Merry Eve of Christmas Eve to Me!

We all gathered around the tree today after church to take a family picture. This is something we really haven't done and we really have next to zero pics of the 4 of us together. We got a decent, not great but I am happy, picture and then it happened. My camera lens would not go back in. It is clearly broken. Now this is probably something that can be fixed, maybe, however tomorrow is Christmas Eve followed by Christmas. Point being I need a camera and it wouldn't be done in time. So shopping we went and now I have a 7.2 megapixel Sony Cybershot camera. It is small and cute and teal! Woo Hoo! My husband rocks for buying me this when all of his Christmas shopping for me was already done. I am so glad that I won't have to go without a camera this Christmas! Thanks Honey! I love you!

Something nice for Santa??

Mykenzie "Mom, I think we should do something good for Santa, like leave carrots or something."

Me "ok"

Mykenzie "Really Mom I think we should do something nice for Santa. Like, maybe wax his reindeer's collars or something. I think that's a good idea."

Hi Santa!

I took the girls to the mall to see Santa today. Kaylee sat on his lap and barely whispered what she wanted. Santa kept telling her she had to speak up. Finally I told her that if she didn't tell him what she wanted he wouldn't know what to bring her and she finally spoke slightly louder so he could hear :) Mykenzie acted like he had the plague. She barely went near him, didn't tell him what she wanted and I had to "make" her get in the picture. This may be the last year for her :( They grow up too fast!

Oh how I love you Sonic!

I bribed my kids that if they were good today while I ran errands then I would get them a special treat. I decided that would be a frozen treat from Sonic. They both picked a small chocolate milkshake and I decided to try the new (well new to me) Java Chillers (Caramel of course). OMG it was so yummy! For $2.50 I will most definitly be back for more!

6 days left!!

Are you ready?? I am so beyond ready. I get too excited too soon and now I that I have been done shopping it took the fun out of it! lol I suppose I need to go do some other fun things instead. I plan to take the girls to see Santa, maybe today. We also may do our Christmas cookie baking today. Travis has to work work work so we wont see him too much but then he is going to be off off off so he will be here all the time! lol He has is work Christmas party for his "guys" tomorrow night, he decided to take them to dinner and then to play laser tag. He is pretty excited about it. He is so convinced that he is getting a Nintendo Wii for Christmas, I really hope he isn't too disappointed when he wakes up Christmas morning! I think while he is at his party and my kids are sleeping I am gonna tackle all of the wrapping that needs to be done. I have mailed all my gifts that needed mailed and they should have them all by now! yay! I mailed my last batch of Christmas cards out yesterday, most are local so they should get them pretty quickly. I hand delivered some to give it that extra "personal touch" aka I was being cheap! lol

So, Kaylee all day yesterday walked around saying "This is the worst Christmas ever!" Travis asked her why and if it was a bad Christmas or a good Christmas. She said it was good. So we explained that good would be best not worst! lol Now she is saying it is the "Best Christmas ever!" I am sure when she sees that she is getting 2 of the 3 things that are at the top of her list she will really think that it is indeed the best Christmas ever!

Gingerbread house?

We ended up waiting until Saturday to make our gingerbread house since Travis was still feeling yucky Friday. So after a long day of fun and junk food we made a candy house! lol We had several mishaps but in the end it tasted, I mean looked, pretty good ;)

Kaylee funny

We ran to blockbuster yesterday after I picked Kaylee up from school to pick up a gift card. When I unbuckled her seatbelt she said, "Thanks for keeping me safe mom" It was too cute and too funny! She is growing up so fast, there are some days Travis and I just look at her and ask when she got so big!

Yeah Baby!

It is December 7th and I am done with my Christmas shopping!! I think this is the earliest that I have been done ever and I got the latest start! I guess I could check my blog from last year and see cause that would be a close 2nd. I technically still have to get Mykenzie's ornament for Christmas eve but otherwise I am totally finished! I am still waiting for a couple of things that should be arriving in the mail for other people that I need to wrap but other than that all the gifts that will be leaving my house are also wrapped and ready to go!
I think I have all of my bases covered, I have 3 teacher gifts, a girl scout leader gift, 4 ornaments for exchanges, 3 books for exchanges, 23 of something for Kenzie's class as well as plates and napkins, all of the sets of parents, all of the nieces and nephews and my husband and children! I have already turned in my Angel tree stuff, sent in stuff for Kenzie's class to donate to a shelter and gotten my toys for tots stuff to turn in at Girl Scouts!! I am feeling pretty good and I did it all and stayed stress free!!! Yay! Now I just get to enjoy the rest of the time between now and Christmas soaking up the holiday and having fun! We are going to do our gingerbread house tonight! The girls don't know about that yet, they will be so excited! Oh and Frosty the Snowman is on tonight too!!! Tomorrow we have a birthday party and then our playgroups Christmas party where we will be getting a visit from Santa himself! They don't know about this either :) I am really looking forward to it. Sunday after church we will be spending hours at the table while the girls make their gifts to send to their grandparents. I love having them make something that comes from them for the people they love. Mykenzie is painting ornaments and Kaylee is doing Christmas sun catchers. A fun filled Christmasy weekend is in store! Have I mentioned that I love this time of year?

Christmas Fun!!

I so love Christmas cartoons! Watching Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, the Grinch, Frosty the Snow Man and Charlie Brown Christmas take me right back to when I was little like my girls are now. I love that we share that time together and the tradition of watching all the Christmas specials continues. I don't think I have missed them ever since I was a little girl. Seeing how much they love watching them and how excited they get when they come on every year makes me love them even more.

We have been enjoying all the Christmas specials as well as listening to the all Christmas radio station and singing Christmas songs in the car. This is such a fun time of year!! It is so easy to get so consumed with everything you have to do and get so stressed over the little things that you don't truly enjoy it. I am just having a great time buying things for our family this year and enjoying all of the fun things, the simple things like singing Christmas music and watching cartoons, to taking a drive to enjoy every one's Christmas decorations. Seriously, it is "The most wonderful time of the year!"

It's killing me!

This doll may send me out of my stress free state of mind! lol Ok so I am not really stressed just a little annoyed. Since it works out in my favor I am glad that it is happening but annoyed none the less.

I originally purchased this doll with dark hair for Kaylee. It was so cute and I just knew she would love it under the tree this year. Well once I got it home and showed it to Travis after the kids went to bed I saw the fine print in the bottom right corner of the box that told me that it was in fact Spanish speaking only! So once Thanksgiving break was over I exchanged it at Toys R Us for the blonde since she is not Spanish speaking. Problem solved. I went to Target a few days later to continue my shopping and found the same doll for $10 less. So I bought it there and returned it to Toys R Us to save my $10. I was just going through the ads and what do I see, oh yes, the same doll once again for $10 less than the last price I paid! So I am totally happy that I get it even cheaper but I am annoyed that these stores just don't put the lowest sale price from the get go so I don't have to keep returning stuff!! I guess most people don't take advantage of going back for adjustments. So I started out paying $60 and this week will end up paying only $40, who knows maybe next week I will get it for $30! Pick a price people!!!

OMG Look at her butt.....

Cute

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Thanksgiving and this and that

Our Thanksgiving was great! We had some friends over and between the two families we had so much food it was crazy. I only had a slight mishap with the potatos but we don't need to get into that. lol Everything worked out and was yummy. After dinner the kids all ran around playing and the grown ups played some Texas Hold'em. I so love that game. I have never played with people before, well I've played with people just not face to face I am an online gal. Let me just say that I kicked butt and it was great!

Rather than brave all of the stores on black Friday we opted to stay home and invite some friends over to play. Much better idea I'd say. There was nothing in any of those ads to get me out of the house on such a cold nasty day. Sunday's ad's however are saving me about $20 cause some stuff I already bought is now on sale! Yay! I will be doing that tomorrow while Kaylee is in school as well as returning the baby doll I got Kaylee that is Spanish speaking only. Yeah.

I ended up sick for most of the girls Thanksgiving break but luckily they were really good for me and helped take care of their mommy since Travis had to work all weekend long. I wish we could have done something a little more fun on their break though. Oh well, Christmas break will be here in a few weeks. This my friends is when the potty training will take place. I am talking hard core potty training there will be no more diapers. I haven't been very consistent with the whole thing which is why it isn't already done I am sure but this is it. I have got to get her potty trained.

My car is fixed! It was making a nasty noise everytime I would hit a small bump or a dip in the road so I took it in today and to my delight it was covered under my warranty so it didn't cost me a cent! I love a warranty!! I thought for sure it would be something stupid that wasn't covered but I was seriously being positive and hopeful. I am trying to be more positive and less stressed about stuff lately and I have been doing a pretty good job. I have lost most of my brain function because of it cause apparently I can't use my brain without stress but whatever, small price to pay for being happy/stress free right! :)

And on a final note Cami got a $70,yes I said $70 hair cut today. Check it out
*Warning* you may not want to take a drink of anything prior to looking at the picture because you may have a small mess to clean up
Kaylee's reaction: "Mommy what are you doing? That's not our dog!"
Mykenzie's reaction: "Oh my gosh! She looks like a rat!"

Welcome Christmas!

We are welcoming Christmas into our house already!!! Our tree is up and is beautiful! Our stockings have been hung by the chimney with care. My new nativity scene is looking nice on my mantle. We just hung out outside lights. I still have some lighted garland to hang inside a little later. I still have most of my shopping to do but I am not stressed about it anymore! I still don't really know what I am getting my kids, I've already bought the things they REALLY want. Kaylee is going crazy for a singing pony. OMG if it wasn't so pricey I'd be handing the dang thing over just to shut her up about it! Seriously she cries every day, several times a day for it. It is insane!! She will be so happy Christmas morning when she opens it up :)

So my house is ready for Christmas and my fridge is ready for Thanksgiving. Travis invited some friends over (I know shocking right, lol). They are bringing some food as well, including the turkey! Yeah baby! I am gonna do a ham and some sides and she is doing a turkey and some sides. Sounds like we are gonna have a TON of food. We will be eating it till Christmas! lol I love the holidays!

Mykenzie the porcupine!

Mykenzie's school play was Thursday night and she did a great job! The play was adorable. I didn't get good pics but I did get it on video. They will also be playing it on our local channel 3 sometime in the near future :)

Kaylee's Thanksgiving feast

Kaylee had her Thanksgiving dinner on Tuesday. It turned out that they wore costumes and sang a few songs too, I wish I would have known that so I would have brought my video camera. It was really cute though and she did a really good job. They had little crafts on the table that the kids had made as well as the costumes. Kaylee's class were the turkeys. On each feather they had something that they were thankful for written on them, she had Mommy, Daddy, Sissy and my dog on hers :)

Hmmm....

I have been a total slacker at blogging lately. I have been really busy yet I can't come up with anything to write about. That is just sad. My life has been a bit consumed with finding the materials to make a porcupine costume for Mykenzie's school play next week, but thank God a friend said she would help me out and make it for me. She says help me out I say save my life! lol That was a nightmare and I am glad it is over and I can focus on the fun part of helping Mykenzie with her lines and watching her in the play. Her line is "Thanks for showing up Mrs. Sun, that rain gave us the chills. I'm soaked right to the bottom of my perfect porcupine quills." It sounds like it is going to be really cute so I can't wait to see it. They will do it for the school Thursday and then for the PTO and the parents on Thursday night. The new school has a stage so that will be nice, we will be able to see much better than last time when they were just on the gym floor.

Kaylee's Thanksgiving dinner at school is Tuesday! Can you even believe it is almost Thanksgiving? We already had Mykenzies yesterday. This year just flew by. I must admit I am getting really excited for Christmas. I can't wait to put up all of our decorations. We are getting some new stuff for outside this year so Travis is excited about that. I have sucked with my shopping. I only have 2 people with a check mark by their names indicating they are done. I have nothing for my kids but I am hoping to pick some stuff up this week. I have a few definite things that I am getting so I need to do it before they all sell out. I was feeling stressed and crazy about not having more done but I am feeling better about it now. I at least have some ideas now and a week ago I didn't even have that so things are moving forward! lol

Mykenzie and I are headed out to girl scout camp in a couple of hours. I must say that I am dreading it. Not cause I don't think I will have a good time but because I have had a looong week and I have been up till after 1am for the past two days in a row which is not normal for me. It was totally worth it though :) I hosted bunco last night and it was soooo fun. I love hanging out with all of my mommy friends, I wish we could do it more often! But tonight I get to hang out with a bunch of 7-10 year olds and we always have a good time and I am sure all of their youthful energy will rub off on me, so I will manage to stay awake. I may be bringing some coffee though! Thank God we sleep in cabins with electricity!! That is my kind of camping :) I have nothing planned on Monday so after we take Mykenzie to school Kaylee and I will be having a day of rest! Perfect. Have a good weekend everyone

Happy Halloween (a couple days late)

We have had a great fall so far. We've been keeping busy with trips to the pumpkin patch, fall festivals and lots of school activities! We carved our pumpkins on Sunday and they were pretty rotten by Halloween!
Kaylee wanted nothing to do with cleaning out the pumpkin and was pretty upset when Travis flung some guts onto her.
Mykenzie on the other hand helped clean out her pumpkin and it was the first time she actually willingly did it!

Trick or treat here is on Halloween night so we went out from about 6:30-7:30 and got a ton of candy and then came home and passed some out to the trick or treaters. Kaylee decided that she was going to be Princess Dora for trick or treat and Mykenzie chose a witch.
They had a great time and Kaylee was really into it this year. Every time she would get candy from someone she would run to us and say "Can I get some more candy!!"

Here are some more pics of the seasons events

Thanks for Helping me Light the Night!

Part of our group of walkers :)


Chandra, Jacy and Barbara


Rain, thunderstorms, hail and tornado watches were in our forecast yesterday. We must have had a lot of people watching out for us including Jenna because all that held off and we ended up having perfect weather for our walk. It was a wonderful way to celebrate Jenna's life and remember her. It was humbling seeing all of those that have lost someone to these diseases and to see all the people who were still fighting their battle. We came together and walked for our friend and with all of our donations we raised over $4000! Thank you to all of those who donated! My friends and family helped me raise $405 for LLS, beating both my written and "personal" goals! You guys are awesome!

We wore buttons with pictures of Jenna as well as Light the Night Blinking Buttons and a sticker that said "I am walking for Jenna". We had a Jenna's Friends banner and carried red illuminated supporter balloons wishing we would have had a white survivor balloon in our bunch with us. Jenna was with us in spirit and I think she would have been thrilled to have us do this in her memory. Janna (Jenna's mom) walked with us and when she wanted to go dance with the band when no one else was, we knew Jenna was there too. We all danced, just our group, people who normally don't dance joining in. We celebrated Jenna's life. We all miss her so much and hope that by our donations we can help LLS get one step closer to finding a cure so no one else has to lose someone they love.

It was too dark for my camera (it sucks) but while we were waiting for the shuttle there were lights on a building so I got some photos while standing in line. Other people took more so I will add them as I get them. Light the Night Pictures

This is the photo we used on our buttons! Silly Jenna!

Finally a picture link

Here are the pictures from our trip to Gatlinburg in case you wanted to see some more. Enjoy them here.