Happy Thanksgiving

This year we spent Thanksgiving day with our families. Due to the fact that I share custody of the girls with their fathers, we don't always get to spend this holiday together. But, this year we were lucky enough to get to do just that. It started out a little rough though. Here's how our week went......

The girls didn't have school the week of Thanksgiving so we were blessed with an entire week together!!!! Since I've discovered that I am a whiz at baked goods, I offered to bake several desserts for the Thanksgiving feasts (both at my parent's house and Steve's dad's house). Well, lo and behold - I woke up at 4:30 Wednesday morning terribly sick. I was very very fearful that I wouldn't get ANY baking done in time for Turkey Day. But, after spending half of the day in bed with Steve taking care of me, I was able to finally make it up and start moving around (thank goodness!!!). I still wasn't feeling very confident that I'd be able to get much done in the way of baking, but I was hopeful.



Ryann helped me make the pumpkin pies and the lemon cakes. She had SO much fun!





Luckily when I woke up Thursday morning I was feeling like myself again. Which was a really good thing because I had some more baking to do!!! But, once everything was ready to go it was time to head out. We met Steve and Kamri out at the lake house where we had lunch with the Merten family.



After lunch, we all headed back to Greenville to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner with my family.......MORE TURKEY!!! Unfortunately, I didn't get any pics while we were at my mom's house.........sorry folks. I dropped the ball on that one. That evening, after dinner the six "kids" (Me, Steve, Jessica, Thomas, Brittany, & Josh) decided to play a friendly game of Buzz Word. And, OF COURSE, we decided to play "boys vs. girls". Well, as I'm sure you can all guess - - - -the girls WON!!! Heehee......I love winning. That game is addictive! Before I knew it the clock read 10:30 and we still had the kitchen to clean!!! YUCK!


So, fastforward to Friday morning - 4:00 AM FRIDAY morning!!! Steve and I dragged our exhausted butts out of bed and dressed for the Black Friday specials at our local Wal-Mart Superstore...........WHAT WERE WE THINKING?? This being my first Black Friday experience I quickly realized how very very much I had to learn! There were grown men and women literally fighting over Barbie Jeeps and Guitar Heroes!!!! Are you kidding me?!?!?! Lesson learned from this experience???? Either don't go ~ or be prepared!!!!!

We finished our shopping and took our worn out bottoms back to our warm safe bed........but man, that made for a really long day!

I think that's about it for this week. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

After that, all I can say is "Christmas, here we come!" The month of December promises to be very busy for us! We have Christmas parties, ballet recitals, violin performances to attend, shopping and wrapping to do...........man, I'm tired just thinking about it all! LOL.

More updates soon to come! Love to all!!!!!

FINALLY!!!!!!

Almost 8 weeks later!!!! I have Internet at the house! This has been the most frustrating 8 weeks I've experienced (on a technical level) in a long time! But, here's what's going on with us.

We're of course all getting ready for the holidays. Thanksgiving festivities to commence in less than a week and we all know, Christmas isn't far behind!!!!! Thanksgiving this year will be at my family's house and I'm very much looking forward to the fun and fellowship with everyone. The girls are out of school all next week and we're going to do some cleaning and organizing of bedrooms.

Ryann finally lost her very first tooth.....she came home Friday of last week and was very excited to show us all the gaping hole in her mouth. It was a very big deal. That Friday also happened to coincide with her Dad's visitation so, the Tooth Fairy came to see her while she was there. She's getting so big. Every new milestone that we pass reminds me of how quickly they are growing up. *sniffle, sniffle*

Speaking of school, they are both doing WONDERFULLY!! They are learning and excelling and making mommy SO proud!!! I recently received Ryann's second report card and she did great (not that I'm surprised!!). Kamri is definitely benefiting from being in school. She's already able to print her name which she couldn't do before and from conferences I've had with her teacher she's progressing very well. They are both right on track!

I'm currently not working. I have a job lined up that I'll be starting at the beginning of the year. More to come on that subject later.

I think that's about it for right now. Sorry for the delay in getting everyone updated. Like I said, it's been more than a little frustrating not having access to the Internet here at home. But, we're back in business!!!!!!

More updates as they occur,
The family

Election Day

As a parent, you sometimes find yourself completely amazed at the actions of your kids. I had a moment such as this today. As some of you may know Ryann is now in 1st grade. Well, today when I picked her up from school she informed me that she voted for a president. I thought she was referring to an election in which they chose school leaders (student body president, treasurer, etc.). At first, I was a little confused because I don't remember participating in school politics as early as first grade. But then, I'm sure there are a lot of things we DON'T remember about being 6 years old. So, I asked her who she voted for. And I'll be damned if she didn't say proudly "John McCain. And he WON! Needless to say, I was stunned!!! So after I regained my composure, we talked about the election and she informed me that the most of the kids in her class voted for John McCain. Well, as you all know by now, Senator McCain did not win our national election. But, by golly, he sure was a winner at Bowie Elementary that day!!!!

Love to all, Us

Shelbi the German Shepherd

Several weeks ago (5 to be exact), our little family moved into our new home and we've been loving it since!!! However, I tend to be a little bit skittish and to be honest a HUGE scaredy cat when I'm home alone with the girls. Knowing this, Steve and I agreed that we needed a dog that would be more suited to protecting us as well as being a family pet. Now, don't get me wrong, we still absolutely ADORE Charli.......but she's not the most fierce thing you'll come across in the dark. So, we added a new member to our family. Her name is Shelbi and she's a German Shepherd puppy. She's 11 weeks old and growing so fast we can hardly believe it!!! Her and Charli LOVE playing together and we feel confident that we made the right choice. So, here's hoping that I'll be able to start sleeping at night.....heehee.

Love, Our Clan