And we're off to do more shopping!

This time Christmas gifts aren't at the top of our list but instead baking supplies! Around this time of year my Mom and I used to do a lot of holiday baking, making candy and cookies and I still love to do it. My plan is to make up a box of assorted goodies for all the guys that work with Tim, that is 18-20 total, hopefully I can get it all done! Here's the list I made the other day of things that sounded good that I'm planning on making this year: Divinity, Raspberry Almond thumbprints, Peppermint snowballs, Chocolate Carmel Candy, Candy Cane Biscotti, Cheesecake bites, Cookie Dough Truffles, Buckeyes, Pecan Tassies, Peppermint Bark Hearts, and Carmel Candy Bars. I know, that is a lot of baking but I'm up for the challenge! Now to just get it baked without too much sampling on my part!

Shopping and Snow!

Ok, so did anybody else brave the crowds on Black Friday and go Christmas shopping? Well, we slept in and probably left the house around 11:00 am or so for some Christmas shopping, I know, not exactly 4 am or anything but it's the best I could do with 2 children and a husband! Surprised that Tim actually agreed to go with me? Well, believe it or not, it didn't take too much convincing, he needed a few things at Wal-Mart too! Sooo, after a few more purchases Friday, I can proudly say that the majority of my Christmas shopping is done! Except for several gifts card to pick up and a few small kids gifts to get, everything else is done! To be honest, I've shocked myself, I'm usually the one that is still shopping the week of Christmas! I do feel great though, I feel like I can enjoy the holiday season so much more when I'm not thinking about what all I have to buy. I have several gifts ordered, I just love on-line shopping! One of my favorite things we bought Friday was a little sled for Tyler. It's for toddlers and has a back rest and seatbelt, it's so cute and works really well, Tyler loves it.

Friday evening, on the way home it started snowing. The weather man predicted that there would only be about 1 inch of accumulation, turns out he was wrong and when we woke up Sat. morning there were 3 inches of snow on the ground. This delighted Brianna to great extent and she immedientely wanted to go play in the snow. I bundled everybody up and sent everybody outside to play and after snapping a few pictures, I went to clean, organize and purge the junk out of my attic! My goal was to get it completely done, it's not enterily but almost, I feel so much better! In the end there is one bag of clothes and 3 boxes of household stuff for Goodwill, and a huge pile of trash. My new motto is" If I don't use it, don't store it, throw it out!" I'll probably be looking for half the stuff in a couple months wondering why I threw it out but for now, it's out of my hair!


Now, on to the pictures of the snow and sledding:

Awww, get away from me, Sophie!

Best Buddies even in the coldest weather!
Driving in the snow, mostly getting stuck, but some driving!

Weeeee, this is fun Dad!

Happy Turkey Day!

Brianna's artwork from Preschool

Our "Spread" included Turkey, Mashed potatoes, Gravy, Rolls, Cheesy Peas, Corn Casserole, Stuffing, and Sweet Potato Casserole. For dessert I tried a new recipe: Carmel-pecan Cheesecake Pie, VERY rich but good!

We hope everyone is having a great thanksgiving, we all have so much to thankful for! We enjoyed today just hanging out as a family and stuffing ourselves at the table! At one point Brianna pushed back from the table and said"Wow, my tummy is really full!" I think we all had our limit and the good news is that I don't have to do any cooking for several days, we have lots of leftovers!Tyler really liked the turkey!

Who can resist a good card game after a great meal? :)

Truly Thankful

It seems to me that this year I have been thinking about the feeling of thankfulness more than past years. I find myself asking "Why"? Why does this Thanksgiving seem so much more important this year? It probably has something to do with Brianna being at that perfect and very impressionable age right now, I so want to teach her to be grateful for everything in life. A four year old's world can be so self-centered and selfish, we want her to be thankful for everything. We as a family have so much to be thankful for, God has blessed us with so many things, Tim has a great job and we have all we could ask for. But it's not really all about material things, is it? As I sit here, instead of being thankful for my 2 precious children and my wonderful husband, I realize that that I have been thinking about the fact that after having been asleep for only 2 hrs last night, I was awakened by a howling baby with a very leaky diaper. After correcting the problem he continued to cry for 1 hour, refusing to be consoled, finally going back to sleep at 2 am. 7 am: awakened by a sobbing little girl who's brand new princess sheets were now soaked, started laundry and started a new day very tired and more than a little cranky. Now of course these night are not typical, most of the time my children sleep 12 hr. nights, but of course the bad nights are the ones that stick out the most in our memories. This all was put into perspective on the way home from preschool this morning by a paper-grocery-bag-wearing little girl, dressed to be an Indian from the "Thanksgiving Feast" they had shared for snack time, complete with a feather headband she made " all by myself ". As I was asking her about her day and what she had learned I could feel myself starting to de-stress. All that had transpired this morning didn't really matter, that was just part of my job description as " Mommy ". What really mattered is the fact that I am blessed enough to have two precious children who get me up at night, blessed enough that I have a family that has clothes that need washed, blessed that I have a new washer and dryer to wash the laundry! Yes, from now on I'm going to do my best to focus on the good in everything and and remember that there is ALWAYS something to be thankful for!

Success!

Tim and his little hunter on opening day

Disclaimer: To all my female friends that read my blog, this post might not be that interesting to you, unless you come from and married into a long line of hunters like I do, then you'll 'get it' ! :)

Tim's brother, Paul, who also happens to be an avid hunter, heads out this way every year for opening day of deer season. Sat. morning finds both Tim and Paul up at 5:30 am, dressed and ready to go in order to get to their stands before the sun comes up. That few minutes while the sun is rising seems to be one of the most important times of the day, the other time being right before sunset. Tim had only been in the stand 5 minutes on the first day when this buck came along, he hasn't had the best of luck the last couple years so this 8 point didn't stand a chance, he was down and laying in the back of the truck before he knew what hit him!Monday was the second day for hunting, Paul shot a nice doe but not too much luck that day. Tim was thinking that even though he had taken the next day off, that he might go into work, they just really weren't seeing any more bucks. Well, Paul talked Tim into hunting all day Tuesday and it looks like it paid off for both of them! Paul shot an 10 point and Tim shot a 11 point, his biggest buck yet! Tim informed me that this buck scored a 140, I guess this is considered a B & C score, pretty good!
Paul and Tim show off their bucks!

First Hair Cut

Well, after waiting it out 364 days, just one day before his first birthday, Tyler received his very first haircut. Yes, I took him to get it cut and paid $9.99 for a 5 minute haircut! I really wanted to get some pictures and I knew I wouldn't be able to get the photos I wanted if I did it myself. I watched the hairdresser pretty closely and I think I might be able to handle some trims every now and then.

Tyler was such a trooper, he sat perfectly still for most of the cut, toward the end he wanted out of that chair but I thought he did amazingly well for his first haircut!

Before . . . .
During . . . .
After . . . .
Doesn't he look like such a little boy now, much less like a baby, makes me sooo sad! :(

Happy Birthday Tyler!

I'm amazed, (and saddened) at how fast they can go from this size . . .
to this in seemingly such a short amount of time!
Our little man turns 1 year old today, it hardly seems possible. Tyler has been such a great baby, such an easy-going little boy, nothing ever really ruffles his feathers. He is finally sleeping through the night with a little extra coxing from Dad and Mom and takes 2 long naps every day (which helps me get some housecleaning done!) He's never met a bite of food that he doesn't like and prefers skim milk to whole milk! Right now his current vocabulary consists of 'BaBa' (don't know what that is) and 'Ma-Ma' ( which I would like to think that he is connecting that word to me, but to tell you the truth, I really don't know!) One of his favorite pastimes is to stand outside the tub while Brianna is taking a bath and watch/splash/play with her, they have a great time together!
Tyler, Daddy and Mommy love you very much and thank God for you every day, you are our little sunshine!

Preschool Projects

Brianna just absolutely loves school, although she seems to miss Mommy very much, which of course makes me feel great! Preschool is for 2 hrs, 9:30 am - 11:30 am, Tues. and Thurs., that doesn't allow for much learning if you really think about it, especially when you allow for snack time and recess! I guess that is beside the point, because she really is learning things, and bringing lots of papers home and also quite a few art projects. Some of you might enjoy seeing what she does, here are a few of her latest 'creations'!

It's inevitiable,

one person happens to get sick and the rest in our household are so nicely following suit! Tim happened to catch a bad cold/sinus bug last week and is still sick with it, Brianna came down with just cold-like symptoms Sat. and this morning Tyler woke up with a nasty cough/runny nose/hoarse sounding voice. I'm just waiting with abated breath until it hits me, I'm hoping against hope that it doesn't, everybody knows that it's in the Mommy Rulebook that we can't get sick! It just doesn't work well trying to take care of 2 children and keep the house running when you're lying on the couch sick as a dog!

The weather has attributed to the bug that's been going around, I'm sure. One day it's 70 degrees, the next it's 50, like today. Yesterday was such a beautiful day, but it's rather chilly today. We are loving the great fall-like temperatures that we have this year, but hoping that we don't continue to suffer from the sicknesses that they seem to bring!

Trick-or-Treating

We set off Wed. evening to go get lots of candy! That was the goal and Brianna is very happy to say, "Mission Accomplished!" We ended up skipping several houses and just going home because the 'pumpkin' was full and couldn't hold any more candy! Lots of people gave Tyler candy too, maybe they thought he was older than he really is, I don't usually let my kids have candy this young but as you'll see in a couple pictures, Brianna 'shared' with Tyler on a couple occasions!
Trying to get Tyler to stand still, not an easy thing to do!

"Enough of this hat, get it off my head!"
Cinderella and the little brown monkey
Sorting through their loot!
My first sucker, I loved it!
If you'll look closely you'll see the 'evidence' of the oreos around their mouth!It was a very successful Halloween!