O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, Thy candles shine so brightly!

Our walk into the woods to find our "silver shamrock."
Yay, we found it, and it's a beautiful shade of greenish/silver, & has very soft needles so the kids won't get poked :)
It's HUGE, Shane had to cut like 3 more ft. off when we got home.
The boys staying warm by the fire in the cabin.

We were so excited to join our friends(who are more like our second family, sadly we missed the other half of our group,) on a Christmas tree adventure. We packed all the kids into our car, and Shane and Richie drove big red so they could hall the trees. The Wells have been going to the same tree farm for a few decades and this year they asked us to join them. It was so much fun, and a totally different experience from all the other years we've gone. The only thing that would have topped it off was if there would have been snow on the ground. I always love cutting our tree down when we're surrounded by white, white, white! Nonetheless, it was wonderful. Ted, the tree farm owner, heated up his little cabin for us so that we could go in and get warm and relax for a bit after we got our tree. So sweet! The cabin was amazing, completely restored. The kids sipped on cocoa(thanks auntie D,) and we visited for a bit until we headed home with our trees(which were like 15 feet long!) It was a very memorable day, and we learned & made new tree hunting/cutting traditions. Thanks you Wells Family for inviting us, great memories!

Forget About Black Friday!

I order things online quite a bit throughout the year. However, this will be the first year I've done almost ALL of my holiday shopping online. I'm pretty much done except for a few little gifts. I gotta tell you...it was AWESOME! So easy, convenient, hassle free, saved on gas, time, $$$ and the list goes on...

I don't think I'll ever go back to circling the parking lot for a spot, standing in long lines, dealing with inpatient/grouchy people, AND running around from store to store on a wild goose chase to find the things I have on my Christmas shopping list. All of those things can quickly turn me into the Grinch. One of the best things about my .com shopping was that I only spent around $15 on shipping. To me that was worth every penny. It was actually a lot of fun! Now all I have to do is wait for my UPS man to drop everything on my front porch--easy breezy.

The Nordstrom Kid's Fashion Show Presents...

My little Liv is a fashion diva! She tells everybody that she wants to be a "clothes designer." If she ever follows that dream, than I'm so glad I have her first fashion show experience on tape and camera. She was invited to be a part of the Nordstrom kid's fashion show. It was very cute! It was also nice to meet my co-workers families/children. One of Olivia's little bestee's Ava Grace was also invited to be a part of the event. So, the girls were able to walk down the mini runway together. I love the part of the video were Ava gets shy, giggles, and covers her mouth. After Liv's turn walking down she sat next to me and watched to rest of the show and was very interested in the BIG girls. She stared at them scoping them out from head-to-toe observing how they were dressed. I've never seen a 4 year old so interested in a fashion show. All the children got a goody bag that had a HUGE whimsical sucker(that matches the Nordstrom Holiday book,) as well as a few other kid friendly things. It was darling, and I'm glad that Shane, Nolan and I were all there to watch Liv, it made her day! Here are a few things Olivia told us after the show~
"I think the show was really good."
"My favorite part was when I was walking out to see you and Dad."
"The only thing that was a little bit bad was when I got afraid when they took me back to the dressing rooms."
"I think that the big sucker they gave me was delicious."

Gam, Yaya, Papa, & uncle Joey THANKS for getting up early and coming to watch Olivia. I know she was really excited to have you there!

Reading Buddies

AHHH, I'm so glad it's Sunday, one of my favorite days of the week. We are finally towards the end of this nasty virus we've all had. Shane, the kids, and I have never had colds that have lasted this long. This may sound strange, but one thing I've missed the most is not being able to smell my kids--okay some of you are reading this right now and thinking, what the heck is she talking about? Those of you who know me well, understand me completely. I love the way my kids smell, especially little Nolan's sweet breath. I'm one of those strange moms who talks about wanting to eat my kids up, or nibble on them. I can't help it, they're delicious! Anyways, since I've been sick all my senses are off. Isn't that an awful feeling?

It seems like there are never enough hours in a day. Life is busy, and I so often feel like I'm trying to catch up on "things." When Liv comes up to me and asks me to read, it typically forces me to slow down. Sometimes it's not the best timing for me, but I have to put my selfishness aside for a few minutes(joking...I don't think we ever get to be selfish as parents.) Reading with my kids is one of my favorite things to do. I love cuddling with them, laughing, making silly sounds, and mostly, watching the expressions on their little faces as the story begins and ends. Nolan has started to do one of the cutest things ever--he'll grab a book and then I'll say, "do you want me to read you a book buddy?" and then he walks over to me, turns around and sits down on my lap. I LOVE IT! He's started to do this with Olivia, and it's super cute. Plus, it makes her feel like an important big sis, and she loves to read stories to her little B. It's really sweet! Personally, it's just a reminder for me to SLOW DOWN, and enjoy the moment.

Trick 'r Treat

My little LionGammy the Carrot

This is Olivia's Dentist, funny right!

NJP and his little buddy Landon, both Lions.
Pinkalicious Fairy & Tinkerbell
This is about as good as our group shot could get, so cute though! As you can see, all the kidlets were distracted.


CLASSIC! Poor Nolan, he's probably thinking, "what's the deal here, can you please get this hot costume off of me?"

We are so blessed to live on a little cul-de-sac, it makes trick or treating with kids easy, and safe. We took our kids(along with our friends, and grandparents,) around the horseshoe and called it good. Most of the kids had a great time. Then there was my Livvy, she was totally freaked out by a lot of costumes. I can't blame her, some of it creeps me out too! She shed quite a few tears. I was the same way when I was little, I hated going to places like Chuck E Cheese, and also got scared of masks and weird costumes, poor Liv--she's inherited those fears from me. We had a delish chili feed, beer bread, and enough sweets to feed an army. On the downer, Olivia woke up in the middle of the night Fri burning up with a fever. She's been fighting a nasty upper respiratory virus all weekend. 'Tis the season!!! almost every mom that I've talked to this weekend has a sick child :( Is it already that time of year? At the same time, it seems like there's been junk going around for months, and it doesn't seem to ever stop. Praying that all our kids get better, and that we can all stay healthy. It breaks my heart when my kids aren't feeling well, I feel so helpless. Hope you're in GOOD HEALTH, and if you're fighting the "bugs" praying that you will get better soon!

Happy Halloween!

I haven't been the best blogger lately, I've typically tried to update once a week, but that hasn't been happening. Bare with me, I'll get back in to the swing of things soon.

We had a fun day getting ready for halloween tomorrow. Liv and I had a nice little mother/daughter time. We made sugar cookies, & carved pumpkins. Olivia is super "girly" she insisted on making pink, purple, yellow, and lt blue frosting for the cookies. Definitely not the traditional colors for Halloween. AND she wanted to carve out a heart on her pumpkin. That's okay though, I like our little purple cats, blue moons, and pink pumpkins--we must be reading a little too much pinkalicious around here.

As for me, I'm feeling like I'm in a little valley at the moment. I've been working a ton over this last month, way more than I'd like to be. I have learned a lot since I've started working, mainly, how much I LIKE being home with my kids, and providing a loving home. I realize how much I could actually get done, though at the time it didn't feel that way. Now I feel like I'm constantly juggling work, and my life as a mom and wife. I have a different perception on working moms now, and I tip my hat to those of you who choose to do both. I'm still not sure if I'm cut out to be away from my family, and will give it a little more time before I decide. I was ready for a balance, and break from mommyville, but not desiring it as much now. Time will tell, I'm waiting on the Lords answer for this one. It would be a no brainer if I didn't like my job, but I'm really having a lot of fun, and meeting some pretty amazing folks along the way.

Can't believe we only have a couple more days left in October!
Happy Halloween, BE SAFE!

"Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children." Charles R. Swindoll

This was the first Friday I've had off in over a month. Shane was able to take a half day today so that we could get out of the house and go enjoy a "family day." We had a blast picking out our pumpkins(Liv had about 15 in our cart,) playing in the trees & leaves, picking a few apples, and enjoying a quiet lunch. The first farm we went to was packed out, so we drove around and found a little quaint place and the kids had the entire pumpkin patch and orchard to themselves up until the end. It was so nice! Of course Nolan thought every pumpkin was a "ball" and was trying to eat everything around him. Liv was so docile at his age, and didn't stick everything in her mouth like her little B. He's a stinker, and typical 1 year old I'm sure. We wanted to hit one last place on our way out. It has a huge glass case which is full of honey bees and I thought it would be fun to search out the queen bee. Olivia and I did this a couple weeks ago. Liv got a rather worried look on her face and said-
"No mom, I don't want to go there, I don't want to see the queen bee with the big red back." What I think she meant was the red dot? And then I explained why the queen has the red dot. Next she says-"that poor lady bee has a big red dot on her back from the sun, the sun burned her back and she's sun burned." Oh the mouths of babes!

I have missed hanging out with my little tribe, all of us together. My husband is doing a stellar job at picking up were I leave off when I head to work, thank you babe! The kids love spending time with their daddy too, Olivia got sad on Monday when it was Shane's turn to go back to work. Our schedules have been like a 3-ring circus over the last month, but things are FINALLY smoothing out, and I feel like I can breathe again. But most importantly spend more time with the people I LOVE SO MUCH!

Happy Fall Everyone! Hugs~