Decorations Are Up

The last couple years I haven't been able to start my decorating for an entire week after the tree was up.  I have been doing this holiday shopping event and it takes so much time and prep that I literally get nothing else done for the entire week.  Once it is over, let the decorating begin!  

This year while Mack napped I let the boys help me decorate.  I have a serious case of OCD, so it was really hard to watch them.  I did instruct them to only hang one ornament per branch, but when I would turn around Carter had like three or four to a branch.  I didn't even wait until they were in bed to rearrange the ornaments. Andy told me I was a bad mom.  They didn't care.  I just moved the ones that were too crowded and tried my best to leave as many as  I could.  When we started decorating the top of the tree they handed me an ornament with Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus and said it needed to be at the top and in the middle.  When I asked why, they said because that is the true meaning of Christmas!  So sweet!!  I feel like I have made lots of mistakes as a mom, but if my boys realized the true meaning of Jesus then none of the other stuff matters.  We do Santa in our house and this goes to show that it doesn't take away from what the kids understand as being the true meaning.  They are smarter than you give them credit for and if you just teach them the real meaning then the other stuff is just for fun.  They totally believe in Santa and I love hearing their theories on what Santa does and how he delivers toys.  It is so cute!  

Last week after everything was decorated I attempted to get a good card picture, notice I said attempted.  Well you can see in this post how the card turned out.  Shutterfly had a deal where if you posted your card on your blog or website then they would give you $10 off your next purchase.  So I of course did that!   

I wasn't super happy with the pictures.  I read some tutorials about taking good pictures in front of the tree, but the problem is when you don't use flash and have a wiggly 2 year old that equals lots of blurry pictures.  I even used the tripod and bribed him with a lollipop.  I got a couple good ones, but when looking for a good card design I found one with spaces for lots of pictures.  I went with that one and did a year in review type card.  Here are all of our pictures from that night and I am enjoying using an upgraded Picasa!

Carter and Andy were such good sports with helping me get my camera right.

I don't know what is up with Cale.  He wouldn't smile right.  

I should have used this one.  I think it is my favorite.

Another silly Cale face and looks like Carter may have joined in.

This is the one I used.

My super sweet boys

The Perfect Tree

Most years we head up to Sparta, NC to get our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving.  We go to one of those lots were you find the one you want and they cut it for you.  So much fun for the kids.  Usually we go to a big one with hay ride, food, Santa, and other stuff, but this year we tried a new one.  It was ok, but I think we did find a pretty tree.  It didn't have all the hoopla I like, but it had a good tree and that is what the point is.  

Mack of course gave us a hard time when we first got there.  Hence the picture of him crying and reaching for me.

The big boys

Grandma trying to help wrangle Mack in for a picture.  He was very uncooperative.  Some people would be shocked, but this is Mack the majority of the time.  His way or no way!

A family picture with our tree!

Mack crying again.

The boys watching the tree get wrapped up for the ride home.

Cousin Leah with Mack.  She is such a big help!  

The boys loving the truck.

Leaves and Thanksgiving

Today I am really catching up!!  I love this owning my own business and being to take off whenever I want!  Although the down side would have to be if I don't work then I don't make money.  Oh well, my kids are only little once and it is well worth it!!  

I always try and do some cute fall pictures in the yard every year.  This year it was kind of hard since the kids insist on wearing wind pants to school everyday and the weather was kind of on the warm side and when those things weren't going on it was raining.  I finally got them all changed one afternoon and went out and we got ready to take some pictures and I found a snake in the leaves!  I did take a picture and it was just a cute little baby brown snake.  I say keep'em, they keep the bugs and mice population down!  It did make us a little more leery about being in the leaves though.  I got a few cute pictures.  It was hard since Mack decided it was more fun to throw the leaves, thus making for lots of blurry pictures.  

For Thanksgiving we finally made the trek back to Ohio.  It has been 3 years since we have been up there.  We love going up at Christmas, but this year it didn't work out with the kids days off and at Thanksgiving was Andy's grandma's 85th birthday.  Well Mack is a terrible car rider and he has gotten a little better.  We got the new (well new to us) car, a 2007 Yukon Denali, and it has plenty of room and a built in DVD player.  We even hooked up the old car player for the older boys so that they wouldn't have to watch what Mack wanted for 12 hours.  Well the way up was ok.  It would have been better had it not rained the ENTIRE way.  I don't think that has ever happened to us before.  We had a great time up there and loved seeing family.  If it was more cost efficient to fly then we would visit more.  Once it was time to head home Mack of course woke up sick.  He had so much mucus that it caused him the throw up, several times.  Well Andy's cousin's wife is a nurse at a pediatricians office and she hooked us up with some meds and we were on our way.  Only a few hours later than planned.  Andy then felt the need to speed.  He was going a little too fast and got pulled on some country roads in OH.  Well the policeman felt sorry for us after looking back at our sickly Mack and decided to give us a warning.  Andy then drove the speed limit the rest of the 10 hours.  We made it safely and no more throwing up, which is about the best thing one can ask for!  

Rainy Halloween

This year was the first year it was actually cold on Halloween.  It was also the first year it has rained and the first year I actually bought all three kids new costumes.  Needless to say we were going out no matter what!!  After the first trick or treaters came by we decided to brave the weather.  The boys picked out their costumes in August.  Last year they would never decide and then I had to make them a ghost costume.  It was terrible and yes I sew, but no I don't do costumes or clothes!  This year Cale decided to be Bumblebee from Transformers, which he has never seen, and Carter decided to be Mario.  I really wanted some kind of matching or coordinating, but no they wouldn't humor me.  For Mack I still get to pick, so I picked Cookie Monster.  He loves him and tries to talk like him.  It is so cute!  He got the most use out of his costume at school parties.

Once we hit a few houses, armed with raincoats covering new costumes and umbrellas, Carter proclaimed that the rain had ruined his favorite holiday!  Really?!  They don't even eat a quarter of their candy and it's not because we don't let them.  I think they just like the candy hunt and thrill.  Well they came back with more than enough candy.  We didn't hit all our regular houses, but the neighbors that we mainly see on Halloween.  I know, we won't be winning neighbor of the year anytime soon.

Don't you love the mom who takes the pictures with the raincoats on!  I was so not thinking.  I will blame it on jet lag!

Got one without coats, but Mack had already stripped down and was enjoying his lolli

Going through the loot!

Out West

At the end of October Andy and I took a trip to Colorado Springs.  Actually Andy had to do a job site visit and since I had never been I tagged along.  It was very beautiful!  I don't think I have ever taken so many scenic photos before.  The Rocky Mountains were so amazing.  They almost didn't look real.

The first day we got there Andy had to do his job site stuff, so I stayed at the hotel and chilled.  So nice to sit and do nothing!!  That NEVER happens at home, which is why this blog never gets updated.  That night we had dinner with a guy Andy had been working with out there and his wife.  They gave us some great tips for our trip.  The next day we headed out to a town that was having a coffin race, it was Halloween weekend and that brings out the crazy people.  We should have figured that a Halloween festival would be a little different for us, but we thought it was a family type of event.  Well there were lots of families there and it was definitely interesting.  For living in the tobacco capital of the world, I don't think I have ever seen so many people smoke as I did when we were in CO!  I thought I was going to die at this coffin race thing, so we went and ate lunch in a non smoking restaurant.  Then we headed up to ride the Pike's Peak Cog Train.  We didn't stick around for the coffin race, figured it wasn't really our thing and I didn't want to have an asthma attack.

We were totally bummed that we didn't make it to the top of Pike's Peak.  There was snow on the track.  Really?!  Does it not snow enough there that they don't know how to clean it off?  Oh well, it was fun and we made it to about 12,000 feet.  Then we headed off to see the Garden of the Gods.  That was pretty and very neat to see.  One thing I couldn't get over was how brown everything was out there.  Even most of the homes were brown.  There wasn't much grass either.  You know in south, it does not look like that.  It is very green here or at least where we live.  It was very fun to see what other parts of the US look like though and I had a great time!

The next day we drove to Crippled Creek and saw some awesome views.  We also gambled with some blue haired old ladies.  It was fun. Then we decided to try and drive to the top of Pike's Peak.  Nope, didn't make it that way either.  We made to just above 12,000 feet and were able to see much different views than we did on the cog train.  We got out and walked a little and it was insanely cold and windy!!  That was the end of our fun little getaway weekend!  We came back on Halloween just in time to take the kids out for a lovely, rainy trick or treating event.  It was a great trip and I'm so glad I got to go experience it and catch up on sleep!!