Santa!!

Now that I am all caught up! Whew...

Today we took the kids to see Santa. I don't think I've ever went this late but by the size of the line at the mall, lots of people wait this long!! haha...Wow, the line was so BAD. It took us a good 45 minutes to an hour to finally get up to see him but the kids did AWESOME!  I was taken back by how shy they both seemed. Brie is my little chatter box and Noah kind of lets her take the lead. When they both sat down their little faces got red and they acted all sweet and innocent :) Santa had to be tired from having all those screaming kids on his lap all day but he took the time to ask each one of them what they wanted :) Noah kept saying "umm, ummm" squeezing his hands but finally said "monster trucks and ninja turtles!" Brie told him she wanted the Frozen DVD (not even out of the theaters!) a Frozen doll (check) and some play doh (check)! I love my babies so much!! They each smiled so good and look as innocent as can be. Wink, wink! haha...

Christmas play!!

Brie had her first play!!! I was asked by her teacher to help and couldn't be happier :) I made the elf hats. I didn't take a picture though :( They were pretty easy to make, I was a little nervous. I'm not the craftiest person out there but I gave it my best and they turned out really cute! Brie was a doll and her hat was pink and purple with sparkles. I didn't get the best pictures, I didn't even get the best video, but I did take as many as I could and taped the best I could!! My Mom ended up taking the day off and came with me. Thank goodness, I had to bring Noah, Addyson and Ashlee with me and I wasn't sure how that was going to pan out! Brie was over the moon to have her there too :) I love how she isn't shy and loves to get up in front of people, there isn't a shy bone in that girls body! haha....I hope it stays that way. I was like that and then as soon as I hit middle school you couldn't pay me to talk in front of a group. It was such a cute little play. The kids were seperated into different groups to do a song and then they did Rudolph and Wish you a Merry Christmas all together at the end. I am so proud of her. I teared up a few times watching her and loved how she sung the songs and looked to make sure I was watching her :) Noah gave me so trouble but wasn't too terrible. He just can't seem to sit still! haha...little stinker. After the play was over we got to go to her classroom and sign her out for the day. My Mom had me take a quick picutre of Brie with her teacher, I wanted to get out of that crowded room so bad but am so glad I snapped a quick picture. Brie just loves her :) I let Brie pick what she wanted for lunch and then we headed back to my house and spent the rest of the day with Mawmaw. Brie took a nap with her, of course, it's Mawmaw favorite thing to do! haha...

Gingerbread house!

Last year my sister and I got together and had the kids build a ginger bread house and thought we should do it again this year. Last year it was tough but it all ended up working out in the end. This year, yeah, not so much! haha...We gave it our best shot but we just couldn't get the darn thing to stay together and the icing (glue) that holds it together was getting a little out of control and dripping everywhere. So after several failed attempts and the kids starting to get restless we decided to just let them decorate one side of the house each and use the gum drops and hard candy however they wanted. That ended up being a really good idea :) The kids were just happy to finally get their hands in something and use the candy because we told them eating it was out of the question. The ginger bread house was a couple years old and we didn't think it was safe to eat. Not to mention you would probably break a tooth trying to eat it!! Ekk! I have to say these kiddos are very creative and they all turned out just as cute as can be! :)

SNOW DAY!!

I am a little behind so I'm playing catch up!...
 We had our first official big snow day of the year :) It was on a Friday so the kids and I were snowed in together. Tommy went into work and didn't get home until after 9 :( I had cleaned the house gave the kids baths and we even baked cookies and decorated them! :) It was a day, to say the least! haha...I decided after all the cleaning and going stir crazy we should try and do at least a craft or make something. I got the idea from my sister ;) I let the kids help me make sugar cookies and then opened a tub of icing and gave them some sprinkles! They were in heaven. I just gave them each half and let them go to town. Brie took her time and tried to make the prettiest cookies ever and Noah, well, he just made a mess! hahah...I honestly don't think he could have fit any more sprinkles on his cookies but he sure didn't have any problem eating them! I let them have two each :) They loved it and I actually had fun doing it with them. I am always trying to keep it as neat as possible but I tried to just let them go this time, I did pretty good :)

The next day the kids were so excited that they got to go outside with their Daddy! Tommy was really awesome with them and helped them build a snowman and even had a snowball fight too! Almost as soon as they got outside Noah was on the ground making his snow angels :) He was so excited to make one! Brie took a break from helping Daddy and couldn't resist making a couple herself too! I don't really like the cold so much so I just stayed in and went outside to take pictures every so often. I have to say, their snowman was pretty cool AND he stayed together for over a week! The weather here is so unpredictable and it snowed Friday and the following Friday it was all melted and gone! Their snowman reallly hung on though! :) The kids were pretty sad when he finally tipped over and melted away. :( We will just have to make another when it snows again!! :)

Thanksgiving

So, this is my second year doing Thanksgiving with the family. I think we are getting better and better but still have a few things to work on. I thought we had it all planned out and everything we needed and we did, MOSTLY. Appearantly we forgot stuffing and gravy!! Ahh, I didn't even think about it. Well, I did think of the gravy but only for a split second ;) Haha... my family, especially my mother, gave me a hard time but aside from that, I think it went pretty well! We had a big enough turkey and Tommy even added a whole chicken which we cooked rotisserie. I had my favorite desserts, cupcakes and cheese cake, my grandma even brought apple pie!! My other grandma brought the newspaper for us and we all looked through that coming up with our game plan for the night of Black Friday shopping :) My sister and I have gone for years now and we just love being in all the craziness. We might have to make a few changes to our plans next year because we were a little disappointed in some of the stores we frequent this year. It's so much fun with her and we always stay out late enough to be delirious but still having fun! We didn't take pics this year but I never forget a shopping trip with her:)

Thanksgiving lunch with Brie :)

So at Brie's school they do a special Thanksgiving Day lunch with the kids and the parents and siblings are asked to come and join. I was so excited and so was Brie :) We had Tommy take a vacation day and I told everyone I couldn't babysit for the day. In the morning Tommy took Brie to school and then hit the gym and we spent the day with Noah. At 12:30 we headed over to her school and had lunch with our baby girl :) It's so funny how certain smells bring instant memories. As soon as we entered the cafeteria I was instantly taken back to my childhood and remembered lunch time with friends. I still get blown away at how much my little girl has grown up. I got to watch her line up with her class and take her bathroom break. It's little things but it made me tear up just watching her from a distant being so, well, big! I love that little girl so much and just love how she lights up seeing her Daddy and I. I'm so proud of her and all that she does, such a smart little girl :) Noah was so excited to see his sissy too! He just adores her and he now says he can't wait to go to school and be a big boy!

Pinkalicious!!!!!

This year instead of us taking the girls to see Disney on Ice we decided to change it up a bit and go to see Pinkalicious. I am so so glad we did!! ) My sister found out about it, not sure where, and we thought it would be a great idea to take the girls. Their first play!! It was the best time and all three of the girls loved it!  :) I wasn't too sure what to expect but it exceeded my expectations completely! Before going to the show we went to Skyline to eat dinner first. It was good, don't get me wrong, but I was still hungry when we left! ha!! I guess my pregnant body needs a little more than usual these days! After leaving dinner we went straight over to get our tickets. It was being held at our local community college, actually it's where I went to college for a couple years ;) My sister and I both went there but I never finished and she did (of course!) She is and always has been the smart one! It's ok, I'm good with being sorta smart ;) The show lasted about 45 minutes and I think that was perfect, any longer and we might have lost Brie's attention! haha...no, she was good. She did turn to me one time and say "this is really long!" haha...Love her! I'm so glad we made it and it was such a good time with wonderful memories :) I love my sister and two nieces so much. I am so lucky to be so close with them and look forward to our Mommy/Daughter dates!

Happy Halloween :D

This year Halloween trick or treating had to be moved to Friday November 1st instead of Thursday the 31st of October. The weatherman predicted a really bad storm with high winds and every county around us moved trick or treat to the next day. It (of course) wasn't nearly as bad as they thought it would be and the storm didn't even start until 9! Butttt...it did end up being perfect weather on Friday and the kids all had a blast :) We usually either go to my sister's or come to my house. We decided on going to her house because it is the perfect size neighborhood for the kids. She lives in a new neighborhood and it's only like 4 streets total, perfect for our little ones! I know we won't be able to keep them from going the whole time for much longer so we are going to rock the smaller streets for now! haha...So anyway, Brie was a wicked witch and Noah wanted to be a ninja turtle but that ended up being a total mess :( I bought the costume early because I knew those were going to fly off the shelf. I grabbed his size, 3T/4T. Well, I don't know who the heck could have fit in that being 3 years old!! When I first tried it on him we were at my little cousins 1st birthday party. They had a Halloween party too. Noah was screaming trying to make the costume fit but it was a total bust! :( The head bandana that it came with didn't even fit my 1 year old cousin!! He did get to wear the turtle shell so it worked out, sort of. So, after the party I returned the costume and we found him Spiderman which came with fake muscles sewn in it. He LOVESSSS it! He wore it the whole week before Halloween and the week after! I'm so glad because I felt so bad about it all.

We ordered Gramma's Pizza and ate at my sisters before heading out. My Mom came right after work so she could go with us too. She comes every year for the kids. I have to say my sister's two were the cutest ever this year :) Makayla was Princess Jasmine and little Ave was Dorthy. They both looked so darn cute! My poor sister had a hard time finding the shoes for Dorthy but ended finding some really cute red sparkly ballet flats. In the end it all works out but boy do we stress! haha...Our friends, Courtney and Brandon came over with their daughter too. Addyson was super girl and added a little Rapunzel hair to it :) It actually looked like it went with the costume though! haha... I have to say it was a great time and the kids loved getting tons of candy!

Fall weekends make me happy! :)

So this past weekend we hung out with my sister and her family mostly. I love spending time with her and our kids have grown up together so they are really close. On Friday I watched her girls because their was no school for teacher in service day. She ended up staying for dinner and we had a fire complete with s'mores! I LOVE me some s'mores :) It was so nice to have them over to hang out and us adults actually got to sit around the fire and have adult conversations, seriously!! Yay, that never happens. The kids are all getting older now and they can play (mostly) without us. Now, that's not to say an argument or two (five) happens from time to time but hey, I'll take it! haha....We decided that we needed a date night so we planned on our little cousin coming over the next night to watch all the kids while we went out to dinner! :) I called and made the arrangements for the next night and our cousins decided to come along too. Kristy and Paul are an absolute blast to be around and they sure made our night even better. We decided on eating at the new restaurant around here called Logan's and then we went and saw the movie Carrie. The dinner was so good! The movie, however, eh. It just didn't do it for me. Tommy and I were laughing at most of the parts but it was still a great time. :) My sister and her hubby didn't think it was too bad and neither did Kristy or Paul. They thought it could've been better but not horrible. Guess scary movies just aren't our thing. I am a pretty big scaredy cat so I thought I would be freaked out, nope! :) I'm good. I guess, really, I should be happy about that though! Ha!
On Sunday we decided to head out to Kings Island :) It was so pretty out and the weather was perfect. It was a little chilly at first but warmed right up before we knew it. Brie loves that she is tall enough for the Snoopy Surfer now and that was the first thing she got on with her Daddy. Noah is still too little so I took him over to ride the small cars and go on the car merry go round. Makayla and Shaun rode with Tommy and Brie. Poor little Avery was just barely under the line and wasn't able to ride with them. She is just 6 weeks 6 days older than Brie but since she is my sister's baby she seems so much younger! She weighs less than Noah!! That pretty little thing is just so tiny! :) I love giving my sister a hard time because she still likes to carry Avery around and baby her a bit but I get it. Noah gets babied waaayyy more than Brie and they are only a year and a half apart. Brie just seems so much older than him. She's my big girl and I expect more from her, which I totally know is dumb! haha...I don't know why it works out that way but it does! So anyway, Lindsay took Ave on over to the roller coaster, which Noah is once again too little for so we kind of split up while the Dads took the older siblings on their ride. Poor Noah always gets left out! haha...he doesn't notice yet though :) We headed over to the Halloween themed part of the park and the girls all rode a pony and Noah got to drive (ride) a little tractor maze thingy. The kids got to color a mask and go through a (not) haunted house and get some candy. It was a great day spent with great family!! :)