Happy Thanksgiving weekend!

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving weekend has been wonderful.  I've been at my Mom's and MIL's  since Thursday, and will head home tomorrow to have another get-together at my Dad's.  We did all the traditional foods and shopping and just spending time together.  The only low points have been those that have gotten the stomach virus going around.  I posted about it last week when the little ones in my home all got it.  I got it Tues. night, and was out of commission all day Wed - which was when I was supposed to bake and head to Mom's.  I still got my pies baked, with the help of my daughter - so sweet!  And D made some cookies all by himself that were a hit with everyone.  I have the greatest kids!  Thurs. morning I was feeling much better, and we got to Mom's about an hour before dinner.  My Grandma Harris is back, and all my sibs were there, but 2.  One lives out of state, and rarely makes it home, and 1 spent the holiday weekend w/ her boyfriend's family.  We sure missed them, and the nephews/niece that were w/ their other parents - but I know we'll see them soon.  Chelle did bring her baby grand-daughter, and I took about a million pics of the beautiful little girl.  I'll have to post later, though, when I'm back home on my own computer.  Dinner at Mom's and MIL's were wonderful, and so nice to spend such a special day w/ family, and everyone getting along and enjoying each other's company.  I have such wonderful families.  :)

Unfortunately, the stomach virus was not finished w/ my family, and Fri. both Hubby and another sis were not feeling well.  We all did a little shopping Fri. and today.  I'm excited about some of the things I found today - can't wait to see the kiddos open their presents!  We'll be heading home tomorrow - looking forward to Thanksgiving at Dad's and helping set up their tree - a tradition.  I'll post pics later, too.  Until then - bye!  

Hello! How's everyone's Thanksgiving week looking so far? We'll be heading out tomorrow after a do a bit of baking. Since my last post, my son, Damian got baptized. Several family members were there, and several friends and thier families. It was nice. The family all went out to dinner afterwards at one of our fave chinese restaurants. The kids had fun w/ the drink ornaments. :)
One of our friends brought D a late birthday present. They gave him a mini radio that looks like an ipod shuffle. He loves it! He's been listening to it every chance he gets - so cute. :)
Unfortunately, later that night - all 3 other kids (besides D) got sick. We still don't know if it was a virus or something they ate - but it was a very eventful night for several of us. Luckily, it didn't last long, and by morning, they were all doing better. The kids are excited to have such a short week at school - only 2 days! Today was a little warmer than it has been recently, so the kids played outside, and the grown-up kids gave the little ones rides on the dirt bikes. Damian likes to ride this one, that's way to big for him!
Well, I'm off to bed. I wish everyone safe traveling and a Happy Thanksgiving weekend.

TGIF - I'm back!

Well, it's been a week, and I'm just now getting back to blogging. Sorry it's taken me so long. Are you wondering about our vacation? Well - it was AWESOME! I couldn't have asked for anything to be better. The kids were great, we all had fun together, the weather was nice, and the lines were short. We went to all 4 Disney parks, Wet n Wild, Orlando Science Center, and spent some time w/ family.
When we got back, Angel and I went w/ my sis, Chelle and her son, to a gymnastics expo in KC. That was awesome, too! It's taken me a week to sort photos, do laundry, clean house, and get back into a routine.
Today I spent a lot of time getting ready for my son's baptism tomorrow. I've got family coming in tomorrow, too - so we'll probably just spend some time together. I'd like to show them the new house w/ the kitchen put together. I'll try to post some pics here, too. More catching up later. G'nite!

We're off!

to sunny FL. It's 7:50 am, and we're headed out the door for a 10:05 flight. I'll try to post while on vacation, but if not, I'll be back next week. :) Take care!

Nov...so far

Well, the weekend after Halloween was pretty uneventful. But, Monday - Oh boy! We were supposed to fly to FL for a Disney World vacation. We got to the airport 1/2 an hour early - a little later than what we'd planned, but still w/ plenty of time to catch the plane, right? (Springfield airport is very small - no lines, etc.,) Well, when we got there, no one was at the ticket counter - but there was another lady waiting at the counter to be checked in too. I had to go behind the counter and knock on the employee door to get someone to come to the counter. He started to check us in, but then a lady came over to him and said the flight's closed, they're too late. WHAT??????? We were there 1/2 an hour early, no one at the counter, the plane is still sitting there outside w/our seats open, and you're NOT going to let us on it? Well, let's just say I was NOT happy, and was sure to let them know that. We argued and talked and brought up options until the plane actually left. Even Damian got his 2 cents in. He told them he knew they could let us on the plane and were CHOOSING not to, and that they were wasting our time by arguing. (GO, D!!!) Bottom line - we're now going next week instead. The kids actually handled it very well. Frank stayed cool, calm and collected and rationally talked to the guy at the counter until we got our tickets for next week settled. I cried. When we got home, I apologized to Frank for getting so upset (the guy at the counter was scared - said he thought I was going to throw something at him!) Frank actually thought it was fun to see me get that upset because it doesn't happen often - well I guess I have nothing to be sorry for, then. ;) He told the ticket guy that he'd never seen me that upset, but he'd only met me 18 years ago, so maybe he didn't know me that well. Haha, Frank!
To make up for the day being so disappointing, we went to a show in Branson Monday night. We had tickets to see the Baldknobbers. It was very funny. The jokes were mostly geared toward people older than us, but still funny. Angel loved all the musical numbers, and would even get up and dance in our aisle. Damian really enjoyed the comedians. It's so funny to me that they're such opposites. When the comedians would come on, Angel would ask "why do these guys keep interrupting the songs?" When they'd start singing, Damian would roll his eyes and endure "another song". So funny. They did both get autographs from the whole cast and pics taken w/a few of them.
The rest of the week has been back to business as usual. I've been helping at the school, the kids have gone back to classes, Frank's been working on our house. Current news there - my cabinets have doors and look awesome! And they're laying the living room sub-floor now.

Halloween

It's taken me a few days, but here are pics from our Halloween night. We did just a little bit of trick-or-treating. We ALL went - it was fun. It was such a nice night. Not too cold or rainy. One house had their porch set up as a mini haunted house. It was really cool. Our kids weren't fooled, though. The 2 guys tried so hard to stay in character and be spooky, but Trenton started asking the "head" on the table questions about the decor, and Damian told them "you guys did pretty good. He's just sitting there with a table around him, and that box just has food in it, but it does feel like brains. Good job!" By the time we left, the guys were laughing and just talking in normal voices to the kids. It was pretty funny. Frank looked so cute escorting his 2 princesses around. We went to Grandma Angie and Grandad's house, too. Grandma Angie had a Snow Queen costume to wear to go with Angel's Snow Princess costume. We got lots of good candy, too. Tons of chocolate - my fave. I hope your Halloween was as fun as ours. :)

Hail Halloween!

Yes, hail! This morning was great Halloween weather. Warm enough not to need a jacket, but overcast and gray, like any Halloween should be. I was truly appreciating and enjoying the perfect Halloween day until, on my way home from story time w/ the munchkins (or the pirate and fairy princess), the slight drizzle turned into a hard rain and HAIL! Then I started thinking, OK - this is too much! Mother Nature must've overheard my thoughts, because by the time we got home, it had stopped raining, and I could see that the sky to the west was clear and bright. All this on a 12 minute drive from the library to my home. Amazing Missouri weather. :)

We finally did our pumpkins Wed. night! Here are some pics. Some were more enthusiastic about cleaning out the pumpkin guts than others. :) We did some painting, some carving, and some decorations you stick into the pumpkins. Quite a variety. :)

Yesterday was the last day of BMX for 2008. Damian did well - came in 2nd. We had a trunk-or-treat for the kids, too. Damian (and most of the racers) just wore their race clothes. The munchkins dressed up in their pirate and princess outfits, and Angel came straight from cheerleading practice, so she was a cheerleader. BMX will start again next April. It will be nice to have a break from twice/week races for a while.
As for me - I'm having fun with all the scrapbooking website's Halloween activities and looking forward to tomorrow's Digital Scrapbooking Day activities. Yay! Freebies galore! Today I'm doing the Sunshine Studio Scraps/Scrap Orchard blog hop. DSO has a Halloween mini-mega,
This afternoon we had Angel's parent-teacher conference. She has the same kindergarten teacher that Damian had, and this teacher is just wonderful. She truly loves teaching, she loves the children, and she really makes it fun for the kids. Angel loves school and is doing very well. During the conference, the word "perfect" was actually used by the teacher to describe Angel as a student! So of course I was beaming with motherly pride! :)
I'll be back tomorrow to post about Halloween. Everyone be safe! and have a good night. :)

2 Awards! Wow!

I feel so special. I was reading my friend, Lei's blog, and noticed that she's given me not 1, but 2 awards! Thank you, Lei - that means a lot to me. I also noticed that Lei has some great kits and freebies on her blog, and has had a very busy and stressful month, so please swing by and say HI to her. :) Here's the first award:

This is called the "Proximidade Award" or "Friendship Around the World Award". Originally this award was written in Spanish, but it translates to highlight blogs that are pleasing or special in some way, and also to extend the hand of friendship around the world.





Now, I am supposed to pass this award onto either 6 or 8 other blogs. Since this award is about friendship, I choose to pass this along to those that are either true life friends, or those that I have come to feel a real friendship for through their blogs.


Miss Chris
Hummie
Kimberly (fishinmom)
Boo
Eden
Smith family
Julie
Dani
Christina - well, I would tag Christina, but her blogs aren't working. Christina - where are you?? Is everything ok?



Here is the second award:

This award doesn't say how many blogs I need to pass this on to, so I'm going to give myself the liberty to give it to those special blogs that really touch my heart because of their openness to share their lives (they really blog) and beliefs (share their faith for instance) to other people. They just don't give digital scrapping freebies but they share and inspire others as well through their stories. They also share their pictures/LOs for the whole world to see, that I think is something that puts a "heart" to a blog--you allow strangers to know who you are. I see it as a way of extending one's hand to find friends in cyberspace. Here are my choices for this award:

Bethany
June (Cen's Loft)
Pamela (Digitreats)
Candee
Kim B.

So, have fun checking out these great ladies blogs. I'm sure you'll have fun reading what they have to say. I always do. :)
Now I'm off to make dinner and go to BMX races.

My house

Some of you know about "the new house" - and some may not. Frank surprised me w/ a contract to purchase this house in March of 05. We closed on it in June, and started working on it. It needed quite a bit of work before we could move in. We worked pretty steadily on it for almost a year before Frank got a little burned out, and the $$ started to run out. It was really close to being move in ready, then over that winter, a pipe froze and burst and flooded the whole thing. :( It was very upsetting, as some rooms that were already done needed to be re-done now. There was a lot of clean up and work to do to dry out the house. Some drywall and flooring had to be pulled out, etc. The biggest loss was the kitchen. We had to pull out all the cabinets. Well, this started a whole new production - choosing a new kitchen. We had to start from scratch and choose the wood, the style, the color, etc. Well, this past weekend - my new cabinets were installed - Yay! The doors aren't on yet - but here they are!
Also, my MIL and her friend have been here working on the house the past couple of days, and my bro has helped, too. Frank wants to get us moved in by Christmas, so this is crunch time! I'm so excited. Here are some pics. This is the entry way. It's not pink - it's white, but I guess because of the red doors, it's reflecting pink in this pic.
This is the downstairs rec room, or play room.
This is also the downstairs play room, looking from the fireplace. The crazy wall is where we'll have the kid's toy organizers. Angel's on the left, D's on the right, and probably the TV above that.

More than a week later...

I have plenty to catch up on. So, this past week, we've been busy. Of course there's the normal story times, dance, cheerleading, and BMX. Damian also managed to fit in some dirt bike riding.
My bro and I took his kids to a pumpkin patch, which, of course was a lot of fun. We did the hayride out to the mazes and the pumpkin patch where the kids could pick their own pumpkins.
We picked out costumes from our extensive supply of dress-up stuff. Trenton chose to be a pirate,
Nevaeh's a fairy princess,
Damian's a Ninja - check out those weapons!
And Angel's a Snow Princess. Check out her hair! This was my first attempt at a "halo braid". I was rather impressed w/ myself. So much so, that I did the same hairdo for my niece.
We went to our church's trunk-or-treat Saturday night, which was a lot of fun for everyone. We even brought a friend, so we had quite a group.
We also did more birthday celebrating. My dad and step-mom, Ang, hadn't gotten to see Damian to give him a present, so they took us all to Incredible Pizza for dinner and fun. My sis and bro-in-law came, too. Grandad got each kid a game card w/ plenty of credits to do the "big" things - like the bumper cars, go karts, and mini-golf. We must have picked a good time to go, because we also got 6 free mini-golf games for signing up for their email list. The kids got to spin a wheel for more prizes. They won a free go kart ride and another mini-golf game. Later, they announced an ice cream eating contest. Damian came in 2nd and won another $10 game card, and Angel tied for 3rd for a $5 card. Since we had so much $$ to play with, we all rode the bumper cars twice! It was so much fun, I wish I had pics - but I was actually riding for a change! This was the first time we've been there that Angel was tall enough to ride. I'm usually playing w/ her while the boys do that kind of thing, so this was a special treat. :) Damian also rode the simulator. This was the first time he's been tall enough for that. I've ridden it - and it's pretty crazy. It goes upside down and all around until I was quite dizzy. D loved it! You can see the people inside on a monitor, so we got to watch while he rode - and he was grinning from ear to ear. He's quite the little thrill-seeker. Then the 6 of us (the 4 of my fam w/ Dad and Ang) all played mini-golf. That was really nice to spend that time together having fun. After mini-golf, Angel challenged Grandad to a game of air hockey. Grandad started out winning, but Angel soon began to catch up. Her face when she scored a point was priceless:
It was a great family night out. Thanks Dad and Ang. :)