A small novel

Grab a cup of coffee. This is a long one!!!


Christmas is such a busy time of the year. Families, programs, and so on. It's hard to keep up with everything. We didn't do alot of extra christmasy things, but we had a full week. It started with the freezing rain a week ago Saturday. We were out late and David went pick-up Ben in Fort Wayne. He left around midnight and it's a 1 1/2 drive one way. It was freezing rain. I told David I wouldn't sleep til they got home. I couldn't anyway because our power kept going on and off and flickering and finally stayed off. It came on around 5 am Sunday but not before the power surging fried the microwave:( Dave made it here ok, thankfully. Here are some snipets from our week

The "wonderful" freezing rain! Looked pretty though. Not fun to drive on.

Girl Scout christmas party.

I have gift wrappers now! Maybe I won't have to stay up late the night before wrapping now:)

Opening gifts with cousins!

Seeing a future marine one last time before boot camp.

Celebrating an 11th birthday! The cake was supposed to be a lego. Didn't turn out well, but was good eatin!

Enjoying Brooke's new dog, Zoey. She is adorable!

Eating was done quite often by all. There was a goody table that stayed filled all day all week! I don't want to know how much weight I gained:(

More presents with cousins. Most of the days till late at night were spent at my sister in laws house which is about 1200? square feet! There were 23 of us coming and going with 1 bathroom! Thanks to Lisa and Rob for letting us invade your house!

Nicholas's stocking stuffers and gift from Nana and Papaw.

Nan and Tyler playing legos. They are buddies. Nan loves to play anything the boys do. The only toy she requested for christmas was a nerf gun!

We added an emergancy room visit to the fun:) We were going bowling for Tylers birthday and taking all the cousins. It happened to be the day of the freezing rain. We had several fall but only one ended up at the hospital with bruises and a split chin. Kyle got 1 stitch. Needless to say, we put off bowling til the next day.

This is us crowded in Lisa's dining room. ALL 23 of us! We were packed!

We played all sorts of games.


We ate MORE food!

Opened more birthday gifts!

Posed for and took MANY pictures!


Opened MORE gifts!

My mom got us girls matching slippers. We just had to pose:)

My grandma gave me a quilt that my grandpas mom had made. It's handstitched, of course. Very pretty! Thanks grandma!

We are ending our christmas fun by taking this future marine to the airport by 6 in the morning.

We still have to have our family christmas which Tyler keep asking when it's going to happen. I told him when things slow down a little. Hope you have a Happy New Year! (those of you who finished reading this very long post:))

Wishing you.......

A very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our family to yours! Thought I'd post snow pictures since we're not having a white christmas:(

Happy Birthday to you!

Just wanted to wish Tyler a very Happy 11th Birthday! We will be celebrating with lots of cousins that are here for Christmas! Have a fun day, Tyler!

I need summer back!!!

Is anyone out there as cold as I am!?!? I am absolutely FREEZING!!!!!!

On another note, this is where the cat likes to lay...on top of any kind of paper. She must like the feel of it or something. I tell the kids not to wrinkle their school papers and the cat does it for them!

Try to keep warm and have a wonderful Day of Rest!

Total Randomness

As my title says, this is a very random post. I thought I'd be nice and add some of David's friends to my Facebook. Now it needs to have his name on it. He's addicted:) Not really. It got him in contact with some friends he hadn't seen in a long time. So he's happy.

I don't normally show my messes but this is for me. I have decided that clutter is "ruling" my life. Having so much paper to sort through is not using my time wisely. So I guess my New Years resolution will be to get clutter free. As I said, this is for me. Seeing it makes me want to get started on every room now!

This is how the schoolroom looks now. I've been working on it for probably a month. But since it has a door, I would close it and leave the mess. Now it looks soo much better!

Last boring thing I have for today. Our poor weeping willow tree!!! I hope it doesn't break! Be safe and have a wonderful day!

Imagine....

Imagine curling up here....

Warm candles burning in the background....

Soft lights glowing from the tree...

Warm, cozy fire burning here...

Soft music playing in the background.....

Isn't this a perfect way to spend a cold winter evening?!?

Birthday Wish

Just wanted to wish my mom a HAPPY 6? BIRTHDAY!! Hope you have a great day!! Sorry we can't be there with you:( Love ya!

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas

Well, the house is looking really Christmasy. I'm almost done decorating just in time for Christmas:) Here are some pics of my trees and decorations for those of you who like to look...Enjoy!

This is our living room tree. It has snowmen and snowflakes. I made the snowmen several years ago. I couldn't think of a new theme for this year that was quick so I used them. We made the paper chain and the snowflakes. Tyler put the village under the tree. I thought he did a good job, don't you?

The kids have a collection of nutcrackers. They can't wait every year to put them out. We try to add to the collection yearly. Tyler has them seperated by whose is whose.

More snowflakes to dress up the windows and doors.


Stockings on hooks because we have no mantle. We have a gas stove thingy:) instead of a fireplace which I would rather have. Someday...maybe...

Close ups of the village.

Nikki and Tylers rooms. You decided whose is whose:):)

The tree and window in the game room upstairs. I couldn't decide on a theme so we used what we had. Games, legos, cars, and a Knex rollercoaster for the garland. Tyler made the tree topper out of legos. We set up his car race track underneath instead of a train. As you can see, Tyler likes the decorating better than Nikki.

This is my smore snowman tree in the kitchen. The theme in there was edible things. The shelves above the doorway have candy and gingerbread ornaments hanging in front of them.

The first picture are smore snowman tealights which don't get lit in the kitchen window. The second is around the kitchen window. It had candy and gingerbread ornament hanging from it also.




My blackboard sign in the kitchen. And a close up of the arrangement on the wall in the next picture.

Gingerbread arrangement and above my china closet. Both with candy and gingerbread ornaments.

Tree on fridge.


Nesting kitties on a shelf in the laundry room. The tree in the laundry room. I think the cat thinks I put it up for her. She likes to lay under it.

This little tree is in our bedroom. Very simple. I'm trying for simplicity in the room. It kinda reminds me of my grandmas old house. Cozy:) I guess that is what our whole house is.

That just about covers all the rooms except the bathroom and schoolroom which is a disaster at the moment. I hope you enjoyed a look in our house at Christmas!

A Very Merry Christmas to all of you (or should I say both of you:))!!!!!!!!