Decorating our Tree....

turned into decorating Calle.

But first the story of getting our tree.  We had a two and a half hour window to go get our tree.  We wanted to go to a tree farm and make it an experience with the kids like we used to before we got so busy.  We had Noah and Brenna's friends with us, Carson and Caroline.  So, we were determined to make it a good time.  Hay rides, hot chocolate, caramel apples, and cutting down the tree.  We were going to have fun!

On the way to the tree farm, Carson told us how he picked out his family's tree last year and that he was pretty good for the job!  We were driving, heading out into the country, when he said, "hey, there's where we got our tree last year."  Andy and I looked at each other as if to say, Should we do it?  We knew it would save us time and that would ease our stress.  Maybe they would have hot cider there at least.  So, we did a u-turn and headed to the Catholic church selling trees.
As we pulled up, Tobin said, "Hey, Megan gets her tree here.  I bet they do have good trees!"  Oh good, the kid we need to win over has just been won over!  Maybe this will be good I thought.

Andy and the kids jumped out of the car in a flash and headed right for the trees!  And by the time I arrived after getting my coat on, they had the tree picked out!  Seriously, picked out.  There just seemed something so wrong with that.  Kind of like, you can't pick the first wedding dress you try on; you have to look at the other's to make sure you still want that shape, size and detail!  So, I said we needed to keep going.  I wanted to look too!

The nice gentlemen from the church held up a second tree!  Andy went back and had Tobin hold up the first tree and....done!  We were taking our second tree home!  Within 5 minutes we were done!  Maybe Carson was our good luck charm--at least it wasn't even long enough to start a fight amongst the children, right?

Decorating Calle:

Like our lives these days, our decorating of the tree happened when it should have been bedtime which made for tired and cranky kids.  Oops.  We tried really hard to have the spirit of Christmas in our hearts and in our words as we decorated.  I think for the most part we made it fun, but that was partly because Calle became the focus of the kids.  They thought one ornament was put on the tree and one decoration was to be put on her.  She was such a good sport and really handled it well.  She even posed for some pictures!  I do love our tree and I do love my family.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Santa Wish Lists

Notice the difference between Noah's list and Brenna's list. And Tobin's list is non-existent!  Oh the joys of being young again.  Merry Christmas!

Skating on Air

     It took me a long time to come around to an ice skating party for Brenna's 9th birthday party.  But she knew early on that is what she wanted and she stuck with it.  I felt there was so much that could go wrong- a girl ending up breaking an arm, me ending up breaking an arm, no fun becuase they didn't know how to skate, no fun because they weren't doing as well as they wanted.  It simply seemed like a Pandora's box, but then nothing else came together and so I forged ahead with an ice skating party.  I just need to say right here that Brenna has NEVER been ice skating and I wasn't sure why she would want that for her party.
     Last Thursday, before her party, she was at Brownies with most of her friends who were coming to the party.  As I walked by helping with the activity, one of the Brenna's friends, Kasey said, "I can't wait until tomorrow."  That warmed my heart and I was glad about it. Brenna was bringing two of her friends home with her who were going to come to the party with us.  I was glad to be bringing some friends with us to the party becuase I thought Brenna would have more fun that way.  I also have to say that I didn't realize how excited Noah was to be going skating as well.  The minute he got home from school, he started saying, "Is it time?"  I did not see that coming.
     We arrived at the skating rink a little early, but that was just as well.  Helping 5 children into skates and wrist bands took some time.  But off Brenna, Caroline, and Mack went!  They didn't want to wait for the other girls as they knew they would be joining them and they certainly didn't want to wait for me to get skates on to go with them!  They must have been fine becuase one by one all of the other girls joined them as they put their skates on.  They were pretty excited.  By the time I finally got out to the ice rink, the girls were having a blast!  I actually couldn't believe that I saw Brenna in the middle of the rink, gliding along.  It dawned on me that her excellence balance from her unicycle must have helped her here as well.  She had the biggest smile on her face!  I think all of the girls did.  Only one mom had to go out onto the ice with her daughter and only one girl left the ice early because she was not comfortable, but she told me she was happy watching.  And she truly was.
     At 6:00 when it was time for them to come off of the ice, they didn't want to.  But as they all sat down and took their skates off, I heard their collective sighs and "wow, that feels good."  They were excited to head off to the party room.  I on the other hand, was panicked by this time as I had called Pizza Hut twice to make sure they could deliver pizza for me at 5:45 and no later!  They assured me they could and stupidly, I believed them.  I spent the next 15 minutes calling and waiting and calling Pizza Hut.  They told me he was lost!  How hard was it to find the ice skating rink???  So, at 6:10 I walked back in thinking we were going to have to do the cupcakes first or at least sing happy birthday to her when my friends and the girls' parents were there saying, "Forget the pizza, the girls are fine with the cupcakes.  We're going out to dinner after this anyway!  Seriously, just do the cupcakes."  I am so grateful for flexible friends and flexible girls!
    I didn't call the pizza guy though as I wanted to see how long he would be lost.  Know what time he showed up?  Now remember, I had asked for the pizzas to be delivered at 5:45.  He didn't show up until 6:22!  The ice rink is not that hard to find and I think they just forgot!  I knew he was in the middle, although he still had some culpability in this, but I had him return with the pizzas in tow.  There was no way we could eat pizza in 8 minutes!  And my friends were right, the girls didn't even notice!  They were to taken with their goodie bags to realize there was even pizza close by. 
      It was a great party and Brenna was a happy little girl (until she found out she couldn't open her presents right away because of other plans we had going on..but that's a different story and one not worth repeating)!

Thanksgiving

     Thanksgiving simply came upon us this year.  I blinked--yesterday was my birthday and then it was Thanksgiving.  In fact, we were given the task of making two side dishes for Thanksgiving.  Right away, I knew one would be my gourmet version of green bean casserole.  I loved it and that was what I was going to make.  The other dish, I would search the internet and see if there was a dish that seemed dreamy and delicious! And then it was Wednesday night before Thanksgiving and I still hadn't done my shopping!!  Andy and I had a birthday party to go to from 6-8 pm.  I asked my friends at the party what yummy dishes they knew of and one suggested carrots to me.  At 8:30 I found myself on my cell phone asking Tiercy to google a carrot recipe for me.  Carrots, not our typical fair, but Tiercy found a very easy (now a requirement) recipe for carrots that included brussel sprouts.  Even better--I knew Andy would laugh and think I had done it on purpose (we have been having brussel sprout debates in my house.  I love them and want to serve them and Andy thinks...I don't know exactly, but he doesn't like 'em.)  And since I found myself at the store parking lot sans my shopping list for gourmet green bean casserole, I was now resigned that I would have to make the peasant version!
      Thanksgiving morning we slept in a little late, until about 8:00ish!  It seemed like a lazy morning, but then I knew it wasn't.  Brenna's birthday was on Thanksgiving and I wanted to see what she thought of her birthday treats!  I was lucky I decided to cuddle her then as that was the only time throughout the day that it would work for me to do so.  But she only cuddled for so long before she was up and off.  Happy Birthday Brenna! 
    So, I had a lazy morning while Andy and Noah went to their turkeybowl.  Tobin had spent the night out and was going to his own bowl with friends.  We watched Bre open her birthday gifts from us, I watched tv, got on facebook and looked through my recipes for Christmas.  And then I got started on the cooking.  Because I was doing the peasant version of green bean casserole and had the easiest carrot recipe ever, it was pretty easy cooking.  I say pretty easy, but becuase I was doing both at the same time, it got a little dicey for about 10 seconds as I had to stir the green beans with the cream of mushroom soup and had to take the carrots off of the burner so they didnt' get to mushy.  Success and we were ready to head out.
     We picked Tobin up from his turkey bowl and headed on down the road.  We arrived at Robin and Buff's a little late (ok, an hour late), but better late than never!  Buff's brother Wic and his family was there, Todd and his family was there and Mom and Al were there along with Blair.  We got the party started you see.  Buff had the lines for the first ever turkeybowl marked off and off the players went.  I think they had a great time.  Tobin played quarterback and threw many passes.  Noah had the catch of the game!  He jumped in the air and landed with a thud on the hard ground, but popped up with the ball in the air.
     Dinner was an affair.  We had the children eat first (always a good thing when the amount of children is equal to the number of adults) and then sent them on their merry way to who knows what activity.  And then the adults sat down to eat.  We had a great time and laughed a lot.  I remember Buff and Wic (who play off each other) have a conversation that at one point turned a little bawdry.  Some of the following comments shows the exchange:
Wic:  "I will keep you a-breast of the situation."
Buff:  "That was tit-alating "
Hahaha Buff and Wic.  You are very funny.  It was fun to see Buff laughing and with his family.  Buff's dad ate with us as well, but as the only sane one of us slipped out right after dinner to keep his sanity.  Laurie was a lot of fun to talk with and it was nice to see Todd and Michelle again.  We had a great time sitting and talking.  And then Brenna wanted to eat dessert, and by that she meant she wanted us to sing happy birthday and eat her cake!  So, away we sang with her big smiles.  The kids ate cake and the adults ate apple and pumpkin pie.  I also had brought a cheesecake for dessert as Brenna had requested to have that.  Oops.  She forgot about it and ate the chocolate cake instead.  Poor girl.  :)
    Finally, we were very tired from the day and needed to leave.  It was hard to do it in reverse as I didn't want to say goodbye.  Putting the stuff back into the car and packing it back up, wasn't nearly as fun as packing it had been.  I went in one last time and said, "Happy Thanksgiving" and off we went back the way we came.

Brenna's Birthday: To the Nines

     We're sitting On Cloud 9. In French the word neuf means both nine and new. Brenna's new best friend, is a K9-Callie, and the cat she wishes she could have has 9 lives. My pregnancy lasted for 9 months; Brenna was born at 9 am on the dot, and now my baby girl turned 9! I can hardly believe this is her last year in a single digit number-9.  For all of the fun factoids above, I believe Brenna will have a blast celebrating being 9! 
     She is already well on her way!  She woke up on Thanksgiving day to her ninth birthday.  Balloons, candy and small toy greeted her as she peeked open her eyes. Her birthday had begun!  She didn't want me to take a picture of it, so alas, no pictures.  Her balloon was a rose, her candy was reeses peanut butter cups, gum, mentos, and chocolate dipped marshmallows!  She also found a Christmas bracelet that lights up as well.  She ran from her room to snuggle in bed with me.  It was fun to have her to myself for a few minutes as I knew the day would be busy and full of fun
     I tried to think of so many different ways I could make her birthday special as it fell on Thanksgiving.  Try as hard as I could, I never came up with something that seemed like a great way to celebrate it!  Brenna, however, was so completely excited about it (being off of school, and seeing all of her cousins) I realized that maybe (I'm not completely convinced) I didn't need to do anything to a day that was already special for her!
     We drove down to the Colchagoffs for a day of Thaksgiving.  I was a little surprised when Brenna didn't want to play in the family turkey bowl, but she knew Julianna wouldnt' want to and she was stickin' by Julianna's side!  She brought her American Girl dolls, Lanie and her just like me doll-Jesse and her new itouch!  And I must say that I pretty much didn't see her again until we sang "happy birthday."  Her smile says it all though!  She was happy through and through-to the nines!