"Merry Christmas to All and To all a Good Night!"

Well, the next two days are going to be so busy I wanted to make sure I got on here and wished everyone the Merriest of Christmases!! we will be spending the day today at Timm's Sister's house with his family and then tomorrow will be staying cozy at our house with my mom, brother and soon to be sister-in-law. You know, it is the blessing of the season that even though i have a dead battery in my car, and I have to go back to the store today to get a new battery because the one I bought yesterday is the wrong size (yeah, like I know anything about cars!!), I am not stressed at all and am so incredibly happy for it to be Christmas Eve. All I can say is I hope that everyone has a blessed holiday, filled with family, fellowship, and love. "Merry Christmas movie house!, Merry Christmas Emporium, Merry Christmas you old building and loan!!"

Christmas Tree!!

So, here she is, our tree in all her glory!! This year we decided to get a live tree so that we can plant it outside after Christmas, and I love her! There is nothing better than to have a fire in the wood stove at night with no light in the room but the Christmas tree sitting and chatting with friends and enjoying each other's company. Only 4 more days left!!! :-)

And her first word is..... (drumroll please!)

....MOMMY!! Yes, finally, my girl child spoke her first word and it is Mommy. Alex's first word was Daddy (any suprise since he is a little "mini me"), Collin's was "alex" (no suprise there since as a baby Timm and I were working so much he saw Alex more than us!), and now my sweet little girl. It is so wierd to hear her talk, her voice is very nasal right now, but darn it sure is cute!! She also kinda says "uh-oh", but not real well. On the walking front, still very little. She will cruise for short distances, like down the coffee table, or the big couch, but alas no more than that.

Only one more week till Christmas!!! Anyone who knows me well, will tell you (and be laughing about it at the same time) that I am the queen of tacky when it comes to Christmas. If money was no option (and I could tie my husband up for a while) our house would look like the house in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, with some added 15 foot tall blow up Santa's riding motorcycles and snowglobes. I LOVE Christmas, and the whole season, and now that Alex is old enough to know who Santa is and the whole story I have a good excuse to be as korny as I want to be about the whole thing!!! But last night, Timm and I had to laugh, when Alex started telling us what he wanted for Christmas. He wants his very own skid-loader (think small, Bobcat bulldozer kinda thing, our next-door neighbor Luke has one we borrow), with a gun on it. And he also thinks that we should all have our own skid-loaders so we can drive them around together. Timm had to explain to Alex that he doesn't think Santa could fit down the chimney with a Skid-loader. So, here we embark on the last week before "chris-chris" (as Alex calls it). Man, I don't know what I am going to do with myself on December 26th!! LOL.

Baking Crazy

This weekend I had the best time. My mom came up saturday afternoon and stayed till sunday evening and we got all our Christmas baking done. We made about 6-7 dozen chocolate chip cookies, about 7 dozen sugar cookies, 2 bathces of peanut butter/chocolate fudge, and 4 loaves of bread. I am so greatful that mu mom was up here to help with the kids, it made things soooo much easier!! :-) The trick now, is to put everything in the freezer so little (and big) hands don't eat it all before Christmas day. As a kid, every year my mom and I would go over to my grandma's house and bake all the same stuff and half would go in the freezer and half in the fridge. Well, my brother and I would almost always end up eating frozen fudge out of the freezer, it is soo good!!

Thanksgiving pics!

We had a great Thanksgiving. In the morning we went to my mom's house and had a yummy turkey lunch, and then went to Timm's Dad's house for dinner. The kids were worn out by the end of the day, but they had a wonderful time!


My lovely husband building a lincoln log house at his Dad's house

Collin at my mom's house, drinking from his "big boy cup" (which he then proceeded to spill everywhere, LOL)

Alex at my mom's house. He had fun playing with Uncle Tom's trains.

Of course, the little princess. Our little sweet pea. :-)

What a time to be grateful

I hope that everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving. We had a great time and got to have 2 wonderful meals that day. Thank you to my mom, and to Timm's dad and step-mom for a wonderful day. Anyways, I do have pictures, I just haven't gotten a chance to post them. But, I will do that soon.

I just wanted to put something out there I have been thinking about for a while now. I belong to a number of mom's groups, online and in person and I have noticed a trend happening more than I have before, poverty. I can't tell you the number of blogs and posts I have read of women who's husbands have lost their job to the current economy and are terrified they won't be able to feed their children, let alone provide a Christmas for their kids. It breaks my heart because I know stories like that are only going to become more prevalent.

We are by no stretch of the imagination rich, but I can be happy that our bills are up to date, I can go grocery shopping today, I can send Alex to preschool, and I know Timm's job is secure. And most importantly, we have a lot of love in our home. Timm is my soulmate, and I will always stick by him and he me. No matter what happens we are a team working together to raise happy healthy children and to provide each other happiness.

So I say, this holiday season, enjoy all the trappings of Christmas (heaven knows I LOVE all the tackiness of the holiday), but also take the time out to realize what this holiday really means to you. It may not be a religious meaning, maybe it is the closeness of family and the love of your children that make this time special. Whatever it is, always be grateful for what you have, tangible and intangible. Love, support, and hard work is what is going to get this country through these tough times, let it start in our homes.

Ok, off my soapbox now. LOL. I will try to get some new pics of the kids up soon. :-)