merry christmas!

A virtual Christmas card.

Merry Christmas to you from us!



coffee break

Most would say 'Yucky'.

Mine says 'MMmmm' and asks for more.

So we got him his own cup.

it's happening again...

The last few Christmases a change always seems to happen to me.  It hard to describe but it's something supernatural.  It's like the moments that I'm supposed to pay attention to the most and learn something from go into slow motion and I'm in awe of my maker. 

This last weekend at church in closing prayer my pastor prayed and in one sentence summed it up...We're learning that your love is greater than we previously imagined.

I really think that's what it is.  I don't know why it's taken me 25 years to get here but everyday God's love is greater than I previously imagined.  It's amazing.  It's overwhelming.  It IS Christmas.

cookies

i knew he was being too quiet...

a surprise for his lady :)

Last night Andy walked in the kitchen, handed me a box and said it was an early Christmas present. It was awesome because, 1) I love surprises and 2) Andy is totally against giving Christmas presents early. Which drives me crazy because I can barely control myself. I almost always give him at least one present early every year. If I could, I'd give him a present right now.

So I open the box and see this!!!!!

lfasjdflkasdf;lkajf;akjsd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He wanted me to have it early so we could take pictures this Christmas. Isn't that an amazing surprise?? Now I can stop making excuses as to why there are only 5 pictures of Molly and she's 8 months old.

I don't really know how to use all the features, but I have figured out how to take a picture. Last night everyone went to sleep and I stayed up for hours taking picture of stupid things. I took a picture of my Christmas decorations...my feet...Copper...my wedding ring...more Christmas decorations. I tried to take pictures of myself but that camera isn't made to be flipped around real quick for a self portrait. Especially when you're wearing it around your neck in the first place. Tends to choke you up. Gag.

What is also pretty thrilling is that we had the extra cash just laying around to buy this mother. That makes me happy. It's a really great gift to ourselves...sort of like a treat for being a good boy and girl. It feels good that we waited and did it the right way. All around happy feelings :)

I know you all know this...because I constantly blab about him...but Andy is the best.

I hit the jackpot.

so much to say!

Ya know how I was gonna blog during nap time...eh, ya that didn't happen. So here I sit absolutely forcing myself to not do the other 20 things I should probably be doing and blog instead. How does that happen? No matter what, there is always something I should be doing. But for now I'm going to blog and stare at the toys that need picked up, the clean clothes in the basket that need folded and put away, the dishes in the sink and the list goes on. Seriously driving me a little crazy looking at this mess but oh well. Ok, I'm done.

Now I'm going to vomit my thoughts and try to make it to bed in 30 minutes :)

• debt. As of December 1st 2010 we are debt free! We said goodbye to the payments for a Ford, a Honda, a Jeep and a furnace totally to $33,000 dollars which we paid off in 2.5 years.  That included a few road bumps along the way too...1) Colt 2) I quit my full time job & my part time job to stay home and 3) Molly. Not that they are road bumps in our life just things that set us back a tad financially. We are really proud of ourselves. I love that we honored the money that God put into our life and I pray that from it we're able to live a financially easy life and give generously as we go. It feels realllly cool and I must say I think I've fallen more in love with my Andy on this journey. It's been hard, we had to pinch penny's and skip out on fun times and vacations but it's over with now and we're better for it. The one thing I heard Dave Ramsey say that stuck with me was, Adults devise a plan and see it through. Children do what feels good. That really put things in perspective and helped me stay focused. If you want to know how we made it happen go here and do this. You won't regret it!
• rollin' rollin'. Molly finally started to roll. At her 6 month appointment she was still totally content just laying there. She finally started to roll but not without help from Colt. Whenever he saw me lay the blanket on the living room floor he would say MOLLY? Roll??...I'd lay her down and he'd grab her shirt and pull/push her until she flipped over :) Such a helper. I feel like she will be a tad slower in all the physical milestones. She just wants to sit on the floor play with a Dolly or a toy and jibberjabber :)
• the grinch. I've watched this movie a dillion times in the last 3 weeks. I say every time how perfect this character is for Jim Carey to play and I'm in awe of what an amazing actor he is. This also is a hilarious movie. Every time I watch it I find something else in it that is hilarious. I also love the moral of the story. I love Max the dog. I love when Cindy Lou Who sings Where Are You Christmas in her room before bed that one night and hits that high note at the very end...she's just so sweet.  I want to be a Who.
• ibs. I figured we'd close the book on my whole intestinal/stomach ache/poop problems. After all those tests and everything I went through the doctors told me I have IBS. I feel like I could have figured that out. I've cut the majority of wheat out of my diet and it does help. I haven't had a stomach ache in months which is amazing. Now, when I cheat with wheat and eat it I vomit  and have terrible diarrhea instead. haha! Not all the time, just sometimes. Whatever. TMI. Anyways. Let's just say Lord help me when I'm 80 and naturally start to loose control of my bms. AND I just took it another step farter...I mean farther. I mean, POOP!
• 11:10pm I was supposed to go to bed ten minutes ago.
• snow. snow. snow. It's been snowing like crazy here and I for one, flipping love it. The more snow the merrier. It's beautiful. It's quiet. It bring a peace to my soul. You can hit someone in the face with it if you're mad...and you can eat it if you're hungry. It's amazing. Colt, Andy and Copper think so too...
• baby jesus. Christmas morning is almost here and I'm going to make a birthday cake for baby Jesus. Andy thinks I'm crazy. Maybe I won't ALWAYS make baby Jesus a birthday cake but it will help my 2 year old get the reason this day is so special...and WHO doesn't like cake??? [besides my irritable bowl.]

I'm glad I got that off my chest :)

back by popular demand.

Thought it was time to dust off the ol keyboard.

I do plan on blogging a long list during nap time today but until then I thought you should see my cutie pies while you wait.  This video is older but still cute.  I <3 them.

my time in the woods

You might remember a few weeks back I mentioned I was going hunting with Andy. Well that day came and we had some fun times.

I know it's hard to make anything out in the picture below but if you look really close, you'll see me. Andy did a great job decking me out in his camo boots/jacket/overalls/mask so all you can see is my eyes floating in the middle [well, they're shut] but you can see the side profile of my eyes and a small part of my nose.

I mentioned my eyes were shut and no, I wasn't playing dead. This is a picture of me taking the most effective cat nap of my life. Seriously, I was drooling.

Ya see, I spent the first hour sitting in complete darkness waiting for the sun to rise. Andy found a spot for us in the woods and guided me to my seat. I couldn't make out where the trees were. Primarily because I wore that face mask from the second I stepped in the woods because I was freaking about getting a tick in my hair...so the mask cut off all my peripheral vision, well practically all my vision.

I sat down in the seat and stayed in the fetal position while Andy situated his bow and arrows. I was nervous because it was so dark I didn't know if there was poison ivy by my feet, a gigantic spider web two inches above my head or a 10 point buck flashing me a peace sign a few feet away. I, of course, acted brave and pretended that the lack of knowledge of my surroundings wasn't throwing me off.

I was informed on the car ride over that I wasn't allowed to talk or make any quick moves so I spent the entire time acting as a mute sloth.

When the sun finally rose and it was time to start looking for the animals, I was so pooped from having to meet 5am for the first time in a long time AND from being so nervous-jervous from sitting in the darkness that I took myself a little siesta. Every once in a while Slothman would turn his head to check on me. I felt him poking me in the leg with his bow cause he thought I was kidding...I'd raise my head to ask him in sign language what he wanted and he just laughed. He said he thought about walking away and leaving me in the woods to wake up by myself. That would have actually been really funny.

We unfortunately didn't see any deer. BS [before siesta] I did see a black and white kitten pracning around. I originally thought the cat was a skunk though. It was still kinda dark and all I saw was the black and white. I might have pee'd my pants a little.

After the skunk scare and IS [inbetween siestas] I heard more critter noises and noticed a mouse about 2 feet from my foot. He was really cute though. I named him Sir Mouse-A-lot. Andy got me a stick to throw at him, which I held onto for a long time before dropping it MS [mid siesta].

Kinda funny, I just noticed that when Andy took this picture I was still holding Sir Mouse-A-lots stick.

We had a good time though.
Next time I'm taking a pillow.

pjs and puke noises

Today I'm thankful. 

In my 5 year forecast I see alarm clocks, appointments,  preschool/school,  meetings, projects and endless errand running but today I love just where I'm at.

I'm thankful for being able to wake up whenever my kids decide it's morning [9am today].  To stay in our pj's all day if we want.  To laugh uncontrollably to Colt reenacting his sick day the other day,  which consisted of us sitting on the couch and him making really loud, gyrating puke noises.  Molly even laughed.  If I worked I might not have to time to sit and enjoy those moments [Thanks babe].

I'm thankful for this very moment I'm living. 

Wanted to write it down before I forgot the way I feel.

That is all.