Come and Gone

Thanksgiving has come and gone and I am finally beginning to feel the Christmas spirit. When I am done with school that will help, I just have too much going on with that to fully embrace the holidays.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with some great friends. We all enjoyed our day of yummy food and fantastic company. Very thankful to have them in our lives! It was the first Thanksgiving in years that I haven’t hosted and it was fabulous to have a bit of a break this year.

Chandra and I decided to go shopping this year on black friday, yikes! I had never done that before. Once we got out of the freezing cold it was actually a lot of fun. We started at 12:30am and ended at 8:30am! I spent way too much money but I am almost done with the shopping now! WooHoo! I still have to figure out a few more things for Mykenzie and pick up a couple things I have left to grab on Kaylee’s list and a couple gift cards for family members. Fantastic news.

After shopping all night I came home and put the tree up with the girls while Travis was at work. We got it up along with all the other inside decorations. It is still undecided if we are putting up outside lights this year. If you come in my house and only look at my Christmas decorations it is very pretty. You just have to put on blinders for the rest of my house which is a total disaster! I am getting there....

I have a packed week planned, starting tomorrow with writing my two theater papers, yeah that will probably take all day. Wednesday I have class and errands to run on my break. Thursday I have to work in Kaylee’s class and I have a ton of returns that I need to do and I plan to begin my English paper and finish it on Friday. This will free up the weekend from school work, well almost. Friday night I have my moms group ornament exchange that I am really looking forward to!! Saturday morning we have girl scout stuff all morning until about 2pm, I am not looking forward to this at all because it includes a trip to the discovery center on a free day which is going to be a nightmare! Kaylee then has a bday party at 3pm that I am excited to catch up with some of her preschool friends and their moms :) Sunday I will be studying for my Speech final that will take place on Monday. She moved it up so she could use the 2 hour allotted final time for us to do speeches, read she planned poorly and didn’t have time to do speeches prior to that day. Whatever, I will be happy to get one final out of the way. And it is going to be multiple choice!! I could not be any happier about that fact!! Almost done with these classes then onto the hard ones.

My sweet girl

Yesterday as I was getting out of bed Kaylee was coming upstairs to bring me breakfast in bed. It was her own creation.... ritz crackers with grape jelly and string cheese, YUMMY. I ate my two but Travis refused to give it a try. She was so proud of herself for doing something nice for her mommy and daddy though. When I suggested she eat the couple that Travis didn't she looked at me and said, "no way! I don't like that stuff!" Nice, glad I ate it. LOL

Holy Turkey Day Batman!

Tick tick tick BOOM! The clock has been counting down to the holidays and OMG they are here! I have never been so unprepared for the holidays in all of my life! Yeah yeah I know that Christmas is technically still a month away but lets get real gifts need to be in the mail in two weeks. TWO WEEKS! Yep, two weeks! No where near prepared. Now don't get me wrong I do have SOME things bought and some people crossed off my list but I still have a long way to go. I have nothing for Mykenzie or Travis and only have a couple things for Kaylee. Normally by this time I have all of our Christmas decorations up and the tree decorated, my Christmas cards are typically filled out and ready to be mailed. Not this year. I am keeping hope alive that I can write all the papers that I need to write this week and by the weekend I will be done and ready bring out the tree and all the many boxes from the attic and can finally get into the Christmas spirit. So much to do, so little time!

On a side note Travis, the girls and I went to see a stage production of It's A Wonderful Life on Saturday and it was really good. Mykenzie wasn't a fan of all the singing and Kaylee fell asleep after intermission but Travis and I enjoyed it. I would love to see it again sometime. I had never seen the story so I was unsure what it was even about. I am going to be renting it and watching it soon...

I am paying for our Rockettes tickets tonight. We are going on Dec 22nd to see that show and I am so excited!! See, I will get into the Christmas spirt eventually.

My kids are lovely

Today we are driving home and Mykenzie is talking about how Kaylee needs to go to a horse academy. She said that is Kaylee's talent but she hasn't figured out hers yet, maybe it is being a vet or maybe a rock star, if not she would just not have a job and she would just knit all day like me. I said "that is not what I do all day" So she said ok, well watch tv and eat health bars and go to the gym. I think you need to go to the gym a little more often" Lovely.

So then Kaylee was in the bathroom complaining about a stand I just bought and put in there. She said she didn't have enough room cause it is in the middle of the floor. I told her I had enough room and I am bigger than she is. So then she says, yeah your bigger than me and you have a bigger a pointed to my stomach.

I swear my kids are so sweet ;)

What? A new post?

If you actually still ever visit my blog you will be happy to know that I am actually still alive and well. Not doing so well on the blog updates. I just spent two hours typing up some updates so if you are interested keep scrolling down and see what has been happening in our lives. Facebook is great cause you can keep up with friends with just a few sentences while blogging takes a bit more effort. I plan to do better at posting on here. I really love having this record of our lives and I think it is really cool that when my kids are older they will be able to look back on this and see what our lives were like during these years. Check back soon cause my blogging days are back :)

Mykenzie update

Mykenzie has some big news. After 10 long months she is now braces free! She got her braces off and she is so thrilled about it. Her teeth look so good!! I am so glad we got it done while she was so young. Fingers crossed they stay this way and she wont have to do it again. Dr. Jones said she has a 50/50 shot so here's hoping. It is so weird to see her with them off, even a month later. She is such a pretty little girl and now she has a beautiful smile to go with it.

I had a parent teacher conference with Mykenzie's teacher last week and got her report card. She is doing great and her teacher had great things to say about her. She got straight A's. She continues to love to read which I am still super excited about. She always has at least one book with her now.

She is getting older now and with that comes some preteen drama. Oh geeze what a pain in my butt! Listening to her drama stresses me out! This is the hard part of parenting that people don't tell you about. The bigger they get the bigger their problems... Girls are so darn mean to each other and she is right along with them being mean. I don't want her to be like how I was growing up... I wish I could get her to change her attitude about things before it is too late... just keep trying I guess. She is a really good kid but there is one girl she doesn't like and she is CONSTANTLY talking about how much she doesn't like her. We have had a lot of talks, maybe one day it will sink in.

Mykenzie is changing so much physically it is scary. She is truly a 'tween and will be a full on teenager faster than it seems should be possible. Lord help me please.... Better call for that refill ;)

Kaylee update....

Not sure what the last things I have updated about Kaylee... Well she was one of the lucky kids who contracted H1N1, luckily she didn't get a bad case of it and was totally better in just a couple of days.

A couple of weeks ago she got to go on her first bus ride for a school field trip. They had done a bus safety thing a few days prior so the kids would know how to behave and what to do in case of an emergency. On the way to school that morning I was going over bus rules with her. We talked about being careful on the big steps getting on and off the bus. She told me that you only get on the bus on the steps but you get off the bus in the back! lol Apparently the bus safety class confused her, glad we had that talk and she didn't go busting about the back door.

We had girl scout camp in October. Back to Camp Sycamore which is my favorite. They have a 48 horses and the girls got to do an age appropriate horse program. Kaylee got to do Pony Ready, where they learned how to groom the horse, including putting bows in their hair, and they also got to lead the horse around the rink. She was in hog heaven, first of all just being at girl scout camp after so many years of watching Mykenzie go without her but getting to have her first time combined with her favorite thing... ponies! Just the best time ever for my sweet little girl.

Last week I had her first parent teacher conference and got her very first report card. She did great and her teacher had nothing but good things to say about her. She has mastered everything they have learned, though she still needs to work on holding her scissors correctly, I can't even describe the strange way in which she holds them, but she gets things cut. Its crazy looking though.

She has also started to read! She is doing really well with this and loves reading her books she brings home. Not so much practicing her sight words but she is doing good despite not wanting to do it. She loves to do her books though and reads them each at least ten times. She is very proud of herself too.

She is doing great overall and has also learned how to use the computer on her own and loves playing games online now. She is getting so grown up and she has gotten a bit taller since her last visit to the doctor as well. Sniff.

My Update

I have so much to update on here it is insane! I totally suck and haven't been blogging (obviously) much lately. Life has been good, nothing to complain about. We have all been really busy with everything in life. School has been a bit crazy for me lately. Had a lot going on and the second I thought I could catch my breath it got crazy again. English has calmed down but the other 2 classes have picked up. Today was a particularly stressful day at school and I was feeling very overwhelmed. Now that I have had some time to relax a bit I am feeling better about it but I have a lot of work to do. Monday was registration for spring classes and I got up bright and early to sign up. I had had had to get into Anatomy and Physiology this spring and there is only 1 class available for 24 students, thank God I got into it, otherwise it would have been impossible for me to get into the nursing program in the fall. Next semester is going to be hard.

Moving on, In October I took my first solo flight. No I didn't get my pilots license in all my free time I just simply flew without anyone I knew. I went to Ohio to spend a few days with Aimee (my sister) and my niece Abby and the brand new sweet baby girl Brielle! I loved every second that I was there with them. I had such a great time just hanging out with Aimee and cudd

ling my sweet nieces. Brielle is just the sweetest little cuddle bug ever. I hate that I live so far away and those girls don't get to know me and their cousins like I want them too.

The first weekend in November Chandra and I joined my theater class at TPAC to see the Broadway production of The Little House on the Prairie. I had never read the books and had maybe only seen a couple episodes of the show a very long time ago. I had no real interest in seeing it but had to for the class. I loved it! I now want to watch all the episodes of the show and read the books to my girls (shh they are getting them for Christmas) I laughed out loud and cried, which I never expected to do. Watching the relationship between the girls made me really think about my sister and I and more so, my girls and their relationship with each other. Anyhow, It was really good and if you have the opportunity to see it I would recommend that you do. After the show we went with my crazy pushy teacher (Dr. Adams) to the doors on the side of the building that the cast exits from and we got to chat with several of the play's stars and get autographs and photos with them, including Melissa Gilbert who played Ma in the play. It was a really cool experience. Chandra has the photos so I can't share right now.

I have some big decisions to make concerning girl scouts. Lets just say my decision could determine if this is the last year for the troop or not. I am completely torn and have no idea what I am going to do.

My moms group had a craft day at my house this past Saturday and it was fabulous! I loved learning new techniques all while hanging out with a group of women I love. Bonus, I now have 10 awesome gifts for Christmas that are all unique and special :) Crafting is way too much fun! Anyone with awesome craft blogs they want to share with me pass them along cause I want to see them :) Photos or our craft day crafts will be coming soon. I have to take them first ;)

That pretty much wraps up my personal life. Now to do the kids posts :)