Our Thanksgiving Weekend!!!

Wednesday:

*Maisey didn't have preschool last week, so we took advantage of the extra time and headed to the Gilbert House with some friends! The kids had a lot of fun playing store, bubbles, and trains.

*Shaun only had to work until 1, so we just had a fun, relaxing afternoon. . . until Shaun's phone broke. So after dinner, we headed down to the Verizon store (the same one I vowed I'd never step foot in again -- and some of the same people were there!) We each got new phones! Here's my beauty. . .

Thursday:

* Shaun played football early on Thanksgiving. I was going to take the kids down to my mom's and had them both in the car until I realized I left my keys at my mom's the night before, and Shaun had his with him. So we got out and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade at home until daddy got back.

* I took pictures of my kids, even though the little man didn't want to.

*We went out to eat again this year! It was so nice to not have to cook, or CLEAN!!! Except for my little man pretty much cried the whole time! It was a little embarrassing because we were at a pretty nice restaurant and there was a couple sitting at the table right next to us. Oh well!

Madi and Maisey enjoying their pie!

Gagey sucked Grammy into holding him almost the whole time!

* After lunch, Shaun and Scott headed to a movie and my mom and the kids and I headed home. My mom and I made our Black Friday lists.

* The kids skipped naps. . . that was BAD NEWS!

He fell asleep eating dinner.

(yes, that is 1/2 chewed chicken nuggets that fell out of his mouth when he was asleep)

* After the kids were in bed we played some games, then my mom and I headed out to the Black Friday madness!

Friday:

* We hit up wal-mart, kohl's, fred meyer, target, and lowes. We both got lots of great deals, and I'm pretty sure Santa and the Easter Bunny are done shopping, as well as mom and dad for birthday's for the year!

* I came home and SLEPT for a few hours! Then we went back out shopping! Costco, Dick's, and Bath and Body Works!

* I came home again, and SLEPT for an hour, then got ready for my date night!

* Shaun and I went to Red Robin and the Blazer game! The Blazers got womped! They lost by 19. But sitting 5 rows from the court is always fun, even if we lose!

Saturday:

* Maisey had gymnastics, Shaun had some church stuff!

* Then we headed to Palmer's Tree Farm to pick out our Christmas tree. My family was so grumpy! Maisey was whining the whole time, I lost track of how many times Gage fell in the mud, and Shaun was frustrated/annoyed that it was taking me to long to find "the tree". I had fun though! And I finally found one!

We found a way to keep him out of the mud!

Sis wanted to join in!

Don't let that smile fool you! It was bribed with hot chocolate!

He loved to just run free, which resulted in a face full of mud several times!

Oh yeah, and Grammy came too! But she wasn't grouchy!

Maisey kept saying that she wanted the tallest tree she could find. We had to settle by taking a picture in front of the tallest tree we could find!

The kids wanted to "help" daddy cut ours down!

* To add to the grouchiness of the day, Shaun pulled the van in to the garage WITH THE TREE ON TOP!!!!! It did some damage to the van, to the house, and to the garage! He was not happy! And at this point I got a little grouchy too!

* AND if it already wasn't bad enough. . . we had some friends (who are Utes fans) over to watch the BYU vs. Utah game! And BYU lost in the last seconds of the game by 1 point! :(

So long story short, our weekend had it's ups and downs, but we sure do have a lot to be thankful for. . . and 2 of them are napping right now! :)

Signed, Sealed, Delivered!

We finally signed on the refinance of our mortgage last night! It's been quite a process. We filled out our application in AUGUST! And now it's November! The mortgage company made errors, the lender made errors, we switched lenders, locked in a lower interest rate, and the notary came over last night for us to sign!

I'm so glad this process is over and we can start saving more money!

I'm Getting a New One!

A BRAND NEW ONE!!!!!!!!!!!

FINALLY!!!

Hopefully this one works! :)

Today

Today. . . my nice husband let me sleep in until 9 am!

Today. . . I actually took time to get ready!

Today. . . this little guy stayed in Nursery for the first time, the WHOLE time without crying!

Today. . . this little girl was a great big sister to her little brother!

Today. . . I got a new calling! 2nd Counselor in Young Womens! I'm excited!

Today. . . We had friends over for dinner! It was so fun!

Tonight. . . I'm going to bed with hopes of fixing my Cricut in the morning! :)

--STILL--

Called c.s. this morning. Still not working. The specialized tech won't be in until Monday. :( So that's another 3 days of not being able to work on my project! How frustrating! But it gives me time to work on this. . .

Not the Cleaveland's Christmas card, but OURS!

I just got a shutterfly catalog in the mail and fell in love with several of their products, including their cards, calendars, and canvases.

Oh, and I Love Love Love Love Love the Story Cards from Shutterfly. It's totally perfect! A letter and a card all in one! That is going to save me so much time! And, if you want, Shutterfly will address, stamp, and mail them for you!

Christmas card - check

Christmas letter - check

Stamps - check

Post office - check

ALL FROM MY HOME. . . DURING NAP TIME!

(And no hunting for the perfect paper for your letter to match your card!)

(ok, maybe I'm one of the few that is that anal!)

Here's another cute one! They have lots to choose from! Maybe I'll post my finished project! :)

I'm totally loving Shutterfly! I've ordered products from them before and they are great quality!

To get a great deal on Shutterfly cards, click here.

Happy Christmas Carding!!!!!

Uncrossed!

It stopped working. . . AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And customer service is closed. So what did I do? Served my self up a HUGE mixing size bowl of chocolate peanut butter ice cream and caught up on some of our shows with my hubby!

I had a great evening, but I'm still peeved! Why is my software NOT WORKING?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Fingers Crossed!

Yesterday was one of those days. You know, the ones where nothing seems to go right? It didn't start like that though. I started by making Maisey's hair pretty organizer! It turned out super cute! *Pic to come* I made cookies, got laundry going. It felt very productive! Then nap time hit! I got my cricut out to work on some projects. Spent a very long time designing everything just right on the computer. I pushed cut, and it started. After 3% completion, my cricut turned off. It was really stormy out so I thought maybe we lost power for a min. So I tried it again. Again, the same thing happened. I called cricut support, was on hold for 30+ min before I even talked with anyone.

Anyway, long story short, after 3 HOURS on the phone and on hold, I thought I got it figured out! I was so frustrated though! By then my kids were awake, and 2 more came over! Trying to juggle two 3 year olds and two 1 year olds while messing with your computer, your cricut, and trying to hold your phone is not fun!

I decided to put it away until after the kids went to bed. I pulled it back out and it started doing the same thing! I.WAS.MAD! I seriously wanted to scream! And of course customer support was closed! :(

Shaun came home from church at 11:30 last night and I was still working on some stuff. I decided to try it again, and it WORKED! I'm not sure how or why, but it did!

And then all morning it's worked! So I think it might be fixed!

Fingers Crossed!

Maisey's Joke

Maisey has been really in to telling jokes lately! Ever since her grandpa taught her a Halloween joke. She just "woke" up from nap (she never really fell asleep) and came into the play room and said to me, "Mommy, I have a joke for you!" Then she said, "You stink! Smelly pants!"

At least she was just joking. . . right?

Working Wednesday!

There is so much work to be done at my house! My house looks like a tornado went through it! I tried yesterday to work on some stuff, but the 1 project (organizing kids clothes) ended up taking me ALL afternoon. . . leaving me my 80 million other projects for today (or the rest of the week, more likely).

I'm working on ABC scrapbooks for Gage and my nephews for Christmas! I started them a night last week only to realize that the scrapbooks I bought had BLACK paper inside, not white! In all my years of scrapbooking I've never seen that! :(

I need to organize/clean my computer desk! Most of it is couponing stuff! But I know the look of this desk makes Shaun cringe every time he walks in our room!

I've got to do something different with Maisey's hair pretties. I have this weird Gymboree hair pretty fetish! But they are just so stinkin' cute! So we have a ton of them! I tried organizing them by color once, and that lasted about a week! I've got to figure out a good way to do this! Any ideas?

Oh yeah, and to add to my work. . . this little man was found standing on his sister's art table coloring on the wall this morning. :(

He keeps me so busy without my list of stuff to do!

Today is also laundry day! I'm on my 6th load with at least 2 more to go. I've made dinner (one for us, one for my mom) and did a whole load of dishes. I need to pay bills, TAKE DOWN HALLOWEEN DECORATIONS, and clean our shower.

And the UPS guy just dropped off my 10 yards of red vinyl I ordered for some Christmas projects!

I guess I better get busy!

Only problem, I'm not at all motivated!

A nap on the couch sounds much more enjoyable!

I Can Do Hard Things!

Today was a hard day! Plain and Simple!

I spent 12 hours at the Salem Hospital with my mom. (She had a scheduled surgery)

Although the circumstances were very different, the memories of the night of Dec. 26th couldn't stop flooding my mind.

And it didn't help that a code blue was called over the intercom around 5:00 pm.

Around the same time my dad's was called 2 years and 10 months ago.

I got my mom all situated at her house,

then cried the WHOLE way home.

When I got home I was greeted by my little man.

He looks so much like him.

And his mannerisms. . . they are just like my dad's.

And I cried a little more.

Then I remembered this talk by Sis. Dalton.

I Can Do Hard Things!

In the Strength of the Lord, I Can Do All Things!

Including reaching deep into my soul to find the comfort and peace that I will see him again.

The Joy of the Plan of Salvation.

For that is what I am grateful for tonight!

LOVE

I LOVE my kids!!!

I LOVE peeking at them all curled up in their beds, sleeping peacefully!!!

I LOVE getting the big loves and slobbery kisses!!!

I LOVE hearing "love you!"

I LOVE reading to them!!!

I LOVE serving them!!!

and I LOVE that they are MINE forever!!!

Tis the Season

Tis the Season for:

*Christmas music, movies, shopping, socks, etc.

*My electric blanket

*Hoodies

*Crock Pot dinners

*Warm sweats and fuzzy socks

*Gaining weight from all of the Halloween candy, Thanksgiving pies, and Christmas goodies!

*Tons of craft projects

*My kids in footie jammies

*My sister FINALLY starting a blog!

*Being Grateful and Finding Joy!!!

Mom-nesia

My friend Jenny and I would joke about having Mom-nesia when our girls were little bitty babies! Well, I STILL have it!

I went to Wal-Mart today for bananas (and to get out of the house!). I got distracted by the Halloween clearance, spent WAAAAAAAY to much, walked half way to my car, and realized I forgot the darn bananas.

At least I can blame it on being a mom!

Our Library Drama

My kids slept in this morning til 8:15, and this was the first day in 16 days that I haven't had ANY extra kids at my house! It was going to be a GREAT day! That is. . . until we went to the library!

First of all, we showed up late! I know I've expressed this before, but I hate being late. I had to run up to Portland to a book store in the morning!

Second, in the last 2 minutes of story time I realized Gage had a poopy diaper. I didn't have any extras with me, so I figured we'd be real quick checking out books after story time and then I'd just take him home and change him. We were downstairs and Gage was playing with the toys in the children's section while I was helping Maisey quickly pick out books. This boy was playing at the lego table by Gage and started yelling, "Oh man! This boy smells! That's disgusting! Ohhhh, get out of here! That is gross! He is stinky!" It was a little embarrassing! I've got a smelly kid!

Third, We were at the checkout desk and Gage was pushing the handicap accessible door button over and over again to open the door to the library. I figured I'd let him do it because it was keeping him busy while the lady scanned our books. I sent Maisey over to check on him and she came back to tell me he wasn't there. My heart sank. He could have been out in the street, pulling books off the shelf --that's what he's famous for at the library--, in the bathroom playing in the toilets, riding the elevator, who knows! I frantically looked all over for what seemed 10 minutes when really it was like 30 seconds and found him half way up the stairs! I scooped him up and ran back to the check out desk where Maisey was waiting for me.

Fourth, the line to check out books was growing longer and longer because it was taking us forever! I was trying to hurry and put all of our books in our library bag when I smacked Maisey right in the mouth with one. She started screaming and crying, Gage was trying to wiggle out of my arms so he was screaming! I just looked at the lady and said, "It's days like today where I wonder 'Why did I even leave my house?'" Then walked out with a bag full of books, a screaming girl, and a screaming and SMELLY boy!

Oh, and to top it all off. . . we had a late fee! $2! And that's two times in a row. You'd think after going to the library for 2 years, we'd have it down. These are the only 2 late fees we've ever had there. I don't know what's going on with me!