A boy and his snowman!

Could he be cuter... :) I am biased, but I will go with, NO!

Here is the snowman poster that I made for Tylers class. I took pictures of each child in front of it...and they were to be holiday gifts for the parents. However....due to all of the snow and school cancellations for the ENTIRE last week of school before Christmas, we are actually putting them in the kids memory books (which is a scrapbook we are making for each of the students documenting the year) instead.

Holiday hustle and bustle!

Oh the holidays come so quickly, and there is so much to do...I find that no matter how much I try to prepare, and plan ahead...so that I can fully enjoy the season it never works quite how I want it to. There is always more that needs to be done, and not much time to relax.

I am a room mom in Tyler's kindergarten class, which, when there is a holiday brewing, proves to be A LOT of work. Last week, the details of the party were finalized, today I sent out a letter to the parents, inviting them to the party, and asking for a small donation to go toward the party materials. Tomorrow I will be finishing the "picture background" that I am going to take pictures of the kids in front of. It is larger than a kindergartener, and will have snowflakes in the sky, glittery snow on the ground and a huge snowman made of cotton, holding a yardstick, so that we can see how tall they were at Christmas as 5 year olds. then I will be cutting out all of the pieces for the snowman craft we will be doing...The other wonderful room mom is taking care of the cookie decorating...and the wreath picture frame. THEN, there is the decorating for the party...and the thank you notes that I have to have prepared BEFORE the actual party, because that is the last time that I will see all of the those parents until after winter break.

If that wasn't enough....I have to finish my Christmas cards, address them, and get them mailed.

I have to make cookies...not just cookies for us, our friends, teachers etc but TOMORROW...I have to make a full plate of an assortment of cookies for Kevin's office. They have "treat days" all through the month of December, and he decided to sign me up too early, so now, I will be making cookies twice. :) Agian....It wouldn't be so bad, but I have been making cookies for them for so many years...that the expectations keep getting higher...

Karman has a big debate tournament that we need to get her to at an absolutely unheard of time in the morning, and of course pick her up from, between 12-1am. Makes for a LONG day for all concerned! Then the next day is a big Holiday get together with some family.

Also, in the mode of tradition, we want to go see the ZOOlights, and get our family picture taken, decorate cookies, do a few craft projects, have a couple family Christmas movie nights, write letters to Santa, make our gingerbread house, and of course, go see santa. It would also be nice to have a nice quiet night with Kevin and watch It's a Wonderful Life in front of a fire too.

The list could be longer....It doesn't matter how prepared you think you are, there is just always more to do...it seems. However, in spite of it all, or perhaps even because of it all, I LOVE THIS SEASON.......

I love the whole thing. I love the feeling of having Christmas music on in the car, and having Tyler sing-along. I love to shop under the speakers that are pumping out that same music. I love the family feel of the holiday, and looking forward with anticipation to snow! And, yes, I love all of the things above that are currently stressing me out, but that I, and others, will look back on with fond memories. Afterall, that is what THIS SEASON, for me, is about!

So sorry for the LOOOOONG belly-aching post....I just needed to vent...and make a bit of a physical list at the same time! :)

Thanksgiving memories

This year was a nice change for us. Normally we go over to my In-laws for a wonderful traditional Thanksgiving meal. This year however, my in-laws decided to go on a little trip/cruise, to New Zealand, and Austrailia....(what a lousy way to spend Thanksgiving... :) yeah, right)

So we were all on our own.

For us, we invited our friends and their kids over, and we had a nice realtively small, dinner. It was the five of us, and their family of four.

It was really very nice. We just chatted and watched football most of the day...and had a nice dinner with all of the traditional fixins'. It was the first time that I had ever made a whole turkey for anyone more then my family.

Though we missed our extended family, and always wish we could be together...

It was such a nice relaxing day, filled with GREAT family and with GREAT friends!

MEMORIES!

MY FIRST POST

OK, so here it is. I have been wanting to start this blog for a while now. I just didn't quite know if I had enough to write about....but then, one of my friends said to me...you may not have enough going on...but your kids sure do...

So I decided that I would create a family blog.

It took me along time...I actually created my blogspot quite a while ago, but never posted anything...until now.

I thought, what better time then the holidays.

So, here I am, 11:30 at night, and while I should be in bed, I am in fact, writing my first blog.

I thought it would be a nice way of documenting the things my kids do, my thoughts and feelings, and quite possibly a sounding board for me in my times of frustration.... :)

I am still learning how to do this...and I know I may reorganize my page, because like I said, I created this page months ago...so tonight, I am going to simply attempt to post some pictures, and this intro...and see what happens. Then I will go from there....

Possibly, eventually, I will back peddle a little bit, and include Halloween.

Hmmmmm....this could be trouble :)

And, so it begins~~

here are my little Beans....

Karman just turned 16, Tyler is 5, and Makylie is 2 1/2

And the family pets.... IZZY.....KIWI....LUNA and BASIL

I am really excited to get this blog going...and have a place to come and document our lives!

So here it is....My first post! :)