Wow!

Wow!  I'm really bad at this!  I guess I should at least post once in the month of January.  See, I really need some kind of challenge to make me stick to blogging.  Although, I didn't really finish that either, but at least I did a lot!  I kind of fizzled at the end..  whoops!  So January.  I can't believe January is over.  It's going so fast.  Kate is almost a first grader, Noah is almost a third grader, and Kara is almost in her last year at MDO, but I guess we could make it to summertime before I start getting panic attacks about next year.  So, as usual, I will do a quick "bullet-point" post to catch you up with what's happened in the month:

1.  Our Anniversary--a little early.  We went to a nice hotel and ate dinner and spent the night to celebrate our 10 year Anniversary--a little early.  Our anniversary is in March, but that is in the thick of "busy season", so we were smart and celebrated early.  From the looks of this picture, I really need to work out and work on my posture--moving on...

 2.  We celebrated my Mother-In-Laws Birthday at Monument Inn.  This has become a tradition every year for her birthday.  It's the same place Chris and I had our rehearsal dinner, so there are sweet memories there.  Doesn't my MIL look great!?!

 3.  I love this picture.  This is my mom holding sweet Sam.  And, no, I didn't have another one :).  This is one of my dearest friends baby that we have all prayed for and over.  Such a sweet, sweet baby... and he has one special momma--and a pretty good dad!  :)

 4.  Oh, my.  Speaking of babies, my first Baby girl turned 6.  What!?!?  She is still supposed to be my 5lb bundle!  She is still tiny, but strong in her determination.  What a sweet girl she is.  She is such a hard worker and has one of the kindest hearts you will ever meet.  I mean that.  She has a love for animals and gets upset with the thought of her Beta-fish (caleigh the fish) being stuck in an aquarium the rest of "her" life.  My little animal activist...  We love you dearly, Kate!

 5.  Finally DANCE PARTY!  Excuse the bed, but during Dance Parties the bed tends to get unmade, and that's ok with me.  We have had these since Noah could walk.  Chris blares the radio and the kids just go crazy dancing.  We love this time together, and I have the best pictures with the most authentic smiles during these times.  Of course, I didn't pick the best one here, but hey, I'm just happy to have blogged!  :)

Much more happened this month, but this is it in a nutshell.  February brings school parties,  Chris's birthday, the thick of busy season, and much more.  Hopefully... hopefully.. I can blog more than once a month.  :)

Christmas no more

I'm bummed, I missed a day.  I just didn't have it in me.. or forgot.. or got sidetracked.. or didn't want to do it.  Pick your favorite answer, and that's what happened!  Today we took all our Christmas stuff down.  I really hate doing that.  I mean, I already hate cleaning and organizing; and putting up your Christmas stuff is both cleaning and organizing..  doesn't work well for me.  I also hate it because it makes me sad.  I love Christmas.  I love all the decorations, I love the mood, I love everything about Christmas.  I love my kids at Christmas.  Wait.  That came out bad.  I love my kids year round, but there is something just so special about little kids and Christmas.  *sigh* Putting all the stuff up reminds me that another year has gone by.  boo.  I need to remember, though, every year brings its own fun.  When the kids were babies, it was fun to have Christmas and play "pass the baby", and open their gifts for them.. we all know I like to open presents!!.  Now that they are older, it's fun to watch them experience Christmas, and watch their eyes light up and just soak it all in...  and hopefully, one day, it will be fun to open what they get me.. heh heh heh.. like I said, I'm ALL about the presents (not really...  really...)  Anyways, so all that to say, I'm a bit bummy today (said in my best british accent.. which really sounds quite Spanish.  Although, when I'm trying to sound Spanish, I sound quite British.. ahh, I would never be an actor).  Anyways, this Christmas had some great memories, so I will just hold on to those until I get to take all the stuff back out, and do it all over again.  I just dread the day where my kids don't get that excited about Christmas anymore.  Although, I'm not sure if that ever happens.. hasn't happened to me yet!

freak dog

My dog is bulimic.  She just put her paw down her throat and gagged herself.  No lie.  How the heck??What a freak..  I guess she really is a part of our family.  dang.  That's all the post I can write now.. must go clean up dog barf.  That's what I want to do at 11:40 at night.  Clean up dog bulimic barf.

That's a Wrap!!

Ok, I'm going to cheat.. I'm going to do Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day in pictures.  I'm too tired to be creative.. or heck, just type out what we did.  But, it was a great time had by all!  So, here you go, Our last two days in pictures.. and probably more than you care to see!  :)

Before the Festivities began!  I thought I would spare you
the pics of the kids actually opening the gifts...

Addison and Kate sporting their tap shoes.  The tap shoes were
actually for Addisons birthday.. a little late!  :)  She LOVES them.. and
I love her, so it works out well!!

My dad and his... uh, crazy eyes!?  ha!  This is actually some
sort of boom box that charges tool batteries, and does other weird stuff..
only him!  Glad he likes it!  :)

This was my moms present.  We took the kids and Dustin took some shots of them.
Do you realize how hard it is to get a decent pictures of an 8,6,3,and 2 year old?  Nuts, I say.. just NUTS!

Then we put out reindeer food and cookies and milk for Santa... whew.
\



Now, on to Christmas Day...

So, Kara laid like this in front of her bike from Santa for about 30 minutes.
The poor girl was wiped out!!

Santa's loot

Christmas morning in their new clothes from Mamaw (my Dad's mom)

The next 3 pictures are the kids opening gifts at Chris's parents house...

Our sweet nephew, Dylan, opening his gift from us!  DRUMS and more musical instruments...
Your welcome, Michelle and Deke, your welcome!!

Kate with her new hula hoop that she so wanted

Dylan now thinking HE should have asked for a hula hoop!

cousin time with Ronnie!

and one last look at the train and gingerbread house.  More on that tomorrow...




Hope you enjoyed that quick look at our last two days.  At least it is documented for me!  We are so blessed to be able to celebrate Christmas with most of our family.  It might get crazy, and we get a little tired by the end of the night, but it is all worth it!  I can't say it enough that we are so blessed to have our children grow up around most of their cousins, aunts, uncles, and of course, Grandparents!  Thank you all for the wonderful Christmas memories and for loving on our three kids.  We love you guys and appreciate you all!!  We missed all the family that we are unable to see, but wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Christmas Eve.. .. well, kind of

Christmas Eve with my side of the fam. was VERY nice this year, but I'm cheating and not doing a real blog about Christmas Eve until tomorrow.  I'm honestly WIPED. OUT.  I've been cleaning for 2 days.  Yes, my house is that bad.  I got up early this morning and cooked soup and cake balls... and we just cleaned up again so Santa doesn't kill himself in my house.  That's ALL I need on my conscious.  The man has lived 1000 years, but will kill himself walking in my house.  Nice.  So, anyways, no real post with real pictures until tomorrow.  However, I'm very thankful for my fun family.  We just had a nice relaxed evening with the kids....  and Dustin, I hope Addison isn't tapping  too much with her new tap shoes from Aunt Crazy!!  Oh, who am I kidding??  Tap away, Addison, Tap away!!!!!!

Christmas #1

Today we did our immediate family Christmas celebration.  We do my side on Christmas Eve, and Chris's family on Christmas Day, so we decided to do ours tonight!  We had a nice relaxing evening.  Chris took the kids on a "look at lights" bike ride.  This has been his and the kids tradition the past couple of years.  He usually does it a lot more than one night, but it seems like this month has just flown by.  The kids love this, Noah rode his new bike, Kate rode Noahs old bike, and Kara was in the bike trailer.  Kara had her pillow and blanket in there, and looked like she was fit for a parade.  Crazy girl!  Then they got back and we opened presents.  It was so fun!  The kids loved everything, which was a major plus.. I mean, it would kinda suck if they hated everything...  :)  We had a nice, calm, evening.. which is a rarity in our house lately!  Before we opened presents Noah said the coolest thing.. he said that he didn't care what he got, he was just happy he had presents to open!  So cool!  I think he was really terrified he was really naughty this year!  ha!  After presents, I spent the next 3 hours up to my elbows in cake balls (your welcome, Dad!).  Anyways, hope you enjoy the next few pictures of our family Christmas! 

Love Noah's face in this one.  We bought him a bottle rocket--he loves
those things!  I told him we could take it to his school (there is a field back there) and
launch it.  He said, "No, I'm saving it for when we go to Big Papa's house"  So sweet!
btw, Big Papa is my grandpa. 

This is Kara in her tinkerbell outift.  She loves it, can you tell??

Kate adores snow globes.. Wherever we go, she always looks for snow globes.  We
got her a make your own snow globes and she LOVES it.

Daddy got a new shirt (from Noah), a neck pillow (Kara), and slippers(Kate)

I got a new space heater!  Sounds cheesey, but I get so cold and usually
I am the only one cold.  I had another space heater, but it broke, so Kate thought
I needed another one.  Sweet girl!!


SO, I'm bummed!  I started this post at 11:30, but it's now 12:03, so it's gonna post for tomorrow (well, actually today.. but I'm not going there).  It's gonna look like a skipped a day, and that is SO going to annoy me.  Bah. Humbug.

Our crazy elf... and a congratulations

Our elf, Joshua, came back this year and he is as naughty as ever!  (but yet, he is supposed to tell Santa if the kids are behaving?  Makes complete sense, yes?)  The kids love Joshua and can't wait until the morning when they can see what he has been up to all night.  Sometimes he leaves notes, other times he is having too much fun destroying our house to leave a note.  He has made snow angels out of salt, parachuted off the balcony, toilet papered our tree, ziplined from the clock to the tree, drank some hot chocolate and left the mess everywhere, etc.  The kids are going to be really upset when he goes back to the north pole.  Kate is already experiencing anxiety.  Seriously.  It's pretty pathetic.  She is going to have to be in therapy because our "elf" went back to the "north pole".  Well, she probably would have ended up in therapy anyway, after all, she is my daughter, so might as well give her a jump start!  ha! Anyways, here are a few pictures of the madness:

Now, for more important news, one of my dearest friends has added an addition to her family.  She and her husband has welcomed a sweet, precious, baby boy by way of adoption.  There really are no words to express how excited and thankful I am for them.  They have waited so long, and ever so patiently for this little boy.  I am humbled and beyond blessed from watching this miracle take place.  This little boy is so blessed and loved.  I can't wait to watch him grow up and watch my friend enjoy every minute of motherhood.  Congratulations, my friend.