Singing your way through the holidays. . .

Well, no secret that I love Christmas music. There are so many good songs.

Today was "Christmas Karaoke" day at our house. We pulled the karaoke machine Allison got last year from my parents into the living room so we could sing by the tree. Each of the kids got to pick a song (we would've done more, but my parents got home from Austria today and we wanted to go see them!). Alaina picked O Christmas Tree . . .she's got some kind of fascination with that song this year. Allison picks the song she loves to sing, and no one else does . . . 12 days of Christmas, and Ian picked out Frosty. Follow that up with my 2 selections . . . .All I Want for Christmas is my 2 Front Teeth and Rudolph and we had a good little show going on.


I have to add this next picture, because it's SOOOOO Alaina!



Today's song . . . no santasearch happening today for some reason . . . so will just give you a song with an unknown artist (well, he's known, just not by me!). Every time I hear "Go Tell it on the Mountain" I think of childhood. . . and I associate it with my dad. Should check and see if that was a favorite of his, or he sang it a lot or what. Once again . . .version matters. It's the guy with the deep, rich voice. Love that version . . . old version. I think it was on one of Dad's Firestone records. From the 60's or so.

House picture of the day. I might be reissuing this one, if I can get a good picture of the item they're still missing from it.


Think you might be able to see that clear enough. That's a close up of the window over the front door. There's a chair up there. . . a chair that Santa gets put into and he's reading a list of all the kids on the coldisac. I'm not sure how they get it all up there. . .. the owner told me he had the same floor plan we did, and there's no way to get something that wide on our ledge. And, yep, that's four white lighted trees in their house.

So, DSL decided to give us a ton of trouble yesterday. Believe me, one in a long line of issues we had yesterday.

- I sent 2 boxes of books to 2 friends in different states. Send said boxes to the wrong people . . .so my OK friend got the PA friend's books and vice versa. {sigh}
- Ian tried to use the timer on the microwave yesterday afternoon. It wouldn't work. Andy flipped all the circuit switches in the house making sure that one hadn't blown. We ended up spending an hour at Sears deciding what we wanted to replace it with. Got home, Andy still thought the whole thing was fishy . . .checked the cabinet above the microwave. Lo and behold . . . the plug had been unplugged! ROFL . . . microwave order cancelled today. Good new is, we discovered it, not the delivery men!
- When the circuits got flipped, computer shut off. When we tried to log back onto the internet, it wouldn't work. Tried calling CS, as Andy was able to verify that the computer and wireless was working as it should. They were closed. He ended up spending I don't know how much time with them this am .. .before he discovered they'd changed what address you had to have somewhere on the Linksys log on. {double sigh}

Anyway, no dsl service last night, no ability to log on and get this done.

Advent activity for December 5th . . . visit Santa. I'd have to go back and look, but I *know* this is the 5th year we visited this particular Santa, because I remember taking baby Alaina there and hoping to get a shot of the 2 kids sitting on the floor, "shushing", and Santa laying across his huge chair and pretending to be asleep with a sleeping Alaina on his stomach/chest. I had a friend who did this picture and it turned out sooooo cute! No such luck. Alaina slept until about 15 minutes before our turn. {sigh} I'm pretty sure we visited him the year before Alaina was born too.

We love this guy . . . he has a real beard and moustache. He has real "Santa" hair. And he's so, so sweet to the kids. We ate across the aisle from him at Chili's last year, and all these kids came up to him, and he was still sweet to all of them. I told mine we were going to leave Santa alone so he could eat in peace. . .and he actually called them over to visit with him!

He doesn't look like your regular every day Santa . . .first year it was hard to get used to, but now we all talk about how he's "our" Santa. So . . . here are the kids with Our Santa!


Christmas decorations picture for today:



Yep, apparently these people love UT (University of Texas) so much they've put an inflatable Bevo (the mascot) in the front window. . .not on the the lawn . . .actually in their front room of the house. Guess they're worried about it getting stolen? Also, and hard to see here, they have that side of the house decorated, but on the other side of the sidewalk . . nary a light! ROFL

Another preview of my neighbor's display . . .I'd show you a straight out picture, but he's still finishing it all up. Talked to him, and he says he thinks it'll be finished on Saturday.



Music for the day. Well, it's a song that's not at santasearch.org. . .which apparently is okay, as none of the songs I tried to play there were working today. It's a song by a group called Acappella. I grew up on music from this group . . .starting back when it was just the founder and one other singer. They've been around for 23 years, and I think I've been listening for at least 21 of those years! This song is called "That's What I love about Christmas". . . lyrics here:

Hooking up the Christmas lights, last minute shopping spree
Putting decorations on the evergreen tree
Oh I can hardly wait, that's what I love about Christmas

Shaking packages, mistletoe above the door
Eating too much food and laying down on the floor
Lots of memories, that's what I love about Christmas

Chorus 1:Everyone's sneaking a holiday sweet
No one wants to leave
Little kids acting like they're asleep
While they're trying to catch Santa on Christmas Eve

Mom is cooking dinner, presents underneath the tree
It's a Wonderful Life is showing on TV
Wouldn't change a thing 'cause that's what I love about Christmas

Chorus 2:Stockings stuffed with gifts galore
Home is feeling warm
If you want a good cup of Christmas cheer
Watch a child's expression on Christmas morn

Look at all the Christmas cards, kids playing in the hall
Dad's in the easy chair watching football
Yes it's finally here, that's what I love about Christmas

It took it's time getting here, that's what I love about Christmas
Hope you feel it, that's why I wish you a Merry Christmas

Dueling Neighbors, Part Deux

********Edited to add photos throughout entry. Blogspot finally let me!

Today's music selection: "Do they Know it's Christmastime" sung by a conglomeration of artists known as Bandaid. I remember this release so well. It was winter of my 8th grade year. . . my friends that year were a bit on the "Flock of Seagulls" side. We listened to the Thompson Twins, Eurythmics, Howard Johnson, David Bowie. I was like the preppy dresser among them, although I do remember a certain neon sweatshirt I wore with a belt that wrapped around my waist twice! Anyway, we are were wild about the song, especially as it came from Great Britain.

So, today's advent activity was an easy one . . . hang stockings. Well, we knew we had a Christmas party at church tonight, but I didn't want to put that on a circle, as I never know if we'll go on a particular year. There must've been 12 million people there! Okay, that's a stretch . . .but quite a few. Hundreds! Pizza and Santa showed up .. . and there was a cake walk. My kids came home with one of the batches of brownies we made, some gumdrop cupcakes, and some of those little mice made out of chocolate covered cherries and hershey kisses. The kids sat on Santa's lap and asked for what they'd told us they wanted . . .thank goodness!




I just love the look on Alaina's face. She was so excited to hang up her stocking.

As I promised, here's Dueling Neighbors, Part Deux. These people live to the left of the house from yesterday .. .Notice the lights in every window. . . and the fact that only ONE half of their yard is lit up . .. I guess because they don't want to draw attention to the next door neighbor's house??

Growing Up

Today seemed to be a day to remind me of all the ways I'm no longer (obviously) a child. Christmas is just so different as an adult. In that vein, i'll share Grown-up Christmas List with you today. It's sung by several different artists, but I just like the Amy Grant one best (I promise, this won't become an Amy festival!).

Andy asked me again for a Christmas list .. . I have absolutely no idea what to put on it! Mom and Dad are getting me a 50mm fixed lense. I like the sound of a macro lense, but I have no idea what I'd actually do with one! ROFL Just sounds cool. Hmmm . . . we need a new toaster and could use a new can opener, but what kind of Christmas list is that? I'll throw in a couple books, but there's no way I have the urges for enough for my mom, my sister, my brother and Andy and the kids to get me stuff from a list. Unlike Alaina's list. . . I wrote down TWO PAGES of ideas, and then just told her she'd completed her list. . .she would've gone on for days! And those pages don't include her American Girl wishlist. tehehe

Today's advent activity was putting up the Christmas tree. I remember always waiting anxiously for the day we could do that. Now I know how Dad must've felt about it. . . pulling out that box, trying to read all the numbers on the pieces to figure out what goes where. . . moving the furniture. It's just not much fun as an adult. . .except the joy you see the kids getting out of it. (in a side note, talking about trees and dad, I remember the flocked tree we had several years. . . I'm going to have to see if I can get slides/photos of that time!)



Then we took a look at some Christmas lights. .. not the big one that had a line waiting to see it. @@ . . . there's a guy that sends a weekly newsletter to people in Frisco, and he had that one on his list this week. The neighbor near us is STILL working on his display . ..it'll be breaking news when it's finally finished. In the meantime, another little nugget from his yard:



House of the day . . . this is one part of what I affectionally call the "Dueling Neighbors". Their places remind me of Tim Taylor trying to get in one last lighted piece because he thinks his neighbor is going to win the neighborhood contest! tehehehe The kids ooohed and aaahed over the houses. The more lights the better (yet another way I'm no longer a kid!).

On the Second day of December . . .

While you're reading, check out another one of my favorite Christmas songs. Amy Grant's Heirlooms. Click on the link and it should pull up a screen that will automatically play the music, unlike the one I linked yesterday (gotta go back and fix that). This is like the ultimate scrapbooker's song. All those letters and memories. Drat . . .if you just go to Santa Search, you can have it play in the background, but linking it it navigates away from the blog. Anyway, check out the song. . .

Did a ton of running around today. Had to pick up a ton of pictures for my mom's books . . . trying to get those done today before the challenge is over. Ran to a half dozen places at the same time . . . had to go pick up my engagement ring that we had resized . . .finally decided I should just make it bigger until I lose some weight. The size 5.5 ring just wasn't working for me!

Today's Advent activity was to buy Christmas tree ornaments. After Ian's less-than-enthusiastic response towards shopping yesterday, I was afraid he'd be bummed to have to shop again. Apparently shopping for ornaments is a totally different beast! Alaina told me she wanted a Backyardigans ornament. . . after much searching on the net, I decided the things just don't exist unless you wanna buy a ceramic ornament that someone's mod podged a picture of the gang on! So Alaina instantly jumped to wanting a giraffe ornament. . .let me tell you, she's got a thing for giraffes! Then Allie requested a horse ornament. Thankfully, Ian said he'd look around and decide on something when we were at the store. I thought I'd have to talk the girls into another movie ornament, but surprise, surprise . . . Hallmark had a giraffe AND a horse! What are the odds of that??? And Ian found a Harry Potter one he that was "sweet!" So life's good here.

Still waiting on the Griswolds to get going on their displays . . . I know this weekend has to be the working weekend for a lot of them.

Today's entry is more of a yard display than a light display. These people must be in the running for the yard with the most yard art!


Here are a few closer up pictures.
Snowmen, pooh characters, Barney . . . just a bit too much going on!



And I think they're striving to get all 101 Dalmations!

Ahhh . .. the sights of Christmas

Ahhhhh . . . .December. I love this month. . . the getting ready, the excitement of the kids, the decorations, shopping, the traditions.

I came home to a nice little surprise in my mailbox today from my "Griswold" friend Erin.


Inside, it says "Happy Decoration X-sess!" Tehehe . . .I know "they" say there's a card for every event. . . .I didn't know our Griswold Adventures was one of them. Thanks Erin!

The kids had their first Advent event today. Ian wasn't super thrilled to find out today's activity was "Go shopping for PJs". I won't tell him it was supposed to be "Watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" until I saw them putting out pjs at Old Navy today.



This month I'll be sharing Christmas music and lights with you.

Santa Claus and Popcorn is my all time favorite Christmas song from my youth. I know this had to come from some Firestone record (yep, LP) that my dad had from waaayyyyy before. I didn't know until I started searching for it that Merle Haggard sung it. tehehe . . .we were not big country folks at our house. I can't tell you how many times my sister and I listened to this song each Christmas season. I don't think I have ever met anyone who actually knows this song! But click on the link and take a listen while you continue to read.

So as not to be misunderstood, all of my house photos for the month will NOT be in the Griswold finals. (Heck, most of the Griswold finalists are still working on their displays!) There are some lovely decorations around and they need recognition too! You know, the sincere kind. So, here's a house from a large, well-known neighborhood not to far from here. This house doesn't show up nearly as well on the photo as it was IRL . . . .hard to get some of those nighttime pictures. They've done a simple white outline. I may be boring, but I love the white light look. And yes, for those of you who've told me I have a big house, ALL of these lights are on 1 house, not 2 seperate ones. It sits on a corner and wraps around 2 sides.



edited to add: Another Alaina funny (man, I might need to dedicate another blog to her and her quotes!)

We went out to dinner last night, and I (as usual) had to take Alaina to the bathroom. She always waits until right before the food's supposed to come out and then needs to go. She got in there and looked in the toilet and said "OH, this is yucky business!" ROFL . . . it was the residue of a good toilet cleaning. . . some blue water and bubbles. She flushed, and said "Good! The blue's gone, but the bubbles are still here. I like bubbles!" Then, after finishing. . . she started her rendition of "Shake your Booty!", which involved chanting "Shake your booty!" and shaking it! All through the pulling up the pants process, the hand washing process, and walking back out to the table. tehehe . . .that kid!

Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak peek for you . . . . this is part of one of the holiday displays you'll be seeing in the upcoming month. These people live a couple doors down from me, and the street is clogged for most of the month as people come by to see what he did this year. Andy always complains about the amount of time this guy has in the garage . . . he's made ALL of his Christmas display stuff, he has built at least 2 go-carts. I keep reminding Andy that the guy's got no kids. Well, a couple days ago one of my other neighbors told me his wife's expecting. Andy laughed with glee!



And the latest Alaina story . . . .

She was wearing one of her pairs of sunglasses on Monday night when we went out to eat with my parents. Mom and Andy were telling her she looked like a star.

Her response: "I don't wanna be a star . . . .I wanna be an action figure!"

Andy laughed and told her you had to be a movie star, THEN you'd get an action figure.

So last night, I said "Who are you?"

She responded "I am that grown up you are after the movie star!"

Tehehe . . . kid cracks me up!

I am still alive!

I know, it's been a long, long time since I blogged . . .a week! EEK . . . .now that I'm down to -12 visitors (I don't know how that would be possible, but I'm sure I can figure out a way!) I'm back. We took a little trip to San Antonio to celebrate Thanksgiving with Andy's extended family . . . had a good time. We went to the Alamo (again) so that Ian could experience it immediately before he started studying it at school. I tried taking Christmas card pictures while we were there . . . and no, they weren't in Christmasy attire, but seeing that I have THREE pictures to send out in Christmas cards this year (I haven't sent out the last 2 years, but had pictures printed for them), I figured it's okay if only 1 of the 3 is a Christmasy picture (the one from "last year" is actually one from the series of V-day pics I took).

It's not so easy getting good pics of the 3 kids . . .at the same time. I would really love to know how to cut and paste a head so that it looked totally realistic!

Here are a few of the "rejects" . . . you'll have to wait for your Christmas card to see the winner!



In other news . . . .the "Griswald" families already have their yards full of decorations . .. in fact, some of them were fully decorated before Thanksgiving. We'll see if our decorations make it up this weekend.

So, plans are that every day of December (prior to Christmas, that is!), I'll share with you one of my favorite Christmas songs and a photo of a yard somewhere within 20 minutes of me (Hey, Erin . . .when are we going to make our annual car drive looking for the most "Griswaldy" house???)

And speaking of every day before Christmas, I have a pocket advent calendar that I need to fill with one activity per day for us to do . . . .HELP! Anyone have any ideas???

The War

Allison went to stay with my parents on Sunday evening. She and my mom had an interesting conversation:

Allie: "Mimi, how old was my mom when the war happened?"

"What war, Sweetie Pie?" (Mom's got a nickname for each of the kids . . . Allie's is Sweetie Pie. . .I keep telling her I don't know what's going to happen when someone has a boy; Ian's name is "Favorite Boy"!)

"You know . . . . . The Civil War!"

ROFL, how the child knows about the Civil War in the first place, I'm not sure! But that she thought I was alive during it is even funnier!

My mom spent the next several minutes convincing Allie that I wasn't alive during the Civil War. That Mimi, Dad-Dad (what the kids call my dad) and Nana (Mom's mom) weren't even alive during the Civil War. Allie really didn't believe her for the first few minutes.

So, yesterday, I was driving Ian and Allie home from the dentist and said "Hey, did you guys know Mimi and Dad-Dad came over on the Mayflower?" Both Ian and Allie said "Really????"

Tehehe . . . .nothing like "getting" your kids back when they think you're 140+ years old.

Been Working . . .

Even though I've been sick most of this week, I've been trying to complete some projects that needed to get done.

I've now done 131 5x7, 6x6, or 7x7 pages for my mom's books. All I have left is to get pictures from this year printed, work on the books, and I'll be done. I have all the pages journaled, page covered . .. ready to go. I've got until Dec 10 to finish the rest.

Then I had some pictures a friend sent me from her trip near Beslan last year. She is a crisis counselor for a (some?) school districts and after that horrible school shooting last year, she went on a trip to share experiences, help prepare the counselors there in Beslan. I was so proud of her and her work. I had the whole album almost completed (except the covers and the pictures) and I lost it. I'm sure it's here somewhere . .. unless it was in a bag I sold in a lss garage sale last month! One of the classes I took at CKU-A from Chatterbox taught this album.

Hey, Connie. . . if you're reading, don't look any further! Be surprised when it shows up in your mailbox.

I created an entire second album this week . . .and like it better. I have the newer Sun Room papers in it, used wood frames/tags, I just like the way this one turned out. Here's the cover for it:



I have a few more pictures of this album Here. (Look Jamie and Jess, I finally started my challenge blog!)

Sick . . .

Middle of the night Thursday night, Alaina woke up wheezing. . . bad. Pulled out the nebulizer and spent from 3-4 up with her. I didn't go to bed until 2:30, so you can imagine how much sleep I got on Thursday night! Had to do two more treatments on Friday, she started a temperature and was coughing terribly. Only time her RAD acts up is when she's sick. Then she gave it to me. I've spent the last several days in bed. Mom picked up Alaina last night so I could rest today . . .slept until 1, except for about 45 minutes I got up this morning to get Ian and Allie dressed, fed and to school. And lucky me, I have this lymph node in the crease behind my ear that hurts like heck! Had PA sister take a look, and she says it's part of this infection. {sigh}

So . . .that's what I've been doing. Being sick and working on my mom's mini-scrapbooks of each one of the kids. I usually only have to do one year's worth of pictures, but I'm WAAAYYYY behind, so I have to do the pictures for 2003, on. So far, I've completed 65 6x6 or 5x7 pages. Still have all of 2005 to do (gotta pick pictures out and have them printed), half of Allie's pages and all of Alaina's pages. {sigh} better get working.

The Thanksgiving Season

Nothing like starting the Thanksgiving celebrating 2 weeks before Thanksgiving! Today was Alaina's Thanksgiving meal at the preschool. Isn't she a cutie? (Sad that this is the best picture I have of her from today!)

Alaina spent the night with my parents last night, and was so excited to see me. She actually said "I KNEW you'd be here!" like I hadn't told her 157 that I'd see her at school today. Then she wanted to make sure her cookies made it. She'd helped me make them and was so proud to see them on the dessert table.

I had several people ask me about the recipe. . . you might know it, now that you've seen the finished product. World's easiest cookies. And everybody must've loved them . . .they were gone quickly.

Peanut Butter Cup Tarts

1 roll of slice and bake Peanut Butter cookies (or if you're so inclined, guess you could do it from scratch, like my mom had to do during my childhood!)
1 large bag of Mini Reeses PB cups (I used a "big bag" . . .it had 80 cups in it)

Refrigerate PB cups at least an hour, then unwrap them and stick them back in the fridge. Preheat oven to 350. Spray mini muffin pans with cooking spray. Slice cookies and then quarter slices. Drop one in the bottom of each muffin pan cup. Bake for 6 minutes. As soon as you pull the cookies out, push a cup down into the center of each cookie. Let them cool and then put the pans in the fridge to cool further. When they're cold, use a knife to gently "pry" them out of each cup.

***********************

In other happenings . . .is there a problem with me being addicted to a children's show? I hope not! We love the Backyardigans (Nick Jr) here . . . all of us! The music is just so darned catchy and they dance. . . and the story lines are so cute! I bought the CD "for Alaina" this week (yeah, right! It was because *I* wanted it!) and we've been singing along with it on a daily basis. Alaina left preschool today and wanted to leave like a "secret agent". . . sneaking through the halls so no one would see her and creeping on her tiptoes. . . just like the Backyardigans do it.

A Rose by Any Other Name . . .

Today, Alaina and I were talking about a little boy in her Bible class whose mom is a friend of mine. All of the sudden, she says "Hey mom, there's a new boy in my class .. . and his name is Villain!"
"Villain??? Are you sure?"
"Yes mom (that kid is 4 and is already calling me "Mom" instead of "Mommy" . . .sigh), his name is VILLAIN!"

At this point I pause and think. Surely no parents would go so far as to name their kid "Villain"! After a minute, it came to me.

"Hey Alaina, do you mean *D*ylan???"
"Oh yeah . . .that's what his name is!"

So we now can add to the list of names my kids have butchered!

Ian came home from the early days of Kindergarten talking about his friend "Shovel". Once again, pretty darned sure that wasn't a name a parent would bestow a child with. Took us weeks to find out the kid's name was actually "Sheldon". ROFL

Last year, when Allie started kindergarten, we had several days in a row that I emailed her teacher to ask what the "real" name of the student was. According to her, there was an "I-I", a "NaDING" (emphasis on the "ding") and an "Omart".

They were actually named "Aya" (pronounced eye-ya), "Nadeen" and "Omar". We've giggled and giggled about going to shop at the "Omart". Wonder if that's Oprah's store.

So now, we get to add Villain to the list of names.

So, I guess that old Shakespearian quote is actually true: A [insert friend's name here] by any other name WOULD smell so sweet.

In other family news:

-- Ian's soccer team ended up in 3rd place. . . they had a swim party yesterday to celebrate the season, and are apparently playing in a tournament during the first part of December. (there go my Dec. weekends already filling up!)
-- I'll be spending this evening making those peanut butter cup tarts (peanut butter cookies with a Reeses in the middle) for Alaina's Thanksgiving feast for Thursday.
--I was listening to one of the sessions of one of Beth Moore's studies last night, and Ian wanted to listen, and actually GOT some of what she was saying.
-- Allie's reading has improved dramatically over the last 2 weeks . . .WHOOOOHOOOO!
-- I've finished handmaking 70 Christmas cards! Now to just get them sent out in time (this has been my issue the past 2 years).
-- Yippee . . spending tomorrow with my sister, scrapbooking.

-- eta: It was voting day all over the country today. We didn't have any candidates to vote for (did anyone?), but did have one controversial proposition . . .the marriage proposition (prop 2). Doesn't matter which side of the issue I'm on . . . I don't wanna turn this into a political debate.It was confusing in several ways . . . some people were confused that a vote AGAINST prop 2 would mean a vote against the 1 man, 1 woman = marriage, and vice versa. They got that straightened out, and then this happened:

"The campaign had been enlivened over the past week because of a controversial tactic by the amendment's opponents, who argued in recorded phone calls to voters that the measure is so poorly worded that it could jeopardize traditional man-woman marriages. Amendment supporters denounced the effort as misleading. " (www.wfaa.com)

It disturbs me that the opponents would try and trick people. We didn't get one of those phone calls .. . we're unlisted, so we don't get solicitor/political phone calls, but my neighbor mentioned in a casual conversation that she'd gotten one of these calls a week or so ago. Then several days later, got another (automated) call "clarifying" the law (from a proponent, of course). You know, I guess they pretty much knew the writing on the wall . .. Texas is a red state. But come on . . .trying to trick voters to not use their vote in the way they wanted to vote? Latest polls I've seen says that 74% of Texas voters voted for prop 2. I can tell you they were out in droves today (unlike what "they" thought would happen . . .I don't know, maybe it was less in other counties, precincts, etc). I stood in an hour to exercise my constitutional right.

Tehehe . . . another election aside here . . . .my bil answered a call about a month ago asking if he was for or against the "illegal sale of alcohol." (this was something being voted on in their county) He asked the caller if it was ever okay to be against something illegal. ROFL . .. don't think they were too impressed with his answer. They apparently were done with him at that point.

Run for your Life!

I was sitting here just a few minutes ago, and Alaina started running around the coffee table. Then she shouted out "I running for my life!" I looked at her stunned. Where had she come up with that?!?!?! ROFL, I should've known. Mom and Dad took the kids to see Chicken Little on Friday night, and he says that in the movie.

But it got me to thinking. How often is it that we run for our lives? Not in the sky-is-falling kinda way, but that hectic running, trying to get it all done? The pace of the world nowadays is almost frantic. Kids to run to lessons (and we hold them to one type of lessons .. . I can only imagine how bad it would be if we let them all do multiple things!), getting things to fix up the house, a million trips to the grocery store (because i never remember everything!), laundry, laundry, laundry. And a house that never stays clean. Put on top of that church, a Bible study, the occasional scrapping time, eating out, seeing movies, planning parties for the kids' classes. Man, it just never ends! My October calendar was crowded!

I'm gearing up for a more relaxed November and December (yeah right!). I'm going to try hard to schedule less and have more time to enjoy LIFE. . . .enjoy the kids .. . .do things that will make us all happy. (I say this as I'm trying to figure out how I'll get Alaina to school at 9:15, when I have a meeting scheduled for 9!) I'm not going to get all hung up in the Christmas running around . . and this year at the family thanksgiving, Andy's promised me some "me" time.

So here's to making things more simple . . .to stop all that "gotta run now" stuff.

Whirlwind of activity

The past almost week since I posted has been full of activity . . .

Cleaning house (UGH)
Packing up Andy and Allie for their camping trip (meant tons of laundry)
Movies with my mom (Elizabethtown) while Ian was at my sister's and Alaina was at home with my dad
Soccer Game (we tied, {sigh})
A trip to the ER
Sunday afternoon brownie meeting shortly (picture is Allie showing off her stuffed animal as part of their "try-it" badge)

Huge rain storm Monday
Dressing up in costumes for Dance class
Trick or Treating

Yep . . .you read that right, a trip to the ER. Alaina got her thumb closed in a heavy door at Super T and commenced throwing a huge fit that I had a hard time talking her out of. After talking to my sister about how to dx a broken thumb, we decided it was best to take her to the hospital and have them x-ray it. So sis met me at the hospital and took Ian . . . and we hung out at the ER. Shortest ER trip I've ever experienced. We were there about 1 hour! No broken thumb, thank God! Just painful.

Trick or Treating . . . it rained almost the whole day Monday, so I was glad it stopped in time for TorT! My Brother,sil and niece came by, so we could do the annual taking of the halloween pictures.

I'll have pictures posted as soon as blogspot stops causing me grief!

How's this?

About 6 weeks ago, Allie told me she was going to be a horse for Halloween. I spent several weeks looking *everywhere* for one, even looking online, to no avail. {sigh} There just wasn't one to be found. I convinced her that they just didn't exist. She accepted that answer . . . until we went to the ballet in our city. They did Cinderella. . . and you know what that means! There were horses pulling that darned carriage! She turned and looked at me and said "HORSES! You can MAKE one." ARGHHHHH!

So I asked around and found out how to make one. I had to make some modifications, because they'd ordered most of the costume, and I just didn't have that kind of time.

So I spent this afternoon making her horse costume, so she could wear it to her dance class tonight. Here are the results. I might have to do some fixing, you can hardly see her horse ears.

See that expert hood sewing? ROFL

Birthday Bliss . . .

I know, I've been the bad blogger lately. Was consumed with getting the party extravanganza organized. Thought I'd never get it done! Thank goodness my mom came over on Friday to pick up Alaina (I had a horrible migraine that day) and stayed and helped me clean! She was still vacuuming stuff when people arrived the next day, and as the party wound down, she vacuumed again! tehehe . . my mom sounds a little vacuum obsessed, doesn't she?

Anyway, not a long post today, but wanted to share a couple of pictures.

Alaina at the pumpkin farm on Thursday . . . a field trip with her class. The reason for the ugly blue shirt instead of something more fallish/festive.


Alaina thrilled by something at the party. I hate that this picture is so shadow-y. But love this expression. Alaina is just so open with her emotions (the good ones like this one, and the not so good ones!)


Isn't this one happy looking bunch? We went to the pumpkin farm, again. For those of you in the DFW 'burb area . . . they now have 2 locations. The original one in Celina (the one we went to on Thursday) and the new location at Owens Farm in Richardson ( where we went on Sunday). We've been the past 8 years to the first location . . .we know the owners and that makes it even more fun. We also know the guy managing the new location, I remember him passing out Jolly Green Giant freebies when we were kids (that's another post all together! ROFL). . . now he's passing out hot dogs and ring pops! He and the owner's parents thought we were absolutely nuts to be out there on Sunday. I think we picked the coldest day of the season to go . . . but it was the only day that all the family (except my brother) could be there.

Don't the kids look thrilled to be on the hayride? ROFL (the girl with the orange hairbow is my niece).

I'm Ready for Action!

So, I'm finally getting around to posting Alaina's birthday post. A series of migraines and dh traveling kept me from having much energy lately.

Alaina,

I remember so well the circumstances surrounding the week of your birth. After 2 "normal" pregnancies (for the most part), you were the challenge. I was sick at all times of day, instead of the morning thing I'd had with Ian and Allie. There was the scare at the beginning when we thought I was miscarrying you . . . .how wonderful it was to see that little bean with a beating heart on the screen that day. I'd wished for bedrest with the other 2. . .being pregnant and working just was so tiring. But no, I didn't get it until you. Only five days' worth, thankfully.

I'd lost a lot of my amniotic fluid with you. . . it just wasn't replenishing itself or something. And the dr. put me on bedrest, after doing a sono to check and make sure you were okay. So I went home to wait. Too many women already there prevented me from going in for an induction on Wednesday morning. Thursday, it was back to the doctor's office for another look at you. How awesome it is to have that sonogram picture of you in the womb just 12-15 hours before you were born! I did some last minute shopping with Mom, as the dr. decided to put me in the hospital that night. I knew what I was feeling was contractions. . . very far apart contractions (about 20 minutes apart). Wow, might I go into labor on my own?

We went to the hospital about 9 pm .. . but it wasn't until about 11 that I got settled in, and sure enough, those far apart twitches were contractions (never had those of their own accord before!). The plan was to prep me for labor that night, then use pitocin first thing in the morning.

Like would become the pattern for your life . . . you had your own plans. I wasn't in a bed for more than 4.5 hours before you made your entrance into this world. It seemed so different, so special from the other ones. No one was expecting a baby until sometime the next day, we were alone. . . .no one up at the hospital sitting in the family room waiting. It was just the 3 of us. . . you, me, and your dad. And I got to hold you and love on you for quite awhile before they took you to the nursery.

Alaina . . . you have had one huge personality from the very beginning. . . you knew all the buttons to push with Ian and Allie before you were a year old. Allie may be my July baby, but you're the firecracker! You have facial expressions that are just so funny to see on a child your age. And the wiggling of the eyebrows. And the fact that even before you were four, you had an evil laugh (muhahaha!) AND you used it at the appropriate times.

You are the ham, the outgoing one . . .and so smart. I'm so blessed that God gifted us with you. You know how to make me laugh, how to entertain with just your personality. We call that personality your "Piggie Personality". . . .not that you're a little pig, but because it's this attitude you have when you're wearing pigtails. Oh, a ball of fire!

You are the most stubborn of the 3 kids. I used to think Allie was, until you came along. That's not a bad thing. I hope and pray for you that that stubbornness will get you through the peer pressure of the teen years. But right now .. . it's a little frustrating. Like the whole red boots thing . . . .you're one little girl with a sassy 'tude. tehehe . . . where in the world can you wear red boots and pink flamingo clothes at the same time, unless you've got that sassiness in you!


Last night, I was so wanting to cuddle with you. It hit me, that you were no longer going to be my 3 year old, and you can't be considered a "baby" in any sense of the word. I was in your room and I said "Alaina, can I hold you? Just one more time as a 3 year old? This will be the last day you're ever 3 . . . ." She wiggled and squirmed and actually started licking my arms! Don't ask me why . . .it's just part of that sassiness of yours. "Alaina, I'm going to miss three so much!"

Her reply: "I'm not! I'm ready for action!"

Oh my . . .if 3 wasn't action, I'm almost scared to see 4!


Alaina. . . I love you so much, my little pumpkin head! I look forward to all the blessings (blessings right? Even with the action!) that will be coming your way this year. And feel so lucky that I'm along on this wonderfully spontaneous and entertaining ride with you.

Love,

Mommy

Happy Birthday Nathanael!

Well, I long hand wrote out my letter to 4 year old Alaina, but it hasn't made it to the blog yet. I had some ankle thing happen last night and i'm not walking so well. .. but didn't want to let this day go by without letting Alaina say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to her almost birthday buddy Nathanael. Four years ago yesterday, I handed Andy a list of several people to call, and Nathanael's mom Becky was on it. We'd known each other since before we'd both had our second children in July of 1999. We met on an aol expecting message board and just clicked. Then we ended up due in October 2001 with our thirds.

Andy returned after making calls and said "Becky thinks she's in labor!" Shortly after midnight on October 13, Nathanael was born.

So hey Nathanael . . .Alaina says HAPPY BIRTHDAY! (And don't you know, she giggled when I told her we were going to do this!)

Ever Wonder?

Those of you who blog, ever wonder sometimes who's out there? Sometimes, I really wonder who's checking me out. I've got the regular referring links that I can tell come from blogs I've left comments at, and from 2Peas.

Recently, I've been pulled up on MSN searches for the following things (among others): links for super suppers (twice . . . don't know if someone from Super Suppers is doing weekly checks to see how many times someone's linking to their website or what!), picture of brownie vest with iron on patches on it (hope that gal found it informative that I had a super hard time ironing those suckers on, and I would've rather sewn the things on), and something about children dying in water. Don't know why I was pulled up as the 19th link for that one. . . I must've used the words children, dying and water all in the same post. Was the one dealing with the kids loving the water taxis in Chicago.

For a while there, I was really frightened by some of the referring links it showed. . . until I figured out that people were probably just hitting the "next blog" button and mine was the next blog. Breathed a sigh of relief that I hadn't been linked from some of those sites!

But what I can't figure out is this: What's so exciting in my blog that people are emailing the link to other people? Have I been found out by the family and you guys are secretly reading, or what? It can't be that my photography's that great or anything. Or my life is that thrilling.

There you have it. . .ponderings on a Monday night.

I'm working for the big birthday entry for tomorrow.

Alaina will be 4 . . . and she's requested Olive Garden. I probably won't get around to posting said entry until late evening tomorrow night.

And for those who have emailed asking. . . I sent out invites today with the first Apple picture on it.

Help me choose . . .

I need to get some invites our for Alaina's birthday party. They need to go out in Tuesday's mail and to preschool on Tuesday, so tomorrow's the day to print the pics and make the invites. Never mind that I don't have an idea for the invites yet, I need to pick the picture. She licks her lips a lot, so come the fall, she has this unsightly red spot under her lips every year. {sigh} . . .and I don't think I know cloning techniques to make it look natural. This was my favorite picture, but the red spot looks so obvious. . .at least to me (there on the L side of the pic, her R side):
To me, the B/W didn't make it look much better . . . .

I shot some with an apple too . . . it covers the red spot, which wasn't my original intention . . . .

This was my favorite apple picture, but Andy said he thought her face was too dark . . .

I think it shows the desire for the apple and all . . .tehehe.

Anyway, anyone have any opinions/suggestions/helpful hints? HELP!

We've decided to do a little fall festival/costume party thing. Hoping to be able to rent a bounce house at this late date . . .we'll see. And we have enough family nearby (plus learned last night that in-laws planned on coming in that weekend) to man booths for us.

These Boots were made for . . ..

I know, I'm a Texan. I ought to embrace the cowboy boot. But frankly, I'm not thrilled with them as a fashion statement. Alaina, however, has fallen in love! My sil "gifted" her a pair when my niece outgrew this pair. She isn't the "kicker" kinda kid either. But we've got this little yearly shindig at the preschool known as "western day" and now Alaina can be properly outfitted a la her cousin's hand-me-downs.

Alaina, however, doesn't want to wait for western day . . .. these red boots were made for walking, or in these pictures, ballet dancing. That's Alaina standing on top of a kiddie picnic table practicing her positions and her plies.


Alaina pulls these darned things out of the closet at least 3 days a week. Usually, I can deter her. . .convince her that boots don't just go with everything. She already thinks they go with a lavender My Little Pony Sweatsuit. {sigh} I might have to hide that thing or Clinton and Stacy will have their first 4 year old fashion intervention. I don't know, we don't do the pop culture thing in our house, but she's got that boots and short skirt thing down pat. For now, however, I've managed to keep them contained to backyard and house usage only.

How long do you think that will last? Those of you who've actually MET Alaina?

On my mind . . .

First of all . . .HAPPY BIRTHDAY TERRI! For those of you who know her (and if you don't but want to anyway), drop her a line. Terri's not gotten with it in the blog world yet (nudge, nudge Terri), so I temporarily added an "email Terri" link to the right sidebar on mine, for easy access. I know several of you gals have her email address, but probably have no clue today's her special day. Terri's got an awesome store in the Tulsa area, that I love shopping at whenever I get a chance. I truly do love it more than the ones here in the Dallas area . . .and that's not a bias opinion!

Hey, Terri, did you know you missed the most common birthday of the year by one day? That's what Sophia posted today.

For scrapbookers, Terri and I don't get it together, photowise when we get together. I think I've mentioned this in a previous email. When we went to CKU, I got 6 shots on my camera of the 2 of us. This was the only one of just the 2 of us. Here's how bad that is . . .the CKU camera dude got TWO of us together! @@ . . .I do have 4 pictures of us with various scrapbooking celebs, with the 5th picture being a duplicate, for some reason. And I know Terri took precious few with her camera that weekend. . . but we just forget to pull out the cameras and snap shots when we're together.

I'm off to see what this holiday shindig is about at ReCollections . . . .don't worry Terri, (or Jamie or Jess) I'm not buying anything. But Jess and Jamie, I went in earlier today to sign up for this evening and I did see they had all that hot new Rob and Bob stuff . .. is that tantalizing you any? {smirk}

On My Honor . . .

So, today was Allison's first "real" Brownie meeting. We didn't sign her up for Daisies last year, as she was already in YPrincesses (Indian Princesses, Adventure Princesses . . .whatever is politically correct now!) and we were afraid of overwhelming her. ROFL .. . I shouldn't have worried. That's the most unscheduled group of dad's I think I've met! They took the girls on 2 campouts, did maybe 3-4 other meetings the entire year, did a parade (we won't discuss that fiasco!), and that was about it. I decided she could handle Brownies and princesses this year. She was so shy during the meeting. . . hung back and didn't say much. Said she didn't know the Girl Scout promise she'd memorized at home, or the "Make New Friends" song, that we'd been singing since Tuesday. She just kinda watched and I had to shoo her on with the other girls. I know it's not because she didn't know any of them. There are at least 4 of them I know she knows. I'm hoping as time goes on, she'll make friends with some of them . . .which is why I wanted her to be in Brownies. All her friends at school are boys. I want her to have some little girl friends. The first week of school last year, I drove by every day at recess to see what she was doing. . . .she was always swinging alone. She'd just learned to swing, and it was what she wanted to do at recess. I know I can't push it, but my heart was so heavy to see her spending all that time alone. So, here she is . .. modeling her new Brownie vest, with her new patches on it. I called Mom and bragged that I didn't have to stitch the patches on . . . they were IRON-ONS! I was so excited! Till I tried to iron them on! ROFL . . .sooooooo not easy to iron on. I fought with each one of them. I did finally win . .. I think. And she does look happy, doesn't she?