Only on Monday

I am a procrastinator :)  I even thought about doing this last night but remembered I had one more day :) Turns out a lot went on this week!  This is a big post!!!!   Here are some pics from Christmas this year.  We had a great time this season with N being home (literally) he got off of work on Dec 11.  The kids have really enjoyed their daddy being home to play all day.  They are going to go into shock when he goes to work.  He is just a big kid and is really, really great with those 2 little red heads... We drove to a "Light Parade" and sadly it just wasn't the same as the one in Charleston. Man, that one is amazing!!!  But the kids didn't notice the difference.  C has been asking to go to the light parade since last Christmas.  One would think, kids forget...but they don't.  Didn't get any pictures, i had many small children in my lap!  A church around the corner had a living nativity which was neat to go to.  Kids liked it and thought the animals were pretty cool.  It was cold.  I wore my baby!  Literally.  He was cozy.
Christmas Eve was low key.  We baked cookies for our neighbors (and us :) and went to a family church service at (fingers crossed) our new church.


Christmas Day was pretty much perfect, except missing our families at home.  We let the kids take their time opening presents and delayed Christmas Dinner until the 26th so we could just relax and have fun on Christmas Day.  I totally lost my voice and it is coming back slowly.  Still waiting to read the books the kids got for christmas to them...  Star Wars Santa showed up in force (he he) and C was thrilled.  I made Santa even out the boyness with a nice big girly horse...she loved that as well!  J J was so neat to watch because he seriously had no expectations and couldn't believe he kept getting toys.  Every thing he opened he took his time and was so meticulous with the tearing of paper.  He was so excited with every thing he opened.  G just chilled usually in my lap therefore limiting the amount of pictures taken.  N got a lot of video though :)

We are sad that the season is over and are looking forward to next year!  Merry Merry Christmas :)

Since we were going to be around this Christmas, we decided to go somewhere fun for a couple of days.  We have heard about the great wolf lodge from some friends and thought we would give it a try.  People had assured us that yes we would be able to handle all of our kids there by ourselves and no one would drown!  So off we went!  It was a really fun time, exhausting but very fun.  Our little girl might as well have fins.  She was born to be in the water.  She has no fear and loves every second of it.  Ever since she learned how to swim this summer she has been unstoppable!  She had a blast and loved all the slides, wave pool and lazy river.  J took a little while to warm up but once he realized that the kiddie pool only went to his knees he seemed to be okay.  He loved exploring the hotel and hanging out with the fam more than he loved the pools.  G just hung out!  He loved watching all the people and getting loved on all day by mom and dad!  He slept in the stroller for a little while, splashed in the pool, and got held the rest of the time.  It was totally doable and I would recommend it to everyone.

While we were gone, record breaking snow made a visit to our house!!!!  We were going to stay an extra night at GWL but decided that we were just too tired to do it again.  The snow had melted where we were and I thought well the roads will be plowed (Duh!) so we'll just have to go a little slower because of the ice danger.  Boy was I wrong.  The 2.5 hr drive turned into about 8.5 hrs!!!  It was never really a dangerous drive but we had to go so slow because the roads had not been plowed!  I guess when you get 8-15 inches of snow, it slows things down a bit.   We were welcomed home by a winter wonderland.  It was so beautiful!!!!  So exciting.  The kids have been playing in the snow a little but there is just so much snow that it is hard for them, ya know.  It almost covers them up!  We never measured it but I think it was like 18 inches or something ridiculous!!!  We never bought snow boots for the kids, thought they wouldn't need them, but regretting that decision.  Rain boots didn't really cut it!!  I think C is afraid that her feet might fall off if she goes out there again.
Love Having N home this year.  So thankful for this sweet time together as a family.  Praying for all those soliders and airmen who are deployed this holiday season.  We know first hand that it is so hard.  Praying that God would bless their sweet families.

After hearing about snow in the big state, we were a little sad that there wasn't any here!  But a few days later the forecast called for 100% and it came.  C was so excited.  As soon as she saw the snowflakes falling she asked if she could make a snowman.  We told her there wasn't enough snow.  Then she asked about a snow angel, nope.  Then she said well can we at least make snow ice-cream!  Nope, sorry babe!  She had fun gathering the snow off the slide and making a snow ball.  They pretty much just ran around trying to catch the snow on their tongues.  Glad we bought these snow suits a few months back!  I think we might actually get to use them while we live here.  It didn't last long and barely covered the ground when all was said and done but they enjoyed it anyways.  C is still hoping for a white Christmas :)  Say a little prayer for her, she is so excited!    G and I watched from the window!  It was cold...brrrr.
 

It was so nice to have N home this year for Thanksgiving!!!  Last year he was in Iraq and missed everything, while we partied it up with family out of state.  We had a simple dinner with great friends.  It was absolutely perfect!  Our friends A & M had us over and we brought sweet potato casserole and green bean casserole.  I also brought cupcakes and fruit.  I had seen a friend of mine make this fruit turkey and knew the kids would love it!  In fact that is about all my kids ate :)  Oh, and a turkey cupcake of course!  I love thanksgiving food!!!!  So nice to be able to share an evening with friends and spilt up the meal.  Our kids are similar ages so it works out just about perfect :)  Thanks so much for having us over!  After thanksgiving we still had three days to ourselves!  So...we decorated for Christmas :)  C loves to put the star on top and asked the entire time where it was.  She also insisted that we add candy canes.  I remember last year she was so insistent on these two things that we made a trip to Walmart after dark to get them.  We were worried that our tree was going to be nasty because of the flood, but good old plastic branches dried great and we put that baby up!  We had such a wonderful weekend and really enjoyed spending time together without the stress of traveling.  We missed everyone back home and are a little jealous that everyone got to see each other, but there will be other thanksgivings when our kids are a little older and easier to travel with :)  

We had a great visit with N's folks this past week. We did a little sightseeing and school skipping! It was a great visit and we were sad to see them go. I tried to take some pictures of them with the kids. I think it took me 30 pictures to just one with all three of them looking at the camera. All of them smiling wasn't going to happen so I just gave up!