Lovin' This Holiday Season

I now get it. I get why we have Santa Claus and why our parents made such a big deal about him. I get why this time of year is so wonderful. I get why baking and cleaning and staying up til all hours of the night is what we look forward to the other 364 days of the year. After having kids, I TOTALLY get it!



We have had such a great weekend, just us 5 (plus Ava), relaxing and playing with all of our new goodies. Santa was good to us and we were all very blessed with those things we really wanted.  I tried to document all of those moments since I have my new camera...well I still need to learn how to take pictures in low light...so some pictures aren't as well as I would have liked them. Come with me as we take a look back:
Friday night: Chase flew into a wet and very cold airport. After a quick look at the clock, we realized that all of our planning for the next few days failed to take into account we needed to eat. So THANK GOODNESS McDonalds is open on Christmas Eve. And good thing too, we had cookies to decorate and reindeer food to get on the lawn before the big man himself visited. We were all so happy to see Chase and I know he was just as excited to finally be home.



My favorite place to be. Next to my girl, baking and decorating goodness!

Saturday: We awoke to all the kids locked in Ella / Kyndall's room, waiting rather loudly for Mom and Dad to finally wake up. So down they came....and they were all so excited. I just loved watching them go for the other siblings toys and not their own :).  Santa was good, oh so good!



Here are some favorite presents....





And after some playing and some resting and LOTS of snacking we had our traditional gingerbread house contest. This year we did it different...it was Daddy/Ella VS Mommy/Chase. Here are the finished products:


Then we had to get ready for our Christmas Dinner. I am all for ham and turkey, when I don't have to cook it...not good at it and don't even pretend to be. So we gave the decision up to Chase, what did he want....CRAB!! The boy is definitely after my own heart. So we kicked it up a notch (sorry Emeril), we had a crab, shrimp, and CRAWFISH boil. It was heavenly, divine, and tasted just plain ole delicious!! I taught Ryan and Chase how to eat those red lovelies and how to suck their heads (which I'm sorry is the absolute best). Chase liked the tails but not so much the head suckin' thing, which is understandable.
Here is our mess:

BAM!!

Sunday has been our day of catch up. Ive caught up on some much needed sewing time for some new pants for the girls. Chase caught up on his wii games and Ryan caught up on his football games. And the girls have caught up with their mom and dad, with lots of snuggles and giggles. We caught Ava and Kyndall enjoying a new warm spot in the house, the kitchen vent:


We are going to pack away (sadly) the Christmas decorations so that we can come home to a clean house. We will be making our round the world Christmas dash to our families houses next weekend and WE CAN'T WAIT!! Christmas is great to spend with those you love but it is even better with ALL of those you love!

Wow, A New Year is quickly approaching and boy do I have a lot to reflect on and lots to wish for. I hope you all had a great Christmas and are still holding on to that feeling!

PS: The little precious girl, Olga, that I have spoken of and begged you to donate to, well she now has over $12,000 in her account. Yep, you saw the correct number, $12,000. Generally an overseas adoption cost about $25,000. She has HALF of that in her account! I would ask that you continue to pray, however, for her. She has the funds and now she needs that family. She turns five next month and wouldn't that be the ABSOLUTE best birthday present, a new forever family. Please pass along her information to anyone you know. She needs to be resecued before it is too late! And I am not being dramatic about that, she needs a home and a family to love her.  Olga at Reeces Rainbow

Christmas is almost here!!

My oh my, have I been busy!! I have baked more cookies and more candy than I ever have and I LOVE IT!! And with school being out, that means special play dates with friends. We had our good friends over to build gingerbread houses and play, while us mom's catch on life. Our girls did such a good job decorating their houses. They were so intent on making it look good and after the squirt bottles of icing weren't cutting it, the knives were pulled out. This meant lots of icing in lots of places. But boy did they have fun and boy were they proud!







And look at this cherub!! She had a ton of fun with Kyndall and Miss Ava. They did lots of sharing and lots of getting their fingers licked!



We all had a lot of fun. I always regret taking pictures of us, the ladies, while we are talking but I am always having too much fun listening to their lives.

With Christmas almost here, that also means Chase will be home very soon!! We miss that little man and I know I speak for everyone here, we miss him so! We can't wait until our family is whole again.



And here are a few updated pics of Miss Ava. She is doing great and is a great family dog!!



This is what happens to a puppy when you put her on the treadmill with you for 5 minutes. She was doing so good walking right with me. Then I sat her on the top of the chair and she never moved...not even after a camara flash and a trip upstairs to mop. Yep, still asleep and still laying that way!



Merry Christmas to all!!

Can you say oh my...

Oh so much going on in my little world right now, I just had to blog. Ok so first, remember that sweet little girl I told you about last week that alot of bloggers were trying to raise money for, well, have we ever!! I say we like I was some huge part but I wasn't, I helped, but these ladies should be so proud of themselves!! Olga now has over $9200 in her adoption account. Can you believe that, almost $10,000 raised for this precious baby! Here are the links again if you want to get involved, every little bit helps!! Plus it is a tax deductible donation.
Daily Smiles
A Perfect Lily
Please if you can give, do so now. This much money is a great way to help out her forever family get her home. Money/Expenses are the #1 reason more people don't adopt.


Secondly, Mr. O's mom went into the hospital this morning in hopes that today would be the day! And as of this morning, it was!! Mr. O is now a proud big brother and although he is sleeping peacefully here at home, his baby sister is anxiously awaiting his arrival. I know that life will be very crazy around their house for a while but it is a great time in their family! Congrats to that precious little girl, you picked an outstanding family to be born into!


Last, with my little funk that I am GOING to pull myself out of, here is how I did it today. Little Miss Ella is IN LOVE with school and her teacher and her friends there. She is so excited on Tuesday and Thursdays, I just can't explain how much she makes me smile every time I hear her explaining to Kyndall how she gets to go learn today!! And today she came home with this:



oh my cuteness!!


And what better way to make someone in a better mood then with this:



Merry Christmas to my dad ( and maybe a little to me!!)


And finally a sneak peek at my "kid" Christmas present for all those friends of mine that have kiddos!





I hope everyone has a great Tuesday!!

All Aboard!!

Oh the fun we had...ok so maybe I am the only one who likes to look at lights and the only one that got really excited about this ideas but oh well. The minivan express took off last night to view some fabulous lights around town. It was loaded with kiddos with new jammies on (one of us literally was squeezed into some jammies that I think were mislabeled), snacks, hot chocolate, and a fabulous conductor!


Yes I know, my photography skills are lacking at night, sorry!

We went around to a few places then headed to Krispy Kreme to pick up something to snack on while we watched a light show at an area business. I could have sat there all night!! It was great. Such a magical night...oh who am I kidding. Not really! Yes, it was fun and yes we saw some great lights but between the fighting children, the whinning littlest one, and the "mom when are we going home, Im tired", I was a little sad. But oh well, that won't stop me from trying it again next year.



Here are some pics from our first snow of the season. It was crazy cold last night and CRAZY windy:


We didn't have much accumulation but enough to sled on:





Favorite picture from this weekend: Dont you wish you could still do this? Sometimes I do...off to get some work done during naptime!!


Hope you all have a great week!

Am I Crazy or What!?

Well let me answer that question, yes! Yes, I am crazy but in the end aren't we all! Why crazy you ask, well for those that don't know, we got a new puppy last weekend. So yes, on top of the three children I call my own and the one child that is mine from 8 to 4 everyday and a house and a husband and basketball practice and birthday parties (sorry those are in excess right now) and preschool and doctor appointments, we got a dog! But let me just tell you, she is the absolute best thing for our house. Let me introduce her first. Her name is Ava and she is a 3mth old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.



She is just the sweetest, most calmest, puppy I have ever met. She is blending in well with our crazy life and is in love with the kids. Especially Mr. Chase, who is in love with her also. This is where that "best thing for our house" comes in. We all needed a reason to slow down and she was it. Some of us needed to learn some responsibility for taking care of others, she is showing us that. Some of us needed some help learning that dogs are not bad, she is showing us that. Some of us needed to know that owning a dog isn't such a horrible thing, she is for sure showing us that. So needless to say she is the best Christmas present we have received!



As we are all learning life around here has been pretty hectic, which was to be expected.  The kids are all doing well....ok. I think somewhere along the line we forgot to mention that Santa is watching and so maybe we need to pull that out. We are all a little stir crazy with the coldness outside and us stuck inside. Even with our bad days, we are all still happy to be where we are...even though I need some reminding of that. Reading this helped! Kelle's Blog: Enjoying the Small Things.

But not to hectic for some baking and crafting as Christmas draws closer! Here are just a few things I had to share:

First of all if you haven't been to this ladies site, you are in for a treat! She is superwomen and down to earth all at the same time. I made her mac and cheese the other night after reading her blog and have since printed off about 15 other things I am going to make this winter. Including beef with snow peas on Saturday night....maybe that will get my sister here?! Her name is Ree and you can find her at Pioneer Women. She will also be on the Today show tomorrow morning making cinnammon rolls. Through her blog and her wonderful baking weekend she had for some lucky readers, I found this blog : Bake at 350. This lady is also phenomenal and provides her readers with all sorts of great recipes for cookies and cakes and icings, it is heaven in my eyes! I tried her Vanilla Almond Sugar Cookie recipe, OH MY GOODNESS! I had to immediately put them in the freezer after they were done cooling. I couldn't keep my hands off of them. So stinkin' good. You don't even have to refridgerate them! 

Lastly, here are some ornaments I made today. I found some ideas on other blogs and ran with them. These are so easy to make and so pretty on your tree. I believe they are so easy I don't even need to explain how to make them!



They're Tree Candy!!



I am hoping to get lots of baking done this weekend so beware next week! Lots of pictures of good yummies coming your way! The girls will also be helping with some homemade goodness so look for those pictures also!
Happy Wednesday everyone!

Wow has it really been that long!

I have been a bad blogger lately! Hopefully this will get everyone up to date! Thanksgiving went well this year. We did our normal routine, which seems to be getting harder, but we still enjoyed seeing everyone. We headed to my folks/grandfolks houses for the traditional Turkey day feast complete with dominoe games gallore. My dad cooked the most fabulous turkey and the rest of the fixins' well lets just say they continue to have us coming back for more!!
The kids had a great time at Nanie/Papaw's house. They love playing in the playroom and I think all the adults love it as well. It is a quiet place for them to go and play/color, while we catch up on life!



Kyndall practicing her mommy skills

Play it Daddy!

The kids also had a blast playing with all the animals at Nanie's. Yep, all, means two. One cat and one dog, that are very patient with both the girls and very loving.


Because of all the kids' fun with the dog and cat, we have decided to add a new family member to our house. More of that news coming next week!!

After all the turkey and pet lovin' that we could handle, we headed out to Oklahoma. As short of a trip as it seems on paper, it turns into such a long one in real life. All I have to say is thank goodness for a husband who will stop at nothing to make sure we all have a good nights sleep in a hotel! We had a good time seeing the fam and we even enjoyed the pool at the hotel for a little while.

Uncle Larry trying to fix our balloon

Daddy getting some much needed Kyndall lovin'

And then we traveled back home to our home, I just love that, our home. We decorated it before we left so we actually came home to Christmas. It was so incrediably nice! I had so much to be thankful for and man did I eat it up over the break, literally! Now it's time for the best time of the year! Ho Ho Ho, Ya'll!

Couldn't leave without some of my best pics!

Family pic with a very old school look to it!


Love this girl!!


Apparently Kyndall had some business to take care of over Thanksgiving break! Love this girl, too!!

Not my normal post

The fabulous season is upon us as it comes every year, but this year is different for me. This year has different meaning because there have been babies that I have been learning about and looking at daily at Reeces Rainbows. These babies and toddlers and kids, never leave my heart or my mind. The scripture at the top of the website says it all

Once our eyes are opened, we can’t pretend we don’t know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and knows our souls, knows that we know, and holds us responsible to act.

I can't explain why I can't seem to get them out of my mind...there are other horrible situations happening right here in our country and there are horrible things happening in Africa to children or Haiti to entire families or well you get my drift. But these babies don't ever go away. The little pictures that I see on this website are faces I pray about throughout the day and find myself wondering if anyone ever holds them or hugged them. When they are sick, does anyone ever help make them feel better? When I snuggled with my little girls tonight, I immediately thought of those kids that tonight are sleeping alone with no one to call their mom. And the ones that didn't get to have lots of fun with family this week. Ugh...too hard. I find myself wondering what their lives must be like and how utterly horrible it must be to not have a family (sometimes ever). I just can't and don't want to imagine it. And although there will come a time when we can actually do something about it, right now I feel so helpless. Then I read this beautiful, yet incredibly sad, blog Daily Smiles. I want you to go read it, watch the video, and act.

Yep, that's right, I want  you to act. No one is saying you have to adopt a child but help these kids have some sort of a chance, they deserve it. Its just $5. This is the same site that I was talking about earlier this month. This is our families choice for our "donation" this year. We are still deciding on whether to give to a local family adopting or to one of our favorite angels on the Christmas Tree. But I just can't let us be the only ones helping.

What makes these faces any different than my kids? Nothing, just where they were born. Please help them out. You can do this by donating either on her site at Daily Smiles or you can go to Reeces Rainbows and donate to any child that touches your heart.

Thankful for my life

I wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving! I will be away from the 'puter' for a while and wanted to do a quick post.
I am very thankful for my life and I know that seems rather vague, but it isn't. I am very thankful that I am still here on this beatiful Earth. I am thankful that I have been introduced to so many people over my past 32 years and that I have a wonderful family of my very own. I am forever thankful to my husband, he is my rock! He supports me no matter what and trusts me. I can't imagine walking this life without him.
I love you Ryan!



I am also thankful to my blog. Through this blog I have read amazing stories of "mommyhood" and this continues to encourage me and support me. I have also been exposed to a world of special needs children that have forever changed my life and will forever change my view of what it means to love someone. So a huge thank you to all you moms out there blogging your little hearts out! I love reading your stories!!

Happy Turkey Day!!

Thankful Day #2

Oh what a busy life we lead....but also filled with great moments! Today, Chase and Ryan (along with most of our football team) built a wheelchair ramp for a teammates family. This family was so touched by all of us doing this and for me, it was one of those duh moments. Why aren't there more moments like this in everyone's life? Such a great feeling for those that received but also for those that helped. From what Ryan said, they had the whole neighborhood out there watching these men and boys build this ramp. So proud of all of us for jumping at the chance to help out:



I am also thankful for bathtime. I just love water, toys, and wrinkled toes!!



Now it is off to eat some yummy dinner...something else I am thankful for.

Being Thankful

Life this past week has been, well, less than glorious. I know that this is nothing new to anyone but it has been quite a challenging thing for our whole family. Nothing drastic or life threatening, which is great but when life gets really busy and babies are getting 4 big teeth, it seems like the end of the world. So to help me ring in the week of Thanksgiving, I will be blogging until Wednesday about things I am thankful for. Here we go:
1. I am so thankful for my family and friends. You all know who you are and you are the reason I keep going on those days that it is so hard. I am so in love with all of you!! You add more to my life than you will ever know. The calls and emails to say hi or invites over for dinner...are priceless!
2. I am so thankful that we are surrounded by giving and loving people. One of our football teammates has a family emergency that required some attention. Without hesitating, we all jumped in to help provide this single dad with meals and will be building a new wheelchair ramp for his son. I am so thankful that we have found this team. When his injured son's team wouldn't chip in to help, we did without a question! Boy does it feel good! Hopefully some pics will come.
3. I am thankful that I was born creative. I am not sure what I would do with myself if I couldn't do something creative daily. I am thankful that I can make girls even more cute and make their moms proud that my clothes are well made and tastefully cute!
4. I am thankful for lysol and bleach. Yep, you heard me! I am so thankful that I can clean all of our toys to ensure that we all stay healthy before our Thanksgiving trips. Mmmm I can taste the turkey!!
5. Lastly, I am thankful for my kids. Their souls have made me a better human being and a much better momma. Tonight before a dinner with some great friends, we took advantage of the gorgeous weather and nice sunlight to take some pictures. They couldn't have turned out better. I have a feeling our house is slowly going to become a shrine :). Please enjoy










Aren't they just gorgeous kiddos!! Here is my favorite and I have to admit I enhanced the grass a little on this one but it is great!