Christmas Tree Adventures!

Well, call me crazy, but this year I thought it would be fun to cut down a real tree with the girls.  I LOOOOVE the smell of a real tree and really wanted the girls (and selfeshly myself) to experience picking out and cutting down a Christmas tree.  I have always wanted to do this so this was my first time along with the girls. 

 The problem:  I had built this up this wonderful fantasy in my puny little mind of how we would find our perfect tree, with our perfect family, and it would be such a joyful occasion.  Reality:  We set out at 3pm with no naps to a destination unknown.  Can you see where this is going?!

Our first stop was a dud and 25 minutes north of our home!  I mean Not. Good. At. All.  It was cold.  The girls wanted to bring home every Charlie Brown Tree in the lot.  Not that I'm opposed to a less than perfect tree, but these were bad.  They were either too big to fit in our house or 4 feet tall......and spindly.  After traipsing the 5 acres Mark and I called it a bust and told the girls we were leaving.  As you can tell from the picture above, they were not happy.  They were tired of walking, cold, and cranky. 

But we were determined and headed to destination #2, 20 minutes south of our home.  Getting the picture, we had to drive 45 minutes.  We pulled in at 4:20pm.  They close at 5pm.  That gave us 40 minutes to find and cut down our "perfect" tree.  Not much time with lots of acres and 2 girls with little legs.  My fantasy was becoming less and less the joyful occasion I conjured up. 

Paige had to pee, but we were like 1/4 mile from the entrance and there were no potties.  She wouldn't even consider going outside, even though there were no people around and lots of what looked like cow poo, so I know it would have been fine.  So we had complaints of needing to pee, Alaina was tired, I was telling them we need to hurry.  It was so pleasant.  I, of course, can't just settle for the first nice tree we come to (even though it is the one we end up with), I have to search out the entire lot because a better one might be around the corner. 

But we did find one.  One that we all liked, even if it was pretty much dark and we had no time left anyway.

Mark set to work cutting it down.  I think the girls thought it was pretty cool to cut down our own tree.

FINALLY, we are ready to head home!  It may not have been a perfect or the way I had pictured it, but I think we did have fun and would do it again.  (Though maybe not every year.)

We decorated the tree the next evening.  Mark holding the girls so they could put the angel on.

The girls in front of the finished product!  I just love this time of year with the house all cozy and decorated!

Don't you wanna just sit down with a good book and a cup of coffee!

The girls sure love it!

Thanksgiving!

 We have so much to be thankful for this year....family, friends, Mark's job, a wonderful church family, good health, a great Christian school for Paige, and so much more.  God has truly blessed our family with riches beyond money. 

It was our year this year to spend Thanksgiving with Mark's family.  His parents agreed to take the girls a few days before Thanksgiving to give Mark and I a little break and some time to celebrate our 8th Anniversary.  It worked out that Paige would only miss a half day of school, so they got to have special time alone with Grandpa and Grandma from Sunday until we got there Wednesday evening.  I know the girls had fun!  Thanks Grandpa and Grandma for giving Mark and I a break!

Mark took the girls up to them on Saturday (and stayed Sat. night) to have a Thanksgiving dinner with his Grammie in the nursing home.  (I stayed home for some much needed alone time.)  Here is the girls' Great Grammie watching them play dominos with Grandpa.

Grandpa with his 3 oldest Grandkids.

Uncle Mat, Aunt Myra holding Ariana, Alaina, Great Grammie with Skylar, and Paige.

As you can tell by the Sponge Bob float on TV, we have now arrived and it's Thanksgiving Day!  We brought Skylar a birthday gift, as he had just recently turned 2.

Alaina with 2 month old Ariana.  I was sporting a pretty nasty cold and didn't hold Ariana so I wouldn't pass it to her.  I was pretty sad about that!

Paige with Ariana, Uncle Mat, and Aunt Myra.

And the craziness begins!

The girls wrestling.

And jumping together.

Grandma "caught" Alaina, as Skylar isn't quite sure what to make of the mayhem.

Then decides he would like to join the fun after all.

I'm going to preface this pic with a little history.  Mark and I decided, pretty much as soon as the girls could walk, that when we wanted to rest while they were playing, the worst way to wake up is a surprise attack by the girls.  Usually it is a run and jump on you attack.  So instead, we implemented a "kiss to wake up" rule.  Now, if our eyes are closed and they want to wake us up they come up and give us a kiss on the cheek.  Much better! 

So then, Mark must have come up with a game they call "Wake the Sleeping Bear"!  Here Alaina is the sleeping bear.

Paige comes up and gives her a kiss.

And wakes the bear who starts chasing her.  (Mark is usually the sleeping bear.)

Paige's turn to be the bear.

Skylar with Grandpa.

Alaina hula hooping.  Paige actually mastered Hula Hooping while there.  She is quite good.  I don't have any still pictures of her, just video.

A rare smiling picture of Skylar.

The girls' first wishbone.  They were very intent.

What happened?

I've never seen a wishbone break like this.  They actually broke both the bones off at the exact same time.  Not sure what that means!

You may hear them say....

Alaina:
"Casey is a stunk."(skunk)
"I'm so stirsty!"(thirsty) or "I'm stirsty, stirsty, stirsty!"  (She's not at all dramatic!)
"Can I hold she?"/ "I lub she!"
"I'm so starving to eat!"
"I want a magic spoon!" (She apparently doesn't care for plastic kid spoons anymore and wants to use silver spoons, which she has dubbed "magic spoons".
"I'm hungry for breaksast."
"Lasterday" - any day that came before today
"Is Keller here yet?" = Is Heather here yet?
"I have a tummy hache!"

Paige:
"I stampled that for you to keep it together!"  stampled = stapled
"I losed the right one!" losed = used
"I weend that!" weend = need
"Pretty Mantis" - praying mantis
"Can I have breaksast now?"
"Lasterday" - any day that came before today
"I have a tummy hache!"

Where Did I leave Off?

Okay, so I've been less than great about keeping this thing up.  But I want to.  I NEED TO!  For my girls.  These are their memories.  This is what they are going to have when they want to know when all of their firsts were and how we spent our days.  So I'm going to do this.  But I'm starting at the present.  I'm going to back blog, but you won't see those unless you go back in the history to August, September, and October.  It may take me a while to get those caught up, but I have to trudge forward with today.  So here is my random post of things you've missed.  I'll just touch on a few biggies.

We welcomed a new baby cousin, Ariana May, to the family! 

We went to the apple orchard and picked delicious Honey Crisp Apples!  (And were a little leary of the "alligator" that lived in the creek.

Paige started gymnastics again and loves it.  She can now do a headstand in the middle of the room and holds it.

We carved pumpkins for Halloween.

Unkie, Auntie, and Amelia came to visit for the Hawkeye Homecoming game and we went to the parade.

Paige is becoming quite the budding photographer.

Alaina now sleeps in a big girl bed!

And Paige has lost two teeth! 

Wow, that is a lot.  I will be blogging about each of the events, but remember you will have to check back through the history.  They will not be new posts!

30 Truths for Mature People

I thought this was a pretty good list.  How many do you agree with?  

1. I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5. How in the world are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on # 5. I’m pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

9. I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.

10. Bad decisions make good stories.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work (or home) when you know that you just aren’t going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don’t want to have to restart my collection…again.

13. I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.

14. “Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this – ever.

15. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello?),but when I immediately call back,it rings nine times and goes to voice mail. What did you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away?

16. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

17. I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

18. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

19. I wish Google Maps had an “Avoid Ghetto” routing option.

20. Sometimes I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the heck was going on when I first saw it.

21. I would rather try to carry 10 over-loaded plastic bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

22. The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.

23. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

24. How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear or understand a word they said?

25. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent someone from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

26. Is it just me or do high school kids get dumber & dumber every year?

27. There’s no worse feeling than that millisecond you’re sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

28. As a driver, I hate pedestrians ,and as a pedestrian, I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate bicyclists.

29. Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

30. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey – but I’d bet almost everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time!

Blessings Unlimited

So I did something I never thought I would do.  I became a consultant to sell something. (GASP!)  The thing is I absolutely LOVE the products.  

While at the MOPS Convention in Nashville, I came across a booth where I wanted to buy EVERYTHING!  It was the Blessings Unlimited booth.  They are a company from DaySpring, a subsidiary of Hallmark.  They are the world's leading producer of Christian greeting cards and gifts.  

I love that it is a Christian company and their products all have a verse or and inspirational saying on them. I want anyone who walks into my home to know that my family loves Jesus and that even the things we display show that love.  

I now have a website up where you can shop and browse their products.  I especially love their Special Day plate, their handbags, and wall sayings.  Okay, I really love most of their stuff.  You can view my website HERE.  If you would like to host a Gathering, let me know.  Their products would be awesome Christmas gifts.  You can also buy directly from the website.  I would love to hear from you!

A mini Vacation

We took a mini family vacation after the wedding.  I saw on a friends' blog a year ago a post about the Morton Arboretum.  (Thanks Jessi!)  We thought it looked like fun and thought we if ever were that direction it would be a definite stop for us.  It didn't disappoint.  We loved it and would highly recommend it.

We also went to the Riverwalk and rented a paddle boat.  The girls thought it was great and took turns steering.  Their goal was to chase the ducks.

And on the way home we had to stop at the home of one of our favorite shows, American Pickers.  It was fun, though none of the cast were there that day.

They were in town, so their trucks were there.

Overall, it was a fun few days together and truly needed to refresh.