Walking the plank

We've got a lot going on around here right now. Kids are back in school and we are getting back to our normal routine. One thing we have been making time for is playing the kids new game.

We have had an absolute blast. At some point we have all been fed to the sharks but that's the way it goes.

I'm off to walk the plank again. Wish me luck.

Wishing you and yours...

Our niece has ended up over here for the night and hubs came home with the Christmas Classics movie collection.

We are hunkered down with candy and entertainment.

Merry Christmas to all of you my dear readers. May your next few days be filled with wonderful and lovely memories.

Raffle win!!

I know I owe you guys a craft day post. Actually I'm going to break it up into several posts but not today. Last night at work hubs won a Playstation 3 complete with Band Hero!

We aren't sure if we are going to keep it or sell it yet (its over a $400 value) but we sure are having fun today playing. So right now I'm just enjoying my family. I'll be back soon with my craft post.

Thanksgiving 2012

Our thanksgiving was a little different this year because a few people in our family decided to go somewhere else but we still had a good holiday. The food was great and the kids had a blast eating tons of desserts.

We watched the parade in the morning and my uncle had football going in the afternoon. After we were done eating my aunts cat jumped up on the brick ledge outside her kitchen window and just sat looking in at all of us and the food. It was really cute.

Now starts the best time of year. We are excited to get the Christmas decorations
started. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.

Getting my groove back!

These last few months have been difficult on so many levels for me. Then the kids went to school. All of them. For the first time. The first few days it was like I was standing in the ocean unable to find my footing. It was come and go for a while.

We are in week 2 of school now and I can honestly say that it is wonderful. I love my kids. But them growing and coming into their own has benefited us all in so many ways.

My house is cleaner and more organized than I can ever remember it being. I have energy when they come home and I cook dinner, help with homework and give baths without it all sucking the life out of me.

I'm making time to workout EVERY single day now and work on my degree as well. I'm feeling almost completely stress free and feel like I can actually breathe now. My head is clearer and my body is getting that way too. I've almost completely cut out eating out and I'm drinking water which is something I never do.

My husband comes home and comments that the house looks amazing. The list goes on and on. I think it will only get better and all of us are finding our footing in a way I never thought possible.

I've got big plans swirling around in my head. The next few months should be pretty interesting.

Before I wrap this post up I have to share a pic I had forgotten about. A few weeks ago Macie came to me in her monkey pajamas with one of her (many) stuffed monkeys and said "Mommy look at me! I'm all monkeyed out! Take my picture." Of course I took the picture. A way to always remember my girls obsession with her primates.

Christmas Catch-Up

Blogger is being really weird today and will not let me see my photos as I am uploading them to this post so I'm just going to do a brief run down of what is going on. This season has been a whirlwind in so many ways. We had the girls class parties and the party that hubs work gave us. All the employees kids got presents. They also had Santa and the kids thought it was the best day ever. We also did our family Christmas movie night with pajamas and hot cocoa. This year we bought a Charlie Brown Christmas.

I have been baking and finishing up all the shopping, etc. Today we are at one of my besties so that the kids can do Christmas crafts. It has been a fun day with the kids outside playing and then coming inside to do another craft whenever we call them. Good times. :)

So here are the few pics I have taken the last week. I am just so busy that blogging has fallen behind. I apologize to all my awesome loyal readers. I am still alive.

Our Thanksgiving!

For Thanksgiving my mother-in-law and niece came down and stayed Wednesday night through Thursday. We had friends in and out of the house those days as well and it ended up being a wonderful holiday.

This is one of my favorite pictures. My 11 year old niece and my 3 kiddos all together. Melts my heart.
The first pumpkin pie I ever made and it turned out divine.

Wii tournaments with all 4 kids.

I also made a chocolate cherry cheesecake and my mother-in-law made a pecan pie and pecan tartlets. The kids helped us decorate the table and it was so cute to see how much pride they took in doing their part for our celebration.

The kids are so excited to get our Christmas tree up this weekend. I feel very blessed to have such special people in our lives to share our holidays with.

To Nana's House We Go

I posted our Halloween pics in the post directly below this one for those of you who have been waiting.

We are at my mother-in-laws out of town right now. We came for an impromptu one night visit and have been having a great time. I took a couple of pics and they just turned out to be my favorites.

This one I absolutely adore. It was taken by Makayla while I was driving. I looked in my rear view and saw Macie asleep with her Build-a-Bear bunny and told Makayla to grab the pic for me. I truly think this is my favorite pic ever.
I also love this one. Two of the kids slept in their uncles room since he wasn't home. I put Disney channel on for them and they thought they were in heaven.

And of course we had our traditional big Sunday morning breakfast.

By tonight we will be home but this weekend was definitely well spent.

Better late than never

I am finally getting around to posting our Halloween photos. We had a great evening and the kids gave us plenty of laughs. Makayla was a witch, Macie an angel and the boy was a knight. My aunt made the boys' costume herself. It looked so real. LOVE this pic of the 3 of them. The girls were pretending that they ate a poison apple and then they would hit the ground pretending to be dead or asleep. They did this for a good ten minutes and my mom even caught it on video. Even Macie's baby got to dress up.

Lots to share

We had an amazing day at the beach yesterday. I have so much I want to share but I just can't right now. About five minutes after we left the beach I got a phone call. I don't want to talk about it but my brother-in-law is in ICU right now. The doctors are pretty confident he is going to pull through but as you can imagine there is no time for posting a huge beach post. My niece and I left the hospital at 4 a.m. I am exhausted but I will be back to post all the pics and tell of our time soon after everything has settled down.

The mother of all catch-up posts

This is going to be a huge catch-up post. Let's start with the weekend we got to spend KID FREE!! My mom took Makayla and the boy and my mother-in-law took Macie for an entire weekend. It was so wonderful to get to spend so much time with hubs. We went shopping, had lunch, went to the movies, sushi with friends for dinner, took me out to learn to drive a standard and so much more. We finally went to see True Grit. It was a weekend we both really needed and it completely refreshed us for the kids coming back home. The entire weekend I took one pic. This was when we were eating lunch at the best burrito place in the world. So good.

There has also been lots of time spent in the kitchen.

The kids threw a birthday party for their dolls and raided my gift bag drawer before I woke up that morning.

There has been lots of lounging.

I have been working on a new blanket. This one is stripes and is so much fun.

The kids have been really good lately about eating well balanced meals.

One morning I woke up to our fridge not working. Thankfully the freezer side was fine and we were able to keep all of our food. I called our landlord and the next day she had a new fridge delivered because ours was 20 years old and on it's last leg. I LOVE the new one. (Pic coming soon).

The kids looked through the scrapbook of hubs and I. It was so cute how excited they were.

And there was some video game playing in there too.

We are having a garage sale tomorrow and I have tons of errands to run today before I pick up the girls from school. Gotta keep moving or I will not be able to catch up. Back soon.