A New Christmas Tradition

On Sunday my Mom and brothers came over to help us decorate our tree. My kids were so excited all day, and it showed the second they walked in the door. It was so wonderful to have them here with us. Such a great reminder of what a great family I have. It was a fun filled night of christmas tunes, decorating, wrestling, laughing, and most importantly enjoying eachother. Thank you Mom, Bronski, and Alex for having a hand in creating such a great memory for myself and my kids!



















ds. I love you all! I have decided this is going to become a yearly tradition!

Kids say the dardest things... Part (oh who knows I've lost count)

This evening I was getting ready to cook dinner and Brenna asked me what I was making for dinner. I told her Pork chops, potatos, and corn. Hm, okay... she walked away. So I get dinner finished and on the table, as we were sitting there eating as a family Brenna says to her dad "We are eating Papa's favorite meal... Porkchops and PORN!" Laughed my butt off and she had absolutely no idea why! My dad is deffinately going to get a kick out of this one!

Re-vamp...

So, I have said it before and I will say it again... When I get an idea, I want it done now! So, what do you get after 2 days/nights up till 2am painting and 1 nine hour long carpet laying event?

THIS!









I painted my ass off in order to prep our livingroom for new carpet. We have had this carpet sitting in our basement for 4 years just waiting for the kids to get a little older in hopes to salvage stains and ruin! However one day I looked at my house, white walls were just getting OLD! And the dirty 12 year old gray carpet wasn't helping the situation at all. Then the kirby man came to my door and did his little presentation on my DIRTY gray carpet... Yeah lets just say it was awful. He tried to assure me that he had seen worse, much worse... but the fact that he was pulling up granuals of sand out of my carpet (when my kids don't even play in our sandbox ever) meant only one thing... the sand was probably left behind from when my brothers were little and lived in this house... granted I am sure my kids contrubuted to the sand as well, but I was just DISGUSTED! I knew that the life of that carpet was gone. I will say this however... I was expecting the pad underneath to be a wreck as well however luckily enough for us it was in nearly perfect condition. Yahoo, one less thing to replace! So Bill and I decided that yesterday was the day to tackle the carpet. Bill's step dad showed him just a couple weekends ago how to lay carpet while they changed the carpet in Sam's room... now we were left to do it on our own and a MUCH bigger project. Lots of seaming because the room was just too big for one sheet of carpet to cover the entire thing. Although it took us 9-10 hours, I think we did a WONDERFUL job for our first time. I couldn't be happier with the outcome! It looks amazing! I am feel for the first time in a long time that my home is something to take pride in. It's mine and I love it

Perfection...

I may be bias, but I must say that my little girl is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. She is so smart, caring, and just radiates positivity. I love her... She is perfection.

Tantrum 101

If anyone wants to know how to successfuly stop a tantrum... I HAVE THE ANSWER! Pull out your camera and take a picture... then show the picture to your kid. I did this to Sam and he thought the picture of him crying was the funniest thing. He was quickly side tracked from whatever he was crying over and began posing for the camera. LOVE THIS HAM!

Best Friends...

I just love moments when I catch my kids really showing the love they have for one another. Although they fight, torment, and torture one another; they really are the best of friends. I am so grateful for the relationship they have with eachother... it's these little moments that makes me realize that life really is worth living!

Our house is LIT!

We have been in this house for 5 years. Each year I BEG Billy to put lights up on the house, and every year there has been an excuse why he can't do it. Usually it is because he puts it off for so long that it snows and he refuses to get up on the roof after the first snow. This year I didn't even mention it, didn't bother asking. Much to my surprise Bill told me to pull out my lights (which have been stored for 5 years unopened) and he would hang them. I JUMPED AT THE OPPORTUNITY! That day I had the lights out and started what I could get to. When he woke up for the day he was greeted with a hug, kiss, and a honey do list! He He he! It took us 2 days to get the lights up because we ran out and had to go to the store for a couple more packages. I am soooooo very pleased to have lights up this year! No one in our circle EVER puts up lights... it is always dark and unfestive. I got my lights up, and then the next day my neighbors decided to put a few lights up too. Although there house looks "Red Neck" (her words, not mine) I am hoping to have started a trend.

My New Toy!

This is my new toy...






I have been researching camera's lately because my old one recently broke. I was really wanting a DSLR, however they are just so pricey! So when looking around I decided on the Nikon P90. It seems to be a pretty good camera, and my favorite feature is the 24x optical zoom! WOW!!! I am in awe of how good the zoom is on this thing. Anyway, I still have a lot to learn about this camera and photography in general. I would like to start taking and editing pics, maybe one day I can get good enough to charge! ;) No, really I just love taking pictures so much, I appreciate photo's that others take and I want to be able to provide some quality pictures of my family. Here are a couple shots I have taken with the camera just on the automatic setting... I am excited to learn how to customize the settings and really see what this camera can do!

Thanksgiving 2009

This year was yet another wonderful year with family! We spent this Thanksgiving at my sis-in-law Stephs along with the Tomlin side, and her BF's family. We were all reminded just how many blessings we have, and one of the biggest things we all have to be thankful for this year was being able to spend Thanksgiving with my mom-in-law Julie as she is fighting the ever so dreaded "C" word... Cancer. We are so greatful to have had this time with her, and as she continues on this journey of chemo and radiation, everyday for the rest of our lives is one to be thankful for because she is here and fighting!

The food was great, well everything that I wasn't responsable for... I think I got my drink on a little too early. I put too much salt in the deviled eggs, and burnt the marshmellows on they sweet potatos (however they were still yummy cause we scraped the burnt ones off and added new ones.) Steph did a wonderful job on the turkey... it was falling off the bones! MmmmmmMmmm! In fact, she did a wonderful job with everything! Thanks Steph for having us all there! Nothing better than good food and even better company... So much to be thankful for in life!