Garland REVISED!

Notice the BLACK lettering??


..Whoa.. where'd he come from???


Much,


MUCH


BETTER....

Did you really think I would leave it NOT PERFECT? :)

GNO + a DUDE?

Jeff looks like we held him captive... let's try again....


Now, JEFF is smiling, and I look like that mirror in the fun house?! :(


Lounging on the new couch!


The ladies try to get together outside work to talk and laugh and catch up without the annoyance of the phones, it's alway's a good time and great food! This time, we added our good friend; Jeff, he sits in what he's referred to "the BERMUDA TRIANGLE" of women!!!..... Jeff keeps us laughing quite a bit with his "so let me run this past ya".....

It's lovely to have people at work who you really love and enjoy, I'm very lucky!

Christmas garland

Last year I saw a picture in an ad of a decorated stair banister, it was so cute; that I cut out the picture, put it in a plastic baggie, and waited for this Christmas to duplicate it.Unfortunately, I just don't have time on my hands like I'd like, so after a few weeks of "hoping" to get everything together perfectly, I had to settle for what I could find at Walmart to put it together; it turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself!

I wanted some kind of garland on my fireplace mantle too, and I wanted it to match the banister, so when I found this great garland last year, on clearance after Christmas, I was able to get enough to cover both. I've had one certain "idea" in my head for the fireplace mantle, and this year, I think I've finally got it together!

Ethan at Hale

My little guy won tickets to Hale Center Theater in the summer at the Healing Hearts Walk. He has been SO excited about this, as he is the last of my children to go to Hale and see a play with Mom. Cody and Spencer went with me to see "Into the Woods" for their birthday's last year, Callie and I went to "Hello Dolly" in June for her birthday, and now, Ethan and Mom, to "A Christmas Carol".

WOW. If you have the opportunity to go see this, they did an EXCELLENT job on this, as they alway's do. I am amazed each time we go, how they can do what they do in such a small, round space, and NOTHING about the story is lost, it was done beautifully.

Ethan was happy the WHOLE TIME; sat on the edge of his seat the whole time, and was engaged and interested. He did say "this is long, when will it be over"? about 20 minutes before it was over, but he loved the ending, and he has since talked about how the ghosts "helped him to be nice"......how precious it is to have children really understand something so important, and to get that message through music and theatre.

I am hoping to be able to take everyone next year to this one, maybe make it a family tradition; wish I'd seen it earlier.


Mom: What was your favorite part of the play"?

Ethan: "when the play was over".......

Thanksgiving

Ma and Zach getting the turkey ready


...J's FAMOUS gravy!!


Callie and Corbin; trying to wait for it all...Ethan, not waiting!


Zach and Melissa


Uncle J and Callie


Mom and J


Santa baby


Hopper, Zach and J


Looking at all the possibilities at Grandmommy's


J,me and Zach


...With Ma


Cool cody


telling Grandmommy what they want for Christmas


...And best of all, sitting with Granddad!!




We had a great Thanksgiving! I started the morning out going to "The Human Race" 5k, with Duch, which we mostly walked. It was a coooold morning, and we never really "warmed up" but it was sunny so that was nice, the only complaint was the working until midnight the night before, so I ran the day on fumes, literally!

The nice thing about dinner this year, was that it was small in number's, and as much as I LOVE my family, it was nice to have just Mom, Zach, Melissa, Jacob, us and 6 kids, and a partridge in a pear tree! Our family is now VERY BIG, and trying to cram everyone in the same place is tough; AND LOUD!

Zach cooked the most amazing turkey, of course my Mom's yummy stuffing, I brought the rolls (rhodes, they were SO GOOD) and my famous yam's, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce, of course my Mom made pies, she is a wonderful baker; amongst other amazing things she does, and she made pumpkin, bannana cream, and well, I can't remember the other....... SO GOOD.

We then went to Doug's parent's; where we just SAT, too full to do anything else! :)

When we got home, I was so exhausted, the kids and I put on our jammies, crawled into my bed, turned on Home Alone, and FELL ASLEEP!!

Baby Skye

My Callie-doll just loves this little girl. She would have her over everyday if she could. Last week she got in the car and announced "My teacher said I can bring baby Skye tomorrow for the first 5min of class"......

So I asked Zach if that would be ok, and we got to have her the whole day. Callie thought it was pretty UNFAIR that I got to have her ALL DAY and she only 5 min! so I let her stay after she woke up from her nap; callie got to feed, burp and play with her a bit.

One thing I know FOR SURE this year, I'm done with babies! (my own that is) but anyone else who wants to drop one off for awhile, we're good with that!

Picking out books

A few years ago I started keeping all the ad's that came in the mail after Halloween, the kids enjoyed going through it and "dreaming" out loud. If I need a distraction for them from boredom, or fighting, I can put the ad's in front of them and tell them to find the things they want on their Santa list. It works great, and is a lot of fun for them, I will stop at Toys r us and grab a couple of their "big book" at Christmas, since they only send 1 in the mail. If I give them an envelope and scissors; even better!

Ethan is now getting book order forms at school, and this has been an opportunity to let him circle some things he wants, then I go through and narrow down one or two (he's usually circled the ENTIRE book!) but it's sure fun to DREAM.