Preparing for Santa

I can't believe it's time!  This year has gone by so fast.  Tomorrow is Christmas Eve!!!!!  To say that my talent in the kitchen is a 0 on a scale from 0-10 is an understatement.  Believe me, I want to be able to walk into my kitchen and just whip up some Yummy meals and desserts for my family, but it never quite turns out that way.  My Husband says cooking is just common sense, so I guess I lack Common Sense in that department.  Anyway, I had seen some cupcakes on Pinterest and also on my friend Jill's facebook page and I  thought they were too cute......so today I decided to attempt them.  I actually succeeded in making these cute little "hot chocolate" cupcakes without any do overs!!!!! The Kids love them!!! 

That's all for now! 

Dirty Dishes

I'm not a HUGE Scotty McCreery fan, but my son got his CD from my Parents for Christmas so we listened to it on the way home from their house.  I fell apart inside when I heard this song.  My house is ALWAYS  a disaster.  I won't even lie, I have given up on keeping it clean.  It seems my laundry is never done and it piles up other places besides the laundry room,  there is always dirty dishes and I know those of you that really know me, know how loud my kids are.  Sometimes I just want to lock myself in a closet until bedtime.  This song shines a NEW light on all of those things.  I think every Mother should hear it.  For those of you who don't like Country Music, you are going to want to turn it off as soon as he starts because he is DEFINITELY Country, but I hope you listen to the whole song.   Tell me what you think!

Click Here: Dirty Dishes

If the first link doesn't work, click on this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1lqV66K5bU

Christmas and Stiches!

We always have Christmas with my Mom and Dad the week before Christmas so we headed down there early Saturday Morning.  The Kids played for a while and then we decided to open gifts.  Greg said it's not natural to open gifts in daylight but we did it anyway.  He thought we should wait until dark.  Try telling that to a 6 year old and two 7 year olds.    Anyway, we opened our gifts one at a time so we could make it last longer. 

We opened presents at my Sister's house.  Here's what it looked like without paper thrown all over the floor.

I made my Husband wear this cute Santa shirt.  He resisted, but I insisted.  I just thought it was too cute not to wear!

My Kids were thinking....Can we please do pictures LATER!!!!  We want to open presents!

Bailey got a bedazzled microphone from my Sister.  She wants to be a Country Singer when she grows up.  I don't have the heart to tell her that she really can't carry a tune in a bucket!

Kinley really did like the clothes that she got.  She modeled them after she pulled them out of the boxes. 
Not sure what Colton was so excited about, but check out his face in the background

Colton was pretty excited about his Toys R Us Gift Card

Another Family Pic

Here's the Whole Family.  Self Timers really do come in handy.

AND THEN IT HAPPENED!!!

   Kinley tried to climb over a baby/dog gate and fell and the gate got her right between the eyes.  One Minor Emergency Clinic (who sent us to the ER because they didn't handle baby facial wounds) an ER visit and 2 Stitches later, we were back at my Sisters house

So much for Baby Gates being designed to protect the Baby :(

Cousins


Later that night, we went back to my Parents house for some shut eye.  This morning we were back in full swing....

Colton and Bailey love the Tire Swing at my Parents house.

Kinley looks happy in this picture, but what you don't know and obviously Greg does is that her hand is about to come down right on Greg's head.  She thinks hitting her Daddy's head is Funny!!!

Bailey with her coffee



It wasn't long after we got up and ate breakfast that we were ready to hit the road......well, let me rephrase that, my Husband was ready to hit the road.  He didn't want to miss his Precious Houston Texans!!! He was so ancy to watch this game that once it became game time and we still weren't home, he ended up calling and ordering XM Radio only to find out after the fact that we didn't order the right package in order for him to get the NFL channel we needed in order to listen to the game. AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!


Other than that, it was a Peaceful ride home. 

Once we got home, Kinley only had one thing on her mind!!!!

That's right, riding her four wheeler!


I wish we could have stayed longer and not spent half the time in the ER....but I enjoyed the time we did have. 

Christmas Past

I finally got around to scanning some more old Christmas pics.  I can't believe how fast these kids have grown.   I would like to have this organized and put the dates/years that each picture was taken, but I really don't want to think that hard right now. So, in no particular order.......

I do know that this is Christmas 2004 (Bailey and Colton's first Christmas)

2005

2006

2007
We hadn't planned on having pictures made with Santa that day. 

2009 (I think)

2010 (Kinley's first Christmas)

I hope everyone is having a Happy Holiday Season!  



Second Grade "WINTER" Party

It's been a hectic couple of days.  Being Colton's home room Mom, I have been busy getting together last minute items for the class party.  I only had a couple of things to finish up yesterday but instead of being productive,  I spent most of  the day in pain.  I went to bed Super Early last night hoping to sleep off this weird stomach pain that I had.  The only thing  I could compare it to is how I felt after my C-Section.  By 10:00pm Greg and I were looking up my symptoms on the Internet and trying to diagnose my problem.  I was literally in tears it hurt so bad.  We decided it could possibly be my appendix so just to be safe I  drove myself to the ER because I couldn't take the pain.  They poked me, did some blood work, did a cat scan and Two Hours later, I was told that I had a cyst on my Ovary and that it had ruptured.  The Doctor told me I would have pain for a few more days, but gave me a prescription for pain medication.  I go to Walgreens only to realize that I do not have my wallet so I decide to go home and try to sleep it off.  By 3:30am I was driving back to Walgreens with Wallet in tow and filling my Pain meds.  Thankfully Greg went into work later than usual this morning so he could help me get the kids up and ready for School.  By Party time I was back in pain, so I took a pill right before walking into the School.  I really tried to focus on the task at hand so I hope I wasn't slurring or saying off the wall things while talking with the other Mothers. I already have a problem with saying whatever comes to my mind, so adding pain meds to that situation might not work out for me.   The Party was a success.  Everybody had a great time.  I honestly felt like we rushed from one thing to another, but one of the other Mothers said that it was the most organized School Party she had ever been to.  That made me feel GREAT!!!! 

This is Colton's class....dressed in their reindeer shirts and ready to party!

I feel very fortunate to be able to be a part of this.

Here's Colton and a couple of his buddies.
Check out their cute shirts.  The Deer face is their footprint and the antlers are their hand prints.

The Kids really enjoyed the ring toss game.  I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that their teacher was wearing the horns.

She was a good sport.  She didn't know that this was going to be her job during the party until I put the antlers on her head.

Thankfully I was able to pop into Bailey's class for a few quick pictures.

One of the stations at the party was writing a letter to a Soldier.  The kids did a Great Job.  I will be mailing these letters out next week so if you read my blog and know of someone who you would like me to send some letters to, please just post their name and address and I will be happy to send some letters their way.  I have almost a hundred letters to send so there are plenty to go around. 

Colton showing me his letter.  It was so Sweet!!!
Dear Soldier, 
I like You.  We are really proud of You.  You are my Hero.
From, Colton Kleiber

It wouldn't be a Christmas Party.....I mean WINTER Party :(  without Cookie decorating!

This is Colton's Teacher, Mrs. Braaten. 

Bailey and her Teacher, Mrs. Osborne

Bailey and her Student Teacher, Mrs. Wibracht. 

Each class adopts a Staff Member and we got Nurse Marisa.  This is her card.

All the Kids signed it.

We included this poem

The Kids LOVE the librarian, Mrs. Keranen and I LOVE her Tacky Christmas Sweater :)


We had a very productive Day!  Just one of many Christmas Celebrations!!!! 
Tomorrow,  Pajama's, Hot Chocolate and Polar Express!!!