Taylor's new haircut

Over the Thanksgiving holidays Taylor decided she wanted to cut her hair in a short little bob. I was all for it seeing as how she is very tender-headed and combing her hair is one job I hate to do. I mean I try to be careful but it is hard to comb someone else's hair without pulling. So while Aunt Gabby was here for Thanksgiving she gave all 3 kids haircuts, and me too :) Madison and Caleb just got trims but Taylor went for it and it turned out adorable! Thanks Aunt Gabby!

Christmas presents

I have a confession to make, I can't stand to have Christmas presents and not have them wrapped so normally we have a big pile of presents to put under the tree before the tree is even up! This year is no exception. We have no tree up yet (but do have a wreath on the door and our singing snowman and penguin from Hallmark on the the coffee table) but a huge pile of presents. I just had to wrap them. I love wrapping gifts plus I love watching the kids "fight over who has the biggest present under the tree right now (which Madison is winning this contest so far) and then trying to figure out what is in each one. Matt's mom said "we had presents in search of a Christmas tree." Hopefully we will have a tree soon. We are not getting our HUGE (not an exaggeration at all, the thing is 7.5 ft tall and so big around that all 5 of us try to stand around it holding hands and we need 2 more people to accomplish this) one out this year but instead getting a real one! I love real trees, there is nothing like the smell of pine. It makes me think of snow, which hopefully we will get this year!



Last night while I was wrapping presents the kids watched "Shrek the Halls" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". I watched the Shrek the Halls which was hilarious. I hope it comes on again or we can find it on youtube. Anyway here is a picture of Caleb watching. He was glued to the tv. He loves How the Grinch Stole Christmas. We have it on video and he watches it year round. It is a favorite at my house. I couldn't resist snapping a pic of him wrapped up in his blanket watching the movie.

Sick Kids

So last night at 10:00 pm Taylor runs out of her room yelling "Caleb has thrown up, ALOT!" I am assuming since Taylor is saying this and she added the "alot" part that it might not be as serious as she is saying. Sometimes she is dramatic, however not this time. Poor Caleb has indeed thrown up alot, and is just sitting there not knowing what to do. He had been asleep so he was just a little confused as to what was going on. Well after cleaning up him, which required a bath (how can someone so little make such a mess), stripping his bed and putting clean linens on the bed all while trying to keep Madison out of it (why she wasn't in bed yet at 10 pm is another story but let me say no more late naps) was exhausting. Matt couldn't be much help b/c he had been sick all day with the same thing. You would think that I could have passed out from exhaustion but no my mom mode was on and I wasn't able to sleep. I did doze some while laying on a blanket next to Caleb's bed but the "mommy" in me wouldn't let me sleep deep. This was good b/c our adventure continued through the night and now I had something to blog about!

Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving! I am sorry it is over in only 1 day. We had such a great time even though we didn't get to be with all our family. We celebrated Thanksgiving with Matt's family minus Daniel and Rachel (who we missed greatly especially since we were with them a year ago). We will celebrate Christmas with my family. This is the first year that I wasn't with my parents and sister. It was very different. We ate so much that I think I actually could have passed for a couple months pregnant, okay maybe I am exaggerated a little! Anyway the food was so good. It is amazing how 18 people can polish off a whole turkey and 3/4's of a ham. Anyway we have leftovers for a few days and that will have to tide us over for another year. Now I can be excited about Christmas! I do love this time too. In fact, I even did a little shopping this afternoon after all the crazy people had gone home. Got a few Christmas presents but I have alot already done. I definately have a few surprises up my sleeve though.

Fall Family Pics

Okay, so yesterday we decided to try and take a family picture for Christmas cards. This was supposed to be done while we were at the beach this summer. It didn't happen there though b/c Madison wouldn't cooperate. (Looking back to that experience should we really have expected a 2 year old to do as we wanted?) I guess that was our mistake. So anyway back to the pictures, we got all dressed up in jeans and black shirts and set off to a beautiful park close to our house. The trees were still pretty and lots of leaves on the ground. (Thought being outside would work but little did we know that trying to keep up with a 2 year old who only wants to play in the leaves not sit and pose for pics would be so hard.) Anyway after much begging, bribing and threatening we were able to get all 3 kids (plus Matt and myself) looking at the camera and smiling. They actually turned out great. Matt needs to get into the professional photography business. His pics turn out great. We got some really awesome individuals pics too of the kids. As soon as I figure out how to post pictures on here I will get some up for everyone to see. All in all it turned out to be a wonderful outing with some great photos too!

The Forgotten Holiday

I need to vent a little bit. I love Christmas! But I also love the holiday before it and it seems like it just gets blown by. (In case you are wondering which holiday I am talking about, it is Thanksgiving). I mean the 1st day of November the Christmas music starts. That is way too early. Before Halloween is even here the stores are moving that stuff aside to put out lights, trees, and ornaments. Give me a break, I need to get through one holiday before stressing about the next one. Plus I love Thanksgiving!! I mean, who can resist all the wonderful smells of all the foods that we only cook once a year. (Which by the way, why is it that we only cook some of our favorite foods once a year? I would be fine with having that meal at least every 3 months.) Anyway I just am ticked off that retail skips Thanksgiving. I know there isn't gift giving involved with Thanksgiving but there are other wonderful things that go with Thanksgiving. The most important thing: our wonderful family and friends!!! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

After much procrastinating I have finally started my blog. This is many months in coming. I have really enjoyed reading Jennifer's and thought it would be neat to have one so that our family and friends could keep up with our life. So here I go!