Post Holiday Exhaustion

Don't you just LOVE a sleeping baby?!
I could just eat up this little angel!!!

Happy Thanksgiving 2012!

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving day.  We're blessed enough to have most of our family in town, so that means we're lucky enough to get invited to partake in not one, but two Thanksgiving feasts!  After the traditional morning game of football, we headed to the Harriss house for celebration #1.  Jeff's mom had the idea that we all take a pic with us all in glasses since Em now has glasses.  I have a feeling she needed this pic as part of her annual Christmas poem, but I guess we'll have to wait a few more weeks to find out!  Regardless, the kids thought it was pretty fun.

We took full advantage of the near 70 degree weather and spent some time outside. 

Turkey day, round 2 was held at Amy/Jeff's house.  Ry and Jul hang at the kids table with Maddie and Ali.

Mom and I pose for a pic.

Amy, Dena and Dad take a break.  Amy spent HOURS in the kitchen prepping for the massive spread she puts out every year, and dad spent nearly TWO hours carving the pumpkin.

Tim and Debbie

Glammie and kids.

Grandparents and me

Granny Re before she modeled her Elvis look-alike sunglasses for us. I'm not sure how I didn't snap a pic.  She said she actually had someone offer her $200 for them and she wouldn't sell.  Craziness, I tell ya!

Jeff ended up talking Glammie into coming over at 11pm so he and I could head out to partake in the madness we call Black Friday.  We talked Amy and Jeff into tagging along too.  Despite the fact it was the middle of the night, and thinking clearly wasn't really happening, we had a great time.  Jeff toted a TV around the store that he THOUGHT was on special, but it wasn't. I somehow managed to LOSE all our advertisements (key for price matching) not once but TWICE (and then we ended up realizing on the drive home we left them back in the toy section of the store!?!). It was for sure one of our more memorable shopping trips!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pre-Turkey Day

My mom believes every day is worth a party.  She extends our Thanksgiving celebration by an entire day by having a party the night before.  Since my sister Krista travels with her husband and kids to Chicago on Thanksgiving, this is our opportunity to hang out with them for the holiday.  Glammie is never short on sugar for the kids. (Looking back, it's really amazing none of  us came out of childhood in that house obese or cavity-filled!). Even Em was begging to partake in a cookie with a thick row of icing.  

Decorating Early

We've  never decorated for Christmas before Thanksgiving, but the kids  (Ry especially!) have been relentless.
I caved today when Ryan carried up some of the Christmas decorations by himself.  Guess we'll have the day after Thanksgiving open this year!

Operation Shoebox

This year, Julia joined a troop called American Heritage Girls (AHG), which is a little similiar to the Girl Scouts.
They just had a service project, and we went tonight to pack shoeboxes as part of Operation Christmas Child.  Since they needed lots of help, Ry was able to come along too.  What fun helping pack boxes we had tonight!

See's Visit

Juls had an appointment this morning at Children's, so we decided to play hookey a little longer and stop by the Galleria to say hello to Gram and Papa who were running their See's Candy cart at The Galleria.  Of course, we couldn't turn down the chocolate suckers they offer us when we visit! =)

Tats and Voting

It feels like a weekend. The entire family is home from work/school with strep. (Well, except I don't seem to have symptoms..yet!)  Em and I snuck out for a bit to go vote.  I would have left her at home, but Jeff didn't seem capable enough to take care of her. Seriously.  Apparently strep can be "you must lay on the couch and not move" type of knock you down.  She quickly got bored in the booth and made a run for it.

And meanwhile, the kids back home kept busy making tattoos on themselves.
This is a little bit my fault. Juls was looking through toy catalogs to work on her Christmas list, and she came across this kit that you could do this with. It seemed like such a dumb toy to me..basically came with a stencil, markers and glitter.  But all packaged cute.  When she told me she wanted to add it to her list I told her she already OWNED everything in the kit.  Mistake #1.  Oh well..at least the bath they took after this bought another hour and allowed me to clean out Em's closet!

Strep

Ry had a fever and complained of sore throat this weekend, so first thing Monday morning we headed to the pediatrician.  By the time the day was over, and some extra co-pays later,  we figured out all three of our monkeys are positive for strep. Awesome.

Em is doing her best to pick up as MANY germs as possible from the waiting room.
I've already gotten her test results back at this point, and knowing she is positive and there is an antibiotic waiting at the pharmacy, I don't freak out as much as I might normally have and choose to let her continue her "germ gathering" as opposed to the loud shrieks she does when I try to contain her to my lap.

And then the hubby walked in the door complaining of a sore throat and crawly skin, I knew we were in for it.
That, and remembering that Emerson literally sneezed in my mouth today when I was carrying her (isn't motherhood so dreamy?!) I called our Dr. and promptly went to pick up prescriptions for Jeff and I as well.

Tonight the kids helped me take clorox wipes to every surface in their rooms.
Good times!

Four Eyes

This afternoon Emerson got glasses.
I think she's pretty crazy excited to be finally seeing things!

The last few months we've noticed she's been crossing her eyes to focus on objects.
Hopefully, the glasses will help her not have to do that anymore!

Her scrip is 4.75 in each eye.
(Recording that here since this serves as a "baby book" of sorts for the munchkins!)

Don't you just want to hug her so tight!?

I SOOO wish I had been recording in the optical shop when we put them on her for the first time.  She kept looking around the room at different things very wide eyed.  It makes me sad she's been missing so much all this time!

Happy Trick or Treating Day!

In our community, trick or treating takes place on October 30th, rather than on Halloween night.
Our little kitty, cupcake and Captain Jack Sparrow are ready to go fill their bags with loot!

Juls planned to be a pink Power Ranger, and in true girl fashion changed her mind at the last minute and decided to be a kitty.  I thought Daddy did a very shockingly good job with the makeup for the kids...a talent I never realized he had!!! Not too sure what to make of that, but... =)

Ry's pumpkin request: Captain Jack Sparrow, to match his costume choice.

I somehow missed getting a pic of Jul's pumpkin lit, but you can see it's a butterfly on the ground behind the kids.
Happy Halloween!

Sunday Funday

The peeps (or Daddy, anyways!) were busy today preparing their pumpkins for Halloween.
I'll post pics later of the finished product...I'm too lazy to go outside in the freezing cold, light them and snap a photo!
Ry's request was Captain Jack Sparrow, and Jul's a butterfly.
Em blissfully napped through the entire process, and I sat in front of the sewing machine waiting for lightening to strike, and me to know what I'm doing! LOL. I'm attempting to make the girls some pants I saw for sale that I thought "really, that can't be THAT difficult to make!"

Pumpkin Farm 2012

We took advantage of the great weather this weekend and  crossed the pumpkin farm off our list of fall obligatory activities to do with the kids.  

Uncle Jeff and Aunt Amy suggested a new farm we hadn't ever tried out before. Pumpkinland didn't disappoint!

Baby Em sure has grown since last year's pumpkin farm visit when she was less than a month old!!

There was a corn maze that we all had a fun time trying to find our way out of. Julia kept collecting ears of corn along the way.  We were joking her since I left the granola bars in the car, we could always eat corn if we couldn't find our way out!
We ended the night visiting The Crossing.  When we asked what the kids learned, Ryan said "Don't talk when others are talking." And Julia said, "Don't lick the floor."  Sounds like never a dull moment in the kids ministry area! LOL!

Emerson's First McDonalds Playland Experience

Today was a half-day of school, so my neighbor Laura and I brought the kids to McDonald's playland to run off some energy.  Emerson wants to do what the "big" kids are doing, so I let her go in the play area for a bit.  It was a little crowded when we first arrived, and she had to be "rescued" out of there twice (reminding me really how nasty those tunnels are!), but had a great time!
Andrew, Emerson and Ry hanging out!

School Pics 2012/13

Ry-dog is a big 2nd grader this year!
His favorite love is Legos, followed closely by computer and Wii gaming.
He has taken more of an interest in sports this year, and is asking Daddy to pitch to him  more and more.

Princess Juls is in Kindergarten.
She likes school, but claims it "takes up too much time that I could be watching my shows and playing with my friends."
She is a social bug, and loves all things glamorous and with lots of sparkle!

Baby Em is in her first year of preschool.
She is still on the fence about being away from her momma for 3 hours.  In fact, the director had to talk to me today, and "something has to change" or our girl is going to make family history in getting kicked outta school.
She loves to dance, and is so proud of herself as she works on her walking skills.

Case in point: can you SEE this face?!!?
I'm unsure how much time we have to "not disrupt the class" the way she has been doing before our time is up.

Mom: Rescue me!!

Cookies and Almost Pumpkin Farm Sunday Funday!

Our Julia child loves to bake, decorate and create.  She whipped these candy corn cookies up today.

Then we headed to the pumpkin farm on this 65 degree weather day.
Daddy said it looked like rain, but weather.com only said 40% chance of that so we took our chances...
and literally as we pulled in the parking lot at the pumpkin farm it started sprinkling.

The kids try to convince us that we can just play in the rain, but fortunately, they  agree we should maybe come back another day.  Daddy suggests we go to the coffee shop for cinnamon rolls, but our crazy kids beg for the library instead, so that's where we end up.
Happy Sunday-Funday!