O Tannenbaum

Our Christmas is destined to be spent amidst piles of boxes and paper. And I don't mean because we have a lot of presents. In fact, we have yet to purchase a single thing! I mean because we pulled out all our decorations and just can't seem to get around to putting them out. We have all been sick and Nathan and I have both been working every day. I don't think I have ever in my life lived in such squalor....and not done a thing about it!

However, we did finally decorate the tree this week. Is anyone else finding it difficult to get into the holiday spirit?

Here's Hazel's section of the tree. So typical...I know. But still precious.

Picture Day

I love my kiddos. They were such good sports for these pics. It only required one good screaming fit from me and we were good to go!

Gross.....

I know I just posted some randomness today, but I forgot this funny story. Okay....I don't know if funny is the appropriate word. You be the judge.

Some of you are already aware of our cat puke situation. So- the cat pretty much always stays outside now.

Anyway- I got up early today and got the kids ready so Nathan could sleep in on his day off. Then I shooed them outside to play until I was ready to leave. After about 30 minutes of them being outside, we jumped in the car to take Owen to school, and I threw them some bagels to eat on the way.

Halfway to school, Owen turned to Hazel and said "Hey, Hazel.....remember how there was that big pile of puke outside from Carly and you put your fingers in it?"

Yep- those we be the same fingers with which she was eating her bagel.

Randomness.....

That's what you get for needing a place to sit.

Asleep in the "nest" in Mom and Dad's room. Looks like she had a rough day!

Owen lost another tooth.

Just a two second video of Nathan making TJ laugh. Would be longer but my camera battery died as soon as I started.

It's Time...

I have been complaining for the past month or so that I keep gaining weight. I have literally gained 10 lbs. over the past couple of months, but I keep telling myself I look great and living in denial.

Then today at church someone called me pregnant.

So I am officially proclaiming to all that I am starting a diet TODAY! And I am crying on the inside.....maybe that will get rid of a little water weight.

:(

Gobble Gobble...

So....we had a pretty typical T-day here. Family...lots of great food....football....falling asleep....and then the night ended with Chris putting his fist through the window. Same ole, same ole. Year after year we all drink a little too much cider and things just get out of hand.


The morning started with my cat puking on the back porch and then eating it. I thought I would spare you all, so I didn't take a picture of that.

Then my kiddos colored pictures to put on the front door.

After that Nathan and Owen headed off to play football with the church folk.

Hazel and I stayed home to be all domesticated. We decorated and cleaned and cooked to prepare for our company.

Then some of the people I am most thankful for gathered around the table to eat lots of good food.

Then we got ready for the game. Go Cowboys!

The game was so good that all the boys fell asleep.

Then we decided to take a walk and work off some of those turkey calories. Being the genius that I am, I locked us all out of the house. :) So we were all trying to find a way in the house, and to make a long story short....Chris tried to slide open a window and his hand went right through it. I can't say I'm surprised since our windows are the crappiest, thinnest, single pane windows in the world, but I have to say it was pretty darn scary. I heard the shatter and went running around the corner expecting to find a bloodied carcass (ok that's a little extreme, but it was scary). So now you know the story. It wasn't Chris' insane temper that caused the break, and he wasn't too bloody. Just a few scratches. What a way to end the evening. :)

A whole lot of nothing..

I'm back! We haven't had internet for a while. It's crazy how much of my life revolves around the computer. Thankfully I was at least able to check my email on my phone....otherwise I would have gone completely crazy.

Anyway- like I said. I'm back.....with absolutely nothing interesting to say. So- here are some of the non-interesting things I can share:

We've been doing a lot of yard work lately in preparation for the bulk trash pickup in our area. I'm really trying to find ways to improve our yard and our house's curb appeal without spending any money.

I realize you can't see it, but there is a huge flowering bush that was taking over our front porch, so I put up this lattice (that I found behind the shed). It still needs to be boarded up on one side so that it stands up straight, but at least we can get in the front door now, and I think it will look much prettier to train it to grow up something.

We finally got our palm trees trimmed!!! We have been complaining since we moved in about how hideous and trashy they looked, but weren't willing to pay $100 per tree to have them trimmed. We literally had someone stop by every day and ask if they could trim them. Or if we weren't home they would leave a card on our door. I just kept saying "Sure- for $20 each!" and they would laugh and drive away. I guess someone came by that was desperate enough and he agreed to my lowball price! I wish I had taken a before picture, but maybe the huge pile at the curb will give you some idea of how bad they were! We have two other smaller palm trees that I trimmed myself with a little hand saw....it was very time consuming.

I took the kids to a park on Saturday that we had never been to. We fed the ducks our leftover McDonald's. I had no idea ducks ate meat, but they devoured Hazel's cheeseburger!

Hazel was literally just a few inches from this duck and he just sat there. Creepy.


They were having some kind of old timey car convention thingy. I thought these cars were cute.

Just a sweet moment. I love when they pretend to love each other.

I know this slide doesn't look like much, but it was REALLY fast and Owen and Hazel each went down it about 25 times. They acted like it was an awesome roller coaster or something.