of you know, Aaron left on deployment a little over a week ago. Yes, one week down! I like to think that we are now one week closer to having him back : )

I just wanted to do a quick little update on our family.

Aaron made it safely to Afghanistan. It took a few days but now he is there and adjusting to the time change. 

Aaron is also enjoying some rain as well : )

So far, Aaron has been able to call, face time and message us quite regularly which has been such a nice surprise. He sounds in good spirits and has some pretty incredible guys with him.   

We don't have an address for him yet but hoping to get one real soon. 

Hannah is loving spending time with her cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents.

She tells people that Daddy is at work. 

Aaron has been gone a lot this year so I do worry that she thinks Daddy lives in my phone. : (

I miss Aaron every second of the day. He is a constant thought on my mind, but I am doing good. I am so blessed to live so close to my parents because there is no way I could do it without them. I also have a couple friends going through the same deployment so it is nice to talk to women who feel exactly the same way I do. I have made it a goal not to complain about deployment because I feel Heavenly Father watching over and blessing our family everyday. 

The Craig family maybe miles apart but our love keeps us close together. 

So thankful week one is done, now onto week two : )

~ High Heel Cupcakes ~

High Heel Cupcakes

As you can probably tell, this was our first time attempting to make these super cute and girly cupcakes. 

They might not look perfect but we had a lot of fun making them.

Ingredients

1 box of your favourite cake mix 

frosting for icing your cupcakes

food coloring

a couple packets of milano cookies - you can also use graham crackers or wafers

white chocolate for melting

pirouette rolled wafer sticks

any other sprinkles or icing to decorate - we used glitter sprinkles

FIRST ~ bake your cupcakes according to the decorations on the box, then frost and decorate the icing

SECOND ~ melt some of the white chocolate and spread over the milano cookies.

(allow time to dry)

THIRD ~ decorate the cookies. 

(you do not need to decorate around the entire cookie as you will be sticking one end of the cookie into the cupcake.)

FOURTH ~ trim down your wafer stick to look like a heel

FIFTH ~ make a small slit in your cupcake and insert your cookie at an angle into the slit

SIXTH ~ Use the melted chocolate to attach the wafer stick to the back of your cookie

LASTLY ~ add any finishing touches and enjoy : )

~ Saying Goodbye ~

We made it through day one! Now only about 200 days to go.

It doesn't seem like it - probably because Aaron has been gone a lot this year - but this is our first deployment experience. We knew around this time last year that Aaron would be deploying, but no worries it was a whole year away . . . . oh how quickly the year has gone. 

The past couple of weeks have been filled with a lot of tears; however, I am so proud of Aaron and the men he is lucky to serve with. 

My Dad gave Aaron a father's blessing that has brought a lot of comfort for the both of us. I know Heavenly Father is watching over Aaron, Hannah and myself. I know we will both see Heavenly Father's tender mercies throughout this deployment.

I love Aaron more than words will ever describe.

I will miss him and will think be thinking about him every second.

I can't wait till homecoming : )

some  pictures from packing to goodbye

I thought this was so sweet! The Battalion gave each of the kids a battalion buddy teddy bear : ) 

Hannah did not want me in the picture with her and Aaron! Yep, she is going to miss him A LOT!!

~ Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins ~

When the bananas start turning brown, there is only one way to eat them - muffins.

Of course you can't forget to throw in some chocolate chips.

I found this recipe on you tube, and it is by far my favourite.

Here is the recipe for Laura Vitale's Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Makes 12

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

½ Cup of Vegetable Oil

2 Eggs

½ Cup of Sugar

3 Mashed Bananas

¼ tsp of Vanilla Extract

1 2/3 Cup of All Purpose Flour

1 tsp Baking Powder

½ tsp of Baking Soda

¼ tsp of Salt

¼ tsp of Cinnamon

1 Cup of Chocolate Chips

Process,

1) Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Line a 12 piece muffin tin with muffin liners and set aside.

2) In a small bowl add the chocolate chips and 3 tbsp of flour and mix until all the chocolate chips are coated in the flour. Set aside.

3) In a large bowl add the first 5 ingredients and mix until all combined.

4) Add the flour and baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon, whisk until all combined.

5) Fold in the chocolate chip and flour mixture.

6) Using a large ice cream scoop divide the batter into your muffin pan and bake for about 18 minutes.

Recipe By: Laura Vitale

These muffins are so moist and delicious 

enjoy : )

~ Getting Ready For Christmas ~

 

Yes, you read the title correctly. The Craig Family are getting ready for Christmas. 

This is what happens when your husband is set to deploy very soon. I don't mind, because most of you know The Mangerino Family is pretty crazy about Christmas in general. I'm sure my Mum has been playing Christmas music since July, and Kiel and Carla already have their tree up. Silly Mangerino's.

Hannah LOVES Christmas Trees! Every time Hannah sees one in the store she yells, at the top of her lungs, "CHRISTMAS TREE!!"  So you can probably imagine how excited she is to have one in the house : )

She was a BIG help when it came to putting the ornaments on the tree. 

In fact, she has continued to re-arrange them all morning. . . . oh the joys of having a toddler.

This was the Christmas ornament we bought for Hannah's first Christmas.

We are so excited for this Christmas Season even if we can't be together this year. 

Happy Christmas Love Aaron, Jaimie, and Hannah

x x 

~ SeaWorld ~

SeaWorld has a wonderful program for active duty, drilling reservist, and nation guardsman. They get free admission for themselves and 3 dependents once a year. We decided to take full advantage of this offer before Aaron's deployment, and go for Hannah's second birthday.

On the way to SeaWorld, Hannah was so excited! 

She was talking and singing to music all the way there.

The weather was beautiful! 

It wasn't extremely crowded either which was nice.

The only problem with having an independent two year old was she did not want to stay in her stroller. She wanted to run. This lead to a couple meltdowns and Aaron and I looking like the horrible parents that everyone stares at : /

Hannah ended up doing really well and bonus if she is running through the park, then eventually she is going to crash (fall asleep). 

Hannah LOVES animals!

I forgot to take more pictures of the animals we saw, but I did take a picture of this sea lion.

Aaron and I went to SeaWorld in San Antonio last year, and the whale show is in a covered stadium. Yes everyone is sitting in the shade. In San Diego; however, you sit in the sun. It is only a twenty five minute show but you have to get there about twenty minutes early to get a good sit. Which leads me to this picture of a very unimpressed Hannah. A two year old doesn't want to sit for twenty minutes, in the sun, looking at people trying to find somewhere to seat. 

She did cheer up when the show started. She clapped when everyone else did and got so excited when the whales jumped out the water.

At the beginning of the show they ask for all military past and present to stand so we can thank them for their service. I was so proud of my Marine and am grateful that SeaWorld recognizes the hard work and sacrifices they make. 

The funniest part of the show was when the whales splash the crowd. People, clearly, are not expecting to get that wet. At least ten - twenty people got up and started running up the stairs trying to avoid getting soaked. 

There were grown men using their children to shield them from the water. It was pretty hilarious.

Time to break for the most expensive lunch EVER!! 

After lunch, we headed to the pet show. This was brilliant!! 

LOVED IT!!

While we waited for the show to start, we took some glamorous pictures

Aaron decided it would be a good idea to let Hannah pick out a stuffed toy. 

I usually just pick out the $12 one

Hannah, of course, picked out the biggest Shamu whale they had : /

We had a great time at SeaWorld.

Hannah fell asleep before we even left the parking lot : )